Master Dex

I've heard of that maneuver, it is full of several inconsistencies but the basic idea you are mentioning is correct. Mostly the big problem is that the nuke's EMP effected them. Electromagnetic pulses can't happen in the vacuum of space where there is no magnetic field. In orbit of a planet you do have the field of the planet itself but planetary magnetic fields are very weak and in a high altitude like orbit the gamma rays from the nuke will disperse quickly and generate little to no magnetic field. However this has nothing to do with the topic, the fact remains: ramming is generally a last ditch move.

That is the simple answer, I'll address this in more detail probably in my science bit when I do my review. I haven't watched it yet though. Circumstance foils me again. Soon though.

Yeah, I just got busy, start of the new semester at school and all. I'm sure I'll get around to the episode sometime this weekend.

Yes, despite all that and even Sketchley bringing up that bit from Nemesis (Star Trek loves the ram as a last resort maneuver believe it or not), the reality is ramming a spacecraft into another as an attack is unlikely to ever work. Space warfare is most likely going to be a long distance endeavor where weapons are being fired toward each other while the two craft can barely see the other. They'll have it on radar or sensors or whatever they have. There is no real stealth in space after all. Even if a ship did try a ramming move, because of the distance, the other guy is going to notice what is going on an move out of the way. I will note though that with the size of spacecraft and the velocities they'd carry, a ram such as those would have tremendous energy release, like nuclear bomb levels of energy or more. The two ships would probably vaporize. In Macross though this is still possible, it is in a long line of sci fi shows that doesn't bother with the correct scale (not that this is terrible though) and has the ships relatively close to each other when they fight. Makes it more dramatic, which is why it is done, and that is good enough for me.

Regardless of the circumstances of the punch tactic or how it was conceived, when it comes to ship warfare (both naval and the fictional space based) it is a fact that one of the best attacks of last resort is the ever effective ramming the enemy ship with yours. The Daedalus attack gets away with the fact that while that part of the ship is ramming, it is protected by a shield. Most times, ramming maneuvers are finite and leave both ships out of the equation.

Man I think you are a little too hung up about the dress. I don't think there was any design to other characters wearing similar clothes, lol.

Why Gamlin you dirty dirty boy!! Lol! As for the hard drives, yes you are absolutely correct. I was on a limited budget when I got mine though, that is why 320GB was economical for me. Had I more money, I would easily have gotten a Terabyte. As for the usable space, that is always because there is a percentage that is used to help the device function. I have about 295GB out of the full 320GB in actuality, but still enough for me.

Glad I could help then. Yeah, they aren't the cheapest things, but they will last. Price depends a lot on how much space you get. I got a 320GB external hard drive for about $90. Mine is also a portable drive, so that may have made it more expensive. I suggest MyBook or MyPassport, they are good hard drives (made by Western Digital, I prefer them). The MyBooks are larger and generally hold more (they have 1 Terabyte hard drives in that size now, that's 1000GB, crazy) so the cost is up. I originally planned to get a small 250GB drive, but they were out of that when I was buying and 320GB was the lowest and I was aiming to be economical, lol. It has been working out well though. I have DYRL, the first 20 episodes of Remastered M7, all of Macross Zero, all of Macross Frontier (BD rips with Thora subs in fact), a dozen episodes of Beast Wars and a few TF Animated episodes, a DVD rip of Serenity, and a digital copy of the new Star Trek. There is still a good amount of room on the drive. So I can say it is worth the price.

Pete... I was just joking about the VF-11s. Calm down man, lol. Anyway thanks for all the other input. I should warn you, CD's only have about 700MB of data on them, you won't get much more than two episodes of the remastered M7 on a disc with that. If your computer can burn DVDs you can get 5 to 6 episodes there since they hold 4.7GB on average. However you may not have that capability, but it is your choice anyway. I have the first 10 episodes of Frontier on two DVDs. I didn't continue burning the show because I got an external hard drive, which has just made everything so much easier. Sure I can't play it on my TV, but there are ways around that (I'm just too lazy to bother). Anyway, whatever works for you of course is best, I'm just telling you all the options. On to the next then.

