Traveller-digest       Thursday, July 29 1999       Volume 1999 : Number 905



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Word versions of MT: permission granted! 
Re: Republishing CT materials
Re: Republishing CT materials
Re: Stoning 
Re: Word versions of MT: done 
Re: Word versions of MT: permission granted! 
Re: Republishing CT materials 
Re: TAS Alien Encyclopedia
Re: Republishing CT materials 
Re: Real world question
Re: burgers
Re: Galactic Coordinates (Was RE: Transstellar chronosynchronization)
Re: by now well off topic
Re: Average Density of cargo?
test please ignore
MORE USEFUL METRIC CONVERSIONS
Re: Real world question
Re: Imperial Code of Law (Long)
Re: Classic Traveller Collectors' Edition
Re: TAS Alien Encyclopedia
Devi Intelligence
Re: Galactic Coordinates
Re: Average Density of cargo?
Re: Devi Intelligence

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 20:35:14 -0400
From: "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net>
Subject: Re: Word versions of MT: permission granted! 

Work?  How quaint.  :-p

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: David J. Golden <goldendj@pcisys.net>
> >I think we're all too late. Oh well.
> 
> Not fair, all these creeps who abuse their work internet access to
> get the jump on the rest of us!

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 17:35:50 -0700
From: "Legate Legion" <legate@futureone.com>
Subject: Re: Republishing CT materials

From: Volker Greimann <volker@greimann.de>
Subject: Re: Republishing CT materials

>>> Look on the bright side, he could have said Cliff
>>
>>
>>    Yes, he could have.  May Cliff rest in pieces.
>
>I presume you mean Clif?
>Volker


    Volker, who ever it was that we turned our FGMP-15s on.

Legate Legion
ICQ # 8973001
legate@futureone.com

"A man may fight for many things; his country, his principles, his friends,
the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd
mudwrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock, and a stack of
French porn." - Edmund Blackadder

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 17:48:20 -0700
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh@aracnet.com>
Subject: Re: Republishing CT materials

>At 03:26 27.07.99 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>>Where's the best place to track down a copy of the T4 FF&S and
>>Starships?
>
>Actually, You dont!
>I mean that.
>FFS is one great editing mistake, a manual on how not to do it.
>Starships, is of absolutely no use whatsoever, and i am sure everybody
>on the list will agree with me on that.
>Volker
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Volker A. Greimann --- http://www.greimann.de --- volker@greimann.de

Just to be hard to get along with, I've got to disagree.  They're good for
filling in a whole in your collection if you JUST have to have every
Traveller book printed.  They're also good for taking up valuable space on
a bookshelf.  They make good fire starter....  You get the picture :^)

				Zane
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Adminstrator  |
| healyzh@aracnet.com (primary)    | Linux Enthusiast           |
| healyzh@holonet.net (alternate)  | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|                   and Zane's Computer Museum.                 |
|                 http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/              |

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:16:24 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Stoning 

> AveNelso writes:
> ><< 
> > >  Yeah, but if Leroy were still on the list...  :)
> > He said the name, he said the name...
> > ...stone him!!!
> > Volker >>
> >	Look on the bright side, he could have said Cliff
> 
> 	No one wil stone anyone, even if, and I want to make this
> 	perfectly clear, even if they say Cliff...argh (thump,
> 	wham, thot...)

OK, so you hid all the grass & flushed all the acid down the toilet?

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:20:02 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Word versions of MT: done 

> Erwin Fritz <efritz@GLJA.com> writes:
> 
> >I now have the ten people that I'm allowed to send the files to. Those people
> >have been told that they're on my list.
> 
> For those of you desparate to get MT I seem to recall that Marc had some
> new copies available at $10 a book last year. Have a look at his website
> (linked off the jumpsite page on http://www.bits.org.uk/) and he may have
> it listed as still available.

Are these the ones with the errata applied??

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:22:24 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Word versions of MT: permission granted! 

> >>*ME*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> >
> >
> >I think we're all too late. Oh well.
> 
> 	Not fair, all these creeps who abuse their work internet access to
> get the jump on the rest of us!

