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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
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Story Monday August 1, 2016

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8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

If you need a fancy-schmancy formal acknowledgment of your marriage, just ask the captain of the USS George Washington. If you command a nuclear powered strike carrier, you can darn near unleash the wrath of the Gods anyway.

Err, the legitimate commander of a warship IS an officer appointed by a government.

If someone ends up commanding a warship through illegitimate means, such as mutiny or piracy, improperly officiating at a wedding would be a very minor secondary offence.

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10 hours ago, ijuin said:

On the "Practically Married" front, the idea that a marriage isn't "real" until government/religious authorities have certified it is a nineteenth century invention. Prior to that, many societies recognized "common law" marriages, where all that was required was for the couple to swear fealty to one another and to consummate the marriage, with no need for the permission of the Powers That Be.

... it was actually the consummating part I was referring to. Unlike Justin, Pandora is likely to know exactly how far Tedd and Grace got ... and she would certainly know if they eloped.

8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Pffft to either kind. If you need a fancy-schmancy formal acknowledgment of your marriage, just ask the captain of the USS George Washington. If you command a nuclear powered strike carrier, you can darn near unleash the wrath of the Gods anyway.

Pity CVN-65 was decommissioned and CVN-80 isn't likely to be build before 2025 ...

4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Voltaire might have known and grown attached to Pandora before her last reset. Since according to Jerry memories of past lives are more like knowing something from reading a book, it would mean that Voltaire could be older, crazier, and more powerful than Pandora. He might even have set up Blaike's murder.

While that would explain his motivation, he doesn't SEEM more bored, more crazy and more powerful than Pandora. After all that time spent on showing Pandora IS long over her reset, bored to death and extremely crazy, it would seem weird if Voltaire would be even older and still have just minor role ...

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4 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

While that would explain his motivation, he doesn't SEEM more bored, more crazy and more powerful than Pandora. After all that time spent on showing Pandora IS long over her reset, bored to death and extremely crazy, it would seem weird if Voltaire would be even older and still have just minor role ...

Extremely crazy might be a bit harsh, Disco Wizard did state he sensed "a bit of instability", as I stated before, the fact that she has family that she cares about might have helped her keep focus longer than most Immortals would, if she didn't have Adrian, living past the reset date would likely have been more boring for her since all she'd likely have been doing was playing tricks on people and stuff. Voltaire could also be past his reset date as his behaviour and monologue about plan CM suggests a bit of instability there too.

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Err, the legitimate commander of a warship IS an officer appointed by a government.

Pfft. What do you know? You are the government. An officer isn't an 'official' but a fighting man, not some pen pusher painting birds and hippos on piles of parchment.

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2 hours ago, Scotty said:

Extremely crazy might be a bit harsh, Disco Wizard did state he sensed "a bit of instability", as I stated before, the fact that she has family that she cares about might have helped her keep focus longer than most Immortals would, if she didn't have Adrian, living past the reset date would likely have been more boring for her since all she'd likely have been doing was playing tricks on people and stuff.

I've been wondering for a while now if Pandora isn't not nearly as insane as people think she is.  Perhaps a very old Immortal just has a very broad perspective, to the point that anyone who has only lived one lifetime just cannot grasp their motives and reasoning.  We're like a small child coming to a very wrong conclusion because they've never yet been exposed to the information all the grown-ups take for granted.

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5 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

I've been wondering for a while now if Pandora isn't not nearly as insane as people think she is.  Perhaps a very old Immortal just has a very broad perspective, to the point that anyone who has only lived one lifetime just cannot grasp their motives and reasoning.  We're like a small child coming to a very wrong conclusion because they've never yet been exposed to the information all the grown-ups take for granted.

I kinda think maybe ageing for Immortals is very similar to Humans. As Jerry put it, when an Immortal passes 200, they start getting more clairvoyant and more powerful, and more bored. Kinda like someone who's turned 65 and retired, they don't (normally) have to work, so they're always trying to find stuff to do. Pandora at 150 was like the 45-50 year old that decided what they were doing wasn't fulfilling and basically had a midlife crisis. Now as they get older than 200, the chance of getting Immortal's version of alzheimer's or dementia or something increases.

