William the Conqueror defeated King Harold in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, changing the way Englishmen would speak — and cuss — for all of time.

Actors participate in a reproduction of the Battle of Hastings.

Before the war William was the Duke of Normandy, the area of western France that the Allies would invade almost 900 years later to defeat the Nazis.

William had ambitions beyond the continent though, and sought out an audience with King Edward the Confessor of England. Edward had no children and no obvious heir.

William claimed that Edward promised him the throne during this conversation in 1060, but on his deathbed Edward named an English noble as his successor. Harold Godwine ascended to the throne in 1066 but William immediately called bull-scheisse and contested Harold’s claim.

For obvious reasons, Harold wasn’t eager to give up his throne. So William crossed the English channel with 7,000 soldiers. Harold had just finished fighting off a Norwegian invasion and was forced to face this new threat with a diminished number of troops.

About two weeks later, Harold and William met with their armies near Hastings. The battle raged all day Oct. 13, 1066, and Harold was killed at the end of the fighting.

The Normans marched to London and William was crowned king. Once he ascended, William declared French, his native language, the official language of the court. This left the Germanic language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, Old English, as a “lower” language.

According to the Oxford Dictionary blog, this created a two-tiered language that evolved into modern English. Words for things connected to the ruling class, like large homes and prepared meat, drew from French. So noblemen lived in mansions and atebuef (beef) and porc (pork), while an Anglo-Saxon lived in hus (houses) and raised cus (cows) and picg (pigs).

When it came to the lowest and most vulgar of words, like those for poop, butts, and sex, the Old English words with German roots,scheisse, arsch, and ficken, became terms of profanity. It shouldn’t be too hard to guess which words those evolved into.

(h/t Alex Schmidt of Cracked)

SEE ALSO: Photos of American troops smoking and drinking at Hitler's private residence after World War II

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On Mar. 1, 2016, the 90th Fighter Squadron (FS) belonging to the 3rd Wing stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska officially became the first combat-operational Raptor unit to equip an F-22 with the AIM-9X Sidewinder.

According to Chief Master Sgt. Chuck Jenkins, 3rd Wing Weapons Manager, the AIM-9X will increase the already outstanding Raptor’s combat capabilities. “This has been in the inventory for the Air Force and Navy for some years; it’s nothing new to the military, but to put it on the Ferrari of aircraft — the F-22, the most advanced aircraft we have — it gives the pilots more maneuverability, larger range, and it’s a much faster missile,” he said.

A claim confirmed by Lt. Col David Skalicky, commander of the 90th FS, who highlighted that, like the F-22 is a generation beyond the fighters that came before it, the AIM-9X is a generation beyond the previous variants of the Sidewinder missile: “Every aspect about this missile, it’s a huge capability increase in all facets, we can employ it in more scenarios, at greater range, and reach edges of the envelope we would have had a more difficult time reaching with the AIM-9M.”

The late arrival of the AIM-9X (already integrated in most of US combat planes since 2003) to the F-22 very well may signal a new era in Air Force airpower, since as told by Skalicky “this missile makes the most lethal combat aircraft the world has ever seen even more capable. It’s a giant enhancement to the already formidable F-22 arsenal.”

Noteworthy, the AIM-9X will not be coupled to a Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) as the F-22 is not equipped with such kind of helmet that provides the essential flight and weapon aiming information through line of sight imagery (the project to implement it was axed following 2013 budget cuts).

With a HMD (like the American Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System — JHMCS), information imagery (including aircraft’s airspeed, altitude, weapons status, aiming etc.) are projected on the visor enabling the pilot to look out in any direction with all the required data always in his field of vision.

The HMD would enable the pilot to exploit the full HOBS (High Off-Boresight) capabilities of the AIM-9X and engage a target by simply looking at it.

However, the F-22 will probably fill the gap and benefit of the AIM-9X Block II, that is expected to feature a Lock-on After Launch capability with a datalink, for Helmetless High Off-Boresight (HHOBS): the air-to-air missile will be launched first and then directed to its target afterwards even though it is behind the launching aircraft.

Initial testing highlighted a problem though: whilst HHOBS in Block II worked pretty well, its performance was below the performance seen in Block I.

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Representative government has been a luxury that relatively few people have enjoyed throughout human history. 

And while the vast majority of dictators fall short of Hitler- or Stalin-like levels of cruelty, history is rife with oppressors, war criminals, sadists, sociopaths, and morally complacent individuals who ended up as unelected heads of government — to the tragic detriment of the people and societies they ruled. 

Here's a look at 22 brutal dictators that you may not have heard of.

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Francisco Solano Lopez (Paraguay, 1862-1870)

Although he became a revered figure in Paraguay decades after his death, Paraguayan president and military leader Francisco Solano Lopez unwisely provoked neighboring Brazil and Argentina by meddling in a civil war in Uruguay in the mid-1860s.

After that war concluded, Brazil, Argentina, and the winning faction in Uruguay secretly agreed to a plan in which they would annex half of Paraguay's territory. 

Lopez rejected the peace terms offered by the "triple alliance," incurring a full-on invasion.

What followed was a devastating conflict in which an overmatched Lopez conscripted child soldiers, executed hundreds of his deputies (including his own brother), incurred steep territorial losses, and triggered an eight-year Argentine military occupation.

By the time of Lopez's death in battle in 1870 and the war's subsequent end, Paraguay's population had plunged from an estimated 525,000 to 221,000, and only 29,000 males over the age of 15 were left alive.

Jozef Tiso (Slovakia, 1939-1945)

A Catholic priest who led Slovakia's fascist moment, Tiso was in charge of one of Nazi Germany's numerous satellite regimes for almost the entirety of World War II.

