Traveller-digest       Tuesday, June 10 1997       Volume 1997 : Number 1418



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Initiative Thoughts
Re: Star ship design question
Re: Hydrogen Bubbles
Re: Initiative Thoughts
Re: Scenario: Generation-Ship
Re: T4.1 Char Gen Checklist
Re: PE vs. reality (tm)
Rob Prior - Where are You!
Traveller Chat - PE Walkthrough
Toronto Traveller Trip-Up
Life System, was Re: Traveller-digest V1997 #1415
Re: Hydrogen Bubbles
It's who you eat not what you eat that counts
Re: Star ship design question

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 16:03:45 -0700
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Initiative Thoughts

At 01:52 PM 6/9/97 +0100, you wrote:
>>        Kenneth: I'd suggest using DEX+INT as the basis for initiative
>>rolls.  I'd say that at least half of being able to act quick in a given
>>situation is being due to think really really quick.
>
>Why not simply combat experience? Mr Einstein might have been a bright chap
>but he was probably not all that quick headed in a serious gunfight. I use
>DEX + modifiers for aim, morale etc.

Reacting in combat isn't simply a test of how quickly you can move, but of
how quickly you can effectively move.  Dim soldiers die because they can't
process the fact that their under fire until they've been hit.. Smarter
troops recognize the danger and react faster.

Personally, I'd use the average of DEX and INT, and reduce Initiative by 1
for each point of damage taken to DEX.. this solves some of the Hard to
Kill problem, since a wounded PC will be looking for a way out of the
fight, since he's going to be slower and slower as the wounds pile up.  +1
for each level of tactics also makes sense.

- --
+------------------------------------------------+
|   Douglas E. Berry         dberry@hooked.net   |
| Gearhead & Planetologist, Traveller since 1977 |
|         http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/         |
|************************************************|
|    "Traveller assumes a remote centralized     |
|   government (referred to in this volume as    |
|    the Imperium)...                            |
|       -Introduction, Book 4: Mercenary (1978)  |
+------------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 13:09:35 +0100
From: Bruce E J Lewis <bruce@legend.ftech.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Star ship design question

At 13:17 09/06/97 -0700, Scott Ellsworth wrote:
>The claim is that the energy densities required are much, much larger than
>can be stored in any reasonable accumulator.  DGP stated explicitly in
>Starship Operators Manual that the jump drive has, as an integral
>component, an very large accumulator that craps out after an hour or two,
>so you do generate the energy over a reasonable time of hours.
>
	Are there any specific rules for determining how long one can keep the
jump capacitors charged before the energy contained within them begins to
discharge? How about a difficult enginering task roll to keep the energy
stable longer, so that say a successful task roll keeps the energy in place
for one hour plus D6 times ten minutes (i.e. 70 to 120 mins)?

	I think I posted something like this before. A failure could have the
following varying results (all effects cumulative);

	Small failure = loss of all jump energy

	Then at incresing levels of failure...

		Engineering crew injured by uncontrolled discharge
		Jump drive badly damaged
		Zuchai crystals destroyed
		All engineering crew killed
		Engineering deck completely trashed
		Loss of all ship's powered systems
		Consoles all over ship explode injuring remaining crew

	...and last but not least...

	Catastrophic failure = ship destroyed

	Or whatever. Or is it too over the top?

	See ya...


Bruce E J Lewis - mailto:bruce@legend.ftech.co.uk
Telephone - 0956-506527

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 06:23:23 -0700
From: "Tim.Smith@bbs.logicnet.com" <tim.smith@bbs.logicnet.com>
Subject: Re: Hydrogen Bubbles

> Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 09:10:16 +0100
> From: anders.backman@aniware.se (Anders Backman)
> Subject: Re: Hydrogen Bubbles (was Re: Star ship design question)
> 
> >Why Hydrogen?
> >
> >Heavier elements react violently with jumpspace. Hydrogen, and some
> 
> Hydrogen is used as jump-displacement mass for a reason: You want the
> particles that make up the bubble to contain as little uncharged mass as
> possible and hydrogen is protons only. Neutrons degrade the effect quite a

<HANDWAVE>

Jump drives do not need mass for the universe, they need volume. Hydrogen is
quites simply the lightest thing you can carry to generate a volume at a given
temperature (in the range of about 10 Kelvin and up). The reason more fuel is
needed for higher jumps is that the degenerate space pressure (!?!) increases
linearly with distance.

