"The first flight of an SR-71 took place on 22 December 1964, at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California"
48 years is close enough to 50 for this discussion. We had big dreams back then, making things that only DC Comics would imagine.
Now those dreams belong to other countries.
I am making the assumption that you're male (which I realize may be incorrect); the camp is boys-only. It's a neat place with a very particular subculture. I spent 4 summers there when I was a little younger;. there were the best summers of my teenage life. They are very welcoming of teens from other countries (my last year there we had a guy, Eisa, straight off the plane from Japan. He spoke little English. We spoke zero Japanese. We made it work because that's the kind of kids that are there). It's a family run operation; the Wackers (no jokes; that really is the family name!) are damned nice people. The food is pretty good by camp standards; the instructors and counselors are generally excellent.
Do give it a look. It might be just the mix of things you're looking for.
" The flag doesn't mean one fucking thing any more, and you know it. Bravery? Honesty? Are you fucking kidding me?"
There is a reason why every fireman, every officer and every solider wears one on their shoulder. They still believe in what it stands for, as imperfect as that idea may have become in recent years. Call them brave, call them stupid, but they still believe those colors are worth defending, and sometimes dying for.
History is cyclical; either the country, as a whole, will learn what that flag means, or it will pass out of existence entirely. I would like to think that we'll learn.
Both products have been available for many years. The Tacx unit has an available steering head, so while you can' t lean the whole bike, you can turn and interact with the course. While the forward/backwards tilting is a new innovation, the interactive virtual trainer certainly is not. Both calculate wind resistance based on height and weight, resistance, etc. Both offer both birds-eye and immersive views.
For the lazy: MSN targeted Opera users by feeding them a broken page based on the browser id. Opera returned the favor by having a special version of the browser.....which turned the MSN page language into the language of the Sweedish Chef.
The motorcycle is no more, and no less, dangerous than a car. Both are machines operated by a man. The difference is that one is more tolerant of a human's fuckups than the other is.
It's like being disciplined by your mom as compared to being disciplined by a USMC drill sergeant.
Seriously? Mods.....it's a joke. Moderate it as such.
If it's not a joke, then the OP is either living under a rock, or perhaps, living under a larger rock. I doubt there are many people who can operate a computer that have never heard of Playboy and Penthouse (irrespective of nationality; both are global magazines, and pretty tame by those standards, too).
When it comes to VAG cars, this is the bees knees. It's not the cheapest, but when it comes to these cars (and I have two of 'em), it pays for itself 100 times over.
-red
The ability to stand in front of a classroom and spew words and numbers at a group of people is not a rare ability.
The ability to actually *teach* is very rare.
There's a huge difference between the two. Sadly, they are often paid and treated the same.
I think there's a good deal of misunderstaning about bullet resistant soft body armour on here. I've seen two posts so far that say that the shape of the bullet has something to do with defeating a vest, as well as a bullet being "tangled up" by the material. Neither is true.
Bullet resistant soft armour works because of the strength of the individual fibre and how its woven. It also has to do with the friction coefficicent of each fiber. Generally, it's woven in a waffle or checkerboard pattern for each layer. There are lots of layers, too...20 or 30 is common. When a projectile strikes the fabric, the crossed fibers lock against each other (this is where the friction coefficient comes in. Two Kevlar fibers crossed at 90 degrees will not want to move). So, in theory, one layer could stop a low-energy bullet. However, it would still be fatal to the person wearing it because of the amount of energy transferred to them. So, by using multiple layers, that.38 or 9mm round's energy is spread out over perhaps 5 or 6 inches. It's still going to hurt like hell, but you'll live to tell the tale. Current NIJ spec for the backface deformation of a vest is something like 12" of clay, which translates to something like 4 or 5 inches of compression in a human. It's like getting hit with a baseball bat swung by a AAA player.
So why does bullet shape have little to do with it? Even a pointed bullet deforms on impact; the sharp point isn't going to get through more than a layer or two before it deforms flat. The threat rifle rounds offer is that there is just vastly more energy then a pistol round. All of these materials have a failing point, and even if the bullet was stopped, the amount of energy transferred to the wearer might be lethal anyway.
That's why rifle-rated vests (something to stop a.223 or a 30-06) have trauma plates, which is a 1/4 inch (or thicker) ceramic plate. It's heavy, uncomfortable and unbendable, but it'll stop just about any reasonable threat.
