Lotta work needed on F35

The F35 is a flying computer.  Software does everything.  And the software is far from ready.  Plus some other problems.  The Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation set forth the "challenges"  (bureaucrat speak for bugs or problems) still to be overcome.  
   First off is the 25mm Gatling cannon won't fire. This used to be a pure software problem and cannon firing software was promised sometime in the future.  Which is a minor scandal.  A gun ought to fire every time the trigger is pulled.  All the software can do is correct the aim, but pilots can get plenty of hits without fancy software driven lead computing gunsights.  But somehow they decided to route the trigger signal thru the computers rather then straight to the gun.  Good design that.  Now they discover that a little door that opens when the gun fires creates enough drag to throw the aim off.  On the old F105, which I worked on for a year in combat, the muzzle of the 20mm Vulcan cannon stuck right out in the airstream, fired every time the trigger was pressed, and no silly little doors to get in the way.  KISS (keep it simple stupid).
   Second the project is running into difficulties getting the system to fire the AIM9L Sidewinder air to air missile and drop the laser guided Small Diameter Bomb.  Sidewinder, an infrared heat seeker,  has been around since the 1950's, and is still very effective, and cheap.  SDB is newer, but it's been around for a while, it's a 250 pound smart bomb that you can put in a guy's bedroom window without leveling the entire apartment building.  Neither require much electronic assistance by the launching aircraft.  Did the F35 people bother to read the Technical Orders on either weapon? 
   Then there is the computer crash problem.  In July the system crashed hard (blue screen of death hard) every five hours on average.  With the last software update, that was improved to 9 hours between crashes.  My Windows XP system does better than that.  Here we are at Top Gun, closing on the enemy, when the system crashes. Instead of pulling some G's and nailing the enemy, we are pushing reset buttons trying to bring the computer back up. 
   And lastly the $400,000 a copy night vision helmet still doesn't work. 
   There is a bunch of other gripes about non essential systems, sensor fusion, date link, and some other stuff that doesn't belong on a fighter plane. 
   The test and evaluation people don't think the F35 program office has the funds to fix all this stuff. 

Real Jobs

I was listening to NPR on the way home yesterday.  They were doing a nice long piece on a dozen Maryland high school students who graduated high school back in 2012, and have mostly graduated college and found jobs.  There was a teacher, an HR worker, an actor, couple of grad students, and I forget the rest. 
   None of them had taken a real job in industry, you know where they produce wealth.  I'm glad to know that beaten up as the American economy is, it is still productive enough to carry all those fresh young faces doing nothing very important. 

Immigration (to the US)

We need it.  To maintain the population, each woman in the US needs to bear 2.1 children during her lifetime.  We aren't making that right now, it's like 1.9 or 2.0.  And it would not be that high without immigrant women who bear more children than the native born do. 
   We need immigrants who are loyal to the United States.  Not loyal to ISIS or Islam, of communism, or the old country, but loyal to the United States.  Other the years we have done well in this respect,  I have a number of immigrant friends who are intensely loyal to this country. 
   After loyalty, we need people who will become gainfully employed, stay out of trouble with the law, raise decent children, pay taxes, and contribute to the community.  People like this strengthen the country, make the economy grow, and are good to have around. 
   We have 11 million immigrants in the country who haven't done the right paperwork to be here.  Far as I am concerned,  if they have been doing the right thing, (employed, clean criminal record, married, children) I say let em stay.  Deporting them all would be brutal, and the TV coverage would look like the SS shipping Jews to Auschwitz.  Let's not do that.  
   And, if we are gonna let them stay in the country, we need to grant them citizenship.  All men are created equal is the core principle of the United States.  That means everyone gets to vote.  It's a violation of our principles to have two classes of people, real citizens and green carders. 
   I know, it lets the people who are here already get to the head of the line.  Too bad.  They showed courage in coming here, and have demonstrated that they are good citizens, why not let them go ahead?  Plus the "line" is pretty much closed, it can take 20 years wait for a green card. 
   The newsies are having a lot of fun zapping the Donald on immigration issues.  But immigration isn't all that important to the voters this year, not compared to the economy, jobs, Islamic terrorism and even Zika.  The newsies like the issue cause it is simple enough for even their limited understanding, unlike say  the economy which is complicated.

The Donald does the right thing

He accepted the invitation from an important neighbor country.  He flew down to Mexico.  He had a talk with the Mexican president.  I dare say the Mexicans have a few things they want from us, and The Donald has a few things he wants from Mexico.  Since The Donald isn't president (yet) he is in no position to grant the Mexicans anything,  and the Mexicans certainly cannot make any concessions to a man who may never be president.  So they had a meeting. They issued bland but friendly communiques afterward.  And that is exactly what they should have done.  Even if they didn't achieve anything of real substance, just issuing a friendly press release and a friendly communique is a good thing.  Don't knock it. 
   Hillary was on TV knocking it shortly afterward.  

Asteroid Mission to Launch next week

A US built asteroid inspection vehicle named OSIRIS-REX is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a Unitied Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.  OSIRIS-REX will attempt a sample return to Earth.  It has a robot arm to scoop up surface material into a return vehicle.  It also carries every other imaginable scientific instrument, a laser altimeter, and IR thermometer, and IR spectrometer, three cameras, and Xray imaging and spectrometer gear.   It's a long duration mission, lasting until 2023. 
   The samples returned will be analyzed for spores and any kind of biological precursor chemicals.  There is an old old theory (Arrhenius) that life on earth originated from spores coming from outer space.  Scientists will be looking, intensely, for such spores in the returned samples.   

Peeling the Apple with a dull knife

Apple set up an operation in Ireland.  Probably because Ireland's corporate tax is only 12%.  All of a sudden the EU, in Brussels, says that Apple ought to be paying $14 billion more in taxes.  Both Apple and Ireland are appealing.
   Couple of things I don't understand here.  I thought the internal affairs of EU countries. especially tax law, was under the control of those EU countries, not under the control of Brussels.  Nor did I think that Brussels has the authority to levy EU wide taxes.  If this is the case, how does the EU get to demand an extra $14 billion from an American company operating in Ireland? 
   Then there was a chucklehead sounding off on Fox News.  He said that Apple should never set up operations in Ireland, Apple should do all it's business back here in the USA, to avoid exporting American jobs.  Sorry there my chucklehead, Apple management is required by law to maximize Apple's earnings for its shareholders.  Anyone can see that doing business in Ireland with a 12% tax creates more earnings than dong business in the US with a 35% tax. Apple was doing its duty in maximizing its earnings.  Maybe the US should think about lowering its tax rate to keep business in the country. 

It's a free country

That football player doesn't have to stand for the national anthem.  Freedom of speech and all that. 
   On the other hand, I don't have to like it.  It's disrespect for the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands.  I plan to avoid watching his team play, and I'll call him a scumbag.  My free speech rights.