Posting for Bob:

Quote:One thing I'd like you pass on to the forums at large is that I wouldn't mind if someone more adept at graphics work than I comes up with a good banner for the new boards.  I'll admit that I lucked out entirely with the DWS image a few months back, and I doubt that I can come up with anything close to that for the forum on my own. 

While apparently the opposite of how compact dimensions are believed to behave in actual reality, I've been thinking for the last while on how they might be used as a thin cloth of justification to wave in front of the plot hole that is FTL travel and communications for the purposes of a space opera setting. The premise is that a doohickey was invented which can shift matter within an arbitrary field of effect along one, so that if the were 100% efficient it would be like that episode of Voyager that even the Trek writers realized was too silly to keep in continuity where "warp 10" means you're everywhere in the universe at once, or at least that everywhere in the universe is a single Planck length from anywhere else.

In practice, even shoving normal matter a tiny fraction of the way along ... let's call it the Q-axis with R measuring the apparent motion relative to S as in the normal three dimensions, since T commonly used for time and UVW/XYZ/WXYZ with various methods of describing the normal dimensions ... is intensely energy-expensive, so the apparent motion R-factor remains largely in normal space, if with reduced interaction with normal physical laws.

Instead, a more convenient set of guidelines apply, some more variable than others, which by the time of the story have been called "phasics" in popular media that even the hoariest dinosaurs of academia have long given up and adopted the term, and the laser optics and imaging company that had laid claim to the name back in the early 21st century was just as long merged, split, spun off and disincorporated. These boil down to the familiar old saws of space opera:

* constant thrust equals constant acceleration at a constant Q-displacement, because while actual travel is via the compact dimensional shortcut all the other matter in the normal universe is also in the way and acting as drag.

* Passing through space dust with neither party being effected is trivial, pinhead micrometeors needed a bit more research and development to make it practical; walking through walls is a real trick but possible with preparation and expense; flying into a planet will be (briefly) very exciting but have no more overall effect than something moving at the actual (not relative) velocity, which might be anything from a gentle stroll to several times the speed of sound but no, your FTL spaceship isn't going to be a planet- or even city-busting KKV no matter what you try unless it's large and heavy enough to physically crush the city when it hits.

* R-values far higher than the speed of light are easily achieved, for values of easy that involve fusion or antimatter power generation. Walking through walls requires a tight body suit with a breathing mask and a handbag-sized power supply worn on a belt or at the back, and generally means the first thing you walk though are any clothes or unconnected equipment being worn over it. Actually making off with any loot once you've walked through the side of a vault requires bringing a container of some kind that is also synchronized to the Q-displacement effect.

* If you want to fight, you pretty much have to get in visual range and fine tune your Q-displacement to match your opponent, then shoot them with something that is either big enough to have its own Q-sustainer like a missile, or which moves fast enough not to drift too far out of Q before it hits, like a laser. Lasers used for the purpose have a very slow R-value and bleed light in all directions due to the way they're transitioning out of Q, and tend to hit with concussive force more than they burn. In an atmosphere, they produce a dopplered bloop dependent on the light frequency (UV Q-lasers shriek, IR ones wub, and visible light is somewhere in the "pew pew" range, naturally -- yes there is performance art taking advantage of this effect) followed by a bang as the blast hits. Physical bullets smaller than 8" artillery are too small to maount a sustainer and therefore useless, running into the S-drag as soon as they leave the barrel and falling out of Q to be run into with their negligible S velocity. Even artillery suffers from low reliability due to the Q-displacement mechanism being a little too physically fragile to respond well to being shot out of a gun.

* Q-lasers are common sidearms for military and police forces because of the obvious military and criminal applications of the personal Q-displacement suits previously mentioned, and are generally popular because blassty lazors are cool, a weapon for self defense is up against he same considerations as one chosen for police use, and they're actually less lethal overall than normal bullets since they don't tend to penetrate deeply with civilian-grade short pulse durations, hitting more like a beanbag round with an added cigarette burn and a scorch-mark. Long-pulse and/or high-rate Q-lasers are regulated as the military weapons they are.

* A minor tweak of the Q-displacement effect provides simulated gravity inside the field, and the vehicle and any occupants are only subject to the inertia of the real (not R) acceleration. Vehicles that move entirely by Q-displacement are possible, if slow relative to ones with jets or rockets, but famed for their inertialess ride that's as stable as sitting on a mountain.

* R-motion at any significant fraction of lightspeed let alone actual FTL creates tiny gravitic ripples detectable at long range and propagating at the same R-value as the device creating them. At very high R-velocities it is perceptible to human senses, comparable to the wibbly feeling of being near something loud enough to feel vibrating in your chest, without the associated pain and hearing loss. Some people find it irritates their digestive system and/or inner ear, some have reactions to it as bad as being spacesick from zero-G and requiring about as much acclimation. Others find it relaxing and most shrug if anything and carry on with their business. Civilian craft generally stick to a R-values no more than a thousand times lightspeed (called "one megalight" despite being the wrong standard prefix for one thousand, a "light" as found in marketing material being back-derived to 0.01% of the actual speed of light; and yes even hundreds or thousands of years after Harrison Ford said it much hay is made of "point five past lightspeed" by used rocket salesmen looking to move a half-megalight rated hoopty) to avoid dealing with the problem entirely.

