1381

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Kerbal Space Program

« on: August 26, 2015, 03:27:13 PM »

I'm playing the career game.

There are a couple of mods that would greatly enhance the enjoyment of your career game, especially if you prefer to play in short bursts.  Science grinding can get super annoying.

• CapCom: Mission Control on the Go - A contract management window available in all scenes; accept, decline, or cancel contracts without going back to the Mission Control Center.
• Contract Window+ - A new, more flexible contract monitoring window.  Really useful for showing your progress toward completing mission objectives in real-time.
• KerbalScienceExchange - Lets you exchange science points and funding.  I often find myself with an abundance of cash and just a few of science points away from my next tech, and it's nice to be able to spend some cash for science over grinding for it.
• [X] Science - A Science Checklist plugin for KSP.  Basically it gives you a checklist of every science experiment you're capable of conducting and your progress toward them.  For instance, if you haven't yet produced a crew report from a splashed-down command pod, then there will be an item on the checklist for it telling you what to do and how much science you'll earn.  Really, really useful.

1382

Flat Earth Community / Re: infinite expanding flat earth is right, flat earth map and theory are wrong.

« on: August 24, 2015, 07:35:04 PM »

It doesn't pay half of what you'd think it does, especially since sequestration.  Smaller sites like this don't generate enough content to make the pay list anymore.

1383

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Kerbal Space Program

« on: August 24, 2015, 01:37:14 AM »

I like it because I can play for 20 mins and then just stop and do something else. You don't get dragged in for hours.

wait i thought this thread was about kerbal space program

1384

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Kerbal Space Program

« on: August 23, 2015, 03:43:54 PM »

I super duper recommend the CKAN mod manager: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100067-The-Comprehensive-Kerbal-Archive-Network-(CKAN)-Package-Manager-v1-12-0-30-Jul-2015

It's fantastic.  If you're playing KSP without any mods, then you're missing out on some great user content.  Especially MechJeb and SCANsat.

1385

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Kerbal Space Program

« on: August 20, 2015, 02:51:36 PM »

Oh, awesome, a new place for me to post KSP after action reports.  Spoiler alert: they almost always end the violent death of the crew krew.  I mean really, who has the time to see every Kerbal safely through to the end of the mission?

Here's a random smattering of some KSP screens I've emailed to people before:

The first solar eclipse I've ever seen in my whole life.  I wish it had been a real one, though...


Bill and Jeb managed to get into orbit around Tylo, but they didn't have enough fuel to land.  Since they obviously didn't have enough to get home, they decided that Tylo was as good a place as any to rest in peace.  Jeb was a little pissed at Bill after their 13-month voyage (something about hogging the Xbox), so he decided to bail at the last moment and watch Bill die just moments before his own death.


This is the first tin can I ever put into orbit using the Real Solar System and Realism Overhaul mods.  Space is fucking hard.

1386

Flat Earth Theory / Re: What would it take?

« on: August 19, 2015, 11:20:32 PM »

IRAS sky survey data sets and documentation:

http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/iras.html

Sorry, insufficient and incomplete data. As expected, they only give us just enough to keep us in the dark.


Regarding The Black Sun, Rahu, Nibiru, the 2nd Moon, 3753 Cruithne:

"The Washington Post published an interview with JPL scientists (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Gerald Neugebauer, IRAS chief scientist said: "All I can say is that we know what it is." NASA observes Nibiru SPT from his new telescope located at the South Pole, all governments know this….” —Cosmoecóloga, 14/9/11

http://cosmoecologos.blogspot.com/2011/09/el-planeta-x-nibiru.html

So the IRAS scan gave them a good idea of what the "dark star" is; but they have no intention of letting us in on any of the details - which is why I know that link above is crap. This is why I said we would need all their data, and be able to duplicate their experiments, and then some.


—

The Washington Post article has been misquoted: "So mysterious is the object that astronomers do not know if it is a planet, a giant comet, a nearby "protostar" that never got hot enough to become a star, a distant galaxy so young that it is still in the process of forming its first stars or a galaxy so shrouded in dust that none of the light cast by its stars ever gets through.

