Atamajakki

g1138: The only thing bigger than my PS3 pile of shame is my...

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:42:28 -0700

g1138:

The only thing bigger than my PS3 pile of shame is my almost infinite list of unfinished Steam games

The kickstarter got completely funded!

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:27:43 -0700

Eclipse Phase: Transhuman made $100k and met every single stretch goal! This is incredible news!

pinkfilm: 01335: the xbox conference summed up in 1:41 only...

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:04:46 -0700

pinkfilm:

01335:

the xbox conference summed up in 1:41

only thing missing is the super advanced fish AI

ikenbot: Stop Building Bombs and Start Building Starships Side...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:53:12 -0700

ikenbot:

Stop Building Bombs and Start Building Starships

Side Note: To go where no human has gone before.. this may come off as a lengthy read but I would definitely recommend it to any follower who is either into futurism or at least has an interest in where our future ought to head. Scientific American guest blogger Steven P. discusses how science and our ever developing technologies can really take us into an age of space exploration. So give it a read or save it on the blog for later, I definitely enjoyed it myself. But then again I’m always up for some interstellar space travel.

Illustration: ‘The Fleet Advances’ by newcmd001

by Steven Ross Pomeroy

In 1969, a great shadow was cast over the United States. That shadow, however, was not one of gloom. Instead of evoking the absence of light, this shadow caused us to look up in wonder at the brightness that created it. When the Saturn V Rocket propelling Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins dashed across the blue, cloud-splotched sky, we did not see a dark present. We glimpsed a bright future.

Elsewhere, however, truly ominous shadows were cast by rockets which never saw the sun. Nestled in silos and buried beneath barren landscapes, “Minuteman” missiles meant not to uplift man, but to deliver the end of man, shrouded much of our world in trepidation.

These two rockets, with two very distinct purposes, bring into focus a problem that has long plagued our nation. We spend far too much money on war, and not enough on science.

Considering that we are nearing the ominously titled “fiscal cliff” — a series of government spending cuts and tax increases that will automatically take effect if Congress and the President do not act to stop it — we have a unique opportunity to review Federal spending and ensure that we are investing our time and wealth to their most productive ends.

I argue that such a review – if guided by reason – would reveal that defense spending should be reduced in order to make way for a world-changing commitment to science and technology, a bold move that will put both the United States and the world on a path to a bright future.

As it stands today, the United States is clearly over militarized. Defense spending in 2011 was estimated at $711 Billion. That’s equal to the combined budgets of the next fourteen top-spending countries, over half of whom are strong U.S. allies. Moreover, a 2011 Government Accountability Office audit of defense spending found that a combined $70 billion was wasted in 2010 and 2009.

This over-the-top spending is indicative of a military-industrial-complex run amok, precisely the scenario that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, perhaps the most revered military commander of the 20th century, warned against in his farewell address. “Together, we must learn how to compose differences not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose,” he avowed.

I can think of no better way to fulfill Eisenhower’s vision than through the pursuit of science.

By intelligently, purposefully, and gradually drawing down the defense budget from 4.7% to 3.0% of GDP (from $709 to $453 billion), and diverting some of those funds to meaningful science projects of both national and global significance, the United States can accomplish the essential goal of protecting its citizens, while simultaneously making the world a safer, healthier place and reinvigorating our economy.

We can begin the funding transition at home by re-committing ourselves to NASA. If we double the space agency’s budget (currently at $17.8 billion), our space accomplishments in ten years will dwarf even the monumental success of this summer, when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars.

We can complete the James Webb Space Telescope, allowing us to peer farther into the Universe than ever before. We can go to Mars by the end of the decade, a mission which astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson insists “would reboot America’s capacity to innovate as no other force in society can.” And with the recent news that warp drive may be more feasible than originally thought, we can focus on researching and eventually engineering interstellar starships that could one day take humans to Gliese 581 g — a potentially habitable Earth-like planet — in a mere two years. Along the way we could solve a myriad of other problems, writes Space.com’s Clara Moskowitz:

“…if human beings can solve the challenges of interstellar spaceflight, in the process they will have solved many of the problems plaguing Earth today, experts said. For example, building a starship will require figuring out how to conserve and recycle resources, how to structure societies for the common well-being, and how to harness and use energy sustainably.”

In addition to funding NASA, we can make fusion energy research a top national priority. Fusion power – an unparalleled energy source that generates electricity by effectively creating a miniature star – has eluded scientists for decades, but researchers now believe that successful fusion is within mankind’s grasp. Before the year is out, scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California hope to fire the world’s most powerful laser into a small test chamber with pea-sized fuel pellets of deuterium and tritium inside. The two isotopes of hydrogen will fuse together and potentially create up to one hundred times more energy than was used to ignite the fuel.

This breakthrough could serve as our “Sputnik Moment” for energy production. If we can put a man on the Moon a mere eight years after deciding to do so, then surely we can master “star power” if we pledge ourselves to the task. Fusion produces no carbon emissions, could provide power for thousands of years, is estimated to be cost-competitive with coal, and is unquestionably the energy source of the future. Yet despite the impressive resumé, fusion energy research is only allotted a relatively paltry $474.6 million.

