Another Ancient CAS Plane That Is Better Than The F-35
The real competitor to the A-10 is not the F-35, but the fifty-year-old Vietnam-era OV-10 Bronco.
It lacks the A-10's survivability, but it does have a lot more flexibility. Boeing has been thinking about restarting production anyway, as it's cheap enough that lots of countries can afford it. As the initial article points out, it only costs $1,000 an hour to operate, compared with $40,000 for an F-15 (another fighter commonly bought by Third World American allies). For sake of comparison, the A-10 comes in at $11,500, and the F-35 at $39,000 an hour (well, or so they say -- when they get them working, we'll see what the cost really is). So the OV-10 is even cheaper to operate than a Predator drone.
To test whether the more than 50-year-old plane still had some fight in it, US Central Command (CENTCOM) sent two OV-10s to Iraq, where they flew 120 combat missions as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, with a 99% success rate.... Capable of carrying 3,000 pounds of ordinance, the Bronco can carry an overwhelming assortment of firepower for it’s small size, including either four 7.62mm machine guns, four .50 caliber machine guns, or a pair of 20mm cannons in addition to a loadout of rockets, missiles, and bombs as needed for the day’s mission...Quite a bit of video at the link.
One more fun trick the OV-10 does it drop a 5-man Special Forces ODA out the back.
It lacks the A-10's survivability, but it does have a lot more flexibility. Boeing has been thinking about restarting production anyway, as it's cheap enough that lots of countries can afford it. As the initial article points out, it only costs $1,000 an hour to operate, compared with $40,000 for an F-15 (another fighter commonly bought by Third World American allies). For sake of comparison, the A-10 comes in at $11,500, and the F-35 at $39,000 an hour (well, or so they say -- when they get them working, we'll see what the cost really is). So the OV-10 is even cheaper to operate than a Predator drone.
Kelpies
Sculptures on the Hebrides, or "he-brides," as they are sometimes mockingly named at Scottish Highland Games.
Of Course Spanking Works
The problem with this study making the rounds is that it assumes that spanking is supposed to generate obedience. Who wants to raise children who are obedient? What we want to raise is children who are self-sufficient and who don't cause us problems. They are children who learn to deal with power structures and pursue their own interests accordingly.
Which is exactly what the study says spanked children are like. They are capable of wielding deception, they are capable of wielding violence in their own interests, and they are capable of pretending to go-along-and-get-along when they aren't in positions of power.
They're Odysseus, in other words.
This is the matter of Plato's Hippias Minor, which treats the question of whether Odysseus or Achilles was the greater hero. The usual position of historians and philosophers is that this is a very unimportant dialogue, with a silly argument, that we might even doubt was Platonic except that Aristotle confirms that Plato wrote it.
That's not right at all. The point is that Plato was teaching the Athens that killed him that Socrates was a kind of Odysseus. Aristotle takes the 'simple' reductio argument of this dialogue seriously enough that he responds to it in the Nicomachean Ethics. This is very serious stuff.
What kind of a child are you trying to raise? An obedient one? Or Odysseus?
Which is exactly what the study says spanked children are like. They are capable of wielding deception, they are capable of wielding violence in their own interests, and they are capable of pretending to go-along-and-get-along when they aren't in positions of power.
They're Odysseus, in other words.
This is the matter of Plato's Hippias Minor, which treats the question of whether Odysseus or Achilles was the greater hero. The usual position of historians and philosophers is that this is a very unimportant dialogue, with a silly argument, that we might even doubt was Platonic except that Aristotle confirms that Plato wrote it.
That's not right at all. The point is that Plato was teaching the Athens that killed him that Socrates was a kind of Odysseus. Aristotle takes the 'simple' reductio argument of this dialogue seriously enough that he responds to it in the Nicomachean Ethics. This is very serious stuff.
What kind of a child are you trying to raise? An obedient one? Or Odysseus?
Cruz/Fiorina
A ticket we talked about back in March has become a reality today. Good, I suppose. Certainly the best thing left out there.
High-Speed Dalai Lama
He operates, bro.
Apparently he really did say the thing about how it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Everything else is just internet awesomeness.
Some appropriate music. And by 'appropriate,' I mean appropriate for this. NSFW.
Apparently he really did say the thing about how it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Everything else is just internet awesomeness.
Some appropriate music. And by 'appropriate,' I mean appropriate for this. NSFW.
