ReconRat

Third party candidates have won 40 elections in total. Mostly state governor and senate. But it's not clear if that's federal or state senate. Wisconsin is the leader in third party elections, with Minnesota right behind.

Completely expected turn of events. Housing bubble would have to come back. Too many people up and down the chain from agent to lender to DC, made too much money to not try doing it again. Certain buyers will become victims again.

Agreeing with IP (omg). I hammered bicycles from early teens through college. It makes you very strong, both physically and mentally. The benefits and strengths will last and pay off over a longer life time. Having said that, I intend to fix up my bicycle and get with it again. Maybe even a new bicycle or two, who knows. Swimming is also an excellent all around sport/exercise. Just more difficult to find and participate in.

When you vote for a third party candidate, you vote for change in the two primary parties. They will see the lost votes, and attempt to regain those votes. Even a small percentage will win an election. Sometimes, over time, it actually does create reform for the people.

USA politics have had over 20 different political parties. Some had agendas, some were splits of parties over issues. Whig, Federalist, Democrat, and Republican parties have all split or reformed at least once. Usually split north and south over issues. The banners of one party become the banners of another, and then changes again. But nothing in many years, other than the appearance of the Tea Party. We're quite overdue for a new party to form. edit: at one time in history, there were 6 American political parties in action at the same time. Conversely, at one time, there was only one party in action.

Old guy here. Yes, lost some between 40 and 45-50 years of age. One heart failure, one suicide, one legal over medicated, one struck by illness from hiking in the woods, no drugs that I remember. I think it slows down after that, or seems that way to me. Happens again around 60-65, people had heart failures and cancer. Make it past that, and you're retired, healthy and bored like me.

I was holding at 8 cents per round max. Sadly, that appears to be gone. I see only two mail order choices under 8 cents per. Glad I bought what I did. Still desperately picking up Winchester HV Super-X, but seldom see it. And decent 22LR hollow point of any kind is hard to find. The Aguila Super Extra and the Federal Gold Medal Match are the two under 8 cents per. Plus shipping... edit: I looked again... There are 22LR in the 4.4 to 8 cent range, but they tend to sell out first. Always out of stock. Stuff like Blazer, CCI, American Eagle, Federal, and Winchester. All have a low cost round if it can be found.

shoot, my 919 is designed in Japan, and manufactured in Italy. The stupid bike is bullet proof. Don't forget the Spanish Civil War. 1936-1939 Facists vs Socialists. Germany and Italy supporting one side, and the Soviet Union and Mexico supporting the other. It should have been a big clue about what would possibly happen in Europe's future. One thing noticed was the advent of the dive bomber in combat. Ju-87 Stuka. Which oddly enough was in part developed from interest in the Curtiss Wright SB2C Helldiver built in Columbus Ohio. It was seen in airshows in Europe, and from what I understand, German military actually visited the aircraft plant here in the US for a closer look. The US Navy moved on to the SBD Dauntless, a better dive bomber.

negative, military personnel, while generally a bit more conservative, are nicely divided in thirds: Democrat, Republican and Independant. Although I do think preferences shift a bit after completing service, the percents don't vary very much. edit: did get the blow things up part correct edit again: also perhaps noticed military personnel tend to shift to independant after combat experiences. Open to change in political affiliation.

oops again, somebody hit a Syria Army unit from the air. Ammo dump, vehicles, armor, and personnel. Syria claims US aircraft did it. US says no US airstrike within 55k (34 miles) from there. Unknown yet who did it. edit: The Syrian forces said the aircraft attacked with rockets. US aircraft typically don't use rockets, the Russian SU-25 does. That's the Russian equivalent of an A-10. And yes, they are used in Syria. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-denies-syrian-accusations-that-its-warplanes-hit-a-syrian-base/2015/12/07/db72a0fb-cc62-49c8-a5ed-997c2e6e1f98_story.html edit again: Pentagon says it was Russian aircraft. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-denies-syrian-accusations-that-its-warplanes-hit-a-syrian-base/2015/12/07/db72a0fb-cc62-49c8-a5ed-997c2e6e1f98_story.html

Interesting side effect. Sales of firearms increased (again) in response. But the interest in scarey "assault rifles" has been dropping since the peak after the attempted ban of AR-15s and kin. Sales of such are continuing to drop. It's an interest in handguns now, for personal protection, and has a large increase in first time buyers (again). People are taking the situation personally, and more seriously. edit: And yes, there was a knife attack in gun-less Britain, after the commitment to airstrikes in Syria by the British military. Britain says their terrorist threat level is very high. Connections have been discovered between France and places in Britain.

