I think you need to rewatch that episode. Mal introduces her as an ambassador to Book because he is a preacher. Ro and K M have it right.   See 4 other replies

Think courtesan.   See 4 other replies

...an ambassador...keep watching, and try to find episode 1.   See 4 other replies

Sorry, I don't buy your "Mauser bolts shattering" story, that's an urban myth. If that was the case then the Russians would have had a similar problem. Not to mention the Finns. How about our own Inuit in Alaska and Canada? They hunt with rifles. There's also the machine guns in B-17s and B-29s at altitudes where the temp was colder than a witch's nipple in a brass bra. They should have shattered as well. Right? However, they didn't. What about all the escort fighters with their machine guns?Let's move on to Korea. Pretty cold there but the guns on both sides worked as did the machine guns in airplanes.Today, the Alaskan National Guard and the Army conduct arctic exercises and they don't seem to have problems with guns shatterings.   See 20 other replies

Sorry but you don't need oxygen for a gun to work. There isn't enough O2 in the shell casing to sustain combustion. As someone else pointed out, gunpowder has it's own oxidizer. Black powder is made from sulphur, carbon and potassium nitrate. The nitrate is the oxidized. Modern smokeless powder is made from a number of nitrogen compounds including nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. The also are self oxidizing, just like solid rocket fuel, dynamite, and C4.As a licensed gunsmith, I agree that you can build your own gun but unless state law requires it, ATF doesn't give a hoot if you put a serial number on it or not. However, if you are not a licensed manufacturer, you cannot build guns from scratch for anyone else.   See 20 other replies

the soviet union had a working 23mm cannon on board a spy satellite in 1974. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/time-nf.html   See 20 other replies