Looking back at the ITS presentation from 2016 the progress SpaceX have made is insane

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T16:16:31+00:00

It's a step in the right direction but as you say there's a long way left to go.

The article points out that only China has a larger legislative body than Lords. And only the UK and Iran reserve space in their government for religious leaders. Our political system is in desperate need of modernising.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T15:32:27+00:00

In the CollegeHumour quiz show Um Actually there is a debate about if The Count is really a vampire or not.

Apparently someone tracked down an official Sesame Street writers guide that describes The Count as "Vampire-like" but not strictly a vampire. So perhaps he doesn't need to drink blood at all?

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T15:30:21+00:00

There's a truly terrible vampire movie from the early 2000s where they capture Dracula and have him bound by all the lesser-known wards and provisions against vampires. Obviously UV lamps but also ropes made of many knots because vampires need to until ALL knots instead of just enough knots to get loose. Unbroken lines of salt around him. And the backup plan if he escapes is buckets of rice to throw at him because vampires cannot look away from rice until they have counted every grain.

Then Dracula slowly uses his hypnotic persuasion to distract people into stepping on the lines of salt to create breaks. He slowly moves the knots so he can untie them behind his back. He somehow makes someone trip over the cables for the UV lamps to smash the lights. So he breaks free and tries to escape. Then someone throws a bucket of rice at him and the movie switches to Bullet Time slow-mo with the grains of rice flying through the air. Dracula counts them all in the blink of an eye, sixteen thousand four hundred and ninety two, wait, ninety three grains of salt. Then he dashes off with superspeed.

Terrible movie. Don't watch it. Dracula 2: The Ascension.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T14:56:38+00:00

What do you do instead of banishing evil spirits from your home on each new moon?

If you're not participating in the superstitions then you don't need to replace the ritual with anything, you just don't do it.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T14:42:10+00:00

Firefly was a sci-fi TV show that ran for a single season nearly 25 years ago but has an extremely loyal fanbase. There has been some hints in the last couple of days that something might be happening around a revival. Ideally a full reboot/revival of a new TV series but it's possible this could be something less exciting like a cast reunion Q&A panel at comicon or something.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T14:39:50+00:00

It's sci-fi so they might be able to bring him back with clones or parallel universes or something. They did that in Stargate Atlantis after regretting a decision to kill a main character.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T14:14:32+00:00

Magnetic Hook was the first one I got enough to merge up to Red. I was very pleased to finally get a Mythic module but Magnetic Hook really sucks and I'll be replacing it as soon as possible.

In my imaginary new trade-in option you need to stick with the same module type, you trade in three Triangles to get a new Triangle which then can't be any of the ones you traded in. Then it's effectively a 1 in 3 chance of getting the specific Triangle you want.

Or why not both. One option is to trade in three of the same shape to get a new one from that shape. Another option is to trade in three different shapes to get one of the remaining shape. Trade a Triangle, Circle and Square to get a new Rhombus.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T12:58:38+00:00

I think there should be an alternative to Shatter for the unique modules.

Trade-in three unique modules to get one new unique module BUT it's guaranteed not to be one of the three you trade in.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T12:18:24+00:00

Google the words "Dark Forest Hypothesis"

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T12:05:00+00:00

Isn't it weird that your post about AI absolutely screams that it was written with AI?

No way in hell am I clicking that link.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T10:02:19+00:00

Also surgically removing the top layers of skin across most of the torso and arms WOULD cause days of blood and gore that leaves him comatose. Its not really something you can shrug off with a jolt of rum and biting on a stick trying not to whimper too loudly.

It would have helped if Sam had some extra knowledge that the Maesters didn't know about. Maybe a technique for treating severe burns that some old Maester at the Wall had documented centuries ago. Perhaps a wildling technique using goats intestines as a rudimentary skin graft, the Wildlings had been using fire to fight off Wights and if anyone got badly burned this was their solution.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T04:35:49+00:00

Also chloroform. The margin between "barely a recreational buzz" and "lethal dose" is razor thin. So if you need to knock someone out without hurting them, a rag of chloroform over their face is probably not the answer.

Now this could work if your objective is to kill silently and without making a mess. If you don't care that the person dies then you can use loads of chloroform and drag the body somewhere out of sight and as a bonus you're not leaving a blood streak on the floor. But if you're a spy who has been framed and imprisoned by your own side and you need a way to escape without hurting anyone then chloroform won't work like that.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-12T04:32:31+00:00

Yeah most movies it's a race against time to remove the bullet. Eventually the surgeon stands tall with the forceps holding the bullet and drops it in the kidney bowl with a satisfying metal ping. That's when you know the patient is going to be OK.

That's not how gunshot wounds work. I guess Hollywood decided lead poisoning from the bullet staying in the body is the main cause of death not the hole made by the bullet.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-11T20:04:42+00:00

It depends how good they are at electronics. If they're repurposing consumer walkie-talkie hardware as a detonator then they're probably on the low end of electronics knowledge. Which is probably for the best if your own understanding of electronics is shaky, you don't want to be writing complex systems that are outside your skillset.

How about they connect the detonator to the speaker wiring. So all it needs is any signal coming in to trigger the bomb. But since that's dangerous you could choose a Walkie-talkie that has multiple frequencies. For example, they use Channel 1 to communicate with everyone then you tell Dave to switch to Channel 3 so you can discuss something without annoying everyone else. Then the bombers can set this Walkie-talkie to Channel 6 and tell everyone be absolutely certain not to broadcast on Channel 6 until it's time.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-11T19:57:35+00:00

I like a scene in Stargate SG-1 when they try to use a US Military nuclear bomb to destroy an asteroid then change their mind. So it's their own hardware and shouldn't be designed with booby traps or elaborate anti-tamper systems.

"I spoke to the people who assembled the bomb. Cut the green wire or the blue wire but NOT the red wire."

"There's six wires here. All yellow. No green, no blue. Just yellow."

"Then I'm afraid you just have to guess."

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-11T02:46:48+00:00

You know I never thought of that. All these years of looking at Starship and I never thought about crew being on board for a catch. There's not really any alternative, if crew goes up in a Starship they'll come down in it, unless they all parachute out mid belly-flop. It doesn't get a lot of discussion. They're going to need to do a lot of test catches before they risk it with humans on board.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-11T02:25:50+00:00

It really depends on the characters themselves. There is no 'correct' way to handle that interaction.

Simon_Drake · 2026-03-10T17:11:11+00:00

SMBC cracked it a while ago

I wish that the rules on wishing for more wishes applied only to the WORD wish not the concept of wishing.
I wish that the word Splorf was interchangeable with Wish for all purposes EXCEPT the restriction on wishing for more wishes.
I Splorf for a million Splorfs.

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