Double tap to the body, then the kill shot to the head.
LOL! That took me back 30+ years, to Urban Warfare training. *Big Scary Drill Sergeant® yelling at us* "Two in the chest, and one in the head, and even the Jolly Green Giant will fall down dead!"
Actually, anti-hydrogen looks exactly like hydrogen, but with a goatee.
I misread that as goatse, and panicked! Oddly enough, your comment still worked with my inadvertent substitution.
I think I've spent too much time on/.:-)
*disclaimer* Long reply warning, at request of P.
on
Muscle Mice
·
· Score: 1
You are assuming too much, and doing too much 'reading between the lines'. The pair I chronicled were successful semi-pro drag racers. They did not have Engineering degrees, formal or factory training, but had a proven track record for 'making cars go fast' to the drag racing community.
The purpose and focus of my posting the comment and car analogy was on topic for the 'Muscle Mouse' discussion, so I purposely did not go into long detail.
So, for YOUR narrow minded and OFFTOPIC comment reply, here goes:
The two guys, Dick and Al Jamison, were semi-pro drag racers. They earned their living by drag racing, and supported their hobbies by building Chevy race engines, drivetrains, suspension mods, drag car frames, etc. for the region. (Hint: they made their primary means of living from WINS at the racetrack!)
I 'worked' there as a 'gopher' in 1972. I say 'worked' as I spent all of my spare time there...cleaning up the shop, fetching drinks, whatever. In 1975 I was hired as an engine builder, following a blueprint...by 1976 I was designing the blueprints. We were reliably getting 3.24 hp/cuid with a normally aspirated Chevy small block. For example: My 1969 Chevy Malibu with a 350 cubic inch displacement engine(cuid) dynomometer readings under load was 1138 horsepower, which run a best 1/4 mile time of 10.98 seconds. I usually ran in the 11.0-11.1 second bracket by unbolting the exhaust, installing the 5.56:1 gears in the Dana-60 'Quick change" rear-end, changing the rear tires for a pair of 'racing slicks'(one in the back seat, and one in the trunk to get there), and re-jetting/retuning the carb, and using a 50% H20/Chlorox bleach solution for the burnout in the staging lane. The driveshaft permanently had a restraining loop, a clutch shatter pack shield was in place around a highly modded TH400 automatic(well, semi-auto, heh!) tranny, with a Lenko Ratchet shifter, and a Line-Lock system on the brakes.
We(Jamison's Racing) had a 1964 Chevy II with one of our 454 engines running sub-10 second quarter-miles.
It was a 'what if' project to them. BTW, the Ford 9" rearend was state of the art at the time, and 'bullet-proof'.
The Allison was later sold at an extreme profit.
Way to make assumptions, post 'offtopic', and confuse the facts... The 'first time' that you allude to came after the trials and tribulations of the prototypes, and after they had only considered legal aspects for the Super Stock class of drag racers, using the best technology of the times. Yeah, they could of applied this to the Unlimited class and succeeded, but they were competing in the Super Stock class.
It was a meant to be a basic/generic ONTOPIC car analogy, assclown.
Re:There is a little hurdle to clear....
on
Muscle Mice
·
· Score: 1
On a brighter note, I recently visited a facility in Florida and sat in a shop with what looked like 50+ Allisons, Merlins, and possibly other assorted V-12 engines lined up on the shelves, so at least someone is preserving and refurbishing them.
Good for them! Those were amazing engines, especially the Merlins. I had the good fortune(as a car nut) to grow up in Southern Maryland and saw some incredible stuff at Budd's Creek dragstrip. 'Jungle Jim' Liberman (with Jungle Pam--HAWT!!!), the 'Green Monster jet car, the 'Draggin' Wagon', 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits racing his dragster against a US Navy fighter launched from a steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, and other fun stuff was happening all the time.*sigh*
As a side note, I saw in HotRod magazine that someone had successfully integrated the Allison V-12 into a Ford Mustang that 'worked' about two years later.(if my fuzzy memory is still working, or the timeline has become distorted from huffing too many nitromethane fumes!)
I always wanted one of those Allison V-12's to hack into a drag car!
There is a little hurdle to clear....
on
Muscle Mice
·
· Score: 1
World records will be shattered.