Although arguably a less energetic fascist than the leaders of comparable Nazi puppet regimes, Tiso led a brutal crackdown after a 1944 anti-fascist rebellion.

He also either facilitated or had first-hand knowledge of the deportation of the vast majority of the country's Jews to Nazi concentration camps.

At the time, Slovakia had a Jewish population of over 88,000. However, by the conflict's conclusion, nearly 5,000 were left in the country.

Döme Sztójay (Hungary, 1944)

Hungarian leader Miklós Horthy had been an ally of Nazi Germany, collaborating with Adolf Hitler's regime in exchange for assistance in restoring Hungarian control over lands the country had lost as a result of World War I.

Horthy began attempting to chart an independent path from the Nazis as the German war effort flagged in 1944 and largely refused to deport the country's Jews — triggering a Nazi invasion and Döme Sztójay's installation as the country's puppet leader even while Horthy officially remained in power.

During Sztójay's six months as Hungary's prime minister, more than 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary to concentration camps in one of the last major forced population transfers of the Holocaust. 

Sztójay, who had been Hungary's ambassador to Nazi Germany for the decade leading up to World War II, was captured by American troops after the war and executed in Hungary in 1946.

At a speed of about 767 miles per hour, depending on temperature and humidity, a moving object will break the sound barrier. 

It was not until World War II, when aircraft started to reach the limits of the sound barrier — although without successfully breaking the barrier into supersonic speed — that the term came into use. Now, More than 70 years later, military aircraft can routinely break through the barrier and travel at incredible speeds. 

The pictures below demonstrate the still amazing visual effects that occur as military aircraft punch through the sound barrier and travel faster than sound itself.

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An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 113 breaks the sound barrier during an air power demonstration over the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

An F/A-18 Super Hornet assigned to the Kestrels of Strike Fighter Squadron 137 breaks the sound barrier during an air power demonstration above the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 113 breaks the sound barrier during an air power demonstration over the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Former Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman excoriated Donald Trump for urging his supporters at a weekend rally to raise their right hands and promise to support him, a gambit Foxman said evoked echoes of Hitler salutes from Nazi rallies in the 1930s and '40s.

"Let's do a pledge. Who likes me in this room?" the Republican presidential candidate asked a large crowd Saturday in Orlando, Florida.

"Raise your right hand: 'I do solemnly swear that I — no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions, if there's hurricanes or whatever — will vote, on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president.'" (Trump misstated the date of the Florida primary, which will be held on March 15.)

As the audience enthusiastically complied with his request, the candidate told them: "Don't forget you all raised your hands. You swore. Bad things happen if you don't live up to what you just did."

For Foxman, who was born in Poland in 1940 and was saved from the Nazis by his Catholic nanny, watching Trump whip up his supporters in this fashion was extremely disturbing.

"As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the 'Heil Hitler' salute is about as offensive, obnoxious, and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America," he told The Times of Israel.

"We've seen this sort of thing at rallies of neo-Nazis. We've seen it at rallies of white supremacists. But to see it at a rally for a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States is outrageous."

Watch the pledge in the video below (starts at the 2:00 mark):

Beyond his horror at seeing a hand-raising tactic similar to that adopted by the Nazi Party to signal obedience to their leader, Foxman said what made the Trump episode more egregious is his conviction that the Republican frontrunner was well aware of the resonance.

"It is a fascist gesture," Foxman said. "He is smart enough — he always tells us how smart he is — to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he's asking them to swear allegiance to him."

Furthermore, Foxman added: "He even threatens that if they don't, they will suffer and be punished. This is so over the top for a man who really doesn't come out of the underground. He is a man of the world. Even though he proclaims he doesn't know who David Duke was, or the other white supremacists, we know very well that he knows. So he's playing to an image."

Last week, Trump refused to immediately reject the endorsement of Duke, a white supremacist and former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. When asked by Jake Tapper on CNN, Trump claimed ignorance of Duke's support or that of other white supremacists backing his bid for the White House. After a storm of controversy erupted over his response, Trump tweeted his disavowal of Duke later that day.

This is the summit of his own intoxication with what he perceives as his leadership quality.

Saturday's incident, according to Foxman, marked the low point of a series of campaign controversies through which Trump has not merely managed to survive as a candidate, but to benefit. "I think he was intoxicated with all the things that he's already got away with, and it led him to this," said Foxman, who spent his adult life fighting bigotry, including a three-decade stint as national director of the ADL. "This is the summit of his own intoxication with what he perceives as his leadership quality."

While Trump's behavior during this election season has been the source of much consternation for Foxman, he finds it even more troubling that the billionaire businessman evidently appeals to such a large segment of the American public.

"When he said, 'I can walk down the street on Fifth Avenue and kill somebody and my supporters will not desert me,' he knows exactly what buttons he's pushing," Foxman said. "Or when that guy interrupted his speech. People in that situation may think internally, 'Oh, I want to punch him in the mouth.' But you don't say it, you don't say it, because it's not civilized. But he said it and it was applauded."

The real-estate mogul turned politician continues to "break all the taboos of civil behavior," said Foxman sadly, yet his supporters find him "increasingly appealing."

An unprecedented moment in American politics

According to Foxman, Trump's Saturday rally marked an unprecedented moment in American political history, one that prompts no comparison to any other candidate who has sought the presidency. "You can find some authoritarian, semi-fascist tinges in Southern politics during the segregationist era," he said. "But there's never been anything like this, and nothing on this scale."

An attorney who headed the ADL from 1987 until his retirement last year, Foxman has been a close observer of anti-Semitism and other kinds of bigotry, discrimination, and prejudice in the United States.

