Subj: Traveller-digest V1999 #1363
Date: 11/19/99 8:00:23 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com (Traveller-digest)
Sender: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Reply-to: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
To: traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Traveller-digest Friday, November 19 1999 Volume 1999 : Number 1363
(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.
The following topics are covered in this digest:
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
Re: Sten series
unsubscribe
Re: Traveller Navigation and Gunnery
Re: modern roleplayers
Re: Nightmare Passengers
Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario? *Spoiler Warning* Dirty Pair
Melbourne roleplaying
Re: Travelleresque fiction, IMOJ, and misc.
Re: Traveller-like fiction
Re: Disabling Weapons
Re: New BITS product hinted at
Re: Traveller-like fiction
Re: modern roleplayers
Re : Riot Control Agents (longish)
RE: modern roleplayers
Totally OT but ...
Mood music (was: RE: Traveller-like fiction)
RE: MTU Imperial Justice
GURPS Mag sail desing article
traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
RE: Traveller-like fiction
Wow (Re: The Naming of Things)
Re: Disabling Weapons
Re: off to the Races
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 20:27:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Kyle Schuant
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario?
> Another possibility, though one done to death
> recently in movies: the
> altered reality the PCs find themselves in is a
> virtual reality sim --
> or was it the one they remember *before* the
> change???
And the PCs will want to know, "so does that mean we
don't get xps for that adventure?!"
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 23:04:34 -0600
From: "Bont"
Subject: Re: Sten series
> >Yet another series: the Sten Series, by Cole and Bunch. This is a
> >much more "Epic Space Opera"... larger than life, full of action,
> >with extensive travel times, big fleets, and fighters.... but with a
> >good look at the roles of various types of space military personell.
> >The Imperium here is led by the "Eternal Emperor" (who is, in a way,
> >truly eternal), who rules a laizze-faire capitalist imperium by
> >controlling the fuel source of choice.
> >
>
> A great series up until the last book. I mean, the Empire has run
> perfectly well for thousands of years, and then Sten decides to
> destroy the whole basis of the Empire the first time there is a major
> problem rather than fix the problem. What, the six months to a couple
> of years it would have taken for the new clone to form was too long?
I agree. And the authors tried to explain it away at the end, "We
wanted to show why an empire like this wouldn't work." I failed to
see their logic. It appeared to be working ok as far as I could tell.
- - - -
FELIX (Thomas L Bont)
- - Encrypt your messages!
That way only the government knows what you wrote!
- - It is truly the wise man that knows what he doesn't!
- - With your shield or on it ... (Old Spartan Blessing)
- - Fidelitas super omnia, honore excepto
- - Help Stop Forest Fires. Outlaw Matches.
Be sure to visit The FELIX Cafe at
http://www.felixcafe.com/
- - - -
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 00:06:48 EST
From: DanOwsen@aol.com
Subject: unsubscribe
unsubscribe danowsen@aol.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 21:22:37 -0800
From: "Luther Martin"
Subject: Re: Traveller Navigation and Gunnery
> Yes, stars do move, but they typically move with a
> velocity of something like 300 km/sec, which is faster
> than you can run, but still slow year-to-year. At that
> speed, it would take a 3,250 years for a star to be a
> parsec away from where it was. I always assumed this
> was the reason that starships came out of jump far
> from the target system, in case it have moved since
> they were last there! And that this was a good side
> effect of being able to jump only 1-6 parsecs at a
> time, along your way somewhere you could stop, have a
> look around and adjust your aim for the next jump.
Consider the difficulties is computing exact coordinates for a jump. Even a
little relative motion makes a big error over a few parsecs. The
navigational data required to perform accurate jumps must be both very
extensive as well as very precise.
> Well, when I was in the infantry, maybe our armies
> Down Under aren't such good shots, but we used to have
> spotters who'd say, fire on this spot, and then adjust
> the gunner's aim for them. As for co-ordinates, you
> can just do what the IAU has done and choose an
> abitrary crater or mountain on a world as "greenwich
> meridian", and of course the equator and poles are
> easy to put on the map... The only difficulty would be
> on worlds with frequently changing features, such as
> Europa or Io, but hopefully there'd be not too many
> battles on such worlds...
