I love the A-10 (see Avatar photo). That said, I understand what the general is saying here. He said plainly “I don’t want to retire it”. The USAF (and the rest of the military) is bound by the *smallest* spending per US GDP in over 50 years. They’ve already made drastic cuts (medium-class aggressor squadron, anyone?)…

is the new site still going to be defense-related? I frankly can’t be arsed for new car news... but you’re a damned good source for interesting defense/foreign policy news.

In all fairness, though, 15 million tons of rare earths at $1-2k/kg is conceivably a $15T market. “Extraordinarily expensive” is fine when you’re talking about several billion dollars being a justifiable business expense. Above-ground oil refineries cost a few billion dollars (on a good that’s relatively cheaper at…

I maybe need to revise and edit what I wrote in my OP, but I’m not suggesting somehow putting *people* on the ocean floor using suits or something directly exposed to the ocean - that’s absurd. I’m talking about building habitats constructed like nuclear submarines (but perhaps with viewing areas with very…

... Okay, but we build nuclear subs that can function acceptably for months at a time at depths over several hundred feet that are the size of decent apartment complexes. What’s wrong with repurposing the tech? I don’t think anyone believes this would be cheap.

I don’t get why, given these kinds of huge challenges involving transport, humans aren’t just considering large seafloor habitable structures + mines + colonies. It would seem we’ve spent an awful lot of money and time working on space when we could get a whole lot more ROI looking into new places on this planet we…

NHTSA says they can’t do that unfortunately... pedestrian impact regs and all that.

See, one of the biggest errors both manufacturers and the gov’t is making here is that they’re making it harder and harder to see anything NOT covered by headlights. I recently had a long conversation with the family eye doctor about this: Our bodies are built to adapt at night. The reason headlights practically…

Does it do heart rate monitoring?

Too late! You were scooped by the commentariat ;)

They’re built for high-speed NOE incursions into enemy territory. Yes - I would say barrel rolls are supported as a subset of that broader capability ;)

You know it’s a strong technical review when “gazillion” works its way in.

This guy making these kids did some really nice work in tucking all the pipes away from common service items like the oil filter/spark plugs while still keeping everything attractive/functional. If I ever own another 928 it’ll eventually end up with one of these kits. It’s pricey as all get-out ($12,000), but damn if…

As far as 928 turbo systems go, this one is relatively well engineered and easy enough to work on. It may look like a nightmare but it’s not as bad as a lot of mustang turbo kits simply by nature of the way the frame and everything is configured. It’s not like a muscle car with huge engine bay easy obviously but it’s…

Have you owned a 928? They’re really not THAT bad. His would only be marginally worse.

They look great as dress uniforms... As far as everyday utility uniforms? No thanks... They look hot as hell. No way everyone would be comfortable in what looks like 2-3 layers of shirt, sweater, jacket. :P

Certainly spiffy, though! Again... they seem to me more like the Starfleet equivalent of dress blues.

You know, I’m amazed that no government has tested this kind of thing with pigs yet. Get a pig, tie it to a tether, open airlock. Pull pig in after 10 seconds. Check pig.

I mean, animal cruelty activists would have a field day, but given the number of questions we have about how all the different biological systems…

Aw, bummer. I mean I understand naval aviation today spends very little time making use of supersonic speeds, but you’d think the fact that we’re now ending up with real possibilities of combat with neer-peer states with actual competitors for air superiority, having the ultimate range/speed advantage that the F-14…

That said, though... were you flying the Hornet while the Tomcat was still in business? Do you think those guys feel the same way?

Also... if you were flying during the times of the Tomcat... how’d it feel to be stuck in the slower jet? ;)

... Except the Phalanx system fires something like 4,500 rounds per minute. The volume of fire in the general vicinity of whatever the CIWS is firing at is fairly hefty. You’re not going to see that from railguns.