Stephen Low, 48, was celebrating the end of his first year teaching English in South Korea when he decided to go on a hike near the North-South border – but he got more than he bargained for
Stephen Low had quite the day in South Korea (Image: Stephen Low/Rosetta Stone.)
A British man found himself at the business end of a South Korean guard’s gun during an innocent hike.
Stephen Low had just finished his first year teaching English at a school near the infamous DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea. He had no idea then that his language teaching abilities were ultimately what would rescue him when facing the barrel of a gun.
The now 48-year-old decided to walk down a well-known trail near the North-South border. There, sniper posts and echoes of conflict provided a spine-chilling reminder of the hostilities across the divide.
Stephen knew the area was no place to mess around. In fact, one of his friends found themselves in hot water after they hopped on a military bus by mistake and “ended up in the military side of the DMZ.”
Stephen got a bit chilly during his hike(Image: Stephen Low/Rosetta Stone.)
“I just went hiking up to a hiking trail,” Stephen said.
As he approached the peak, the temperature dropped dramatically, and so Stephen sought refuge in one of the shelters scattered around the mountainside. He warmed himself by igniting a small fire, using a copy of the vampire fantasy novel Twilight as tinder.
Unfortunately, much like the romance in the Stephenie Meyer book, the fire burned too hot.
“As the fire burned, lots of thick smoke began wafting out from the hut. Suddenly, I heard shouting and as I emerged coughing and spluttering from the smoke-filled sniper hole, a ton of soldiers came down the mountain; they must have thought they were under attack,” Stephen continued.
Happily the teacher managed to slip away from the fire and the approaching soldiers, only to come face-to-face with a beekeeper, surrounded by bees.
“The bees swarmed me and got inside my clothing. I basically tore everything off to avoid being stung and ended up in just my boots, beanie, and boxers, which just so happened to be Union Jack boxers. That beekeeper must have thought I looked crazy…patriotic, but crazy,” he continued.
The misadventure wasn’t to end there however. Stephen rushed back towards the town where he was staying, only to stumble into a soldier. Despite Stephen’s best efforts to explain in Korean that he was simply lost, the guard remained deeply suspicious.
The trail runs along the DMZ(Image: Stephen Low/Rosetta Stone.)
And as he stared at the guard’s M16 machine gun with its grenade launcher attachment, Stephen realized he needed to be far more persuasive. In a desperate bid to prove his innocence, Stephen called a former Korean student of his, who was now serving as the personal doctor to the South Korean president.
Handing the phone to the guard, Stephen pleaded, “Hangook chingu, Hangook chingu!”, translating to “Korean friend, Korean friend!”.
Despite initial fears that the guard was trigger-happy, he took the call instead. The ex-student managed to convince the soldier to escort Stephen safely through the base.
Stephen recounted, “It was hard to believe the guard actually thought I was a spy. But it’s exactly what my friend later told me the guard was accusing me of being. Back then, South Koreans were very wary of North Korean espionage; you even had options on your mobile emergency list for reporting spies!”.
“The guard was prepared for a North Korean around the corner, not a semi-naked hiker from the UK. South Korean guards have emergency numbers on speed dial that let them report a spy.”
While having a gun waved in your face is an experience best avoided if possible, the whole escapade has taught Stephen a valuable lesson.
“The lesson learnt is don’t set fire to things in public places,” he concluded.
Rocket Lab has big plans for Neutron, for Virginia, and for space.
In a week that saw the S&P 500lose value, one stock in particular, space rocket operator Rocket Lab(RKLB 1.42%), glowed a bright shade of green as it rocketed to close the week 9.5% higher on Friday.
And I know why.
Because I was there to see it.
Image source: Rocket Lab.
Welcome to Virginia, LC-3
On Thursday morning, Aug. 28, Rocket Lab officially opened its third “launch complex” in the world, LC-3, at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, just off the Virginian eastern seaboard.
LC-3 will be home to Rocket Lab’s newest and biggest rocket, the 141-foot-tall, methane-and-liquid oxygen-fueled Neutron. Capable of lifting 13 metric tons to low Earth orbit, Neutron will be 43 times more powerful than its little brother (and Rocket Lab’s current only rocket), the Electron. Neutron is scheduled to make its inaugural test flight from LC-3 later this year.
Of course, all of this we already knew about Neutron. We’ve know this since Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck promised the rocket was coming, four years ago. But here are three things you probably didn’t know about Rocket Lab stock and Neutron., things I only learned myself by attending the LC-3 ribbon-cutting last week.
From MARS to Mars
As Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pointed out in his opening speech before assisting with the ribbon-cutting, Neutron will be launching from a site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport — “MARS,” the spaceport. And as CEO Beck observed, bigger rockets can send bigger payloads farther distances — including to Mars, the planet.
