I haven't read the Fleet of Worlds series yet (so no spoilers, please). I'm a little reticent about reading something with a co-writer - it never seems to work out as well.
I've read about Brennan in Protector, but the only real colony story I've read was on Plateau. What's the one set on Home called? I'd quite like to read something new.
Mea culpa, but you must have imagined the part where I spouted out about how great the metric system is. As for you, you can't be that much of a not-stupid if you can't spell kilo, no?
Don't blame timothy, it's his job to edit (so we should be complaining about his mistakes in that area). Blame the people who up-voted the article on the Firehose.
The official reason given (or one of them, anyway) is that the organs harvested are often diseased or in some way defective.
Whatever the reason, I welcome the change. Since reading some of Larry Niven (The Jigsaw Man in particular) I've shared his concern that once the public start to profit from the deaths of criminals they will increase the number of capital crimes, eventually to the point where people are being dismantled for mere traffic violations. This is of course a sort of reductio ad absurdum but I think the point remains valid even if that particular slippery slope stops at, say, rape or manslaughter.
Ultimately, though, in my opinion capital punishment is simply wrong; the state has no more right to kill a murderer than he/she did to kill their victim.
On a lighter note, who'd want to risk something akin to Homer's Hell Toupée?
I always find it amazing that electronic gadgets are a "distraction" yet non-electronic ones are not. You don't see legislation to outlaw paper maps, coffee cups, makeup, food, etc from vehicles. Yet we see state after state as well as the feds weighing in on the rush to make electronic devices illegal or unusable while driving.
I can't speak for the laws in the US, but in Britain "driving without due care and attention" is an offence. So the question changes from "why don't we have laws against electronic distractions?" to "why do we need laws against electronic distractions?".
But, as you say, such superfluous laws might simply be yet another source of revenue.
Look.... as far as cuisine goes.... you both (America and British) are like two ugly fat chicks arguing about who is uglier.
Yup, but I don't care so long as we win.:P And, FWIW, I detest black pudding, but when I'm "messed up on a couch" I do get an odd hankering for a fried egg sarnie. Wouldn't mind one of those now, actually...
There's some debate over whether or not tikka masala is a British invention but I'll leave that as I don't really care for it (I prefer korma).
BTW, have you tried spotted dick? (no jokes please, they've all been done to death) It's damned good, though not as good as the unassumingly-named bread and butter pudding. The trick with both is to make the custard properly; not the crummy powdered stuff.
Well, you've got me there... unfortunately not being involved in the field means I wouldn't know a reputable journal if it slapped me in the face! I do see your point though; if not for his reputation - which of course means precisely damn all - I would have written off Bussard as a crank myself, especially with his frequent remarks about a publishing embargo.
I assume you know what you're talking about, so can you say if Plasma Physics, Fusion Technology and the Int. Aeronautical Congress are reputable or not? Hell, for all I know he was laughed off the stage from the latter.
Polywell as no thermal confinement and will never reach break even.
Could you elaborate on this point please? I'm merely an interested layman but I was under the impression that the ions in the device all had energies close to the well depth, i.e. not an M-B distribution.
What if the "outside communication" is scratching your left ear when you want to know whether to pincer or castle?
That doesn't matter if the venue itself is sealed against outside communication, which would prevent anyone in the audience communicating with a computer system outside and relaying moves to the contestant. Deep Blue and its descendants aren't exactly something a spectator could hide in their coat.
If cheating occurs in a sealed room, the judges can be sure that it's collusion between two people and I'm sure they have a great deal of experience with that.
Or at least let the DoE get involved instead of driving them to the DoD with inter-departmental pissing contests.
For the money that the Polywell people are asking, and what a full-size model would cost compared to the "superconducting cathedrals"* of ITER, they'd be fools to not at least give them a try.
*The late Dr. Bussard sure did know how to turn a phrase. There's no doubt about that, which is more than can be said about the actual Polywell concept itself - at least so far.
