Armageddon???? - Part Eighty One Up

[Pelranius]

Could it be possible that Yahweh is using some sort of 'magic' (for the want of a better term on my part) trick to make gold into a structurally acceptable building material?

The gold can be a facade for a real structure, yes.

It could also be fool's gold, a much better building material. (Then again, just about any material would qualify!)

I was thinking about Yahweh or a group of dedicated angels making the gold stay in shape through the force of his will/their 'magic' or something like that. It would be rather thematically fitting and hilarious if the whole city came crashing down after a stray JDAM temporarily knocked him into a coma.

[Michael Garrity]

Duchess:

You are quite right when you say that a rifled Suhl-type musket would benefit from modern tolerances and materials. All of the converted large-bore muzzle loaders had to use reduced powder charges to avoid the possibility of exploding. As an example, the U.S Model 1816 .69-caliber flintlock musket and the U.S Model 1842 .69-caliber percussion smoothbore used a powder charge of 110 grains. Those that were rifled had the powder charge reduced to 70 grains.
If the barrel of a Suhl musket were to be made from ordnance-grade steel, it could use the full original powder charge.
In another matter, could we pretty please have an appearance by Sir Samuel Baker and 'Baby'?

Mike Garrity

[Kodiak]

I'd like to see the Pope throw out a line like:

"Deus delenda est, homo hominis vult!" (God must be destroyed, so sayeth mankind!"

Top notch effort, Stuart. I'm looking forward to seeing the angels get what's coming to 'em

:angelic:

[EdBecerra]

Excommunicate God!

Pope Ratzinger has declared Yaweh diabolus!

Even more amusing when you consider the old weasel was a member of the Hitler Youth, and desperately tries to retcon history, claiming that "They MADE me join, waaaaah..."

If I'd been in his position, I'd have spit in the eye of the 'recruiter', and proudly marched into one of the camps as a prisoner of conscience.

Ed.

[EdBecerra]

CaptainChewbacca: that city is not Heaven. That city is the New Jerusalem which is supposed to appear atop a high mountain on Earth after the (obviously false) End Times prophecy. To say its dimensions don't make sense for a city sitting on top of a mountain would be something of an understatement, never mind the fact that it is said to be made of pure gold, even though gold is a shitty structural material.

I'm reminded of George O. Smith's Venus Equilateral series.

It 'ends', more or less, thanks to the discovery of a cheap, easy-to-build, don't-need-nuthin-but-battery-power replicator machine. Want a pound of steak? Put one pound of random garbage into the machine, and one steak into the scanner. *boomf* Steak.

So what happens? Society goes nuts. And one guy, just for the hell of it, builds a city like the one described in the bible, which makes for one hilarious scene...

There's a chapter where one of the brighter characters realizes that you can't replicate skills (doctors, writers, and such) and prepares something of a redoubt before society falls on it's face.

Hungry and desperate fugitives, led by a REALLY annoying and rather hypocritical priest and rabblerouser stumble upon the town, only to realize that the town's gates are made of pearl, the sidewalks are silver, and the streets of diamond-studded gold. (All of which was easily replicated...)

The good Reverend goes BALLISTIC, insisting that this is a mockery of God.

The leader of the town notes that no, this isn't mockery of God - the fact that they have an elderly bearded gentleman in a long white robe standing at the gate with a huge scroll of parchment, taking down the names of people entering the town with a quill pen, now THAT'S mockery...

Ed.

[EdBecerra]

Pure Gold does not look like clear, transparent glass.

*snip*

Anyone able to help here?

One of my teachers (I suffered under Jesuits.. ) told me that this was a reference to the reflectivity of gold - plate glass mirrors were a bitch to make back then, polished bronze, silver and gold were the usual materials.

Trouble is, metallic mirrors just don't have the depth of glass or still water. Not unless you take really extensive measures to keep them polished, and even then, they aren't so great.

So a mirror of "clear, transparent glass" would normally be considered something of value even greater than gold.

The descriptions of the Heavenly City sound a lot like someone suffering sensory overload, and trying to describe it in a language that simply doesn't have the proper words with which to do so.

But that's just my guess.

Ed.

[EdBecerra]

I actually rather like the idea of Heaven as a world with tons of naturally occuring crystals lying around.

Does that mean they're from Krypton? That explains a lot, Jor-El didn't want us knowing his real name so he started going by Yahweh...

Well, F*ck... that would make Kal-El Jesus, wouldn't it?

Oddly enough, that would explain an awful lot of things now, wouldn't it?

Ed.

[White Haven]

Yeah, like why he was such a boring, uninteresting character, or why the Inquisition was so hot about killing witches. After all, Supes is vulnerable to magic.

[JN1]

or why the Inquisition was so hot about killing witches. After all, Supes is vulnerable to magic.

Actually far fewer witches were killed than is commonly assumed (thank you Dan Brown) and very, very few were burned.

[Bayonet]

Terriffic. It's hotting up in Hell, and the denizens are squirming. It's nice to see how misperceptions can rule. Of all the things I would not want to do, would be to fight a Stalingrad in Dis. Of course, Dagon doesn't know that.


One nit:

"...I call upon the Holy Catholic Church to excommunicate God.”

That would be bit of character for a Pope. He IS the Holy Catholic Church when it comes to doctrinal announcements. He would be more likely to say, "I therefore excommunicate God, and declare Him Anathema." Details of the New Mass at Nine.

[Bayonet]

they must acknowledge that there are many gods, not different faces of one god.

Oh Gods! The old heresy arguments. My head is spinning, already!

[Bayonet]

Text Removed at bayonetpoint.

