Traveller-digest           Saturday, 20 July 1996       Volume 1996 : Number 273

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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. HELP!!!!
         2. Re: More Canadian horn-blowing
         3. Re: Realism
         4. Re: Realism
         5. Star Trek Tricoder.
         6. New Era Babblings
         7. Solee
         8. Terran History:  Canada
         9. Re: Good explanation of jump process
        10. Jump Drive Canon
        11. Psionic auto-mindprobe?
        12. The Scout Brew Sweety
        13. Re: Realism
        14. Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #266

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

From: Paul Walker <tiger@datasync.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:03:29 -0500
Subject: HELP!!!!

Help!!!  This has nothing to do with Traveller, but I didn't know anywhere
else to ask this question and expect to get a correct answer.

I have an IBM clone and it has a Texas Instruments 486DLC chip in it.  I
noticed not too long ago that it seemed to be operating slower than it had
in the past.  I checked it with a benchmarking program and found that my
processor that is rated at 38MHz is running at 7.4MHz (This is with Turbo
on).  The only things I have done in the past is add a disk drive (I know
have C: and D:, my CDROM is E:) and change a bad IO card out.  A while back
I thought I was having trouble with my battery as well.  CMOS would not be
there when I loaded the computer.  I got a battery, but when I changed out
the I/O card, the problem went away (or I haven't had my computer off for a
long enough time to notice).

My question is, can anyone tell me what I might have done to make the
computer operate so slow?  I've tried disconnecting the extra (D:) disk
drive, and tried using my old I/O card, and nothing seems to speed it up.  I
played with the Jumpers tonight, and got it up to 8.5MHz, but I put them all
back to where they were when I got the computer.

Any help that wnyone can provide would be appreciated.  Sorry to waste the
Bandwidth.


Paul  {tiger}


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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 20:53:28 -0700
Subject: Re: More Canadian horn-blowing

Tom Opgenorth wrote:
> 
>>Least we forget the inventor of standard time zones, can't remeber his
>>name
> He was Sir(?) Sanford Flemming.
> 
> Other things / people that are Canadian
>         Basketball
>         Bangalore Torpedos
>         The first radio transmission was made in Canada, can't remeber 
>         by who Banting & Best - I do believe that Banting was the 
>         Canadian.

Actually I beleive it was Bell, Banting some kind of a drug, penecilian 
or a polio vaccine comes to mind.  Not sure though.  You'd think I'd know 
I went of Sir Frederic Banting Jr. High and we had an intense rivalry 
with Sir Charles Best from down the road.
 
>>And they say that Australians are a wierd mob. What the bl**dy hell is 
>>a Labbat Blue Girl???
>
>Labatt's Blue is one of the more popular beers up here.  Pamela
>Anderson-Lee was choosen to run around in minimal clothing and
>advertise the beer for Labatts.

Ahhhhhhh...  Those brilliant avertizing exec's who make beer 
commercials...  hummmmmmmmm...
 
> I saw a movie last night called Canadian Bacon.  Hilarious movie.  With
> the end of the Cold War, the Yank's need a new enemy to keep their
> military factories going.  So they beging this massive campaign of
> anti-Canadian propaganda.

Isn't that the one where Alan Alda, the President says, "If you don't 
surrender pronto, we'll bomb Toronto."

I have to see that movie...  Looks pretty funny.

Derek Stanley



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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 21:06:59 -0700
Subject: Re: Realism

Peter H. Brenton wrote:
> 
>>When was the last time you heard of a bridge or building failing due to
>>improper design? When they do it makes nationwide news. Failing for
>>lack of maintenance, yes. Due to sabotage or natural conditions
>>exceeding design parameters (earthquake, flood, etc), yes.
> 
>Actually, in the Eighties (I think) the John KHancock building (in 
>Boston) kept shedding windows in "high" winds (we're talking relatively 
>normal conditions, not hurricaines or storms).  They closed the entire 
>square underneath it and had to conduct a major redesign of the fittings 
>for the windows.  I'd call this a 'suprise'.

Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in Washington State was constructed with 
a fatal flaw.  When the wind speed exceeded about 30 mph the bridge began 
to sway.  Eventually the bridge disintegrated in about 45 mph of wind.  
There's film footage of this occuring.  Prior to failure the bridge deck 
is bucking up and down about 8 feet like waves in a pond.

