DanG

What happened to your mirror? - Dan G

Yeah, blown up in Afghanistan. Thanks for not calling me a freak. You should see what I do to sheep, though. But only the hot ones. - Dan G

I guess I'm a freak. I have a small piece of gauze (bloody) from my skin graft donor site. I have some pieces of sharpnel that were taken out of me. I have my helmet and body armor. Never been cleaned, never will be. If they'd let me keep my hand (the skeleton, that is), I would have have it wired together and put on display. Sorry, freaky, but I want to remember certain things. - Dan G

Um, where did you get that? lawrocket only said that he believes they are manipulating the margins, not the temperature readings. And how exactly, do you propose a double-blind study in cases like this? It is nonsense. - Dan G

Double blind studies are appropriate when the subjects could potentially be influenced by the observers. The temperature at a weather station is unlikely to go up because it subconsciously thinks the scientist wants it to. "Hard" science does not use the double blind method, it is not necessary. - Dan G

I appreciate the time you've spent on this, but the quote above implies that you assume a bias and then go looking for it. Kind of what you accuse the scientists of doing. - Dan G

Huh? Did you read the article? She withdrew anyway, so who cares? You're reaching a bit with this one. - Dan G

Please post more once you've read the article. I read the abstract completely differently. You seem to be projecting your anti-global warming mindset, because nowhere in the abstract does the author say that they made up data. They say that past assumptions were based on limited data. They do not say that their new theory is also based on the old data. It could be that they have extended their analysis to include data not prevously used. It's hard to say from the abstract, but you've made a number of leaps not supported by the abstract text. And modeling is often used to confirm patterns seen in primary data, or see if certain inputs can replicate the primary data. It is not the same as making data up. - Dan G

Updated to 180 days now. - Dan G

Sorry, I can't put any stock into a website that thinks quotes are a form of emphasis. That "really" annoys me. - Dan G

Word. - Dan G

"Swoop by beep" is a really bad idea. Last summer I was coming in for a sunset beer kicking landing, but my beeper went off late. I knew it looked low, but went for it anyway. About halway into the turn, my hundreds of jumps without a beeper told me that I was a dumbass and neded to get out of this turn NOW. After a stab and subsequent uneventful landing I got a finger wagging from the S&TA and some other jumpers whom I respect very much. I suspect that I would have gotten a finger wagging from an EMT and well respected orthopedic surgeons if I didn't have the experience to get out of that turn early. Learn the sight picture first without the beeper. As far as the OP's question, I'd get a more modern design of the same size you're jumping now. I have no experience with Safire2's, but Sabre2's are very nice canopies. - Dan G

You're obviously part of the conspiracy. Nowhere in the Constitution is the time of inauguration mentioned. Article II, Section 1, does, however, state: Since that's not exactly what he said, he must not be the President. Only by uttering the magic words can the power be bestowed. Just wait, Rush Limbaugh will be making this point shortly. - Dan G

If by him you meant Chief Justice Roberts, who fucked up the first line in the oath. I think Obama was waiting for him to start over and they ended up talking over each other. I'm predicting a new wave of conspiracy theories about how Obama is not really the President since he didn't say the exact oath as written in the Constitution. I predict less than an hour before it makes it here in a new poll. - Dan G

Whatever. - Dan G

The "joke" would have been funnier if you'd said, "So, Obama's a dangerous man?" I find it interesting that all the closet racists are using the word "nigger" all of a sudden in the context of "jokes". If you want to come out and call Obama a dirty nigger, just man up and do it. Don't be such a pussy, stand by your ignorant convictions. - Dan G

Your own quoted sources said that the $150M includes security expenses while the $40M did not. If you're going to throw numbers around, at least compare apples to apples. - Dan G

Um, this is criticism of something that Obama has neither mentioned nor endorsed. It's a fucking straw man from the first post. The racist undertones came later. Speakers Corner is becoming such a joke. It used to be possible to read different perspectives and get maybe a little kernel of sanity here are there. It's all bullshit now. - Dan G

Right. And when they get to their first job in the real world, and start actually learning how to be an engineer, they are forced to use English units. Trust me, I went through this a couple years ago. No one wanted to hear anything about Newtons and milimeters. This is why I think it will take a couple generations of engineers for SI to be adopted in the engineering world. My generation will already be familiar with SI units, and when they next generation shows up, it will be a lot easier for us to switch. - Dan G

Anyone who's not quite as good as me. - Dan G

That's unintentionally kind of funny. When our products land you don't want to be nearby. I don't ever have cause to deal with electrical issues, but yes, we use volts, amps, watts, etc. in our sensors. Except in electrical engineering there is little or no interaction between electric units and units of length, mass, and force, so it doesn't cause a conflict for the average engineer. - Dan G

You might be interested to know a little about the history of the Purple Heart. It was first awarded for heroic bravery by General Washington during the Revolutionary War. Being wounded had nothing to do with the award until much later in its history. The qualifications for the award have actually been changed a number of times. Although the award has a lot of history behind it, if anything it is a history of how people's perceptions of service have changed over the years. - Dan G

The biggest problem with the English system is that it uses the same words to mean different things. In enginering school I saw many students who (for whatever reason) could not grasp that a pound of mass (lbm) and a pound of force (lbf) were two completely different measurements. The fact that one lbm weighs one lbf in one gravity made things worse. In order to have a self consistent set of English units, you have to use the mass measurement called a slug. How many of you non-scientific types have even heard of a slug? I work in the US aerospace industry, and suprisingly we still use English units almost exclusively. Sure, if the contract specifies that drawing be in metric we'll do that, but the designers make sure that the English units are also noted so that people can visualize how big things actually are. Same thing with densities, thrusts, temperatures, etc. People are used to thinking in English units and the institutional momentum is staggering. The US will change over to SI eventually, but I honestly think it will take decades. - Dan G

I'm going to pick human being, K? I hate that sheepdog bullshit. BTW, from the story this appears to be a fully justified use of a legal handgun. Bravo. - Dan G

Thanks! I try hard to impress. "Multiple people" would be you and normiss, with whom I had a civil dialouge to better explain my position. I think everyone else got it. I'm not sure what that says about you. There, is that a more acceptable type of rudeness? I didn't start the contentiousness, but I'm glad that you want to finish it. There is obviously no point. Merry Christmas to you, too. - Dan G