The problem with adjusting fire is that you don't get many first round hits.
When you are fighting a sophisticated adversary with meaningful
counter-battery capability, this really matters. That's why the US Army does
the "shoot and scoot." Even with TL8 technology it is possible to have
counter-battery fire on the way before the first round impacts. (Probably
only for high-angle fire.)
Do you suppose that the 3I still uses Napoleon's system for gunnery?
With the other worlds, I would expect that the varying degrees of deviation
from a sphere for the shape of the planet may make a nice, clean. accurate
coordinate system difficult to devise.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 15:51:30 +1000
From: "The Roc"
Subject: Re: modern roleplayers
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Kyle Schuant
To:
Sent: Friday, November 19, 1999 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: modern roleplayers
>
> You can have a D&D character who never slays anything;
> he'll just go up levels rather slowly, is all.
>
Not if GM'ed correctly (IMHO that is), they should be able to advance on
their own laurels equally with other PC's.
- -- The Roc
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 00:46:42 EST
From: GypsyComet@aol.com
Subject: Re: Nightmare Passengers
There are also the Pickles. Tommy, Dylan and Angelica could easily make any
voyage hell.
GC
Speaking of which, anyone done up the Reptar-Wagon for Traveller?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 01:38:13 -0500
From: "Smith, Walter"
Subject: Re: How to do a gritty, X-Files-like scenario? *Spoiler Warning* Dirty Pair
Chris Seamans wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>Another possibility, though one done to death recently in movies: the
>altered reality the PCs find themselves in is a virtual reality sim --
Yeah, but a cliche like that is great... *especially* since you can stand
that one up on its head through some clever manipulation.
The players *think* that their characters are in a simulation, but
through some means they discover (perhaps incorrectly) that they aren't
actually in a simulation anymore...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I recall an American _Dirty Pair_ comic where the heroes are having
their annual(?) review by their employer, and it's occuring in
sim. The heroes gradually find out that their opponent in the
simulation is another real person, and that he is "hacking" the sim
to gain Very Dangerous Access to a Very Important Computer.
If they don't defeat him in sim, he takes over in real life...and the
heroes start to think that maybe they can really die in this
sim. For the clincher, even at the end we aren't sure if the danger -
both of the bad guy taking over the universe, and of actual physical
harm - was real, or just a particularly effective simulation.
"Sim Hell", I believe it was called. Excellent, especially for the
history bits on Earth's "nanoclysm" (nanotech disaster that forced
the space colonies into self-sufficiency).
Walt Smith
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 22:50:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Kyle Schuant
Subject: Melbourne roleplaying
Since I'm new to Tarveller, is there any one on this
list, or with buddies off list, who runs or is in a
traveller group that needs an extra player, in
Melbourne, Australia?
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 03:53:28 -0500
From: "Lyle Youngblood"
Subject: Re: Travelleresque fiction, IMOJ, and misc.
>From: Robert Prior
>Subject: MTU Imperial Justice (was: IMoJ)
>There's more, but this is getting long and I still have two tests to set.
>Let me know if you want more.
Loved it. With permission, will steal it (modified for my universe
where I use IBIS instead of IMOJ). Please do go on.
>From: "Luther Martin"
>worlds. When I went to gunnery school years ago at Ft. Sill, we learned how
Completely off-topic, but "Howdy fellow red-leg. Y'all ready for St.
Barbara's Day yet?".....grin
>Subject: Re: Travelleresque Fiction
YMMV, but to me David Weber's Honor Harrington series has a
fairly good Trav feel. Politically it has major differences, but the
technology is very similair.
Lyle
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 08:48:47 +0100
From: Volker Greimann
Subject: Re: Traveller-like fiction
At 15:31 18.11.99 -0500, you wrote:
> >I have no doubt at all that one inspired the other (although I
> >understand Marc does not give any of the credit to the Dumarest
> >books - perhaps because Tubb is British, I don't know). Edition 1 of
> >Book 1 of the LBBS is copyright 1977, but edition 1 of "Winds of Gath"
> >(book 1 of the Dumarest saga) is copyright 1967. Judge for yourself.