Well true. One way to look at my mindset was that it may be a disc, but not necessarily what a CD is by current definition. Though they do work well enough as it is. I can see a fully digital format though (iTunes only being an example, there are far many other legal digital methods for buying music). As for the dress, I forgot to notice... let me check... ***time dilation*** Ah... I think I know what you're getting at, but truthfully there isn't enough detail shown of the dress to draw that many conclusions.

Ok then! I've finally gotten around to watching episode 8. First before I talk about things, while this hiatus was nice, we got crazy off topic during and that is partly my fault for bringing up some random things. So I should apologize for that. Now back to Macross 7. The sort of pseudo recap at the beginning doesn't cover very much. Anyway, Gamlin getting suspicious, but with good reason if you ask me. Mylene is trying to live two lives. She started seeing Gamlin so she could get specials deals for Fire Bomber but she rather not let Gamlin know about her affiliation with the band. To me this indicates even this early she has some interest in him, otherwise she wouldn't care if he knew about her being in the band. First Fire Bomber recording session in this episode. Wasn't that amazing. I blame Honey, most annoying character ever. He doesn't sound bad, but it seems like whoever animated him was purposely trying to make him look unrealistic even in the context of an anime! This is of course where we get that Galaxy Fight version of Planet Dance. I never really liked that version of it from Let's Fire really, but it seems the sound mixers in the episode didn't like it either. Despite it's overuse, the regular Planet Dance is better. At least in my opinion (of course there are far better versions of the song, but not from the show). I usually do a science bit, but.... well there wasn't really anything in this episode that stands out to me as worth mentioning. No scientific failings, or anything exceptional worth mentioning (save for another example of the unlimited VF-11 roster). So yeah... guess I'll leave it on that. Though I'd like to note that I chuckled seeing the recorders recording the music on CDs. I think by 2045 CDs will be phased out, but again this is an alternate universe with a main divergence point going back to 1999.

Well like I said, it takes a long time for radio waves to travel across space. They only move at the speed of light, if the alien world sending transmissions is 400 light years away, we won't hear it for 400 years. However there is a theoretical limit to radio transmissions where the single brakes down and can't be deciphered anymore. It is believed after a couple hundred light years our own TV singles will not be able to be understood anymore. What we and groups like SETI are looking for isn't really a clear message, just evidence of radio waves from another source even it it is unintelligible by the time it gets here. As for M7, I seriously wonder how many VF-11's M7 has... I mean we have figures I believe, but they never run out despite how many are destroyed in each episode. Regardless, you are right, it seems the size of the enemy isn't important as long as they are still doing the same spiritia draining plan. However defeating them as an enemy is where their size as a force comes into play. As for the Protodeviln themselves, the explanation seems to fit with the idea that they are from another universe where the laws of physics are different, so in this universe the need to steal spiritia is because conditions are different. Of course we only learn that later in the show, but I always wondered something. If living in our universe was so difficult for them that they had to go vampire on everyone, why did they come here? Sadly I don't think we'll ever know.

I'm not going to pick this apart because I'm not interested enough to do so and it is off topic, but you aren't entirely correct on all of that. I'll leave it there though. Aliens don't send us messages because we aren't worth the time as I said. I'll answer one part though: As for communication in space, actually most science fiction does cover this, it just isn't a focal point so they don't dwell on explaining it. They aren't using radio communication because it would take far too long, if you were on Earth and the guy you were sending a radio message to was around Proxima Centauri (closest star to our own), it would take 4 years for your message to get there, and another 4 years for you to get the reply. It isn't convenient. Now the communications in Sci-fi aren't real yet, but they do work around it. Star Trek has subspace communications, sending messages at faster than light. Star Wars has the Holonet, which uses hyperspace communications. Halo sends e-mail like messages through slipspace packet messages but they cannot send audio messages across slipspace (they use radios in the games only when near each other). Macross itself mentions fold space communications, not too sure how that works though. In my books I even generated a method based on my own custom designed FTL travel technology (that's right, I created my own form of faster than light travel, I went all out). I don't know if any of this actually works of course (probably not), but my point is, they are doing more than just radio transmission. Enough of this, we shouldn't be off topic anymore. I still haven't watched the episode though so..... yeah.... Let's get around to doing that....

