Look, I understand that snow doesn't happen much in StevenLand.  I get that.  I also get that it's relatively temperate out thataway, too.

Don't care.  We had a 38 hour stretch where it didn't get above zero, with a low around -25°F.  Then it went all the way up to 2°, then promptly went back into the negatives again.  For the past few weeks, if it hasn't been ridiculously cold, it's been snowing.  When it hasn't been snowing, it's been cold... and occasionally, it's been both!  I don't usually complain about the winters here in Duckford, but this one has just been a beechmartin and a half.

So don't take it personally, Steven, but right now I'd KILL to have your forecast.

It sounds so nice and warm.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:54 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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"...and he always was a very good dog."

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Tuesday is the first day of Spring classes at Duck U, which means the Duck U Bookstore is going to be crazy-go-nuts for the next few days.  Pity us, we few, for we will suffer the deluge.

Or something like that, at least.

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Feh.

Feh.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Some many, many years ago, I spent a few days in Stillwater, MN.  Ph.Duck's older brother and his family lived there, and I was a guest in their home while Ph.Duck and Momzerduck did... something I don't remember now, perhaps attend a wedding.  Something like that.  Anyway, being a college kid, I didn't want to just hang out at their (really nice!) house, I wanted to find something fun to do.  Hard to do without a car in Stillwater, but not impossible. 

After descending the Thousand Stairs Of Doom, I found myself in the Historic Downtown District.  To my left was quaint shops, some attractive looking bar & grills, that sort of thing.  To my right was the riverside area.  I headed to one of the bars... it was a sunny early afternoon and warm, so the dark and air conditioning was welcome.  The place, and I will never forget this as long as I live, was called "Cat Ballou's" and had what looked like a life-sized wood-carved statue of Jane Fonda from the movie of the same name near the door.  I was pretty much the only person in the place that early in the day... I remember the cheeseburger and fries being tasty, and the beer quite pleasant indeed. 

After a couple of hours working on my version of The Great American Novel, I headed back out to the riverside area.  Yup, it's a river.  Oh look, boats.  Pretty girl in a sundress.  More boats.  Still a river.  What the hell is that?

At the time, I had no idea there was such a thing as a lift bridge.  Drawbridge, sure.  Truss bridge, uh-huh.  Suspension, cable-stay, arch and cantilever bridges, you bet.  But a lift bridge?!?!  What sort of magic is this?  I was fascinated!  As it turns out, it was stuck in the up position at the time, due to all the equipment being original to when it was built and it sometimes does that, but I didn't care at all.  How lovely it was to see such a thing.

I'm sure the traffic that had to detour some ridiculous distance to get across the St Croix river disagreed with my assessment, but that's beside the point.  It was the neatest thing I saw during that visit to Minnesota.  It's still there, though you have to make an appointment with the State to open it for your boat, but it's still there.

Then came the climb back up the Thousand Stairs of Doom.  The climb up was a lot worse than going down, and I changed my plans for the next day so to avoid them.  I haven't seen the bridge since.

I still think it's magic, and I can't honestly see a reason to build one over a drawbridge, but it's still awfully cool.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:13 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I appear to have lost the ability to make something that can go to space.  I can't understand why.  Even the successful Mun Launcher I fails to reach orbit.  I'm surely just doing something wrong, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it is.

It's frustrating, but also exciting... once I figure out my problem, it'll be all "clear skies and hot jets!"

Or maybe I should say "if".  If I figure out my problem.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:10 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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After the failure of Mun Rescuer I, it was time to go back to the design phase to come up with something less likely to turn itself into a brightly glowing ball of incandescent gas.  An hour or so of tinkering brought forth the cleverly named Mun Rescuer II: This Time It's Personal. 

This time with more lights!  No, they do nothing for purposes of getting to the Mun, but it does make it look purty-ish!  The media beast must be fed, don'tchaknow?  It heads into space on the immense power of four Mainsail liquid fueled engines.

