USAF Eyes Pilot less Planes For Future Dogfights

The U. S. Air Force fighter pilot might be going the way of the dinosaur in the near future due to the technological advancements that keep coming along. It has been obvious for a long time now that technology can in fact fly a jet fighter in a superior way to a human and do it without the hindrances and drawbacks that humans bring to any endeavour they embark upon. Probably the biggest and most limiting drawback has been that fighter pilots are not capable of tolerating the massive G - forces (Gravity forces) that are experienced while flying high performance fighter planes and this causes them to lose control of an aircraft and often leads to crashes. Human fighter pilots can usually tolerate about 5 G' s or so depending on the individual provided that they are wearing a G- Suit which is an outfit that is worn over their uniform that is designed to keep them from passing out and losing control of an aircraft in mid flight due to excessive exposure to G - forces. Sometimes G-forces during flight can exceed 9 G's. Without human pilots the jet fighters will be able to fly much faster and maneuver much more sharply in potential future dog fights with any enemy. The Pentagon is therefore looking to get the pilots out of the picture totally and replace them with computers that will not be susceptible to this issue. They are called U.A.V.'s (Unmanned Areal Vehicles) and they are the future of the Air Force. By using technologies like Satellite links and G.P.S. (Global Positioning Systems) unmanned aircraft will be able to fly anywhere in the world without the involvement of humans in the process. They will also be able to identify enemy targets and launch attacks without any people being directly involved as well. It may become total Robo-warfare. Probably the best known of these systems already exists and is in service. It is called Global Hawk. It is a pilot less aircraft, It does not even have windows on the front of the plane, it has a wingspan of about 120 feet, and flies totally on its own. Once all the data is entered into its on board computer systems it is sent off on its way to complete a mission it has been assigned. It is currently serving in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The airline industry in the civilian sector has had this technology available to it for a while now. It is in fact capable of replacing airline pilots with this kind of system. Planes can now be flown without pilots by using their auto pilot features. They could fire all of their human pilots and replace them with this technology. They have not done so because the general public has expressed a fear and a discomfort with the idea of flying in pilot less planes. The ability however is there to do it and safely too.

Most Stressful Cities In The U.S.A.

Everyone knows that modern life involves exposure to tons and tons of stress every day and from every direction it seems. Depending on where you live you may be suffering through more of it than you need to. A list has just appeared of the 10 most stressful cities in the United States to live in. The list was compiled by Forbes magazine and it considered such things as unemployment rates, loss of property values, population density, air quality, and even the price of gas. Here they are from one to ten:

1. Chicago

2. New York

3. Detroit

4. Los Angeles

5. San Francisco

6. San Diego

7. Cleveland

8. Salt Lake City

9. Providence, R.I.

10. Philadelphia

Sudan Woman On Trial For Wearing Pants

If you think the U.S. is getting more and more uptight and individual liberties are under attack more than ever you should get a load of what goes on in places like The Sudan In Africa. A 27 year old woman was arrested last July and charged with public indecency for wearing pants in a club. Her name is Ludna Hussein and when she was arrested she was charged with violating article 152 of the Sudanese criminal code of 1991 which says that no woman is allowed to wear "...clothing causing harassment to public sentiment..." for which the maximum penalty is 40 lashes and the loss of her reputation. The Sudan is a predominantly Muslim country and it is possible there for any man to simply accuse any woman in public of violating public decency standards by doing something like just wearing pants, or having her wrists exposed or her head exposed. Women wearing pants is very frowned upon there evidently and is punishable by law. During her trial her lawyers were not allowed to present any evidence or fight the case and the judge favored with the police in the matter and convicted her. He had the decency however to spare her from the 40 lashes at least. Hussein has filed an appeal in the case. As a reaction to the trial there has begun the first signs of something of a women's movement in Sudan to get this law overturned and declared unconstitutional.

Beatles Set To Become Biggest Selling Band Of Last Ten Years

Well we all knew that The Beatles were huge but who ever expected that they would still be the biggest selling band around even 40 years after they broke up. They are set up to do just that. Since the year 2000 only one act (Eminem) has sold more music than the Fab Four and most music industry people predict that by this Christmas they will over take him. As of early September Eminem has sold about 32 million CD's since the turn of the century and the Beatles are close behind at about 28.2 million. On September 9th the Beatles record label EMI released brand new remastered versions of 14 of the bands best albums which is expected to increase sales and spark new interest in the band. On top of that you had on the same day the release of the "Beatles: Rock Band" interactive video game. With the game you can pick your favorite instrument and rock on with the Fabs to 45 of their best songs spanning the length of their entire career. Most music experts figure that by the end of the year they will be the biggest selling band of the last ten years. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"Tonight Show" Ratings Falling Post Leno

There was a time when "The Tonight Show" and its ratings were number one in late night but not so much anymore. Since Conan O'Brien took over the late night hosting gig on the show at the end of May it has lost almost 2 million viewers. This of course is great news for David letterman who has been out stripping "The Tonight Show" in the ratings for a while now. As of the week ending on September 4th "Late Night" has garnered a larger audience for the 9th week in a row. It averaged 3.42 million viewers that week compared to the 2.89 That "The Tonight Show" got. While Conan O'Brien has managed to increase the number of younger viewers who watch the show (ratings are up about 26% among 18-24 year old's) the overall number of viewers keeps dropping. The biggest winner in all this may be ABC's "Nightline" which manages to acquire a larger audience than both "The Tonight Show" and "Latenight" on a regular basis and has moved into the number one spot. Some viewers have expressed that they find Conan O'Brien a little too high strung and his comedy a little too low brow as compared to Jay Leno.

Cash For Clunkers A Boom For Foreign Cars

The "Cash for Clunkers" program is now over. The government spent almost all of the 3 billion dollars it had allotted for the program and it seems that the people who benefited the most were foreign car makers. As it turned out the American public ran to the dealerships to trade in their American cars and exchange them for foreign ones. The list of the top five cars that were traded in during the program were: 1. Ford Explorer 4WD, 2. Ford F-150, 3. Jeep Grand Cherokee, 4. Ford Explorer 2WD, 5. Dodge Caravan.
The list of the top 5 cars that were purchased during the campaign are: 1. Toyota Corolla, 2. Honda Civic, 3. Toyota Camry, 4. Ford Focus, 5. Hyundai Elantra. Basically the American public threw out its American "clunkers" and replaced them with brand new foreign cars that were in most cases far more fuel efficient and more reliable overall.

U.S. Traffic Deaths Set To Hit Modern Low This Year

It seems that in The United States fewer and fewer people are dying in auto accidents this year. The country is on pace to have the lowest casualty total since 1961 in fact. In the first three months of 2009 the total number of motorists who had died in auto accidents was 7689. If that rate continues it would put the years total at 30,756. To give you an idea of how low that is in 2007 the total number was 37,621. In 2008 this figure was even lower than that by almost 10%. The decline has been attributed in large part to the recession. There is less economic activity going on and therefore fewer cars on the roads and therefore fewer accidents and fewer casualties. Another factor adding to the reduced volume of traffic has been the rising price of gas which has forced many motorists to due less driving simply as an economic necessity.