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Merry Christmas ladies.

Holy crap HiFlyer. Tell me you're writing this down somewhere, or at least just rolling around to different squadrons telling stories for beers.

I'm sorry Lloyd, but you obviously can't see or understand it because of your white privilege. /sarcasm

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. - Mark Twain

https://thechive.com/2014/12/21/people-are-getting-creative-with-elf-on-the-shelf-30-photos/ .

Couldn't resist...

https://gizmodo.com/hey-good-north-korea-internet-joke-everybody-1674246266 "North Korea suffers widespread internet outage....they must have Comcast"

Wrong characters are on the nose. In all seriousness that is amazing chalk-art.

Yeah, that's the impact of atmospheric diffusion of light and sometimes of being close to the horizon. It was NOT a flop at 70k...it was the biggest and brightest I ever saw. I've seen a number of comets, many of which were not even visible on the surface, and they are sometimes pretty spectacular. Also, being very high allows you to see "sprites"...lightning-llike discharges going up into the atmosphere from the top of megacells. They are a bit rare but also neat to watch. For some reason they seem to be more common in NE Asia and off the Russian north pacific coast, or that's where I saw them more frequently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFOhBAH3zPA This is what happens when you go full retard.

In my case (over 20 years in the U-2), I never paid much attention to looking up. Most of the flying was in the daytime, and looking up for much of a 10 hour flight is boring. Additionally, in a pressure suit, the helmet hurts the neck. I did see a few, but they were just moving lights. Now comets, that was different. Because most (95%) of the obscuring atmosphere is below you, that point of light with a very small and indistinct blur for a tail that you see from the ground is a very bright center with an enormously long and distinct tail. The most impressive was Kahotek (sp?) back in the mid-70s. That one was incredible...it covered half the sky!!

In other news the first Bonanaza crashed without a doctor on board.

Don't tell that to CapSoftSandy. Heard he was about to drop the AFTTP 3-3.C-172.

I just got the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. No fees on international purchases, 2% back on travel (airline tickets, hotels) and all restaurants. 1% on everything else. I also got 5,000 bonus points just for getting my wife a card and then 40,000 bonus points for spending $3,000 in the first 90 days. I then transferred those miles directly to United Airlines and got my mother-in-law an almost free ticket to Germany. In three months this card has already made me about $1,000 in free money. Did I mention I have exactly $0 in debt and I haven't paid a dime in credit card interest in over 10 years? If you have any self-restraint at all, don't listen to Dave Ramsey when it comes to credit cards.

Based on when they will probably cancel the U-2, most of the younger pilots will go to the new U-4 transonic high altitude recon platform. A handful may be initial cadre in the SR-76. Some of the older pilots will go to AETC to fly the T-52 trainer (an Alenia M-346). A few will get to fly the new T-6 replacement.

That fvcking ELF! Here's his before and after pics at my house. He's been to one too many 1st Fridays....

I am curious what the sentiment is here on BO about what's going on in this country IRT race and policing. The vast majority of what I see from our Government, the media, celebrities, civil rights leaders and academic leaders can be summed up as misleading at best. I can't think of a bigger issue that has been more divisive and more dangerous to our country than this. Discussions about racial issues have deteriorated so much, that you can't mention certain facts or ask certain questions without being labeled a racist. That is very intentional and is meant to quiet the other side of the argument. Label me as you wish, but I think there are some questions that need answered. Almost 7000 black people are murdered in this country every year. Most of them are murdered by other blacks. Where are the protests when these people are murdered? The slogan "black lives matter" is absolutely true. So, where is the outrage when 20 blacks are killed by other blacks in Chicago in one weekend? Racism exists in this country. Why are white people in this country the only ones that are racist? It is ok for minorities to run around and call whites whatever they want with no charge of racism from anyone. Why is that? Look at the Michael Brown case. I'm white. If I went outside and robbed a store, attacked a police officer in his car and tried to take his service weapon, I would be shot and killed. Why are people's criminal behaviors ignored in these situations? How does rioting, burning down communities, threatening police officers, assassinating 2 police officers (who were minorities) further race relations in this country? It doesn't. It deepens the racial divide and actually makes people racist. Police aren't targeting unarmed, young black men and looking to murder them. Police put their lives on the line every day in all of the worst places this country has to offer. Yet, they are being painted as nothing more than racist murderers. This is all orchestrated. It has to be. My question is why? And who gains by propagating this massive lie? This is a great article and is worth the read. https://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1222hm.html

Thought: I wonder if it would be possible to mount the GAU-22 gun pod on the A model F-35. It would increase weight/drag/RCS and such but it would definitely make for a more effective ground attack configuration. Double the ammo and rate of fire, and two separate guns for maintenance redundancy in case one fails in the middle of a TIC. Any commander who has the balls to sign off on that one would have my vote to be the next 5-Star General of the Air Force! Oh well I'm just dreaming. Better just plan on dropping JDAMs from 35,000 feet with altitude hold on...