CommentsDisplaying The Monster's 10 most recent comments.

• Only Eight Pilots Are Qualified to Land on This ‘Terrifying’ Runway

  December 30, 2011 at 10:47am

  In reply to FreedomWitness.

  Airplanes always take off and land into the wind if possible, which maximizes airspeed compared to ground speed. This runway is labeled “15”, indicating it’s at a bearing between 145 and 154.9 degrees from North, or SSE. So if the wind is coming out of the north or west, they use runway 15 The opposite end of the runway would say “33”, and would be used when the wind is blowing out of the south or east. If the wind is generally from the WSW or ENE, you can go either direction.

  And taking off from 33 with the need to immediately turn right has to be a ton of fun.

• Have you ever seen the moon like this?

  September 10, 2011 at 6:54pm

  In reply to David Foxfire.

  It never ceases to amaze me how professional writers and editors can make such errors. There are no voters on the Moon, so it doesn’t have polls.

• The HULC! Catch a Glimpse of the New ‘Exoskeleton’ That Could Revolutionize the Battlefield

  July 6, 2011 at 9:42am

  In reply to Marine Recon Dad.

  How about if the soldier has to carry an artillery shell 100 feet, then goes back to get another shell, and another, and another…? He’ll traverse a long distance total lugging those shells.

  How about a HULC-mounted GAU-17/A minigun? Would you like to be able to carry the firepower normally restricted to vehicles?

• US Military Is at War With Indigenous People: Not Just Geronimo, Tomahawk Missiles, Apache Helicopters — Using Any Native American Term Is Racist; Indian Activist Demands Apology

  May 9, 2011 at 8:51am

  When someone jumps out of an airplane and shouts “Geronimo!”, he’s asserting his bravery. Thus, the name of Geronimo became associated with achieving something important. The assignment of that name for the EVENT of capturing/killing bin Laden does not “equate” the two men. But if your political power is derived from perpetual victimhood, there can be no other explanation.

• Whoa! American Woman Wakes Up From Oral Surgery With Transylvanian Accent

  May 6, 2011 at 5:44pm

  In reply to Robert-CA.

  My elder daughter was on a trip one summer. Her German teacher took a bunch of the students to Germany/Austria/Switzerland. They flew from KC north to join up with kids from WI for the trip to Europe. She fell asleep and when she woke up, she had picked up a WI accent “Geez, look at the clouts!” Everyone thought she was doing it deliberately, but my theory is she was put into a trance state and absorbed what she was hearing.

  This lady sounds like a cross between Irish and Afrikaans, not Transylvanian at all.

• LA Cops Handcuff Steelers Star Hines Ward in Stolen Car Mix-Up

  May 5, 2011 at 11:12am

  She never canceled the report?
  How is this woman smart enough to breathe?

• ‘You’re Trying to Put Words in My Mouth:‘ Franklin Graham Spars With O’Donnell Over Obama’s Faith

  April 26, 2011 at 1:00pm

  In reply to miles from nowhere.

  Why did Jesus preach to tax collectors and prostitutes?

• ‘No End in Sight’: Malicious Web Attack Hits Million+ Sites, Still Spreading

  April 1, 2011 at 11:33pm

  In reply to sherminator.

  @mefree

  Open systems that have been audited, tested, and hardened are superior to Security Through Obscurity. If your security depends on people not knowing how your systems work, you are fundamentally insecure. Security experts do not rely on keeping anything secret other than passwords.

• Krauthammer vs. Totenberg: Why Does NPR Have to Live on ‘Tit of the State?’

  March 12, 2011 at 12:04pm

  In reply to drbage.

  Totenberg’s logic is that the superiority of the NPR product is manifestly evident to The Enlightened Elites, but that the dumb hicks in rural areas aren’t smart enough to figure it out on their own, and kick in a few shekels to keep those local NPR stations afloat.

  It is of a piece with what I call The Fundamental Contradiction of the Democratic Nanny State;
  If we are not competent to decide:
  * what radio programming to consume
  * what wages and working conditions are acceptable
  * what our children should watch
  * what health care services to use
  …then how is it that when we step into the voting booth, we are transfigured into Masters of All We Survey, competent to choose the laws that make these choices for us all, either directly via initiative/referendum/New England Town Hall, or indirectly via electing legislators to make those laws.

  As Johnathan Edwards put it so well:
  He can’t even run his own life
  Be damned if he’ll run mine, Sunshine.

• High Schooler Shatters Backboard on Game-Ending Dunk

  February 14, 2011 at 8:50am

  In reply to SpankDaMonkey.

  It doesn‘t matter where it’s made. Without the spring-loaded rim designed to give way when someone puts too much weight on it, a glass backboard is going to break. That’s one of the reasons it used to be offensive goaltending (penalty: basket doesn’t count) to dunk the ball, and a technical foul (two shots plus possesion of the ball to the other team) to grab the rim. Now it’s usually only a T if you hang on the rim with all of your weight, and even then if there’s a player on the floor below you, it‘s excused under the theory you’re trying to protect him.