Word: jetpack
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...only one disappointed that the proposed reduction in shuttles isn't accompanied by a proposed increase in university-issued jetpacks? Like c'mon, it's 2009 already. Where's my jetpack...
...jetpack, you'd be like, "I have the sh----est jetpack. I can't believe I got this jetpack. Who's your service provider? Did they make the new one? Hate this thing, it sucks." Then we'd all sit there and talk about that...
...flying cars are coming, what’s taking so long? In the book “Where’s My Jetpack?” published last spring, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson demands, “The time has come to hold the golden age of science fiction accountable for its fantastic promises.” Wilson’s tongue-in-cheek remark sums up the unspoken feelings of a generation of Americans who were told they would ride a jetpack to work, eat a whole meal in a pill, and vacation on the moon by the year...
Highlight Reel: 1.Montandon traces the jetpack's history with gusto, and he's evocative when explaining the invention's allure. "The individual desire to fly-not as a group in the frustrating, frightening settlement of an airplane but as a comic-book hero might, as a machine of one-is an essential aspect of human consciousness," he writes. That may not ring true with everyone, but he sells the sentiment on the strength of his enthusiasm. He describes Harold Graham's 112-foot practice flight with a 140-pound Rocket Belt in 1961 as a "pilot kicking gravity...
...middle-aged men who keep the flame of jetpack obsession alight are a quirky, entertaining bunch, united by their "heart-wrenchingly beautiful dream" to fly "like a twisted bird, for a wingless, breathless twenty-two second orgasm in the air." Montandon paints funny, faintly sad portraits of this group. "These are the anonymous, doughy faces of obsession," he writes. Among them is Jeremy McGrane, a 32-year-old New Hampshire resident who built his own "beautifully sleek, blue-corseted rocket belt," and who speaks candidly about the all-consuming nature of his pursuit: "Most guys are dreaming of alcohol...