Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon say the F-35’s superiority over its rivals lies in its ability to remain undetected, giving it “first look, first shot, first kill.”

Hugh Harkins, a highly respected author on military combat aircraft, called that claim “a marketing and publicity gimmick” in his book on Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35S, a potential opponent of the F-35. He also wrote, “In real terms an aircraft in the class of the F-35 cannot compete with the Su-35S for out and out performance such as speed, climb, altitude, and maneuverability.”

Other critics have been even harsher. Pierre Sprey, a cofounding member of the so-called “fighter mafia” at the Pentagon and a co-designer of the F-16, calls the F-35 an “inherently a terrible airplane” that is the product of “an exceptionally dumb piece of Air Force PR spin.” He has said the F-35 would likely lose a close-in combat encounter to a well-flown MiG-21, a 1950s Soviet fighter design.

Robert Dorr, an Air Force veteran, career diplomat and military air combat historian, wrote in his book “Air Power Abandoned,” “The F-35 demonstrates repeatedly that it can’t live up to promises made for it. … It’s that bad.”

The development of the F-35 has been a mess by any measurement. There are numerous reasons, but they all come back to what F-35 critics would call the jet's original sin: the Pentagon's attempt to make a one-size-fits-all warplane, a Joint Strike Fighter.

History is littered with illustrations of multi-mission aircraft that never quite measured up. Take Germany's WWII Junkers Ju-88, or the 1970s Panavia Tornado, or even the original F/A-18. Today the Hornet is a mainstay of the American military, but when it debuted it lacked the range and payload of the A-7 Corsair and acceleration and climb performance of the F-4 Phantom it was meant to replace.

Yeah, the F/A-18 was trash when it first came out and it took YEARS and multiple changes/fixes to allow it to fully outperform the decades old aircraft it was designed to beat when it was released.

The F35 is not the best at anything it does, it is designed to fully be mediocre at all roles in order to allow it to be a single solution aircraft. That may change with more money, time, and data retrieved from hours spent in actual combat, but as it stands it is what it was designed to be. A jack of all trades and master of none, not something I would want to be flying in a role where I could encounter a master of that role.

As @ChaosEngine says, it is far beyond time that we move to a design where the pilot is not in the plane. There is no reason at this time that we cannot field a plane that could successfully perform it's role with the pilot in a secure location nearby. Such planes could be built cheaper, could perform in g-forces that humans cannot withstand, and would be expendable in a way that current planes are not. However, this would mean that our corporate welfare system for huge defense contractors would take a massive hit. We can't have that, can we?

$150.
https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/James-Bond-Aston-Martin-DB5-10262

She claims she had the door cracked and he came in. He claims he used his key fob, you can hear him in his video claiming he buzzed in with it at 1:31.

As an individual member of the HOA, she is not allowed to enforce anything. She can report the incident to the Board and they can enforce fines etc. The HOA board hasn't even stuck up for her actions, which means they are likely sending out messages telling their fellow condo owners to act as security in lieu of actual security.

You can tell she knew she fucked up when she saw him put his keys in the door to his condo. She may not be racist, but she is the type of person that shot Trayvon Martin. We should likely be glad she didn't own a firearm.

Your video, Aston Martin V8 Cygnet, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Some of Aston Martin's cars are so beautifully designed that they transcend automotive design and are almost pieces of sculpture that also move.

This thing, though... it's just butt ugly. I'm sure it's great fun to drive, but I find it hard to believe it's the same company that designed this.

I've been there....more times than I know. Eventually I learned to use leather shoe laces.
In welding class, a friend dropped a huge ball of red hot slag into his doc Martin's. His only option was to run to the urinal and start flushing wildly. He stopped wearing them to class after that.

From YouTube:


Martin Jeffries
2 days ago
Hi Tom, I'm a merchant navy officer who used to work around there, although I never came across this particular light... Sector Lights and Leading lights (parallax) are the internationally recognised marine signals for this sort of use (white light centre, with red and green lights either side to guide you to a safe channel, which i'm sure you've researched and are aware of), but one thing that doesn't come up too often is lines to specifically avoid, and as such there isn't an internationally recognised means of transmitting this with lights. The signal is pointing towards the danger, which is unusual in maritime practice, but it's certainly not a common light and isn't in the IALA buoyage system used for identifying marine hazards.