Rocket Lab actually already has two satellites built and ready to go to Mars, as part of the ESCAPADE science mission for the University of California Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory and NASA. What it hasn’t had is a rocket big enough to get them there, and delays caused by trying to hitch rides on other companies’ rockets — SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin’s New Glenn — have delayed the mission.
Neutron, when it’s ready, could solve that problem by giving Rocket Lab a way to get to Mars under its own power.
Targeting SpaceX
With 43 times the payload capacity of Electron, which can itself often carry multiple small satellites at a time to orbit, Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket is often described as ideal for the deployment of Earth orbit satellite constellations. Rocket Lab’s most recent descriptions of the medium-lift rocket, however, suggest the company is preparing to compete with rivals such as SpaceX and Northrop Grumman(NOC 0.36%) in the “cargo resupply” market as well.
Resupply whom, you may ask? Well, the International Space Station is the party most obviously in need of regular resupply runs, and currently, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman are fulfilling that function. NASA has indicated openness to allowing other companies to bid on Commercial Resupply Services contracts, however, awarding one to Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2016, for example. Nearly a decade later, Sierra Nevada has yet to actually perform a resupply mission.
Seems to me that opens up a gap that Rocket Lab may soon be able to fill.
Uncle Sam is looking for a few good astronauts
Arguably the biggest reveal of last week’s LC-3 opening, though, was a heavy hint Rocket Lab dropped as to a previously unexpected aspiration: putting astronauts in orbit.
Describing the missions it hopes Neutron to perform once it starts launching, Rocket Lab named all the things we’ve already discussed — launching constellations, visiting other planets, “and eventually human spaceflight,” too.
This revives an early hope that Neutron might give NASA and other space-users a third way to send astronauts to space, in addition to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing‘s (BA -0.54%)ill-starred Starliner.
Admittedly, Rocket Lab stopped short of giving any real detail on its plans to develop a human-rated spacecraft for Neutron to carry. Just the hint it did drop at the LC-3 opening, though, already has investors talking about what Rocket Lab’s plans might be along these lines, which could run the gamut from helping to keep space stations crewed, to sending astronauts to the moon or Mars, or even conducting space tourism around Earth.
Anita Chabria and David Lauter bring insights into legislation, politics and policy from California and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
SACRAMENTO — There are echoes from California Republicans’ disastrous past in their solid support of the Trump administration’s ugly raids targeting Latinos suspected of illegal immigration.
California’s GOP apparently still hasn’t learned. Scaring, insulting and angering people is not an effective recruiting tool. It doesn’t draw them to your side. It drives them into the opposition camp.
That should have been a lesson learned three decades ago when Republicans strongly pushed a harsh anti-illegal immigration ballot initiative, Proposition 187. It became principally responsible for changing California from a politically competitive state to one where the GOP is essentially irrelevant.
The in-depth poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies delved into voter attitudes toward Trump’s mass deportation actions.
On the basic question of his immigration enforcement strategy, 69% of registered voters disapproved and just 29% approved. But there was a sharp difference between political parties. Democrats almost unanimously disapproved — 95%. And 72% of independents were opposed. But 79% of Republicans approved.
Interviewers also asked about specifics. And GOP voters were with Trump all the way.
Strong majorities of Republicans disagreed that federal agents “have unfairly targeted Latino communities for their race or ethnicity,” believed the raids have “primarily focused” on undocumented “serious” criminals — although evidence shows that many law-abiders have been snatched — and thought “all undocumented immigrants need to be deported.”
Smaller Republican majorities disagreed that detained undocumented immigrants “have a right to due process” and a court hearing — although the due process clause of the 5th Amendment indicates they do — and agreed that “agents should expand enforcement into schools, hospitals, parks and other public locations.”
Democrats and independents expressed emphatically opposite views — and they greatly outnumber Republicans in California.
The parties also reported diametrically opposite feelings when viewing news accounts of raids by federal agents. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans said it made them feel “hopeful, like justice is finally being served.” Democrats said they were “enraged and/or sad. What is happening is unfair.”
Republicans were more divided on whether immigration agents should be required to show clear identification, such as wearing badges. Armed agents have been going incognito in street clothes, traveling in unmarked vehicles and wearing masks.
Among GOP voters, 50% opposed requiring identification and 45% supported the idea.
Two bills currently are awaiting votes in the state Assembly to require agent identification and ban masks in most circumstances.
“Agents have been running around wearing essentially ski masks, grabbing people, throwing them into unmarked cars and disappearing them,” says Sen. Mark Wiener (D-San Francisco), author of the mask ban bill. “In a democracy, we don’t have secret police running around masked.”
Listening to Republican voters, I’m hearing reverberations from 1994 when that GOP generation overwhelmingly backed Proposition 187, led by Gov. Pete Wilson, who was subsequently demonized by Democrats and, particularly, Latinos.
