Dru Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 And how are the euros' doing with their Mars exploration these days? What are they now...one successful orbiter and a half-dozen failures? Let's not forget the American Mars probe that crashed into Mars because some American engineer didn't know how to convert from metric to Imperial. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 How's Canada's space program these days, eh? Quote
Fairweather Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 Wow. A space station module that isn't even in place yet....and a website. How's that missile defense system going? Since you're not interested in ours, I thought maybe you'd now be starting your own up there, eh? Quote
AlpineK Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 I wouldn't be too quick to defend Boeing these days Fairweather. They're mired in controversy, and according to what I hear the attitude of engineering teams suck compaired to the old days. In the old days Boeing was all about the product; these days they're all about boosting the price of their stock. Quote
Dru Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 Wow. A space station module that isn't even in place yet....and a website. How's that missile defense system going? Since you're not interested in ours, I thought maybe you'd now be starting your own up there, eh? Post again in 20 or 30 years if you manage to come up with a working BMD system Quote
JoshK Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 Hehe, right on FW, couldn't have said it better myself. The new 787 is going to be sweet. As I said before, I think it fits the market better than the euro-spruce-goose does. Again, I predict the goose to be a moderate failure. It's the shorter intracontinent markets that have been seeing all the growth, as far as I've heard. With fuel costs being such a huge part of airline expendatures, I think the 787 will be a hit. Also, you'll notice that a lot of airlines are moving to the 777 for longer flights. The newest version (300ER I think?) is now the longest range commercial jet available and still carries 300+. The main benifit, of course, is 2 engines instead of 4. Also, a salute to the 777's versitility...I have two flights scheduled between seattle and devner this coming month and both are on a 777. This is traditionally a 737 or 757 route. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 I haven't had a chance to fly on the 777 yet. Those engines are freakin' huge. Haven't heard from you for a while! How's that CO snow? You'll be pleased to know that I am a new member of the 30+mpg car club! BTW, I forgot to ask MalCon about those Airbus composite vertical stabilizers! Quote
Peter_Puget Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 How's Canada's space program these days, eh? Quit hijacking this thread! By the way the answer to your question is here. Fariweather - By making decision like this (Arrow and the missl defense) Canada will only at best mantain its relative poverty to the US (consistantly about 3/4 per capita income) and its inovators will move here while our psychotic liberals will move there. My guess is in 20 years it will be closer to 2/3 of the US. Will - Whats the proper growth rate for M3? Who knows. Hell what are the difficulties in measuring the money supply - there are plenty. I believe that monetary growth rate for virtually all measures of M are lower than in the 70s. I would also note that I can remember high growth rates being reported and interest rates raising! My faith is in the markets - they indicate lower inflation. Of course a war with Iran could change things so would a nuclear bomb going off in New York. The easiest thing in the world is to yell bad markets in a time of plenty. After all you just have to keep up the negative predictions and eventually you will be a winner. The ironic thing is the longer you have been proclaiming the end is near the more prescient you can claim you are. The business cycle is after all a cycle. Quote
JoshK Posted March 8, 2005 Posted March 8, 2005 I haven't had a chance to fly on the 777 yet. Those engines are freakin' huge. Haven't heard from you for a while! How's that CO snow? You'll be pleased to know that I am a new member of the 30+mpg car club! BTW, I forgot to ask MalCon about those Airbus composite vertical stabilizers! The 777s are definitely nice. On my way back from London a couple of years ago I got to fly on one that was 6 weeks old...very cool plane. Haven't gotten to hit the snow as much as would like The rockies aren't the cascades, but, damn, I guess I picked the right ski season to escape.. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 So why does a nation with 30,000 man army, and a 32,000 man national guard need 300,000 new Russian AK-47 rifles? Like I said, Will. It's Venezuela next.... http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/03/25/news/nation/thunat03.txt http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05079/473808.stm This guy's playing with fire. Gonna die soon, I suspect. Quote
willstrickland Posted March 25, 2005 Author Posted March 25, 2005 Since you first wrote that, I've seen (well, read about) several actions on both sides that suggest you're right on. Chavez talkin' a bunch of smack, cozying up to Castro and Iran, etc. That Post-Gazette article has a good summary. I too would be suprised if Chavez is still alive at the end of GWBs term. The fact that these little Napoleans feel like the biggest way to threaten us is through our energy supply, points to an immediate need to ramp up alternative energy infrastructure. We could spend another $200 billion killin' folks, or build $200B worth of solar, wind, nookular, and hydro sources (enviros need to spend less time bitching about the dams, and more time developing fish passage measures that work) and mandate a minimum 5mpg fleet wide improvements. A concentrated, fast track program over 5 years could achieve great things. Our country has