See?  It leaps off the pad with the greatest of ease, and practically wants to scream into space at a speed guaranteed to rend it into component atoms before the gravity turn.  It wasn't until Mun Rescuer II: This Time It's Personal dropped the Orange Cans of Fuel that I realized that there was a problem.  Namely, this beast was horrendously underpowered to go to the Mun.  The stage that I had intended to use for Translunar Injection was swallowed just getting into a stable orbit.

Worse still, the lander-and-go-home stage clearly didn't have enough gas get to the Mun on it's own.  Chalking it down as a good test flight, I deorbited, hoping the PPD-12 Cupola could handle the re-entry stress.  Really, the whole endeavor would come down to that... it's pointless if we pick up Bill Kerbin from the Mun, only to fricassee him a few kilometers from home.

Much to my surprise, it didn't turn into something resembling a melted marshmallow... the Cupola really isn't meant for that sort of thing.  Even better, the capsule didn't pull apart from the lifeboat when the parachutes opened up.  Huzzah!  Feh.

So!  A spectacularly frustrating first flight.  Everything worked perfectly... except for the whole reason this thing exists: getting to the Mun and back.  That part?  Not so much.  But at least Bill Kerman is having fun on the Mun.

Morale is still high, despite all reason.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:18 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Here, inside, at Pond Central, it's a comfortable 70 degrees.  Outside the confines of Pond Central, however, it is -18°F, with a windchill of -45°F!  There is a 115 degree difference between inside and outside right the heck now... and it's just short of noon.

It's not the coldest I've experienced, as I lived in Minnesota for two years, but this is easily the coldest I've seen here in Duckford.  A couple of hours ago, I stepped outside just for a few seconds.  That was a terrible mistake.  Fortunately, Duck U is closed for the day, and even better, they announced it early Sunday afternoon!

Holy crepe, it's cold.

UPDATE: It's cold enough that Duck U has shut down for another day already!  We're closed on Tuesday... just what this lil' duck needed!

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So there I was, working on the design of Mun Rescuer II, listening to the playoff game between the Chargers and the Bengals on the radio.  They're in a time-out, and Ian Eagle and Trent Green, one of the better NFL pairings on "network" radio, are talking about what had just occurred on the field.  In the background, the Bengals stadium entertainment system is playing some music that... I've heard before.  It's a simple guitar four-chord progression with a bit of fuzz overtop.  It stops before anything more than that plays, practically nothing to identify it with, but I know this song. 

Except I don't.  You could hold a gun to my head and say you're going to pull the trigger and scatter my brains over a 1" x 1" area if I don't tell you the title right now, and you'd best have a kleenex handy to wipe up the mess.  I've heard it before.  I know I like the tune.  I just can't place it, nor where I know it from.  I begin to fret over the name... or even just how the song goes... or even where I've heard it fore.  ANYTHING I can use to place it.  TEN FRIGGIN' MINUTES later, I shut down Kerbal Space Program, throw on some warm clothes, and head out to the gas station for a bottle of grape juice and a 12-pack of Sprite before the arctic vortex hits and the temperature get flushed down the sewer.  Of course, the entire way there, I'm trying to figure out the tune.  It isn't until I'm back in the car after obtaining my liquid bounty that something dredges out of my memory: "the rock."  Then the certain knowledge that it was used in an AMV from years ago.  Suddenly, the mile-long drive home from the gas station feels like a hundred miles... I need to search for this!

I hop onto yootoob, punch in "the rock AMV", and start scrolling through the list... and there it was.  Sure as heck, that's it... it's a lousy copy, so I search for a better one, but that's the song!  I'm practically dancing in my chair in celebration as I load it up.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the song that I heard about five seconds of: Apollo Four Forty's "Stop The Rock"!

Now, back to rescue missions!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:18 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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After the truly Kerbal Space Program-level success of my Mun landing, it was time to go rescue the first Kerbal on the Mun.  Which meant, of course, designing a new Mun-ship!

