McCoy

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do
 
Yet people survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs just a few hundred yards from ground zero.
 
If I had to design a clean Tac Nuke, it would go something like this:
 
(Total: 843 Active Cost, 130 Real Cost)
 
Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Attack Versus Limited Defense (Flash Defense ; +1 1/2), Does Flash, sight group, rather than STUN (+0), (225 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 35) ["Killing Flash" is necessary to make this conform to the shape of the rest of it]
 
plus
 
Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6 vs ED, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Penetrating (x2; +1) (187 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 29)
 
plus
 
Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6 vs PD, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Double Knockback (+3/4) (169 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 26)
 
plus
 
Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), No Normal Defense (+1), Does BODY (+1) (262 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 40)
 
I would roll 5 dice plus a single STUN multipler, and apply that number to each effect. Assume 3's on all dice. First, Flashed for 15 phases - Flash Defense. Then the heat wall, 15 BODY 30 STUN - rED; minimum 5 BODY 10 STUN unless rED double hardened (humm, should have put "No KB" on that one). Next the shock wave, 15 BODY, 30 STUN - rPD, with 21" KB. Finally the gamma kicks in, 15 BODY 30 STUN unless character has LS vs Radiation. That's at ground zero, reduced effect for each km away from ground zero.
 
Lethal to normals without some luck and good cover, survivable by some supers.
 
YMMV

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year
 

Genuine Acme® Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator (Factory Refurbished)

The Non-Gaming Discussion forum, complete edition.
 
Reason on black market is that certain alien jurisdictions have it banned due to revealing too much insider information.

A radiator cap for a '65 VW Beetle.

Be excellent to each other.

Best advice I ever gave (which of course was ignored by my foster son):  "If you don't like to be stared at, don't get the freaking tattoo!"

If you're not on Captain America's side...you're probably on the wrong side.

Y'know those goofy orange speed signs they have around road construction areas? In Texas, those are legally binding at all times, and I can testify personally that they enforce them, even on out-of-staters at 3:30 AM.

There are so many horrifying things about the Trump victory that it is hard to focus on just one, but his promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment fills me with the most dread.
 
Most of his campaign promises in my mind are pretty iffy. They are things that can be filibustered by the Democrats, fail to pass even through even a Republican controlled congress, get struck down by the courts, take years and years to implement or simply be forgotten by Trump himself like all those promises he has made to investors and contractors over the years.
 
Repealing the Johnson Amendment is different, though.  It is literally something that he can do in his first hundred days.  Even if the measure to repeal it gets filibustered by the Dems in the Senate, he can simply do it by executive order.  He can leave the law on the book but instruct the IRS to stop using its resources to enforce it, and this would be perfectly within his rights as POTUS.  It is not particularly different from what Obama did with is Dream Act or the decision to have DEA back off of states that legalized marijuana.
 
So that is what we have to look forward to, pastors telling there flock from the pulpit that they are going to go to hell if they vote Democrat and that he expects them to all get and do everything they can to get Congressman Joe Gaybasher reelected for for a 5th term.  
 
There is a saying that if you mix water and raw sewage that you get sewage, and that if you mix religion and politics you get politics.  That is what we have to look forward to from the pulpits on Sundays,  raw sewage.  I mean politics.  I mean both,

She grated on me at first, but her and Supergirl's/Kara's relationship has grown to be one of the better on the show, so I'm glad that she's on board.

But...there's plenty of gravity in space.  It's all over the joint.  It's what makes free-fall, free-fall

I need to find a girl that will love me for my money and doesn't understand math.

Ireland Approves Same-Sex Marriage

It's a fun show, but it sure likes its characters to act stupid sometimes. In fact, the entire episode last week was just painful. And the whole "we must keep Iris in the dark" thing has become so idiotic that I am almost ready to stop watching. I hate it when the script requires characters to lose about 100 IQ points just for the plot, like when Eddie suddenly appears at Barry's place claiming the DA just decided to let him go, and Barry buys it. Or when Caitlin decides to confront Wells, alone, at Wells' home, despite all the dire suspicions of everyone else she knows and trusts. Dumb dumb dumb.
 
There's a point where the fun factor no longer trumps the so-dumb-its-retarded factor, and this show is skating awfully close to that point for me lately.

Re: Jokes
 
Subject: Absolutely Hilarious!!!
 
