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From: Charlie Gibbs on 5 May 2010 13:43 In article <hrqnh7$9q5$7(a)news.eternal-september.org>, frizzle(a)tx.rr.com (Charles Richmond) writes: > Michelle Steiner wrote: > >> Clarke's Laws: >> >> 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that >> something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he >> states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong. >> >> 2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible >> is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. >> >> 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable >> from magic. Corollary: Any technology that is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. On the other hand... Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo. Q: What platform does Oracle perform best on? A: A 35mm slide projector. > I have heard of a speech giving to freshmen in the college of > engineering: "In the four years you are here, half of everything > we teach you will be wrong. It's your job to figure out which half." Smart is believing only half of what you hear. Brilliant is knowing which half. -- /~\ cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs) \ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way. X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855. / \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
From: Charlie Gibbs on 5 May 2010 13:51 In article <michelle-44FC0E.13402604052010(a)62-183-169-81.bb.dnainternet.fi>, michelle(a)michelle.org (Michelle Steiner) writes: > In article <slrnhu10oe.2jll.g.kreme(a)ibook-g4.local>, > Lewis <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote: > >>>> Did you know that Mark Twain wrote science fiction? I don't have >>>> the book unpacked so I can't give you the title. >>> >>> A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. >> >> I wouldn't classify that as Science Fiction. > > I guess that The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove isn't science > fiction either, by your standards. How about Heinlein's By His > Bootstraps or Jerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself? To me, By His Bootstraps is good SF (and just a warm-up for "All You Zombies..."). If you want to argue over whether a Heinlein novel is SF, try Glory Road. -- /~\ cgibbs(a)kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs) \ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way. X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855. / \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
From: Mensanator on 5 May 2010 13:41 On May 5, 12:24 pm, "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <g...(a)cable.mendelson.com> wrote: > Mensanator wrote: > > Not exactly the same. Some people did have a natural immunity to > > the bubonic plague. They were often the ones who lived. > > > It has recently been discoved that this natural immunity (a > > genetic mutation in the cell structure) also imparts immunity > > to HIV (which attacks cells via a similar mechanism to bubonic > > plague). > > There is a small percentage of bees that have natural immunity to the virus. Soon to be a large percentage, eh? > > As for HIV, if it were suddenly to general population and kill everyone who > was not immune, there would be less than 1 in 4, possibly 1 in 10 left. Perhaps. But only for a while. Do you know that the population of Rawanda has returned to normal after the genocide? The demographics are probably different. If you look at the population now versus 1990, there is no evidence that the genocide ever happened. > > Going back to the science fiction discussion, wasn't that one of the > dreams in "The Lathe of Heaven"? Obviously, Ursula didn't consider reality. > > Geoff. > > -- > Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel g...(a)mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM > New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or > understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. > i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.
From: Joe Pfeiffer on 5 May 2010 13:41 Patrick Scheible <kkt(a)zipcon.net> writes: > Mensanator <mensanator(a)aol.com> writes: > >> On May 4, 9:06=A0pm, Patrick Scheible <k...(a)zipcon.net> wrote: >> > Michelle Steiner <miche...(a)michelle.org> writes: >> > > In article <w9zaasfiabj....(a)zipcon.net>, Patrick Scheible <k...(a)zipcon.= >> net> >> > > wrote: >> > >> > > > > > > And even Lord Kelvin said that heavier-than-air machines can *n= >> ot* >> > > > > > > fly. >> > >> > > > > > Which is a bizarre belief to hold, as birds are demonstrably heav= >> ier >> > > > > > than air. >> > >> > > > > But they're not machines. >> > >> > > > So why would Lord Kelvin think it was fundamentally impossible to mak= >> e a >> > > > machine to do what a bird does? >> > >> > > Because a bird has less mass per volume than a machine? =A0Because a bi= >> rd >> > > essentially carries only itself, whereas a machine (of the type he was >> > > talking about) would carry people and/or cargo that would add significa= >> ntly >> > > to its weight? =A0Because he lacked the vision to see future developmen= >> ts? >> > >> > I've spent a while chasing Kelvin's quote, and not found the context >> > it was in. =A0I did, however, find this link: >> > >> > http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/Powered_Flight/ >> > >> > which describes Stringfellow's demonstration of an unmanned, >> >> Stringfellow? Is he the guy mentioned in the film "Flight of the >> Phoenix"? > > I haven't seen "Flight of the Phoenix". John Stringfellow. His > flying machines were exhibited at the Crystal Palace. He almost had > it -- his patent included adjustable horizontal surface in the tail > and a vertical rudder. He realized a lightweight engine was > essential, and his demonstrated model had one that was good enough to > fly (without a pilot) for a short distance. I don't remember his name turning up in the movie (an excellent movie, BTW -- I mean the real one with James Stewart, not the recent remake), but I bet I can even guess what scene he's mentioned in. The one in which the aeronautical engineer turns out to have a slightly different background from what the other characters assumed, right? -- As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
From: Joe Pfeiffer on 5 May 2010 13:42
Nollaig MacKenzie <nollaig(a)amhuinnDELETEsuidheCAPS.net> writes: > On 2010.05.04 22:08:26, > the amazing <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> declared: > > >> We know how gravity warps space-time? When did this happen? > > Better to say: gravity is warped space-time. Yes, that is a better way to put it. -- As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin) |