Heh.  I work 2nd trick.  <grin>

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:26:58 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Republishing CT materials 

> >>> Look on the bright side, he could have said Cliff
> >>
> >>    Yes, he could have.  May Cliff rest in pieces.
> >
> >I presume you mean Clif?
> 
>     Volker, who ever it was that we turned our FGMP-15s on.

So who do we owe the medal to for whacking out Clif?

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:32:19 EDT
From: JLAROSEE@aol.com
Subject: Re: TAS Alien Encyclopedia

Hi-
  15 of 200 :-)
J.LaRosee

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:44:14 -0400
From: "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net>
Subject: Re: Republishing CT materials 

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Keven R. Pittsinger <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
> >     Volker, who ever it was that we turned our FGMP-15s on.
> 
> So who do we owe the medal to for whacking out Clif?

Ditzie.  There is a nice little drawing on Jesse's site.  SMOkin'! :->


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TRAVELLER Domain
http://www.downport.com
Colin Michael, Webslinger

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:23:37 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Real world question

In mail you write:

>>Funny.  I don't remember you from the last SDN meeting...
>>
>>Bradley
>
> Oh, which government are you from? I hang out with the guys in Saville Row
> suits with handlebar moustaches and furled umbrellas.

Didn't I see you riding that velocipede (weird bicycle with a *huge*
front wheel) at The Village?

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:30:33 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: burgers

In mail you write:

> Glenn St-Germain writes:
>>>Err....Volker.....what's a metric pound?
>>500 grams, or half a kilo. Close enough to the Imperial pound, which
>>is 454 grams. My mother is originally from central Europe, and grew
>>up with the metric system -- but in her neck of the woods, they did
>>use "pound" (500 grams) as a unit of measurement.
>
>         Just to pick a nit (this is Traveller, after all): one pound is
>         about 4.45 Newtons (force), while 500 grams is about 29.1 Slugs
>         (mass).
>
> :-)

You forgot about poundals.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:33:37 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Galactic Coordinates (Was RE: Transstellar chronosynchronization)

In mail you write:

> On Tuesday, July 27, 1999 2:02 PM
> Charles Collin said,
>
>> IIRC, Galactic North would be towards the observer as you look at a trav
>> map.  It's towards one end of the axis about which the galaxy rotates, so
>> it's orthogonal to the coreward/rimward and spinward/trailing
>> directions.
>
> North, being a directional, should refer to a consistent point.  If it is on
> the axis of galactic rotation, how far from the midpoint of the galactic
> plane would it be?  Projected out to the axis's intersection of a sphere
> encapsulating the galaxy?  The term Galactic North would seem to say it is
> only relative to our galaxy and not the universe in general.

Directions do *not* refer to points. For example, contrary to popular
belief, "north" on earth is *not* "towards the north pole". It's a
*vector* parallel to the earth's rotational axis, moving from the south
pole to the north pole.

Likewise, "galactic north" is a direction *parallel* to the galaxy's
axis of rotation, not one *towards* any point on said axis. You just
assign one "side" of the galactic core as the "north" side, and thus
points on the same side of the galactic *plane* (a plane perpenidicular
to the galaxy's rotational axis) as the "north" side of the core are
north of the plane.

Another quick way to determine galactic north. Hold out your hand.
Arrange your thumb so it is pointing "up", and your index finger is
pointing out (like you are imitating a gun). They should form a rough
right angle.

Now uncurl your middle until it is pointing at right angles to both of
them. 

Maintaining your fingers in thier relative positions, turn your hand
until your index finger is pointing coreward, and your middle finger is
pointing spinward. Your thumb is now pointing galactic north or
galactic south (depending on which hand you used). 

I can't tell you *which* hand to use to get your thi\umb pointing to
galactic north because I can't recall which way "spinward" is on the maps!

