Using a mountainside might help with structural integrity, but it's not likely to give much air resistance advantage if I'm reading the math correctly. The 5 highest peaks in the US are all in Alaska and and range from just under 5km to just over 6km. Commercial jets using air resistance/density for lift fly at about 10km and even at 38km aerodynamic lift still carries 98% of the weight of the plane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line)

Air density is halved at 5km compared to sea level, but air resistance doesn't diminish as quickly (due to it being multiplied by velocity squared and drag coefficient), and only becomes irrelevant (for short-term purposes) around 100km at the Karman Line.

If we had a 5km peak in Florida, the lack of logistical costs might make the benefits worth it, and if we could build on one of Equador's 5km peaks, then there's the further advantage of equatorial location for optimal rotational advantage (part of the reason we launch from South Florida)

Eh, people who are quick witted tend to be smart in general. I think he's probably good.

Quick! Call Peta proto! Not... to some, fur & skin are really survival-wear.

I love the idea, echoed by the Supreme Court, that if this methodology is found to be legal, there’s nothing at all stopping states from using it to outlaw things protected by the constitution, like arms, religions, hate speech, anything the state legislature decides is unwanted, and using cash prizes to incentivize citizens into enforcing them. One can only hope Republicans see the truth in that prognostication and quickly move to make these laws constitutionally invalid….otherwise these laws will quickly invalidate the constitution.

Edit: If California decides the bounty on anyone owning an “assault style weapon” is $1000000, what’s to stop them? What’s to stop Austonians and Houstonians voting for the same thing in Texas? Suddenly it doesn’t sound like such a great idea…..right? Republicans only love the constitution when it’s convenient….so we have to make it convenient (or make end running around it unthinkable).

I wonder, @bobknight33, do you know why these Haitians are showing up now from South and Central America? It’s because they keep hearing Biden has opened the borders and is allowing anyone in.
Where do you think they keep hearing these lies?
It’s from Republicans who love to go on tv and lie about Biden. The migrants are saying exactly that, at home in Columbia they see American politicians constantly saying the borders are wide open, of course they see that as their chance to legally become Americans, they have no idea that the people saying that are liars exaggerating to make Biden look bad, they think they’re honest.
This is what the Haitians say, Bob. They’re here now because Trump and Graham and McConnell all said it’s open border time….not because of anything Biden or any Democrats did or said.

Btw- this encampment is gone now, with most deported, many back to Haiti. I expect your kudos for Biden’s quick work to be forthcoming.

The camera isn't racist. The homeowner might be a racist (we would not know unless he/she uploads every instance of such attempts to give a cold-hard-fact account that's free of manipulation -- even though that's STILL not factoring in the socio-econo-racial problem of the neighborhood -- if you choose to see things with a racial lens). But the comment absolutely is racist.

Years ago, living in my suburb home, my bike was stolen by 2 kids (garage door was open as I was mowing the lawn, but I went inside for the loo for 2 mins), I was lucky and spotted them about 5~6 streets down (took 2 lucky correct turns). They were 2 kids about 8~10 y.o. One White one Asian. Guess which one was the older, pack leader (hold my adult-size bike) and absolutely showing no remorse after getting caught?

Regardless, the kids parents might have a hard life working on weekends at low paying jobs so couldn't spend time with these kids. Who knows? I'm not so quick to judgement without knowing the root causes.

Thing is, I blame society-at-large and not see it as a racial thing. Kids are kids, easy to succumb to such temptation without good parental/peer/mentor guidance. Especially nowadays, they see adults making a CAREER/LIVING as Porch Pirates, what examples are adults giving them to imitate? You have like 40% of the adult population celebrate con mans and elect them Senators, Governors & President!

@noseeem

Yep I'm shitty with grammar and spelling But I can fix anything and hold my own in front any Dr. or C suite within my field of expertise.

Personal experience? BSEET Penn State.
33 years as a medical Field service Engineer.


