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first of all, you couldn't get silver in a para-triathlon if they let you compete. just admit that to yourself. i'm in pretty good shape and i know i couldn't. second, this isn't a separate race. this is the ironman triathlon, and those in the para- category are expected to finish in the same cutoff times as able bodied competitors. that means this guy who got silver in the para- category beat the times of several able bodied competitors who didn't even rank high enough to mention. that would probably include both of us.

this other guy became a professional skateboarder despite having dwarfism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Acu%C3%B1a

this high school student born without arms was a formidable wrestling opponent: http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/12/22/article/photo_gallery_high_school_wrestler_with_no_arms_the_one_to_beat

these amputee archers are competing with non-amputees: http://blog.amsvans.com/53432-archers-with-disabilities-compete-against-able-bodied-athletes/

this other amputee (all limbs) wrestler fought for his right to compete in MMA against able bodied competitors: http://fatshapetofitshape.blogspot.com/2009/04/congenital-amputee-kyle-maynards-long.html

and this person fought for his right to compete in the Olympics (not Special Olympics or Paralympics) with prosthetic legs: http://thinklink.in/blade-runner-sprinter-with-no-legs-wins-right-to-compete-in-olympics/

fuck your genetics, and your excuses.

your assumptions aren't helping you much either: the winner of the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was Spud Webb, 5'7" tall. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-shortest-nba-players.php

lawyered

Here ya go. http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/10/07/article/the_truths_in_gasland_are_well_documented

With the U.S. Postal service planning to increase delivery time to save costs, that could gum up things for Netflix pretty badly.

There were many more factors besides slavery that led to the Civil War and the confederacy.

Your statements demonstrate a determinedly ignorant commitment to apologetics for the Confederacy. Your suggestion that anything other than slavery was the casus belli take only a few minutes with Google to utterly refute, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for attempting to excuse these evil-doers.

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery -- the greatest material interest of the world ... a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization." -- Mississippi's declaration of secession

"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable". -- Texas Secession Convention

South Carolina's declaration noted "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery" and protested that Northern states had interfered with the return of fugitive slaves.

"We went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I never heard of any other cause of quarrel than slavery. Men fight from sentiment. After the fight is over they invent some fanciful theory on which they imagine that they fought." -- Confederate Col. John S. Mosby

Jefferson Davis himself, in his address at the ratification of the Confederate constitution -- a speech that is nothing but a fairy tale about the wonders of slavery, the evils of abolitionists, and his ignorance about the U.S. Constitution -- said:

In addition to the long-continued and deep-seated resentment felt by the Southern States at the persistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to the Congress, for the purpose of enriching the manufacturing and shipping classes of the North at the expense of the South, there has existed for nearly half a century another subject of discord, involving interests of such transcendent magnitude as at all times to create the apprehension in the minds of many devoted lovers of the Union that its permanence was impossible. When the several States delegated certain powers to the United States Congress, a large portion of the laboring population consisted of African slaves imported into the colonies by the mother country. In twelve out of the thirteen States negro slavery existed, and the right of property in slaves was protected by law. This property was recognized in the Constitution, and provision was made against its loss by the escape of the slave. The increase in the number of slaves by further importation from Africa was also secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit the slave trade anterior to a certain date, and in no clause can there be found any delegation of power to the Congress authorizing it in any manner to legislate to the prejudice, detriment, or discouragement owners of that species of property, or excluding it from the protection of the Government.

...

As soon, how ever, as the Northern States that prohibited African slavery within their limits had reached a number sufficient to give their representation a controlling voice in the Congress, a persistent and organized system of hostile measures a

I don't mean to write off bikes, but it simply isn't practical for most in the US, and yes, the vast majority of people. I used to bike to work, 3 miles each way, and did so for a couple years, way back in the 80s when I was a young man. Because I was broke. And to compare, Dell also has a plant here, but it is far enough from any serious residential areas and connected by major roads that would be dangerous to bike on. Of course, they are closing this plant, and they didn't have all those amenities.

