BTGBullseye

Heading upstairs to get luper... (lunch/supper)

Basically a lot of what i want to do will take personal sacrifice for the average person, but #1 on the list is getting rid of wasteful behavior. Not just in terms of vacations being wasteful or luxury items in of themselves, but some of the completely ridiculous things we tend to waste resources on. It's a complex topic that would take a lot of time to fully get semi-doable.

And that's where your entire plan falls apart... People in general don't want to sacrifice. The curtailing of freedom in such an obvious and pervasive way will not only get your ideas crucified by the populace, but may get you some very serious threats to your life if you actually got it to go far enough for a vote.

Don't know what to say, keep your pantry stocked for occasions like that, maybe? Storable food like dry noddles, pickles, tinned stuff can be kept for ages without deterioration. For a rainy day....

What?

- A bottle of Massage Oil

- A ring

- A glass cup

All found. I'm not going to bother posting the locations since it's 4:30 AM... lol

Not bad... Definitely better than I can do.

l

Sleeping.

BTG, what's your player's consensus on DM/GMPCs? I've never personally done one, but I've played with people who used them, to varying degrees of success.

Everyone was fine with it until we assaulted a 5 story building, and I cleared the top 3 levels before anyone even got into cover on the first floor... Everyone assaulting behind me was sprinting to keep up with my massive killing spree. I made 11 out of the 15 total kills, and all but 2 of them were before any other weapons were fired. That's when the consensus shifted to my character needing to stop being so powerful.

Apart from being overbuilding the character because I do that sort of thing, I had no issues. (I never showed any bias for my character, I just had way too much build time in it)

Don't know what to say, keep your pantry stocked for occasions like that, maybe? Storable food like dry noddles, pickles, tinned stuff can be kept for ages without deterioration. For a rainy day....

Canned soups and ramen noodles are very resilient. MREs if you can get them. Any kind of jerky would work well.

No need, my boy friend helped me through.

Ok. Good.

"I just saw my friend get jumped. He probably needs my help! .... I'm thirsty."

I love Dream logic. XD

I sometimes think we got dream logic from Monty Python...

But that kid must have been so relieved when you brushed him off. I'm absolutely certain he hadn't thought of the second line and would have probably fainted if you said "yes"

I have actually seen it once when a rather hot college girl started responding positively to the lines... The guy just couldn't think of anything else to say. I started talking to her immediately afterwards about how stupid the lines were. I almost took her on a date. (I decided against it because it felt too much like she was looking for a no strings sex relationship)

Remember boys, it's better to have something substantial to talk about than it is to have a few corny pickup lines. (and you'll get better girls too)

Remember girls, guys don't need pickup lines or conversation... You can just walk up and ask if they have a girlfriend, then ask them on a date, and you'll rarely if ever have a refusal.

It's still on the drawing boards, but it looks promising... I've seen estimates of putting a Nimitz-sized ship at 60 knots with them. (an early test model showed 58 knots) They could conceivably do a 180° turn in 30 seconds at a standstill with no deck tilt.

The first thing I'd like to address is the beef industry, because not many people know this, but the beef industry is probably one of the most wasteful, polluting, and downright nasty things the we do in the United States. I'm not talking about dairy BTW, I'm talking cattle herding for the express purpose of slaughtering them for meat. Cows actually produce more greenhouse gasses than our cars. They produce methane (i'll let you work out how) which actually traps heat better than C02. Plus, in terms of how much food, water, land, and just resources over all that you put into a cow verses how much you get from killing and eating is a really pathetic ratio. In terms of meat, which I wouldn't want to get rid of because it's the easiest for of protein for large populations to eat, I think pork and chicken are actually the the best in terms of what you can put in and what you get out. Plus with chickens you get eggs. Anyways, the first thing I'd want to do is to completely minimize the beef industry as much as possible. Make beef either cost so much that no one would want to eat it do to sheer cost or limit the amount of male cattle that can be kept purely for food reasons.

First, I'll start by saying that if even the scientific community is divided so significantly on the issue of greenhouse gas effects, (and they most definitely are) that probly shouldn't be a part of this issue.

Now, on to the rest of what you said about cattle. Cattle tend to be sent to graze in fields that are in their 'dry' years, in other words, the crops have sucked all the nutrients from the soil, and the cattle replenish those nutrients with their 'pies'. You could use goats or other animals, but cattle are the most efficient at cleaning the area and replenishing the nutrients. Without a cattle component, you have to plant a series of other useless crops for several more years to replenish the same nutrients to the same levels. This is basic farming, something that very few non-farmers actually know.

As for pork, they pollute the ground water in the area, so you can't have pork near fresh water sources without significant risk of disease. Chicken as well, though you would need a much larger amount of them. Only certain types of chickens will lay eggs that can be used like the ones from the stores, the same goes for ducks, though the issue with fowl is that they do need an awful lot of food and maintenance for proper care. (and they're pretty useless in the winter)

As for the best way to get meat, fish. It's the densest storage solution for protein there is, as you can store your protein in your drinking water. The problem is that most people much prefer the taste of beef, and beef contains a massive combination of different nutrients, such that getting all of them in the same quantities would be difficult in such a low-calorie substance.