Many more bones will also be shattered as well. Tendons, ligaments, joints will be rupturing, snapping, popping. They will sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies...SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! Then there's the pesky cardiopulmonary support upgrades needed.
Obligatory car analogy: In my misspent youth, I watched two guys install/hack an 1800 horsepower Allison V-1710 (V-12) form a decommissioned P-51 Mustang fighter, into a 1967 Ford Mustang. To make a long story short, they ended up with a piece by failed piece custom drive-train. Then came the suspension/tire mods to actually use all that power.
The fateful test run at the drag strip started...the christmas tree turned green, the car launched...tires smoking, the car reared up about a foot when the wheelie-bars halted the rise. So far, all is well. Then too many things happened at the same time: the rear tires shredded, the body/frame twisted so fast and to such an extent that both doors popped opened, the rear glass and windshield shattered and flew outward, and the hood came unlatched-but was held by the safety cable. They never got the doors to stay shut after that and scrapped the project.
Well, if you're going to be a pedantic asshat, then at least get your nomenclature correct. Hint/get a clue/pro tip: 'Americans' consist of:
North Americans, which include Canada, USA, and Mexico
Central Americans, which include Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
South Americans, which include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Collectively, we are referred to as 'the Americas', and each country/nation in all three categories is its own sovereign nation.(well, mostly)
So try to be more specific in your asshattery for your future pedantic comments from now on. Yeah, I assume you meant the USA citizens, but when you engage a war with semantics and pedantry, expect it to boomerang on you.
'Shark (78448); (#34070322)' got it right, in one.
I saw Black Sabbath at the Capital Centre[1] in 1973. The band came out on stage...Tony Iommi plugged in, Geezer Butler plugged in, Bill Ward ran out and dropped behind the drums*drumroll!*...Ozzy staggers out between two speaker stacks *falling twice* with a fifth/quart liquor bottle clutched in his right hand, wrestled the mic/stand into submission, and asked: "Is everybody high?"*takes large drink from bottle* "I said, is everybody high!?" Chaos ensued there after. IOW, a good time was had by all!
[1] Back then, it was advertised as residing in Largo, Maryland.
Apparently, a lot has changed!
My junior and senior years of high school, I averaged a concert there
every three weeks.
It was also one of two places for a rock concert(when I was in high school) when
a band 'played Wash., D.C.', the Nations Capital(TM); the other was R.F.K. Stadium.
Skimming is for getting an idea of what to expect to learn.
I agree with what you meant. I find myself affected by this phenomenon as well. When you have education/knowledge, it becomes easy to fill in the blanks.
The human mind is under a two-edged sword. It is our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness. We can adapt and overcome, but we can also become adapted to some of the most fscked conditions.
I rationalise it as 'survival instinct'/evolution.
Pay no attention to 'WindWraith'. You're doing it right.
*shakes fist at 'WindWraith' for discouraging good behavior/mindset*
I envy youth and their good eyesight. Hell, I miss my own good eyesight when I was younger!
As an 'older than dirt, had to fight dinosaurs on my ten mile trek[one way] UPHILL, in a blizzard/sandstorm- both ways! to school everyday' crowd, I appreciate your efforts and way of thinking about web page design.
As an avid reader, I appreciate good text fonts both in real paper books, and various forms of e-books. Tri-focal lenses, macular degeneration, and just plain old age changes your perspective and outlook!
I frequently read some comments here regarding screen resolution[and similar], and am struck with both amusement and envy. I seem to ask myself EVERY time two questions anymore: How do they even see/distinguish crap that small? Why are they going through that hassle? Damn, I'm REALLY getting old!
BTW, if you are reading this reply, 'WindWraith', please take the comment as 'tongue-in-cheek' humour/sarcasm. You do provide a valid and insightful comment about memories, IMHO.
Oh yeah, obligatory... Hey you young punks, get off my lawn!
*start sarcastic attempt at humour* Oh dude, you NEED one of these cards, like yesterday, man. I pre-ordered one, stood in line last night, and today am the proud owner of one of these new shiny cards!
I'm just finishing the benchmarks now...wait a second...HAH! Eleventy gajillion fps in Tuxracer! W00t! And only for a $buck three-eighty! *end sarcastic attempt at humour*
All joking aside... I started my 'gaming' experience[semi-hardcore] around 1999-2000 with a PIII 800mHz w/ 512 MB RAM, and a nVidia TNT2-64(32 MB VRAM) AGP card. For whatever reason, I had a lot of trouble caused by the gfx card. I switched to an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7000(64 MB VRAM) and loved it. I stuck with that setup for Battlefield 1942, and all of the expansion packs. I had to upgrade again for Battlefield Vietnam...ATI 9550, 128 MB. When that failed 2 years later[in the meantime, I had went from Win98SE, to a PIV, 3 GHz/2 GB RAM w/Win XP Pro, and dual-booting into GNU/Linux], I replaced it with another ATI 9550 card, only this time with a whopping 256 VRAM!
By now, I had learned the drill. Think as far ahead with the motherboard/cpu socket/RAM slots and type/expansion slots as your budget allows. Second priority...the hard drive. %00 GB minimum nowadays. Fill in the blanks with lower to medium price components-these can be upgraded piecemeal as your finances allow. ALWAYS look at 'bang for the buck' for all of the above. Here YMMV, depending on your own definition of best 'bang for buck'. Different needs/desires/goals change the definition.
Now I recognise your/. UID when I hit 'preview', you are not a stupid fscker...think it through. Currently I am running an AMD Athlonx2_64 5200 w/ 4 GB 1066 DDR2 RAM, and an ATI 5670 1 GB VRAM PCIe-16 gfx card, and dual boot Win7_64 Ultimate, and Kubuntu 10.10, and found no unsatisfactory behavior. Keep in mind though, that I am currently frantically searching my surplus pile for a machine of PII or PIII vintage that will run Win 98SE, has hardware drivers still available, will run Connectix Virtual Game Station(Sony PS1 emulator) and Front Mission 3. My taste in PC games is old!
Look at the 'minimum required' spec's, look at the 'recommended spec's', then form some sort of comparison/ratio. That is all I can say, as the vodka is taking over. You know, quit while y...
I built my first solar still in 1966 with a black garbage bag, a washed 3lb. coffee can, 4 ft. of aquarium air tubing, two rocks, and an Army surplus entrenching tool, as a Cub Scout.
I'd guess that if I could do this from a rough sketch and a basic explanation of how it worked as an 8 year old kid, then a community with adults could also manage.
I must of accidentally drank some too. I tell myself not to drink vodka while reading/. comments every time I snort vodka out of my nose, yet I keep doing just that.
I'm doomed! *looks for rusty spork to commit seppuku with...*
...the ships can simply be run on nuclear. The US Navy already does this with many ships.
If you are going that route, just build a similar nuclear reactor on the shore and save the expense of the whole cargo ship. Typically, those navy ships desalinate more potable water than can be used on the ship, and the excess is just dumped overboard as waste.
If you are determined to ship water to the mid east, just start an empty ship heading that way, and it can fill it's own holds with potable water.
Putting the reactors on land also makes it easier to connect to the electrical grid and use the power generated while you desalinate your water. Bonus!
I've seen many an engineer get side-tracked from the original goals by getting in a linear mindset.:-)
I could see the "first child conceived in space" or the "first birth in space"...
Well, I'll agree that the "first child conceived in space" might be interesting, I for one do not want to be on the spacecraft when her 'water breaks' for the "first birth in space". I can't even imagine all the problems caused by that event in zero-gee! Yuck!
I hope none of that splashes into your bourbon.;-)
Well, I guess it depends on how 'close' the family is.;-)
Ahem...anyway, I don't see a 12" display being useful beyond a personal/portable media device. At 20", it's finally entering the desktop monitor range. It will have to get bigger and cheaper before most people will invest in one these for the home TV.
Slashdot Mirror
Double tap to the body, then the kill shot to the head.
LOL!
That took me back 30+ years, to Urban Warfare training.
*Big Scary Drill Sergeant® yelling at us*
"Two in the chest, and one in the head,
and even the Jolly Green Giant will fall down dead!"
That explains why I have always been suspicious of Peking Duck.....
"Cry 'Fowl', and let slip the ducks of war!" (my apologies to Shakespeare)
Assclown was a bit much though.
You're correct, and my apologies also.
I had left a lot of info out just to keep it short and ontopic. Sorry for the confusion.
Actually, anti-hydrogen looks exactly like hydrogen, but with a goatee.
I misread that as goatse, and panicked!
Oddly enough, your comment still worked with my inadvertent substitution.
