Thursday, November 29

F-35 And Primrose Gets It

This is what you get for $396 Bn

The Pentagon's all-in cost for designing, building and maintaining 2,443 F-35s fighters, to be delivered in the late 2030s, runs at $1.4 to $1.5 Tn. So far I and the US have committed $396 Bn to the plane. The F-35 program is 4X costlier than any other weapons system built or imagined. (source: NYT; photo from LMTAS).

Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance reports in July that foreign students are outpacing their American peers academically. Students in Shanghai who recently took international exams for the first time outscored every other school system in the world. In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. Further, six percent of U.S. students performed at the advanced level on an international exam administered in 56 countries in 2006. That proportion is lower than those achieved by students in 30 other countries.

Related?

Me: "So have you finished the Hunger Games series?"
Madeleine: "Yes."
Me: "Tell me what happened ! I need to know .. ."
Madeleine: "It's too long to explain."
Me: "Please, I'm begging you."
Madeleine: "Primrose burst in to flames."
Me:
Madeleine: "And dies."
Me: "That's pretty cool."
Madeleine: "I guess."
Me: "Was it sad?"
Madeleine: "No, not really."
Me: "So it was a happy ending then?"
Madeleine: "Not for Primrose."