He said Trump's rhetoric and proposals — and the support they have elicited from neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and racists — combine to make Saturday's hand-raising rally something that should alarm Americans. "I am a Holocaust survivor and this made me quiver," he said.

While Trump continues to lead the way in the Republican presidential contest, heading the field with 384 delegates and 12 states won, Foxman does not believe he will make it all the way to the White House in January 2017.

If the intoxication we are seeing continues, more and more people will realize that this is not a person that they want to be led by.

"There's a long, long way to go, but I remain an optimist. I'm an optimist about the American people," he said. "I think the American people are rational and reasonable at the end of the day. And I think that if the intoxication we are seeing continues, more and more people will realize that this is not a person that they want to be led by."

Nonetheless, the fact that Trump is resonating with millions of Americans, and that his audience responded enthusiastically to his call to raise their hands and pledge their support for him, leaves Foxman deeply concerned.

Many Americans plainly found Trump's hand-raising antics offensive — as reflected by a social-media uproar, replete with comparative photos of 1930s Germany and 2016 America — but Foxman saw the response from those present at the Saturday rally as reflecting a lamentable reality of the political moment, where the more obscene Trump becomes, the more attractive some see him as a candidate.

"What scares me is he's broken all these taboos and it's helped him," Foxman said. "That frightens me. It frightens me that there are all these things that we've worked so hard on, but one after another he breaks these taboos and the people applaud him and come back for more."

SEE ALSO: Foreign diplomats are worried about Donald Trump

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With tensions high and the United States and South Korea ready to hold their massive annual war games next week, which North Korea sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion, Pyongyang is warning it will respond to any violations of its territory with "merciless" retaliation, including strikes on Seoul and the US mainland.

"Military First" is the national motto of North Korea, which is ever wary of threats to its ruling regime and still technically at war with Washington and Seoul. Nuclear-armed and boasting the world's fourth-largest military, it is persistently seen as the biggest challenge to the security status quo in East Asia, an image it loves to promote and showcased in an elaborate military parade last October.

The joint South Korea-US military exercises are to begin March 7 and last more than a month. Tensions always go up when they do.

Pyongyang has poured huge resources into developing its nuclear and missile arsenals and maintaining its conventional forces. About 5 percent of its 24 million people are on active military duty, and another 25-30 percent are in paramilitary or reserve units, ready for mobilization.

But just how strong is Kim Jong Un's army?

Here's a look, based on what AP reporters and photographers have seen on the ground and the latest report to the US Congress by the Office of the Secretary of Defense:

On the ground

BY THE NUMBERS: 950,000 troops, 4,200 tanks, 2,200 armored vehicles, 8,600 pieces of field artillery, 5,500 multiple rocket launchers.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: This is, and always has been, North Korea's real ace in the hole. While its threat to launch a nuclear attack on the US mainland appears to be well beyond its current capabilities, turning the South Korean capital into a "sea of fire" is not.

North Korea's artillery, in particular, is worrisome as the long-range cannons and rockets are capable of hitting South Korea's capital, Seoul, from over the border in the event of a war.

The ground forces of the Korean People's Army form the largest segment of the military, by far. Seventy percent of them are forward-positioned around the Demilitarized Zone for quick mobilization in a contingency with South Korea; they are extremely well dug-in with several thousand fortified underground facilities.

Their arms are mostly "legacy equipment," produced or based on Chinese and Russian designs dating back as far as the 1950s. But they have in recent years unveiled new tanks, artillery and infantry weapons. In the October parade, the KPA displayed a new 240 mm multiple rocket launcher with eight tubes on a wheeled chassis. Kim Jong Un was recently shown by state media observing a new, longer-range anti-tank weapon.

"Despite resource shortages and aging equipment, North Korea's large, forward-positioned military can initiate an attack on the ROK (South Korea) with little or no warning," the US report concluded. "The military retains the capability to inflict significant damage on the ROK, especially in the region from the DMZ to Seoul."

However, North Korea's ground forces are generally underfed, ill-equipped, and poorly trained. Additionally, the ground forces are largely also put to use as manual labor and are used for everything from building and maintaining homes to constructing highways in the country.

At sea

BY THE NUMBERS: 60,000 sailors, 430 patrol combatant ships, 260 amphibious landing craft, 20 mine warfare vessels, about 70 submarines, 40 support ships.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: Divided into east and west fleets with about a dozen main bases, the navy is the smallest branch of the North Korean military. But it has some significant strengths, including hovercraft for amphibious landings and one of the largest submarine forces in the world.

An estimated 70 attack, coastal or midget-type subs provide stealth and strongly bolster coastal defenses and possible special operations. It has no "blue water"— or long-range — naval forces and relies heavily on a large but aging armada of small coastal patrol craft. But it, too, is upgrading some of its surface ships and has made a show of its efforts to domestically develop a submarine capable of launching a ballistic missile.

And although North Korea's midget submarines are extremely old, the vessels are still a major threat to South Korea. These submarines are capable of hiding around the Korean coast and harassing or possibly sinking South Korean vessels.

Additionally, due to the miniature size and diesel engines of the submarines, they are perfect for hiding unseen in many of the coves, grottoes, and natural inlets throughout the Korean peninsula.

In the air

BY THE NUMBERS: 110,000 troops, over 800 combat aircraft, 300 helicopters, more than 300 transport planes.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: Here's where the "legacy" aspect of the North Korean military really kicks in. North Korea hasn't acquired any new fighter aircraft for decades. Its best fighters are 1980s-era MiG-29s bought from the Soviet Union, the MiG-23 and SU-25 ground attack aircraft.

