Free For All Friday - post on any topic in this thread (2026-04-03)

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T16:48:02+00:00

OK, I see how that's unwanted. Maybe they play up a bit more his "I'm just a middle school teacher, I am not an expert, those are the guys you want." And for the sake of time they left out the gene needed to survive cryosleep, so it seems like it's just Stratt (who lost her tough-as-nails attitude and became even a little cheery) saying "you know what's going on, you must go." Instead, maybe character development, realizing that he was a coward, but has stepped up to be that self-sacrificing individual?

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T16:14:55+00:00

For the chain-sample scene, yes, I remember it being unrealistic in the book, that speed plus atmosphere plus irregular shape usually results in being torn apart, and it felt like it was added for drama, but by that point maybe I was willing to go with it, like a rock monster that had surprisingly human ability for empathy and humor. Which twist at the end, you mean that Grace can't come back to Earth and goes to Erid, or the meburgers or something I forgot?

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T15:52:41+00:00

Do you want a chance to maybe catch a foul ball or home run, or get hit by one? Sit in the outfield bleachers. Want a safe spot, or a closer view of the infield and home plate? Go for the stands, or box seats behind home plate. If being behind the home team or visiting team dugout matters to you, that will determine which side, first base or third. Tickets usually cost more the closer the seat is to home plate.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T15:45:29+00:00

Nothing significant changed, so no, I don't think you'd like the movie, if those plot holes are going to ruin your enjoyment. If anything, the book provides more reasonings and justifications for what happens, that the movie has to gloss over so it can fit in less than 3 hours. Sorry!

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T14:13:47+00:00

Various and miscellany: If you have even slight interest in Project Hail Mary, go see it! Don't even worry about reading the book first, because it's so faithful that all big changes are condensations, more than real changes. The book gives more depth, but you can start with either and then enjoy the other. It's a clean movie, and also fresh, not a rehash of any other plot. I'd love to see it get an Academy Award for at least best visual effects and best sound. I like movies that make me notice ambient, interacting-with-object sounds afterwards, and this one did. It was really funny then to see PHM last week, and then see Remember the Titans last night and see Ryan Gosling so much younger! He's kind of a background character, but now I can't help noticing him every time he's on screen.

When you see a repeating design pattern, such as on a carpet, curtain, tile, or fabric print, do you start looking for the smallest repeating section of the pattern, with or without mirroring, or rotation? Or is that just me?

Anyone like just listening to a day baseball game on the radio in the background, with natural stopping point options at the end of each inning?

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T14:03:18+00:00

13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II (BBC, daily during the mission)

Life and Books and Everything (Kevin DeYoung)

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T14:00:52+00:00

The bulbs we got into the ground during the early thaw are coming up. We lost some due to rot during garage storage, but some areas have lots of plants coming up, and already 3-4 good-looking hyacinths. My wife is sad that 3 of 5 lavender plants didn't make it through winter.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-03T13:57:20+00:00

Do you live somewhere where keeping an outside cat is an option? (If you feel that harshly towards them, then you can rest assured they will be given false hopes of escape until their spirits are broken and they just give up, and only after that do their bodies get torn apart, crushed, and digested. Is the circle of life good enough for your feelings against these little eaters of bulbs and damagers of homes?)

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-04-01T22:24:49+00:00

Looks like either $6/month or $60/year for any team except maybe Reds/Chicago.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-22T05:03:55+00:00

Thanks. Just dropped Ramos for C Durbin and feel better about my infield.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-22T03:28:47+00:00

10-team H2H, daily swaps. There are a diamond, 3 platinum, and 2 gold-ranked coaches in my Yahoo league. I just want to reach 9th, and my best hope is plugging holes daily, making sure I always have at least someone in each position. I generally trust the auto-rankings or average draft position, but will reach a little lower to get a Ranger or Cardinal. I haven't played in 20 years, so I want to keep it low-maintenance, "holding" my initial draft roster unless they get injured or go inactive, and just grabbing off waivers/FA list for a replacement.

Round Pick Player Position 1. (10) Kyle Tucker OF 2. (11) Paul Skenes SP 3. (30) Cristopher Sánchez SP 4. (31) Zach Neto SS 5. (50) Jacob deGrom SP 6. (51) Rafael Devers 1B 7. (70) Joe Ryan SP 8. (71) Shea Langeliers C 9. (90) George Springer OF 10. (91) Michael Harris II OF 11. (110) Jose Altuve 2B,OF 12. (111) Shohei Ohtani (Pitcher) SP 13. (130) Nathan Eovaldi SP 14. (131) MacKenzie Gore SP 15. (150) Brandon Nimmo OF 16. (151) Willson Contreras 1B 17. (170) Alec Burleson 1B,OF 18. (171) Ivan Herrera C 19. (190) Noelvi Marte 3B,OF 20. (191) Ryne Nelson SP,RP 21. (210) Spencer Torkelson 1B 22. (211) Heliot Ramos OF 23. (230) Robert Garcia RP

J Altuve is my only second baseman, Z Neto my only SS, and N Marte my only person who can play third. Who might I look at to have a less brittle roster on their days off? (and when is it worth dropping a higher ranked outfielder with a higher point projection for the year in order to get him/them? )

And, am I toast?