The Immortals rule of reset at 200 is similar to that one race of people in Star Trek:TNG where they have a tradition of assisted suicide at 60 because they believe that going at their peak is better than allowing themselves to become a burden to family and society.

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12 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Pfft. What do you know? You are the government. An officer isn't an 'official' but a fighting man, not some pen pusher painting birds and hippos on piles of parchment.

Well, most modern national Navies do authorize ship commanders to perform certain duties normally reserved for Judicial-branch types, such as officiating weddings aboard their ships or dispensing summary justice for offenses that do not rate a full Court-Martial.

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22 hours ago, Scotty said:

Extremely crazy might be a bit harsh, Disco Wizard did state he sensed "a bit of instability", as I stated before, the fact that she has family that she cares about might have helped her keep focus longer than most Immortals would,

Well ... she have episodes of extreme craziness ... but it's true most of the time she's just slightly crazy.

22 hours ago, Scotty said:

f she didn't have Adrian, living past the reset date would likely have been more boring for her since all she'd likely have been doing was playing tricks on people and stuff.

She was bored by THAT at 150 already. I think most immortals find something better to do.

22 hours ago, Scotty said:

Voltaire could also be past his reset date as his behaviour and monologue about plan CM suggests a bit of instability there too.

He might be past his reset date, but not that much. Like ... he might be 300 for example. Which is probably less than half of Pandora's age.

7 hours ago, ijuin said:
20 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

An officer isn't an 'official' but a fighting man, not some pen pusher painting birds and hippos on piles of parchment.

Well, most modern national Navies do authorize ship commanders to perform certain duties normally reserved for Judicial-branch types, such as officiating weddings aboard their ships or dispensing summary justice for offenses that do not rate a full Court-Martial.

Also, I know several admirals who definitely though such title is connected with TOO much paperwork.

Wait. One of them was Kirk. Ok, they might not be good example of today's navies ...

19 hours ago, Scotty said:

As Jerry put it, when an Immortal passes 200, they start getting more clairvoyant and more powerful, and more bored.

Not true. The immortal starts getting more clairvoyant and more powerful FROM START. The 200 is just point where it's too much for most of them.

19 hours ago, Scotty said:

going at their peak is better than allowing themselves to become a burden to family and society.

"Become burden to family and society" is little different than "become reason for several cities burned to ground".

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3 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

"Become burden to family and society" is little different than "become reason for several cities burned to ground".

True, but I can still Dan using that idea as inspiration for the 200 rule.

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12 minutes ago, Scotty said:
17 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

"Become burden to family and society" is little different than "become reason for several cities burned to ground".

True, but I can still Dan using that idea as inspiration for the 200 rule.

(Didn't you lost some verb?)

Yes it can be inspiration. But I don't think the 200 year limit would end up being bad idea as did the 60 year limit in TNG.

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42 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

(Didn't you lost some verb?)

Yes it can be inspiration. But I don't think the 200 year limit would end up being bad idea as did the 60 year limit in TNG.

Sorry, not sure how that happened, was supposed to be "but I can still see Dan...."

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10 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

To be fair, there is a lot of paperwork involved in running a ship, let alone a supercarrier.

Yeah, all the skill training, excel spreadsheets and ISK that needs to be saved up just to buy a Wyvern is insane. Only to just get it popped 4 days later by Goonswarm.

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38 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Yeah, all the skill training, excel spreadsheets and ISK that needs to be saved up just to buy a Wyvern is insane. Only to just get it popped 4 days later by Goonswarm.

This is not even mentioning the "someone did something stupid" paperwork. I remember this NATO exercise where a bored soldier discharged a Stinger missile at a hapless cow in a nearby field. His explanation: "He wanted to see what happened."

