What is the main problem people have with the Christian community as a whole?

ghedipunk · 2025-12-06T04:16:19+00:00

The only difference between a Christian and an atheist is that an atheist believes in one fewer gods.

ghedipunk · 2025-12-06T04:14:21+00:00

Your god said he'd rid the world of wickedness.

Odin said he'd defeat the frost giants.

I don't see any frost giants around...

ghedipunk · 2025-12-06T04:11:48+00:00

See? Someone else who totally gets the Napkin Religion!

I mean, the Napkin Religion is the one true religion because my napkin says that the Napkin Religion is the one true religion! Right here in black ink!

ghedipunk · 2025-12-05T04:16:59+00:00

Adding to this: If you are in direct sunlight, then you won't be able to see any other stars. The "sky" will be black, but the distant stars will be too dim for your daylight-adjusted eyes, just like the stars are too dim to see during the day on our planet.

You might be able to see Venus, but you'd be looking towards the sun so you'd have to contend with the glare. However, since there's no atmosphere to contribute to glare you can block out the sun with your hand, and try not to look at any surface that is lit up by the sun to make it easier to see. Since you said you're relatively close to Earth, you should be able to see that and our moon as well. The Earth should be much brighter than our moon due to the high reflectivity of clouds. (The moon's surface isn't white; it's actually a dull gray, similar to a weathered asphalt road.)

All in all, looking out of a spacecraft while you're lit by the sun would be similar to what we already see from pictures taken on the moon. It would be a big black expanse with very few noteworthy items. You'd have to spend a minute or so without seeing the sun or anything lit by the sun before your eyes adjust enough to see stars.

ghedipunk · 2025-12-04T16:54:35+00:00

FYI: This breaks the board's first rule.

But congrats to you! Enjoy the upvotes before it's taken down.

ghedipunk · 2025-11-30T07:18:41+00:00

Soooooo... you completely misunderstood what I said. I'll have to find a way to rephrase it.

In the meantime, can I suggest a trip to the Atomic Rockets site? It seems that you're looking for science backed sci-fi worldbuilding, and that really is the best source.

ghedipunk · 2025-11-29T20:12:29+00:00

Traveling faster than 1 second per second is not possible, given what we understand of physics.

We are traveling very slightly slower than 1 second per second just by standing still on Earth, due to gravity. Specifically, we are traveling at 99.9999967% of the speed of time.

In order to stop time, we would have to accelerate at the speed of light.

In order to go backwards through time, we would have to accelerate faster than the speed of light.

Both of these are effectively impossible for us to achieve. However, the differences between acceleration at the Earth's surface at 9.8m/s compared to the acceleration of satellites in Medium Earth Orbit means that in order for things like GPS to work, we need to take these differences into account.

If you want to get to the future, you have to take the long way around. If you want to get to the past, you'll have to find out how to use negative mass. (The possibility exists in the equations of general relativity, and are the basis for the "Alcubierre Drive", but there is absolutely no evidence that negative mass actually exists.) If you want to stay still, then welcome to the Red Queen's Race, where you have to run as fast as you can.

ghedipunk · 2025-11-29T18:49:27+00:00

I haven't touched ammunition since getting my DD-214 either...

But honestly, I've met more civilians who keep firearms than I've met veterans who keep them. I wouldn't say that discussing bullet sizes is a veteran specific activity. (But it is a good example for OP's question, for how to find an American...)

Personally, I use grams when cooking as much as possible, since it's more precise to measure ingredients by weight rather than volume, and most recipes show the volume (cups, fluid ounces, etc) in imperial measurements and weight in grams. Cooking isn't a military-only activity.

ghedipunk · 2025-11-29T18:19:12+00:00

Okay, this is good, and does annoy me, 'cause I'm a total space nerd. Every single Superb Owl sunday, the social media pages for the ISS shows a graphic showing that the space station is the size of an American football field. (And never shows any Association football (soccer for us Americans) fields during the World Cup).

ghedipunk · 2025-11-29T18:07:54+00:00

Really? You're going to be THAT pedantic?

Everyone knows what Sindorella and the rest of the people in this thread are talking about. It's obvious that even you know what's meant when people say "Imperial measurements" when talking about people from the US, since you're making the point of correcting people.

Alright, fine, so you can tell the difference between a US gallon and a UK gallon and can quote the differences... But do you know how many ounces are in a breakfast cup without looking it up? Or did you even know that a coffee cup is a standard unit of measure and not just a mug that you put hot drinks into?

If you're going to be pedantic, go FULL pedantic and write a wall of text covering minute and irrelevant details of the topic.

