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Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum est.

As Shiites and Kurds presented the draft to the National Assembly, Sunnis bitterly opposed to its federal structure talked of "betrayal" and warned of a violent backlash.

The constitution is the principal plank of President George W. Bush's exit strategy from the Iraq conflict, which has made his popularity among American voters plummet.

US diplomats, led by the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, had been frantically lobbying for it to be adopted before yesterday's deadline. But far from sealing Iraq's post-Saddam era, the draft appeared to be fast fracturing the fledgling edifice of government, with Shiite and Kurdish parties declaring they were prepared to use their parliamentary majority to push through the document despite Sunni opposition.

The Sunni reaction was immediate, with politicians queuing to denounce the move and warning of a cataclysmic reaction. Soha Allawi, one of the leading negotiators, declared: "We will not be silent. We will campaign for public awareness to tell Sunnis and Shias to reject the constitution, which will lead to the break-up of Iraq and civil war."

Another Sunni delegate, Hussein Shukur al-Fallu, said: "If they pass this constitution, then the rebellion will reach its peak."

Sunni leaders said the text had dropped wording that forbade secession from Iraq; Kurdish parties maintained they do not want to break away entirely but want to keep the option open.

Sex before marriage is wrong.

Josh, you're going to go blind if you keep thinking about that Amish girl.

Can anyone tell me what the number under the srb is from the space.com thread?

Also how soon could construction begin for any portion of any of the designs?

I like what I see in all referenced links but wonder how much and how soon contracts could initiate this work?

"It is possible that changing the expansion ratio of the nozzle will improve performance"

No it is a fact. The closer the exit pressure is to ambient the better the performance.

Of course it does. What I mean is that the additional performance may not be worth the extra cost, bulk and weight.

Take the RL10 for example. The RL10-A4 weighs 168 kg and gets an IpSec of 449 secs. The RL10-B2 has a much larger nozzle -- the largest drop in place carbon nozzle for that matter -- and attains 465 secs. This also increased the weight of the RL-10B2 to 302kg. A huge chunk of the weight of rocket engines is nozzle weight, and when you go to a huge nozzle this can skyrocket very quickly and you reach a point of diminishing returns quite quckly.

IF we increase the IpSec rating of the SSME to 470 secs (up from 453) with everything else being constant payload rating goes up from 19.3 to 21.3 tons. That is a good 2 tons. But how much is the new giant nozzle SSME going to weigh? If weight is gained at the same ratio as we see going from an RL-10A4 to an RL-10B2 then the SSME will weight 2534 kg more (5711 kg), completely negating the payload increase and in fact reducing payload by 500kg. Even if that does not happen... lets say the weight gain is only half that -- 1250 kg. That still leaves a mere 750kg increase in payload; a 750kg increase over 19,300kg. One then has to ask whether that is worth redesigning the SSME, retooling for its manufacturer and recertifiying it for manned flights.

Cobra, check your wallet.

<opens wallet> Ten bucks. Canadian. <closes wallet>

Is that a UN peacekeeper with binoculars on the reverse? <shakes head>

And before we set a precedent of two mods and an admin going off-topic, how 'bout that changing Europe eh? Hell of a thing. 

America is an Empire but it has competitors and it has internal pressures. One of the greatest is that it struggles with the term imperialism. Empires are not necassarily a bad thing they spread new inventions and generally ensure there citizens a chance to have a good life. They do bad things too but it is often outweighed by the good they do.

At the moment the USA is not a state that is going to collapse but there are pressures that could do it. It is time for the USA to accept what it is and gird itself to the struggle that is keeping an Empire going.

There is wisdom in this. Success has consequences. We have responsibilities. The mantle of Empire has been passed from Britain to us, it's time we acknowledged the reality even if we deny the label.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that stronger cooperation in military, economic and scientific endeavors  between the descendents of the British Empire could yield great good. America, Britain, Australia and Canada together to Mars anyone?