The 2000 Florida election for President went to Bush by fewer votes than the number of teachers in a school district. One school district union accomplishing coercion or fraud, and history books would be telling about President Gore.
Prove it. Examine each ballot with a microscope to show that there's no hidden code, no pattern of missing micron-sized bits of ink on the corners of letters. No hidden magnetic strip. No invisible ink. No watermark. No pattern of microscopic dots that show up only under UV light. No pattern of metallic inks that burn an ID when exposed to certain microwave frequencies. Etc., etc., etc..
Men are just as stupid as women, but too many women (particularly unmarried ones) are looking for a sugar daddy. They'll vote for the candidate who promises to have Uncle Sugar pay them. Men tend to be more independent, and want the government to leave them the hell alone. You can see this reflected in some of the more detailed polls.
Mail is extremely vulnerable. In rural areas, mailboxes are there for anyone walking by to open and steal the contents. In apartment complexes, it's even worse. A person with a duplicate key to the back of the postboxes could steal 100 ballots in a minute.
Science and engineering will always have applications that require more computing power than is available.In EE, for example, SPICE and Verilog runs can take a day or more for circuits of moderate complexity. 100 times faster computers would merely be an improvement, not a solution, and it seems unlikely that we'll ever see that much of a speed boost.
The Obama administration has already used political imprisonment in two well-publicized cases. Given her nasty personality, in a Hillary administration the number is likely to skyrocket.
I don't think your distinction is universally true, but you've pointed out a trend that deserves serious consideration. Political fiction and some adventure fiction are about ideas, are they mainstream?
It takes a mistaken understanding to try to destroy the distinction between science fiction and other forms of fiction. Any tale includes aspects not literally true, and by your analysis all tales would be SF just because something didn't really happen. Not so. Science fiction explicitly includes some plausible technology not in existence at the time of writing and not known by the author to be impossible; and that technology is necessary to some aspect of the plot. (Alternately, the story may take place under substantially different physical conditions [an alien planet] and those conditions are relevant to the plot.) (A rarer alternative to this posits the absence of a present technology and plays with the consequences of that absence.)
This is made clearer by considering stories set far in the future. The characters don't actually exist, but that by itself doesn't make those stories science fiction.
Fantasy has elements known to be impossible within the context of current knowledge. Magic and the power of wishing are fantasy. Unassisted human mental telepathy is fantasy, although other story aspects may lift the tale considered as a whole out of the realm of fantasy.
Ringworld won the Nebula Award in 1970,[1] as well as both the Hugo Award and Locus Award in 1971.[2] (wikipedia). Your opinion of Ringworld as being poorly written is not widely held. I found it compelling and intelligible, and of the hundreds of SF novels I have read it is one of perhaps 20 that I can remember many details and most of the plot.
You profoundly ignorant of the motives leading to both prostitution and soldiering.
Most women who become prostitutes are either tricked/coerced into the field by a pimp, or become prostitutes due to financial desperation.
Soldiers, at least in the US, are led either by a feeling of patriotic duty or an estimate that the military is a wise career choice. Psychopaths, if recognized, are rejected.
Cuckoo's Nest is vicious. That allows the critics to ignore the comedic elements. Pure comedy, like the great Bringing Up Baby, would never be seriously considered for an Academy Best Picture Award.
I've found shells and AWK difficult to accomplish things with. Shells are limited in capability, ambiguous, and poorly documented. AWK is good for some string processing, but math and most other things are inconvenient.
For beginners, a language that actually tries to work without barfing at every obscure syntax mistake is important. Frustration can keep a person from ever being a programmer, and if after an hour of trying a program still won't compile then frustration is natural. BASIC is a low frustration language.
People complaining about BASIC encouraging bad habits are being too picky. If you're serious about programming, good practice will come with learning a language/compiler that encourages good practice.
Slashdot Mirror
The 2000 Florida election for President went to Bush by fewer votes than the number of teachers in a school district. One school district union accomplishing coercion or fraud, and history books would be telling about President Gore.
The long voting window is a severe problem, as it encourages voting before all the relevant scandals have been exposed.