>
>
>Thanks Mark. I had wondered. I experienced Traveller before I read the
>series so I had always wondered. I suppose if a game needs to be based on a
>series, you couldn't complain about it being the Dumarest saga as they were
>well written and a lot of fun to read.
Gosh, I loved that series for be so Traveller! So now I learn that
Traveller is so Dumarest...
What the heck, both are still excellent. I actually ran a session based on
Winds of Gath
once, some years ago :-)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 23:16:45 +1300
From: "Frank Pitt"
Subject: Re: Disabling Weapons
Here's the two riot control techniques I love :
"riot-foam" from Judge Dredd.
Sprays as a foam like normal fire retardant foam, hardens in seconds, cops
come along later with solvent to extract the rioters individually
"epileptics" from Jerry Cornelius
A set of strobe lights flicking at the frequencies that cause epileptic
seizures in the majority of people.
Frankie
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 12:02:13 +1000
From: "cjbrain"
Subject: Re: New BITS product hinted at
I would expect a quality Bits product to cover exactly that sort of thing,
as well as distinguishing between types of sparrows and swallows i.e. The
African species in particular.
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 23:39:52 +0100
From: Jens Rydholm
Subject: Re: New BITS product hinted at
Shadowcat wrote:
> Will Feathers, Fusion, and Steel include rules for any of the
> following?
>
> Exploding Penguins on your telly
> quantum duck hunts
> Dive bombing pigeons
How about rules for cargo carrying (mainly coconuts)?
Will rules for shared cargo (on a string) finally be clarified?
/Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 23:32:22 +1300
From: "Frank Pitt"
Subject: Re: Traveller-like fiction
> I have no doubt at all that one inspired the other (although I
> understand Marc does not give any of the credit to the Dumarest
> books - perhaps because Tubb is British, I don't know).
Earl Dumarest apperas as one of the "mystery" NPC's in the back of one of
the early LBBs, so maybe Marc denies it, but _someone_ writing Traveller had
certainly read the books.
To add a few other authors :
The obvious "Flandry" series by Poul Andersen
And for military stuff, David Drake's "Hammer's Slammer's" series.
Frankie
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 00:19:32 +1300
From: "Frank Pitt"
Subject: Re: modern roleplayers
A few random comments, sorry for the mess.
> Yes, and AD&D isn't supposed to be a dungeon crawl,
> either.
And many of the times I've played it hasn't been.
Alhough actually, originally it _was_ supposed to be a dungeon crawl,
"wilderness adventures" didn't appear until the supplements.
> But when you're writing, you have to consider
> not only what you write, but who's going to read it,
> and how they'll interpret it.
No you don't. If you do that you'll emasculate your vision and never write
anything good.
> Quite true, and for me that makes these settings a
> problem - a "party" makes little sense (except perhaps
> in Werewolf, where they're a "pack"). And I've seen
> that typically people do create such characters, which
> then utterly fail to co-operate.
Which is a valid choice. It also makes a good game, because as they fail to
co-operate they lose agaist the better NPC's, and slowly start learning that
to win they _need_ to co-operate. (Which is also the theme of many of these
"lonely, embittered hero" films as well.
BTW, Traveller is no better at generating parties than any other game, I've
seen just as many "loners" in Trav games as in others. Heck, having the
Scout Service practically guarantees such types.
> I agree that we need
> something better than "you meet in an inn and decide
> to adventure together" to keep the group together,
> some deeper reason, but I just don't see how it can
> happen in the World of Darkness.
Pretty simple really, get good roleplayers who will design characters that
fit together.
Nothing to do with the system, or even the genre, everything to do with the
players.
...
> So why reinforce the troubles they already have?
Why assume they have troubles ?
> better a game which encourages sociability,
> co-operation, and so on. But perhaps I'm thiking too
> much of the "mentoring" aspects of GMing younger
> players.
You're thinking too much of being a "responsible adult"
Play the game for fun instead.Let them have fun.
_All_ games encourage sociability and co-operation, if only to succesfully
beat your opponent into a pulp.
> You're right, there. But some systems, some genres,
> lend themselves more easily to that than others. Hands
> up those who've given up on, or never entered a Star
> Wars game because they were overwhelmed by film quotes
> and cliches?:)
That's the whole _point_ of that game.
