Traveller-digest     Monday, September 6 1999     Volume 1999 : Number 1063



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: GDW Sign for sale
Re: Jump Horizons of stars
Re: GDW Sign for sale
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1048
Re: GT Missile
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1051
Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)
RE: request for URLs with Traveller pictures
Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)
Re: standards of beauty
Re: Safety of low berths...
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1051
Re: AKUS MOBY Update (was Ship Damage...Oh my!)
Re: Inter species relationships
Soak with Lighter Fluid/Was Nuke's in Traveller
Re: The Big RED Button
Re: AKUS MOBY Update (was Ship Damage...Oh my!)
Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)
Re: Testing the waters
Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)
Re: Testing the Waters
Re: request for URLs with Traveller pictures
Re: standards of beauty

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 23:03:17 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: GDW Sign for sale

On 09/05/99 at 10:33 PM,  "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net> said:

>Jay, if you don't get that thing ASAP I'll be very disappointed! ;-) 
>Of course, if you do get it I'll be very jealous, but that goes
>without saying, eh?

Hum, that sign is a totem of the Traveller Creed. I said it 6 months ago and I'll say it again, "We need to have a Traveller Con."  We can all gather around that sign and....well, ya'll can fight over versions, I'll be running a game. <g>

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

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 23:05:06 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Jump Horizons of stars

On 09/05/99 at 10:38 PM,  GypsyComet@aol.com said:

>>>        100d from the star makes sense.   It makes for a serious problem
>>>trying to hike in as a blocade runner, and exposes outgoing vessels to
>>>privateers, et al as they try and get to the 100d. 
>>
>>In doing up the systems of Lunion using _First In_, I'm finding most worlds
>>are well inside the star's 100d limit.  Makes life a little more
>>interesting.

> I ran that set of numbers using Book 6 (for the Stellar Radii table)
>and  found *in general* that K and M stars' jump horizon is beyond
>the habitable  orbit, G stars are a tossup, and the younger stars
>(O,B,A & F) rarely if ever  reach the habitable orbit. This
>generalization applies best to Type V stars,  but can be used for
>nearly any of them in a pinch...

It works even better if you don't deal with a planetary limit at all, but *always* use the stellar 100 dia.  IMO, of course.

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

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 21:15:20 -0700
From: "John Palmer" <jpalme2000@digitalsomething.com>
Subject: Re: GDW Sign for sale

I'm all for a Traveller Con. Anyone ever organize a Con?

JP
- -----Original Message-----
From: Eris Reddoch <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Sunday, September 05, 1999 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: GDW Sign for sale


>On 09/05/99 at 10:33 PM,  "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net> said:
>
>>Jay, if you don't get that thing ASAP I'll be very disappointed! ;-)
>>Of course, if you do get it I'll be very jealous, but that goes
>>without saying, eh?
>
>Hum, that sign is a totem of the Traveller Creed. I said it 6 months ago
and I'll say it again, "We need to have a Traveller Con."  We can all gather
around that sign and....well, ya'll can fight over versions, I'll be running
a game. <g>
>
>Eris
>--
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 19:43:14 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1048

In mail you write:

> Kiri Aradia Morgan writes:
>
>> > Is that the tactical nuke game that said "To simulate a strategic nuclear
>> > war, soak the map in lighter fluid and apply match"?
>> > 
>> 
>> Yes.  And it's one of the only "card" games I'll play.
>  
> Bog.  Nuclear war doesn't have a map, and isn't tactical.  I know I saw that 
> line about lighter fluid, but I think it was another game (ogre?  Dunno).

SPI's "Strategy II". It's a "generic" game the has scenarios from
ancients thru modern. The best part of the line about nuclear war is
that it continues "and the next game should start with <earliest
ancients scenario>".

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

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 19:50:26 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: GT Missile

In mail you write:

>>Armament: 30mm .001 kiloton micronuke (0.108lbs, .0022cf, Cr9,003).
                                          ^decimal
                                          
> For 100 pounds you get a warhead that's equivalent to 1 ton of TNT?
> Hardly worth the effort (compared to the kinetic energy), I would
> think...

