
Traveller-digest      Monday, October 25 1999      Volume 1999 : Number 1256



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Heightened Intelligence (long)
RE: TML Members as resources
Re: TML Members as resources
Re: Freezing in the Aleutians
Re: TML Members as resources
Re: Freezing in the Aleutians
Re: Freezing in the Aleutians
Re: Traveller Software 
RE: Anyone seen the Betty?
RE: The Baron Population Bomb
re: NICE deckplans
Re: Space Opera?
In-Reply-To: <381380D2.209E9606@3rd-imperium.com>
RE: The Baron Population Bomb
X-boat route too long?
re: Mining the TML

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:07:45 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Heightened Intelligence (long)

Frank Pitt writes:
>>I concur.  We would have as much trouble understanding
>>such a society as chimps would have understanding ours.
>The danger is that without understanding, we would judge, and in
>judging, would condemn.

	Some would argue that the danger is that we might not
	condemn it.

>Too much belief in absolutes and ideals, not enough flexibility.

	Sorry, I'm not following you here.

>As intelligence in all species is influenced _directly_ by
>information processing power, and that this is directly
>influenced im turn by the amount of visual and audio signal
>proceesing a species of brain does, _capability_ for
>intelligence is almost completely determined by DNA.

	Given that a strand of DNA sitting on a table will not
	become very intelligent, the influence of environment
	cannot be ignored.  A certain "gene" that is associated
	with high intelligence in one environment may tend to
	result in low intelligence in another.  Even in the 
	first environment, insufficient nutrition may result in
	low intelligence.  Then, there is the influence of our
	experience in life.

>What people forget is that the "environment" part excercises the
>processing equipment that is in place and builds the neural net.
>It does not directly affect the capability for intelligence of
>the person, it merely gives them more experiences, making them
>better able to function in human society and _seem_ more
>intelligent that a superior processing unit deprived of
>information or communiction skills.

	The "environment" is not restricted to the personal
	experiences of a person since they were born.  Of course,
	such experiences are very important, but how much influence
	they have on "intelligence" or "capability for intelligence"
	depends on how these terms are defined.

>An analogy is that two identical CPU's could be used in two
>machines,
<snipped>
>"Genetically", i.e hardware-wise , it isn't.

	Beware the trap of seeing "genetic" as "carved in stone."
	Certainly, your genetic make-up places restrictions on
	many things, but environmental influences are crucial.

>>Manipulation of "genetic IQ" will
>>probably be a lot more complex than playing with things
>>like physical fitness, appearance, etc.
>It may not be. the basic requitrements are as simple as a
>physical trait, size of particular sections of the brain,
>average level of a particular neuro-chemical in the inter-
>nueron gap,  that sort of thing

	That sort of manipulation may well improve certain aspects
	of intelligence (depending on how it is defined), but the
	complex net of neural connections in the brain are not 
	likely to be as simple to change as, for example, the length
	of your femur.

>Though figuring out which combinatuions are best, may be difficult
>if the best combination is one that no individual has yet exhibited.

	Enter the mad scientist who is experimenting with various
	changes in brain function.  The PCs may be suitable test
	subjects.  ;)

>>Also, I am NOT a eugenics proponant.
>Why not ? _Iff_ we had sufficient understanding of the
>sequencing, it would be illogical not to make use of that
>information to better yourself and the species, would it not ?

	That would require specification of what "better" means.
	Who decides what is "better?"  As for bettering yourself,
	too late.  Most genes work through their influence on
	growth and development, and it's pretty tricky trying to
	manipulate the genes in every cell in the brain (not to 
	mention those in other parts of the body that may interact.

>Of course, one would, if one wanted to be a "nice" person,  have
>to allow individuals to choose whether they wantd to be involved
>in the process, and allow them to hide out in their little
>backwater,
>But for some reason, that seems more religious or hysterical than
>anything else,  lots of people don't like the idea of genetic
>engineering, look at all the fuss in the UK where they've even
>banned (or tried to ban, more like) genetically modified foods,
>forgeting that all the food they've been eating for centuries is
>already genetically modified. There's even people trying to get
>that done over here in New Zealand.

	I am very concerned about the negative influence that
	religeous (and other) fanatics have on research and 
	scientific advancement, but that does not mean that every
	criticism of advancement should be dismissed.  I happily
	consume genetically engineered food, but such engineering
	is very different from the selective breeding that has
	given us our domesticated breeds of plants and animals.
	We should all be concerned.

