Model Airplanes

It seems that the 70th-anniversary Victory Day celebrations have robbed Russian society and political leaders of all emotional strength — strength they will definitely need.

On May 9, even very experienced television commentators were a bit flustered when, following the parade on Red Square, President Vladimir Putin laid flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the company of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Abkhazian leader Raul Khadzhimba. However, the subsequent visits by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered some consolation.

Then there was Putin’s major blunder of stating that the Soviet Union had needed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to ensure national security — a position that in the West they might call “political realism.” The truth is, it has long been considered taboo among polite company to offer any justification for that agreement with Hitler’s Germany. However, that is ultimately a question of etiquette.

As proof, consider how the subject of Crimea is gradually disappearing from the West’s agenda with Russia. Of course, rhetorical statements continue, along with the sanctions implemented in response to the annexation, but the West is gradually coming to accept Crimea’s current status as “the new normal.” That is exactly what the Kremlin wanted.

At least, following Putin’s meeting with Kerry, the Kremlin’s statement that its U.S. partners had shown “the first signs of understanding” in their position sounded like the contented purring of a comfy and well-fed cat.

But have the same “signs of understanding” appeared in Russia? What is the condition of the country that insists that its “Crimean gambit” of one year ago and the military conflict in eastern Ukraine deserve discussion beyond the framework of The Hague Tribunal?

In order to assess the situation in Russia, let us turn to the example of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian armed forces not only did not crumble and collapse during the battles near Debaltseve, but they were transformed into a capable army.

Article source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/what-russia-can-learn-from-ukraine-s-failure/521048.html

Considering that most of his comrades would die without ever mating, Dick was impressive.

He once pulled off 30 copulations in a single morning, 23 of them in as many minutes. Usually coy females were enamored with him. When other males got too close, he didn’t trouble himself with long, drawn-out turf wars. Instead, with a brisk thwack, Dick repelled any intruders and got back to dancing. And he danced hard, for hours on end.

“Dick was a phenomenon, and we’ve never seen anything like it,” said Gail Patricelli, a biologist at the University of California, Davis.

Dick was a greater sage grouse, a species famous for its elaborate, vaguely obscene mating ritual that occurs each spring across the West. And for decades, biologists have been trying to figure out what top males like him have that the others don’t. In her approach to this problem, Patricelli has turned to partly taxidermied fembots. [Animal Sex: 7 Tales of Mating in Nature]

Bird’s-eye view

“Most people who do taxidermy don’t need their animals to move,” Patricelli said. But she needs her robots to look and peck like the real thing.

Her latest creations, named Salt and Pepa, are made out of real female sage-grouse skins from local Fish and Game Department freezers. Their innards are fashioned out of circuit boards, model airplane parts, craft glue, cross-stitch mesh and a pair of Spanx.

“I use whatever I can to MacGyver my way through it,” Patricelli said.

With a remote control, Patricelli and her colleagues

Article source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/learn-sex-secrets-birds-send-fembot-115214297.html

Article source: http://www.geek.com/news/ge-pushes-a-3d-printed-mini-jet-engine-to-33000rpm-1623020/

Of the questions yet unanswered about the Volvo plant that will be built in Berkeley County, one of the most interesting is how Volvo will approach the issue of the plant’s potential unionization.

The answer will depend on how Volvo management views South Carolina workers, the importance the United Auto Workers puts on targeting the plant, and important strains in the history of the state and of the auto industry.

For now, Volvo isn’t publicly addressing the issue, deferring any substantive discussion at least until a “media day” May 28.

“At the end of the day, that will be a decision the workers have to make,” Volvo spokesman Jim Nichols said of the 2,000 to 4,000 workers envisioned at the plant. “Volvo has facilities in all parts of the world, and all sorts of workforce relationships. … Our pay and benefits are very competitive with the rest of the industry.”

Volvo hasn’t said the state’s anti-unionism played a role in its selection for the plant. Georgia, the other finalist, is a right-to-work state as well.

Given South Carolina’s workplace heritage, Gov. Nikki Haley and other state officials want Volvo to be nonunionized.

The state’s anti-unionism played a role in the state’s success as a manufacturing center, including Boeing’s continuing expansion of its North Charleston airplane-making plant. Boeing operations in its home state of Washington are heavily unionized – and are higher cost.

While owned by China-based Zhejiang Geely Holdings, Volvo Cars is managed largely by Europeans, and their perspectives are likely to count most as the company

Article source: http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article20951415.html

The Wright Brothers

By David McCullough

Simon Schuster. 262 pp. $30

Reviewed by Bob Hoover

David McCullough’s popular biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Adams succeed with readers because they aren’t about politics or history from a particular viewpoint, but, rather, dwell with real people who happened to be politicians and history-makers.

He brought out the humanity in these iconic figures. He de-emphasized Roosevelt’s bloodlust, Truman’s suspect background, and Adams’ snobbery. Instead, he emphasized their strengths, above all their “American” qualities.

The Wright Brothers is McCullough’s sincere effort, using the same techniques, to elevate these hardworking brothers to a lofty place in the American pantheon. It’s a well-trod story, but the book refreshes it in McCullough’s famous upbeat, minutely researched manner. Still, the book can’t hide this fact: Orville and Wilbur Wright don’t belong in such select company.

Something’s lacking – interesting characters such as Adams, Roosevelt, or Truman. Orville and Wilbur did accomplish their goal of powered flight, but they missed out on the things that make life interesting: relationships, children, hobbies, fun, and most of all, self-reflection.

The family member who got those things was their sister, Katharine, an Oberlin College graduate and high school teacher. She found time, while she managed the household in Dayton, Ohio, and supported her brothers’ airplane projects, to achieve a more rounded life. She even married, albeit at

Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/literature/20150517_David_McCullough_s__Wright_Brothers___Refreshing__but_skirts_the_dark_side.html