Oh you may laugh, but they've been developed and tested! Explosive bolts sever the rotor blades before seat ejection on the Russian designed units, while I believe the American units were downward ejecting.

This is good advice, and gives me an opportunity to speak to the community at large: some of us who go to cons and are in a position to shake tons of hands politely decline. It's not because we're being dicks, it's because we know it's a good way to substantially decrease our chances of catching and spreading any germs.

I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].

I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.

Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.

I voted for "Time Travel" next week.

That's why you call it Independence Day, and we call it Thanksgiving.

Landing a UAV is easy. It's landing it in one piece that gets tricky!

A 12lb chunk of wood and metal flying at 100mph with a 14" blade spinning at 12,000rpm on the front isn't a toy. These things are model aircraft - calling them 'toys' completely trivializes the damage they can do when they hit things or, FSM forbid, people.

Don't take building and operating one of these models lightly. People have been seriously injured or even killed by them. The regulations that govern building and flying them are there for everyone's safety, and you can learn more about the U.S. regulations by going here: http://www.modelaircraft.org/

I was just imagining the 'clown car' version of the Soyuz.

18 crew members? What, are they having some kind of party up there? Did somebody drop in unannounced?

This is why my motto (and fundamental rule for life) is Don't be a dick: it's simple to understand, and reasonable people can agree on what it means.