They all suffer chronic fuel shortages and pilots get little training time in the air. Its air-defense systems are aging and it continues to maintain lots of 1940s-era An-2 COLT aircraft, a single-engine, 10-passenger biplane, which would probably be most useful for the insertion of special forces troops behind enemy lines.

Interestingly enough, it also has some US-made MD-500 helicopters, which it is believed to have acquired by bypassing international sanctions. They were shown off during a parade in 2013.

Approximately 50% of North Korea's air force is based within 62 miles of the border with South Korea. But do to the air assets age, the country has taken the route of improving its ground forces and hardening the country against air strikes than trying to modernize its air force.

Still, North Korea has invested heavily in creating overlapping systems of air defenses as opposed to upgrading its air forces. Pyongyang manages to field multiple models of surface-to-air missiles (SAM), including a new mobile SAM launcher that bears resemblance to Russia's highly capable S-300.

Special forces

BY THE NUMBERS: Not specified in report to Congress. Somewhere around 180,000 troops. Estimates vary.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: North Korea is fully aware that it is outgunned, technologically inferior and logistically light years behind its adversaries. But it also knows how to shift the equation through asymmetric tactics that involve stealth, surprise and focusing on cheap and achievable measures with an outsized impact.

Special forces operations are among them — and the North's special forces are the "most highly trained, well-equipped, best-fed and highly motivated" units in the KPA. Commandos can be inserted into the South by air or sea, and possibly on foot through tunnels across the DMZ.

The North is working hard on its cyberwarfare capabilities, another key asymmetric military tactic. It is believed to have a growing number of drones.

Nukes and missiles

BY THE NUMBERS: Number of nuclear weapons not specified in report to Congress. Possibly more than a dozen, outside sources estimate. Fifty ballistic missiles with 800-mile range, 6 KN08 missiles with a range of 3,400-plus miles, unknown number of Taepodong-2 missiles with roughly same or longer range. Possibly one submarine-launched ballistic missile. Various shorter-range ballistic missiles.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: North Korea claims to have tested its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6, the day after the Department of Defense report came out. That claim has been disputed, but there is no doubt it has nuclear weapons and its technicians are hard at work boosting their quantity and quality. Major caveat here: The operational readiness of its nuclear weapons and many of its ballistic missiles is debatable.

Pyongyang's main hurdles are making nuclear warheads small enough to fit on its missiles, testing re-entry vehicles required to deliver them to their targets on an intercontinental ballistic missile and improving and testing the arsenal for reliability and accuracy.

Its Taepodong-2 ballistic missile is the militarized version of the rocket it launched on Feb. 8 with a satellite payload. North Korea has yet to demonstrate that it has a functioning ICBM, generally defined as having a range of over 3,418 miles.

However, according to The Heritage Foundation, North Korea's new Taepodong 3 missile has an estimated range of approximately 8,077 miles. This would place the entire continental US within range of the missile. Assuming that Pyongyang would be able to attack a warhead to a Taepodong missile and manage to launch it at the US, the missiles could be capable of delivering major damage to the country.

Chemical and biological

This one is a question mark. The US Defense Department claims Pyongyang is continuing research and development into both, and could use them, but offered no details on biologicals in its recent assessment.

It said Pyongyang "likely" has a stockpile of "nerve, blister, blood and choking agents" that could be delivered by artillery shells or ballistic missiles. The North is not a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention and its troops train to fight in a contaminated environment.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative notes that Pyongyang most likely has the third-largest stockpile of chemical weapons on the planet, including various nerve agents.

Additionally, a North Korean defector to Finland brought 15 gigabytes of data that showed Pyongyang tested chemical and biological agents on its own citizens.

Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Instagram at @erictalmadge.

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The Obama administration plans to disclose how many people have been killed by US drones and counterterrorism strikes since 2009, the White House said Monday, in a bid to bolster credibility for the controversial programs.

An assessment to be released in the coming weeks will cover both combatants and civilians the US believes have died as a result of strikes from the skies since President Barack Obama took office.

It won't cover areas of "active hostilities" like Iraq and Syria, where US airstrikes are targeting the Islamic State, or Afghanistan. Instead, the report aims to illustrate the fatal toll of other US actions overseas to go after disparate terrorism threats.

In recent years, the US has conducted counterterrorism strikes in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, among other places.

Lisa Monaco, Obama's counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, was to announce the decision in a speech Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations. She called the forthcoming report part of Obama's "commitment to transparency" and added that the numbers would be disclosed annually in the future.

"We know that not only is greater transparency the right thing to do, it is the best way to maintain the legitimacy of our counterterrorism actions and the broad support of our allies," Monaco said in excerpts of her speech obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

US lawmakers have long pressed for more transparency about how many civilians the US kills in drone strikes each year, but those calls for more disclosure have traditionally faced opposition from the US intelligence community. In 2014, senators dropped a demand for a public declaration. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at the time that the administration was exploring ways to provide more information about the strikes while protecting classified information and confidential sources.

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China says it opposes South Korea's deployment of a powerful radar system on March 4, as Seoul and U.S. military representatives formally began talks on stationing the advanced anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system on the Korean peninsula.

The United States and South Korea agreed last month to start talks about deploying the THAAD system to South Korea to counter the growing threat of North Korea's weapons capabilities after the North's launch of a long-range satellite.

South Korea, other neighbors and Washington denounced the launch as a missile test.

China and Russia oppose the deployment of THAAD, which has powerful radar capable of penetrating deep into their countries, but South Korea and the United States have said it was needed in response to the heightened missile threat from the North.

