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Post by ironhold on Nov 27, 2013 7:30:17 GMT
in some Sci-Fi book (probably more than one by now): "Nuclear hand grenades - for soldiers with a strong throwing arm." In the original Starship Troopers novel, the mobile infantry troopers have an over-the-shoulder rocket launcher that can be mounted onto their power armor. In most instances, it's implied that these launchers use normal high-explosive warheads. However, nuclear warheads also exist. During a training simulation, Rico was flagged as having the unit's nuclear warhead. He got sloppy, however, and failed to completely verify that the rest of the unit was clear before firing it off. Because he failed to do so, he missed the fact that a fellow recruit who was flagged as "wounded" had not been evacuated from the area. The commander of the training battalion personally signed off on Rico receiving 10 lashes for being so careless. (In the book, it's explained that lashes are considered "administrative punishment" because the cuts heal over time, leaving minimal evidence that the soldier was ever punished; if they ever transfer to another unit, there's practically nothing against them in their record.)
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Post by Cybermortis on Nov 27, 2013 10:16:56 GMT
There is a minimum size you can make a nuclear weapon. Off the top of my head that size is somewhere around 50 lbs (The weight of a Davy Crocket was 51 lbs). This is small enough to fit in a large suitcase.
Now a 'dirty bomb' is a different matter entirely....
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Post by the light works on Nov 27, 2013 15:12:12 GMT
in some Sci-Fi book (probably more than one by now): "Nuclear hand grenades - for soldiers with a strong throwing arm." In the original Starship Troopers novel, the mobile infantry troopers have an over-the-shoulder rocket launcher that can be mounted onto their power armor. In most instances, it's implied that these launchers use normal high-explosive warheads. However, nuclear warheads also exist. During a training simulation, Rico was flagged as having the unit's nuclear warhead. He got sloppy, however, and failed to completely verify that the rest of the unit was clear before firing it off. Because he failed to do so, he missed the fact that a fellow recruit who was flagged as "wounded" had not been evacuated from the area. The commander of the training battalion personally signed off on Rico receiving 10 lashes for being so careless. (In the book, it's explained that lashes are considered "administrative punishment" because the cuts heal over time, leaving minimal evidence that the soldier was ever punished; if they ever transfer to another unit, there's practically nothing against them in their record.)was this the incident in the book that the incident with the helmet in the movie was drawn from? (I thought about reading the book, but it wasn't available in the library, and for whatever reason, I was not willing to pay money for it)
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Post by the light works on Nov 27, 2013 15:14:15 GMT
There is a minimum size you can make a nuclear weapon. Off the top of my head that size is somewhere around 50 lbs (The weight of a Davy Crocket was 51 lbs). This is small enough to fit in a large suitcase. Now a 'dirty bomb' is a different matter entirely.... however, a dirty bomb made from old smoke detectors as some people were pushing us to be paranoid about after 9/11, is completely unfeasible. we had a radiological event training exercise several years back, and the instructor told us the calculated number of smoke detectors it would take to make a dirty bomb of the magnitude they wanted us to be afraid of - and I don't remember the number, but it had a lot of zeroes involved.
