A big part of the Zero's reputation came from racking up kills in China against a lot of second-rate planes with poorly-trained pilots. After all, there was a reason that the Republic of China hired the American Volunteer Group to help out during the Second Sino-Japanese War – Chinese pilots had a hard time cutting it.

The Wildcat was deficient in many ways versus the Zero, but it still had superior firepower via ammo loadout. The Zero carried very few 20mm rounds, most of it's ammo was 7.7mm. There are records of Japanese pilots unloading all their 7.7mm ammo on a Wildcat and it was still flyable. On the flip side, the Wildcat had an ample supply of .50 cal.

Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa was able to score seven kills against Japanese planes in one day with a Wildcat.

Yes, the discovery of the Akutan Zero helped the United States beat this plane. But MilitaryFactory.com notes that the Hellcat's first flight was on June 26, 1942 – three weeks after the raid on Dutch Harbor that lead to the fateful crash-landing of the Mitsubishi A6M flown by Tadayoshi Koga.

Marine Captain Kenneth Walsh described how he knew to roll to the right at high speed to lose a Zero on his tail. Walsh would end World War II with 17 kills. The Zero also had trouble in dives, thanks to a bad carburetor.

We were behind in technology for many reasons, but once the Hellcat started replacing the Wildcat, the Japanese Air Superiority was over. Even if they had maintained a lead in technology, as Russia showed in WW2, quantity has a quality all of it's own. We were always going to be able to field more pilots and planes than Japan would be able to.

As far as Soviet rockets, once we were stunned by the launch of Sputnik, we kicked into high gear. You can say what you will of reliability, consistency, and dependability, but exactly how many manned Soviet missions landed on the moon and returned? Other than Buran, which was almost a copy of our Space Shuttle, how many shuttles did the USSR field?

The Soviets did build some things that were very sophisticated and were, for a while, better than what we could field. The Mig-31 is a great example. We briefly lagged behind but have a much superior air capability now. The only advantages the Mig and Sukhoi have is speed, they can fire all their missiles and flee. If they are engaged however, they will lose if pilots are equally skilled.

As @newtboy has said, I am sure that Russia and China are working on military advancements, but the technology simply doesn't exist to make a Hypersonic missile possible at this point.

China is fielding a man portable rifle that can inflict pain, not kill, and there is no hard evidence that it works.

There is no proof that the Chinese have figured out the technology for an operational rail gun on land, let alone the sea. We also have created successful railguns, the problem is POWERING them repeatedly, especially onboard a ship. If they figured out a power source that will pull it off, then it is possible, but there is no concrete proof other than a photo of a weapon attached to a ship. Our experts are guessing they might have it functional by 2025, might...

China has shown that long range QEEC is possible. It has been around but they created the first one capable of doing it from space. The problem is, they had to jury rig it. Photons, or light, can only go through about 100 kilometers of optic fiber before getting too dim to reliably carry data. As a result, the signal needs to be relayed by a node, which decrypts and re-encrypts the data before passing it on. This process makes the nodes susceptible to hacking. There are 32 of these nodes for the Beijing-Shanghai quantum link alone.

The main issue with warfare today is that it really doesn't matter unless the battle is between one of the big 3. Which means that ANY action could provoke Nuclear conflict. Is Russia going to hypersonic missile one of our carriers without Nukes become an option on the table as a retaliation? Is China going to railgun a ship and risk nuclear war?

Hell no, no more than we would expect to blow up some major Russian or Chinese piece of military hardware without severe escalation! Which means we can create all the technological terrors we like, because we WON'T use them unless they somehow provide us a defense against nuclear annihilation.

So just like China and Russia steal stuff from us to build military hardware to counter ours, if they create something that is significantly better, we will began trying to duplicate it. The only thing which would screw this system to hell is if one of us actually did begin developing a successful counter measure to nukes. If that happens, both of the other nations are quite likely to threaten IMMEDIATE thermonuclear war to prevent that country from developing enough of the counter measures to break the tie.

Bob, you're reply couldn't be dumber.

