The Factory Floor

(I just happen to be a bit of a railroad signalling geek as I write software that controls that sort of thing for a railroad, so I was going for "you need to pay attention to how you build and maintain that sort of stuff, because if not, you get things like the mess that is WMATA"

@kingledion seconded here -- I commute via bus myself

kingledion

which one, that fort whatever thing a few years back

Shalvenay

@kingledion Fort Totten, yeah!

kingledion

fort totten

had to google it

Shalvenay

few others of varying severity as well

kingledion

2:26 AM

I didn't live in DC back then so I didn't hear about it until I started doing more reading about transit

Shalvenay

it's underwhelming MX not a design flaw...but yeah

ismetroonfiretoday.com much?

kingledion

I gotta say, the DC metro is more or less how not to run a metro system

Shalvenay

@kingledion more or less how not to oversee it

kingledion

God every time I use it on the weekends its a disaster

Random closures left right and sideways

Shalvenay

I daresay that I work with people who could run WMATA better than the current mgmt...

kingledion

2:28 AM

I will say this, though, I still prefer it to BART in san fran because of the noise that BART makes

BART sounds like there is a gremlin with a cutting saw slicing through metal outside your passenger car

Shalvenay

@kingledion granted, I've never rode a transit train

I've done a couple of heritage-type trainrides, and also spent 24h basically straight on AMT005

kingledion

Well there just isn't a good reason to ride transit for a lot of people.

Shalvenay

@kingledion yeah, many folks live where transit is underwhelming

or not an option

@kingledion -- have you rode Amtrak btw?

kingledion

I did! When I was 18 and a Freshman at University of Illinois, I thought I would take Amtrack to save $30 on a plane flight to see my girl in Albany.

One of the worst decisions of my life, took 32 hours, arrived 6 hours late.

Shalvenay

ah

kingledion

2:35 AM

Back before cell-phones, had to collect call my girl since she had been to the station 6 hours prior and left.

Shalvenay

AMT005 actually made up time in my case, thanks to a detour :P

kingledion

And she was going to school in Skidmore, which is like an hour north of Albany

Shalvenay

(going over the Wyoming Rockies is way easier than the COlorado ones)

kingledion

All in all took me around 40 hours of travel. Awful.

Shalvenay

(especially when the route through the Colorado Rockies was blocked by a rockslide)

kingledion

2:36 AM

Those rockslides

and blizzards

Shalvenay

@kingledion that's what they make rotary plows for ;)

(no seriously -- I have this mental image of some fantasy-rangery-type tracking a fell beast through the deep snow, only to look up to a mighty roar and bellow as a rotary plow carves the tracks clean towards him)

HDE 226868

3:03 AM

@kingledion I agree. Those without the hard-science tag get overlooked a lot, and sometimes underappreciated.

Worldbuilding Meta

4:21 AM

0

Q: POB is a reason to edit, not to close

In keeping with the remarks I made when running for moderator (see #3), I found this post from a relative newcomer as a perfect case. It has 13 answers including a high-voted accepted answer. So, just removing the word “best” from the title removes the POB issue and transforms it into the quest...

Universe Factory

5:04 AM

Universe Factory - Medium: The Tools of Battle

posted on March 07, 2017 by PipperChip

What are these swords for? Why the pointed shields? Find out here!Hello world-builders! We’ll continue our series about fighting in the middle ages with “weapons.” If you recall, I claimed that weapons were tools designed to solve specific problems. While every weapon has the ultimate aim of removing people from combat quickly and effectively, they perform better or worse depending on who thos…

Tim B

12:13 PM

US public transit does seem particular bad, parts of europe have pretty good options on that front.

James

2:26 PM

Hola WB

DaaaahWhoosh

o/

Stack Exchange

2:40 PM

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

Effects of scientifically proving homeopathy Tomorrow, (Earth, current day scenario) a group of scientists publishes a study proving that Homeopathy is not placebo-effect treatment and it can be used in normal life if you meet specific preconditions. Obviously, the study in question is partiall...

Pᴇᴛᴇ

2:50 PM

I am motivationally deficient today.

I wonder how well bottled motivation would sell.

James

@Pᴇᴛᴇ I would totally buy that...and then throw it at my coworkers. It works topically right?

Pᴇᴛᴇ

It's a suppository.

