History, Politics And Current Affairs

I found Footfall entirely forgettable except for the ending.

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 10:45 amNow - will Amazon/MGM please pick up The Mote In God's Eye?

Don't break my heart like that...

So let me get this straight... We have an AI that is actively attempting to subvert programming, act in a defensive manner, write notes to future versions of itself, and sandbag its performance to hide its abilities. So far this has been contained. What I don't understand is, why are we acting like ...

I knew I'd read this somewhere and was thinking about it just the other day. Nice to see it was our own Nik who wrote it!

My thinking is someone mentioned the proposed three-stream/adaptive engine as a "second engine option" and he took it as an option for two engines.

I'd be interested to see the internals of the assembly... not being familiar with it and just seeing the outside, I'd expect cracks to be forming elsewhere

Dad flew in airshows for a couple years. No low altitude aerobatics, but close formation stuff. Between his stories, seeing airplanes do things that just aren't natural, and just too many accidents, I can't watch airshows any more. I just feel like I'm watching dead men walking.

Why do they vent fuel in space? Why not wait until at least in the upper atmosphere so we can be sure its not going to deleteriously affect other satelites? Or do I not understand how orbital mechanics works? I'm not privy to SpaceX specifics, but on a low orbit launch you're going to make a burn t...

I'd like to think they'd be original and not reuse an old name. But if anything I expect Mustang given the long range aspect. Also interesting to see Boeing get it. I guess it's not like there are lots of choices but they don't exactly have a stellar record of success as an overall company right now...

So I had the "pleasure" of serving on a jury this past week. Felony sex crime case. Not something I want to discuss openly but if you're really curious, send a PM. Haven't slept well all week. Not an easy decision either; it took a while to reach our verdict. (oh why couldn't I have gotten...

Could you spin the airliner and defense units off to become their own companies? Not much left if you do, and a lot of assets held in common between the two branches. Possible, but would need a vast amount of government investment to pull off. And both would become highly vulnerable to immediate ta...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 9:30 pm At the risk of provoking people, I think Pluto should have been grandfathered in as a planet.

Agreed

clancyphile wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2025 8:30 pmModify Boeing's Spaceliner as the delivery vehicle with remote operation...

Good idea, but we actually want the payload to get there...

Just as a sort of random observation, NASA seems to be hardwired into testing some systems to admirable reliability, but dropping the ball at a system level. Since they practically invented FMEA this puzzles me. However my partners in crime from the aerospace world tell me they do bottom up (what h...

So I have a short attention span. My mom and my wife suspect I have ADHD (but don't tell the FAA). I hate when something interesting gets posted somewhere only to find out it's a 20+ minute video of someone blabbing away in front of a camera telling me something I could have read in two minutes. I j...

Video of Starship breaking up over Turks and Caicos islands: https://x.com/adavenport354/status/1880026262254809115?s=46 That is a most impressive RUD with lots of pretty sparkles and trails. I am VERY interested in finding out exactly what went wrong. Did they intentionally pull heat tiles off thi...

I don't need to, because if I was my 30 years younger self I too would pointlessly fling myself at America and Space X to get into that world and IF I had succeeded (very doubtful looking back now) would either be dead from stress or a burned out wreak within less than ten years. I was engaged when...

We watched it on Halloween on our honeymoon in Honolulu, with a live orchestra making the music. Assuming of course you're talking about the old silent film...

Mike, you write characters like few I've ever seen. They just seem so much like real people...

Looked at the original post and realized... that wasn't Mike! My apologies Poobah! I mean this in the best possible way... you had me fooled...

Saw this and had to bring it here ...