This allows a couple of interesting extrapolations:

1. A ship carrying LHyd can perform a maximum of about jump-9 unless the relation
becomes nonlinear at high values.

2. Other means of storing matter at higher densities could in theory increase the
amount of hydrogen created per unit fuel volume. For example, 13.5 m3 (1 disp.
ton) of water contains about 1.5 tons of hydrogen.

3. Whatever material you use has to enable VERY FAST extraction of hydrogen from
other materials. Otherwise it's like having lots of holes in your boat that are only
filled when you put it in water...

</HANDWAVE>

Just a thought, folks...

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 14:43:20 +0100
From: anders.backman@aniware.se (Anders Backman)
Subject: Re: Initiative Thoughts

>Reacting in combat isn't simply a test of how quickly you can move, but of
>how quickly you can effectively move.  Dim soldiers die because they can't
>process the fact that their under fire until they've been hit.. Smarter
>troops recognize the danger and react faster.

Actually how you react in combat has to do with how frightened you get
(combat experience) and what kind of actions you think are valid (combat
experience). Neither DEX nor especially INT are all that important, but as
combat experience is such a ill defined cpncept that is easily abused I
choose between INT or DEX and decided on DEX for that express reason that
high INT guys in movies, books etc tend NOT to react well in combat (a bit
cliche=B4 I admit).

IMHO, your mileage may vary etc.


/Anders Backman
Aniware AB
anders.backman@aniware.se

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 14:34:06 +0100
From: anders.backman@aniware.se (Anders Backman)
Subject: Re: Scenario: Generation-Ship

>Hi folks,
>yesterday during a perticularly boring lecture, i hit upon a new idea
>for a scenario: Travel onboard a GenerationVessel, a whole new take
>on the "limited space" campaigns.
>I am already outlining the first adventures, and the background, and
>i'll post more on that when i am done, but for now i ask the list
>what adventures you can think of on such a vessel. I am thinking of a
>vessel that can carry 10.000 individuals onboard.
>At first it will be a dictatorial govt. and policestate, later a
>rebellion (led by PC's) will hopefully transform the societey into a
>more agreeable path!
>So, any ideas, comments, etc.?
>When i am done (which may be a while since my studies take most of my
>time at the moment), i will post everything here and on my Web-Page!

When designing such a ship a good idea might be to have a few low berths to
get continuity by waking these "leaders" up from time to time and telling
people of the old time and the importance of the mission. The oppression
might come from 2nd plus generation people wanting to use the lowpassage
units for themselves and the guys in control not wanting this to happen.
The freezeers might be a handy plot device to use for your PC when you (the
ref) thinks you've exhausted the possibilities with the generation ship and
wants to play the colonization of the target system.

Then of course the comm link with Earth gets mysteriously silent and the
players have to find out why really they launched this ship (alien
invasion, environmental collapse, nuclear war, astrophysical problems,
curiosity etc).
It could be a multinational ship launched from Earth and there could be
different factions squabbling with hidden agendas etc. Don't forget to add
in Christian/Muslim crackpots wanting to do each other in or endanger the
mission as it conflicts with this or that scripture. There could be some
serious discrepancies between the data for the target system given to the
ship and data they actually collect themselves during the mission.


/Anders Backman
Aniware AB
anders.backman@aniware.se

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 08:11:10 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph E. Walsh" <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Subject: Re: T4.1 Char Gen Checklist

Hi Marc,

From the generation outline, the process looks much improved.  I'm very 
happy to see the return of the military heroism awards and medals!  

However, I have a question about the educational procedures. It says that 
one receives the increase to EDU only if one graduates.  That is a good 
change.  However, it doesn't state the numerical value of the increase.  
I'm hoping it is now only 1 point per four years - or at most 2 points - 
rather than 1 point per year.  

