Does it have to be a V-12?

Tweets from Twits.

Here’s something I don’t understand, and maybe someone here does: Veterinarians use Sodium Pentothal to put dying pets “to sleep.” I attended one of these sad events, and my cat simply lost consciousness, her breathing slowed and stopped, and then she was gone. The whole process was over in just a few minutes :(

Sorry, no, it wasn’t. The transition through the sound “barrier” was known to require a lot of power and the aircraft would encounter a lot of turbulence, but it was never thought to be impossible. Just a tough engineering problem. In fact, dive-bombers in WWII sometimes exceeded Mach 1 during bombing runs. No physics…

Manual gearboxes are fun to drive, and we can’t handle complicated things like roundabouts. The rest we don’t understand either. Cheers!

whats a pasty faced goose stepper?

A “10-year” cycle doesn’t apply to the worst crash and depression in our lifetimes. The major reasons for the crash had much to do with Republican policies since Regan, mainly deregulation of the finance industry. Unemployment is lower than it ever was under Bush, and twice as many new jobs have been created under…

Another truck crash made the mews news as well:

I suggest “a CrapPants of Cruise Missiles.”

The thing about the US debt that China holds: I wouldn’t worry too much. We have hard cash, and China has a piece of paper. If they want to call a huge lump sum debt, we simply won’t pay off all at once for practical reasons. It’s not like they can send a repo man to haul off Florida in the middle of the night.

If you fling enough shit around, you will occasionally fertilize a tree.

My ‘68 Beetle had what I think was the same thing. VW called it a semi-automatic; owners called it a “slush-a-matic.” It was basically a three-speed manual transmission, a clutch operated by a big vacuum diaphragm in lieu of your left foot (triggered by an electrical switch in the base of the shift stick), and a leaky…

Do you think it’s funny when everyone gets stoned, goes up on the roof, and throws apples at joggers just because they’re jogging?

When Blazing Saddles was first shown on TV, they censored the entire campfire fart scene. The funniest scene in a funny movie, censored out — it was a terrible thing to do! But nowadays, farting on TV is ok (hello, South Park). So the censorship pendulum swings back and forth, and not always in predicable ways.

From the perspective of logistics, what is the practical cost of adding CFTs? To equip a fleet, you would also need parts and jigs for mounting, shipping, plus training for pilots and support crew. I assume it’s a small cost in the big picture, but can you estimate the impact? Is this cost a significant part of the…

Because we in the South have far and away the most flag-waving, ‘Merica-loving, Bible-thumping, Harry-Potter-burning, Christo-Fascist Islamaphobic religious idiots in the entire nation. Most obese, too.

Transplant? No way. Who on earth would voluntarily move to a town like Armpit, Texas?

One more book is the official Shuttle history by Dennis Jenkins: (Several editions are available on Amazon). As a former Shuttle engineer, he has a lot of insight into the history and technical details of the program; his books are a very good read (he is also in charge of the Endeavor exhibit at the California…

"Your entire life—the warp and woof of your life—is going to be bounded by political decisions made in city halls and state capitals and the White House, and the Capitol in Washington. How deep you will be buried when you die, the qualifications of the people who prescribe your eyeglasses, whether or not the dye you…

Great article! It's a valuable life skill they should teach to high school kids.