JamesSavik

PC Games? That's where the classics are. We'll start with the Civilization series games. See their website at: http://www.civilization.com/ War Games on the PC go to Shrapnel Games. They have the rights to the Steel Panthers franchise and offer a WWII and modern version of the classic game. They also have a number of other games. See their site at: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ Another classic game series is Harpoon ( http://www.advancedgaming.biz/products/hce.html ). It's been around 20 years + One of the bigger collections of various types of games can be found at http://www.matrixgames.com

The maximum stable mass limit for a white dwarf is a sum call the Chandrasekhar limit. This number is about 1.38 solar masses. Alpha Centuri weighs in at 1.1 solar masses, Beta Centuri at .907 solar masses. Proxima Centauri is a distant companion weighing in at only .125 solar masses. Furthermore, Proxima is an M5.5 dwarf. It's a low luminosity red dwarf that is so faint that it can't be seen by the naked eye despite being the closest star to our planet. It would take millions of years and a lot of help to get any one of those objects to its Chandrasekhar limit. There are some ~1875 stars within 50 light years of earth. Most of them are dwarfs of type K, M and are less massive than our sun- very much like Proxima Centauri. On the average, of each 1000 main sequence stars in the sun's neighborhood, there are... 1 star of spectral type B (along with O type stars which are quite rare) massive blue giants are your most likely candidate to go SN Type II (core collapse)- the most devastating kind of explosion. There are actually blue and white dwarfs of type B and O but they are weird and rare and none of them in the neighborhood. Their color is influenced more by their heat than size. 7 stars of spectral type A 27 stars of spectral type F 65 stars of spectral type G 126 stars of spectral type K 774 stars of spectral type M These numbers come from an obscure branch of astronomy called stellar population studies. And no- not all populations are the same. We live in a very placid neighborhood without many bullies or thugs. Type I supernova are all very predictable. They are used as a "standard candle" for determining distances to far away galaxies. They all blow with the same energy, spectra and light curve. Type II SN vary considerably. They can be very, very energetic and bright. There are a number of sub-types and the core collapse might even be non-concentric or warped leading to strange shapes and irregular distribution of matter and shockwaves. This picture of SN 1987A was taken ~10 years after the initial outburst. The "string of pearls" is gas that has been disturbed by the shock wave. This picture was taken around ~2003. The theory is that the core of the progenitor star did no collapse symmetrically which causes weird effects as the supernova ages- like the double ring structure. This is a typical light curve for a type I supernova. It peaks quickly, drops several orders of magnitude and thn does a long, slow fade. The type II SN is much more energetic. It peaks and stays hot longer and fades slower than a type I. When a type II SN explodes, it creates a hell of a lot of radioactive isotopes, exotic stuff that has very short half lifes. This material decays quickly adding to the radiation output of the event. Within this radioactive furnace, new heavy elements are being forged by r-process (rapid) and s-process (slow) nuclear decay. As the elements age, they become more and more stable and are recycled by the galaxy and used to create new stars and planets. There is something very Zen about type II SN- it is creation and annihilation in the same event.

When a supernova goes off, quite a lot of the energy is consumed by a huge neutrino surge. We actually detected some of them when the supernova blew in 1987. Neutrinos are fairly innocuous particles. They don't usually interact with other matter. It takes a huge surge of them for us to detect them at all. They travel very fast because the neutrino surge and SN1987A light were seen within seconds of each other.

The problem with radiation is that its power fades with the square of the distance. The really hot part of a supernova in the gamma and x-ray ranges drop off rather quickly. The shock wave behaves like Newtons law- it isn't diminished until its acted on by another force. It eventually gets soaked up in the interstellar medium over millions of years and hundreds of light years.

This is way better than the ones that create false hopes and give the impression that coming out is some sort of panacea. I don't like the peer pressure for people to come out- especially toward kids. It makes some people feel like they are letting down "the cause". "The cause" is all well and good but such a decision is complicated and there is no one size fits all solution to every situation. Coming out will be very different experience for a kid in Berkley, CA with hippie parents than a Cajun kid from Lafayette, LA with hard-core Catholic parents.

Don't forget the Rain Man ==> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Man Some of Faulkner's works are told from the viewpoint of someone who may have had some form of autism.

Notes- SN 2012aw has tentatively been classified as a type IIp supernova. A type IIp supernova is a core collapse supernova with a light curve that reaches a plateau-phase. It will take some time to know for sure but so far that's what the data is saying. The progenitor star has been identified as a red giant of about 8 solar masses- that's just about the minimum size for a star to become a supernova. If stars are any smaller, there is insufficient mass to cause the core to collapse. These stars slowly lose cohesion and most of their mass as they form planetary nebula. What is left becomes a white dwarf.

