I grew up on the Vineyard, and when Clinton would come visit it was not a big deal. You could drive by the end of the road where he was staying and see the motorcade and everything. He came and had brunch at a restaurant where we were eating. Man, times have sure changed.

Rotorcraft (helicopters+Osprey) have a sketchy safety record in general. The H-3/S-61, used as VH-3 Marine One, has 228 hull-loss (total write off) accidents in civil and military service. They're just less stable and less forgiving than fixed wing aircraft. The safest helicopter is probably the CH-47, and even that…

Because Gawker sites are not allowed to publish articles with meaningful/truthful/correct/non-clickbait headlines. It's a documented phenomenon.

You would have the U.S. Government buy an additional executive helicopter (or a small fleet of them) for the President's use? Besides, I'm sure there are very good reasons the Marines have been given this responsibility.

It amuses me how little people know about helicopters. A helicopter is perfectly capable of landing safely with no engine power, it is called autorotation.

I'm thinking your last point about the amount of people that can fit onboard might be the biggest reason for the military craft. The rest could be retrofitted to a smaller craft but I stupidly didn't think about the fact that he travels with a giant security detail plus aids.

They did it with 830 million copper needles each 1.24 cm long, and a bit thinner than a human hair. The first attempt the needles clumped together making it useless, the second attempt was successful with a ring of copper needles being evenly dispersed around the planet. Even with all those needles they still only…

The wired source article is much better. It was a bunch of 2cm wire needles. They were meant to be a semi-permanent radio reflector.

It also makes me a little nervous that Hyperloop sounds a little bit like it was reverse engineered from COOL NAME backwards.

The creator of the hyperloop needs to check his coastal privilege.

It's pretty hard to do in the car.

Us people who read gadget blogs could, not those regular people the article is about.

I think one of the main reasons to turn off electronics during take off and landing is so that you are paying attention. The plane has a greater possibility of crashing during one of these two time and during an emergency situation you need everyone to be on their A game and not playing angry birds while listening to…

"The cardboard columns were cosmetic only, with the building load carried by timber beams inside the tubes."

Thanks, Obama!

Clearly there is no spoon

From the Verge article:

Is there voice recognition? Or can I just walk up to anyone wearing Glass and say "OK Glass, search donkey porn."

Your comments were a treat to read. Thank you.

No. It is because the FAA bans the use of any electronic devices under 10,000 feet that produce electromagnetic interference with aircraft radios and electrical and electronic systems. And because the airlines aren't going to spend money testing the electromagnetic interference properties of every electronic device ,…