Ternaugh Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 30 minutes ago, Badger said: Do you want me to go on my 133rd rant about Pluto being a planet. I'm sure no one else does😪 Mork : I've been to all the planets in your solar system. Exidor : Mars? Mercury? Pluto? Mork : Oh, don't ever go to Pluto, it's a Mickey Mouse planet. tkdguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 Don't have to be a planet to be under discussion for harboring life these days. Both Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Titan (moon of Saturn) have lots of speculation going on about that. Europa seems almost plausible to me, actually. tkdguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 30, 2020 Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 47 minutes ago, Ternaugh said: Mork : I've been to all the planets in your solar system. Exidor : Mars? Mercury? Pluto? Mork : Oh, don't ever go to Pluto, it's a Mickey Mouse planet. I really liked Exidor. The only person who could make Mork seem normal. tkdguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 6 hours ago, Cancer said: Don't have to be a planet to be under discussion for harboring life these days. Both Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Titan (moon of Saturn) have lots of speculation going on about that. Europa seems almost plausible to me, actually. I've always been curious about Venus. The tops of the clouds have a pleasant temperature and pressure. They also have sulfuric acid, but we have extremophiles that like sulfuric acid, and we have bacteria that live in cloud droplets. Couldn't there be life on the clouds of Venus? (except, now I think about it, don't those extremophiles need iron as well? There wouldn't be iron in the clouds) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 The thing those clouds utterly lack is water. When a water molecule is photodissociated by the solar ultraviolet, the hydrogen is quickly lost to space, and there's no getting it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 Maybe Venus has photodissociative identity disorder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 Maybe, but no one can blame us for that. It seems to have happened about 700 million years before primates evolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 ... Before the Cambrian Explosion, even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 5 minutes ago, L. Marcus said: ... Before the Cambrian Explosion, even. Read this statement in your head, but in the voice of Snagglepuss.... BoloOfEarth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 Never! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 "Exit, stage Galactic North." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 On 7/28/2020 at 1:46 PM, Ternaugh said: Unless your power is supplied from nuclear fission, you are already using the power of the sun to bake cookies. Let me point out that if the power is from nuclear fission, you're using the power of ancient supernovae to bake those cookies... Pariah and Ternaugh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 51 minutes ago, Foxiekins said: Let me point out that if the power is from nuclear fission, you're using the power of ancient supernovae to bake those cookies... Real men use the power of Grayskull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 31, 2020 Report Share Posted July 31, 2020 That does give me something to look forward to as my hair loss proceeds.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted August 1, 2020 Report Share Posted August 1, 2020 Asian longhorned tick found in southern Ohio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cowan Posted August 1, 2020 Report Share Posted August 1, 2020 20 minutes ago, Cygnia said: Asian longhorned tick found in southern Ohio it is still 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 2, 2020 Report Share Posted August 2, 2020 2020 Hugo Award winners are out. None of my books won, perhaps because I haven't written any. wcw43921 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 2, 2020 Report Share Posted August 2, 2020 2 hours ago, Old Man said: 2020 Hugo Award winners are out. None of my books won, perhaps because I haven't written any. The Keynote Speaker was George R.R. Martin (I think we all know who George R.R. Martin is). I haven't seen or read his speech, but from all accounts he went on a massive rant. whether he just was having a bad day or really is the jackass everyone says he looked like is open to question. The book I can recommend from the list is the graphic novel LaGuardia, about a woman who is pregnant with an alien's child in a xenophobic future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 2 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said: The Keynote Speaker was George R.R. Martin (I think we all know who George R.R. Martin is). I haven't seen or read his speech, but from all accounts he went on a massive rant. whether he just was having a bad day or really is the jackass everyone says he looked like is open to question. The book I can recommend from the list is the graphic novel LaGuardia, about a woman who is pregnant with an alien's child in a xenophobic future. He's old and people break down when they are old. It happens. Ask Old Man CES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said: The Keynote Speaker was George R.R. Martin (I think we all know who George R.R. Martin is). I haven't seen or read his speech, but from all accounts he went on a massive rant. whether he just was having a bad day or really is the jackass everyone says he looked like is open to question. 38 minutes ago, csyphrett said: He's old and people break down when they are old. It happens. Ask Old Man CES Morally? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 It happens, especially if the victim suffers a stroke (some of which may be too subtle to notice any other way). I have seen a subtle personality shift after a stroke in a senior colleague. Only a handful of people could see it (his closest collaborators), but it was there. It wasn't adverse (like losing some moral barriers), but he definitely did a couple of things after the stroke he would never have done before it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 2 hours ago, csyphrett said: He's old and people break down when they are old. It happens. Ask Old Man And sometimes younger people go off on tirades at the least provocation. Reading this article, I think we may have a case of a little bit of both: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/george-rr-martin-hugo-awards/ So far, I'm seeing him mispronouncing names, even though he was supposed to have had been provided a pronunciation guide. The horror. Then he's being accused of ". . . continually name-dropped John W. Campbell, a writer who had a Hugo Award named after him until 2019, when the title was changed to the Astounding Award on the heels of a scathing speech given by winner Jeannette Ng." Ng, apparently, gave a damning speech condemning Campbell as a fascist, while accepting the award named for him. Here's an excerpt from said speech, from the linked article: “John W. Campbell, for whom this award was named, was a fascist,” Ng said at the time. “Through his editorial control of Astounding Science Fiction, he is responsible for setting a tone of science fiction that still haunts the genre to this day. Sterile. Male. White. Exalting in the ambitions of imperialists and colonisers, settlers and industrialists." I don't have any polite words for this nonsense. I'll say that the reason the best new writer Hugo was named after Campbell was that he was noted for nurturing new talent. I corresponded briefly with him before he passed, just asking a question about his book on fiction writing, and found him to be polite and generous with his time. Didn't seem too bad for an old white guy. I just found out from this article that his name was removed from the reward, and I'm fairly disgusted by that. So, I'm thinking this may be a bit on each side. Martin likely knew Campbell and possibly regarded him as a mentor or at least respected him as predecessor -- and keep in mind, Martin has a TON of editing projects under his belt, and up until AOIAF, was better known for editing -- so, I can see him being a bit annoyed. And I see a hell of a lot of hypersensitivity in that word diarrhea from Ng. You'll notice that article has a lot of interpretations of what Martin meant, but no direct quotes from Martin's speech. To me, that's a pretty big red flag. But what do I know, I'm just an old white guy. Here's an article by Cory Doctorow on Campbell's racism and weirdness. Much better context than the Ng speech, which was brief: https://locusmag.com/2019/11/cory-doctorow-jeannette-ng-was-right-john-w-campbell-was-a-fascist/ So, it looks like Ng was right. I still would like to see these things in Campbell's words, but haven't been able to dig them up. Doctorow has been in the field for long enough to be a trusted source, though. I think there's still a lot of hypersensitivity here (decrying colonialism, etc. in a genre about exploration and yes, colonial expansion which used to be pretty mainstream fare), but Doctorow gives some solid examples that cast Campbell in a bad light, especially on matters of race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 2 hours ago, csyphrett said: He's old and people break down when they are old. It happens. Ask Old Man CES What does it mean if I am middle aged and cranky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 It means you are normal, which today means heretic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 3, 2020 Report Share Posted August 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Badger said: What does it mean if I am middle aged and cranky You need some cheering up. CES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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