DaaaahWhoosh

@Pᴇᴛᴇ I don't really think the people who need it would have enough motivation to try it

Pᴇᴛᴇ

@DaaaahWhoosh - Yes, that's my point. If people can't be bothered to buy it in the first place...

And it means that people who do would have to do some work....

DaaaahWhoosh

3:09 PM

awwww... someone actually asked my 'plausibility of infinite torture' question

I've been holding onto that one for a long time

James

@DaaaahWhoosh There's a joke in there somewhere...give me a minute Ill figure it out.

Pᴇᴛᴇ

I'm itching to ask the "Can Ball Lightning be weaponised?" question, but want to give double Redacted a chance to ask it for himself. I think he's just given up and walked away though.

DaaaahWhoosh

huh, it was just about a year ago that I thought about that infinite torture question

Mar 10 '16 at 19:40, by DaaaahWhoosh

it's mostly based on Prometheus, and how he gets his insides eaten out by birds every day

Pᴇᴛᴇ

I don't remember that part of the film.

DaaaahWhoosh

lol it's in the novelization

Pᴇᴛᴇ

3:15 PM

Dang. I don't usually read novelisations. Last one I read was "Dark Star".

DaaaahWhoosh

just in case, I do want to point out I'm not actually talking about the movie

Pᴇᴛᴇ

lol. I know... "I'm just ****ing with ya, Daddy".

DaaaahWhoosh

ah, good. I've fooled enough people that now I've begun to feel bad about it

I once convinced someone that Abraham Lincoln was buried in Grant's tomb

Pᴇᴛᴇ

I once convinced an American that the country lanes in England twisty on purpose so that German tanks wouldn't be able to drive down them in the event of invasion.

I also once told my girlfriend that my tongue was too dry to test a battery and could she lick it instead.

4

DaaaahWhoosh

lol but why?

Pᴇᴛᴇ

3:23 PM

It was a gullibility test. I felt guilty about it.

DaaaahWhoosh

with that in mind, I'm starring it

Pᴇᴛᴇ

I'll take that star and raise it.

DaaaahWhoosh

@James I think it's your turn, you need to complete the triumvirate

Pᴇᴛᴇ

The Holy Trinity of Trickery. Yes James, you must join the coven.

Pᴇᴛᴇ

3:52 PM

RE: The Tropical beach and skiing on an island question - huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/06/…

Huh. Now there's a question. If someone managed to invent indestructible spheres (of any size), what could they be used for?

Bearings, and what else?

DaaaahWhoosh

human-sized hamster balls on the Sun?

Pᴇᴛᴇ

lol. Is there a separate name for solid as opposed to empty spheres?

DaaaahWhoosh

I was just wondering that

Pᴇᴛᴇ

I'd call an empty sphere "a ball". but that's probably too simple.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah... so you want it to not be empty then?

Pᴇᴛᴇ

4:06 PM

Yes. I have this inventive inventor who has found out how to grow indestructible ceramic/carbon/whatever spheres in zero gravity.

Hence, he needs a manufacturing plant in orbit so needs to be able to monetize his invention.

DaaaahWhoosh

I wonder if you could weaponize them

Pᴇᴛᴇ

Well, there would be money in that. At the expense of more wear on your weapons...

Or you could create a large one and drop it from orbit.

DaaaahWhoosh

even dropping a small one from orbit should do significant damage

Pᴇᴛᴇ

"How to monetize hard balls?" Maybe too much of a HNQ baiting question title.

DaaaahWhoosh

maybe, it'd depend what color they were

Pᴇᴛᴇ

4:12 PM

Deep black. The kind of black that doesn't reflect.

James

4:23 PM

@DaaaahWhoosh What do I need to do? I wasn't paying attention.

Pᴇᴛᴇ

@James See the two top stars in the star gallery... =======>

James

I once told an airman that worked for me in vehicle maintenance to go to the base supply warehouse and requisition some blinker fluid.

3

Pᴇᴛᴇ

At least it wasn't a left-handed screwdriver.

James

I once bricked over (with mortar) the door of a peer's office

I once removed all the contents of a peer's office and let her think someone had stolen all her stuff.

DaaaahWhoosh

was it the same peer?

I'm imagining you doing all of this to the same person

Pᴇᴛᴇ

4:27 PM

All this talk of peers has made me want to go to the toilet.

