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    The Orville Season Two - Thoughts?

    If they are inside the black hole, then either they are using their faster-than-light drive to keep from falling inwards, or they are falling inwards along with light any any other unlucky matter in their vicinity. (Light would be moving along a geodesic which terminates at the singularity; any...
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    Avengers: Endgame SPOILER THREAD

    Yes. Then: How old should he appear after 107 chronological years? Does his appearance in the movie match 107 "Cap" years? Could he be much older than 107? Thx! TomB
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    Avengers: Endgame SPOILER THREAD

    Re: Whether Cap is the original. My sense is that we don't know, but in the absence of a direct statement from the movie, to have him be from a different timeline feels unfair to the viewer. I'd prefer that he be the original Cap. What are Cap years to normal human years anyway? How old is...
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    Black Hole Image - livestreamed discussion from MIT on April 12th

    Those are really great! Thx! TomB
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    Black Hole Image - livestreamed discussion from MIT on April 12th

    That XKCD sketch looks off ... but I'm reading inconsistent things about the size: https://futurism.com/the-byte/big-m87-black-hole-compared-the-earth Either the numbers are wrong, or the "could just barely fit" comment is very off. I *think* I read elsewhere that the "size" of the event...
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    What could a scientist in my Star Wars RPG be researching or working on?

    Naw, this would take a tiny spec of material. On a massive scale there would be problems, but the scale would have to truly massive. The bigger problem is getting the ship to survive, since it would be briefly overlaying core material. Thx! TomB
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    What could a scientist in my Star Wars RPG be researching or working on?

    Last one is a hyperdrive flight through a planet that stutters the drive for a very brief instant to drop out of hyperspace and scoop up core material the go back into hyperdrive. Need very precise control and a very strong force field to hold the pressurized core material — which is high grade...
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    What could a scientist in my Star Wars RPG be researching or working on?

    Swarm based weapons? Refractive invisibility for ships? Cyborg ship pilots? Improved planetary scale power distribution networks? Force field contained metallic hydrogen explosives? Planetary core mining hyperdrive stutter fields? Thx! TomB
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    US Copyright ruling might change the advice we give people

    Ok, found it: https://www.intellectualpropertylawblog.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/98/2019/03/Fourth-Estate.pdf Bold added by me. The central question which was decided is when a copyright is registered: When the application for registration was made, or when the registration was granted...
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    US Copyright ruling might change the advice we give people

    Are y’all reading this correctly? My read is that you already needed to register to recover damages. The ruling allows you to now recover damages retroactive to registration. Thx! TomB
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    It's a Good Thing D&D Isn't a Toy

    Sure. But they don't have anything to do with what Toys R Us was selling. Financial miss-dealings are a hazard to all corporations. I agree that there is a misfortune in this case to the sellers that operated through Toys R Us. But that is a specific misfortune which ought not to be used to...
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    It's a Good Thing D&D Isn't a Toy

    Isn’t this more “Good thing Toy’s R Us” was not a major sales outlet for D&D? And, what do financial misdealings have to do with toys or games anyways? The connection here is coincedental, not causal. TomB
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    Could use some help on painting skin tones....

    These are good reads as well. I'm finding the last (artzok) to have a *lot* of good pointers, including examples of typical mistakes, which is a good indication that the writer is an expert: https://www.mybluprint.com/article/an-easy-method-for-mixing-acrylic-paint-for-skin-tones...
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    Using fusion for propulsion is a bit different than using it to generate electrical power. I don’t know that our failure to generate power means we can’t make a fusion drive. (There is a lot of solid research on this ... do a search on interstellar rocket motor.) Thx! TomB
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    I dunno ... see, for example Italy and Japan, which are losing population because of very low birth rates. Thx! TomB
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    There are answers (4), which is to provide better education, especially to women, and to provide more reproductive control to women, and (5), have economic policies that incentivize lower birth rates (basically, make it such that one's offspring do better if there are fewer of them, generally...
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    But, do they change because they are forced to by external influence, or do they change because they are inherently unstable? Aboriginal culture, which was isolated until relatively recently, was apparently stable for at least 50,000 years. Also, "static" vs "non-static" is too crisp...
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    If we can set some parameters: (1) How close are possible target systems? The Centauri system is closest at 4.2 LY, and Proxima Centauri has a candidate planet. If that planet is habitable, that would be great luck. But we don't have enough data yet. There are other candidates out to...
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    I agree that there is a moral problem. But, I don't think this prevents a generation ship from being built. I do think this issue will cause problems in later generations, unless the ship is truly massive -- on the scale of Starship Warden, which held about 1.5 million people. Sure. But...
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    Generation Ships--- Can we build one now?

    So ... I don't think it has been set what is the ratio of the ship's population to the number of roles which would need to be filled. There might be 1000 people and just 100 distinct roles. We also haven't specified how many roles a single person can cover. Given that they might not have much...
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