Oh god -- galvanic corrosion in the *ground wire*??????  These will all be dead in a year.

Are they noisier than UPS trucks?  I guess that’s the real question.

You’d be surprised how small surveillance equipment is these days. That said, everything else in your post is absolutely spot on.

Dang, so it’s not time to go through his clothes looking for loose change yet?

My inlaws are heading on a cruise to Ireland that way. Mind you, they aren’t afraid of flying. They just love cruising.  :-)

I am serious.  And don’t call me Shirley.

For real, but it’s a bigger problem for the very smallest passengers. Lap babies in particular. I’m very relieved it seems the unrestrained baby wasn’t severely injured. (Fortunately, babies are pretty resilient, and if they don’t suffer serious injuries, they have remarkable healing abilities compared to adults.) …

Yeah, it’s not the descent itself, it’s that because the masks just dropped, I think most passengers wouldn’t understand that it’s a controlled descent and would think the plane’s about to crash. A lot of people think that mask has enough oxygen to keep you alive for the whole flight, and that’s not at all true; it’s…

Hopefully it’s at least secure. Has anyone asked the Lockpicking Lawyer, yet?  ;-)

Vans are AWESOME.  Panel vans, conversion vans, minivans....  Vans are great. As far as trades not using pickup trucks, the main exception I can think of for that is landscapers and lawncare providers. A lot of them use pickup trucks, and use them hard. But then, their work happens out in the elements, so getting…

An owner called it “mostly waterproof,”

Yeah, this is Jalopnik, so that’s important. Very few clues given. The scratched paint at least rules out a Cybertruck. :-P

I’d love to see it posted to AITA just to see the blistering replies. :-D But here’s the thing: if his neighbor is as well-heeled as he thinks, he’s gonna lose that lawsuit, because they’ll be able to afford competent defense. They may even countersue for legal fees. And making it that public may bring it to the attent…

Agreed. Definitely sounds like an emergency descent, which would admittedly be a very frightening experience for the passengers.

Yeah, that was one of the dumber things he’s said, which is fairly impressive.

The disposibility is going to be a problem eventually, of course, because it makes these things so expensive. They have to be built to exorbitant reliability standards, since there’s no hope of repair, and they’re just thrown away at the end of a relatively short mission. (That’s only part of what makes them…

*facepalm* Yeah, that’s a typo. Hundreds of millions. :P

Maybe; I’m not that good with orbital mechanics. ;-) I know the calculations get tricky because there are a lot of resonances with the major planets you have to deal with at that point, and also they’re light and brightly painted so they are sensitive to perturbation by solar pressure. Over large timescales, they’re…

Excellent description of the stresses that are placed on stuff. I mean, ships at sea generally are lucky to get a thirty year service life, thanks to saltwater corrosion, and airliners have a similar service life thanks to pressurization cycles. Stresses add up.

Wow, you’re touchy. No, obviously I hadn’t noticed that he’d responded to you directly.  Have a better day.  ;-)