The claim was that coal dumps more radiation *into the air*. Would make sense given that their is very little nuclear radiation leak into the air.
Disagree, oh and for the record coal is almost as bad as Nuclear. The fanbois have really fucked any hope that nuclear may have solved problems for us.
As to accidents, with the notable exception of Cherbynol, there have been very few and most of the cost has been due to the hysteria. Very few people died in Fukushima compared to those killed by the tidal wave itself.
Whoopdee fucking do if transgenic disease propagates through the Human race over the next 1000-2000 years. Who knows how that will manifest - but do keep burying your head in the sand.
>I'll make one prediction based on human nature: That future generations will judge us as dithering, selfish kleptoparasites that did nothing when we could of and just partied on the available resources leaving them with the consequences.
So... the exact OPPOSITE of the end of 'Feersum Enjin'... sounds about right yeah.
I've not read it, so I don't know. I just finished Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson so if we are lucky it might turn out like that.
I have been curious about why you refer to Ezekiel from the bible. Apart from the shock value of the donkey dicks (which I think is pretty funny), is there a particular reason you chose it for your signature?
Agreed. What I'd like to know is what makes anyone think that he's got the answers to our future when everyone else who's made such far-sighted doomsday predictions has so far demonstrated to be ridiculously wrong.
No one can predict the future. We have comprehension, mathematical modeling and a capacity to extrapolate where that will take us depending on the accuracy of the model.
I doubt there are many people who can bring the amount of mental effort required to make such a prediction. I think Hawking is probably very capable of understanding the ramifications of these models. I suspect he has looked at more than one and has formulated an opinion based on that.
Remember, by now billions were supposed to be starving to death, we'd be out of oil, the ice caps were supposed to be gone, and/or we'd have destroyed ourselves in nuclear hellfire.
I think there is a difference between being able to dodge a bullet and smart enough to know when one is coming.
I do agree that we should strive to spread out into space, so as to avoid leaving all our eggs in one basket, but unless its something completely out of our control, like a massive cosmic event, then sorry,
Agreed. All we need to do is colonize our own solar system. Something we can do and explore in our lifetimes. What an adventure for the entire human race!!
I'm not buying the doom and gloom anymore. We've got plenty of serious problems we need to deal with without resorting to hysterics.
Well it's true that a lot of people don't have the courage or mental fortitude to stomach the consequences of bad news. Dealing with problems pragmatically would be a step forward but there are more ignorant people that can't accept that most of what our science is telling us is we are destroying the biosphere that sustains us.
Even if it doesn't mean the end of humanity, there are still some potentially bad scenarios we'd like to avoid. But every time scientists or environmentalists make wackadoo doomsday predictions that don't come true, it actually HURTS credibility of those that were more responsible.
I doubt there has been time for many of the predictions to come true. I am certainly secure in the knowledge that it's only the generations being born now that will begin to experience it. Which leaves us in the position of not caring or trying to do something for future generations.
If our biosphere changes radically, human civilization in it's current form will probably be unfit to survive it intact. We, as a species are not immune to extinction and if it manifests it will be a slow set of heartbreaking consequences that future generation will have to deal with. Not that it affects me, I'll probably be dead.
I'll make one prediction based on human nature: That future generations will judge us as dithering, selfish kleptoparasites that did nothing when we could of and just partied on the available resources leaving them with the consequences.
No matter your position on AGW, I think the good thing about this paper is that it shows we can make very real consumer decisions to impact the rate of global warming. It seems simplistic however the choice of a piece of fruit over a bag of chips impacts the amount of palm oil consumed for food products, which slows down the rate of deforestation in tropical regions for palm oil production, which slows the acceleration of global warming.
The salient observations from this study are:
highlights the need to protect both existing carbon stocks and regions, where the sink is growing rapidly.
Anyone arguing that plants are having an impact on sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere is also arguing for an immediate cessation of logging as the study is saying is that forests (especially tropical) have to be protected for this to continue to have an impact on global warming.
So dumping that palm oil laden food (why do you want to eat that shit anyway) in our diets will have an impact restoring a lot of those tropical forests. That is a powerful tool in reducing atmospheric CO2. That is a strong argument against fast food products.
Global warming over vegetated land notably slowed since the start of the twenty-first century23, while atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to rise
In other word go hug a tree and say thank you for absorbing some of the impact of global warming. Perhaps the reason people don't notice the effects of AGW is because trees are reducing the effect of heat islands in citys. Is there anyone *against* having more trees in cities?
