hydroptic

Oh yeah I'd loooooove it if this was some sort of absolutely bonkers new propulsion tech – let alone FUCKING ALIENS AKJDSAJKDASJKA – but it just doesn't seem very likely. Keeping something like completely new physics secret for decades, eh, I don't see that happening.

x files theme plays

Riiight yes, gotcha.

Hmm considering how big the VentureStar would have been, my off-the-cuff airship theory seems like it might make sense - at least if we're not assuming some sort of extremely secret completely noiseless new propulsion technology, which just doesn't seem like something they'd be testing in populated areas where everybody can see them.

Shit, could just be a lighter than air "disinfo craft" – purpose-built to make people go "holy fuck what the hell is that thing", to make it seem like the US is fielding some sort of completely insane near-magical technology.

Hanlon's Razor is all well and good as a heuristic, but tends to lead to people discounting malice much too often. Also, I really didn't say we were "under attack"

if there’s an accident, the parents will be fined and the scooter confiscated.

Yeah, but that's post hoc enforcement

If they were acting randomly yeah, but unfortunately even though they sometimes seem like they are, there's very much a plan here.

They want to burn the world down to rule the ashes.

Conservatism is a death cult. It's almost 100% guaranteed that any sort of technology they tout or decision they make will lead to people dying and/or a worse outcome for humanity

I will never understand people who like roasts.

I absolutely don't know, but my guess would be spambots or somesuch

Finland; our police force is already really overextended and generally doesn't give a shit about small stuff like this.

Huh, that was an interesting article. I thought the failure of the honeycomb structure to work for the fuel tanks was what killed the X-33 and I'd never heard of that aluminum-lithium alloy; it isn't even mentioned in the X-33 wiki article.

Aaaanyhow, an SSTO vehicle with any sort of "traditional" engine (incl aerospike) wouldn't be quiet by any definition, though. But thanks for that link! It really was super interesting, and I definitely get why you're annoyed.

It probably was, but the universe has a penchant for getting very interesting