>>>and medical electronics folks have made a (*really* primitive*)
>>>direct neural interface (move a cursor?by thought)
>Yes, this was demonstrated, though not so much by "thought" as by
>concentrating on producing a particular sort of brain activity.

	Hmmm, isn't that what thought is?

<snipped>
>The problem is not really that "higher intelligences" may see
>the world in a different way, but that humans have this
>terrible desire to enforce their own way of seeing things on
>other people and things, and not accepting other's ways of
>seeing things.
>The only way we can handle the future is by begining to practice
>seeing things in different ways, and to realize that we _need_
>to see things in diferent ways at different times and in different
>situations.

	I am not saying that seeing things in a different way is
	a problem.  I am only pointing out that boosting the Int
	of neo-humans may result in a race of beings that many
	old-type humans would not like.  That is neither inherently
	"good" or "bad," but it might matter to the old-type humans.

<snipped>
>This is true, people who don't like computer intellligence keep
>redefining what intelligence is to deny computer capabilities.
>Their latest, and probably most interesting, attempt at redefining
>it, is "emotional" intelligence.

	It is not just people trying to deny Int to computers, the
	concept of "intelligence" is ill-defined and poorly 
	understood.

>Currently, computers can out perform humans in all quantative
>measures of human intelligence, except perhaps inductive
>reasoning and some random information retrrieval but they don't
>exhibit "original thought".

	Many peole would include inductive reasoning in their
	definition of intelligence.

>One possibility is that original thought may not actually be
>neccessary for us to be fooled into thinking something is
>"intelligent". The converse is that anything we can't
>communicate with is considered "un-intelligent" unless it shows
>us some fancy technological tricks.

	This is a good point for Traveller: the distinction between
	intelligence and our perception of it.

>People who can't communicate well are considered un-intelligent,
>the foreigner who can't speak English is derided as stupid, etc.

	Sadly true, there is a great Monty Python skit on this:
	"And we therefore conclude that foreigners are as
	intelligent as penguins..."

	As an aside: let's all keep cool on this subject.  It has
	a lot of serious flame-war potential.

Peez

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:13:28 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: RE: TML Members as resources

Jesse DeGraff writes:
>How should one figure out their ratings?

	We're all winging it.  I figure:
		level 0: basic familiarity (basic first aid)
		level 1: above minimum skill (first reponder)
		level 2: experienced (EMT)
		level 3: more experienced (doctor)
		level 4: expert (specialist)
		level 5: top of the field

Peez

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 08:59:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Re: TML Members as resources

Picking a career marginally close in spirit to what I've been up to...

Craig Berry 566CB8   Scientist 5 Terms
Skills: Computer-5, Science(Chem)-3, Research-2, Admin-1, Liasion-1,
        Fast Talk-1, Survival(Desert)-1

(No Ground Vehicle-0, by the way.)

- -- 
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--  http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |   "They do not preach that their God will rouse them
      a little before the nuts work loose." - Kipling

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 09:15:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Re: Freezing in the Aleutians

> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 00:10:52 PST
> From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
> 
> Also reminds me of an SF story involving Lake Superior. They claimed
> the line in "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" about "...never gives up
> her dead" is because once you sink below the surface layer (which may
> be sunwarmed in the summer) the water temp is a constant XX degrees. 
> 
> Cold enough that the decay processes alter. Corpses don't bloat, they
> just sit there and decay via other processes. So they never rise back
> up to the surface.

I'll have to run that past my wife when she gets home later this week.
She's the morbid one in the family, and owns numerous cheerful books with
titles like _How We Die_, _Death to Dust_, _Vampires, Burial, and Death_,
and so forth.  Decay processes are a forte of hers.  She'll know if the
Superior thing is true, I guarantee it.

> > I'll bet either could handle the heat situation just fine, I agree a
> > standard vacc suit would float and that BD would probably sink, and that
> > with BD you could probably go perhaps 100m down without worrying too much
> > about the pressure.
> 
> Watch out for assumptions. *Conventional* Vacc suits would be be well
> insulated, as long as you keep a slight positive pressure (which will
> make it hard to move).
[good points snipped]
> Dumped in a cold ocean, with only the "stock" EVA pack, you won't stay
> warm long unless you use the inflation trick to provide a layer of air
> between the gas tight membrane and the cooling garment. 

