Thayne Currie
12.7K posts
@AstroThayne
Astrophysicist @ Subaru/UTSA. Exoplanets, Direct Imaging. Pro-immigrant. Likes scientific rigor. Empiricist. The Enlightenment was a good thing.
The F-35 was supposed to be unkillable. That was the whole point. Lockheed Martin spent thirty years and four hundred billion dollars, the most expensive weapons programme in human history, building an aircraft that the enemy simply could not see. Not on radar. Not on infrared. Not on anything. The F-35 was not just a fighter jet. It was a theological statement. America’s way of saying: we have moved beyond the reach of your missiles, your sensors, and your prayers. Iran apparently didn’t get the memo. Somewhere over Iranian airspace on March 19, 2026, an IRST system, infrared search and track, the kind of sensor your grandmother could probably explain, looked up, found the F-35, and locked on. Not because Iranian engineers are geniuses. Because the F-35, it turns out, is extremely hot. All that engine. All that thrust. All that carefully sculpted stealth geometry, and the bloody thing glows like a kettle. The heat signature data Iran now holds is not just embarrassing. It is a gift that keeps giving. To Moscow. To Beijing. To every procurement ministry on the planet that has been quietly wondering whether to spend the money on systems designed to kill this aircraft. The answer, as of this week, is yes. And here is the bit that should really worry the Pentagon. You can patch software. You can redesign coatings. You cannot reprogramme a pilot’s brain. Every F-35 driver who takes off from here on knows, actually knows, that someone down there might be able to see them. That changes everything about how they fly. Caution replaces aggression. Hesitation replaces instinct. Four hundred billion dollars. And in the end, it was done in by a heat sensor. Tremendous. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
Another world is possible
Russian soldier showing off his incredible drone piloting skills in an attempt to recruit students into the army, absolutely hilarious.
It’s so sad Texas has the most trainable triangle in existence but chooses to give handouts to the airline and highway building industries
There is a fundamental disconnect between STEM and humanities/philosophy in that STEM by its nature does not value the wisdom of the ancients in any special way. We understand a lot more about Einstein's theories than Einstein did, because we have had a century to find deeper, simpler, and clearer ways to think about the physics. Contemporary scientists by and large are not confused about the things that Einstein was confused about, we are confused about new things, that Einstein barely imagined.
This is a misunderstanding. First of all: STEM is pre-professional, not liberal. I am arguing for science as a liberal art, ie something a layperson should know. It is not "hero worship". It is borne of long experience watching beginners learn science from orig texts!
Once again, are we assuming a contemporary scientist is *not* confused? Science is always incomplete, no? Or do we live in an age of exceptional enlightenment?
Including drones, unsurprisingly they’ve followed the same trend
My experience is that a personal, detailed rec letter is worth more than anything in a file (apart from a beautiful writing sample)
Hard disagree. "Who you know" should matter less. If your work is good you should be able to place it well and explain why it matters. Often the main signal from letters is how much of a favour you'd be doing to someone powerful in the field. We don't use letters in our searches.
