Most commercial aircraft cannot fly high enough to fly above CB clouds, especially in the tropics where the are at their most intense and where the tropopause is higher. The only avoidance route is to fly around them. Simply put, thunderstorms are too high to fly over them. On the other hand, normal rain showers can be easily avoided by flying over them.

This question : "Do we actually need this?" should be asked more often when new technologies are coming up.

If a new technology fails to come forward in today's world, I think the question is even more relevant.

(and sorry to the OP. I accidentally moded you wrong... you know... mouse slipped. Hence this somewhat pointless comment.)

The lift of the ban for 3 minutes on a global scale followed by a new global ban rather than first peek through the software is no surprise. Of course they took a peek through the firewalls first!

This looks much more a well planed statement as a botched trial.

Killing is a barbaric punishment. I propose having them delete junk mail all day long for the a few years. If they don't behave, a bit of solitary confinement, sorting important message though an inadequate spam filter should do the trick.

They might have missed as step as they recycled the paper as confetti.

Yes, most likely the kind of bacteria that metabolize phosphorus.

Regardless who is quoting what, it's still a bad idea.

Putting a whole elite tactical unit together in prison... in the same stockade... seems like a very bad idea to me. Especially if they believe they do not deserve this fate.

I'd put that in the "what could go wrong" department.

That I cannot say. I would think it would be in the same general area if the flight train is cut soon after Baumgartner jumps. They Probably wait until he is landed before cutting, as they can than monitor the decent from the gondola as well (with cameras, or other measuring equipment).

Like with most balloon payload, the flight train will separate from the balloon. The parachute will open and the gondola (or capsule) will decent at a reasonable speed. Most likely be reused immediately afterwards.

Balloon flights like these cannot be done anywhere. There are reasons for that. Although it comes down relatively slowly (something around 10 m/s I guess from similar payloads), it can still cause damage. Also, you have a 2 football sized (sorry for the journalistic dimensions) balloon coming down... I wouldn't want to be stuck under that.

The nice thing is that once the flight train is separated, the impact points of both balloon and gondola are very predictable. Much more than the actual balloon flight itself. Decent is fast, and only little affected by winds at altitude.

Balloon flights like these (actually not at all like these, but from the balloon type, payload, etc.) are done all the time. Sometimes during stratospheric research campaigns by the dozen. But launches and landings almost always happen in remote desolated areas such as New Mexico, where you can be fairly sure there is nothing but dust in the probable impact zone.

These kinds of comments make me sad. Obviously, the apple product have no appeal for you. You fail to see the interest in them, which is ok. But you also fail to understand others might have other views, other needs, other interests and different values. You fail to see that you fail to see. You believe your view is the only view; a sort of anti-fanboy.

Although you are correct on many points - and I would understand anyone saying "these products are not for me" based on these points - you wave a positions as bad, if not worse, than those "fanboy" you cry about. You have the right to your view. But believing a large consumer group is misled based on your personal view is so arrogant. It makes me sad.

As long no one stands there to tell you if the explaination is correct or not, anything goes a long way explaining something you don't understand.

I hate those questions. Seriously. Once I was faced to something like this... had to choose among a list of question at least two in a registration process. It was mandatory.

Question where something like :
- where did you spend your honeymoon... : I'm not married.
- what is the name of your first child... : I have no children.
- what is the name of your first pet... : does that include fake pets? because I never had a pet.
- what is the maiden name of your grandmother... : why the hell would I know or remember that?
- what was your favorite song in the eighties... : oh! oh! i know. This one....mmmm no that other one... mmm no no this one was better! mmmm that's not going to work.
- what is the favorite colour of your oldest child.... : not again with this?

I have honestly no clue what I answer to any of the two question I chose, nor which question I chose.

Assorted Assholes. aka. RIAA, MPAA, GEMA... list is long.