Yeah, now that you lay out the argument, I tend to concur.  Your best bet
would probably be to go for a relatively high overpressure, to float high
in the water, since air is a poorer heat conductor than water.  Basically,
treat the suit as a snug man-shaped life raft.  Even then, you end up
lying against the inner surface of the outer shell of the suit, but
hopefully the h/c fluid network can keep this interface up to a reasonable
temperature for a while. 

> > Great image just flashed by...BD trooper gravving along above the ocean,
> > gets shot at, grav failure, drops like a stone into the ocean.  Defenders
> > on shore cheer, go back about their business.  Ten minutes later, the BD
> > trooper walks out of the surf, *pissed*. 
> 
> Do keep in mind that every 10 meters is an extra atmosphere of
> pressure. And seabottom terrain can be *rough*. Of course, that last
> is probably *why* the trooper is so pissed.

Yeah, that's precisely what I had in mind.  And I think 10-ish atm
pressure is about what a BD suit should be able to take, which is why I
picked the 100 m depth in my post.

- -- 
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--  http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |   "They do not preach that their God will rouse them
      a little before the nuts work loose." - Kipling

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:19:16 -0400
From: "Thom Harris" <thomharr@mediaone.net>
Subject: Re: TML Members as resources

Actually I figure it slightly different from what you have but not much.
Yours is good though and there's nothing wrong with it but like you said,
we're all winging it........

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
To: <traveller@mpgn.com>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 11:13 AM
Subject: RE: TML Members as resources


> Jesse DeGraff writes:
> >How should one figure out their ratings?
>
> We're all winging it.  I figure:

> level 0: basic familiarity (basic first aid)
Thom - I figure this one as having some training and done extensive reading
(while in jump space?)

> level 1: above minimum skill (first reponder)

Thom - I have always considered this one as training equivalent to say an
Army corpsman 8-16 weeks and some practical experience.

> level 2: experienced (EMT)

Thom - I use IMTU this as "Phycision's Assistant" (PA). Lots of experience
as a corpsman plus an add-on school (1 year?) for medication dispensing.

> level 3: more experienced (doctor)

Thom - Just finished med school.

> level 4: expert (specialist)

Thom - Got residency and a number of years experience, probably in a
particular field.

> level 5: top of the field

Thom - We agree here even including generic "MD", the family doctor that has
been at it forever (including military service) and gone back for more
training.

I use this "style" in determining levels for NPC's including my own stat's
(20 years in the Army and 10 years as a contractor.

A69AB7
| | |  | | |
| | |  | | :-> Retired Chief Warrant Officer
| | |  | :---> College/Training (97 semester hours; 156 (40 hours per) weeks
of military schools
| | |  :-----> IQ somewhere above eggplant
| | :--------> Just had a physical and for 48 years old the doctor was
impressed with my health
| :----------> Just not as limber as I used to be.
:------------> Still work out with the weights and can still lift more than
my weight ( I weigh in at 270 lbs.)

Rifle-4, Pistol-1; Heavy Weapons-1; First Aid-1, Wheeled Vehicle-2,
Computers-2, Electronics-1, Carousing-2, Streetwise-1, Tracked Vehicle-0,
JOT-3, Tactics-2, Administration-2, Leader-2, Mechanical-1, Hunting-1,
Fishing-1, Survival-2, Linguistics-0 (German), Researcher-2, Nav-0,
Steward-1, Archaic Weapons-0, Swimming-1, Horticulture-0, Equestrian-0,
Carpentry-0, and many more, it just gets more boring......

Thom Harris

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 09:24:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Re: Freezing in the Aleutians

> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 03:20:35
> From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
> 
> At 12:10 AM 10/25/1999 PST, you wrote:
> 
> >Do keep in mind that every 10 meters is an extra atmosphere of
> >pressure. And seabottom terrain can be *rough*. Of course, that last
> >is probably *why* the trooper is so pissed.
> 
> note to self: Figure crush depth for GF BD designs...


Note to you: Be sure to express it as a pressure primarily, with perhaps
the equivalent Terran ocean depth parenthetically.  Depth will vary based
on local gravity, atmospheric pressure, and so forth (and fluid, for that
matter, if you include non-water 'oceans').