I think I've spent too much time on /. :-)
You are assuming too much, and doing too much 'reading between the lines'.
The pair I chronicled were successful semi-pro drag racers. They did not have Engineering degrees, formal or factory training, but had a proven track record for 'making cars go fast' to the drag racing community.
The purpose and focus of my posting the comment and car analogy was on topic for the 'Muscle Mouse' discussion, so I purposely did not go into long detail.
So, for YOUR narrow minded and OFFTOPIC comment reply, here goes:
The two guys, Dick and Al Jamison, were semi-pro drag racers. They earned their living by drag racing, and supported their hobbies by building Chevy race engines, drivetrains,
suspension mods, drag car frames, etc. for the region. (Hint: they made their primary means of living from WINS at the racetrack!)
I 'worked' there as a 'gopher' in 1972. I say 'worked' as I spent all of my spare time there...cleaning up the shop, fetching drinks, whatever.
In 1975 I was hired as an engine builder, following a blueprint...by 1976 I was designing the blueprints.
We were reliably getting 3.24 hp/cuid with a normally aspirated Chevy small block.
For example:
My 1969 Chevy Malibu with a 350 cubic inch displacement engine(cuid) dynomometer readings under load was 1138 horsepower, which run a best 1/4 mile time of 10.98 seconds. I usually ran in the 11.0-11.1 second bracket by unbolting the exhaust, installing the 5.56:1 gears in the Dana-60 'Quick change" rear-end, changing the rear tires for a pair of 'racing slicks'(one in the back seat, and one in the trunk to get there), and re-jetting/retuning the carb, and using a 50% H20/Chlorox bleach solution for the burnout in the staging lane. The driveshaft permanently had a restraining loop, a clutch shatter pack shield was in place around a highly modded TH400 automatic(well, semi-auto, heh!) tranny, with a Lenko Ratchet shifter, and a Line-Lock system on the brakes.
We(Jamison's Racing) had a 1964 Chevy II with one of our 454 engines running sub-10 second quarter-miles.
It was a 'what if' project to them.
BTW, the Ford 9" rearend was state of the art at the time, and 'bullet-proof'.
The Allison was later sold at an extreme profit.
Way to make assumptions, post 'offtopic', and confuse the facts...
The 'first time' that you allude to came after the trials and tribulations of the prototypes, and after they had only considered legal aspects for the Super Stock class of drag racers, using the best technology of the times.
Yeah, they could of applied this to the Unlimited class and succeeded, but they were competing in the Super Stock class.
It was a meant to be a basic/generic ONTOPIC car analogy, assclown.
On a brighter note, I recently visited a facility in Florida and sat in a shop with what looked like 50+ Allisons, Merlins, and possibly other assorted V-12 engines lined up on the shelves, so at least someone is preserving and refurbishing them.
Good for them! Those were amazing engines, especially the Merlins.
I had the good fortune(as a car nut) to grow up in Southern Maryland and saw some incredible stuff at Budd's Creek dragstrip. 'Jungle Jim' Liberman (with Jungle Pam--HAWT!!!), the 'Green Monster jet car, the 'Draggin' Wagon', 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits racing his dragster against a US Navy fighter launched from a steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, and other fun stuff was happening all the time.*sigh*
As a side note, I saw in HotRod magazine that someone had successfully integrated the Allison V-12 into a Ford Mustang that 'worked' about two years later.(if my fuzzy memory is still working, or the timeline has become distorted from huffing too many nitromethane fumes!)
I always wanted one of those Allison V-12's to hack into a drag car!
World records will be shattered.
Many more bones will also be shattered as well.
Tendons, ligaments, joints will be rupturing, snapping, popping.
They will sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies...SNAP! CRACKLE! POP!
Then there's the pesky cardiopulmonary support upgrades needed.
Obligatory car analogy:
In my misspent youth, I watched two guys install/hack an 1800 horsepower Allison V-1710 (V-12) form a decommissioned P-51 Mustang fighter, into a 1967 Ford Mustang.
To make a long story short, they ended up with a piece by failed piece custom drive-train. Then came the suspension/tire mods to actually use all that power.
The fateful test run at the drag strip started...the christmas tree turned green, the car launched...tires smoking, the car reared up about a foot when the wheelie-bars halted the rise. So far, all is well.