"China resolutely opposes South Korea and the U.S. deploying the THAAD system on the Korean peninsula, and hopes the countries in question can proceed with caution so as not to damage China's legitimate security interests," said China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei.

North Korea faces harsh new sanctions for its nuclear weapons programme under the resolution passed unanimously by the Security Council on Wednesday (March 2), drafted by the United States and backed by the North's main ally, China.

But Hong was evasive when quizzed by reporters on whether China would stop importing North Korean iron ore in the wake of the sanctions.

"Resolution 2270 (on North Korea) stipulates that North Korea is forbidden from exporting coal, iron ore and iron, but (member) countries (of the security council) have determined that civilian (activities) that have no connection to fundraising for the North Korean nuclear plan should not be affected. We will conscientiously implement the 2270 resolution," he said.

From inspecting visiting North Korean ships to paring back coal imports, the burden of enforcing the new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang falls mainly on China, which wants to punish its ally for nuclear violations without squeezing it to the point of crisis.

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The Pentagon may win the next war because of cutting edge technology.

From using deep learning to strategize wars before they even begin to outfitting self-driving vehicles to move without human control, the US military is trying to master a number of exciting technologies. Some, like artificially-intelligent "killer robots" bring up ethical dilemmas.

The Brookings Institution recently interviewed Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and asked him about the trending technology of the military and what the force of the future might look like.

SEE ALSO: 11 photos of America's fighter jets breaking the sound barrier

Both corporations and the military are pursuing deep learning, which uses computing power and tons of data to help with decision-making.

In a military context, mastering deep learning could help the Pentagon run an entire war in the digital realm — before any shots are fired. Instead of war-gaming between generals, computers can help predict what the best way to win might be.

Source: Foreign Policy

Deep learning goes hand-in-hand with artificial intelligence (AI), which could make the US military much more lethal — but there are serious ethical considerations.

Navies around the world are racing to develop unmanned undersea vehicles — drone submarines. It makes sense because it's a lot of risk and costs a lot of money to keep humans alive under the sea.

Already these unmanned craft are carrying out intelligence and mine-countermeasure work, but they could replace manned submarines altogether as the technology develops.

Here are some of the drone subs that are already in operation.

The Remus line of drone subs are used by the US Navy to detect mines. They are low cost and can be operated from a single laptop.

The Swordfish is designed to carry out reconnaissance missions using sophisticated acoustic transponders to help it navigate.

Designed to scan the water for potential threats to other Navy vessels, the Kingfish is used by the US Navy to keeps their ports safe.

The small French town of Château-Chinon, located in the rolling hills of the Nièvre district, was once best known for its medieval ruins and its former mayor, François Mitterrand, who went on to become France's longest-serving president after his election in 1981.

But this town of 2,100 residents has attracted a different sort of attention ever since the local dentist was accused in 2012 of mutilating and swindling more than 120 patients over the previous four years.

Finally, after several months on the lam and two separate extraditions, the Dutch dentist known as Mark Van Nierop (but whose real name is Jacobus Marinus Van Nierop) will finally face a jury. His trial opens Tuesday at the criminal court in Nevers, located 45 miles west of Château-Chinon.

Van Nierop was brought to the town in 2008 by a Dutch headhunter who was employed by the Bourgogne regional council. For four years, he was the only practicing dentist serving Château-Chinon and the surrounding area.

According to witness statements published by French daily La Dépêche, the new dentist was initially considered "friendly" by locals. "Nice copper plaque, modern practice," described the daily, adding that Van Nierop was "built like a rugby player."

But residents were unaware of Van Nierop's checkered record back in the Netherlands, where his poor dentistry skills resulted in him being stripped of his license.

After the complaints from patients and unpaid suppliers started coming in, Van Nierop was placed under court supervision and banned from leaving France in 2013. Despite the ban, he traveled to Canada in December 2013, but authorities caught up with him three months later. He was first extradited to the Netherlands in September 2014, and then from the Netherlands to France the following January.

The Morvan Dental Collective, which represents 120 of Van Nierop's former patients, is a plaintiff in the trial that opens Tuesday in Nevers. The patients are asking for acknowledgment of the harm they suffered at the hands of Van Nierop, and are also seeking compensation. Many of the patients have said that compensation will help reverse some of the damages inflicted by the man locals nicknamed "the butcher."

The allegations against Van Nierop, which include the scheduling of unnecessary appointments and procedures, attending to more than one patient at a time, the use of improper equipment, and a worrying reliance on heavy anesthetics, paint a disturbing picture of systematic malpractice.

"Each time, he would give us what he called 'a little shot,' and we were put to sleep," Nicole Martin a former patient who is president of the collective against Van Nierop, toldLa Dépêche. "[We were] out of it, half of our faces would be asleep for five to six hours."

The regional daily Le Journal du Centre has published several testimonies of former victims who described experiencing a violently sadistic scraping of plaque from their teeth, the inexplicable removal of healthy teeth, and the agonizing aftermath of various procedures at the hands of Van Nierop.

"When I arrived, he gave me seven or eight shots in my gums. And he pulled out eight teeth in one go!" recalled former patient Sylviane Boulesteix. "After that, I bled for three days!"

Thérèse Zbinden, another former patient, said that she had spent 32,000 euros (more than $35,000) on dental care between 2009 and 2012. Others echoed her testimony, describing exorbitant invoices from Van Nierop for dental work — some of which never even took place.

Despite expert confirmations of the damages inflicted by the dentist, none of the victims have yet been compensated for their harrowing experiences. Van Nierop was declared insolvent and wasdropped by his insurance company in 2015 for making "false statements."

