Search found 2137 matches

by Wyrm
2011-02-18 10:22pm
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Tranporters, Atomic Level Murder
Replies: 120
Views: 41548

Re: Tranporters, Atomic Level Murder

There's more to matter than energy, you know.
by Wyrm
2010-12-09 07:45pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Sci-fi lines that just hurt to listen to
Replies: 133
Views: 19118

Re: Sci-fi lines that just hurt to listen to

The problem with taking the escape velocity as simply being greater than the speed of light is that's the classical look at it, and the classical equations break down in extreme situations like a black hole. No. Escape velocities are quite well defined in GR, as they are simply the specific kinetic...
by Wyrm
2010-12-08 03:01pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: High-energy impacts with Styrofoam
Replies: 22
Views: 3403

Re: High-energy impacts with Styrofoam

At twice the volume of Earth, the Styrofoam planet would still mass in at around 7.907433e22 kg. It's only one percent the mass of Earth, but that's still a shitload of mass, so it will last a while, even if it vaporizes steadily. Also, a body that large is held together by its self-gravity and not ...
by Wyrm
2010-12-05 06:29pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Non-Federation Diplomats
Replies: 119
Views: 15403

Re: Non-Federation Diplomats

I never quite said it would be sufficient as a territorial marker by itself, just enough to convince eventual colonizers to look out for spacefaring people in the vicinity who might or might not have a territorial claim on the planet. While an alien artifact does indicate that a spacefaring people ...
by Wyrm
2010-12-01 08:16pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: First glimpse of a planet from another galaxy
Replies: 4
Views: 1417

Re: First glimpse of a planet from another galaxy

Holy crap! Not just an exoplanet, but an exoplanet from another freaking galaxy! I cannot find words to describe how antartically cool this is! :D We aren't going to detect planets in Andromeda anytime soon, however. We're going to need baselines thousands of times greater at the very least for that...
by Wyrm
2010-12-01 07:46pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Non-Federation Diplomats
Replies: 119
Views: 15403

Re: Non-Federation Diplomats

Ummm, I can't help but notice that we have a slight miscommunication here since I totally agree that the Gorn attack was unprovoked and that they acted unwisely by not putting an outpost on the planet. I don't see where you got the impression from I'm on the Gorn's side here. It was mostly an objec...
by Wyrm
2010-12-01 07:19pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

And come to think of it, psychology is one field of scientific study where there is a case for an observer or participant with a preconceived expectation of the outcome skewing the results in some circumstances. There are several good reasons to believe that the "case" for psi-missing is ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-29 09:44pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

It is impossible to replicate an experiment and not change any more than the sample size. For one thing, you're not going to be able to use the same subjects for the replication as the original study. The room may not be the same color, or contain "goats" (skeptics seem to have an anti-psy...
by Wyrm
2010-11-29 08:53pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Non-Federation Diplomats
Replies: 119
Views: 15403

Re: Non-Federation Diplomats

If you think so then the least the Gorn could have done is putting a manned outpost on the planet. There. Problem solved with minimal fuss. Which they didn't do. If they did, there would be little argument over who really owned Cestus 3. And by the logic of your premise of possession being 9/10ths ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-28 10:22am
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Non-Federation Diplomats
Replies: 119
Views: 15403

Re: Non-Federation Diplomats

How does one establish a "marker" in space and assure that it will be understood, much less respected, unless there's prior contact to make clear that those markers are in fact boarder markers, rather than some other navigational device? And how does one ensure that the marker will be resp...
by Wyrm
2010-11-24 06:44pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

Why is seeing necessary here? Why can't this experiment be done just as well with a faceless cgi script?
by Wyrm
2010-11-23 08:38pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

Not necessarily. While it is in principle possible for it to be easier for two people over the internet to collaborate, in practice it can be seriously confounded by making it extremely unlikely that you have or can ever even contacted your partner by any means of communication outside the study (an...
by Wyrm
2010-11-23 08:18pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Are the Borg analagous to a virus?
Replies: 16
Views: 2942

Re: Are the Borg analagous to a virus?

