Author: Gnerphk

I am The Gnerphk, writer extraordinaire, opinionated, radical, and extremely humble by nature.

On Welfare

(from the archives)

I’ve been reading Martin Cruz Smith again – “Gorky Park” and “Polar Star”. It’s a fascinating snapshot of another country at another time, and the contrast of that vision throws the realities of our own time and place into sharp relief.

The great boast of the Soviet Union was that it was a Worker’s Paradise. Everyone (more…)

Samizdat

(From the archives)

Some thirty-five years ago, a particularly brilliant Czechoslovakian dissident named Vaclav Havel wrote an essay entitled “Power of the Powerless”. The subject matter was a thoughtful and timely dissection of certain paradoxical behaviors required by society in order for a person to prosper under the post-totalitarian regime then in power. Unsurprisingly, the (more…)

EVE Online Missions: Lists And Guidelines

NOTE:  This guide is based in part on the original “The Plan” article that was at one time hosted at the EVE Online Wiki but has now, sadly, been lost.  The guiding principles haven’t changed at all, but some of the details work differently due to recent updates.

My own goal in EVE is to gain the maximum advantage from trading in every region, and to do so with the least amount of effort.  The objective is minimum taxes and broker fees in any high-sec at any Empire corporation station — a derived standing of well over 6 with everyone that’s not a pirate faction.

In order to accomplish this, there are some general rules (more…)

Jefferson County Letters (Reference)

This is not a stand-alone article, but rather a reference resource for another article.  In it is reproduced the text of two communications to The Not Fake News from the office of the County Clerk of Jefferson County, Kentucky relating to the primary of 23 June 2020.  To remove this from the stream narrative and for purely technical reasons, this has been back-dated several years; however, it should be clear that the emails were received on the 20th and 22nd of June 2020 respectively. (more…)

The Science Of Planets: On Technology

Your attention please, students:  It has been brought to my attention that a reminder of our policy on questions is, for some inexplicable reason, again needed.  That policy is, simply, that questions are not permitted during class.  If you wish to ask me something in private, just pass through the web outside my office door during the posted hours.  And no, I won’t be providing the Friendly Code; don’t be absurd.

Some few of you who approach a convincing mimicry of sentience may recall from one of our early lessons the reason that interplanetary travel is represented two-dimensionally (more…)

On The Scarcity Of Unobtainium

The Science Of Planets: What Is The Ship Limit, Really?

My office has fielded so very many inquiries from you on the subject of the Ship Limit that, for once, I intend to violate a long-standing rule of mine and explain in detail.  If this session can decrease the amount of message traffic I have to deal with, it may even be worth it to add to the curriculum.

Do you see this glass vial I’m holding?  This is large enough that it could encompass the Echo Cluster’s entire supply of Unobtainium and still (more…)

The Science Of Planets: Time And Population Growth

The Science Of Planets: Of Turns, Colonists, And Colonist Growth

Some of you are doubtless wondering, “How long is a ‘Turn’?”  It does seem an arbitrary unit of time, especially considering the wide variety of choices we have available to us: cycles, quelnars, microns, months, et cetera.

Those few of you familiar with celestial mathematics and temporal relativity may be able to pose an educated guess as to the reason, that given the interactions between (more…)