Prior to Van Nierop's arrival in Château-Chinon, the town and its surrounding area had gone two years without a resident dentist. The area is one of the country's 192 so-called "medical deserts"— areas where the authorities have failed to find successors for retiring doctors. The estimated 2.5 million people who live in these areas are finding it more and more difficult to access adequate health care.

To remedy the problem, France's Health Ministry has been pursuing a Health Territory Pact, an initiative launched in 2012 that encourages young doctors to relocate to rural areas and fill posts in the 700 health centers that have been opened to cater to underserved communities. According to the government, 300 new establishments are slated to open their doors by 2017.

Such medical deserts have also seen local authorities attempt to make up the shortfall by calling on headhunters, many of whom charge up to 20,000 euros ($22,000) to recruit health professionals.

As well as seeking compensation, the victims' collective bringing the case against Van Nierop is also advocating for stricter controls around the recruitment of foreign health professionals, including dentists and doctors.

Speaking to Le Journal du Centre in September 2014, former patient Nicole Martin urged the government to "quickly put in place some proper national guidelines."

The collective has also requested that the authorities systematically check the qualifications of all candidates and assess their past experience before allowing them to practice in France.

SEE ALSO: French President admits that harassment of women is a 'mass phenomenon' in France

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NOW WATCH: The US Navy's last line of defense is this ultimate gun

Often referred to as the Navy's best kept secret, Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) operators drive well-armed, fast boats in support of special ops missions including stealthy insertion and extraction of SEALs, clandestine reconnaissance, and combat gunfire support. 

SWCCs are the Navy's high-risk water mission experts and therefore, must be physically fit, mentally tough, focused, and responsive in high stress situations — and getting to that point requires brutal mental and physical training.

The Discovery Channel's "Surviving the Cut" shows what SWCCs undergo at a 35-day basic course in Coronado, Calif.

SEE ALSO: 21 stunning photos prove the US Navy and US Marine Corps have the best diving boards and swimming pools

These 26 sailors begin their first day of the 5 week Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman Training Center in Coronado, California. Each year, 240 sailors start SWCC training and about half pass.

The instructors are prepared to weed out the weakest sailors. "This is a gut check for these guys. They have a small idea of what they have gotten themselves into at this point and we are really going to open their eyes on day one," said one SWCC instructor.

Sailors run a quick 2 miles to the beach and spend the next six hours completing brutal workouts in the sand.

Few generals have had the lasting impact that Gen. George S. Patton has had. 

Patton, who commanded the US's 7th Army in Europe and the Mediterranean during World War II, is perhaps just as well known for his amazing insight into what makes for excellent and successful leadership.

Showcasing Patton's most memorable and poignant quotes is author Charles M. Province in "Patton's One-Minute Messages."

Here's a few of our favorites quotes from America's "Ol' Blood and Guts."

SEE ALSO: 11 photos of America's fighter jets breaking the sound barrier

"Do everything you ask of those you command."

Source: Patton's One Minute Messages

"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."

Source: Patton's One Minute Messages

"Any man who thinks he's indispensable, ain't."

Source: Patton's One Minute Messages

The US military has released a video that showcases the anti-ISIS coalition annihilating a militant-controlled weapon cache near to Fallujah, Iraq. 

The airstrikes were conducted on February 29 and were part of a larger operation by the anti-ISIS coalition on that day. Altogether, on that day, the anti-ISIS coalition conducted 12 strikes in Syria and 15 in Iraq against the militant group. 

US Central Command notes that the airstrikes in Fallujah targeted four separate targets. In addition to the weapon cache, the strikes also destroyed an ISIS staging area, an anti-air artillery piece, a bunker, and tactical units belonging to the militants. 

Other strikes in Syria and Iraq on the same day destroyed ISIS vehicles, mortar positions, tactical units, and buildings belonging to the terror group. Two strikes, on each in Syria and Iraq, also managed to destroy ISIS vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), one of the most dangerous weapons in ISIS's arsenal. 

The following GIF shows the airstrike that destroyed ISIS's weapon cache in Fallujah. 

via GIPHY

You can view a video of the airstrike below: 

SEE ALSO: 'It’s unprecedented. We have never seen this before': How ISIS makes and supplies deadly IEDs

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NOW WATCH: The US Navy's last line of defense is this ultimate gun

The 1930s and 1940s were a time of upheaval for the US and the world at large.

Reeling from the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the world soon faced a greater disaster with the start of World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945. Although the US did not enter into the war officially until after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the global war still affected the country.

The following photos, from the US Library of Congress, give us a rare glimpse of life in the US during World War II in color. They show some of the amazing changes that the war helped usher into the US, such as women in the workforce and the widespread adoption of aerial and mechanized warfare.

SEE ALSO: These amazing colorized photographs bring World War I to life

Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repairs department of the naval air base, supervises Chas. Potter, a National Youth Administration trainee from Michigan, at Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks of training, he will go into the civil service.

Answering the nation's need for woman-power, Davis made arrangements for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work at the naval air base in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jesse Rhodes Waller, AOM, third class, tries out a 30-caliber machine gun he has just installed in a US Navy plane at the base in Corpus Christi, Texas.

For centuries, women all over the world have fought and ruled, written and taught. They’ve done business, explored, revolted and invented. They’ve done everything men have done — and a lot of things they haven’t.

Some of these women we know about. But so many others we don’t. For every Joan of Arc, there’s a Mongolian wrestler princess; for every Mata Hari, there’s a Colombian revolutionary spy; for every Ada Lovelace, there’s a pin-up Austrian telecoms inventor. 

The women who shaped our planet are too many to mention, so here are just a few of the most frankly badass females of all time. 