Is that the case?


Thank you for sharing the work in progress,

- -Joe
______________________________________________________________________________
Joseph E. Walsh  |  Game Designer for Marc Miller's Traveller
_________________|  Atari 1200XL and Apple IIGS User and Programmer

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 14:53:42 +0200 (METDST)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Re: PE vs. reality (tm)

Anders Backman writes:
>As have been seen from "history" again and again is that higher TL is not
>only a quantitatative advance but a qualitative one as well. Terrans got
>their mesonguns and whipped the Vilanis, when we get high powered lasers
>we'll stop using high flying aircraft in warfare, out of womb child
>carriage will improve population growth enormously etc.

This effect is included in PE to some degree. Military units are rated in
absolute numbers. But it costs less to get a given number at higher TLs.
The figures dosen't correspond with the results you get using High Guard
combat rules, but then, those rules don't apply any longer (Sigh... the
thing I dislikes most about rules changes are those that change some
background aspect fundamentally). And I must admit that while I can
accept that 300 RUs worth of TL 10 combat units could be an even match
for 150 RUs worth of TL 12 combat units, I find it difficult to believe
that _any_ number RUs worth of TL 0 combat units can match 150 RUs worth
of TL 12 units. 
 
>Are there anybody interested in a PE rules discussion along the lines of
>the gearhead one? Do some reality checking, handwaving etc (whats the PE
>equivalent of a frac c rock?). I think PE despite some flaws (mostly in
>presentation) is one of the most important things to come out for Traveller
>ever.

I'm interested, but I wonder just how much we can accomplish unless we can
drum up a playtest group apiece. I came up with my own suggestions for
planetary improvement, because the official ones are so obviously wrong,
but I have no way to know whether my own ideas aren't equally flawed.

Since you mention population growth I'd like to reiterate one of my firm
opinions about the Traveller universe: That every spacefaring race in the
universe must practice some form of population control for most of their
history (and that includes the Aslans). Otherwise there have been more
than time enough to cover all of Charted Space with sentients. (Try working
out the number of Aslans you would have after 3000 years if they start with
a few billions in -2000 and have a population growth of 3% pa.).


      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
- ------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:14:09 +0000
From: aspqrz@curie.dialix.com.au
Subject: Rob Prior - Where are You!

Sory to waste bandwidth, but I got a message from Rob Prior asking 
about Dark Star #1 -- and when I tried to reply, the message bounced 
from the address he had listed.

So, Rob Prior, where are you? Your --

Rob_Prior@nybe.north-york.on.ca

address don't want to work!!!

And, anyway, did you actually *get* the copy of DS#1? If not, it'll 
have to be in PDF format, but I'll send a copy of DS#2 in print 
format gratis (which is to say that I got some CDN$ from someone, but 
I don't know exactly who without checking through piles of stuff I'd 
rather not check through -- suffice it to say that whatever was 
ordered *was* sent, and if it has gone astray I will replace it at my 
cost. Just don't let it go so long next time, if that's the 
problem?!)

Phil
Phillip McGregor | aspqrz@curie.dialix.oz.au
Have Designer, Will Travel
(Co-Designer of Space Opera, Designer Rigger Black Book)

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 07:20:38 +0000
From: "Suzette C. Dollar" <suzd@pop.goodnet.com>
Subject: Traveller Chat - PE Walkthrough

Greetings!

With great pleasure, I would like to announce that I've managed to 
con my husband, Stu Dollar, into presenting a walk-through of Pocket 
Empires on Thursday, July 19, 1997.  This replaces our regularly 
scheduled Traveller Chat topic.

The walk-through will begin at 9:00pm Central time, on IG's IRC 
server, www.imperiumgames.com, ports 6665 & 6666. 

Anyone wishing a log of the session need only email me.  I do not 
have the archives on the web at this time.  Soon, I hope.