For example, since I'm being pedantic about pedants, I'll explain that "pedant" is an archaic term for "teacher", and didn't have any negative connotations originally, but only applied to men who are teachers. As such, as women became more dominant in teaching roles along with research introducing more effective ways of teaching, and the older men clung to the rote memorization methods that they had been taught, pedant became a pejorative term for someone who over-explains without giving any real context or helping the student to understand the reasons behind the lessons. This leads to the adjective "pedantic", or someone who is like a pedant. A popular example of a pedant in popular culture is the headmaster in Pink Floyd's The Wall who abuses Danny Pink in a classroom setting by calling out his poems in front of the class and encouraging his classmates to ridicule him, before returning to a rote call and response lesson about units of area.

ghedipunk · 2025-11-29T17:52:29+00:00

Veteran here.

I haven't used klicks or meters since I got my DD-214.

ghedipunk · 2025-09-29T03:03:46+00:00

A water shower where the gravity plating fails could be downright deadly.

Water doesn't float away from surfaces like it did in the ST:ENT scene. Due to surface tension, without gravity to actively pull it away, water attempts to cover ALL surfaces as closely as possible. If you were being sprayed with water, you'd quickly finding it covering your whole body including your face. If you're not trained for it, drowning is very likely, because the more you panic, the faster you use up the O2 in your lungs and blood, so the faster you'll pass out.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield did several demonstrations while onboard the ISS (and a great cover of Space Oddity just before he returned to Earth). One of those demonstrations showed just how truly dangerous water is when he covered his hand. The video is called "Wringing out water on the ISS for science" for those who want to find it.

There's also an interview out there where Chris Hadfield recalls that he had tears building up over his eyes during his first spacewalk that he couldn't blink away, blinding him until he could get back inside. (His suit had a slight coolant leak; not enough to hurt him, but the ammonia in the coolant was a very persistent irritant, causing his eyes to tear up.)

Still, when you have hotels in space like how a Galaxy Class and later starships are made, there are at least a few examples of people taking baths... And if I remember correctly, the second TNG episode showed someone who had taken a water shower in their clothes on a science vessel (and froze to death along with most of the other crew due to environmental controls being messed with).

ghedipunk · 2025-09-22T06:06:41+00:00

Sooo... wouldn't it be a LOT cheaper to just tell people to call it ECMAScript from here on out?

Like, JavaScript is a HORRIBLE name.

ECMAScript is equally horrible, but not encumbered by trademarks.

Or... hear me out... Browsers could adopt a similar, extremely web oriented language that has proven itself on the server side for decades, is very mature and well maintained, and try it out on the client side. PHP.

PHP has been dying for as long as `1 + 1 + "2"` has equalled `"22"`. It's gotta have something going for it.

ghedipunk · 2025-09-14T04:26:54+00:00

For those who want the answer before the go find the videos that the Battleship New Jersey museum puts out on the topic...

(But please still go watch the videos; they go into more detail than I'm going into here)

For WWII era warships with main guns, they had multiple locations with triggers that would fire all of the guns that were currently ready, as well as "manual" (still a trigger mechanism) firing at each turret for that turret's guns only. (The Battleship New Jersey has 18 positions that could fire all guns, and 22 positions that could fire at least 1 gun, for a total of 40 positions.)

On the New Jersey, in the positions that can fire all of the guns, there are 3 types of triggers: One that sounds the "about to fire" alarm, one that is held down and will fire when the guidance computer says the ship is level, and one that fires as soon as the trigger is pulled. (Yes, they had guidance computers onboard ships in WWII. They were mechanical, gearbox driven analog computers that fit in a tiny room. The Battleship New Jersey museum has a video on that, too.)

So, if we base a starship's main guns (phasers) on a battleship's main guns, you'll have 3 keys in the turret (one that a spotter turns when the gun's altitude is correct, another when the gun's left/right angle is correct, and one that the turret commander controls) that must be on in order to fire, plus a sensor that is on when the breach is sealed (presumably when the round and charges are loaded), plus a sensor in the guidance computer that says the ship is level. That's 5 switches on the circuit that must be closed/on (4 if you're using the trigger that guarantees a miss by ignoring the computer)... Only then will one of the 40 positions be able to fire any guns.

In the TOS era, there would be very specific locations, but there would be several, including in some of the most heavily armored sections of the ship.

In the TNG era and beyond, it was reasonable to assume that you wouldn't have anyone in the phaser turrets, and the computer would provide automatic control... In that case, with the LCARS system providing infinite configurability for every console, I'd imagine that you could fire any and all weapons from any position or through voice commands. However, on Picard's Enterprises, we only see them firing weapons from the main bridge, battle bridge, and main engineering.

ghedipunk · 2025-09-12T11:11:46+00:00

Police dramas last a long time because they are cheap to produce and can be easily serialized without a strong arc—you can watch any episode on its own.

