The biggest issue that the guys have had to wrestle with is how you cope with extremely high temperatures that come into the engine when you're doing hypersonic speeds; so more than five times the speed of sound, 4,000 miles-per-hour. The temperature coming in at the front of the engine is a thousand degrees centigrade. And you have to be able to cool that air very rapidly to be able to do anything useful with it.

Mark Thomas

Categorized in : Science

We're quite lucky that we've got political freedoms. We should be using them.

Mark Thomas

political lucky should

Believing is easier than thinking; that's why there will always be more believers than thinkers. However, the results of god-belief are often far more mental trials than those of nonbelief. It is quite difficult to ascertain the wishes of an invisible being.

Mark Thomas

believe religion thinking

Free speech is the cornerstone to every right we have.

Mark Thomas

free-speech freedom-of-speech speech

The essence of Christianity, as I see it, is love. The essence of Humanism (and I'm also a Humanist) is love. At that level, we're not far apart.

Mark Thomas

atheism essence religion

There is little difference in the knowledge held by those who can't learn and those who won't.

Mark Thomas

atheism differences religion

We tend to think of politicians as time-servers and slackers. But on those committees they usually have an interest in the subject. And they're quite clever. I've seen them pick people apart.

Mark Thomas

clever people thinking

I get called all kinds of things - an investigative comedian, a comedian activist - I've lost track of what my job title is.

Mark Thomas

comedian track jobs

People are even more wary of politicians and they are realizing that democracy isn't just about putting a cross on a ballot every four years, it's about deciding what you want and fighting for it.

Mark Thomas

fighting people years

Gloucestershire police must be the envy of the human rights-abusing cop world. From Turkey to Indonesia they will say, 'Kidnapping peace protestors! How did they get away with that one?'

Mark Thomas

turkeys envy rights

One can only guess the amount of magic mushrooms a sane person would have to consume to believe that a frisbee constituted a genuine threat to roughly 3,000 police officers.

Mark Thomas

mushrooms police believe

People ask whether I put the politics first, journalism first or the comedy first; it doesn't really matter. I'm just playing with the cards that I have been dealt because I really love doing what I do.

Mark Thomas

matter cards people

Christians often threaten atheists with eternal torture. But if we say that they're delusional, they will tell us that we're being rude.

Mark Thomas

rude atheist christian

Most true believers, when faced with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, will hold on to those beliefs even more strongly.

Mark Thomas

atheism belief religion

True believers are continually shown by reality that their god doesn't exist, but have developed extensive coping mechanisms to deal with this cognitive dissonance.

Mark Thomas

coping-mechanisms reality religion

The only deadline is the one I give myself.

Mark Thomas

deadline giving

The world looks like it was designed. Of course, the Sun also looks like it goes around the Earth. It is only thru science that we know that both of these perceptions are wrong.

Mark Thomas

atheism perception religion

We all behave as though what we think is true, is true.

Mark Thomas

atheism religion thinking

I just want to get through each day without the need to shut my eyes for 10 minutes.

Mark Thomas

each-day eye needs

People innately have lots of solutions. It sounds like an obvious thing, but everyone thinks that they can be prime minister; everyone thinks that they can do a better job.

Mark Thomas

obvious-things jobs thinking

I do love the idea of being able to take an MP to court for lying. There are ways and means of taking an MP to court just now, but it is very difficult.

Mark Thomas

mps mean lying