That now-infamous measure would have denied most public services — including schooling — to undocumented immigrants, and turned teachers and nurses into snitches. It passed by a landslide, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional.
Republicans voted for Proposition187 by 3 to 1 and independents by 3 to 2, according to a Los Angeles Times exit poll. Democrats opposed it by 2 to 1.
White people voted for Proposition 187 by 59% to 41% — the exact victory margin — but Latinos opposed it by 78% to 22%. Today, there are a lot fewer white people and lots more Latinos in California.
And it instigated a hemorrhaging of Republican voters in California. In the November presidential election, Republicans amounted to only 25% of registered voters. In 1994, they were 37%. Many have since shifted to registering as independents, who amounted to only 10% back then and are 22% now. Democrats also have lost slightly to nonpartisan ranks, falling from 49% to 46%.
No Republican candidate has won a statewide race since 2006, and Democrats hold supermajorities in both legislative houses.
The GOP has been touting an uptick in Latino support in November’s election. But is that a trend, or just the reflection of a sorry Democratic presidential campaign? How will Latino voters react to immigration agents chasing people through farm fields, seizing teens without telling their parents and stalking picnickers?
“Republicans can talk about crime and homelessness and gas prices all they want but the immigration issue is a boulder in the road that will keep large numbers in California from listening to what they say on any other issue,” says Dan Schnur, a USC and UC Berkeley political science instructor who was Wilson’s spokesman in 1994.
GOP consultant Mike Madrid, who has written a book about how Latinos are transforming democracy, says Republicans “are limiting what could be a tidal wave of voters in their direction. They’re their own worst enemies.”
He adds: “Latinos are primarily economic voters but will respond when attacked. As long as the GOP resorts to anti-Latino appeals they’ll fight back.”
Republican voter attitudes also are symptomatic of today’s extremely polarized politics.
“Wherever Trump decides to steer the ship, Republicans are following him. Trump is the Pied Piper here,” says Mark DiCamillo, the IGS pollster.
Republican consultant Kevin Spillane theorized that Republican respondents in the poll were “rallying around Trump. They thought they were really being asked about him.”
Whatever. They need to evolve into the increasingly diverse 21st century. We can secure the border without storming churches, hospitals and schools.
If you think frugality means clipping coupons and skipping lattes, you’re missing the point.
The wealthiest people I know are surprisingly frugal — but not in the ways you’d expect. Their version of frugal isn’t about depriving themselves and saving $5. It’s about spending money intentionally, getting max value, and making every dollar (and hour) work harder.
Here are nine frugal hacks I’ve picked up from millionaires that have completely changed how I manage my money.
1. Buy used, high-quality cars
Millionaires don’t upgrade their car every few years just because it’s “time.”
They buy long-lasting quality vehicles — often used or new with cash — and then they drive them into the ground. Not because they can’t afford to upgrade, but because they understand how brutal car depreciation is.
According to Carfax, the average vehicle drops to just 40% of its original value after five years. That means a $50,000 car could be worth only $20,000 by then.
Wealthy drivers avoid that loss. They buy after the steepest depreciation hit, then keep the car running for 15+ years and 200,000+ miles. That’s how they win.
2. Always negotiate — even if it feels uncomfortable
Here’s a trait most wealthy people share: they ask.
They ask for lower prices, better deals, waived fees, and higher pay. They negotiate medical bills, car insurance, credit card interest, and more.
It’s not about penny pinching or being stingy. It’s about advocating for yourself and your dollars.
One of my millionaire mentors told me, “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.” That mindset alone can save you thousands.
3. Use travel credit cards to see the world for less
Millionaires love credit card rewards. They put all their spending on the right types of credit cards to earn points and miles towards discount (or free) travel.
Flights, hotels, rental cars, even airport lounge access… it’s all hackable with the right setup.
Some of the best travel cards offer large welcome offers, high earn rates on travel and dining, and flexible points you can use for nearly free trips.
4. Buy once, use forever
I used to think being frugal was just a nicer word for being “cheap.” But millionaires flipped that idea on its head for me.
They’ll happily spend more upfront for high-quality items to avoid constant replacements, repairs, and headaches down the line on cheaper items.
Cookware, furniture, clothing, tech, etc. Millionaires buy stuff that just lasts. Because cheap stuff that breaks isn’t actually cheap. It’s just delayed pain.
5. Turn homes and spaces into a money-making machines
Almost every millionaire I’ve met has a “hustle” story. And it usually starts with finding a way to make money from what they already own.
Real estate is a big one. That might mean renting out a basement, listing a guest room on Airbnb, or house-hacking a duplex.
Any time you can offset your housing costs, you’re freeing up more cash to invest elsewhere.
6. Delay big purchases — even if you can afford it
Here’s a frugal hack that’s wildly underrated: waiting.
Many wealthy folks give themselves a 30-day window before any major purchase. By the end of the month, they either forget about it or realize they didn’t need it in the first place.
