I also think you would hit the ground before freezing would be a factor. In fact, with the exception of hitting another portion of the airframe, I think the entire article was complete rubbish.

I used to skydive from 11.5K ft. That's about 55 seconds of free-fall time (with a safety margin). Extrapolating this to 35K suggests another 2.5 minutes. I am probably not going to asphyxiate in that time, either. Especially since I will be in lower altitudes quite quickly.

Would you be cold? Yes, very. Would you possibly pass out from low oxygen levels, possible but not certain. Would you get the bends? Even if you did, it would doubtful be fatal. The biggest concern by far is hitting the ground.

I was born in Chesapeake. The GP is correct: It sucks huge, throbbing, unwashed members.

That's a fallacy.

Walk through a grocery store or mall. Where are the non-Chinese goods? You can't find them no matter the price. And while I don't shop Walmart, it's common knowledge they strong-arm their suppliers into outsourcing in their fervor to shave a nickel off their costs. Electronics, textile, heavy machinery, even pharma is nearly entirely off-shore. We've only services, aircraft manufacture, and agriculture left.

As a consumer (we stopped being citizens long ago), show me where my power is? The only American thing left to purchase anymore is politicians and I don't have that kind of money.

Now substitute the word "Liberal" with "Conservative" and "extreme right" with "extreme left". Your argument still holds.

The entire system is broken, both the left and the right. I fervently hope you are not of the opinion one side is better than the other.

If OPEC embargoed the USA today you would then witness a "shakeup" of the World order. I am not using this post to advocate right or wrong, I merely state fact: A few OPEC countries would find themselves in a real pickle, militarily speaking ... and FAST.

And for that matter, military spending is one of the *least* stimulatory things the federal government spends money on.

Interesting viewpoint. Do you have any arguments or references to support this assertion. I am genuinely curious.

It's "Bubble Memory" all over again.

The thing that makes me curious about the mineral oil is what happens when the oil gets warm? How is the heat dumped? I get the impression that after a while that case would be less efficient than normal forced-air.

Thank you very much!! There are one of these practically in my back yard. That list is gold.

I dabble with microcontroller projects but am excited about meeting like-minded people. You've made my day.

Err "Stressed Member"

Locally, both plumbers and electricians want around $100/hour for smaller jobs

Where I live, there are day laborers that work far cheaper and give god results. Are they licensed? Nope. However, people with barely enough to get by will (and do) choose these guys over the local journeyman.

This is a situation of outsourcing coming to your neighborhood. If I were a plumber or electrician, I would be just as concerned as your average software developer.

It is a race to the bottom on all fronts.

You want evidence of collusion? Consider this:

IBM, Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP....not one of these companies has ever approached me for employment. Coincidence? It's obvious a back-room deal was struck to not put all the others at such a disadvantage if one ever decided to hire me.

Well the part about "twitter" being an awful sounding name in English was pretty spot-on.
You have to give him credit for that.

While I admit there is a slippery slope here, this PARTICULAR instance of monitoring would be quite welcome by me. Where I work there is a core group of people who solve problems and act as a "safety net" for many others who collect paychecks and shuttle as much work as possible to that core group.

I imagine every organization suffers the same malady. The ones who produce get ridden hard and put-way wet, earning neither recognition nor wage increases. Others attend meetings, send emails, and generally go through the motions of a productive day. Those others never seem to produce in any way any value. The ones in the trenches are fully aware of this and this effect is masked as efficiently as middle-management is able in order to protect the "darlings" and themselves from revealing incompetence. Upper management is seldom aware of what is actually occurring under their noses. Information mining (where middle tiers cannot affect the data) could shine a harsh light on those the organization can afford to jettison.

The only downside to this is even if upper management was aware, would they act? There is comfort and expedience in "don't upset the apple cart" mentality. It would take a strong leader to do the right thing (mostly because it would mean actual involvement in the organization other than collecting a damned bonus).

It is too early to tell but it appears it will not run on XP. At least the current demo is not supported by that platform. I imagine that means quite a few people will never use it, since the install base of XP is still quite immense.