An Idiot on Startrek.com

[Mange]

AOL users aren't allowed there so I can't go join the fun. I hate being left out of somthing like this. LIKE I am so pissed

Why would you want to get involved with the likes of TJHairball & company anyway? It'll only lead to anger and frustration .

[Darth Servo]

AOL users aren't allowed there so I can't go join the fun. I hate being left out of somthing like this. LIKE I am so pissed

Why would you want to get involved with the likes of TJHairball & company anyway? It'll only lead to anger and frustration .

Sometimes it can be a great way to blow off some steam. And while we probably will never convert any of the acolytes of the Rabid Stupid Asshole, we can still show how stupid they are for the benefit of more neutral observers.

[Trekdestroyer]

AOL users aren't allowed there so I can't go join the fun. I hate being left out of somthing like this. LIKE I am so pissed

Why would you want to get involved with the likes of TJHairball & company anyway? It'll only lead to anger and frustration .

Sometimes it can be a great way to blow off some steam. And while we probably will never convert any of the acolytes of the Rabid Stupid Asshole, we can still show how stupid they are for the benefit of more neutral observers.

Right, but there is also the factor of training to deal with these kind of people and laughing at their awe inspiring stupidity.

[Nick Lancaster]

Of all the visual instances of phaser and turbolaser use - or clear top-canon dialogue references - phasers have had the greater visible destructive effect.

On a shot-per-shot basis, the longbow/crossbow was more efficient than early firearms. The only thing that recommended the rifle was the visible flash and report.

Visible effect is nice, but it isn't the sole arbiter of performance. An assassin doesn't have to vaporize his target to be successful; a Kawasaki Ninja may look nice, but it's not a Harley-Davidson or a Buell.

You need to also consider the 'problem scale' in the Trek universe. Everything is always last-minute, ship-about-to-blow-up, time-about-to-end, life-as-we-know-it-will-cease-to-exist, dogs-and-cats-sleeping-together vital. Big problem, flashy solution. It's a can-you-top-this format which has, ultimately, led to the idiocy packaged by Berman & Braga on a regular basis.

You seem to be mistaking what is seen onscreen in the Star Wars saga as the entirety of what a Star Destroyer is capable of. Sure, we don't actually SEE a Star Destroyer take on another capital ship, but in all cases, they are either trying to capture the ship or merely block their ready escape.

When we see an ISD take on fighters, why do you assume the task is all they are capable of? Why assume that turbolasers are like the 5-inch guns on a battleship and suited for a single purpose, when the reality is that point-defense systems are evolving from Phalanx to smart-missile capability?

Would you judge an aircraft carriers' ability based on a day where they do nothing more than fly routine CAP?

Or how about judging the Enterprise's ability by one of those horrid, 'Data Learns ...*' episodes from the second season of TNG?




* The previews for a string of second season episodes included lines like, 'And Data learns ...' (love/hate/humor/how to fart).

[Mange]

AOL users aren't allowed there so I can't go join the fun. I hate being left out of somthing like this. LIKE I am so pissed

Why would you want to get involved with the likes of TJHairball & company anyway? It'll only lead to anger and frustration .

Sometimes it can be a great way to blow off some steam. And while we probably will never convert any of the acolytes of the Rabid Stupid Asshole, we can still show how stupid they are for the benefit of more neutral observers.

I know, it was intended as a joke.

[Tribun]

I have the impression that the "Wall of Ignorance" is here really strong.

[Tribun]

I meant DMJay of the other board with the previous comment.

[Sothis]

Well, DMJay has not bothered to take up my challenge, but I am debating him about one or two things.

I'm not sure about Wishfire. If shown proof, he may be ameable to reason. DMJay is a lost cause.

[Stark]

AFAIK, the actual advantage of early firearms over bows was that any bastard could use one, without a lifetime of constant training.

I've been reading this thread: its obvious its full of twelve year olds and maladjusted adults. For all the horror, I don't think its worth wasting anyone's time there... unless they enjoy it

[Nick Lancaster]

AFAIK, the actual advantage of early firearms over bows was that any bastard could use one, without a lifetime of constant training.

Acutally, in his book, On Killing, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman gathers some statistics that show a horrid kill-per-shot ratio for firearms, which persisted through the Civil War and possibly further. (He uses this to underscore his psychological criteria for killing. I bought the book because one of the appendices talks about video games and their role in school shootings. Your actual mileage may vary.)

The comparison was made only to highlight the Trektarded comment about 'visible effect' as an effective gauge of performance. (And apparently 'visible' not in the sense of leaving a crater of x radius, but only that we are shown Federation technobabble beating back asteroids, erasing air pollution, etc. ... and all those wimpy Star Destroyers do is push around a few snub fighters.)

[Stark]

I agree this is OT, and I further agree with the poor lethality of early firearms.

The fact remains that firearms could be mass produced by cottage industry, given to groups of hundreds of soldiers with the most basic training (read, extraordinarily cheap) and be used en masse to defeat even the best-quality enemy troops, such as fully armoured knights. Whereas longbows require a culture of woodsmen and hunters, a lifetime of training, quality weapons, taking valuable hunters out of the fields and into battle where they'll die, etc etc. Of course, longbows work in the rain

With regards the ON topic comments, its amusing that Trekkies say that: the 'unstated' power of the Empire is demonstrated all the time, like 20million c FTL, building 900km battlestations, city-planets, etc. The technology required for ANY of these tasks is beyond the Federation: just the pollution problem alone on Coruscant is amazing.

[Glimmervoid]

DMjay just posted this
"Wrong a laser is an invisible beam, the only reason you can see one is that the color is added to it!"
He is such an idoit.

You cant add colour to a laser beam when by defintion it is made up of light and all light had colour.