RTGs != lightweight

Right, because the number of fatalities due to nuclear power have been horrific! http://www.the9billion.com/201...

The problem isn't necessarily the schools (though they could improve) but the perception a lot of people come away with. Tests in schools are a way for the school to measure your learning but too many students consider their grades to be an indication of what they actually learned. I went to a school that was very project heavy and while I did good on tests, what I learned was how to take a topic I'd never worked with and develop working programs in a short period of time. True I now realize I could have learned everything on my own (and am doing so after graduation) but a lot of companies like that graduate school education on my resume...

Or you can get a job doing what you love and the only openings are in corporations that suck all the joy out of it.

I've got a low cost little quad copter that you can bring the auto leveling down on. You can do amazing things with auto leveling turned off but it really changes your concentration. With leveling on you are thinking about where to go next, with it off you have to think multiple move ahead to get everything into the right position and speeds.

That has been my typical point of view. If the crunch is due to an unexpected issue, I'll help the company out. If the crunch is continuous and due to bad management, then management can deal with it.

In engineering I learned to just say screw you at crunch times beyond what I could handle. I'm still employed and getting raises at the same pace as my old work my tail off days.

Eve Online... OK, doesn't fit the impact on all other forms of entertainment or as large of a population but it does have a pretty good size population. Of course I've avoided WoW because I wanted something more out of a game than hand holding.

Yeah, I'd pick the original Warcraft. WoW was not all that original.

One of the problems with steam is that it doesn't ramp up fast enough due to valves opening up. Airplanes have to be held back at first and used to use bolts that sheared off at the right force. A cold or hot cat can occur if the steam isn't managed properly. In a cold cat there isn't enough pressure to get the plane up to speed and it stalls, I think the same thing can happen if the airplane is released too early. With a hot cat it can potentially rip the gear right off the aircraft. This is all less common that it used to be but steam isn't all that easy to control.

I think the greater interest is less mechanism necessary for EM systems vs all the steam setup.

Or 3 on 3 basketball. Have you seen some of the guys playing that?

Hey, I think you just described a career! Well, marketing anyway.

Which matches my own style of humor but being slashdot it is often hard to tell a joke from a smack on the head ;)

Sports also involve accuracy and reactions. I also think of race car drivers as athletes due to the long mental focus and physical accuracy required (though the drivers prior to power steering and brakes were bigger athletes). On the other hand I don't consider it the same type of athleticism.

Like people who fly airplanes vs those who program UAVs. There are similarities and there are differences. Both do fly however.

This is why we need to be able to moderate responses to our own comments... +1!