It's the clueless marketing and product spec types who don't have a clue how computers work, don't have even the most superficial knowledge of how the current systems work, can't decipher what customers say they want, and write product specs which are so devoid of reality as to soak up more time straightening out than everything else combined.

Oh bullshit. Sequestration was only a puny cut in projected spending increases, not an actual cut in year to year spending, and certainly not the 20% budget cut it would have to have been for 20% of scientists to look for greener pastures.

I bet if you asked any group of employees if they were considering looking for another job, 20% would say yes regardless of any external conditions.

Sagging federal research my ass. You are just another chicken little.

There are so many laws on the books precisely because police and prosecutors want to be able to charge anybody with some crime if they feel the need, usually for disrespect of cop, but any perceived need will do.

Since everybody can be charged with a crime at almost any time, police HAVE to exercise discretion about what they charge and whether they charge.

This cop chose to be a dick, and he deserves to be recognized and treated like a dick.

If you still think he had no choice, then let me ask you why no other cop in the entire state is doing the same thing. Could it be that they chose to not be as dickish as this dick?

Slashdot itself, at least for registered users. I remember postponing registration just because.

IIRC, the Spitfire and ME-109 were 20-30 mph faster, primarily because they had such short range. They probably had armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, but I don't know. They did have better guns. As far as maneuverability, I'd guess the Zero was better at medium speeds simply from being lighter.

I've tried comparing them with Wikipedia stats and other web sites, but planes (other than the Japanese) were progressing so fast that it's hard to get data for simultaneous versions.

Your context reading still sucks if you can't even read my handle correctly. Hint: there's a UID after it.

Investments don't mean squat. Until there is verifiable proof that they have created wonder weapons that other nations haven't, then their imaginary results are just that.

I can't make it any simpler: unless they have magic technology with better engines, fuels, explosives, guidance systems, stealth technology, and everything else it would take for their cruise missiles to be do deadly, then they have nothing that other nations don't also have. They are not supermen or magicians. They are just humans with secrets.

As Khrushchev supposedly said to his son, "We have nothing to hide. We have nothing, and we must hide it."

History is full of examples of politicians and generals using scary stories of what enemies might be doing. They are almost never true. It's one thing to base your decisions on an enemy's capabilities and not intents, but it's quite another to make up stories which a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation will show require, say, rocket fuel five times more powerful than anyone else has, or guidance systems which billions of our own dollars haven't even come close to producing.

Not a single story about the deadly Chinese cruise missile passes the smell test.

A post devoid of all meaning except an attack on the messenger. You should try forming real thoughts and putting them down as real comments with useful content. People will think better of you for it.

Read the parent to which I was responding. Then contemplate analogies. You sound too quick to anger for the exercise to have any chance at enlightening you, but it will keep your fingers otherwise occupied for a few moments.

You ought to look up NRA finances sometime and educate yourself. The NRA gets its funds from members. Is that the best you can do -- stomp your feet and call 5 million of us sock puppets? Compare that to MAIG, Bloomberg's own sock puppet astroturf group of mayors, quite a few of whom have quit because they were enrolled without their knowledge or lied to as to its goals. There are also more MAIG mayors convicted of felonies than gun owners.

Gun control laws have no relation to crimes committed using guns, but if enforced would prevent the 1-2 million crimes prevented by guns every year.

The gun control spirit is fairy tales and magic wands -- write a law banning guns and presto -- guns will vanish, criminals will learn the error of their ways, and all will be peach keen. Bloomberg banning 17 oz sodas is right on par.

They are especially effective as weapons-in-being with no tests to show of. US politicians and scaremongers are almost in love with their exaggerated theoretical potential.

China isn't stupid enough to use nuclear weapons. Try some realistic scenario and get back to us.

Zeroes were excellent mid-speed dogfighter and had tremendous range, but that was the limit of its advantages. The P-40 routinely beat the Zero in China using energy tactics, and the Wildcat and Zero were dead even by actual loss count in carrier battles. The Zero was 30 mph faster than the Wildcat but fragile, and the controls locked up near its top speed, so it was no good in a dive.

Both US planes had the immeasurable advantage of bringing home rookies far more often than the Zero.

Read the two First Team books.