Which one is it?

("Not the one. Not the one..." )

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 05:21 pm: Edit

Jeff Anderson:

It is, of course, Zathras.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 06:26 pm: Edit

"All Minbari belief is around three. Three castes: worker, warrior, religious. Three languages: Light, Dark, Gray. The Nine of the Gray Council: three times three. All is three. As you are three. As you are one. As you are the One." — "You are the One Who Was." — "You are the One Who Is." — "You are the One Who Will Be." — "You are the beginning of the story, and the middle of the story, and the end of the story that creates the next great story. In your heart, you know what Zathras says is true. Go now. Zathras' place is with the One Who Was. We have — a destiny."

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 08:46 pm: Edit

The Minbari postman always rings thrice.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, October 05, 2021 - 10:26 am: Edit

Snacks, when gotten from the Minibari, are VERY expensive.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, October 05, 2021 - 05:27 pm: Edit

The imagination goes wild wondering what else the Minbari do in threes........


Garth L. Getgen

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, October 05, 2021 - 07:10 pm: Edit

“But only Zathras have no one to talk to. No one manages poor Zathras, you see. So Zathras talks to dirt. Sometimes talks to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used, through everyone walking on it. Just like Zathras, but we've come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the universe. So, you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet."

"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not know, so cannot say."

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, October 05, 2021 - 09:30 pm: Edit

Imagine if Zathras and Yoda got together to teach ESL classes......


Garth L. Getgen

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Read the first issue of "Saga" for free! https://imagecomics.com/read/saga

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 10:15 am: Edit

Popular Mechanics 9/6/21: Scientists say Aliens maybe be using Dyson Spheres to Harvest Black Hole Energy.

What are the Tholians up to now?

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 10:37 am: Edit

It's much easier to build a Dyson sphere around a black hole. The black hole also is more stable than a star, so your megastructure may last longer if you're careful.

You can harvest a truly fantastic amount of energy from a black hole. Shoot a laser through the ergosphere it so that the light picks up some of the black hole's gravitational energy, thereby increasing the light's energy and frequency. If the Dyson sphere is reflective, the beam can be reflected back at the black hole multiple times, continuing to pick up energy. If you're not careful, you can create the biggest bomb anyone has conceived of - a black hole bomb - that will explode the Dyson sphere with perhaps the energy of a supernova.

That's a lot of energy to harvest.

Here's a video on the concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulCdoCfw-bY

It's actually much easier and more more energy producing than a Dyson sphere around a star.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 02:51 pm: Edit

What, exactly, is “Black Hole Energy?”

Are we talking gravity(as in gravitational force)?
Or, is it a form of Mechanical Energy? (As in inertia or velocity as applied to orbital kinetic movement)?

Without some sort of definition, it is difficult to understand just what the subject being discussed actually is.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 02:57 pm: Edit

I know Jeff's comment was directed at Lar's post, but on reflection, I think it's more accurate to say one can harvest a combination of the the rotational energy and gravitational energy of the black hole using the method I indicated. The spin of the black hole drags spacetime as it rotates, and this effect is hellish in the ergosphere. That's why the photon you shoot into the ergosphere picks up energy - like throwing a basketball at a wall and having it bounce back at the speed of a bullet (to use the analogy in the video I posted).

However, you don't even have to do that. You can also harvest the Hawking energy emitted by a black hole.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 03:01 pm: Edit

There are two ways I know of to draw energy from a Black Hole, the described firing a laser near it and having it come out more energetic, requires that the black hole be rotating (which a real one would be). Otherwise you lose the energy you gain on the infall during the outgoing path, but with a rotation, passing the hole on one side, moving in the direction of rotation adds energy to photons or other particles that make a pass.

The second way to draw energy is to drop a gas or something similar toward the hole (but not straight toward it), particles coming toward the hole are at relativistic speed, they can collide, which at those speeds causes all sorts of interesting reactions, which radiate back out. You could capture some of the energy from this radiation.

Edited to add: Hawking energy from a reasonable size black hole is trivial. Far less than a star or white dwarf would radiate.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Douglas is right on Hawking radiation - my bad. Hawking radiation luminosity is inversely proportional to the square of the mass of the black hole. Not much.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 04:59 pm: Edit

On the other hand, one that I missed/forgot is to drop a charged particle toward the hole, but at an angle and with a speed that would put an uncharged particle into a highly elliptical orbit.

At closest approach the particle is under extreme gravitational acceleration, and an accelerating charged particle radiates (see Maxwell's equations), this drops the upper end of the orbit, leaving closest approach at approximately its original distance.

If the particle remains charged, then it will slowly spiral in, and the radiation will eventually carry out energy closely approximating the rest mass of the particle.

Shoot electrons around in one direction and ions around in the other, on slightly differently inclined planes, and you can have a really good source of energy.

Basically, a black hole is a really good way to throw away mass and get a fair chunk of it back as energy.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 10:17 pm: Edit

Reminds me a little of a particle accelerator, except the acceleration comes from the naturally strong gravity of the black hole, vs. the artificial electromagnets of the accelerator.

--Mike

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - 11:33 pm: Edit

You know, since this is sci-fi, I'm going to recommend a cartoon. Camp Cretaceous frm Jurassic Park.

And it's probably one of the best of the Jpark franchise, most especially because, and as a writer I like this:

The teens don't suddenly become either stupid, when things go wrong, or turn into 16 year olds acting like 30 year old combat veterans. The show sells, very well, that they are kids, alone, and utterly terrified of these monsters, to the point where some of them (and the show must have done some research on this) start showing signs of PTSD and ASD. It's well done, and a show you can watch with the kids and not feel like you've wasted your time.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 11:43 am: Edit

A popular feature in Dystopian Future stories is having corporations supplant governments in running things.

(Weyland/Yutani in the "Aliens" stories?)

Businesses right now appear to be taking a VERY active role in support of Ukraine, both with providing services to Ukraine AND suspending activities in Russia.

Meanwhile, exactly what are the "Sanctions" that governments are proposing? Do they even rise to the level of impact which businesses are already doing?

Maybe it's just me, but it's looking like businesses are taking the lead in global political issues. Is this a first step towards the "Corporate States" of Dystopia? Is life starting to imitate art?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 01:31 pm: Edit

Well, one thing the sanctions have done is cut off Russia from more than half of the $600 billion that Putin had socked away to try to weather sanctions in the first place. That's not peanuts.

They've also been effectively cut off from using the dollar for foreign trade; some 80% of Russia's foreign trade was dependent upon dollar transactions.

With Switzerland joining in with upholding the sanctions, the oligarchs can't tap into their fat numbered Swiss bank accounts anymore.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 05:46 pm: Edit

Respectfully, Jessica, I think I wasn't too clear.

What I meant to ask is whether the banks cut Putin off from his money because the governments asked them to take that action, or did they chose to take action themselves BEFORE their national governments asked them to.

If they DID take that action, like the tech companies did, before governments stood up, could this be a first step towards corporate states

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 06:35 pm: Edit

Some major Western banks, at least initially, _resisted_ and campaigned against proposals to cut off Russian banks from the SWIFT transaction network. (per reports both by the BBC and in the WSJ)

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 06:58 pm: Edit

With Interest Rates at what they are....
U.S. banks won't lose much cutting off the Russians....

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 01, 2022 - 10:24 pm: Edit

Jeff Anderson: the banks most certainly did not act to freeze Russian funds until the governments ordered it.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, May 04, 2022 - 01:03 pm: Edit

Happy Star Wars Day! May The Fourth Be With You!


Garth L. Getgen