Check again, that's <point>108 lbs. Or a bit over 1.7 ounces. 

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

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 19:56:41 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1051

In mail you write:

>>
>> >...It also depends on what you are trying to acheve;
>> >seeding clouds is one thing...
>>
>> Don't ignore the value of seeding clouds.
>>
>> I recall a TV interview a couple of years ago the the man resposible
>> for stopping (or at least minimising) the rain during Mayday parades
>> in Moscow.
>>
>> Phil Kitching
>
> Actually we are getting to the same point.  I am by no means dismissing the
> power of seeing clouds.  I was trying to point out how there are simple
> weather control procedures, and then ones not so simple: i.e. you can make
> it rain, and you can make it rain somewhere else so that it doesn't rain
> where you are, or earlier so it doesn't rain later or whatever, but just get
> rid of the rain altogehter?  A little more insidious.


More to the point, changes *propogate*. And we can't predict how far or
how fast. 

I remember dealing with the issue of "weather control" *spells* in D&D.
I used the weather rules from Chivalry and sorcery simply because they
where the *only* rules that were avialable at the time that had you
rolling "deltas" rather than "absolutes". 

That is, you rolled to determine how the weather would *change*, not to
determine what it *was*. For example a roll for temperature would be
"up", "unchanged" , or "down". There were biases built in to keep
things from getting really out of hand for the season. Or more
accurately, to make it *unlikely* to get too far from normal. 

So when you control the weather, you forcibly *drag* the system into a
given state. Which becomes the "previous state" of the next set of
rolls. Which meant that the weather could wind up "different" for a
week or more. 

"Merely" seeding the clouds wilkl at the very least mean that you are
depriving areas downwind of you of the rain they'd have otherwise
gotten. There *will* be lawsuits from farmers. And possibly from other
folks who depend on the water from the rain. 

Check out the sort of fights that occur over water usage along a river,
such as the Colorado. Figure that weather control will start even
*worse* fights. And likely have even worse effects ecologically.

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

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 20:10:20 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)

In mail you write:

> enjoying it.  My only on-going concern is that I see no way to win...  Virus
> is like Anthrax;  once an area is contaminated, there seems to be no way to
> sterlize it...  even a hand-calculator could be the Agent of Doom if you
> aren't careful while scavenging.  <shrug>  You can quarentine and take
> precautions, but its there forever.

Well, you *can* eliminate Virus. You just have to have tech that's too
*dumb* to infect, and use that to examine every single bit of "higher"
tech that is found in an infected area. Anything other than information
storage is considered raw materials, and recycled via smelting or worse.

Info storage media can generally be read bit by bit be some *very*
crude hardware. Too crude to infect. Transcribe it all onto read only
media, and then have some slightly brighter gear look for tell-tale
patterns that indicate encoded virus. 

Most of the info can be thrown away anyway. Any reference works you
already have are junked. Later editions are carefully compared
("mechanically") with earlier editions and lists of changes made. Those
can be edited in to *new* copies, but can't transfer the virus. 

Stuff like statistical data and financial records just plain isn't
worth the risk of recovering, so it gets slagged too. Fiction and art
and going to be a matter of priorities, but I expect that they may get
the axe as well. 


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

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 16:17:02 +1200
From: rboleyn@paradise.net.nz
Subject: RE: request for URLs with Traveller pictures

On 5 Sep 99, at 16:46, Jesse DeGraff wrote:

> Sorry to push your limits :)  Anyway, the future will see versions of the
> pics at approx 800x600, 1024x768, and 1152x864.  Don't see much call for
> beyond that.  I say "approx" 'cause some of the pics may / have been cropped
> in interesting ways for higher visual appeal or drama.  If this is a
> problem, I'd suggest the excellent shareware program ThumbsPlus
> (www.cerious.com).  I do all my graphics wrangling, conversion, thumnailing,
> and wallpapering with this program.

That's OK :) I also went to 1024x768 because on moving from Win95 
to NT4 I found that the NT drivers will run my video card/screen 
combo at 75Hz, whereas Win95 managed 70Hz on a good day, and 
had a strange fuzzy look to it at higher than 800x600.


