Patrick, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, your use of so-called is correct. Although it normally is used as a term of abuse, it can also be used to point out an esoteric technical term:

2. In attributive use (hyphened): Called or designated by this name or term, but not properly entitled to it or correctly described by it. Also loosely or catachr. as a term of abuse.

More recently, and now quite commonly (esp. in technical contexts), used merely to call attention to the description, without implication of incorrectness {Oxford English Dictionary]

I also wonder about Patrick's use of the phrase - "so-called "pitot tubes". Why "so-called"? They have been called pitot tubes ever since they were invented by Henri Pitot in the early 1700's. Now, the real question is, why do modern state-of-the-art aircraft still use such a primitive technology? Is it really that difficult for aircraft to determine their speed from GPS satellites? Shouldn't pitot tubes just be a backup? After all, ships don't still measure their speed by throwing logs overboard. Patrick assures us that pitot tubes are heated. Fair enough, but at what point does ice overwhelm the heating system? The evidence so for indicates to me that pitot tube failure due to icing was the primary cause of this accident, not severe weather. Severe weather was probably a complicating factor after the pitot tube failure had already caused the planes computers to misinterpret plane speed. So again, why the phrase "so-called pitot tubes"? Does Patrick want to avoid putting any blame on the airline?

My Question: given all the redundancies, if cockpit controls manage to be disabled by some massive event--how is it possible that the transmitters sending system status reports continue working?

I wonder about this too, and hope Patrick can explain.

Sabotage. How can a bomb be ruled out when the plane disintegrated so quickly? Just who was on that plane?

Also, the BBC article referred to Ram Air Turbines (RAT) as RAM. Was this a mistake?

I also enjoy turbulence,not only on planes, but in cars. Feeling the crosswind pushing the car out of the lane and having to compensate reminds me that I am driving fast in a machine, not munching chips on a sofa. When I want to be still, I am. When I want to move fast, I like to feel it.

There is such a thing as being too insulated from reality.

(This letter has been cut and pasted from a letter I wrote in 2006)

I wish there was more, but then I would also like the pilot to do barrel rolls. But not during meal service.

I have a 2005 Prius and will soon be buying a 2010 Prius. Anything else would be uncivilized.

Sorry for the typo.

I take it Patrick is on a tight schedule and jet-lagged.

It seems incredible that in this age of GPS, airliners can still go "out of range of radar" so that we have no idea where the plane vanished. Shouldn't we know exactly where every plane it all the time?

Join facebook. You will instantly have hundreds of friends. Table Talk is good for that too.

Everyone you meet in Manhattan is an escapee from some god-fearing and god-awful hick town. Everyone actually born in New York lives in the suburbs of Long Island or Westchester because they know that Manhattan is a noisy overpriced ridiculously crowded hell hole. Ok to visit, though. As for Washington, it is the Disneyland of government with equally tacky neo-classical architecture designed to impress school children and tourists. Who gives a damn about either place, really? Keillor must be really hard up for a subject.

"The technology is always down the road; the better battery is always in the future," says Michael Schiffer, an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona."

I always look to anthropology professors when I want to find out the latest about automotive technology, just as I go to an opthamologist when my teeth hurt and a dentist when I need glasses.

Of course you should go - it's the fashion, everyone's doing it. Kids are such a drag - dump them. That will show them how much you care about them and set a great pattern for their future relationships. Take them to the zoo once a month and that will be more than sufficient. After all, it's your life that matters, right? Better still, forgot those nasty support payments. Just move out of state and forget you ever had kids. They will cry over losing their father, but you won't have to listen to them, will you?

Canukistan Bob,

Your point is well taken. Social science is not science as it relies upon untestable propositions. I read the article you pointed to regarding homosexuality with interst. The implications are interesting, as the article states:

"How would gay men see themselves and be regarded in a society that understood their condition as a side effect of female evolution? Would male androphilia be treated like sickle-cell anemia—the unfortunate cost of a genetic mutation that's beneficial in other people? We medicate sickle-cell anemia. Would we medicate homosexuality?"

This research does imply that homosexuality is an evolutionary disadvantage for gay men, something which seems pretty self evident. It seems that gay men are getting the short end of the reproductive stick while their female relatives get the benefits. Being gay may be seen as a disadvantage, even a disability for gay men that persists only because it is an advantage for female relatives.

As I wrote when Obama was elected, the more things change, the more they stay the same. If elections could change anything, they would ban them.