I think the rate of ecosystem respiration (R_eco) in comparison to global land temperature in this paper is interesting. I wonder what the gross global mass of forests was during the measurement of the trends, and if R_eco is related to decreasing global mass of forest during the same period.
This could be a powerful tool for reversing the trend of shrinking polar ice caps by controlling deforestation. I was astounded to discover from a plant biologist that a single tree in a forest could move *70 tons* of water in one day. We were looking at a 30 odd metre tall tree and not a rain forest either.
So in addition to comparing gross global mass of forest from 1980-2000 I think it would be interesting to compare loss of polar ice from 2000-2012 when this study shows there was a *decrease* in R_eco. What is R_eco compared to annual polar ice accumulation?
recent reports suggest continued warming over oceans
So where there are no trees, it gets hotter. Hotter over oceans, hotter in deserts, hotter pretty much where ever humans don't want to be, with the exception of cities where we use air conditioning and tend to hang out in parks and gardens near trees.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased from roughly 290p.p.m. at the start of the twentieth century to 400p.p.m. by 2015
In other words atmospheric CO2 increased by 110ppm in the 20th century.....somehow
slow the growth rate of atmospheric CO2 despite increasing anthropogenic emissions
slow the 'growth rate' means it is still increasing. According to the study there is a lot of year on year variability and that *ALL* of the trees everywhere on earth (GPP) absorb roughly 2-3ppm CO2 from the atmosphere annually.
The slowdown in global warming is expected to be temporary however and may already have ended with the strong El Niño Southern Oscillation of 2015 and 2016
In other words it looks like the effect was temporary and that even with the effect, carbon emissions are not pegged at *any* level they are still increasing.
Without effective reduction of global CO2 emissions, however, future climate change remains a stark reality.
If you are going to cite this paper as showing evidence that CO2 emissions are pegged at any level because of trees, you have missed the point and you are exhibiting signs of confirmation bias. A pause means it is a temporary effect.
I'm sure the next thing is these guys get sued under some DMCA provision or clause, instead of getting appreciation for the effort the researchers put into exposing the vulnerability so the vendor can evolve their product.
I know it sounds cynical, but can you remember a time where a vendor of these products actually thanked those who hacked it for letting them know the problem?
All the scientists, engineers, doctors, nurses not trained, all the people that didn't get help when they needed it, all the tax money not spent on roads, education, bridges and hospitals, everyone made a willing and needed sacrifice so that the Navy could use that money developing a weapon system that is too expensive to use because that saves money.
Thank you ttsoid! Suddenly all my old knowledge about serial became relevant again. Seeing you blog about serial ports, stty, was really nostalgic, I didn't realize it would be useful in the android domain. I'd say the tablet has a lot more computing power than those old machines had.
Coincidentally this article came when I am upgrading phone and tablet, which is also an asus, so I am set up to try some of the hacks you have described. I'm keen to see if the serial ports are on the headphone ports of the phone also. Perhaps they're used as a diagnostic port in the factory? I think that behind the battery of the smartphone the pads you can sometimes see are serial ports. I only ever considered them to be used as a way to access the AT command set to use features of the phone like a modem. But a serial console, of course, it's been mocking me the whole time.
I was also considering your predicament from the SELinux perspective and hierarchy of privileges. Busybox includes getty. Back in the day this was used to spawn a login on serial ports for serial terminals. It was common practice to spawn them from init, using inittab. I noticed you could get logins appearing before the rc process was finished. It also controlled where root could log in from and whilst generally restricted to the console, you could allow it on a serial port.
Obviously, this depends on if the SELinux policy allows init to read an/etc/inittab file - but there is only one way to find out. If it does, you maybe able to get the same privileges in the hierarchy as rc by simply bypassing it. This also leads to considering spawning the telnetd (or even sshd) directly from inittab, however I suspect that the SELinux policy might react in a different way to them than getty spawning the shell.
Frankly, I've only just got interested in android and your submission could not have been more timely. You triggered a cascade of memories and a bunch of stuff I want to try on the gear I have for the same motivation, I want all of the functionality of the device I own.
I also see it's time to stop ignoring SELinux and get better at manipulating policies.
It would be difficult to imagine the political objectives of the Top 500 largest companies who have rights under law are aligned with the people. For example damaging the health care system and social security make people more dependent on employment and has no impact on a multinational corporation that isn't beneficial. I think you are confusing citizens, who are actual human beings, with corporations who are not.
