Last Titanic survivor

At the age of just nine weeks, Millvina Dean was lowered to safety from the deck of the sinking Titanic. Now, she is selling the last of her memorabilia to help pay her nursing home fees.

Almost 100 years after it dipped below the waves of the Atlantic, the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner still exerts a powerful hold on our collective imagination. . .

From the BBC. The auction catalog may be viewed here; the sale is on the 18th, and includes a wide range of liner memorabilia in addition to the Titanic material.

iPhone apps for everyone

U.S. Army and Marine Corps are getting handheld ballistic computers. The 17 ounce Trimble PDA type device is loaded with Horus Vision targeting software. This enables shooter to more effectively hit targets over 2,000 meters distant. . .

Many snipers have already bought their own systems. One popular one is CheyTac, which is a commercial PDA with CheyTac ballistic software. . .

A cheaper solution uses an iPhone [or] iPod Touch (which looks like the iPhone, but is just an iPod with a big screen and wi-fi capability). BulletFlight software is available at the iPhone software store, and it performs the calculations needed to account for atmospheric conditions (wind, temperature, humidity, altitude and barometric pressure) for long range shooting. The output tells you how many clicks to adjust your scope to make the shot more accurately. Before use, you input basic data like rifle type and bullet weight. . .

The software costs $12. If you want to actually use it, you need to buy a protective case ($50) for the iPod, and a device ($25) that attaches it to the rail found on most sniper rifles and high end hunting rifles. So for shooting purposes, the entire kit costs you about $90.

From StrategyPage.

Thoughts on piracy

Some trenchant thoughts on the Somali situation, by Eric Posner:

Obama has good reason to become personally involved in the current hostage crisis. Despite the relative insignificance of the problem up till now (ransom payments of $100 million per year are a pittance), the pirates' main tactic -- hostage-taking -- has a way of capturing the public imagination. It also has a way of sucking the air out of normal politics and destroying presidencies. That is what happened to President Carter, when Iranian militants took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran. And that is almost what happened to President Reagan, who launched his cockeyed arms-for-hostages scheme in order to secure the release of a handful of hostages in Lebanon. The scandal nearly destroyed his presidency. President Obama has every reason to be concerned.

He also has little room to maneuver. Having just returned from a trip promoting internationalism, he has raised expectations that any anti-piracy endeavor will have an internationalist flavor. This will mean costly, time-consuming negotiations for the sake of largely symbolic contributions by other countries, if history is any guide. Having also raised expectations that his administration will act with the utmost respect for legality, Obama will either have to direct American forces to walk on eggshells or risk exposing his words as empty. If the pirates continue to take American hostages, he will have trouble maintaining these commitments while giving satisfaction to the inevitable nationalist backlash driven by the mounting sense of powerless and humiliation that we haven't seen since the Carter years.

Full post here. More useful observations over at StrategyPage.