oops again, I had the right idea, but it happened in a different country. Turkey has sent troops and armor (20-25) into Iraq, to support Sunnis in Bashiqa near Mosul. "Training" only. Iraq (a predominantly Shitte government) asks them to leave, since they never asked permission. The question is, who is getting the "training". The Iraqi troops? The Turkish troops?. Probably everyone. edit: The Bashiqa training camp is Iraqi Peshmerga forces -- Kurdish fighters in the region. Turkey has had training advisors there for 2-1/2 years.

Autonomous cars (no driver) in electric Formula E next year. They aren't perfect yet... http://www.wired.com/2015/12/roborace-autonomous-vehicle-racing/ http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/G7C5023-582x388.jpg "Someday soon, motorsports fans may talk about the rivalries between two computer programs the way they now talk about Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost."

Try RICOH first. https://www.ricoh-usa.com/downloads/downloads.aspx use exact model number to find old drivers try a PCL6 universal driver for win7 if it doesn't list one for XP and can use the search box at top to look for stuff related to your exact model number a trick I've used is to go to the British RICOH website, and look there. Results can be different. or, try https://us.driverscollection.com/ https://us.driverscollection.com/?file_cid=46604485158fe5501da9cae04a7 PCL6 release 4.4 for XP - I scanned it, seems ok watch out for switchs that install stuff not wanted just looked, this appears to be of the type where you go to "add a printer" and then point at the folder that has the drivers - C:\temp\z67563L17\32bit also found it in Argentina and Taiwan, but let's avoid that...

yeah, this is a political game between NATO and Russia. Increased after the thing in the Ukraine and Crimea. Constant Russian ground and sea maneuvers and air flights testing and violating NATO borders everywhere. Too early yet to know what will happen or happen next. Most likely just more of the same.

oops.... a surviving Russian pilot says there were no warnings, no communication. One side or the other is lying, probably both. edit: "US military officials said there were indications the downed plane entered Turkish airspace for a matter of seconds, and that it had been warned to stay out." http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/ap-syria-the-latest.html Turkey says one of the two aircraft responded and departed, the other did not. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34912581 Syrian forces are advancing North in that area, toward the Turkish border, going after Free Syrian army and others, not ISIS, and air strikes are supporting them. The Russian airstrikes have now been cranked up. At this point the worse thing that could happen is a Turkish armor strike (with mobile ground-to-air anti-aircraft support) across the border against Syrian troops. There have been 9 clashes between Turkey and Syria since 2012.

The media (twitter and comments) keep saying Turkish air controllers warned the aircraft between 12 to 109 times in the amazing 17 seconds it was in Turkish airspace. Typical media spin. That's not how it works. When an unknown aircraft approaches your border, you start asking identification and intentions. About 12 miles out it gets serious. Turkish air control no doubt continuously transmitted to those two aircraft, particularly since they could not or would not answer. Violations of common international airspace protocols, refusing to communicate, over flight of territory, attacking Turkman territory (a definite Turkish ally). On a touchy border. To make it worse, Syria has similar aircraft. I'm not surprised at the result. In some ways, it couldn't have been more deliberate. edit: btw, Turkey (Ottoman Empire) and Russia have fought 12 wars between 1568 and 1923. Yes, there is a history there.

how do I say this... military aircraft get shot down a lot more than people know, and nothing is said by either side if it's a military thing. World war three does not start. Combat does not start. But if it's a political thing, it's big news. One reason is that if it was a reconnaissance flight, then it was looking for secrets. The result is that nothing gets said by either side, since the subject/target involved is.... secret. The only reason I found out, is that I worked with a bunch of cold war era pilots that had some incredible stories about it. I guess the cold war wasn't so cold. At least as far as the general public knew. I don't think we're back to that yet, and probably never will be. We use satellites and drones now. And we have the agreed Open Sky Policy, that allows other countries to overfly even for reconnaissance purposes, as long as they file a flight plan, and meet the requirements of the treaty. USA and Russia allow 42 flights per year. We don't ever hear much about it, since the flights and target subjects are generally.... secrets.

