Manticore

I think you may have misunderstood (I can be a bit vague sometimes). By "standing facing parallel", I mean that a line taken through your body from front to rear should be parallel to the wall.

Try getting a pilot's licence. You soon learn that if you fly into a cloud relying on your own senses (ie. without instruments) you will almost certainly be dead within a few minutes.

As far as simulations go: Try messing around with fuzzy logic. From Wikipedia: "Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth values of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely false." Add a bit of randomness & I guarantee you won't get the same results from a program every time. Include a learning algorithm & it's liable to end up at least as unpredictable as me at my most chaotic.

Jet engine yes. Modern no. Coanda used a piston engine as the compressor.

The one that always amuses me is Mouse Milk Oil.

I think, therefore I think I am (I think).

That must take a hell of a lot of energy. Do you know how big those things are?

Remember when Reagan was shot - right through the middle of the head - missed his brain by a good yard.

Today I learned (not for the first time) that having the latest experimental version of every piece of software is not always a good idea.

Ahhh! It's a good day when that happens.

I've always worked on the principal of: "Learn something new every day, and do something impossible at least once a week." (At least, something that other people think is impossible.)

Forget science based arguments. Forget philosophical arguments. Forget logical arguments. If someone gives me the old 'Anything is possible.' spiel, I say: OK. Stand against that wall facing parallel to it with your left foot and shoulder pressed against it. Now lift your right foot off the ground. Call me again when you have succeeded. I never hear another word from them on the subject.