The glorious XB-70 Valkyrie, one of my favorite airplanes, also had a similar ejection capsule system.
Each crew member had his own individual clamshell capsule. Something similar might be possible with the shuttle's successor.
Certainly the flight profile of the XB-70 (high altitude supersonic) was more like shuttle re-entry than that of either the F-111 or B-1. The system was designed to allow safe ejection at Mach 3 and 70,000 feet.
Unlock the potential of American economic diversity with aggressive public policy. This means mandating changes - in telecommunications, manufacturing, education, and other vital sectors - that enable Americans to take advantage of their enormous intellectual capital.
God save this country from busybodies and good-government types who want "mandates" and "aggressive public policy". That horse shit has been tried for years in Europe, with unsurprisingly poor results.
Keep taxes low, spending down, and government regulations minimized and predictable. Everything else government does is secondary, if not counterproductive.
Actually, taping ducts is one of the few things duct tape is NOT used for nowadays. It makes a nice seal at first, but degenerates quickly (especially with heat).
I use a bagless (uses a dust cup) Eureka that also filters the motor exhaust.
These are poor imitations of the REAL bagless vacuum, the almighty Dyson. The first time I used mine, it pulled up two full bins of filth that my old Hoover had left in the carpet.
It filters out dirt by centrifugal motion in "cyclone" tubes. Unlike all other bagless vacs, there are no filters to replace. It has seals of approval from various allergy associations for its excellence in cleaning dust and other allergens out of the house.
It is easily the most excellent gadget I bought in the past year, and that's saying something, as I am a sucker for electronic crap. Plus it looks very cool and futuristic.
Any Slashdot reader who can afford it need only try it once, and he will be a customer for life.
Children and adults who want to make something themselves have to look elsewhere, like Capsela:
Rokenbok is pretty cool too. My son (and I) get very creative with it.
It's like an Erector set, combined with wireless remote control vehicles, and chutes and hoppers for moving little plastic balls around. It's hard to explain until you've seen it. Some people really take it to extremes.
It's pretty expensive, though. We have spent over $1000 on all our sets and vehicles.
Flaws in human perception is always the last ditch explanation of the kneejerk skeptic. It's kind of like the placebo effect. It can be used to explain away anything.
And so it should. Occam's razor and all that.
If you want me to believe that your new purple pill is worth $13 apiece, you have to do better than saying it's as good as a placebo.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The skeptic never has the burden of proof. And everything that can be explained away, should be.
In fact, the following countries donate more of their GDP to foreign aid:
When you count private contributions, the governmental foreign-aid figures are dwarfed, and the U.S. comes off looking much better in relation to other countries.
Much foreign aid is channeled through the military and other agencies. When the Army rebuilds a hospital in Afghanistan, or the Navy captures pirates or drug smugglers in the Straits of Molucca, or NASA builds a modern airport in Africa to provide a place for the shuttles to land in an emergency, they do a great service to humanity that does not show up in these figures. Most of the countries in your list do nothing of the sort. They make an ODA budget, write a check, and that's it. And their irreligious, self-centered, overtaxed citizens assume that is sufficient, and do not come close to matching the American charitable contributions.
These figures do not reflect the trillions of dollars and thousands of lives that this country has contributed to the destruction of collectivist totalitarianism. Whether in the form of National Socialism (Nazi Germany) or Communism, nothing in history has caused more human misery than collectivist ideologies. We destroyed them for the benefit of all mankind and will continue to do so.
Once again, the world does not revolve around US. I can't wait until I can get out of here and live in a country where people have rights.
That's pretty comical, kid. Canada and Western Europe have race-relations laws that are far more restrictive of free speech than any law in any locality in America.
Ah, Cold War-style ``environmentalists are really Commies'' then...
Yes, some of them really are, and they are despicable scum too.
The former Reds have an unquenchable desire to tell other people how to live their lives. They like to preen for each other in their coffee shops and faculty lounges, congratulating themselves about their enlightened moral superiority. However, the world has rejected their bankrupt ideology, and embraced democracy and free-market capitalism.
Since the hard Left has become so discredited and marginalized, the Green/anti-globalization movement has become the only remaining outlet for these heaps of human filth to peddle their collectivist bilge.
Normally, I believe in freedom of speech and assembly, but I make an exception for violent radicals who would deny all freedoms to the rest of us if they got the chance. I really like it when the police crack their heads.
I'd like to see the ALF/ELF/Black Bloc types shot dead in the streets.
They have a majority on a bill indemnifying oil companies for MTBE pollution.