[Bayonet]

If I'd been in his position, I'd have spit in the eye of the 'recruiter', and proudly marched into one of the camps as a prisoner of conscience.

Easy to say, eh? What Great Things (tm) did you do when you were twelve?

[Darth Wong]

or why the Inquisition was so hot about killing witches. After all, Supes is vulnerable to magic.

Actually far fewer witches were killed than is commonly assumed (thank you Dan Brown) and very, very few were burned.

Officially, perhaps. Unofficially, countless people were no doubt lynched or otherwise harmed due to this idiotic superstition spread by the Church. It's not like every podunk town which thought it had a witch problem would go to Rome about it.

[Stuart]

Officially, perhaps. Unofficially, countless people were no doubt lynched or otherwise harmed due to this idiotic superstition spread by the Church. It's not like every podunk town which thought it had a witch problem would go to Rome about it.

AFAIK, burning witches was a Protestant thing; the Catholics were too busy dealing with heretics to worry about witches. Actually, if one's looked into the psychology behind the anti-witchery campaigns (If you haven't already read it I suggest a book called Malleus Maleficorum - for an insight into the nuts-and-bolts of creating and running a witchcraft scare It's on Amazon. ) its intriguing what it suggests about the people behind both the Inquisition and the anti-witchery campaigns. The Inquisition is actually understandable - it was primarily a political campaign aimed at unifying and centralizing power in countries that were still in the process of formation. Religion and heresy were tools, not causes. On the other hand, the anti-witchery campaigns seem to have had no real logic behind them other than a generalized assault on women.

[TimothyC]

[REDACTED]

I respectfully suggest that this topic be reserved for other venues. Loose lips, ships, and all that.

Good point. I've edited my post to remove that, and if you could please do the same, Stuart might not call in a strike on where I live.

[Bayonet]

if you could please do the same

Done

[Bayonet]

The Inquisition is actually understandable - it was primarily a political campaign aimed at unifying and centralizing power in countries that were still in the process of formation.

It's also worth while to differentiete between the Spanish [Insert appropriate comment here.] and the Roman inquisitions. The latter was often the fairest court in the Land. The inquisitors could actually reason, and had no brief to support the local rapacious barron's kangaroo courts, which wrere more likely to condemn someone for political and economic gain.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

You know, the more I think about it, the less I think Little Rock has any chance at all of recommissioning. The problem is that, 1. we don't have 6in ammo for her remaining triple turret, and 2. all the electronics would have to be replaced for her to operate as an effective modern command ship, and that would just cost to much and take to long.

So, shall we call it four steam destroyers restored to service, and that's it for the turbine ships? USS Kidd, Joseph P. Kennedy, Turner Joy and Barry. Would create the following surface combat fleet operational during the sequence:

10 x Nimitz-class CVN.
1 x Enterprise-class CVN.
2 x Kitty Hawk-class CV.
22 x VLS Ticonderoga-class CG.
4 x twin-arm Ticonderoga-class CG.
55 xArleigh Burke-class DDG.
7 x Spruance-class DD.
2 x Forrest Sherman-class DD.
1 x Gearing-class DD.
1 x Fletcher-class DD.
39 x Oliver Hazard Perry-class FFG.
13 x Cyclone-class Patrol Ships.
4 x Asheville-class gunboats.

Coastguard ships assigned to the Navy:

2 x Bertholf-class cutters.
12 x Hamilton-class cutters.

162 surface combatants in service.

[Setzer]

or why the Inquisition was so hot about killing witches. After all, Supes is vulnerable to magic.

Actually far fewer witches were killed than is commonly assumed (thank you Dan Brown) and very, very few were burned.

IIRC, those that were burned for witchcraft only suffered the fate because it was declared a form of heresy. So they were officially burned as heretics.

[Lonestar]

Hmm...I wonder if the Forrestals or even the Midway are salvageable as warships?

[CaptainChewbacca]

The two conversations currently going on in this thread make for FASCINATING interplay.

[Singular Quartet]

The two conversations currently going on in this thread make for FASCINATING interplay.

What you mean the "Well, what naval ships can we bring back?" and the "Well, what is the kingdom of heaven made out of?" conversations?

[CaptainChewbacca]

The two conversations currently going on in this thread make for FASCINATING interplay.

What you mean the "Well, what naval ships can we bring back?" and the "Well, what is the kingdom of heaven made out of?" conversations?

I was thinking Navy/Inquisition, but yeah.

[EdBecerra]

If I'd been in his position, I'd have spit in the eye of the 'recruiter', and proudly marched into one of the camps as a prisoner of conscience.

Easy to say, eh? What Great Things (tm) did you do when you were twelve?

Let's see. Escaped from two burning houses. Sustained a frontal skull fracture that went all the way through the bone diagonally from my scalpline to between my eyes and down the side of my nose to my jawline (please, I've already heard ALL the Harry Potter jokes, no need to repeat them), ridden the handlebars of a Harley at 90 miles an hour through Ft Carson, Colorado while my deranged uncle Clifford did the driving, been stabbed twice, stabbed someone else once, drowned once, attacked by a swarm of ground wasps and had my throat swell shut because of them (being intubated was a bitch, let me tell you), been in two car wrecks (one in Georgia, one in Colorado), among other things.

Oh, yeah. I also stole a military jeep with my friends, only to sink it in a swamp. They really should have kept better security on the motor pool.

All before I was twelve.

So, yeah. I would have told the recruiter to go f*ck himself. And probably died because of that. But it would have been the right thing to do.

Some people do choose the moral choice. Not because it's the right choice, but because they're stubborn idiots. But they still made the right choice, even if by accident.

Ed.