But to put it another way, if you orient a flat map with coreward to
the top and spinward in the "normal" direction" then Galactic north is
*up*. Remember, it's *parallel* to the spin axis of the galaxy.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:54:23 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: by now well off topic

In mail you write:

>>From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
>>Subject: Re: Real world question
>
>>One of these people has (repeatedly) announced that I'm just an alias for
>>an Orthodox Rabbi.  He completely missed the point when I posted a "you're
>>right" at 2200 hours on a Friday night.
>
> Even the ultra-orthodox could pull this off if they used cron.

That'd be the same as using timers on lights and appliances, which, as
I recall is *not* allowed by some Orthodox Jews.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 99 23:43:03 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Average Density of cargo?

On 07/25/99 at 07:30 PM,  "Carlos Alos-Ferrer" <Carlos.Alos-Ferrer@univie.ac.at> said:

>From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>

>> > What I am looking for is a quick and dirty rule of thumb, say... What
>> > is the average *density* of interstellar cargo and freight?
>> 
>> Well, when designing starships using FF&S2, I generally use 1 metric
>> ton/m^3 as a default for calculating required maneuver drives.  FF&S2
>> uses 14 m^3 equals one dton.

>That would be density 1, right? 1 metric ton = 1 m^3 is the density 
>of *water.* Not very believable unless 99% of interstellar cargoes 
>are water. Or am I missing something?

>I am estimating something between 2 and 3, but have no real data.

The mass of the cargo would include packing material, dead space,
access space, *and* the material being shipped.  And if the material
wasn't some sort of bulk cargo *it* would also contain dead space.
So, in many cases, the *cargo* you're shipping is much less dense
than the material that makes up that cargo.  

Examples:         tonnes
                  per m^3
Gold ingots        ~29
Iron ore           ~ 6
Water              ~ 1 
Bulk Grain         ~ 0.7 
Consumer Chemicals ~ 0.5*
Shotguns           ~ 0.3**
Computer Monitors  ~ 0.1***

* 3,500 - 120 ml plastic bottles in cardboard boxes of specialty
chemicals for the consumer market packed in a 1 m^3 shipping crate
(3,500 * 150g) = 525 kg
 
** 100 shotguns packed in a 1x1x1.5 m shipping crate each massing
3.75 kg plus 1 kg for packing (4.75*100)/1.5 = 317 kg

*** Each monitor shipped in a 1 cubic meter cardboard box, with
styrofoam packing, and massing 100 kg per box

See what I mean?


Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 20:19:47 -0700
From: "moran" <silente@gte.net>
Subject: test please ignore



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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 23:17:51 +0000
From: brhoust@juno.com
Subject: MORE USEFUL METRIC CONVERSIONS

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone
2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
10 cards = 1 decacards
1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
10 rations = 1 decoration
100 rations = 1 C-ration
10 millipedes = 1 centipede
3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
2 monograms = 1 diagram
8 nickels = 2 paradigms
2 wharves = 1 paradox




On Tue, 27 Jul 1999 22:26:29 EDT AveNelso@aol.com writes:
> 

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 23:28:00 +0000
From: brhoust@juno.com
Subject: Re: Real world question

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:27:17 +0100 "Nick Bradbeer" <nickb@ndirect.co.uk>
writes:
>>Funny.  I don't remember you from the last SDN meeting...
>>
>>Bradley
>
>
>Oh, which government are you from? I hang out with the guys in Saville 
>Row
>suits with handlebar moustaches and furled umbrellas.
>
>NB
>

I'm from the Phoenix Branch of the only Cabinet level Department to have
2 confirmed and 3 acting Secretaries in the last year- nobody wears the
same outfits-except lately the Ally Mcbeal outfits seem to be more
popular for some... and umbrellas would be a total waste here.

Of course every so often I wander around and look at other offices too..

Brad

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 01:57:32 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Imperial Code of Law (Long)

RASFranzen@aol.com wrote:
> 
<<snip>>
> 
> Thus we should definitely some interesting but unexpected legal customs on
> some worlds, maybe even balkanization of laws like in the U.S., where
> supposedly Louisiana is still Code Napoleon....

