The Factory Floor

Vincent

04:00

We don't have even one geologist (or an amateur) ? worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/25084/…

ArtOfCode

13:07

@MonicaCellio I've been having a play with what options we have on that.

@HDE226868 Words typed out in a font I have, plus a gradient and some letter joins.

James

13:56

Morning all.

Green

17:22

@Vincent I've got an answer there for you. It's really broad but I think it's a start. Give me a shout if you want more detail on a specific aspect.

Worldbuilding Meta

18:19

0

Q: How to deal with users who cannot comment due to lack of rep?

Okay, I have come across more than a few answers that would better belong in the comment section, but have been posted by new users who lack sufficient rep to post. These range from jokes to valid clarification requests. They are deleted swiftly, and I feel the community at large has no idea what...

Green

18:39

@HDE226868, I think I just made our 100th hard-science question.

bowlturner

18:52

@Green Your people will die.

Green

@bowlturner Yeah, I figured they would. I'm debating whether to make it a science-based question instead of hard-science.

bowlturner

@Green As a wood worker and learning blacksmithing, they won't make something much better than a raft in 5 years. Just the tools needed to shape the wood are difficult to make.

If I have time I could try to put some of this together for you in an answer, detailing why it will fail (from my point of view)

Green

@bowlturner, this is why I love WB. There's almost always someone around who can say "I've done or studied something like what you're asking about and it's hard".

@bowlturner I'm definitely interested in your opinion on this subject.

bowlturner

@Green I'll give it a go, we'll see how much time I have to put it together before I get home tonight. Might be this evening before I get it done. Any other tools they already have? or did they mostly run with the clothes on their back and some food?

Green

I'll edit the question for what they have on hand.

bowlturner

19:03

OK, that will help me focus things a little more.

James

@Green Very very dead. I answered.

Green

This is such a fun question. I can't help smiling about it.

Shalvenay

so, on an Earth-like temperate, what would make a mountain range a nigh-insurmountable barrier to travel? (i.e. simply getting over the lowest pass in said mountain range would be an Everest-esque feat of mountain climbing)

James

19:18

@Shalvenay Weather and terrain

Green

@James Seconded. Also, if the mountain range is steep enough, no one aside from modern alpinists will be able to ascend and then only with enough food and equipment to make the ascent.

It's highly unlikely that a large group of people would be able to make a traversal of such a range..

Shalvenay

so, basically, extreme cold and steep slopes/cliffs combined?

Green

@Shalvenay Yeah. Also, the human body doesn't do well at extreme heights. Altitude sickness is a common malady for people climbing Everest.

Starvation is another one. If you have enough food/water for a 10 day ascent but bad weather keeps you in camp for 11 days....you've got a problem.

James

@Shalvenay Not necessarily just cold. Rain makes mountain climbing treacherous as well...though snow and cold are better.

Shalvenay

nods yeah -- those Time of Useful Consciousness tables are a real dog.

James

19:23

altitude sickness would also come into play

Shalvenay

how high could you make a mountain range, given Earth's conditions?

Green

@Shalvenay Physical constraints or the highest a human can go?

Everest is just about the limit that a human can climb without oxygen.

Shalvenay

physical constraints. modern alpinists could probably get up much higher than Everest using breathing apparatus.

Green

hk-phy.org/articles/mount_high/mount_high_e.html seems to indicate that max height of a mountain is 13km. Everest is 9km.

Shalvenay

alright, that's enough room for a plausible mountain range then

Green

19:38

This was interesting. From the design requirements of passenger airliners: "the aircraft must be designed so that occupants will not be exposed to a cabin altitude exceeding 25,000 feet (7,600 m) for more than 2 minutes, nor exceeding an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,000 m) at any time."

Uncontrolled decompression

Uncontrolled decompression is an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin, and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure, or impact, causing a pressure vessel to vent into its lower-pressure surroundings or fail to pressurize at all. Such decompression may be classed as Explosive, Rapid, or Slow: Explosive decompression (ED) is violent, the decompression being too fast for air to safely escape from the lungs. Rapid decompression, while still fast, is slow enough to allow the lungs to vent. Slow or gradual decompression occurs so...

bowlturner

@Green I threw my answer in. I might add things as I think of more, but @James answer is looking pretty good.

Shalvenay

@Green most of that's set as a conservative limit on the need to provide oxygen to pax. I suspect that a flight crew on O2 would be happy as a clam in a depressurized plane at FL350

Green

@Shalvenay O2 plus a heated flight suit, sure. Lacking those tools, they're gonna pass out and freeze to death really fast.