One second of utter idiocy bred HOURS of paperwork. I would have hated to have been that thimblewit's CO.

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2 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

This is not even mentioning the "someone did something stupid" paperwork. I remember this NATO exercise where a bored soldier discharged a Stinger missile at a hapless cow in a nearby field. His explanation: "He wanted to see what happened."

One second of utter idiocy bred HOURS of paperwork. I would have hated to have been that thimblewit's CO.

Stinger?  I'll give you some one fired a missile at a cow, I knew of some one that used claymore mines to duck hunt with (in Vietnam)  But Stingers are surface to air missiles and need a positive heat lock before you can fire them, and generally don't work under 20 meters.  A cow isn't going to be making enough heat to get tone.  (shooting stingers was a side job in my storied career).

If I were a betting man, based on it being Denmark, I would say an "Panserværnsvåben" (which is what I would call an AT-4CS) or a Dyssekanon M/85 (Carl Gustav M3).  Being as how both of those are designed to muck up a main battle tank, I'm going to assume there wasn't much cow left, and what there was left was well past medium rare.
 

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1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Stinger?  I'll give you some one fired a missile at a cow, I knew of some one that used claymore mines to duck hunt with (in Vietnam)  But Stingers are surface to air missiles and need a positive heat lock before you can fire them, and generally don't work under 20 meters.  A cow isn't going to be making enough heat to get tone.  (shooting stingers was a side job in my storied career).

If I were a betting man, based on it being Denmark, I would say an "Panserværnsvåben" (which is what I would call an AT-4CS) or a Dyssekanon M/85 (Carl Gustav M3).  Being as how both of those are designed to muck up a main battle tank, I'm going to assume there wasn't much cow left, and what there was left was well past medium rare.
 

You're probably correct. It was a long time ago and I don't remember the story for sure -- all I remember was that it was some sort of man portable missile, it might well have been an anti-tank rocket. As to the cow, you are right yet again. It did not take it at all well. Nor did the owner of the cow, for that matter, I understand it took quite a while to calm him down.

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7 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Nor did the owner of the cow, for that matter, I understand it took quite a while to calm him down.

The owner would probably prefer if it WOULD be Stinger and would miss the cow.

... how long it can take to bring second missile? Or was he brave and capable of seeing though such bluff?

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4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

The owner would probably prefer if it WOULD be Stinger and would miss the cow.

... how long it can take to bring second missile? Or was he brave and capable of seeing though such bluff?

I have personally been the pack mule for 3 stinger rounds, and on another trip 6 AT-4CS.  I was so glad when I made E-5 and got to be the gunner instead of the ammo carrier.  The book, BTW says that 2 stingers and 4 AT4 is a man load.  The book was written by a wimp.

Of  course that was well on 30 years ago.  I'm not sure I want to carry one of either of them today.

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4 hours ago, mlooney said:

I have personally been the pack mule for 3 stinger rounds, and on another trip 6 AT-4CS.  I was so glad when I made E-5 and got to be the gunner instead of the ammo carrier.  The book, BTW says that 2 stingers and 4 AT4 is a man load.  The book was written by a wimp.

Of  course that was well on 30 years ago.  I'm not sure I want to carry one of either of them today.

That was about the time I was in the Home Guard. We were going on a march. Most of us carried full kit. Not me. I carried full kit AND the bollocking hand-me-down radio we'd gotten from the German Army. The stupid thing weighed something like thirty pounds and, as JML previously has pointed out, did not work very well. Man, I hated that thing.

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The crappyness of WWII Germany radios and radars might well have cut the war by several months.  Never mind that their "codes" might as well have been in clear text most o the war.

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12 hours ago, mlooney said:

The crappyness of WWII Germany radios and radars might well have cut the war by several months.  Never mind that their "codes" might as well have been in clear text most o the war.

Their codes were actually good for that period. It wasn't their fault Brits have Alan "the universal machine & the AI test" Turing. (Also several others, but Turing is really VERY known.)

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