gowlerk

It appears that despite the basic design flaw in the MAX it will eventually be approved to fly again with software and some hardware upgrades. I've come to understand that a clean sheet re-design is not going to happen. The airlines are not going to cancel orders because they have no real alternative. The Airbus product already has an eight year order backlog and the Boeing customers are not going to be willing to wait for more efficient engines. Especially if some of their competitors have them. Interesting is the emerging story that the FAA wants to proceed without requiring any simulator time for pilot training. Canada's Transport Minister is saying they will not fly in Canada without simulator training for the pilots. I'm guessing the rest of the world will also thumb their noses at the FAA on this. The FAA has lost much of it's credibility in the world and is now seen as just an arm of US trade policy. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/canada-transport-minister-says-simulator-needed-737-max-161209317--sector.html

Fox News is priceless.

I'm curious about the narrow age window. Obviously you are asking about older men, but why stop at 60? There are quite a few jumpers older than that and many of their demographic profiles are similar.

Three days ago. 6 year old girl killed by 4 year old brother. And in GA, not FL. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/girl-shot-head-dead-shooting-brother-accident-georgia-paulding-county-a8868746.html

There are so many. I'm starting a place to put them. No need to pin it because it will probably always be near the top. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/us/diaper-bag-gun-death/index.html

Hey, everyone needs heroes. Who do you suppose Marc would choose to crush on?

If we are going to get that far into the weeds of the definition of English words I would propose that a more correct word to express the idea we are reaching for here is "perception". As in "the perception of danger is different for different people".

Maybe when you go running to the teacher with your mom to complain!

I am referring to the Trump/Miller efforts to end family reunification and the immigration lottery. Those are not conspiracy theories. Those are policy goals that are going nowhere.

What a bunch of bullshit. Refugees don't want to move into other people's homes. They want a chance to build a life. I can understand why hordes of dirt poor non English speakers pouring over the border is an upsetting picture. But talking about it like it's a home invasion is just a scare tactic.

There are a couple women in Sweden who think otherwise. Sweden has never been known to kowtow to the USA.

There are a lot of posts here that are really just people reacting because they feel they need to. A lot of people feel it's important to say something when really it just seems to be an attempt to get the last word in. Sometimes I'm guilty as well but I am trying to do it less. We are all here for different reasons I suppose.

Fire is nature's way of creating renewal in the urban forest.

Trump just tweeted about plans for a new hotel in a great location that is just becoming available in Paris.

In 27 years I've really only had two canopies as my main ride. A Cruislite (220 7-cell) and a 170 Stiletto. The Cruiselite routine was to grab the risers and pump ASAP. It had several hundred jumps on it when I bought it used. It needed the help to open. Getting the Stiletto quickly changed my habits. Pulling on risers nearly always resulted in line twists. My routine now is to remain steady and square in the harness until it is open enough that I'm pretty sure it is flying straight, I am upright, and the slider is mostly down. At that point I raise my hands hear to the risers and begin my visual scan for the other canopy that I assume will be flying directly toward me. I'm ready to initiate the life saving diving turn in either direction as needed. After that I can relax and do my house keeping.

It would be a lot easier to take the fun poking if you could at least acknowledge basic facts as truth and stop with the fanciful denier rationalizations.

The situation on the border does seem to be getting out of hand. And would be hard for any administration to deal with. Trump will ride it and pump up the fear for all he can get out of it. I think we both agree the wall is not the answer. My thought is that the only practical and legal answer would be a large increase in the capacity of lawyers and judges to deal with it quicker. But that is not what will happen. I also largely agree with you that the worse the problem gets the more voters will turn to Trump.

While trying to get a better handle on these issues and the future of nuclear I ran into this: https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2018-HTML.html I'm not going to pretend I read it all. But the summaries near the beginning are helpful.

Ugh....yes, of course. The Sun has everything to do with it. That is how a greenhouse works, 100% solar. That is why they call it "the greenhouse effect". Sometimes deniers get so silly.....

Well, that's a given. But they all have a limited lifespan. Extensions will not be given forever. And there are few signs that more are going to be built. It's hard to imagine that the needed fiscal and physical discipline required to maintain spent fuel is going to be available in the long term when all these plants become liabilities instead of assets. Fewer, I could agree on. But that is not the same as lesser. Freedom from CO2 emissions and other more poisonous products of combustion are the only advantages it has. The twin disadvantages of sky high costs, plus the unknown long term costs of waste storage look to be enough to basically shut down expansion of this industry. There is a reason no one is investing in new nuclear plants. I don't see it changing. There are better, cheaper and safer ways of generating electricity. Solar, wind, and possibly tidal combined with new storage capacity will slowly fill the gap while we continue our burning natural gas reserves and pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere is what is going to happen. It may not be the wisest thing, but it is the cheapest and most practical. China has announced big plans to move into nuclear. But reality is even catching with their centrally planned economy. They are falling more and more behind their schedule since they looked at the costs and dangers and have swallowed hard and suspended new starts for the last 2 or 3 years. India is still pressing on, but is far behind projections and has poured a lot of money into it with limited capacity to show for it. Europe is a mixed bag of policies, but a third of existing plants are ready to shut down and there are serious concerns that the operators do not have the funds to care for many of the shuttered plants. France and Finland are constructing newer generation plants, but they are seriously over budget and hardly a shining beacon to attract more investment. And as far as reprocessing and or recycling the fuel goes, that is just a punt down the road. It merely trades some of the immediate problems for a slightly different set of problems on a slightly different time scale. In short, nuclear is not going away anytime soon. But the renaissance of design cost and safety talked about by the industry appears to be in two words, utter bullshit.

Trump wants to limit immigration as much as possible to white people. It's the Stephen Miller agenda and the Trump agenda. It will go nowhere.

I agree that buried storage is physically possible. However, it seems to be politically impossible. You seem to take a position that this is merely a minor inconvenience. I disagree, unless it is actually dealt with it is a show stopper. Bottom line is until the existing problem of storage is solved it is not time to generate more waste. Proponents of more nuclear energy keep trying to down play this issue. Mostly their words are just talk. The same as they keep talking about newer types of simpler reactors that will be cheaper. Also just talk. Using fission to generate steam has too many downsides. The world is clearly moving away from the idea. And it is not because of Luddites or fear. It is because of the reality of economics.

As to the subject at hand, no particular sympathy for Assange from me. I don't like anarchists. But the battle this sets up with the DoJ could be interesting.

Yup, just another Stephen Miller fan. That's our Billy.

Shipping the USA waste from the 130 some odd sites it is currently stored in to Gabon is not really an option. Although I'm sure the US would try to do it if they could get away with it. America is not responsible enough to be trusted "forever". No nation is.