In short: Calling cattle farming a form of pollution is completely ignoring many aspects of what they do, and why.

Second is energy. We Americans use a lot of energy and in all honesty the ways that we get this energy isn't the best in terms of how much energy we get in ratio to the energy and resources it takes to actually produce that energy. The biggest thing here is renewable energy, we need more. If we hope to have a sustainable future, we can't use energy that will one day run out. Oil is the biggest of this. Oil is going to run out, when, how, why, and how quickly is still up for discussion but nevertheless it will run out one day. One we reach peak oil, the market is going to collapse in terms of supply. This is why renewable energy is very important AND why creating transport, housing, communications, and everything you can think of either run off renewable energy, or is supplemented by it. We also need to find less wasteful ways of using energy. For example New York city has a lot of energy coming from the hydroelectric plants in Niagara Falls. However, a lot of that energy is lost by the time it gets to New York. So in order for a better use of energy to exist we'd need to build power plants near New York city and let the hydroelectric be used by whomever is up there, minimizing energy loss.

Most "renewable" energy types require more energy to be put into it than are ever gotten out of it, or require our very limited rare-earth resources... Like solar panels that require huge fields in infrequently cloud-covered areas to produce significant amounts of electricity, massively heat the local area, (in Arizona it could reach temperatures exceeding 240°F in the solar farms) and drop efficiency by up to 30% if they aren't cleaned frequently. (and are made from highly toxic rare-earths for the higher efficiency panels) They also drop in efficiency to 90% after 10 years, and 85% after 25, then they rapidly accelerate downhill. They are very expensive for the amount of power they generate.

Hydroelectric is probably the most efficient power generation system currently in use, but all possible locations for its use are already being used in the US. This is why you don't hear about some new dam being built.

If you're concerned about natural gas, that is actually classified as a renewable resource, since it is capable of being produced by almost any form of compost. It would be quite easy to use natural gas power plants in a fully sustainable way.

A realistic approach to efficient and clean energy generation is thorium reactors. It produces large amounts of electrical energy with no waste for several years, then after several years it produces one small container of very short half-life waste that can be disposed of quite easily. Waste containment is remarkably easy and cheap compared to what the media leads people to believe. Nuclear power is even supported by many of the founding members of anti-pollution groups. (not most current members, as most of the existing groups are hiding their anti-corporate agenda behind thin 'environmentalist' rhetoric) Also, thorium is as common as lead, and is found everywhere on this planet. (you would have to burn millions of reactors for thousands of years to even make a dent in our current supplies)

There are many advantages and disadvantages to every form of power generation, (more disadvantages than advantages for most modern ideas of 'renewable' energy) so it really is a difficult system to alter from it's current status quo.

Third is housing, average american housing. First off I'd like to say that lawns really don't serve much point. They take resources to maintain, it's unnecessary water waste, and it's be a lot better if there were parks instead of a lawn if a child wants to play outside. With this topic in mind another thing that should 100% go is golf courses. Again, same thing as lawns, but imagine if you had to keep the equivalent of Rhode Island watered, trimmed, maintained, and completely proper for a better half of the year (if not the whole year). Anyways, with housing I definitely think we need better water management. One idea is to actually have all "waste water" (i.e. sink water, shower water, and perhaps even washing machines) dump into the toilet first. Meaning that the used sink water will be what you poo or pee in. I think this can make a lot of sense especially if you have a filter for solids. Think about it, toilets is literally taking clean, safe, drinkable water, and shitting into it. Take one of the worlds most valuable and precious resources, dirty it up, and flush it away. Third is heating and cooling. Look, simple solution is to not have the heat set too high during the winter (bundle up if cold kinda thing) and not too low during the summer (drink some water, draw the shades, something like that). If everyone did this, we'd save a lot of energy that is used completely for climate control.

Concerning lawns... There are many valid environmental reasons for lawns. One, they cool the surrounding air. (by as much as 20-30 degrees compared to no lawn in some areas) Two, they produce oxygen. Three, they absorb and eliminate pollutants from the air. Four, they allow for more natural levels of water evaporation in the local area. (this affects weather significantly) Five, they make people feel good when playing on them. These same considerations can be said for golf courses. If you want better, there are certain trees and mosses that prefer urban and high CO²/CO content, as well as produce a much higher percentage of oxygen than other plants, or the same plant in a low CO²/CO content environment. Another thing about golf courses, is that they don't require grass... I have seen several in Arizona that use carefully maintained dirt courses.

For waste water, there are actually two different pipes that leave your house... One is grey water, the other is black water. Grey water is everything but your toilet, and doesn't require anywhere near as much processing as the black water that comes from toilets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater#Recycling Using greywater in the way you specified is already capable of being done, but isn't necessary with the way we currently clean our water. (and could quite possibly make it even more difficult to process black water)

Cooling and heating isn't that bad, it's when you have inefficient regulatory systems in the building that waste occurs. Any time you change the temperature it will use energy more than maintaining the temp. Keeping it warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter actually do very little in the way of total energy saving. Simply putting a series of thermostats in different rooms of the house at waist level and shoulder level will allow for better measurements for temperature stabilization. Adding tinted and/or insulated windows improves cooling in the summer massively. Plugging all air leaks around doors and windows will help with temperature stabilization too. Really, there are MANY existing ways to reduce energy usage without sacrificing comfort, it's just too much of a bother or an extra initial expense that many don't have the funds for.