I'd suggest a safe sustained operating limit of 10 atm, with certain-death
sustained load around 15 atm and a peak transient load (e.g., from
explosive overpressure waves) of perhaps 20 atm.  You can leave off the
latter two in the interests of simplicity; the peak-transient can actually
be considered as factored into the suit's defensive value within the
combat system.

- -- 
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--  http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |   "They do not preach that their God will rouse them
      a little before the nuts work loose." - Kipling

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 09:49:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com>
Subject: Re: Freezing in the Aleutians

Craig Berry writes:
> > note to self: Figure crush depth for GF BD designs...
> 
> I'd suggest a safe sustained operating limit of 10 atm, with certain-death
> sustained load around 15 atm and a peak transient load (e.g., from
> explosive overpressure waves) of perhaps 20 atm.  You can leave off the
> latter two in the interests of simplicity; the peak-transient can actually
> be considered as factored into the suit's defensive value within the
> combat system.

Well, if you just use the Vehicles computation for crush depth, there won't be much trouble exceeding those figures.  Crush depth in Vehicles is a multiple of DR, which is why the Intrepit has a crush depth of 140 miles....

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 07:24:08 +0100
From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
Subject: Re: Traveller Software 

"Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com> writes:

>No kidding.  I'm not a C coder in the least.  I do some Turbo Pascal, and
>yeah, I got the Free Pascal Compiler for Linux, but I'm having problems
>making it talk with Xwindows.  Graphics programming was *never* my strong
>suite.

You know, ISTR that Rob Prior's Traveller software is written in a Pascal?
Perhaps it could be ported to Linux if the GUI could be sorted?

Dom

- ----------Dom Mooney---dom@cybergoths.u-net.com------------
                       MiB - Marines in Battledress
   "Protecting the Imperium from the Scum of the Galaxy"
Rob Prior's Mac software @ http://www.bits.org.uk/ 

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 07:27:43 +0100
From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
Subject: RE: Anyone seen the Betty?

"Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net> writes:

>Somewhere around here I've got a copy of an English pub called SciFi &
>Fantasy modeller that had an issue with the Betty in it.

I had to parse that twice. When you said pub, I thought of beer.

Dom

- ----------Dom Mooney---dom@cybergoths.u-net.com------------
                       MiB - Marines in Battledress
   "Protecting the Imperium from the Scum of the Galaxy"
Rob Prior's Mac software @ http://www.bits.org.uk/ 

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 13:05:04 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: RE: The Baron Population Bomb

>Douglas E. Berry wrote:
>> Also filling the role of "planetary advocate".  I've always
>> thought that noble families would have their income tied to the
>> economies of their holdings.  This would encourage them to work
>> to improve their holdings.
>>
>> Nobles might also be charged for the expenses of Imperial
>> Interventions if they fail to contain problems.
>
>Hmm ... this could lead to a conflict of interests.  For example:
>if a planetary government was intending to become  socialist  and
>nationalise all private industry this would be detrimental to the
>local noble's income.  That noble might use his  position  within
>the Imperial nobility to bring pressure to bear  against  such  a
>move.  Thus the 3I would be meddling in  local  affairs.

Notice that "Socialism/Communism" Governments are not listed as Government
Types in the UWP? These kinds of governments and the concept of
nationalization of private industry is as much an antithesis of the 3I as it
was to the U.S. The 3I would simply not let it happen. After all the
Imperium takes to itself not just the space between worlds, but whatever it
deems important for its own survival. It is in reality a mercantile empire.
The Emperor controls the military and claims fealty from the Imperial Nobles
beneath him, but the Emperor is incredibly rich because he claims stock
(i.e. ownership) in the great and small Corps and Megacorps. The Imperial
Nobles and rich and shepherd their Domains, Sectors and Subsectors for many
reasons, but one is because it's good for business. Their business, since
they hold stock and real estate in these same Domains, Sectors and
Subsectors.

Socialism -- it just ain't gonna happen. The INI would charge the government
members with real or imagined charges before a Ducal Court. The IMJ would be
investigating the sins of all involved. As a last resort the Imperial
Marines would land to prevent the theft of the property of innocent Imperial
Citizens (like all those nice off-world Megacorp stockholders -- many of
whom are Imperial Nobles themselves). Then a nice capitalistic leaning
government would be install, be it a Charismatic Oligarchy or a Impersonal
Bureaucracy.

