monophonic

What? You seem to be trying to tell us how amazingly good SpaceX's marketing department is.

So what that the universe breaks? You just make it a part of - nay, you make it the story.

Something like "A Short and Clear Name" would be more in line with the names from the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. Btw. I just checked and I think "Cargo Cult" and "So Much For Subtlety" would make excellent names for the first MCT / ITS / what's-it-called-today -s.

People often mistake him for that kind of doctor. It is always a little awkward when they do that. The warehouse is definitely that one too. Did you know Syfy did a whole series on that premise alone? It may feel a bit silly at times but there's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes.

He is trying to ask how used X-ray film would work as solar filter with a phone camera.

Maybe they would do a test reflight on company expense, if they did not have a paying customer already lined up for one. They are a business after all and expected to make a profit.

Tax reports? I get it now. They think they are involved in or against a conspiracy to release The Kraken, but all that is just an intricate and overly elaborate plot to get a few trinkety artifacts from around the system to the Warehouse. By the Warehouse.

Sarcasm is not a valid argument. Crew members are easier to locate if they are wearing bright colors. That is regardless of whether they are alive and fine, incapacitated or deceased, and whether they are in water, mountains, forest or desert. In all three cases their families usually want them brought home too. The colour of the suit is definitely the last and least link in the survivability chain, but that does not mean it is a good idea to make that link any weaker than it can be.

You know, @Nibb31, there's a lesson to remember here that we learned in 1912. Calling a thing unsinkable doesn't make it so. No matter how thorough the design, testing and manufacture is, manure happens. It would suck to have to tell someone their loved one perished because we did everything we could to bring them home safe, except give them bright orange clothes, so the rescue helicopter couldn't find them before they froze to death. But sure they'll understand, orange is just so passé, dark blue is much more stylish. OTOH I'm sure Boeing will make the suit in any color the customer wants, be it pastel pink or manure brown or whatever. They just chose their corporate color of the day for the reveal.

Sounded like something straigh outta dungeon dimensions. Except those teeth were good for hurting the victim more than their owner.

No, worse actually at least from a gravity point of view. See shell theorem. Pressurewise things might be harder if actually inside a star.

Nah, SpaceX is still behind Robin of Sherwood. I'll look forward to them splitting an F9 with another F9 at the upcoming FH test though. Improbable feats of marksmanship aside, congrats on absolutely successful return to flight SpaceX!

It doesn't surprise me at all. People will test all kinds of things that don't turn out to be smart ideas. Even for COMEX the only rationale seems to have been to produce the gases at sea floor with plentiful electricity from a nuclear reactor. I guess they would have kept the pressure high enough to keep the mixture below explosive ratio at all times. But the nuclear plan fizzled in the end. Nothing I can find indicates that hydrogen mixes are in use as of today. Although I did find an article that suggests its effects are not really conductive to doing serious work. http://johnclarkeonline.com/2011/11/15/diving-with-hydrogen-–-it’s-a-gas/ Of course I did forget about the need to reduce oxygen to compensate for extreme pressure. I have no idea how fast the H2 will consume the O2 at those ratios, but eventually it will. The mixture is not inert even if it is incapable of sustaining a steady reaction rate.

Wrong. Helium is used in deep sea diving breathing mixes. Hydrogen would steadily combine with the oxygen until you were basically suffocating on water vapour. That's assuming the mix wouldn't just go boom before then, which would be a small miracle in itself. I'll tell you a little anecdote to illustrate how seriously dangerous hydrogen is even when handled correctly. During my time in the army we were repeatedly stressed how important it is to be ready to fight at all times. When digging anti-tank mines into the frozen ground you better have your rifle on you. When carrying fuzed 155mm shells to the gun your rifle must never be beyond your hands reach. But when filling weather balloons with hydrogen you must leave your rifle and everything else metallic at least 30 feet away! Working with hydrogen was the only time we weren't punished for leaving our weapons too far from us. That's how serious the army was worried about hydrogen.

Not completely so - but the rolling motion must be slow. Just the addition of the rollerons transformed the hopeless AIM-9A to the world beater AIM-9B. It was actually so good that when soviet engineers got their hands on one, they called it a veritable university course in missile design. The first versions of the K-13 (AA-2 Atoll) were such straight clones that they even had the same part numbers stamped on them! And if took a Sidewinder and an Atoll apart, you could build two working missiles from the parts without regard to which part came from which missile originally. At least I have been informed thus. I've never actually done that myself, nor been within spitting distance of an actual missile for that matter.

One of the last eight, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia. Half of those are with Barq. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-1011_TriStar http://www.barqaviation.com/index.php/fleet

Ah yes, the early F-104 variants. There is an anecdote about that. Basically, at one air force or another that bought the type, just when the pilots had learned to roll the plane upside down before ejecting, they replaced them with later versions. Ones which featured upwards firing ejection seats. You can guess where the first few low altitude ejections in the new variant went...

It could easily be both. But it definitely is a DF reference.

They had no idea what was happening before it had happened. Even in space situational awareness is everything.

The Thales SPECTRA electronic warfare system installed on the Rafale fighter is rumored to feature exactly such active cancellation technology. So yes.

They are, and they have developed a liking to city centres around here. Thankfully it is winter now so they have moved somewhere warmer for a while. But they will be back... Otherwise on the topic of minions of ancient evil gods, have you seen what swans will do to geese if they happen to nest at the same pond?

The thread topic. That aside I agree with you.

Man these were some good old-fashioned horror chapters! As usual your writing was so captivating that I actually freaked a tiny bit here and there. And there is more to come! I can't wait!

Most people would I think. Just the skull on the bow immediately brought the Arcadia to my mind. It certainly does have that "you can die gruesomely in a million of ways and this ship is 999,990 of them" vibe too.