#15 MarkMarkMark -- I'm sure individual vegans and vegetarians have their own opinions, but apparently PETA is fully onboard with "test-tube meat", such that it's actually offering a research prize in that field:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89942776

AHHHH! Dad! It's the chicken heart!

Amusingly enough, this seems to have been an invention in search of a function. I remember reading about the genesis of HAARP back in the '80s. ARCO had a lot of "waste" natural gas as a result of it's Alaskan oil drilling operations -- expecially back then it wasn't economical to transport such gas, and it was generally just burned off. ARCO commissioned proposals of what might be done with the gas, and physicist Bernard Eastlund came up with the idea of burning it to generate power for "heating the ionosphere".

As for the point of such a thing... Research was one objective, but it was the possibility of jamming satellite and missile electronics that got the attention of DARPA. I also recall reference to possibly causing some sort of turbulence in the uppermost atmosphere near the pole, which could be used to disrupt the trajectories of incoming missile warheads from the then Soviet Union -- probably not enough to keep them from hitting the US, but enough to discourage a nuclear first strike against our missiles by ruining the attacker's accuracy. Had that proved workable, I thought it was a great idea, in that unlike most "Star Wars" programs it didn't require great advances in targeting technology, and it would have tended to support, rather than disrupt, the truce of "Mutually Assured Destruction"

In any event, once the Defense Establishment got involved, Eastlund and other unreliable civilian types got edged out, the project "went black", and the rumors began. Any lifting of the secrecy veil seems likely to me to indicate that the defense applications haven't panned out, and the parties who've built careers on the project are looking for alternative sources of funding.

Thank you, Takuan. I bear your honor proudly. :)

The "SS Major" has three diagonal pips on his left collar tab, indicating that he's actually only a Lieutenant or Captain. But you have to hand it to them to have made these detailed enough to nitpick.

This being the web, you just know there are hundreds of white felt glove fetishists reading that and saying "YESSSSSS!"

Contrary to the map in the article, the Maginot Line never actually extended beyond the French-German border. The French fully expected the Germans to attack through Belgium (as they had in WWI) rather than assault the Line, and channeling the Germans in that fashion was one of the intentions of building the forts -- it would keep the war off French soil, and insure Belgian and British participation in the war on France's side. The collapse of France was not so much due to a strategic failure, as to the operational mistake of advancing too rapidly into Belgium after the German attack, while leaving the southern flank (bordering the Maginot line) too weak.

Interestingly, the Germans did assault the Maginot Line proper in a sort of side show after the French had largely collapsed. They did penetrate the line fairly quickly, but without capturing, or even doing much damage to, the forts themselves.
http://www.efour4ever.com/44thdivision/failure.htm

Fire resistant filter hoods have been around for some time:
http://www.thetravelinsider.info/travelaccessories/evacu8smokehood.htm

If there's enough oxygen present for there to be a fire, there should be enough for you to breathe, it's the toxic and hot gasses that get you, as well as hot air and smoke blinding you so you can't find your way to an exit. Hoods like the "Evac-U8" buy you time against both of those threats. Even if the smoke itself still obscures vision, you have a better chance at picking up visual cues if your eyes aren't painfully tearing.

I'm with Putney on the practical issues. The landing gear are in no way "frictionless", and there will be sufficient friction between the landing gear and the belt in pretty much any system for the belt's drag to keep the plane from moving forward under thrust, especially with a mere ultralight engine providing that thrust. There are two ways to get the plane to take off:

1) Reduce the friction between belt and plane. Magical frictionless bearings in the wheels would work, but the only real world option would probably be some sort of air-cushion/"hover" landing gear.

2) Overcome the friction between belt and plane, with sufficiently powerful engines or rockets.

Post three hours hosted by Martha Quinn and I'll be so there.

And if some young punk harasses her while she's gardening, she can also throw them into the Gowanus Canal.

I also remember the towers getting blown away in Meteor, Dave X.
http://www.coolcinematrash.com/movies/meteor.htm
My conspiracy theory is that they were constructed with some sort of secret asteroid-attracting alloy.

I suspect that this may be a repurposing of an old Warsaw Pact chemical warfare decontamination unit -- In those, a jet engine was used to spray a bleach solution to blast nerve and/or mustard gas residue off of armored vehicle hulls.