* Though generally less useful than just having the courier stop and transmit information normally the Q-engine can (and are legally required to) be adjusted to encode an identification signal into this effect, though spoofing the IFF is as common as you'd expect for military or criminal purposes. Since it's only possible to determine that something is there and how fast it's moving otherwise, not size or shape etc., not slowing to more sedate speeds and visit waystations set up for the purpose before entering controlled space like inhabited solar systems is considered impolite at best and is apt to lead to stern lectures from people in official uniforms at least.

* Traveling at FTL R-velocity is the same relativistically as traveling at the real non-R velocity as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, with no discernible red or blue shift despite the fact that the observer should be running into photons from behind. IC, you need years of post-doctorate study to understand the math of why this is so, let alone grasp it personally. OOC, please pay no mind to the curtain, it is there for your convenience.

Heh, used rocket salesmen. I'm now imagining a wide stretch of old, cracked concrete studded with various (ahem) classic personal interstellar craft, strung about with strings of fading plastic pennants, a weaselly looking fellow (whose name is not Apollo) with salt-and-pepper hair perched on a folding chair set outside the small office building and a big sign forming an arch over the lot entrance reading "Apollo's Rockets to the Moon!" but which the locals call "ARDie's" for "Appalling Rockets to your Doom."

Anyway, to quote Joel and Mike, what do you think, sirs?
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... 3th-doctor

Hey, guys? Does anyone know why my thread over in Other People's Fanfiction, rfc-being-you-is-deculture-t11980.html, has over 1.3k reads on it already? Is this because of Google spiders or something like that?

Alas, there are no plans to actually build and fly an Avro Arrow... but there are plans to raise, conserve (in the museum sense of the word), and restore the prototypes that were sunk in Lake Ontario.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/av ... -1.4207116

Hurrah!
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

(... if it was longer)

The son is a massive incompetent ass
agent antic gluteal derpface

...butt that's when my mastery of the anguish languish failed me, having been woken up after about four hours of sleep for the third day in a row due to environmental noise. (I think some goddamn bird built a nest right over my window or something. Maybe in the tree six feet away form it.)

Anyway, I figured at least some of of the creative, musically interested people who frequent this board might be interested and perhaps even add on to it, so feel free if you like. I was going to put it in OPF, but two not-even-rhyming lines doesn't feel sufficiently fictiony, so then I started writing the post in General Beaneral, .... OK that typo is too funny to fix! Right, yes, in General General, except then I reread it and it looked like a riff on the recent news about Trumphead Junior, so even if it wasn't originally intended as a political statement I ended up putting it here.

THough at the rate things are going personally, I might just revise my opinion of the Anti-President a bit if he actually made good on the campaign promise to dismantle gun control legislation to the point I can get something just big enough to stuff a particular beak full of birdshot. Maybe I should get a cat? I hear they're good at disposing of songbirds.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

You might all already know but just in case.

The BBC are going to reveal the new Doctor after the Wimbledon Men's final (which means sometime Sunday afternoon UK time).

If you want to know who the betting favourites are then check out the link below.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2 ... ie-dormer/

Mark

I've loved the rippling piano notes in this since first I heard it ... and then one fine day the line about falling "into the sky" made a sudden connection in my mind with the portals opened by Doug's gatesongs. And this is about the desire to return to a loved one ... no matter how long or hard the way.

A Thousand Miles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLS4F1GY4Kg
Written & performed by Vanessa Carlton (2002)
Making my way down town
Walking fast
Faces pass
And I'm home bound

Staring blankly ahead
Just making my way
Making a way
Through the crowd

And I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder
If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you, tonight

It's always times like these
When I think of you
And I wonder If you ever think of me

'Cause everything's so wrong
And I don't belong
Living in
Your precious memory

'Cause I need you
And I miss you and now I wonder
If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by, oh
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight

And I, I don't want to let you know I,
I drown in your memory I,
I don't want to let this go
I, I don't.

Making my way down town walking fast
Faces pass
And I'm home bound

Staring blankly ahead
Making my way
Making a way
Through the crowd

And I still need you
And I still miss you
And now I wonder
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time, would pass us by
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you, now

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
If I could just hold you, tonight.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... 82fdcd5955

If a source connected to the Russian government offered damaging evidence about Clinton to Trump Jr. and not only did he welcomed it but attended the meeting and brought Manaford and Kushner as well, what does that say?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

It's amazing what you can get away with as a cat.

This gives about 100 seconds of being an average house cat.