The Shuttle toilet was way more civilised, but it did have its own “quirks”. It used a fan to suck the poop. The astronauts had to align their orifice accurately or the fan propelled some fecal matter back towards the pooper. And then that could float around the cabin.

Oops. Double post.

I think you’re overestimating the computer savvy of the average torrent downloader. I know plenty of torrenters who still wonder why their Internet is so slow. 

I’ll add that when the throttles (there are two in an F/A-18) are operated, the arm would not be extended out like that anyway. They are placed in a nicely ergonomic position.

Correct. The F/A-18 has automatic guidance during the cat shot and the initial climb. The pilot keeps his hand on the “towel rack” handle to ensure it doesn’t flail about during the maneuver. You can see the pilot placing his hand on the towel rack around the 0:28 mark.

Truth! For instance, one could fly a cargo plane hauling rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong well past 66.

That was truly inspired. All the stars to you!

The Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and what I think is Japanese but can’t quite make out, just indicate that it is aimed at various international marketing.

True dat. I expect to retire from my job as a pilot after 20+ years, which in my industry isn’t an eyebrow-raisingly long tenure.

For travel, I’ve found this Vheonet charger brilliant. No problems charing my Thinkpad (or wife’s MBP), a phone, an iPad and a WiFi hotspot at the same time. (I use a Baseus three-way cable similar to this one with it so I can charge up to 5 devices.)

For travel, I’ve found this Vheonet charger brilliant. No problems charing my Thinkpad (or wife’s MBP), a phone, an…

We have those “wipe everything down” pilots too. A good 10-15% of flight crew will grab a couple of wipes and go to town.

Well put. Lots of people freak out about germs on aircraft but they go into malls and office buildings without a second thought...

We don’t really worry about storms. They’re just part of the job, and properly managed, the risk of anything untoward happening is small.

Eh. Some crew are total germophobes and wipe everything down. Others, like me, just wash our hands with reasonable frequency but don’t worry so much about it. Anecdotally, I see no clear trend in which groups gets more sick. Planes are dirty but not more than most public spaces. The air is passed through HEPA filters…

Indeed. On that note, your average airline doesn’t worry much about engine failure. It is extremely unlikely, extensively trained for, and eminently manageable.

Freak accident. Very unfortunate for that particular person, but importantly every one else walked away and the plane was repaired and returned to service.

More like 15-20 minutes for your typical gaseous O2 generators, but yeah not a long time. We’ll get you down to 10000 feet in 6-8 minutes though. The plane will be vibrating quite a bit on the way down due to the extended speedbrakes, so there will likely be screams either way.

Heh...

Never been to Mainland China, I’m guessing? :)