>> ^gwiz665:
Where's my damn flying car!? This is the future, dammit.

Actually those already exist, they're just very very expensive ($1M+).


>> ^ponceleon:
when you think computer, it is pretty synonymous with bug, hack, locked up, error, and ultimately unreliability.

That's "personal computers" though. Consumer models are built for function over absolute reliability... they're a heap of software from dozens of companies. Most problems are caused by users.

The software running in emergency rooms and air traffic control are fairly stable, but that's because reliability was one of their top design goals (over performance and feature set).

Luckily I wrote this out for somebody a few days ago:

When I was still fairly new in the air and about 22 years old, I was flying from Montreal to Winnipeg by myself in a rented Cessna as part of my pilot training. Because a Cessna 172 goes about 200 KPH and has enough fuel for four hours maximum, and the total distance was over 2,000 km, this meant many hours of flight and a lot of fuel stops.

Nearing the Quebec-Ontario border, I landed in Val d'Or to refuel and get a new weather briefing for my route. I called the weather service and they said I could probably expect to get to Timmins, ON, an hour away, without the three thousand foot ceiling coming down on me. I took off and flew west, and after about half an hour, it sure as hell did.

A hard rain drummed so intensely on my wings that it drowned out the loud drone of the engine and the cloudbase fell rapidly so that I couldn't see far at all. I had just passed Rouyn-Noranda with its airport and I turned back towards it, but by the time I was over downtown the weather made it so I couldn't see the airport anymore even though it was only four miles away. At the time I wasn't qualified to fly by instruments only and I was already in a pickle, and if the weather lowered much more then I would be basically blind and with diminishing hopes of getting to terra firma since only helicopters can land without at least a bit of forward visibility.

I was on the radio with the unicom operator at the airport, but as with most medium-small airports, he was no air-traffic controller, basically just a guy with a radio and a couple other gizmos but no radar and no real training when it came to helping a pilot in trouble -- which I was on the verge of becoming.

I was beginning to fly a sort of ersatz search pattern looking for the airport and I was starting to just head for whatever lights I could see through the darkening fog but they kept turning out to be this farm or that one and the weather seemed to be getting worse, with its attendant visibility loss and my odds slowly but steadily falling off more yet. It was a bit like going 100 on the freeway in fog when you can only see one second in front of you but no way to really slow down or otherwise make things safer. The rainclouds were creeping into the cockpit, damp and cold, and I couldn't help thinking it was the kind of air you find in a tomb.

Then all at once the next cluster of lights turned out to be the Noranda airport and I shouted my glee and relief over the radio. The landing itself was utterly simple and I taxiied to the apron and got out and got wet in the steady rain as I tied the airplane down. As I was finishing up, the rain came down much harder and the sky fell much more and I thanked God I wasn't still up there because getting down without a crash would've been twice as hard. I visited the stubby aerie where the unicom guy sat alone -- we were about the same age -- and I thanked him for his help and hung out for a little while, unwinding, before I called a cab to take me to a hotel in town.

I suppose I'm generally OK with property. I also love me some government handouts, like air traffic controllers and whutnot.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
So, are you bothered by property rights?

How are you and Issy? I hope you're both well, and enjoying some socialist handout somewhere.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Wow. The cartoonist really kicked the shit out of that strawman. FINISH HIM!

>> ^Chaucer:
good choice of music.


Whenever I watch BBC programs I often seem to find myself listening to my playlist. I think the BBC has an archive of music all their programs can use without paying royalties, so that helps. Top Gear is another program where the music choice seems to be nicked from my PC...

The actual documentary...goes very slowly. Cox is a great teacher, but if you ever took physics you'll probably wish he would skip on a little bit or go into more detail. There are some great points here explained eloquently. I particularly liked the Scientist in the Air Traffic Control Tower and the notion of civilisation running on fossil fuel batteries, points that everybody should fully understand regardless of how it relates to Fusion Power.

Overall Cox makes a good case for the investment into Fusion Power, and indeed new technology in general. The urgency of impending energy crisis doesn't seem to be filtering into the public so this documentary is a much needed alarm call, I really hope enough people hear.

The air traffic controllers sound more fazed by the whole thing than the pilot. He's cool as ice!

>> ^charliem:
...any planes not responding to be declared possible enemy and have fighter escort with authority to shoot down if deemed necessary.

That has been standard procedure for the last ~30 years, the only time it has not happened, was 9/11.

When a commercial plane goes off it's flight plan by more than a few degrees, it is contacted by air traffic control, if it doesn't respond properly, ATC contacts the military, who scrambles two fighters, those fighters time on target is usually less than 8 minutes from the time of course deviation.

