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My suggestion for designing the systems is simple: call up or write to some astrophysicists. I\'m sure there\'ll be lots that will happily talk about their field and provide all kinds of interesting and (semi) realistic possibilities or even actual discoveries. Knowing that some facsimile of the in-game thingie is out there would be very cool

Yes, but if you want to get ideas from a public place or a library, you can\'t talk.

Turn the picture upside-down, and THEN, we\'ll talk.

Got it. To be fair we need somewhere to keep updated, but maybe small talk should be kept to a minimum.

As soon as I get back to my computer (on the ol\' laptop atm, not a hope in hell that KSP could run on it ;P) I fully intend to give this a go. I\'ve been browsing the required mods and that unmanned comsat plugin looks freaking amazing, can\'t wait to get a good com sat system set up, been interested in the challenge for a while but never had the motivation to make a satellite network, now i will. Which leads me to a question; For later turn missions, mun and minmus landings and all that, how would we replicate comsat networks? Since i\'m assuming that everyones attempts are all on one persistence files and can see that comsats from different \'companies\' will communicate with each other. Is collaboration an aim here? since we don\'t see each other\'s results I foresee an issue either in setting up a join network that is efficiently distrubuted, or preventing \'cross talk\' between different player\'s networks. Erm yeah sorry about the wall of text but i was kind of thinking as i typed. Will post soon! oh and what kind of format do you want Don (for the email, concerning budget & other turn data)? For all of the details n that. - cheers, Bellaby

Indeed it does (and now its here ) That was an awesome video. But I could listen Neil Armstrong talk about stuff for a long time

For those of you who don\'t know (which I would expect would be the vast majority of you), I do a short Science section on one of the community radio stations in Western Sydney. It\'s called 'Snarky Science'. Well, I know you guys will all be absolutely snowed under with Eurovision and all, but if you can fit a little time slot into your busy schedules, we\'re on air tomorrow night. Time is a little flexible, but it will be some time (shortly) after 10 tomorrow night, Sydney time. That\'s just after UTC 12:00, 27th May 2012! - just over 25 hours from now. The theme for the evening is 'recent developments in Space.' I thought I\'d mainly talk about the entry of private players into space, and what that means. Obviously we\'re starting with SpaceX, it being topical and all, but moving on to Virgin Galactic (which are looking good for a launch in the next couple of years) and a few of the other COTS providers. Okay, so over to you - what else do you think I should include? Station details: People in the Penrith Valley (Sydney, Australia): Listen to 100.7FM. Everyone else: listen online.

Talk about how they planned to make a dominoes pizza on the moon. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8734456/Dominos-plans-pizza-on-the-Moon.html

I am American! (Seriously. I am. Many of my peers talk like that for no reason, and then say it is friendly.)

So basically, talk like a stereotypical chav. Right.

Home from my surgery...great news, bad news story tho....the surgery as originally scheduled for 2-3 hours but ended up taking 4 1/2 hours. My boyfriend was in the waiting room and starting to panic, and when the surgeon came out to talk to him he called him over to a private room. Immediately he thought something really bad happened to me, and he was in tears, but I was ok....what happened was my one disc (C4-C5) was so badly herniated that my left shoulder nerves were badly damaged and he had to go in and try and repair them. That\'s why the surgery took do long! So, the great news is....all the pain I have been dealing with for 7 years is gone! It is amazing! The bad news is.....because of the nerve damage in my left arm, I have no use of it right now. I may eventually get it back, but I can\'t start therapy for it till my neck bones fuse at that takes 6 to 12 months Overalll, getting rid of the pain is worth any sacrifice I may have to make, so I am very happy! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and support!

Eh, you should start your own thread if you want to talk about the Dictator. I\'m telling you, because you\'re the first person who\'s post has no relavence to the topic of Prometheus whatsoever. It\'s fine to mention other movies because you think they\'ll be better, but please remember what this thread is about.

