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2008-08-15 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-08-15 13:49|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 As a result of this advocacy, a social stigma against flying is slowly spreading across Europe.

Good. Let em walk.

Posted by tu3031 2008-08-15 14:12|| 2008-08-15 14:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Time to revive NEPA.

Posted by AzCat 2008-08-15 14:23|| 2008-08-15 14:23|| Front Page Top

#3 I've got just the Front Page Top

#4 Duh. Sorry about the missin' apostraphe.

I've got just the ticket .

Posted by Perfesser 2008-08-15 15:10|| 2008-08-15 15:10|| Front Page Top

#5 The concept of jet setting for the rich will return but aviation won't go away, not by a longshot.

Perhaps customer service will also return. Lastly maybe the unions and high paid executives will go away and they can run the places at a profit for a chance.

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-08-15 15:12|| 2008-08-15 15:12|| Front Page Top

#6 Yep, air travel restricted to teh rich and frivolous, as it used to be.

And apropos of almost nothing. My favourite scene from a 1930s movie set in a transatlantic plane, is where they go onto the plane's outside deck for a smoke.

Posted by Albemarle Snotle6158 2008-08-15 15:48|| 2008-08-15 15:48|| Front Page Top

#7 Don't see commercial air travel ending, but agree that in the short term there will be shift in the demographics; and with customer service on a par with Greyhound, rail is looking better. AMTRAK is slammed with getting equipment back on line; buying private cars, pulling old equipment from mothballs and junkyards becasue the shops cannot keep up. Out here in WA, the BNSF has very visible track upgrades in work and are working to make the line between Seattle and Vancouver, BC dual track throughout. and not just for freight.
look for heavy lift aircraft to become more common ( Boeing Skyhook) at the expense of speed.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2008-08-15 16:07|| 2008-08-15 16:07|| Front Page Top

#8 Or we can convert all the coal to kerosene we want at 1/2 the current cost of oil. Better yet, the end product is usable as is for jet fuel. Or we can keep reelecting the current crop of crooks and luddites to congress and complain in the dark.

Posted by ed 2008-08-15 16:33|| 2008-08-15 16:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Albermarle, I believe that movie was WC Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Very funny.

Posted by remoteman 2008-08-15 16:40|| 2008-08-15 16:40|| Front Page Top

#10 Warming effects of jet contrails? I just saw a NOVA program about "global dimming" - the phenomenon of clouds and particulate pollution causing "dimming" i.e. less sunlight reaching the surface, causing surface cooling, which counter-acts global warming. Jet contrails were said to be one of the causes of dimming. These people need to get their story straight.

Posted by Ulusoling Hatfield4645 2008-08-15 16:55|| 2008-08-15 16:55|| Front Page Top

#11 Aviation won't go away, but it will be limited to the very rich and/or government military ops.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-08-15 17:29|| 2008-08-15 17:29|| Front Page Top

#12 Nah, we just need small nuke powerplants, lightweight batteries and electric airplanes.

Posted by Parabellum 2008-08-15 18:22|| 2008-08-15 18:22|| Front Page Top

#13 IIRC DEFENSE NEWS > the USAF-DOD SPACE PLANE is prepping for its first flight???

As a reminder, the USA = US-ALLIES? desires to begin the DE FACTO EXPLORATION + COLONIZATION OF DEEP SPACE, STARTING OF COURSE WID OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM. This means ADVANCED ENGINES = TECHS,
includ Advanced super-Materials, Advanced Integration, + MULTI-REGION/CONTINENTAL GOVTS SUPPOR.

AND A MADONNA FAN FROM GUAM SHALL LEAD/POINT THE WAY - JUST GOTTA STOP PAULA "DELILAH/BATHSHEBA" ABDUL FROM PERENNIALLY KICKING HER DADDY'S FAVOR COCONUTS!

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-08-15 18:55|| 2008-08-15 18:55|| Front Page Top

#14 Global warming is a hoax.

I am more worried about an ice age than a tropical swamp in Greenland.

Posted by James Carville 2008-08-15 18:56|| 2008-08-15 18:56|| Front Page Top

#15 Heard the other day that airlines are cutting 60 million seats in the fall. That should make travel very screwed up as far as trying to get somewhere.

Posted by JohnQC 2008-08-15 19:22|| 2008-08-15 19:22|| Front Page Top

#16 UH4645, c'mon, don't confuse them with the facts. They're saving Gaia, dammit, from all these gawdawful lower class people taking a holiday! Can't have that! Uppity peasants!

(Here's a link to what UH is talking about if anyone is interested.)

Posted by Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-08-15 19:52|| 2008-08-15 19:52|| Front Page Top

#17 Airships are making a big return right now. The technology is much better than it was a hundred years ago, and airships can do a lot of things that aircraft, trains and trucks have a hard time doing.

For the military, they can maintain surveillance over a huge area 24/7. They can provide a super high bandwidth, high speed communications service like a dedicated satellite. They can provide continual AWACS style air control. And they could do all three things at once.

They also have amazing cargo lift potential, perhaps four or five times what the largest aircraft can carry. And they can land it on the top of a mountain without an airstrip. Imagine dropping an armored outpost on the top of a commanding mountain. It could neutralize a hundred square miles of enemy territory.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-08-15 23:05|| 2008-08-15 23:05|| Front Page Top

#18 They also can be shot down is a jiffy, those fat things. AWACS my ass!

Posted by General_Comment 2008-08-15 23:07|| 2008-08-15 23:07|| Front Page Top

#19 Public television has been showing that global dimming thingy several times a week recently. They seem awfully upset about it.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-08-15 23:19|| 2008-08-15 23:19|| Front Page Top

23:59 KBK
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