<<<The OFFICIAL Singles Thread (11/18-11/21)>>>

[Paul_Denton]

Hello all :) Starting earlier (8 PM eastern) to give those on Eastern time a bit longer to post here.

[Rca2000]

While 35MT. would NOT destroy the planet, It WOULD kill and destroy nearly everything in about a 30 mile radius, or more. I don't think I would call that "tactical" (Tactical nukes are usually 100kt or LESS, nowdays.)

[Paul_Denton]

True. I should have made clear the minimum yield (575 kilotons) lol. Still you have about 200,000 troops trying to control an entire planet you do need force multipliers. This type of bomb would only be used at maximum yeld against very deep bunkers, shipyards and cities (although city busting is mainly strategic and psycological). Fusion weapons would be used at the high kiloton and low megaton level against massed enemy armor and troop formations for the same reason we would use such weapons if russian tanks came charging through the fulda gap. To offset superior enemy manpower and numbers.

[Paul_Denton]

The enemy, the Commonwealth uses the much less complex fission-triggered bombs. Which are dirty, but the Commonwealth is a lot like the Soviet Union of the cold war and islamic-militants of today: Human life is expendable to them.

[A knight without armor]

You two are made for each other.

Meantime:

Nesselrode Pie

3 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup coarsely chopped blanched almonds, toasted
1/3 cup maraschino cherries, cut in fourths
2 tablespoons maraschino-cherry syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, whipped

1 Vanilla-wafer Crust

Beat the egg whites till foamy, add the granulated sugar gradually
and beat till stiff. Fold in the almonds cherries, cherry syrup,
and vanilla. Fold confectioners' sugar into whipped cream; fold
into the first mixture. Pour into vanilla-wafer crust and freeze
firm. Garnish top with cherry poinsettias and gumdrop holly leaves.

Vanilla-wafer Crust: Combine 1 1/4 cups fine vanilla-wafer crumbs
and 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine. Press into buttered 9-inch
pie plate; chill till firm, about 45 minutes.

Cherry poinsettias: The stem mark of maraschino cherry will be the
center of flower. Holding cherry at stem end, use sharp scissors
to snip it in sixths >from opposite end not quite through. Spread
"petals" out around stem mark.

Gumdrop holly leaves: With rolling pin, roll green gumdrops to 1/8
inch on a little sugar between sheets of waxed paper. Snip out
holly-leaf shapes.

[Rca2000]

Why??? Just because we have good imaginations??? All sci/fi/fiction writers think like that, I imagine. Certainly, NEITHER of us would want to see a nuke go off anywhere, (except maybe a tiny one (say, 20kt)in Fallujah, to "send a message", AFTER our troops and the "innocents" were evacuated) We just use those as plot devices in our stories.

[A knight without armor]

I am just kidding you. Saturday night, blowing up the world, I could not enjoy anything more. I only wish I had the talent to delve into these things. I am so desperate to change careers. I love these technical things. I would like to take up technical writing if there is any market for it or I should say I could find a job. I like people with the ability to explain very complicated things, real or imagined, in a way that makes them clear and seem so possible. I like reading about nuclear submarines, for instance.

[Paul_Denton]

I agree with everythng you said. Besides our bomb designs leave no fallout. On mine they do not need a fission primary. On Rca's, 100% of the fuel is consumed so it leaves no radioactive byproducts.

[Paul_Denton]

My novel has nclear missile submarines. Earth's defense uses them to launch nukes against enemy warships in orbit and to supplement the orbital and lunar defense systems. Similar defenses are found in the Pearl Sea on the colony called Eden, which is the Cononial Federation equivilant to Tel aviv (Earth is the new Jerusalem, being the cradle of humanity no less).

My novel is the so-caled 'hard sci-fi' where everything is based on real world physics. Everything is ether possible right now or its theoretically possible (A.I. contsructs, quantum tunneling, neaural network computers and pure fusion bombs).

[Paul_Denton]

Intersting Pie recipe

[Paul_Denton]

M35 Prominent Main Battle Tank.

