Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- VDH on Trump's Inaugural Address.

- From the archives: Mystic chords of memory - learning from the American story. I'm glad I revisited this.

- Austin Vernon: Imagining the drone Air Force. I keep thinking of the damage a drone A-10 Warthog could bring. Long but worthwhile article.

- A proposed $500 billion AI investment by all the big tech names in the field.

The B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber

This is the B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber. Northrup Grumman and the US Air Force recently "unveiled" the new B-21. Here's my key take-aways from the article.

• The main role of the B-21 will be to provide strike capabilities that can penetrate through enemy air defenses at range
• Noticeably smaller than the B-2 which would make sense for stealth and range purposes
• The aircraft is intended for both day and night based missions
• The Raider is touted as being a "'multi-functional' aircraft with significant intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and battle management capabilities"
• The first flight of the B-21 is not expected until sometime next year
• The current estimated cost for each B-21 "should be no more than $692 million in Fiscal Year 2022 dollars"
• The Air Force would like 145 total B-21's

 My one fear about the new stealth bomber is not about how undetectable it can be against ground radar but how detectable it might be from space.

US Air Force and the Sky Penis

 

Above is the latest "Sky Penis" drawn by US Air Force pilots. It's not the first sky penis and the 12-year old in me hopes not the last. For those offended by these - how do you know it doesn't self-identify as a "sky vagina?"

B-21 Raider Will Be Rolled Out In Early December

Very cool. The sixth-generation stealth bomber - the B-21 will be rolled out in early December.  

The key words there being "rolled out" since the images of the B-21 have already been made public (the above image was via a simple Google image search) and the B-21 is not scheduled to have its actual first flight until some time next year.

There are only six B-21's in production and the actual pricetag for the bomber is unknown but still - very cool.

HT Instapundit

Air Force Has to Reverse Engineer Stealth Bomber

First the Navy forgets how to pilot its ships and now the Air Force has forgotten how their B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers are made.

Thanks a lot Joe Biden!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Matt Taibbi: A brief list of official Russia claims that proved to be bogus.

- Is the F-36 Kingsnake the next Air Force fighter?

- Tesla hacker pleads guilty

- Morgan Housel: Too Much, Too Soon, Too Fast 

Linky Links

 Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- China to launch space mining bot. Which led me to wonder - which enterprising nation will launch the first space piracy bot? Honestly - that how my brain thinks.

- New stealth fighter 6th gen prototype flies in record time, invisible and deadly

- Not as sexy or newsworthy as stability in the Middle East but the Trump Administration is also making strides to bring stability and prosperity to South and Central America.

- The Russia Bounties story turns out to be trash journalism. Why the White House and Pentagon haven't revoke the New York Times press credentials over this is beyond me.

- Van the Man! Van Morrison rails against the lockdowns in new songs.

- The new Tesla battery that will give even more scale to the EV market?

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- US Air Force's X-37B Space Plane lands after record 780-day mystery mission. It's like watching the US Space Force being born in real-time.

- Sometimes I have the humor of a 12-year old boy.

- How to get infected with malware. (HT Stephen Landry)

- NYC secretly exports homeless to Hawaii and other states without telling receiving pols. This program is disturbing enough but equally disturbing is the number of "public servants" in the article who won't or can't account for how the public funds are being spent. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

- Very Cool - Van Gogh's Starry Night reproduced using Hubble Telescope images.

- Baghdadi story reveals divided - and broken - news media.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The US Air Force's radical plan for a future fighter could field a jet in just 5-years. I like this boldness and innovation.

- How to build good habits. The quality of your habits do determine the quality of your life.

- Interesting - IBM's new 53-qubit quantum "mainframe" is live in the cloud.

- This was cool - "Live Coding". I think this is what (not too distant) future resumes will look like.

- Calvin "Megatron" Johnson doesn't regret a thing. Interesting interview/profile.

- A chemical plant explodes in China. More questions than answers.

- Things are getting a whole lot better. We live in an age of abundance. Your life and your mindset get so much better if you just acknowledge this simple fact.