Articles like this make me think we'll have the technology to print organic chemicals en-mass sooner rather than later. I'm not wanting to be an alarmist fear-monger, but some fanatic or other is bound to start printing nerve agents when the technology is available. Does this worry anybody else?
Speaking from experience, you can become addicted to pot. I was smoking an oz every two weeks for a three months - basically stoned the entire time. I managed to hold down a job during this time, but I ended up having to fake depression to cover my aberrant behaviour in order to not get fired. This was almost ironic, as I did become depressed for several months after quitting.
I went cold turkey, and had two days of dry retching and fever/chills, followed by a month of almost no appetite - My weight dropped from 90 to 82 kgs - pretty low for someone who's 188cm tall.
I don't know about cameras, but I have an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain scope and you do have to let it cool down to ambient. It's not the mirror or lenses distorting, but small thermal air currents cause that cause wavy views. It's conceivable that cameras could be affected in the same way to a lesser extent.
The Forge of God was great. There's a huge sense of momentum and that all humanity's efforts to figure out what's going on are futile. The end of the world stuff is so descriptive, too. Disclaimer: I'm a Greg Bear fanboi...
The story follows a manned mission to Titan. Apart from the very long term outcome, it's a thoroughly depressing read - Hacked from Wikipedia:
En-route, one crew member dies after a solar storm. The use of a CELSS greenhouse for life support provides a continuous food supply, and the astronauts rely on vegetables, grain and fruit from the greenhouse as they travel on. But things take a dark turn as funding and support for resupply and Earth-return retrieval are cut by Maclachlan's administration (proposed and carried out by the very same men that tried to shoot the shuttle down), leaving the team with no hope for survival beyond what they may find on Titan. Once they reach Saturn and prepare to land on Titan's surface, another crew member is lost during the landing procedure with another effectively crippled. Titan is discovered to be a bleak, freezing dwarf-planet containing liquid ethane oceans, a sticky mud surface, and a climate which includes a thick atmosphere of purple organic compounds falling like snow from the clouds; and the only traces of life they find are fossilized remains of microbic bacteria similar to those recovered from Martian meteorites. The remaining astronauts relay their findings back to a largely uninterested Earth.
Meanwhile, the Chinese, in order to retaliate for biological attacks by the US, cause a huge explosion next to an asteroid (2002OA), with the aim of deflecting it into Earth orbit and threatening the world with targeted precision strikes in the future. Unfortunately, their calculations are wrong as they didn't take into account the size of the asteroid which could cause a Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The asteroid strikes Earth, critically damaging the planetary ecosystem. The Titan team members are presumably the last humans left alive.
As the surviving astronauts slowly die of disease and in-fighting, they decide to try to ensure life will continue to survive: they take a flask of bacteria and drop it into a crater filled with liquid water, in the hope that some form of life will develop.
The novel's final sequence depicts the final two crew members reincarnated on Titan several billion years in the future. The sun has entered its red giant phase, warming the Saturnian system and aiding the evolution of life, in the form of strange, intelligent beetle-like creatures, on Titan. The astronauts watch as the creatures build a fleet of starships to seed and colonize new solar systems before the expanding sun boils off the surface of the moon.
Charles Stross covered this in his book Accelerando. There's an interesting chapter where Manfred Macx gets mugged and loses his cyber processing and memory. He basically becomes a retarded version of himself who doesn't even remember who he is. The book is an interesting take on the singularity, both pre and post.
Slashdot Mirror
Banks is also a fundie old testament christian:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7596566/Banks-Old-Testament-beliefs-create-conflict-in-role
Articles like this make me think we'll have the technology to print organic chemicals en-mass sooner rather than later. I'm not wanting to be an alarmist fear-monger, but some fanatic or other is bound to start printing nerve agents when the technology is available. Does this worry anybody else?
Speaking from experience, you can become addicted to pot. I was smoking an oz every two weeks for a three months - basically stoned the entire time. I managed to hold down a job during this time, but I ended up having to fake depression to cover my aberrant behaviour in order to not get fired. This was almost ironic, as I did become depressed for several months after quitting.
I went cold turkey, and had two days of dry retching and fever/chills, followed by a month of almost no appetite - My weight dropped from 90 to 82 kgs - pretty low for someone who's 188cm tall.
