So Mike was suffering... phantom brain syndrome? o o;

If it were ferromagnetic, you'd notice pretty quick with a neodymium magnet of that size. XD

Well, they've always done that, really. If it isn't the Soviets it's the Chinese, or the wacky Islamic fringe, or South American drug cartels. I guess it's just a cheap way of anchoring the game in 'current' reality after a fashion, by picking up the current national bugaboo.

I doubt they'll change the layout unless their readership starts to drop noticeably. Maybe I'll only come here once a week for now. :/

Here I was hoping Canada was going to throw in with the North Koreans in the non-altered version of the game or something. As a Canadian, I would be totally down with that, provided as part of the canon storyline Canadian forces burn down the White House... again. :)

@Beasy: Also, warp drive doesn't exist. Magic, either. Also, one guy can't take on a machine-gun-wielding army, soaking up bullets like they're thrown marshmallows. It's fiction dude, relax. XD

They're actually becoming quite popular in North America and elsewhere, as well!

@Naked_Quark: Also don't forget that Earth orbiting a body like Jupiter would certainly be tidally locked, so only one side of the planet would ever see Jupiter looming in its sky (and would very rarely get to see stars).

Of all the stupidity... yes, might as well decide the right of first sale doctrine is terrible and make it a crime to re-sell anything while you're at it.

@xdeathknightx: Oh yes please!

@99TelepodProblems: Actually, we -are- kind of living in (and the cause of) yet another mass extinction...

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: You're treading on dangerous ground with these puns, sir. What goes 'round comes 'round, after all.

@pz: Yeah, that would be another weird bit about supermassive black holes; they're easier to get into (alive) than the small ones, because the tidal forces at the event horizon are actually quite small. Otherwise they ought to have the same structure as any other black hole. :)

Ironically (perhaps), "uso" is also Japanese for "you're lying!" :)

@hahn: Well, the problem there is that dark matter wouldn't obfuscate 'normal' matter, because dark matter doesn't seem to interact with light.

@hahn: Well, they would've still looked for (and found) Neptune, back in the day. And it isn't like astronomers haven't looked for the 'missing mass' that makes up dark matter, it's just that no matter how hard they look, it just isn't detectable by means other than gravity.

@omgwtflolbbqbye: Crazy, perspective-breaking angle on sword? Check.

One of the amusing counterintuitive things about supermassive black holes is just how low their density actually is. For example, were you to fill a sphere with the diameter of our solar system (~40AU) with ordinary, sea-level air, it would immediately be enclosed in an event horizon. :)

I don't know why they bother making these sorts of concept designs. Nobody will EVER build a new design of air liner. It's going to be cigar-tubes with wings, over and over again.