There are several forms of asbestos: SLTC Working definition of Asbestos: A term for naturally occurring fibrous minerals. Asbestos includes chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite (cummingtonite-grunerite asbestos), tremolite asbestos, actinolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, and any of these minerals that have been chemically treated and/or altered. The precise chemical formulation of each species will vary with the location from which it was mined. Nominal compositions are listed:
Chrysotile Mg(3)Si(2)O(5)(OH)(4)
Crocidolite Na(2)Fe(3)(2+)Fe(2)(3+)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Amosite (Mg,Fe)(7)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Tremolite-actinolite series Ca(2)(Mg,Fe)(5)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Anthophyllite (Mg,Fe)(7)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Of these 6 forms of asbestos there is no controversy whatsoever in the medical literature that all but chrysotile asbestos are carcinogens. There is a minority view that chrysotile asbestos does not cause mesothelioma (the signature cancer) but the majority view, is that it does. The debate, in my opinion, is largely moot since almost no 'pure chrysotile' asbestos exists - it is usually contaminated with small, but meaningful amounts of the other (amphibole) asbestos fibers at 1/2 - 2% concentrations by weight.
Piers Anthony is great when you're 10 - 16, starts to lose it after that.
Orson Scott Card, check.
I read most of the Piers Anthony stuff, and frankly, still regret wasting the time. ("Sos the Rope", anyone? I thought not). Most of it is pretty hacky now, and was so then. I also find Orson Scott Card to be filled with trivial ideas (which, to me, is what science fiction is about) and have dropped him from my reading list.
I personally got started on Tom Swift, Jr (I must have read 20 of the 33 published) and moved from there to everything Heinlein ever wrote ("Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" for openers, and never looked back). I can also recall having read TLotR, oh, about 25 times so far. Might have to crack it open again for old times sake.
I second this nomination, along with most of the early Heinlein. Hard to go wrong there.
I would add:
L. Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy" and a couple of his other books as well. Fuzzy is a very nice story about recognizing intelligence in non-obvious places.
John Varley's Titan series (warning, there is some sex stuff going on there, so probably not a pre-teen selection, but should be ok for 15+), which, like a lot of Varley, has a pretty strong female protagonist.
Bester's "The Stars My Destination" - It is on almost ever list of classics, and deservedly so.
Sturgeon's "The Dreaming Jewels" aka "The Synthetic Man". Coming of age in a carnival.
And for those with a sense of the absurd -
Alexi Panshin's Star Well series, three of the funniest science fiction books I can recall reading.
I think you need to go back and reread the refernce. This article from the UK makes it pretty clear that
We will take skin cells from patients who have a mutation for certain kinds of heart disease (cardiomyopathy, which makes the heart lose its pumping strength) and put them into pig eggs after their chromosomes have been removed. We will then make embryos so that we can attempt to derive embryonic stem cells which will allow us to study some of the molecular mechanisms associated with these heart diseases.
That 'attempt to derive embryonic stem cells' is not going to leave a viable embryo behind. Sorry, no man-pigs, just cells to culture and use for heart repair.
So, I've read a bunch of your posts from this thread, today, and the was interested enough to take a look at your user page. It looks to me like you are not particularly interested in 'winning' a talking point, and are deeply interested in giving abuse to those that disagree with you. You were modded 'troll' several subthread back, and complained about it. With respect, it is not your ideas that get you that mod, it is your style. I used my mod points yesterday. Had I any today, I would weigh seriously modding your comments in this thread, and if by some remarkable chance I get to metamoderate the 'troll' mod above, I will be rating it 'fair.'
I don't mind immigration at all. The problem I have is that many refuse to learn the language, go through the proper steps to obtain a green card/citizenship and pay their taxes like the rest of us do.
Others have addressed the green card issue, let me touch on the language question. I live in one of the 'melting pots' of the US - San Francisco. I assure you that while the first generation (almost all adults) don't do a good job of 'learning the language' (by the way, check out Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct for background on just why it is so very hard for adults to learn a new language), their kids do much better. The ones that immigrate with their parents will retain some minor accent, but the ones born here will speak flawless English. That should be no surprise, since that is the same pathway our immigrant ancestors took.
Cable TV and the internet, by the way, slow down that process, since a new arrival can remain immersed in the old language, but it does not stop it.
