StrandedonEarth

I didn't think Skyhooks were supposed to reach that low? Perhaps as low as 30 miles, well above the weather? Wiki says 100km or higher... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(structure)

Sorry, this question is for a specific moderator and it's not about the forums, but.... Hey @Snark, do you have one of these yet?

Politics. And that’s all I can say about that here….

Well, here’s a Niven primer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_Space If nothing else, read Ringworld But I also think that Tales from the Man-Kzin Wars would be great fodder for a TV series Outside of that, the aforementioned Mote and Footfall are excellent reads, with more alien cultures to explore.

Are you familiar with Larry Niven’s work? He’s come up with some interesting critters… The Mote in God’s Eye is where the gripping hand is found. And then there’s the Puppeteers… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson's_Puppeteers

On the one hand, yeah, hands are pretty versatile. On the other hand, two thumbs may be useful, or not. On the gripping hand, how often have you thought you needed a third hand? I was thinking that just today…

Ah, but it hasn’t had a few hundred million years yet. A million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years, yada yada yada

Very true, but nonetheless the mutation rate would be increased, and with a large enough sample size over a long enough period, interesting things will eventually happen. It only takes one to thrive and propagate...

Yes, I heard about that years ago. It probably helped evolution along by mutating anything that came close. The beneficial mutations survived and flourished! Is it any wonder that Africa has such diverse life forms, which led to the rise of the Homo genus?

They definitely didn’t get the memo in Winterpeg: blizzard on the way if it’s not there already.

Keep up the pressure on him to do it and not let it slide. I want solar but can’t afford it and it’s not economical here yet. The local utility has (or will have) hydro to spare so solar PV is downplayed by the powers that be.

I worked in a distribution warehouse that supplied both bleach and ammonia. We were not allowed to stack them both on the same pallet to minimize the chance of a chlorine release in the event of an accident. That’s what I saw. A lot of flame in what looked like a hard start (lucky not to RUD the thing) but nothing that resembled a rocket engine firing. Definitely an odd looking engine.

Nah, they need to make blue nitric acid…

That looked like a hard start to me. Those people are definitely crazy, with no concept of safety. Their program will end when they get killed. And from what I've seen in this thread, that's a when, not if.

Well, after sixteen years of commuting 100km (round trip) to work at the retread plant, I bit the bullet and gave my notice today. In three weeks I will go to work at *drum roll* a much closer retread plant that is only a ten minute drive away instead of thirty-five minutes, traffic permitting. Needless to say, a summer Friday afternoon drive home could be easily double that, as everyone is getting out of town. It was a hard choice, but I'll be ahead of the game in the long run, and that highway seems to get scarier every day between insufficient maintenance and crazy, impatient drivers (from two-wheelers to eighteen-wheelers; but at least the thirty-wheelers know better). Never mind the white-knuckle winter driving, whether its white-out snowing or pouring rain grey-out! So yeah, I'm so done with that. Enough is enough. I'm pretty sure the grass is greener on the other side; it has to be because I can smell the water from here!

Actually, I recall the SDI program used nukes to generate X-ray lasers, yes. But in Footfall it generated gamma-ray lasers. Are they both possible, depending on the composition of the ‘spurt bombs’? No idea…

You've heard of the Dark Web. Now we've discovered the Dirt Web

I'm guessing some sort of stiffener...

The unkindest cut of all... Did they give him pain meds? My understanding is that those are counterproductive for animals, as they don't understand that they need to take it easy after such a procedure. The pain tells them that they're hurt and to just sleep as much as possible until it gets better. OTOH nobody wants to see their pet in pain, so it's a tough. choice to make

I’m wondering when TPTB will decide to treat space flight like air travel and forbid airframe makers from building engines or running flight services E: I suppose I shouldn’t be giving them ideas

I remember trying to find a live cricket in my room one night. Maddening….