Thunderbird 2 was a big fat cargo carrier. Thunderbird 3 was a big sleek rocket. Off course it will be faster. Unless the guy operating the marionette strings falls asleep or something.

The whale in space experiment was already tried and was a failure. Just ask the bowl of petunias.

Space Junk (updated)

she was walking all alone
down the street in the alley
her name was Sally
she never saw it
when she was hit by space junk
    in New York, Miami Beach
    heavy metal fell in Cuba
    Mongolia, Saudi Arabia
    on christmas eve said NORAD
    a Soviet Sputnik hit Africa
    India, Venezuela
    (in Texas, Kansas)
    it's falling fast Peru too
    it keeps coming
and now i'm mad about space junk
i'm all burned out about space junk
oooh walk & talk about space junk
it smashed my baby's head
and now my Sally's dead

Having served on two juries in my lifetime (one civil, one criminal) I can attest that in both cases the idiot ratio was definitely > 50%. At least in the criminal trial, what the jury could do was strictly limited by the judges instructions. In the civil case, most of the jurors wanted to vote based on factors that had NOTHING to do with the case we heard. It was a medical malpractice suit and most jurors let their personal experiences with various doctors (good or bad) dictate how they were going to vote, pretty much ignoring the evidence binders and testimony.

Of course one could easily argue I was one of the idiots since I couldn't B.S. my way out of jury duty....

It is F.U.D., where F.U.D. := Fzzking Unbelievable Display

I get the same feeling when I wonder what happened to Super Sugar Crips

They were wiped out in a gang war with the Raisin Bloods.

Now I'm curious what a parasmut novel is.

"He raised his custom matte-black GigaGlock 950 and sighted through the custom Kalishnakova scope. His finger, protected from the moon's harsh atmosphere by his Shinto-Nagakasi Deluxe Combat gloves, tensed on the Bloraskavich trigger. The Kalishnakova was so precise, he could watch his target, sitting atop the Goliathian 4500 heavy tank seven klicks away, light a filtered Tska-Choi cigarette using a MegaBic with custom Tetra-Flint."

A friend who manages a restaurant in Watertown MA asked me what Yelp was... She was contacted by someone claiming to be from Yelp with the same pitch.

I knew of Yelp, and used to trust the reviews. But I had already lost respect for them when they obviously sold my e-mail addy, despite claims of confidentiality and my opting out of their mailings.

"Assuming" means an assumption is being made. And an assumption is a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were known to be true. Don't demean it (blah, blah, blah, etc.)

Gee, thanks sensei.

So I'm not allowed to ask where they came up with the number 1000? If I ask such a question, I am somehow 'demeaning a classic tool in science'? I should just take it on faith that its a well founded assumption because you directed me to a Wikipedia page that has nothing to do with the original article?

Get over yourself.

Assuming the average communicating civilization has a lifetime of 1,000 years

From what orifice was this number pulled?

They have a sample size of 1 civilization with an unknown end-date of communication capability. Where does 1000 years come from?

Honor killings as you have read recently about in the media, did not happen in the same country

Are you claiming that 'honor killings' do not occur in India?

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040113/asp/nation/story_2780541.asp

http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/archives/04_0112_in_wrights.htm

Just like any other technology, now that its available, society has to make sense of how best to use it.

Yes, and that is by throwing it in the heap with all the other pseudo-science and outright quackery.