Still a nice plot hook to have the PC's there while all this is playing out.
It might be fun just watching them trying to survive it.

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:15:07 +0100
From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>
Subject: re: NICE deckplans

At 23:49 24/10/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>Jesse DeGraff wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>Cruising through the deckplans webring today at work, I found the following
>link.  I'd never heard anything about it on the TML, and was quite
>flabbergasted by the deckplans.  OUTSTANDING job Phil!!!!!
>
>http://www.btinternet.com/~salvo/traveller/deckplans/
>>>>>>>>>
>Hopeful translation: "Hey Phil, nice deckplans. Mind if I do I detailed,
>beautiful exterior view of it?"
>
>I can hope, can't I?  :-)
>
>I'm glad people are finding interesting things on the deckplans ring.
>
>Walt Smith

I'd like that translation - it would make the ship suitable form that 
starship showcase thing launched on downport some months ago.

I did consider doing the deckplans myself but had colder feet than those
guys posted to the Aleutians. My last attempt at 3D modelling got as far
as a table...flat top, leg at each corner. Then I rotated it - any
association between the legs and top was just an optical illusion.

I assume that the only solution to learning 3-D modelling involves the
loss ofa couple of months sleep.

Phil Kitching
- --
  http://www.btinternet.com/~salvo/
  Postmark Design Bureau, Emerging Technologies Division.
 "Microwaving half-baked ideas from across the Galaxy"

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 10:39:04 -0800
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

>From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
>Subject: Re: Space Opera?
...
>*that* was an unexpected treat. A very *strange* movies titled "The
>Stuff". I won't spoil it, I'll just say "go out and rent it!"

  IIRC, this involves ice cream?

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 13:32:48 -0400
From: Rob Brady <robb@datatone.com>
Subject: In-Reply-To: <381380D2.209E9606@3rd-imperium.com>

We had a small discussion of this in June

I figured out my stats using traveller, the silly era
http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/vacc.html
(You'll of course want to go back and look at the rest of the silly stuff
on this site.)

At 05:35 AM 6/29/99 -0500, Andy Slack wrote:
 >Baselines:
 >CT Book 1 fully qualified: Level 1. [Says so in Book 3]
 >CT Book 5+ fully qualified: Level 2. [Says so in High Guard]
 >CT licenced Doctor: Level 3 [Says so in Book 1]

He also points out that in Book 4, Instruction skill was introduced
allowing someone to gain a skill that the instructor knows in 6-week
cram session or a 6 month "night school" type of course. They point
out that this skill should be used sparingly and I can see why. This
would mean that if any of my teachers had had instruction skill they
would've been able to give me Skill-1 in anything in one semester.
(None of them did).

[And then I put the book back on the shelf, and book 3 slides into
the centerfold of book 4 and I cringe. When will I be getting new
copies of these soon :) ]

Here is the signature that inspired the discussion:

Rob Brady 685B57            Computer Geek, 4 terms
Computer-4, Electronic-2, Streetwise-1
"Don't even ask about quirks!"     robb at datatone dot com

I think I've downgraded myself to Electronics-1.

The resume is more like:
Other - (Street Hood) 1 term (I keep this out of my professional resume)
Computer Geek:
term 1: hacking (in the good sense of the word) unix machines, programming
         game machines in assembly language. Some screwing w/ hardware.
term 2: Assembly language graphics device drivers. Later on C on unix.
         Some more hardware. Pascal!
term 3: Assembly language, C/C++, FORTRAN!
term 4: some assembly language, a _small_ amount of FORTRAN, C/C++, and all
         those neat things that keep appearing, ActiveX, COM, DHTML, ATL,
         trying to learn Java in my free time, but I no longer have the
         ability to read the reference section of a manual straight through
         in alphabetical order like I did for the 6502, 8086, and 68020.

On January 17th, 2001 I'll be able to muster out of term 4 and begin
Travelling. I wonder how it will begin. I picture a ship emerging from
J-Space in the near future, lights blinking to the tune of a "Space Hog"
song. They were really just looking for a Gas Giant to fuel up at, but
they notice the radio transmissions coming from the habitable zone. Since
they are fleeing from the Law in this uncharted zone of space, they don't
dare make contact, but one day, in a cornfield near my house... (Okay, up
to the cornfield part it seemed OK)

Notice, no level-0 skills. What are they? Are they something like this
C++ or Graphical User Interface people keep talking about? Sorry, I have
no time for that. I'm busy getting the sprite movement routines on the
8 bit nintendo machine working.