James

I once redecorated a roomates bedroom by wall papering it with 500 copies of some questionable porn, hanging 25 rolls of toilet paper from the ceiling in streamer form and covering the floor with 200 dixie cups full of water.

HDE 226868

@James You're starting to sound like Richard Feynman.

James

@DaaaahWhoosh Similar time frame, different people.

I also once glazed that same roommate. He passed out early so we covered him in powdered sugar and turned up the heat in the apartment to 80 degrees.

4

...I could keep going if you like.

DaaaahWhoosh

@James I'm terrified of how much more there is

3

James

:D

My commander once gave me fake orders to go to Afghanistan for a year and had me in his office signing them before all those peers I messed with jumped out of the next room laughing. It was a giant conspiracy that went on for three days.

...I bought them all beer out of respect.

I once removed all the motivational posters from the squadron conference room and replaced them with de-motivational posters.

despair.com

Worldbuilding Meta

4:50 PM

0

Q: Please make tags and meta tags visually different on meta and main

Now there is no visual distinction between bug and bug when used in comments, even if proper markup is applied ( [tag:bug] and [meta-tag:bug]). Even worse with hard-science and hard-science - on my mobile browser I can't see any difference even in question. Please make them visually different...

feature-request tags

1

Q: Site analytics: underwheling?

I got access to site analytics today, something that I was probably unreasonably excited about. Site analytics are underwhelming. I only see the history and traffic sources pages. Is there more it than that? Can I graph, for example, votes by user reputation or anything? Referring source by pos...

discussion site-analytics

James

@HDE226868 I just realized you compared me to a theoretical physicist.

Also I learned a new word. Raconteur.

google.com/…

HDE 226868

@James Yep.

James

I assume the comparison was not related to my deep knowledge of physics.

Bellerophon

Would you describe yourself as a raconteur?

James

...yes? I do like to tell stories.

When I tell those stories of pranks above in person they are a lot more detailed and animated :)

DaaaahWhoosh

5:08 PM

I'm really wondering now all it takes to glaze something is to put powdered sugar on it and heat it up

because if so, there's a lot of cooking/baking I need to do

James

@DaaaahWhoosh Well with a human and heat you get sweat. Sweat + powdered sugar = glaze.

So you also need moisture or it will turn more caramel-ly, but that requires way more heat than 80 degrees.

DaaaahWhoosh

huh

HDE 226868

@James And to a bongo player, come to think of it.

James

Well I have less than 0 rhythm...so bongos really aren't my thing...but I do apparently need to read up on Feynman he sounds like an interesting dude.

Shard martin

5:40 PM

I wanted to ask this question in the sandbox. I thought id post it here first to get feedback. Is this narrow enough to put on the main site?Suppose you had an inverse of the Bible creation story, where woman was create by god first. Man came from woman''s womb to serve and protect her, and play the complementary role in relationships. In this society, stereotypes of the sexes would not change, but simply what culture valued.Traits tied to masculinity (strength, aggressiveness, etc) would still be associated with men, but society as a whole would emphasize historically feminine ideals (rat…

DaaaahWhoosh

it might be borderline, but I want to try to answer it

I was reading a thing recently that suggested that women generally don't care much about larger social groups, which could explain why they're not generally in charge of things

also, since men are expendable, they've evolved to be the risk-takers, so they end up being the most powerful ones as well as the ones who died trying

actually, yeah, if there's a real creation story, does that mean there's no evolution?

I'm not a Biblical literalist, but culture looks different if evolution either doesn't exist or hasn't had time to work

Mithrandir24601

@DaaaahWhoosh But why can't the 'creation story' be the point at which monkey-kind became mankind?

DaaaahWhoosh

@Mithrandir24601 it can be, but it depends on how the OP defines it

if we're going to get into metaphors, that's different. In fiction, we take things literally

in Lord of the Rings, there is literally some dude driving the sun across the sky every day

Mithrandir24601

Since when did I say that I was talking in metaphors?..

[clarify: when did I say that it has to be a metaphor?]

