The smallest noble gas is helium. Next one up is neon. Nitrogen isn’t all that ‘stable’ in the noble gas sense, or NOX wouldn’t be a combustion product. While O2 is heavier than N2, the oxygen molecule is physically smaller, and therefore permeates the tire wall more readily resulting in greater pressure variation.…

Probably because industrial quantities of high-purity nitrogen is cheap as hell. $1 will buy about three hundred cubic feet (when expanded to atmospheric pressure).

I wonder how many other manufacturers offer an armored version of their vehicles as a factory option? I know Ford used to offer an armored Lincoln Town Car, but that’s been since dropped from production. The Audi A8 and BMW 7-series also have similar options. Is that it?

It’s more like forcing Formula 1 to stick to the formula in the F1 regulations. There are no serious Formula Libre racing leagues out there - they don’t exist. For monetary reasons, for competitive reasons, for marketing reasons, for safety reasons. F1 is not a spec race, but it is very restrictive. Do you think every…

Supplemental information: explosive cords are used as they are vastly more reliable than mechanical latches. This is why space agencies love pyrotechnic bolts: latches stick.

Of course, diplomatic immunity only applies, if it does at all, if your home country is willing to defend your behavior. If you do something illegal for your home country, like spying, they’ll stick up for you. If you do something minor, like double park, they’ll stick up for you. The worst that can be done is the…

Indeed, the classical role of the battleship disappeared in WWII. Any modern use would be essentially as mobile artillery to support a landing, or something of that nature. And in that respect, NATO armies have felt no need to get rid of the howitzer; artillery is something that is still needed. When we see pictures…

And 30 minutes of that are breaks in between periods. You get about 1:00 of game time in 1:30 of wall-clock time, which is pretty high by most sports, I’d imagine.

Occasionally, the Royal Air Force needs a Corvette. Occasionally they need an F-150. But they can’t afford both. They buy an SVT Raptor as a compromise. Nobody is happy, but nobody is that upset.

I think its principle design concept was flawed. The F/A-18 needed to be multirole because the Navy has crippling space constraints. The F-16 is could be multirole because many each of its principal functions were already covered by existing USAF aircraft, and moreover it was intended, explicitly, to be built for…

The Manhattan Project didn’t cost much. $30B maybe ($2B in the 40s). The scientific hurdles of nuclear weapons were much greater than the engineering problems; the opposite is true of the F-35. Science is cheap; engineering is expensive.

I suppose that depends what you mean by ‘works’. A small air force like the Netherlands can’t afford to have one supersonic bomber, one stealth bomber, a fixed wing attack aircraft, an electronic warfare aircraft, and SEAD aircraft, an air superiority fighter, and a lightweight fighter. They have to settle for one…

Yeah, US statistics areas can be quite confusing. The definition for a Metropolitan Statistical Area also results in extremely large tracts of land, which can include very rural areas into a metro area, too. It makes any comparison between US and international cities somewhat difficult, as many international…

Houston has a few advantages here: they’ve diversified into health and aerospace, telecom and high tech, and retail. They serve as headquarters for global oil operations, instead of just the US or Texas. They’re in a pretty good position to handle low oil prices.

This is the classic irony of public transport. Only when you have a sufficiently high usage can you justify the frequencies and coverage required to make the service convenient, and therefore attract high usage. There are other ironic points as well: wealthy cities are in the best position to invest in public…

Need some \mathrm{} in those subscripts, bro.

Porsche Holdings owns a majority of the Volkswagen Group, which in turn owns both the Volkswagen and Porsche automotive brands. Although the idea of recursive ownership is cute.

Porsche owns 50.7% of VAG, but less than 50% of the voting power. Other major owners are the State of Lower Saxony (20%), and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar (17%).

Right. And I was pointing out that the Land Cruiser 200 available in North America is a completely different vehicle from the Land Cruiser 70 that the others were discussing, and so your point is completely irrelevant. Tell me what that Bentley SUV costs, for all it matters to the discussion. They’re talking about a…

The point they were making was with respect to the Land Cruiser 70 as available in Australia and similar markets, not the Land Cruiser 200 as available in North America. The 70 is a no-compromises off-road vehicle, that comes from the factory with a winch, brush guard, and snorkel. V8 diesel is the only engine option,…