- --
Rupert Boleyn <paradise.net.nz>
Wellington, New Zealand

A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history.

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 23:24:10 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)

Leonard Erickson wrote:
> 
> In mail you write:
> 
> > enjoying it.  My only on-going concern is that I see no way to win...  Virus
> > is like Anthrax;  once an area is contaminated, there seems to be no way to
> > sterlize it...  even a hand-calculator could be the Agent of Doom if you
> > aren't careful while scavenging.  <shrug>  You can quarentine and take
> > precautions, but its there forever.
> 
> Well, you *can* eliminate Virus. You just have to have tech that's too
> *dumb* to infect, and use that to examine every single bit of "higher"
> tech that is found in an infected area. Anything other than information
> storage is considered raw materials, and recycled via smelting or worse.

An interesting solution.  Now here's the KCr 64 question:

Given _really_ good air conditioning, quite a bit of room, and enough
time (both for construction, and for down-time while changing burned-out
tubes), could one build vacuum-tube/mechanical relay computers
sophisticated enough to:

1.  Detect Virus?

2.  Provide the data-processing needed to run a high-tech society?

If so, would vacuum-tubes and mechanical relays be sufficiently
resistant to Virus to make the effort worthwhile, at least for dirtside
needs?

<<snip>>

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

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 21:34:17 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: standards of beauty

> I also have
>  Vargr females only sexually receptive at certain times (they
>  go into "heat").

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. Are humans the only species that is sexually
active regardless of metabolic cycle? What is up with benoboes(sp?)? Are
they just always in heat? Do the Aslan go into heat? I know Hiver
sexuallity, as it is tied into their culture deeply, but I had never thought
about the other races. What is the difference between "heat" and "estrus"?
ISTR heat is just the common term, estrus the clinical, but I'm not sure.
Why don't humans go into heat? Sorry if these are basic questions, but I
always get such well worded answers on this list.
////////////////////////////////////////
Akella 0609 C654474-6 S kk+ hi++ as+ va+ dr+ da+ so@ zh- vi++  A523
IMTU tc++ ?t4 ru@ 3i+(-) c+ jt au@ st- ls+ pi+ ta@ he+

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 14:45:06 +1000
From: "The Roc" <roc@kewl.com.au>
Subject: Re: Safety of low berths...

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas E. Berry <gridlore@mindspring.com>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 1999 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: Safety of low berths...


> From: "The Roc" <roc@kewl.com.au>
>
> > - ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Douglas E. Berry <gridlore@mindspring.com>
>
> > Thanks for reminding me of those Barry,
>
> Personal nit:  My last name is spelled Berry.  I haven't been called by my
> last name exclusively since my first name was "Private First Class."
>
> Doug, Douglas, Hey you, or That Idiot in San Francisco are all acceptable,
> but please spell it right.
> --

Sorry, I actually meant to call you "Doug" and I *know* it's not Barry... I
don't know why I wrote that???  Must have been late or I had a mate chatting
in my ear at the same time (I have a couple of RPG'ers that read this list
over my shoulder sometimes... they enjoy it for some reason? ;)

Again, sorry about that error mate.

- -- The Roc

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 23:35:54 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1051

On 09/05/99 at 07:56 PM,  shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) said:

>"Merely" seeding the clouds wilkl at the very least mean that you are
>depriving areas downwind of you of the rain they'd have otherwise
>gotten. There *will* be lawsuits from farmers. And possibly from
>other folks who depend on the water from the rain. 

>Check out the sort of fights that occur over water usage along a
>river, such as the Colorado. Figure that weather control will start
>even *worse* fights. And likely have even worse effects ecologically.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to produce a localized and persistant high pressure ridge? Idea being to eventually change the course of a jet stream, creating an El Nino type effect in some part of a world.

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

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 21:44:09 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: AKUS MOBY Update (was Ship Damage...Oh my!)