Few people could match the lobbying budgets of a corporation who is determined to protect and extend their interests. Are you saying you support their interests over the interests of the populous, perhaps even your own interests?
Right wingers don't complain that the government is broken when it's doing nothing. They complain when it's breaking people and stealing things,
Probably because they are well off enough to not be worried about the machinations of government.
They complain when it's breaking people and stealing things, which is the goal of leftist programs.
That is quite a serious accusation. Are saying that "leftist programs" (whatever that is) have an objective of letting people steal from right wingers?
As far as I can see "leftist programs" are protests against something that affects them, so I am having difficulty making sense of this statement. Is there any particular programs you can point to where this is the case?
Your post is full of internal contradictions.
Would you mind pointing out what the contradictions are as I've read a good chunk of the TPP and the AC's comments are consistent with what I read there.
I wrote to the Joint Standing Committee assessing the TPP. I got through about 1000 pages which is a few sections of it's 6000 pages of cuntery, for want of a better word.
Contained within one section, I can't remember which, is the part on access to legislation prior to passing it into law. "Interested parties" (companies who's commercial interests are involved) get access to the formation of the law *THREE MONTHS BEFORE* the law gets presented to the house. Effectively, this means governments are forced into only policing the common law (i.e. you and me) as opposed to anything that is in the peoples interests.
Don't expect your governments to be able to get anything done, at all, after the TPP is signed in your country.
This has got to be the killer feature that gets people from Win7 and 8 to Windows 10. Everybody loves advertisements piped directly to their desktop because they *have* to look at them.
When a drone can deliver that gut thumping feeling of a big firework going of, the streak of a burning explosive gaining altitude, the another boom of going off BEFORE the 'awww the pretty lights' moment, then I will be impressed.
For now, why don't we let the chemist geeks have their fun mixing up new surprises for us to enjoy.
Prior to the signing of the final draft of the American Constitution on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, Franklin had a speech of his delivered, by James Wilson, because he was too ill at the time to deliver it himself. In the speech he protested the fallibility of the Constitution and of the document he said:
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
Keep in mind that Franklin probably didn't mean the people were criminal, only that some powerful segments of the population manipulating things to corrupt them, like reducing education, interfering with the press, sabotaging government functions so they are ineffective and many other things. Being a third party to these elections and effectively disinterested in the result I tend to wonder what damage is being done to the office of the President by the way the campaigns seem to tear each candidate into pieces and I wonder if that is the canary in the cage.
Franklin seems to have been able to predict this moment, and please don't take that as a criticism of your country, however isn't that a sign to look to the type of things Franklin was trying to warn everyone about back when the US constitution was framed?
Ultimately, Gentry Lee's novels are not a story about Rama... it's about people. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K Le Guin) is maybe something in the same... genre as Gentry Lee's Rama books.
Good to know.
vux984 has pretty much nailed it describing the Rama sequels. Worth a read, but not at Clarke's level of mindfuckery.
I'd previously read Eon by Greg Bear. Some of Rama's initial conditions reminded me of Eon's; with the obvious differences in the reveal of the origin,
To me, Bear is Clarke's generational upgrade. If you've read Eon - do yourself a favor and read Eternity, Bear takes it to the next level and if you enjoyed Eon, you will not be disappointed. There is a reason why Eon is billed as the greatest sci-fi ever, it is, breathtaking scope and ideas that re-write the way your brain works. On that, I think Alistair Reynolds is Bear's generational upgrade, with a sense of we are almost within reach, if we survive ourselves.
like Bear was inspired by Clarke but didn't want to write the same book.
It is really interesting that you say that because Bear did, what I think is, a follow on to Clarke's 'City and the Stars' called 'City at the end of Time'. It was a bit after Clarke died IIRC. I don't think it was made out to be that but as I read it the parallels between the two works was obvious. And, cats!
For me CatS was a personal favorite that I have read four or five times and CatEoT seemed to bring CatS to a conclusion. The characters along with all sorts of hints in the book. Bear's mastery of both sci fi and horror is blended in CatEoT so seamlessly. Perhaps Bear was a fan of Clarke's work, it seems complimentary.
Both are masters of the genre to me, with Reynolds work unfolding in that direction.
I find myself a little envious of people reading them for the first time:) I can't recommend these books and authors highly enough.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you agreeing or disagreeing?
The claim was that coal dumps more radiation *into the air*. Would make sense given that their is very little nuclear radiation leak into the air.
Disagree, oh and for the record coal is almost as bad as Nuclear. The fanbois have really fucked any hope that nuclear may have solved problems for us.