Presenting the cleverly-named "Mun Rescuer I".  It didn't take very long to come up with the design, since it's simply Mun Launcher I with a PPD-1 Hitchhiker Storage Container ("The HSC was an invention of necessity - how do we store 4 Kerbals on-orbit without any real provisions for return? Who needed this remains a mystery, as do his motives.") stuck under the Mk1 capsule, more fuel cans and six landing struts.  No way this baby's gonna break off the nuclear rocket, nuh-uh!

In retrospect, I probably should have spent a little more time on the design phase.


more...

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After hours upon hours of poorly thought out mission parameters, unsuccessful orbital routines and rapid unplanned disassemblies...

...I have finally figured out how to to routinely make it into orbit.  As Robert Heinlein pointed out, "once you're in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere."  So, like any good Kerbalnaut, I set my sights on My First Mun Landing®.  How hard could it be?

Here is the trusty steed, the cleverly named "Mun Launcher I", in the middle of the gravity turn for orbit, a short time before dropping the heavy boosters.  Players of the game might recognize that I'm actually heading towards a retrograde orbit... what can I say?  I'm an iconoclast!  I've also had four consecutive successful Munar orbit launches this way, and zero successful Munar orbit launches going the normal way.  It's probably just me.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:09 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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1 For my birthday (the 31st) I went legit and bought the full version.  So many parts! I found the Wiki, which is very helpful so far (I didn't know how to set up the staging).

I once made Munar orbit with the demo, 7 stage rocket, I think I even made it home.

Learning to make good use of those Maneuver markers is next on the agenda. It would probably ruin the game if they made them autopilot points.

I do wish there were a little more on-screen documentation/Controls, instead of bringing back the days of needing a keyboard cheat sheet for each stage of the game.

Posted by: Mauser at January 01, 2014 11:56 PM (TJ7ih)

2 (Just testing, don't mind me...)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 02, 2014 08:09 AM (PiXy!)

3 Nicely done with the Mun landing, by the way.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 02, 2014 08:10 AM (PiXy!)

4 Oh, and speaking of a Keyboard cheat sheet...

Posted by: Mauser at January 02, 2014 09:07 AM (TJ7ih)

5 Bill Kerman, we salute you!  We honor you!  And now, we have to rescue you.  But that's for another day!

He seems awfully happy for someone who's stranded on the Mun. How much time do you have for a rescue before he runs out of oxygen?

Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at January 02, 2014 10:12 AM (0KEH0)

6 As long as it takes, basically.  They're pretty hardy little critters.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 02, 2014 10:21 AM (PiXy!)

7 Hooray for a successful Mun shot!

Posted by: GreyDuck at January 02, 2014 11:17 AM (3m7pZ)

8 Nicely done!  A Mun landing in true Kerbal style.
After your original post got me back into the game, I've been running in career mode.  It's a LOT harder to get to the Mun when you have a limited set of parts, but it's also a great learning process.  The rocket that got me to the Mun and back was quite a bit bigger and more complex than yours, but I didn't have the big fuel tanks, fuel cross-feed, or nuclear engines available.  It turns out that Minmus is actually an easier target, that same rocket and lander did that as well for their next mission, and was able to do a few orbits of the Mun on it's way back for more research.
My latest goal was to get a probe out to Duna.  I finally managed it last night after redesigning my rocket about 5 times.  The rocket that finally did it was scarily huge, and even so I wasn't lifting a return vehicle, my lander didn't have the juice to get back to Duna orbit from the surface.

