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Am I allowed to think war is awful but that some of the machines built to facilitate war have their own beauty? If you can't stand fighter jets though, here is a tech demonstrator built out of some old crap nobody was using: 
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May 12, 2016 04:30
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When you think about war machines being awesome and rad and cool and beautiful, think about all the time and effort spent making them that way that could have gone somewhere else. Don't get me wrong we need a good military and all that, but really do sit down and think about whether it's healthy to think about war stuff like you're doing.
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May 12, 2016 06:53
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Exactly, because if anything history shows that military inventions never flow through to rapid, direct civilian benefit and consumer products. Al Gore invented the internet while contemplating a system to better recycle tetra-pak drink boxes and we are better off for it. Here, have this picture of a plane that has been hardened to loiter above a world utterly ruined by nuclear war and direct the last hopeless counter attack to ensure that the very last vestiges of any remaining enemies are burned to ash in the atomic fire of American revenge. 
shadow puppet of a has a new favorite as of 07:18 on May 12, 2016 |
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May 12, 2016 07:13
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It's almost as if military projects get far more funding and government backing than pure research and thus come up with greater and more noticeable innovations as a result of this imbalance of attention. "What's that, experiment with using more sustainable alternative power sources in poverty-stricken countries that could use the aid? Where will the money come from to bomb them then, smart guy? Everyone knows it's more badass to kill people than to help them, that's a scientific fact verified by DARPA. Now let's spend a few billion dollars on this nuclear jet that will never get used and will be obsolete this time next year!"
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May 12, 2016 07:38
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I'm GIS'ing for "Photo of a mellow gentleman pruning his garden hedgerow and smiling at the serenity of such a sweet idyll +badass" but nothing is coming up so you'll have to settle for more war machines as a crude stand-in for whatever new definition of badass we can agree upon.  Please disregard this ugly rant as I've found what I was looking for. 
shadow puppet of a has a new favorite as of 08:01 on May 12, 2016 |
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May 12, 2016 07:53
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shadow puppet of a posted:I know right? We should start by sharing pictures of people losing at things graciously and demanding that be the new archetype for badass in defiance of our innate instinctual responses and the warlike nature of humans that has spurred civilization and development from the very beginning. lol
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May 12, 2016 07:56
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But fighter jets are cool. And guns are cool. Bad rear end even. Like, the sort of thing you'd see in a bad rear end pictures thread.
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May 12, 2016 08:16
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Grumbletron 4000 posted:But fighter jets are cool. And guns are cool. Bad rear end even. Like, the sort of thing you'd see in a bad rear end pictures thread.  It doesn't have to be competitive either. You can use it as a chance to warn against zero-sum thinking starting from a young age.
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May 12, 2016 08:22
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KFBR392 posted:When you think about war machines being awesome and rad and cool and beautiful, think about all the time and effort spent making them that way that could have gone somewhere else. So the military is necessary but money shouldn't be spent on it nor should sleek machinery be eye-catching? Race cars look cool because the high performance required of them leads to visually pleasing designs. Fighter jets look cool because the high performance required of them leads to visually pleasing designs. Except for jet fighters and the SR-71 Blackbird (which was operated by the military but was armed only with a camera), airplanes don't need to be particularly fast or maneuverable so they tend to have more boring shapes to maximize cargo capacity and fuel economy. Now, if this was the cool stories thread I might post about the Berlin Airlift; where Soviets tried to use a blockade to keep the (other) Allies from sending food/supplies into West Berlin by rail/road so the Allies just flew constant cargo shipments to feed the West Berlin population. ...but this is the Bad rear end Pictures thread and a bunch of cargo planes being unloaded at an airport:  doesn't look as cool as a spy plane designed to outrun the missiles that shot down Gary Powers: 
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May 12, 2016 09:18
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 Look at that sexy rear end canopy. And those rocket pods are perfect for loving up a hamlet on the cheap. 
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May 12, 2016 14:00
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I live by an airport and this last weekend there was an airshow. Fighter jets are loving awesome!
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May 12, 2016 14:02
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This is precisely why I got my degree in aviation. Planes are loving cool.
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May 12, 2016 15:29
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Beastie posted:This is precisely why I got my degree in aviation. Planes are loving cool. ITT tech does aviation degrees now?
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May 12, 2016 16:03
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Beastie posted:
I think all aeroplanes and other weapons of the military-industrial complex should have like, sharks' mouths painted on them. Maybe different services could have like dinosaurs' teeth on them. Or the angles and dangles could disguise their subs as Orca whales or something.
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May 12, 2016 17:28
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Jonathan Yeah! posted:I think all aeroplanes and other weapons of the military-industrial complex should have like, sharks' mouths painted on them. Why stop there?   Edit: PIGGY FACE! 
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May 12, 2016 17:35
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http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2717/doss-desmond-t.php Here's some more military badass, but with a twist! Doss was a conscientious objector and didn't train with or use a rifle. Instead he became a medic and when things went to hell he just put himself in incredible danger to drag other, more badly injured people to safety over and over again. The event cited in the awarding of his medal is particularly crazy, he lowered ~75 wounded people down a cliff with a rope system by hand to be evacuated while the remaining wounded covered him during a counterattack in the Pacific Theater. Also later he got his legs injured by an enemy grenade, treated himself, waited 5 hours for litter bearers to reach him, then partway back saw a more badly injured person so he got off, treated that guy and told the litter bearers to come back for him after they dropped off the other guy. Really though you can pull out any citation on the MoH website and it fits this thread perfectly.