As a damnyankee transplanted to Louisiana, I can assure you that
Louisiana is indeed a civil code state, rather than a common law state. 
It amuses an attorney friend of mine (our game's ref, BTW) no end to see
people use "lawyer on a PC" software in this state, as they end up
risking much more in potential legal fees than they save by not seeing
an attorney in the first place.

ObTrav:  As a legal layman, I can imagine five basic sources of legal
decisions:
1.  Arbitrary (the whim of an autocrat; not really law, although
obviously binding in the autocrat's realm);
2.  Common law (the source of Anglo-American law; based on judicial
precedent);
3.  Civil code (rooted in the Justinian Code; the source of law in much
of continental Europe and the state of Louisiana);
4.  Divine law (examples being Hebraic and Islamic law, both of which
are meant to apply to both ecclesiastical and temporal matters);
5.  International treaty law (rules that, in theory, bind all signatory
sovereign political entities, such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 or
the Law of the Sea treaty).

This leads to several Traveller-related questions:

1.  What other sources of legal decision are found within Imperial
borders?  (This category can include non-Terran divine law.)

2.  What is the dominant source of legal decision in Imperial law?

3.  What is the dominant source of legal decision in extra-Imperial
entities (such as the Zhodani Consulate, the Solomani Confederation, or
the Aslan Hierate)?  Legal theorists are asked to speculate on all of
the above-mentioned examples, plus whatever other examples occur to
them.

4.  Are there any major treaties between the 3I and the various
extra-Imperial entities?  If so, what areas do they cover, and what
mechanisms for enforcement exist?

5.  How is the Law skill (from T4; other versions of Traveller may have
equivalents) affected by the presence of multiple bases for legal
decision?

<<snip>>

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 01:24:51 -0700
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Classic Traveller Collectors' Edition

  This is great news - now I know what to get myself for Christmas :)
Hmm, this is a nice way of doing business and helping all those poor
little G:T'ers build their collections, too...

>Classic Traveller Collectors' Edition
...
>THE FIRST VOLUME
>    The first volume in the series will be the Classic Traveller Books: This
>272 page perfect bound volume reproduces the books in their entirety with two
>5.5 x 8.5 inch pages on one 11x 8.5 inch page (printed in landscape format).
>It includes several pages of annotation, and printing/production numbers.
>    The book cover retains the classic Traveller appearance a solid black
>cover with the white type and red stripe.

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 11:45:51 +0200
From: "Jens Maskus" <1141-504@onlinehome.de>
Subject: Re: TAS Alien Encyclopedia

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999 21:32:19 EDT, JLAROSEE@aol.com wrote:

>Hi-
>  15 of 200 :-)
>J.LaRosee

6 of 200 ;-))

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 08:20:59 -0400
From: "Paul Schirf" <pc@perkworks.com>
Subject: Devi Intelligence

Animal: An organized living being endowed with sensation and the power of
voluntary motion, and also characterized by taking its food into an internal
cavity or stomach for digestion; by giving off carbonic acid and taking
oxygen in the process of respiration; and by increasing in motive power or
active aggressive force with progress to maturity.

Plant: An organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary
motion.  Self-supporting plants always contain chlorophyll, and subsist on
air and moisture and the matter dissolved in moisture, and as a general rule
they excrete oxygen, and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and
form the material for their tissues. Dependent plants comprise all fungi and
many flowering plants of a parasitic or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they
have no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter already
organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds already existing, and not
excreting oxygen.

What makes the Devi Intelligence Fungus-like and not an alien 'animal'
biology?  What makes them plant-like?  The Shiverbats are clearly endowed
with sensation and the power of voluntary motion and have mouths (read
internal cavity for digestion).  So they don't breath oxygen... plenty of
Traveller races are considered animals but don't breath oxygen.  I can
accept that the 'animal' life on Devi made a quick leap from 'plant' to
'animal' - and any text to help define why they're not 'animals' would have
gone a long way to making the race more 'fungi-like'.  I suspect that they
were described that way just to make them acceptable to the K'kree.  The
Inyx would make a great K'kree client race, as their parasitic ergovore
nature would have presented the K'kree with the same moral quandary that is
given in the Devi text.