If it's in a marina, which i think you mentioned, it'll be specifically to stop boats dropping anchor on the submerged cable within the marina's jurisdiction, and it'll be specifically referenced in the marina's or the solent by-laws as an anomalous regulation. (I don't have time to go and hunt it down, but it'll be there as a local reg.) As far as i'm aware, that's the only possible reason for it. It's an unusual solution to an unusual problem. I could of course be wrong...i bring no hard evidence to the table!
Hope it helps

Advertisers didn't put this on our screens? Who did then? The Keebler Elves? The Commercial Fairy? Aliens?
No, advertisers made it, for Dodge (yes I know Dodge is owned by Fiat, but that doesn't get them off the hook imho) and they then ran it by the estate of Martin Luther King Jr, who actually signed off on this.
The King family is however not pleased by this, which confuses me to no end as it sounds like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is up to.

The last couple of decades I've really begun to see the military as corporate welfare. We have a force capable of crushing, literally crushing any non nuclear power nation 20 times over. We can never use that force against a significant nuclear power nation like Russia or China lest we risk WWW3, the war that will REALLY end all wars (by humanity at least). Our tech is also pretty much useless against a guerrilla force because they can melt across borders and into the local population.

Our outdated technology still would destroy any of the nations other than Russia or China. We have shit mothballed and decaying that would do so. We have a fucking stockpile of main battle tanks that we will never use, but we keep building them and storing them because, apparently, if you let the people go who know how to make them you can never replace that knowledge.

All the while, we let people get mired in school debt, credit debt, and increase our national debt because we need to crush some unknown force. We spend a fraction of what we should be spending on space exploration and colonization. I could go on, but why bother.

If you have any doubt, just look at the F35. By the time it is all said and done, we will have close to half a trillion sunk into that fucking debacle and it STILL isn't functioning capably. Russia and China haven't got anything close to it and we don't need it against anyone else. You could take that money and give close to 2 grand to every single man, woman, and child in the country. Instead we basically are lining Lockheed Martin's pockets.

I actually didn't think this was Seth's best work. I'm a big fan of his "Closer Look" segment, but I don't find him that funny with his one-liners.

Also, genuine question: why did Oprah win the Cecil B. de Mille Award? I mean, she's undoubtedly a successful person, but her filmography is pretty mediocre.

The last few winners were:
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Woody Allen, George Clooney, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.

There's no way you could argue that Oprah belongs in that company. (not really sure why Clooney is there either, TBH, also get lost Woody Allen, you creepy old fuck).

But still, upvote for the sentiment if not the execution.

Starting out with "Dave Chappelle was decapitated" was a confusing point to begin with, then going into "a muslim being called a crackhead" I was all 'what's this guy going on about?'

It took me a minute to figure out that he meant Chappelle had been figuratively "killed" by hollywood.

He goes on a bit of a loop, but it all makes sense in the end.

Chappelle talks about Hollywood a bit in this clip:



....which refers to this story: Comedian Martin Lawrence Runs Into Street, Yells at Cars

I only became aware of Comedy Central fucking over Dave Chappelle from the Kat Williams video you posted, and the discussion it sparked on reddit.

Where you chose to start the vid, around the 3-minute mark, IS where the meat of the video starts.

One anomaly in this: I don't know what the song writer's intent was, but the video shows an artillery shot in association with Davy Crockett . Although there was a nuclear armed "Davy Crockett" artillery round during the 1960's, the context in the lyrics suggests Davy Crockett of the coonskin cap fame (played by Fess Parker in the mid-50's TV series) who was (wildly) popular at about the same time as Peter Pan (played by Mary Martin) was a big hit - and the only World Series win (1955) by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Do I have to watch it? This vid, I mean?

Star Wars is about rebels fighting a powerful empire that governs the galaxy. It glorifies taking down the establishment by a group of (well funded) gun-toting terrorists.

I suppose you could draw a parallel to the American war of independence against the British...

But in a modern context this would be like a group of domestic insurgents blowing up an aircraft carrier ("Death Star") while staging an armed rebellion against the US government (now a subsidiarity of "Gov-co," a joint venture of the Disney, Viacom, Lockheed Martin, JP Morgan Chase, and Koch Bros. companies).

Simply put, that's just not going to happen.

--------------------------

edit: Okay I just watched the above clip. That guy made even less sense than the BS that I just made up.

Your video, Kurt Russell destroys 145 year old Martin guitar, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Listen -- do you know how much high-grade Peruvian flake we were hoovering back in the late 70's? Steve Martin was the perfect comedian for coke-sniffers: wild and energetic, creative on script and off the cuff. We liked our comedians Wild and Crazy and our afternoon bumps in little McDonald's coffee-stirrer spoons.

Those were the days, my friend, those were the days.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAMPA BOUGHT A RUBBER!