*******************************************************************
                       TRAVELLER CHAT SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 12, 1997:   Character Generation: DIP vs. DAS

Thursday, June 19, 1997:   Pocket Empires Walk-through w/ Stu Dollar

Thursday, June 26, 1997:   Psionics in M0 w/ Stu Dollar & Joe Walsh

Thursday, July 3, 1997:    Patriotism in the Third Imperium

Thursday, July 10, 1997:   The Effect of Cultural Conservatism on TL 
                           Advancement

Thursday, July 17, 1997:   Labor Relations in the Third Imperium - 
                           w/ Doug Berry

*********************************************************************

As always, if you have any questions or need help joining us, please 
email me.

Suz

Suzette C. Dollar
#Traveller Channel Manager
suzd@goodnet.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 10:06:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ethan Henry <ehenry@mag1.magmacom.com>
Subject: Toronto Traveller Trip-Up

*Sigh*

I knew Father's Day was going to cause someone not to be able to make it...
me as it turns out. :) (Actually, it's my Father-in-law, but I don't mind
as he's a pretty nice guy...)

Anyways, I don't want to stop people from getting together, but I would
like to meet everybody, so... does anyone have any suggestions for a 
new date/time? How about Saturday night-ish instead of Saturday afternoon?

I checked out the Sci-Fi Cafe, it's pretty nice, my only concern is
that you pretty much have to have a car to get there and not everyone
has a car for sure. Is there anyone who can't make it to Steeles & Dufferin?
(just go straight up Allen Rd. and it turns into Dufferin)

As a second choice, I might suggest the Electric Bean, which is right
beside Eglinton Station, at Yonge & Eglinton. It's a new 'cyber-cafe'
kinda thing, so I guess we could spend _even more time_ geeking out
whilst getting together. Anyways, I've never "bean" there, but it seems
like a big place and it's really easy to get to via the TTC.
(Oooh, it even has a web page - http://www.electricbean.com )

Anyways, I've only had about 4 responses, so everyone I CC:ed on this, please
let me know what you'd like to do... if it doesn't seem to be working
out, I'll scrub the mission and we can try to regroup at some other
date/time/place.

Even if you didn't reply to me before, if you're interested in coming,
please let me know! Again, Greyhound has pretty cheap fares these days
and it's not a long drive/bus ride from all points east... we're
definitely not limiting attendance to people who gag when someone
says "Megacity".

Thanks!
Ethan
- -- 
ehenry@magma.ca                                  http://www.magma.ca/~ehenry

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 07:31:16 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Life System, was Re: Traveller-digest V1997 #1415

Sounds a LOT like the lifepaths section of Cyberpunk 2020.

At first glance I like it, though I'd want to run through it a couple of
times to see what's generated.

One word of warning...it is sometimes possible to delinineate your
character _too_ much, right, Eris? ;-)

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 07:46:28 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: Hydrogen Bubbles

On Tue, 10 Jun 1997, Tim.Smith@bbs.logicnet.com wrote:
 
> 2. Other means of storing matter at higher densities could in theory increase the
> amount of hydrogen created per unit fuel volume. For example, 13.5 m3 (1 disp.
> ton) of water contains about 1.5 tons of hydrogen.
> 

And 1DT of Ammonia contains 2DT of hydrogen...I remember a long discussion
ages and ages ago on this list about ammonia-fueled ships. The problem, of
course, is what do you do with the 1/2 dt of nitrogen you generate when
creating the jump bubble?

I mean, everyone will get bored fast playing with freezing things in LN2,
and storing it on board poses a serious danger of asphyxiation, though not
as bad as storing all the O2 if you use water as a fuel...

A not particularly bright person stuck a dewar of LN2 in a walk in cooler
one time at a place I used to work. Fortunately, the person who came in a
few hours later, saw the thing and recognized it for what it was and
bugged out...we had people who would work in the cooler for twenty, thirty
minutes at a time. 

