Viewing profile — j9461701

> Alexander has a lot of failings, and we’re going to get to them. But he was unnaturally composed and at least when it came to doing violence (and getting others to do violence ef…

I find myself in an odd position - I am pro-Anthropocene but I find this reasoning suspect: > But the Anthropocene’s future as an informal time period is assured. It’s too apt—and …

That's actually one of my issues with atomic rockets, some of its conclusions are a bit....massaged to ensure the end result it wants in terms of space combat even if it doesn't su…

Something that blew my mind long ago was learning the scottish highlands used to be a massive forest. Ancient humans clear cut the entire landscape and it still hasn't recovered. T…

This was a fun rabbit hole to go down. Magnesium does not seem to be present in radioactive fallout, there is more Manganese than magnesium from the data I was able to find online.…

> McCarthy shares none of these inclinations. His characters ride aimlessly through the desert and kill for what seems like no reason at all. Blood Meridian is a book that reflects…

A nuclear chain reaction takes place roughly over a single microsecond. To travel the ~11 inches of a bomb, in ideal circumstances, a high explosive needs roughly 200 microseconds.…

A sympathetic detonation is very unlikely for a nuclear weapon. They have to detonate in an extremely specific way, such that the explosion compresses the fissile material from all…

> People who raise hell with OSHA because the CEO is a heavy smoker: jerks. That doesn't seem jerkish. Second hand smoke in the work place is bad for everyone.

what about dogs? They can cover nearly 1,000 miles of rough winter terrain in under 2 weeks, as seen in the iditarod. Or if we're looking at long distance travel in hot environment…

> You could tell them that disease is caused by tiny animals, and that the earth is a sphere that orbits the sun, but getting them to believe you is a another thing. I can find a c…

I feel like the pendulum has swing too far in the other direction on this topic, actually. Yes people in the past weren't dumb, and shouldn't be under-estimated, but even a normal …

The medical field could really use an overall authority that can force them to adopt safe practices. We treat truckers getting enough sleep as a higher priority, as a society, than…

In Starcraft, you get a curious phenomena with regards to how good people think they are based on the league they're in: Bronze league players (lowest) know they're bad and that th…

Here is an article on this topic that goes heavily in depth on the topic: http://toughsf.blogspot.com/2018/04/permanent-and-perfect-st... Note that this is for strategic level stea…

The person who wrote the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual mentioned this, and how - as described in the show - it's probably killing you and building a clone with your memories inste…

I know personally, if I had the opportunity, I would gladly spent time bringing someone frozen back to life. I don't gain anything, but I also don't gain anything when I donate to …

If it was such an obvious boondoggle why did Russia steal the design and make their own? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft) In retrospect I think it's pretty obvious …

You're totally correct. It was 4 reactor buildings feeding one turbine house , but the house contained two turbo generators. Thanks for the correction!

Achieving fusion would be a god-send, but aneutronic fusion - which is generally considered 'the next step' - would be utterly spectacular. First, it would save you having to build…

The physical theories that prevent the EmDrive (conservation of momentum) are centuries old, and utterly fundamental to our university of reality on every scale from black holes me…

>Wouldn't most GEV be able to temporarily "jump" out of ground effect for emergencies like that, or at least wouldn't require much change to gain that capability? But that ability …

Theoretically you could fly over most waves, as some designs allow fleet height equal to 1/2 wingspan - so dozens of meters of height. The issues with ground effect vehicles are se…

I'm reminded of the novel The Golden Globe, by john varley. In that novel very powerful AI handle most day to day operations of society, and it is mentioned by one of them that - t…

It's also the fact that you're in a new sleeping enviroment. People tend not to sleep well in novel environments, called the 'first night effect', until they become comfortable to …