Posted by: David at January 02, 2014 11:30 AM (vtKcn)

9 My Mun lander had a central "400" tank with a pair of "200" tanks on the side with the 909 engines on them, fuel feed from the center tank to the exterior ones.  Put on four of the very simplest small solar panels, radial parachutes on top of the side tanks and the pod, an extra battery or two, and an SAS on the central tank just above the decoupler, and you've got a lander that can easily handle itself from Munar injection through several Munar landings and a return to Kerbin.
You've gone way overboard on the struts, especially if you've got all the parts available and are using medium or heavy connectors.  For tanks below 800, I connect them to the central body with one light strut at top and bottom, and connect them to their neighbor likewise with one strut at top and bottom, and that's plenty strong enough to hold things together without any flex.  For the big 3200 tanks, a similar pattern of medium connectors is good enough.  If your lander or transfer stage get big enough, you might tie them to the lower stages with struts out to the boosters to keep things from flexing.
I don't see much in the way of control on that ship.  For something that size, I'd have winglets on the external tanks, and a large SAS at the top of the central tank, backed up with RCS rockets if I'm going further than the Mun and need precise trajectory control.  RCS is also good for landers, as in a pinch it's extra thrust if you run the main tanks dry.

Posted by: David at January 02, 2014 11:44 AM (vtKcn)

10 If that's a nuclear rocket, I think your astronaut has a more immediate problem to worry about than running out of air.  A NERVA type booster becomes intensely radioactive during use, and he's standing a couple of feet from the business end of the thing....

Posted by: Ed Hering at January 02, 2014 05:42 PM (aEOAA)

11 David sez: You've gone way overboard on the struts, especially if you've got all the parts available and are using medium or heavy connectors.

The first version of Mun Launcher I only had one strut to each, and one from each to the body of the command unit.  In perfect KSP fashion, they fell off on launch... and fell onto the "GetMeUpHigh" stage.  In perfect KSP fashion, it all went Boom.  So... OVERSTRUT!

David sez more: I don't see much in the way of control on that ship.

Don't need much.  There's an Inline Advanced Stabilizer up there under the Decoupler attached to the Mk1 capsule.  Further, there's only need for one maneuver for this puppy: the gravity turn.  If the "GetMeUpHigh" stage needs to do anything more than that, well, "You are not going to space today."  The rest of it is handled quite nicely by the IAS... in real life, I suspect the rotations/second this thing can do would kill a person.

Posted by: Wonderduck at January 02, 2014 07:09 PM (Izt1u)

12 Ed sez: If that's a nuclear rocket, I think your astronaut has a more immediate problem to worry about.

Yes, but at least he'll stay warm.

Posted by: Wonderduck at January 02, 2014 07:11 PM (Izt1u)

13 Those barrel things look horribly non-aerodynamic. Gad.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 03, 2014 01:35 AM (+rSRq)

14 Yeah, the aerodynamic drag model of KSP leaves much to be desired.  It used to be that each part had a drag factor, but it basically just boiled down to more parts and more mass = more drag, so adding aerodynamic nose cones and payload shrouds was actually a bad thing.  I heard that they patched it a bit in the latest version, but I need to verify that.

Posted by: David at January 03, 2014 03:06 AM (da+4f)

15 I've been inspired by the Wonderduck, and have decided to blog my own KSP adventure.
These are the stories of the Royal Squirrel Patrol Space Force.

Posted by: David at January 03, 2014 03:07 AM (da+4f)

16 Steven, those "barrel things" are the fuel tanks for the Munar Stage.  And yes, in real life, they'd be as aerodynamic as a cement truck.  But, as David points out, there isn't really a drag model in KSP... yet.  Near as I can tell, every piece of equipment, from a narrow strut to a sideways mounted Orange Can Of Fuel, has the same drag.

Every fiber of my being wanted to put a nosecone on them, believe me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at January 03, 2014 07:16 PM (Izt1u)

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Well, that year sucked awfully hard.

To all the readers of The Pond who bailed, I don't blame you. 

To all the readers of The Pond, old and new, who stuck with the place despite it all, thank you.  You're all great, and I'm lucky to have you.  I hope to be able to tell you just what all has caused this soon, but for now, thanks.