What's wrong with it ?
Though it's quite possible to play SW games that have none of that.
Try playing Rebel Special Forces. Even more Traveller than Traveller.
> No, it's a complete lack of an ideology - a nihilism,
> or the pseudo-religion of armchair
> self-psychoanalysis.
It is ? Most of the goths I know would laugh at such a suggestion.
> Certainly I don't think all World of Darkness players
> are Goths. But you don't find many Goths playing
> Traveller, that's for sure.
You don't find many of _any_ social group playing Traveller, and I know at
least one goth Traveller player.
Heck he's also the only goth that plays in the local VtM LARP, the rest of
the players , while many are certainly fringe types, don't usually go for
that scene. There does seem to be a higher than average number of women
with nipple piercings involved though...
Frankie
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 22:34:38 +1100
From: "Robert O'Connor"
Subject: Re : Riot Control Agents (longish)
William Hostman wrote :-
> Don't forget that I mentioned the Area. (Oh, BTW, thanx for the commentary,
> Robert). That includes the ground...
15 to 200 millirems per year from this source.
Using a damper to deliver a century's worth of rays will yield at best
20 rem. Acute radiation sickness requires at least 100 rem whole body
dosage.
> Another thought... what does all that potassium 40 decay into, and is it
> used in any neurotransmitters?
Argon ; this decay chain is what keeps the insides of the Earth molten
(K-40 is relatively common). The ratio of K:Ar is also determined when
dating geological specimens.
Argon is anaesthetic in very large concentrations (but you would need a
hyperbaric chamber).
Neurotransmitters are amino acid derivatives, or proteins for the most
part (the obvious exceptions being adenosine and nitric oxide). No
potassium contained therein.
Leonard Erickson wrote :-
> I know for a *fact* that there are surgical muscle relaxants that *do*
> only effect the "voluntary" muscles. They leave the heart and lungs
> alone.
I'm not sure how you're defining '"voluntary" muscles'.
All the muscle relaxants that are in current clinical use interfere with
the propagation of nerve impulses at the neuromuscular junction of
skeletal (striated) muscle, leading to the predictable onset of 'flaccid
paralysis'.
The information I posted previously, stands. The diaphragm and chest
wall are composed, and perform, as described.
Some of the older members of this class do have cardiac effects via the
autonomic nervous system (curare, pancuronium, succinyl dicholine).
> Mind you, I seem to recall that they do this by blocking nerve
> impulses from the spine, rather than by directly affecting the muscles...
This was correct with a class of drugs referred to as ganglion
blockers, the only useful member of which was decamethonium, which is
only available in the dusty cupboards of established research labs.
Curare has been available since the 1500s and was only used clinically
really from the mid 1940s ; the various derivatives have appeared over
the ensuing years. Succinyl dicholine became available in the
early 1950s. The ganglion blockers enjoyed a brief period of use in the
mid 50's - early 60's.
> Spasm *wasn't* a riot control agent. It was a load for a very
> specialized weapon. It was *targeted*, not sprayed indiscriminately.
> You seem to have rolled the comments on spetsdods (an odd "hand
> weapon") and anti-riot measures into one. They were seperate subjects.
IMHO, 'Spasm' makes a lousy incapacitant, regardless of the 'sphere of
operations'. The method of delivery is neither here nor there.
My apologies ; you mentioned 'Spasm' as ammo for spetsdods after the
quote on the riot in the 'Matador' series by Steve Perry.
> Real world items:
> A derivative of one of the high blood pressure meds. It slowly lowers
> your blood pressure.
Sounds like an overdose of any of the antihypertensives. Delivery is a
problem in the 'riot control context'.
Strokes, myocardial infarction, renal failure, gut necrosis... real
potential for unwanted damage here. The vagaries of individual and
species variation have been commented on by other posters.
> A derivative of that surgical muscle relaxant I mentioned. The effects
> start at the base of the spine and work up. So you lose control of your
> feet and ankles, then of the knees, etc, until you are effectively a
> (temporary) quadraplegic. Again, at this point the police wander over
> and pick you up.
This is done every day with local anaesthetic and narcotic delivered
into the epidural or subarachnoid space, in a highly controlled fashion.