Arpaio isn't placating him, he's agreeing, having no idea what he's agreeing with, that's the MO of the right today. If a right wing nut says anything, they vehemently agree, even when they cannot make heads or tails out of the nonsense the nut job said.

Sad that so many ignorant fools still support this ignorant fool who's proud he created a concentration camp for people waiting for court where many innocent people have died.

I wish you would get pulled over and falsely accused of something in his district to experience his form of law and order for yourselves.

I think I played "Tones on Tail" on cassette till the tape broke - great album.

In situations where ships voluntarily leave an anchor behind, they typically attach a strong line (heavy rope or light chain) to part of it and a buoy. This way they can easily find it and haul up the tail again (or send divers down with a new line).

Lyrics -

Verse 1

Blowin something sticky word to pre-cum dicks
Im wit ma team in this bitch, and we all getting lit
I mean the weed hella loud, like a teenage chick
And we been smoking for a minute, yeah we blowin on that ganja

And now I'm huffin and puffin, I'm choking on that bong
And the dope im on is bomb I'm smoking that Vietcong

Getting real high
Watching funny videos of bill nye
Tell me that this jam isn't still fly --

Bill nye theme song

now im getting hungry than a muthafucka
put some chicken nuggets in the oven at 400
whered I put that honey mustard
lookin all around the cupboard for that muthafucka
until I discovered a custard, I covered wit butter from last week.

How long do them thangs keep?
Guess I better ask jeeves
go get ma computer but im staring at the damn screen

Damn D, you forgetting what ya task be
The puff puff pass, gotcha gassed
Now ya man is fucked...

Chorus

And i was tryna get a little buzz, so I took a little puff
but I think im way too high

and I aint wanna come off like a bitch, so I took another hit
but I think ma brains too fried

and yeah im fuckin faded but I hate it
im praying that I make it
afraid im goin to dieeeee

I'm too blazed, it's too late
to save Dicky from this fuckin place, cuz he too high

Verse 2

now im freakin out up in this bitch
cant control it and ma homies passin round another spliff
so I bolted to the BR
Consulted with the mirror

Lil Dicky please step up, you pathetic
Cuz the weed in you beating you
then all a sudden im on the toilet beating ma penis blue
but I aint cummin because as im imagining fucking something

that pretty girl im humping
becoming my fuckin cousin, or mother or brother
or some other fucking disgusting person

ma brain is bein strange, cuz im high as a plane
I aint deranged, im just saying it's a violent strain
So I go back to the back where they packing up cigars
Dipping snacks, kicking back, staring at some Avatars

Then I flipped, took a decade and a half to make that shit
Yet they couldn't put a second and a half up in that script

How the fuck a human being wanna fuck a
Blueish green 7' 3'' tail having ass thing
Man im high as fuckkkk

Chorus

And i was tryna get a little buzz, so I took a little puff
but I think im way too high

and I aint wanna come off like a bitch, so I took another hit
but I think ma brains too fried

and yeah im fuckin faded but I hate it
im praying that I make it
afraid im goin to dieeeee

I'm too blazed, it's too late
to save Dicky from this fuckin place, cuz he too high

verse 3

rock hard cock, cuz im watching katy perry
in her video the whole world's made of candy

damn...I aint even got no candy
so now at the fucking c store

where ya man be torn than a mafucka
peanut eminems or a twix
cant commit, so I count the benefits on ma hands

goddamn now im weary of the man -- yeah the cashier
homeland, Nazir!

s-s-s-so damn tweaked I cant even cross the mothafuckin street
gotta wait until that muthafucka's green

now im back up at the crib, and im laughin at giraffes long necks
gotta shit, but the path to the bathroom is complex
crafted a long text, took about an hour
took a scary shower, now im sitting naked on the ground

man im fucked up. I'm bout to call ma mom up and tell her what's up.
This sucks im high as fuck.

