On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 05:52:26 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Oct 2, 3:20*am, wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:47:23 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports

wrote:

snipped for the mere exercise





Yes, I do remember the "Mote in God's Eye". *About a race that could
not practice birth control so their civilization kept ending in
extreme overpopulation. *I forget how the problem was solved.

I was a teenager when I read the book, and I remember so little about
it. *What you described evoked memories of the alien race in that
book. *I came across a copy of the book a couple of years ago at a
yard sale. *I purchased it to read again, and I started to do that
last winter. *For some reason I never got beyond the first few pages.
(I've got too many books going at the same time right now.) * All of
this has me reminsicing about favorite books, though. *The "High
Crusade" by Poul Anderson was a lighthearted read, and Le Guin's "The
Left Hand of Darkness" was a thought-provoking work. *Then there was
"The Forever War"... *

You need to read "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi and his companion
works "Ghost Brigades" and "Zoe's War".

Is there a reason why, Tom? *I really gave up on Sci-fi years ago. And
my reading list is overwhelming as it is. * And I have opened
concurrently; "Hypatia of Alexandria," "World Masterpieces since the
Renaissance," and "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of
Crowds." *I have never been an organized reader.

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i gave up on Sci-fi when "Lost in Space" got canceled.

LOL! They made a movie not too long ago, Tim, a great teaser to get
you back in. :)

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On 10/2/09 9:53 AM, wrote:
On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 05:52:26 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Oct 2, 3:20 am, wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:47:23 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports

wrote:

snipped for the mere exercise





Yes, I do remember the "Mote in God's Eye". About a race that could
not practice birth control so their civilization kept ending in
extreme overpopulation. I forget how the problem was solved.

I was a teenager when I read the book, and I remember so little about
it. What you described evoked memories of the alien race in that
book. I came across a copy of the book a couple of years ago at a
yard sale. I purchased it to read again, and I started to do that
last winter. For some reason I never got beyond the first few pages.
(I've got too many books going at the same time right now.) All of
this has me reminsicing about favorite books, though. The "High
Crusade" by Poul Anderson was a lighthearted read, and Le Guin's "The
Left Hand of Darkness" was a thought-provoking work. Then there was
"The Forever War"...

You need to read "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi and his companion
works "Ghost Brigades" and "Zoe's War".

Is there a reason why, Tom? I really gave up on Sci-fi years ago. And
my reading list is overwhelming as it is. And I have opened
concurrently; "Hypatia of Alexandria," "World Masterpieces since the
Renaissance," and "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of
Crowds." I have never been an organized reader.

--
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i gave up on Sci-fi when "Lost in Space" got canceled.

LOL! They made a movie not too long ago, Tim, a great teaser to get
you back in. :)



We still have American Pie:

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
*A generation lost in space*
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil's only friend.

--


Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All

In article eab6dc58-7fff-4ef6-9c70-db2c8d8df988
@r36g2000vbn.googlegroups.com, says...

On Oct 2, 3:20*am, wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:47:23 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports

wrote:

snipped for the mere exercise





Yes, I do remember the "Mote in God's Eye". *About a race that could
not practice birth control so their civilization kept ending in
extreme overpopulation. *I forget how the problem was solved.

I was a teenager when I read the book, and I remember so little about
it. *What you described evoked memories of the alien race in that
book. *I came across a copy of the book a couple of years ago at a
yard sale. *I purchased it to read again, and I started to do that
last winter. *For some reason I never got beyond the first few pages.
(I've got too many books going at the same time right now.) * All of
this has me reminsicing about favorite books, though. *The "High
Crusade" by Poul Anderson was a lighthearted read, and Le Guin's "The
Left Hand of Darkness" was a thought-provoking work. *Then there was
"The Forever War"... *

You need to read "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi and his companion
works "Ghost Brigades" and "Zoe's War".

Is there a reason why, Tom? *I really gave up on Sci-fi years ago. And
my reading list is overwhelming as it is. * And I have opened
concurrently; "Hypatia of Alexandria," "World Masterpieces since the
Renaissance," and "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of
Crowds." *I have never been an organized reader.

--
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i gave up on Sci-fi when "Lost in Space" got canceled.

