The Vasa museum is a commemoration of a spectacular failure (and is a good museum). That's naval history rather than modern tech, but the principles are the same.

Leashes

That's no moon!

https://xkcd.com/1523/

Isn't there already a pistol emoji? And for that matter, a bomb emoji?

Right; there we go: from an iPhone: ðY"ðY'£

So what's the issue with a rifle?

I remember having stuff like that in the late 80s and early 90s in Utah. I suspect that manufacturers eventually realized they could make more appealing packaging for a small amount of money and dramatically increase sales.

I liked it, but it's extremely densely written. That denseness is part of what I like- I found the Bene Gesserit entirely believable, and the details of how the ecosystem worked were fascinating to me. Different strokes for different folks.

Separately, I think the BG "Litany on Fear" is masterful, and I find that useful in my own life.

I don't disagree with anything you said.

I think that the romance of trains vs. planes might be related to how miserable commercial airline travel has become. Of course, it's still cheaper than rail for pretty much any distance, so perhaps you get what you pay for?

God has promised not to destroy the planet again until the second coming. Ie, no more global deluge

Important Theology Nitpick: the actual promise is that God will not destroy the world via water/flood again. This doesn't mean that He wouldn't use other means, just not *that*.

Back to the rest of the conversation...

I live in DC and have severe allergies. I describe myself as being allergic to congressional hot air, because I feel much worse whenever congress is in session. I've said this for the last eighteen years (maybe I need some new jokes), regardless of who's in charge.

Part of the viability of claim-jumping is the notion of getting away with it. At least for the foreseeable future, there will be a lot of eyes on any given asteroid mining operation.

you do realize the Kyoto treaty was never ratified by the US Senate (in fact, the Clinton administration never submitted it), right?

I wish I had a million mod points. Security is *hard*.

The essence of a secure system is one which doesn't connect to any systems which have a lower security threshold.

I just wanted to say "thanks" for many, many hours playing your games. Well done, sir!

nitpick - the Victorian pink really was just pale red, rather than the crazy hot pink we have nowadays (hooray for synthetics!).

Your point stands.