Your tax dollars at work.
09-24-2009, 05:13 PM
#3
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,027
Total Cats: 6,593
Judging by the visible nose gear cutout and the fact that we can see the four inlaids, I'd say we're looking at the front.
I wonder if that thing is available for parties?
Boeing's entry into the foray is the X-45:
Now, is it just me, or does that look like something that the Canadian Air Force would use in South Park?
I wonder if that thing is available for parties?
Boeing's entry into the foray is the X-45:
Now, is it just me, or does that look like something that the Canadian Air Force would use in South Park?
Reply
0
0
09-24-2009, 07:20 PM
#5
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,027
Total Cats: 6,593
Thing is, this new generation of aircraft are designed around an autonomous mission. IOW, they don't even need a pilot on the ground pushing a joystick. You just load a mission profile, drop it into the catapult, and it goes off and kills the enemy all by itself, then returns to the carrier, lines up, and does a trap landing all without human input.
Who here wants to make a prediction on when we'll see the first robot vs. robot combat action?
Reply
0
0
09-24-2009, 08:55 PM
#9
Elite Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Birmingham Alabama
Posts: 7,930
Total Cats: 45
2023. No one will have anything to fight back for a while. First picture looks like the rear to me, unless the wings are swept forward... and the control surfaces are on the leading edge. Maybe it has fucked up reverse gear.
Reply
0
0
09-24-2009, 09:50 PM
#11
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,027
Total Cats: 6,593
Yay!
I take it, then, that you remember what the real purpose of the arcade machine was?
Yeah, that's going to be the determining factor. China and Japan are probably both capable, but neither have maintained a really significant Air Force in recent decades, nor do they have a good reason to attack their #1 export market. If the USSR were still kicking I'd say that maybe their client states might end up with a few, but right now they're having a hard enough time keeping their sub fleet in service, much less building autonomous killing machines.
You may be right. I'd been going by the shape of the landing gear bay and what I took for the engine intake, however from some other pictures, the former actually appears to be the arresting hook compartment, and the latter is pretty much symmetrical to the exhaust outlet.
It does, however, have leading-edge control surfaces. They're called "inlaids."
I take it, then, that you remember what the real purpose of the arcade machine was?
Yeah, that's going to be the determining factor. China and Japan are probably both capable, but neither have maintained a really significant Air Force in recent decades, nor do they have a good reason to attack their #1 export market. If the USSR were still kicking I'd say that maybe their client states might end up with a few, but right now they're having a hard enough time keeping their sub fleet in service, much less building autonomous killing machines.
It does, however, have leading-edge control surfaces. They're called "inlaids."
Reply
0
0
09-24-2009, 10:05 PM
#12
Elite Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Birmingham Alabama
Posts: 7,930
Total Cats: 45
Oh yeah, I forgot, isn't this ship based? I guess it would need an arrestor hook to be tucked away. I honestly haven't looked into this plane much. I'm usually an aviation nut, but this one just kind of slipped by me. Damn how far we have come since WWII. Thats one of the only good things about war, it drives technology double time. Hell, even for 25 years ago that thing looks like a space ship, something Jim Bob would describe seeing fly over his corn field.
Reply
0
0
09-30-2009, 03:44 PM
#13
Boost Czar
iTrader: (62)
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
Posts: 79,494
Total Cats: 4,080
hmmm. MY tax dollars is right: 47% of households owe no tax - and their ranks are growing - Sep. 30, 2009
Reply
0
0
09-30-2009, 03:48 PM
#14
Tour de Franzia
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Republic of Dallas
Posts: 29,085
Total Cats: 375
I just paid for 6-new homes in Louisiana due to a loop-hole in the grant program that permits local governments to wipe their asses with tax money. Its par for the course.
Reply
0
0
09-30-2009, 04:07 PM
#15
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,027
Total Cats: 6,593
In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
(...)
The vast majority of households making up to $30,000 fall into the category, as do nearly half of all households making between $30,000 and $40,000.
As you move up the income scale the percentages drop.
Nearly 22% of those making between $50,000 and $75,000 end up with no federal income tax liability or negative liability as do 9% of households with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000.
Of course, income taxes don't tell the whole story. Workers are also subject to payroll taxes, which support Social Security and Medicare.
When considering federal income taxes in combination with payroll taxes, the percent of households with a net liability of zero or less is estimated to be 24% this year, according to the Tax Policy Center's estimates.
Just more proof that the current system unfairly discriminates against lower-income families. (...)
The vast majority of households making up to $30,000 fall into the category, as do nearly half of all households making between $30,000 and $40,000.
As you move up the income scale the percentages drop.
Nearly 22% of those making between $50,000 and $75,000 end up with no federal income tax liability or negative liability as do 9% of households with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000.
Of course, income taxes don't tell the whole story. Workers are also subject to payroll taxes, which support Social Security and Medicare.
When considering federal income taxes in combination with payroll taxes, the percent of households with a net liability of zero or less is estimated to be 24% this year, according to the Tax Policy Center's estimates.
Wait...
What?
How does anybody wind up paying ZERO tax?
(and how the hell do 9% of households in the $75k-$100k bracket wind up with no federal income tax liability? That one I genuinely do not understand.)
Reply
0
0
09-30-2009, 06:31 PM
#17
Cpt. Slow
iTrader: (25)
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Oregon City, OR
Posts: 14,190
Total Cats: 1,135
Getting back on target (ironic since this is the BS section), my dad works for Insitu, a leading UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) manufacturer. The stuff he does is pretty cool, I'm trying to get a job there. Apparently their newest design has a new engine that keeps randomly stalling out midair. It's a carbureted RC engine apparently so not a lot of data logging. This is 2009 guys, let me put a MS in that thing. Anyways they don't have any ordiance on it yet. Key word, yet.
Reply
0
0
09-30-2009, 06:57 PM
#19
Thing is, this new generation of aircraft are designed around an autonomous mission. IOW, they don't even need a pilot on the ground pushing a joystick. You just load a mission profile, drop it into the catapult, and it goes off and kills the enemy all by itself, then returns to the carrier, lines up, and does a trap landing all without human input.
Who here wants to make a prediction on when we'll see the first robot vs. robot combat action?
Who here wants to make a prediction on when we'll see the first robot vs. robot combat action?
Man, we are totally screwed when Skynet goes global...
Reply
0
0
10-01-2009, 07:18 AM
#20
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Burlington, VT
Posts: 428
Total Cats: 1
I was talking to a guy the other day that works for Grumman. He is on the globalhawk program. It's a UAV, which I knew, but I didn't know that it is autonomous. It flies without data links to a ground based pilot.
They load a mission profile, and it flies it. He says it's been hard to test in the US because it can't respond to ATC commands ("globalhawk, please descend to 23,000 for traffic...").
They have spiral straight up from the airport until they are way above flight patterns, and do the same on the return.
It is equipped to carry missiles, and make autonomous fire decisions. Amazing.
They load a mission profile, and it flies it. He says it's been hard to test in the US because it can't respond to ATC commands ("globalhawk, please descend to 23,000 for traffic...").
They have spiral straight up from the airport until they are way above flight patterns, and do the same on the return.
It is equipped to carry missiles, and make autonomous fire decisions. Amazing.
Last edited by jbresee; 10-01-2009 at 08:02 AM.
Reply
0
0
