JB0

He said something about midget siamese twins attached at the nipples. 317595[/snapback] I thought his muscles just got so big there wasn't enough blood left for his brain and he collapsed into a coma.

As I said, reactors in Macross don't quite work the way we think they do due to Overtechnology. The process is similar to fusion, but doesn't say that it is fusion. It is intentionally vague on the point, and that's how I'll answer it it. Does it produce radioactive byproducts? It may produce a little, it may produce zero. But obviously, it's nothing to get excited about. 317590[/snapback] I still take exception to Kawamori's description, though, as the statement that the fuel doesn't have to be nuclear is true of real-world thermonuclear reactions too. Though it's really minor quibbling over a technical detail that was easily overlooked. I tend to hold programs that attempt to brush with real-world tech to a higher standard than ones that just insert Trek babble to explain why their cardboard box with wings is capable of flight. Macross is one of the shows that attempts to stay on this side of the absurd. Sure the planes fold into robots, but they at least make the planes look like flyable vehicles and the robots like planes that folded into robots instead of totally new vehicles.

Double-dipping?

Errr, no. That only applies to bombs. For obvious reasons, detonating an A-bomb inside a fusion reactor is very much NOT an encouraged activity. The techniques used in fusion weaponry also don't lend themselves to the sustained reactions needed for a fusion generator. Although PACER would have provided fusion power generation without a sustainable fusion reaction, and thus WOULD use a fission explosion to initiate fusion. And a controlled fission reaction doesn't generate NEAR as much heat and pressure as the explosive uncontrolled ones used in weapons, making it pretty much useless for a catalyst in fusion power generation. Not to mention the techniques used for fusion power generation don't require anywhere near the incredibly high pressures of a fusion weapon. Without knowing exactly how Macross' overtech generators work, I would predict that they're most closely related to modern tokamak reactors, which use magnetic fields to constrict the plasma and either inject high-energy particles or use EM radiation to heat the fuel.

In this case, it's a game that, knowing Rockstar, quite likely glorifies an activity that's already unofficially condoned by the majority of people in a position to do something about it. While I reserve final judgement until the game is actually out and real information becomes available, as things stand currently I am unamused. And quite bluntly, more than a little pissed. 317411[/snapback] Doesn't change the fact that it's still a game, a game not intented for kids to play anyway. That's the bottom line, it's not for kids, these people are getting mad for no real reason. The only thing I'm somewhat pissed about is that this game is most likely going to have repetative game play and not much in the way of innovation. 317430[/snapback] Fine. I'm annoyed because Rockstar is exploiting childhood traumas for money.

He fears our non-master's-degree educations.

A VF's thermonuclear engines don't work exactly how we think they do thanks to Overtechnology. http://www.anime.net/macross/story/encyclo...tion/index.html They may not even produce that much radioactivity. 317481[/snapback] Actually, the original question is a basic misunderstanding of nuclear power.Thermonuclear = fusion. Fusion uses non-radioactive fuel(typically hydrogen or helium), and depending on the reaction may or may not release radioactive byproducts(He3 fusion, used in Gundam, is a "clean" reaction, although it is not known to release minovsky particles in the real world as it does in the anime). The only thing special about overtech fusion is the mechanism used to sustain the reaction.

In this case, it's a game that, knowing Rockstar, quite likely glorifies an activity that's already unofficially condoned by the majority of people in a position to do something about it. While I reserve final judgement until the game is actually out and real information becomes available, as things stand currently I am unamused. And quite bluntly, more than a little pissed.

The vast majority of it is merely applying logic or taking the show at face value. When I said the YF-21 didn't get hit by the X9, I meant BEFORE Isamu and Guld split off. You know, when the X9 could reasonably be expected to attack both of them as opposed to JUST the plane trying to kill it. If I meant over the entire sequence, I could say Custer was never beat by Jackson, so clearly Custer is a better strategist than "Stonewall" Jackson. The scoreboard is often cited in Plus debates(to prove the YF-19 is the bette rplane, usually), but it has no real context attached to it. The scale of the bars is totally unknown, as is what they're actually measuring. Bigger bars could be good. Smaller bars could be good. Centered bars could be good. A set increment could be an exponential movement, of either increasingly smaller or increasingly larger steps. Or a linear scale. The main thing it shows, in my opinion, is that Isamu is a wilder pilot than Guld.

