Far from it - sabots are designed for penetration. What is really required is a steady impulse over a long period of time.

The reason is that fragmenting the planet-killing asteroid but failing to deflect the trajectory simply leaves you with a planet-killing aggregate. The same total amount of energy will be imparted to Earth's biosphere, and just as much damage will be done.

I like this recommendation, but I've got to ask: does this book squander its interesting premise with a bunch of rapey bullshit like the dreadful Windup Girl? Queasy orientalism seems less likely but is also a helpful to be alerted to.

Women serve in front line combat all the time - they're just not allowed to enter the infantry MOS. The nature of modern warfare puts their units in direct combat.

"Still, the dizzying heights and the speed of the fall — the International Space Station orbits the Earth every ninety minutes to keep from plunging to the ground — were things that no human being has ever had to deal with at any point in human history, not even in the few brief moments before a person was actually…

Your argument is easily undone with a simple thought experiment - simply introduce a machine into the brain that, neuron by neuron, replaces each cell with an artificial element of identical function, possessed of identical connections. You now have a digital brain. You could undergo the process and never tell…

I think the Hard Problem can be safely written off as a mis-framed question. It is predicated on invalid assumptions.

There is no telescope (or array) capable of the kind of imagery you want.

Does Battlefield actually have any future tech in it? BF3 I mean?

I'd expect nothing else from a Salvatore production.

"When I play Amalur and hear "Fae" and "Seelie Fae" I just groan and tune out."

Most of the music was good, it was just that one track (the only one by Zimmer) that really didn't work.

Died in the Crysis 2 prelude comics, along with Helena Rosenthal.

While Shadows is cool, the BSG board game does everything it tries to do a lot better.

They're already on the PC for free.

If you already own the game on PC, the Enhanced Edition is free.

Ah, if only it were an assumption!

It probably means 'feminism' and 'civil rights'.

I, uh, feel a little wary of the phrase 'special interest liberation.'

I cannot disrecommend these books enough - they're nice travelogues, but you could read a summary and get just as much out of them. The characters and story are pointless; the setting is what interests.