North Carolina Triad (where I live) is so sprawled out, has very different zoning, making industries tend to be farther from residential areas (I know Tx zoning is more lax than in the east from being raised there). This alone isn't the issue, but it compounds it. My area has 1.6 million people, and almost NO downtown to speak of. It is one giant suburb, connected by I40, I85, Biz 85 (two different ones), Biz 40, I73, I74, 785/840 loop, plus several federal highways including 220 & 29. It is a major transporation hub (Fedex and UPS both have hubs here). It is not a good place to ride bikes. Bikers get in a lot of accidents here.

So yes, it would be nice, and if we have concentrated cities like NY or even Austin is, then it might be more practical. As it is, you can't drive a single mile in the central area without seeing homes. It is complete sprawl.

Please don't confuse Batman with a batman. Undignified.

But obviously the scenario you've postulated has actually happened. Bruce Wayne supposedly became Batman in 1939. Obviously we've run through many Batmen since then.

Clearly this is also true for Batman's many opponents. Not only have have they been around as long as Batman, they've changed drastically, and many times. The Joker, for example, was originally just a weirdo who liked to wear whiteface. Then, for no obvious reason, he started dying his hair green. Then he went through a sort of red phase. Then he reinvented himself as a kind of mobster. Now he's supposedly a kind of post-modern nihilist, with rumors that he's gay.

The question we have to ask is, who's going to so much trouble to create all these strange, long-lived characters with a costume fetish who spend all their time fighting each other? I suspect a broad conspiracy to distract us from... something.

I'll answer your last question.

Older riders, the ones on those Harley-Davidson's and GoldWings have a higher accident and fatality rates.

So while the young rider on a crotch rocket is living, and riding, dangerously, the older guy on a Harley is more likely to suffer an accident involving injury and death.

This article is older but will give you the gist of why this is:

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/NEWSREC0101/509180309/1001/NEWSREC0201

I am a motorcyclist.

You fail to mention that EVERY ONE of those "American companies" buy parts from China- and it's the shoddy, non-unionized workmanship that is failing.

And that the Mattel recall (another American company that hired the Chinese toy company) also covered a heck of a lot more than one product- the recall was 5 PDF pages with pictures of hundreds of different products.

I wonder if the producer of all of those red & yellow Thomas the Tank Engines also killed himself? Or how about the Million Pounds of Fish intended for human consumption that was subject to an import alert this week?

NOTE: I have been dealing with the NC State Board of Elections for about a year now, first as a technical adviser to the subcommittee that drafted the unanimously-passed law, and more recently as a citizen trying to explain to others what the SBOE did wrong here.

First, the guy the state hired to oversee the bidding, contracting, and purchasing process -- Keith Long -- is a recent Diebold employee. Second, comments from one of the other vendors indicate that the claim that none of the vendors could comply with the escrow provisions is wrong. See this story in a local paper, and note the stance of ES&S:

Election Systems and Software, another voting-machine maker, has no problem with the law as written because the company writes its own software for its touch-screen voting machines, a spokeswoman said Monday.

And remember that Diebold was the only one who took the state to court claiming that they couldn't meet the escrow provisions? Within hours of losing that case, they handed over code. Just not all of it, it seems.

There are all sorts of other problems with the certifications that I won't go into here, but the complaint from EFF is pretty straightforward.

-jdm

The point is that the Wrights understood how airplanes turn and they could build a machine that could do it.

Don't forget that the Wrights were flying fully controllable gliders several years before their power flights. During their glider flights they discovered the adverse aileron yaw (before ailerons were named) and figure out how to control it with the rudder.

Please read up on you history. For example take look at this:

Wright's Chronology

Santos Dumont's first heavier than air flight was in October 1906. By then Wright's patent was already granted and they were trying to sell their working airplane to the US Goverment.

i have been following Tara Sue for about a week now. Ed Cone, an opinion writer for the North Carolina News and Record introduced her to the online world last Friday and has been mentioning her on an almost daily basis.

Dave Winer and others bloggers who have been writing for some time now about the need to find a challenger against Howard Coble quickly linked with support. Tara Sue has become an online ray of hope for many.