Sure, we could come up with a list of unreasonable threats, but in reality most shootings are with lower energy handgun calibers (9mm/38spl/25acp/32acp), which a standard IIA vest will stop without breaking a sweat.
Upside: practically unscratchable, definably unbendable, if you get a polished one it has this cool grey-blue color to it. Despite it's current sort of popularity, not a ton of people have them. Cheap!
Downside: can't resize it. Heavy compared to just about anything else it's size (though you may like that, depending.).
As for the whole "the ER has to cut your finger off thing", Caribide rings come off pretty easily. All they do is take a pair of vice-grips to it, and it'll shatter into about 10 chunks. It's 9.5 on the Mohs scale, but that hardness also makes it brittle. So no real worries about it getting stuck on your finger if your finger gets swollen. It also won't deform, so even if you slammed it in a car door, it won't go out of round.
As for the resizing thing, my take: without any meaning behind it, it's just a lump of round metal. Why I wear it an what that symbolizes is the important part, so if it's the "original" one or a replacement, it doesn't so much matter.
I got mine from Titanium Kay. Shipped fast, great return policy (I had to return the first one because I mis-sized myself), and it's what is says it is: Tungsten doped with Nickel for a binder (yes, I have an x-ray spec available to me. Yes, I lit my ring up in it to see if it really was what they said it was).
The kicker: because it's an industrial metal, it's cheap. A plain band starts at 50 bucks.
"The 4MP Canon 1DS generated RAW mode files from an APC-C"....WTF?
The 1DS is an 11.1MP camera, generating RAW mode files from a full-frame 35mm sensor, the first one of its kind to go into mass production. (cue the bitching about the DCS14n being first, but Kodak was late to the game with it even though it was announced first, and it still sucked when it did come out)
What? You want sources, too? Ok....http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1ds/
It's exactly that attitude from the general public that annoys the ever loving crap out of those of us in Pharma.
Look up a drug called Mectizan. Or Coartem. Two good examples of profits not being made on a drug. We would all LOVE to cure HIV. The company that pulled that stunt off would be the darling of the industry for the next 3 decades, and that image almost matters more than the profit itself. Remember the whole Vioxx mess? That wouldn't have been half as publicized had it not been Merck. For decades Merck was the gold standard of the industry, a reputation they well deserved. So when it came time for them to be dethroned, it was a big deal.
I'm not saying that they don't often go after diseases that are big money makers. All of diabetes treatments that are out there are indicators of that. But to make a blanket statement that "They won't cure a disease because of the bottom line" is just showing ignorance.
Dr. Salk also got lucky he didn't end up starting with a far harder virus. Some viruses are relatively easy to work with, like Polio or Rabies. They're stable, don't mutate much, relatively easy to grow in culture.
Some are bastard children: TB. Ebola. HIV.
Since you brought Ebola up....it was originally characterized and described by electron microscopy before they had any sort of enzymatic test for it. HIV was discovered indirectly by reverse transcriptase, as it was a hard one to culture, but later further characterized by electron microscopy. Ok, yeah, neither has a cure yet. But the first step in understanding anything is to even know that it exists, so big expensive toys allow us to find things that exist that Salk could have only drempt of. Though he wasn't alive to see it, Jenner would have *killed* to actually see the rabies virus.
"Though it does say, 15 minute battery life! WTF is the point of it then?"
They're not the first ones. If you take a look at SureFire's P61 bulb, they get 120 lumens for 20 minutes on a set of batteries. What't the point of these short-runtime ultra-bright lamps? They're useless for most homeowners, save perhaps the homeowner who keeps it next to their defensive firearm. They're priceless for a cop who wants to disorient someone for that split-second advantage, or perhaps for an entry team member who needs to light up the room NOW.
I have the regular bulb, so I get 1 hour of runtime on a set of batteries at 65 lumens. Is that pratical for everything? No, not at all. If I need runtime, I break out my Mag-Lite. If I want daylight in my pocket, I break out the SureFire.
Slashdot Mirror
"The first flight of an SR-71 took place on 22 December 1964, at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California"
48 years is close enough to 50 for this discussion. We had big dreams back then, making things that only DC Comics would imagine. Now those dreams belong to other countries.
