It amazes me how narrow minded scientists and engineers get. They always say "can't" when really they just haven't thought it through. Yes you could build a craft that would take you safely(ish). It would be a big craft, very big in fact, but we could build one now(ish) if the will was there. So previous calculations I did when I was bored and young and still remembered my first degree told me a radius of 3km and a length of around 6km would be ideal. The design would be a cigar shaped superstructure providing magnetic shielding, round disk shaped components providing accommodation, storage and everything else, the whole thing would be hollow down the central axis. Each of the saucer sections could leave the superstructure in sequence. A bit like the dream of a UFologist but with some badly thought out science behind it. Big problem is building the spacestation you will use to construct the star ship from - quite a few launches, 1000s in fact. I think it was 3000 I calculated. I think I also assumed you'd go off and mine an asteroid for the actual starship materials as a money saving measure. Do we have a government or eccentric billionaire willing to spend fortunes in launching 3000 missions to construct what is a very nice space station but essentially is nothing more than a big factory unit? OK lets say we do.... Main problem is time, it will take a long time, plus you will need to fire and forget pretty much and hope you aimed at a good target. Actually you won't your grandchildren need to hope that. Not sure how you would feed the populace, even allowing for some form of whacky most-of-the-passengers-in-suspended-animation state (which we might develop but might not in the same way as we might develop rocket boots but might not). LEDs are a good light source, power is a problem, you could interact with the solar wind whilst in the solar system and maybe get similar from the interstellar medium but you'd probably want to take a nuclear power station with you for emergencies and that has a whole range of its own problems. Speaking of radiation, it isn't the huge deal that the "we couldn't fly to Mars" negativists make it, Solar wind and in fact Galactic wind can be shielded - see above note about the spacecraft being very big - it needs to be very big. Gamma ray bursts would get you, so you'd want to avoid them, but you can't so why worry? Where? Somewhere close, it'll take about many years to get anywhere good so anywhere that will do.

Its not a very good guitar pedal. I'd much rather be injected with the plans for a distortion pedal.

When I was at the University, a few years ago (well OK quite a few but never mind) I did a course in technical writing. One of the main points of one lesson was being very careful when using common expressions as you would throw a curve ball at someone who knew not what a curve ball was. I feel this was such a moment. For those still in the 1950s and refusing to watch any US based media a curve-ball is a baseball term for a ball thrown with spin which curves in the air and so confuses the person trying to hit it. Its became US slang for something which confuses, especially something new that looks straightforward but causes complete failure. In recent years its become much more commonly used so its not just those funny Americans who know it, but still the point is good. Master of Your Domain is, obviously, not so well known - which killed the Joke :sigh: Not all lost though I laughed at it :laugh:

I'd go with MacKenzie Crook and Ralph Fiennes

I was once an astrophysicist and even though I recovered I find your comments are astrophysicistist. It may be a funny joke to you but to those who are astrophysicists it is no laughing matter I assure you. What an Astrophysicist does in the privacy of their own home, or even outside it for that matter (though not right now unless as part of their official one hour of exercise or visit to the shops), should be respected. :~ For the record, technically I was a cosmologist I did of course do astrophysics at University as part of that but astrophysics is really, really boring, not as boring as astronomy mind you (it is mind numbing). Cosmology is the sexy option, so I took it. Sadly no-one wants a graduate cosmologist, they insist on you messing about in a monotone voice with telescopes first, so I ended up in IT. Hurrah!!!

Catch
begin
"Clouds can be interesting!!"
end

All very true and happily planning a minor update to make it more robust. Still a glitch at root cause though.

Not sure I like it for glitch but it is excellent, definitely going to use it somewhere.

Another good suggestion, easy to draw and good back story.

like the hand with the zappy fingers - retains concept that glitch may be down to user activity after all

Like this: its clear; its dissimilar from other symbols; its easy to draw with klutzy IT fingers; and most importantly its really geeky.

:cool: but you would have to argue that Neo himself was a glitch, I mean clearly he would count (or would he :wtf: ), but you'd have to explain that all the time. I wonder if a page with data sort of symbol with a zappy line across it might say Matrix glitch better. Especially if it was green pen we used.

does not answer brief but was not aware of this phenomena so thank-you :)

:laugh: usually that's a training issue isn't it? Unless its the big boss who makes the mistake, you explain that as a glitch if you are happy in your work.

I am sure many of is have a whiteboard for informally recording significant events for quick visual reference. For fun (mainly) but also because its really handy we add a simple little emoji style graphic to show what kind of event it is. So a bug gets a nice little picture of a bug, a piece of software with a sunset date gets a setting sun and so on. Means we can tell whats what, and waste five minutes drawing it. Yesterday I found a data issue caused not by a bug but by a glitch. A power cut had thrown some data out. We should record this but we don't know what a glitch looks like :~. We can't possibly put it on the board without a picture. Please help with your suggestions.