Shalvenay

yeah

Green

Frostbite was a huge concern for bomber crews in WW2 and they were only operating at 15000 to 20000 feet.

James

19:51

@bowlturner We were both thinking similarly.

bowlturner

@James yep, but our interests overlap with woodworking and metal working, so it wasn't a big surprise. :)

Monica Cellio

20:08

Hello all. Our birthday is next week -- yay! The top-voted answer on the "how shall we celebrate?" question was my suggestion to share glimpses into our worlds -- a bit of fiction, a scene description, a fact sheet, whatever. 19 people liked that idea, though so far I'm the only one who's done it. Are others thinking about this? If you've got something public (anywhere; needn't be our blog), please edit in a link here:

3

A: How should we implement "share a glimpse into your world" week?

I'm starting this answer, and marking it Community Wiki, to collect links to whatever people want to share from their worlds -- stories, descriptions, game modules, fact sheets, etc. Wherever you've posted it, please add a link and your name here once you do. This should make it easier to compi...

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Are we thinking of putting up a featured meta post on our birthday, about whatever it happens to be? Official announcement of the blog, for example (people seem to still be confused about whether it's up or not, and there's been no announcement so far)?

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode I think we've now got enough blog content, and by enough different writers, to go ahead and announce its launch officially on meta. (We needn't wait for next Wednesday. I figure the celebration will run for the month anyway. :-) ) Do you want to write that post since you're the organizer?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Can do. What else was I just thinking about, relating to this..?

Ah, that's it.

Returning to the issue of promoting the blog on the site.

Monica Cellio

For the "share your world" posts, assuming there are others, I'd like to write up a blog post that does a bit of a round-up -- take the links collected on meta but also say something about each of them, as a way to entice blog readers to click through. Meanwhile, there'll be the meta post for site regulars.

James

@bowlturner I am finally doing my intro course the 19th and 20th...can't freaking wait.

(blacksmith)

ArtOfCode

20:17

Specifically, that disclaimer area. If the CMs can put HTML into it, then we can get a nice-looking promotion of it, on-site - not just a month's featured meta.

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode right, the post I'm hoping you'll write is the "we have a blog! (please come help)" post, in which you would, ideally, talk about the start we've already made, encourage people to read, encourage people to contribute, and tell them how to contribute. You could mention that we're looking for both recurring features (some of which have started) and one-shot submissions (so don't be shy). Etc.

@ArtOfCode oh, right. I've lost track; do we have a meta post requesting that already?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Well that's that meta post written for me :)

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode that was an outline. :-)

Sorry, got carried away.

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Not yet. I brought it up here a couple weeks back, and we agreed it was a better idea to wait until we had some content and backing to the blog before we ask for it.

So: meta post about it, then ask for it, is my idea.

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode ah yes, I remember now. I'll go ahead and make that meta post if you like -- divide and conquer, and I don't know if a diamondly feature request might get attention sooner.

ArtOfCode

20:21

@MonicaCellio Might well do. Advantage of a diamond being you can also poke CMs in chat.

Let me get that blog meta up and featured, and then go ahead and post that one :)

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode sounds good.

(Well, you'll need help on the "featured" part, but just ping me.)

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Aye. Lack of mod powers on other sites...

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode which is quite reasonable -- the last thing we want is 500 mods wielding diamonds on every site on the network. Oh, looks like spam! No wait, that was jp.so. :-)

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio April Fools' Day material, that is.

bowlturner

@James have fun and let me know what you think after you recover!

James

20:30

@bowlturner I feel like I should work out this week so my arms aren't completely useless after the first two hours.

bowlturner

@James go reroof a house with a hammer not a nailer. you might do just fine then! ;)

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio ping ping

James

@bowlturner I've actually done that before...so...no I already know how much it sucks lol

bowlturner

@James well I hope the teacher keeps it enjoyable.

James

I met with him last week when I dropped off the deposit for the class. Sounds like there will only be four in the class (one of which is a buddy of mine I talked into joining) and he's just an older guy that loves to do this stuff, it should be awesome.

bowlturner

20:38

Cool! I enjoy it a lot.

Shalvenay

that sounds like a fair bit of fun

Worldbuilding Meta

1

Q: We have a blog!

As you may have seen, over the past couple of weeks, Worldbuilding has been building not a world, but a blog. The setup of that blog is now complete! You can come and visit us now. We've got a reasonable bit of content up there, and our organisation is good and looking set for more. Go and read...

discussion blog

HDE 226868

22:56

@Green Cool!

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