Delayed gratification isn’t about never spending or enjoying your money. It’s about avoiding emotional purchases that don’t matter in the long run.
7. Track finances like a hawk
Millionaires know where every dollar goes. And they track their wealth regularly.
That includes income, expenses, net worth, investment performance, and even small leaks in their spending.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. And millionaire-level frugality starts with knowing your numbers.
8. Maximize tax-advantaged accounts
Wealthy people are very tax conscious.
They know the power of contributing to tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k)s, traditional IRAs, and Roth IRAs. These accounts let your money grow more efficiently, keeping more in your pocket — all with help from the IRS.
Personally, I opened a Roth IRA nine years ago and began contributing the maximum each year. Continuing this, I’m on track to have $1 million in tax-free money around the time I turn 60.
Millionaires value their time as much as their money.
They’ll gladly pay for services or tools that save hours of hassle, because time saved can be reinvested into higher-value activities.
This shows up in things like grocery delivery, tax prep services, or even paying a premium to fly nonstop vs. dealing with layovers.
Time is one of the most precious resources we all have. Spending it wisely can be the highest ROI of all.
The bottom line
When you study real millionaires (not the fake flashy people that look rich, but the regular-looking folks who secretly have massive investment accounts) you start to notice patterns.
They’ve mastered frugal hacks that don’t feel like sacrifice. Like spending intentionally, avoiding waste, and using their money (and time) with purpose.
Mimicking these habits has already boosted my finances in a big way — and it’s made my life simpler, too.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has shared new insights with TWZ into its proposal to replace the U.S. Navy’s T-45 Goshawk jet trainers. The company announced yesterday that it was putting forward its twin-engine Freedom jet, the only clean-sheet design currently known to be in the running, to meet the Navy’s future Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS) needs.
Our Jamie Hunter had a chance to talk in depth about the Freedom jet with Ray “Fitz” Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Technology at SNC, and Derek Hess, Vice President of Strategy at SNC, at the Tailhook Association’s main annual symposium, which kicked off yesterday.
A mock-up of the Freedom jet on display at the Tailhook Association’s main annual symposium. Jamie Hunter
As part of its rollout yesterday, SNC had already highlighted the Freedom jet’s 16,000-hour airframe life and ability to perform 35,000 touch-and-goes and/or Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) landings in that time, which we will come back to later on. The company also says Freedom has a 40-percent lower lifecycle cost than the existing T-45, as well as the ability to fly 30- to 40-percent longer sorties. In terms of performance, SNC says the jet is “representative” of 4th and 5th generation types, being able to pull down to -3 and up to +8 Gs, and reach an angle of attack up to 27 degrees.
“The advantages that we’re bringing to the table is that it’s a clean sheet design, which means that we are tailoring this exactly to the Navy’s needs. So, we talk about, train like you fight, zero compromises,” Fitzgerald said. “Every aircraft in the world has its compromises, but the Navy is special.”
“So, the three things that we’re trying to get across as a value proposition for the Navy, number one is over the entire life cycle of the of the aircraft, the entire life of the aircraft, is a significant cost savings,” he explained. “This plane was designed around two engines. These two engines have 20 million hours of flight time on them, well sustained out there in the world.”
The Freedom jet is designed around a pair of Williams FJ44-4M turbofan engines. FJ44 variants are in widespread use globally, especially on business jets, such as members of the popular Cessna Citation family. Having two engines also offers an additional margin of safety over single-engine types. The Navy’s existing T-45 jet trainer is notably a single-engine aircraft.
The “number two value proposition is that we are the only competitor right now, and this is very important, that can do field carrier landing practice, FCLP-to-touchdown,” he added. “Very important for the Navy. You have to train like you fight. And every time you land on an aircraft carrier, you’re flying it into the deck. You’re not flaring or pulling throttles back. FCLP-to-touchdown is critical.”
FCLP landings, which are part of the Navy’s current curriculum for training naval aviators, are conducted at bases on land, but are structured to mimic as closely as possible the experience of touching down on a real carrier. In March, the Navy publicly released new requirements for the UJTS effort, which axed the need for its future jet trainers to be capable of performing FCLP training. Years ago now, the service had already announced that it was eliminating the requirement for the jets to be able to actually land on or take off from carriers, as T-45s do now. If the Navy does not reverse course, these controversial changes are set to fundamentally alter how the service trains new naval aviators. They may not see a carrier until they reach the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) in charge of the aircraft type they have been assigned to fly.
SNC’s Fitzgerald also took the time to point out here that the 16,000-hour airframe life SNC says the Freedom jet will offer is double the Navy’s current stated requirements for UJTS.
“The third point in the value [proposition] is the fact that when we designed this, and [if] we are selected by the Navy, we are handing the Navy the entire digital package for this aircraft,” he continued. “We want to have the ability to compete in the future for future changes, but the Navy will have the data. They can do upgrades, modifications, whatever. They’re going to own it [the data rights] on onset.”
