Whee - a good-sized entry for once!

[silveradept]

Tomorrow promises to be intriguing - no class, a little reading, perhaps some wandering about to be done, maybe a little fun here and there... all the stuff I should have been doing at college while I was too busy studying (kidding...) Today itself has been rather fun. I went to the post-season banquet of the Women's Basketball team, and got to sit next to one of the players for the evening. Good food, and one of the people at the table actually knew where I was from - always a bonus. That said, I now understand how much cash some of these people have that they can simply spend... wow. While it's not necessarily all about the Benjamins, there were some scarily-high figures at the live auction that happened.

There are more people in my friends-list. Even though I don't know if any of them will actually comment. So if new names show up, worry not - they're all part of the insanity.

First, I'd like to promote the anarchy versus Parliament cricket match that should be occurring in the UK's Parliament Square on May Day. If any of our esteemed UK representatives could find a way to watch the match (if there is one) and report, I would be very pleased. I suspect that the Government and the MPs will not appear, but it would be really good if they actually did step out and play an innings with the anarchists. (The website of the Space Hijackers also contains several excellent DIY projects - possibly importable to our own shores and areas.)

Second, remember Sea Monkeys? Could it be possible that their inventor (and the inventor of many of the other back-of-magazine kitsch items) had strong ties to neo-Nazi organizations? Possibly. Of course, if the bit about his Jewish ancestry is also true, it starts becoming a bit more clear how Sea Monkeys were marketed. The marketing technique seems to be akin to the one that gets much more value than $20 out of bidding on a $20 bill.

There's also something potentially disturbing - Ten thousand plus fugitives arrested. At least officially, they're all criminals - wonder if there was an opposition voice or two in that crowd who might have had a minor conviction and were nabbed. The disturbing potential about this is that if there's the possibility to catch ten thousand criminals in a week, then what about capturing ten thousand dissidents who aren't criminals? Would it be possible for IngSoc to show up at anyone's door and take them to re-education centers (or the Soylent factories)? Just how much does the government see, and how much are they willing to interfere? And if their program to ensnare fourteen-year olds into military service doesn't give them enough people to throw at the spectre of terror, what happens afterwards? (Note - last article potentially of dubious origins - Selective Service doesn't require registration until 18 years of age, as I recall, and there may actually be an age cap set on when someone can actually recruit) However, even if the article's a fake or a farce, the truth is that the military needs people to fight. Something like this, with the precedent of the America's Army game, is believable enough.

On a lighter note, well, there's no snark for this that will do justice.

And I think I've stumbled across something that every abstinence-only conservative must have listened to and believe deeply. (Link goes to page - sound file is linked from page) Oy. Have a listen and see if your head spins.

And finally, making good on a meme (perhaps against my better judgment) that chains through greyweirdo:

The Rules are as follows:

1) If you wish to take part, comment with the sentence "Interview me" somewhere in the comment. (That can be the sum total of your comment, but there should have been more than enough interesting stuff in here that you can talk about more than merely that.)

2) Upon noticing your wish to be interviewed, I shall present you with five questions.

3) Answer the questions in comment form in my Livejournal and update your own with the rules and your answers

4) You must offer others the chance to be interviewed as well - when they request interviewing, you will need to provide them with five questions of your own.

Thus, the questions I received from greyweirdo, and my answers (also a good indication of how serious your questions can be)

1) Who shot first?

I did, asshole. You don't look so hot now with that bloodstain growing on your jacket, now do you?

2) Is sin an absolute or is the concept malleable to each person's opinions?

Malleable - what one finds anathema another finds sacred. Sin cannot be an absolute any more than truth can be.

3) Can there sometimes be peace without justice?

Of course. Peace under the rule of an iron-fisted and oppressive dictator.

4) What was the first anime you got into?

Fushigi Yugi, I think. It was the first anime that I remember watching and liking that I knew was anime - there may have been earlier incarnations, but they weren't known as anime.

5) Hot toast, butter or jam?

Butter normally, jam if it's really good jam.

Comments

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

They'll have to try again after the election, perhaps. Although it cost them more than a hundred quid to deliver all the letters the last time.
Indeed, although they probably chose May 1st deliberately so having to reschedule it will lose some of the meaning.

Also, answers:

1) Who really has the biggest battleship?
In FLEETverse, I'm not sure actually. I know JimStarluck has some very large ships, certainly bigger than the DSM class the Yotogi is in, but whether his are the largest I know not. It also depends on whether you're talking biggest in dimensions terms or biggest in power terms, in which case that'd probably be the Dominion I'd guess. In my universe the Vaipen Hiveship is the largest known spacecraft they can grow (yeah, grow - organic tech) to some 30km long and 20 across.

2) What sort of work goes into creating a "hard" sci-fi universe?
I've never created a true "hardverse" before, but if you mean to the level I work... access to science papers and sympathetic Real Scientists is important, even if it's just so that you can get a tentative "Maaaaybe" for an idea. A good grasp of maths is vital for the legwork as is a mind that inflicts anything its imagination comes up with to the "but hold on, how would that actually work?" test. A resolution to avoid handwaving wherever possible is also helpful. It's all the work of building a normal sci-fi universe with the overhead of actually justifying the things you add and ripping out the things you don't think could work.

3) Which operating system(s) do you use?
Linux (mostly Gentoo now), Windows (2k and XP mainly, 2k at home), EPOC (on my psion5), Solaris, FreeBSD and sometimes AmigaOS 3.1 in UAE (only thing that'll run TVPaint)

4) Which ones do you prefer?
Linux.

5) How do you think our universe works?
That very much depends on what you mean by works. And whether you want the silly answer, the irrelivant answer, the serious answer, the serious, irrelivant, silly answer or this box of rubber bands.

[silveradept]

Well, there may be some sort of protest connotation with May Day.

Re: 1) - I was just wondering in FLEETverse, perhaps by size (more riffing off the Wang joke than anything else) but possibly by power as well.

5) - All of them. Especially the rubber bands. I need more ammo for my shooter.

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

5 is going to require some thought. It will Follow Later.

[silveradept]

*POKE*

Unanswered questions are not in the spirit of play. Or are you still thinking?

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

I'm still thinking. I mean, the simple answer is "If I knew that, I wouldn't be a RA at a university" but that's a cop-out..

Although one thing that may narrow the scope down a bit is more detail about what you mean by "works"...

[silveradept]

Got'cha, but no help for you. I find that if I leve the terms deliberately vague on abstract questions like these, I get better answers.

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

Well, don't blame me if my reply sounds like something a Vorlon would write then :p

[silveradept]

That's fine. While I don't speak Vorlon natively, I'll probably have an idea of what other questions to ask if there's things that aren't clear.