NOOOOOOO ... 317223[/snapback] Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Yah. I was debating starting a Stealth1 thread just to see what would actually happen if I started a Stealth2 thread. But that would've been immature. So I didn't start a Stealth3 thread. But then other people started Stealth4 threads. So now I can just make a Stealth5 post in someone else's Stealth6 thread and see how many times I can say Stealth7 in one Stealth8 post in a Stealth9 thread. Which isn't really that much more mature than starting a Stealth10 thread, but it lets me maximize my Stealth11 density. So I can fit more uses of Stealth12 into a post than if I was starting the Stealth13 thread, which would require me to have some ACTUAL Stealth14 content in my Stealth15 post.

The AI drone goes crazy and starts killing people after getting hit by lightning. And the astronauts get blasted by radiation that gives them super powers. Spoilers over. 317093[/snapback] Oh you forgot, one fo the pilots lands in super-hot lava, is ressurected by an evil warlord and turned into a cyborg killing machine with a cool black helmet, while a group of Resistance fighters meets in a bar in Casablanca to try to get the cynical barkeep to give them the letters of transit, and a gigantic monkey climbs the Empire State Building... 317146[/snapback] *thumbsup*

And Darth Vader is Luke's father.

ahh, that was one of the coolest episodes ever! ... 316687[/snapback] :/ Nothing was cool about M7. But I will take your post as a confession. Watch Predator twice and Conan once to purge the lameness from your soul. 317036[/snapback] Oh, c'mon. Even you have to admit that Max's first VF-22 attack, while tragically short, was 13 diffrent kinds of awesome.

You can always tell when a troll is trying to star a flame war. Less fanning the fire, more mecha boobies!

Yes, actually. If you have a known good system that fails to oot when connected to teh tester power supply, it means the PSU is likely bad.

Mmmm, sausage.

The AI drone goes crazy and starts killing people after getting hit by lightning. And the astronauts get blasted by radiation that gives them super powers. Spoilers over.

You are correct of course. My bad. However was that orbit an orbit about Earth or an orbit about the Earth/Moon system? Depends on where in the mission you are. If I recall... Saturn 5 lifts you to Earth orbit. From there, you turn the service module around and dock it with the lander module. Then use the service module engine to boost out of orbit and towards the Moon. Fire the service module engine again to insert into lunar orbit(in the case of Apollo 13, they never actually entered Lunar orbit, and used the Moon to slingshot back towards Earth). And when you approach Earth again, you use the service module engine one last time to decelerate. I think you enter orbit before dropping down(which would make TWO service module firings). If you don't... you still pass through a velocity-altitude combo where you're TECHNICALLY in orbit for a moment or so. That's the first I've read anything about the atmosphere actually adding energy to the shuttle. I thought the friction with the atmosphere would result in kinetic energy being turned into heat and dissipated. Though most of that heat might just end up getting stored in the tiles at that altitude. Can you point me to an article on this trampline effect? Eh-heh... That was actually kind of a rushed post. I should've clarfied that I THINK that's how it works. Or did, anyways. I think I was being a dumbass earlier, now that I've looked at the problem in more detail. Thinking about it, there's a lot of variables that should factor in. Whether you're approaching with or against the Earth's rotation is going to be more relevant than any (hypothetical) trampoline effect. I think this is the most important variable. If you're going against the Earth's rotation, the atmosphere should decelerate the ship if it just skims it. If you're going WITH the rotation, it should accelerate the ship on a skim instead. But even if it decelerates you, the bounce may convert too much forward motion to upward to get back down again. You aren't JUST gaining or losing speed. You're also having some of it changed from one type to another. It's actually a fairly complex problem, now that I think about it, without a single clear answer. You COULD skip off into space, or sit there bouncing across the atmosphere until you slow down enough to "fall in." This just doesn't sound quite right to me. Its possible to gain altitute without gaining any net energy. Like I said above, that was rushed. Got a more accurate version now, involving changed motion vectors. You gain energy in one axis, but this may corespond to a loss in another axis. It's not that it gained energy as much as the energy it DOES have is redirected(assuming that the ship comes down going "into the wind," so to speak). But when it STARTS going up, it's had energy imparted to it from the throw. That would be the instant of the atmospheric skip, when you release the rock. Using the analogy, anyways. Assuming the shuttle's new vertical velocity is low enough that it doesn't break orbit before it starts falling again.

