JediMaster

That reminds me a of great short story by Isaac Asimov called The Last Question.

It's from the golden era of SF and it shows in the writing (there's zero hand-holding, but it's not hard to understand or anything) but it's a timeless story more or less.

I think I tried to use the MLRS once and gave up! I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn in a city populated solely by barns...

I believe they cannot build F-22s as they are now because many of the parts are obsolete now, the problem of making a "cutting edge" plane that depends on electronics so much.

Pretty much they'd need to build an F-22B with guts like the F-35 for the most part, and yes it would cost a lot to restart production. The only way to do it that makes sense is to build a LOT more, at least another 200. I don't know if there is the will to do that.

PKD also wrote Man in the High Castle.

Speaking of alternate history, there is a film called Fatherland that aired about a decade back on cable, takes place in the early 60s in Germany after they won the war. It kind of leaves you wanting to see more, but it was a one-off.

Without seeing the tail, I can't tell if that's an A or D model.

A case could be made that this was a failure of the maintenance team, and ultimately the crew chief, to properly notice the throttle was out of spec in a potentially (and in this case definitely) critical way.

Now if the chief had noted in his logs the issue and had perhaps scheduled a replacement, or some sort of maintenance, and it was postponed due to circumstances outside his control, then he's likely safe. I doubt it played out that way, though. This seems more of an oversight by the one with oversight.

I think that might be pushing it too far...

I've always loved the bizarre canard/cranked-delta Viggen layout, more so than its successor or any of the other recent Euro jets sharing that general design.

I'm jazzed for this pretty much the same as for the F-14!

I'm so out of touch I never realized after the CV was retired that they made an LHA with that name!

NTTR is really looking good now.

Wearing white lab coat = science guy. Because no one else would wear a white lab coat.

I think that video could use a Russian cover of Danger Zone.

Remember, though, we weren't completely wrong. This was one of those unusual circumstances where winning the most votes didn't win the most states. Had it followed conventional patterns, the next president would have had the most votes.

So, it was the distribution of the votes that counted more than the actual number.

Oh, and the most important takeaway--neither candidate broke the 50% mark. So in each case, less than half the country wanted them to win. Whoever you voted for, MORE people didn't vote for them.

This is not a mandate.

Yes, but would it manage 50 kts with the added weight of a Cessna on top?

After the wings pop out, the ultralight leaves the rest of the boat behind, a very expensive one-time action.

"Oh grow up, 007!"

The major flaw in the Constitution, because the framers never conceived it could be an issue, is that Congress is in charge of Congress. The other two branches check and balance Congress' power over the country, but not over Congress itself. We now have gerrymandering the likes of which they never would have believed.

The only way I believe to institute term limits is an amendment and those never pass anymore. Even Scalia lamented that was a failing of the original setup, and you couldn't be much more pro-Constitution than him. There was universal support for presidential limits after FDR, but even back then people still believed that the people would vote out those who overstayed their welcomes.

Quite simply, the founders failed to predict the changes in the electorate. They never thought someone would serve in the House or Senate for life. They didn't think the people would go along with it.

I refused to touch a PC from a smoking pet owner. They sabotaged them, they can deal with them. Almost as bad were smokers who lived in a dirty place and didn't clean up.

That yellow sticky slime dust was so gross...

No, you can't keep your ashtray in front of your PC sucking up the smoke and expect it to last.

No, you can't keep your PC on your beachside patio so you can enjoy the fresh salty air while you surf the net and expect it to last.

No, you can't let your cat sleep on the stupid PC and expect it to last.

No, you can't expect me to have any sympathy for you.

Trump wants to be CEO of the US, not the President. He wants to be told what stuff is going on, get presented with choices, and decide. Then he wants to move on to the next thing. While I can't say for certain that won't work, I'm fairly certain we haven't had one like that in a long time, definitely not in the modern era.

He's a sleazeball I wouldn't want to deal with under any circumstances with an army of lawyers to make sure he gets his way, which includes not paying out because he's a cheap bastard.

There are plenty of outsiders who would've been 10x better passed out than Trump sober, but Trump had the name and the money to get there. He has sabotaged the outsider vote. I wish we could bring Perot forward in time from 1992 and let him run against Clinton. He'd clean up...as long as he got a different running mate than last time, of course.

Clinton is a woman, but she's definitely more of the same. Nothing new to see here, move along, dull as dull can be. Yeah, she's done some shady stuff. The notion that somehow this stuff is different with her than with past politicians is laughable. It's not. She's not more corrupt than Bush or her husband or Reagan or Carter, she's merely equally corrupt. People who refuse to accept that are all over her shit only because they disagree with her politics. She has simply demonstrated the same thing seen from every President in memory--poor judgement. By that metric, she has acted very presidential. Every single one of them has done at least one thing that should have landed them in jail for life. None were ever convicted let alone served.

If poor judgement isn't a prosecutable offense (and obviously it's not, just look at history), then how can people be surprised it applies to her?

The Romans had a term for this: bread and circuses. Congrats USA, the two parties snared you up in it just like in days of old. No real issues, no actual chance for change, just a system run by the rich in the name of making themselves richer. They don't give a damn about us, never have, never will. Don't fool yourself into thinking either candidate will actually help you. Unless you define help as "I only lost my hand instead of both arms and both legs".

Meanwhile, this year has reminded me of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. At what point will the anti-establishment voters "rise up" and demand strong leadership from the first American Empire? When Trump inevitably loses? When he surprisingly wins? When he goes out in a blaze of glory with Clinton and Emperor Bernie the First takes over?

Say hello to the new boss, same as the old one.

Yes, the strategy part of the game. That was great. It was like SSG's Carriers at War in that aspect (but simpler).

There was one sim before that which had a strategic element, even if it was totally unrealistic--SWOTL. Your primary role was to fly fighters and/or bombers against enemy targets. However, you could also adjust production at factories to make up for losses at others to keep your war machine running. Like any pilot did that... Still, it added depth to the campaign.

Where's the MiG 1.42/44? Too new?

Still DOA.

Top Gun Fire at Will looked better than F-14FD, yes. But it played worse. Scripted campaign missions that required you to win to progress, and that's all there was.

I played the game for several hours till I got to a mission so tough I couldn't beat it. There was nothing else to do but replay that mission ad infinitum. I uninstalled the game.

Not when the unstealthy planes are seen and shot down at 200 miles by SAMs.

There is literally no realistic scenario where enemy ADA is nonexistent but enemy fighters are a threat unless you're talking about an invasion of a western country. Any discussion of fighter vs fighter without taking enemy ADA into account is a fruitless exercise.

All in all the Space Coast got hit pretty light. Those who live out on the barrier islands got the worst of it, but then they live out on the barrier islands which will always get the worst of it. That's why I live inland.

Hmmm. I never thought about it. Let me check my Amazon/New Egg order history and see (since I always get my stuff from those two sources).

Looks like just over two years. I ordered this battery in May 2014. I ordered the previous one Jan 2012. I'd say I'm right on track to replace this one. It says expect 3-5 years life, but I've not seen that from this unit.

LOL, I just noticed I also bought my G27 wheel for $191 in Sep 2012. It's now going for $599 on Newegg (from 3rd party as it's out of production).

Actually, looking at the order history is like taking a trip down memory lane, seeing when I upgraded this or that...

The 21 was a great bird in its day, but that day is definitely done. Congrats to them.