Chorus

And i was tryna get a little buzz, so I took a little puff
but I think im way too high

and I aint wanna come off like a bitch, so I took another hit
but I think ma brains too fried

and yeah im fuckin faded but I hate it
im praying that I make it
afraid im goin to dieeeee

I'm too blazed, it's too late
to save Dicky from this fuckin place, cuz he too high

outtro

Translation: "you slice chunks off my ears, and amputate my tail for nothing more than esthetics, and you have the gall to tell me to get off the bed???"

holy fuck, that's the biggest pony tail ever

We get it. It is a common campaign promise to get the Jewish vote/support and it is (until now) never executed.

Of course, Trump is trying to use it to divert attention from the severe problems he is having right now. He does this sort of thing. Look at how he was using the possibility of recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation, plus the arms sale, to tweak China over trade.

However, if you recall, the first questions about Flynn and his role were being asked by the FBI/Comey in December 2016. So, misdirection, get the news on something else, deal with Flynn (fired later), and get rid of Comey.

This has nothing to do with Israel and what they want. They are simply the tail being wagged.

The white car is right there behind the tree, you can see the tail light flashing!

I drove a semi sometimes for a couple years for my family farm. Didn't drive a whole lot, and pretty much all on back dirt roads and in lots/fields, to get some experience before possibly getting a CDL. Never ended up getting the CDL because I moved and changed jobs. I was around and learned from skilled drivers (my dad for one), so I know a little bit, but I'm certainly no expert. That being said:

Backing up a vehicle with a trailer is quite difficult because compared to a normal vehicle with no trailer, all your intuition is wrong and little mistakes get amplified quickly.

Backing up a car and want your tail end to go right? Turn the wheel right. Want the same thing to happen in a semi with a trailer? First turn the wheel left while you back up, which will push the tail end of your tractor left, causing a reaction like pressing on a lever that pushes the tail end of the trailer right. But don't overdo it, because that same lever-type action causes more movement the further you get away from the fulcrum point, so a tiny move there can result in a BIG swing.

Complicating that, you have no central rear view mirror. Side mirrors work, but distance can be obscured by the huge trailer very quickly.

Basically, backing up is one of the most daunting things about learning to drive a truck, particularly for people new to it. The "pull ups" he mentioned are the best way to overcome that. Pulling forward a short/medium distance gets the tractor and trailer back into alignment, so that straight back should result in the trailer going straight back. From that point, you can try to make small corrections. If it starts to swing a lot, pull up again and straighten out, lather rinse repeat.


The guy in the video does a good job (way better than I could do), but he seems to think he's the shit. I don't think you earn real trucking community bragging rights until you can reverse double trailers, or even triples if you want to be worshiped as a god.

Here's a video with doubles:


One of the full-timers on my family farm was quite good with doubles. Not "obstacle course" good, but I saw him reverse a slow circle around a grain bin. And he liked to tell stories about a some semi-mythical whiz guy that could reverse triples around a corner, etc.

Fortunately they were already doing a go-around by the time ATC noticed, a few seconds later would have been a disaster. Their minimum altitude was reported as 18m, which is a bit under a metre above the tail height of a Boeing 787-9.

They do have those alarms, but it was initially reported this plane was too far off course from R28R to trigger them and part of the investigation will be whether they were even operating at the time.

A major contributing factor for this incident was that the second runway, 28L, was closed and lights off at the time of the incident. As a result, the FAA has changed San Francisco landing procedures no longer permitting visual approach when an adjacent parallel runway is closed - https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/faa-changes-san-francisco-landing-procedures-after-a-440380/

Thanks for those insights---so, is NOTAR a bit less efficient in transferring power (ran out of horsepower to correct the yaw because of that?)

Or do you think it was just the gust was so large (the turbulence at a crest could have been ferocious) that it wouldn't have matter what model helicopter or whether it had NOTAR or a regular tail rotor--it simply would have been overmastered?

Lucky bastard. I would expect that 99 times out of 100, when the tail rotor hits the ground, the rest of the helicopter follows.

That looks like an MD-900, which is a NOTAR, meaning it doesn't have a tail rotor.