> The Navy finally turned the ship over to our heroes at the world's
> UpPort,

Now there's a new one to me, what is an UpPort?
////////////////////////////////////////
Akella 0609 C654474-6 S kk+ hi++ as+ va+ dr+ da+ so@ zh- vi++  A523
IMTU tc++ ?t4 ru@ 3i+(-) c+ jt au@ st- ls+ pi+ ta@ he+

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

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 14:53:28 +1000
From: "The Roc" <roc@kewl.com.au>
Subject: Re: Inter species relationships

- ----- Original Message -----
From: cos 90 <cos90@powersurfr.com>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 10:49 AM
Subject: Re: Inter species relationships



>
> There is nothing wrong with Klingon dental plans. Klingon teeth are
> *supposed* to look that way. Lt. Torres on Voyager is half-human, and
> obviously takes after her human parent when it comes to how her teeth
> turned out. And Worf's teeth look a little more human than what is
> otherwise normal for a Klingon because he was raised by humans who
> didn't know any better and took Worf to a good orthodontist to get his
> teeth in line... :)

I think the teeth thing is a Klingon fashion statement, very hot to other
Klingons.  Worf and Torres?  Yeah, that bloody human influence thing, always
messing with other sohp's ideals, making them more human! ;^)

>
> (Somehow, though, I can't imagine an adolescent Worf with braces on...
> maybe in the 24th century, Earth dental care has evolved past them?)

Unless they were cool by Klingon standards... with blades for cutting his
meat as he forked it into his mouth?

>
> And what is dental care like in the 3I and environs? Do Vargr chew on
> specially-made substances to clean their teeth (akin to Milk-Bone here
> on Earth)?

Lets face it, here and now, there are cultural groups in Europe and the US
with sharpened teeth, diamonds set in their teeth, gold, silver, smiley
faces, whatever.  The 3I with it's technology would have some wicked dental
options I'm sure!

- -- The Roc

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

Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 00:49:11 +0000
From: MICHAEL FOY <musashi3@home.com>
Subject: Soak with Lighter Fluid/Was Nuke's in Traveller

"Soak map in lighter fluid and ignite to simulate..."

This may have been in "Third World War" or "The Next War" by the greatly
missed SPI. Ah..."The Next War", the Europa of the Cold War. Some
friends and I back in the mid-eighties (when GDW's Assault and TWW came
out) played SPI's monster Warsaw Pact/Nato theatre war simulation. As I
recall it took us seven weeks to complete the game, playing about two
times a week for three+hours a session. NATO won. Russia's Warsaw Pact
nations rebelled when the Soviet Attack bogged down in Fulda. Poland
went neutral and the logistics train of the Russians dried up and the
government is the USSR collapsed. This fortunately happened at the same
time the first NATO tac-nukes were deployed. At the time, we heard from
other idiots trying this game that it went nuke in about three turns
just about every time they played it. Ours went longer because the
people I was playing with at Old Dominion University were mostly US and
foreign military officers at NATO's staff college in Norfolk, VA. They
as a group whether playing Next "never finish" War or GDW's cold war
stuff showed a restraint in using NBC that I hardly ever saw in
civilians, even those who were particularly well versed in defense
policy. It's ironic that the most bloodthirsty have never trained or
fought for war. None of the guys I knew were that crazy and were very
Sun Tzu is their thinking. Only the 'geeks' nuked 'em til they glowed.

OBTraveller: How ingrained is the willingness to use NBC bred into 3I
and its belligerents? Gas use in WWI put a bitter taste in planners
mouths on all sides in WWII (although there is plenty of evidence the
Japanese were ready to use it to defend Manchuria and the Home Islands
in the end.) Perhaps use of Nukes on earth in the future or in the Nth
interstellar wars gave everybody the willies. The Vlani as we understand
it were more than willing to use nukes on an enemy that couldn't
adequately retaliate.I feel the Terrans could and would play a dirtier
game than the Vlanis. We're good at it, especially on enemies we define
as 'non-human' and uncivilized.(Visions of George C. Scott and Curtis
LeMay..shivver) Did the Zhodani and the Impies dose each other in their
five little "police actions"? Nobody wants to play a game were the only
smart thing to do is not play at all {Wargames}. 

