NASA's Orion launch a success: "There's your new spacecraft, America!"

boing
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What’s burning off out of that chimney next to the launchpad and why?

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What’s burning off out of that chimney next to the launchpad and why?

from: Join Us For Orion's First Test Flight! [LIVE COVERAGE] [UPDATED]

The hydrogen is loaded first, then the oxygen. Both are chilled for cryogenic tanking… The fuel evaporates and vents after fuelling, so a small trickle is constantly added to keep the rockets topped-up. The rockets will consume the fuel in just 4 minutes. … The hydrogen flare stack is the red flame to the side of the launch pad, burning off excess hydrogen fuel that evaporated and escaped the rocket.

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That’s great, John. Go run for congress and let the rest of us watch the rocket.

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Thread flagged for referring to the US as “America”.

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Another Aussie here. Four weeks of annual leave per year is normal. Most employers let you go into debt on leave when you start so you could take a week or two from the word go. I have earned three months of long service leave twice in my career, but both times I took it as cash. So you work ten years and you get three months of leave. Work another ten years, you get a second block of three months off. It possible that some contracts give you six months off for working 20 years. YMMV.

Medical is more or less free. I have never once avoided the doctor because I was worried about the cost. A visit to the doctor will leave me 30 AUD out of pocket but there are places I could go where I would wait longer, maybe see a less skilled doctor, and pay zero. I broke my arm in 2009. I was treated in a public hospital. First class treatment. Paid nothing at all.

My son’s friend’s family are Americans, living here in Australia. They were in the US for a visit. Their daughter got sick and they asked a family friend, a doctor, for advice. He advised them to get back to Australia ASAP and get it looked at.

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The U.S. is the only country that officially has “America” as part of its name. It’s not ambiguous.

If you wanted to get upset about the fact that basically an entire hemisphere and all its indigenous peoples got named after some Italian sailor I’d be right there with you, but complaining that the U.S. has monopolized the name “America” is a quixotic waste of effort.

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No worries, mate! She’ll turn out alright.

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That was going to be my question. I thought maybe it was the touch paper to light the rocket.

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Is it because your degree are easier?

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Well, we haven’t been invaded by those elephant-looking Fithp bastards, so no.

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I’ve lived in several foreign countries and used the National health in Britain and France, so I am aware of free health care (my Mother chose to go to a personal doctor and for a pittance, received ‘better’ care though.) And I have heard horror stories about foreign travelers becoming ill here in the US. Lately, a Canadian woman was given the go-ahead to visit here as she was still several weeks away from giving birth. She even bought an insurance policy that would cover her in the US. Unfortunately, the baby came early and she was rushed to a hospital that was ‘outside’ the approved provider list provided by the insurer. She was handed a $150,000 bill, which after negotiation was dropped to about $40,000 (if I recall). We Americans happily screw ourselves and pat ourselves on the back for doing so. I suppose it’s our Puritan ethic which requires a certain amount of suffering in life.

Thanks for the clarification on the paid leave. That is simply mind boggling.

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Cute. LOL! … You couldn’t pay me enough to run for Congress. I don’t have a big enough ego, nor do I like pain that much.

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I’ve never stopped learning, and find the Internet an excellent source for subjects I enjoy…But to get a degree, you have to pay in the US, unless you ‘luck out’ and get a scholarship, or 100% support, neither of which anyone in my family managed. I worked full time to attain my MA. But things were different. College was affordable, you could (and I did) get my BA in 4 years and my MA in 2.

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The strange thing is that the unsubsidized health care charges in Australia are much lower than the equivalent in the US. The money must be going somewhere.

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Maybe, maybe not, but it’s reasonable evidence that our education system isn’t producing the worst results in the world, like bbfreek says.

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Ah, stats :wink:

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My 10-year-old’s reaction to hearing “This is Houston” was “I thought Houston was dead…”

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I think perhaps John meant the least cost-efficient, i.e. the worst per dollar spent. Though I don’t know if that’s true either, it seems more likely.

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Not really surprising. We’re a profit driven country. If anyone can earn a profit, laws and taxes are manipulated to allow them to do so. We have a strong history of milking the public to fund businesses and the wealthy, and with our last election, and appointment of Rep. Paul Ryan to the ‘Ways and Means’ committee, it looks like the Reagan attack on the Middle Class will continue unabated.

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I come from a family of educators and received my Masters in Education…however, i didn’t go into the trade. These charts (and associated comments) reflect my thinking on US education results:

There are many reasons why we might spend more on education, such as our acceptance that social programs should be ‘for profit’ and our hands off approach to requiring reasonable cost efficiencies, and our rather sad results compared to other countries, such as our absurd media, but having attended schools in Britain and France, I can attest to the better results that their schools provide.

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