Second Narrows Iron Workers Memorial Bridge, collapsed during 
construction because there was a flaw in its design, about 50 steel 
workers were killed when it disintigrated.  This bridge is in Vancouver 
Canada.

Save on Foods Parking lot, Burnaby Canada.  One of the roof support beams 
was designed to be rivited in the middle, when cars were parked on the 
roof top parking lot the roof caved in on opening day.

That shopping mall in Korea.  Simply collapsed due to substandard 
engineering and materials.  Hundereds of people were killed.

Happens all the time, well once every five or six years.  More often than 
not we never hear about it unless more than five people are killed in the 
collapse.  That's the way the media works.  I'm sure everyone of us knows 
about some building in their home town that has a particularly nasty 
reputation of structural flaws.  

Hell our local emergency releif co-ordination center was supposedly built 
on bed-rock.  Now the building is settling and the elevator shafts are 
warping, the electrical conduit is buckling and they're having all kinds 
of problems.

Derek Stanley



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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 21:13:15 -0700
Subject: Re: Realism

Charles Pratt wrote:
 
>And while we're talking about falling bridges, the I-90 floating bridge
>across Lake Washington sunk a couple of years ago (now you know why the
>five miles of I-90 from I-5 across Mercer Island is the most expensive
>strip of road in the US).  You'd think that having 3 of the 5 floating
>bridges in the world, the Washington DoT would put more brains into 
>their construction...

I remember watching that on TV, weren't they doing some service work when 
that happened?

Most expensive strip of road in Canada is the Coquahalla Highway in BC.  
>From Hope to Kamloops, 200+ KM they had to dynamite every sqaure inch of 
land to put the road through.  Costs you ten bucks to drive the road but 
if you're in the area it's a must.  You've never seen a road like this 
one.

Derek Stanley


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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 21:16:49 -0700
Subject: Star Trek Tricoder.

Sorry this took so long to get back to you.

Someone was asking about the Tri-coder build by a Canadian Company.

The Companies name is Vital Technologies, out of Bolton Ontario.

There you go.  I don't know if they have a website.  It's called a 
Tricoder Mark I.

Derek Stanley



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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 21:21:59 -0700
Subject: New Era Babblings

Good Morning Loren.

I've been reading all this stuff on the origin's of GDW's thought process 
etc. and I've been wondering about some more practical stuff.

I know Dave Neilson is in periodic contact with Marc Miller about writing 
up a wrap up for TNE and I was wondering if you people had statistics on 
a number of Starships that are mentioned but never discribed in TNE.  
Particularly the RC Lancer, Fusilier, Manticora, Belladonna and Leviathan 
classes of ships.  I know that I and quiet a number of the other members 
of this list would be particularly interested in getting our hands on New 
Era statistics for these ships.

Is there much hope of Dave writing that wrap up so we can plot our own 
futures with the knowledge of what you had in mind?

Derek Stanley



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

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 21:28:26 -0700
Subject: Solee

One last message...

I know in Battle Rider and Striker II there are a number of statistics 
for the military forces of the Empire of Solee.  If you've got these 
books would you mind mailing me personally with this information.  I'm 
trying to compile as much info on Solee as I can.

PS I've heard that in Challange 71 there was info on an Antares Pocket 
Empire,  I'd like to get a copy of the Pre and Post Collapse data for the 
sector it's in as well as a brief synopsis of the info contained within. 
 Oh yeah, the sub-sector letter would also be helpful.  I'm building a 
map of charted space indicateing all the sectors that we have, official 
TNE data on from GDW.  Thanks in advance.

Derek Stanley

When I was listing Canadian Actors etc I neglected to mention Leslie 
Nielson, brother of Eric Neilson one of our ex-Governor Generals.

"Hummm...  That's the red light district.  I wonder what Savage could be 
after down there?"

"Sex Frank?"

"Uhhhh...  No thanks Ed..."

HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!


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

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:29:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Terran History:  Canada

This looked right on Eudora when I sent it, but I guess that a-umlaut
doesn't survive the Internet.  It should of course be O Canada, O Canada,
wie treu sind Deine Blaetter!