Another Example of Tex's Kind of "Lesson"
The Pentagon has decided to test the A-10 against the F-35 in the role of close air support, to see which platform really serves the needs of forces on the ground best. Hot Air reports:
First, though, the Pentagon has to get its F-35s working properly. Tritten notes that the latest in a long series of “glitches” involves its radar system, which randomly stops functioning and requires rebooting in flight. That could complicate comparative war-gaming — as well as potentially put pilots and ground personnel at greater risk. It’s hard to run a test between an operational and well-known system and a mock-up.No, it isn't. Far from 'complicating' the test, I think it simplifies it a great deal.
Something Worth Celebrating: Speaker Hastert Goes to Prison
If only we were as good as holding powerful members of the Executive's party to the law. If only it were as good at enforcing the law on well-connected major donors.
Still, it's not nothing to see a former Speaker of the House brought to heel for serious violations of the law.
Still, it's not nothing to see a former Speaker of the House brought to heel for serious violations of the law.
More Fun With Physics
My wife was driving and I was passengering on our way back
from the store. As we came over an
overpass, the speed limit changed sharply from 50mph to 35mph, with effect
directly at the bottom of the hill that was the overpass. My wife commented that it's hard to
decelerate that much on a downhill run of that distance. I suggested that she not decelerate.
Her response was that there might be a cop with a radar
gun, and then came the fun with physics.
I suggested that she accelerate instead of decelerate;
after all, once she achieves a certain speed, she'd get past the cop's radar
gun before it could trigger. In fact,
the task would be a bit simpler since the cop's radar gun's photons would have
to make a round trip over the same distance my wife and I would need to cover
only once.
Furthermore, having achieved that certain speed, she'd
likely get abeam the cop's radar gun before she'd left the overpass
hilltop. From that, any causality
problems ensuing from the cop choosing to trigger his radar gun anyway would be
on the cop—textbook police brutality.
As my wife put it, #photonlivesmatter.
Eric Hines
The Candidate For Those Who Respect Women
Headline: "Hillary supporters take down Bernie FB pages in coordinated porn attack."
From the article:
From the article:
According to eyewitness reports, the pages were flooded with pornographic images in coordinated fashion and then flagged for obscene content, prompting Facebook to remove them.Kiddie porn. How is it that Hillary Clinton's supporters even have kiddie porn to use as a weapon? It's illegal even to possess (and rightly so).
"We had what looked like a kiddie porn posted in one of our groups today,” said Sanders supporter Erica Libenow, according to Heavy.com. "I reported that one. Seriously made me want to vomit.”
At least one Facebook user linked to the pro-Hillary Clinton group Bros 4 Hillary was reported to have participated in the attacks.
The Devil You Say
John F. Kerry and his wife have millions in off-shore tax havens? That's the least surprising news story of the year.
Vietnam Marines Reuinte to Recreate Surfing Photo
It's kind of a fun photo, even.
It would be two years they would spend together, both in training in combat. Subjected to horrific conditions and intense combat two of them earned Purple Hearts- all of them carried the scars of war.It's been fifty years, and they look pretty good all things considered.
“We had the tools. We had the training,” DeVenezia said. “But nothing trains you for your first combat. Nothing. Zero.”
Following the end of their 13 month tours, the all went their separate ways and fell out of touch.
On the Perils of Civilian Control of the Military
We all know what the advantages are. They have been drilled into us, and into the professional military, so thoroughly that -- as this author points out -- none of the flag officers have resigned in protest over Secretary Ray Mabus' savaging of the Navy and Marine Corps. The weakness created by Mabus' leadership has proven provocative, as American weakness often does:
In recent days, Russian fighter-bombers have done barrel rolls within ca. 30 feet of our planes and ships inside international waters. Such reckless behavior (no doubt part of Putin's plan to ratchet up the level of intimidation) leaves little to no room for error and focuses one's mind on the possibility of a tragic international incident, even war. But as the Army chief-of-staff testified recently before the Senate Armed Services Committee, if it ever came to war with Putin's Russia, we'd most likely get the short end of the stick.It would be ironic if we fell into war with Russia just because of civilian control of the military -- if the fact that the particular civilians given control understood and appreciated the Navy's culture so little turned out to be the thing that brought the war. It would be a bitter irony indeed.
Such is the state of America's armed forces under Barack Obama and Ray Mabus.
Bright Flash of Light
It is possible to reason to an understanding of when life begins.
In case you need a hint, though, it turns out that nature provides a big one.
In case you need a hint, though, it turns out that nature provides a big one.
Fantasy economics
A college loses its shirt playing around with expensive, subsidized green energy initiatives. One administrator commented, "They are not a good teaching tool if they are not working.” I disagree.
Status quo
Here's what Europeans say about why all the business innovation seems to be coming from the U.S. The article concludes with the interesting observation that, even in the U.S., the innovation comes disproportionately from first-generation offspring of immigrants.
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