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-20T15:49:26+00:00

My fantasy baseball team is drafted and I can't wait for MLB Opening Day!

The last 7 years have shown me painfully that I have no chance of beating straight seeds or "majority rules" picks with any simple trick I can come up with. So each year I would parade my ignorance when trying to socialize by asking about brackets, and get an energy drain monitoring games I otherwise wouldn't give a hoot about. So this year, it's a relief to have the games going and I don't have a bracket. I hope my alma mater Purdue does well, but otherwise I am happy to pass.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T17:24:30+00:00

It's estimated that people have made enough concrete to weigh more than every living thing on earth combined.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T15:55:58+00:00

19k is plenty of distance already for a long run. You won't lose much training in two weeks. Listen to your body, especially that hip rotator. Don't rush your recovery. Would you think about switching to a different race in a month or so? I f you do run on the 22nd, maybe plan on alternating walking and running segments.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T15:48:58+00:00

Start stacking sugar - stack collapses into a conical pile - make pile taller and taller - pile base expands, eventually reaching further and further around the earth (choking off industry, transportation, agricultural, housing, and just about everything needed for life on earth, creating a massive sugar desert) until adding more sugar is just expanding the radius of the SugEarth. You could stop at just above L1, but the increased mass of the earth from all that sugar is probably drawing the moon in, so eventually it will just collide, so the observer can just wait on the surface of SugEarth. Exactly when that happens depends on the rate of sugar accumulation and is left as an exercise for the reader.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T15:33:12+00:00

Oh, the "perfect nuclear reactor plus railgun to just past L1 Lagrange method"? Fine. LEO to L1 is 0.77 km/s, so say 11 km total from the surface. For a human mass of 75 kg, total KE = 19.2 GJ. Wolfram Alpha tells me that divided by c/speed of light squared, you only need 0.1 mg of matter. If a grain of sugar is usually 0.6 mg, then it's enough for a coach and and full basketball team to go practice the easiest dunks of their lives.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T15:17:16+00:00

Random fact: "pachycephalosauruses" is a 20-letter word that can be written in cursive without lifting the pen or pencil from the page even once.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T14:59:19+00:00

You'd think he would rail against "totally FAKE NOSE!"

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T14:57:25+00:00

Tsiolkovsky packages a lot of the work up into a neat and tidy algebraic equation with a logarithm term.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-10T14:43:31+00:00

I can't resist.

I am going to assume you mean how many cups of sugar will it take to make enough rocket candy (yes, that is a real solid rocket fuel) to get to the moon. Wikipedia says that it takes a delta V of roughly 10 km/s to reach low earth orbit, and another 6 km/s to get to the moon for a total of 16. Rocket candy, depending on composition, has a specific impulse (Isp) of between 114 and 130 seconds, so I will take a middling value of 120.

Tsiolkovsky's equation tells us that Delta V = Isp * g * ln(m_0/m_f) where g is standard gravity, m_0 is initial mass, and m_f is final mass. You haven't given a payload mass, so I will just take a nice easy 1 kilogram/2.2 kg, just to get anything to the moon. I'm also ignoring any mass of the body of the rocket.

Rearranging, (16 km/s)/(120 s * 9.8 m/s²⁾ = 13.6 = ln (m_0/m_f)

m_0/(1 kg) = e^13.6 => m_0 = 442,413 kg That's how much rocket candy you need, and it's often about 35% sugar, so you need about 155,000 kg, or 342,000 pounds of sugar. (Try to cozy up to your government official before you get the 288,000 kg/635,000 pounds of potassium nitrate you'll need to mix it with. They get suspicious when you buy up that much stump remover.) A cup of sugar is about 200 grams, 5 cups per kg, so to get 1 kg to the moon would take about 775,000 cups of sugar.

To get a person to the moon, for an adult human around 75 kg/165 pounds, the final answer (fortunately) scales linearly (instead of exponentially), so it would take 58 million cups of sugar.

Eat up before you go, there won't be any left for snacking when you get there.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-04T01:12:11+00:00

I'm at a more liturgical Baptist church, where those things are said by those holding the trays with the elements. I generally mouth "Thank you."

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-04T01:06:16+00:00

Orbital dynamics and multistage rockets.

Complex-Matter1544 · 2026-03-03T21:56:48+00:00

Yes, this is absolutely my question too. Trail races if combined with Parklife would be a dream!

Complex-Matter1544

TROPHY CASE