Camp Watonka.
http://www.watonka.com/cgi-local/wpage
I am making the assumption that you're male (which I realize may be incorrect); the camp is boys-only. It's a neat place with a very particular subculture. I spent 4 summers there when I was a little younger;. there were the best summers of my teenage life. They are very welcoming of teens from other countries (my last year there we had a guy, Eisa, straight off the plane from Japan. He spoke little English. We spoke zero Japanese. We made it work because that's the kind of kids that are there). It's a family run operation; the Wackers (no jokes; that really is the family name!) are damned nice people. The food is pretty good by camp standards; the instructors and counselors are generally excellent.
Do give it a look. It might be just the mix of things you're looking for.
"If I want to take the risk I should be able to buy something made of light weight bicycle tube and nylon."
Funny you say that. 4130 CrMo is a steel alloy very frequently used in roll cages of race vehicles of all sorts.
It's also very common to build lower end bicycles frames from it.
" The flag doesn't mean one fucking thing any more, and you know it. Bravery? Honesty? Are you fucking kidding me?"
There is a reason why every fireman, every officer and every solider wears one on their shoulder. They still believe in what it stands for, as imperfect as that idea may have become in recent years. Call them brave, call them stupid, but they still believe those colors are worth defending, and sometimes dying for.
History is cyclical; either the country, as a whole, will learn what that flag means, or it will pass out of existence entirely. I would like to think that we'll learn.
or, perhaps:
http://www.computrainer.com/rm_inc/IRCVideos.htm
Both products have been available for many years. The Tacx unit has an available steering head, so while you can' t lean the whole bike, you can turn and interact with the course. While the forward/backwards tilting is a new innovation, the interactive virtual trainer certainly is not. Both calculate wind resistance based on height and weight, resistance, etc. Both offer both birds-eye and immersive views.
It's not the first time that Opera has approached a rival's rhetoric with class and humor:
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2003/02/14/
For the lazy: MSN targeted Opera users by feeding them a broken page based on the browser id. Opera returned the favor by having a special version of the browser.....which turned the MSN page language into the language of the Sweedish Chef.
Bork! Bork! Bork!
"I don't breathe 500 feet underground, nor does my water come from there." Your water does not come from there? Mine does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer
That's the sound of the sarcasm of the OP going right over your head.
It's like being disciplined by your mom as compared to being disciplined by a USMC drill sergeant.
Seriously? Mods.....it's a joke. Moderate it as such.
If it's not a joke, then the OP is either living under a rock, or perhaps, living under a larger rock. I doubt there are many people who can operate a computer that have never heard of Playboy and Penthouse (irrespective of nationality; both are global magazines, and pretty tame by those standards, too).
When it comes to VAG cars, this is the bees knees. It's not the cheapest, but when it comes to these cars (and I have two of 'em), it pays for itself 100 times over. -red
The ability to stand in front of a classroom and spew words and numbers at a group of people is not a rare ability.
The ability to actually *teach* is very rare.
There's a huge difference between the two. Sadly, they are often paid and treated the same.
Bullet resistant soft armour works because of the strength of the individual fibre and how its woven. It also has to do with the friction coefficicent of each fiber. Generally, it's woven in a waffle or checkerboard pattern for each layer. There are lots of layers, too...20 or 30 is common. When a projectile strikes the fabric, the crossed fibers lock against each other (this is where the friction coefficient comes in. Two Kevlar fibers crossed at 90 degrees will not want to move). So, in theory, one layer could stop a low-energy bullet. However, it would still be fatal to the person wearing it because of the amount of energy transferred to them. So, by using multiple layers, that .38 or 9mm round's energy is spread out over perhaps 5 or 6 inches. It's still going to hurt like hell, but you'll live to tell the tale. Current NIJ spec for the backface deformation of a vest is something like 12" of clay, which translates to something like 4 or 5 inches of compression in a human. It's like getting hit with a baseball bat swung by a AAA player.
So why does bullet shape have little to do with it? Even a pointed bullet deforms on impact; the sharp point isn't going to get through more than a layer or two before it deforms flat. The threat rifle rounds offer is that there is just vastly more energy then a pistol round. All of these materials have a failing point, and even if the bullet was stopped, the amount of energy transferred to the wearer might be lethal anyway. That's why rifle-rated vests (something to stop a .223 or a 30-06) have trauma plates, which is a 1/4 inch (or thicker) ceramic plate. It's heavy, uncomfortable and unbendable, but it'll stop just about any reasonable threat.