Food: This one is simple, doesn't need much explaining, just defending, so i'll do that once someone points out the flaws. Ok to put it really simple: more vegetables, more local food, less meat, and every house have their own vegetable garden (think victory gardens from WWII). This would keep people fed and less wastefully

Ok, what we really need is less artificials. Get back to real components instead of various types of altered oil products. Eat butter, it's very good for you! Veggies are good, but too many and you're ignoring other nutrition sources that your body needs.

Local food is good, when it's possible. Many areas simply are incapable of producing enough food for the population housed in the area. This is not a bad thing. This is really the way it should be. People housed where food is difficult or impossible to be grown, leaving more room for growing food in the fertile areas.

Household veggie gardens sound like a good idea on paper, but 90% of people would end up killing their garden in under a month. Not everybody is cut out to be a farmer or gardener. Not everyone can maintain a plant, even with very specific instruction or even automation, and there are a large majority that wouldn't even want to try. There are many other reasons it wouldn't work too. Not even close to practical unfortunately.

Transportation: As stated before i think we'd need a massive change in terms of how our transportation network is, especially in america. First off, more public transportation along with better planning. The worst thing we have here in the US is urban sprawl. There are so many areas in the US that are borderline impossible to get to without a car or other mode of personal transportation. This makes public transportation a nightmare, completely undoable in some areas, especially suburbia. The reason I say this is because obviously public transportation is better in terms of resources, and is overall cheaper than a personal vehicle. Especially for city to city transport. Trains use less energy to move the same amount of people than a car (plus in my personal opinion you can't sleep while driving a car so). I'm not saying get rid of cars, i'm saying lesson how much they are used and increase how much things like trains, buses, and such are used.

Transportation could very easily be improved if governments could ever plan their city layouts logically... But they rarely do. I have seen 2 small towns with logical layouts, and that's it. (I have been over much of the central US, and some of the west coast)

Trains are remarkably difficult to make succeed in the US because it's ALWAYS faster and easier to get where you're going using other a private vehicle. (and the US is focused around getting to and from places fast and easy) Same goes for busses, but they do tend to get better success rates. One of the main reasons people don't like using public transportation is because we don't like to pay to be in an enclosed tube full of people, many of whom will be of a foul odor, some of whom will be looking for ways to steal your wallet or in some other way violate you, and then still have to walk several blocks to reach our destination.

If we could use electric-powered FPMV (Flying Personal Mobility Vehicle) instead, it would be ideal. We could use them at any level up to 500 feet, and have them automated. You press a button on your keychain, the FPMV flies to the door, you hop in, set your destination, you arrive at the door and step out, and it returns itself to the nearest available charging station and awaits your call. Of course, you'd probly have hackers stealing the FPMVs...

TL;DR version: Much of what you have said shows that you require either additional education on the subjects and their overall impacts on our lives, or that you need to find a way to change the entire social and economic structure of the country. There are a few good topics in here though.

True. lol

Honestly, impeller driven mid-sized ships are where it's at. Put a pair of impellers for front to back, and a pair for left to right, and you have a carrier that can literally turn on a dime.

I'm positive we'll all thoroughly enjoy the experiments, even if they don't turn into series. Also, I agree ScottD.Betson about the Skyrim source for the medieval video, I'll be on the lookout for ways to record demos from it.

Do long Game Dungeon episodes! We all love them!

There were too many attempts at detail animations that were completely unnecessary IMO, as well as too much camera movement and DoF. Static cameras are much nicer than moving cameras in most situations.

Apart from that, it was quite good.

When it comes to military forces buildup or upgrade/update on a budget, I'm your man.

I'm not so sure about the Gripens personally, I've always been a fan of having a backup engine just in case. (and they're far more expensive than an up-to-date F-18 series)

No need for long CATOBAR carriers, you could just go with mid-sized EMALS fleet carriers. (no ramp, but much shorter than your average because of the EMALS launching system)

Don't insult me. I have trained professionals to do that.

Unmemorable.

"Mmmmmmm... Do you have that in black?"

They were probly trying to test out the pickup lines they just looked up online... Too young to know just how stupid those lines actually are. lol

I guarantee it's not the first time you've been hit on, it's just the first time you've realized it.

 

XP

Great version! (I'm listening to this right now)

wqZbreT5Tns

Awesome song.

I'll get you the spiders... You want brown recluse, funnel web, black widow, or a variety of tarantula?

The HDD that had my OS finally imploded. I'd vent more the the toaster I'm posting from couldn't even brown a poptart it's so weak. I don't know what to do now, how do I even get a new OS?

I'd be happy to help, just PM me.