I was never troubled by Lucas electrics. Having been burned by one too many Lucas-blighted cars I decided to rip out all the wiring and do it again properly.
It was nice being able to turn the headlights on without the smell of burning insulation.
The Griffith had a Rover V8 (derived from a Buick engine) as I recall, and since the parent didn't name the monstrosity one could only guess what it used.
I used to have a Reliant Scimitar, which used a 3-litre Ford V6. Could that be what you're thinking about?
I think it's probably TMIAHM. I'd like to say it's because I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Heinlein's books, but in fact that's the book of his that I've read. I really ought to grok Starship Troopers some time.
We do that already UK (and you can't a certificate of roadworthiness, MOT, without insurance).
Guess what that means...
I think you meant VED (otherwise known as road tax). There's no reason you can't MOT a car without insurance AFAIK*. I used to do up old Minis a few years ago and a valid MOT makes them much easier to sell on; naturally I didn't insure a car I wasn't going to drive and I had no trouble getting an MOT.
*You do need insurance to drive it to the test station if you don't have a trailer or someone from the garage to come and pick it up.
The UK has such an industry in Car insurance that Industry hints and tips have been automated into websites that are entirely their OWN industry. All with their own REALLY annoying adverts.
Annoying or not, you've remembered them by name. Their work is done.
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Thanks, I'll put them pretty far down my reading list then. Sandworms of Dune bit pretty hard.
I haven't read the Fleet of Worlds series yet (so no spoilers, please). I'm a little reticent about reading something with a co-writer - it never seems to work out as well.
I've read about Brennan in Protector, but the only real colony story I've read was on Plateau.
What's the one set on Home called? I'd quite like to read something new.
Mea culpa, but you must have imagined the part where I spouted out about how great the metric system is. As for you, you can't be that much of a not-stupid if you can't spell kilo, no?
Hello Pot, my name is Kettle. :P
Oh and if Metric is so great, then quick with out looking it up, how many milli-torr in a kila-pascal?
Hell if I know. You do realise that torr isn't metric and a kila-pascal isn't anything at all?
Of course not.
Don't blame timothy, it's his job to edit (so we should be complaining about his mistakes in that area). Blame the people who up-voted the article on the Firehose.
The official reason given (or one of them, anyway) is that the organs harvested are often diseased or in some way defective.
Whatever the reason, I welcome the change. Since reading some of Larry Niven (The Jigsaw Man in particular) I've shared his concern that once the public start to profit from the deaths of criminals they will increase the number of capital crimes, eventually to the point where people are being dismantled for mere traffic violations. This is of course a sort of reductio ad absurdum but I think the point remains valid even if that particular slippery slope stops at, say, rape or manslaughter.
Ultimately, though, in my opinion capital punishment is simply wrong; the state has no more right to kill a murderer than he/she did to kill their victim.
On a lighter note, who'd want to risk something akin to Homer's Hell Toupée?
I always find it amazing that electronic gadgets are a "distraction" yet non-electronic ones are not. You don't see legislation to outlaw paper maps, coffee cups, makeup, food, etc from vehicles. Yet we see state after state as well as the feds weighing in on the rush to make electronic devices illegal or unusable while driving.
I can't speak for the laws in the US, but in Britain "driving without due care and attention" is an offence. So the question changes from "why don't we have laws against electronic distractions?" to "why do we need laws against electronic distractions?".
But, as you say, such superfluous laws might simply be yet another source of revenue.
erm. I disable rotation on my maps. In games, in cars, when I'm out in the field.
Can I assume that you're a fellow hater of camera-relative movement controls? Just thinking about them makes the bile rise in my gullet.
Pity. Is there an analogue (even theoretical) to electrical superconductors that would work along the lines that Niven described?
A superconductor of heat might be almost as significant a discovery as the electrical ones.
Look.... as far as cuisine goes.... you both (America and British) are like two ugly fat chicks arguing about who is uglier.
