tkdguy

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread
 
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark,
All the sweet green icing flowing down.

various rocket Robin Hood episodes on youtube

https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-evidence-that-mars-is-still-volcanically-active
 
Mars May have active seismic activity, that kept water under its ice sheets liquid:
 
 

If you formulate it in terms relevant to their microscopic worldview, a good Epimenides paradox can send a micromanager into a destructive downspiral in a hurry.

My daughter bought and built a STEM toy (a motorized Gatling nerf gun).  While loading it...
 
"I just realized I'm pointing this thing at my face while I'm loading it.  Not a good idea."
 
"Safety is #6, Dad."

Sundry Items of Equipment
 
Quill of Penmanship:  (Total: 4 Active Cost, 2 Real Cost) +2/+2d6 Striking Appearance (vs. Anyone reading what the character writes) (4 Active Points); IAF Fragile (-3/4), Conditional Power Only effects literate people reading the message (-1/2) (Real Cost: 2)
This quill pen writes so smoothly and clearly that it grants a bonus to Burocratics when filling out forms, to High Society if sending invitations to a ball, even to Charm if writing a love note.
 
Restful Bed:  (Total: 5 Active Cost, 2 Real Cost) Life Support  (Immunity: All terrestrial vermin) (5 Active Points); IAF Bulky (-1) (Real Cost: 2)
Bedbugs, fleas, and all manner of pests, cannot abide this well made article of furniture. Don't let the bed bugs bite!
 
Bed of Recovery:  (Total: 24 Active Cost, 8 Real Cost) Life Support  (Immunity All terrestrial diseases; Immunity: All terrestrial vermin) (10 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Hour, Only to Activate, -1 1/2), IAF Bulky (-1) (Real Cost: 3) <b>plus</b> +2 with CON Roll (4 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Hour, Only to Activate, -1 1/2), IAF Bulky (-1) (Real Cost: 1) <b>plus</b> Regeneration (1 BODY per Week), Can Heal Limbs (7 Active Points); IAF Bulky (-1) (Real Cost: 3) <b>plus</b> Darkness to Touch Group 1m radius (3 Active Points); IAF Bulky (-1), Limited Power only blocks pain and discomfort (-0) (Real Cost: 1)
Any ill or injured person could hardly ask for a better place to rest and recover than this bed.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Tagline of palindromedaries
 
 

Once you recover a couple of SAN points, commit "No.  Just no." to memory.  I haven't looked into the political thread for most of a year for that reason.  I am much happier.

A slower version of Take On Me:
 
 

I likewise stuck with ballistic weapons in my game. 

Could be Padmè and Anakin -- because surely you don't mean the Gelflings?

Ultima Thule: think coins, not spheres
 
The two bodies in the contact binary that New Horizons flew past back near New Year's ... seem not to be even approximately spherical.  Flat, relatively thin tablets seem to match the images taken once the spacecraft was past the object.
 
EDIT: There's a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot for you.

3.5? I'll pass. I'm more a 2nd Edition man myself. 

We had another cold wave come through here Friday afternoon; since noon Friday most of a foot of snow has fallen, most of which is still with us.
 
We have kept the bird feeders stocked, including the hummingbird feeder.  I have found that if I bring it in after dark, let it thaw on the kitchen counter, and put it out again early, and while it is slushy by end of day, they can syill get liquid food.
 
This morning I slept in til 6:30, and after setting the coffee going, I took the hummingbird feeder out.  The ornery little git was out there waiting, and cursed me vehemently the entire time it took me to go out through the door, negotiate the snowy back porch, take the one step up the rockery so I could hang it, reverse course, and get back in through the back door.
 
And I thought the cats were impatient.

Missiles, and mass acceleration weapons. And wrapping a small car sized chunk of space debris in Radar absorbing Mats and pushing into someone’s Way. Beam weapons are mostly defensive, and point defensive. With all the mass and heat sinks, it’s more of an industrial/salvage thing. Most engagements would be stop and robs, but the Earth area militaries have enoughnskill and coordination for Multiple vessel formations but those
are
rare. Space tactics is super rudimentary, and influ never by how
many missiles with good guidance systems are you willing to waste? One
could also put an armored nose cone  and ram another ship, Hope that you survive the impact then high G burn back and salvage the debris before it gets too far away. 

NSFW
 
 

New Heinlein Manuscript To Be Published

See? She gets it. Clothes without pockets are stupid. It's the one area in which Enterprise was superior to every other iteration of Star Trek. 
 
(And Babylon 5 had uniforms with pockets too, of course.)

So far, I am  thinking 100-120  years from  now, during the asteroid gold rush. Papa Elon’s colony on Mars is established, and there are three O’Neil colonies and many wheels, fabs, and Habs.  Lots of activity in the asteroids and moons beyond Mars, with various independent, and corporate operations. 
 
 Tech level is hard to quantify, as material science has progressed with microgravity manufacture and micro scale layering of 3D printed material. Electronics have actually regressed from a peak in the 2060’s, due to the lack of trust in distributed systems, after the final US China war, and the latency. Doors talk with doors. Guidance talks with engines. All electronics are standardized modules with shape and colo coordinated ports so even kids can keep life support running. There is no central computers that’s the captain or administrator’s job. And each department head controls a system. There Are still computers, but due to overlybroad safety regulations, no terrestrial manufactured microchips can be plugged into the ship systems Except for low energy recharging, and have life spans in orbit measured in months. That Samsung Entertainment goggle system is going to have to be recycled and replaced every few months (including that VR porn collection, because No One will allow anything other than text or nah format files stored on ship systems (a lot of this is to avoid Cyberpunk style ha king as ai am watching the response to the real thing, slowing or halting the adoption of the internet of things, and especially after a war started with massive net attacks No one trusts anything they didn’t buy blank and format themselves) . Engines are my version of the Epstein drive, so everything is under constant acceleration.  Because living things for the most part can heal themselves, genetic engineering is a thing. Robots are a thing, but they have been specialized. Generalist robots arEnreally is xpensive. So there is a wide but not very adaptable ecology of them. (Various harsh environment maintenance drones, floor buffers, Martian mules, and watcher bots). Fuels is as cheap as dirt because it basically is dirt or Helium3 regolith scraped off the unseen sides Of the moon and processed.  Water and air you have to pay for. Nothing is free, and charity means a ticket to ground side earth as no one watch freeloaderS or homeless mooching off the station’s air. Invest your retirement pensions wisely. 

While these articles are not space news, I will include them here, because railguns play a big part in my Star Hero campaign. Besides, I have posted railgun-related links here before. I have cross-posted these links in the "In Other News" thread on the NGD.
 
US Navy's railgun project hasn't made a lot of progress
 
On the other hand,
 
China's railgun project may be ahead of schedule