As to accidents, with the notable exception of Cherbynol, there have been very few and most of the cost has been due to the hysteria. Very few people died in Fukushima compared to those killed by the tidal wave itself.
Whoopdee fucking do if transgenic disease propagates through the Human race over the next 1000-2000 years. Who knows how that will manifest - but do keep burying your head in the sand.
Yes, Aurora is also a good read. It is very plausible.
Except that it has not been enriched and stays in the fly ash, which is used in concrete.
Do you guys *ever* check your facts before spewing your rhetoric?
Get over your 1970's Jimmy Carter stupidity, start reprocessing fuel rods, and deal with two issues at once.
This whole argument falls on its face when you understand the facts. Reagan rescinded Carters order as soon as he got into office.
So, for the US, reprocessing must not be economical or it would be happening already.
such tired rhetoric
>I'll make one prediction based on human nature: That future generations will judge us as dithering, selfish kleptoparasites that did nothing when we could of and just partied on the available resources leaving them with the consequences.
So... the exact OPPOSITE of the end of 'Feersum Enjin' ... sounds about right yeah.
I've not read it, so I don't know. I just finished Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson so if we are lucky it might turn out like that.
I have been curious about why you refer to Ezekiel from the bible. Apart from the shock value of the donkey dicks (which I think is pretty funny), is there a particular reason you chose it for your signature?
No one can predict the future. We have comprehension, mathematical modeling and a capacity to extrapolate where that will take us depending on the accuracy of the model.
I doubt there are many people who can bring the amount of mental effort required to make such a prediction. I think Hawking is probably very capable of understanding the ramifications of these models. I suspect he has looked at more than one and has formulated an opinion based on that.
I think there is a difference between being able to dodge a bullet and smart enough to know when one is coming.
Agreed. All we need to do is colonize our own solar system. Something we can do and explore in our lifetimes. What an adventure for the entire human race!!
Well it's true that a lot of people don't have the courage or mental fortitude to stomach the consequences of bad news. Dealing with problems pragmatically would be a step forward but there are more ignorant people that can't accept that most of what our science is telling us is we are destroying the biosphere that sustains us.
I doubt there has been time for many of the predictions to come true. I am certainly secure in the knowledge that it's only the generations being born now that will begin to experience it. Which leaves us in the position of not caring or trying to do something for future generations.
If our biosphere changes radically, human civilization in it's current form will probably be unfit to survive it intact. We, as a species are not immune to extinction and if it manifests it will be a slow set of heartbreaking consequences that future generation will have to deal with. Not that it affects me, I'll probably be dead.
I'll make one prediction based on human nature: That future generations will judge us as dithering, selfish kleptoparasites that did nothing when we could of and just partied on the available resources leaving them with the consequences.
Much like a toaster. It's a pity, I used to really admire Apple hardware, even if the UI experience wasn't my preference.
You're being bigoted 110010001000, you should never judge an AI by the size of it's codebase. I don't judge you by the size of yours.
No matter your position on AGW, I think the good thing about this paper is that it shows we can make very real consumer decisions to impact the rate of global warming. It seems simplistic however the choice of a piece of fruit over a bag of chips impacts the amount of palm oil consumed for food products, which slows down the rate of deforestation in tropical regions for palm oil production, which slows the acceleration of global warming.
The salient observations from this study are:
highlights the need to protect both existing carbon stocks and regions, where the sink is growing rapidly. Anyone arguing that plants are having an impact on sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere is also arguing for an immediate cessation of logging as the study is saying is that forests (especially tropical) have to be protected for this to continue to have an impact on global warming.
So dumping that palm oil laden food (why do you want to eat that shit anyway) in our diets will have an impact restoring a lot of those tropical forests. That is a powerful tool in reducing atmospheric CO2. That is a strong argument against fast food products.
Global warming over vegetated land notably slowed since the start of the twenty-first century23, while atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to rise In other word go hug a tree and say thank you for absorbing some of the impact of global warming. Perhaps the reason people don't notice the effects of AGW is because trees are reducing the effect of heat islands in citys. Is there anyone *against* having more trees in cities?
I think the rate of ecosystem respiration (R_eco) in comparison to global land temperature in this paper is interesting. I wonder what the gross global mass of forests was during the measurement of the trends, and if R_eco is related to decreasing global mass of forest during the same period.
This could be a powerful tool for reversing the trend of shrinking polar ice caps by controlling deforestation. I was astounded to discover from a plant biologist that a single tree in a forest could move *70 tons* of water in one day. We were looking at a 30 odd metre tall tree and not a rain forest either.
