kalvasflam

One thing about the starship, I think it’s had several public failures.  But then again, the same was try from the Falcons, how many times did they fail to nail the barge landing?  Now it’s so routine, people don’t even care... even though nobody else is quite doing the same yet.

to put it simply, what Musk has done with SpaceX in less than two decades is nothing short of incredible.  He is the kick in the ass that ULA needed to get moving on their effort, hope the demo mission for ULA goes well.

Remember, Solo had no Force either... didn't turn out so well.

They can do it well, a la Rogue One. 

For all that, I will still take my Top Gun in a movie theater, thanks.

11 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Time to raise 'em theme park ticket prices!!

Yeah, if they can ever open up those parks again.  Mando land sounds fun.

Well, I am sure Boba had something to eat while in the Sarlacc, but I do wonder how much it’s costing Disney to run each episode.  They are getting some top names in this show... it wasn’t cheap...  that’s for sure.

Oh man, this is either going to boost Disney to infinity and beyond, or it’s going to crack them.

cause now they face the question of what to do with the movies part of the business, really, the writing is on the wall, they need to take the plunge.  Milan model coupled with simultaneous theater release.  

19 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Here's a shot of the Lun firing those missiles:

Nice, never saw that picture before.

such a plane might still find use in today’s combat scenarios.  As a reminder, that thing also has a couple of 23 mm turrets.  You could almost think of it like an ultrafast corvette.

On 11/9/2020 at 4:38 AM, electric indigo said:

The ancient Lun ekranoplan was towed to a new location where it will be the centerpiece of a future military museum.

A reminder, those hump thing on the top.  They were designed to carry anti ship missiles.

I remember the artist rendering of this plane back in the mid 80s,  it is amazing to see the actual thing.

12 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

AFAIK, the F-35 uses lots and lots of tape, for sealing panels.  Not sure about the -22, I think it uses more putty/effort, and tried to "just do EVERYTHING through the weapons and landing gear bay doors".   

Duct tape, also known to any first year engineering student as the universal solution to any problems.  If you don’t like the color... just paint it black, or in the case of the USAF, paint it grey.

as a relatively famous person might have said once. If you don’t know the utility of duct tape, then you ain’t a real engineer.

RIP Mr. Bond....  you were the standard.

just another reminder of the crappy year we are about to put behind us.

Haha, I really should’ve put that one in.  Skywalker’s reaction was just hilarious.

besides, it could’ve been a lot worse, think Leia costume with a bigger blaster.

Not Discovery related, but looks like Patrick Stewart has found his calling at long last.

Pushing for the ordinary Uber drivers on behalf of a mega corporation. 

But at least the commercial was funny.

Too bad CBS didn’t just hire these guys.  Always a problem when you have a bunch of lawyers involved.

Just have to think these Fulcrums are all aggressors, so they are the good guys....

Running joke of the week apparently.  Can anyone identify the silhouette of the plane? 

The punchline is that the troops that is supposed to be supported are US troops. 

I guess one could make the argument that they are aggressors...  

What I’d like at the end of this film is for Bond to die.

it would set a precedent like no other.  Make the movie a worth it.  The end of the edgier Bond should be a good end.

no time to die until the last minute.

wait a minute, is she swinging from lightning bolt to lightning bolt?  like... like... like Spiderman?

what the.... can we go back to the invisible jet?

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Especially Raffi, who is a drug-abusing waster who somehow contrives to blame Jean-Luc Picard for her being kicked out of Starfleet... even though his presence was apparently all that was keeping her from an involuntary discharge as it was.  It's so stupidly hypocritical of her.  How dare the famous Jean-Luc Picard let the consequences of her sh*tty life choices catch up with her!   

Because it’s Picard’s fault, he set standards in Starfleet so high that it made life difficult for the less capable.  Picard need to be woke enough to realize that his pursuit of excellence is causing dramatic harm to many who might be less ambitious or less capable.   
 