Prove it. Examine each ballot with a microscope to show that there's no hidden code, no pattern of missing micron-sized bits of ink on the corners of letters. No hidden magnetic strip. No invisible ink. No watermark. No pattern of microscopic dots that show up only under UV light. No pattern of metallic inks that burn an ID when exposed to certain microwave frequencies. Etc., etc., etc..
Men are just as stupid as women, but too many women (particularly unmarried ones) are looking for a sugar daddy. They'll vote for the candidate who promises to have Uncle Sugar pay them. Men tend to be more independent, and want the government to leave them the hell alone. You can see this reflected in some of the more detailed polls.
Most graveyards.
Mail is extremely vulnerable. In rural areas, mailboxes are there for anyone walking by to open and steal the contents. In apartment complexes, it's even worse. A person with a duplicate key to the back of the postboxes could steal 100 ballots in a minute.
Intelligent people like anonymous cowards who don't understand the difference between "you're" and "your".
You drop them off at a location manned by the party of fraud.
FTFY.
Science and engineering will always have applications that require more computing power than is available.In EE, for example, SPICE and Verilog runs can take a day or more for circuits of moderate complexity. 100 times faster computers would merely be an improvement, not a solution, and it seems unlikely that we'll ever see that much of a speed boost.
The Obama administration has already used political imprisonment in two well-publicized cases. Given her nasty personality, in a Hillary administration the number is likely to skyrocket.
Living things sequester carbon while they grow.
So, you think that electing Hillary, who opposes any business that doesn't bribe her, will help the US economy.
First base.
I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
Mickey Spillane
I don't think your distinction is universally true, but you've pointed out a trend that deserves serious consideration. Political fiction and some adventure fiction are about ideas, are they mainstream?
It takes a mistaken understanding to try to destroy the distinction between science fiction and other forms of fiction. Any tale includes aspects not literally true, and by your analysis all tales would be SF just because something didn't really happen. Not so. Science fiction explicitly includes some plausible technology not in existence at the time of writing and not known by the author to be impossible; and that technology is necessary to some aspect of the plot. (Alternately, the story may take place under substantially different physical conditions [an alien planet] and those conditions are relevant to the plot.) (A rarer alternative to this posits the absence of a present technology and plays with the consequences of that absence.)
This is made clearer by considering stories set far in the future. The characters don't actually exist, but that by itself doesn't make those stories science fiction.
Fantasy has elements known to be impossible within the context of current knowledge. Magic and the power of wishing are fantasy. Unassisted human mental telepathy is fantasy, although other story aspects may lift the tale considered as a whole out of the realm of fantasy.
Ringworld won the Nebula Award in 1970,[1] as well as both the Hugo Award and Locus Award in 1971.[2] (wikipedia). Your opinion of Ringworld as being poorly written is not widely held. I found it compelling and intelligible, and of the hundreds of SF novels I have read it is one of perhaps 20 that I can remember many details and most of the plot.
You have a valid point, but the general subject of this discussion is fiction.
Biographies, unless they are dishonestly selective, seldom have the steadily growing and consistent theme of great fiction.
Fiction is more important than history because it shows things not as they are, but as they could be.
Sturgeon's Law.
You profoundly ignorant of the motives leading to both prostitution and soldiering.
Most women who become prostitutes are either tricked/coerced into the field by a pimp, or become prostitutes due to financial desperation.
Soldiers, at least in the US, are led either by a feeling of patriotic duty or an estimate that the military is a wise career choice. Psychopaths, if recognized, are rejected.
If the dust jacket uses the words "insightful", "moving," or "poignant", run away and don't look back.
Cuckoo's Nest is vicious. That allows the critics to ignore the comedic elements. Pure comedy, like the great Bringing Up Baby, would never be seriously considered for an Academy Best Picture Award.
Compliment should be complement. Somehow, saying nice things about other people is not a plan for accomplishing things.
I've found shells and AWK difficult to accomplish things with. Shells are limited in capability, ambiguous, and poorly documented. AWK is good for some string processing, but math and most other things are inconvenient.
For beginners, a language that actually tries to work without barfing at every obscure syntax mistake is important. Frustration can keep a person from ever being a programmer, and if after an hour of trying a program still won't compile then frustration is natural. BASIC is a low frustration language.
People complaining about BASIC encouraging bad habits are being too picky. If you're serious about programming, good practice will come with learning a language/compiler that encourages good practice.