SEE ALSO: Amazing colorized photos show a unique side of World War II

Khutulun, Mongolian warrior princess

In the 13th century, when khans ruled Central Asia and you couldn’t go 10 minutes without some Genghis, Kublai or Mongke trying to take over your steppe, women were well-versed in badassery. In a society where skill on a horse and with a bow and arrow was more important than brute strength, Mongol women made just as stout herders and warriors as their men.

One woman, however, had the combination of both skill and might. Her name was Khutulun, and she was not only a devastating cavalrywoman but one of the greatest wrestlers the Mongols had ever seen.

Born around 1260 to the ruler of a swathe of what is now western Mongolia and China, she helped her father repel — repeatedly — the invading hordes commanded by the mighty Khublai Khan, who also happened to be her great uncle. Her favorite tactic was to seize an enemy soldier and ride off with him, the explorer Marco Polo recounted, “as deftly as a hawk pounces on a bird.”

Off the battlefield and in the wrestling ring, Khutulun went similarly undefeated. She declared that she wouldn’t marry any man who couldn't beat her in a wrestling match; those who lost would have to give her their prized horses. Suffice it to say, Khutulun had a lot of horses. By the time she was in her 20s and a spinster by Mongol standards, her parents pleaded with her to throw a match with one particularly eligible bachelor.

According to Polo, she initially agreed, but once in the ring found herself unable to break the habit of a lifetime and surrender. She overpowered her suitor who, humiliated, fled; she eventually chose a husband from among her father’s men and married him without submitting him to the evidently impossible challenge to out-wrestle her.

More women who fought: 
Boudica, the original Braveheart. She led her tribe of British Celts in a bloody, and ultimately doomed, rebellion against their Roman occupiers. 

Tomoe Gozen, one of Japan’s few known female warriors, who fought in the 12th century Genpei War. She was described as a peerless swordswoman, horsewoman and archer, with a taste for beheading her enemies.

Mai Bhago, the 18th-century Sikh Joan of Arc. Appalled to see Sikh men desert their Guru in the face of Mughal invaders, she shamed them into returning to battle, defeated the enemy, became the Guru’s bodyguard and later retired to devote herself to meditation.

Maria Bochkareva, a Russian peasant who fought in World War I. She formed the terrifyingly named Women’s Battalion of Death and won several honors, only to be executed by the Bolsheviks in 1920.

Nancy Wake, the New Zealand-born British agent who commanded more than 7,000 resistance fighters during the Nazis’ occupation of France in World War II. She became the Gestapo’s most wanted person, and the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman.  

Nana Asma’u, Nigerian scholar

“Women, a warning. Leave not your homes without good reason. You may go out to get food or to seek education. In Islam, it is a religious duty to seek knowledge,” wrote our second historical lady, Nana Asma’u, who’s proof that the pen is mightier than the sword — and at least as badass.

Born the daughter of a powerful ruler in what is now northern Nigeria, Nana Asma’u (1793-1864) was taught from a young age that god wanted her to learn. And not just her — all women, too. Her father, a Qadiri Sufi who believed that sharing knowledge was every Muslim’s duty, ensured that she studied the classics in Arabic, Latin and Greek.

By the time her education was completed, she could recite the entire Koran and was fluent in four languages. She corresponded with scholars and leaders all over the region. She penned poetry about battles, politics and divine truth. And, when her brother inherited the throne, she became his trusted advisor.

She could have settled for being respected for her learning; but instead, she was determined to pass it on. Nana Asma’u trained a network of women teachers, the jaji, who traveled all over the kingdom to educate women who, in turn, would teach others. (The jajis also got to wear what sounds like a kind of amazing balloon-shaped hat, which marked them out as leaders.)

Their students were known as theyan-taru, or “those who congregate together, the sisterhood.” Even today, almost two centuries later, the modern-day jajis continue to educate women, men and children in Nana Asma’u’s name.  

More women with a cause:
Huda Shaarawi, pioneering Egyptian activist who encouraged women to demonstrate both against British rule and for their own rights. Born in a harem at the end of the 19th century, she shocked 1920s Cairo by tearing off her veil in public. She went on to help found some of the first feminist organizations in the Arab world.

Edith Cavell, English nurse who treated German and British soldiers alike during World War I. Devoted to saving lives, she helped Allied troops escape from occupied Belgium, for which she was charged with treason by the Germans and sentenced to death by firing squad. She died after famously declaring: “Patriotism is not enough.”

Beate Gordon, American who ensured that women’s rights were enshrined in Japan’s constitution when it was rewritten after World War II. She was just 22 at the time, and sick of seeing Japanese women “treated like chattel.” 

Lilian Ngoyi, one among many badass South African women who fought long and hard against apartheid. “Let us be brave,” she told fellow female activists, “we have heard of men shaking in their trousers, but whoever heard of a woman shaking in her skirt?” Confined to her house by banning orders, she died in 1980 without ever seeing the democracy she’d given her liberty for. 

Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian revolutionary

‘La Pola,’ as she was called during her brief life, was by all accounts daring, sharp-tongued and defiant. She fought to free her land, in what is now Colombia, from Spain’s rule — all while pretending to sit in the corner and sew.

She was born sometime around 1790 and grew up amid rebellion, as resistance to the Spanish Empire strengthened across South America. By the time she moved to Bogota circa 1817, she was determined to play her role.

Posing as a humble seamstress and house servant, she would offer her services to Royalist households, where she could gather intelligence and pass it on to the guerrillas; meanwhile, pretending to flirt with soldiers in the Royalist army, she’d urge them to desert and join the rebels. Oh, and she was genuinely sewing the whole time — sewing uniforms for the freedom fighters, that is.

