Syndic

The thing is - we can't prove that the officer knew it to have been green and lied.

I enjoy understanding things, and knowing things. I also enjoy eating chocolate. The chocolate, and its taste, and the memory of its taste, will all be gone sooner or later (with my death at the latest, in the case of the memory). But that does not make eating chocolate meaningless, because I can enjoy it while it is there. Same for gaining understanding, and knowledge.

@Michael if you have the option, sure. But I remember the time when I went to work with the bus and/or tram - and the station was in the sun. And to look nice and modern, the little house you can wait in to shelter from the rain? Transparent. The next shade? Over a busy road. So I could choose to either wait for transport (which was often late, making me wait a while) in the sun, or I could wait in the shade and risk missing it. And then there's people who work outside - the people fixing our roads? They don't have the choice to stay out of the sun. And so on.

@Bubbles so yes, the shockwave can propagate through the hull - but only the part that reaches it. If the explosion is right ON the hull, that can still be a bit of energy - but most of the explosion by far will take the path of (way) less resistance and push into the vacuum in all other directions. So if you want to get a significant part of the explosion's energy to propagate through the hull, your best bet is to penetrate first so more directions from the explosion are covered with material rather than nothing.

@Bubbles all explosions have this problem to some extend: in space, without an atmosphere, there's nothing to propagate the shockwave. An explosion is dangerous because it creates a lot of volume (turning solid material into hot gas, which requires a lot more space). This pushes the air (or water, or earth, or metal...) around it away, and everything pushed away then pushes against whatever is next to it. If there's "nothing" next to it, the worst an explosion can do is throw gas and shrapnel against the target - can still do damage, but a LOT less.

@coppereyecat indeed, it would be less obvious. But animals die without human intervention (sickness, predator animals, a bad fall...) so I think it would still be possible for a human to go "aww, poor animal. But I'm cold in the winter, and this animal does not seem to mind - since it does not need its hide anymore, maybe I can use it?" - and yes, tanning will take more steps to figure out, but "let's scrape off the stinking fat" at least should be obvious, so untanned hides would be used I think. And from there things can develop. From "found carcass" to "kill animal", from untanned to ...?

well, just because those humans are herbivorous does not mean they wouldn't like to have tough clothing. Made of leather, maybe.

@user161005 is the entire population of Empire A so fanatical? If not, Empire B could count/bet on internal rebels, revolutionaries, terrorists or whatever you want to call "people who want to live" deposing, murdering, and otherwise getting rid of the ruling class and then sabotaging the doomsday weapon. Those "people who want to live" might well include military officials (who know where the weapon is, and which button to keep the nobles away from) and scientists (who know how the weapon works and which cable to snip so it does not work anymore)

As an Introvert: Thank you for asking this and not just assuming stuff and trying to force people to be happy and outgoing. It's really draining to interact with people on an already empty social fuel tank, being forced to do so anyway can lower ones mood quickly. So again, thanks for noticing when the introverts need to be left alone - and also thanks for not just leaving them alone all the time. Extroverts coming to us when we're receptive is often our best chance at building a social life at all ;)

what should be noted, especially since @Korthalion mentioned not liking (among other things) that crude mercury thermometers are affected by barometric pressure, is that while this thermometer will ignore it - the CALIBRATION will be strongly affected by that. Since you use "boiling water" as one end of the scale, and water boils at different temperatures depending on barometric pressure.

@L.Dutch but wouldn't, if you were closer to one side of the sphere (aka, not in the middle) the matter of that side of the sphere have a stronger pull on you than the matter of the other side? Since gravity is weaker the further you are from the matter that causes it?