NASA Tests Hypersonic Blackswift 487
dijkstra writes "Blackswift was previously rumored to be a super secret hypersonic scramjet-based aircraft co-named HTV-3X, essentially a 21st century version of the SR-71. Today NASA has unveiled the real Blackswift (video link), which uses pulse detonation engines (PDEs). A PDE is essentially a modern version of the old V-1 buzz bomb engine. This engine requires significantly fewer moving parts and achieves much higher efficiency than a turbofan, and is technically able to go hypersonic without any kind of 'dual-stage' engine."
Slick reporting (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
Please warn us when linking to Fox News. Jesus those people are dumb.
It's not that THEY'RE dumb (which they are so very dumb) but rather they feel the need to dumb down everything for their audience.
I want to punch that Fox man in the face. And I feel so bad for Ken Christiansen (sp?). It seemed apparent he was not prepared to deal with such a moron.
All this new high technology... (Score:0, Insightful)
...and we still can't find a certain Muslim hiding in a cave, or defeat his low-tech followers. We spend millions just to kill one terrorist, while they achieve their missions with a handful of dollars. And every convert to their side is in essence another kill to us.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
http://news.google.com/news?q=blackswift [google.com]
I'm somewhat confused as to what has been "unveiled".
Everything I've read so far says that this plane is still in the "sketches and mock-ups" [wired.com] stage.
Though I guess someone found the time to do a slick render.
Maybe the PR push is an attempt to keep Congress from cutting their funding.
Re:Fox news giving away state secrets? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
The alarming thing is not that Fox News readers do not reflect upon the standard of intelligence at Fox News Studios, rather, it reflects upon the intelligence of the American Public in general. After all, this is a free market, and Fox News is only delivering the quality that people are demanding in that free market.
*That* is what frightens me.
gaaaaaaaaaahhh (Score:3, Insightful)
"This engine requires significantly less moving parts"
Fewer is for quantities you can count. Less is for quantities you can't count. So unless you're implying that NASA scientists took a V1 Buzz Bomb engine (whatever that is) and poured out a heterogeneous liquid stream of moving parts until only puddles remained inside, it's FEWER moving parts!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I feel dirty (Score:4, Insightful)
So no Americans choose to watch Fox?
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact is that liberals have control of the networks - I saw poll that showed essentially all journalists at CNN, ABC, CBS etc vote for the Democrats.
You might want to rethink that assertion. The journalists certainly do not control the networks.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:2, Insightful)
1) They knew that it was an intentional troll
2) They were sure no-one (outside of a mental institution) was watching it and actually taking it seriously.
The problem with such trolling on such an epic scale is that America is a democracy (and has a democratic mindset) - so that people who believe trolls actually affect us at the polls, and in every other facet of public life that's based on democratic principles (from flooding various companies with angry calls, to NOT getting outraged when someone in a position of power abuses it - whatever that may be). This also applies to the "liberal media", but for whatever reason, Fox News seems to be by far the worst offender of fabricating bias, inappropriately inserting emotives, and misquoting science/facts to suit their own bias (maybe because there are more science factions/studies biased to liberal viewpoints, maybe because reality itself is liberal, who knows?).
Apart from anything, if people did believe even only half of what they saw, it's terrifying to think how much power the newsmedia holds. It's amazing to think that it's potentially several orders of magnitude more destructive than even the most dangerous illegal weapon someone could obtain - sure a bomb may kill a buildings' worth of people, but can it change an election?
Re:I feel dirty (Score:3, Insightful)
Lets see you take that bomb into the market square now!
Re:American news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly yes. The last 8 years make a bit more sense now, don't they?
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, no it was that around 90% of journalists that make campaign contributions contribute to the Democrats. But the number of journalists making campaign contributions was around 10%. So you can only say for certain that <10% of those journalists support Democrats. The party orientation of those who donate doesn't necessarily match those who don't. I could conceive of a scenario where those who don't donate are greedy and figure they're sufficiently supporting the Republican party through biased news worth far in excess of the monetary contribution of their Democratic-donating counterparts. Not saying that's the case, just that the data that's available could be consistent with either scenario.
Now, most contemporary journalists are also pretty scientifically illiterate, which make them an easy target of ridicule in the technical community. And their understanding of economics and far too much else is often not much better. However, that Fox talking head in the linked video seems like a particularly egregious example. Fox News appears bad to anybody who isn't blind since they seem to insist on giving equal or more time to the emperor and his tailors than to the small child and his observations.
Nevertheless, you might also want to consider that many journalists get to see and hear about the raw information before it gets massaged by editorial boards that are selected by corporatist management. So when it comes to coming to conclusions that only require facts and common sense, not technical knowledge, like the general state of the country and how various political parties influence it, they're likely to be better informed than you.
Re:Slick reporting (Score:5, Insightful)
WOW, did you SEE that thing lift off the RUNWAY??!? It was GANE!!OMGZERSone11one
Surely the correct response would have been 'no, that was an artist's impression.'
The news anchor may be employed to use baby-talk, but there's no excuse for a supposedly informed correspondent to go along with the idiocy. The pride in ignorance is obviously annoying him, why doesn't he challenge it?
Equally when asked to explain in 'English, not science-talk,' perhaps he should have said 'Yes, perfectly possible. Let me explain' and delved into some of the simpler theory of reciprocating engines, turbojets, high and low bypass fans and scramjets. When challenged he could then say, "what with words less than 3rd grade level? Ah, no sorry, not possible.'
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
That reporter definitely didn't seem like he was acting. He's either a genius, or an idiot. I'm guessing the latter.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they just get hired by the people that do control the networks. Those people will hire people who are likely to promote the same viewpoint.
