In Pacific Rim, F-22 Raptor pilots careen at chest level with the monsters, spraying them with machine gun fire. (I suppose their missiles have been exhausted.) The stealth warplanes, probably the most maneuverable ever devised by engineers, are then knocked out the sky by the creature's claws. Think about it: Why would a pilot ever get within range of a monster's limbs?
But why shoot them at all: Why not kill them with a virus or poison (it worked for HG Wells)...
and Hollywood also needs a geography lesson: Hollywood thinks Manila is on the Pacific coast, not bordering the shallow West Philippine Sea...(well, maybe they evolved in the Manila trench).
no I haven't seen the movie: but I'll let you know if it's any good after the pirates start selling it for a dollar at the Palenke.
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as for "send in the droids": StratPage has an article on these little ones.to find mines and clear roadside bombs...
The MMP 30
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Will turning off the extra gene in Down's syndrome "cure" the disease?
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the Taliban, who has killed teachers and students and destroyed many schools for girls (not to mention health care workers) is shocked, shocked, that Malala told the UN that they were the ones who shot her.
However, he refuses to condemn the attack, saying the judgement on whether it was correct or not should be left to God.Uh, I don't think God is in favor of trying to kill 12 year old girls just because they write a blog about how happy they are to be able to go to school, but that's just me...
I mean, the Prophet's first wife was a smart businesswoman...guess the Taliban would have killed her too...
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In the midst of a major heat wave, the city has imposed Water restrictions for for 150 thousand customers due to a large pipe leaking has "stopped a major disaster"...
no, not Manila...a suburb of Washington DC...
this article from last winter blamed the problem on the cold weather.
and brags:
Serving a 1,000-square-mile area, WSSC maintains more than 5,500 miles of water mains. That's enough pipe to stretch from Washington, D.C. to California and back! And we’re replacing more than 35 miles of pipe each year.well, hoopdie-doo. That means the system will replace old pipes with new ones every 240 years or so...
boats.
the website of the WSSC (posted in March) admits that the problem is aging pipes:
As WSSC moves toward 100 years of service, we are faced with aging (deteriorating) pipes and valves. As of December 2009, almost 26% (about 1,443 miles of water mains out of nearly 5,573 miles we maintain) are more than 50 years-old. Approximately 1,973 miles of mains (35%) are between 31 and 50 years-old; 547 miles of pipe (10%) are 25-30 years old; the remaining 1,610 miles of pipe (29%) was installed in the last 25 years.
The older pipes (installed before 1931 and up to 1975) are either cast iron or asbestos cement, and have reached their natural life span (see chart). The aging process is driven by corrosion of the metallic pipes by the soil and by water in cases of internally unlinecaed pipes.
this isn't the first time they've had problems: they had a major break in 2011 LINk
If this happened in the Philippines, we'd suspect that a politician was pocketing the maintenance money. So what is the problem in Washington??
"The major water main breaks that have become near epidemic in our region and elsewhere tell us that major parts of the system are too old and too frail to hold together much longer," he said in a statement.
This is not the first time a water main break has caused major problems for the WSSC. Officials shut down a 96-inch main last summer and imposed water restrictions after an inspection indicated there could be weaknesses in the pipe. In late 2008, a 66-inch main burst along River Road in Bethesda, requiring motorists to be rescued by helicopter and firefighters in
and no, you can't blame it on the recent budget cuts...
as for us: We have our own deep well with a water pump.
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Factoid of the day: weather forecasting has a long history:
As far back as 650 BC, the Babylonians used astrology and cloud patterns to try and figure out what to wear that week, and a few hundred years later, Aristotle wrote about weather patterns and predictions in his 340 BC work Meteorologica... We do have evidence that around 300 BC, both Indian astronomers and the Chinese were developing their own methods of weather forecasting. Some of these methods relied on observed patterns of events, also known as pattern recognition.
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The Benghazi "talking points" time line...
Yes, but the press ignored that Sean Smith, aka VileRat warned his fellow gamers (and presumably his superiors) that he saw professionals casing the joint for an attack 90 minutes before it started...
So not just the Obama adminstration tried to rewrite what they knew was an attack, but the press ignored the Wired story that went against their helping in the cover up.
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the "WTF" Medical headline of the day:
Cyborg Cow heart to undergo human trials.
it uses cow tissue instead of plastic for the part that is in contact with blood. Plastics caused the blood to clot too much.
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In one word: Plastics.
BPA again implicated in causing problems when the chlorine used to purify water hits the plastic it gets worse...
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It's now official: Hobbits are humans.
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guess what: Keeping tabs open on your browser uses a lot of electricity.
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Hate Sells
yeah. I hate to visit facebook because one of my friends puts her "two minute hate" there a couple times a week. Often it is pure religious bigotry, but alas, anyone visiting the internet knows that hatred is religion is "in". Uncle Orson call your office.
first they came for Carrie, then they came for Manny....
related item:
The Cult of the Ugly
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