Here's the full story:

http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=2971

If you just want the highlights, the pilot of this craft, LCMD John Stacy Bates failed to take appropriate action after his engine stalled, causing the craft to go into an uncontrollable spin (sounds eerily like Top Gun). Both he and his RIO ejected safely and were recovered by the ship from which this video is taken. The explosion was likely caused by a part of the engine coming loose from the force of the spin and piercing the fuel tank in the process.

Incidentally, Bates later was killed along with his RIO in another F-14 accident that also killed several people on the ground in Tennessee.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9601/nashville_plane/f14_folo/index.html

Also, he is not breaking the sound barrier in this video. The ring you see is caused by water vapor being pushed away from the aircraft (see thread here: http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/showthread.php?t=39693). That's why you see the ring form and disappear multiple times.

The second page of that thread has some interesting comments from the Navy Air Traffic Controller on duty at the time of this vid's accident.

Just bring a MP3 player, close your eyes, recline your seat and focus on listening to the music. That's the best way I know to relax.

Also, watch this video and this video. If all these airplanes make it without anything happening to them, what is the chance of something happening in your flights?

^
congrats, doc!

a recent favorite from your queue:

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Right-Stuff-the-crash-of-the-NF-104

If you ever want to feel like a true whimp, read "Yeager" the autobiography. I get nervous merging into freeway traffic.

"Hello, air-traffic control. I'm in a flat spin and falling like a rock. Would you order a pizza and have a beer ready when I get down. I ate a light breakfast. Hang on, I see the ground now, I'd better eject. Don't come get me, I'll catch a cab back to the airfield."

i cannot vouch for these books, but I would say there IS information out there pertaining to chemtrails.

__________________________________

Chemtrails Confirmed
by W Thomas
Book Description
Chemtrails are reported all around the planet and this is the first research record to verify what Airline Pilots, Police Officers, U.S. Marines, Air Traffic Controllers and Tanker Crews are reporting. This book will reveal the scientist who are working n the project, Congressman who oversaw "America's exotic weapons" project and the details so you can understand the Chemtrail project

About the Author
William Thomas is an independent journalist. His previous works include Scorched Earth: The Military's War Against the Enviroment and Bringing the War Home, a book which shows the suppression of the inoculations of troops in the first Gulf war and the diseased troops brining home the diseases to their family and friends.

__________________________________

Contrails, Chemtrails & Artificial Clouds
by Dave Dahl

The author, a Navy veteran and former university teacher, carefully explains how these toxic stratospheric clouds absorb and re-emit solar energy, warming the stratosphere; and greenhouse gases introduced by jets into the upper atmosphere cause additional heat to be trapped, preventing its escape into space and ultimately warming the Earth, altering our climate. His presentation is objective, informative and makes excellent use of aerial photography, charts and graphs. This science in chewable bite size paragraphs and bullet points is an outstanding introduction for anyone interested in advocating on behalf of cleaner air and slowing global warming (and that should be all of us). It gives readers an excellent overview, glossary of terms and an extensive listing of web sites that are additional recourses.

__________________________________


“H. R. 2977 of the 107th Congress (1st Session)” introduced by Dennis Kucinich on October 2, 2001 titled, "Space Preservation Act of 2001." In section, "B" of this bill you will find the term, "chemtrails" listed under exotic weapons systems.

"The term `exotic weapons systems' includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space." (Bill H.R. 2997 of the 107th Congress - Space Preservation Act of 2001)

Additionally, The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques clearly states that, "each state party undertakes not to engage in military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques."

"As used in Article I, the term "environmental modification techniques" refers to any technique for changing -- through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes -- the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space." (Article 2 of The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques)



__________________________________

No, I don't want "to take their side." However, I do want to continue to point out that the government is directly responsible for creating an environment in which these theories are encouraged to run rampant.

For example:
The contents of the jetliners' black boxes have never been made public.

Records of the alleged calls from the planes have never been produced.

Interviews with air traffic controllers have been destroyed.

The steel from the collapsed World Trade Center buildings was rapidly recycled without forensic examination.
The FBI, by its own admission, has failed to turn up "a single piece of paper" linking the alleged hijackers to the plot.

If people are expected to accept the official story, simple measures such as declassifying this information would go a long way towards lifting the veil of mystery. I will continue to press for an answer that actually satisfies the facts of the day. Until the government begins to release this information, I'm not sure how any rational, thinking person can be convinced one way or the other.

I wonder if this might be some kind of propaganda, for which side I couldn't tell ya. But from what I've heard from travelers to NK, one would be lucky to see that many cars pass by in a year, let alone a few minutes. Whaddya think? Although I suppose it is possible that there's some very busy location that does get a lot of traffic.

P.S. Somebody find that video of the Air Force air traffic controller for comparison.

P.P.S. Where can I buy her?