A show that follows Jean Luc Picard from a time as a younger officer to his appointment as captain of the Enterprise. Star Trek, in particular TNG, has done several episodes that study the frightening power and responsibility of starship captains. The message - it isn’t for everyone.

The shot about 30 seconds into the video looks like a majority of the wreckage landed in one place and it sure looks like the wings were largely intact upon impact. Speculation on my part, but that seems to indicate that the aircraft impacted the ground with relatively low speed along the ground and that the aircraft…

You could be right, but you could be wrong. No one else has ever been caught. It’s like justifying steroid use in sports by your favorite athlete by saying that everyone else is probably using them too...

Maybe something is getting taken out of context, but Trump’s statement about the cost is naive at best. The development cost of all military aircraft (and most commercial aircraft too) is measured in the billions of dollars. The F-35 is definitely on the expensive end of development costs, but considering there are…

I love the ideas of Lorenzo starting at the back with Rossi or of Yamaha sabotaging his bike for qualifying to accomplish the same. Not gonna happen. Since the championship is Rossi or Lorenzo, what if most of the other racers had a gentleman’s agreement to basically give Rossi a clear shot to the front of the pack at…

I would buy the shit out of a version of this that takes after the VW Westfalia camper vans from the 1980’s. Small, efficient, with a crap ton of interior space for a weekend of camping.

Great article, Wes! One clarification I would make for the semi-auto pistol - if there isn’t a round in the chamber and you drop the magazine, the slide will not lock back (at least on a lot of semi-autos).

Yes. The crash was intentional, but intentional my Marquez. Very likely, Marquez was pushing the limits of traction already. Rossi is clearly an elite rider, so we can assume that he was taking the turn at close to the limits of traction. Marquez was going a little faster (he was creeping up on Rossi right before the…

Since motorcycles are no longer “two wheels bad,” I nominate pre-fuel-injection sport bikes. The cooling systems on the bike are barely adequate, so in stop-and-go traffic, the bike is running really hot. Also, in such hot conditions and stop-and-go usage of the clutch, the clutch can get kinda grabby. Finally, the…

Could Dodge redesign the Viper to take some of the cost out of it? There is very little reason for it to cost almost double the price of a C7. For example, the design, engineering, and manufacturing for the V-10 engine has to be really expensive considering the engine is used for just this one car. I question the…

Torch - “In every movie I’ve seen that uses MMUs, someone eventually dies because they run out of fuel. Supplemental fart-fuel may just be the thing to prevent these sorts of tragedies in real life.”

But where are the pictures of Putin personally taking each plane fresh off the assembly line for its maiden test flight and shooting down seven enemy aircraft???

Regarding proper fit, what I was always told was to strap the helmet on and see if someone else can rip it off your head. If the helmet comes off, then it’s too loose. If you go down and are sliding on your head, the ground is essentially doing the same thing.

I’ve been thinking about what the appropriate solution to gun violence is. I don’t have a perfect answer, but here is my approach.

1st Gear: How do the EPA and CARB intend to conduct on the road emissions tests? I understand the intent (avoid circumstances where this test mode could kick in), but you’re now taking the vehicle out of a controlled situation and and testing on roads where all sorts of variables could affect the results? I’m not…

They were told to stay back because it looks like they’re doing a maximum reject certification test - aborting a takeoff at max weight and at decision speed using only the brakes (no thrust reverse). After coming to a complete stop, the aircraft has to sit there for some period of time (I believe it’s five minutes)…

My bike was stolen from my apartment complex back in 2002 (I had a 1999 Honda CBR600F4) outside of Hartford, CT. Figured it got chopped up and was about to settle with insurance a week later when I got a call from the police near New Haven (an hour away). My bike had been found abandoned in the woods. My insurance…

Don’t think less of me. The plots and technology are achingly stupid, but I enjoy the characters on the show. That is all.

I’ve been trying to think what VW could do to limit its liability to individual owners. Everything I’ve been reading suggests that in addition to the hefty fines from the government, VW is likely to owe restitution to car purchasers whose cars never met the stated emissions levels and will not provide the stated fuel…

I had LASIK in 2009. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. For the first year or so, I had some halos around headlights and whatnot at night. It was a little worse if I had been staring at a computer monitor all day. The only lasting effect is that my eyes are much more sensitive to chopping onions than they…