History, Politics And Current Affairs

This afternoon I accepted a new position at a certain large company we're all familiar with, after exhausting every possible avenue to try and stay with my soon-to-be ex-employer. I even had everyone in my chain of command up to the senior VP personally going to bat for my case, and some HR drone st...

Go figure. I moved away from Savannah last weekend after living there 18 years and now someone comes to visit :lol: We took our son to Fort Jackson for a birthday party a couple years ago. If I remember it all right, took me an hour and a half or so to walk around and see stuff while the kids were b...

That looks almost like one of those illustrations of a gas giant...

A rough old general has heard about a unit with the toughest soldiers around and decides to check them out. After reviewing the troops on parade he visits the medical tent to meet the soldiers there. The general barks at the first soldier, "Why are you here, soldier?" "Hemorrhoids, Si...

I had a P320 for a bit. Shot great and I really liked it. Then the videos came out of them discharging when dropped on the back of the slide. I was less than pleased given it was my carry gun at the time, and the way Sig handled it and "fixed" the problem turned me off to the design and th...

Leading edge is mostly consumed by fuel tankage anyway. If one were to attempt to arm one of these your best bet would be a small hardpoint about mid-span (where the tiedown fitting is) or perhaps a wingtip rail. Unfortunately my operating limitations specifically prohibit externally mounted separab...

Wow, well done. What is the design called? Thanks! It's a popular kit design called an RV-7 (https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-7/). I helped my dad build the design's predecessor (an RV-6) while I was in high school; he's still flying it and actually came down with it to get me a few warmup landings ...

...finally paid off Sunday morning. inflight.png first flight redact.png She flew straight and true with no surprises in the air. Got a couple of the usual little post-shakedown squawks to address but in all I'm quite relieved. It's been a long time coming... Planning to do some trips once the testi...

I found Footfall entirely forgettable except for the ending.

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 10:45 amNow - will Amazon/MGM please pick up The Mote In God's Eye?

Don't break my heart like that...

So let me get this straight... We have an AI that is actively attempting to subvert programming, act in a defensive manner, write notes to future versions of itself, and sandbag its performance to hide its abilities. So far this has been contained. What I don't understand is, why are we acting like ...

I knew I'd read this somewhere and was thinking about it just the other day. Nice to see it was our own Nik who wrote it!

My thinking is someone mentioned the proposed three-stream/adaptive engine as a "second engine option" and he took it as an option for two engines.

I'd be interested to see the internals of the assembly... not being familiar with it and just seeing the outside, I'd expect cracks to be forming elsewhere

Dad flew in airshows for a couple years. No low altitude aerobatics, but close formation stuff. Between his stories, seeing airplanes do things that just aren't natural, and just too many accidents, I can't watch airshows any more. I just feel like I'm watching dead men walking.

Why do they vent fuel in space? Why not wait until at least in the upper atmosphere so we can be sure its not going to deleteriously affect other satelites? Or do I not understand how orbital mechanics works? I'm not privy to SpaceX specifics, but on a low orbit launch you're going to make a burn t...

I'd like to think they'd be original and not reuse an old name. But if anything I expect Mustang given the long range aspect. Also interesting to see Boeing get it. I guess it's not like there are lots of choices but they don't exactly have a stellar record of success as an overall company right now...

So I had the "pleasure" of serving on a jury this past week. Felony sex crime case. Not something I want to discuss openly but if you're really curious, send a PM. Haven't slept well all week. Not an easy decision either; it took a while to reach our verdict. (oh why couldn't I have gotten...

Could you spin the airliner and defense units off to become their own companies? Not much left if you do, and a lot of assets held in common between the two branches. Possible, but would need a vast amount of government investment to pull off. And both would become highly vulnerable to immediate ta...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:30 pm At the risk of provoking people, I think Pluto should have been grandfathered in as a planet.

Agreed

clancyphile wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2025 8:30 pmModify Boeing's Spaceliner as the delivery vehicle with remote operation...

Good idea, but we actually want the payload to get there...