Fitzgerald claimed that this is the first time in the history of U.S. defense contracting where an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has offered this level of data rights, and described it as an “absolute game-changer.”
A rendering of a pair of Freedom jets in flight. SNC
The core elements of SNC’s proposal are reflected in the basic design of the Freedom jet.
“I think it is a natural tendency to go, ‘how do you replace the T-45?’ That’s not the question we had ourselves,” Hess, the Vice President of Strategy at SNC, said. “We pride ourselves on delivering, solving tough problems for our customers, in this case, the U.S. Navy. So what we designed this aircraft around is better quality training for UJTS at a lower lifecycle cost than they’re currently paying.”
“The landing gear is a dead giveaway that this was always envisioned for the naval training mission,” he continued. For “FCLPs, using this trailing link landing gear is a huge design cycle.”
A trailing link or trailing arm landing gear is specifically designed to help smooth the impact of landing and/or operating from rougher fields.
A look at the underside of the Freedom jet mockup from the rear. Jamie HunterA close-up look at one of the main landing gear units on the Freedom jet mock-up. Jamie Hunter
One of “the other things that we did was put a cockpit in this that is a thoroughly modern cockpit that can display things like an F-35 or an F-18,” Hess continued. “And then we gave it an eight G capable platform and a 27 degree high AOA [angle of attack] maneuvering capability. And we did that because we just avoided the supersonic and transonic region.”
“If you try and do something that gets up into that transonic region, you compromise on what your wing is, and therefore you can’t get the performance,” he explained. “And so that’s why you need a giant engine that pushes you through the drag rise of what a normal, typical fighter wing is. This is a much higher aspect wing, and we get the G onset rate, the sustained turn rates, and maneuvers that you need to train young men and women to become naval fighter pilots.”
“So all of the modeling that we have done in the MBSE [model-based systems engineering] and fluid dynamics world has been borne out by our wind tunnel testing and all those kinds of things. And we’re always a degree or two conservative,” Hess also said. “For example, this is a 32-degree angle of attack capability that we tame down to 27 degrees to make sure that it has level one handling qualities. The other thing is, this aircraft, this wing, builds all the lift through conventional means. Where you have other aircraft that have large chines on them, and that is what you need when you get into the transonic region, because your wing can’t produce that lift, so you do vortex lift over those large chines, and that’s, frankly, where you end up with problems in handling qualities, is because you can’t control the shedding of the vortices and things of that nature.”
“And it becomes a watershed there, right? So when you start with the chines, that the drag coefficient on that becomes huge, which means you need a bigger motor to dig that out, which means higher fuel – you know, just boom, boom, boom. It just bespoke,” Fitzgerald also interjected. “We started with the motor, went with the wing, went with the training capability up front, and really thought this through.”
Hess and Fitzgerald were responding here to a specific question about the use of digital modeling in the Freedom’s design. While digital engineering has proven to be useful across the aerospace industry, there has been growing skepticism about the full extent of the benefits it offers in recent years. Boeing’s T-7A Redhawk jet trainer for the U.S. Air Force had been a notable poster child for digital engineering and design tools, but developmental troubles with that aircraft have added to a growing view that the technologies are not as revolutionary as many had hoped. A navalized version of the T-7 is also a contender to replace the Navy’s T-45s.
“I really think it is important to say you don’t need a fighter to learn how to fly a fighter,” Hess added. “You need something that gives you all the tools to practice everything you want to and then move the graduates who are more prepared to get into those gray jets after graduating in this airplane.”
“You can complete a lot more training in this jet at a much lower cost per hour,” Fitzgerald, the SNC Senior Vice President of Strategy and Technology, further noted. “And then as you step into the fleet, you’re not having to burn the very exquisite, expensive aircraft to do very mundane training tasks.”
It is important to reiterate here that SNC’s proposal, overall, stands in contrast with the Navy’s currently stated requirements, especially when it comes to the matter of FCLP capability. The requirements changes, which have notably come on the back of Navy investments in virtualized training and automated carrier landing capabilities like Magic Carpet, have significantly opened the field offerings based on existing land-based jet trainer designs. In addition to Boeing’s navalized T-7, Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) have been offering the TF-50N, while Textron and Leonardo are pitching what is now branded as the Beechcraft M-346N. Both of those aircraft are based on in-production designs with significant global user bases already.
A rendering of the TF-50N. Lockheed MartinA rendering of the Beechcraft M-346N. Textron/Beechcraft
“You want … your – I call it your lizard brain – to be trained to do the things you are going to do when things go south on you, because the way a [former Air Force pilot] like me lands an airplane is 180 degrees different than a carrier guy,” Hess said in talking about why SNC has made FCLP capability a focus of its proposal. “I touch down, go to idle. He touches down, slams down, goes to MIL [maximum non-afterburner thrust], and is ready to take off again.”