(For the benefit of those who have never worked with it...LN2 is wonderful
stuff for flash freezing biological materials for things like DNA or
labile metabolite extraction. In a closed space LN2, however has this
nasty habit of evaporating and displacing a large portion of the air.
While not directly poisonous, breathing nothing but N2 will kill you PDQ)

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 17:13:36 -0700
From: Timothy Collinson <tc@library.solent.ac.uk>
Subject: It's who you eat not what you eat that counts

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For those involved in the cannibalism debate a little while back, the
following is hot off the press from today's Electronic Telegraph
newspaper.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&P4_FOLLOW_ON=/97/6/7/eslab07.html&pg=/et/97/6/7/eslab07.html



tc
timothy.collinson@solent.ac.uk

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HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/etc/iefsci.html">Science</a>
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<A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/home.html">Electronic Telegraph</a>
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<font size=-1>Saturday <b>7 June</b> 1997</font><br>
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<td align=right>
<font size=-1>Issue <b>743</b></font><p>
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<font size=+2><b>It's who you eat not what you eat that counts</b></font size><br>

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<b>External </b>
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<dt><A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/offsite/www.sciencemag.org/&P4_from_link=97/6/7/eslab07.html"><img align=left src="/graphics/etc/wae.gif" border=0 width=16 height=10><dd>Science magazine</a><p>
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<dt><A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/offsite/www.dealsonline.com/origins/&P4_from_link=97/6/7/eslab07.html"><img align=left src="/graphics/etc/wae.gif" border=0 width=16 height=10><dd>Origins of Humankind</a><p>
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<dt><A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/offsite/www.ntu.edu.au/arc/arc4.htm&P4_from_link=97/6/7/eslab07.html"><img align=left src="/graphics/etc/wae.gif" border=0 width=16 height=10><dd>Human evolution resources</a><p>
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<dt><A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/offsite/www.ed.uiuc.edu/EdPsy-387/Bonnie-Sklar/neandergen.html&P4_from_link=97/6/7/eslab07.html"><img align=left src="/graphics/etc/wae.gif" border=0 width=16 height=10><dd>Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis information</a><p>
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<dt><A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/offsite/www.natcenscied.org/heenhm.htm&P4_from_link=97/6/7/eslab07.html"><img align=left src="/graphics/etc/wae.gif" border=0 width=16 height=10><dd>Human Evolution Education Network</a><p>
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<font size="+2"><summary>View from the Lab by Steve Jones</summary></font><p>
THE 800,000-year-old humans just <A
HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000124439911027&rtmo=339d53b0&atmo=339d53b0&pg=/et/97/5/30/wprime30.html">discovered in the Atapuerca caves of northern Spain</a> were, it appears, cannibals. Cut marks on their bones prove that, in those days, nature really was red in tooth and claw and that a balanced diet involved the finest protein of all.<p>
Naturally, we are not at all amused by such goings-on. It is disturbing to find that we have cannibalistic relatives. What might they say about our own proclivities? Some cannibals are even closer to us than is Homo antecessor.<p>
 Sixty cultures are known to have indulged in the practice. In some it was the second most important source of meat. Circumcision and the mass - wine into flesh - may each be relics of a ritual anthropophagy that we prefer to forget; humans yielding to grisly appetites coded in their genes.<p>
 Why do we find our ancestors' antisocial conduct so distasteful? Why, indeed, is any pattern of behaviour in fossils or in living creatures relevant to what we get up to? It seems obvious: our bodies evolved, why not our minds?<p>
 Although cannibalism is no longer an issue, there is almost an industry in explaining human affairs in Darwinian terms. Demonic males, virtuous villages, greedy children; there they all are, lined up in the human zoo with evolution as an alibi. It seems a scientific way of understanding society. But how valuable is the argument from nature? Cannibalism, as straightforward an act as can be imagined, is the perfect excuse for testing it.<p>
 More than 2,000 creatures go in for the pastime. Wall-eye fish in American lakes eat each other tail first, with whole chains of mutual diners busily gnawing away. Salamanders develop teeth which they use, while unborn, to consume their brothers. The habit started long before humans appeared. One 220-million-year-old dinosaur fossil has the skeleton of a young member of its own kind within its rib-cage.<p>
It all looks brutally simple. Surely it should be easy to explain - and the explanation should apply to us. In fact, there are almost as many evolutionary justifications of the self-devouring habit as there are cannibals. The complexity of nature is a warning to those who hope to use her as a universal excuse.<p>
Some creatures murder their kind as an insurance policy. Eagles lay more eggs than are likely to succeed. In a good year, most will; but usually only the first few survive. When hunger strikes, the firstborn eat their siblings - who are unlikely to live and may as well feed their family as they perish.<p>
For most cannibals, however, blood is thicker than water. They avoid the family at mealtimes. Plenty of males kill and eat the young of rivals to give their own genes a better chance. In mice the habit is so engrained that a pregnant female exposed to an unrelated male makes the best of a bad job with a pre-emptive strike. She reabsorbs her own foetuses. This gives the meal to her, not the waiting male.<p>
 In other words, choose your creature, take your pick: eat your relatives or kill outside the clan. For really Gothic complexity visit a beehive. There, the female workers kill and eat unrelated males. In some species the manly way to fight back is transvestism. Males pretend to be female; acting - and dressing - like a sister while furtively copulating on the side. If they are caught, death is instant. In others, though, counterfeit masculinity is the issue. Some females change sex and become active but sterile males. They present the opposite problem, but their fate is the same: food for the sisters.<p>
Nobody has yet taken up the parable of the beehive to explain (or condemn) human sexual habits. Even so, all this shows that evolution is infinitely complex - which makes it a marvellously flexible excuse. Not just cannibalism, but capitalism; not only socialism but celibacy - all are (according to taste) in the blood. Pick an example from nature and you have the perfect justification for whatever behaviour you choose.<p>
 When it comes to understanding what makes us human, biology is like a bikini. It shows what is interesting, but hides what is essential. We are, of course, constrained by evolutionary history, but only in the sense that pigs are limited in the ability to fly by their ancestors' lack of wings. It is interesting to find that there are evolved drives for cannibalism or for greed: but essential to realise that Homo sapiens, unique among all creatures, need not defer to them. The site of human evolution has made a simple but crucial move, from body to mind. When that happened, we do not know. It means, though, that dead Spanish cannibals, fascinating though they may be, are no more srelevant to lives today than are transvestite bees.<p>

