Re: #30. LOL. It makes you realize we are not the masters of the waters.

I used to waterski in an unnaturally placid part of the Moon River (Savannah GA) which is in the tidal area (i.e., brackish salt water.) Turns out it was calm because it was a very deep drop. One year a fellow won a shark fishing tournament by pulling a huge (10 plus foot) shark out of that drop. Can't remember now if it was a bull or a nurse shark, but both are known to nibble on people. Big sharks often attack going up; they hang around and wait for dinner to swim by above them. We found a different place to ski rather quickly.

I've found the easiest way to get the Rat Shack employees from following me around is, when they ask what I'm looking for, I say "tantalum capacitors". That usually works. I think if they focused more on Makers and tinkerers they might be surprised at the increased sales. Frankly, I don't give a crap about how they look, and can't imagine that you can do a whole lot in a typical strip mall location other than take merch out to open it up, which isn't (IMHO) the right direction to be going.

Dang, my coffee must have kicked in. I just looked at the picture again, and can see the grey top color line. They're right, it's a spinner.

Not a Photoshop expert, but I know sharks, and this is at least reasonable. Sharks are thick as thieves in Congress around FL beaches in summer, and for the same reason, that's where the goodies are. Fortunately at least with the sharks, 1) they won't bite (unless you look like a sardine) and 2) the water is usually cloudy enough that you don't see them anyway, so people don't worry about what they are up to.

I worry more about barracudas than sharks. They attack pretty much anything shiny (had a buddy get his hand chewed when a Cuda spotted his wedding ring.)

And #22 Biscuit, spinner shark approximately equals black tip shark. Both jump, and I can't tell from this picture which one it is (black tips are fatter and their top color goes farther down the side.) I like the silk worm farm post too. That sort of old high tech always fascinates me.

I'm glad that there were already a couple of orbital mechanics literate responses to the shooting pieces into a higher orbit question, so I won't duplicate their comments.

However, re: re-entry and hydrazine, depending on what kind of hydrazine it is, it might actually make sense to insure it doesn't get to ground level. Unlike ammonia or chlorine, some propellant hydrazine compounds have lethal doses that are less than sensory threshold (they used to tell us, if you smell it, you're already dead). And with only a couple of parts per million in the air being dangerous, even a couple of pounds coming down in Manitowoc, WI (where Sputnik landed so there's precedence) could do a lot of people in.

The chances of hydrazine making it to the ground aren't much, but they are not zero. If they hit the satellite, the chance of an intact fuel system is pretty close to zero, which not only reduces the chances of ground contamination, but also will probably provide a nice light show as it all cooks off.

All that being said, when I first heard this I thought it was very interesting that this once in a lifetime event happens just after the Chinese demo/fiasco. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.....