Here's looking forwards to a great 2014, one and all.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:31 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Eh, deleting the bookmark was too much work. :-)

Posted by: Mauser at December 31, 2013 11:05 PM (TJ7ih)

2 Meh, i'll just keep lurking. Although keep up the ships thing, thats a bonus.

Posted by: Carpe Jugulum at January 01, 2014 02:08 AM (aTw4s)

3 We'll always have Rio.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 01, 2014 09:42 AM (+cEg2)

4 Heck, I'm more or less new here, so who did I replace, and are they smarter than me?

Posted by: topmaker at January 01, 2014 11:51 AM (2yZsg)

5 That which doesn't kill you makes you ornerier!

It's been a hard year, but we're still here. We win.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at January 01, 2014 02:01 PM (cvXSV)

6 Man, tell me about it.  I've said repeatedly that this year can go straight to hell.

Which is probably where it came from.

Happy New Year, Wonderduck!

Posted by: Ben at January 01, 2014 03:12 PM (vwNc1)

7 We survived 2013.

We shall hold 2014 to a higher standard.

Posted by: GreyDuck at January 01, 2014 05:51 PM (CUkqs)

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Now that Matt Smith's four year run as The Doctor has come to an end, I'm going to do something bonecrushingly stupid... I'm going to state a preference for one recent Doctor over another.

To whit: I think Matt Smith was a more successful Doctor than David Tennant.  This is not to say that Tennant wasn't good in the role; he clearly was.  After the disastrous run of Christopher Eccleston's PTSD Doctor¹, Tennant could have sunk the franchise completely.  He didn't, however, and without his years as the time-traveler, Doctor Who would not... could not... be as huge as it currently is.

In a broad sense, the success of Tennant's run is based on amazing episodes.  Take away "Waters of Mars," the Christmas specials (particularly 2007's "Voyage of the Damned", aka "the one with Kylie Minogue"), "Silence in the Library" (aka "the first one with River Song"), the wonderful "School Reunion", and my favorite of the bunch "The Girl in the Fireplace", and some others that I can't be bothered to look up right now, and you've got a rather lackluster overall picture.

Smith, Tennant's successor in the role of the Last Time Lord, brought more energy and humor to The Doctor.  His success is undoubtedly based on the entire run of episodes, as opposed to individual ones.  That's not to say there weren't excellent episodes; there surely were.  "Vincent and The Doctor," "The Doctor's Wife", and "Asylum of the Daleks" immediately come to mind.  However, Smith's Doctor is almost a throwback to the original serial version of Doctor Who.  While each episode is a standalone or half of a two-part, they all fit into the overarching storyline for the season, whatever that might be.

In any case, I believe that if you choose an episode at random of Doctor 10, and one at random of 11, you are more likely to see a very good one with #11. 

Smith also had the better "supporting cast" with him as well.  Amy & Rory were his companions for two-and-a-half seasons, and while they probably should have moved on earlier than that, they were clearly superior to anything Tennant had with him... though Rose was no slouch.  It may be personal bias that believes that makes me think that Clara will be better than either A&R or Rose.

So, yes, I find that Matt Smith is the best of the recent Doctors, and probably ranks just below Tom Baker in my mind in the Great List of Doctors.  The comment area is below... let the Flame War commence!

¹ I will admit that the more I've watched his one season, the more I've come to appreciate what he brought to the role.

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I'm tired, I'm either sad or maudlin, I'm annoyed, and I had to work today.  I'm going to take a nap then go to sleep.

Thank you, everybody.

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It's Christmas Eve.  For the past few weeks, the only music I've been able to play at the Duck U Bookstore has been... you guessed it... Christmas music.  I am not ashamed to say that I'd rather gut myself like a fish than do that.  Which means it's time for a special CHRISTMAS EVE TUNAGE with DJ Wonderduck!!!

There won't be ANY Christmas music in this one, oh no!  Just great rockin' good times in an attempt to crush the holiday music out of my brain.  Let's not wait, let's just do this!  TUNAGE!!!

more...

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As I always do... always... I got up at 630am today when my cellphone alarm went off.  For the next half-hour, I did the my usual routine: brushed my teef, took a shower, that sort of thing, y'know?  As I got out of the shower in the dark (I haven't showered with the lights on in 20-some-odd years... no I don't know why), I noticed a small flash of red light from my cellphone, sitting there on the sink.