It got canceled???

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:25:20 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

ell, just to show you how bad it was, it was rejected something like
25 times by every major scifi house - it's was first published by
Chilton - you know the people who make automobile repair books and
auto parts manuals?

Bull****. It was first published as a five part serial in Analog.

Casady

On 10/2/09 11:15 AM, Richard Casady wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:25:20 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

ell, just to show you how bad it was, it was rejected something like
25 times by every major scifi house - it's was first published by
Chilton - you know the people who make automobile repair books and
auto parts manuals?

Bull****. It was first published as a five part serial in Analog.

Casady


Tom gets "really" upset when you challenge his lack of expertise.


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"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 19:18:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

Heinlein (Stranger in a strange land... I still re-read it)

Which version - unedited or edited.

The unedited version is better and by comparison, the edited version
sucks.

Heinlien was good only up to a point. If he kept within the bounds of
his Libertarian views, he wrote some great stuff. When he started
wandering off the reservation trying to match Silverberg and Dick (who
by the way was a complete and total asshole as befits his name), he
lost it completely. Read "Grumbles from The Grave" sometime - that
will give you a whole new opinion of Heinlien.

Issac Asimov was a good friend of my Father's. They met through
another friend of my Dad's Clifford Simak - another scifi author.

My favorite Asimov story was when I was in high school - I came home
from football practice on my way to my job at the TV store and sitting
in my living room with my Dad was Asimov, Simak and Martin Greenberg
(the publisher, not the anthologist) yucking it up like there was no
tomorrow. :)



Heinlein wrote "Friday". Was a great book until he decided it was time to
end the novel and crapped it completely in 1 final chapter!

wrote in message
news
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 22:56:52 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 19:18:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

wrote in message
m...
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 17:28:21 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

snipped for the conservation of bandwidth

We should genetically engineer people to have grasping feet. In
fact,
I imagine that generations from now people who live in space will
develop such. They will have little use for shoes and will need
such
feet to keep from drifting around while they use their hands.

That reminds me of a science fiction novel I read years ago, "The
Mote
in God's Eye," by David Niven and Jerry Pournelli. It's been
years
since I've read it; but, it seems to me that that in the novel the
human race encounters another life form that was similar to what
you've described.

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I vaguely remember reading this in college... can't remember it
though.
Maybe I should get it from the library....

I think that was their first collaboration. It was my favorite
Sci-fi
novel until I read "Dune" by Frank Herbert.

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I didn't like that book... the movie was awful

Do you read Science Fiction, Miss De Plume? I devoured science
fiction novels when I was young. I haven't read a science fiction
novel in years, though. The genre became too...commercial and
gratuitously salacious, as far as I was concerned. The last good
novel I've read, recently, was actually a humorous work by Leornard
Wibberley, "The Mouse that Roared." Dune was not a nascently
intellecutal book of the type you might find written by Stanislaw Lem,
Ursula Le Guin, or Phillip K. Dick. But, Herbert wove a wonderful
tapestry of story, future, distant shores, culture, intrigue and
memorable characters that spawned at least two movies. I thought the
work was incomparably imaginative. I have read other works since,
though.


Em is fine. I really like, no let me say it differently, I'm a huge fan
of
Usula Le Guin (favorite story is The Darkness Box) and Phillip K. Dick
(Do
android dream of electric sheep aka Blade Runner). I also love Azimov (I
Robot and the Foundation novels - except the last one), Heinlein
(Stranger
in a strange land... I still re-read it), and Bradbury (too many to
list).
Heinlein is actual exceptional. I saw the movie version of The Mouse
that
Roared when I was a child and thought it was so much fun, but I never
like
The Wizard of Oz. I didn't like the Dorothy charcter and the monkeys
scared
me when my mom took me to see it.

