"When he was 17, David Huggins says he lost his virginity to an extraterrestrial." "Abuser used alien conspiracy to control me" "Some are convinced that aliens are involved in a vast breeding program" "Aliens using email to seduce earth women."

Greetingly Salutations. This being Prince of Orion Sector. I having come to possess 300 thousands kilograms in supernova platinum am gotten worthy assurances of your integrity in helping to hyperport it.

Gee willikers! All they asked me was did I know where there were any purple people and who put the bop in the bop e dee doo wop. And then I had to explain "pull the other one, there's bells on it". What you describe would have been less traumatic and more like "oh, it must be tuesday."

I think it is to visually highlight "a big dramatic pause" in his speech.

That's a really glaring omission: Isn't someone going to ask what they look like?.

Awesome. I missed it because it was 4 in the morning for me, so nice to wake up and see that it went well.

It was 0420 here when the Ariane 5 lit up and went downrange, but I had been awake since midnight because I didn't want to miss the launch. There's always something that can go wrong, even a single rivet or bolt coming lose can mean disaster, and I found myself wondering about the technical achievements, like how carefully the strange shape of the 14,000 pound payload had been balanced. But nothing happened, the rocket stayed on course true and perfect. You remind yourself that this is when something goes wrong, but it didn't. The trajectory took it to about 850Km altitude before the 2nd stage was done and fell away. The last view we had was from the camera on the 2nd stage -of the folded package (the protective fairing having been jettisoned about 10 minutes before this) as it moved away with the solar panel deployed and the high-gain antenna pointing back at Earth at T+33 minutes, on course for L2, beyond the moon.

I remember watching when the Challenger shuttle exploded, and there's always been that possibility on any launch, but this one was for all the marbles: It absolutely had to work, and it did!

Launches are easy. Compared to actually bringing the satt online. The deployment and commissioning are at least 28 days of nail biting.

Yeah. I think the most critical part (the 5 solar shields) is next. If the shields don't work then the mission is over. Without them the IR receptors can't get into the -400 degree climate they need to operate without unwanted noise. The rest is downhill compared to that (and with the launch out of the way!)

Those deployed right away if I remember right (it was early, hadn't finished my first cuppa yet). It's the unfurling of the shade for the camera that's the tricky bit .

Yes. The solar panel deployed by itself, then the telescope switched from battery power to charging solar power. It was automatic.

But, not yet initiated by the ground control in Maryland, the 5 solar SHIELDS are also for the sun but the opposite of a solar panel. Each shield is separate, with it's own mechanical devices. There are more than a hundred small switches and pins and pulleys for cables (Lots of small parts) even the Engineer who designed that part of the system had reservations about how it would actually work in space. IF only ONE of those small devices fails it all fails. Many videos I watched show them testing the systems and folding everything back up then testing it. BUT things work differently in zero gravity.

Yes, yes they do. Now we just need some bright and very bored engineer to make a centrifugal still on a space station. ;)

Guys, I understand and agree that successful launching of JWST is a very exciting news and all, however I do not think that comment section under a scifi webcomic is the best place to discuss that in great detail.

You're right...
Sorry, it got out of hand.

Until it spots the fleet hiding in the Keppler belt.

"Bluff on a bad hand until we can figure out who the other player is and convince them not to raise."

Poker is one of those games that has several ways to win.
(-But that also means there are several ways to lose!)

And it has this fundamental flaw where it has to end with somebody losing. What say we ditch these cards and start a nice game of D&D instead?

Many more ways to lose in that.

That fundamental flaw is completely eliminated when we play games of cooperation. What do we learn through examples of competition and winning? How to compete and win! There's something in human nature that agrees with that but it's not the BEST part of human nature.

No, I'll get stuck with a dang halfling paladins (lg) again...who has a blind spot for things like the eye of veykna. So blind it didn't corrupt.

Yup. These people here are high-level delegates selected for the duty of handling international crises, and they're barely holding themselves together after being told what's currently known. The general public (television pundits and social media echo-chambers!) would take it worse and all but a select few would be less useful, so the cost/benefit ratio of telling them is too low. Once further research and attempts at diplomacy have established something productive the public can do or at least think, then it will be time to go on the news.

If he ends the presentation here, I would agree with #2, but probably not. A competent military man (known) serving a competent government (probable) won't have come here without a proposed plan of action. If that plan is good enough, the assembly will likely go along with it or at least focus on bending it to their liking, rather than blowing the lid off of everything.

I just hope next week reveals that, rather than jumping somewhere else (curious though I am what Gharr and the Three Musketeers have gotten up to in two weeks).

Primary plan is honesty "Here's what we know, how good that intel is, is debatable. What we can do is this, this and not that. When is questionable until logistics are sorted. Why we are in such a pickle is because we screwed up and don't have a plan as such and you bums screw us on budgets. Any suggestions?"
Secondary plan is be ready to kill everything in the room. Even if all you have is pen of questionable usability in your pocket.

"Professionals have standards: Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

Although, can't quite put my finger on it, but I think there might be a downside to that backup plan.

Quote often cited to General James “Mad Dog” Mattis (USMC, retired) - interesting fellow to say the least.

9 unforgettable quotes by James Mattis - POLITICO

(elsewhere quoted as part of USMC rules for gun fighting, possibly apocryphal)

Yeah, all I have is half a mug of tepid institutional coffee and that dodgy pen. Those display flags are anchored to the ground.