Full Version: Corperate Insertion
Hey everybody. I have just joined the board, and wanted to introduce myself. I am a long time Shadowrun player and GM, from Boston. I was pointed to this board by the webguys at the official website when I asked why they didn't have a BB/forum. What kinda stuff does this board do? Do you guys just pontificate or do you play games, or what?
Yes, and yes. Any Shadowrun related queries, thoughts, etc. goes here. Online post-it games are in the "Welcome to the Shadows," which you passed to get in here.
I'm AH. I have a website. Thus ends the pimping.
I'm AH. I have a website. Thus ends the pimping.
We argue uselessly over immaterial details, make house rules (while flaming each others' house rules), yammer endlessly, and have some play by post games going.
The "Welcome to the Shadows" has the actual games, this forum is reserved for wasted speach with the ocasional insight.
The "Welcome to the Shadows" has the actual games, this forum is reserved for wasted speach with the ocasional insight.
| QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm) |
| We argue uselessly over immaterial details |
No we don't.
Anyhoo hello and welcome somebody will hit you with the inside joke any time now so just smile, nod like you understand and keep your hand on your Slivergun
Dammit where did I leave the forumla for that dikoted ally sprit again? I figured out how to manifest it as an AVS and can still have sex with it. 
TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) are kinda close to inside jokes in and of themselves. So I am guessing that AVS is Ares Viper Slivergun?
Score, another Bostonian. A few of us are trying to get a local game together; any interest in joining?
And yes, the AVS is the dread Ares Viper Slivergun. Sexy.
~J
And yes, the AVS is the dread Ares Viper Slivergun. Sexy.
~J
Here's your slivergun, your dikoted ally spirit, and a condom.
Oh, and please, learn to use the search function.
Oh, and please, learn to use the search function.
Well I'm actually a little out of the Boston area, technically. I am out by 495. But when you have to locate yourself globally, its just easier to say Boston. And with gas prices where they are, I've been curtailing my traveling. That said, anything is possible.
What I wish we had was a FPS multiplayer game that was Shadowrunny enough to convert. Its my not-so-secret wish that microsoft would get someone to work on that Shadowrun Video Game Liscense that they own ...
Unless that's a Kevlar condom, none for me, thanks
What I wish we had was a FPS multiplayer game that was Shadowrunny enough to convert. Its my not-so-secret wish that microsoft would get someone to work on that Shadowrun Video Game Liscense that they own ...
Unless that's a Kevlar condom, none for me, thanks
| QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm) |
| We argue uselessly over immaterial details, make house rules (while flaming each others' house rules), yammer endlessly, and have some play by post games going. The "Welcome to the Shadows" has the actual games, this forum is reserved for wasted speach with the ocasional insight. |
That pretty much says it all. Welcome aboard!
| QUOTE (Vlad the Bad) |
| And with gas prices where they are, I've been curtailing my traveling. That said, anything is possible. |
This always cracks me up - what's the price for a gallon nowadays? I've not been over there for a few years...
We're paying not far shy of 80 pence a litre - which works out at about $5.40/gallon.
Whine over.
Also I just found out that google calculator does imperial/metric conversions. cool.
Oh and welcome to Dumpshock.
Corporate Insertion -- am I the only one who immediately thought of a bad Johnson joke?
-Siege
-Siege
Speaking of Welcome to the Shadows, where do they put up intro threads?
As in threads introducing yourself? Here. Threads introducing a game, Welcome to the Shadows.
AH- Don't lie. Here does not end the pimping. (btw, picked up ED. Other than some trouble with the magic system, good shit.)
New Guy- Enjoy.
| QUOTE (Xirces) |
| This always cracks me up - what's the price for a gallon nowadays? I've not been over there for a few years... We're paying not far shy of 80 pence a litre - which works out at about $5.40/gallon. Whine over. |
Yea but Americans are the ones guarding all the oil fields so we should get the employee discount.
I'm still disappointed that you can't stick a nuclear power plant in every vehicle under the sun.
~J
~J
| QUOTE (Kagetenshi) |
| I'm still disappointed that you can't stick a nuclear power plant in every vehicle under the sun. ~J |
Based on what my dad recently said to me, we're getting there, starting with airplanes. Halfnium nucleonic reaction-powered, I believe.
| QUOTE (Phaeton @ May 20 2004, 11:54 AM) | ||
Based on what my dad recently said to me, we're getting there, starting with airplanes. Halfnium nucleonic reaction-powered, I believe. |
Popular Mechanics was TALKING OUT ITS ASS about the halfnium nuke planes. Go to DefenseTech for the details - I'll quote here. You can find the links in the full story here, at DefenseTech.com. To me, this sounds like the old cold fusion stuff, all over again.