And so they should, given that MTBE was forced on the oil companies by the government and the 'watermelon' public interest groups in a misguided attempt to reduce air pollution.
If anyone should pay for cleaning up MTBE, it should be the EPA and the Sierra Club. I don't think the oil companies should pay one red cent.
Here is an interview with the manager of the store, Joan Hirsch.
Yes, and here's a hilarious quote from the interview:
"We make enough money to stay in business," Hirsch said, declining to be more specific
Greedy capitalist sellout!
Seriously, it's gratifying to see that Communism has become so marginalized that even the manager of one of the few remaining Commie bookstores pays lip service to the power of the market.
Communists are the all-time champions of mass murder. People like this Hirsch cunt are the most evil people in the world, and I hate them with every fiber of my being. Collectivism must be smashed!
If you like conservatism and patriotism, and you dislike civil disobedience, then move to Communist China.
I've heard it all now. Communist China conservative? What about the Cultural Revolution? What happened to 'no enemies on the left'?
Communism is the most extreme manifestation of loony leftism. They are your ideological cousins, and it is you leftist twits who should be ashamed of your history of making excuses for their wickedness.
The blood of millions of people is on the heads of the "progressive" nitwits in the West who supported Mao and Stalin and the dozens of minor tyrants who followed them.
You should stop trying to redefine conservatism as anything that pampered Western liberal intellectuals don't like, and vice versa. It's dishonest and despicable.
If you'd lost relatives to the Gulag, maybe you wouldn't find it so "amusing", you insensitive piece of shit. Any decent human being ought to be ashamed to be a Communist or to be associated with them.
God, do I hate Communists and all their wooly-minded socialist brethren. The only place collectivism works is an ant hill or a concentration camp. Everywhere else it must be SMASHED and thrown on the dung heap of history.
I'll let 100 guilty go free in order to avoid convicting 1 who is innocent.
What a fatuous statement. Why not ten, or a thousand, or a million guilty men? You could as easily argue for dismantling the entire criminal justice system, lest there be one guilty man among the millions of imprisoned felons. It's all a matter of degree and not kind. Such moral preening belongs in college coffee-houses and has no legitimate place in the debate over public policy.
If we are to punish anybody for anything, we have to recognize that from time to time innocent people will slip through the cracks. So be it. Let us work to minimize such occurrences, but carry on with the procedures and institutions necessary to maintain peace and order.
And in case you're wondering, I do include the death penalty in that category. There are risks and trade-offs inherent in everything done by mortal man. Is there a miniscule chance that an innocent person might be put to death? Yes. But this risk pales in comparison to the number of innocent people who will die if we do not put dangerous criminals to death.
Criminals escape, serve out their terms, gain parole from soft-hearted judges, and kill other prisoners, guards and visitors while in prison. We need to kill them, lots more than we do now, with no more emotion than putting down a rabid dog. All murderers, rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, terrorists, and other violent criminals ought to be hanged in public on their first offense.
Rest easy. That is a fully automatic weapon. It is regulated under a whole parallel universe of extremely stringent Federal gun laws, about which the general public knows very little.
To buy a gun like that, you have to 1) get permission of your local police chief or sheriff, who can turn you down for any reason or no reason; 2) submit fingerprints and a photograph; 3) pass a thorough FBI background check; 4) comply with all State and local laws, as about one-quarter of the states do not allow such weapons to be owned; and 5) pay a $200 tax every time the gun is bought or sold.
These are the safest guns in the American arsenal. There are about 400,000 machine guns in the National Firearms Registry, and only one of them is known to have been used in a crime, EVER: a contract murder by a police officer many years ago.
Any history of felony conviction, domestic violence conviction or restraining order, drug addiction, or involuntary commitment to a mental hospital is an automatic disqualification. In practice, if you have the least reputation with your local PD as a trouble maker, you can forget about ever getting permission to buy such a gun.
This kind of gun is bought by wealthy, law-abiding collectors, who often refrain from ever firing them, in order to preserve their value as collector's items.
Me, I've got my eye on a nice little Ruger AC-556.
Don't tar them all with the same brush. I have known a couple that were seriously kinky. Maybe they feel the need to go to church because they sin more than other girls?
I'd fully expect there to be a significant ship named after Clinton some time in the future.
You can't be serious. Don't forget that the Navy picks these names, and there has never been a President and First Lady who were more loathed by the military (and all decent people.)
How do 12 aircraft carriers stop box cutter wielding fanatics hijack a plane and crash it into the White House?
