Thursday, September 30, 2010

September The Thirtieth

Thank You Allah for turning me into a Lightning today. I pray to You that You will turn me into an Airacobra, Warhawk hence to Thunderbolt, Mustang, Black Widow and should you Will it, into a Shooting Star and the Century-series......

Amin!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Prime Minister's Complex Putrajaya : It's Not Just For Aesthetics!

The Perdana Putra Building in Putrajaya, which houses the Prime Minister's office has been in operation since 1999. The building has drawn admirers and critics ever since then - for a number of reasons. "Wastage" said some (politically-driven) critics; and not only for the building, but for the whole Putrajaya township!

In defence, many have offered reasons on why Putrajaya is essential. I see no need to reiterate them but recently somebody psoted in an internet forum on how the defensibility of the building and its surrounding environs was taken into account when the architects designed it all those years ago...here's what he said...

1. Ground accessability - any intruders (Ok make that an attacking army) have to use any one three bridges in order to use the shortest route (from where he did not mention!) to arrive at the building - routes which could be blown up by combat engineers. The other two routes are 'too far' and easily defended
My comment: OK fine...blow up the bridges and the enemy would have to pause (not pushed back, anyway) while waiting for their assault bridges to come up...but that doesn't mean the attack is stopped. The 'back' route is in my opinion is quite defensible as it was dominated by a hill (where the Shangri-La was situated)

2. Putra Mosque - a place of worship is considered a taboo target. So any attacks (or stray rounds, bombs and missiles) against the mosque would be considered a violation of UN Convention (he did not say which one) which will bring the fury of the international community.
My comment : The North Vietnamese were alleged to place their AA and SAM sites near civilian buildings so that any SEAD mission might mistakenly attack the latter - bringing condemnation of the world against the US. The late Saddam Hussein also were alleged to use the same tactic during the First Gulf War. Anyway in the era of GPS-guided munitions, this might only be a moot point...the distance between the mosque and Perdana Putra complex is relatively far.

3. The roundabout - this one takes the cake. To the writer, its not just another (large) roundabout - it's a missile lure! Designed to lure away IR-guided missile, the large surface relects the sun's heat and the water droplets from the fountain would create warm vapour hence confusing the IR seeker even further...the effective range is 1km
My comment : Actually I just wanted to write this - "HAHAHAHA!!! Anyway, this reasoning strecthes your imagination so much that it lost its temper!
- The majority of guided air-to-ground weapon rarely use IR as their guidance with the exception of certain variants of the Soviet anti-ship missile and AGM-65 Maverick. Even then, the missiles were used against something that radiates heat more than their surroundings - things like ships or vehicles. More coomonly these weapons use laser, television or GPS - they won't be bothered by any IR lures!
- IR lures need to create greater heat than the target in order to decoy the missiles. The way I see it the roundabout surface, the roads and the buildings all create more or less the same levels of heat. As for the fountain, wouldn't it cretae LESS heat?

Oh one more thing, he said the lakes also have defence purposes. Apart from acting as a modern-day moat, it also served as 'spy-gadget jammer' - something to do with frequencies being disturbed by water.....

To me only #1 is quite feasible. The second is quite creative whilst the last is complete and utter bollocks! Oh well everyone is entitled to his/her illusions!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Aidilfitri 1431 Hijriyah

This year's Hari Raya is quite momentous to me. Why?

1. Spending first-day of Aidilfitri when all of my siblings are at my mother's house. Last year, my 2nd brother went back to his mother-in-law's kampung in Perak. A couple of years earlier my first brother have to attend a conference (or whatever) in Germany (Darn those multi-national companies!)

2. Datuk Sosilawati and her companions' murders. Apart from the usual road traffic accident deaths, this was the biggest news during the holidays. The status of the victim plus the really gruesome manner of their death and body (make that ash) disposal ensures media coverage - plus I acted as legal /CSI commentator to my family!

3. A slightly different dish for second Raya - laksa Johor. My mother suggested this perpetual favorite of my family although she left out daun kesum, sambal belacan and one or two other condiments as the majority of us didn't bother with them! My wife suggested that we cook nasi briyani for the next Raya.

4. After an absence of a number of years, my (previously) usual second-day tummy upset makes a return! Anyway, it's milder this time perhaps because my family did not mix all the ketupats and rendangs received from neighbours and relatives together plus I brought my leftover medications from my previous bout with it.

5. And finally, Alhamdulillah the roads were clear - no jams and in fact no accidents during my journey to and from Johor! I remember getting stuck on the Nilai-Seremban and Senawang-Pedas stretch of the highway....and no apparent reason for the jam was ever found!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

War and Military According To Hollywood!

U-571

Hollywood : The Enigma coding machine was captured by the US Navy using a disguised submarine.
Real Life : The first naval enigma machine was captured when destroyer HMS Bulldog forces the surrender of U-110 in 1941. Of the 15 Naval Enigma machines captured during the war, only ONE was by the US Navy...in 1944!

Hollywood: The disguised USS S-33 was sunk by the German Type XIV Milchkuh re-supply U-Boat.
Real Life : Type XIV U-Boat is unarmed!

Hollywood : The captured U-571 was attacked first by an aircraft and then a destroyer.
Real Life : The only German surface warships venturing far out into the Atlantic are the capital ships and auxiliary cruisers. As for the plane, no WW2 destroyers from both sides ever carried a plane!

Rambo III
Hollywood : Rambo managed to drive AND shoot the gun of a Soviet tank (see also Goldeneye)
Real Life : There is a reason why a tank have at least 3 crewmembers, right?

Black Hawk Down
Hollywood : The Battle of Mogadishu was single-handedly won by the US Rangers.
Real Life : There was a significant contribution by the Malaysian and Pakistani Army in extracting the trapped Rangers.

Battle Of The Bulge
Hollywood : The Ardennes was a flat wide plains and the tanks have free movement and that it was sunny in the middle of December 1944.
Real life : The Ardennes is hilly and forested and that the winter of 1944/1945 was one of the worst up to that time.....

Predator
Hollywood : A single man can handle the M134 Minigun with no difficulty.
Real Life : The recoil would throw Jesse Ventura off balance especially when firing at even the 'slow' setting of 3000 rounds per minute. Plus he must have superhuman strength to carry the gun, its ammo and the battery pack,which could weigh as much as hundreds of pounds!

Hollywood : The same Minigun can fire for minutes, spewing thousands of rounds.
Real Life : Unless they carry an ammo box the size of a filing cabinet, the backpack ammo box would be empty in probably 1-2 seconds of firing!

Tomorrow Never Dies
Hollywood : The British Type 23 frigate carries Tomahawk missiles to attack targets in Central Asia.
Real Life : As of 1997, no British surface warfare ships carry anything more powerful than the Harpoon missile

Hollywood : The PLAAF fighters were alleged to attack the HMS Devonshire using torpedoes.
Real life : anti-surface ship, air-launched torpedoes went extinct with Avengers, Kates and Swordfishes....

Starship Troopers
Hollywood : The military of the future goes to war in almost a throwback of pre-industrial revolution battle tactics - mainly using infantry; no tanks, no APCs not even CAS aircraft!
Real life : Even when fighting in low-intensity conflicts, the modern military try to use as much technological advantage over their enemy...and that's just in the 20th Century.....