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Post by ironhold on Nov 27, 2013 15:28:55 GMT
was this the incident in the book that the incident with the helmet in the movie was drawn from? (I thought about reading the book, but it wasn't available in the library, and for whatever reason, I was not willing to pay money for it) Sadly, yes. Director Paul Verhoeven hated the book, and so went out of his way to portray the government as being absolutely fascist; he missed the fact that Heinlen was simply trying to shock people into thinking about whether or not they were taking their freedoms for granted by portraying a world in which people had to earn even basic rights of citizenship the hard way. As a result, a lot got changed around in order to make the movie as deliberately horrible as possible. The fact that the movie started life as an entirely unrelated film was bad enough, but Verhoeven's deliberate changes coupled with there not being enough money to do things like "actually depict the power armor suits the individual troopers all have, forcing the soldiers to all be depicted running along in foot" resulted in a work that was "Starship Troopers" in name only. Among the other changes: *In the original book, the recruiter has prosthetic limbs to replace the ones he lost in battle. He deliberately does not wear them when he is serving as a recruiter, however, because he wants to frighten would-be recruits who do not have the stomach to face actual battle. *In the original book, Rico's teacher is Lieutenant Colonel DuBois, not Colonel Razak. DuBois takes an active interest in Rico's military career despite the pair having an adversarial relationship back in school, and when Rico earns a spot at the military academy DuBois writes a letter personally recommending Rico for a high honor. (The final exam for all academy graduates is to actually lead a team on a mission. Each would-be graduate is given a set of "training" pips marking them as a "third lieutenant", establishing them as an officer but putting them so far down that all other officers can countermand their orders if needs be. A detailed record is kept of who wore what set of pips for each mission, and DuBois requests that Rico be given the same set of pips DuBois had. Unfortunately, this set went MIA along with a previous would-be graduate... and so the commandant of the academy lets Rico use his pips instead.)*In the original book, Sergeant Zimm responds to the recruit's question about nuclear weaponry by engaging him philosophically rather than stabbing him. As Zimm notes, using a nuclear device to quell a hostile power is like using an axe to quell an unruly child: you've shown that you're in charge, but in the process you've destroyed everything worth saving. *In the original book, Rico's dad survives the destruction of Buenos Aires; he was out of town when it happened. He winds up enlisting in the military as well, and IIRC for a brief period after Rico receives his commission his dad serves as his sergeant.
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Post by the light works on Nov 27, 2013 15:59:21 GMT
I thought I recalled something about it being completely different from the book. and of course, I thought Rico was a total idiot for passing up on Diz from the beginning.
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Post by ironhold on Nov 28, 2013 3:24:16 GMT
In the book, the Mobile Infantry and the neo-dog handler corps are male-only. The only women that the average MI trooper will encounter during a normal combat operation are the various female crew members on board the transport, and since they're usually officers contact is minimal unless the trooper himself is also an officer. (In fact, in the book it notes that there is usually one or two MI troopers who are tasked with standing guard to the entrance to the section of the transport that serves as the officer's quarters; Rico got tasked with pulling guard duty at one point, and wound up utterly frustrated because he could hear the female crew members through the door.)
As far as the Dizzy character goes, not only is the character a guy in the book, he dies in the first chapter. Rico's unit is tasked with raiding a settlement consisting of "Skinnys", a group of aliens that chose to side with the bugs; the plan was for them to go in, burn the buildings down, and grenade any weapons stores that the Skinnys might have. The Skinnys weren't entirely unprepared for an assault, however, and so a few of them were able to retaliate.
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Post by the light works on Nov 28, 2013 4:48:04 GMT
well, no way to have a coed shower scene with that rule.
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Post by Lokifan on Nov 28, 2013 5:10:31 GMT
The weapon I liked was a hand grenade that Johnny threw into a large gathering of Skinnies that he accidentally got thrown into.
If I remember right, before it detonated, it said "I'm a thirty second bomb! 30...29...28...27..."
Pandemonium ensued.
Verhoeven saw the subject as a chance to comment on things he saw as a kid during WW2.
However, if you get a chance, the animated series was much better and closer to the spirit of the novel.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 13, 2014 1:50:11 GMT
I decided to watch the first episode of Star Trek Voyager the other day and a couple things stood out to me.
1. Voyager had to fight off the bad guys at the array at brought them across the galaxy. They figure out that they can use the array to send them back but it will take several hours. After they defeat the bad guys, they blow up the array so the bad guys can't use the tech. Bad guys are defeated, so why not go ahead and take the time to run the sequence to send them back and leave a couple torpedoes with time fuses behind to blow it up after they are sent back? 2. They make a big deal about how this part of the galaxy has very little water, making it vary valuable. They have faster than light travel, but they can't collect space born hydrogen and oxygen to make water? * 3. Why is it that everywhere the federation goes, EVERYONE outguns them? Even a portion of the galaxy that is less technically advance can still kick their butts and they can only survive by pulling some technical trick out of their hats?