If I posted an image, I would have to A. Make sure it was a recent one B. Nobody elseis in it C. I am old enough to. Believe me, I look and act older then I really am. And if you saw my picture, you would talk about the mass of hair on top of my head.

I guess I\'m a bit late for the party. I\'d have posted this over 24 hours ago but the flight was such an interesting odyssey I decided to make a story to go with the pics. Mind you, I don\'t write. However, I do have to write *something* from time to time just to remind myself again why I should never write. I apologize for the suffering these attempts inflict upon innocent readers. (full discretion: the flight actually occured as depicted. The story did not. A few screenshots were recreated.) Oh, I had to split the story between posts. Yep, it\'s that long. Click the spoiler tags at your own peril. Also, bonus points for catching the less-obvious TV references. Bill: It\'s a beautiful morning here at Kerbal Space Center. Winds are 5 knots from the southeast, the temperature is a balmy 23 degrees Kelsius, and as usual, there\'s not a cloud in the sky. We apologize for the delay; KSC has been experiencing some equipment malfunctions this morning and flights have been delayed as a result. I\'m your Captain, Bill Kerman, and with me are Jebediah-- Jeb: Hey everyone! Bill: -and Bob- Bob squeaked. Bill: -your co-pilot and navigator. Thank you for joining us for the maiden flight of Pan Kerbin\'s first commercial spaceliner. This will be a brief tour of the planet, and we will orbit the equator twice before returning to KSC. Estimated travel time is three hours. Please fasten your seatbelts as we are now cleared for takeoff and will be in the air presently, and be careful to follow the safety procedures demonstrated by your flight attendant. Bill: This is your captain speaking. We have now reached cruising altitude. Please remain seated and do not unfasten your belts; we are now accelerating to our transition velocity and preparing to engage our rocket engines. Make sure all personal items are safely stowed in the compartment directly in front of you: Once we begin orbital insertion, any loose items can endanger everyone in the cabin. Jeb: Ya, we don\'t want anyone getting impaled this time, eh? ... Bill: This is your captain. We have reached maximum velocity and are now ready for orbital insertion. While our rockets are active, you will notice a strong force pushing you against your seat, and if you look out your window you may think the plane is pointed an unusual direction. Please remain calm, as this is perfectly normal for space flight. The clocks on the ceiling and the screens in front of you will indicate how soon the next rocket burn will begin and how long it will last. Also, an audible tone [ding-ding-ding] will sound one minute before each burn. As you heard, we are counting down from sixty seconds... Bill: ...Ignition in five seconds--four--three--two--one-- Bill: You\'ll notice on your screen that we have reached a stable orbit at an altitude of 80km. We will be remaining here for the next two hours before deorbiting and returning to Kerbal Space Center. If you completed your zero-g training class, feel free to explore the cabin. If not, you may prefer to remain in your seat and enjoy the view out your nearest window. We ask that you keep track of any personal belongings in the cabin, as they must be stowed away for safety before we use our rockets. If in doubt, don\'t get it out! Jeb: But if ya do get horribly injured by a flying iPad, try to bleed in front of one of the cameras, eh? I put the clips on YouTube. Bill: And... mic off. Bill: Jeb, I think we need to have a talk about your... professional behavior. Jeb: Oh, it\'s all in good fun. The kids love it! Bill: That\'s not what I meant. You\'re scaring Bob. Bob: I am not-huh? Bill: Don\'t worry, Bob; Jeb\'s just being an idiot. Ignore him. Bob, are you alright? Bob pointed out the window. Jeb: Ya know, you don\'t usually see clouds in space. Especially green ones. Bill: Shit, we can\'t maneuver in time. Brace for impact! Jeb: With a cloud? Bill: With whatever is *venting* it! There\'s probably a loose oxygen tank in there somewhere! Bill shut his eyes. When he opened them again, several seconds later, the mist was gone. Jeb: Well, that was trippy. It reminds me of this guy I know who grows the best...Wow. Bob was making a sound reminiscent of a balloon with a tiny leak. Bill: What...oh. Shit. Bill: Oh god. What happened? Jeb: I can\'t raise KSC, and the computer\'s going right nuts. But you can see the constellations...we must be, well, close to home. Bill: Did something happen to us, or did something happen to Kerbin? Look for landmarks--anything that could give us a clue where in the world we are. Jeb: Looks like they got the extra long tour, eh? Bill: What? Jeb: The passengers. Bill: Oh god, the passengers! Dim the cabin windows! Jeb: Don\'t you think we ought to tell them? Bill: Are you kidding? We need a plan first. If we tell them their home is just...gone, there\'ll be chaos! Do you want that? Jeb: Sure. Bill: ... Jeb: For YouTube, eh? Bill: Just... just look for landmarks. I\'ll try to fix the computer. Oh, and get Bob out from under his seat... For the better part of an hour, Jeb surveyed the barren, primeval world beneath them. Had they been catapulted to some distant place? Or had they traveled through time, and were now witnessing the birth--or the death--of Kerbin, their home world? A curious rock arch caught Jeb\'s eye, sticking up from the rim the large crater they were passing over, but like every other strange sight it only brought questions, not answers. ... Everyone flinched as the Windows startup sound blared through the cockpit speakers. Bill: Okay, I think I\'ve got the computer fixed. Now to start the navigation software and get a fix on our location. Jeb: Hey, Bill. Bill: The nav package is up. Trying to get a lock. Jeb: Uh, Bill... Bill: No response from satellites. Switching to star tracking. Bob: Bill? Bill: Well, that doesn\'t make any sense. The clock must have reset... Jeb: KERBIN TO BILL! Bill: What? Jeb: I think I found a landmark. Bill: Oh god. Jeb: You say that a lot, ya know? Bill: But if Kerbin is there, we must be... Jeb: On the Mun? Bob: Technically, we\'d have to land to be on the Mun. We\'re currently in a low orbit. Jeb: Hey, he speaks! Bill: Shut up, Bob. Bob squeaked. Bill: So... how do we get back? Our flight computer wasn\'t designed for this. Jeb: We could point the plane at that big round thingy and fire the rockets. Bill: Wait--what\'s that, off to the side? Is that the cloud that brought us here? Jeb: Well, I dunno, call me racist but all green space clouds look the same to me. Uh, Bill? Rockets? Big round blue thingy? We going? Bill: Head for the cloud! With any luck, it\'ll take us back home! Jeb: Or we could do that, eh? Bob whined. To be continued...

