The F-35 can't maneuver as well as an F-16. But F-16 can't maneuver as well as P-51 from World War 2.

There hasn't been a dog fight since the first world war. Even in WW2 it was about strategy, positioning and team work. It had very little to do with plane performance, expect for when there was a huge gap like the invention of the jet plane.

Air combat for the last 60 years has been about situational awareness first and foremost. And the F-35 has this nailed.

It's like saying that modern soldiers don't have any sword fighting skills. It's completely irrelevant. You wouldn't use a sword against a camouflaged sniper. The F-35 is a camouflaged sniper, hiding in the trees. Who would silly enough to run through an open field with a sword? Or even a pistol? The sniper will have killed you before you even know you are being targeted.


Now the people making the F-35 are probably incompetent in delivering a plane on time and on budget(either that or they are milking it). But the plane once finished, will be a winner.


The other thing is, the F-35's will always be part of a force of other planes in a large scale conflict. If for some reason it does come down to dog fighting - e.g. if there are just tons of cheaper planes going against it (with suicidal pilots) that they simply cannot carry enough missiles, then the rest of the enemies would be mopped up by F-15, F-16s , F/A-18s etc.

Putin was interviewed by a German public broadcaster. A video of it can be found here, but it's in Russian/German, unsurprisingly. As of now, RT is the only source I found for a proper English translation of the entire interview.

Anyway, it is quite disturbing to once again see just how different it sounds from what is being reported about him. The press make him sound like a power-crazed looney, yet of all the heads of state, this old spook is just about the only stable, calm, composed and diplomatic entity in the entire discussion. They call him out for an apparent unwillingness to talk, yet there he is, offering one olive branch after another.

Poroshenko is talking about getting ready for total war, yet to the media, and to folks like Abbott and Cameron, everything bad about the situation can be traced back to Putin.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the way the press and some state officials are pushing for an open conflict with Russia, a century after the start of the First World War, 75 years after the start of the Second World War, sends chills down my spine. It is pure madness on a scale I thought we had overcome by now.

This was a common tactic in the first world war, and where the name 'land mine' comes from. Kinda surprised anyone would do it in this situation. I guess it worked, though.

It's really depressing how things are going down in Syria. There can be no good ending to this story--at least, not for a long, long time.

This video got me interested in exactly why 10 000 Japanese people would choose to perform a notoriously difficult piece, in German.

The Japanese call the piece Daiku and perform it every year in December. The largest of these gatherings is most likely the one in this video, "Suntory Presents Beethoven's 9th with a Cast of 10000," in the Osaka Castle Hall. It could also be the special concert from December 2011 which was dedicated to victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and in fact the pictures of that event look quite like this video.

It turns out that it is because in the first world war Japan was allied with Britain, and ended up with some German prisoners of war in Japan. In June 1918, German POWs gave a legendary concert in Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, where they played the Ninth. Since then it has become quite popular in Japan.

There is an article from 2010 in www.japantimes.co.jp on this subject.

I asked someone with more knowledge in this area than I have, and the clothing looked like what you would expect from Spain around the time of the first world war. The toys look like they would date, at the earliest, from the 1920s or 1930s... the era of Buck Rogers style rocket ships.

The animation school where this film was made is in Valencia, in Spain, and maybe the students imagined a rural village from their grandparents' or great grandparents' era?

Tags for this video have been changed from 'john green, crash course, wwi, cynicism' to 'john green, crash course, wwi, first world war, great war, 1914, 1918, cynicism' - edited by calvados

This is a cool video. I wish every country in the world would create something like this, and force every American to watch them all.

That said, they are still pretty young, and have a bit of a naive mindset. US Soldiers saving Iraqi's from the Hell that is Iraq, and the US's foreign interests being to topple dictatorships and export it's 'democracy' are only what the lowest common denominator believe, if even they believe it. It's been pretty clear going back as far as the Korean war (or some might even say the first World War, as I have heard multiple vets from that era explain), that US motivations have always been primarily conquer, control and capitalization.

You are certainly correct. Time magazine used the term in June 1939, even Wikipedia tells us that much. But we also know from this clip that it's not 1939.

Now, the German term "Erster Weltkrieg" was used as early as 1928 by Stefan George in his work "Das neue Reich", more specifically his poem "Einem jungen Führer im Ersten Weltkrieg".

Is it the earliest mention of the term? No idea. And that's still just the German version, who knows at what point in time the English decided to steal it.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
I think the focus is on the "First" in "First World War," but nice resources. Yay I can still read Sütterlin or whatever that font was called.

>> ^radx:

http://www.archive.org/stream/derweltkriegdeu00niemgoog
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2026/2026-h/2026-h.htm
Or is my memory playing tricks on me again?