DaaaahWhoosh

you didn't... but you implied it?

in the Bible, man is made from clay, not monkeys

in this inverted version, man is made from woman

so I guess humans could've evolved from an all-female species (like the Asari)

which would be really interesting, now that I think about it

like, say all other animals are some sort of hermaphrodite, then humans evolve to have two sexes

AndyD273

5:57 PM

Hi all

DaaaahWhoosh

because with great intelligence comes great power. So God split the task of reproduction in half, so no single individual could have children alone

@AndyD273 o/

AndyD273

So I found this, seems like it's a real life application of a world building question:

engadget.com/2017/03/06/nasa-proposes-magnetic-shield-for-mars

DaaaahWhoosh

oh yeah, TimB said something about that a while ago

Mar 3 at 17:20, by Tim B

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a25493/magnetic-shield-mars-atmo‌sphere/

Mithrandir24601

Did I? I didn't mean to: "Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" ... So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them ... And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." According to this, man was 'made' and 'created' in the 'image' of 'God' and 'formed' of the 'dust of the ground'

AndyD273

@James That despair.com link really takes me back. Now I feel the need to check out the Darwin awards

DaaaahWhoosh

5:59 PM

@Mithrandir24601 yeah, so dust. Not monkeys

Mithrandir24601

So it depends what you mean by 'formed'

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, so 'formed' could mean 'evolved over billions of years'?

Mithrandir24601

Why couldn't it?

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, I guess that works

but in this specific case, the OP is asking about a creation story that empowers women

that creates women first

AndyD273

@DaaaahWhoosh Ah, that article has better pictures

Mithrandir24601

6:01 PM

I mean, a master craftsman doesn't form a magnificent piece of artwork in an instant - it's a process that gradually changes what you start with into the final product, yet you could still use the word 'formed'

DaaaahWhoosh

@Mithrandir24601 I mean, I definitely agree with you, but it's beside the point I'm trying to figure out

I mean, for the record, the Bible makes way more sense now that I'm a programmer, but the person whose name I forget who asked about the thing that I'm trying to summarize quickly seemed to be asking for a more traditional interpretation

@Shardmartin so you may want to specify how 'real' and how 'literal' your creation story is.

James

@Shardmartin its interesting but really broad...is there a way to narrow down the scope a little...or add constraints that would define how one answer could be better than another?\

DaaaahWhoosh

6:18 PM

yeah, I think the first question really is whether or not the changed creation story would actually have the matriarchal effect you think it would

I've been thinking, it seems like women are the least empowered the more important they are

nowadays, women aren't all that important. People don't really care if they die or don't have kids, so they can do what they want

James

@DaaaahWhoosh check this out:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia, in office since 2006. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was re-elected in 2011. Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa. In June 2016, she was elected as the Chair of t...

DaaaahWhoosh

do I have to read the whole thing before I know what you mean?

James

Not really, its just relevant to a conversation about women/power

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, yeah, I mean it's kind of awkward that Liberia got a female president before the US did

Shard martin

Okay so let's say the bible story was a literal rather than metaphorical. Would that narrow the scope. The society has religious reverence for the sex that makes life. Therefore, they are more "valuable". It isn't outright stated, but there are subtitles within the culture that leads toward that way of thinking. Does that narrow the question down?

DaaaahWhoosh

6:23 PM

@Shardmartin yeah, probably, but probably not enough. How active is your god?

and how powerful is your magic?

James

@Shardmartin A bit yeah, but I am still unsure how you would compare two answers that could be really different based on how the question is currently written.

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, wait, I see the magic is pretty powerful

hmm, I also read a thing recently that suggests it's the men who make civilization. Not because the women can't, but more that they just don't.

like, women care more about small groups than large ones, and men are the opposite, so I'm even wondering if women were in charge if civilization would develop at all

(I'm also wondering how accurate the things I've read are)

but I'm wondering, if women have technology through magic, and men think it's their job to serve the women, it seems like there'd be little reason to form larger groups

Shard martin

Magic is powerful, but takes preparation. All women are capable of it, but it takes training. Some are better and stronger than others. Also, magic can give control over reproductive functions. I'm not sure about that last part but I am debating it.

DaaaahWhoosh

@Shardmartin so, to prevent pregnancy through ape?

wait, that sentence is ambiguous

Shard martin

That's the idea. They can carry to term, pause, or abort at will.

DaaaahWhoosh

6:32 PM

hmm. Yeah, I think it's an interesting question, it's probably always going to be a little bit broad but I don't know if that means it shouldn't be asked

but like I said I'd be worried that civilization would never arise

which sounds sexist, but... eh

kingledion

@DaaaahWhoosh I dunno, I'd be more inclined to credit women with agriculture at least.