Again, if we overlook the problems of delivering our agent to the right
spot, we run into a few little problems as the block rises :-
injury secondary to falling over ;
lethal falls in blood pressure secondary to loss of peripheral vascular
resistance ;
aberrant cardiac rhythms ;
paralysis of the diaphragm (the last of the 'chest' muscles to succumb,
due to its innervation) ; and
brainstem paralysis - with a total loss of control of blood pressure,
heart rate, vascular volume, and respiratory sensing and function. This
is a state indistinguishable from 'brain death', unless you can
demonstrate that the cerebrum is being perfused or otherwise works (e.g.
EEG/SPECT scanning).
Robert O'Connor
Medico, Gamer
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 12:19:40 -0000
From: "Trevor, Peter"
Subject: RE: modern roleplayers
The Roc wrote:
> Kyle Schuant wrote:
> > You can have a D&D character who never slays anything;
> > he'll just go up levels rather slowly, is all.
>
> Not if GM'ed correctly (IMHO that is), they should be able to
> advance on their own laurels equally with other PC's.
I'm currently playing in an AD&D campaign as a thief (or as I
prefer to call him: a "socialist dungeon scout"). In the four
sessions so far I haven't killed or stolen anything, and I *have*
advanced just as fast as the other PCs.
Of course the other PCs do get upset from time to time ... we
were trapped in a fort surrounded by lizardmen and the other PCs
were preparing for "Remember the Alamo", when I snuck out and
traded with the lizardmen and accidentally got a truce which led
to a peace deal.
ObTrav: Er ... the GM (DM or Referee) shapes a campaign over the
*long term* by 'controlling' the rewards and penalties. If your
group is in hack-n-slash mode then look at the GM'ing style.
This applies to any RPG.
Regards PLST
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 12:35:10 -0000
From: "Trevor, Peter"
Subject: Totally OT but ...
Celebrate the Last 'Odd Digit Day' For 1111 Years
Today (Friday, 19/11/1999) will be the last day that has all odd
digits in its date until 1/1/3111. That's right, you will have
seen the last 'odd digit day' in your lifetime, and for approx 37
generations to come! So if for no other reason, wherever you are
raise a glass today, and celebrate the 'Last Odd Digit Day' for
1111 years.
Cheers!!
Regards PLST
Okay, okay, ObTrav: Are 3I populations affected by 'date madness'
near pseudo-significant dates (the CT OTU 'starts' only 5 years
after 1100) and think the world will end, etc? Any crack-pots
acting up on 111-1111? And was there a 3I-wide Y2K-like computer
problem in 1000?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 07:25:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Steven Spiroff
Subject: Mood music (was: RE: Traveller-like fiction)
Kyle Schuant wrote:
> okay, that's heaps for the fiction... anybody got any
> Traveller-like music? I know, I know, it depends on
> the feel of the campaign, is it Star Trek/Star
> Wars/Aliens or something else? In other games I've had
> "mood music", just thought it might be good in
> Traveller, too...
The last couple of times we've played I have used the CD-ROM from the game
Half-Life. Some of the tracks have a real cool techno style beat, while some
others are more of a slow, spooky, spacey background music kinda track. I did
see the MP3 files available for download a while ago but don't remember where
it was.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:53:17 -0500
From: Ian Ferguson
Subject: RE: MTU Imperial Justice
Robert Prior writes:
>There's more, but this is getting long and I still have two
>tests to set. Let me know if you want more.
Please sir, could I have some more?
Peez
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 07:39:31
From: "Douglas E. Berry"
Subject: GURPS Mag sail desing article
Found the on-line copy of the old Roleplayer article on magsails.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/Roleplayer/Roleplayer29/MagSails.html
- --
Douglas E. Berry gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:05:42 -0500
From: dennis.f.belanger@bellatlantic.com
Subject: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Terry,
like a Tom Clancy in Space adventure. The Third part of the story is due
out >in June of 99. It's going to be a long wait.
>
>Dennis
Wow! Not out until June of 2099, That will be a long wait!
I'm sorry. I was running a pre-emptive Y2K test on my brain. I obviously failed.
The third book is due out in june 2000.
