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The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

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Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#901

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can we create new incentives to discourage this behavior and to encourage infrastructure projects that provide jobs as well as create superlinear value?

We did: pork spending was mostly outlawed in 2011 (the F-35 dates from way before that). But as it turns out, the cure was almost as bad as the disease. Getting rid of pork has accelerated hyper-partisanship and dysfunctional gridlock, because without it there's no incentive to ever try to reach a deal with the other side instead of digging in on no-compromise radicalism to please your base.

Plus one state's useful new spending is 49 states' pork, meaning that it's always easy to label anything as being evidence of government waste and corruption. But earmarks served as a useful way for states to get federal involvement in local issues that otherwise would never see the light of day, so their loss not only reduced the ability to get major things done, but also to get even tiny things done.

Earmarks are supposedly coming back this year though.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#902

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You ever fly over a mountain? It saves a lot of time.

Developed countries tend to build tunnels for lengthy mountain routes for which there is serious demand, so there is less a case for flying cars here.

Here in Norway we have a lot of fjords with small communities all over. The roads are narrow, twisty and often at high risk of falling rocks[1].

Due to the many roads and relatively few people using a lot of these high-risk roads, maybe flying cars would be a more cost-effective option here... would possibly also reduce the need for expensive ferries[2].

[1]: https://www.nrk.no/vestland/ras-i-roldal-isolerer-ti-fastboe...

[2]: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/bjornar-skjaeran-i-arbeiderparti...

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#903
post #632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also, the fact that it was impractical is itself a metaphor -- it turns out many of the things they thought would be cool and futuristic were actually impractical when you get to the details.

Sure, but that's besides the point. It's sort of like that meme about "The World If " (example: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/394/070/7f2... ). It features over the top flying cars and infrastructure because it's trying to make a point. When one says "we could have had flying cars, but instead we got X", that's the underlying concept. Whether or not the flying car is "practical" is kind of besides…

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Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#904

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You do know the US is now the world's #1 oil producer (and food producer).

Petro-dollar is not about US dependences on oil producers. It is the other way. It is about forcing all countries to using dollars to buy oil. This allows the US to sell dollars and charge for this in various ways. On the other hand it requires the US to keep military control of oil logistics. The advatege for allied oil producers it that they can trade oil more easily. You know - transferring billions of dollars ove…

The "petrodollar" is just an urban myth verging on a conspiracy theory when talking about Iraq, the fact that oil is priced in dollars (and it isn't always) doesn't mean countries need to have dollars to buy oil, it's just a convenient and stable unit of account. You can use Euros to buy oil priced in dollars in the same way you can use Bitcoin to buy drugs priced in dollars.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#905
post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe that you're talking about the mass-murder of civilians like it's some sort of triumph, especially since you could have made the exact same point citing the trinity test. And it's so weird that you use the term "toxic environment" right after that. IMO AI progress in the last 10 years has drastically exceeded reasonable expectations. You can buy a helicopter any time you want.

I dont think the "mass-murder of civilians like it's some sort of triumph", although I can see the way I wrote it sounds like that is what I mean (and I cannot edit it because of HN). Quit assuming bad faith in my comment. Why on earth would I think that ? I meant that we discovered fission and then we built a bomb in under 6 years. Even if you disagree with the outcome of what happen in Japan, the Manhattan Project…

Ok, sorry for assuming bad faith and ranting.

Still, I think it's pretty hard to compare engineering achievements like this. Is it harder to make a fission bomb in 6 years with 1940s technology, or a COVID vaccine in 1 year with 2020s technology?

Also, I seems like we could be having this conversation in 1940 about an american battleship program.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#906
so the us needs a lightweight multi role fighter? we have that already in Europe. it's called the eurofighter typhoon.someone in the pentagon should just pick up the phone and order some. they come in opened-never used, refurbished, new, or as a diy kit, they also pretty good at what they do. if they buy enough, i'm sure eurofighter will chuck in a free bomb or 2.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#907
post #763

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tejas is terrible. There's a reason why India is trying to buy better aircraft.

No they are not. There are requirements for various configurations of planes (Single engine, Twin engine, stealth) and Tejas fills one of them. Besides they just ordered 83 from HAL. There is a Mark 2 also in the works , apart from newer twin engine designs.

Tejas is a pride project that has squandered an enormous amount of money for India. It is arguably the worst fighter in production in the world.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#909
post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Broad statements like Thiel's shouldn't be taken too literally. I don't think the main point is the broad statement about the trends themselves. The main point is the classification: Flying Cars vs 140 Characters or Bits vs Atoms. FB is worth almost $1trn. No real technical achievements or advancement. If fb didn't exist, something else would be the friendster. Tesla, Apple, MSFT, Google, etc. are closer to the flyin…

I'm no fan of FB, but to dismiss the value of a platform where you can reach 5B users is a mistake.

I'm not dismissing the value, I'm dismissing the notion that fb itself is necessary in order to have that value.

Huge communication networks is what the internet does. Social networks always proliferate online. They're not technically that hard to build. Etc. We're not going to want for any of the "goods" that fb provides. That overall space is abundant.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#910
post #907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they are not. There are requirements for various configurations of planes (Single engine, Twin engine, stealth) and Tejas fills one of them. Besides they just ordered 83 from HAL. There is a Mark 2 also in the works , apart from newer twin engine designs.

Tejas is a pride project that has squandered an enormous amount of money for India. It is arguably the worst fighter in production in the world.

Got it bro. Good luck with your F-35s.
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