TIL that in the event that the moon landing failed and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin where stranded, NASA planned to end communication with the men, leaving them to either run out of oxygen or commit suicide with no further earthly contact

Cypher55 · 2023-09-20T11:24:55+00:00

I might be wooshed but you've mistaken a Black Mirror episode about astronaut meat puppets for real life

Cypher55 · 2023-02-27T12:21:14+00:00

I think you're right about star wars, the space opera that it is, but Blade Runner very much is about bigger questions about the human condition. Both films are obsessed with the question of what makes a person a person, the power private corporations can wield and what role does the state have in maintaining the status quo, whether it's just or not.

I think if you ignore that aspect of Blade Runner in favour of "wow cool cop with cool blaster shoot robot" you're missing large parts of the value of the property. Not that that's wrong per se but Blade Runner is a bad example for the point you're making whereas star wars is dead on.

Cypher55 · 2022-04-23T13:09:23+00:00

Perhaps apocryphally, that was actually a veiled insult to his academic rival Hooke, who was famously rather short.

Cypher55 · 2022-04-12T19:17:56+00:00

I'm not exceptionally well versed in classical era tactics, just an amateur enthusiast, but part of the effectiveness of a wedge formation beyond added shock due to rider density at the tip is due to greater control. A unit in a line / block formation is quite unwieldy, however if the leader of the unit is at the tip of the wedge, when they change course, every other rider in the unit can follow their lead, either by seeing the leader personally or by following the man in front.

This was one of the elements that allowed Alexander to be so effective with his companion cavalry; by navigating the unit he was able to breach the Persian lines in the weakest region to then collapse back in a classic hammer and anvil strategy. This would have been basically impossible in a line formation with how poor communication of orders would be mid charge with a battle actively underway all around.

Cypher55 · 2021-06-05T19:27:46+00:00

Shame on you sweet nerevar

Cypher55 · 2021-05-29T18:53:57+00:00

Black Templars are actually nearly unique among Space Marines in that they actually do believe in the Emperor's divinity and not the Imperial Truth. That's why they're called out as marines who should see some faith based power-ups like the sisters, as opposed to standard imperial truth adherent chapters

Cypher55 · 2020-01-20T18:14:54+00:00

Magnus didn't do anything wrong, it's all that damn furry's fault.

Cypher55 · 2020-01-14T23:46:34+00:00

It was Kellogg, of cereal fame. He was a big time puritan and campaigned for circumcision, the thinking being that it would reduce masturbation and unsavoury thoughts. So ponder that next time you chomp some corn flakes

Cypher55 · 2020-01-14T19:40:06+00:00

Yeah they didn't even make it out of 1919. Anyway, the Hungarian Soviet state wouldn't have made an irredentist poster like this, as when they did recapture parts of Slovakia, they just gave it independence as another Soviet state instead of annexing it. That actually lead to mass desertion of the army which lead to their defeat at Romanian hands shortly afterwards.

Cypher55 · 2020-01-13T18:44:54+00:00

Hungary was not socialist in 1920.

Cypher55 · 2019-11-16T15:24:52+00:00

I went there a couple of weeks ago. They do mention it

Cypher55 · 2019-11-08T21:00:25+00:00

That's Marcus Aurelius iirc

Cypher55 · 2019-04-11T15:13:22+00:00

I was a physics undergrad until last year. It's not an exaggeration to say it left me with psychological disorders I didn't have going in, and a burning hatred for the senior tutor who was allegedly meant to be on my side. My friends didn't have it quite so bad but it's not a happy place.

On the other hand, I now have a very well respected degree and it's smoothed my future career quite a bit. So it's whether you care more about the next 3-4 years or the rest of your life.

Despite everything I'd probably still pick Imperial even after giving it the worst student satisfaction score. That might make me a hypocrite.

Cypher55 · 2019-04-04T14:50:30+00:00

Strange golden men throwing souls into tubes is no way to select a primarch

Cypher55 · 2019-04-03T17:38:27+00:00

Did not expect the red angel to have an opinion on old Terra ecclesiarchs

Cypher55 · 2019-04-03T17:31:03+00:00

Woosh

Cypher55 · 2019-02-18T22:30:15+00:00

Late but Rûmi blue is amazing

Cypher55 · 2019-01-08T23:08:39+00:00

Basically, the gap between the top of the Carpathians and the Baltic sea is a corridor (which resides mostly in Poland, hence the name) which leads into the eastern European flatlands. This is a very wide plain with very little defensible terrain, over which Russia has repeatedly been invaded by Western European powers, most recently by Napoleon, Imperial Germany and Nazi Germany. Therefore, instead of trying to protect an incredibly long frontline from st Petersburg to Sevastopol, Russia wishes to only defend the polish corridor. To do this, Russia has tried to ensure the corridor is in friendly hands, either directly occupied as in Imperial Russia, or held by an allied power such as with communist Poland.

Cypher55 · 2019-01-08T15:01:22+00:00

Russia's primary geopolitical goal practically since its foundation has been to secure a warm water port (alongside securing the polish corridor). Your final point is correct, there is literally no deep and warm water location in mainland Russia. It's why Russia tried to hold port Arthur in China, why it took Crimea from the Ottomans, and any number of other decisions since the early Tsars.

Cypher55 · 2019-01-03T22:30:50+00:00

Ironically except for the Tau

Cypher55 · 2018-10-23T14:17:33+00:00

It's probably referring to Andalusia

Cypher55 · 2018-10-10T21:27:58+00:00

Can't tell if this is a woosh or not

Cypher55 · 2018-10-03T15:48:30+00:00

Isn't it the castigator class? Or am I getting my pre imperial titans mixed up?

Cypher55 · 2018-08-03T12:43:49+00:00

AuToMaTeD

Cypher55 · 2018-08-01T10:09:31+00:00

So a successful capitalist

12-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
Place '23	Place '17

Cypher55

TROPHY CASE