McCoy

Re: More space news!

From watching the video' date=' my guess is that the final burn is carrying extra fuel in case of unexpected problems, so they want to get the disposable part that could go boom away from the expensive payload[/quote']

So get down safely, vent the O₂ into the atmosphere. No boom.

Re: More space news!

That video explains WHAT they're doing' date=' but doesn't go into any detail about WHY, and certainly doesn't mention any competing ideas that were passed over in preference of this one.[/quote']

Yeah, they say they're doing the sky crane bit so they don't kick up a lot of dust which would settle back on the probe. My question is why not go rockets all the way to the surface, let the dust settle for a day, or even two, then open a dust-proof box and let the probe out?

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Yup. Or sort of. When I was growing up, my Dad used to lock the house's front door after everyone went to bed ... leaving all the other doors and windows unlocked, and often open. We only ever locked the house up when we were going away on holiday.

 

cheers, Mark

You lock the front door to show nobody's home. You leave the back door unlocked in case someone needs to get in.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Also since it seems that it won't work to teach our young to not hurt women "ie to not rape them" and the only avenue open to me is to "take care of myself". I DO have to assume that all guys are untrustworthy. That I cannot ever let my guard down. I must be ready to physically defend myself whenever I am alone with a guy. Or at least that's my big take away from the discussions here.

There are good guys out there. There are also violent scumbags. Look at the domestic violence statistics. Far, far too many women (and for that matter Gay men) seem unable to tell the difference.

Re: Hulu: An evil plot to destroy the world, Enjoy.

Have you ever seen those Hulu commercials? As funny as they are, WWYCD if you found out it really WAS an evil plot to destroy the world?

 

And to make it worse, they already have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of loyal Hulu followers that would attack you or get in your way if you tried to stop them.

What do you mean, "Would" and "if?" It is.

Re: Jokes

I don't think I've ever heard a pro-West Virginia joke

I think the only WV joke I've ever heard is how do you know the toothbrush was invented in West Virginia?

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

Before I address a number of things others have said, I have a question:

 

What thoughts and feelings are elicited by the idea of a superpowered MALE whose powers derive from chastity, or who would become weak and vulnerable if he were to experience sexual contact with a female?

 

Is such a concept misandrist?

Archie Andrews as Pureheart the Powerful? Being kissed by a girl would neutralize his powers briefly.

Re: Tactics

Also' date=' a single sidearm is enough. You don't need four guns on top of your primary. It sounds like fun, but a sane GM should assign penalties for carrying a gazillion weapons - even if you're strong enough to.[/quote']

Depends. Military, rifle (primary), maybe special weapon (anti-tank OR grenade launcher OR shotgun OR etc; OR not AND), and your sidearm.

 

Police/detective/urban vigilante/spy, yes, need your sidearm, your less lethal option (usually a baton IRL), and your concealed backup-holdout. Redundant holdout? May be in character.

 

Tactical mistake I see players making? Forming a "scrimmage line." The only reason not to be trying to surround the enemy is that the enemy already has you surrounded. (Unless one of your teammates has acquired a nickname like "Friendly Fire" Freddy, then see crossfire / no disappearing bullets above.)

Re: Infertile Half-Breeds?

I think more to the point, philosophy apart, the purpose of sex, for most people (beings?) is sex. Kids are a potential downstream effect, and the exaggerated care and consideration displayed for them in Western societies is not only specific to western societies, but also a relatively recent social change in those societies. In the relatively recent past, people who knew that their family had a risk for serious and even fatal congenital diseases continued to to make babies. Even today, it is within my personal experience that people do this, when IVF is out of their financial reach.

 

So ... I honestly doubt that the fertility of any potential offspring would have the slightest effect on their behaviour. In fact, based on current and historical human behaviour, we can be pretty much certain of it.

 

cheers, Mark

All potentially true, all irrelevant.

Back in the day, learned men speculated over whether matings between Europeans and Africans would produce fertile offspring (and there were some who asserted that the progeny would be infertile like mules). It didn't stop people making the beast with 2 backs across racial lines at every possible opportunity. I really doubt people in a mock-medival fantasy milieu would be any different.

 

cheers, Mark

Thanks to my witness for his expert testimony, rep when I'm able, and Respondent rest.

Personally' date=' if I knew I had certain "bad" genes, I'd make sure I never reproduced, so that they couldn't be passed on. But as to whether my kids could have kids? That would never enter the equation.[/quote']

My father lost two siblings in childhood, out of seven children. When I was 12 I was reading up on genetics, and the math sounded like a Mendelian recessive. Some more research, and I came up with Tay-Sachs disease, Or something like it. Checked with adults in the extended family, yes, undiagnosed while Wilma and Katey were alive, it was Tay-Sachs. Turns out my grandfather's ethnic group has the second highest risk for Tay-Sachs, after Ashkenazi Jews. (The Tay-Sachs diagnosis has been clinically conformed.)

