champu

Message boards are kinda like traffic jams, it's a lot easier to get pissed off and start yelling if all you bother to see is glass, metal, and plastic.

[record scratch sound as needle is jerked off of turntable] Wait a minute here. Are they trying to figure out which vehicles cost more money over their life or which vehicles impact the environment more over their life? You can't go back and forth all willy-nilly like this. Of course an SUV that uses almost entirely off the shelf parts is going to be cheaper to develop, and require less manpower than a brand new hybrid design. But less expensive certainly doesn't mean better for the environment. Paying a really smart person to come up with a way to properly dispose of batteries is a lot more expensive than paying an idiot to go bury them in a forest somewhere.

This is very true, but I should point out you have to be careful with any camera setup you choose. My technique had to be refined to replace the initial "bunch-a-dudes" with said chicks.

Instructions truly directed at men would never involve writing a check. Cash is much more manly. And at that, what man would ever actually read these instructions?

This also reminds me of a story my boss told me regarding a real genius he knew at his former company. Keep in mind during a payload test (particularly those involving freespace RF), there are generally a number of large, bright, and obnoxious flashing and revolving lights near all the entrances to the highbay where the spacecraft is being powered on, as well as around the spacecraft itself. So wonderboy is looking for someone on the test team, and wanders into the highbay. Sees the spacecraft sitting there. Walks over to it. Looks into the DLA . Then wanders out of the highbay and into the control room where he finds the guy he was looking for. Upon noticing everyone sitting at operating consoles running tests, he asks, "uh, the spacecraft power isn't on, is it?" "Um... yeah... all the warning lights are on... why?" "Oh, cause I just accidentally went into the highbay. And now I feel kinda nauseous." Luckily he didn't spend too much time with his head in front of the DLA or his stay in the hospital would have been a lot longer than the day or so that it was.

This is one of the first things I thought when I read the article as well. I even tried going to the institute's website to find the publication so I could find the missing numbers, but I wasn't able to locate the study (at least not an english copy of it.)

yes... its because light is an electromagnetic wave... Everything is an electromagnetic wave.

That's not quite valid. You don't trust the average third grader with a gun because he may not understand its operation or the consequences of its use. You don't trust Iran with nuclear weapons because they may be familiar with both of the above, but given the right few events, no longer care. China, Russia, the US, France, India, and frankly even North Korea having nuclear weapons doesn't worry me all that much. M.A.D. works great when, at the end of the day, the parties involved want to not get dead. Pakistan, with its numerous border conflicts near Afghanistan and infighting between the central government and tribal areas in the southwest starts to concern me a bit. Iran, with her weapons and personnel support to the conflict in Iraq, along with a general hostile attitude towards neighbors such as Israel would certainly worry me if she had nuclear weapons.

It's Somalia man... They have no ruling central government. It's a war-torn country with civil war going on since the 1970's. The tsunami devistated their coast. They have very little in way of natural resources, and they have long been one of the poorest and most under-developed countries in the world. They NEED the money, for anything and everything. So what better way than to become a pirate?! Arghh!! I imagine any ransom money they make from these hijackings will provide their people with food, clothing, and weapons to fight an ongoing battle for regional influence between tribal leaders and warlords in that country. Is it terrorism? No. But then we're not talking about Robin of Loxley either.

My goal here, or anywhere, is not to make people cry, so it's an enormous weight off my shoulders to hear you're doing so well in spite of my previous comments. I don't doubt you do well for yourself, and from what I've seen, your girlfriend is certainly your biggest fan. For these I congratulate you. My "pride and potency" comment stemmed from the iconized self-satisfaction you get at the end of your posts that contain neither cleverness nor civility nor anything I can imagine being proud of. It doesn't make me laugh, and it doesn't make me cry, it confounds me.

Ah, gotcha. Anyway as I was saying. You can make plenty of money and never get laid. In many cases there's something else there that leads to both money and women. Correlation does not mean causation.

Not necessarily, you can mak- Wait a second... Is your avatar a photo of cats fucking?

Presenting an argument in the form of a shock video made by an organization with which you don't agree regarding 90% of their agenda is a good way to lose an argument. That said, I think this video serves more as an outlet for the aggression peta members hold towards people who don't see eye to eye with them than it is an enlightening reversal of roles.