This elicited a sigh from me.  Such a red light this early in the morning is never good news, as it signifies either a missed call/voicemail or a text message.  Perhaps an employee checking in to let me know that they're sick, or a misguided telemarketer, maybe a wayward text from Brickmuppet, or occasionally a weather alert from a local TV station.  Well, whatever it was, it could wait a few minutes while I dried off and got dressed.  This I accomplished, short of putting on the shirt I'd be wearing into the store that day... fewer wrinklies that way, don'tchaknow?  Sitting in front of the computer, I finally took a moment to see what was so important that it deserved my attention at 7am.

It was both a text and a voicemail from Duck U's Alert System.  "Due to weather conditions, the Duck U campus and offices are closed today."  I... what?  As it turns out, the fog/drizzle that was just beginning when I got home Thursday night never actually stopped, and all of Duckford had an unpleasant glaze of ice over it.  Heck, even Duckford Mass Transit had taken all their buses off the roads to keep them from, I dunno, ending up inside people's houses or where-ever they'd wind up after an unfortunate skid.

So, after contacting the employee who was to be working with me today and telling her not to come in, telling my boss that we were closed, re-recording the store's voicemail message from home, and double-checking with Duck U security that yep, campus was closed, I finally decided to go see what it was like outside.

Ice.  Ice everywhere.  Oh, don't get me wrong, it wasn't thick ice... news reports says less than 1/10th of an inch... but you don't need much to turn streets into skating rinks.  I didn't even try to head over to the DuckMobile.  I could see the sidewalk and parking lot were more appropriate for a Blackhawks game than for driving.  With that, I walked back into Pond Central, switched into a pair of sweats and fuzzy slippers, and proceeded to completely enjoy my first not-normal (i.e., not holiday or weekend, not like I've had many of those either) day off in five months.

Unsurprisingly, I did christmas shopping (thank you, Internet!) then took a very long, very needed, nap.  Tomorrow is grocery shopping in preparation for our first real snowfall of the season (well, that and I'm out of stuff), and Sunday is laundry day and getting ready to go back to work on Monday, but at least for today, I could do what I wanted... and it was good.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:50 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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I don't have heroes, and I never did.  I suspect most people my age feel the same way.  Why bother?  In the end, we always find they have feet of clay.  Often enough it turns out a "hero" is really just someone who got lucky one day.

Which is why Larry Lujack wasn't my hero.  What he was, however, was the reason I wanted to get into the radio biz.  Growing up, his was the voice that got me going in the morning.  A deadpan delivery attached to a wickedly dry sense of humor resonated in my young brain, bouncing around and mixing with Monty Python.  But even in the depths of my callow youthiness, I could recognize pure genius when I heard it.  I don't know when it happened, but somewhere those formative years, I set my sights on being a DJ just like Ol' Unka Lar'.

Unka Lar' was the host of the morning staple on WLS, Animal Stories.  I've written about that legendary radio skit a couple of times before, no need to repeat it here.  But Lujack was more than a single gag.  His "Superjock" persona, "the greatest rock & roll DJ anywhere", was just an act... but it turned out that he may very well have BEEN the greatest.  He was honored with membership in the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2004, and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008.

Larry Lujack died yesterday at the age of 73 after a year-long fight with esophageal cancer.  When I heard the news this morning, I didn't react much until I made it to the Duck U parking lot.  Only then did I close my eyes and let a few tears stream down my face.  A big piece of my childhood has passed away, and some part of my life is a little darker than it had been.

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I've done this twice before, and it's been amusing both times, so let's do it again!  It's time for the third installment of Ask Wonderduck (Almost) Anything!  Here's how this thing works... you ask a question, and I'll answer it!  It's just that simple!  But wait, great news!  The best question (in my opinion) will get a full-length post devoted to the answer!

