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[Max™]

--snip--

I giggled.

I mean, with a properly taught horse and good saddle it's literally just "stay on top, don't kick the sides unexpectedly, pull a bit on one side or the other to go that way, both to slow entirely" and gloves+mask would work for costumes.

[feelotraveller]

So, I was wondering what it should be called. British 'counterpart' to Galileo, so something like Newton?

Sinclair on the notion that it will likely succeed and then fail spectacularly within a few years?

IMBanks because chances are it will become a well known (science) fiction? 
Or following that thought, since it is vaguely sort of a spaceship - Totally Not Going To Fail, This Time.

[Max™]

Banks is not nearly widely known enough considering how awesome the universe he painted is, it's a damn shame that more people probably learned of the Culture due to the references on SpaceX barge names than due to the books themselves.

[Starver]

Electron 13: Mahia, we have a problem...

(Well, I'm not triskaidekaphobic, but it had to be commented on. And I'm sure the "scanning military radars" experiment had no-one hoping it would fail, either.)

edit for two typos, would you believe... And another because of a typo in this add-on text

[Il Palazzo]

Have you seen the comet? The end* is nigh.

*of its best visibility

[LordBaal]

For a moment I read the title of this thread on the reply list as Spice Thread.

[Il Palazzo]

Hey, baby. Are you Kwisatz Haderach? 'Cause I wanna spice up your life.
Hey, baby. You must be a thumper, 'cause I have a wormsign in my pants.
Hey, baby. You're so hot, I wouldn't enter you without a stillsuit.
Hey, baby. Are you a Bene Gesserit? 'Cause I wanna drug you up and have an orgy if you survive.
Hey, baby. Do you have a Maker Hook? 'Cause you might not be able to handle my worm without it.

[Starver]

With two Mars missions now just set off, in the last few days, I thought I'd bump the thread before we know if the third due one actually goes ahead with Perserverence+Inginuity atop, after its delays, next week.

Or are we just a little bored of going to Mars? Even with a helicopter?

[Cthulhu]

Here's a paper discussing the possibility of blowing up the sun with a targeted nuclear bomb in order to ? ? ? because ? ? ?

I'm no expert in blowing up the sun, but it seems legit?  Using the same principal as a hydrogen bomb to create the temperature and pressure needed for runaway fusion, which would propagate that temperature and pressure through the rest of the sun.

[LordBaal]

I'm no expert in blowing up the sun.

Your name would indicate otherwise, or you are more of a expert on sea stuff.

Anyway, luckily I am, in fact the last time I blew it up was so good it hasn't finished blowing up and it think it will keep going for a few billion years more.

[wierd]

Its a paper about awareness if Dr Stangelove level mad science, and the pyrrhic behavior of sick and or dying tyrants.

The intent is to explain how such a scenario can occur so as to systemically forbid it from happening.

[LordBaal]

I stoped reading after the mad dictator in their final age migth need thousands of people to pull it off and take humanity wih him..... Not counting the magical delivery system to protect something as relatively delicated as an hydrogen bomb from the sun itself, among a million things else.

Not because is not amusing but because Im working. Good stuff for later.

[Telgin]

I only skimmed the paper, but it mentions needing the warhead to survive as much as 10 minutes inside of the sun's interior, which may well be impossible.  I don't know if any kind of real technology would ever permit that.

I'm also a bit skeptical that a 5-10 megaton bomb could actually do what they're suggesting, since it seems like the kinds of energy levels we'd see in nature hitting stars, and stars don't seem to explode except by known mechanisms.  I guess stellar collisions probably don't normally make it so deep into the star.

[Akura]

Huh, I always figured that if the sun ever started to cool off, causing Earth to freeze, you'd just send a group of mentally unstable people to suicide-bomb the sun with a nuclear bomb to make Earth warm again. Of course, the leader of these suicide bombers will need to stare at the sun the entire trip.

[Starver]

Huh, I always figured that if the sun ever started to cool off, causing Earth to freeze, you'd just send a group of mentally unstable people to suicide-bomb the sun with a nuclear bomb to make Earth warm again. Of course, the leader of these suicide bombers will need to stare at the sun the entire trip.

That doesn't sound right. You'd need at least two such missions, in case the first one went wrong and decided to just sit in the Sun for a long time.