sleet01

More like “How Martin Selig Destroyed the Monorail”…

Oh, look, another industry forcing instant roll-backs of new laws by hurting the consumers to “prove” the law is “harmful”.

*tract, apparently.

Back in 2006/2007 I was reading Slashdot for tech news and stuff. I started noticing that a lot of newer content was just linking to Reddit posts, so I figured I’d cut out the middleman and jumped ship to Reddit.

I’m hoping to someday buy a computer that can run Squadron 42. Can Social Security help with that?

I put my first model up on Cults, Thingiverse, and I think one other site… so far only the Cults one seems to have gotten any traction, so I’m focusing on that.

New season announced, comic volume 9 next month: it’s a good season.

Somewhere out there a vending machine is crying its metal heart out

Doubtful; A) that would cause rust, and B) it’d have to pay to get that capability in the first place!

Honestly, I had zero expectations of Vending Machine but it’s mildly exceeded them. Way better than it has any right to be.

I found out just a few years ago that many earthworms are invasive species in North America: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_America.

Apparently the last ice age cleared out all the earthworms north of the 49th, and existing native species didn’t migrate back after the glaciers receded, leaving many northern and west-coast forests without earthworms at all.

Other folks had covered the wing aspect, I wanted to discuss the engine portion. Both are cogent.

This part is half-right: the work of the engine is going to accelerating the plane forward, or (when thrust and drag are in equilibrium) maintaining the current velocity. But in level flight, the engine is not “keeping the plane in the air” - it is impossible for it to contribute to lift directly because it’s force vector is 90 degrees from the lift vector.

Therefore, some of the engine’s energy is going into keeping the plane in the air, and some is going into accelerating it forwards, or keeping it at the same speed (fighting air resistance).

This is where you make an unsupported leap:

Therefore, if the plane points straight up, the engine should be able to support it hovering in the air. If it didn’t have enough power to fight gravity when pointing straight up, it wouldn’t have enough power to fight gravity when moving horizontally, either.

A car can accelerate horizontally because its engine can rotate its tires to apply horizontal force due to friction and mechanical advantage; does that mean it can drive straight up a wall? Of course not (outside of some specialized bouldering vehicles). The engine lacks the power to lift the car straight up, and the tires lack the grip to hold on to a vertical surface. The drivetrain is designed for efficient road cruising, not high power and grip

It’s the same for aircraft, generally: a given engine usually has enough power to accelerate the aircraft horizontally, and applies this through some kind of prop or jet rotor. But this combination is tuned for efficient cruising, not vertical climbing. The engine won’t provide enough power, and the prop can’t move enough air, to sustain vertical flight indefinitely.

“But Sleet01,” you cry, “helicopters exist!” Just so! They trade cruise efficiency for vertical thrust by greatly increasing the size of the prop, increasing the mechanical advantage so that less engine power is needed to hover or climb vertically. That’s like putting 4" wheels covered in suction cups on your car - now it can go straight up, but you can’t go very far or very fast!

“But Sleet01,” you exclaim, “F-15s exist and can fly vertically almost to space!” Indeed they do, but in order to fly an F-15 vertically you need to burn immense amounts of fuel, almost 400 gallons per minute. That’s like putting two turbo V8s in your Jeep - now you have the power to go vertical, but only for a couple minutes!

My first reaction: “whoo, more of these two!”

My second reaction, being only partway through Season 2: “…shit, are they still not together!?”

Yo.

Seisenshi Dunbine’s ED because power ballads are fun

If you haven’t seen it, check out L-Gaim’s OP 1st OP as well. Same singer, great power ballad vibe.

Edit: oh, hey, and 0083’s “Men of Destiny”, too!

Honestly, MIO / MIQ should have been the fifth (sixth?) Knight Saber.

I considered recommending Angel Beats but, uh, I found it pretty depressing.

Oh, man, totally forgot Nozaki-kun. It’s especially good because it’s a rom-com that spends most of its time deconstructing rom-coms!

Some other recent, “non-standard”, romantic comedies that might appeal:

• Komi-san Can’t Communicate
• Tomo-chan Is A Girl!
• Teasing Master Takagi-san
• The Dangers In My Heart
• Loving Yamada at Lv999!

If the “messed-up magical contract” setting is what she likes, check out:

• Magical Girl “Oré”
• Madoka Magica
• Revolutionary Girl Utena

Toradora is quite good but I recall it being more serious. Some others like that:

• His and Her Circumstances
• Horimiya
• The Ancient Magus’s Bride
• Insomniacs After School

As an aside, if you haven’t seen it already, Heavenly Delusion is just a fantastic show that everyone should check out, inventive and gorgeous.

• Planetes
• Utena
• Gintama