- --
C I forgot how much I hated fortran until I had the   00435356
C misfortune of having to go back and work on some    00435357
C legacy code -- Rob Brady (robb@datatone.com)        00435358

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 10:29:44
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: The Baron Population Bomb

At 01:05 PM 10/25/1999 -0400, you wrote:

>Notice that "Socialism/Communism" Governments are not listed as Government
>Types in the UWP? 

There are a couple of government types that would fill the
Socialist/Communist role:

Gov't 1: Corporation.  If the Party is the company, and the Workers are all
shareholders, then it's a Marxist dream come true!  Elect the Management
from the rank and file.

Gov't 2: Participating Democracy.  Another utopian take on the idea.
Everybody of a certain age is a member of the Party, and everybody votes.
Heinlein's Starship Troopers comes to mind, with Party membership
restricted to veterans.

Gov't 3: Self Perpetuating Oligarchy.  The People's republic of China after
Mao would be a good example.. ruled by an inner circle of Party members,
who don't need to answer to those they rule over.

Gov't 8 or 9:  Civil Service Bureaucracy and Impersonal Bureaucracy.  Both
good "ground level views of the communist systems.  "The Party has
determined that you are over your quota for air this quarter, comrades.
Please adjust your breathing accordingly.  Spacebo."

Gov't A: Charismatic Dictator.  Josef Stalin, Mao, Fidel Castro.. Communist
regimes seem to end up being a haven for dictators.

You could make a case for Gov't D: Religious Dictatorship.  Given some of
the utterly bizarre assumptions made by Soviet scientists (esp. Lysenko) in
accordance with Marxist theory, you could have fun with this one.

And of course Gov't F: Totalitarian Oligarchy.  The sons of the Party get
the best, while the Workers slave away.

Socialism and Communism are economic theories.  Remember, the Soviet Union
had an elected assembly.. there was just one party invited of course...
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

There was once a time when the church controlled the government.
The laws of the church were the laws of the land. Belief in God 
was strong, teachings of the church were rarely questioned.
This time was called The Dark Ages.

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

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:01:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terry Mixon <tlmixon@yahoo.com>
Subject: X-boat route too long?

I notice the x-boat route between Tenalphi and Strouden in the 
Lunion subsector is a jump 5. Does anyone think this is a 
mistake or merely some special circumstance? 

Terry

=====

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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 14:01:21 -0400
From: Walter Smith <SmithW@HARTWICK.EDU>
Subject: re: Mining the TML

Rob Brady wrote:
>>>>>>>>
Notice, no level-0 skills. What are they? Are they something like this
C++ or Graphical User Interface people keep talking about? Sorry, I have
no time for that. I'm busy getting the sprite movement routines on the
8 bit nintendo machine working.
>>>>>>>>>
level-0 skills are the nice gamemaster's way of letting the more 
sedentary characters shoot guns like the real adventurers in the party.
<weg>

Level-0 implies sufficient basic familiarity to allow the person to use
the skill under normal, non-stressful conditions. The most common
skill level zero skills in canon adventures are a weapon skill (one
per person) and Vacc suit skill. Vacc-0 would allow you to put on
a vacc suit safely in a spacious airlock and walk carefully across
the surface of an airless world without killing yourself. It wouldn't
allow you to put on a vacc suit in the dark while atmosphere rushes
out of a holed ship around you, except by luck.

I rate myself as carbine-0, bow-0 and survival-0. I know how to load,
aim, and fire a light rifle with some success at relatively easy targets,
but I've never used one while other people were running around and
shooting at me. (That was paintball.) I can use a bow and arrow
without hurting myself, and I have a smattering of survival training
that is more book-based than experience-based to go along with
about five years of intermittent woodcraft training in the Boy Scouts.

I didn't put in History-0, or any other knowledge skills at 0 because I 
figured that my Education score would cover that.

More Obtrav: How many points of Edu can you give someone with
six weeks and Instructor skill?

Walt Smith

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End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1256
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