Maybe... remember that Boeing only delievers between 300-500 craft per year with order lead times of several years. I suspect that Airbus is similiar. With that much lead time and low numbers, its possible they forged those specific parts ahead and Boeing/Airbus held them in inventory. In fact, that would make sense given the tooling and setup on a machine like this, because it would be cheaper to do a large production run of a certain quantity than to forge each item 'just in time' and have to re-tool for each peice or seperate run. So, its very possible, and I would think likely, that every one really does use parts produced on this machine.

The alternative to TSA is not more reasonable security procedures, the alternative to TSA is privatization and even less consistency and reason. If you remember why the TSA was created, its because the private security at every airport had different standards in training, policy, and actual implementations of security procedures. The rent-a-guards at some airports were basically not much more than the ones doing night watch at your office. TSA was supposed to bring consistent training and professionalism by vetted and reasonably well-paid and sworn government personnel

If you're for abolishing the TSA, then you are for privatization and even LESS public control over the security inspectors at the airports, LESS professionalism, and LESS training and vetting of guards/inspectors. Be careful what you wish for.

I'd be interested in who is receiving campagin contributions from private security guard companies like Wackenhut (who were displaced by TSA).

They only turn on the hazards when they slow to a crawl (like 30 mph on the interstate) because visibility is extremely low or the water on the pavement is so thick as to be hydroplane hazard (which is common in FL because tropical torrential thunderstorms in summer drop more water than the pavement can drain off). Its a "please notice I'm going slow and don't rear-end my car" measure. However, they would normally only do that when in the far right lane and typically wouldn't be changing lanes at that speed.

As the parent notes, there is a lot of Canadian and other Anglophone nationals and productions on "American" TV. Let's examine two "American" shows: Fringe (Fox) and Revenge (ABC).

Fringe stars Canadian Joshua Jackson, and Australians John Noble and Anna Torv. Fringe is shot on location in that great American city Vancouver, BC for the last 3 seasons. The pilot was shot in Toronto and the first season in New York.

Revenge stars Canadians Emily VanCamp and Henry Czerny, It also stars Englishman Joshua Bowman and Englishwoman Ashley Madekwe.

The two biggest American films ever: Titanic and Avatar were made by Canadian James Cameron and stared, respectively Englishwoman Kate Winslet and Australian Sam Worthington.

So, what's that about Canadian culture? It would be no less ridiculous for US Americans to talk about pernicious Canadian or Australian dilution of US culture. Canadians may just have to reconcile themselves that there really is an international Anglophone culture that we all share and stop trying to define their existence by showing they are not American. Embrace the fact that Canada is part of a cosmopolitan Anglophone international super-culture. I'm sorry if reality upsets your inner Quebecois.

BTW, you have nothing to fear; according to the French, the US doesn't have a culture :). In a sense, they may have a point; we may all just be regionalisms of the global Anglo-sphere.

Works of this nature are usually done subject to Federal Acquisition Regulation Clause 52.227-17 Rights in Data- Special Works which says

(2) The Contractor shall have, to the extent permission is granted in accordance with paragraph (c)(1) of this clause, the right to assert claim to copyright subsisting in data first produced in the performance of this contract.

Its not unusual for the Government to allow a contractor to assert copyright, as long as the Government itself has unlimited rights. It really depends on whether the the Government, in the form of the contracting officer, gave permission to the contractor. The Government only keeps contract records for about 6 years 6 months (except in special cases), so depending on how old the particualar work is, the only conclusive record (i.e. a permission letter from the Gov't) may be in the hands of the contractor. Other contemporaneous proof would likely be if the work was registered with the Copyright office when produced, which would lead one to beleive that permission was granted at that time. If no registration was made contemporanously, then likely (but not conclusively) no permission was given and there would be more credence to the idea that they are claiming copyright without permission.

While COBOL supposedly got OO capability in 2002 acoording to wikipedia, I would bet most COBOL is rather straight forward procedural code that is easy to follow and understand. The 'java way' on the other hand is to encourage over-abstration to the point of absurdity. There is a joke hello world at http://foreigndispatches.typepad.com/dispatches/2008/09/hello-world-in-java.html that really isn't far from the truth about how java programs are actually implemented by some coders. I seems some java coders think: Why just print a string when you could instead instantiate a new string-writer class implementing an abstract string writer factory with a text-writer interface? And instead of hardcoding a constant value, use an xml configuration file, even if you will never actually change the value.

Now if only they could get the software development unstuck from an infinite loop of project management, powerpoint slides, and TPS reports.

I believe baldness has already been cured with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil

My marketing research also tells me that people who bough the cure for baldness may also be interesting in buying some prime buildable real-estate in Florida: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida

You can also earn millions working from home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing

Twice in the last decade MS has tried to do tablet type devices and failed in the market.

Remember project "Origami" circa 2006 , aka the "Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)". Well, here are some slashdot articles to refresh your memory: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/06/02/24/1734257/What-is-Microsofts-Origami-Project and http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/07/05/03/2337233/Death-of-the-UMPC

The also tried those laptop type devices with the reversable screen circa 2002-2005 that they called tablets; http://slashdot.org/story/02/10/27/1458259/Windows-XP-Tablet-PC-Edition.

Now modern "tablets" are more akin to mobile phones (e.g. ARM processors and embedded type OSes like android and QNX) and the MS stuff was an attempt to shoehorn an XP PC into a smaller form factor. But still, the did try. Perhaps they were ahead of their time, or just inept in bringing novel products to market.

I sorta agree with the "fad" characterization, in the sense that the new devices have the cachet of cool companies like Apple and Google and that is why the are now becoming sucessful. Before, it was just a niche and not on the radar screen of the consumer, but now it is. The iPhone and iPad have shown that powerful devices can fit in a pocket or purse, and people now expect and will from now on continue to expect to have all the power of a PC in their pocket. MS will have to really worry about tablets/smartphones when businesses start issuing them to their employees *instead* of PCs and laptops, and not just in addition to PCs and laptops. I think that day is coming and MS should be afraid; very afraid.

People in the countryside necessarily are forced to drive more miles than city dwellers. In urban and suburban areas, commutes are shorter (distance), even if they take longer time wise because of congestion. Additional, there usually are some public transit options available in the city. People in rural areas have no choice but to drive long distances.

  This is doubled in the last 30 years by the âoeWal-Mart Effectâ. Small town economies have been crippled by 1) shutting down local manufacturing with massive amounts of cheap imports (yes, lots of small towns had factories) and 2) driving out all small town downtown business with predatory pricing by big-box stores. In some areas, every type of business or service is concentrated at a regional mid-size town which has the regional Wal-Mart and the surrounding towns are reduced to bedroom communities. In some towns, there isnâ(TM)t even a grocery store anymore because Wal-Mart has run them out of business. People in these towns are forced to drive 20 miles to get groceries or to go to the doctor. As economic activity has concentrated in the regional centers, so have the jobs. With the factories shutdown and the downtown shuttered, people have to commute to work in the regional centers instead of working locally.

A tax like this would disproportionally tax people who are already poor.