tackled huge projects in short time frames before. Hell, the AlCan Highway was put in place in only 8 months back in 1942!! Of course when it was initially completed there were occasional 90 degree turns and 25% grades, but hey...they got the road in and tweaked the problems over the following years. It looks like it's going to take another serious energy crisis ala 1970s for US leaders to develop a vision for the future energy policy of this nation. Cheney's energy task force was a joke, and the fact that they won't release the details from that, even breaking the law to keep from revealing it, is telling (the court has ordered that Cheney's office release the info and they refuse to comply). This is democracy? As capitalists, we should all know that investement in capital equipment/expenditures (e.g. alt. energy infrastructure in this case), will pay us back many times over. Seems pretty simple, would we rather invest in our own country or keep giving away a significant % of our GDP to OPEC and fighting wars to protect continuity of the oil supply? But what did we expect when we elected oil men? (No, I didn't vote for these clowns if there was any confusion). Quote
catbirdseat Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 I agree with you Will. Spending $200 Billion in this country seems to make a lot more sense than spending $200 Billion bombing some other country into the Dark Ages. Both have stimulatory effect on the economy. Both increase debt, but money spent domestically has a much larger and longer lasting benefit to the country. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 I think that simply eliminating Chavez would do the trick, although it might spark a brief civil war in that politically/economically polarized nation. Chavez has armed his bolivarian circles and the bloodshed would likely be extreme if not short-lived. Not too $$$$ for us compared to our Iraq mission though. If he is proven to be a meddler in Columbia's ongoing strife on the side of FARC, then I say we should kill him tomorrow. As for your improved CAFE standards argument, yes, I think it's time for some very modest non-market driven encouragement in this direction. As for Cheyney's energy task force; I believe the court ruling came down last year in the administration's favor (??). Did Hillary ever reveal her closed-door health-care task force memos? Quote
willstrickland Posted March 25, 2005 Author Posted March 25, 2005 Yes, the Supremes rules 7-2 in favor of Cheney around this time last year. You might remember the hubbub around that about Scalia not recusing himself from the case. The two lower courts that heard the case had ruled against the administration. I can understand redacting some sensitive info about the nations energy vulnerabilities, etc. But not releasing any of it stinks of backroom cronyism IMO, and is not democratic in the slightest. No idea about Hillary Care memos. I do find it humorous that the GOP talking point re: SS has been "The Dems are just obstructionist, they aren't offering any plan or working for a bipartisan solution". Yet, when the whole Hillary Care debate was going down the GOP blasted it, played obstructionist, didn't offer an alternative, and continued to bash it well after it was a dead issue. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 Cheney's energy task force was a joke, and the fact that they won't release the details from that, even breaking the law to keep from revealing it, is telling (the court has ordered that Cheney's office release the info and they refuse to comply). This is democracy? Uh, Will, the above was you original quote. You wouldn't be slinging untruths in the hopes that one or two will stick, now would you? Anyhow, I think we're mostly on the same page. Quote
JoshK Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 I just find the defense of the Canadian Space Agency as anything more than a piggyback program on the U.S. space program quite amusing. Don't get me wrong, I love Canada - I just spent my spring break up there - but in terms of technology, space exploration and the like...c'mon now... Quote
Fairweather Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 Beware! The wrath of Dru shall soon be upon you. Quote
Off_White Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 You just wait until they put the first squid into space, then you'll eat those words! Quote
cj001f Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 Since you first wrote that, I've seen (well, read about) several actions on both sides that suggest you're right on. Chavez talkin' a bunch of smack, cozying up to Castro and Iran, etc. That Post-Gazette article has a good summary. I too would be suprised if Chavez is still alive at the end of GWBs term. It´s taken them 4.5 years to start paying attentions, you really think they´re going to start paying atteñion now? Quote
j_b Posted March 29, 2005 Posted March 29, 2005 I think that simply eliminating Chavez would do the trick what, no small talk about exporting democracy today? god forbid if the venezuelans had elected, multiple times, a president that decided what to do with "your oil" ... how do you sleep at night? Quote
j_b Posted March 29, 2005 Posted March 29, 2005 do you really have to do JayB's dirty demonization for him? Quote
Fairweather Posted March 29, 2005 Posted March 29, 2005 I think that simply eliminating Chavez would do the trick what, no small talk about exporting democracy today? god forbid if the venezuelans had elected, multiple times, a president that decided what to do with "your oil" ... how do you sleep at night? So what does your pal, Chavez, need all those guns for? Do you suppose it has something to do with Co-lom-bi-a? 30,000 dead there, ya know. How do you sleep at night? Quote
rbw1966 Posted March 29, 2005 Posted March 29, 2005 do you really have to do JayB's dirty demonization for him? You've really got some ego problems there, Sport. Quote
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