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I am an unabashed Star Wars tech apologist, I can defend almost everything, but WTF did they split the turbine down the middle?!?? I can see turbine blades here, are they now stationary? Did they ever rotate on the old models? Come on JJ (edited: McQuarrie), give me something I can defend !

Just change your number 3 to number 1, and you will have my blessing. That lobby scene was so fun to watch unfold.

Tom Clancy drew up an airspace infiltration in Debt of Honor, I think, where a Comanche pilot flew "caboose" on a high-speed train going through Japan. The Japanese AEW radar operators saw the slight return but dismissed it as being from the train. There is always a way in.

The only blade you can carry in California.....

My EDC.

Over 30 yrs ago, I was a knot tying champion. till this day, my favorite knot is the Sheepshank. I don't know. I think I just like saying that word. Useful for reducing slack in a long rope.

Need to rescue someone? Throw them a bow line, which won't ever slip or tighten

The best knots are the ones that can be used in slightly different forms for wildly different purposes. Personal favorites in decreasing order of importance IMHO:

Good to know, though for the start of the trucker's hitch, I usually use an alpine butterfly for the first loop. It stays tied without the tension you need on that first loop of the trucker's hitch.

Don't forget a sheet/Beckett bend for the times when you have different sized ropes.

Blake's hitch has superseded the taut line in the last couple of decades. Even easier to tie, less likely to bind, and the tail will never slip through (the taut line should always be tied with a stopper knot on the tail: tree climbers have been seriously injured when the tail slipped through and the hitch unraveled).

Agreed. It has the added benefit of being safer to release under load.

We teach all new theatre electricians three knots: the shoelace (literally used hundreds of times a day at work), the bowline ("the electrician stumbles out of the bar, around the signpost, and back into the bar"), and the clove hitch. Over-achievers learn the timber hitch and the monkey's fist (not needed for work,…

And if you ever wanted to learn pretty much all of them:

Unless you work with slick lines, in which case a blood knot is much more useful.

Just remember the prusik sling will fail if tied with the same diameter of the rope it's holding. Smaller the sling rope the better. but Klemheist tied with webbing is my favorite for holing a heavy load, it's ugly with webbing, but grips like a champ.

The Prusik Knot is one of the most useful to me for times when I need to tie things down with adjustable tension. It also serves a unique function for a knot. Many knots fall under the purpose: 'make a loop that doesn't slip and close on you'. Other knots will 'tie a rope to an object so it doesn't fall off'. The…

You'd probably be better off with a clove hitch instead of using two half hitches in #2