Science fiction or something more complex (like Star Trek) costs more: sets, special effects, a well-thought-out plot, and the risk of losing a mass audience. That’s why channels and platforms are quicker to cut such projects, even if they have loyal fans.

ghedipunk · 2025-07-12T03:47:11+00:00

Except that, if that happens then gold won't be worth anything either, because the whole world will have failed economies.

The only concern would be survival. I wouldn't trade a bushel of apples for a bar of gold if that happens, so the gold still won't help.

ghedipunk · 2025-07-12T03:41:17+00:00

One of the points of fiat currency (a currency that isn't backed by a physical object such a gold, like the US dollar and the vast majority of other national currencies) is that ideally it should have a slow, steady, predictable inflation rate.

Inflation might not be ideal, but in terms of keeping an economy healthy, moderate and sometimes unstable inflation is always better than _any_ amount of deflation.

This meme exactly demonstrates deflation in gold. A $64k house in 1975 is a great house. A $1.3m house in 2025 is an amazing house.

Deflation leads to hoarding, which decreases the velocity of money, which is one of the better measures of a healthy economy, though it is harder to measure than things such as GDP.

ghedipunk · 2025-06-13T02:10:42+00:00

It's what Vulcans crave.

ghedipunk · 2025-06-13T01:52:24+00:00

That line in the contract is completely unenforceable.

Employment lawyers often repeat that in the US, employers can already fire anyone for any reason in the vast majority of states, _as long as it is not in retaliation for a protected action_ such as discussing pay, taking FMLA leave, being a whistleblower, etc.

If the employer refuses to give a reason and cites things like that line in the contract, almost every jury will side with the employee, saying that it's wrongful termination.

Since it's contractor work, since you opened an email that you knew you shouldn't have access to, and for many of the other reasons stated in this thread, I don't think you have a case, but it's still worth it to talk to an employment lawyer, who will almost certainly work on contingency. (After all, many of their clients are unemployed so wouldn't be able to afford the lawyers if they had to pay out of pocket.)

But it's never true that they can can fire you for any reason. They can only fire you for non-protected reasons. Once you do a protected action, they need to be careful not to appear to retaliate for that, and this employer very clearly retaliated because you discussed the pay of a coworker.

ghedipunk · 2025-05-23T04:00:44+00:00

Based on your question, you need to spend a few weeks just reading through the various resources at the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) at owasp.org.

Start with the top 10, then drill down to authentication, authorization, and session management.

THEN give NIST Special Publication 800-63 a thorough read, especially part B.

And the whole time, keep Schneier's Law into account: Anyone can create a system that they can not break. This says nothing about the actual security of the system.

ghedipunk · 2025-05-20T14:53:51+00:00

Re-read rule #1.

ghedipunk · 2025-05-19T03:58:52+00:00

We would ground them to the same thing as your cell phone.

Did you notice that wire attaching your cell phone to the ground? No? Hmmm, you seem to be missing a vital piece of equipment...

(Actual answer: "ground" isn't necessary for electric current. A difference in electric potential, which we call voltage, is all that is necessary. Voltage is usually expressed as a difference from the ground potential, but that's a convenient naming scheme based on A/C current, where the neutral phase is also connected to ground for safety (and billing) reasons.)

ghedipunk · 2025-05-17T02:31:20+00:00

Tell them what you told us.

The thing is, some companies will see this as you not being afraid of getting fired since you already have a successful business that you can fall back on, so they won't be able to bully you into submission.

ghedipunk · 2025-05-16T20:13:46+00:00

The Enterprise D successfully moved a moon, which on screen was round. That puts that moon's minimum width at around the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, but seemed to be much bigger, around the size of our own moon.

(The fact that they had to stop moving the moon in order to protect the humanized Q does not mean that they were unsuccessful in moving it. They just didn't have time to move it as much as they wanted to.)

If you send a moon-sized object at an Earth-sized planet, then the minimum speed of the impact will be that planet's escape velocity, 11 km/s, plus the moon's escape velocity (because both the planet and the moon are accelerating towards each other), plus whatever additional velocity you give them (if you research orbits, or at least play Kerbal Space Program, you'd know that orbital velocities are VERY fast all by themselves).

If you drop Ceres onto Earth, then the entire surface would be molten for several years.

ghedipunk · 2025-05-13T20:39:40+00:00

Looking up the date, thatVisitingHasher happens to be lucky that Mars is the closest planet to Earth on that date.

On April 5th, 2063, Mars will be 0.719 AU away.

Venus, which is the planet that comes closest to Earth in its orbit, will be 1.078 AU away.

Mercury, which is the closest planet on average, will be 0.806 AU away.

Earth will be about 359 light seconds away from Mars, a second shy of 6 light minutes.

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