There are a few questions I won't answer: anything related to current politics or religion.  I started The Pond lo these many years ago in an attempt to get away from political or religious squabbles, and to this day I've pretty much managed to stay clear of those things.  There are plenty of people out there who write about those topics and do so in ways I couldn't even hope to approach, so go read them for answers to those questions.  If you DO ask me a question related to such topics, please expect to be mocked horribly.

Now, if you ask me a technical question ("How do I install a V12 engine into a Smart Fortwo?"), I'll do my best to answer it, but you use said answer at your own risk.  And take pictures, please, for the sake of posterity.  And humor.

So, without further ado: Ask Wonderduck (Almost) Anything!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:33 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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1 Oookay...  What's your second favourite anime series?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2013 07:09 AM (PiXy!)

2 Oh, that one's easy!

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 17, 2013 07:47 AM (Izt1u)

3 Twisting that theme a bit.. if you were in charge of setting up an anime de-programming video (as in A Clockwork Orange), what would be shown to the poor subject?

Posted by: David at December 17, 2013 01:40 PM (vtKcn)

4 How's this one - if you could push through any rules changes in F1 that you wanted, what would you do?

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at December 17, 2013 02:07 PM (pWQz4)

5 It'd be highly entertaining seeing a V12 shoehorned into a fortwo.  Reminds me of a line in one of the old Star Wars books about putting a dormer on the Falcon to fit something.
I used to own a Geo Metro with a 3cyl 1.0L engine.  We always thought it'd be funny to drop a V6 in it, but figured that if you did and floored it, the engine and front wheels would tear right off the frame, cartoon-like.

Posted by: RickC at December 17, 2013 03:33 PM (A9FNw)

6 I saw a youtube video some time ago on the subject of "how to get a Smart FourTwo to do the 1/4 mile in 15 seconds."  And the answer was to put in on a trailer behind a performance pickup that would normally do it in 10 or so..
Much easier than trying to retrofit a V12 into the Smart FourTwo

Posted by: David at December 17, 2013 03:56 PM (vtKcn)

7

Who is the greatest f1 driver of all time?

What is the best fighter of ww2?

What was the most important ship in Pacific in ww2?

Military blunders are always talked about. But what is the best single maneuver/action/stratagem of pacific war?

You watch a lot of anime. Ever watched Moomin? Is it counted as anime?

Posted by: Ari at December 17, 2013 05:59 PM (zvmpn)

8 Avatar, the one rule change I'd push through would be removing Ferrari's two bonuses: they get a percentage of the annual prize moneys BEFORE they're divvied up between teams, and they get veto power over any proposed rule change.  They deserve neither of these anymore.

If I got another rules change, I'd remove most of the engine restrictions.  Want a W12 engine?  Go for it!  Think of a way to stick a rotary engine in the back of a Caterham?  Okay in my F1 world!  The only limit would be that it would require pistons: no jet engines.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 17, 2013 09:05 PM (Izt1u)

9 David @ #3, unfortunately, that one too is easy: Clubbed-To-Death-Angel Dokuro-Chan.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 17, 2013 09:10 PM (Izt1u)

10 Ari @ #7:

1) The BBC lists the best as Ayrton Senna, followed by St Fangio the Quick and Jimmy Clark.  You could choose any of those three as "the best" and I wouldn't argue with you.  Ph.Duck's favorite is Clark, so I'll go with that today... catch me in a good mood, though, and I'm prone to say Zsolt Baumgartner.

2) I still intend to finish my "Best Fighter" posts, so I'm not answering this... yet.

3) The USS Cimmaron. 

4) Sho-Go 1.  In sports terms, the Japanese Navy faked Admiral Halsey out of his jockstrap and put themselves in position to just slaughter the Philippines landing forces.  That Admiral Kurita peed the chance right down his leg should take nothing away from the effective strategy that put him there.

5) No, and nope.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 17, 2013 09:26 PM (Izt1u)

11

Was there ever an anime that made you angry at having sat and watched through the entirety of it?  Note that this does not include any anime you just gave up part way through.