Nah, they'll probably ransom the ship and its crew back to whatever company owns it. From the news reports I've read regarding previous hijackings in that area, it sounds like they are legitimately just interested in money. What they want the money for well, that's another question. On a lighter note, I thought this bit was funny:

Two wrongs make what again? I don't see a problem with asking someone to remove their hat in these situations, reminding them what manners are, but doing it for them might demonstrate you're not particularly well-versed yourself. If they comply, fantastic; if they don't... well... I'm a bit of a misanthrope and don't expect much from the average person. Also, in the case of the national anthem, I'd probably wait until after it was completed to say anything. I think showing the anthem your respect trumps seeing to it that others follow suit.

"Would you like to buy a used Bonehead?" "Absolutely!" "It's uh... It's a bit runny..."

This is an unfortunate apples to oranges comparison that comes up far too often. If you gave me some time I could design you a building made of steel that would have survived the impacts of the planes, and any of the resulting fires. Its floor layout would look very different from the WTC. Its horizontal and vertical load distributions in each column and beam would be very different from the WTC. But you know what? who cares. The planes didn't hit this imaginary building I'm talking about. They hit the WTC. If a 757 had flown into the Sears tower, there's a good chance it wouldn't have collapsed. The Sears tower doesn't rely nearly as heavily on it's outer-most columns for horizontal support, its vertical support is distributed much more evenly throughout the cross-section of each floor, and it is arranged in a square of nine sub-structures that would localize failures. But who cares? The planes didn't hit the Sears tower. They hit the WTC. No Bill, this is where you made the error. The force would increase every 12 feet if it were unemcumbered 12 feet- nothing stopping it. BUT, they have all sorts of stuff between each floor, not to mention the 3' of steel reinforced concrete and support beams. This slows the process down, signifigantly. Once you understand that one floor can collapse, and destroy the supports for the floor below it, it's all over. The rest of the building doesn't stand a chance. Let's take a look... The combined mass of the towers was about 1,000,000 tons, divide by two towers and by 110 floors, and you have about 4,500 tons per floor. Say the top floor fails, you are dropping 4,500 tons from a height of 12ft on the floor below, which will cause it to fail, now you're dropping 9,000 tons on the floor below from a height of 12ft, it fails, now you're dropping 13,500 tons from a height of 12ft... do you see where this is going? The first few floors would certainly not go quietly, but after that, the amount of energy dissipated in destroying the supports of the next floor is, as we say, "in the noise."

I like FARK's summary. However, from the article in question... [waves hands in the air] GOOD! I mean, for the love of- [deep breath] Why on earth would anyone lay out specific details about how you plan to catch someone who doesn't want to be caught. "Well you see it's all very ingenious. We've implanted a tracking device on his most trusted personal aide so we'll be able to locate him with-" [phone rings] "excuse me I have to take this call..." ... "...well I've just been informed his most trusted personal aide has been killed an dumped on the side of a road in Pakistan. We'll uh... we'll be sure to keep you updated when we come up with a new idea. I'm afraid I have to cut this press conference short."

I have to admit, I expected the worst when I heard of her kidnapping. This news comes as a very pleasant surprise. It would be interesting to know what went on behind the scenes (assuming something specific happened) that resulted in her release.

I don't think anyone claims this is going to be an instant fix for our energy problem, but the thread title says it all, it's a step in the right direction. Now let's hope this administration and those that follow keep walking.

Well one of the problems I have when trying to refute arguments that the plane crashes weren't the reason the WTC towers collapsed, or that a 757 didn't crash into the pentagon, is that I'll put forth what I know about the construction of the particular buildings and planes in question, physics, and engineering. Then I'll explain that when I put together the multiple video angles I've seen of the towers, and the photos of the pentagon with what I've learned, I don't see a controlled demolition of the WTC or a global hawk/missile having crashed into the pentagon. What I'm usually met with in return is "well the tower collapses looked like controlled demolitions to me" or "But what about the dozens of people near the pentagon that said what flew by sounded like a missile to them" or "If a 757 crashed into the pentagon, I know there'd be more debris." And at that point I'm at a bit of a loss to go on. I'd say 50% not sure how to start my argument over again, and 50% apathy as to whether or not I ever convince them. So... congratulations, I guess that means you win.

"The grass is always greener on the other side." Men would love to get away from the stress of office work and spend their time raising the kids. Meanwhile, women would like to get away from stress of raising kids and spend their time in the office.

Steel has joined the thread. Awesome.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you* *although actually if I told you, I'd have to go fill out paperwork, and someone would be along to kill you in six to eight weeks. (hey, even conspiracies have bureaucratic overhead)

"So when are you supposed to leave when doing a leading exit?" "At the exact correct instant."