- --Glenn

>In the 58th Century, Canada will be (mis)remembered as a country with two
>official languages -- English and French -- so at war with one another that
>the country needed a German national anthem:
>
>O Canada, O Canada
>Wie treu sind Deine Bl=E4tter!


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

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:29:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Good explanation of jump process

>From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>

>> sigh of relief that they'd disengaged by jumping, and had no indication of
>> misjump.  Then instead of a quick week to wherever, they'd have to role-play
>> the nightmare of alarms, electronic failures, and mysterious medical
>> problems, which, coupled with the zillion surface hits taken in the fight,
>> would lead them to conclude that the jump grid wasn't functioning quite
>> right.  Then they'd have to trace and repair it, or at least mark off the
>> holes where j-space might -- or might not -- be reaching in.  
>
>Nasty, nasty!  Then again, once this happened to them the first time, 
>they'd hopefully make checks of the grid prior to jumping.  (Unless, of 
>course, you have someone in hot pursuit, and they don't have time for that.:)

That's exactly what I was contemplating -- the jumping ship is being
battered with surface hits (check those High Guard and MT hit tables), each
of which is taking off some lanthanum grid along with what other damage it's
causing.  Maybe the opponents are using a particle accelerator, or nuclear
missiles are detonating nearby.  Staying to check the jump grid means
certain annihilation; jumping means a chance at surviving a week of hellish
anxiety.  What are you going to choose?

- --Glenn


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

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:29:15 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Jump Drive Canon

>From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>

>Well, according to the SOM, the fuel was not consumed instantaneously. 
[deletion]  
>Part of the 
>'jump-fuel' was actually used as coolant while the rest was fed through 
>the J-drive's reactor, with the resulting energy pumped into a 
>high-capacity energy sink (In SOM, these are exotic, superconducting 
>'zuchai crystals').  

Zuchai crystals appear in AZ: Crystals From Dinom, 8 JTAS 10 ("An emergency
construction order from the Imperial Navy for jump drives caught Quadric
Industries unprepared as the corporation had not yet taken delivery on a
shipment of vital zuchai crystal.").  Actually, that's the only other
reference of which I'm aware.  

>Actually, pre-TNE-novel canon holds that staring at the jump field can 
>be a Bad Thing.  In my campaign, almost all viewports are sealed to 
>prevent passengers and crew from suffering hypnogogic hallucinations and 
>the like.  I can't remember exactly what SOM says about jump exit, but I 

I don't either, but I've always played jump space per Larry Niven:  Looking
out a porthole during jump is like staring at your own blind spot --
uncomfortable and unnerving.  Covering the porthole won't help; it'll always
feel like the cover gets too small and some of the blind spot starts to peek
out.  The only approach is to close all portholes before jump with covers
that make them appear to be part of the walls.

- --Glenn


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

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:29:18 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Psionic auto-mindprobe?

>From: Mark Seemann <mark@dk-online.dk>

>One of my players have a psionic character with telepathy, awareness and =
>telekinesis. The character is considering mindprobing herself to see =
>what happens. She has the skill and the power to do so.
>
>My question is, though, what will actually happen if she does so?
>
>Will everything unconscious be revealed for her? Will she goes insane? =
>Or will she aquire spiritual enlightenment? Is it possible at all? Or is =
>there a danger for an infinite recursive loop? A finite recursive loop?

If she is Zhodani, is she noble, intendant, or a prole with psionic power
who somehow slipped through the cracks?  What are her intelligence and
education statistics?

If Droyne, what caste, what position in the kroyloss, and how old?

If Imperial, in what era does the character exist?  What are her
intelligence, education, and social statistics?  What is her age?  How did
she get psionic training?

If Vargr, Aslan, or K'kree, I have no idea anyway.  I think that the Hivers
don't have psionics.

The issues that I'm trying to raise are (1) how prepared, psychologically
and emotionally, as well as technically, is she for the experience? and (2)
what might she have hidden from herself? If she isn't prepared, she runs the
risk of hurting herself, or at least changing herself in ways that she
didn't intend, by changing the "constellations of psychic energy" that
surround various aspects of her psyche (if I can badly paraphrase Freud).
If she has buried memories that are very powerful when uncovered, she could
find herself re-experiencing past traumas in the present.   