"All I can tell you is that we don't know what it is," Dr. Gerry Neugebauer..."

There isn't anything mysterious about those observations.  The IRAS data is publicly available and has been scrutinized by other scientists who have since published their analyses of the unidentified infrared sources you describe:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1985AJ.....90.2203A
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1988ApJ...328..530E
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1985ApJ...290L...5H

You do not explain in what sense the IRAS data sets I linked are insufficient or incomplete. 

1387

Flat Earth Theory / Re: What would it take?

« on: August 19, 2015, 03:28:36 PM »

IRAS sky survey data sets and documentation:

http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/iras.html

1388

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: August 13, 2015, 05:04:40 AM »

I just picked up Pillars of Eternity.  I'll probably write more after I get into it more, but for now I can see why it's been so highly reviewed.  It took me at least 471 hours just to make up my mind on all of the different options in the character creator.

1389

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Fox News Republican candidate debates

« on: August 11, 2015, 06:03:42 PM »

At this point, I'd vote for any candidate who pledged to change the voting structure even if I disagreed with them on every other issue.

I feel the same way, but on education reform; especially funding.  Property taxes are ruining everything.  I think I could tolerate virtually any other platform so long as the number one campaign promise was to completely nationalize primary and secondary public education.

1390

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: August 11, 2015, 05:38:23 AM »

Could you seriously keep a straight face when one guy said, "A full moon is the best time to ratify alliances"?

Full Moon is likely the name of the orgy party.  The line is "Full moon is the best time to ratify alliances."  And check out the orgy invitation: http://i.imgur.com/Zz1oNRD.png

I don't think that Genuine Gumshoe is trying to sound like both a western and hardboiled.  I just mean that, like hardboiled fiction, westerns have as a feature of the genre a unique sort of dialogue that helps to define it.  The Searchers has some obnoxious dialogue, but to say that it suffers from poorly written dialogue is to ignore what it's trying to be. 

I don't mean to pester the point, it's just a common criticism of the show that I don't get.  I think the dialogue is taken much too seriously.  Although L&O isn't hardboiled, maybe a good analogy would be to Lenny Briscoe (a clear homage to the genre).  You're not supposed to think that Lenny's one-liners are brilliant or insightful or meaningful or some kind of misguided showcase by the writers.  It's just Lenny, and that's the sort of shit his character says.  Rustin Cohle is the Lenny Briscoe who moved to Louisiana and never got clean.

1391

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread

« on: August 11, 2015, 02:12:41 AM »

Well the Blue Jays are fucking awesome right now.  The Yankees were totally smothered by our pitching on the weekend and we had some extremely timely hitting.  Hopefully we can repeat these results next weekend when the Yankees come to Toronto!

Your dudes played a great series against the Royals.  That's about as hard as anyone has pummeled our pitching staff in a long time.  We don't often lose a game when we have the lead in the 7th.  It's like just stop hitting the ball already goddamn.

also omg johnny cueto i wish we could keep him forever and ever and ever and ever

1392

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched

« on: August 11, 2015, 02:07:49 AM »

i know this is super annoying, but basically everything i want to say about this season contains spoilers, so i'm going to use the spoiler tag for the whole thing.  i realize this means that literally no one will read it or respond to it, but my thoughts are really important and deserving of being recorded for however long it takes for parsifal to accidentally spill some laphrofag on the tiny calculators that internets this place.

This is the best example that I can think of to sum up my feelings toward this season: In one of the final scenes we see Jordan holding a baby, and it's immediately revealed to be Ani's and Frank's.  I hate this decision.  Writing the baby as belonging to Jordan would've tied a lot of the show's themes together really well.  It would have made sense of Frank's impotence and Jordan's regular insistence that Frank always has the choice to step away from the table.  The baby becomes a metaphor for the bounty that could've been available to Frank had he been willing to make that choice, one that Jordan reaps because she was ultimately willing to.  Making the baby belong to Ani does nothing for me.  I can't think of what it adds to her story or character, unless their point was  "yeah this lady-cop can finally be happy or whatever now cause she finally has a baby."

Also, Frank isn't supposed to die of a stab wound in the desert.  I hate that.  I don't get the point in basically tricking the viewer into anticipating a Tony Montana ending and then doing him like a character in The Wire.  In The Wire it has a context: "in case you forgot, this is fucking Baltimore."  I just don't think it makes any sense or adds to his story at all to just be like "lol jk he dies in the desert for basically no reason."  The nihilism of it doesn't automatically make it more interesting.

Season 2 for me wasn't awful.  The writing actually did a lot to save it for me.  Once I got used to their roles, I also thought the performances by the leads were all pretty awesome.  But, I think it failed at executing virtually everything else it was trying to do.  Oddly, I still think it's worth watching if you enjoyed the first season.

Also I definitely didn't get the "white man's burden" in season 1.  I still think you're just evaluating the dialogue on the wrong criteria.  It's like watching a western and complaining about how no one talks like that.  No shit; it's a western.  That's a feature of the genre.  That's especially apropos of this season since they've included so many elements of the western genre.  True Detective isn't trying to sound like Law & Order.  It's supposed to sound like Dragnet.  It's supposed to sound like a dime store hardboiled detective novel like Maltese Falcon.  It's not merely an homage; that's literally what it's trying to be.

1393

Flat Earth Community / Re: Which space missions do you consider to be legitimate?

« on: August 09, 2015, 02:27:07 PM »

Don't flatter yourselves, the FES is not on NASA'a radar (or anybody else's for that matter).

I have been personally approached by both NASA and the Library of Congress regarding this site.

Why did NASA and the LoC approach you about FES?  Not a jab, just curious.

1394

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread

« on: August 04, 2015, 12:45:26 AM »

The Ashes!

Cardiff looked like a new dawn after getting thoroughly spanked 5-0 in Australia, but then we lose by 400 at Lords! bowled for 103 in 37 overs on a flat wicket? The Ausies were back.
But then Edgbaston, Finn, back from the dead to bowl 6-79, it looked like we could end it all in two days, but the Ausie tail dug in leaving us to chase 121, at 51-2 things looked shaky but up steps Root to stand with Bell who needed that 65 to silence those who said he was finished, 32 overs in all and England win by eight wickets.
So on to Trent Bridge (Thursday) with no James Anderson and it all to play for.

Are you talking about Magic: The Gathering?

1395

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Witcher Series

« on: July 29, 2015, 11:25:30 PM »

Final free DLC is a new game difficulty setting after you finish. Keep your character, gear, exp and get tougher monsters. This was one thing I really wanted, and I'm so happy CD Projekt Red had it planned.

That's really awesome.  It's an excellent incentive for me to finish the game.

1396

Technology & Information / Re: The Windows 10 thread

« on: July 29, 2015, 10:06:37 PM »

My understanding is that although one can upgrade to Windows 10 from a pirated version, it won't be activated.

1397

Technology & Information / Re: The Windows 10 thread

« on: July 29, 2015, 06:50:43 PM »

I did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro this morning.  As a marginally-advanced-at-best user, the only changes I've yet noticed are UI tweaks.

10/10 would window again

1398

Flat Earth Community / Re: NASA making a right mess of things

« on: July 28, 2015, 07:54:18 PM »

I also can't find a source for this photo.  Nevermind, I found the source.  Google image was of no help, though.  https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-captures-epic-earth-image

I did, however, discover that Thork is naildownx.

https://www.reddit.com/user/naildownx/

1399

Arts & Entertainment / Re: FES Book Club

« on: July 28, 2015, 03:51:13 PM »

I know Stalingrad is supposed to be well good. I might bump it up my to-read list.

Stalingrad is decent as fuck.  Stalingrad and Leningrad were my favorites of the bunch and easily the most accessible.  I think Stalingrad is the better military history, and I think Leningrad is the better narrative history.  Stalingrad was like reading some epic war saga; Leningrad was the bigger emotional roller-coaster.  Going to a grocery store now kinda makes me want to cry from joy.

Reading Leningrad has also absolutely convinced me that I should probably keep a 6-month supply of foodstuffs in storage.

1400

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: New titles

« on: July 26, 2015, 05:22:42 PM »

custom titles plz