So in addition to comparing gross global mass of forest from 1980-2000 I think it would be interesting to compare loss of polar ice from 2000-2012 when this study shows there was a *decrease* in R_eco. What is R_eco compared to annual polar ice accumulation?
recent reports suggest continued warming over oceans So where there are no trees, it gets hotter. Hotter over oceans, hotter in deserts, hotter pretty much where ever humans don't want to be, with the exception of cities where we use air conditioning and tend to hang out in parks and gardens near trees.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased from roughly 290p.p.m. at the start of the twentieth century to 400p.p.m. by 2015 In other words atmospheric CO2 increased by 110ppm in the 20th century.....somehow
slow the growth rate of atmospheric CO2 despite increasing anthropogenic emissions slow the 'growth rate' means it is still increasing. According to the study there is a lot of year on year variability and that *ALL* of the trees everywhere on earth (GPP) absorb roughly 2-3ppm CO2 from the atmosphere annually.
The slowdown in global warming is expected to be temporary however and may already have ended with the strong El Niño Southern Oscillation of 2015 and 2016 In other words it looks like the effect was temporary and that even with the effect, carbon emissions are not pegged at *any* level they are still increasing.
Without effective reduction of global CO2 emissions, however, future climate change remains a stark reality. If you are going to cite this paper as showing evidence that CO2 emissions are pegged at any level because of trees, you have missed the point and you are exhibiting signs of confirmation bias. A pause means it is a temporary effect.
The main thing I
I'm sure the next thing is these guys get sued under some DMCA provision or clause, instead of getting appreciation for the effort the researchers put into exposing the vulnerability so the vendor can evolve their product.
I know it sounds cynical, but can you remember a time where a vendor of these products actually thanked those who hacked it for letting them know the problem?
I wonder how long it'll be before that is removed as well.
Well Apple...
My question is, why?
Sales. Anything that allows users to re-purpose devices is a sale lost. PC's were re-purposed often, so they learned how to fix that mistake.
Even better for them is they avoided costs by using the open source operating system designed to make it open, to close it instead.
All the scientists, engineers, doctors, nurses not trained, all the people that didn't get help when they needed it, all the tax money not spent on roads, education, bridges and hospitals, everyone made a willing and needed sacrifice so that the Navy could use that money developing a weapon system that is too expensive to use because that saves money.
It makes perfect sense.
Thank you ttsoid! Suddenly all my old knowledge about serial became relevant again. Seeing you blog about serial ports, stty, was really nostalgic, I didn't realize it would be useful in the android domain. I'd say the tablet has a lot more computing power than those old machines had.
Coincidentally this article came when I am upgrading phone and tablet, which is also an asus, so I am set up to try some of the hacks you have described. I'm keen to see if the serial ports are on the headphone ports of the phone also. Perhaps they're used as a diagnostic port in the factory? I think that behind the battery of the smartphone the pads you can sometimes see are serial ports. I only ever considered them to be used as a way to access the AT command set to use features of the phone like a modem. But a serial console, of course, it's been mocking me the whole time.
I was also considering your predicament from the SELinux perspective and hierarchy of privileges. Busybox includes getty. Back in the day this was used to spawn a login on serial ports for serial terminals. It was common practice to spawn them from init, using inittab. I noticed you could get logins appearing before the rc process was finished. It also controlled where root could log in from and whilst generally restricted to the console, you could allow it on a serial port.
Obviously, this depends on if the SELinux policy allows init to read an /etc/inittab file - but there is only one way to find out. If it does, you maybe able to get the same privileges in the hierarchy as rc by simply bypassing it. This also leads to considering spawning the telnetd (or even sshd) directly from inittab, however I suspect that the SELinux policy might react in a different way to them than getty spawning the shell.
Frankly, I've only just got interested in android and your submission could not have been more timely. You triggered a cascade of memories and a bunch of stuff I want to try on the gear I have for the same motivation, I want all of the functionality of the device I own. I also see it's time to stop ignoring SELinux and get better at manipulating policies.
Thank you once again.
The right wing is dominantly middle class.
It would be difficult to imagine the political objectives of the Top 500 largest companies who have rights under law are aligned with the people. For example damaging the health care system and social security make people more dependent on employment and has no impact on a multinational corporation that isn't beneficial. I think you are confusing citizens, who are actual human beings, with corporations who are not.