"Em" seems so CSS, Em. But it works for me. Ursula Le Guin did write
the Earth Sea Trilogy, too, which I enjoyed. Those books were more in
the Fantasy or Heroic Fantasy genre. I thought her "Left Hand" more
masterly. To be honest, I haven't read "The Darkness Box." I'll add
that to my list (the interminable list). I read a lot of Asimov when
I was in my teens, including "I Robot," and I would have to reread the
books to discuss them adequately. I do remember that Asimov was
markedly proud of his three laws of robotics. And I'd read "Stranger
in a Strange Land," too. I read a lot of Heinlein back then
(including "The Rolling Stones," the possible genesis for Gerrold's
"The Trouble with Tribbles"). (In fact one of my research papers in
college used references from Heinlein's testimony before Congress
concerning NASA spinoff technology.) The one heralded author that I
never really explored much as I probably should have was Arthur C.
Clarke. I had read a couple of his books, I know. I don't remember
the titles, though. Bradbury was an intriguing author, also, I'd have
to agree. I don't think he ever forgave Michael Moore for 'borrowing'
the title from his "Fahrenheit 451."


Not sure what CSS means... sorry... didn't take it as flip. My name is a
series of M's, so sometimes I'm called M&M, shortened even more to Em.

The Darkness Box is a very short story. I don't think it's available
online.
My favorite I Robot short story is Robbie. Moore, I think, was trying to
make political points with the title. I guess it sort of fits, but....

CSS stands for cascading style sheets, Em. It's a web design
mechanism - sort of an html thing. If I can find "The Darkness Box,"
I'll definitely read it. I think I can slip in a short story :)


Wow... never made that connection. I even googled up acronyms of CSS. lol

--
Nom=de=Plume

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 19:18:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

Heinlein (Stranger in a strange land... I still re-read it)

Which version - unedited or edited.

I'm not sure... never checked or even knew there was an edited version. The
book I have (somewhere) is a paperback handmedown from years ago.

The unedited version is better and by comparison, the edited version
sucks.

Heinlien was good only up to a point. If he kept within the bounds of
his Libertarian views, he wrote some great stuff. When he started
wandering off the reservation trying to match Silverberg and Dick (who
by the way was a complete and total asshole as befits his name), he
lost it completely. Read "Grumbles from The Grave" sometime - that
will give you a whole new opinion of Heinlien.

I never really considered Heinlein that political. I'll check out the
Grumbles if I can find it.

Issac Asimov was a good friend of my Father's. They met through
another friend of my Dad's Clifford Simak - another scifi author.

My favorite Asimov story was when I was in high school - I came home
from football practice on my way to my job at the TV store and sitting
in my living room with my Dad was Asimov, Simak and Martin Greenberg
(the publisher, not the anthologist) yucking it up like there was no
tomorrow. :)

Ah, but there _is_ no tomorrow. Island, Aldos Huxley.

--
Nom=de=Plume

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
I didn't like that book... the movie was awful

The David Lynch version was fairly good, the second version by John
Harrison sucked pond scum and there is soon to be a third version by
David Berg because Hollywood seems to have run out of original ideas
for movies.

"Dune" was a pseudo-intellectual's dream book. Thematically, it was a
freakin' mess, but because it was so bad, everybody thought it was
good. And of course it spawned a whole series of pre/post quels if
you will all written by his relatives trying to keep the franchise
alive.

I think that was my feeling at the time... it wandered about and I got tired
of the wandering/wondering.


Hebert is L. Ron Hubbard, only nobody spawned a religion off of
"Dune".

Don't bet on it.

--
Nom=de=Plume

"CalifBill" wrote in message
m...

"nom=de=plume" wrote in message
...
"CalifBill" wrote in message
m...

"nom=de=plume" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OndG4b5M-Q4



I like this one..

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/vol...sandspecs.html

--
Nom=de=Plume


You will be one of few who go for the Volt. Over priced, 40 mile range
and not a hybrid. Need to run the motor 3 hours to recharge and does
not motivate the car. $40k for an in town car. Cheaper to hire a taxi.
Some idiot is pressing this debacle.

Well, I'd rather have a Prius. But I'm fine for now.

--
Nom=de=Plume


A Prius uses more natural resources over it's lifespan than a lot of
econoboxes, but at least it goes more than 40 miles at a time. If they
made the volt a hybrid, and especially if they stuffed in a small diesel,
would be a lot better vehicle. A log more useable also.

Well, the Prius is also really cute.

--
Nom=de=Plume