Have people been following the controversy over the F-22? It's an incredibly awesome plane that's very expensive and just not needed.
Aerial Combat
The Air Force tries to save a fighter plane that's never seen battle.
It was designed for air superiority in the event of a war in Europe with the Soviet Union, against advanced Soviet fighters that were never built due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The nation had already bought 187 of them, at a total cost of $65 billion (nearly $350 million apiece), and that was more than enough.
...
Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down, has a very interesting article in the March 2009 issue of the Atlantic, making the case for buying more F-22s. It's the most sophisticated argument I've read, but even he evades the main issues. He ignores the F-15's AESA radar. He says nothing about the F-35, a lower-cost stealth fighter about to enter production. (It has problems, too, but if someone thinks more stealth planes are needed, the F-35 has about 75 percent of the F-22's capabilities for about half the price.) Finally, in response to one blogger's critique of his article, Bowden admits that, even in a war against a more sophisticated foe, we would still establish aerial dominance "with the current fleet of F-15s backed by a few F-22s"—187 F-22s are "a few"?—but that "we will likely lose more planes and pilots" while doing so. He adds, "While this is academic for you and I, it is not for the men and women in the cockpits of those planes."
Let's examine that last bit of logic (ignoring for a moment the surprising fact that Bowden doesn't know basic grammar). He's saying that if some country develops a large, sophisticated, well-trained air force; and if we go to war with that country; and if air-to-air combat becomes an integral element of that war; then without more F-22s, we'll probably still attain air supremacy but at a cost of more casualties among pilots.
Each of those three ifs is pretty unlikely; multiply them by one another, and the probabilities are remote in the extreme. With all due respect to those pilots (and they deserve a great deal), is the tiny probability of their deaths, in some hypothetical future air duels, worth the tens of billions of dollars it will cost to buy more F-22s now? And in a world of limited resources, is it worth more to spend the money on that contingency than on any number of tangible needs and desires, military or otherwise?
Heh. From a reader's email to Sullivan:
Obama And Jindal
Talking to a witty, politically tuned-in co-worker this morning about the speech and response last night. His summation:
"That was like watching Will Smith vs. Urkle ... Who do you think the American people are going to listen to?"
From Nate Silver:
Obama Joint Session (and Jindal Reply) Liveblog
If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that's because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.
Is the text of Obama's speech online anywhere?
Have people been following the controversy over the F-22?
I think the F-22 is tough to let go of mostly out of pride. The F-15 has been in service for 35 years and has been surpassed by the latest Russian fighters and arguably by the latest French and Swedish fighters. Yeah, the air combat record of the F-15 is something like 100 victories vs. 0 losses, but it dates back to disco.
Financially the F-15 should really be replaced by the F-35, but it's like replacing your big old muscle car with a sporty compact. Sure the sporty compact does everything you need it too and costs a lot less, but it isn't nearly as cool.
Bree Walker was the name of the woman with the hand deformity.
I remember her from my days as a TV news transcriber in the 80s. I could have sworn she was in Denver, though. It took me forever to nail down what was odd about what I was seeing, then I had to freeze frame it several times to confirm that, yes, her hands were different. I was very impressed.
A billion blogs have shown this: Fish with transparent head
It's fucking freaky!
Since 1939, scientists have thought the "barreleye" fish Macropinna microstoma had "tunnel vision" due to eye that were fixed in place. Now though, Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers show that the fish actually has a transparent head and the eyes rotate around inside of it. From the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute:
(Bruce) Robison and (Kim) Reisenbichler used video from MBARI's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to study barreleyes in the deep waters just offshore of Central California. At depths of 600 to 800 meters (2,000 to 2,600 feet) below the surface, the ROV cameras typically showed these fish hanging motionless in the water, their eyes glowing a vivid green in the ROV's bright lights. The ROV video also revealed a previously undescribed feature of these fish--its eyes are surrounded by a transparent, fluid-filled shield that covers the top of the fish's head.
Most existing descriptions and illustrations of this fish do not show its fluid-filled shield, probably because this fragile structure was destroyed when the fish were brought up from the deep in nets. However, Robison and Reisenbichler were extremely fortunate--they were able to bring a net-caught barreleye to the surface alive, where it survived for several hours in a ship-board aquarium. Within this controlled environment, the researchers were able to confirm what they had seen in the ROV video--the fish rotated its tubular eyes as it turned its body from a horizontal to a vertical position.
eta: It's confusing to look at - what looks like its eyes are not:
The barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish's tubular eyes are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils. Image: © 2004 MBARI
Researchers solve mystery of deep-sea fish with tubular eyes and transparent head
Oh msbelle, that sucks. I've had your whitefont happen to me before several times when I have a cold. Blech indeed, last thing you need.
And good luck to bon!! Bar exam needs no evil distractions, bon's body!!
