p1t1o

Just call it Steve...

To be honest, if I was making a movie, I would think long and hard before putting in any strong visual call-backs to 9/11. These are all valid inaccuracies though, I doubt the powers that be went so far as to think about the above and just wanted something generically spectacular. Cloverfield comes to mind as a particular offender (though I realllly like the movie), I recall a skyscraper with a hole though it and one skyscraper leaning on another one that is a major plot point, I also recall a fair bit of dust too, but probably not necessarily a realistic amount.

Freefall yes, but you can do this yourself by jumping an inch in the air, nothing special about height in it

Its just marketing. Whilst the Karman line is widely accepted as being the border to "space", the "edge of space" is a non-defined term that has been used to mean "pretty high y'know?" in any number of contexts. Like calling your food "organic" or your fighter jet "5th generation" - unless you specify a set of criteria, anyone can use the terms for anything. How wide is an "edge"? How long is a piece of string?

"Chunder" means the same here in the UK

Collide Mars with Earth? And its effects on life? Disregarding, for the moment, the cataclysmic amount of kinetic energy one would have to manipulate to make this happen, I would wager that even if you were to *gently rest* mars on the Earth, the ensuing "smooshing together" that would follow would likely end all civilisation at least, if it did not sterilise the entire surface. And a multi-km/s impact? Fuggeddaboutit! Any "climate" left over after that would be the least of ones problems! Though I imagine it would be "somewhat dynamic" - Im not sure if there is enough energy involved here to melt the entire crust, but thats the ballpark. ***edit*** Quick back-of-the-napkin: From project rho: 6.6 × 1026 J, 158 Pt: Energy required to heat all the oceans of Terra to boiling 3.2 × 1026 J, 77 Pt: Energy required blow off Terra's atmosphere into space 7.0 × 1027 J, 2 Et: Energy required to vaporize all the oceans of Terra and dehydrate the crust 2.9 × 1028 J, 7 Et: Energy required to melt the (dry) crust of Terra 2.1 × 1029 J, 50 Et: Earth's rotational energy 1.5 × 1030 J, 359 Et: Energy required blow off Terra's crust into space Kinetic Energy of Mars @ 1km/s relative - 3.195e29J All the energy won't get released into the crust, but then it will probably be going a little quicker than 1km/s just by falling into Earth's gravity well.

To be fair, B-52s had tailguns until the early 90s (and the soviet cargo craft with them were designed for combat drops and things so potentially would be exposed to enemy aircraft). Last combat usage of a tailgun was apparently in 1972, B-52 vs. MiG-21: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_gunner

Even if it is bomb-grade, it is likely to be incorporated into ceramic fuel elements, so you couldn't build an atomic bomb out of it, but you could build a "conventional" dirty bomb. Fun Fact: Modern RTGs are designed to survive reentry intact in the case of an accident.

Once cruise missiles start passing the turing test, I'll let you know On that note, in Alaistar Reynolds "Revelation Space" series (awesome dark sci-fi btw) there exists several autonomous "hell-class" (read: planet-killer-scale) weapons which are described as having "gamma-level" intelligences (with the next level, alpha, being equivalent to, and sometimes literally, a full upload of a human mind). Some of those are one-shot devices. At one point a character has to "convince" a weapon to be fired. http://revelationspace.wikia.com/wiki/Cache_Weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_Revelation_Space Also fun to think about: the robots (terminators) that skynet produces to battle mankind - more or less lethal than todays drones? Pretty sure which one would win in a shoot out

XD XD XD

This thread gives me the warm and fuzzies

They have only just barely got a missile capable of launching a warhead that even *needs* a heatshield. Give'em time, they haven't got that far through their tech-tree yet, and they are obviously using a modded one if they have only just unlocked atomics.

Well what is a cruise missile if not an especially offensive drone? Some modern cruise missiles even have data uplinks to report information from multiple onboard sensors - for example, the latest tomahawks have all of the usual radar scene-matching, GPS/INS navigation, but also include an imaging IR sensor in the nose for positive target ID and also for possible re-targetting during flight with a 2-way datalink. And on top of that, certain models contain bomblets instead of a unitary warhead and can visit multiple target sites, dropping a portion each time before ramming a final target. Further, one fighter-size cruise missile comes to mind, the RAF's Storm Shadow, which does most of the above, but autonomously, ie: its imaging IR camera can recognise its target on its own and decide whether to attack or to abort (if the target cannot be found) to a safe location - conforming to the "classic" meaning of drone referring to an essentially "robotic" craft. So in conclusion, I would say that we are already arming our bombers (and today, even our fighters) with complements of drones, and quite capable ones too.