28 years working for Global conglomerates and 5 years in house at UNC Chapel hill NC.
I’ve been with Siemens Medical and General Electric most of my career.
I’ve serviced/ install Cathlabs, Vascular labs, Rad/ RF rooms and Mammo rooms. Plus others.


Last 20 years installing / servicing Medical Ultrasound.
This includes Cardiac, Radiology ultrasound and Woman’s health, OBGYN
I’ve seen more ultrasounds hearts and heartbeats than you can imagine..
Being Hippa compliant, I look at images for quality and for servicing.

All the Techs I talk to say the same . Heartbeat starts about the 6 to 10 week of pregnancy
And yes there are images that capture this along with all the other images and measurements. Doppler is used for this.

Per quick Google search
When does the heartbeat show on ultrasound?
A fetal heartbeat may first be detected by a vaginal ultrasound as early as 5 1/2 to 6 weeks after gestation. That's when a fetal pole, the first visible sign of a developing embryo, can sometimes be seen. But between 6 1/2 to 7 weeks after gestation, a heartbeat can be better assessed.

Your fucking up the wrong tree today. Go back to being the big guy at you high school.

You can even do this at home

Right after Jackass came out, a couple of friends-of-a-friend decided to stage their own version of the movie -- with a hornet's nest. They found the thing hanging from a tree at the edge of a field and it was not remotely on the small size. Also, this was in late August and the queen had already flown away, leaving the drones to slowly starve to death. Thus, the enormous number of stripey-stripey sting-stings were already good 'n' pissed-off.

They were about to get moreso.

So chowderhead A and chowderhead B have a brilliant plan: they're going to shoot this enormous ball full of astoundingly-irate murderous insects with a shotgun while they're filming it. If you're hearing banjos playing and luke-warm cheap beers being cracked open, you're about in the right frame of mind.

Places, everybody!

The stage is set: on one end, at what's decided to be "minimum safe distance", are our erstwhile David Attenborough/Jonny Knoxville knock-offs. At a decidedly NOT minimum safe distance away is the arthropod version of the T'sar Bomba. All we're missing now is a Mossberg, enough idiocy to think this can end any way but badly, and a camera. With far too much alacrity for what's about to happen, all three are provided.

Aaaaaand, ACTION!

* BOOOM! *

At first, surprisingly, nothing happens. This period of stasis lasts roughly a picosecond. Then, unsurprisingly, things start to happen and they happen far more quickly than the Chuckle Brothers planned on. This plays out in three acts:

Act 1: "Hey, uh, why is the nest still there?"
Act 2: "Uh-oh..."
Act 3: "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!"

Hubris takes many forms, and schadenfreude takes twice as many, but both combined were statistically zero compared to the number of hornets involved in this fiasco. Had the two Mensa escapees who irked said hornets thought this thing through -- stop laughing -- perhaps they would have arrived at the conclusion that 1. a shotgun slug is not the preferred load-out when dealing with a ball made out of wasp puke and 2. being the only two things visible within a 20 mile radius of the ball made out of wasp puke pretty much negates the mystery of who the hornets are going to sting the ever-loving fuck out of.

With their plans in ruins and the nest not, our heroes decide to quit the field. This is the first smart thing they've done since looking at that big ball of wasps and deciding it was redolent with untapped hilarity. The hornets are having none of this white flag nonsense, however, and they decide to quit screwing around and really inflict some pain. It's a quarter mile back to the car and the hornets are going to make them pay for every inch of it.

The final score:
Hornet losses: meh, they were all going to die in a few weeks anyway.
The chucklenuts: 23 stings, a dropped shotgun, and three minutes of footage that they took in the pre-YouTube era and thus is lost to time.

Moral:
Hornets are not toys.

Lol....Faux news and Lary Elder, the black face of white supremacy who says descendants of slaves aren't due reparations but descendants of slave owners should be paid reparations*, are already admitting defeat and claiming vote fraud in the California recall, despite there being no results in yet, no actual fraud claims, and a week left to vote.

Polling indicates both that the recall will fail and if by chance it doesn't, Elder will lose....badly. (He's the leading republican candidate). That's why they're suddenly claiming fraud....claiming it by saying, just like Trump did, "the only way we can lose is if there's vote fraud", not by showing a scintilla of evidence of fraud.

Motherfucker, you're a republican in California in 2021, the only way for you to win any office bigger than a county office is fraud.

Republicans are a minority in California and are moving in droves to Texas now to avoid paying taxes (and they're quickly regretting it)....and Texans are pissed, they hate them and call them liberals. They have no chance of legitimately winning elections.

LMFAHS!!

* to do the math on Elder's slave owner reparation idea....$300 per slave/kidnapped and captive torture victim they had in 1863 dollars adjusted to 2021 dollars, that's $8,109 per person in just principal...add 159 years of compounding interest on $300 ($2,258,343,945.96 in interest each) as he of course thinks is only proper, and multiply by 3-4 million (number of slaves freed) it comes to well over the value of every penny the U.S. has and all assets in the country by far (approximately $6,775,000,000,000,000 on the low end).

That's apparently his brilliant plan to deal with racism and the economy...pay off those poor slave owners by giving them the whole nation lock, stock, and barrel and an iou for the other $6650000000000000 we owe those poor slave owners.

believe the idea is that all of us do or don't engage in things that we don't necessarily enjoy (or enjoy). either for legality or decency or the stir, it causes...

- breastfeeding
- pistol wearing in town
- hats at weddings/funerals/churches
- shutting off cells at the same and more
- wheels on busy sidewalks
- not heckling the priest's sermon ("YOU SUCK FATHER!")*

some of these are up to the person, some not as bad as others, but common sense SHOULD guide sane people.

'tho if COVID becomes a public health crisis (ala Black Death-esque) they'll find where their freedom meets real oppression (Thyphoid Mary on a large scale).

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2020/youraba-april-2020/law-guides-legal-approach-to-pandemic/

personally, the idea that I could end up killing someone quickly replaced my health concerns. if found someone died because wasn't wearing a mask - would kill me.

so, in short, hope any/or all of these blunts find themselves in a situation where their car won't start. and no one will help them 'til them mask up.

"just need a part!"
"not until you observe our policy of public health! here's a mask...and if you'd put on shoes and a shirt..."

bet they'd do it for their f'n car. but for little bobby or old man Thorney?

...hope a camel w/a huge lip blister kisses them straight on the mouth.

reminds me of a song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFRDimvVimw

testify.



* Bobcat gag

The RNC reportedly just removed the pages on their website where for the last 18 months they had bragged about the historic "peace deal" (read as unconditional surrender to the Taliban and abandonment of the Afghan government) Trump negotiated with the Taliban that included the total withdrawal of American troops by May 1st and the ONLY stipulation was the Taliban not directly and intentionally attack US soldiers during the retreat. Of course, there was no peace deal, only a temporary ceasefire against Americans while we withdrew....but not a ceasefire between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban, and without our support the Afghanis folded like a Trump run business.

I guess the Republicans wanted kudos for "negotiating with" (surrendering to) 12th century religious zealots who had no intention of sharing power or keeping their agreements, while not involving the government of Afghanistan in talks about their nation, making it a certainty the zealots would quickly regain full control of Afghanistan and our 20 years of nation building (and all the American lives lost and billions spent) would be a waste, but now they don't want responsibility for the foreseeable results. Why does that sound familiar? (Covid)

How'd you like Lindell's "proof" today? 5 columns of....numbers? Letters? Matrix symbols? It looked like his cat rolled on his keyboard and his crack addled brain said "we got em now!"
Yep....he sure proved election fraud with that. I guess Trump will be moving back to DC.

🤦‍♂️

It's disappointing the cyber ninja lie fell apart so quickly...gullible you only had an hour or so to buy in before people with brains figured out they compared the mail in ballots sent list with the mail in ballot and early in person voting received list. I wanted you more invested before the bubble burst, next time. You were going to be so ready for civil war based on those 74000 votes they assured you were frauds but turned out to be their own incompetence at best, or much more likely another attempt to dupe the gullible and harvest your cash. Now what will you do with your white male rage?