* To their credit, I don't think they did anything with the water sub-plot passed the pilot episode.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jan 13, 2014 3:22:34 GMT
It was only the people living on the surface (the Kazon-Ogla) that didn't have water. The planet's sub-terrainian (Ocampa) race had water.
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Post by the light works on Jan 13, 2014 3:34:30 GMT
I decided to watch the first episode of Star Trek Voyager the other day and a couple things stood out to me. 1. Voyager had to fight off the bad guys at the array at brought them across the galaxy. They figure out that they can use the array to send them back but it will take several hours. After they defeat the bad guys, they blow up the array so the bad guys can't use the tech. Bad guys are defeated, so why not go ahead and take the time to run the sequence to send them back and leave a couple torpedoes with time fuses behind to blow it up after they are sent back? 2. They make a big deal about how this part of the galaxy has very little water, making it vary valuable. They have faster than light travel, but they can't collect space born hydrogen and oxygen to make water? * 3. Why is it that everywhere the federation goes, EVERYONE outguns them? Even a portion of the galaxy that is less technically advance can still kick their butts and they can only survive by pulling some technical trick out of their hats? * To their credit, I don't think they did anything with the water sub-plot passed the pilot episode. 1: because the series would have been over before it even started. (and as I recall, they only gained a short reprieve; not enough time to set up a return trip) 2: they didn't.(do anything further with it) it was just that planet that was short on water. 3: I think the official answer would be that the incidents where they don't have a narrow escape don't become episodes. actually, I would say that is the unofficial explanation as well.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 13, 2014 15:10:47 GMT
1; That was one of the most major nits to be mentioned about Voyager - namely that they should not have been stranded in the Delta Quadrant to start with. We should try to be fair here, and assume that a second Kason(sp?) fleet was on the way. Not that this was spelled out in the episode. Given that this was alien technology we can assume that Tuvok would have required some time to work out how the array's control systems worked - assuming that he also didn't have to deal with security systems. This would also explain why they didn't activate any of the array's weapon systems to help them during the fight.
2; As Light noted, water was scarce on the planets surface (and presumably on a lot of the planets in the area that the Kason controlled). Not that this entire area of the galaxy has little water, nor that they do not have the technology to make water. In the case of making water keep in mind here that you are talking about making water for the entire population of a planet not just the crew of a ship. Keep in mind that New York City, with a population of between 9-10 million uses some 1,172 million gallons of water PER DAY. You'd need a LOT of ships to produce that much water, let alone water for a population 100 times that size.
3; Up until Voyager we'd seen Constitution and Galaxy Class ships week in week out, followed by the Defiant. The first two were the largest and most powerful ships Starfleet had at that point (TOS and TNG respectively) while the Defiant was a dedicated warship. Voyager however was an Intrepid class ship, and while not the smallest starship type in use this class was quite small as well as principally being an 'explorer' type ship. Worth noting that Voyager's mission started prior to the Dominion war as well, so Voyager was fitted out mainly for science missions rather than combat. This is/was confirmed in the series bible at the time, and indeed the original actress to play Janeway played the character as a scientist first and a warrior second (Which is not how Janeway ended up as once Kate Mulgrew got the role). In this light it is not surprising, and in fact rather refreshing, to find that Voyager is outgunned on occasion. She IS referred to as being the most powerful ship in that region of space after she arrives, and certainly in a one on one fight she is seen to be quite capable of taking on just about anything the Delta Quadrant could throw at her for her first three or four years*. In the pilot however she is not fighting a one on one fight but an entire fleet. So while she out-guns and out classes her opponents individually, together they badly out-gun her and negate any advantage she might have in terms of speed and mobility.
(*Of course she later proves capable of surviving encounters with the Borg...you know the guys with ships ten times the size of the Enterprise D that proved quite capable of taking out a fleet of 39 Federation Starship's with little trouble....)
