Slashdot Mirror

Witty writing and engaging characters put these books in the top tier. These books, now long out of print, are: Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World. They can be purchased in the omnibus ebook "New Celebrations" (for the ridiculously low price of $6.99) here: http://www.electricstory.com/authors/author.aspx?authorid=96

Its greatest, and almost unforgiveable, failing, is that Panshin never published the fourth book.

Personally, I doubt there is any way to beat C. Otherwise, we'd have alien visitors.

I can think of a lot of reasons we haven't had visitors. It's possible (yes, unlikely but possible) that this is the only planet in the galaxy with life; that we're not the only life but the only life that's gotten intelligent; or they did visit here but became extinct about the time the dinasaurs did; or that they may have seen us and figured life was impossible here or that we aren't even alive (I wrote two short SF stories about these, We still haven't found extraforgostnic life and A strange discovery).

Then there's Terry Bison's They're Made Out Of Meat.

I'm sure there are a thousand other reasons I can't think of now.

So it will be "ironic" when it all goes to Colbert's head and he starts believes his own storyline.

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And besides that, I think there is a lot of support for the view that Colbert is ironic.

For example, here:
http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/001989.html
"Why Colbert's Irony Was So Effective"

http://www.electricstory.com/reviews/editorials.aspx?id=6
"That's Colbert's ironic message."

etc... on and on for pages.

So in some sense, you are like any wordsmith hanging on the old dictionary meaning of a word while actual usage is changing.

Is there irony in defending the meaning of irony when it is changing as you defend it?

It's far more likely that textured vegetable protein, which has had millions of years of evolution behind it, will end up be more efficient to produce than grown steaks. Another issue is that the stuff inside steak that's "tasty", also happens to be bad for you if it's a significant portion of your diet. Saturated fats and high protein diets seem to cause long-term issues.

Now, I happen to be vegetarian, but certainly not for your standard ethical reasons. I'm all for animal experimentation, for example. I just find that our country's meat-heavy diet is expensive and inefficient. We're depleting our fresh water aquifers at a rapid rate, trying to grow feed for our cattle. American's waists are expanding, in part from our high-calorie meat diet.

And, to end on a lighter note, here's a funny little story called They're Made Out of Meat that's hysterical.

I don't know where the rest of Slashdot buys meat but most of my Butchers use table saws or belt saws to slice meat.
Lets add a tempreture sensor so it knows cold, dead meat from the live kind your hand is made of.
To clarify

Easy...the word is gravity.

Smaller planets like Earth with lower gravity wells allow (currently known) life forms to be able to move easily. The best analogy would be the shuttle. Takes a bunch of fuel to move it. If you don't put much cargo it the ship, you need less fuel to take off. However, if you max it out, you not only need fuel to move the bigger mass, but to move the additional fuel as well. Now apply that to animals, either they would be really tiny or really huge.

Now, if you want to get into the realm of life forms that exist either in a gaseous state or as energy, I'll have to refer you to Mr. Bisson's story in Omni from a while ago.

B

To any SFWA and/or WSFS members out there, when the next nominating cycle rolls around, please be sure to consider Lucuis Shepard's review of 'The Time Machine'. It's the best SF short story I've read in about five years!