Well, this was also for regulatory and safety testing, not just for signal quality to the end user. You also want to ensure every seat on the aircraft at least has a decent signal to not compound potential backhaul problems. Finally next gen ground data service is in development for both ground and AC users, as well there is decently high speed satellite service for AC like Row44.

You haven't used GoGo on Southwest, they use Row44 satellite. Maybe you've used GoGo on AirTran their wholly owned subsidiary?

The ideal conditions for bread mold are in a bag retaining moisture. Bread with no preservatives in a dry climate will not mold if it dessicates fast enough. Open behind a warm stove isideal conditions for that to happen.

The ribbon is not an upgrade. at best it should have been an optional menu enhancement. It together with new Excel 2007 and 10 bugs killed my productivity to no good affect, and I am still constantly hitting the wrong ribbon tab and wasting my screen real estate. And I have barely used OO, so I am not one of those OO lovers.

I used to have the same complaint at MS Word compared to WordPerfect where you could easily turn on and off the hidden formatting characters and fix the atrocious Word formatting assumptions and model. Haven't had as much trouble with it since 2003, though I write a lot less now. Amusing it took MS abat least years to catch up to the best in class.

The problem would be making the school schedule that flexible would either require independent study (which I think I would have excelled at, but probably less than half the kids in school could manage that without intensive guidance) or a radical change in how school is structured, how subjects are taught, how teachers facilitate, how the school day and year is planned, with the monetary and political will to make it happen. I might like to see it, but I think it will happen outside of a few progressive private schools on a cold day in hell.

I still think 9 month schooling should be available for high school kids if they need/want to work, or want to take advanced classes in summer school. Taking geometry in 3 weeks my sophomore year is still one of my fondest summer memories. But otherwise, I think you summed up how to fix the US education system. Though I'd also add some form of teacher pay to performance as well.

I'm one of the kids that hated school so much, even since elementary, that I needed a 2 month break to reduce my depression and maintain my sanity. But honestly I can't say I did much productive with them. Up until high school, I can see the advantage of having a month off at Christmas, spring break, and summer, rather than a 11 week summer.

But I still dont' think it is a good idea for high school kids to have year round schooling. Once you get to that age, you have the maturity and ability to get summer jobs, or take summer classes for advanced high school or college credit. Despite hating school, one of my favorite summers was taking Geometry ahead of schedule over the summer at Rice University in 3 weeks. We went to class for 7 hours a day, would do a whole chapter per day and take the test on it the first thing each morning. It was the best time I had in school.

I want other kids to have the opportunity to work to save money for college, or take extra courses, without the additional stress of their regular schooling day. I feel like there is a lot of wasted time in schools taking roll, dealing with problem kids, doing route unnessary work. If schools would rethink their classes, I think an hour could be chopped out of the school day and given back to the kids to do homework, so they aren't going to class for 7 hours, commute for an hour or more, then be expected to do an hour or 2 of homework at night.

There have been several accidents caused by, or a significant contributing factor, of software glitches. Boeing and Airbus and their systems builders do have tight coding and testing controls for flight critical code, at least partly driven by FAA and EASA requirements. Have there been more critical or expensive failures of financial trading code?

Taco Bell that you tried to hate on, has an even stronger case. You can't get out of a standard mexican restaurant under $15. (remember tips?) They have SEVEN of the best low cost meals I have ever had at fast food outlets.

Taco Bell is not Mexican food. It is Tex-Mex inspired junk food. That's not to say I don't enjoy it on occasion, especially a green buritto and a MexiMelt. But there are at least 30 good Mexican restaurants in Dallas I can go to for under $15 (food, non alcoholic drink, tax and tip), many under even $10. And there isn't a single meal at Taco Bell I would consider one of my favorite low cost meals. Del Taco just opened in Dallas, and I personally like it better.

you mean he smacked the starter? That works not because the motor was frozen, but because the high temp grease in the starter relay gets sticky, and that is frequently enough to break it loose.

We don't need it. It is another authoritarian police state overreaction to 9/11. And another example of how we allowed the terrorists to win.

I took flying lessons in high school, and though it has been a couple years I'm working on my A license at a private airport of the drop zone. I've watched an aircraft fly over the airport while I was in freefall. It is unnerving. But uncontrolled aircraft without radios have as much right to the airspace as divers, who you point out operate as VFR no radio as well. It is a historical artifact of regulation for back when radios were expensive, large, and power hungry, and there were still a significant number of aircraft that didn't even have electrical systems (like Piper Cubs). Personally, I hope this doesn't change. It is a relic of the golden age of aviation, of a simpler time with less regulation. One hopes that pilots who fly without radios are paying attention to their nav charts (which list drop zones). But there are plenty of stupid pilots, just like there are plenty of stupid skydivers.

Airlines used to be able to sell anonymous plane tickets. There were no laws against it. Though I don't know that airlines had official published policies. But if you were famous, or could otherwise justify it to the reservation agent, they would book your ticket under a pseudonym (and freqently put comments in the reservation on who you were) so any ticket or gate agent would know to accept your ticket not matching your ID. Now with the new laws and TSA regulations, your full name and birth date and gender (as on your license or passport you will use to board) must be in the reservation. This information is used to automatically clear you against the additional security and no-fly lists.

No, planes and cars create an ecological disaster in slow motion as part of their normal operation, along with coal plants which are estimated to kill or contribute to the deaths of 10,000-20,000 people yearly.