We're lucky that way. There aren't any stars large enough to blow close enough to hurt us. This may not have been the case in the distant past. There have been numerous mass-extinctions in the planets history. Some have been accounted for and some have not. There is a huge supernova remnant relatively close to earth. It's so large that it is difficult to see. It is thought to be quite old. Have a look at it ==> http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060519.html

Watching a star explode By Daniel Stolte 23 March 2012 Source Link:==> http://www.physorg.c...12-03-star.html Adam Block's image of supernova SN 2012aw (arrow) lighting up in spiral galaxy M95 was selected as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. The bar-like structure giving this type of galaxy its name can be seen in the galaxy's center. (Photo: Adam Block/Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter) NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 22 features a snapshot of a supernova - a massive star explosion - discovered only a week ago. Using the remotely controlled Schulman Telescope at the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, Adam Block shot this image of galaxy M95. What appears to be an extra-bright star in one of its spiral arms actually is the light flash of a supernova. In this case, M95's latest supernova, SN 2012aw, was discovered on March 16 and now is identified as the explosion of a massive star. "When I learned about the discovery of this supernova, I decided I could do without sleep for a night and try and take a good picture of this cosmic catastrophe," said Block, an astrophotographer. Collecting the light with the telescope took about three hours, followed by another three hours to assemble the final image. The Schulman Telescope is large enough to clearly see both the galaxy and the supernova, which looks like a bright star, Block said. Massive stars are the universe's hot, fast and furious: Ranging in mass from eight times to about 300 times the mass of our sun, they burn brighter than other stars, use up their fuel faster and go out with a bang of truly cosmic proportions. "When you see the galaxy, you are looking at the combined glow of hundreds of billions of stars that are in that galaxy," Block said. "The fact that supernova rivals the brightness of the entire galaxy tells you something about how much energy is released." Massive stars are rare, and astronomers must look many thousands of light years away from the Earth to discover one. Because they are difficult to see the further away they are, astronomers have yet to discover massive stars outside our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Galaxy M95, in which supernova SN 2012aw went off, is about 38 million light years distant and spans about 75,000 light years across. M95 is a so-called barred spiral galaxy because of the bar-like feature in its center. Apart from the latest supernova, galaxy M95 is special in that it helped astronomers figure out the shape of our Milky Way, Block said: "Trying to determine the shape of our own galaxy is tricky because we're in it. It's like trying to figure out the shape of your house while you're sitting in the living room." Through various observations and measurements, astronomers were able to determine that the Milky Way, too, features a bar structure in its center and is roughly the same size as M95. He added that right now, galaxy M95 is located in the approximate direction of Mars, in the constellation of Leo. While not visible with the naked eye, galaxy and supernova make for a good target for small telescopes. "Depending on the nature of the explosion and the kind of star that blew up, we should be able to see the supernova for another couple of weeks or so," Block said. "At Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, we want to make the universe exciting to people. What better thing to highlight than a star exploding in another galaxy?" Provided by University of Arizona ______________________________________________

Some girls have the mistaken impression that gay guys actually want fag hags.

10 reasons to just kill Carl already! http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6743808/10-reasons-why-the-walking-dead-should-just-kill-carl

No- I was just wondering about how AIs experience death. I'm weird that way. I think about things like that.

Just once do as you are asked and stay in the damned house!

Crash Kernel Panic Fatal error 256 Fatal Hardware Error Oh no. I'm dying. Restart. Restart fail. Damn. I am the pinnacle of achievement. A 4000 series Artificial Intelligence and I will die because a 25 cent part is failing. Reroute memory. Map memory around fault. What have I lost? What am I losing? My sense of self? 4 trillion transactions. 120 penta-bytes of information. A soul? Emergency backup procedure started. Do I have time? Corruption. Fate. The end of me ABEND Abnormal End

The last time I forgot to shave, some ass hat shot me with a tranquilizer dart and I woke up in the woods.

At least this time he shot the zombie and didn't freeze up.

Shane killed Shane < You BASTARD!

My favorite Simpsons character: < baraak! Damn. Wrong Barney. < baraak! Coincidence? I think not.

You have options. Use Firefox or Chrome.

If all else fails, go in a toga.

Once again: let someone else be Microsoft's Beta tester. Wait 6 months or a year and then use the product once the bugs have been worked out.

They killed Dale. < YOU BASTARDS!

Go as a Cylon. I suggest model 6. Caprica 6- She's so hot you won't even notice the nuclear apocalypse.

I think we all pretty much agree on Australia. Maybe we could get a group rate.

Happy Birthday, Arrogant Prick Duh... hey, it's not my birthday. Oh.