I Had A Random Thought...

[TychoCelchuuu]

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/index.html

[Frenetic Pony]

Colonies in friggen space man:

 

 

 

I need to tweet this to Ken Levine, just be like "Bioshock, IN SPACE." And it could be like Cold War era late 70's stuff, communism and paranoia and whatever. Have magic cyborg retro futuristic stuff.

[elmuerte]

Spaceshock!

 

wait... that sounds like systemshock

[Frenetic Pony]

Spaceshock!

 

wait... that sounds like systemshock

 

Except now you've got Levine's political machinations involved, and you could have it be a spinning cylinder ala:

 

 

Which could just look friggen amazing on next gen consoles and UE4. A 24 hour earth orbit, near geostationary but not quite. Giant moving mirrors on the sides of those giant windows to reflect daylight constantly towards the sections not currently pointed towards the sun. How awesome would that look! And you lose your fake gravity towards the center, you could have entire sections of low "gravity" as you're high up, and a zero gee section in the center.

 

Or maybe make it 80's, crime ridden pollution filled stuff, the neutron bomb and The Dead Kennedy's "Kill kill kill kill the poor tonight!" playing in the background. Military buildup paranoia to "defeat the enemy".

[Twig]

Goddamnit I love ring colonies. They're so fucking rad!

[SecretAsianMan]

Goddamnit I love ring colonies. They're so fucking rad!

 

Have I got a game for you.  It's called Halo.

 

I'm really more of a Dyson sphere man myself.

[Twig]

If only halo was fun!

[Gormongous]

 

Why do they always have roofs for ringworlds? If it's spinning fast enough to have gravity, it's spinning fast enough to hold atmo.

[Frenetic Pony]

Why do they always have roofs for ringworlds? If it's spinning fast enough to have gravity, it's spinning fast enough to hold atmo.

 

Depends entirely on the height of the walls actually. Remember, the atmosphere goes up on earth pretty far and we have uh, earth gravity. That is, earth has over 350km (over 200 miles) of atmosphere in height. A couple dozen meters definitely isn't enough to contain an atmosphere by gravity alone.

 

Heck one of the reasons Mars looks the way it does now is that water vapor can actually leak into outer space, because it's too light to be contained by Mar's weak gravity.

[Twig]

It wouldn't have the gravity in the first place if there was no atmosphere. That is, pressure of atmosphere to actually push the things outward. The spinning alone isn't what generates the gravity. Also atmosphere probably is not the right word when we're not dealing with spheres but well whatever.

At least, that's how I understand it. Could be way wrong!

[Gormongous]

Depends entirely on the height of the walls actually. Remember, the atmosphere goes up on earth pretty far and we have uh, earth gravity. That is, earth has over 350km (over 200 miles) of atmosphere in height. A couple dozen meters definitely isn't enough to contain an atmosphere by gravity alone.

 

Heck one of the reasons Mars looks the way it does now is that water vapor can actually leak into outer space, because it's too light to be contained by Mar's weak gravity.

 

Right, half a mile of wall should be enough, from the last time I read anything that indulged in theoretical habitat design. I know it's more about concept artists wanting something that looks plausible to human brains, which involves "protecting" inhabitants from the space right above their heads, but still. Still still still.

[elmuerte]

Screw Dyson sphere's, Möbius strip is the only way to go

[Dewar]

Right, half a mile of wall should be enough, from the last time I read anything that indulged in theoretical habitat design. I know it's more about concept artists wanting something that looks plausible to human brains, which involves "protecting" inhabitants from the space right above their heads, but still. Still still still.

 

That assumes that the air spins at the same rate as the actual station. That could be difficult to setup properly without a lid there at first and, once it's there, why bother removing it.

[Zeusthecat]

I've been randomly thinking about the alphabet a lot lately. Specifically the first half versus the second half. I wonder why all the reject letters got stuck on the second half while the first half has all the awesome letters. It's like N, O, R, S, and T do all the heavy lifting while all the other letters just sit there, barely contributing. Meanwhile, the first half only has J and K as somewhat weak letters and a bunch of rockstar letters that get used all the time. Not only are they used more in words but musical notes are named after them, vitamins are named after them, and they are usually the only letters that show up if someone uses a lettered list over a numbered one.

 

Despite all of this I am a big fan of the second half of the alphabet. I always root for the underdog.

[melmer]

[Twig]

That assumes that the air spins at the same rate as the actual station. That could be difficult to setup properly without a lid there at first and, once it's there, why bother removing it.

Yeah that's basically what I was trying to say, but easier to understand.

[tegan]

I've been randomly thinking about the alphabet a lot lately. Specifically the first half versus the second half. I wonder why all the reject letters got stuck on the second half while the first half has all the awesome letters. It's like N, O, R, S, and T do all the heavy lifting while all the other letters just sit there, barely contributing. Meanwhile, the first half only has J and K as somewhat weak letters and a bunch of rockstar letters that get used all the time. Not only are they used more in words but musical notes are named after them, vitamins are named after them, and they are usually the only letters that show up if someone uses a lettered list over a numbered one.

 

Despite all of this I am a big fan of the second half of the alphabet. I always root for the underdog.

 

 

Consider the fact that of the six most commonly-used letters (R, S, T, L, N, and E), four of them reside in the second half of the alphabet. Three out of six vowels can also be found in the latter half.

[elmuerte]

Am I looking as the song text of that Rick Astley song?

[Twig]

I consume at least seven grams of vitamin Z per day.

[Ucantalas]

Consider the fact that of the six most commonly-used letters (R, S, T, L, N, and E), four of them reside in the second half of the alphabet. Three out of six vowels can also be found in the latter half.

Does anyone always read "R,S,T,L,N,E" as "R.L Stine"? Every time it popped up on Wheel Of Fortune I instantly assumed RL Stine. I still do, actually.

[shammack]

Does anyone always read "R,S,T,L,N,E" as "R.L Stine"? Every time it popped up on Wheel Of Fortune I instantly assumed RL Stine. I still do, actually.

 

YES. Every time.

[Zeusthecat]

 

 

Consider the fact that of the six most commonly-used letters (R, S, T, L, N, and E), four of them reside in the second half of the alphabet. Three out of six vowels can also be found in the latter half.

Well done Tegan. I don't know if I want to know how long it took you to parse all those letters out.

One other interesting thing about the alphabet is that everyone speeds up "LMNOP" when they recite it. It's amazing how deeply ingrained that nursery rhyme is.

[BadHat]

It's even the name of a moderately successful kiwi band from the early 2ks.

 

[jmbossy]

My three or so year old nephew watches some weird show with an Alphabet Pig (?) And a bunch of word related super heroes. Point being the Pig sings the alphabet in a different melody for no appearent reason. I asked my sister (his mother) and she says she thinks someone holds the rights to the traditional alphabet melody (ie Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) and so they can't use it on TV. Pretty sure that shit is public domain but I'm too lazy to investigate.

Edit: Did some googling... The pig is named "Alpha-Pig". Here is the bastardized alphabet he sings.

[brkl]

According to Wikipedia the original was first copyrighted in 1835, which would lead me to believe it's unlikely that copyright would still be worth much. Or people owe  Mozart helluva lot of money.