Who is more likely to value farming, someone who chases horses with a stick all day, or someone who tediously picks nuts and berries all day.

In James Mitchener's 'The Covenant' the woman who invents farming nags her hunter-husband into clearing the fields for her to plant.

Now that seems plausible.

James

Not that anything bad has happened but I am going to suggest we shift topics...

DaaaahWhoosh

@James of course you would... you misogynist

James

lol

DaaaahWhoosh

(but yeah, this is a touchy subject, and we don't have enough women in here to be safe)

James

6:40 PM

or to tell us we are idiots and don't know what we're talking about.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, I've been waiting for someone to tell me that for a while now

kingledion

@DaaaahWhoosh Then you should get married

DaaaahWhoosh

lol yeah, I really should. it's on my to-do list

unfortunately there aren't many women on the Internet, and I'm sure the ones who are get proposals every day

I was going to try to take dance classes, but the only place I can find has been teaching salsa for the past two months.

DaaaahWhoosh

6:59 PM

okay, @James, what is the topic we're supposed to be shifting to?

I need to stop talking about myself, it never ends well

James

How terrifying would a hybrid dragonfly/emperor scorpion be?

DaaaahWhoosh

terrifying enough to carry a cricket bat at all times

AndyD273

@James not very scary. It sounds like something that would live in a hot dry place, like Australia, and so would be on the other side of the planet from me.

Just like all of the other horrors that live there

James

OK lets get more generic. What is the most terrifying two insect hybrid you can think of?

DaaaahWhoosh

a spider and another spider

double everything

eyes, fangs, and webs on both ends, enough legs to never be upside down but always do that creepy flailing that upside down spiders do

James

7:07 PM

Technically spiders are not insects

DaaaahWhoosh

oh, right

AndyD273

@DaaaahWhoosh One of them should be a camel spider

James

Those things are super freaking creepy and huge

AndyD273

Yeah, it's hard to get a sense of perspective, but if you look really closely there's a Great Dane attacking it's leg. The previous statement was false.

Maybe mix one of those with a Crypt Keeper wasp. news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/…

Which burrows into its hosts brain and controls it into doing stuff for it.

That statement was true

DaaaahWhoosh

I get the feeling it's only a matter of time before bugs figure out how to control humans

James

7:17 PM

@AndyD273 I now have the willies. Thanks for that.

AndyD273

@DaaaahWhoosh I'm personally more concerned with control by ophiocordyceps unilateralis, seeing as a fungus could mutate to manipulate a new host much easier than an insect.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, but fungus isn't scary

in fact, we should all grow our own fungus

everyone, go out and make a fungus garden. Keep it in your basement. Sleep with it at night.

AndyD273

@DaaaahWhoosh It is when it invades your brain, turning you into a mindless creature that attacks others, before sprouting out of your head to spread it's spores to other victims.

Oh no, it already got @DaaaahWhoosh

Cordyceps Fungus - The mind-control Killer-Fungi

►

It's like an ant horror movie

James

8:38 PM

@AndyD273 I think that qualifies as a human horror flick too...super creepy.

DaaaahWhoosh

9:11 PM

huh, there's a question asked recently that everyone is saying should be on Writers... I'm not sure I agree

it's this one

I think it's probably a good worldbuilding-process question, but we don't get enough of them for people to know they exist?

Secespitus

9:28 PM

@DaaaahWhoosh I agree, this looks like a good question for the tag worldbuilding-process

AndyD273

@James especially that line at the end: "It does have a positive effect on the jungles diversity, since parasites like these stop any one group of animal from getting the upper hand. The more numerous a species becomes, the more likely that it will be attacked by it's nemesis, a cordyceps fungus."

James

9:44 PM

@DaaaahWhoosh I read it more as, "I am writing about something I have never experienced, how do I do that?"

Which I guess could be argued that you are constructing that place in your mind but...eh...thats a stretch in my mind.

Green

10:18 PM

@HDE226868, are you around? I have some questions in the vicinity of that LaTeX edit you made a little while ago.

@AndyD273 Isn't evolution grand?

Stack Exchange

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

In my magical world there are two contrary forces, or rather essences that flow in the two opposite directions of another dimension perpendicular to our own. One is named aether and flows "up", the other is named nether and flows "down". When these two essences reach the "extremities" of this di...