 
 
Australian radio - This is absolutely hilarious !!!!!
 
 
Just imagine sitting in traffic on your way to work and hearing this.
Many Sydneyfolks DID hear this on the FOX FM morning show in Sydney.
 
The DJs play a game where they award winners great prizes. The game
is called"Mate Match". The DJs call someone at work and ask if they
are married or seriously involved with someone. If the contestant
answers "yes", he or she is then asked 3 random yet highly personal
questions. The person is also asked to divulge the name of their
partner (with phone number) for verification. If their partner answers
those same three questions correctly, they both win the prize. One
particular game, however, several months ago made the City of Big
Shouldersdrop to its knees with laughter and is possibly the funniest
thing I've heard yet. Anyway, here's how it all went down:
 
 
 
 
 
 
DJ: "Hey! This is Ed on FOX-FM. Have you ever heard of 'Mate Match'?"
 
 
Contestant: (laughing) "Yes, I have."
 
 
DJ: "Great! Then you know we're giving away a trip tothe Gold Coast if
you win. What is your name? First only please."
 
 
Contestant: "Brian."
 
 
DJ: "Brian, are you married or what?"
Brian: "Yes."
 
 
DJ: "Yes? Does that mean you're married or you're what?"
 
 
Brian: (laughing nervously) "Yes, I am married."
 
 
DJ: "Thank you. Now, what is your wife's name? First only please."
 
 
Brian: "Sara."
 
 
DJ: "Is Sara at work, Brian?"
 
 
Brian: "She is gonna kill me."
 
 
DJ: "Stay with me here, Brian! Is she at work?"
 
 
Brian: (laughing) "Yes, she's at work."
 
 
DJ: "Okay, first question - when was the last time you had sex?"
 
 
Brian: "She is gonna kill me."
 
 
DJ: "Brian! Stay with me here!"
 
 
Brian: "About 8 o'clockthis morning."
 
 
DJ: "Atta boy, Brian."
 
 
Brian: (laughing sheepishly) "Well..."
 
 
DJ: "Question #2 - How long did it last?"
 
 
Brian: "About 10 minutes."
 
 
DJ: "Wow! You really want that trip, huh? No one would ever have said
that if a trip wasn't at stake."
 
 
Brian: "Yeah, that trip sure would be nice."
 
 
DJ: "Okay. Final question. Where did you have sex at 8 o'clock this
morning?"
 
 
Brian: (laughing hard) "I, ummm, I, well..."
 
 
DJ: "This sounds good, Brian. Where was it at?"
 
 
Brian: "Not that it was all that great, but her mom is staying with
us for a couple of weeks..."
 
 
DJ: "Uh huh..."
 
 
Brian: "...and the Mother-In-Law was in the shower at the time."
 
 
DJ: "Atta boy, Brian."
 
 
Brian: "On the kitchen table."
 
 
DJ: "Not that great?? That is more adventure than the previous
hundred times I've done it. Okay folks, I will put Brian on hold,
get this wife's work number and call her up. You listen to this."
 
 
3 minutes of commercials follow.
 
 
DJ: "Okay audience; let's call Sarah, shall we?"
 
 
(touch tones.....ringing....)
 
 
Clerk: "Kinko's."
 
 
DJ: "Hey, is Sarah around there somewhere?"
 
 
Clerk: "This is she."
 
 
DJ: "Sarah, this is Ed with FOX-FM. We are live on the air right Now
and I've been talking with Brian for a couple of hours now."
 
 
Sarah: (laughing) "A couple of hours?"
 
 
DJ: "Well, a while now. He is on the line with us. Brian knows not
to give any answers away or you'll lose. Sooooooo... do you know
the rules of 'Mate Match'?"
 
 
Sarah: "No."
 
 
DJ: "Good!"
 
 
Brian: (laughing)
 
 
Sarah: (laughing) "Brian, what the hell are you up to?"
 
 
Brian (laughing) "Just answer his questions honestly, okay? Be
completely honest."
 
 
DJ: "Yeah yeah yeah. Sure. Now, I will ask you 3 questions, Sarah.
If your answers match Brian's answers, then the both of you will
be off to the Gold Coast for 5 days on us.
 
 
Sarah: (laughing) "Yes."
 
 
DJ: "Alright. When did you last have sex, Sarah?"
 
 
Sarah: "Oh God, Brian....uh, this morning before Brian went to work."
 