So yeah, you can become addicted to pot.
And did they catch gomorroea?
Only if seeing the inside of your own digestive track is considered good vision...
I don't know about cameras, but I have an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain scope and you do have to let it cool down to ambient. It's not the mirror or lenses distorting, but small thermal air currents cause that cause wavy views. It's conceivable that cameras could be affected in the same way to a lesser extent.
People who make intestines are full of shit?
Maybe it's just me, but if I'm getting my outie converted to an innie then I'd want an expert doing it!
I just re-read the author's note in my 2009 edition - I stand corrected.
Keep this in mind when voting next time then. How Key gets away with this and the Sky City fiasco is beyond me.
I thought it was unpublishable because of the homolife stuff?
The Forge of God was great. There's a huge sense of momentum and that all humanity's efforts to figure out what's going on are futile. The end of the world stuff is so descriptive, too.
Disclaimer: I'm a Greg Bear fanboi...
The story follows a manned mission to Titan. Apart from the very long term outcome, it's a thoroughly depressing read - Hacked from Wikipedia:
En-route, one crew member dies after a solar storm. The use of a CELSS greenhouse for life support provides a continuous food supply, and the astronauts rely on vegetables, grain and fruit from the greenhouse as they travel on. But things take a dark turn as funding and support for resupply and Earth-return retrieval are cut by Maclachlan's administration (proposed and carried out by the very same men that tried to shoot the shuttle down), leaving the team with no hope for survival beyond what they may find on Titan. Once they reach Saturn and prepare to land on Titan's surface, another crew member is lost during the landing procedure with another effectively crippled. Titan is discovered to be a bleak, freezing dwarf-planet containing liquid ethane oceans, a sticky mud surface, and a climate which includes a thick atmosphere of purple organic compounds falling like snow from the clouds; and the only traces of life they find are fossilized remains of microbic bacteria similar to those recovered from Martian meteorites. The remaining astronauts relay their findings back to a largely uninterested Earth.
Meanwhile, the Chinese, in order to retaliate for biological attacks by the US, cause a huge explosion next to an asteroid (2002OA), with the aim of deflecting it into Earth orbit and threatening the world with targeted precision strikes in the future. Unfortunately, their calculations are wrong as they didn't take into account the size of the asteroid which could cause a Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The asteroid strikes Earth, critically damaging the planetary ecosystem. The Titan team members are presumably the last humans left alive.
As the surviving astronauts slowly die of disease and in-fighting, they decide to try to ensure life will continue to survive: they take a flask of bacteria and drop it into a crater filled with liquid water, in the hope that some form of life will develop.
The novel's final sequence depicts the final two crew members reincarnated on Titan several billion years in the future. The sun has entered its red giant phase, warming the Saturnian system and aiding the evolution of life, in the form of strange, intelligent beetle-like creatures, on Titan. The astronauts watch as the creatures build a fleet of starships to seed and colonize new solar systems before the expanding sun boils off the surface of the moon.
Romani Ite Domum
Wouldn't it be great if when the apple guys walked on stage, the whole crown stood as one and booed them?
I sign in to Lastpass, and it signs into sites for me. I guess it's a form of SSO?
YouTube, on the other hand, is full of generally "normal" people with little to no internet savvy who spew bile from the heart.
That's not the organ I would have said they use...
Charles Stross covered this in his book Accelerando. There's an interesting chapter where Manfred Macx gets mugged and loses his cyber processing and memory. He basically becomes a retarded version of himself who doesn't even remember who he is.
The book is an interesting take on the singularity, both pre and post.
On the gripping hand, what the fuck are we actually doing over there anyway?
I'm Rod Blaine, and I approve this message.
I heard this in Zapp Brannigan's voice, without knowing it was one of his quotes. Goes to show what a classic character Brannigan is :-)
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate"
"choosing the best possible strategy going-forward for their mature but declining businesses"
I'm glad to see they aren't wasting time looking into time travel so they can go backward.
People laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now.
I've never come across people shortening discovery to disc. I just assumed it was Timmay! being his usual moronic self.
If we made our voice heard, the government can and will listen.
Just like they are listening to us on the partial asset sales? I think you give King John too much credit.
More like the National government took part in order to suck up to the U.S, with en eye on a free trade agreement.