Big cities governed by politicians who are unwilling to enforce laws lead to societal breakdown. This is another indication of such a breakdown. A similar thing happened in 1970s New York. People living in close proximity to each other require a more strict adherence to agreed societal norms backed by law enforcement. See also.
And this is how you go about these things.
The military seems to be taking a more sensible approach to UFO reports in an attempt to understand what are in most cases likely to be natural phenomenon. I don’t think this program will be revealing flying saucers any time soon, but it may bring a better understanding to what pilots are seeing but not understanding.
Interesting article on the integration of UAVs as wingmen/force multipliers for our manned fighter aircraft. I have little doubt that this is the wave of the future in air warfare. My question is how quickly it can be accomplished, and can any other countries develop such technology fairly quickly.
That is the question addressed in this article. The author’s conclusion is an emphatic no.
For such an obsolete aircraft, the Potez 25 hung around quite a while. Long enough to be used in wars in South America in the 30s, in Spain and even in some corners of WWII. Now it looks like we will soon have a kit of it. Sprue shots.
Russia, having previously announced that it was only going to buy 16 Su-57s (after India pulled out of a development deal), has now decided it will buy 76 of the fighters. Given the reported problems with the aircraft, either they have been solved, or, more likely IMHO, this is more of Russia trying to saber-rattle and impress its neighbors.
It may be related to this, where Poland has announced plans to buy F-35s.
I have an interest in ships of the civil war. The Stonewall was one of the more interesting looking in my opinion. Some of the details on the interesting story of the ship are here.
This is why I don’t get more modeling done. Last night, exhausted after work, kids care, etc. I should have modeled. Instead I turned on the TV and on TCM found Cool Hand Luke running. It was a third of the way in, but it is a compelling film and I sat and watched it, though I had seen it many times before. After it ended, it turns out that it is Paul Newman month on TCM.
The next film they were showing was this one, Harper. It was shot in 1966, but was based on a late 1940s noir novel called The Moving Target. It is a typical PI story, with a down and out PI getting hired for a case with a bunch of twists and turns. I won’t spoil the plot, because it is worth watching. It isn’t the best film ever, or the best Newman film, but it is good. There are a number of good performances, starting with Newman. Also, since it is set in LA/Southern California in the mid-60s, you get some great shots that make you realize how wonderful California was in the 60s, before the sprawl, the crime, the corruption, etc. If you had to pick a time and place in the past to live, a top contender would be LA from 1940 to 1965.
Like many films in the 60s, this one has an ambiguous ending. I suspect you could get 5 people to watch it, and no two would agree on what the ending meant. It is a good film, well worth watching. A solid 3 out of 5 stars.
Does Turkey want out of NATO? It seems that way from this type of behavior. Frankly, though it has a strategic location useful to the US for Mideast operations, I am not sure they are worth the trouble. Not sure the Russians are thinking this one through either, as adding another majority Islamic nation to their orbit might not be wise given their internal troubles in the south of Russia.