 

So I did the math. My dad had a two-out-of-three chance of carrying the defective allele, and a one-in-three chance of passing it on to me. (Does everyone understand why, or do I need to show the work?)

 

That's when I made my choice to remain childless, a choice I'll admit became easier to live with when I figured out (many years later) I was Gay.

Re: Infertile Half-Breeds?

I could, and probably should, just say that I have never felt diminished by not standing at stud, but conceded I have known others who did, and agree to disagree.

We all know that's not going to happen, right?

Lots of points in your last post, probably will not have time to get to them right now, reserve the right to circle back.

Honestly, I think all our other drives and emotions are primarily there to make reproduction/survival of our offsprings possible

Survival is nessesary to reproduce. So anything that improves the odds of survival (for you or your offspring) is a logical conlusion.

Love/Lust is primarily "search for suiteable parent".

Most forms of "personal fulfillment" are simply the new way to be seen as "atractive/worthwhile mate".

Social interaction and a Social System is interesting for: Securing Survival, Finding Mates, and having some certinity that you children will survive if you die before they are ready.

Which brings us back to free will vs. determinism. If the reproductive drive is that strong, once the parents start lusting after each other, offspring are the inevitable result, no matter the consequences, not their fault.

I was talking about not getting pregnant in the first place.

Any debate about stopping live from being born after conceiving/killing it after birth will always only lead to bad blood and ehtical discussions.

Conceded. Withdrawn!

You are making a big decision on behalf of your children.

It's called "being a parent." That's the job description, making big decisions on behalf of your children, biological or otherwise. People do it all the time, and the tragic/ironic/farcical aspect is that most of the time they do not realize that's what they are doing.

For you reproduction might not be relevant enough or you have other reasons not to (similar to the ones we discuss). But I can say that a lot of people do wish to procreate. When you have children that will never be able to have offsprings, aren't you putting your need to have children over the need of your children to have children?

Isn't saying that "children are worth it, even when they are infertile" aknowledging that the drive to reproduce has a relevant meaning?

I would rather put it "the child will probably find joy in their life, even purpose, and perhaps meaning, even thought they will never know the specific joy of having their own biological child." The alternative is to say life is nasty, brutish, and short, and the ONLY thing that makes it worthwhile is the chance to inflict that all-but-meaningless existence on another generation, which is also making a big decision on behalf of their children.

You asked: "What other notions could be introduced if cross-breeding between two sentient species was possible, but the results were known to be infertile?"

We are discussing exaclty that issue, no Thread drift in sight.

What he said.

More later, to the surprise of no one I'm sure.

Re: Infertile Half-Breeds?

I am not talking about giving them a Choice.

I am talking about not giving them a choice.

 

When you are thinking about having a child and you know in advance with 100% certinity that they won't ever have children, would have them?

I see it not to different to sterilising them long before they ever have a choice in the mater.

We evolved with a very strong drive to reproduce. It is an important part of life. It is not THE most important part of life. It is not more important than all other parts of life put together. If an infant had a birth defect or genetic abnormality so they could never reproduce, would you suggest euthanizing them so they didn't suffer the emotional pain of being sterile?

If not, and I certainly hope not, why would it be evil for their parents to give them life, the ability to enjoy what they could of life, even if that does not include the possibility of procreation?

Re: Infertile Half-Breeds?

When you knew with 100% certinty that your children would be unable to have children themself' date=' would you still set them into the world?[/quote']

Um, I didn't set mine into the world, I was Childless by Choice and sort of had foster fatherhood thrust upon me, but I am very, very glad Number Two Son and Number Three Son are also Childless by Choice. As was my only nephew.

Re: Power Suits Remote Assault Drones

Why not just build them as followers? Get Mind Link with them and you're all set. I did this once with a variable power pool so I could change the drones between missions. Just a thought.

I would build them as mini-automatons with their own stats and abilities. Mind-Link them to the Power suit (which represents a closed/encrypted radio or laser comm link) and away you go.

I would just buy them as followers. Build one and then for 10 more points you get all 4. Give them a mind link for the surveillance. Then if you want more of them later you can just spend 5 pts for up to 4 more.

Automatons is an interesting way to go. You can justify tinkering with them. Making them a separate focus allows for them to also be targeted apart from you. I agree with using doubling instead of quantity. 10 pts of doubling is equal to the 15 you are spending on quantity. What you want to create is a compound power so that if attacked all of the powers go away if the attack is successful.

 

Compound Power: An ability or power

constructed by using two or more Powers or

other game elements. Typically it involves the

Linked Limitation (6E1 383) or a partially-

Limited power (6E1 366). For example, a “Flare

Blast” that combines a Blast 8d6 with a Sight

Group Flash 4d6 is a compound power.

What they said. Separate characters.

Re: Without fusion power, why go back to the moon?

I mostly agree' date=' although I can't remember if that facility is designed in such a way that the waste can be removed easily.[/quote']

IIRC the Yucca Mountain sight is designed so that the canisters melt their way into the salt.

