New Colony Construction

[whartung]

Actually, when I was stationed at NTC, there were constant warnings about going too near to the tracking station.

There was an anecdote from my friends Father. Back in the day, a bunch of reporters were on a runway.

Somehow, they got swept by one of the powerful RADARs.

All of their flashbulbs went off!

 

[kilemall]

I've heard a more grim anecdote about a radar array and bored servicemen that made bets running across the frontal arc of where the beam would sweep with the idea that they would beat the rotation. And lost.

 

[Straybow]

Two disagreement with this:

1. kwh is the wrong unit; 14 kWH is 1.75 kW per home for 1 hour. Gas engines do better. Unit should be just plain kiloWatts (kW).
2. Given the canonical scale efficiencies, the 14kl 256 mW is more likely to be in use.... you only need 2 for a small colony, they're the typical size for ACS ship plant "jugs¹" - spares can be obtained from a variety of sources both above and below board.

256 milliwatts is a bit small for powering a colony...

 

[Grav_Moped]

256 milliwatts is a bit small for powering a colony...

That reminds me of the early-Internet list of prefixes and measurements that included "1 milli-Helen = the quantity of beauty needed to launch one ship."

 

[Condottiere]

I heard that if you're manning a Cold War onboard radar controlled anti aircraft gun, you're more likely to get cancer.

 

[Straybow]

Cat with dorsal buttered-toast antigravity/perpetual motion module.

Cat always lands on feet.
Buttered toast always lands butter-side down.
Stalemate.

The problem is, the cat might be dead.

So half the time, it would be a dead cat bounce.

No, the problem is the toast. Once the toast goes stale and the butter has totally soaked in it loses it's butter-side power. A few hours, max.

 

[whulorigan]

No, the problem is the toast. Once the toast goes stale and the butter has totally soaked in it loses it's butter-side power. A few hours, max.

Unless it is quantum buttered-toast. In that case the "buttered-toast" is merely a superposition - it doesn't become either all-butter or all-toast until you go to look at it and see which.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

It sounds like the quantum realm with cat death and staleness parameters is a killer of perpetual motion.

p.s. I assume this only works on house cats anyway as this is per pet?

 

[Condottiere]

I think the cat is toast.

 

[whartung]

Well on motorcycles, we have what's know as the "Scott Oiler", which is used to continually add lubrication to the chain.

Perhaps an innovation such as the "Scott Butterer" can be utilized to maintain peak performance.

 

[Condottiere]

Look ma, I don't even need wings!

 

[RogerD]

If you want pre-existing rules for this, you can find some in the World Tamer’s Handbook of the TNE set

 

[BackworldTraveller]

If you want pre-existing rules for this, you can find some in the World Tamer’s Handbook of the TNE set

There are pre-existing traveller rules for mixing toast and cats?

 

[Condottiere]

Cats are fundamental to Traveller technology.

They are the heart of the jump drive.

 

[whulorigan]

Cats are fundamental to Traveller technology.

They are the heart of the jump drive.

And the surest first sign of a potential mis-jump is a live ship's cat in the Jump-Drive Compartment after Jump-initiation.

And Spacers are historically a superstitious lot, too . . .

• Droyne put coyns under the Jump Drive housing in the engine room . . .
• Vilani dim the lights before the commencement of jump . . .
• and Solomani . . .

 

[Rigel Stardin]

What's a Solomani ship without a rats, aye? No better way to spread the love other worlds.

 

[Condottiere]

Actually, what you do is dump a bunch of cats and pigs on any planet with a breathable atmosphere, as they are natural terraformers.

When you return, the cats have wiped out most of the fauna, and the pigs are a ready protein source.

 

[Enoki]

Actually, what you do is dump a bunch of cats and pigs on any planet with a breathable atmosphere, as they are natural terraformers.

When you return, the cats have wiped out most of the fauna, and the pigs are a ready protein source.

Well, if you add the intelligent locals have adopted the horse and now are a major military threat, cattle / bison / or the like roam in the millions and threaten any advanced transportation system, non-indigenous avian species are a serious health threat, and things like minor species--think earthworms--are wiping out the fauna faster than the pigs...

 

[Condottiere]

For a more direct impact on the flora, large migrating herds, so bison might be more ideal than elephants.

I believe elephants are great at clearing jungle.

 

[aramis]

For a more direct impact on the flora, large migrating herds, so bison might be more ideal than elephants.

I believe elephants are great at clearing jungle.

They both have been noted for creating savannas... Elephants in tropical and subtropical, bison in temperate, mammoths creating steppes... all three, unchecked, act to deforest the tolerable weather and replace it with shrubs and grass. Musk-ox do likewise; the Alaska Zoo and the Alaska Experimental farm note that they push back the tree line, not just maintain it.