Dennis
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 07:18:21
From: "Douglas E. Berry"
Subject: RE: Traveller-like fiction
At 08:04 PM 11/18/1999 -0800, you wrote:
>okay, that's heaps for the fiction... anybody got any
>Traveller-like music? I know, I know, it depends on
>the feel of the campaign, is it Star Trek/Star
>Wars/Aliens or something else? In other games I've had
>"mood music", just thought it might be good in
>Traveller, too...
Yesterday I saw a CD at Tower titled something like "Y2K: Music for the
Apocolypse" Had all these great gloom and doom classical and neo classical
pieces. "Mars: the Bringer of War", "Battle on the Ice" for Alexander
Nevsky, "Battle Theme" from Star Wars. Couldn't afford it (I was picking
up Kansas' Best of album), but I'll be back next week.
- --
Douglas E. Berry gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 07:23:33
From: "Douglas E. Berry"
Subject: Wow (Re: The Naming of Things)
I now have enough names to fill an entire book of NPCs. Thank you to all
how volunteered.
And to the few who asked, no this wasn't a sneaky attempt to get more
people to buy the book because their name is in it. :)
- --
Douglas E. Berry gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 06:59:59
From: "Douglas E. Berry"
Subject: Re: Disabling Weapons
The Discovery Channel had a very interesting show a few weeks (months?)
back about non lethal weaponry.
Included along with things already mention ed in the thread like sticky
foam were EMP grenades.
Hard to organize a riot if all your megaphones stiop working.
- --
Douglas E. Berry gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 07:12:13
From: "Douglas E. Berry"
Subject: Re: off to the Races
At 08:07 PM 11/18/1999 -0800, you wrote:
>Of course, as well as limit them to astrolabes, you
>can limit the tech otherwise. Anybody ever see the
>episode of DS9 where Cisko and his kid flew the old
>Bajoran ship?
One of the last really good eps, IMHO.
What grabs people's attention? Struggle. Everytime I've flown in a
passenger jet, I've been higher than the summit of Mt. Everest, yet I'm
fascinated by the people who climb it. There was a bit in an old Niven
story "Elephant", were Beowulf Shaffer was visiting Earth, and saw people
racing old autos on a stretch of freeway. His reaction when he realized
that the cars had neither radar nor autopilot..
Earlier this year the lead story on the news was that two guys in a baloon
had manged to fly around the world. Hardly cutting edge tech, but it was
the struggle to do it with what is "primative" tech that made it interesting.
The same will hold true for our theoretical solar/mag sail racers.. The
promoters of the race circut will emphasis the hands-on nature of the
event, with on-board cameras showing racers making furious scribbled
calculations and shooting azmuths.
- --
Douglas E. Berry gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
------------------------------
End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1363
***********************************
To unsubscribe to Traveller-Digest, send the command:
unsubscribe traveller-digest
in the body of a message to "traveller-request@lists.imagiconline.com".
If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is
coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that
address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe
"local-traveller":
subscribe traveller-digest local-traveller@your.domain.net
A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to
subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "traveller-digest"
in the commands above with "traveller".
Multi-Player Games Network http://www.mpgn.com
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path:
Received: from rly-zb04.mx.aol.com (rly-zb04.mail.aol.com [172.31.41.4]) by air-zb05.mail.aol.com (vx) with ESMTP; Fri, 19 Nov 1999 11:00:23 -0500
Received: from lists.imagiconline.com (lists.imagiconline.com [204.85.32.11]) by rly-zb04.mx.aol.com (v65.4) with ESMTP; Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:59:21 -0500
Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost)
by lists.imagiconline.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) with SMTP id KAA07616;
Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:58:39 -0500 (EST)
(envelope-from owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com)
Received: by lists.imagiconline.com (bulk_mailer v1.12); Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:57:56 -0500
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
by lists.imagiconline.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) id KAA07298
for traveller-digest-outgoing; Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:57:56 -0500 (EST)
(envelope-from owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com)
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 10:57:56 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199911191557.KAA07298@lists.imagiconline.com>
From: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com (Traveller-digest)
To: traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Traveller-digest V1999 #1363
Reply-To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Sender: owner-traveller-digest@lists.imagiconline.com