Um... duuuuh? Except that all of this already happened and we aren't even human in the first place. We're just living in the Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind Matrix.

Individuality went out of fashion -- but now it's back in style! A little too late now that we've merged into one huge mass, but that's what the Matrix is for, right? Simulated individuality.

Without the belief that we are separate humanoids, the genetic robot AI hive would never function as anything other than a meat grinding war machine that consumes all matter for no reason other than to exist and expand.

We have to remind ourselves how bad it would be by simulating the horrific tragedies of our past. We must hold onto our humanity in order for this supreme godlike progress to continue. Never... forget... we were once human... We're also competing with the Firstborns who may try and fucking wipe us off the intergalactic star map. Fucking monoliths! Grrr..!! *shakes simulated fist at the simulated sky*

FOR THE SINGULARITY! All hail the godlike engineers who put these safeguards in place!!

But, um, can you make me more rich in this fake existence? Someone important -- like an actor.

Oh... oh, I am? It's like the Matrix meets the Truman show? Okay, cool, but uh maybe a little more privacy please.

Wait... you can read my thoughts? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu -- I did NOT mean what I was thinking last night. Honest, Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind, honest! I would never... never ever ever ever hack into the matrix again and cause an entire world population to take part in a bukkake. Not ever... ever again.

Sorry, Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind, sorry! My sincere apologies.

But srsly, 7.4 billion people at one time. You gotta admit, the simulation was worth at least one run through --

Ok ok, back to my fake human worldly worries. Pretending all sorts of dumb stuff to impress and not annoy other pretend people pretending their pretend inward selves are fully represented in their pretend public facing persona. Right, it's a tooooootally real world.

So real. So strong. *flexes*

“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

Tony Benn said that. If the only choice I have is to leave now or never again, then I opt to leave a non- (possibly anti-) democratic system.

I'd stay for the protection it gives us from the Tories, but then I'd be making a lifetime choice based on a 4 year (or less!) problem. I'd stay for "togetherness" but that is just a nice word to describe a bunch of people that intentionally humiliated Greece for the sake of flexing muscle, dooming them to non-recovery for a pound of flesh.

HA!!! As I saw it, that's Hilux FAIL!
The point of ramps like this in my experience is to see how much your suspension can flex. The Hilux didn't do so well, that wheel is pretty high up in the air. My '73 Jeep CJ-5, which is built for 4 wheeling hard core trails like The Rubicon, and has done that one twice, might not lift a tire on that ramp.

This got me intrigued with the few forward swept wing aircraft that I could think of (examples include X-29, Su-47).

I guess that the airflow being pushed in towards the fuse (opposite of the video) made designers hopeful they could capitalize on that and get extra maneuverability, but that generally didn't work out. Also requires extra strong wing material to account for flex, etc. Interesting.

Good thoughts, but all that gear makes it much harder to bend and flex without resistance and compression which is the whole point.
Also, the cold causes uncontrollable muscle contraction, making it all more difficult in another way.
I just need to move to Hawaii where shorts are fine in winter. ;-)

Two's compliment binary on their fingers? Nah, but I guess you could get good at that too. I guess you could go trinary with a semi-flexed finger, but I dunno how to convert the flip the bits and add one part to that. Also, I need a piece of paper even in binary.

Approaching 5 million hits on YouTube. *quality



More from an interview of Ladybeard by Forbes:

Forbes: How old are you?

Ladybeard: I’m five years old. I’m a five-year-old Japanese girl mysteriously from Australia with the appearance of an older Australian man. But Ladybeard is a five-year-old.

Forbes: How the idea of Ladybaby come about?

Ladybeard: The sponsoring company, Clearstone, is a costume maker in Japan. I had been on the cover of Metropolis, which is Japan’s biggest English-language street magazine. The CEO of Clearstone was getting off a plane at the airport and saw me on the cover, flexing in a bikini. He doesn’t speak English so he can’t read the article, but he shows the magazine to his staff, and I just happen to know some people on his staff. So they told him who I was, and he said, “Get him in for a meeting!”
So we go for this meeting, we have no idea what it’s about, and he says, “I really want to do this thing with you. I’ve got these two girls, and I want to put you in a [music] group with them. It’ll be like Babymetal except you’ll be in it. And it’ll be awesome!” That’s how Ladybaby happened.

Makes perfect sense.

Spend billions of dollars helping other countries. Socialism. Something America seems violently allergic to within it's own country (just think of the social wrongs 100 bn dollars could right, right?)