Especially since he had so many advantages obviously denied to Raffi like a stable family, a good upbringing, work ethics ingrained by his parents.  It’s all Picard’s fault, and he needs to admit that, and give Raffi command of a starship in recognition of the fact that he (Picard) has led a life of privilege and his success was rooted in those privileges that are denied to others who are less fortunate.

After all, what kind of communist paradise is possible if there are always those who want to overachieve and get there through privileges like knowing how to work hard and getting lucky with things like the Picard maneuver.

Seriously, the more anyone thinks about this, the more this is a brilliant idea.  Just don't know if this was little Bob or Sideshow Bob.  (Chapek and Iger respectively)

Disney needs a sea change, they know the parks are hosed for the next year no matter what happens, their worst case is to expect 2021 to be a total loss too, and part of 2022 because Covid is going to be seared into people's brains for the next generation, probably through Gen Z.  They've got to make money somehow.  Sports will come back, so their TV properties will get some traction, cause hey, locked up people has to do something.   And no one can envision major league sports going away.  Parks might break even again.  (make it more exclusive)

But the movies side of the business need traction, it's a critical part of their flywheel, the problem is movie theaters might not survive, and they need something to supplement Disney+.  They've got this potentially hot property that's going to compete with all the other hot properties sitting on the pipelines waiting for release, does anyone think Mulan has a chance next to James Bond, Top Gun, Wonder woman, the next 50 Harry Potter movies, why take the chance.  They see Apple+ buying up Tom Hanks, and the Disney people figured they better take the initiative and bet big, push Mulan out streaming, if it fails financially, well, it was going to happen anyway, they need to take a big bet.  There is always the fall back if traditional theater opens up.

Outside of that, they figure that home entertainment might get closer and closer to big screen experience, and even if it doesn't, who wants to go into a theater for the next year, not knowing who is going to have Covid.  So, they give this a shot, if it's anything successful, you can bet that Black Widow will go next.  Sure, they'll do limited screen releases when the lockdown ends.  But hey, why share money with the theater if you don't have to.  Disney will be better off without the theaters.  Then guys like Apple will follow suit.  If however, companies like Apple set the tone and give the stuff away for free, then Marvel and the Mouse is going to become a subsidiary for the master of Cupertino, and no one wants that.

little Bob Jr wants to make his mark... and $30 is perfectly reasonable considering It will be a family event for four or five people.  Besides think of it as a trial run, if successful, next will come Black Widow and others.  Disney can ditch the theaters and make Megabucks, genius ploy to get more data.

Depending on how many takers, next movie might be $24.99 or $19.99.  Everyone has a price, Disney just need to figure out critical mass, easy to go high price and then move down.

May be even easier to down tier down pricing over time if needed, $30 in first four weeks, $28 the three weeks after that $25 the two weeks beyond, and $20 for the four weeks after, and $15 for the six weeks after that.  An economist’s dream in terms of learning consumer behavior and adapting to it.

Random thought: Kyle Reese just killed a terminator.

right?  Jai Courtney just put down Robert Patrick.

11 hours ago, electric indigo said:

85 (of former 357) are still flying, and will do so until about 2030. There's currently a political debate about getting an interim fleet of 45 F-18s to replace them until an upgraded Eurofighter of the next generation FCAS can fill the gap.

OMG, that sounds like a disaster in the making.  I think the last American fighter the Luftwaffe has was the F-4.  If anything, they might be better off with the F-15X as an interim solution.  Or just get more Eurofighters.  They can be bombed up, right?

The Red Hood movie was one of the better DCAU movies, hit all the right buttons.  I don’t know about this interactive stuff though.  Hope they do a good job with it.

How many Tornados do the Germans have left?  I think the Brits have retired all of them.

Imagine if the Federation was a capitalist society.  The inventor of the replicator or the holodeck/holosuite would be able to buy entire sectors.  
 

All they want is to sell a bunch of programs, it’s the ultimate razor blade model.  Would be so weird.