 
DJ: "What time?"
 
 
Sarah: "Around 8 this morning."
 
 
DJ: "Very good. Next question. How long did it last?"
 
 
Sarah: "12, 15 minutes maybe."
 
 
DJ: "Hmmmm. That's close enough. I am sure she is trying to protect
his manhood. We've got one last question,Sarah. You are one question
away from a trip to the Gold Coast. Are you ready?"
 
 
Sarah: (laughing) "Yes."
 
 
DJ: "Where did you have it?"
 
 
Sarah: "OH MY GOD, BRIAN!! You didn't tell them that, did you?"
 
 
Brian: "Just tell him, honey."
 
 
DJ: "What is bothering you so much, Sarah?"
 
 
Sarah: "Well..."
 
 
DJ: Come on Sarah.....where did you have it?
 
 
Sarah: "Up the ****....."
 
 
After a long pause, the DJ said, "Folks, we need to take a station break

Re: Jokes
 
They always ask at the doctor's office why you are there and you say
in front of others what's wrong and sometimes it's embarrassing.
There's nothing worse than a doctor's receptionist who insists you
tell her what is wrong with you in a room full of other patients. I
know most of us have experienced this, and I love the way this old
guy handled it:
 
 
An 86-year-old man walked into a crowded doctor's waiting room. As he
approached the desk, the receptionist said,
"Yes sir, what are you seeing the doctor for today?"
 
"There's something wrong with my dick," he replied.
 
The receptionist became irritated and said,
"You shouldn't come into a crowded doctor's room and say things like
that."
 
"Why not? You asked me what was wrong and I told you," he said.
 
The receptionist replied,
"You've obviously caused some embarrassment in this room full of
people. You should have said there is something wrong with your ear
or something and then discussed the problem further with the doctor in private."
 
The man replied, "You shouldn't ask people things in a room full of others,
if the answer could embarrass anyone."
 
The man walked out, waited several minutes and then re-entered.
 
The receptionist smiled smugly and asked, "Yes?"
 
"There's something wrong with my ear," he stated.
 
 
The receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice. "And what is wrong with your ear, sir?"
 
"I can't piss out of it," the man replied.
 
The waiting room erupted in laughter.

Re: More space news!
 

 

*goes and looks*
 
*comes back and removes everyone from his ignore list*
 
Guys, seriously, I really don't say this often enough, but I love you all!

A few handy tips regarding dairy products:
 
* Milk is spoiled when it looks like sour cream.
* Sour cream is spoiled when it looks like cottage cheese.
* Cottage cheese is spoiled when it looks like regular cheese.
* Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk in the first place, and generally cannot spoil further.
 
And perhaps most important:
 
* Blue cheese is spoiled when you don't remember buying blue cheese.

Re: More space news!
 

Re: More space news!
 

 
Got him for you.

Re: More space news!
 

 
Actually, they chose that direction for other reasons entirely. You need to stare continuously at the same place, ideally for as long as the mission runs. You can't do that to a location that's in the plane the ecliptic, because the Sun blunders through that part of the sky every year. So instead you stare at a place out of the plane of the ecliptic so the Sun (and Moon and planets) never get in the way. Now, you don't look at the ecliptic pole, because that is an "elegant solution" to the problem and there are already more space missions that spend a lot of time in that direction (and artfiicial spacecraft are annoyances that you'd like to avoid if you have the option). Also, the star density isn't large in that direction.
 
Instead, you choose a place that is

well out of the plane of the ecliptic (for reasons already discussed)
close to the main plane of the Galaxy, so there's lots of stars in that direction
well away from the orbital plane of the Moon too (for obvious reasons; the orbital plane of hte Moon is tilted about 5 degrees from the ecliptic)
well away from the celestial poles, because all the nice spy satellites in polar or near-polar orbit go through that patch of sky once every f***ing orbit
in the north celestial hemisphere, since this is an American space mission and the US has a bunch of ground telescopes in the north and not so many in the south, so you can get lots of groundbased support observations with cheap local facilities

There's some other subtle criteria, but Cygnus is the spot that was chosen as Kepler's target field.

Q: How many TV executives does it take to change a light bulb?
 
 
A: Does it have to be a light bulb?

Why are some line breaks preserved and some obliterated?
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Is this the palindromedary's fault somehow?

The new software rocks!
Still some bugs, but much improved.
Simon is The Man.