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- --------------6E07229E7788--

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 12:25:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: GAHUNTER <Gahunter@cris.com>
Subject: Re: Star ship design question

On Tue, 10 Jun 1997, Bruce E J Lewis wrote:

> At 13:17 09/06/97 -0700, Scott Ellsworth wrote:
> >The claim is that the energy densities required are much, much larger than
> >can be stored in any reasonable accumulator.  DGP stated explicitly in
> >Starship Operators Manual that the jump drive has, as an integral
> >component, an very large accumulator that craps out after an hour or two,
> >so you do generate the energy over a reasonable time of hours.
> >
> 	Are there any specific rules for determining how long one can keep the
> jump capacitors charged before the energy contained within them begins to
> discharge? How about a difficult enginering task roll to keep the energy
> stable longer, so that say a successful task roll keeps the energy in place
> for one hour plus D6 times ten minutes (i.e. 70 to 120 mins)?

I know this is a game and there is a lot of hand waving going on... but -
please dont tell me I really need those Zuchai crystals for the
discharge... And I really do then as A captain of a ship I would set up
secondary accumulators which could hold my charge Indefinitely (or as long
as I have the power plant on) then dump it into the Jump Drives Zuchai
Crystals for the jump transition... Now what percent of the fuel is used
to charge those crystals - I could get back... 

I like the notion of the MASS or VOLUME of the rest of the fuel creating a
stabiliy option... however, lets not confuse energy and how we can or can
not store it... for that matter power cells could discharge into the
Zuchai crystals or even plain old batteries... (which we could then
refuel or recharge)... Not to mention our power plant could charge the
crystals ... unless we need a rapid charge - then something like HPG's
could be use or EPG's.... 

<rest snipped...> 

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End of Traveller-digest V1997 #1418
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