Few people could match the lobbying budgets of a corporation who is determined to protect and extend their interests. Are you saying you support their interests over the interests of the populous, perhaps even your own interests?
Right wingers don't complain that the government is broken when it's doing nothing. They complain when it's breaking people and stealing things,
Probably because they are well off enough to not be worried about the machinations of government.
They complain when it's breaking people and stealing things, which is the goal of leftist programs.
That is quite a serious accusation. Are saying that "leftist programs" (whatever that is) have an objective of letting people steal from right wingers?
As far as I can see "leftist programs" are protests against something that affects them, so I am having difficulty making sense of this statement. Is there any particular programs you can point to where this is the case?
Your post is full of internal contradictions.
Would you mind pointing out what the contradictions are as I've read a good chunk of the TPP and the AC's comments are consistent with what I read there.
I wrote to the Joint Standing Committee assessing the TPP. I got through about 1000 pages which is a few sections of it's 6000 pages of cuntery, for want of a better word.
Contained within one section, I can't remember which, is the part on access to legislation prior to passing it into law. "Interested parties" (companies who's commercial interests are involved) get access to the formation of the law *THREE MONTHS BEFORE* the law gets presented to the house. Effectively, this means governments are forced into only policing the common law (i.e. you and me) as opposed to anything that is in the peoples interests.
Don't expect your governments to be able to get anything done, at all, after the TPP is signed in your country.
This has got to be the killer feature that gets people from Win7 and 8 to Windows 10. Everybody loves advertisements piped directly to their desktop because they *have* to look at them.
Thank you Microsoft for this great new feature.
When a drone can deliver that gut thumping feeling of a big firework going of, the streak of a burning explosive gaining altitude, the another boom of going off BEFORE the 'awww the pretty lights' moment, then I will be impressed.
For now, why don't we let the chemist geeks have their fun mixing up new surprises for us to enjoy.
Batman is a global warming denier?
na na na na Na na na na na na na
Prior to the signing of the final draft of the American Constitution on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, Franklin had a speech of his delivered, by James Wilson, because he was too ill at the time to deliver it himself. In the speech he protested the fallibility of the Constitution and of the document he said:
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
Keep in mind that Franklin probably didn't mean the people were criminal, only that some powerful segments of the population manipulating things to corrupt them, like reducing education, interfering with the press, sabotaging government functions so they are ineffective and many other things. Being a third party to these elections and effectively disinterested in the result I tend to wonder what damage is being done to the office of the President by the way the campaigns seem to tear each candidate into pieces and I wonder if that is the canary in the cage.
Franklin seems to have been able to predict this moment, and please don't take that as a criticism of your country, however isn't that a sign to look to the type of things Franklin was trying to warn everyone about back when the US constitution was framed?
Interesting article - thanks.
However, is SpaceX is racing NASA to Mars?
Ultimately, Gentry Lee's novels are not a story about Rama... it's about people. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K Le Guin) is maybe something in the same ... genre as Gentry Lee's Rama books.
Good to know.
vux984 has pretty much nailed it describing the Rama sequels. Worth a read, but not at Clarke's level of mindfuckery.
I'd previously read Eon by Greg Bear. Some of Rama's initial conditions reminded me of Eon's; with the obvious differences in the reveal of the origin,
To me, Bear is Clarke's generational upgrade. If you've read Eon - do yourself a favor and read Eternity, Bear takes it to the next level and if you enjoyed Eon, you will not be disappointed. There is a reason why Eon is billed as the greatest sci-fi ever, it is, breathtaking scope and ideas that re-write the way your brain works. On that, I think Alistair Reynolds is Bear's generational upgrade, with a sense of we are almost within reach, if we survive ourselves.
like Bear was inspired by Clarke but didn't want to write the same book.
It is really interesting that you say that because Bear did, what I think is, a follow on to Clarke's 'City and the Stars' called 'City at the end of Time'. It was a bit after Clarke died IIRC. I don't think it was made out to be that but as I read it the parallels between the two works was obvious. And, cats!
For me CatS was a personal favorite that I have read four or five times and CatEoT seemed to bring CatS to a conclusion. The characters along with all sorts of hints in the book. Bear's mastery of both sci fi and horror is blended in CatEoT so seamlessly. Perhaps Bear was a fan of Clarke's work, it seems complimentary. Both are masters of the genre to me, with Reynolds work unfolding in that direction.
I find myself a little envious of people reading them for the first time :) I can't recommend these books and authors highly enough.
I hope you enjoy their work as I have.