Really Virtual Speaks

[Boom_70]

Really Virtual is the guy who sent out tweets during OBL raid. He has become an instant Twitter celebrity and was so inundated by media questions that he set up web site to answer all questions.

Pretty fascinating window into life in Abottabod.

http://www.reallyvirtual.com/nsfaq/

 

[YankeeFan]

There was a power outage 30 minutes before the raid?

And, hey, the guy owns a coffee shop and is looking to upgrade his espresso machine.

These days, I am running on 7-8 espresso shots per day L The coffee shop has a couple of semi-automatic Saeco machines, and will upgrade to a 3 group professional machine when needed.

A lead! I'll have to send him an email.

 

[Boom_70]

There was a power outage 30 minutes before the raid?

And, hey, the guy owns a coffee shop and is looking to upgrade his espresso machine.

These days, I am running on 7-8 espresso shots per day L The coffee shop has a couple of semi-automatic Saeco machines, and will upgrade to a 3 group professional machine when needed.

A lead! I'll have to send him an email.

Send him a tweet. @ReallyVirtual The guy seems to respond to everything.

Maybe you can get the rights to the Really Virtual coffee shop franchise in the USA.

 

[TigerVols]

Really Virtual is the guy who sent out tweets during OBL raid. He has become an instant Twitter celebrity and was so inundated by media questions that he set up web site to answer all questions.

Pretty fascinating window into life in Abottabod.
http://www.reallyvirtual.com/nsfaq/

May 1 would make for a great book about the amazing use of social media...It's just remarkable how a guy in his bed complaining about wanting to get out his giant swatter to smack a helicopter, in a city no one had ever heard of, on the other side of the world, can become, in the course of about an hour, not just a hyper celebrity, but also a reporter, a columnist, a political pundit, a diplomat, and a Chamber of Commerce representative.

I'd argue the rise of Really Virtual is unlike anything ever in human history.

 

[YankeeFan]

The Times has an article about the stealth helicopter used in the raid:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06helicopter.html?_r=1&hp

The whole article is interesting, but at the end, they speculate that we may have used stealth drones to watch OBL's compound.

That makes sense since the Pakistani military might have been tipped off if their radar constantly picked up a drone flying over Abbottabad.

Some analysts wondered whether the C.I.A. might have also used a stealthy drone to gather intelligence before the raid on Bin Laden’s compound and possibly to monitor the attack.

In addition to satellite photographs, the special forces rely on Predator and Reaper drones in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide video showing how many people are living in insurgent compounds and their patterns of activity. But the Predators and Reapers would be easy for almost any air-defense system to track.

The Pentagon announced in late 2009 that it was testing a bat-winged stealth drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, in Afghanistan, and it was quickly dubbed the Beast of Kandahar. Military officials have not mentioned it publicly since then, and they would not say this week whether it had been involved in the hunt for Bin Laden.

 

[YankeeFan]

There was a power outage 30 minutes before the raid?

And, hey, the guy owns a coffee shop and is looking to upgrade his espresso machine.

These days, I am running on 7-8 espresso shots per day L The coffee shop has a couple of semi-automatic Saeco machines, and will upgrade to a 3 group professional machine when needed.

A lead! I'll have to send him an email.

Send him a tweet. @ReallyVirtual The guy seems to respond to everything.

Maybe you can get the rights to the Really Virtual coffee shop franchise in the USA.

I've got a beautifully restored 3-group machine for sale too.

 

[YankeeFan]

Really Virtual is the guy who sent out tweets during OBL raid. He has become an instant Twitter celebrity and was so inundated by media questions that he set up web site to answer all questions.

Pretty fascinating window into life in Abottabod.
http://www.reallyvirtual.com/nsfaq/

May 1 would make for a great book about the amazing use of social media...It's just remarkable how a guy in his bed complaining about wanting to get out his giant swatter to smack a helicopter, in a city no one had ever heard of, on the other side of the world, can become, in the course of about an hour, not just a hyper celebrity, but also a reporter, a columnist, a political pundit, a diplomat, and a Chamber of Commerce representative.

I'd argue the rise of Really Virtual is unlike anything ever in human history.

Isn't it incredible? Ghonim (http://twitter.com/#!/ghonim) in Egypt's story is pretty wild too.

Hsrd to keep anything secret nowadays.

 

[TigerVols]

Lost in all the aero-geek euphoria over the stealth helicopter is the fact that, by any usual means of measurement, the thing was a failure -- one of two crashed, jeopardizing the mission. So unless it's proven to be pilot error, seems to me there's some kinks that need to be worked out.

Maybe 3Bags can get a hold of one and sort out the problems!

 

[Boom_70]

You mentioned your phone is being used for music, what are you currently playing?

Dogs of War - Pink Floyd

 

[Boom_70]

What is the avg response time of the cops/military? The shooting/explosions lasted 40min and yet no one showed.

The neighbors said that a firetruck showed up first, but it was stuck in a small ditch. The police showed up next and asked where the problem was.

 

[YankeeFan]

Lost in all the aero-geek euphoria over the stealth helicopter is the fact that, by any usual means of measurement, the thing was a failure -- one of two crashed, jeopardizing the mission. So unless it's proven to be pilot error, seems to me there's some kinks that need to be worked out.

Maybe 3Bags can get a hold of one and sort out the problems!

Well, I guess we'd have to know if the stealth components contributed to it losing "lift power".

I think it's unclear from what we know so far. It may well have happened to any Blackhawk.

Lawmakers who were briefed on the mission said the damaged helicopter had not malfunctioned, as initially described by senior administration officials. Instead, they said, it got caught in an air vortex caused by higher-than-expected temperatures and the high compound walls, which blocked the downwash of the rotor blades.

As a result, the helicopter lost its lift power while hovering over the yard and had to make a hard landing, clipping one of the walls with its tail. Some of the Seal members later tried to destroy the craft, presumably to hide the secret stealth components, before boarding larger backup helicopters that carried them to Afghanistan.

 

[Boom_70]

What's your estimate of how much the UBL compound land is worth-250K or 1M? how many usd is 20M rupees?

20M Rs. is roughly 236,000 US$ - it is a pretty large compound, so 20M can be a reasonable price, depending on when it was bought.

 

[YankeeFan]

What is the avg response time of the cops/military? The shooting/explosions lasted 40min and yet no one showed.

The neighbors said that a firetruck showed up first, but it was stuck in a small ditch. The police showed up next and asked where the problem was.

Someone mentioned that in some previous raid we had one of our guys in a pre-scheduled meeting with one of their guys so we could tell them about the raid at the appropriate moment.

But, according to the narrative, we didn't tell Pakistan **** until we were already out of there.

Crazy that their military never made a peep.

India must be laughing their collective asses off right now.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

What's your estimate of how much the UBL compound land is worth-250K or 1M? how many usd is 20M rupees?

20M Rs. is roughly 236,000 US$ - it is a pretty large compound, so 20M can be a reasonable price, depending on when it was bought.

Well how did the housing crash affect the greater Islamabad area?

 

[bigpern23]

Lost in all the aero-geek euphoria over the stealth helicopter is the fact that, by any usual means of measurement, the thing was a failure -- one of two crashed, jeopardizing the mission. So unless it's proven to be pilot error, seems to me there's some kinks that need to be worked out.

Maybe 3Bags can get a hold of one and sort out the problems!

I'm guessing this wasn't the first mission these helicopters have flown. Without knowing how many missions they've flown and NOT crashed, how can you say it's a failure?

 

[Boom_70]

The Really Virtual tweets are much more interesting than the endless stream of stuff from Jay Glazer.