Appreciating Big Numbers

[georged]

How cool would it be to have a magic sports-car-like space vehicle that could go a million miles an hour! 100% navigable and controllable by just thinking (no skill required to use), 100% comfortable, 100% safe. Zero maintenance, no life support systems to worry about, completely radiation-proof, etc. Just pack some food, climb in, and go. Wherever you want, whenever you want, in perfect safety and comfort. Just lean back, think the "go" thought, and watch the sights go by.

Imagine what you could see and do! So many things to see, so many mysteries answered. Star Wars and Star Trek rolled into one without the nuts & bolts, hassles, logistics, and dangers...

Bzzzzzzzzzt

Sorry. You couldn't carry enough food to see anything but the Moon. Just getting to Neptune would be four months of staring at black nothingness, and after years of zig-zagging around the Solar System to zip past each of the other seven planets (they wouldn't be arranged in a line, remember), the show would be over, anyway. It would take 3300 years to reach the nearest star.

 

[blues4goose]

You're sure that's tobacco in your pipe, right?

 

[beefeater33]

I'd still like to have one, George........................ Columbus, Ohio to Tahiti in 21 seconds would be SWEET!..............

 

[verporchting]

Yes, but we’ll always have Twitter.

 

[augiebd]

Need to design the perfect pipe to complement that ride! It would probably have a heat sink.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Shit. I'd be happy just to be able to keep my 185 in the air for less than 10K a year. And that's for a measly 125 knots!

 

[georged]

You're sure that's tobacco in your pipe, right?

 

[mikethompson]

See? He's not grumpy all the time.

 

[olkofri]

Well, if you were to take all the flies originated from a single mating pair during a single summer and put them one after the other, they'd form a line that would reach from Earth to Uranus.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Well, if you were to take all the flies originated from a single mating pair during a single summer and put them one after the other, they'd form a line that would reach from Earth to Uranus.

Proof:

 

[jpmcwjr]

C'mon, man: It's hard to unsee crap like that.

 

[blues4goose]

View attachment 26600

LOL someone got his Carolina Red mixed up with his Panama Red!

 

[mingc]

Proof:

This is just wrong.

 

[mso489]

I'm as vulnerable as anyone to the romantic idea of space travel, but I am also aware of the counterpoint. Even now, just to get to (say) Mars, we take intensely fit, extremely intelligent people and plan to pack them into something similar to a doublewide to travel for years on end. Just now, with people stuck at home, how appealing and worthwhile does that sound? They'd keep thinking, I'm an adventurer and a frontiersman, as they eat powdered food and poop into ziplocks ... does that sound worthwhile, personally? Better take care of the spaceship we're on. Maybe someday they'll find worm holes that take us around the universe in minutes, but none have been found yet.

 

[jpmcwjr]

This is just wrong.

You can delete the image in replies.

 

[jaytex1969]

I've done 100mph on 2 wheels. That's enough for me.

If we could apply some of that whiz-bang high technology to road surface improvement, I'd be all in, however.

 

[saintpeter]

And if you laid all the pipe smokers in the U.S. end to end...well they would be more comfortable.

 

[mso489]

For various reasons, it doesn't seem at all certain we'll make it back to the moon on the present schedule. I think the first moon landing rode on the social cohesion of World War II in the West. The Russians have been supplying all of the launches for the space station. The moon is a possibility but iffy.

 

[magicpiper]

Shit. I'd be happy just to be able to keep my 185 in the air for less than 10K a year. And that's for a measly 125 knots!

One hell of an airplane, the 185. When I was a kid, my neighbor had a 195. Loved to hear that round engine early in the AM. Fantastic airplane but nowhere as nimble as the 185.

 

[alaskanpiper]

One hell of an airplane, the 185. When I was a kid, my neighbor had a 195. Loved to hear that round engine early in the AM. Fantastic airplane but nowhere as nimble as the 185.

Yeah the 185 is a beast. Couldn’t ask for a better Alaska airplane (Unless you’re a sheep hunter). Gotta love that Unmistakable ear drum shattering 300 horse rip when we buzz you

There is a 195 on floats on the lake we keep our plane on. Very cool looking airplane, sort of an old school 50s car themed malt shop look to them, haha. But yeah, not super practical for bush flying. The sound of a rotary engine starting is something unique and beautiful as well. Love that starter wind followed by the big “Grump-grump-grump-grump whoosh!”