“This is why FCLPs are so important,” Fitzgerlad, a former naval aviator himself, added. “On that dark, stormy night, and everything’s just going bad, you rely on muscle memory, right? So when you think about muscle memory, as a carrier aviator, you’re on speed, so you’re on the right AOA, so the hook and the gear are the right AOA to trap, and everything hits at the same time. If I’m at a slow AOA, it means my nose is up, which means the hook grabs first and slams you down. You can break a jet like that. If I’m at a fast AOA, the nose is lower, hook is up, you skip across, and you go flying again, which is not good either.”
“So every single time we’re doing an FCLP, as soon as you fly into the deck, you crash into that deck, he [the Air Force pilot] goes idle, and [says] ‘I want a nice flare, soft thing.’ We [naval aviators] fly it into the deck, and as soon as we touch it, it’s full power, 180 out,” he continued. “So that muscle memory, I mean, it’s what will save lives.”
SNC’s Hess also argued that if the Navy’s future jet trainers do not allow for FCLP landings, it will put additional more onus on FRSs and operational units to do that training. That, in turn, could take time away from other priorities and increase wear and tear on the Navy’s fighter fleets.
In addition, while SNC is a firmly established name when it comes to the special mission aircraft conversion and modification business, especially for U.S. government customers, Freedom is its only foray to date into actually building an aircraft from scratch. The jet first emerged from a partnership with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI, and also abbreviated TUSAS in Turkish), but SNC has been working on it independently for some years now.
A Freedom jet mock-up built for SNC by a company called ADM Works, which was first shown publicly in 2017. ADM Works
“The Navy hasn’t really put out hard requirements yet. We’re expecting a draft RFP [request for proposals] soon, this fall, with a hard RFP by winter. That’s the latest we’ve heard from the Navy,” Fitzgerald said. “I think they’re still trying to figure out what their hard requirements are, which is why we’re here, trying to say, ‘Hey, make sure the aperture is open enough so that we can compete,’ because that’s what we want to do. That’s all we’re asking for is a shot at the table.”
Altogether, the Navy’s forthcoming UJTS competition is shaping up to be hotly contested, as well as an important watershed moment for how the service trains new naval aviators going forward.
MILWAUKEE — As a tour group gathered in the press box at American Family Field on Monday, the stadium guide looked down at the diamond and tried to identify the hitter in a Dodger blue T-shirt taking thunderous swings in an afternoon batting practice session.
“I’m not sure which player that is,” the tour guide said.
One knowledgeable Dodger fan in the group recognized it wasn’t a big-leaguer at all — at least not yet.
“That’s Dino Ebel’s son,” the fan said. “He’s gonna be a top draft pick next week.”
Brady Ebel might not be a household name yet around the sport but in Dodger circles, the rise of the Corona High infielder, and 17-year-old son of longtime third base coach Dino Ebel, has long been a proud organizational story in the making.
Six years ago, Brady and his younger brother Trey (a 16-year-old junior on a loaded Corona team last season), first started tagging along to Dodger Stadium with their dad after the Dodgers hired him away from the Angels at the start of the 2019 season.
Brady Ebel could be one of three Corona High baseball stars to be selected in the first round of the MLB amateur draft next week.
(Ric Tapia/Getty Images)
Back then, they were like many of the other children of players and staff that the family-friendly Dodgers would welcome around the ballpark. Not even teenagers yet, Ebel’s sons would be taking ground balls and shagging in the outfield during batting practice before the start of Dodger games.
Now, they are both standout prospects with major college commitments (Brady to Louisiana State, Trey to Texas A&M) and expected futures in pro ball.
On Sunday, Brady is expected to be a Day 1, and very possibly first round, pick in the MLB draft — a rise borne of his own physical gifts, but also aided by a childhood spent growing up in the presence of big-league players.
“I’m so blessed, me and my brother,” Brady said this week, after accompanying his dad on the Dodgers’ recent road trip in Milwaukee. “It’s my favorite thing to do. Come to the stadium with my dad. Get better. And watch guys go about it. Because I know I’m gonna be here soon. This is what I’m gonna be doing.”
The physical traits that make Brady a coveted prospect are obvious: His 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame; his smooth, compact left-handed swing; his defensive feel and strong throwing arm from the left side of the infield.
What sets Brady apart from the typical high school prospects that populate draft boards this time of year is his unique upbringing in the game, having absorbed countless lessons on his trips to work with his dad.
“Watching those guys do it every day, just being able to be in the clubhouse and walk around and see how guys act, has helped me and my brother a lot,” Brady said, shortly after peppering balls all over the outfield stands at the Brewers’ home ballpark. “I take pieces from everybody.”