OMG STELTH AM TEH MACROSS RIPOFF!11111

Munimula!!! 316747[/snapback] Hummakavulla! 316891[/snapback] I don't think EITHER of you played Afterlife.

What you describe is pretyt much impossible. Just because you have a fusion reactor doesn't mean you have infinite thrust. For one, you have to carry enough fusable material to keep the reaction going during the entire mission. For two, you need enough reaction mass to jetison. Once you run out of reaction mass, you lose the ability to maneuver in space, even if you brought enough hydrogen to run for a million years. And reaction mass is simple newtonian physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Eject a pound of stuff out at 30 miles an hour, you impart a momenteum of 30 miles an hour/pounds of space ship in the opposite direction. I think the tiles are ceramic, actually. I forget how many get shed with every re-entry, but it's a lot. And we haven't had tile impact problems yet, just hte one RCC panel. Though NASA did observe a "sandpapering" effect after one foam reformulation. The foam USED to powder off during liftoff. As I recall, they reformulated it to stop that because it was putting nasty gouges in the tiles and they were worried about heatshield integrity. Of course, chunks weren't considered an issue because "it never hit the shuttle before." That was an idea they pitched. It likely wouldn't ahve done any good, as any trajectory low enough to prevent blowtorching wouldn't have been too low to actually re-enter. The Apollos were in orbit too. Just a larger orbit. If it bounced up, it GAINED energy. You can't go up against gravity without actually accelerating. And you can't accelerate without gaining energy.Skipping off the atmosphere is sort of like jumping on a trampoline. You hit it, it bends a little, and then throws you back up. Now imagine gravity has only the slightest hold on that rock, and the rock has to fire thrusters to move down towards the water. And that the lake is curving away from the rock as it travels.

No, we're just looking at them a LOT closer than we used to. Like the current shuttle mission. There was "grout" sticking up between some of the ceramic tiles. They know its happened before, and that we've seen up to a quarter inch of it after the shuttle lands and who knows how much has burned off. But the don't have a clue if this one is safe, because that's aLL they know. They've no clue as to how much burns off on re-entry. The part that takes the brunt of things is actually the leading edge. That's why the front faces are all RCC panels instead of ceramic tiles. The black parts get the hottest. The belly DOES take more than the top, though. In space, yes. And not burn up. Aerodynamics don't mean anything in space. In an atmosphere, they mean less friction, which means less heat. Well, it'd be a lot more complex, for very little gain. The tiles aren't a problem. And it would greatly reduce the control you have over re-entry.

Batman Begins is diffrent, as that universe regularly gets rebooted. But I see what you mean. Sort of like DYRL, with a movie version of Macross 7. Only this time Kawamori cites the movie as the real version of events and the TV series as a cheezy drama series based on it. It could work.

