From: nuny@bid.nes   
      
   On Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 2:12:07 PM UTC-7, MrAnderson wrote:   
   > Hi, sorry for abandoning the topic for some time, I was on holiday trip :)   
      
     You allowed your Real World life to interfere with your Internet presence?   
      
     How DARE you? ;>)   
      
   > About quotes, I just don't know how to make them, must I type some kind of   
   > command?   
      
     I use the Google Groups HTML interface in Firefox. Clicking the "Reply"   
   arrow opens a box in which to type the reply with the post I'm replying to   
   already included, and it comes equipped with indenting carets and the name of   
   who I'm replying to.   
      
     I just put my cursor where I want to type something and hit "enter" three   
   times to make space.   
      
     Are you using a regular newsreader? How you get quoted material to display   
   in a reply will depend on which one you use and how you have it set up. The   
   only newsreader I ever used was Thunderbird and it also displayed the post I   
   wanted to reply to- no    
   special effort required. I *think* no effort was required...   
      
     If it's really a problem you can just copy-and-paste the bits you need into   
   your reply, I'd guess. Remember to set them off so it's clear that somebody   
   else wrote it; that's what those stacks of carets at the left margin are for.   
       
   > I will soon try to make drawings based on our thoughts, and scan them and   
   > post on Deviantart website.   
      
     Cool!   
      
   > Your description for warship is really awesome, I hope I can transfer it to   
   > paper ;D   
      
     I did a quick ugly scribble in MSPaint, completely out of scale, just to   
   check for design conflicts. One thing; if there's a railgun in the spine it   
   either shoots out the end where the drive section attaches (after it detaches   
   and the spine turns    
   around of course) or there has to be a hole in the middle of the reeled-in   
   crew module for it to shoot through.   
      
     If it will help at all I'll upload it to Google Photos.   
       
   > Thanks for explaining how this Valkyrie radiator works, it's kinda like this   
   > magnetic dust - something, described on Atomic Rockets. But without magnets.   
      
     Yes. Cool idea, too bad it isn't mine.   
       
   > When ship decelerates tail - first, engines work, so wouldn't exhausted   
   > plasma burn all particles and dust? Like active shielding system.   
      
     Hmmm. Maybe not "burn" exactly, but the exhaust plume will indeed form a   
   huge, fast-moving, expanding cloud in front of the decelerating ship, which   
   should shove all but the biggest rocks and whatnot out of the way. Anything   
   too large the point defense    
   lasers can melt/vaporize. But, the ship will still be vulnerable when it turns   
   around before the deceleration burn begins, so the space it does that in   
   should be fairly clean.   
      
     Also the ship will be continuously moving *into* that exhaust plume but I'd   
   guess (hope) that it would have cooled to the not-dangerous point by then.   
      
     One more thing- remember the engines are great big X-ray floodlights.   
   They'll probably be detectable for many millions of miles. Also, the exhaust   
   plume and whatever aleady-present gases you're running through will be   
   fluorescing their asses off in the    
   visible part of the spectrum. It will be a fearsome thing to see, getting   
   bigger and brighter every day.   
      
     On final thing- do you know the Kzinti Lesson? I'm wondering exactly how far   
   away those engines will be able to deliver a lethal radiation dose. If you're   
   not flying into an already-in-progress shooting war you might not want to have   
   your deceleration    
   vector point directly at an inhabited planet or colony, or they might all be   
   fried dead by the time you get there.   
      
      
     Mark L. Fergerson   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)