Posts Made By: James McSheehy

Apologies to Les Crane, but this version IMO is more appropriate for this forum:

Go placidly amidst the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof. Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep. Rotate your tires. Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself; and heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys. Know what to kiss - and when. Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do. Wherever possible, put people on hold. Be comforted, that in the face of all irridity and disillusionment, and despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in computer maintenance. Remember the Pueblo. Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate. Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI. Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those persons closest to you... That lemon on your left, for instance. Be assured that a walk through the seas of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. Fall not in love, therefore, it will stick to your face. Gracefully surrender the things of youth: the birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan - and let not the sands of time get in your lunch. Hire people with hooks. For a good time, call 606-4311, ask for Ken. Take heart in the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese. And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee. Therefore, make peace with your god, whatever you perceive him to be: hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. GIVE UP!

(You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
Whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.)

-- Tony Hendra

The F-22 was an advanced system, ten years ago. After two decades of "development" and rather limited production, it is functionally obsolete. I see it more as a welfare program for Lockheed than a strategic military asset. In any serious conflict the limited numbers of F-22s mean that normal attrition would quickly make it irrelevant.

A larger issue is our technology base and the ability to design, build, and maintain advanced weapons systems like these aircraft, submarines, ballistic missiles, nukes, etc. I think we are entering a period where much of the knowledge for this kind of work will be lost. Some of that may be good, after all did we really need the expertise associated with manufacturing fabric-covered triplanes at the outset of WWII? Other aspects like the engineering tricks needed to build reliable nukes, quiet submarine hulls, or a man-rated rocket engine are lost as the old guys who did the work retire and die. The new crop of engineers run their computer simulations but have no hardware based experience to draw from.

Whoa, important stuff this Kanye fellow. Who cares if Venezuela starts an arms race in S. America, ACORN actively supports vice crime, and our largest banks are insolvent. Glad to see this administration has its priorities focused on the important events. And props to ABC for digging hard to get the real news.

“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” -- G. Orwell

All of these SCT companies produce lemons from time to time. Maybe the owner broke the real corrector and replaced it with a piece of plate glass 8O . My experience with a 14" Meade earlier this year taught me a lot about these larger SCTs. They all have noticeable color, cool down takes a long time, and in my sample really poor (0.7 wave PTV by Roddier tests) optics made it out the door of Meade's brand new factory. To their credit they replaced the OTA and the new one has a 0.15 wave PTV optics set. Seeing affects these apertures more than smaller scopes and you just have to live with that fact.

It sounds like you did everything you could to set up the scope. Get a second opinion and/or run the Roddier test. If the optics are a dud, the fix is not going to be cheap.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but don't non-profits operate under a web of IRS and other government regulations?

In Soviet Russia they had a saying about their state-supported newspapers Izvestia (The News), and Pravda (The Truth). Loosely translated it was: "The News is not the truth, and The Truth is not the news.

Yes, creeping democracy is the villain. Easy to promote, and almost impossible to repeal. The Founders did what they could to limit its encroachment, but here in 2009 it's seen as something positive in politics. History shows that democratic systems last about 250 years, +/-.

What, rewarding failure and punishing success is bad for the economy?

"We've got some work to do. I don't mind, by the way, being responsible. I expect to be held responsible for these issues because I'm the president," Obama said. "But I don't want the folks that created the mess -- I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.

"I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking," Obama said.

Aren't you glad the man knows he is President? No debate needed, just get out of his way, after all he expects to be held responsible!

I guess it's time to bow to the truth. 8)

When the green projects and the companies behind the great ideas start greasing the right palms in DC, the money will fall from the sky. Wall Street, the big banks, Microsoft, Boeing, Lockheed, etc., all learned this lesson long ago. For a few bucks, I'm sure Jabba Gore would be willing to make some calls on behalf of the struggling technologists...

We have to show proper respect and deference to our future landlords. 8)