She and her network of helpers (it seems there were several women like her) were eventually discovered. When soldiers came to take her, she kept them engaged in a slanging match while one of her comrades slipped away to burn incriminating letters. She refused to betray the cause and was sentenced to death by firing squad in November 1817.

Dragged into the city’s main square to provide an example for anyone with thoughts of rebellion, she harangued the Spanish soldiers so loudly that orders had to be given for the drums to be beaten louder to drown her out. She refused to kneel and had to be shot leaning against a stool, her final words were reportedly a promise that her death would be avenged. Sure enough, she continued to inspire the revolutionary forces long after her execution.

More women who revolted:
Manuela Saenz, a contemporary of Salavarrieta, who became the co-revolutionary and lover of Simon Bolivar. Among other things, she helped him escape assassination; he called her the “liberator of the liberator.”

Vera Figner, a member of the 19th-century Russian middle-class who abandoned her social circle to train as a doctor abroad. She returned at the time of the revolution against the tsar and helped plot his assassination, before being betrayed, arrested, imprisoned and exiled. 

The Mirabal sisters, four siblings — Patria, Dede, Minerva and Maria Teresa — from the Dominican Republic who opposed dictator Rafael Trujillo throughout the 1950s. All except Dede were murdered by his henchmen in November 1960. 

Only a lucky few civilians can boast, “I flew in an F-16,” and Gerard Butler is now one of them. The “300” star flies in the rear cockpit in a video published on the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds’ YouTube channel.

“Oh my god, that’s the best thing I ever did in my life,” Butler says as the pilot pulls him out of an aerial roll. Even for a superstar like Butler the experience is incredible; he even pulled out his iPhone to capture the moment.

When asked if he’d had enough for the day he says, “No, I wouldn’t mind pulling more Gs.”

Watch Butler fly with the Thunderbirds:

SEE ALSO: These are the 11 most game-changing aircraft of the 21st century

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NOW WATCH: This military tradition calls for swimming where no human has ever swum before

Filmed on Feb. 19, 2016, the following video shows the actor Hugh Jackman flying in a U.S. Air Force F-16D Fighting Falcon belonging to the 301st Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base.

“I’m very, very excited. I’m a little nervous, but I am aware of how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I’m very grateful for it,” the actor said to NBC before the take off.

Jackman, who was visiting the base as part of a promotional tour for the movie“Eddie The Eagle,” was flown by Lt. Col. David Efferson, 457th Fighter Squadron commander.

Jackman absolutely loved his ride on the F-16 and, as the X-Men movies star revealed after the landing, was also proud of the fact that he didn’t throw up during his flight despite the thrilling g-forces experienced onboard the Viper.

SEE ALSO: Watch Gerard Butler fly in an F-16 with the US Air Force Thunderbirds

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NOW WATCH: China has been upgrading its military and is now stronger than ever

The Air Force has announced that the B-52 heavy bombers originally designed to carry nuclear weapons into the heart of the Soviet Union are on deck to deliver precision weapons against ISIS terrorists.

Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the commander of Air Combat Command, announced the possible deployment of the B-52s to Iraq and Syria during the Air Warfare Symposium 2016, said CNN.

The Air Force has been hard pressed to keep up the constant strikes against ground targets in ISIS’s so-called caliphate. 

The heavy bomber mission was being conducted by B-1s, but the “Bones,” as they’re popularly called, were pulled from the mission and returned to the US for maintenance and upgrades.

B-1s from the 28th Bomb Wing out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota flew 490 sorties in six months last year and dropped 3,800 munitions on 3,700 targets, according to CNN.

The B-52s coming in are not as technologically advanced or sleek as the B-1s they’re replacing. The youngest B-52 in the inventory rolled off the line in 1962, but they’ve been upgraded numerous times in the last few decades.

These upgrades have taken the B-52 from the nuclear deterrence role through carpet bombing in Vietnam to precision strike. Currently, the Air Force is planning to fly them until at least 2040.

Modern B-52s carry the same Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods used by many F-16s, A-10s, B-1s, and other precision aircraft. The Sniper Pod was first deployed to combat in 2005 and allows pilots to accurately detect and engage targets from long ranges.

The B-52 can carry up to 70,000 pounds of munitions including precision bombs, missiles, mines, and cruise missiles.

It has already bombed insurgent targets in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operations Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Desert Strike, and Enduring Freedom. This would be its first deployment against ISIS.

SEE ALSO: Amazing colorized photos show a unique side of World War II

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NOW WATCH: The US Navy’s $4.4 billion futuristic missile destroyer just set out to sea

The rivalry between Russia and the United States has continued unabated since the Cold War era, with each party coming out on top in certain areas: Russia wins for topless presidential photos, while the United States is better at just about everything else.

Well, almost everything else.

There’s one other area where Mother Russia reigns supreme, and that’s military fail videos. There are so many that there are actually dedicated YouTube channels just for these clips. There are rockets failing mid-launch, tanks rear ending each other, and scores of negligent discharges — one of which is with a cruise missile.

Related: Why Russia’s new tanks are a wake-up call for the US »

Thanks to groups like Meanwhile in Russia, and Crazy Russian TV, these videos are neatly organized in a few central locations, but to save you the trouble, we’ve highlighted our 10 favorite Russian military fails from these pages and elsewhere across YouTube.

Enjoy.

SEE ALSO: 17 reasons why the M1 Abrams tank is still king of the battlefield

10. Well, I guess we’ll just stay here?

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9. I’m on the highway to hell!!!

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8. Can’t get your missile up? It’s okay, it happens.

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