Why wait for the future to happen later? With additional spending freedom by making cuts in defense, we can fund fusion and make that future happen now.

Continue over at SciAm

What stats does a fantasy game need?

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:51:35 -0700

The traditional D&D array (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Charisma, Wisdom) sits poorly with many folks. What do you suggest?

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:49:23 -0700

yiq: the king of all kings

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:48:55 -0700

yiq:

the king of all kings

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:48:37 -0700

kaiten: Nomad - Harpy by MarcoMazzoni - Marco Mazzoni - CGHUB

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:48:30 -0700

kaiten:

Nomad - Harpy by MarcoMazzoni - Marco Mazzoni - CGHUB

I really want to make a Bladeling Fighter who is fed up with all the philosophy every berk seems to...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:09:53 -0700

I really want to make a Bladeling Fighter who is fed up with all the philosophy every berk seems to be spouting and just wants to make some jink. He might end up becoming an accidental Bleaker just because of how little he cares. Throw a greatsword on him and he’s good to go.

…I kind of want to name him Cutter, because it isn’t a name. It’s just all anyone knows to call him by.

atamajakki: “One year now, I’ve spent here in Sigil. One year and none of you make any bloody...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:52:21 -0700

atamajakki:

“One year now, I’ve spent here in Sigil. One year and none of you make any bloody sense. I’m sitting here eating my favorite soup; that hobgoblin lady makes it over there, and it’s got rice and some sort of meat in it. She makes it extra salty for me. It reminds me of home and me mum’s cooking.

But here, none of you get that. All you lot have to ask, why’s there rice in it? and I have to listen to every berk in this city chime in on the matter. Oh, they’d say because the recipe says so or because rice is cheap and it makes you full. Some of the extra philosophical say that it has rice because it wouldn’t be the same soup without it and others shrug and tell me because the chef felt like it. Give it a week and some poor sod is worshipping my soup as a god or has decided that we’re all rice in the grand soup of the multiverse. There isn’t a soul in Sigil that doesn’t have a sodding opinion on why my soup has rice in it.

And then they all start bashing each other over it! People are punching and kicking and stabbing about the rice in my damned soup and everyone is shouting why they think the rice is there. They all think they have the one true answer and that everyone else is a clueless fool straight off the Prime.

And then, and this is the sick part, they ask me why I think the rice is in the bloody soup! They want to hear my answer so they can call it wrong and bash me for it. And you know what I say to them?

I don’t know, but it tastes good!

And these berks look at me like I’ve just laid a clutch of eggs on the table! I don’t get it at all. Every damn body in Sigil has to have an opinion on every bloody thing in the multiverse and they have to prove to every prime, proxy, and power that they have the right of it. Nobody ever stops to actually taste the damn soup and think golly, that’s some bloody good soup! because they’re too busy arguing about what the soup really means in the grand scheme of things! I don’t give a rats arse why there’s rice in my soup!

Of course I’m not talking about soup, boy! I’m talking about how life in this blasted city is! Nobody ever shuts up about anything and I’m rather sick of it all!”

-Javros, Half-Elf and resident of the City of Doors

March of the Modrons by jdillon82

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:36:05 -0700

March of the Modrons by jdillon82

surrogateself: William Gibson (Neuromancer)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:51:52 -0700

surrogateself:

William Gibson (Neuromancer)

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:40:27 -0700

annoyedteengirl: when you see someone you don’t want to talk to

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:21:04 -0700

annoyedteengirl:

when you see someone you don’t want to talk to

lexicanumwiki: Source: http://boards.4chan.org/tg/res/24954355

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:01:57 -0700

lexicanumwiki:

Source: http://boards.4chan.org/tg/res/24954355

dear diary why wasn’t I born a fantastical adventurer with a tragic backstory a group of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:54:41 -0700

dear diary why wasn’t I born a fantastical adventurer with a tragic backstory a group of magical friends and a simple quest to go on

are we back to ‘suicidal best friend who places their self-worth on how they perceive my view...

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:53:00 -0700

are we back to ‘suicidal best friend who places their self-worth on how they perceive my view of them’ time already? oh boy! it’s only been two years and I was starting to forget just how much fun it had been!

~~but at least my sister described herself as “a very suicidal person” today~~

ha ha time for stress levels to skyrocket I am never sleeping again

I have no fucking clue how to help anyone everyone around me is imploding around me and the only stable person in my life is moving away

I am a massive cunt please lock me up

It’s really hard to deal with someone when you know exactly where they are. My best friend is...

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:30:00 -0700

It’s really hard to deal with someone when you know exactly where they are.

My best friend is in angry, dark place where he thinks the entire world is out to get him and every comment is a hidden insult or a judgment of character. I was there a little less than half a year ago and I got through it thanks to very patient family and a good therapist. He seems committed to not being supported or getting help and it’s making him impossible to handle. I’m mostly just sad and upset that I can’t help him.

beastygrowl: The more I think about it, the more disappointed I...

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:26:47 -0700

beastygrowl:

The more I think about it, the more disappointed I am. :T