TheMadCap

too easy...

And they just picked up Leon Washington from the Jests...

change the record Freak, your sound is played out...

Usually means there is a good reason. I trust the FO. I am not sure why, but I do...

I think it's a porn star. seriously, I trust Buddy, he knows what he's doing. Lets give them a chance...

wow, when old Iceman is the voice of reason around here, maybe the Bills really have turned a corner!

You are aware that the astronaut corp is made up primarily of Navy and Air Force men and women? Hell, they were ALL military until the first group of shuttle astronauts were selected in the late 70's. To be precise, most are in the military or have been at sometime in thier careers. Actually, it caused quite a bit of head bumping internally for a while until they all got comfortable around each other. Access to space has been the province of government forever. It is only recently that private enterprise has been allowed to perform launches. This is one of the problems (IMO) with NASA, they are the biggest bully on the block. If you have an idea for a rocket or launch system, and you don't have thier blessing, you can forget it. So yes, the first people to walk on Mars will undoubtably be government sanctioned: either military and/or scientific personnel. A mission of that magnitude will absolutely necessitate government (tax payer) funds, so they get to say who goes...

Woah, hang on there. I didn't realize you were talking colonization already. I think we've got to GET THERE and BACK before we go trying to live there. There is a MASSIVE difference between going to Mars and back, and attempting a permanent outpost there. There have been several civilians and two politicians in orbit, some on STS, some to MIR and ISS. See Tito, Dennis; Garn, Jake, and Nelson, Bill. As far as that goes, I am quite sure that the first and likely second wave of colonists would be either scientists or military personel before they start sending civies up. Although NO space voyage will EVER be considered safe by any means, space programs likely want to show they can routinely pull off landing and returning before deeming it "safe for civies" to go and fly, otherwise you get the whole Teacher in Space (Challenger, not Endeavour) fiasco...

The FO could be waiting and see what happens in the first two rounds of the draft before spending the pick, assuming they are still interested in Troy Smith. You know, see if they get a franchise QB first, and if not then they can trade with Baltimore. If he gets traded before then, no great loss...

I don't know if this is common knowledge or I'm just waking up to the obvious, but if you have to pay this tax, like I do in Virginia, call the tax office and be sure that they have the correct mileage on the vehicle. A friend clued me into this the other day when I called they said that they assess the tax on my vehicle that had 7 miles on it. Needless to say, when I had it changed to the correct mileage (60k or so) it went down significantly...

It is in the sense that there is no clear plan to replace it other than some vague comments about developing hardware for longer duration flight. You have to have somewhere to go first. The biggest problem with Ares I was it's skyrocketing budget. Everytime they solved one problem with the motor, it would change the lifting power, thus, requiring modifications to the Orion. In one way, Obama did us a favor by killing off a system that was doomed to failure to begin with. Constellation was not the only, or even the best option for a Mars mission, and many people questioned why this program was chosen over something more cost effective, such as DIRECT...

Racism is just that: Racism. There is no such thing as reverse racisim, and that implies that only one race can discriminate against another and not have it go both ways...

Kind of like what happened to the pilgrims on thier voyage across the ocean? Ever been on a scale replica of the type of ships that era used for crossing the oceans? They were unbelievably tiny. We're talking about professionals here, not regular, everyday American Idol watchers...

My first thought was Aaron...

Which is why the families of the Challenger astronauts lost thier lawsuits...

Absolutely. From the point of view of the US government that is...

They may say that, but no one really believes that failure rate. As Feynmen pointed out in his Appendix to the Rogers commission report, a more realistic figure is 1 in 50 flights. Damn near nailed it, didn't he? Again, I will say (as I have said countless times before) unless you have somewhere you need/want to go (Mars, etc) then why do you need risk people's lives?

My yard seems to be destroyed with them for the last few years. I have found the only way to get rid of them is to kill them. Don't waste time and money trying to "annoy" them away with the sonic disruptors or bubble gum or other old school nonsense. I use this product called TOMCAT you can get at Lowe's HD, etc. It comes in little gummy worms that you put in their active tunnels. It has bromethalin which can really cause problems in domestic animals so make sure your dog doesn't try and eat it (like my doofus did). It seems to work well enough for me, but it's kind of expenisve. The good news is that a little goes a long way and you can cut the worms up into smaller pieces to make it last longer. And you can see when they take it too, so you know it's working!

This is what the DTV rep told me yesterday when I specifically asked them if I would get the CI feeds for these games...

Corrected you on this Tommy...

yeah, Greg Giraldo is hilarious, I wish I could take credit for it...

It was a gourd, but good reference nevertheless!

As Greg Giraldo pointed out, she looks like she hired Tim Burton as her plastic surgeon...

you know when you put your hand in your pocket to rearange the equipment? That's handling...

Fantastic author, and an expert on the Imperial Japan. I have just read his analysis of the planned 1945-1946 Allied invasion of the home islands (Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire) and it was terrific. Highly recommended...