While trying to re-establish my Munolith bases after .15 Kerbalized my persistence file, I began a new and more efficient program to take Kerbonauts to the Munoliths. A new rocket was born, utilizing the Cuttlefish Delivery Vehicle and Bigtrak 'Puddle-Jumper' rover designs by chickenplucker (by Jeb, I love that design!). After launching Munolith Investigator 1c to Munar orbit (Kerbals don\'t talk about 1a or 1b ... or the Kraken they encountered >), I sent another orbiter to re-establish contact with the Munar Anomaly at Silisko Crater. Once I was able to re-establish its position, I switched over to the Investigator, only to have a catastrophic malfunction destroy most of the delivery vehicle and lander ... ie, I was left with the pod, a mechjeb, and a parachute ... no engines, no fuel, and no RCS, approximately 12km above the Munar surface in a slightly eccentric orbit. Thinking quickly, I decided to embark on my first ever rescue mission. It would require a vehicle capable of going to the Mun, establish a rendez-vous and capture, and then return to Kerbin. So I thought, Hey! Why not try the Cuttlefish for this mission, slightly modified. I hadn\'t seen anyone else use it in such a capacity, so I figured I\'d give it a whirl. After many days of trying to figure out the mechjeb Rendez-Vous module, I decided to pretty much wing it. It took a GREAT MANY quicksaves before I got my orbit perfected to intercept the wayward craft. And after a series of catastrophic disasters practice runs in a simulator, I finally managed to do it! This is the story of Rescue 1, Investigator 1c, and our six brave Kerbonauts: Munolith Investigator 1c Flight Crew: [li]Henrie Kerman[/li] [li]Gusble 'Gussie' Kerman[/li] [li]Dunvin 'Dun-Dun-DUUUUN' Kerman[/li] Rescue 1 Flight Crew: [li]Hensey Kerman[/li] [li]Sidrick 'Spidey-sense' Kerman[/li] [li]Fredrey Kerman[/li] The Cuttlefish Modified Delivery Vehicle: The Cuttlefish Modified Rescue Vehicle: Note: The 'Cuttlefish' legs were removed for this picture And the video of the journey: (Side note 1: I did not realize that my video recorder was picking up audio of a Minecraft Let\'s Play series featuring Two Awesome Gamers, Whitelight and Jaeza. During editing, I heard the commentary, and decided to leave it in pending a couple of modifications to the audio track, as it sort of fit .) (Side note 2: Some of the scenes had to be recreated due to unforeseen glitches, HD space, and corrupted video files. I\'ve tried to make subsequent recreations as faithful to the original mission as possible, but in some instances, this was impossible. Some artistic license was required, due in part to the cinematic-esque quality I wanted to capture. The actual capture was never caught on video ... someone forgot to push the record button :-[.) Part 1/2: This retrieval mission - Well, sort of ... Note: Due to the extra RCS tanks, it was required to fire up RCS thrusters in order to get this beast off the ground. http://youtu.be/XKKwh9lSmig Part 2/2: The return mission - Well, sort ... well, you get the idea ... Note: Most of this was a recreation of the original event. http://youtu.be/1kGm6nNtJOc Soundtrack from KSP sounds folder: editorLoop01.ogg Taps, US Army ) And yes, I managed to land that close to KSP by accident, although in the original mission I was a bit more east of there (about 1-2km IIRC) on both occasions. Rescue 1 splashed down approximately 50m from Investigator 1 in the original ... would have been more Kerbal if I\'d managed to nail them On a completely side-note ... rendez-vous is HARD!