They don't need to. Half a dozen brave passengers were all that was needed. I doubt you will ever again see a successful hijacking in this country, or probably anywhere else for that matter.
the USA seems to be armed to the teeth with OFFENSIVE weapons...
Yup. and you ain't seen nuthin' yet. When we perfect directed energy weapons and anti-missile defenses, we'll dictate peace to everyone in the world, or destroy their military capability with impunity. Get used to it.
You friggin' Euro-weenies are going to accuse us of imperialism no matter what we do, so in my opinion we may as well go Roman and bend the rest of the world to our will by force.
We have nothing worthwhile to learn from moldering European welfare states or Third World pest holes. We'll remake the world in our image, and ten thousand years from now, your descendants will thank God we did.
My grandma had Alzheimer's and made jokes about it constantly. She would have loved that one, as she was a lifelong Democrat (her one and only failing.)
Slashdot Mirror
Certainly the flight profile of the XB-70 (high altitude supersonic) was more like shuttle re-entry than that of either the F-111 or B-1. The system was designed to allow safe ejection at Mach 3 and 70,000 feet.
This system was actually used after a midair collision, and saved the pilot's life.
-ccm
God save this country from busybodies and good-government types who want "mandates" and "aggressive public policy". That horse shit has been tried for years in Europe, with unsurprisingly poor results.
Keep taxes low, spending down, and government regulations minimized and predictable. Everything else government does is secondary, if not counterproductive.
-ccm
-ccm
These are poor imitations of the REAL bagless vacuum, the almighty Dyson. The first time I used mine, it pulled up two full bins of filth that my old Hoover had left in the carpet.
It filters out dirt by centrifugal motion in "cyclone" tubes. Unlike all other bagless vacs, there are no filters to replace. It has seals of approval from various allergy associations for its excellence in cleaning dust and other allergens out of the house.
It is easily the most excellent gadget I bought in the past year, and that's saying something, as I am a sucker for electronic crap. Plus it looks very cool and futuristic.
Any Slashdot reader who can afford it need only try it once, and he will be a customer for life.
-ccm
How about this? First Lady: Net News Needs Scrutiny
-ccm
Rokenbok is pretty cool too. My son (and I) get very creative with it.
It's like an Erector set, combined with wireless remote control vehicles, and chutes and hoppers for moving little plastic balls around. It's hard to explain until you've seen it. Some people really take it to extremes.
It's pretty expensive, though. We have spent over $1000 on all our sets and vehicles.
-ccm
And so it should. Occam's razor and all that.
If you want me to believe that your new purple pill is worth $13 apiece, you have to do better than saying it's as good as a placebo.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The skeptic never has the burden of proof. And everything that can be explained away, should be.
-ccm
-ccm
That's pretty comical, kid. Canada and Western Europe have race-relations laws that are far more restrictive of free speech than any law in any locality in America.
-ccm
Ah, Cold War-style ``environmentalists are really Commies'' then...
Yes, some of them really are, and they are despicable scum too.
The former Reds have an unquenchable desire to tell other people how to live their lives. They like to preen for each other in their coffee shops and faculty lounges, congratulating themselves about their enlightened moral superiority. However, the world has rejected their bankrupt ideology, and embraced democracy and free-market capitalism.
Since the hard Left has become so discredited and marginalized, the Green/anti-globalization movement has become the only remaining outlet for these heaps of human filth to peddle their collectivist bilge.
Normally, I believe in freedom of speech and assembly, but I make an exception for violent radicals who would deny all freedoms to the rest of us if they got the chance. I really like it when the police crack their heads.
I'd like to see the ALF/ELF/Black Bloc types shot dead in the streets.
-ccm
Watermelon: Green on the outside, red on the inside.
-ccm
And so they should, given that MTBE was forced on the oil companies by the government and the 'watermelon' public interest groups in a misguided attempt to reduce air pollution.
If anyone should pay for cleaning up MTBE, it should be the EPA and the Sierra Club. I don't think the oil companies should pay one red cent.
-ccm
I'll take my chances with supply and demand, thanks anyway.
The 20th century is littered with the wreckage of attempts to "redefine" wealth creation and distribution.
-ccm
Yes, and here's a hilarious quote from the interview:
"We make enough money to stay in business," Hirsch said, declining to be more specific
Greedy capitalist sellout!
Seriously, it's gratifying to see that Communism has become so marginalized that even the manager of one of the few remaining Commie bookstores pays lip service to the power of the market.
