prikryl
prikryl
Post rating:
+
n/t
dipshit420
dipshit420
political car tune
Post rating:
~
Hiterally Litler
karphead
karphead
Post rating:
+
paging dr dogballs. multiple victims of late onset capitalism incoming. also showing signs of fail aids.
dipshit420
dipshit420
political car tune
Post rating:
+++++
Adult Onset Islam
piss
piss
Post rating:
+
know how i know its late capitalism?..... cause im getting TIRED of it!!!
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
~
libelous_slander posted:Adult Onset Islam
hahahah
Ironicwarcriminal
Ironicwarcriminal
Post rating:
~
this hyperloop thing is so gay, just build motherfucking trains
[account deactivated]
Ironicwarcriminal
Ironicwarcriminal
Post rating:
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tpaine posted:iwc what if people were coming to australia on trains
i'd ask for the train carriage-carrying boats to be stopped
thirdplace
thirdplace
Post rating:
+
"My God!" I shouted. "Essie!" And she hurried over to stand beside me and look at the tiny flare of light from a capsule on the launch run, and the shaking, shuddering of the whole thread-thin structure. Then there was the noise-a single faint blast like a distant cannon shot, and then the lower, slower, longer thunder of the immense loop tearing itself apart. "My God," Essie echoed faintly, clutching my arm.
"Terrorist?"
And then she answered herself. "Of course terrorist," she said bitterly. "Who else could be so vile?"
I had opened our windows to get a good look at the lake and the loop; good thing, because that meant they weren't blown in. Others in the hotel were not so lucky. The airport itself wasn't touched, not counting the occasional aircraft sent flying because it wasn't tied down. But the airport officials were scared. They didn't know whether the destruction of the launch loop was an isolated incident of terrorist sabotage, or maybe the beginnings of a revolution-no one seemed to think, ever, that it might have been just a simple accident. It was scary, all right. There's a hell of a lot of kinetic energy stored in a Lofstrom loop, over twenty kilometers of iron ribbon, weighing about five thousand tons, moving at twelve kilometers a second. Out of curiosity I asked Albert later and he reported that it took 3.6 x lO'~ Joules to pump it up. And when one collapses, all those Joules come out at once, one way or another.
I asked Albert later because I couldn't ask him then. Naturally, the first thing I did was to try to' key him up, or any other data-retrieval or information program that could tell me what was going on. The comm circuits were jammed; we were cut off. The broadcast PV was still working, though, so we stood and watched that mushroom cloud grow and listened to damage reports.
One shuttle had been actually accelerating on the ribbon when it blew-that was the first explosion, perhaps because it had carried a bomb. Three others had been in the loading bypass. More than two hundred human beings were now hamburger, not counting the ones they hadn't counted yet who had been working on the launcher itself, or had been in the duty-free shops and bars underneath it, or maybe just out for a stroll nearby. "I wish I could get Albert," I grumbled to Essie.
"As to that, dear Robin," she began hesitantly, but didn't finish, because there was a knock on the door; would the señor and the señora come at once to the Bolivar Room, por favor, as there was a matter of the gravest emergency.
The matter of the gravest emergency was a police checkup, and you never saw such a checking of passports. The Bolivar Room was one of those function things that they divide up for meetings and open for grand banquets, and one partitioned-off part of it was filled with turistas like us, many of them squatting on their baggage, all looking both resentful and scared. They were being kept waiting. We were not. The bellhop who fetched us, wearing an armband with the initials "S.ER." over his uniform, escorted us to the dais, where a lieutenant of police studied our passports briefly and then handed them back.
Services in the city were falling apart, but when we got back to our suite there were fresh flowers on the tables, and a basket of fruits and wine that had not been there before. The windows had been closed. When I opened them I found out why. Lake Tehigualpa wasn't a lake anymore. It was just the heat sink where the ribbon was supposed to dump in case of the catastrophic failure of the loop that no one believed would ever happen. Now that it had happened the lake had boiled down to a mud wallow. Fog obscured the loop itself, and there was a stink of cooked mud that made me close the window again quickly enough.
"Terrorist?"
And then she answered herself. "Of course terrorist," she said bitterly. "Who else could be so vile?"
I had opened our windows to get a good look at the lake and the loop; good thing, because that meant they weren't blown in. Others in the hotel were not so lucky. The airport itself wasn't touched, not counting the occasional aircraft sent flying because it wasn't tied down. But the airport officials were scared. They didn't know whether the destruction of the launch loop was an isolated incident of terrorist sabotage, or maybe the beginnings of a revolution-no one seemed to think, ever, that it might have been just a simple accident. It was scary, all right. There's a hell of a lot of kinetic energy stored in a Lofstrom loop, over twenty kilometers of iron ribbon, weighing about five thousand tons, moving at twelve kilometers a second. Out of curiosity I asked Albert later and he reported that it took 3.6 x lO'~ Joules to pump it up. And when one collapses, all those Joules come out at once, one way or another.
I asked Albert later because I couldn't ask him then. Naturally, the first thing I did was to try to' key him up, or any other data-retrieval or information program that could tell me what was going on. The comm circuits were jammed; we were cut off. The broadcast PV was still working, though, so we stood and watched that mushroom cloud grow and listened to damage reports.
One shuttle had been actually accelerating on the ribbon when it blew-that was the first explosion, perhaps because it had carried a bomb. Three others had been in the loading bypass. More than two hundred human beings were now hamburger, not counting the ones they hadn't counted yet who had been working on the launcher itself, or had been in the duty-free shops and bars underneath it, or maybe just out for a stroll nearby. "I wish I could get Albert," I grumbled to Essie.
"As to that, dear Robin," she began hesitantly, but didn't finish, because there was a knock on the door; would the señor and the señora come at once to the Bolivar Room, por favor, as there was a matter of the gravest emergency.
The matter of the gravest emergency was a police checkup, and you never saw such a checking of passports. The Bolivar Room was one of those function things that they divide up for meetings and open for grand banquets, and one partitioned-off part of it was filled with turistas like us, many of them squatting on their baggage, all looking both resentful and scared. They were being kept waiting. We were not. The bellhop who fetched us, wearing an armband with the initials "S.ER." over his uniform, escorted us to the dais, where a lieutenant of police studied our passports briefly and then handed them back.
Services in the city were falling apart, but when we got back to our suite there were fresh flowers on the tables, and a basket of fruits and wine that had not been there before. The windows had been closed. When I opened them I found out why. Lake Tehigualpa wasn't a lake anymore. It was just the heat sink where the ribbon was supposed to dump in case of the catastrophic failure of the loop that no one believed would ever happen. Now that it had happened the lake had boiled down to a mud wallow. Fog obscured the loop itself, and there was a stink of cooked mud that made me close the window again quickly enough.
gastarbeiter
gastarbeiter
Post rating:
~
88 MPH
acephalousuniverse
acephalousuniverse
Post rating:
~
dipshit420
dipshit420
political car tune
Post rating:
~
24ZGtSaCCYw
[account deactivated]