And I was just about to make a well reasoned point. Basically I said; 1. We all know what is an appropriate way to talk to another human being. We should act accordingly. 2. Land claim conflicts can be resolved quickly, quietly and calmly by PM. 3. Radion can just give it up as a joke and drop the whole project. 4. Radions claim is probably at the upper limits of what nation size should be in order to encourage new nations. 5. Retention wasn\'t accounted for. Most likely to encourage new RPers and because not everyone has decided to rejoin. We all have to play nice together, and I really hope that is what we all want.

I like this. So basically you\'re saying we should talk about things we\'re doing in the game?

Well, I managed to get this into a 76.5-79.5km high orbit with half a standard fuel tank left to go higher/ come back down with. It\'s got 6 gimballed engines drawing from 7 fuel tanks to get you up (hit t and it\'s dead steady all the way), then one non gimballed engine from two fuel tanks for getting your orbit and what not. I initially tried it with the little rocket engine on the second stage, but it couldn\'t achieve orbit before you fell back into the atmosphere. The lander is just a glider, no fuel or engine. I was shocked at how stable it was. Let\'s not talk about my initial attempts at a side mounted lander... So many crashes...

He\'s using feet, guess what? GET OVER IT! Stay on topic and stop getting bent out of shape for no reason. There\'s 3 feet in a meter people, easy enough for a child to convert. If you people can\'t stay on topic and talk about the plane, I\'ll lock this thread. You\'ve been warned.

This is not appropriate discussion to have in public. If he doesn\'t answer your request to talk then that is that, no need to drag it into public.

Okay, surface remote control from orbit will have to wait until KSP supports it, just being able to control nearby craft is already an amazing thing, I\'m going to have to talk up your plugin in other threads as it really should be as big as Mechjeb, the remote SAS alone is brilliant.