Then too many things happened at the same time: the rear tires shredded, the body/frame twisted so fast and to such an extent that both doors popped opened, the rear glass and windshield shattered and flew outward, and the hood came unlatched-but was held by the safety cable.
They never got the doors to stay shut after that and scrapped the project.
Ooops, it looks like you forgot the difference between Earth and Martian atmospheric densities.
Too lazy/disinterested to do the math, but a 100mph Martian wind has considerably less force/energy than a 100 mph Earth wind.
Furthermore, what the hell do you do with a dead cat?
Cure warts with them, of course!
Well, at least now we can opt-in to get a 'reach around' while good old Uncle Sam is continuing to bugger us all!
Were he alive today, even Johnny Wadd would have to be impressed by Uncle Sams performance and staying power.
Hhmmm...I think I just figured out were all of that blocked/filtered 'male enhancement' spam gets rerouted to...Washington, D.C. ;-)
Well, if you're going to be a pedantic asshat, then at least get your nomenclature correct.
Hint/get a clue/pro tip:
'Americans' consist of:
North Americans, which include Canada, USA, and Mexico
Central Americans, which include Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
South Americans, which include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Collectively, we are referred to as 'the Americas', and each country/nation in all three categories is its own sovereign nation.(well, mostly)
So try to be more specific in your asshattery for your future pedantic comments from now on.
Yeah, I assume you meant the USA citizens, but when you engage a war with semantics and pedantry, expect it to boomerang on you.
Does my phone need to be rooted or something?
Nah, just toss it in the clothes dryer for a while. ;-)
The tumbling will shake loose the pee, and the heat will take care of the rest.
My prediction: If 3D goes mainstream, the adverts will be horrendous!
I imagine all of the head bobbing, ducking and covering in the theater when an ad plays could be hilarious to watch. ;-)
How else I'm I supposed to download Firefox on a fresh install?
What always works for me is:
sudo apt-get install firefox
Piece of cake.
'Shark (78448); (#34070322)' got it right, in one.
I saw Black Sabbath at the Capital Centre[1] in
1973.
The band came out on stage...Tony Iommi plugged in, Geezer Butler plugged in, Bill Ward ran out and dropped behind the drums*drumroll!*...Ozzy staggers out between two speaker stacks
*falling twice* with a fifth/quart liquor bottle clutched in his right hand, wrestled the mic/stand into submission, and asked:
"Is everybody high?"*takes large drink from bottle*
"I said, is everybody high!?"
Chaos ensued there after.
IOW, a good time was had by all!
[1] Back then, it was advertised as residing in Largo, Maryland.
Apparently, a lot has changed!
My junior and senior years of high school, I averaged a concert there
every three weeks.
It was also one of two places for a rock concert(when I was in high school) when
a band 'played Wash., D.C.', the Nations Capital(TM); the other was
R.F.K. Stadium.
That, sir, was a cheap shot below the belt. ;-)
Skimming is for getting an idea of what to expect to learn.
I agree with what you meant. I find myself affected by this phenomenon as well.
When you have education/knowledge, it becomes easy to fill in the blanks.
The human mind is under a two-edged sword.
It is our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.
We can adapt and overcome, but we can also become adapted to some of the most fscked conditions.
I rationalise it as 'survival instinct'/evolution.
Pay no attention to 'WindWraith'. You're doing it right.
*shakes fist at 'WindWraith' for discouraging good behavior/mindset*
I envy youth and their good eyesight. Hell, I miss my own good eyesight when I was younger!
As an 'older than dirt, had to fight dinosaurs on my ten mile trek[one way] UPHILL, in a blizzard/sandstorm- both ways! to school everyday' crowd, I appreciate your efforts and way of thinking about web page design.
As an avid reader, I appreciate good text fonts both in real paper books, and various forms of e-books.
Tri-focal lenses, macular degeneration, and just plain old age changes your perspective and outlook!
I frequently read some comments here regarding screen resolution[and similar], and am struck with both amusement and envy. I seem to ask myself EVERY time two questions anymore:
How do they even see/distinguish crap that small?
Why are they going through that hassle?
Damn, I'm REALLY getting old!
BTW, if you are reading this reply, 'WindWraith', please take the comment as 'tongue-in-cheek' humour/sarcasm.
You do provide a valid and insightful comment about memories, IMHO.