Comments?

Paul Schirf
Paul@Schirf.com

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 09:17:13 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Re: Galactic Coordinates

Benyamene ZeAbe Akella writes:
>> Peez writes:
>>>Is there a canon reference for this? IIRC Traveller maps have
>>>Spinward to the right and Coreward to the top, and this implies
>>>to me that the observer is South of the map.
>>
>>  What are you, brain dead? Spinward is to the left on those
>>  maps, which implies that the observer is South of the map.
>>  Get with it, Peez!

>Hee hee, I think the direction in question is *out* from the paper, as in
>above it when the map is flat on a table. Perpendicular to the paper.
>That is the correct word, right?

	Don't ask me, I can't even tell right from left!

Peez

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 05:45:08 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Average Density of cargo?

In mail you write:

> So, in many cases, the *cargo* you're shipping is much less dense
> than the material that makes up that cargo.  
>
> Examples:         tonnes
>                   per m^3
> Gold ingots        ~29

*No* normal material has that high a density. The record for normal
solids is osmium or iridium (it depends on details of how you measure
them) at around 23. Gold is a "mere" 19.3.

You don't get into higher density's until you are dealing with
degenerate matter. And *that* requires some rather unreasonable
pressures. 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 05:49:08 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Devi Intelligence

In mail you write:

> Animal: An organized living being endowed with sensation and the power of
> voluntary motion,

This lets out many sessile *animals*, such as sponges and coral.

> and also characterized by taking its food into an internal
> cavity or stomach for digestion;

This lets out starfish. They *evert* their stomachs against whatever
they want to eat, and the stomach produces the digestive enzymes and
absorbs the released nutrients. When they are don, they pull their
stomach back inside.

> by giving off carbonic acid and taking oxygen in the process of respiration;

Plants do this at night.

> and by increasing in motive power or active aggressive force with
> progress to maturity.

Many creatures become *less* mobile as they mature. 

> Plant: An organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary
> motion.

Ah, you *do* know about Venus Flytraps. But plants turn out to be
capable of a *lot* of "voluntary" motion in response to chemical
stimuli and light.

> Self-supporting plants always contain chlorophyll, and subsist on
> air and moisture and the matter dissolved in moisture, and as a general rule
> they excrete oxygen, and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and
> form the material for their tissues. Dependent plants comprise all fungi and
> many flowering plants of a parasitic or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they
> have no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter already
> organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds already existing, and not
> excreting oxygen.

This gets even worse. You've combned plants and fungi (which are now
seperate kingdoms) and made a few other assumptions. 

There's a reason that the current biological kingdoms number 5 or 6. I
don't remember the classes for certain but it's something like this:

Animals
Plants
Fungi
Protista
????

The last two cover what used to be "prokaryotic bacteria" and
"eukaryotic bacteria".

I'm not sure where lichen fall in the above scheme.

> What makes the Devi Intelligence Fungus-like and not an alien 'animal'
> biology?  What makes them plant-like?  The Shiverbats are clearly endowed
> with sensation and the power of voluntary motion and have mouths (read
> internal cavity for digestion).  So they don't breath oxygen... plenty of
> Traveller races are considered animals but don't breath oxygen.  I can
> accept that the 'animal' life on Devi made a quick leap from 'plant' to
> 'animal' - and any text to help define why they're not 'animals' would have
> gone a long way to making the race more 'fungi-like'.  I suspect that they
> were described that way just to make them acceptable to the K'kree.  The
> Inyx would make a great K'kree client race, as their parasitic ergovore
> nature would have presented the K'kree with the same moral quandary that is
> given in the Devi text.

Well, when you get right down to it, we may not even be able to fit
some alien lifeforms into even the current, expanded set of "kingdoms".
It's all a matter of drawing relatively arbitrary lines anyway.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #905
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