@CanRay
You are right, I am lowballing on that one. But I could not think of something better right now..

You are still talking THEORY here. Produce the hard results of the "Experiments" you are discussing. Cite actual experts. I have yet to see any proof. And that is the point. Theory is not Fact. A Nuclear Explosion is FACT. We can measure it. A Matter/Antimatter Explosion is strictly Theory.

A completely inert substance that cannot explode at all?

UNOBTAINIUM!!!

EDIT:We can measure it. From as far away as possible!

Heh... Hopefully not as clumsy as some I witnessed in the Corps.
No worries. I can no longer play with the good explosives. Makes me a sad panda indeed.
Though Dynamite is still fun, if you can get hold of it.

How about HANDWAVIUM? I hear that works well too...

No idea, never served in the Canadian Armed Forces, let alone any other military. But I practically had to learn how to walk again. (Before people apologize, it wasn't an accident that did it, just a trick of nature.).

Harsh.
Saw a guy decide to crimp a blasting cap in the middle "Just to see what happens."
I guess he thought that the cautions against doing so were just hype.
Ended Poorly for him.

*Headdesk* I remember the speech from the guy giving the mine tour during my second grade class trip: "Blasting caps are about as stable as Charles Manson... Or any Member of Parliament. They. Are. Not. Toys."

I figure if I'm treating them like I would a vial of Pure Nitro, I'm almost being careful enough.

Ah. I see the issue. You're making the admittedly common mistake that something that is called a "scientific theory" is not proven. *sigh* I hate that quirk of semantics. What most people think of as a "theory" is what a scientist would call a "hypothesis"--an idea that has not yet undergone testing--while a scientific theory is an idea that has undergone testing and found to be accurate enough to use, but due to the principle of falsifiability, there is always the possibility that further tests and understanding might either overturn or at least force an amendment or editing of the theory. A good example is the recent hullabaloo over the neutrinos they're studying *might* be exceeding the speed of light, which would mean our understanding of the Theory of Relativity is incomplete. However, we have produced antimatter in the lab (at massive cost--we're talking a few million dollars for nine measly anti-protons) but, to be very direct, it is so unlikely as to be statistically impossible that our understanding of high energy physics is so uninformed and has been for the last 60 years, despite many observations of the universe, that we cannot predict the results of the total annihilation of a couple of kilograms of matter to at least three decimal points of certainty.

At this point, I would say that the burden of proof for your claim that we cannot predict the effects of Matter-Antimatter Annihilation with certainty lies on you.

As for calculating blast effects, you might finds these links to be interesting
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html
http://www.nukefix.org/weapon.html

Edit: CanRay: Ouch. My sympathies.

As for dumb soldier antics, I've got a friend who is a retired Army gunsmith. Lots of fun stories, but the one that comes to mind right now is the hillbilly soldier who managed to bend the barrel of his M-16 into an S (and then ran to him, begging him to "make it look good" so he could get his discharge in a few months and not get fined for the damaged equipment...)

It is a Simple Question. Can you provide documented proof of the construction and testing of a Matter/Antimatter Explosion and its effects?
If so, where is the documented proof?
If not, then it is not a proven scientific fact. For it to be truly a fact, it must have been performed multiple times (ie. more than once) with verifiable, identical results, else it is still a theory, and one that is likely flawed.

You are basically telling me that the creation of an Antimatter/Matter explosive device has yet to be actually performed. In this case, your Theory (or Hypothesis, if you like that word better) is still untested.

Physics (and its varying subcategories dealing with subatomic particles and their behavior) undergoes changes in understanding on a regular basis, and has done so over those last 60 years that you are so proud of. That fact tells me that physicists do not have as certain an understanding as they claim to have. If your understanding of a Theory is incomplete, then how can you claim that theory to be a proven fact?

Now, contrary to what you (or others) may be thinking, I am not trying to be an ass about this. I would truly like to read any research that is both valid and real. Hypothetical hypotheticals do not interest me all that much. If you have the facts, I would like to read them. Yes, I can look through the internet, but what I have found to date is mostly quackery and bad science (or links to virus laden malware sites posing as scientific papers). If you have something definitive, verified, and valid, I would be highly interested in it.

Anyways. We may have driven this topic so far off course that it is lost to oblivion. If this is the case, I apologize.
So, Conversion Spells. Who uses them, and what are they converting?

Give me a few years for the statute of limitations to wear down, and I can provide proof that Rednecks of any type shouldn't be allowed to get bored with Dynamite and Propane Tanks.

Which is why you don't build a flour mill near the blacksmith.

Yeah, the Waterwheel Hammer didn't go so well as the Steam Hammer did anyhow.

Well, there you go... Bored Rednecks never mix well with explosives...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uQcNkibI5E&feature=fvsr
Antimatter has been created.


I think you have a wrong image of that issue. It is not like an Atombomb or something.
Antimatter getting in contact with matter will be annihilated. And since the whole planet and atmosphere is consists of matter...

Antimatter was created (by accelerating particles to nearly light speed and colliding them) and it was annihilated with matter and the energy released was messured.
This of course was done in the scale of some a few dozen particles..

Antimatter(at the time) is used in medical applications. (PET-Scan)

So it is not some unproofen theory.

Quite possible that every spell is just that

Did you actually listen to what was said there?
Lot of "If's" in there. Lots of Suppositions.

