While I agree with the gist of this thread - I do think it's exciting to see some mainstream interest (and mainstream money) being put into consumer-grade 3d printers. Dell might not be the ideal company for it, but I still consider it another step toward having commodity 3d printers whose capabilities we can take for granted (just like our CD burners or laser printers).

You only need CATOBAR if you want strike capability. The ability to launch and recover large, heavy aircraft is very much for offense. If you're interested primarily in air defense, you can get by with lighter weight aircraft and much much lighter munitions. The Nimitz is great if you need to strike targets far from home, but if you have equally capable aircraft, you could defend against one with a far smaller carrier.

Doesn't make one or the other "proper," just built for different missions.

Everybody in the US knows what a kilo is... At least they aren't measuring it in stones...

Calm down man, it's less than 372 square meters!

What are you talking about? I just want to see what my tortoise and dog do all day when I'm at work!

I hope they can focus the debate on what should be taught to children rather than the endless runaround a debate over creationism itself would be. I honestly think you could get a lot of value out of a debate over the merits of teaching some of the philosophy behind creationism.

We all know arguing creationism against science is like debating the merits of mustard over screwdrivers....

To hell with the Viggen, bring back the 900!!!

and those with a ruthless dedication to the pope, and those who put their left shoe on first (the heathens), and those who never learned the true meaning of zero, and those with stars upon thars, and those who have a potassium deficiency, and those who like parrots, and those who don't like parrots, and those who don't use a mouse mat, and lefties, and righties, and ambidextrousies, and those about to rock, and those named Spartacus, and those who can only count in hexadecimal, you insensitive clod.

...math is hard

The More You Know!

Thanks for clarifying. Now I know if I'm involved in a high-speed chase, I should do it in my old Volvo. I'm pretty sure the cops on Segways couldn't keep up...

...I giggled

I can't stop reading that last sentence of yours... I mean, I'm no grammar expert, but I can't tell if it really needs any punctuation in it. Hell, I don't *want* it to have any punctuation in it!

Oh I see... Why not just get a Camaro?

Think long and hard about that Volvo. Do you want a car vulnerable to a very specific RF attack, or do you want one whose Lucas Electric system could fail at any second?

~proud 1800 owner

Don't ruin his tin foil fantasy.