Corona High infielders (from left): second baseman Trey Ebel, shortstop Billy Carlson and third baseman Brady Ebel.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The Ebel sons first got an up-close look at major league life in Anaheim, marveling as young boys at superstars such as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols during Dino’s 12-year stint on the Angels’ coaching staff.
When their dad was hired by the Dodgers, their first-person education continued at Chavez Ravine, where many Dodgers players and staffers have marveled at their own evolution into coveted recruits and MLB draft prospects.
“As a dad, I love it, because I get to spend more time with them, and I get to watch them get better,” Dino said. “The process of watching them work with major league players is something I’ll never forget.”
Many days in recent summers, the pair have been a constant presence at the ballpark.
There have been ground rules to follow, as Dino noted: “Stay out of everybody’s way. When you shag, get in the warning track. When you go eat, if a player is behind you, you get in the back of the line.”
The fundamental lessons they’ve learned, from watching players hit in the cage, to catching balls at first base during infield drills, to talking to other members of the coaching staff during quiet stretches of the day, have been endless. The fingerprints it has left on their game have been profound.
“Process, approach, work habits, how to respect the game, how you go about your work every day,” Dino said. “For them to see that, from guys at the top of the chain of elite superstars in the game … that’s what I’ve seen them take into their game. Trying something different. Listening to what the players are telling them in the cage, on the field.”
Brady, for example, has become a keen observer of Freddie Freeman’s work in the batting cage during recent years.
“There’s stuff he grew up doing that he still continues to do,” Brady said of Freeman. “Different drills. Keeping your hands inside. Driving the ball up the middle. I’ve been doing that since I was 8. And he’s 30-whatever, still doing it. It’s the simple, little stuff.”
As the Ebel boys have gotten older, Dino noticed how they would get home from the stadium, go to a practice field the next day, and replicate specific drills and techniques they’d witnessed the night before.
“It’s pretty special for me, as a dad, to watch them go through this process,” Dino said. “And then, as a coach, how they’re getting better each day they come out here.”
Such roots haven’t been lost on evaluators. Most scouting reports of Brady note his advanced approach and discipline at the plate. MLB Pipeline’s write-up of him ahead of the draft lauded his baseball IQ, and that “his experience working with big leaguers for a long time was clearly on display” as a prep player.
In Baseball America’s latest mock draft, Brady is projected to go 33rd overall to the Boston Red Sox — where he could join Corona teammates Seth Hernandez and Billy Carlson as the highest-drafted trio of high school teammates in the event’s history.
Looming seven picks after that, however, are the Dodgers, a team that would need no introduction to a player that grew up before their eyes.
“That would be really cool, just to be with my dad’s organization,” Brady said of possibly winding up with the club. “We’ll see what happens on draft day. You never know.”
Tel Aviv’s decision to launch a new war against Iran on June 13 is a disaster in the making. No one will benefit, including the Israeli government, and many will suffer. The exchange of fire has already resulted in at least 80 people killed in Iran and 10 in Israel.
It is tragically clear that the lessons of past failed military adventurism in the region have been entirely ignored.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has branded the war as “pre-emptive”, aimed at preventing Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapon. In doing so, he has repeated the strategic blunder of the last two politicians to launch an alleged “pre-emptive” attack in the region, US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
As Israeli jets and missiles streaked across the Middle East’s skies and carried out their deadly strikes against Iranian military sites and military leaders, they immediately made the world a far more dangerous place. Just like the US-British invasion of Iraq, this unprovoked attack is set to bring more instability to an already volatile region.
Netanyahu claimed that the attacks were meant to devastate Iran’s nuclear capabilities. So far, the Israeli army has hit three nuclear facilities, Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, causing various levels of damage. However, it is unlikely that these strikes will actually put a stop to the Iranian nuclear programme, and the Israeli prime minister knows it.
The Iranian authorities have intentionally built the Natanz site deep underground so that it is impervious to all but the strongest bunker-busting bombs. Tel Aviv lacks the capability to permanently destroy it because it does not have the Massive Ordnance Penetrator or the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bombs that are produced by the United States.
Washington has long refused to provide these, even under the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has coddled Israeli officials and sought to shield them from sanctions over their war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Trump’s team has recently indicated again that it would not supply these arms to Tel Aviv.
From US official reactions after the attack, it is not entirely clear to what extent Washington was informed. The US State Department initially distanced the US from the initial attacks, labelling them a “unilateral” Israeli operation. Shortly after, Trump claimed that he was fully informed.
The extent of US involvement – and approval – for the attack remains a major question, but it immediately ended any hopes that its intense diplomacy with Tehran over its nuclear programme in recent weeks would result in a new deal, which is a short-term win for Netanyahu.
But further action against Iran appears dependent on bringing the US into the conflict. That is a huge gamble for Tel Aviv given the number of critics of US interventionism among the top ranks of Trump’s advisers. The US president himself has attempted to make reversing US interventionism a key part of his legacy.