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May 12, 2016 20:26
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Cat Hatter posted:So the military is necessary but money shouldn't be spent on it nor should sleek machinery be eye-catching? F35 looks cool!!!
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May 12, 2016 22:13
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KFBR392 posted:F35 looks cool!!! Yeah, but you can clearly see why its so horrendously over-budget, since they're trying to cram a multi-role package in a Combination twin prop cargo hauler/High altitude-High Speed reconnaissance jet chassis.
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May 12, 2016 22:17
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Jonathan Yeah! posted:I think all aeroplanes and other weapons of the military-industrial complex should have like, sharks' mouths painted on them. To top it off, I think, maybe, put some sort of sirens on them, so you can hear them when they dive at you. That'll totally shock and awe those guys.
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May 12, 2016 22:20
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mmj posted:http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2717/doss-desmond-t.php This is a man I can respect. That is badass.
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May 12, 2016 23:30
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Didn't we invent rocket power from war? That's kinda handy. I found out through cracked that the blonde chick from The Walking Dead is a badass fighting against human sex trafficking.
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May 13, 2016 05:19
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wrong thread
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May 13, 2016 23:00
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Here is something that we can all agree on is badass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PwhYFdzY_Q During Market Garden the Dutch railway workers went on strike to aid the Allied operation. In retaliation the Germans stopped all food shipments by rail and flooded large parts of farmland . To make matters worse the winter of 44/45 was one of the harshest in recent history, which resulted in widespread starvation here known as the Hunger Winter. To save the 3 million starving people, the Allies came up with a plan to drop food with low flying Lancasters and B-17's called Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_Manna_and_Chowhound http://operationmanna.secondworldwar.nl/
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May 13, 2016 23:45
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Soulex posted:Didn't we invent rocket power from war? That's kinda handy. Nope, just some insane European chemists with odd numbers of fingers. War was the impetus for making it more than a curiosity. Google a book called Ignition! and join us in the PYF Dangerous Chemicals thread.
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May 14, 2016 01:30
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Memento posted:Nope, just some insane European chemists with odd numbers of fingers. War was the impetus for making it more than a curiosity. Generally, war hasn't really been responsible for "inventing" anything not directly related to warfare. All of the technologies that World War II is credited with creating (rocketry, jet planes, nuclear weapons, radar, etc.) were already in development before the war and likely would have eventually been developed to the same degree. World War II was responsible for increasing development to rapidly get useful technologies up to speed for use in the war.
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May 14, 2016 02:44
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Memento posted:Nope, just some insane European chemists with odd numbers of fingers. War was the impetus for making it more than a curiosity. Ellie Crabcakes has a new favorite as of 05:34 on May 14, 2016 |
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May 14, 2016 05:28
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An Iraqi Air Force Cessna 208 Grand Caravan launching a Hellfire missile
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May 14, 2016 06:01
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Unfunny Poster posted:http://i.imgur.com/ho6iu3X.webm
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May 16, 2016 12:43
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The seal is in the air long enough to wonder what the hell just happened.
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May 16, 2016 14:41
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JiimyPopAli posted:The seal is in the air long enough to wonder what the hell just happened. More likely it had time to think "Oh no not again".
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May 16, 2016 15:02
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I'm more interested in the thoughts of the birds steering clear of the seal.
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May 16, 2016 15:09
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Enigma posted:I'm more interested in the thoughts of the birds steering clear of the seal. "Holy poo poo a flying loving seal" would be my guess.
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May 16, 2016 15:22
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Enigma posted:I'm more interested in the thoughts of the birds steering clear of the seal. "God damnit Hank knock it off with the seals, we're flying here"
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May 16, 2016 15:30
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DandyLion posted:More likely it had time to think "Oh no not again". Uh.. Somehow I don't think it's cognizant long enough to experience that twice
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May 16, 2016 16:37
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How on earth did the whale manage to co-ordinate all that? I mean the seal was probably already dead at launch but still, you'd think the waves would make keeping the corpse still in one spot to aim at impossible.
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May 16, 2016 16:41
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Pyrotoad posted:How on earth did the whale manage to co-ordinate all that? I mean the seal was probably already dead at launch but still, you'd think the waves would make keeping the corpse still in one spot to aim at impossible. Orcas are real clever. They can co-ordinate washing seals off ice-floes with tail-waves, they can co-ordinate a 3-hour team assassination against a humpback whale pup, and they can use bits of fish to lure seagulls down to the water to eat them. They'll hunt and kill Great White Sharks, just for their liver, incapacitating them by turning them upside down. They're the apex predator of apex predators and the second biggest carnivorous sea-mammal (I think, anyway). Basically, if they developed opposable thumbs, we're hosed.
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May 16, 2016 16:48
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Jonathan Yeah! posted:Orcas are real clever. They can co-ordinate washing seals off ice-floes with tail-waves, they can co-ordinate a 3-hour team assassination against a humpback whale pup, and they can use bits of fish to lure seagulls down to the water to eat them. I can kill an orca with my bare hands, they don't impress me.
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May 16, 2016 18:53
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Pyrotoad posted:How on earth did the whale manage to co-ordinate all that? I mean the seal was probably already dead at launch but still, you'd think the waves would make keeping the corpse still in one spot to aim at impossible. It had a few missed attempts before it nailed the takeoff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7WGIH35JBE
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May 16, 2016 19:30
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Molentik posted:To save the 3 million starving people, the Allies came up with a plan to drop food with low flying Lancasters and B-17's called Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound.
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May 16, 2016 20:08
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I ain't scared of no orca. Can they do this? 
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May 16, 2016 20:20
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