Schmod -- I believe that pic's an "artist's conception" paste-up job. Per this article, the only airship ever to attempt a mooring at the ESB was a Navy blimp, and that unsuccessfully:
http://nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=2862

Wikipedia having fallen down on the job, here's a site with a bit more info on the "Pear" and other European instruments of punishment and/or torture.

http://www.occasionalhell.com/infdevice/

DTPhantom -- I understand the preference for the plain silhouette in a sporting context, but I would think that distraction and visual clutter would be appropriate to introduce in a self-defense training context.

Though granted, vainglorious hero fantasies aside, picking off a hostage taker isn't a very likely self-defense scenario...

And I do nowadays find Ron Jeremy measurably less creepy than Macaulay Culkin...

Wouldn't these blocks be a bit more hazardous than logs in terms of producing more flying embers that might ignite things in your chimney, or outside?

The Comstock Act apparently came into force in 1873, so it would indeed probably have been illegal to mail such material.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comstock_Law

For more 19th Century naughtiness, check out the Barrison Sisters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrison_Sisters

Perhaps he's spent some time with Don LaRose?

http://donlarose.com/

I'm very much opposed to authoritarian governance. I'm not especially opposed to authoritarian culture. No one should be able to throw you in jail or brutalize you because of your different views, but they shouldn't have to accept you either.

I'll therefore support any movement that opposes using government to enforce conformity. I shall mock and oppose any movement that supports using government to enforce diversity.

LaRose's blog now claims that his alleged abductors were only pretending to be satanists, and he laments how the press has distorted his story.

http://donlarose.com/3.html

'cause it's so much more credible now...

It does fall short of saying that the contributor has no further right to use the joke themself, but it wouldn't be too big a leap for them to start asserting that. I suppose modern intellectual property law is in such a state that corporations adopt a "scorched earth" policy -- "We can only protect ourselves from legal action by seizing sole, unquestioned rights to all material."

On those occasions when I tip in cash, but pay with credit, I typically write "cash" in the tip line of the bill, and re-enter the total on the total line. I guess this wouldn't prevent someone from entering a different amount over the Zon machine, but it does discourage "scribbling" of the sort described.

It's hard for me to read that without John Cleese's voice in my head...

Stefan Jones -- That's a fair indictment of whatever the Discovery Institute has to say about ID, but it doesn't necessarily mean that there are no sincere proponants of ID, or that they all have some broader political agenda.

I don't happen to think that ID should be taught as science, but I don't think that Darwinian evolution should be taught as theology either.

The problems aren't confined to the context of terrorism, even if that's currently the most conspicuous manifestation. You see similar patterns in everything from school security to corporate employee relations.

Part of the problem is a flight from individual discretion. Fears of liability if something should go wrong make both individuals and institutions retreat into rote procedure. But I'm not sure how one combats that without eroding accountability.

I'm guessing it was one of those new... interestingly contoured... seats, like these:
http://shopproducts.howstuffworks.com/Sport+and+Outdoor/SF-7/BEFID-96424/DNATRS-brand_planet_bike-bicycle_seats_and_covers

The "pavement lover" reminds me of the Clive Barker short story "The Age of Desire", where the subject of an aphrodesiac experiment goes on a rampage, and attempts something similar with a convenient aperture in a concrete wall.

No mystery to me. The women's behavior changes. As in pretty much every field, a committed and motivated worker does a better job.

My magnetic strips get screwed up enough just from use, so I'll allow that non-lethal doses of radiation might be a problem for them. I've never cut myself on a coin edge either, but small, conductive bits floating around a space station might well cause trouble...

But I'll testify for Skep in the trial over unauthorized use of his/her revolutionary "folding money" concept. ;)

That RoboDoc console really needs some design adjustments. It looks way too butt-like to keep a straight face while a surgeon sits there intently with his or her face buried in it.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/93-test+driving+a+robodoc.html

So _that's_ how those aliens did it in The Abyss...

Years ago on a visit to Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia I saw an old grave that appeared to have a kind of peaked skylight over it in lieu of being filled in. Grass and weeds had grown on the inside, such that you couldn't actually see very far down into it, but it was certainly eye-catching. I'm not sure what condition it's in today. Laurel Hill has had its ups and downs in terms of maintenance.

Barbie would never dirty her hands actually killing someone. Presumably she put Ken up to it, and then he turned state's evidence about 20 seconds after the cops picked him up.

Though realistically I would expect a jury to believe her tearful testimony over his, putting Ken away for life in the best noir tradition. Presumably he'd end up the boy toy of one or more GI Joe villains.