SSgt Baloo

Re: Help with a fight at 2000 feet Sometimes they make it back safely. See: Aloha Airlines Flight 243 for inspiration.

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ ISTR reading a book by Harry Turtledove (after a bit of googling, it turns out the author was Robert Silverberg) called Roma Eterna. Here's a link to an incomplete copy of the book. In it, the Exodus from Egypt either does not occur or fails. Without the nations of Judea and Israel, there is no messiah, and the children of Abraham remain a small, persecuted cult. Interesting read. While I was trying to find it, I ran across another book along the same lines called Romanitas by Sophia McDougall. This looks like another one I'll have to read.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos I can't tell if this is a video game or a commercial, but it's from Japan: McDonald's McThingie from Nihon.

Re: Stronghold Concept Art

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Sauron, dirty mouth? Clean it up!

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns Whoa there, I say, whoa there, boy! Ya don't want to go off half cocked, now, do ya?

Re: A Thread for Random Videos ...And what could be funnier than African animals going on a bender??

Re: What happens in Vegas... I don't want ANY of you guys on my superteam. Especially if you know where my bedroom is. Seriously, given the information provided in the OP, most of my characters would have either blown it off or talked to (or shouted at) the guy the following morning. Did any of you consider the trauma to the (presumably) innocent other party in that bedroom? What about the trauma the Zapp-groupie experiences when Zapp's superteam-mate busts down the door and (at the very least) ruins the moment? The Cat Without a Name: Meh! He does that sort of thing all the time (at least, with other cats), but he's a cat so people expect that sort of thing. Bob Tiger: Talks to the guy the next morning, but only if Zapp was expected to be there and was a no-show. Argus: "That's in his hulahoop, not mine!" Thunder Rabbit: "Like I should talk?!?" (Of course, he is a 7-foot-tall rabbit!")

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Will ya cut it out? You're making me hungry!

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ Islam might be somewhat different, since Muhammed drew from both Christianity and Judaism (they are the other "People of the Book") when he established Islam. Even if the Muslim Conquests had started on schedule, the forces of Islam would very likely have met a more fully united fromt opposing their western expansion. Even if the Judaic Roman Empire were divided between East and West, as they were in our world, the Western Empire would have been much more willing to rise to the aid of the Eastern Empire in defense of the Temple in Jerusalem. You just can't have a temple anywhere you like. The temple in Jerusalem was the heart and soul of Judaism until it was destroyed in 70 AD (by the Romans in our timeline, of course. Jewish Romans would not have done such a thing). A threat to the Temple in Jerusalem would have been treated as a serious threat to all jews everywhere and the response would very likely have much quicker and more decisive than that of the Byzantine Empire. The Dark Ages might never have happened in such a world. Firstly, the Library of Alexandria would have very likely not been lost. A Jewish Roman Empire would have made it a priority to keep copies of such important documents in Rome (and probably Jerusalem as well). Even if the Muslim Conquests had taken the Holy Land, copies of important documents would have very likely been circulated throughout the Roman Empire(s). Of Course, It just might be that Jesus didn't convert the Roman Emperor. In that case, the Temple would have been destroyed. Without the flag of Christianity to rally around, there would have been somewhat less resistance to the Islamic Expansion, if it did occur. All of Europe Would possibly be Muslim in such a case. The Americas were discovered largely because Europeans were trying to find a way to trade with the Far East themselves instead of having to bargain with Muslim traders (cutting out the middleman is not a new concept). If Europe was Muslim, trading with the East would be relatively easy. Without the discovery of the "New World", the native civilizations might advance to the point where, when they were finally "discovered" by Europeans or Africans (or the Chinese, for that matter) they might be in a better position to resist military incursion than the Natives of our Earth were. Nexus: There's loads more worlds available than the three you suggested, but I suppose you already know that? I think it would be interesting if Ghengis Khan (or someone like him) sent explorers Eastward to conquer what would subsequently not be called the Americas.

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ

Re: Alternate Universe 2 Women already know they can get pregnant and still have sex anyway. Many of those want children. Before the modern socioeconomic model the only form of elder-care was loving children. The more you had, the better they could support you when you got old and feeble. Not wanting children is a modern development, at least on the wide scale we see today.