I apologize that I don't have time to read the rest of the comments to see if this is redundant or not, but I recommend www.locusmag.com as a source of reviews and inspiration for new SF to read.
I don't wish to derail this thread (I imagine I am too late anway), but you do know that those 'poor' folks already get medical care, just at extremely expensive rates. And you probably ought to give some thought to just how many people are 'poor' in health care cost terms, and if they are truly 'losers.' Someday soon it may be your parents that are 'poor,' and some day in the distant future, it may be you as well.
I find it interesting that you frame your objection to the graduated income tax in terms of the graduation (a method of employing an income tax) as opposed to as an objection to the income tax itself. The former might be a principled objection, say on the basis of constitutionality, the latter is just self-serving in the sense that it implies that if you paid less than your fair share, you would be fine with that.
I don't think the Nebula awards existed when SiaSL was published. The Nebula Award wiki link you embedded only goes back to about 1965. SiaSL did win the 1962 Hugo award. The Hugo's are linked from you wiki page, so it should not be hard to find them. The Nebula is, iirc, awarded by other authors (SFWA - the Science Fiction Writers Association is the organziation I recall) while the Hugo is voted on by fans at a WorldCon (including, occasionally, me). In my experience the Hugo award is a better predictor of my own prefences among recently published SF.
You might also like to check to see just how often RAH got nominated for books published during the time that the awards existed. Personally, if the entire body of OSC's work disappeared tomorrow, SF would be no worse off. It is inconceivable that the same could be said about RAH.
I have seen captcha's that use symbols like '.' '-' and '_' where the fuzziness was enough that they all render pretty much the same. I have taken 3 or 4 tries at some of those. You are not alone.
Keep in mind that a large proportion of airline expenses are 'fixed.' Examples include lease costs, maintenance costs and flight crews. The impact at the margin of increased fuel costs probably drops like a stone to the bottom line, which for airlines is often awash with red ink to begin with.
Iam with you on the Darwin Award. I note in passing that this event has the chance for a double play, as doubtless the author of the calculation is now in the running for an igNobel.
Slashdot Mirror
The only used books I bought in the last decade or so have been from Amazon, not eBay.
There are several forms of asbestos:
SLTC Working definition of Asbestos: A term for naturally occurring fibrous minerals. Asbestos includes chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite (cummingtonite-grunerite asbestos), tremolite asbestos, actinolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, and any of these minerals that have been chemically treated and/or altered. The precise chemical formulation of each species will vary with the location from which it was mined. Nominal compositions are listed:
Chrysotile Mg(3)Si(2)O(5)(OH)(4)
Crocidolite Na(2)Fe(3)(2+)Fe(2)(3+)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Amosite (Mg,Fe)(7)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Tremolite-actinolite series Ca(2)(Mg,Fe)(5)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Anthophyllite (Mg,Fe)(7)Si(8)O(22)(OH)(2)
Of these 6 forms of asbestos there is no controversy whatsoever in the medical literature that all but chrysotile asbestos are carcinogens. There is a minority view that chrysotile asbestos does not cause mesothelioma (the signature cancer) but the majority view, is that it does. The debate, in my opinion, is largely moot since almost no 'pure chrysotile' asbestos exists - it is usually contaminated with small, but meaningful amounts of the other (amphibole) asbestos fibers at 1/2 - 2% concentrations by weight.
Another vote against the offtopic mod. Had I points I would be correcting this myself.
For an earlier example of a female SF author, try Andre Norton. I recall "Beastmaster" as particularly engaging.
I read most of the Piers Anthony stuff, and frankly, still regret wasting the time. ("Sos the Rope", anyone? I thought not). Most of it is pretty hacky now, and was so then. I also find Orson Scott Card to be filled with trivial ideas (which, to me, is what science fiction is about) and have dropped him from my reading list.
I personally got started on Tom Swift, Jr (I must have read 20 of the 33 published) and moved from there to everything Heinlein ever wrote ("Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" for openers, and never looked back). I can also recall having read TLotR, oh, about 25 times so far. Might have to crack it open again for old times sake.
I second this nomination, along with most of the early Heinlein. Hard to go wrong there.
I would add:
L. Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy" and a couple of his other books as well. Fuzzy is a very nice story about recognizing intelligence in non-obvious places.