Hey, don\'t talk about majoring in physics, I\'m just a 13-year old in 7th grade that knows more about orbits than my science teacher ;P. And all of that came from KSP. I also landed on the Mun at least 6 times before patched conics. (I also got a 76% average in Spanish, but I know more than most of my classmates. I got a 76 \'cause I didn\'t do most of my homework \'cause of KSP. :-[) I really think this is almost as intuitive as it gets. The MOST important part of the game is the beginning. Thats where players are introduced to the game mechanics (not literally ). Its not when you suddenly get a calculator and it tell you to do this. Players are not interested in the main story right now. They are going to be getting used to the controls/what to do. The best advice about the beginning you can get is: [glow=red,2,300] MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE PLAYER.[/glow] The player might not even know that Kerbin is round. Or he might be Stephen Hawking. But NO MATTER who they are, they get KSP easily. This is why we like KSP. And keep up the good work, HarvesteR & co. P.S I agree with not having all the instruments/tools at the beginning of the campaign.

Welcome to the 0.15 patch. I want to outline a number of new bits that have come in and show you how to use them. These bits have filtered down from the new code which has been written to be easier to work with and easier to expand. Please note that modding functionality has not changed at all. You can continue to use whatever interface you were doing and everything currently should be backwards compatible. However we are moving away from functional code in Part for reasons outlined below. What and why Firstly however I want to talk about the reasons for the change so you can understand (and comment on) the direction moving to 0.16 and beyond. Originally KSP was designed as a single-vessel orbital physics game. As the success of the project increased people obviously wanted more and so more features were added into the code. Multiple vessels, etc. The community plugin development also wasnt originally planned and was tacked on at some point. All these factors combined means that the core code is not easy for us to expand upon or easy for you lot to write plugins for. No doubt we all have big plans for KSP and to implement them properly we need to expand the base and make it fit for purpose. So the plan has been to abstract what a Part and a Vessel actually are. A vessel is a collection of connected parts, but with some orbit stuff tacked on. A part is a physical object which can be connected to another, also has some code tacked on too. Therefore.. - Part gets split into Part (model & physical connection) and PartModule (functional code). - Vessel gets split into PartAssembly (a list of Parts) and Vessel (some orbit stuff). Having PartAssembly seperate from Vessel means that we can create other types of groups of parts. Internal spaces, virtual cockpits, kerbal personalities, buildings, etc. Thus one editor screen can function as an editor for all types of assembly. Having PartModule seperate from Part means we get to a smaller group of core parts which just define types of attachment logic and they can be have many (or none) code behaviours layered onto it. 'All very well and good', you say, 'but its a complicated horrible mess of interconnectedness how are we gonna deal with that? Eh? Eh?!'. A fine question, ignorance is bliss, data and structure should be on a need to know basis. Having to learn how a specific thing works is a chore. So to deal with this is an in built event messaging system. It deals, from your point of view, in strings. (It doesnt ofc, it uses pre-reflection and ints for lil extra performance). Basically a PartModule, Part or Vessel can send messages to things and recieve events from things. A code module ideally should be coded that it is ignorant of anything outside it. There are cases where you may want a group of modules to communicate with eachother, these can either be done with the messaging or ofc through direct references as before. Defining attributes in your module code of KSPEvent (on methods) or KSPField (on fields) exposes that event/field to the internal reflection. These attributes also contain data for linking the event/field to the part action gui. You can also alter the values for your event and field attributes at runtime to control the flow of your code. That last bit sounds confusing. When you see it in action later it\'ll sink in. Lastly we need a simple, easy and powerful way of defining configuration files. For this purpose ConfigNode was born. Its an incredibly simple recursive node/value list and can be used a few ways. It contains all the code for reading and writing all the config files for the game. PartModule So, the long awaited PartModule class. This is a piece of code which can be attached to any Part in its config file. You can add as many as you like and add multiple of the same type should you need to. They are added to the Part GameObject itself and you still have access to part and vessel directly from PartModule. PartModules are very simple and currently contain only 6 overrides (compared to Part\'s.. err.. 34). Here is a PartModule showing all of its overrides in place... public class ModuleTest : PartModule { /// <summary> /// Constructor style setup. /// Called in the Part\'s Awake method. /// The model may not be built by this point. /// </summary> public override void OnAwake() { } /// <summary> /// Called during the Part startup. /// StartState gives flag values of initial state /// </summary> public override void OnStart(StartState state) { } /// <summary> /// Per-frame update /// Called ONLY when Part is ACTIVE! /// </summary> public override void OnUpdate() { } /// <summary> /// Per-physx-frame update /// Called ONLY when Part is ACTIVE! /// </summary> public override void OnFixedUpdate() { } /// <summary> /// Called when PartModule is asked to save its values. /// Can save additional data here. /// </summary> /// <param name='node'>The