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[Darvi]

Though escape pods are actually not something that would be useful on a craft. If your ship is going to be destroyed in such a way that you can't jettison or seal off a damaged and/or exploding section, you're screwed already.

Technically, using an escape pod basically amounts to jettisoning the entire ship/station.

[RedKing]

And that's why no commercial passenger ships carry lifeboats today. 

C'mon guys....I know corporations are generally TEH EVAL but they're not *that* stupid. Yet. Most of these early companies are bankrolled by rich geeks who just can't stand waiting around anymore to get in space. They LOVE space exploration. They're not going to look at their pilots as disposable. The problem will be 50-100 years from now when Space Disney doesn't rigorously check the hull seals on the Space Monorail taking you to Space Magic Kingdom In Space.


To re-rail the thread:
Six out of 10 Americans think Romney is a douche.

Dude has a 35-61 favorability/unfavorability rating. That's pretty harsh.
Obama, by contrast, is running 54-43. And that's WITH half the country pretty much devoted to loathing him as an incarnation of all that is evil for the last four years.

Couple of notes out of looking at the crosstabs:
1. They were in almost a dead heat in terms of favorability back in July, with 49% favorable to Obama and 45% to Romney.
2. The big difference? Liberal Dems have finally stopped grousing. Support went from 77% to 93% among self-identified liberal Democrats, and 66% to 74% among liberals of whatever party ID.
3. Romney, by contrast, has only increased his favorability among conservative Republicans by 3 points, from 72% to 75%, and is flat among all conservatives, staying at 54%.
4. Conservative Republicans' favorability of Obama has nearly doubled from 9% to 17%, while liberal Dems' favorability of Romney has only edged slightly from 10% to 11%.
5. Intensity is a factor too. Of those inclined to be favorable towards the candidates, over half (28%) are strongly favorable to Obama, while less than a third (10%) feel that way about Romney.
6. Conversely, 27% are strongly negative about Obama (down from 32% in July), compared to 36% strongly negative about Romney (up from 27%).

[Darvi]

Six out of 10 Americans think Romney is a douche.

Meaning that at least 7 percent of the population either hasn't heard of his 47% gaffe or doesn't care.

[Zrk2]

When you get into that final 10% of the population you get a lot of weirdos.

[Owlbread]

Also, none of those things are free in Scotland, they're just paid through taxes.

We do pay for them through taxes, but we just allocate the budget we're given by the British government more in favour of socialist services like the ones I described. Countries like England spend their money elsewhere. I suppose our population is small enough for that to be viable, so unlike the USA our tax increase has not been particularly noticeable to the point that people are complaining. It's as if people are saying "at least that money isn't being spent on vanity projects or wars".

The point I'm making is that we could be spending our taxpayer's money on a space program or defence, but we choose to spend it mostly on services like free prescriptions and so on. However, the space program is a tough thing to debate with respect to America because America brings a lot to the world through their space research. Even on the vanity-nationalism subject, Russia and China are two countries that seem to behave just like the Americans once did - you know, you can imagine the Chinese happily planting a Chinese flag on Mars just like the Americans did on the moon, bringing all the repugnance of nationalism (the "my country is better than your country" kind) and the cold war with it.

[Nadaka]

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/presidential-swing-states-%28fl-oh-and-pa%29/release-detail?ReleaseID=1800

According to this source, Obama is leading Romney by about 10 points in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. That is a higher margin for Ohio and Florida than I have seen from other polls.

[RedKing]

And with some of the new poll data for Ohio, RCP's electoral count has 265 for Obama. He could literally lose all but one of the "toss-up" states (assuming it's not New Hampshire) and still win the election. If trends continue and Florida pops out of toss-up and into "Leans Democrat", he'll be starting the election over the victory mark. Still have to consider the ever-lurking "October Surprise", but so far the only candidates for that role are the Benghazi consular attack (which Romney deftly blunted the effect of by coming off as a smug asshole more concerned about scoring political points than having any empathy for the dead) and the "47%" comment which has been a major self-inflicted wound to Team Romney.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The October Surprise will probably hurt Romney, and even if it hurts Obama it would have to be something like an Evangelical Christian Plumber discovering irrefutable evidence that Obama is a Communist Muslim from Kenya who has been secretly poisoning America's water supply with sterility drugs for the last four years to actually make him lose the election.

[Zrk2]

I believe you meant "communist atheist muslim pinko fascist terrorist."

[Sirus]

I believe you meant "communist atheist muslim pinko fascist terrorist."

You forgot "homosexual".

[Zrk2]

Oh, my bad.

[Moghjubar]

And master of misfortune.

Toast lands jelly side down? Obama!

[darkrider2]

Obama wishes to destroy the 5 second rule!

he is evil.

[RedKing]

Bird shit on your newly-waxed truck?
It's a little-known fact that Barack Obama can use black magic to shapeshift into animal forms.

[Sirus]

Bird shit on your newly-waxed truck?
It's a little-known fact that Barack Obama can use black magic to shapeshift into animal forms.

DATS RAYCIST