Search found 2114 matches
- 2014-08-16 02:39pm
- Forum: News and Politics
- Topic: Gov. Goodhair Perry Indicted, Felony Abuse of Power Charged
- Replies: 104
- Views: 74116
Re: Gov. Goodhair Perry Indicted, Felony Abuse of Power Char
So if the chair of the board of education is convicted of a crime, it is appropriate to abolish that district's school system ? If the crime were something like engaging in sex with underage prostitutes, then every elected official would be justified to use whatever legal and political means they h...
- 2014-05-05 01:18pm
- Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
- Topic: How far back does the "Darwin = Hitler" meme go back?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 5017
Re: How far back does the "Darwin = Hitler" meme go back?
Speaking of Darwin, I'm looking for a good biography, so are there any recomendations?
- 2014-04-18 03:58pm
- Forum: Gaming, Electronics and Computers
- Topic: Sid Meyer's Civilization - Beyond Earth
- Replies: 74
- Views: 8727
Re: Sid Meyer's Civilization - Beyond Earth
I'm sure if you threw Deep Blue money and programming time at the problem, and simplified the hell out of the game, the computer would be a much better strategist. Making computers good at 'strategy' is not easy, since they're not great at thinking ahead. And if you let each computer player think ha...
- 2014-04-18 01:01pm
- Forum: News and Politics
- Topic: Well paid women can't find good husbands
- Replies: 37
- Views: 3801
Re: Well paid women can't find good husbands
You know I find it fascinating how things like cooking, fashion, and nursing are all considereed 'feminine' and 'lesser' when compared to masculine occupations. But at the same time, these industries are utterly dominated by men. I mean, the restaurant industry's chefs are what, 90% or more male? Du...
- 2014-04-12 09:12am
- Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
- Topic: Lumper or Splitter - Species?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2994
The problem with Lumping, as I see it, is that it requires some awfully strange compression. For example, most of the Galapagos finches would collapse into just three or fewer species if interbred-which they can do successfully, but rarely attempt in nature or captivity. And since species don't appe...
- 2014-03-11 08:31am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington II
- Replies: 620
- Views: 123031
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington II
Hmmm. It seems odd that the wedge of a ship that weighs less than the engines of a dreadnought can generate a wedge big enough to well, compensate for the size difference between the hardware. Gravity generating hardware must have a logarithmic scaling factor-small is efficient but big is not so you...
- 2014-03-10 11:36pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington II
- Replies: 620
- Views: 123031
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington II
Hey, is there a definite reason why big ships accelerate slower than smaller ones? I mean, is there a reason you just can't use bigger engines and inertial compensators to create a fast dreadnought that runs with the battlecruisers or even destroyers?
- 2014-03-01 12:21am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Godzilla trailer
- Replies: 160
- Views: 30048
Re: Godzilla trailer
So, the following quotes all come off Tumblr, and I'm reposting them here for the smackdown contained within. They're all reacting specifically to the revelation that the US purposefully nuked Godzilla trying to kill it. This take seems to lionize the very thing the original Godzilla was trying to w...
- 2014-02-15 10:39pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: Hull 721, plot arc the second
- Replies: 892
- Views: 349445
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
An artificially generated interdiction field. That was dealt with by throwing multiple sacrificial hyperdrive cores into it's maw.Andras wrote:There was a device in the Correllian Trilogy IIRC that allowed a starship to bypass a gravity shadow.
Hardly an ideal solution.
- 2014-02-10 02:12pm
- Forum: User Fiction
- Topic: By the Horns (A BattleTech Alternate Universe)
- Replies: 174
- Views: 93928
Re: By the Horns (A BattleTech Alternate Universe)
It's amazing how this is still relevant in the 3025 w.r.t. certain 'matriarchal' states.
Though really, all these spies are just kinda horrible. Really.
Though really, all these spies are just kinda horrible. Really.
- 2014-01-04 10:08pm
- Forum: Off-Topic
- Topic: Predicting the Future - 1964 looks at 2014 (Asimov)
- Replies: 35
- Views: 3674
Re: Predicting the Future - 1964 looks at 2014 (Asimov)
His biggest miss-that there would be a world's fair in 2014.
- 2014-01-03 12:40pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
Really? Damn, I feel sorry for the Naval designers who had to make those modifications while keeping the things the same 'class'. How on earth did they do that without loosing five chief designers to self-inflicted wounds and suicides?