The "prove" in that phrase means "test," not "confirm." Exceptions are always problems for general rules. Being able to infect a wide variety of organisms is an advantage for a virus, not a detriment. Actually no, the meaning is that the presence of an exception establ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-23 07:23pm
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

150 member planets doesn't mean that they're all equally developed, or participate equally in the Federation. Starfleet seems to be dominated by Earth design — I can't even recall a Starfleet ship that doesn't follow the saucer-nacelle schema. Perhaps Earth ripped a page from their own history and w...
by Wyrm
2010-11-22 06:36pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

One failed attempt at replication has already been posted online. In this study, Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Leif Nelson of the University of California, Berkeley, employed an online panel called Consumer Behavior Lab in an effort to repeat Bem's findin...
by Wyrm
2010-11-22 06:11pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: Are the Borg analagous to a virus?
Replies: 16
Views: 2942

Re: Are the Borg analagous to a virus?

Rabies infects most animal species. If a cat gets bitten by a virus carrying racoon, they can get rabies. Hence me using the qualifier "usually". Exceptions prove the rule. The "prove" in that phrase means "test," not "confirm." Exceptions are always problems...
by Wyrm
2010-11-20 08:54am
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

I don't even know what your point is. It seems like you're nitpicking just because you can. This is not a nitpick. This is a common statistical blunder. A stastistic tells you something about a population. As such, if you want to have a statistic tell you something about the speeds of 24th century ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-17 02:17pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enough.
Replies: 19
Views: 7133

Re: Paraspsychology: When Regular Psychology Isn't Soft Enou

What's more, sceptical psychologists who have pored over a preprint of the paper say they can't find any significant flaws. "My personal view is that this is ridiculous and can't be true," says Joachim Krueger of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who has blogged about the work...
by Wyrm
2010-11-17 10:35am
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

You say this like I don't know that. I've been using 5000c for the "fast response" number to derive the ship density. The 1000c only comes in for a many month/years journey, which is based on Voyager. There's plenty of examples of "cruising speed" being quite a bit less than tha...
by Wyrm
2010-11-16 04:57pm
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

I return. Only Rabid Warsies screech "VOYAGER IS THE FASTEST!!!" I myself fucking debunked that in this very thread and have been using the statistical median on ALL FUCKING MAXIMUM WARP VALUES in my calcs. Which agrees with my point that 1000 c is not the fastest a Federation ship can go ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-14 10:26am
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

And the Federation knew this... how? They don't have to. Even if they recalled everyone (by no means guaranteed; they might have expected it to be over quickly), the fact is they wouldn't have been back by the time it was over. Prediction or no, the ships simply aren't that fast. What? They had cha...
by Wyrm
2010-11-13 11:04pm
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Trek Fleet counts
Replies: 490
Views: 118661

Re: Trek Fleet counts

Let's take Voyager's sustained speed of 1000c as our baseline. If the war is on the other side of the Federation, we're looking at an average of about 3000 light years to cross. That's three years warping in before they are even in the right area to help the fight! There are several logical issues ...
by Wyrm
2010-11-10 07:08pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Hyperdrive or Wormholes?
Replies: 45
Views: 4059

Re: Hyperdrive or Wormholes?

Uncluttered seems to have difficulty with the concept of the Absolute Elsewhere. Events that are simultaneous in one inertial frame can be out of synch in another because the temporal ordering of those events doesn't matter to causality, due to the fact that they are completely causally disconnected...
by Wyrm
2010-11-07 06:27pm
Forum: Pure Star Trek
Topic: OEG TNG-Sarek
Replies: 22
Views: 5044

Re: OEG TNG-Sarek

You can get an "ORIGINAL production STARFLEET TNG" uniform for about $2500 a pop, though I can't vouch for the authenticity. The price to the studio are probably similar (though I must note it was marked down from $3000 Canadian).
by Wyrm
2010-11-07 01:58pm
Forum: Star Wars vs Star Trek
Topic: Can Federation destroy Death Stars
Replies: 207
Views: 68512

Re: Can Federation destroy Death Stars

Except that phase cloak has been shown to actually work. Let's not forget that this is exactly the same phase cloak that fucked up the Pegasus in the first place. The Enterprise only considered relying on the buggy piece of shit because they had little other choice. The phase cloak is nowhere near ...