node to save in to</param> public override void OnSave(ConfigNode node) { } /// <summary> /// Called when PartModule is asked to load its values. /// Can load additional data here. /// </summary> /// <param name='node'>The node to load from</param> public override void OnLoad(ConfigNode node) { } } Looks rather simple doesnt it and thats because it is. Its not set in stone and if we need more we can add them. In reality I hope you only have to use very few of those overrides for any given module. Most of the loading and saving will be taken care of KSPField attributes unless you want to save complicated stuff. You can use any Unity MonoBehaviour method apart from Awake. You can use OnDestroy as a destructor. Update and FixedUpdate are perfectly fine (you should check if the part is controllable first). There is no guarantee of having a rigidbody attached in the standard FixedUpdate. Example #1 - KSPEvents and KSPFields So lets look a more complicated example with communication between two modules and some KSPEvent/KSPField malarky. Here is ModuleCommand. It would sit on a command pod and scream orders to everything else. In this case it just screams one order, InputGearToggle. public class ModuleCommand : PartModule { public override void OnUpdate() { if (FlightInputHandler.state.gearDown || FlightInputHandler.state.gearUp) { part.SendEvent('InputGearToggle'); } } } The key feature of ModuleCommand is part.SendEvent(evtName) this tells its host part to send an event into the assembly. The Part sends the event to all of its modules and all of its attached neighbours, who in turn send it to their modules, ad infinitum. So we need something to respond to that order. Here is ModuleAnimatorLandingGear. Technically it doesnt animate anything. It just changes a float from 0 to 1 and renames its gui event to reflect its current state. public class ModuleAnimatorLandingGear : PartModule { [KSPField] public float gearExtension = 0f; [KSPEvent(guiActive = true, guiName = 'Toggle Gear')] public void InputGearToggle() { if (gearExtension == 0f) { gearExtension = 1f; Events['InputGearToggle'].guiName = 'Retract gear'; } else { gearExtension = 0f; Events['InputGearToggle'].guiName = 'Extend gear'; } } public override void OnLoad(ConfigNode node) { if (gearExtension == 0f) { Events['InputGearToggle'].guiName = 'Extend gear'; } else { Events['InputGearToggle'].guiName = 'Retract gear'; } } } Plenty new going on here! We have one field, gearExtension which has the KSPField attribute applied. This makes this field persistant and it will be written to/from any saves as required. After KSPFields are parsed by PartModule then the OnLoad method is fired. As we have nothing else to load, we use OnLoad as a method for working out what to do with our data. In this instance that means setting the event gui name to be correct. The limitation for adding the KSPField attribute is that it can only be applied to classes which implement the IConfigNode interface (more on this later) or one of the types; string, bool, int, float, Vector2, Vector3, Vector4 or Quaternion Here KSPField attribute from the game source.. /// <summary> /// Attribute applied to fields to make them persistant or available to the part action GUI /// /// Automatic persistance can only be applied to types which implement the IConfigNode interface or /// one of the following.. /// string, bool, int, float, Vector2, Vector3, Vector4 or Quaternion /// </summary> [System.AttributeUsage(System.AttributeTargets.Field | System.AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple = false)] public class KSPField : System.Attribute { /// <summary> /// Is this field persistant? /// </summary> public bool isPersistant; /// <summary> /// Is this field active on gui /// </summary> public bool guiActive; /// <summary> /// Is this field active on gui /// </summary> public string guiName; /// <summary> /// Is this field active on gui /// </summary> public string guiUnits; /// <summary> /// The gui format string for this field (D4, F2, N0, etc). Blank if none /// </summary> public string guiFormat; /// <summary> /// string category id /// </summary> public string category; public KSPField() { this.isPersistant = true; this.guiName = ''; this.guiUnits = ''; this.guiFormat = ''; this.category = ''; } } The method InputGearToggle has the KSPEvent attribute applied. This makes this event able to be internally reflected and recieve events thus is the entry point for most functionality. It will be fired in response to the ModuleCommand\'s part.SendEvent. KSPEvent also makes this method available to the gui in form of a labelled button. You can change the guiActive, guiName or any other KSPEvent value at run time by using the Events list. Here is the KSPEvent attribute from the game source.. /// <summary> /// Tells the compiler that this method is an action and allows you to set up /// the KSP specific stuff. /// ** REQUIRED BY ALL ACTION METHODS ** /// </summary> [System.AttributeUsage(System.AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = true)] public class KSPEvent : System.Attribute { /// <summary> /// The external name of this action /// </summary> public string name; /// <summary> /// Is this action assigned as the part\'s default? /// * Will override any previous default * /// </summary> public bool isDefault; /// <summary> /// Is this action initially active? /// </summary> public bool active; /// <summary> /// Is this action available to the user? /// </summary> public bool guiActive; /// <summary> /// The guiIcon name (guiAction must be true) /// </summary> public string guiIcon; /// <summary> /// The gui name for this action (userAction must be true) /// </summary> public string guiName; /// <summary> /// A string category id so can display all actions of certain types /// </summary> public string category; public KSPEvent() { this.name = ''; this.isDefault = false; this.active = true; this.allowStaging = false; this.autoStaging = false; this.guiActive = false; this.guiIcon = ''; this.guiName = ''; this.category = ''; } }

