Stargate525

There's a reason that it's called the tyranny of the majority. And then you get into the sheer SCALE of the problem; counting and tallying 300 million+ votes, ensuring security of the process, arguments about disenfranchisement for the non-connected... Not to mention the things that no rational person would put into the hands of a referendum, like complex treaties, war declaration, espionage, tax reform... We have representatives to cut the noise of millions of shouting voices, as you said, but we also had the Senate to help push things through that were painful, but necessary. It helps to have people in the process who aren't beholden to the mob for their position, but are still held accountable. The Senate used to be that until the seventeenth amendment was passed. I do like one aspect of the ancient Greek method, in that positions of governance were filled by lottery. Ensures you get a random sampling of the population, and prevents career politicians. I'd love to see that attempted at a local level; Mayor, town council, sheriff, etc, are all filled term-by-term by a random lottery, much like jury duty.

What's that old adage? You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't not play?

But on the other side of the keyboard from where your hand typically is. This has resulted in frantic mashing of the entire side of the keyboard in an attempt to save my kerbals from imminent doom.

Ehh, even then. I know the difference between a stomachache and hunger in my body. Who knows about this other one? And personally, I'd risk the brain being dropped. I mean the argument then is they could also drop my head. And wouldn't it be better for anti-rejection measures having to deal with one organ, rather than an entire complex head?

I can't imagine living with someone else's body. I mean... I KNOW this one. Having to learn all the oddities of the new one would drive me mad. And... Wouldn't it almost be easier to transplant the brain? Open the skull, back of the neck, sever the cord, and swap it out? leaves the corrotid and jugular intact, doesn't interfere with the throat, and you don't have this bizarre... seam... around your neck.

How is metallic hydrogen supposed to be used without oxidizer? Wouldn't the output be pure water?

Fuel budgeting. Can't manage it. I am ALWAYS short.

A side effect of my medications I'm on is that I have a hard time focusing on things for a long period of time. Ergo, my sessions are now typically either a single mission ship build, or the running of a mission craft I've already built.

Guys, it's called 'the Moon' to distinguish it from 'A' moon in general parlance. If it's 'the Mun' in KSP, we have to accept that Jool then has five muns.

And if they're excluding things, why worry about it? The thing works, it's not taking reaction mass, and it's producing thrust. Who cares how it works, just that it DOES?

This might be a no-brainer, but does the flap on your vertical stabilizer have pitch authority? That'll cause a roll.

And that is counter-intuitive to the extreme; to get up hills and obstacles, you want to be HEAVIER. Only in KSP.

Well, in 2013 we had the first reaction that created more energy than we put into it. So we're a lot closer than we were. Depending on how much they want to spend, I can sort of see it. I won't bet money on it, but we'll see.

Considering how much the SAS wiggles and overshoots maneuvers, I'm against anything that burns resources to give us SAS functionality. And, Squad... Isn't it a little... LATE... to be asking whether you should change core game functionality?!

No no, it's another perfectly valid argument; the whole Time Tourist Paradox. If we eventually get time travel, where are all of the visitors to great historical events? I recall reading a rather neat short story about a time-vacation to see the Passion of Christ and, through an accidental outing of one of the members of the group, they discover that the ENTIRE crowd shouting for Jesus' death are actually time-travelers. Avoiding that particular issue is why I prefer the splitting timelines version; you go back in time, and that action immediately shears off a parallel timeline. From the future perspective, there's never a functioning time Machine (as nothing changed, and your traveler never returns) and from the traveler's perspective, well... you can't ever get back to 'your' time. Kinda depressing.

WHY didn't you post this a week ago? I just had one of my NERVA's detonate on its departure burn to Jool... I'm now limping there on three-quarter thrust. Will definitely be keeping this in mind in the future!

If it is, then NOAA and NASA really should encrypt their broadcasts better. You know, the ones they're sending broadband at enough power that a civilian radio can intercept. And those pics are really neat-looking. I love the noise.

And if it's that, we've found a way to ablate metals without heating it up past a hundred degrees!

Just a little thing I threw together that I thought I'd show off, since I'm rather proud of it. I needed a Laythe lander/launcher capable of ferrying my scientific equipment from the mothership down to the planet, taking the readings, and then flying back up. I haven't really dabbled in aircraft much beyond 'see what weirdness I can crash into the control tower,' so I figured that this would be a good time to make a new SSTO. The name is rather hopeful; as of this writing it hasn't seen Laythe. On Kerbin, however, it is able to reach a 100x100 orbit with fuel to spare, so I'm hoping that will be more than enough for a round trip down to Laythe and back. Hopefully two. Here she is in space. Note the enclosed cargo bay filled with scientific equipment (This could, I'm certain, be swapped out for a satellite or small station payload), as well as the parachutes. I know Laythe's atmosphere is thinner than Kerbin's so I'm worried about potentially coming in too steeply in the landing glide. Those are emergency parachutes to avoid a catastrophic landing lithobraking scenario. And coming in over the KSC. I began my insertion too early, and was coming in over the desert on the western continent. The Interceptor had enough fuel to fly to KSC and then some. Handling in atmosphere is strange. It's a very floaty aircraft, and despite having the proper CoL and CoM had a tendency to want to nose up on takeoff. When coming in for the landing I was able to stall the craft easily; I suspect that I might have too many control surfaces, but I'm not sure. Anyone with insight, please enlighten me! Craft file, for those interested: Here (note, I changed the ladder placement in the final version)

So the question then becomes, are all of our engines getting a nerf at sea level, or a boost in space?

English is the way it is because it's a Germanic language which was beaten over the head repeatedly by the French, then taught through the lens of Latin. It also doesn't help that 70some percent of our lexicon are words taken from Romantic languages. They conjugate differently, pronounce differently... It's a miracle English makes as much sense as it DOES.

I can see what he may be talking about. Yes, you need to expend the same amount of dV to get out to wherever your destination is, but you'd only have to spend dV to move yourself, your cargo, and a minimal transfer vehicle. Instead of the life support and habitation to last you the whole length of the journey. It's like the cyclers, but linked up into a sort of interplanetary rail network.

No no, CUSTOM filters. Like if we want to see our probes, but not the cloud of orbital satellites that are also classified as probes. Big problem for remotetech users.

This cuts down the time needed for anything; If this is actually a reactionless drive, you don't need to pack fuel. Payload fraction goes through the roof.

Isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms?