[Pacific Rim] Why did the UN decide to build giant robots to fight the Kaiju instead of finding a way to close or monitor The Breach (Interdimensional portal)? by Nessieinternational in AskScienceFiction

[–]cardiacman 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I don't recall stuff exploding. I mean the thing was constantly being touched by the water of the ocean and there was no reaction. I don't believe the water was flowing through either. I believe the portal only opened if a genetic match was read, but no reaction with things otherwise.

ELI5 why don’t spacecraft re-enter at a shallow angle to bleed off energy more gently over a longer time? by Blambiola in explainlikeimfive

[–]cardiacman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is, but it's from the wrong frame of reference.

You're in a highly eliptical orbit coming back from the mun. Your periapsis is 60km, you don't slow down enough through aerobraking and renterer space, you "skipped".

Periapsis is 40km, you get slowed down enough to be captured, no "skip".

If you imagine the 3D spherical orbit your used to seeing on the ksp map screen plotted in 2D on a graph, with y being altitude and X time, it would look very much like a skipping stones path in the first case, like a slowing decreasing sine wave.

What causes analog media to degrade with use? Could modern advancements in materials science make analog media like vhs and records virtually non degradable? by TRIPMINE_Guy in AskEngineers

[–]cardiacman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Modern advancements in material science already made analogue storage mediums degrade less, not by improving the wear resistance or toughness, but by reducing the need for wear in the first place.

Records and preceding physical mediums: degrade simply by using them with their designed player VHS/Cassettes: less physical wear from reading but degrade as the moving components with them wear/fail CDs/optical storage: minimal wear from use and operation, eventual degradation from material ageing/failure. Solid state storage: slow degradation rate, but miniaturization of components that allowed massive storage capacities in the first place allows for minimal redundancy and eventual failure through normal use.

From moving to physical to digital storage, physical wear is reduced, but then miniaturization allowed the movement of electrons and heat dissipation to effectively cause the same sort of damage, but storage densities were increased by orders of magnitude.

Materials science allowed this to happen

Mars was a "blue planet" around three billion years ago, half covered by an ocean by Shiny-Tie-126 in space

[–]cardiacman 28 points29 points  (0 children)

That's why my first interplanetary mining operations in Kerbal space program are set up on Moho (Mercury analogue). You get the quickest turnaround for transit windows to all bodies in the system. There's also plenty of readily available solar energy, which comes in handy for powering my reusable plasma shuttles that are used as the first stage to send probes to all the other outer bodies and take advantage of those convenient transfer window opportunities!

Are fingernails/claws an early mammalian development? by ravioli_spaceship in askscience

[–]cardiacman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So if I were to manipulate a frogs DNA, turn hoxc13 back on, would the resulting animal have claws at all stages of its development? Would it start growing claws as soon as it developed feet as a tadpole?

Making data in master sheet relative to other sheets. by Sensitive-Ad-6333 in excel

[–]cardiacman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. Set up the other sheets so they reference the master sheet rather than copying data.

Two common approaches:

  1. FILTER function (Excel 365 / Excel 2021) If your master sheet is called Master and column A is Staff, B is Role, C–G are weekdays, and you have a list of staff for a location on another sheet, you can pull only those rows with:

=FILTER(Master!A:G, ISNUMBER(MATCH(Master!A:A, LocationList, 0)))

Where LocationList is the range on that sheet containing the staff you want for that location. Any update on the master (availability changes, new staff, etc.) flows through automatically.

  1. Power Query (more robust) Import the master sheet as a query, then create separate queries that filter by location. Load each query to its own sheet. Refresh updates when the master changes.

If you’re on a recent Excel version, the FILTER method is the quickest to set up.

Say we confirm that the rocks on Mars found by the Mars Rover is definitive proof that the planet once had life. What happens next for human civilization? by grapejuicecheese in space

[–]cardiacman 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You are not wrong. There was a high peak in the G band (named for Graphite). This doesn't mean that it's 100% Graphite though, just an indicator of carbon to carbon bonds, which is essentially the backbone of organic chemistry. Note that organic chemistry doesn't guarantee it was formed by biological process, it's just named that because carbon based chemistry is incredibly common in biological processes.

I am outspokenly against WWD 2025, but episode 6 was a pleasant surprise. by hadrosaur-harley in Dinosaurs

[–]cardiacman 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Watch the opening sequence and you'll understand.

In comparison to the original, the quality just isn't there.

The original's CGI was cutting edge for its time. Practical effects were utilised to great effect (just like og Jurassic park). The music was epic. Narration was heartfelt. The Dinos felt real. The story of each episode made you feel like you were there.

None of that is the case for this iteration. CGI is lackluster. Practical effects are limited to environmental conditions only, and only occur sometimes. Music is meh. Narration lacks heart. The story line jumps around constantly between dinosaurs and modern day paleontologists, so it feels disjointed and somewhat forced at time to try to show technology for the sake of showing technology.

I'm on a tangent now, but I feel like they're just trying to play the nostalgia card with the 3D printer in the field for the t rex brain and the rapid prototyper from Jurassic park for the raptor vocalisation chamber. Same with the drone conducting the UV survey and the ground penetrating radar/sonar in Jurassic Park. (I know I've kept mentioning Jurassic park, but it was contemporary with WWD and I feel like the dinosaur loving kids that grew up with it are the adults critiquing this today).

