On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:32:02 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

wrote in message
removed for brevity
"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

I had gotten up in the early morning hours with a bit of a fever this
morning, Em, for some reason. I decided to check the headers before I
went back to bed and subsequently decided to respond to some of the
posts. So, I wasn't the most lucid when I responded. I didn't fully
explain myself. "Em" in CSS is a unit of measure. It is equal to the
width of an "M." The other units are "pt" and "px." A percentage can
also be given to determine positioning, padding, etc.

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On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:00:46 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

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. :)


What did you Dad do for a living, Tom? Clifford Simak was one of the
early Sci-fi authors that I read (early in my exploration of the
genre). I loved his book "City." I don't think that novel had any
genuine critical acclaim, though. Another book of his that I remember
reading was "The Werewolf Principal." I had read others; but, I'd
never be able to remember the titles. I personally thought he was as
good as Asimov, if not better.

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wrote in message
...
On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:32:02 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

wrote in message
removed for brevity
"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

I had gotten up in the early morning hours with a bit of a fever this
morning, Em, for some reason. I decided to check the headers before I
went back to bed and subsequently decided to respond to some of the
posts. So, I wasn't the most lucid when I responded. I didn't fully
explain myself. "Em" in CSS is a unit of measure. It is equal to the
width of an "M." The other units are "pt" and "px." A percentage can
also be given to determine positioning, padding, etc.


Sort of an em dash? I know about that terminology. I actually heard someone
joke about that once, since I used to dash about.

Sorry about your fever... maybe you're now immune to the H1N1.

--
Nom=de=Plume

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:22:19 -0700, "CalifBill"
wrote:


"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!

I agree, although I always saw, being a contrarian by nature, that
"Friday" was Heinlein's attempt to replicate and expand upon "Starship
Troopers". A lot of the themes found in "Starship Troopers" that were
never fully explored show up in "Friday" somewhat twisted and warped.

I didn't think it was worthy of a Nebula or Hugo award though - a lot
of "Friday" was unreadable - in some ways, it out Clancy'd Clancy. :)

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:35:12 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

"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.

It was the edited version then. The unedited version, with footnotes
and commentary, was released by Virginia Heinlein about ten or so
years ago. Gives you a much clearer idea of what Heinlein's ideas
were.

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.

Really? Interesting. "Starship Troopers", is a pure Libertarian
political novel spiced up with a little was action (including some
really funny scenes), then there's "Methuselah's Children" and "Time
Enough for Love" which are all part and parcel of the Lazarus Long
saga - lot's of Libertarian political thought in those, "Friday", was
a Libertarian manifesto in some ways.

Almost all of Heinlein's novels and shorts had some social themes and
follow the Libertarian ideals: individual liberty/self-reliance,
individual social obligations, the influence of organized religion on
culture and government, and most importantly the tendency of society
to repress non-conformist thought.

Those are all strong Libertarian concepts as expressed by Heinlein.

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.

Huxley was a hack. Tomorrow is all we have. :)

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:24:35 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:00:46 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

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. :)


What did you Dad do for a living, Tom? Clifford Simak was one of the
early Sci-fi authors that I read (early in my exploration of the
genre). I loved his book "City." I don't think that novel had any
genuine critical acclaim, though. Another book of his that I remember
reading was "The Werewolf Principal." I had read others; but, I'd
never be able to remember the titles. I personally thought he was as
good as Asimov, if not better.

He was a newpaper man - a true blue reporter/editor that had ink
flowing through his veins. He was a USCG Academy grad his first job
was as a PR type, then sea duty eventually commanding a DE in both the
Atlantic and Pacific theatres. After the war ended, he did Master's
work at Marquette University in English and worked for Allis Chalmers
as an advertising executive which led to a job working for Hearst
newspapers - he always said that when he was offered the job at the
Milwaukee Sentinel as Real Estate and Business Editor he had found his
true calling. he eventually became a nationally syndicated columnist
for a few years, then when the Sentinel closed, he relocated back to
New England still working for Hearst up until his death in 1976.

He met Simak at Marquette and that's where they got to be friends.

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:37:14 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

"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.

I've never heard tell of one - that doesn't mean there isn't though.

Thinking about it, yeah - The Church of Global Warming. :)

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:15:41 GMT, (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.

Sorry - nope.

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 15:41:45 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

maybe you're now immune to the H1N1.

I learned something interesting the other day when I made my visit to
the immuology specialist.

People my age, or those who were adults in 1976 which was the most
recent occurance of the Ham and Bacon Flu, have an immunity to the
disease if (1) they had the Ham and Bacon Flu, (2) were exposed to
somebody who did have it.

wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OndG4b5M-Q4

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Very cool. That guy is amazing!