Musashi

Back with more time on his hands (and an e-mail account his wife can't
delete 'cause it's fillin' the hard drive)

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

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:44:56 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: The Big RED Button

> > I would like to getting around to playing a 3I game:  its a whole new of
> > moral morass for the players to conquer (no, you're not noble yet
> > tarnished heroes working for a better tomorrow.  Your a buch of people
> > with a ship, no money and big bank payments.  What do you do now?)
>
> Who says that 3I characters aren't a bunch of "noble yet tarnished heroes
> working for a better tomorrow"?
>
> Sure, they've got to work for a living, but that doesn't mean what they do
> is any less noble than what anyone else does.  After all, if the 3I
> characters had 'succeeded', you wouldn't have had the Hard Times, or the
> Collapse.  That, after all, is part of what the 3I setting is (or can be)
> about - to stave off the forces of darkness, and to prevent the 'next Long
> Night'.  The Flandry thing is part of the 3I setting.
>
> The other 'great noble task' of the 3I setting is to change the Imperium
> itself.  Let's face it - it's a 'not quite Good Empire', even if it's not
> an 'Evil Empire'.  There are abuses and injustices in the 3I that it's
> perfectly sane to oppose, whether it's world by world, or on a larger
> scale.  The 'Liberation' of worlds is just as possible in the 3I setting
as
> it is in any other.  You don't have to play an Ine Givar campaign to do
> this, either.  There's at least a tacit assumption in the Mercenary style
> games that what the players are fighting for is better than what currently
> exists, even though it may seem that the players are just 'thugs for
hire'.
>
> Yes, 3I games can be about selling comfortable shoes to the Aslan, but
> those games aren't really very interesting.  Usually, I suspect, such
> activities are the side issues to the real game - nobbling the Kforuzeng,
> or saving Raschev from the Chamax.  One thing I'm seriously considering is
> a scenario/mini-campaign set on Tarsus in the GT setting, opposing an
Aslan
> invasion.

Point well taken.  As a side note, I've had people refuse to play in my
games because I never gave them an easy choice.  But I wasn't saying that 3I
was without moral conflict, or the possiblity for great deeds, but rather
that it isn't handed out as part and parcel with the proposed campaign
setting, and in New Era it is packaged /very/...how to put this, ?neatly?,
as in the sense of well-fit.  It's just a whole different set of screws in
3I.  It's much more open to interpretation, but the inherant quality of edgy
dramatics is not essencially holisitc to the design of the game.  Instead of
being challenged by a "means-ends" struggle, there is the potential for a
focus struggle: not a direct ethical challenge to their actions, but instead
being faced with a nearly unlimited supply of semi-right things to do, they
are forced to pick one via the nature of their circumstances.  And that's
where the shoes come in, especally when they find out that they were really
hired to cover a shipment of low-berthed human sex-slaves for some crazed
Aslan hierarch.
- - J.S.

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 23:49:35 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: AKUS MOBY Update (was Ship Damage...Oh my!)

Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella wrote:
> 
> > The Navy finally turned the ship over to our heroes at the world's
> > UpPort,
> 
> Now there's a new one to me, what is an UpPort?

UpPort, aka HighPort.  The orbital component of a starport.

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

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 99 23:47:23 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)

On 09/05/99 at 11:24 PM,  Black ICE <wombat@premier.net> said:

>> Well, you *can* eliminate Virus. You just have to have tech that's too
>> *dumb* to infect, and use that to examine every single bit of "higher"
>> tech that is found in an infected area. Anything other than information
>> storage is considered raw materials, and recycled via smelting or worse.

I liked Derek Stanley's use of Canery devices.  The canery is a
small self-contained unit with enough processing power to mimic an
air/raft or ship computer.  Attach a canery to a suspected piece of
equipment and watch to see if a Virus develops...and the canery
dies.

>An interesting solution.  Now here's the KCr 64 question:

>Given _really_ good air conditioning, quite a bit of room, and enough
>time (both for construction, and for down-time while changing
>burned-out tubes), could one build vacuum-tube/mechanical relay
>computers sophisticated enough to:

>1.  Detect Virus?

>2.  Provide the data-processing needed to run a high-tech society?

>If so, would vacuum-tubes and mechanical relays be sufficiently
>resistant to Virus to make the effort worthwhile, at least for
>dirtside needs?