It's Murdoch (Score:5, Insightful)
Everything that Rupert Murdoch does is avowedly anti-intellectual. Over there it's FOX News and the New York Post; over here it's the Sun, the News of the World, and the current Labour government.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:4, Insightful)
the really interesting bit is that *NEITHER* the democrats or the republicans are very far from what the rest of the world would consider 'ultra right wing' or 'conservative'. The fact that even here on ./ people with an probably above average intelligence have swallowed that left/right bullshit hook line and sinker.
In any other country there would be a real left wing and something close to your democrats or republicans as right wing or ultra right wing.
Re:Slick reporting (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I feel dirty (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Slick reporting (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Slick reporting (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't call it news anymore, I call it Story Time.
They just want to tell a story the most extravagant way possible to gleen ratings, there is no thought anymore to actually reporting the facts. If they can get more viewers by slanting the facts or add/leaving some facts out they will do it in a heartbeat.
When I want to know what is REALLY happening in the world I watch non-US news, that way I can get a different view point.
Uncanny valley (Score:4, Insightful)
It isn't just that they act dumb. It might be just me, but those Fox newsreaders give me the creeps. It's their eyes. Their body language and facial expression are so animated, but their eyes are so lifeless.
I may be politically biased against the network, but there is something in the flawless but soulless choreography of Fox news that stinks of evil. The effect reminds me of C.S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength, in which a government think tank called NICE manipulates its members using their ambitions and insecurities. As their ambition drives them toward the coveted membership in the inner circle, their fear drives them further into themselves. By the time they make it into the inner circle, there's nothing outwardly left of their humanity to enjoy it. They can pass superficial inspection, but the closer you look, the more obviously robotic they are.
What makes That Hideous Strength such an effective story of the supernatural is that the mechanisms of damnation are so psychologically plausible. Anybody with sufficient money could actually put the NICE methods for turning people into passive tools to the test.
I don't know about the people on the screen, but Fox definitely plays this game with its viewers. It appeals to greed and fear.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:4, Insightful)
Those people will hire people who are likely to promote the same viewpoint.
They hire people who make them money. They are big business corporations, after all.
I would believe that if the "liberal" run networks had more viewers. But that's not the case. In cable news, Fox gets more viewers than all the other cable news networks combined. So, if their job were to get more viewers (and thus more money), then they would have followed Fox's example years ago.
Re:Slick reporting (Score:3, Insightful)
It's amazing how many people think Dan Brown is a good writer. Every single one of his books is formulaic and every one that I've read is complete crap with respect to the reality of how things get accomplished.
They're light entertainment, but they're not good books worth reading more than once, if they're worth reading at all.
Re:sekrit planes! (Score:3, Insightful)
"I have no proof one way or the other, I just think it would be surprising for the government to retire something as valuable as the Blackbird without having an even better replacement in the works. Then again, using logic to explain government decisions is often a losing proposition."
The unofficial/official line was that the government DID have something better - satellites with resolution much better than previously available.
That being said, I'm with you and think Aurora is real - hell, the SR-71 "didn't exist" for a long time.
Re:Slick reporting (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great Faux News moment @ 2'50" (Score:2, Insightful)
I chose this moment to stop listening to that report. I am always amazed at the simpletons on that channel, although since 2000 we have been in the dumb down the public era.
That doesn't matter in the US (Score:3, Insightful)
As a conservative voter, it doesn't really matter to me that the rest of the world views both parties as conservative. It is a question of movement, do I want a government that will move toward more social spending and a larger public sector? No. I want a government what will move away from social spending and toward free markets and deregulation.
All your statement proves is that the rest of the world has even farther to go before they would be a place I'd ideally like to live.
Re:Slick reporting (Score:3, Insightful)
"I don't think it's reaction times that matter so much as perhaps just brazen balls out fearlessness. Fast reaction times are useful when you overstep the limit or someone ahead blows a tyre out or something like that, but most of the time I don't think it's the defining factor in what makes a good race-driver. For most types of racing I'm of the opinion that anyone could do it with a bit of tuition and cash."
Perhaps - but "overstepping the limits" or "someone ahead blows a tire out" happens ALL THE TIME in racing; while anyone may be able to turn competitive times on a racecourse, that's different than an actual race. Joe Blow may last one or 2 races, but without getting his reaction times up to speed he will either lose miserably or crash - either way his racing career is likely to be quite short.
It's like saying because Ray Charles could be a perfectly good driver, because he drove a Mercedes out in the middle of the Mojave; sure, he operated the controls competently, but lets not call him a "driver".
Likewise, comparing lap times for professional racers in a "reasonably priced car" to the average guy is ridiculous; drop them both in an F1 car and see what happens - I mean, the only difference is that one is faster than the other, right?
Let's make it even simpler - American style drag racing. Simplest automotive sport in the world - go 1/4 mile as fast as possible. No turns; pure acceleration. Now, lets put Tony Schumacher in a Honda Accord next to me in my identical car and race. We will probably get to the finish line within .400 seconds of each other - .400 being the difference between when he reacts to the starting light and when I do. We will both finish in about 15 seconds with a top speed around 90 miles per hour. AWESOME - that means I'm competitive with a 5 time National Champion - racing just can't be that hard.
Now, put us in his car - a top fuel dragster. A competitive car will travel the 1/4 mile in under 5 seconds, and finish at well over 320 miles per hour. Are you really going to say that I will still be competitive in that car? Assuming I actually survive the trip?
That's the problem with egalitarianism - some people really ARE better than others.
Re:I feel dirty (Score:3, Insightful)
George Carlin said "think of how dumb the average person is. Now remember that half of all people are dumber than that."
Bill Gates, George Carlin, and four homeless people walk into a bar. Bill Gates announces that the average net worth of the people in the room is $9 billion. George Carlin starts asking the homeless people for money, since he thinks that at least two of them must be worth more than that amount.