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…)
The Science Of Planets: Why Is The Map Cluster Flat?
Greetings, students. In case you missed the previous lesson, I am Elder Kh’preng, Servant of the Web, former envoy of the Crystal Confederation, and your instructor in this series of introductory classes on the science of the Nu Era. Again, I’d like to remind you of my policy, 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.
Perhaps the most confusing aspect of warfare in the Echo Cluster, at least to atmospheric pilots, is that interplanetary travel is represented two-dimensionally (more…)
The Science Of Planets: On Fighter Lanes
One of the most difficult things for new commanders is learning to fight within the constraints that have been established over the years, the limitations that make for efficient warfare. It never fails but that warriors are disappointed to learn that neither carrier nor starbase can control more than nineteen fighters at any given moment. And, more often than not, they rage against this apparently arbitrary limit without stopping to consider that this limit and, indeed, every limit exists for a purpose, that there’s always at least one logical reason. (more…)
The Science Of Planets: Introduction
Greetings, students, and welcome to this introductory course. I am Elder Kh’preng, Servant of the Web, former envoy of the Crystal Confederation, and your teacher here today.
First and foremost: Questions will NOT be permitted during this session. This policy always causes some unrest, so I shall explain. As candidates for Command School, you are among the (more…)
Mike, AKA Ghostrider, has donated a carved plaque to use as a prize for the Wandering Tribes PED game. I won’t lie; while I do love the idea of a new format, my entire reason for joining this game was to play for the plaque.
Here’s one of the pictures for your perusal, posted after long effort and great struggle by several of us working together, opposing the forces of malignant technology. (Odd; it’s like it’s some sort of metaphor for a Planets battle against the Robots or the Cyborg or something.)
“Y’see, they say journalism is the art of controlling your environment, but that’s all wrong. I can’t control anything with this typewriter. All this is, is a gun… It’s only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that’s all you need. Aim it right, and you can blow a kneecap off the world.”
Spider Jerusalem, Transmetropolitan: Back On The Street (more…)
Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park as a morality tale. A lot of his fiction is like that; he created a brilliant story to act as a frame for his statements on a logical position, usually an unpopular one. This novel was meant as a modern Frankenstein tale, and his argument can be read in the words of Ian Malcolm.
It should be remembered that Malcolm’s words do not necessarily reflect the actual views of Mr. Crichton. They were the thoughts of a character, and they were designed not to convince us of anything in particular so much as to make us think.
We’ve become so used to people telling us what to think that we often neglect to do so for ourselves. The following, therefore, are several examples of unconventional yet curiously logical perspectives.
Economy
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.
I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what (more…)
The Not Fake News 