One of the other engineers on my team has a couple year old Prius. We jokingly give each other crap. The area we're in is modern suburban sprawl, lots of long, straight, 45mph roads, and 70-75mph interstates. He admits his Prius does no better than my TDI.

The midwest and rectangle states reject your proposal.

I have a 2.0L, turbocharged 4-cylinder diesel engine in my VW station wagon, and my lifetime average is 42.4mpg. I usually average 47mpg on the highway. That's better than a Prius V. My wagon is also cheaper, and performs better.

The local VW dealer claims 40% of the new cars he sells are diesels. I see Jetta TDIs *everywhere* in the Kansas City area, as well as Sportwagen, Passat, and Golf TDIs, in decreasing order of frequency.

Volvo has a new V60 diesel-electric hybrid, which is supposed to have incredible economy and decent performance. It is the first of its kind. Whether or not it will be sold in the US, who knows.

I'm a pilot and engineer and work with embedded systems and software mostly, but I wear an old mechanical watch. Not many people pay any attention to it, but it has major geek cred. That is because the watch is an Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. On the rare occasion that someone comments on it, I will show them the inscription on the back: "Flight qualified by NASA for all manned space missions...the first watch worn on the moon".

Sure, it wasn't cheap. But I don't plan on buying another watch. And when I have kids, and I'm gone, one of them can have it.

I managed to find out how much the server in my garage was bought for in 1994: $1,296,000. Its an SGI Challenge XL. The two terminal/workstation Indys I got with it were bought for $35,800. I don't think anyone charges for Challenge XLs anymore, they are more likely to pay you to take them away. I plan on keeping mine for a while; it works, I have spare parts, and its 600 lbs, so I'm not moving it again anytime soon.

Multiprez? Yeah, I can see her even getting reelected.

Since Airbus has had an office in downtown Wichita, has parts of the A320, A330XWB, and A380 engineered and built in south Wichita down at 43rd and MacArthur...

Boeing never left Washington, but that doesn't mean they can't have massive facilities in other places.

You are quite misinformed. Final assembly is performed in Washington. Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita manufactures most of the structures that are shipped to Washington for assembly.

Try again, AC. Final assembly is done in Washington state. An enormous amount of the aircraft you mentioned are engineered and manufactured by Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, and then those parts are sent to Washington. The entire 737 fuselage is built in Wichita and put on a train car. The 787 forward fuselage sections are made and shipped two at a time on a special aircraft, the Dreamlifter.

Don't believe me? Read their product list.

I always like to remind the "coastal elites" that when they fly over us in the midwest, its in an airplane that was engineered and manufactured in Kansas. That usually shuts them up.

I have bladderless, pressurized toilet tanks in my house. There's a trade name for them, but I can't remember it. Basically, water flows into a sealed, pressurized tank, compressing the air in the tank. When its full, the valve to the water line closes. Then, when you flush, the compressed air is used to force the water out. The end result is a very powerful flush that requires very little water.

Thanks! Garmin provided the G1000 system for the simulator, as well as engineers to help with system integration, and mentor the students. At least once every week, there are Garmin engineers in class to supplement the teacher.