The Jetpack achieves with 30 minutes of flight time and is fueled by regular premium gasoline, though you will undoubtedly earn some disbelieving stares at the petrol station. Since it has been built according to ultralight regulations no FAA recognized pilot’s license is required to fly one in the U.S., though this will depend on a country’s specific requirements. However, despite being significantly less complex than a helicopter to fly as pitch and roll are controlled by one hand, thrust and yaw by the other, Martin Aircraft won’t let anyone take receipt of their jetpack before completing their specially-developed Martin Aircraft Company approved training program.

Is it practical? No way.

Is it the awesomest thing ever? Yes. Yes it is.

So, I’ve temporarily reverted to the old-style comments.

Here’s my question:  Should I just stick with the old-style and call it a day?  Or stick with IntenseDebate and try to squash the bugs?

Let me know, ‘cause it’s you guys that feel the pain or the joy, one way or the other.

Here are just a few of mine.

The economy will improve early in the decade. That’s not really a hope, it’s practically a law of economics; everything is cyclical. My hope, though, is that after a decade of bubbles and practically no real economic growth, we can return to making things and see true long-term growth in the economy. Green technology has been the most-hyped way for America to accomplish that goal, but I don’t really care how we do it. It would just be nice to stop creating the illusion of wealth and get back to creating the real thing.

In politics, I’m desperately hoping for a return to somewhat more peaceful relations between liberals and conservatives. I’m hopeful that there’s only so long the battle can continue to escalate before the American public starts to turn on both parties. Indeed, that’s starting to happen already; maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I think it’s only a matter of time before we start to see things cool down.

I couldn’t possibly predict the future of technology over the next decade, but you can bet it will be awesome.

The world will not end in 2012.

According to a winter storm warning issued this afternoon for central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, the mess is expected to begin Wednesday afternoon — and go on and on.

…

The heaviest snowfall, 12 to 20 inches, likely will fall in a swath from Minneapolis to the Iowa border and west to the South Dakota border, said National Weather Service forecaster Jim Taggart.

That’s some spectacularly crummy timing for a winter storm. Stay safe!

Wow. Last night’s Twins victory in 12 innings was incredible, to say the least. After overcoming huge odds, the Twins have scrapped their way into the playoffs, which begin today.

Now comes the tough part. The Twins will go up against the star-studded, free-spending Yankees, whose top three players combined make more than the entire Twins’ payroll. I kid you not — look at the numbers for yourself here.

While the Twins are a long shot, they’ve been defying the odds for over a month now. And I think the entire baseball-watching public — outside of New York, of course — is rooting for them to continue their improbable run and put the Yankees in their place.

If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively.

That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada.

…

In their scientific paper, the authors conclude that humanity’s only hope is to “hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often”.

They added: “It’s imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else… we are all in a great deal of trouble.”

According to the researchers, the key difference between the zombies and the spread of real infections is that “zombies can come back to life”.

Our government should start putting contingency plans in place immediately. Most importantly, I think we should put Will Smith on retainer immediately. He seems to be quite used to these sorts of fights.

These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it’s 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP.

Do we really need to be told to hang up when we’re finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to “send a numeric page?” Who still carries a pager, for heaven’s sake? Or what about “leave a callback number?” We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!

Second, we’re PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

If you leave two voicemail messages a day, these mandatory messages add up to three hours of waiting time every year you don’t need, and three hours of extra time you’re billed for.

There are two things you can do about it, and neither takes much time. First, in your outgoing message, leave instructions for how to bypass this message: press * for Verizon, 1 for Sprint, # for AT&T, and # for T-Mobile. Second, Pogue sends instructions on how to send a complaint to the major carriers:

I’ve told each of the four major carriers that they’ll be hearing from us. They’ve told us where to send the messages:

* Verizon: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us.
* Sprint: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
* T-Mobile: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u.

In just about every major contaminated food scare, Minnesotans become sick by the dozens while few people in Kentucky and other states are counted among the ill.

Contaminated peanuts? Forty-two Minnesotans were reported sick compared with three Kentuckians. Jalapeño peppers last year? Thirty-one in Minnesota and two in Kentucky became ill. The different numbers arise because health officials in Kentucky and many other states fail to investigate many complaints of food-related sickness while those in Minnesota do so diligently, safeguarding not only Minnesotans but much of the rest of the country, as well…

…If not for the Minnesota Department of Health, the Peanut Corporation of America might still be selling salmonella-laced peanuts, Dole might still be selling contaminated lettuce, and ConAgra might still be selling dangerous Banquet brand pot pies — sickening hundreds or thousands more people.

In these and other cases, epidemiologists from Minnesota pinpointed the causes of food scares while officials in other states were barely aware that their residents were getting sick. From 1990 to 2006, Minnesota health officials uncovered 548 food-related illness outbreaks, while those in Kentucky found 18, according to an analysis of health records.

Kudos to the Department of Health.

In other Aaron Brown news, the Pioneer Press wrote up his book this week:

Made up of original essays on topics from Range culture to work ethics, politics to history, “Overburden” reflects Brown’s interest in the region where he is “the first in my paternal line to never work in a mine.”

Now a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, Brown served as that daily newspaper’s editor for two years. He’s an essayist and contributing producer for a KAXE radio program and founder/editor of the Iron Range’s news and politics blog, Minnesota Brown.com. His book, which combines humor, history, personal stories and original observations, is published by Red Step Press of Duluth, one of the state’s newest small publishers.

Bart Sutter, former Duluth poet laureate, says, “The Iron Range has found its voice in Aaron Brown.”

I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (damn law school) but Overburden is definitely on my reading list.