Re: Alternate Universe 2 I suspect that the changes allowed by this one "ability" would be swamped by the noise the change introduces. Perhaps ALL men from antiquity forward have been bred to be ideal fathers, etc. The "sliders" could either be perceived as alien and exotic or possibly as potentially dangerous, unpredictable monsters who just happen to look like normal, obedient men.

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ I don't think being beardless would necessarily mark you as an outsider. Use a public restroom, however...! Still, the Jews were instructed not to opress the foreigner in their midst. I suspect a society built on those foundations (unless corrupted by the power-hungry Romans) would be a lot more tolerant of strangers than our current society. I imagine that Jewish settlers in the New World would have been more likely to make friends with the natives, except in the case of the ones practicing human sacrifice, cannibalism, or other proscribed behaviors. I imagine they would not necessarily feel that they've got to conquer the heathens either. Of course, I could be completely wrong. *Link!

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ Are you sure you're in the right thread? I just answered this response over in the no fossil fuels/no gunpowder thread.

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns All bets are off, then. I still think the whales would've been toast without the discovery of a cheaper alternative to whale oil. Likewise, pollution in large cities would be incredible, what with tons of animal exhaust hitting the streets each day (not to mention that in a large enough population of animals, a significant percentage of them perish each day, creating a number of carcasses to be removed. When internal combustion and electricity were introduced, cities quickly became much cleaner in direct proportion to the reductuion in livestock. It wasn't until some time in the 1950s that people began noticing a significant problem with smog in congested areas. The wider effects of lead-based fuels were either unknown or not widely known.

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns Discovering the many uses of oil may be what saved the whales from extinction (or postponed their extinction, depending on your POV on the subject). I'd say the whales would have been hunted to extinction unless someone figured out an easy way to make lamp oil (or a substitute) that could compete with the "cheapness" of whale oil. Steel can be made using charcoal even without coal, but it's much more efficient to use coke made from coal instead (you don't have to cut down so many forests). Some steel might be available, but I'm sure it would be a rare and expenstive substance. If no-one had invented gunpowder, a lot of construction, quarrying, and mining would be significantly more difficult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder People tend to forget the firearms haven't been the only use to which gunpowder (or explosive material in general) is put. I really doubt we'd be using anything more sophisticated to power our society than grain- and grass-eating animals (edit: and other people). People would be killing each other in wars with some sort of cutlery. Life would be nasty, brutal and short. A lot of the advances of the 19th century that led to improved sanitation, cleaner cities, and improved standards of living just would not have happened. Odds are that Life expectancy might be no better than it was a hundred years ago (45 or so and you'd beaten the odds).

Re: Alternate Earth 3: Passionless Christ That's pretty much the way it started out, anyway. The central message of the inability of humans to, unaided, make themselves worthy of heaven, and the free offer of forgiveness* to those who are willing to be forgiven is what distinguished core Christian beliefs from most other religions. Without Christ's death on the cross (and the subtext behind that and his resurrection) you have just another Jewish sect.

Re: Hey Gang! Greets and welcome! I hope you discover you've found a second home -- or at least a secret headquarters.

Re: Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II The Russians trained the dogs with Russian tanks. The dogs ran under the Russian tanks. Who is the dumb one, the dog who does what he is trained to do, how he was trained to do it or the guys who didn't figure the kind of tanks used in training would matter to the dogs. Great idea (except from the dog's perspective), BAD implementation.

Re: Multimode Vehicles Video: Mini-movie: Rinnspeed sQuba ( I was right! It leaks!)

Re: Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II Fugu

Re: How to make an ice planet plausible ISTR seeing a program on the Science Channel (or was it the National Geographic Channel? ) In any case I googled "snowball earth" and "slushball earth" and got several relevant links. Have a nut: www.snowballearth.org Wikipedia: Snowball Earth Online article by a Faculty member at Harvard University: The Snowball Earth 2005 article from Universe Today January 2000 article from Scientific American Another article in favor of "Slushball Earth" BBC News article: 'Snowball Earth' theory melted Take your pick. There is a lot of wiggle-room between "Frozen wasteland" and "Giant Slushball".

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...