- 2013-12-21 11:05am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
The amount of launchers one can fit inside a broadside is fixed based just as much on wedge fratricide by the missiles once their drives start up. Surely they use the miniaturized grav drivers inside the broadside tubes, but that just makes room for other things (ammunition, other new systems like ...
- 2013-12-19 11:22pm
- Forum: Pure Star Wars
- Topic: Star Wars: Rebels
- Replies: 2565
- Views: 611702
Re: Star Wars: Rebels
Time for a panorama of the Shadow of the Empire over Lothal. This image was uploaded on Star Wars' offical Tumblr which just started today, so take a good look-but I have to say, I love this style.
- 2013-12-07 03:22pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
Well obviously they know they can do that-the existence of Home Fleet implies the existence of a fleet that is Not-Home. The question is, how long can Manticore ignore this, or what are the consequences if they respond by recalling their stationed forces? There can't really be a blockade here, since...
- 2013-12-06 03:32pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
Re-reading this with some of the details fuzzy, I thought they were trying to provoke Manticore, but were mostly cruising in to check in with the Argus arrays. Possible, I suppose, but less likely now I think of it, the idea would be to draw the locals' attention away from their secret spy sats. Th...
- 2013-11-14 12:21pm
- Forum: News and Politics
- Topic: Six tons of illegal ivory to be crushed
- Replies: 75
- Views: 10272
Re: Six tons of illegal ivory to be crushed
You do know that lifting that ban is basically the same thing as telling poachers to go ahead and kill all the elephants they want, right? Yeah, I'm against most conservationist efforts. There are too many big, stupid mammals in the world. Anything that gets rid of a few is a good thing in my book....
- 2013-11-09 07:29am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Question about StarForce: Alpha Centauri
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1729
Re: Question about StarForce: Alpha Centauri
Look, you can't just genetically engineer this talent into people, and test-tube babies made from two women are too expensive and GENETICALLY ENGINEERED. But this wouldn't be the first time an obvious all-woman state could have existed in a fiction without the authors noticing.
- 2013-10-31 08:02pm
- Forum: News and Politics
- Topic: CHART: 'Winners And Losers From Obamacare'
- Replies: 23
- Views: 4374
Re: CHART: 'Winners And Losers From Obamacare'
I'm not sure why you expect the costs of the american health-care system to be anything like logical when they obviously aren't. I mean, people with pre-existing conditions make nice scapegoats, but they even when they didn't have insurrance, the cost of health care in this country was still really ...
- 2013-10-24 01:07pm
- Forum: News and Politics
- Topic: US Government may have tapped Angela Merkel's Mobile Phone.
- Replies: 84
- Views: 5999
Re: US Government may have tapped Angela Merkel's Mobile Pho
The scale is a bit off though. It feels like the resources devoted to spying on allies are completely out of line. Look, the NSA grabs all the phone records, right? Why should anyone be surprised that they are investigating Merkel's phone for terrorism, she's using the same model and the same netwo...
- 2013-10-24 10:05am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
In what universe does Haven have a "better set of officers" then Napoleonic France? The Legislaturist officer corp is stated to be poor to middling, and after the purge and People's Commissioners it's even worse. I'm specifically talking about Naval officers here-and as bad as Haven is, P...
- 2013-10-23 08:12pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
Maybe, but I don't think that my suggestion is that out of place. A limited stock of missiles is inherently limited-they can't build more. Arms sales are decidedly an old-hat thing, even to dubious states. And I didn't suggest 'modern' missiles, but pre-modern types like first generation laser head...
- 2013-10-23 07:32am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
Aside of the points mentioned by others, Thunder of God/Saladin and Principality/Breslau are, from Haven's perspective, easier to control than general tech transfers (since the majority of both ships' critical personnel, and their COs (plus Saladin's Marines) are regular Havenite personnel "on...
- 2013-10-23 12:41am
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
I can think of a few uses for towing a couple of LAC-sized hulls around-not as attack boats necessarily, but if you strip out all the offensive weapons, and fit some decent sensors, they might make good forward deployed anti-missile nodes. A box-launcher or two of countermissiles, a couple of point ...
- 2013-10-22 07:25pm
- Forum: Science Fiction
- Topic: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
- Replies: 754
- Views: 170054
Re: Bit of Analysis: Honor Harrington
So....why in that box-launcher ambush didn't the Havenites provide their allies with at least marginally upgraded missiles? I'm thinking not even first-gen laserheads, but an off-the-shelf guidance component and some of last decade's pen-aids from their own scrapped stockpiles? Something like Argen...