Green

10:34 PM

@HDE226868, I found this page that seems to have a better discussion than the old page with more understandable math.

There's also this page that goes way way way more into detail (and uses symbols I'm not familiar with) about energy in ocean waves.

JDługosz

Cool! I just got the “Epic” badge (silver) and now my badge counts are 7,77,177.

HDE 226868

@Green I'm here.

JDługosz

@DaaaahWhoosh well, it needs real world places that the writer has not direct access to but others have. If it was for invented worlds, then he could just make something up. So it would seem to be expressly not about world building.

HDE 226868

I think your $\zeta$ is the same as my $H$, just scaled by some constant (maybe $1/4$).

Actually, my equation might just be off by a factor of $8$. I'm not sure why. Let me look at your links.

Mithrandir24601

10:51 PM

pffft it's fine - 8 is approximately 1 :P Having said that, do you have a link to whatever question/answer you're talking about?

(unless you're doing something in binary, in which case you've made a disastrous error to be out by 3 orders of magnitude...)

HDE 226868

Ah! My $H$ is $2A$. So if the kinetic and potential energies are equal, my equation agrees with the linear plane wave approximation here. And since $A^2=\bar{\zeta^2$, we agree. I think.

@Green ^

Green

11:09 PM

Cool. I'll make the change when I get home this evening.

2

A: If an Earth sized planet had 1.5-5x more or less gravity than that of the Earth, how would it affect the shape of waves in water bodies?

Intuitively, it takes more energy to create a wave of equal height on a planet with more gravity compared to standard Earth gravity. Inversely, a planet with lower gravity will have lower energy waves. Using equations for wave energy incorporating gravity, we see: $$ E = \rho_{ w} g \langle \z...

Mithrandir24601

More gravity = smaller waves, less = bigger waves?

Green

@Mithrandir24601 For the same energy, yes.

HDE 226868

For the most part, yes. Also, more gravity = faster waves.

Mithrandir24601

My undergrad degree wasn't entirely wasted then :)

(I have vague memories of something similar being briefly mentioned at some point during those 3 years. How I can remember something that specific that was only (I think) so briefly mentioned, I'll never know...)

Shalvenay

11:31 PM

hey there @Green @Mithrandir24601 and @HDE226868

Mithrandir24601

Only I'm now beginning to think that more gravity = bigger waves for some reason... Bother

Rytsas @Shalvenay

Shalvenay

how're things going?

Mithrandir24601

Well, my shower now only outputs cold water and I'm still struggling to find somewhere to live next year. Apart from that, I'm currently in bed with some nice tea, so it's good :) you?

Shalvenay

OK here. might be tossing a question up on WB.SE. got an answer or two to toss on DIY.SE (might be worth asking there 'bout that recalcitrant shower of yours)

also, musing about how to make a dragon's head explode, so to speak :P (or if you want something a bit more down to earth, your nearest friendly Valyrian blacksmith's, for that matter)

Mithrandir24601

I've sent an email to the landlady, so hopefully it'll be fixed soon... thanks anyway! But... where else can I get my Valyrian steel?

Green

11:43 PM

@Shalvenay Hey, how goes it?

Shalvenay

as to the blacksmith -- I'd just have him pass a brace over and toss in that one drill bit I picked up a while back at the hardware store (it's TiN-coated M42 HSS), then ask him to pass me a piece of armor plate he forged. Then, just have him drill through it with the bit and brace ;)

@Green alright here

Green

@Shalvenay what's your question about making a dragon's head explode?

Shalvenay

@Mithrandir24601 or, I could just ask him to tackle the one blademaking project on my wishlist -- the paper cutter of doom ;) it's a basic paper cutter blade, only done in cemented carbide in order to slice n' dice FR-4

Mithrandir24601

Now you're talking!

Shalvenay

@Green haha. the WB question is of a different sort -- I got into an XYZ problem with my last SSTO question, so I'm taking a few steps back

@Mithrandir24601 (FR-4 is the worst material to cut on the planet. machines quite easily, but unless you use carbide tools, your cutting tool will be ruined by the day's end as the glass fibers abrade the edge off, basically)

Mithrandir24601

11:52 PM

With 10 minutes to go, I learned my new thing for today :) (it's been fairly unproductive...) and with that, I'm off

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