Actually, the links I\'ve posted says that changing all the water at once is bad for the fish. You\'re supposed to swap a quarter of the tank water out per week, using a siphon to clean up poo and dirt as you drain it. They also talk about the right temperature and PH you need for the water. It doesn\'t seem like betta\'s need a filter or aeration system. You need to do your homework completely.

I am aware of Alpha Centauri, so I\'m oversimplifying (a Science teacher - my default explanations are the ones for 12 year olds, and I actually find that this is a good level to pitch it to for the general public [because there is such a variation in levels of understanding about Science]). Actually, if we want to be technical, the nearest star to the Sun is actually PROXIMA centauri; however, without a telescope you won\'t be seeing that one (as it\'s just too faint); so few people outside the Scientific community know of its existence. So I just shrug my shoulders and talk about Alpha Centauri, since lots of people know about that one (pick your battles, I say! ) As for Betelgeux/Betelgeuse: We can actually spell it any way we like (as it\'s a transliteration from Arabic, not an English word!). I prefer to use Betelgeux, though, because 1) It\'s closer to how an Arabic-speaking friend pronounces it; the terminal X gives a nuance to it that I like; and 2) Putting an X at the end is aesthetically pleasing to me - gives the name a little touch of mystery! Absolutely. And this is something that many people fail to grasp about space exploration - it\'s a moving target. Yes, planets and stars have billion-year-plus lifespans, but that doesn\'t mean that the universe is changeless! The light that gets to us from Betelgeux was actually emitted from the star 640 years ago today; and there\'s a significant chance that some time in that 640 years the star actually went supernova. We just have no way of knowing.