Israel’s actions are already harming Trump’s other interests by pushing global oil prices up and complicating his relations with the Gulf states that have much to lose if the conflict disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
If Israel looks like it is winning, Trump will undoubtedly claim it as his own victory. But if Netanyahu’s strategy increasingly depends on trying to drag Washington into another Middle Eastern war, he may well lash out against him.
As things stand now, unless Israel decides to breach international norms and use a nuclear weapon, making any further strategic achievements in Iran would indeed depend on the US.
Netanyahu’s second declared goal – overthrowing the Iranian regime – also seems out of reach.
A number of senior military commanders have been killed in targeted attacks, while Tel Aviv has openly called on the Iranian people to rise up against their government. But Israel’s unilateral aggression is likely to bring far more anger towards Tel Aviv among Iranians than it will against their own government, regardless of how undemocratic it may be.
In fact, Iranian regime assertions that a nuclear bomb is a needed deterrent against Israeli aggression now will appear more logical to those who doubted it domestically. And in other regional countries where Tehran’s interests had been retreating, Netanyahu’s actions risk breathing new life into these alliances.
But even if Israel succeeds in destabilising Tehran, it will not bring about regional peace. This is the lesson that should have been learned from the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The collapse of the Iraqi state in the aftermath led to a major rise in extremism and ultimately to the establishment of ISIL (ISIS) that terrorised so much of the region in the 2010s.
Israel has no chance of instituting a smooth transfer of power to a more pliant regime in Tehran. Occupying Iran to try to do so is out of the question given that the two countries do not share a border. US support for such an effort is also hard to imagine under the Trump administration because doing so would be sure to increase the risk of attacks against the US.
In other words, Netanyahu’s attacks may bring short-term tactical gains for Israel in delaying Iran’s nuclear ambitions and thwarting talks with the US, but they promise a long-term strategic disaster.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
I tested myself if I could go a day without using my phone by participating on an 18-mile hike with nothing but a bottle of water – and what I discovered about myself was unexpectedly rewarding
I ditched my phone for my first hiking experience because of this one reason(Image: Columbia Sportswear)
I’m not the only one who says that I live attached to my phone and that everything I own and treasure is there. Realising that my screen time is higher than the average person’s, I wanted to prove to myself that I could go a day without it. So, when I saw the opportunity to go on a hike in the middle of nowhere with zero phone service, I couldn’t say no to it.
I wouldn’t consider myself a very sporty person, nor do I think I would have ever been interested in completing a hike by choice. With no expectations or preparations, except for a nice kit provided by Columbia Sportswear, I went for it – and let me tell you, it was so worth it.
The hiking trail took over three hours, completing a total of 18 miles(Image: Ashley Bautista)
Throughout the year, Columbia Hike Society hosts multiple “Hike Fests” across the world. The whole point is to walk for miles and miles until you reach your destination, where a reward awaits you.
In our case, it was an emerging duo group called Lavender Music and Bombay Bicycle Club, an English indie rock band – and of course, a beautiful beach that looked like the ones in the Almafi Coast.
We walked through fields, along coastal paths and over sand dunes to an isolated area of Anglesey, located in north-western Wales. There was something so therapeutic about listening to the wind, the birds, the waves of the sea, and even the sound of the sole of the shoe touching the rocky ground.
Hiking is an underrated activity that is both engaging and relaxing. I appreciated the silence and being fully present in nature for three hours without using my phone and without listening to music. It’s also a social media trend called ‘rawdogging’, which is aslang term is used when undertaking an activity without any assistance, preparation or comfort.
Hiking is an underrated activity that is both engaging and relaxing, and it won’t be my last one participating (Image: Ashley Bautista)
Thankfully, my friend joined the trip, which made it much more bearable, with a few laughs in between. We kept stopping to take pictures, but the insane views can’t be as appreciated through the lens as much as they are through your own eyes. Being born and raised in Barcelona, and also being used to the busy London environment, I didn’t think that the UK had the potential to be so beautiful!
Once we arrived at the beach, we sat down to eat our lunch and enjoyed performances from Lavender and Bombay Bicycle Club as the clear blue skies and sunlight graced us. That’s when I realised that I was going to wake up the next morning with a stiff body and that I was so unfit and should probably start going to the gym – but that’s another story.
What started at 10am, ended at 13:46pm, to be exact. During those long hours of non-stop walking, it gave me plenty of time to think about a lot of things, and I learnt to enjoy my own company without wanting to check my phone notifications.
I’ve also learnt to live in the moment, something we sometimes forget to do because we spend most of our time focused on what’s happening on social media and don’t look at what’s right in front of us.
But the one thing that I appreciated the most about this hiking trip was the realisation of how little we actually invest into ourselves and our well-being, and although it was my first time hiking, it will definitely not be the last one.