John Varley's Titan series (warning, there is some sex stuff going on there, so probably not a pre-teen selection, but should be ok for 15+), which, like a lot of Varley, has a pretty strong female protagonist.
Bester's "The Stars My Destination" - It is on almost ever list of classics, and deservedly so.
Sturgeon's "The Dreaming Jewels" aka "The Synthetic Man". Coming of age in a carnival.
And for those with a sense of the absurd -
Alexi Panshin's Star Well series, three of the funniest science fiction books I can recall reading.
Think of it as a ROM device. Where would you like to go today?
Don't dispute we put the missiles there. I did dispute that it was instituted on Kennedy's watch. Your move.
That 'attempt to derive embryonic stem cells' is not going to leave a viable embryo behind. Sorry, no man-pigs, just cells to culture and use for heart repair.
Doesn't that make the starting move Eisnehower's then?
So, I've read a bunch of your posts from this thread, today, and the was interested enough to take a look at your user page. It looks to me like you are not particularly interested in 'winning' a talking point, and are deeply interested in giving abuse to those that disagree with you. You were modded 'troll' several subthread back, and complained about it. With respect, it is not your ideas that get you that mod, it is your style. I used my mod points yesterday. Had I any today, I would weigh seriously modding your comments in this thread, and if by some remarkable chance I get to metamoderate the 'troll' mod above, I will be rating it 'fair.'
Others have addressed the green card issue, let me touch on the language question. I live in one of the 'melting pots' of the US - San Francisco. I assure you that while the first generation (almost all adults) don't do a good job of 'learning the language' (by the way, check out Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct for background on just why it is so very hard for adults to learn a new language), their kids do much better. The ones that immigrate with their parents will retain some minor accent, but the ones born here will speak flawless English. That should be no surprise, since that is the same pathway our immigrant ancestors took.
Cable TV and the internet, by the way, slow down that process, since a new arrival can remain immersed in the old language, but it does not stop it.
I'll give you the first two, but #3 was a two person game, and the other player got the first move.
TFA refers to a 1 cubic meter sample (35 cubic feet). That is one sweet lander...
I apologize that I don't have time to read the rest of the comments to see if this is redundant or not, but I recommend www.locusmag.com as a source of reviews and inspiration for new SF to read.
I don't wish to derail this thread (I imagine I am too late anway), but you do know that those 'poor' folks already get medical care, just at extremely expensive rates. And you probably ought to give some thought to just how many people are 'poor' in health care cost terms, and if they are truly 'losers.' Someday soon it may be your parents that are 'poor,' and some day in the distant future, it may be you as well.
I find it interesting that you frame your objection to the graduated income tax in terms of the graduation (a method of employing an income tax) as opposed to as an objection to the income tax itself. The former might be a principled objection, say on the basis of constitutionality, the latter is just self-serving in the sense that it implies that if you paid less than your fair share, you would be fine with that.
I don't think the Nebula awards existed when SiaSL was published. The Nebula Award wiki link you embedded only goes back to about 1965. SiaSL did win the 1962 Hugo award. The Hugo's are linked from you wiki page, so it should not be hard to find them. The Nebula is, iirc, awarded by other authors (SFWA - the Science Fiction Writers Association is the organziation I recall) while the Hugo is voted on by fans at a WorldCon (including, occasionally, me). In my experience the Hugo award is a better predictor of my own prefences among recently published SF.
You might also like to check to see just how often RAH got nominated for books published during the time that the awards existed. Personally, if the entire body of OSC's work disappeared tomorrow, SF would be no worse off. It is inconceivable that the same could be said about RAH.
I suppose that the keyboards and other input devices they wear are immune to such environments...
I think this might be Bad Science, personally, and that perhaps worthy of more study on your part.
I have seen captcha's that use symbols like '.' '-' and '_' where the fuzziness was enough that they all render pretty much the same. I have taken 3 or 4 tries at some of those. You are not alone.
Last time I looked, RealPlayer had an embedded browser. Has that changed?
Keep in mind that a large proportion of airline expenses are 'fixed.' Examples include lease costs, maintenance costs and flight crews. The impact at the margin of increased fuel costs probably drops like a stone to the bottom line, which for airlines is often awash with red ink to begin with.
Iam with you on the Darwin Award. I note in passing that this event has the chance for a double play, as doubtless the author of the calculation is now in the running for an igNobel.