SPNKR all the way.

You need a better helmet my friend. I certainly don't have that problem. My Shoei X11 is great at high speed - only gets a little squidgy in high crosswinds which we have here in the high desert quite a lot in spring and fall unfortunately.

Problem with that is, can they do anything OTHER than CS? What if you asked him to change the air filter on his car?

You're assuming there's a method by which they can reduce prices by changing a part to a cheaper version, by new technology that makes production cheaper, etc. I don't really think that's a possibility here.

I'm guessing you missed the big DARPA logo that appears on the info screen at 0:56? DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of old used pinball machine parts!"

Based on freely available specifications (http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/elvs/atlas5_specs.shtml) for the Atlas V-551 launch vehicle, the density of aluminum you stated and a best case estimation of the payload weight (just over 18,000 lbs based on the above site), I calculated $6084/lb, which comes out to $1789 to launch these little guys. HOWEVER, with the dimensions of a minifig from here (http://snively.blogspot.com/2009/04/lego-minifig-dimensions.html) and here (http://snively.blogspot.com/2009/04/lego-minifig-dimensions.html) the volume of a minifig is closer to 0.59 in^3 so the total works out to just about $1054. And by the way, you had a typo in your result up above, though your answer is correct.

$250M additional expenditure and a two year delay is hardly a "major disaster" in the scheme of things. They still got the system, and it will eventually meet requirements. It could be a hell of a lot worse. For example, the A-12 debacle. Canceled in 1991 and STILL working its way through the court system. Multi-billion dollars of expenditures for zero useful product. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_A-12_Avenger_II

What you fail to understand however is the economic impact of cutting that budget. Yes, let's reduce defense spending. Which will lead to fewer contracts. Which will lead to fewer contractors. Which will lead to higher unemployment. Which will lead to greater entitlement spending. Which will lead to...suffering. HA! Take that, Yoda. It's a very delicate balance.

Sorry but that's absolutely not the same thing. Not even on the same planet.

I know this is /. so you obviously didn't RTFA, but the articles pointed out that these were older D-series trains that only travel around 100 mph (the articles said they top out just shy of 100 mph).

But it isn't "what you want". It's "what's available" between the deals the MPAA allows Netflix to make and the movies/shows Netflix decides to try to obtain. More often than not "what *I* want(ed)" was not available; thus, I dropped Netflix.

"The part of the story aardwolf64's not explaining: The reason he got the promotion was so that he wouldn't blow the whistle and they could go on with the status quo..." FTFY.

Terry Pratchett is 63 years old. In 50 years he'll be dead either way. I've seen Alzheimer's effects up close and personal - don't blame him one bit.

ENHANCE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk