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Shaka_Z

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Everything posted by Shaka_Z

  1. wow... hey guys... long time no see. is it just me, or does the black bunny segment from the first concert in movie 1 have a high degree of similarity to 'black swan' (not the natalie portman portrayal per se, but the ballet version in general)?
  2. even IRL there exists the possibility that empathy and telepathy exist - even in the human species. it may simply be that the brain has the hardware to act as a form of biological radio transceiver, but is by default set to the OFF state - think of the problems with intrusions that networked computers have, and you will understand why this would be so. the reason why it has not been quantified outside the CIA's remote viewing programs is that it probably works across an extremely wide range of frequencies, kind of like bluetooth (ultrawideband is the proper term), such that unless we know exactly the frequencies and encoding there really isn't anything coherent to detect. Ive actually been thinking about this for years, and it seems an interesting idea for certain kinds of dream phenomena, deja vu, the ability of identical twins (or any pair of extremely close-knit individuals) to finish each other's sentences etc.
  3. heh... college age guys go after barely legal chicks all the time. hell. I'm 37 (38 in a month) and find I have more in common (in terms of interests, conversation, etc) with women 18-25 than with older women - especially given my interests, which the vast, overwhelming super-majority of women my own age tend to look down their noses at. it's to a great extent a matter of closed versus open mindedness.
  4. oh I have GOT to agree here... I am still rather perturbed - indeed it is my one greatest criticism - that with all the obvious potential for a long-running, highly popular series, SK chose to keep it to 25 eps. Sheryl is certainly the Queen of Frontier, but I can easily see several other characters following in her path to transcendence (becoming more than just an anime character) if only there were more time. the combination of klan and michel were certainly on that path. I also didnt especially care for loli klan (felt she was literally short-changed).
  5. it isnt the song in and of itself that is important... or the language. its that the priestess is singing, and the emotional content she imbues the song with that makes the AFOS respond by flexing its' grav systems and whatnot. hell... Sara could have been singing one of Krauser's songs (from Detroit Metal City) and gotten the same reaction if she did it right. lol... AFOS gettin it on to death metal...
  6. dammit you beat me to mentioning it!!! but yes, we have transparent aluminum today IRL. it's hella expensive though... something like $10000US per square inch iirc.
  7. I think this can be said for most areas of human endeavour of late. just about every industry there is is more concerned about how to better package existing products and concepts than actually creating anything new. nobody wants to take any risks anymore. I blame the lawyers and accountants. politicians too, but then 99.9% of them are either lawyers or accountants.
  8. I am not comparing shows - I am comparing specific character archetypes using specific examples for reference. you want senseless action, look to gundam... I agree. I also have no issue with frontier not tying up the loose ends - there has to be some mystery left in the series to maintain fan interest in the franchise as a whole. infantry weapons have been carried into battle by kids for millenia - it isnt something that just started happening in the last hundred years. matter of fact it was expected for a teenager to be married and having a family of their own as little as 100 years ago. you must admit however that infantry weapons are not and have never been representative of a high level of economic investment (on a per soldier basis) in comparison to a jet fighter or any historical equivalent (which can be extrapolated back to the first uses of horses in combat, but might be better analogized to horse-drawn chariots). in general unless you expect the kid to die - and dont mind losing the plane - you dont stick a kid into a fighter cockpit
  9. this is certainly a part of my own issues with having teenage pilots. when I first got into anime back in the late '70s, I was what... 8 or 9 years old? by the time robotech debuted here I was 13, and yes it did seem perfectly fine (indeed it made perfect sense to my young mind) that the best pilots are the youngest pilots, and geezers should sit back, watch from the sidelines and coach or better yet just stay out of the way. As I got older, I realized the flaws of that reasoning - while teenagers do have quicker reactions than their elders, they think with their genitals too much, and so are prone to utter stupidity (which is fine for cannon fodder infantry, but not for pilots of very expensive aircraft). this makes their use as pilots not so much ludicrous, but unrealistic. it's one thing if you are in desperate need of pilots, and all you really have are high-schoolers as in SDFM - the macross needed pilots BAD early on, so they tapped the one resource they had... perfectly reasonable and realistic. luckily the Macross had a very high quality pool of candidates to work with, Max & Hikaru being the ones that set the standard. those 2 were certainly not your average teenagers. at least in the Macross universe the veteran pilots still get their due acknowledgement. Focker was 29 at the start of SDFM, both Isamu and Guld were in their mid-20's, Max was still kicking butt in macross7 in his early 50's. dont know Ozma's age, but hes probably around 30 himself. In all though, I think my reservations about teenie boppers saving the world are that the plot device has been sorely overused... and I am somewhat tired of it right along with the whole dominance of moe. doesnt stop me from enjoying the series though.
  10. my theory is that basically, the mayan priestesses (unknowingly) use their song and bloodline/psionic connection to the AFOS to keep its' core systems functioning. like I said in another thread, it's kind of like letting a car sit outside for years without moving - it might be all rusted and crappy on the outside, but if somebody at least turns the engine over once in awhile, it should be fine... the AFOS just goes one step farther in that it can return itself to showroom new on a moments notice.
  11. it aint no job for wet-behind-the-ears 14-17 year olds. 20-40 somethings yes. the only time I can suspend my disbelief for kid pilots is under unusual circumstances - like souseke sagara in FMP, who was literally fighting and killing in war zones since he was old enough to hold a rifle... setsuna in gundam 00 fits that mold as well. those characters however pay for that capability dearly in that they are little more than shells who really dont know anything else. Souseke at least had enormous opportunity for character growth thru his interactions with his comrades and especially kaname. she enabled him to become more than the mindless automaton he had been made into. setsuna in 00 never was able to really break free from that mindset.
  12. here here... down with the moe! I cannot fully express how tired I am of 14-17 year olds being allowed to fly giant war machines! yes I blame evangelion for the start of this trend, although that series did it for very well thought out reasons that were integral to the plot. personally I think SK would have been better served by setting the series in a collegiate environment - make Mihoshi an MIT/Rensselaer/Embry-Riddle type campus instead of some kind of magnet high school. that way, at least Alto & co would have been old enough - with sufficient educational background - to be believable. Sheryl & Ranka could stay at their respective ages, though perhaps giving them a boost of a year or 2 would be beneficial as well. dont get me wrong... I have no issues with fanservice - or even loli to an extent. in the case of loli I strongly feel that human laws are seeking to trump biology, when just a hundred years ago one was considered to be a fully fledged adult member of society by the age of 18 if not sooner, lawyers and politicians (who are 99.9% lawyers) have twisted things so badly in western society that in some cases you arent an adult until you're 30 or more (I am deliberately exaggerating for effect here, but I occasionally still get carded when buying booze, and I'm almost 40).
  13. actually, in reference to the image of alto, michael & luca in suits... can anybody make sense of the welcome sign past the 'welcome'?
  14. yesss... love the truck!!!... wow I didnt realize one of the members of FB was a brotha... now I really must watch the series! but then, macross has always been unusual (and far ahead of it's contemporaries) in the world of anime with its' wide range of represented ethnicities (even though most are relegated to secondary roles at best). come to think of it, maybe a thread should be started on that topic.
  15. 1 - Northern Cross 2 - Diamond Crevasse 3 - infinity 4 - Lion 5 - yousei (fairy) 6 - What'bout my star (all versions) 7 - Ai no oebaete 8 - Aoi no Eteru 9 - Anata no Oto 10 - Iteza Gogo Kuji (Don't be late) thats my top 10. Seikan Hikou comes in at #11, and it was close - but I like Sheryl more ^^... it all depends on what my mood is really.
  16. it all depends on the nature of the comparison... I am basically thinking of a race. line up all the valks, have your favorite singer wave the flag and whoever crosses the finish line first wins. depending on the length of the course and whether there are any curves or obstacles, different valks have a shot at winning. in an all-out drag race over a very short distance, the VF-1 Super has a chance of edging out even the VF-27 (though my bets are on the VF-25 super). the longer and more complex the course gets, the more the later designs pull away. as to the frame of reference, in this instance the frame is defined by the starting line where all the craft have 0 velocity relative to each other. there is always a frame of reference to be had - even in space.
  17. depending on the exhaust velocity and amount of propellant carried, the super packs may not be good for that kind of speed... acceleration will begin to degrade once the exhaust velocity of the drive has been exceeded, requiring ever more propellant to accelerate more as vehicle velocity increases. it is not a linear progression, and at some point even the reduction in vehicle mass will not be able to offset the inefficiency. that 2.5 minute endurance might not even get you to half the top speed you stated. [edit] I just calced it out - if in fact your scenario above was valid, it would put the exhaust velocity of the VF-1 super pack at roughly 9500m/s - definitely nice, but I would take this as being an upper bound estimate. it is highly unlikely that the super pack could carry enough propellant mass even then to reach that velocity - tank volume limits apply. if the pack had significanly higher Ve than that, it might be do-able though.
  18. all things being equal - ie engine material thermal limits - a slower exhaust will in fact always produce more thrust force than a faster exhaust. however, note my response to the following: when I say an absolute velocity limit, you need to remember the phrase after expending all onboard propellant. in order to reach the same velocity an engine with a slower exhaust velocity has to flow an exponentially greater amount of mass than the engine with higher exhaust velocity, regardless of the acceleration rate. for instance, the space shuttle engines have to flow roughly 11x the mass of the loaded (but unfueled) mass of the vehicle to reach orbital velocity, regardless of the effects of gravity - averaged together, the main engines and the SRBs have an exhaust velocity of no greater than 4000m/s, so to reach orbital velocity of roughly 10km/s the orbiter/tank/SRB combo has to carry (the dry mass of the orbiter)^2.5 in propellant mass. (iirc... I dont have my copy of space propulsion analysis and design handy atm) if the shuttle had an exhaust velocity of 10km/s the amount of propellant it would have to carry would only be equal to its' own dry mass. like I said earlier, I would love to see Isp figures for the various valks, along with propellant type and tankage specs. that way we would truly be able to figure out how fast they are... atm we can only determine how quick they are off a line.
  19. I feel the need to remind you that thrust force is only part of the equation, as the exhaust velocity of the engine places an absolute upper limit on how fast a vehicle can travel (ie the maximum ΔV) after expending all onboard propellant. it doesnt matter how much thrust you have if you use up all your propellant before you get anywhere. I would really love to know the Isp values for the various valks when in space, as well as for thier FAST and super packs, but I fear we shall never know. I have the feeling that the VF-1 super packs have really crappy Isp performance compared to their own fusion turbines. good for brief periods of insane acceleration, but not good for achieving really high speeds.
  20. indeed... sara literally saw through the eyes of the AFOS at that moment. interestingly mao also had such a moment when the AFOS sent her a vision of the approaching AUN submarine. I sometimes wonder why so many think the rocks floating had anything directly to do with sara, when she was really just acting as a conduit for the AFOS's powers... for all we know this was a necessary role of the priestesses - perhaps their song served to keep the AFOS systems from rotting away from lack of use in much the same way that leaving a car sitting for years without so much as turning the engine over once in awhile will eventually leave the engine (and everything connected to it) a rusted brick.
  21. it doesnt matter anyway, as with that particular image, it's a love/hate thing - for me I definitely dislike the image as it makes sheryl look like she's on crack or something. ipp's B&W pinups of her are much more my taste.
  22. indeed... these are technical specs I would truly like to know... for instance C... or D?
  23. for instance, I give you an example of noseart archetypes that I think Sheryl would appreciate: and even better: or this: and I just found this from a shot of White Knight Two:
  24. I hate to say it... but as much as I love Sheryl, I prefer the image of Ranka on the other side of the car - it is far more true to the WW2 noseart style. the Sheryl noseart is harsh and unflattering, bordering on bad pr0n. I actually find that image of her degrading to an extent. chalk it up to the fact that I'm a photographer myself, & that I observe details of the light, shading and expression very closely, IMHO that image makes sheryl look... unappetizing... almost creepy. the positioning of the bullet doesn't help, but the main thing that unsettles me is her expression and the shading around her eyes. it's interesting that I find the semi-nude pinup of ranka preferable to the fully covered (in lingerie) one of sheryl. but then, I have no issues with nudity or explicit material so long as it's done well. the sheryl noseart on that car was not well done.
  25. ummm... what show were you watching again? just kidding... honestly though, while Ranka's story is itself the crux of the series, ranka as a character leaves me kind of unsatisfied. I suppose that's because she was pretty much predictable to me in terms of how she reacted to most situations. Perhaps I might be being too critical of her, but she never really transcended her fictional being in a way in which I could connect to her. Of the rest of the cast, Sheryl was the first to transcend from being a merely fictional character into a believable, real individual for me. Alto was not far behind (partially because I saw much of my younger self in him - I used to be just as dense, aloof to all but a few and hard-headed... some say I still am at almost 38 years of age). much of the secondary cast was able to connect with me on a higher level than ranka as well. perhaps they were able to do so for the simple fact that no character in the show aside from ranka had character shielding... I just dont know.
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