Sure, we could come up with a list of unreasonable threats, but in reality most shootings are with lower energy handgun calibers (9mm/38spl/25acp/32acp), which a standard IIA vest will stop without breaking a sweat.
Yeah, it's not the falls that kills you....it's the sudden stop at the bottom!
Thanks! Now we know we have to look harder! Sincerely, -DHS
Tungsten Carbide.
Upside: practically unscratchable, definably unbendable, if you get a polished one it has this cool grey-blue color to it. Despite it's current sort of popularity, not a ton of people have them. Cheap!
Downside: can't resize it. Heavy compared to just about anything else it's size (though you may like that, depending.).
As for the whole "the ER has to cut your finger off thing", Caribide rings come off pretty easily. All they do is take a pair of vice-grips to it, and it'll shatter into about 10 chunks. It's 9.5 on the Mohs scale, but that hardness also makes it brittle. So no real worries about it getting stuck on your finger if your finger gets swollen. It also won't deform, so even if you slammed it in a car door, it won't go out of round.
As for the resizing thing, my take: without any meaning behind it, it's just a lump of round metal. Why I wear it an what that symbolizes is the important part, so if it's the "original" one or a replacement, it doesn't so much matter.
I got mine from Titanium Kay. Shipped fast, great return policy (I had to return the first one because I mis-sized myself), and it's what is says it is: Tungsten doped with Nickel for a binder (yes, I have an x-ray spec available to me. Yes, I lit my ring up in it to see if it really was what they said it was).
The kicker: because it's an industrial metal, it's cheap. A plain band starts at 50 bucks.
Wow.
Mohammed, because it's hard to sprint when you have a spike pinning your ankles together.
"Me, I can't see the value of getting a card with more than 1GB, even for future games."
Neither can I! Just like I can't see computers ever needing more than 640K of memory.
How many bumper stickers to you have on your car?
The 1DS is an 11.1MP camera, generating RAW mode files from a full-frame 35mm sensor, the first one of its kind to go into mass production. (cue the bitching about the DCS14n being first, but Kodak was late to the game with it even though it was announced first, and it still sucked when it did come out)
What? You want sources, too? Ok....http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1ds/
There ya go.
Really? Have you examined all of Microsoft's souce code to make sure there is not a backdoor?
Look up a drug called Mectizan. Or Coartem. Two good examples of profits not being made on a drug. We would all LOVE to cure HIV. The company that pulled that stunt off would be the darling of the industry for the next 3 decades, and that image almost matters more than the profit itself. Remember the whole Vioxx mess? That wouldn't have been half as publicized had it not been Merck. For decades Merck was the gold standard of the industry, a reputation they well deserved. So when it came time for them to be dethroned, it was a big deal.
I'm not saying that they don't often go after diseases that are big money makers. All of diabetes treatments that are out there are indicators of that. But to make a blanket statement that "They won't cure a disease because of the bottom line" is just showing ignorance.
Dr. Salk also got lucky he didn't end up starting with a far harder virus. Some viruses are relatively easy to work with, like Polio or Rabies. They're stable, don't mutate much, relatively easy to grow in culture. Some are bastard children: TB. Ebola. HIV. Since you brought Ebola up....it was originally characterized and described by electron microscopy before they had any sort of enzymatic test for it. HIV was discovered indirectly by reverse transcriptase, as it was a hard one to culture, but later further characterized by electron microscopy. Ok, yeah, neither has a cure yet. But the first step in understanding anything is to even know that it exists, so big expensive toys allow us to find things that exist that Salk could have only drempt of. Though he wasn't alive to see it, Jenner would have *killed* to actually see the rabies virus.
They're not the first ones. If you take a look at SureFire's P61 bulb, they get 120 lumens for 20 minutes on a set of batteries. What't the point of these short-runtime ultra-bright lamps? They're useless for most homeowners, save perhaps the homeowner who keeps it next to their defensive firearm. They're priceless for a cop who wants to disorient someone for that split-second advantage, or perhaps for an entry team member who needs to light up the room NOW.
I have the regular bulb, so I get 1 hour of runtime on a set of batteries at 65 lumens. Is that pratical for everything? No, not at all. If I need runtime, I break out my Mag-Lite. If I want daylight in my pocket, I break out the SureFire.