I had forgotten the details of the space elevator collapse in the Mars trilogy. Thanks for filling them in, Grail! It does look like such a collapse would be rather hard to pull off.
Well, in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars", colonists build a space elevator on Mars, only to have it sabotaged and fall down on the planet; wrapping around the equator three times and releasing the equivalent of gazillion nukes.
Since this could be a dinosaur extinction type event, it is a valid concern. However, I do believe it is in no way a deal killer; just something that merits some discussion of likelihoods/easiness of such an event happening and how it can be guarded against if necessary. At least when we are closer to having a space elevator (which is not now).
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
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I read most of my books through the Adobe eBook format on my 19" Dell LCD monitor, where two pages of text fit just nicely side-by-side ("facing mode") on the screen. I treasure the ability to do this since an extremely bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome makes flipping pages difficult, and holding a book open with my hands impossible (though for the latter I have found a solution -- the Atlas book stand http://www.copyholders.com/).
I find it rather convenient and comfortable. I use voice-activated commands to flip pages, and sometimes a short python script that I wrote which issues keystrokes (such as "PgDn" or the down a key) at a frequency that I control so as to scroll down at a comfortable speed. This way, reading is entirely hands-free; though I am sure hitting the PgDn key every couple minutes should not tax the normal person. I usually end a long reading session because of sleepiness or boredom rather than eye fatigue or neck/back pain. Your results may vary on the latter point, since I have taken pains to ensure that my computer posture and ergonomics are very good.
Many pros and cons of eBooks are being discussed on this page and elsewhere; mention of this less obvious one is overdue -- reading eBooks is physically less demanding and more "ergonomic"; at least if you are using a large screen (and not furiously scrolling with a cell phone...).
And in case you are wondering, I wrote this entirely through speech recognition software (which is also how I do all my programming and BASH-ing).
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I had forgotten the details of the space elevator collapse in the Mars trilogy. Thanks for filling them in, Grail! It does look like such a collapse would be rather hard to pull off.
"Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction." -- Ray Bradbury
Well, in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars", colonists build a space elevator on Mars, only to have it sabotaged and fall down on the planet; wrapping around the equator three times and releasing the equivalent of gazillion nukes. Since this could be a dinosaur extinction type event, it is a valid concern. However, I do believe it is in no way a deal killer; just something that merits some discussion of likelihoods/easiness of such an event happening and how it can be guarded against if necessary. At least when we are closer to having a space elevator (which is not now).
I find it rather convenient and comfortable. I use voice-activated commands to flip pages, and sometimes a short python script that I wrote which issues keystrokes (such as "PgDn" or the down a key) at a frequency that I control so as to scroll down at a comfortable speed. This way, reading is entirely hands-free; though I am sure hitting the PgDn key every couple minutes should not tax the normal person. I usually end a long reading session because of sleepiness or boredom rather than eye fatigue or neck/back pain. Your results may vary on the latter point, since I have taken pains to ensure that my computer posture and ergonomics are very good. Many pros and cons of eBooks are being discussed on this page and elsewhere; mention of this less obvious one is overdue -- reading eBooks is physically less demanding and more "ergonomic"; at least if you are using a large screen (and not furiously scrolling with a cell phone...).
And in case you are wondering, I wrote this entirely through speech recognition software (which is also how I do all my programming and BASH-ing).