 

Posted by: cxt217 at December 17, 2013 11:27 PM (l1UEN)

12 CXT, yes, the original Evangelion.  Those last two episodes basically made the preceding 24 worthless... which really pissed me off. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 17, 2013 11:40 PM (Izt1u)

13 You know, I devoted half a review to Dokuro-chan....
(I'm still writing reviews, although I don't think anyone's noticed.)

My question is, when they run cute duckling pictures on iCanHazCheeseburger's RSS feed (which I view on LiveJournal) do you want to be forwarded a link?  Or is it only rubber ducks?

Oh, and I did see some videos about stuffing a 1000 cc Honda Motorcycle engine in a Smart4Two, which apparently does turn it into a wee beast.

Posted by: Mauser at December 18, 2013 05:16 AM (TJ7ih)

14 > Mauser - That would be the Smart Diablo with a 1-liter Suzuki Hayabusa from the GSXR sport bike.  If you look on YouTube, there's a video of the Smart Diablo smoking a Ferrari 430 in the quarter mile.

Posted by: JT at December 18, 2013 07:33 AM (iStSI)

15 From the Hero Ship post - why is HMS Ark Royal "the greatest name for a ship ever?"

If the two Akrons had not gone down by the mid-1930s, but radar development had run as normal, would production ZRSs (Independences to the Akron's Ranger) have had a significant role in the Pacific war?

What is the most significant engagement that gets the least written about it in the Pacific war (the un-Midway, so to speak)?

Posted by: Ranger Rick at December 18, 2013 10:20 PM (G1HTO)

16 Rick...

1) Cuz I said so?

2) No, I don't think so.  Oh, perhaps as sub hunters, sure, but I just don't see much advantage otherwise to something as fragile as a zeppelin/blimp/whatever in wartime.

3) The Kokoda Trail.  Epic stuff, rarely written about here in the States.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 18, 2013 10:37 PM (Izt1u)

17 Hey!  You skipped me!

Posted by: Mauser at December 20, 2013 02:15 AM (TJ7ih)

18 Why Baumgartner?

Posted by: Ari at December 20, 2013 10:59 AM (vVZ0M)

19 Mauser: no need.

Ari: because Minardi was the greatest team ever, Zsolt Is God, and Takuma Sato is his prophet.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 20, 2013 12:48 PM (Izt1u)

20 Do you have an opinion on Last Exile?

Posted by: Dreamshadow at December 20, 2013 06:43 PM (T5fuR)

21 None whatsoever.  Sorry!

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 20, 2013 08:24 PM (Izt1u)

22 As a fan of WWII naval ships, do you plan on watching Arpeggio of Blue Steel or the KanColle anime?

Posted by: muon at December 24, 2013 03:56 AM (jFJid)

23 Blue Steel, no.  I watched the first couple of episodes, and decided the premise was too stupid for me to stand. 

KanColle, on the other hand, I'm very much looking forward to.  No, I can't tell you the difference between the two series, and no, that doesn't bother me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 24, 2013 07:33 AM (Izt1u)

24 I haven't seen it yet, so can you say what the problems with the premise were? (Blue Steel seems to going for straight SF, while KanColle seems to be more comedic.)

Posted by: muon at December 25, 2013 04:15 AM (jFJid)

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...except for the whole "going into work on a Saturday" part.  I mean, yeah, that was a drag, but it was a successful drag.  Like "RuPaul meets Tony Pedragon" successful.  I had three major and two minor tasks to accomplish, and had them all done by 5pm, a mere six hours after I got there... not so bad. 

Of course, I could have spent another six hours at the store doing stuff... there's easily that much and more to do every day... but I was tired and hurty and hungry and I wanted to be not there anymore.  So home I went.

In retrospect, it wasn't really that great of a day.  But in comparison to what I've had of late?  Today was a good day.

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Buyback Week is over.  But guess who'll be going into his Bookstore on Saturday for at least five hours, and probably longer?

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