The M35 Prominent is a heavy 95 ton tank designed to fight against entire Commonwealth tank squads and win. Its layout is unconventional, with the engine to the front and the crew compartment and turret in the center and rear. This was done to improve survivability incase of a hit on the front quarter. The turret is unmanned, with the crew seated in the centermost of the tank. There is access to the turret through a series of blast doors incase of an ammunition stoppage. This design also means that the turret has a lower profile. There exists room for six passengers through a heavily armored hatch in the rear. The passenger compartment is self contained and can be used for extra ammunition as well. Access to the passenger compartment is available through a series of blast doors. The tank is protected by 1.2 meters of armor, which is even around the hull, providing equal protection for all sides and the top and bottom. Modular armor plates can be attached to provide additional protection and can be changed in the field easily. The tank's sheer mass and low profle has the benificial side effect of not being easily overturned by the blast-wind of a nuclear detonation and is naturally protected against NBC weapons. The Prominent development team was and still is led by Commandant Dina Tal.

It is armed with an M274 140mm electro-thermal cannon system as its main weapon and a 35mm M32 coaxial cannon for softer targets. A sub-turret has a dual 15mm machinegun system for anti-infantry defense and a light laser for defense against missiles and aircraft/spacecraft. Hardpoints exist for various rockets and missiles, while the turret features a 90mm mortar system for light fire support. The treads were designed in such a way to have redundancy. Its quad tread system has four clusters of two treads to a cluster. The whole tank can operate on just four treads if one from each cluster were destroyed. While this tread system is complex and requires a lot of maintenance, it has saved lives by allowing the tank to escape an otherwise crippling blow.

The M35 is currently being upgraded to the Mk. 4 configuration. Among the upgrades is a retractable mast-mounted sensor system that will allow it to survey the area while in a hull down position. An improved fire control to allow it to use the main cannon against dropships, strike ships and assault landers (which are incredibly resistant to conventional anti-aircraft weapons due to their sheer size and mass). A new suspension system will reduce strain on its treads, allowing for reduced maintenance downtime while a faster auto-loader will increase the M274's rate of fire to one shot every two-point-four seconds.

[Paul_Denton]

I forgot to state that it is powered by an air-indepedant system. Not too much different than what some modern non-nuclear sumarines use in real life. All the vehicles in my novel (includng mechs) use air-independant systems because not all planets have oxygen atmoshpheres (many planets have no atmsphere at all).

[Rca2000]

I see that women are the main characters in your story. Mine as well. Actually there are two main Characters:; a man and a woman-- Both scientists, engaged to each other. BOTH share a nearly equal amount of screen time, and responsibility, in the story.

[Nowhere Man]

Yes, it would be a Continent buster. In the script, I explain that it would pretty much eliminate ALL of North and South America, and the dust and debris cloud, would cause a nuclear winter for whatever remained of the the world, snuffing out the remainder of life, in under a month.

Although it is a fictional device, IF one could get an older 1960's or such sized 20MT warhead, And as in my story, use "neutron multiplication", to force nearly 100% of the atoms on the fuel, in BOTH the primary and secondary stages, to enter into the chain reaction,and progressively multiply the generations of chain reaction until all of the atoms had entered.... BEFORE the rupture of the casing-- Well, a 40GT blast might just be possible.

Ugh, not sure I like the idea. There is one thing that would hold most people back is that, as "The Tick" said once, "you can't destroy the Earth, that's where I keep all my stuff." B-)

[Paul_Denton]

Very cool :) Very cool aot them being engaged to eachother. The men and women share equal time and responsibility in my story. There is a romantic suplot between one of the women and one of the men in the squad although that has so far proven to be a challege to write and make it belivable.

The squad leader is Miya. She is gifted with psionic abilities which develop over the course of the story.

I have many Israelis in my story too. Such as fire-team leader Adira Galron who pilots the heavy mech and leads the mech equivilant of the machinegun team (mechs in my story are more like powered armor, much ike the machine Ripley drove in Aliens and are used by the Mechanized Infantry).

[Rca2000]

Of course, only a madman, or group of them (men and women) would want to detonate ANYTHING remotely that powerful. As is the case, in my story.