 

Silliest idea I ever heard was build a reactor on Mars, stack all the nuke waste around it, then pull the control rods and allow it to "China Syndrome" to the core. Intent was to start some vulcanism as part of a terraforming project.

 

So much wrong I literally don't know where to begin.

Re: Without fusion power, why go back to the moon?

I remember pre-Challenger disaster there were lots of folks who suggested shooting nuclear waste to the Moon (or the Sun). I must have seemed foresighted to have mentioned the dangers of a launch. So far my other point hasn't come up (the other point was: What if we want it back some day?). I have some suspicions that one may crop up too.

Yep. Why I also oppose doing anything like dropping it into the Marianas Trench or for that matter melting it into a salt dome.

Re: More space news!

Now THAT can be a reality tv show

Why does everyone say that?

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

But impractical. As long as the portable hole and bag of holding are incorportated into the device they are unable to fulfill their usual functions, meaning you might as well not have them, and if the weapon is actually deployed, the hole and the bag are both permanently lost.

 

On the other hand it's a wonderful plan if you're up against something that cannot be destroyed by more conventional means and there is truly pressing need to destroy it anyway, or destroying it nets you access to something of greater value than the magic items you sacrifice.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

A palindromedary with saddle bags of holding

Small bag of holding, 25,000 gp

Portible hole, 20,000 gp

A 20 foot wide hole in the side of Orthanc, priceless!

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

The problem I found with it is the weight. The lightest bag of holding is 15lbs. empty. While it would work for a ballista' date=' it is not man portable. [/quote']

And there is no spell in the D&D universe that allows one to take a 15 lb sack and shrink it down to the size of a tobacco pouch?

Re: More space news!

Crew studies the science of deep space dining

Out of about 700 applicants, six of these nine finalists will spend four months isolated in a space simulation, part of a NASA research program on interplanetary eating. But first, they have to learn space camp survival, including how to cook.

 

That's where the researchers at Cornell University come in.

 

"We are learning to cook different foods based on the ingredients that we will have available at the habitat," said Yajaira Sierra, a candidate and materials scientist.

 

The candidates are working with a variety of commercially available foods with very long shelf lives. The challenge is to not only make them edible, but appetizing.

Big news here is NASA is getting serious about the "six people share an efficiency apartment they aren't allowed to leave" situation that I always thought would be the biggest problem on a crewed Mars mission. The Russians have been working on it for some time.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

But impractical. As long as the portable hole and bag of holding are incorportated into the device they are unable to fulfill their usual functions, meaning you might as well not have them, and if the weapon is actually deployed, the hole and the bag are both permanently lost.

 

On the other hand it's a wonderful plan if you're up against something that cannot be destroyed by more conventional means and there is truly pressing need to destroy it anyway, or destroying it nets you access to something of greater value than the magic items you sacrifice.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

A palindromedary with saddle bags of holding

Yeah, I can think of at least three occasions when my D&D characters would have been willing to sacrifice the said magic items. Not to mention just the cool factor of aiming this at, let's say, the front door of Orthanc. "The wizard's indestructible tower now has a ten foot hemisphere missing from its foundation. Sucks to be your doorman."

Re: Jokes

Budreaux (boo-dro) the Cajun has a wife, and one day she got her heart set on having some alligator shoes.

Budreaux told her "Woman, we can't afford no alligator shoes!"

But she got her heart set and she tell Budreaux "You gonna gets me them shoes, and I don't care how!"

So as Budreaux drive to town he see this gator cross the road. Quick like a bunny he hop out of the car and he on that ole gator like a duck on a junebug. They wrassel, go round and round, gator almost make it to the bayou,

but finally Budreaux got that gator pinned and takes a good look at him.

"Don't that beat all! All that work for nothing! No shoes!"

Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret.

There are two mutually exclusive needs at work here.

• Governments sometimes need to keep things secret.
  
• Democracy only works if the voters are informed, which means transparent government

For too long Americans were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to their government when they said "we need to keep that secret." In my youth, it came out that the government had abused that privilege, kept a lot of secrets for far less noble purposes than national security. Thus some people now have the knee jerk reaction to question the need for all secrecy by the government.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

According to the expanded universe' date=' hyperdrive doesn't work so well outside their galaxy.[/quote']

Never an EU fan, outside a galaxy or specifically their galaxy? If it is a special property of their galaxy, like being infested with Midi-chlorians, that pretty much ends the ST vs SW discussions.

Re: Without fusion power, why go back to the moon?

Would that really help? Only as long as it is not semi-sentient/self-adapting goo.

It might be easier to do "nuclear decontamination" up there, but otherwise it's only giving the goo a place to reproduce without us being able to interfere.

Until it runs out of organic matter, or water, or we open the doors and let the vacuum in. Or if we do need to nuke it from orbit, no collateral damage.

Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret.

Because if you were running the show we would be living in a golden era of peace and prosperity heretofore unseen in the history of ever.

Well, yeah, there is that.