Mod parent up (despite the misspelling of America): Extremely accurate depiction of the whole political nightmare that is the Affordable [sic] Care Act.

"On 27 October 1962, in flight from McCoy AFB, a U-2 was shot down over Cuba by two SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles, killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2#United_States

SA-2's are SAM radio command guided missiles - not "kamikaze drones". And they were the same missiles that were used to shoot down Gary Powers from a U-2 as well. The U-2s that were shot down did not maneuver from the missiles or use any form of electronic protection against the SA-2s - unlike what our modern systems are likely doing today.

Don't get me wrong: drones could outperform humans...but you won't see that happening anytime soon (and certainly not at $1M/unit!). And if any country is likely to get that technology working first (and well enough to compete against a 5th gen fighter), it is the USA. The F-22 will likely not be a targeted system to a competent drone threat for a long time - especially with the full assistance of the US military.

I wonder how well those drones would perform if comms were jammed during that encounter? And what type of $1M drone is going to be able to fly and turn fast enough to even get close to a F-22?

You have the right idea for some applications - but for air superiority the F-22 is as good as it gets in the modern era.

I have been a homebrewer for 4+ years - and I have brewed with commercial brewers. I have taken commercially-produced wort (pre-beer) home and fermented it at home. I have gotten the "commercial" recipes for beers and replicated them on my homebrew equipment. All this I have done - and I can guarantee you that you will never replicate a beer. You could get close...but to say that "open source" beer gives you the same beer they produce is just not true. If you are going to make beer - there are tons of reasonable free places to get good recipes meant for homebrewers. "Pope" Jamil Zainasheff is a great resource to start with for simple, proven recipes.

The reason why you can't just replicate a beer is simple: *everything* matters. Variables that aren't related to a "recipe" include (from memory): water chemistry, mash temperature, mash duration, sparge temperature, sparge method, sparge rate, boiling rate, hopping method, cooling method, yeast pitching rate, fermentation temperature, fermentation length, fermentation vessel, filtering method, bottling/kegging conditioning method. Some of these are equipment dependent - but some are also *their* equipment dependent - and how they use their equipment as well!

The fact that Budweiser can come across as Budweiser from all of its production plants year after year is nothing short of a *very* involved and active brew-master. Despite its poor reputation in the beer community - they really are good at their job...of producing a yellow-ish, slightly malty, slightly hoppy, corn-flavored beer.

The NES debuted at a price of 199.99 back in 1986 (or 249.99 if you got the ROB). Using this as a basis and the Commercial Price Index between now and then: people were spending 364.58 (455.73) in today's dollars for the NES. Given how much I and my friends have played my NES in my lifetime, I'd say that it was money well spent.

Sony's decision to launch this multi-functional techology for 500 or 600 dollars is comparable to what people were gambling back in 1986. And the NES was only a gaming center. The PS3 will be your DVD player (among the first Blu-ray players) as well as a lot more. The price may be high for some, but they will get buyers who will not feel cheated at that cost because it is NOT unreasonable to pay 600 for the brains of your entire entertainment center (although most of us out there already have the majority of our entertainment centers made - minus the Blu-ray).

Would I like the price to be less like the Wii? Yes. Am I going to wait for the price to lower to more traditional prices (200-400)? It depends on if the PS3 can deliver enough games and utility to me to make it worth that money. I know, however, that many of my friends will be spending one morning in mid-November hanging outside of a Walmart or BestBuy waiting to get their hands on some of the first copies of the PS3. Sony knows what they are doing with that price, and I honestly can't wait to see what innovations they bring about. This goes the same for the Wii as well. Gameplay nowadays isn't based on the best graphics for me as much as the most entertaining concepts. Recently, not much has been able to compare with the wonders of the NES and Dr. Mario, Super Mario Bros, or Contra. Bring it on!