Yup, but I don't care so long as we win. :P
And, FWIW, I detest black pudding, but when I'm "messed up on a couch" I do get an odd hankering for a fried egg sarnie. Wouldn't mind one of those now, actually...
There's some debate over whether or not tikka masala is a British invention but I'll leave that as I don't really care for it (I prefer korma).
BTW, have you tried spotted dick? (no jokes please, they've all been done to death) It's damned good, though not as good as the unassumingly-named bread and butter pudding. The trick with both is to make the custard properly; not the crummy powdered stuff.
Rag on America all you want, but we didn't invent the chip sandwich.
No, but you did invent cheese in a can, which is one of the main reasons I laugh myself silly when Americans mock British cuisine.
Alcohol yes, but wine?!
How about a spot of tea, jerkwad?
Well, you've got me there... unfortunately not being involved in the field means I wouldn't know a reputable journal if it slapped me in the face! I do see your point though; if not for his reputation - which of course means precisely damn all - I would have written off Bussard as a crank myself, especially with his frequent remarks about a publishing embargo.
I assume you know what you're talking about, so can you say if Plasma Physics, Fusion Technology and the Int. Aeronautical Congress are reputable or not? Hell, for all I know he was laughed off the stage from the latter.
Polywell as no thermal confinement and will never reach break even.
Could you elaborate on this point please? I'm merely an interested layman but I was under the impression that the ions in the device all had energies close to the well depth, i.e. not an M-B distribution.
not trying to use qzjkh as a word
You appear to have spelled jozxyqk incorrectly.
It's easy to do, since finding it in the dictionary is usually such a pain.
What if the "outside communication" is scratching your left ear when you want to know whether to pincer or castle?
That doesn't matter if the venue itself is sealed against outside communication, which would prevent anyone in the audience communicating with a computer system outside and relaying moves to the contestant. Deep Blue and its descendants aren't exactly something a spectator could hide in their coat.
If cheating occurs in a sealed room, the judges can be sure that it's collusion between two people and I'm sure they have a great deal of experience with that.
Or at least let the DoE get involved instead of driving them to the DoD with inter-departmental pissing contests.
For the money that the Polywell people are asking, and what a full-size model would cost compared to the "superconducting cathedrals"* of ITER, they'd be fools to not at least give them a try.
*The late Dr. Bussard sure did know how to turn a phrase. There's no doubt about that, which is more than can be said about the actual Polywell concept itself - at least so far.
Why do you want a robot body, Kosh? Surely it'd be a step down for a big, glowy energy being such as you.
I was never troubled by Lucas electrics. Having been burned by one too many Lucas-blighted cars I decided to rip out all the wiring and do it again properly.
It was nice being able to turn the headlights on without the smell of burning insulation.
The Griffith had a Rover V8 (derived from a Buick engine) as I recall, and since the parent didn't name the monstrosity one could only guess what it used.
I used to have a Reliant Scimitar, which used a 3-litre Ford V6. Could that be what you're thinking about?
"Yes he is", not "that he be"!
I think it's probably TMIAHM. I'd like to say it's because I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Heinlein's books, but in fact that's the book of his that I've read. I really ought to grok Starship Troopers some time.
We do that already UK (and you can't a certificate of roadworthiness, MOT, without insurance).
Guess what that means...
I think you meant VED (otherwise known as road tax). There's no reason you can't MOT a car without insurance AFAIK*. I used to do up old Minis a few years ago and a valid MOT makes them much easier to sell on; naturally I didn't insure a car I wasn't going to drive and I had no trouble getting an MOT.
*You do need insurance to drive it to the test station if you don't have a trailer or someone from the garage to come and pick it up.
The UK has such an industry in Car insurance that Industry hints and tips have been automated into websites that are entirely their OWN industry. All with their own REALLY annoying adverts.
Annoying or not, you've remembered them by name. Their work is done.