And Antimatter is not used in the PET scan. Positrons are. Positrons are a far cry from Antimatter.

No Applications as of this time for the possible research, No plans for applications in the future. Antimatter cannot be stored long enough to even study, so they cannot even BEGIN to make research plans (which come long before actual plans for applications) until they can create and store it long enough to study. Ergo, it is still Theory, and not any where close to application; which again proves my point. What they have done is the First STEP in the investigation, from the Professor's (Apparently the Leading Professor of this line of research) own words.

I have never said that Antimatter Can not/Does not exist. I said that any application discussing such things is pure theory, and it will remain pure theory until they can actually harness it. I would not hold my breath for that. They have been studying the theory for 80 years or so, and they are still in the infancey of its research. Antimatter Applications are still Unproven Theory at this time. Period. End of Story.

Nice try though.

Which is a good thing... I can just see some Rednecks getting their hands on Antimatter and going, "Hold muh beer an' watch this!"

Heh... Now that would be a scary thought...

"I try to stay serene and calm, when Alabama gets the Bomb." - Tom Lehrer, Who's Next?

@Tymeaus Jalynsfein
What do you think Positrons are?
What happens if a Positron meets an electron?
What is the differance between a positron and an electron?

What they did.

Ahem.

Do you have a source other than one that can be edited by everyone?

Here you go:
Advancing Nuclear Medicine Through Innovation
-> Sidebar 2.9: Introduction to the Physics of PET

Good that only mass less particles collide.

It's because the Higgs Boson went out for a drink.

Out of a Klein Beer Bottle.

Wrapped in a möbius strip?

http://www.kleinbottle.com/

I want a Klein Beer Bottle in the Stubbie version. Because I'm Canadian, DAMNIT!

Since when do electrons do not have a "mass"?

Sorry I meant nearly massless. Very small compared to protons, neutrons and their anti-particles.

Theoretical Physicist Magician
Favourite Spells:

Higgs-Boson Converter: Transform the chosen target into Higgs-Bosons
Hadron Collider Field: Area Effect - Anything Magnetic is stuck to the ground
Singularity Field: Anyone in the area of effect is stuck to the ground and is dragged towards the center (Especially fun with Sharp Objects and people)

Ever since they lapsed from Catholicism. Heh.

So very Horrible, Canray... You deserve a cookie...

What, not a Communion Wafer?

They come in soylent green flavor, now.

Mmmmmmmmmmm, "This is my flesh", indeed!

8D

Ghoul Christian Cannibal Named Jesus?

Makes me think of transmetropolitan, where just about anything was available as a cloned snack.

Wouldnt work for Ghouls though, cant clone that pesky "essence" they need.

Hmm, if a Ghoul COULD clone himself (and essence/stuff they need) would they actually GAIN anything from said cloned meat as it is essentially their own body they eat from? I would say no as they are basically chewing on their own arm.

Ghouls do not need Essence.

They do not lose Essence as vampires do but they still have the dietary requirement for human flesh. I#m not sure whether cloned flesh would work.

As long as the flesh was cloned from an actual metahuman, it should be perfectly fine!

...or are you proposing that a Ghoul can't feed on a cloned natural limb replacement, and that someone with the 'Escaped Clone' quality (RC pg.97) isn't viable Ghoul-food? (or Vampire food, for that matter - nothing states that a clone made in that way doesn't have essence...)


But, returning to the topic at hand: Convert Skin to Salt, anyone? Duration 'Permanent' of course...

Logically you are absolutely right. This however would mitigate the ghopul problem a lot. Additionally I'm not aware that the Draco Foundation gave a lot of cash to the inventor of cloned bodyparts.

Exactly.

There is still no solution for making cloned meat into a viable food source for Ghouls as regular cloning does not work as it has no astral connection as a normal born being would have had. There is something about getting the meat "fresh from the source" that hinders that part and the Draco foundation have a huge reward for whoever cracks that problem so that Ghouls can eat essentially cloned flesh - something they cannot do today.

Its perfectly fine for them to eat each other though (probably the only thing stopping a Ghoul apocalypse as they keep their own feral numbers down)

Cloned flesh wouldn't really qualify as 'synthetic', so that's a moot point.

There are a lot of moral and ethical implications to feeding functional clones to Ghouls, which I am sure have prevented the spread of this as a food source. I doubt many people would be willing to feed their genetic material to ghouls, and there are costs involved that few groups would be willing to pay.



Do you have a quote anywhere that says cloned flesh isn't classified as 'metahuman' for the purpose of the ghoul's dietary requirement? (or anything else, for that matter: Is a clone immune to the Slay <race> spells?)

If I'm not mistaken, similarly to a vampire who need to drain Essence from a sapient being, a ghoul need to eat weekly at least small amout of flesh that was once part of a sapient being tu fulfill his HMVV induced dietary requirement.

A newborn would qualify (even if he does not really manifest it yet, he has the unimpaired potential for sapience), a clone a(as in a genetic duplicate allowed to grow neurologically fully functionnal) too, but the decerebrated "wimps" harvested for medical purpose would not.

Hmm, so cutting off a squatter's arm to feed a ghoul and then cloning him a new arm would work, but giving the ghoul the cloned one would not. What would happen if you chop off the cloned and reattached arm?

I guess the authors did not think the implications of readily available cloned parts through. Same thing with Tamanous, they should be out of business.