[Nowhere Man]

Why??? Just because we have good imaginations??? All sci/fi/fiction writers think like that, I imagine. Certainly, NEITHER of us would want to see a nuke go off anywhere, (except maybe a tiny one (say, 20kt)in Fallujah, to "send a message", AFTER our troops and the "innocents" were evacuated) We just use those as plot devices in our stories.

True, you do need some form of "dues ex machina" for your stories. I know even in RPG games I'm in, we do use them. It's like in one play by E-mail game I'm in, the Morrow Project team I'm in is in Southern Indiana and forces from the Kentucky Free State (KFS) we crossing over on many fronts. Well, we heard over the radio one transmission to the KFS forces, "you better stop now or YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY GOD!!!!" Well, we figured that there was someone else the KFS was at war with besides us and the local communities we are helping but we didn't know who. A few hours later, we saw the light to the east light up like a nuke going off in the night and our security guy figured the yield was 6 to 10 kilotons but later on, the team science team sad it was more like 500 kilotons. We have access to a satellite to take pictures and the explosion was around Madison, Indiana near the Jefferson Proving Grounds which is (was) in our mission profile to check out and assess. I figure the best way to get such a weapon to last 150 years from now is that it had to be an enhanced fission weapon but even though, they do require maintenance so I (and the team in the Morrow Project) assumes that there is (was) someone out there that had enough resources and smarts to maintain nuke(s) over 150+ years. We never did find out who they were although I'm sure the Project Director (the guy who runs and writes the game) knows but I'm only one of the player characters, the team's mechanic.

Another interesting "dues ex machina" in the Project are beings called "Blue Undead" to where they were created when the nuke goes off and they wander around zombie-like and glowing blue doing what they were doing when the nuke went off. So if there was a Girl Scout selling cookies, if she was turned into a blue undead, she continues to do that basically forever until someone destroys her. The trouble is, if you get too close, 6000 to 10,000 rads per hour ain't too good. One interesting way to explain that is that there were so many deaths in such a short period, it screwed up the "karma," balance or whatever it takes the souls to go into the afterlife and up to heaven and this created a backlash of some sorts. I don't use them myself, well maybe for a rare one or two of them, I like to keep it hard science with maybe a little "Art Bell stuff" if it can be somewhat plausible in my games.

We do use fusion to run our vehicles and such along with cryotubes and although it is a bit of a stretch, I do foresee those being able to work once we get the bugs out. In some games, you can turn the power pack into a 1 megger H-Bomb but in most games, you cannot, it is up to the PD on how he wants to run the game.

[Nowhere Man]

I am just kidding you. Saturday night, blowing up the world, I could not enjoy anything more. I only wish I had the talent to delve into these things. I am so desperate to change careers. I love these technical things. I would like to take up technical writing if there is any market for it or I should say I could find a job. I like people with the ability to explain very complicated things, real or imagined, in a way that makes them clear and seem so possible. I like reading about nuclear submarines, for instance.

Yeah, me too. I got to delve into the "Way Things Work, Volume 2" (1967) as a way to plausible explainng the use of fusion to run my vehicles for the Project. In my game, prior to the conversion to fusion in 1987, we used small gas turbine engines to drive a generator to power the batteries (and motors if need be) to run our hybrid vehicles during the early era from 1962 to 1987. The purpose of fusion is to keep the game from turning into "fuel trek" to keep the vehicles and generators running and instead to focus on our mission to help the survivors if they need it, survive ourselves and rebuild America if we can.

[Paul_Denton]

Same way with mine too. Rifle now women outweigh the men 4 to 3 for the squad itsef (4 women and 3 men) although I may change that. Hard enough to handle a seven member squad as it is lol. For all the characters combined there are 5 men and 6 women plus the A.I. conscruct which does not really have a gender so it balances out in a way. But I am deciding what to do. I actally peaked out at 23 characters (I had a group of fighter pilots as well) but I moved them to an independant story that parellels the same events.

[Paul_Denton]

rifle = right

[Paul_Denton]

Very cool :) Fusion is used in mine although only for large vehicles. Mechs and tanks and APCs and other small vehicles use air-independant turbine systems.