I think the focus is on the "First" in "First World War," but nice resources. Yay I can still read Sütterlin or whatever that font was called.

I actually never did WW2 in History. First world war mostly and those FUCKING tudors. God I hate the tudors. Had anough of those awful school trips with clipboards to Hampton Court Palace to last two lifetimes.

But yes, virtually nothing on the Empire. I honestly think most of the UK has pretty much forgotten we even ever had one and I definitely think it should receive more focus on schools.

wow...this is complete bullshit.
first of all, the first world war, like the 2nd, was a war of economics, with countries with dwindling imperial empires jockying for position in a new world shaped by oil. The US entered both wars as wars of opportunity. Countries act or fail to act out of sheer self-interest... Period. It is not a question of tolerance and passivity. and entering a war is rarely, rarely, rarely a question that is actually posed to or controlled by the people. The decision is made by the government, then the PR campaign begins to get the working poor to fight it.

and, most importantly, the passivity and tolerance that can be held at fault is the passivity and tolerance of the populace of imperialist nations, that allow governments of the elite to systematically destroy civil rights while enrich themselves, sending the poor to fight wars of economic opportunity, meanwhile controlling sheep-like citizens through propaganda... (yes, I'm talking about the US, but it can be applied broadly).

Embarrassed by history.

Here is a link to the full text and English translation of "The Road to Resurgence" written by Hitler, at the request of wealthy far right industrialist Emil Kirdorf.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1878145

It costs. (I had a print copy stashed away somewhere. Can't seem to find it, sry.)

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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERkirdorf.htm

Kirdorf, who held extreme right-wing political views, first heard Adolf Hitler speak in 1927. He was so impressed that he arranged to meet Hitler at the home of Elsa Buckmann in Munich. Although Kirdorf supported most of Hitler's beliefs he was concerned about some of the policies of the Nazi Party. He was particularly worried about the views of some people in the party such as Gregor Strasser who talked about the need to redistribute wealth in Germany.

Adolf Hitler tried to reassure Kirdorf that these policies were just an attempt to gain the support of the working-class in Germany and would not be implemented once he gained power. Kirdorf suggested that Hitler should write a pamphlet for private distribution amongst Germany's leading industrialists that clearly expressed his views on economic policy.

Hitler agreed and The Road to Resurgence was published in the summer of 1927. In the pamphlet distributed by Kirdorf to Germany's leading industrialists, Hitler tried to reassure his readers that he was a supporter of private enterprise and was opposed to any real transformation of Germany's economic and social structure.

Kirdorf was particularly attracted to Hitler's idea of winning the working class away from left-wing political parties such as the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party. Kirdorf and other business leaders were also impressed with the news that Hitler planned to suppress the trade union movement once he gained power. Kirdorf joined the Nazi Party and immediately began to try and persuade other leading industrialists to supply Hitler with the necessary funds to win control of the Reichstag.

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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhitler.htm

It was not until May, 1919 that the German Army entered Munich and overthrew the Bavarian Socialist Republic. Hitler was arrested with other soldiers in Munich and was accused of being a socialist. Hundreds of socialists were executed without trial but Hitler was able to convince them that he had been an opponent of the regime. To prove this he volunteered to help to identify soldiers who had supported the Socialist Republic. The authorities agreed to this proposal and Hitler was transferred to the commission investigating the revolution.

Information supplied by Hitler helped to track down several soldiers involved in the uprising. His officers were impressed by his hostility to left-wing ideas and he was recruited as a political officer. Hitler's new job was to lecture soldiers on politics. The main aim was to promote his political philosophy favoured by the army and help to combat the influence of the Russian Revolution on the German soldiers.

...

Hitler's reputation as an orator grew and it soon became clear that he was the main reason why people were joining the party. This gave Hitler tremendous power within the organization as they knew they could not afford to lose him. One change suggested by Hitler concerned adding "Socialist" to the name of the party. Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany.

Hitler, therefore redefined socialism by placing the word 'National' before it. He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German blood". Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end.

In February 1920, the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) published its first programme which became known as the "25 Points". In the programme the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty and called for the reunification of all German people. To reinforce their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens. "Foreigners" and "aliens" would be denied these rights.

To appeal to the working class and socialists, the programme included several measures that would redistribute income and war profits, profit-sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases in old-age pensions and free education.

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Tags for this video have been changed from 'nfb, war, ww1, wwI, soldiers, europe' to 'nfb, war, first world war, world war one, ww1, wwI, soldiers, europe' - edited by calvados

I know it's the last grasp of the Nazi warmachine but there is something stirring when you think that these guys were flying some of the very first jet aircraft, capable beyond almost anything else before it.

Much like the pilots who first took to the skies in Camel's and Fokker's in the first world war.

And say what you will, but that is one beautiful plane.