Oh yeah, obligatory...
Hey you young punks, get off my lawn!
*start sarcastic attempt at humour*
Oh dude, you NEED one of these cards, like yesterday, man.
I pre-ordered one, stood in line last night, and today am the proud owner of one of these new shiny cards!
I'm just finishing the benchmarks now...wait a second...HAH!
Eleventy gajillion fps in Tuxracer! W00t!
And only for a $buck three-eighty!
*end sarcastic attempt at humour*
All joking aside...
I started my 'gaming' experience[semi-hardcore] around 1999-2000 with a PIII 800mHz w/ 512 MB RAM, and a nVidia TNT2-64(32 MB VRAM) AGP card.
For whatever reason, I had a lot of trouble caused by the gfx card. I switched to an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7000(64 MB VRAM) and loved it.
I stuck with that setup for Battlefield 1942, and all of the expansion packs.
I had to upgrade again for Battlefield Vietnam...ATI 9550, 128 MB. When that failed 2 years later[in the meantime, I had went from Win98SE, to a PIV, 3 GHz/2 GB RAM w/Win XP Pro, and dual-booting into GNU/Linux], I replaced it with another ATI 9550 card, only this time with a whopping 256 VRAM!
By now, I had learned the drill.
Think as far ahead with the motherboard/cpu socket/RAM slots and type/expansion slots as your budget allows.
Second priority...the hard drive. %00 GB minimum nowadays.
Fill in the blanks with lower to medium price components-these can be upgraded piecemeal as your finances allow.
ALWAYS look at 'bang for the buck' for all of the above. Here YMMV, depending on your own definition of best 'bang for buck'. Different needs/desires/goals change the definition.
Now I recognise your /. UID when I hit 'preview', you are not a stupid fscker...think it through.
Currently I am running an AMD Athlonx2_64 5200 w/ 4 GB 1066 DDR2 RAM, and an ATI 5670 1 GB VRAM PCIe-16 gfx card, and dual boot Win7_64 Ultimate, and Kubuntu 10.10, and found no unsatisfactory behavior.
Keep in mind though, that I am currently frantically searching my surplus pile for a machine of PII or PIII vintage that will run Win 98SE, has hardware drivers still available, will run Connectix Virtual Game Station(Sony PS1 emulator) and Front Mission 3.
My taste in PC games is old!
Look at the 'minimum required' spec's, look at the 'recommended spec's', then form some sort of comparison/ratio.
That is all I can say, as the vodka is taking over. You know, quit while y...
Man, that brought back memories!
I built my first solar still in 1966 with a black garbage bag, a washed 3lb. coffee can, 4 ft. of aquarium air tubing, two rocks, and an Army surplus entrenching tool, as a Cub Scout.
I'd guess that if I could do this from a rough sketch and a basic explanation of how it worked as an 8 year old kid, then a community with adults could also manage.
I must of accidentally drank some too. /. comments every time I snort vodka out of my nose, yet I keep doing just that.
I tell myself not to drink vodka while reading
I'm doomed!
*looks for rusty spork to commit seppuku with...*
...the ships can simply be run on nuclear. The US Navy already does this with many ships.
If you are going that route, just build a similar nuclear reactor on the shore and save the expense of the whole cargo ship.
Typically, those navy ships desalinate more potable water than can be used on the ship, and the excess is just dumped overboard as waste.
If you are determined to ship water to the mid east, just start an empty ship heading that way, and it can fill it's own holds with potable water.
Putting the reactors on land also makes it easier to connect to the electrical grid and use the power generated while you desalinate your water. Bonus!
I've seen many an engineer get side-tracked from the original goals by getting in a linear mindset. :-)
I could see the "first child conceived in space" or the "first birth in space"...
Well, I'll agree that the "first child conceived in space" might be interesting, I for one do not want to be on the spacecraft when her 'water breaks' for the "first birth in space".
I can't even imagine all the problems caused by that event in zero-gee! Yuck!
I hope none of that splashes into your bourbon. ;-)
Well, I guess it depends on how 'close' the family is. ;-)
Ahem...anyway, I don't see a 12" display being useful beyond a personal/portable media device.
At 20", it's finally entering the desktop monitor range. It will have to get bigger and cheaper before most people will invest in one these for the home TV.
Nah, they do the anal probing at the airports now.
Get with the times, man.