Sure.  A substantial part of the computer tech IMTU is based on
micro-tube technology.  You get big power hungry computers...just
like CT.  <g> My rational has nothing to do with Virus, though.
It's the negative effects from the interaction between quantum state
devices that make CG/AG possible and solid state electronics. 

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

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

Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 00:57:37 -0400
From: Mark Urbin <eclipse@ultranet.com>
Subject: Re: Testing the waters

cos 90 <cos90@powersurfr.com> types with his weasel powered keyboard
 >>> Virus, I can deal with.  Gillian Anderson, okay.  But _Cher_?!?  :-P
 >>Hey Cher will be making a special guest appearance in the musical flash back
 >>episode as Duilnor's mother Delilah.
 >Shouldn't we then have at least one song here by Tom Jones? :)

My I suggest "Daughter of Darkness."


- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
eclipse@ultranet.com -- These opinions are mine, no one else wants `em.
           You sound reasonable ... time to up my medication
                  http://www.ultranet.com/~eclipse/
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 00:02:49 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: The Big Button (was Re: Testing the Waters)

Eris Reddoch wrote:
> 
<<snip>>
> 
> >If so, would vacuum-tubes and mechanical relays be sufficiently
> >resistant to Virus to make the effort worthwhile, at least for
> >dirtside needs?
> 
> Sure.  A substantial part of the computer tech IMTU is based on
> micro-tube technology.  You get big power hungry computers...just
> like CT.  <g> My rational has nothing to do with Virus, though.
> It's the negative effects from the interaction between quantum state
> devices that make CG/AG possible and solid state electronics.

So, you run an inherently Virus-resistant setting?  Just what I would
_expect_ from a self-confessed heretic.... >;-)

(No personal attack intended; I find heresy quite useful as a
clearly-labeled alternative to orthodoxy; it's when heresy is presented
_as_ orthodoxy that I get annoyed.)  

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

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 22:07:03 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Testing the Waters

> The Zhodani didn't get the Virus, they got the Empress Wave.

OK, I can't stand it anymore, what is this Empress Wave thing?

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

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 22:11:15 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: request for URLs with Traveller pictures

> In fact, as a favor to me, please do the same for all of your
> Travelleresque favorites in your collection.

I colect alot of sci-fi art on the web, does the 'esque suffix mean you're
interested in Not Exactly Traveller art as well?
////////////////////////////////////////
Akella 0609 C654474-6 S kk+ hi++ as+ va+ dr+ da+ so@ zh- vi++  A523
IMTU tc++ ?t4 ru@ 3i+(-) c+ jt au@ st- ls+ pi+ ta@ he+

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

Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 00:16:14 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: standards of beauty

Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella wrote:
> 
> > I also have
> >  Vargr females only sexually receptive at certain times (they
> >  go into "heat").
> 
> Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. Are humans the only species that is sexually
> active regardless of metabolic cycle? What is up with benoboes(sp?)? Are
> they just always in heat? Do the Aslan go into heat? I know Hiver
> sexuallity, as it is tied into their culture deeply, but I had never thought
> about the other races. What is the difference between "heat" and "estrus"?
> ISTR heat is just the common term, estrus the clinical, but I'm not sure.
> Why don't humans go into heat? Sorry if these are basic questions, but I
> always get such well worded answers on this list.

Well, humans _do_ go into "heat", every 28 days or so.  However, this
obviously isn't the only time human females are sexually receptive.

There's a reason for this.  It has been an evolutionary advantage for
human females to be sexually receptive on a more-or-less continual
basis.  This is because continual sexual availability has helped keep
human males on-hand to help provide food, shelter, and protection for
the mother and child(ren).

Other sentient species may or may not follow this pattern.  It would
depend on whether evolutionary pressures made continuous female sexual
availability advantageous.  Different environments may yield different
results.  In fact, under other circumstances, the possibility of
continuous female sexual availability may not even arise as an
evolutionary possibility.  As long as the pattern of periodic female
sexual availability is adequate to the species' survival, there may be
no need for change.

In other words, go ahead and postulate either situation for your
non-human sophonts.  YTUMV.  QED.  SOCKS ;-)

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

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1063
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