zadojla

I have one daughter (Beccareb on these forums), whom I just delivered to college today for the first time. She is the best.

Like Turtle, I lost interest in SF decades ago, but I still read the occasional novel. I've read nearly every book already mentioned, and agree that they are all remarkable. We All Died at Breakaway Station was by Richard Meredeth. His book At the Narrow Passage was also good. No one has yet mention John Brunner, The Sheep Look Up, Schockwave Rider, Stand on Zanzibar. And what about David Brin, Startide Rising and Roger Zelazny(a very variable author), Lord of Light or Creatures of Light and Darkness?

Seems OK.

English is a Germanic language that has had a couple traumatic changes. It has somehow lost its inflections (those pesky endings on adjectives, etc.), and about half its vocabulary comes from Latin. Both English and German have changed a lot over the maybe 1200 years since they split apart. One of the major changes in English was the Great Vowel Shift, which makes our pronounciation of vowels different than other European languages, and not match with our spelling.

Irish - I am not a veteran, but I am of the age to have been a Vietnam veteran. My three half-brothers and my mother are/were WW2 veterans, but no one was killed, or even saw combat. During the Vietnam War, most soldiers were drafted. Most people did what I did. I used the rules to avoid service as long as possible. If I had been drafted, I would have fought. I believe that if you join the military (voluntarily or involuntarily), there is an implicit acceptance of the possibility of fighting and dying. If you cannot accept that, then you must become a conscientious objector, flee the country, or go to prison. The problem with the current Iraq war is that it appears to have been started for the wrong reasons, without a workable plan for getting out, and that we have been lied to throughout. I believe most people are much more patriotic now that they were 35 years, but all it will take to turn Iraq into another Vietnam (in terms of domestic unrest) is the institution of a draft. It might actually be worse now, because people my age were trying to protect themselves then, and now they would be protecting their children.

What's going on here?

It was a quiet birthday for Becca. Dinner out with the family and Dave, and then ice cream cake. An early night because band camp starts tomorrow.

By the way, my understanding is that public education initially developed in the 19th century to Americanize the children of immigrants.

I'm curious. It would seem consistant that you would also view paying mandatory taxes to support police, fire departments, public hospitals as stealing. Do you? I have one child. She goes to public school, and she loves to learn. So do most of her friends. I went to public school. I have 3,000 books, most of which I have actually read, and I know many things I was never taught in school.

Interesting. Since "tinfoil" is really aluminum, could this be related to the urban legend that cooking in aluminum pots leads to Alzheimer's?

Steal from whom, how, and give to whom?

Examples?

If it is not, why not? What would you propose to take its place?

1. Yes 2. Not always possible. I work nights, for instance. 3. Agreed 4. Agreed 5. What if there is no school for disorderly children? This is a rural area. 6. Agreed 7. See number 2 8. Agreed 9. Agreed (although there is almost no "diversity " here, so it is moot.)

Consistent, actually, but yes. In Nazi Germany, I understand the usual fate of conscientious objectors was to be sent to a concentration camp, a rather different adminstrative process than you or Tormod endured. My point is that most people try to get through difficult times by keeping a low profile, which means doing what's expected but only the minimum. Doing so may be cowardly or lazy, but is not necessarily evil. To make this even, I should say I cannot be a conscientious objector or a pacifist. I can easily imagine circumstances where I would kill someone, even premeditated. However, the war I would have fought in, Vietnam, was a bad, stupid, war. I resisted by manipulating the rules as much as I could to avoid military service. I was successful, partly by luck. I also think Iraq is a bad, stupid, war, as do nearly half of Americans.

Sanctus, You are clearly a pacifist (nothing wrong with that), and live in Switzerland. My memory may be faulty, but doesn't Switzerland have universal military service? If so, are you a conscientious objector? [That's a US term, but should be clear.]

I think you're being over-idealistic here. It's not fair or reasonable to make a judgement of the actions of a 12-year-old, based on the job he gets 60 years later. One could as easily say that his experience of the war could be what brought him to God afterwards. And regarding "shooting", that is perfectly possible. There are always more soldiers in the "logistic tail" than there are actually fighting. I think, but cannot footnote yet, that the proportion for WW II was that it took four soldiers in support to keep one fully supplied soldier in the field.

I would think that the difference in overall size (Windsor Torres was 32 stories tall), and, more importantly, the lack of thousands of gallons jet fuel as an accelerant, would make the collapse of Windsor Torres and the World Trade Center not strictly comparable.

According to my 1994 World Almanac, giving its source as the 1993 Encyclopedia Brittanica Book of the Year, the total population by religion is: Christian 1,833,022,000 Islam 971,328,700 non-religious 876,323,000 Hindu 732,812,000 Buddhist 314,939,000 atheists 240,310,000 and so on

Hmm...maybe we should move this to one of the perpetual motion threads.

The analyses would be difficult also because you could not treat an acrobat as an ideal particle, which is the basis for the simplicity of elementary physics. Acrobats perform some of their motions by changing the moment of inertia of some parts of their bodies relative to other parts. For a simple example, think of a cat twisting in the air to land on its feet. First it extends its back legs and curls up its front legs. This gives the front of its body a lower moment, so it can be twisted around to face the ground. Then it extends its front legs and curls up its back legs, so its front half has a higher moment, and brings the rest of its body around so it is upright, and able to land on its feet. A cat can do all of that in the time it takes to fall one meter.

A major problem in metropolitan areas is violent crime. This is a major impetus for gun control in the United States. I propose instead that all adult citizens be required to carry sidearms for protection.

I lived in New York City during the energy crisis in the 70's. NYC was also in severe financial difficulty at the time. All highways in NYC were lit for their entire length. As a cost saving measure, the highway lights were turned off. Serious and fatal accidents skyrocketed. They finally conpromised by turning the lights on at interchanges only.

That's a little different than cars, but it's certainly the same as why I own over 20 chess sets. Each one pleases me in some way.

So I can drive to work (there is no public transportation). So my wife is not trapped at home while I'm away. A car in reserve (one-time purchase opportunity) for when my daughter leaves for college next year. Generally, only one car is in use at a time, so I'm using them up 1/3 as fast as one car. Between my wife and me, we drive a total of almost 40,000 miles per year. If I still lived in New York City, I wouldn't own any cars. I'd just rent one for vacations.