Astonishing, disturbing achievement

[ciphergoth]

The point about 35 seconds in tore my heart out in two different ways. Amazing. (Propogated from dennyd who got it from cavalorn)

PS see some of you at Orbital today!

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's for getting supplies to Marines in mountainous areas, at a cost of a cool half a million dollars more than a mule. But Mules need a teamster (using the old meaning of the word!) and that's a potential body-bag. Or local labour, and a potential thief, terrorist, or refugee (the worst sort: the ones who are entitled to a green card after assisting 'our' armed forces and face a death sentence after the marines are helicoptered out and the country faces the usual collapse into civil war)... But the obvious silver lining is that it doesn't matter if foreign people are killed.

Obvious, but maybe not quite true. What does matter is that one or two or a dozen dead donkeys don't generate millions of dollars of revenue for General Dynamic, or Boeing, or whichever prominent campaign donor ends up manufacturing the things.

I like the technology. I am, at heart, a geek. But I am becoming a realist in my old age.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

It may not have a realistic military use. But it's still very, very cool.