Fine. Guld CONTINUED after the Ghost because both him AND Yang believed Isamu couldn't take it. lol! No. Try not to pass your speculations as proof that Isamu couldn't handle the Ghost X9. Wait, so you're saying that Isamu could continue to operate controls accurately while Guld's eyeballs exploded? It's not speculation. As to your Hi-G stuff, it's non-sequitur. Isamu would've just use a different tactic against the X9. Guld didn't know anything else, so he went bruteforce kamikaze since it's his only option. Because he DIDN'T just spend 10 minutes dogfighting Isamu? He knew how to shoot stuff. Furthermore, skillwise, Isamu dominated Guld in every battle and contest between the YF-19 and the YF-21. There was the scoreboard to verify that. And again, Guld missed pointblank in the atmospheric freefall and missed with his final missile-barrage. He did not DOMINATE Guld in every single batlte and contest. He was wild, reckless, and tended to do things like shoot the hostage and leave the course for the sake of doing some elaborate skywriting which, while impressive, doesn't score points. Another speculation and cannot be proven since Guld's the only one who can control the YF-21 with the BCS/BDI system. It's neither stated nor implied that only Guld could use the BCS. And it's a well-founded speculation. The zentradi were genetically engineered to be warriors. They have more durable bodies than humans. The BCS removes the need to manipulate controls, which was impossible during the maneuvers needed to keep pace with the Ghost, regardless of what your inner fanboy says. Again, see my response above regarding your Hi-G speculation. It's a matter of knowing more tactics to use than just bruteforce. Again see my response about the extended dogfight immediatly preceding the Ghost showing Guld can fight. Huh? How did I say the test was rigged to make the YF-19 win? I don't see that in any of my posts. But to entertain you, Guld was the designer of the YF-21 and no other pilot knows how to work it. Unlike the YF-19, which lost 2-3 pilots prior to Isamu. Isamu proved to be the only one who can handle the YF-19. If no other pilot knew how to work it, and could not be trained to do so in a short period of time, it was worthless. You forget that Project Supernova was to select a new MASS-PRODUCTION GENERAL-USE fighter for aLL of UN Spacey. Not to show off a pair of badass, but ultimately useless, concept planes. And the tests being done required pilots of equivalent skill. When you have both mecha in the same map at the same time shooting at the same targets, if one pilot is far more skilled than the other he will USUALLY come out ahead, regardless of who has the better vehicle. As Project Supernova was about finding the better PLANE, not the better PILOT, they sought pilots of equivalent skill level. However back to the testing, that's just basic-piloting and synthetic tests for the YF-21 and does not compensate for actual combat-situations with other combat-variables. This is proven quite distinctly when Guld lost complete control of the YF-21 when Isamu's VF-11B popped up between him and the last dud-missile. Isamu never lost control of the situation. Think about that. Again, you're citing Guld's mental problems as proof that he wasn't a qualified combat pilot, as opposed to proof he was mentally ill. Easy. It's called desperate gamble since Guld's tactics were insufficient to deal with the X9. Sure, he can follow the X9, but that's about it. The X9 pretty much tore his YF-21 apart and Guld's left with no other option but a kamikaze-run. The X9 never HIT his YF-21. The simple fact was that even with teh BCS and BDI, the Ghost was capable of dodging anythign he threw at it(presumably it was either equipped with anti-optical armor, or could dodge laser fire by detecting the pre-fire charge). Guld was not stupid. He knew that he still had weapons. He CHOSE not to use them. That's tactical superiority. Guld did not know that tactic at all, but Isamu does. That's a honed skill and applied to combat effectively by Isamu. If I recall, Isamu said Guld TAUGHT him the technique. I may be mistaken. As a fighter-pilot or any soldier or even a welder for cryin' out loud, you are not supposed to lost focus and concentration. Otherwise, you're dead on the field quite quickly or you will cause the deaths of your comrades. That's why there's training to help avoid that specific situation. Military-training and experience in the case of Isamu. And if you have a severe mental illness that does not impair you except in the presence of a single human being in the universe? Does the military account for that? Or does it not worry about it? Given Millard swept it under the rug AFTER Isamu showed up, I assume UN Spacey prefers the latter. By the time Guld noticed the YF-19's shadow, it would've been too late had Isamu been bent on killing him like Guld was intent on killing Isamu. That's why Isamu had smirky attitude because both of them knew who has the superior position and there was no need to demonstrate it further. Except that Guld still had all his fighter's systems online, as opposed to just teh minimum needed to keep it in the air. The INSTANT anything happened he would know, and be in full capacity to deal with it. Which wouldn't matter at all and is quite irrelevant since Guld did not detect Isamu at all until he saw the YF-19 shadow. Isamu shut almost all the YF-19's systems down SPECIFICALLY to minimize his visibility to sensors(specifically, the ones in the missiles on his tail). He was running the flaps, and presumably the active stealth system since he wasn't showing up on radar and the 19 does not appear to have any passive stealth features. Everything else was off to minimize his heat, RF, and whatever else they use for sensors profiles. Isamu was smirky because he was friends with Guld. And now that Guld was sane again, Guld wasn't trying to kill him. ... Or just because he was an established loon. Again, you're just doing some wishful thinking. Isamu had the superior position. Both of them know that when Guld finally noticed the YF-19's shadow. Wishful thinking? They SAID he turned everything off.