Other nits from the pilot are;
Voyager uses a Tricobolt weapon to destroy the array. This is a McGuffin as these devices have never been and never were mentioned as being part of the armament of any ship before or after this episode. In fact Seven of Nine in a much later episode uses the fact that such weapons are not normally issued to Federation ships, let alone a small ship such as Voyager, to conclude that Janeway deliberately stranded Voyager in the Delta Quadrant.
The Caretaker decides to 'help' the Ocampa before he dies by filling up their power storage units and blasting the entrances to there city closed. To do this he uses a device that...irradiates the planets crust. So he traps the Ocampa in underground caves and makes sure that even if they manage to dig themselves out before the power runs out they will end up trying to live on a radioactive world. Some help.
Just before Voyager is hit by the wave that sends it to the Delta Quadrant Janeway orders that all hands brace for impact. Her shortly to be toast first officer apparently thinks that 'Brace for impact' means 'run across the bridge and as far away from anything you can hold onto'. If you watch him closely his path takes him no where near any railings, consoles or his chair.
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Post by the light works on Jan 13, 2014 15:23:12 GMT
3*: keep in mind that Voyager is the first vessel with a Borg in their crew complement. this would theoretically give them an advantage against the Borg (and they also stuck with the smaller vessels as much as they could)
as for the caretaker - nobody ever claimed his behavior was rational.
and don't forget the running joke about them having all these technological advances and not knowing how to install seat belts.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 14, 2014 1:39:41 GMT
The seatbelt gag goes all the way back to TOS. They had some pseudo seatbelts in TMP (leg restraints that Kirk uses in the wormhole), but they didn't show up again for a LONG time. I do find it funny that they finally figured it out in Into Darkness, Star Trek had harnesses in the shuttles, but not the ship itself.
The water thing bugs me because they mention that there are several sects of Kazon. Some trade in food, some trade in metals, some weapons, and some water. So by that, demand is enough for a whole section of their society to be dedicated to the collection and trade of it. The principle of combining hydrogen and oxygen to form water has been know to us on earth for decades. For a society advanced enough to not only develop warp drive,* build ships as large as your average federation ship and powerful enough to outrun and outgun a federation ship, but conquer a good chunk of the local galaxy, the ability to develop a technology to mass produce water is to be expected, especially when a sect of their society is based on the selling of it, capitalism at work.**
Added evidance to the idea that they realised that the water subplot was a dumb idea is that they were visiting planets with oceans within a few episodes, long before they left Kazon space.
Another issue I have is the Borg. Memory Alpha states they be Borg have been around since before 1400 AD, By 2373 they hand conquered thousands of worlds. But in all the worlds the conquered, they had only catalogued 8,472 different species??? A single world should provide millions of species.*** Just look at earth. Maybe they use hexadecimal?
* I could see them stealing it, but they understand the principle enough to be able to build their own ships. ** I could see the argument that the water portion of Kazon society intentionally limits access to water. I could also see the Kazon-olga being on the water sect's naughty list and them not having access to their supplies. *** I don't buy the idea that they only number species they assimilate. The Kazon are listed as #329 and were deemed unworthy of assimilation.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 14, 2014 2:37:22 GMT
The species Borg are interested in are sentient species, who have culture and technology that can potentially be assimilated into the collective. In the case of the Kazon their technology presumably isn't advanced enough to interest the Borg. Hence the Borg have encountered only 8,472 sentient species - or maybe that is only sentient spacefaring species (or those who have advanced technology without space flight).
Kazon ships are smaller than Voyager, which is a medium to small sized ship by Starfleet standards. So clearly their ship construction and design capabilities are significantly lower than the Federations, and for that matter the abilities of all of the major factions in the Alpha Quadrant.