A Zhodani noble or a Droyne crone or leader would probably be very prepared
for the experience, and would probably have had experienced significant
psionic analysis in their lifetimes.  This would make the experience less
trying and closer to a routine; on the other hand, they probably wouldn't
have any motivation to do it.

An Imperial of ca. 1100 who took the one-year course at Joe's Psionic
Institute and School of Massage, on the other hand, might still be carrying
around a negative self-image because she is using psionics in the first
place.  Moreover, she might be carrying around unresolved psychological
issues from her own upbringing that she'll suddenly confront in the
auto-mindprobe.  

Those are a few ideas from me.

- --Glenn


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

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 23:29:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: The Scout Brew Sweety

>From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>

>Darryl Adams wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, derek stanley wrote:

>>And they say that Australians are a wierd mob. What the bl**dy hell is a
>>Labbat Blue Girl???
>
>It's a beer.  Kinda like a bud girl or what have you.  Maybe she was a 
>Molsen Girl???

Or a St. Pauli Girl?  The leading maker of commercial Scout Brew uses Scout
Brew Sweeties to advertise the product.  The SBS are of various races and
sexes, but are chosen on the basis of ability to sell the product.  Humans
are generally in their early twenties, physically fit, with good skin and
figures.  I don't recall which other races drink Scout Brew.  It sounds like
a human thing, actually.

- --Glenn


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

From: "Stuart L. Dollar" <sdollar@goodnet.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 00:40:00 -0800
Subject: Re: Realism

On 19 Jul 96 at 21:13, derek stanley spewed:

> Charles Pratt wrote:
>  
> >And while we're talking about falling bridges, the I-90 floating bridge
> >across Lake Washington sunk a couple of years ago (now you know why the

Classic example of this sort of thing occurred here in 
Phoenix...about 17 years ago.  We had a series of 500 year floods 
down here.  During the last of them, 1 of the larger freeway bridges 
(The Maricopa Freeway bridge, I-10 for those of you familiar with the 
area) began to buckle and sag.  It was designed to take about 250,000 
cfm water release from the dam upstream...1 of the 2 bridges began to 
buckle and sag at 150,000 cfm.  This was a modern bridge (less than 
20 years old)... enjoying the latest in modern engineering...and 
materials...

Meanwhile, about 5-10 miles upstream, the Mill Avenue bridge, which 
was like close to 100 years old...withstood everything that was 
thrown at it...

People will skimp, people will cut corners, and frankly people 
(including *GASP* engineers, designers and architects) will screw up. 
 This is true now and it will always be true...as long as people are 
in the mix, anyways...

Heck, the wheel and fire aren't reliable 100% of the time, and we've been 
using them for about 5000+ years now...what makes you think that 
fusion plants, j-drives, and computers will be... 

Stu
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" -Isaac Asimov, from "Foundation"
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This tagline brought to you by Big Ed's Taco Emporium, conveniently located next to
Bob's Pet Shop.
Stuart L. Dollar           sdollar@goodnet.com    

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

From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <gpvll@hk.super.net>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 15:54:25 +0800 (HKT)
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #266

        Charles Pratt wrote:

>
>On Fri, 19 Jul 1996, Darryl Adams wrote:
>
>> And they say that Australians are a wierd mob. What the bl**dy hell is a
>> Labbat Blue Girl???
>
>Labatt's Blue is a fairly decent beer.  She musta been something akin to
>Budweiser's Swedish Bikini Team.
>

        Blue a decent beer?  As far as Canadian beer goes, Blue is not one
of my favorites.  My faves are Maudite (quite literally "accursed") and
Illegale.  Maudite is this really cool refermented-on-lees beer with 8%
alcohol content, this cool red colour, and labels that would make Oral
Roberts' head explode.  The same brewery also makes one called "La Fin du
Monde", or "the End of the World" with 9% alc. 


Illegale is brewed up in the Saguenay-Lac-St.-Jean region of Quebec, made
with some incredibly pure springwater, and is really, really good for a more
conventional beer.

        I wonder how you could work a micro-brewery into a Traveller campaign.


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                         From the desk of either                       |
|                                                                       |
|    Roderick Darroch Elliott                   John Stephen Wishart    |
|                                                                       |
|                           gpvll@hk.super.net                          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+


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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #273
**********************************
