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Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#101

Post by justinator »

zipwitch wrote: post #89
noch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. However, in "How the United States Could Lose a Great-Power War" (RAND, 2019)[0], we read: > [...] For now, U.S. forces appear poorly postured to meet these challenges. That's because both Russia and China have developed formidable networks of missiles, radars, electronic warfare systems, and t…

This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…

I guess, but ISIS still seems to be a thing.

Or in geek-speak. We have the Death Star, as we are the Empire. The Empire still lost.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#102

Post by justinator »

xcasperx wrote: post #86
_8j50 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I wasn't saying why you would want to. I was questioning why "we need to"

The main goal of any species is to survive/reproduce. We don't know if there's any other intelligent life in the universe, or how common it is. The one thing we do know is that we haven't found any. There could be many reasons for this, and one of those is the Fermi Paradox (great filter). Whether this is a real thing or not we don't know, but by establishing sustainable settlements in space, we hedge against the ide…

As they say, "There is no Planet B".

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#103

Post by rswail »

spicyramen wrote: post #93
quietthrow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet heavens forbid if we spent a little more trying to fix healthcare. This all is thanks to mentality of fear which has deep roots in American consciousness. At the nation level - what if somebody attacks us to at the family level there all kinds of crazies here let’s not let our children play outdoors in the neighborhood without supervision- it’s a fear based society.

Is my understanding that we already spend more in healthcare than military. What would you like to fix specifically?

The US spends substantially more on health administration than other nations. Removing that administrative burden (ie the private health insurance organizations as arbiters of health care delivery) would substantially lower the cost.

As a percentage of the GDP, the health industry is a larger proportion than military production, but as a percentage of the US Federal budget, the military consumes roughly half.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#104

Post by hammock »

chrisseaton wrote: post #12
shockinglytrue wrote: post #3

The press around the X-37B continues to perplex, it's particularly disappointing to see this "super secret but let's talk about it constantly" article using the word "very" 3 times. I think it was drilled into me by the age of 12 to avoid "very" in written English in order not to obviously oversell, and yet here it is from a professional writer working for the BBC

In general the BBC prioritises simple writing, a reasonably low reading level, and common words to make it as accessible as possible. They don't pay much attention to ideas of artistic writing and they aren't looking to use a different adverb or adjective every time for the whimsical sake of it. It's a public news service, not a mid-atlantic magazine.

If you wanted simple writing you would omit "very," not replace it.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#105

Post by austinheap »

justinator wrote: post #101
zipwitch wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a farce. The United States is done fighting Great Power wars. No one talks about it publicly at all because doing so would shatter America's self-image as the Lone Superpower. The military the United States has now is quite capable of wrecking any nation that is not another Great Power. I say wrecking and not defeating, because as should be obvious from the last three decades, the United States has zero inter…

I guess, but ISIS still seems to be a thing. Or in geek-speak. We have the Death Star, as we are the Empire. The Empire still lost.

Fiction v non-fiction.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#106

Post by aww_dang »

noch wrote: post #73
ericmcer wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to quantify because military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. And we can print dollars, hell we just printed 5 trillion in a couple weeks. This gives us insane leverage when it comes to foreign debts because most debts are in dollars. The dollars for military budget and the dollars raised by a school fundraiser are not even the same…

> [...] military supremacy and having the best weapons in the world is a huge part of why the dollar is THE global currency. However, in "How the United States Could Lose a Great-Power War" (RAND, 2019)[0], we read: > [...] For now, U.S. forces appear poorly postured to meet these challenges. That's because both Russia and China have developed formidable networks of missiles, radars, electronic warfare systems, and t…

Here's an admittedly cynical take: Analysts who suggest that the US is weak better serve the defense industry. Even your source suggests the solution is more money...

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#107

Post by grecy »

oyashirochama wrote: post #75
grecy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely believe that if Americans knew what the rest of the Developed world gets for it's tax dollars vs. what Americans have to put up with for their tax dollars, they would riot in the streets. There's a very good reason the major news outlets in America never directly compare America to other Developed countries, and only ever compare it to undeveloped or "evil" countries (China, Sudan, Iran, Russia).

You're comparing it to nations that have little to no healthcare systems at all, the US has one of the largest healthcare systems with the main issue being the salaries of said doctors causing the imbalance of healthcare costs versus actual results. Our healthcare is among the best but at a cost. The compared countries are among the worst, and China is arguable a developed nation masquerading as a developing country.…

> Our healthcare is among the best but at a cost

You might want to check the numbers on that.

The US is at or very near the worst among OECD countries in: infant mortality, life expectancy at birth, healthy life expectancy, rate of obesity, disability-adjusted life years, doctors per 1000 people, deaths from treatable conditions, rate of mental health disorders, rate of drug abuse & rate of prescription drug use

https://data.oecd.org/

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#108

Post by friendlybus »

ethbro wrote: post #54
chrisseaton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general the BBC prioritises simple writing, a reasonably low reading level, and common words to make it as accessible as possible. They don't pay much attention to ideas of artistic writing and they aren't looking to use a different adverb or adjective every time for the whimsical sake of it. It's a public news service, not a mid-atlantic magazine.

The best news choice I made, as an American, was to get my primary news through foreign outlets. Because generally, they don't really care enough to implement systemic bias about another country.

Systemic bias, aka a cultural view? You don't quite get fox news levels of opinion on your news feed, but every outlet has it's roots in a particular worldview.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#109

Post by VRay »

xcasperx wrote: post #86
_8j50 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I wasn't saying why you would want to. I was questioning why "we need to"

The main goal of any species is to survive/reproduce. We don't know if there's any other intelligent life in the universe, or how common it is. The one thing we do know is that we haven't found any. There could be many reasons for this, and one of those is the Fermi Paradox (great filter). Whether this is a real thing or not we don't know, but by establishing sustainable settlements in space, we hedge against the ide…

If there are space aliens hanging around, they likely wouldn't contact us

Just seeing them would give us a huge technological leg up. Right now we don't know that interstellar travel is readily feasible, but if we did know that then it would suddenly make sense to spend 100 times as much on space tech

Considering what a bunch of jerks we are to each other, I don't think aliens would want us roaming around freely

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#110

Post by sandworm101 »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #48
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #18

Sat here in lockdown, I have just rewatched Matt Damon's The Martian and yes, we want to go up and out. I am so glad someone is still trying. I am also blown away by the American Federal budget - this is a classified military space program . How much does one of those cost ?!

This comes from the military budget; they can light Cuban cigars with hundred dollar bills as a rounding error. The US Navy has 11 large fleet aircraft carriers, 9 assault carriers, when the rest of the World considers two carriers to be a lot. Schools hold bake sales to buy supplies, the Pentagon/The Congress spends a Trillion USD on a new manned fighter we don't need just to shovel pork into as many Congressional d…

>> it might be cheaper in the long run than more satellites.

Wrong comparison. It is cheaper than the previous military spaceplane: Shuttle.

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