I am a huge Michio Kaku fan, so seeing other people referencing him is just great. Technically though Type 1 just means we can utilize the energy of an entire planet, and Type 2 the energy of an entire star. While we are still at least 100 years from being a Type 1 civilization this doesn't really have any bearing on whether any alien intervention could happen. However it doesn't mean it is unlikely, because to an interstellar civilization, we would look so primitive that communication would be an excessive waste of time. Also despite many sci-fi plots about it, there isn't really enough of a good reason to want to invade or enslave us. It just isn't all that likely. The plot of Macross has a certain plausibility about it though, the ship crashed on our planet, the Zentradi thought we were allied with their enemy when they found it there, so they attacked. They only learned their mistake later. As far as being a Michio Kaku fan, I have full read Physics of the Impossible and am halfway through his best seller Hyperspace. I believe he is truly one of the best theoretical physicists alive today.

It is actually referencing the fact that what we don't understand and label as magic can be understood as a science if we learn enough. It's like if you went back in time to when they used bows and arrows and showed people a modern day gun. They wouldn't think of the gun as some futuristic weapon, that thing is so unlike anything they have seen before it can only be magic. However those people learned and evolved over time to become us, who understand the science of how guns work. Some theoretical technologies of the future, like faster than light travel, beam weapons, etc. seem like magical things to us. Even now though we are trying to find ways through science to see if anything of these things can be possible. It might surprise you how many science fiction technologies may truly be possible. The catch is it could take hundreds to thousands of years for us to make them happen (barring alien intervention like in Macross of course). The point of Arthur C. Clark's quote was that magic is nothing more than a science we have yet to understand and master. Oh, and if anyone didn't know or was curious, Arthur C. Clark is the man who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey and its associated sequels (most people should a least know of the story, if they haven't read or seen the movie based on it).

I have nothing to say on this satanic discussion, but to Pete's line there: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clark.

I don't know about all the music from the game, but the theme song for Ultimate Frontier is Burning Fire, which is from the recent 15th anniversary Fire Bomber album Re.Fire. So it is sung by Yoshiki Fukuyama/Basara Nekki (with some parts by Chie Kajiura/Mylene Jenius). The song is considered a Fire Bomber song though, not any of Fukuyama's solo work, Fukuyama Band, or Hummingbird.

Somehow I just don't see it, lol.

Fine by me. I didn't watch it yet either. I've been watching all the Doctor Who marathons on BBC America (no I have not watched End of Time yet anyone so don't say anything if you have, I'll see it tonight). Besides I only recently finished marathoning Full Metal Panic season one so I wasn't in a very Macross-y mood yesterday. So I can wait a week as well. This whole endeavor will take a year at best anyway (~50 episodes translates to about 50 weeks which is almost a year) so taking two weeks off isn't a very big deal in the scheme of things.

Nope. However I've never been much for partying, especially for a calendar change. Will comment on the episode after I've seen it.

That is kind of why I envy you. Although truthfully it is Fukuyama I'd want to see in concert whether it was Macross related or not. Maybe someday I'll find a way to make such a trip possible. For now though, I'm a college student going to an expensive school, and I am poor, lol.

I envy you people more than you can guess... Poor guy living in America...

Whatever works for you. Is your old hard drive inaccessible? Because if the stuff there wasn't corrupted by the virus you could just transfer all the episodes and stuff to your new hard drive I would think. Of course if you have no means of transfer that presents a problem. This is why my external hard drive is the best thing I've bought yet. All my media is off loaded from the main machine now. This week break was nice anyway though. Got the first season of Full Metal Panic, and the Fumoffu series in a box set over Christmas, so I've been taking the time to watch that show again (seen most of it before, might try to find the light novels it is based on). Nothing against Macross but I do enjoy it when they take the time to work out the details of the technology in the show, the engineer in me loves that. Of course where Macross doesn't explain things in universe all the time (they sometimes do), we get official details on how stuff works from Kawamori later on so it balances itself out.

Try Veoh, I was watching there before getting some downloads. It isn't the best quality, but it doesn't break the episodes into parts either.

Right.... Anyway I didn't watch any episodes last week, partly due to Pete's idea. So we watching ep.8 this Friday then?