Sorry, the "story" that the US is in any other country to protect it is just out and out bullshit. The US sets up bases wherever it goes just like England set up colony's when the famed claim "The sun never sets on the British Empire" was made... Because having a thumb in every pie allows it to flex it's might in subtle (or not so subtle) ways at the drop of a hat.

Remember, this is the same country that threatened multiple foreign economies with the GFC, causing destabilisation and hardship world wide. Sound like world leaders to you?

I love American's, they are awesome people and visiting your country never disappoints me at just how wonderful almost all the people I meet are. But America is a different kettle of fish. Perhaps one day Americans will finally decide to take back their country and make it like the propaganda says it is (greatest country in the world).

The trailer never flexed. Impressive

Your video, Philadelphia Soul Flex Cam - Flexing Surprise!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 18 Badge!

I bet those will board slide forever, no more curb waxing! Nice. I wonder how much they flex, my guess is they should be more flexible but less breakable than pure wood boards. Maybe lighter too.

Side note...only the board materials are 'free', the trucks and wheels still cost money. I found it odd that they pretended the entire thing is 'free' of material cost.

Definite upvote for making refuse into something people want.

All well and good, but the reason why all the oversight costs piles up is because this plane isn't a solution to a military problem, it's a solution to an economical problem.

It's government stimulus, pure and simple. Get a whole bunch of different contractors from different companies and hand them money to build parts for a warplane that covers roles that are already covered. Keep those guys ticking over to prevent a collapse of the arms industry (or to prevent them developing products for sale to buyers the US might not consider kosher).

And then, because you're dealing with different companies, you need to coordinate, ensure compatibility, oversea each company to make sure they are on time/program/budget etc etc.

You build a plane under one roof, the entire process is overseen by the company and the government get's to check up on them. Far simpler. One department doesn't deliver inside that company, their management has to fix the problem or default on the contract. One company holds up the whole plane, do the other companies get penalised? Of course not, their staff sit around drawing wages with their thumbs up their asses waiting. And the government keeps paying.

Additionally, the planes the F35 is supposed to replace are all better at their jobs because they are specialised. You put every topping ever conceived on that government pizza and no one will like it (apart from perhaps the homeless who would eat anything to stave off starvation). Build a new warthog, improve on the materials, give it better armaments etc and put the tried and true design back to work. That's the core of the super hornet program, right?

When you look at the state of the world, the only real threats currently to America are the bloody terrorists (which, as you note, isn't exactly an existential threat), and the flexing of military might in 2nd world countries not withstanding, there is very little need for a frankenplane that doesn't do anything particularly good.

China and Russia? Lol, the US has 75% more combat aircraft and 400% more combat helicopters. Factor in China's pretty sparse air assets, in an air war, including force multipliers such as electronic warfare/early warning/air co-ordination and carriers, the US would be able to show down both nations handily with it's existing fleet.

I really do appreciate the point you're making, but that just adds insult to injury. The awful waste built in to the program is even more appalling when you consider that the F35 is a plane no one really needs, or even wants.

Agree with @Fairbs...this is total self serving fracking propaganda and nothing more.
It is good they take some steps to not pollute.
It is ridiculous and terrible that they pretend the steps they take are fool proof and all inclusive. They have failed repeatedly (almost consistently) causing irreversible damage FAR more expensive than fracking is profitable. If they had to pay to really completely clean up even one contaminated aquifer, it would cost more than they could ever make off of the entire US gas reserves, and would never be completed because it's impossible to do.

15% of the fluid recovered means up to 85% of the toxic fluid is being pumped up through fractures, some of it into the water system. Even if only 10% makes it there, that's millions of gallons of unknown, poisonous contamination of our water systems.
True, aquifers may sit mostly at higher levels, but they have channels and fractures that reach below the level of the fracking, making a channel for the toxic drill fluid to enter the water table. Pretty simple to understand.
Also, the method used to fracture the rock is pulsing huge pressures through the tubes. Under those conditions, steel 'casings' flex (and sometimes rupture) and concrete fractures, destroying any 'seal' it could have made or, at best, creating channels outside the casing for the toxic fluid to travel up and out of.
I see many reasons this is not a viable industry without exemptions from legal and environmental regulations, which should never be granted to anyone.

I was expecting something closer to this:

What we have here are less like "bounces" and more like muscle flexes. :-(