Posted on 08/02/2013 8:30:34 PM PDT by Hostage
Odd. He's never asked to be on the Red Dwarf ping list.
Or primping. But I’d love to have one! It sure would set some tongues wagging! LOL!
They probably say that about us, too.
/johnny
Backing up a bit here... Bob is technically correct. Chemical powered kinetic weapons are available and come in pretty much every flavor Colt, Browning, et al could dream up. Most of the small arms don't have enough MV to do more than scratch the composite carbon-crystaline/aluminum oxide that makes up the dome of the main Castle "sky". We designed it for external impacts though. Shooting it from the inside with a 105mm would probably be a monumentally stupid idea, even if it could survive a point-blank shot from outside.
I know at one time we were going to go with more of an "ooze" that hardens in vacuum, while still being self sealing if ruptured. I don't believe we ever converted to this, but I've been out of the loop for a bit.
We do maintain a population of herd animals and predator species on board to keep our internal "ecology" up to snuff. Along with the usual game animals, genetic experimentation and smuggling by the Dwarves have added a few species to our diversity. As noted, the Plesiosaur is kind of a pet. Bob was working on a functional "dragon". Darks was breading dust bunnies of varying ferocity. We created kind of a "zombie"... They are more of a vat-decanted "meat golem" than anything seriously dangerous though. The upshot is that personal armaments are encouraged, but those who chose to hunt should be aware that some of what you are hunting might not be what it appears.
As for ballistics, we don't have "gravity" here. Swinging a bucket full of water experiment here with us being the "water" in the bottom of the "bucket". This gets weird out in some of the shuttle environs and why some of the lower levels seem to "shift" depending on orientation of the shuttle/level you are in to what feels locally as "down".
The trebs are fun and yeah... Adjusting for drift and Coriolis effects are substantial.
This is another reason we started looking in to energy-based "projectors". Not just for our own amusement, but also for a variety of mining projects. A projected beam of coherent anti-matter can slice and dice an asteroid a lot faster than repeated bombardment from a 16" gun or excavator style "chainsaw".
And yeah... If you've never seen a "chainsaw" big enough to cut through an asteroid... You are missing out. ;-)
I need a few drinks.
We have a full vineyard replete with distillery. Wine, beer, and a fully stocked 24-hour self-service bar.
As always, be sure you drink from the Staff coffee pot and not Darksheare’s brooding monstrosity in the corner.
It might smell a bit like coffee, but I used some of to patch a crack in the cylinder wall of a lawnmower engine and it’s held up pretty well over the last few growing seasons...
Come on up to my place!
Howdy. Weather has turned cooler. We are just weeks away from snow. It won’t stick but we are close to it.
Does anyone here know about Woodpeckers? One was flying in circles around the neighbors house the past few days. I mean all day long. It did it around ours for a bit as well. It is a gray and black woodpecker with a white stripe around its neck.
It’s hot here. Tom knows all about woodpeckers, at least the ones native to North Carolina, but he’s still at school so I can’t ask him why one would be circling your houses.
Enjoy the snow!
That’s a drone camouflaged as a woodpecker...
Bwahaha!!!
Thanks.
I remember a glass sphere from Physics class (unfortunately I can’t recall the name) that was extremely hard on the outside, but fragile on the inside. It had a neck attached. If you picked it up by the neck, you could drive a nail with it, but if you dropped a pencil down the neck, the graphite would scratch the inside and the whole thing would explode.
The tensions in the glass made it ultra-hard to resist pressure from the outside, but was ultra-weak on the inside. I think shooting a .22 LR at the inside of the dome would kill us all.
;)
Feel free to use the one on my Profile page. Bottom of the page.
I love it when you guys talk science. It makes me feel smart!
Tom says most woodpeckers are black and gray, and also, maybe it’s not a woodpecker at all, since they don’t usually fly around out in the open. Do you have a picture?
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