Remember the cardinal rules of tech product naming: name it whatever you like, but it must include at least 2 of the following- An arbitrary selection of letters, but must include an "X" Some number in the thousands, bonus if it resembles a plausible year in the future, ie: 2050 Any of these - Turbo, Super, Hyper, Ultra Give it a "class" name A greek letter Examples: The "Pony" Hyper-DX Sagan-class booster The "Outre" Epsilon-2099-Turbo

@Red Iron Crown You spelled "mathemagician" wrong XD

KSP in its twighlight, post-v.1.0, post-64bit, post-unity upgrade years, is more alive than alot of games still in Early Access or otherwise mid-development. Also: /thread

You could apply a limited throttle in the VAB to the vector. This will affect the ratio that the two engines pull at max throttle.

God that sounds like a lot of work! Why dont you just take a penny like everyone else and get rich instead!

LeeLoo (Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat)

@mikegarrison @wumpus If you're in the mood for an "everybody dies" read, "Level 7" is apparently required reading for all US missile silo troops.

Pancakes. The only acceptable fillings are: Bacon+maple syrup Cream, lemon juice and brown sugar

Ah the Forever War yes you're right that was it. *** So, I just re-watched Prometheus. Personally I quite like it, but we all know it has some nice flaws to pore over and I have them fresh in my mind Remember the bit where Charlize THeron is crushed by the rolling spaceship whilst the whole audience roared "RUN SIDEWAYS YOU CRETIN!!" But who remembers exactly *how* stupid and close it was? In the scene, Noomi and Charlize are on the ground together watching the spaceship crash. It impacts somewhat to their front and as they watch it start to topple, they run away. At this point they are side by side and run off together in the same direction. They are running within arms reach of each other. Then Noomi faceplants into the ground and Charlize keep going. On the ground Noomi looks back and see the ship almost on top of her....and rolls like 3 or 4 times sideways (say 3 metres?) and the ship grinds safely past. 20seconds later it grinds over Charlize, game over. At ANY point in the run (and they run for a good 30-45 seconds), changing direction for like 5 seconds would have saved Charlize. On the other hand though...the ship then tips over sideways *obviously* directly on top of Noomi, but its ok because it hits a rock 2ft higher than the surrounding terrain and doesnt crush her *eyerolls for everyone*. *** Some other highlights: That guy, what is he the most metal geologist in the world? Why'd they put Guy Ritchie in old-age make up instead of just using an old person? Cool spaceship but those are some big/powerful "ion drives"... (Plus the classic lack of any propellant, the interior of the craft must be almost entirely living quarters.) Lets take our helmets off! Lets get lost despite all this extremely advanced mapping/navigation equipment. Lets not all be on the same page re: quarantine measures. Lot of flamethrowers onboard considering this isn't trench warfare. After the mostmetalgeologistintheworld gets mutated by the goop, he rocks up to the ship and for some reason folds himself into a neat little pile in front of the ship to await discovery. I get that he perhaps was setting an ambush, but thats a freaking weird way to go with it... *** Apart from the obvious blunders, I really like the movie, I especially like the parts where they are messing around in rooms designed for people twice their size You gotta feel for the Charlize character though, yeah she dies stupidly, but apart from that is a fairly good character, if unimportant. She is the daughter of an incredibly wealthy and powerful tycoon, who is closer to one of his own products than to his own daughter, to the point of potentially disowning her by refusing to die. She comes along because if she is left behind her life will dissolve into mediocrity whilst "the board" runs her fathers company in perpetuity, or until he comes back immortal. Is she there to stop him and userp his power? Just to see what happens? Does she want to try and win some of his affection back? Then it all goes to poop and her and her father both die for nothing. Ouch! *** My pet theory - Anyone watching Westworld? Anyone notice how similar the "Westworld" logo is to the "Weyland Enterprises" logo? AND THEY BOTH DO ANDROIDS! And while we are at it lets throw bladerunner in there too.

woops

Wasn't starship troopers a metaphor for Vietnam? Ie: sending soldiers with what is thought of as top-of-the-range equipment (fancy rifles and various equipment, troop dropships, tactics etc.) which turned out to be woefully inappropriate for the type of warfare the enemy is forcing you to engage (jungle warfare, guerilla tactics, close-quarters etc). Also, whilst I actually quite like the film, this was funny "Acting" lol!