Warp drive is not 'magical', it still needs fuel in the form of anti-matter to run. That fuel has to be manufactured and doing so costs energy. This requires major industrial facilities to sustain a fleet of ships, which the Kazon just don't seem to have. Coupled with the limited size of their ships this would make transporting large amounts of water around in warp capable ships expensive and unsuitable for providing even a fraction of what a fairly well populated world would need.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 15, 2014 10:24:10 GMT
That would have spoilt the series a little?....
Bikini Atoll, ask the previous residents what a "Clean" bomb would be......
I hate the term "Dirty Bomb", because it also implies some form of "Moral" high ground that those who have a certain weapon of mass destruction death and suffering have some superiority over others that have an equal weapon of mass destruction death and suffering.....
I also do not understand some maths I saw, where a "Dirty" bomb would cause KSI figures on the thousand, whilst a "Clean" bomb would just kill, but in the millions, if dropped on a city.
I understand the science, I just do not care for the ethics, where one is "Better" than another.....
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Post by the light works on Jan 15, 2014 15:43:32 GMT
That would have spoilt the series a little?.... Bikini Atoll, ask the previous residents what a "Clean" bomb would be...... I hate the term "Dirty Bomb", because it also implies some form of "Moral" high ground that those who have a certain weapon of mass destruction death and suffering have some superiority over others that have an equal weapon of mass destruction death and suffering..... I also do not understand some maths I saw, where a "Dirty" bomb would cause KSI figures on the thousand, whilst a "Clean" bomb would just kill, but in the millions, if dropped on a city. I understand the science, I just do not care for the ethics, where one is "Better" than another..... a "dirty bomb" is a very particular kind of bomb which is designed to contaminate a region with minimal blast damage (or more accurately with minimal ability to build a bomb big enough to create blast damage) if one wants to split hairs, any kid who has ever stuck a firecracker in a cow patty has built a dirty bomb. the fact that it is commonly ascribed to the sort of people who deliberately target civilians in lieu of military targets is a different kettle of fish.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 15, 2014 21:36:16 GMT
The species Borg are interested in are sentient species, who have culture and technology that can potentially be assimilated into the collective. In the case of the Kazon their technology presumably isn't advanced enough to interest the Borg. Hence the Borg have encountered only 8,472 sentient species - or maybe that is only sentient spacefaring species (or those who have advanced technology without space flight). Kazon ships are smaller than Voyager, which is a medium to small sized ship by Starfleet standards. So clearly their ship construction and design capabilities are significantly lower than the Federations, and for that matter the abilities of all of the major factions in the Alpha Quadrant. Warp drive is not 'magical', it still needs fuel in the form of anti-matter to run. That fuel has to be manufactured and doing so costs energy. This requires major industrial facilities to sustain a fleet of ships, which the Kazon just don't seem to have. Coupled with the limited size of their ships this would make transporting large amounts of water around in warp capable ships expensive and unsuitable for providing even a fraction of what a fairly well populated world would need. I still like the idea of the Borg counting in Hexadecimal. There are several sizes of Kazon ships, ranging from small fighters to ships much larger than Voyager. The big bad in "The Caretaker" is listed as a Carrier in Memory Alpha and dwarfs an Intrepid class ship. This ship could only be taken out by a kamikaze run by the Maque ship. www.oocities.org/de/danielg_scifi_2002/startrek/Startrek-Infobase/OtherSpecies-StarshipC/Kazon-Mothership-a.jpgimg239.imageshack.us/img239/6863/vlcsnap3593581ig4.jpgSo they had capability to support large manufacturing and fleets of sizeable ships.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 17, 2014 3:29:18 GMT
Movie: Terminator 2 & 3
You have two machines from the future who go back in time and spend a lot of time fighting each other. Since they are both from cyberdyne, wouldn't they have basic designs and specs for the other in their database's? Instead they spend large amount of time, beating and shooting each other to no effect.
You would think they would know that shooting the other would be useless, same with punching and throwing each other around. After much expended time, ammo, and effort, there is no victory.
Wouldn't they know what the critical systems are and focus on that instead of useless hitting and shooting?
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