FBI still says they worry more about tree-hugging domestic terrorists. They hold the record for monetary loss, apparently. Most of the data doesn't mean much, if it's not per capita and totals of damage or deaths. But basically, if it's not one, it's the other. Just have to live with it and do what we can. edit: found a chart of incidents of domestic vs foriegn over time. It goes back and forth, with foriegn terrorism slightly higher in the beginning, once in the middle, and again currently. And both are going up in number of incidents.

6% in the USA per FBI stats 2.11% of USA population (2014) ergo 2.8 times more likely to commit terrorism edited with more up to date data - population was 0.1% in 2010

quick analysis: Look at the radar track map in the link. 1. The area of Turkey overflown is about 2 miles wide. At 600mph that's about 12 seconds. Apparently Russia and/or the Russian pilots thought that would be ok. It appears the first overflight was "allowed" with warning, the second overflight was not. 2. The adjacent area targeted, is the Free Syrian Army. Nearby is two areas of conflict (or more) with Assad's regime army. It also appears that Assad's army is attempting a pincher movement to surround this territory along the Turkish border near the Mediterranean. 3. Turkey's political and military found this unacceptable. The downed aircraft might have been targeted and hit over Turkish airspace, but it's flight path continued on into the Syrian area of the Free Syrian Army. Russia and Turkey will now argue about it. edit: one more, it appears the Russians lack radar coverage or an early warning capability, or problems communicating with the pilots, or all of the above. Normally the intercepting Turkish F-16s would have been spotted with just enough time to warn the pilots to break off and avoid conflict. Or they just didn't give a damn. edit again: I wondered why the radar track appeared to show two Russian/Syrian aircraft. That's because there were two aircraft making the attacks.

Also in aerospace news, Britain decided to purchase P-8 maritime patrol and the F-35B purchase is back on for the carriers. Britain had to call Canadian and French submarine hunters, when an unknown submarine was found near Scotland. European nations are boosting defense spending.

Found a 2006 Pew survey of British and French Muslims. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/europe-muslims-paris-terrorism/416964/ 2006 Survey says: 15 percent of French and British Muslims agreed that violence against civilians was justified to protect Islam Another 9 percent in the U.K. and 19 percent in France said that violence against civilians could be justified “rarely.” About half of French and British Muslims denied that Arabs had carried out the 9/11 attacks Another survey that same year: a survey of British Muslims found that almost one-quarter believed the 7/7 terrorist attacks on the London transit system had been justified because of Britain’s participation in the war on terror 10 years later: A decade later, a slightly larger proportion (27%) said they had sympathy for the motives behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks - Some believed the Jewish carried out the attacks. what I get out of this is that roughly one out of four believe that combat against non-combatants (terror) is ok

Basically correct. Here are some observations from an engineer type guy that has done work with tires and things that pressurize. 1. The absolute minimum tire pressure is 26psi per DOT tire standards, for road tires. Going lower will degrade the tire. 2. Bikes should show two tire pressure setups. One for single rider and one for with a passenger. Some do not. 3. A rough guess for single rider is 25% lower than max on the rear tire only, compared to max pressures for two. 4. If you see cracks in the sips of your tire tread when your tire really isn't that old, you probably ran pressures too low. 5. DOT standards recommend adding 3 psi per tire for sustained speeds over 70. 6. Actual optimal pressures are found by rigging and loading the bike and weighing vehicle road weight below both tires (with rider geared up), and selecting pressures from the DOT tire manual. (I have the manuals, but a lot of the newer ultra low profile tires aren't listed.) 7. The max rating of the tire is not the pressures you should use. The vehicle weight determines the pressure. If the vehicle wheel weight is higher than the tire rating, it's the wrong tire. If the recommended pressure goes lower than 26psi, it's the wrong tire. 8. I've seen really low pressures recommended by the manufacturer for front tires on cars and motorcycles. It's my opinion that reflects on an error in the design of the front suspension or vehicle, and the engineers/designers are trying to compensate. Not cool. 9. I have no advice about nitrogen, other than what I learned for aircraft. It's meant to keep tires from over expanding at high altitudes and jamming in the aircraft wheel well. Bad when you can't lower the landing gear. Guess I'll look some of it up. edit: my 919s are 34F 36R factory. I typically run 30-32F 28-30R solo. Stock tire sizes.

You'll have to admit that the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post don't pull their punchs with the news: Islamic State presence in the U.S. 'the new normal,' FBI director says