Communists are the all-time champions of mass murder. People like this Hirsch cunt are the most evil people in the world, and I hate them with every fiber of my being. Collectivism must be smashed!
-ccm
I've heard it all now. Communist China conservative? What about the Cultural Revolution? What happened to 'no enemies on the left'?
Communism is the most extreme manifestation of loony leftism. They are your ideological cousins, and it is you leftist twits who should be ashamed of your history of making excuses for their wickedness.
The blood of millions of people is on the heads of the "progressive" nitwits in the West who supported Mao and Stalin and the dozens of minor tyrants who followed them.
You should stop trying to redefine conservatism as anything that pampered Western liberal intellectuals don't like, and vice versa. It's dishonest and despicable.
-ccm
Screw you. Communists are the all-time world champions of mass murder. Adolf Hitler wasn't a patch on Mao and Stalin.
If you'd lost relatives to the Gulag, maybe you wouldn't find it so "amusing", you insensitive piece of shit. Any decent human being ought to be ashamed to be a Communist or to be associated with them.
God, do I hate Communists and all their wooly-minded socialist brethren. The only place collectivism works is an ant hill or a concentration camp. Everywhere else it must be SMASHED and thrown on the dung heap of history.
-ccm
What a fatuous statement. Why not ten, or a thousand, or a million guilty men? You could as easily argue for dismantling the entire criminal justice system, lest there be one guilty man among the millions of imprisoned felons. It's all a matter of degree and not kind. Such moral preening belongs in college coffee-houses and has no legitimate place in the debate over public policy.
If we are to punish anybody for anything, we have to recognize that from time to time innocent people will slip through the cracks. So be it. Let us work to minimize such occurrences, but carry on with the procedures and institutions necessary to maintain peace and order.
And in case you're wondering, I do include the death penalty in that category. There are risks and trade-offs inherent in everything done by mortal man. Is there a miniscule chance that an innocent person might be put to death? Yes. But this risk pales in comparison to the number of innocent people who will die if we do not put dangerous criminals to death.
Criminals escape, serve out their terms, gain parole from soft-hearted judges, and kill other prisoners, guards and visitors while in prison. We need to kill them, lots more than we do now, with no more emotion than putting down a rabid dog. All murderers, rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, terrorists, and other violent criminals ought to be hanged in public on their first offense.
-ccm
Rest easy. That is a fully automatic weapon. It is regulated under a whole parallel universe of extremely stringent Federal gun laws, about which the general public knows very little.
To buy a gun like that, you have to 1) get permission of your local police chief or sheriff, who can turn you down for any reason or no reason; 2) submit fingerprints and a photograph; 3) pass a thorough FBI background check; 4) comply with all State and local laws, as about one-quarter of the states do not allow such weapons to be owned; and 5) pay a $200 tax every time the gun is bought or sold.
These are the safest guns in the American arsenal. There are about 400,000 machine guns in the National Firearms Registry, and only one of them is known to have been used in a crime, EVER: a contract murder by a police officer many years ago.
Any history of felony conviction, domestic violence conviction or restraining order, drug addiction, or involuntary commitment to a mental hospital is an automatic disqualification. In practice, if you have the least reputation with your local PD as a trouble maker, you can forget about ever getting permission to buy such a gun.
This kind of gun is bought by wealthy, law-abiding collectors, who often refrain from ever firing them, in order to preserve their value as collector's items.
Me, I've got my eye on a nice little Ruger AC-556.
-ccm
-ccm
-ccm
Yep, every boy in the marching band is out of step except my Johnny.
-ccm
As much as I love Ronaldus Maximus, I have to agree.
-ccm
You can't be serious. Don't forget that the Navy picks these names, and there has never been a President and First Lady who were more loathed by the military (and all decent people.)
-ccm
They don't need to. Half a dozen brave passengers were all that was needed. I doubt you will ever again see a successful hijacking in this country, or probably anywhere else for that matter.
the USA seems to be armed to the teeth with OFFENSIVE weapons...
Yup. and you ain't seen nuthin' yet. When we perfect directed energy weapons and anti-missile defenses, we'll dictate peace to everyone in the world, or destroy their military capability with impunity. Get used to it.
You friggin' Euro-weenies are going to accuse us of imperialism no matter what we do, so in my opinion we may as well go Roman and bend the rest of the world to our will by force.
We have nothing worthwhile to learn from moldering European welfare states or Third World pest holes. We'll remake the world in our image, and ten thousand years from now, your descendants will thank God we did.
-ccm
-ccm