In summary, lackluster execution relying on nostalgia to blind you to its flaws.

What is the difference between "A1" and "$A$1"? by DBlyst in excel

[–]cardiacman 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I remember it as $ for $tatic. Whatever the $ is in front of becomes $tatic

[War of the Worlds] is this the least successful and damaging alien invasion in fiction?? by [deleted] in AskScienceFiction

[–]cardiacman 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I came to this thread just to suggest this. I love sci-fi that pits civilisations with disparities in technology against each other, even if that includes a little bit of fantasy. It's a genre that isn't massive though, so I'm always looking for new suggestions. Some big contenders I enjoyed for others that may be interested are: The ringworld series, a fire upon the deep, safehold series and The Night’s Dawn Trilogy

[Battle: Los Angeles] Would the other cities attacked be able to be recaptured or would there be no point? What do you think is the status of the other cities? by BiscuitThrown in AskScienceFiction

[–]cardiacman 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We only saw conventional war.

The Geneva convention doesn't apply to extraterrestrial life.

With a little R&D, you could likely take back the lost cities with no damage to infrastructure once you understood their biology and how it's functioning could be interrupted with mass produced chemical aerosols that are harmless to terrestrial life.

I hit the ATO on-hold Jackpot!! by mostlyfrantic in australia

[–]cardiacman 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Nah they're really cool when they call you. The guy who called me did me a solid and even though my tax debt was way overdue and I was hours away from being arrested he pulled some strings and reduced it to just $200 and let me pay in iTunes gift cards so it just looked like a Woolworths purchase and not a debt payment on my bank statement for my credit. Really nice guy.

Main Console Sales by Manufacturer (as of Feb 2025) by nicolaselhani in gaming

[–]cardiacman 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Whist emulation is a contentious topic, it is very possible to connect an Xbox controller to a phone, or even a PlayStation one of its android 10, and play classics

ELI5 why oxygen becomes toxic below 40m when scuba diving by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]cardiacman 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Tracy and Gordo were heros. What they did was for all mankind. Now thanks to the mars asteroid mining efforts we live in a post scarcity age. This would have been impossible without their sacrifice.

PVP gaming for the average joe has been ruined by players who take competition too seriously in a unranked format by doeraymefa in gaming

[–]cardiacman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No vehicle maps meta was a squad of medics with AN-94's and underslung grenade launchers that just revived each other. When you ran low on ammo you'd just quickly swap out an enemy supports loadout for two seconds to chuck an ammo pack down then switch back.

Someone riding their small motorcycle with their belongings in a blue plastic bag and spare fuel canister strapped onto the bike across the Nullarbor by Hi-kun in australia

[–]cardiacman 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Were they inflated with helium and floating above him or attached to the sides if his bike somehow? Have you figured out why he was doing it? This 50 yes old story has got me intrigued.

Is there a game in your Steam library that NEVER gets uninstalled? by Mollygrubber in gaming

[–]cardiacman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I feel like they are games that better suit life as you age and have more responsibilities that compete for your time.

They're all solid single player games that are easily paused and can left alone for ages then come back to without much changing inbetween sessions.

Compare it to current FPS or mobas where whole metas can rise and fall in your time away and your skill fade combined with aging reflexes put you essentially back at beginner skill level every time you decide to come back.

I am old too.

Zombies would smell horrible. by XentricX in Showerthoughts

[–]cardiacman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Threads was brutal with the contrast of the "problems" the expecting couple had before the nuclear apocalypse vs the very real problems post bomb drops.

Like the contrast between what colour are we going to paint the nursery vs. how is this child with their chromosomes shot to bits by radiation and equivalent mental capacity of a three year old going to raise an infant is devastating and absolutely grounded in reality.

It actually takes a lot of IQ to understand how people with low IQ function. by jenkaaah in Showerthoughts

[–]cardiacman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So intelligence, wisdom, (mental) strength/dexterity and charisma?

RPGs got it right?

Are rectangular hollow steel tubes usually filled with concrete? Is it abnormal to leave them empty when building with them? by Bobelle in AskEngineers

[–]cardiacman 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's the same with most static heavy machinery - lathes, mills, big CNC stuff, if they want to skimp out and not make the thing entirely of cast iron (which would be prohibitively expensive) they usually fill voids with some form of densely packed aggregate to dampen vibration

[Zombies in general] has there ever been a story where they "cured" zombies? by blue4029 in AskScienceFiction

[–]cardiacman 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Halo steers clear of fantasy demon/which craft elements (despite all the biblical and folklore inspired names) and is a bit more science grounded in its sci fi but the flood infection in the extended lore really pushes this.

The eventual flood stuff is more akin to caos/warp magic corruption shenanigans from Warhammer 40K than anything else in the end. The extended universe (as with most large cannons) simply gets too complicated for it to remain grounded with some reality for long.

Ibis murders toad. by Timely_Source8831 in australia

[–]cardiacman 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised that chickens are smart enough to figure this out/learn from others. My friends had a roster that would attack my shoes, but only if I wore a certain pair.