Seattleite

1... Hey, you got it again. Easy, eh?

Let's assume that they just want to observe human activity on our planet. Keep tabs on the new kids on the interstellar block, for whatever reason. That's as little as they can be doing and still be at all relevant to us at this point in time. An *accelerating* spaceship produces a MASSIVE amount of heat that no amount of technological advancement could ever conceal. Human activity doesn't. And it's in the atmosphere. You need to be a LOT closer to observe human activity than you do to pick up a hot trail of rocket exhaust. There's a huge difference between detecting things in atmosphere with significant parts of a PLANET in the way, and detecting something (especially something larger and more energetic) outside of the atmosphere with almost nothing in the way. No, no, no. We aren't just detecting them. We're measuring their composition with mass spectrometers from hundreds of light years away. That takes some damned impressive equipment. No, but if they ever leave it, or go to it, we can see the infrared coming off massive trail of plasma erupting from the back of their ships. And if they come close enough to observe surface activity, we can detect them by their cabin heat alone. They would have to erase the laws of physics to remain undetectable anywhere between here and the moon, and because of the limits on magnification they'd need to be that close to observe surface activity optically, and neither radar nor IR will work from further off through an atmosphere, not with any precision. You can't just collect waste heat and turn it into photons and fire it away from your ship. Lasers can't do that. So you can't dispose of waste heat that way. The only option is to allow it to radiate off naturally (as it'll do anyway, no matter how hard you try to stop it) and that's detectable. The hotter your ship gets, the more visible it'll be to infrared sensors, and if you're running powerful sensors, computers, or anything of that nature there should be a considerable heat signature. Even just life support, even if the life support is handled with personal space suits instead of a full ship system, will also great an at least noticeable amount of heat, which will become an at least noticeable amount of infrared radiation for our sensors to pick up. Since there's nothing significant to absorb it between their ships and our sensors, we can detect them from much farther off than in atmosphere, and our equipment is quite sensitive. There is no stealth in space.

Directing exhaust away accomplishes very little. The heat coming off the exhaust will still give you away with huge amounts of infrared radiation anytime you try to change the ship's velocity, positively or negatively. Directionally radiating heat is ridiculous. Heat radiates on its own, naturally, from all directions, and for your information lasers don't work like that either. If you're close enough to see anything on the surface of a planet, everything we have here to observe space, especially the other things in space, can see you plain as day. I mean, we're good enough at this to spot planets around orbiting stars and determine their composition from hundreds of light years away, I'm pretty damn sure we can spot a spaceship in orbit. Unless the government knows damn well they're there and is hiding it, which they'd totally do I admit, there's no way they'd stay an unknown. The only rock close enough to observe the surface of Earth that could hide them is the moon. So you're saying what, aliens could be hiding on the moon? You don't say. But that doesn't change the fact that if they leave the moon their ships will be visible to anybody with simple a telescope, so there's just about no way NASA wouldn't pick them up the infrared on its sensors, so either they're not hiding there, not leaving it much, or NASA is totally aware that they are there and isn't telling anybody. Which, actually, fits with what we know of the US government. So space being what it is, if they're getting close enough to be relevant to us at all, any government with a space program absolutely knows they exist and isn't telling anyone. While I can believe that quite well and that seems to be the most likely explanation, the truth is still that they can't be this close without *somebody* knowing. Actually, that might explain all those UFO sightings and alien landings, to the point where so damned many people know about them, if we're relying on national governments to cover up their presence when they screw up or periodically just decide "fuck stealth" and harass a town for a couple months. (Like Colares, Brazil, in 1977.) Maybe people shouldn't be so quick to dismiss sightings and look into the story first before calling "hoax".

So. What constitutes an Independence Day episode? Not Independence Day, so... What else is there?

She specifically referred to "stealth technology". A thing that is largely impossible in space, no technology significantly disguises engine exhaust or infrared radiation emitted by the hot ship. Even if such a thing was possible, without the infrared emitted to radiate off waste heat, the ship would *cook*.

89

I do believe you are missing context here.

There's no stealth in space. You can't conceal your exhaust, reflectivity or the infrared emissions from your ship's relative heat. Unless you have FTL. In which case, there's not much chance of of any civilization detecting you until you pass them. Though, depending on how it works, that might make it incredibly obvious you were there to anybody who you passed, and if they have FTL they can warn those ahead, but that's a bit of a moot point. Or you could use teleportation to move around without making a lot of heat, that's stealthy-ish. Either one is a bit far fetched, and you ARE still detectable, just only in poor circumstances. And... BTG? Let's wait to see what they look like first, and find out enough about their biology and culture to see if it's safe, THEN we can worry about sex. Good thing is, convergent evolution is a massive possibility, they may well be humanoid. Or they might not, if their environment is drastically different from ours. Either way, though, they're almost certain to reproduce sexually and internal fertilization is the most effective means if their environment is like ours, so this might totally be an option.

Depleted uranium rounds ARE incendiary. Uranium is pyrophoric, and when hitting targets the hot shards scraping off it DO ignite. This is how our APDS rounds deal enough damage to be effective against tanks. They penetrate the armour, and the shards and filing coming off on the way through ignite and scatter into the target, causing burn damage, destroying equipment, burning personnel and possibly igniting fuel or munitions.

55

this. Why? The whole party was funded by the Koch brothers and actually doesn't represent a damned thing but corporate greed. Seriously, if you want to know what any party is about, just follow the money. And here, the money leads back to Charles and David Koch.

Now they're trying to claim rule over all other muslims? That won't go well for them.

Banned for contain a hypocrisey.

34 (Nope.)

21 (Come on guys, this one is SUPER easy.)

Fw5acgqIHQE This show is so delightfully fucked up, even its soundtrack is fucked up in a pleasing way. I've been listening to it all day, but here's the song I'm listening to right now.

If Police police Police police, who police Police police? Police police Police police police police Police police! (Amatuer.)

There is no age limit, and it's ridiculous to put one on them because they're a glorified soda and aren't much stronger than coffee.

ENERGY DRINKS ARE NOT FUCKING ILLEGAL! They're not alcoholic, they're a soft drink, they have no special rules associated with them, and you DO NOT need to be 21 to purchase them! Why won't cops get that through their THICK HEADS into their rotting, unused fucking brain? WHY? This is the SECOND TIME I have been arrested for buying them for my girlfriend. THE SECOND FUCKING TIME. I don't give a FLYING FUCK that nothing comes of it, I don't give a FLYING FUCK that they just release me an hour later when they find out they're RETARDS and there is NO SUCH LAW, I am SICK to DEATH of getting arrested for doing NOTHING. FUCK COPS.

I'd say the latter. Or possibly both.

not nale. not-nale. thog help nail not-nale, not nale. and thog knot not-nale while nale nail not-nale. nale, not not-nale, now nail not-nale by leaving not-nale, not nale, in jail.

Hey remember when US citizens had a say in their nation's policy?

(BTG... Decimal code? At least use hex, it's what I did pages back.) 13

8 (Keep trying, though.)

5