---
The first line sure is juicy: "After more than six decades of research, the first atom-powered airplane is cleared for takeoff."
And even if the substance doesn't quite back up the tantalizing intro in the current Popular Mechanics -- which it doesn't -- this is still an interesting concept.
The attraction of a nuclear plane is that it doesn't run out of fuel. Convert a drone to atomic power, and it could stay aloft just about forever, the thinking goes.
The nuclear drone wouldn't have a traditional fission reactor, running on uranium or plutonium. Instead, it would be powered by hafnium-178.
"In the late 1990s, researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas made a remarkable and unexpected discovery about [halfnium]," the magazine says. "When they bombarded the metal with 'soft' X-rays like those your dentist uses to examine your teeth, the metal released a burst of gamma rays 60 times more powerful than the X-rays."
This reaction could be safer than conventional ones, the magazine argues.
"The gamma ray output drops precipitously the moment power to the X-ray machine is turned off... Since it produces only gamma radiation, less shielding is required. And should an accident occur, there is less of an environmental concern than with fission. Hafnium-178 has a half-life of only 31 years compared to thousands of years for other reactor fuels. In addition, unlike uranium or plutonium, hafnium-178 cannot support a chain reaction, which means it cannot be used to make rogue nuclear weapons."
But, despite the potentially attractive features, an atomic drone is nowhere near takeoff.
"Project managers for Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory tell Popular Mechanics they have begun discussions that could lead to the conversion of a Global Hawk [drone] to a nuclear-powered aircraft… They have not yet signed a contract to convert a Global Hawk to nuclear power, they are aware of discussions taking place within the Air Force."
THERE'S MORE: Some scientists are pouring cold water all over the halfnium idea, reader MS points out. "May not make physical sense," was the opinion of 5 of 12 Pentagon researchers appointed to look into halfnium bombs.
AND MORE: Defense Tech "deserves better than Popular Mechanics doing a fair imitation of the National Inquirer," says Los Alamos consultant and nuclear proliferation expert Russell Seitz.
With so-called "isomers" like halfnium-178, he writes, "energy has both to be put in and gotten out. The mere fact that more and better physicists using fiercer x-ray sources and more sensitive gamma detectors can't get any signal out of the same isotopes -- even upon many experimental iterations and variations -- satisfies me that [this] is just another example of the economics of desire."
AND MORE: The Defense Department was looking at atomic planes back in the 1940's, reader JM notes, with a project called "Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft," or NEPA. And for a year or so, the Pentagon considered irradiating human test subjects, to see how much nuclear exposure pilots could take. After Manhattan Project scientist Dr. Joseph Hamilton pointed out that such experiments would have "a little of the Buchenwald touch," the idea was finally, and thankfully, dropped.
[SIZE=1] edited for clarity. req loves you all.
*sigh* Aw, c'mon, Req. We can at least hope. 
Umm, isn't gravity the only possible shielding for gamma rays? we are talking about the stuff that penetrates planets right?
| QUOTE (Phaeton) |
| *sigh* Aw, c'mon, Req. We can at least hope. |
Don't I know it. nukeplanes would rule. maybe another 10 years.
Nikoli, I don't know of gravity "shielding" anything. I've heard the statistic that the gamma blast from many nuclear weapons penetrates something on the order of 6m of concrete, but my memory is sketchy. But no, gamma rays don't typically penetrate planets, last I heard.
I was referring to our sun, something like 80% of the gamma radiation that it emits is trapped by the gravity well of the star itself.
There ya go. Intensity of gamma radiation is reduced 50% by 1cm of lead, 6cm of concrete, or 9cm of packed dirt.
http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/.../gamma_ray.html
http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/.../gamma_ray.html
thx
| QUOTE (Nikoli) |
| I was referring to our sun, something like 80% of the gamma radiation that it emits is trapped by the gravity well of the star itself. |
ooh, wacky. I can neither confirm nor deny such information.
But I'd love to see a link or something, that sounds interesting.
I think you're thinking of Neutrinos, they're the ones that go through entire planets unaffected.
However I don't believe a weak gravity well like the sun's has a prayer in hell of trapping neutrinos, those are "Pass through several light years of lead." material.
However I don't believe a weak gravity well like the sun's has a prayer in hell of trapping neutrinos, those are "Pass through several light years of lead." material.
They're "pass through everything and maybe wave on the way through" type stuff. Don't they have kilometer-wide traps to capture handfuls of the things?
~J
~J
Multiple Kilometer wide sensors just to register their presence.
Freaky Shit.
Freaky Shit.
And the topic drift has offically begun.
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