Weird News

[Gravdigr]

Grey squirrels are oblivious to threat from pine martens – giving native reds the advantage

From the link:

...red squirrels showed a clear fear response to pine marten scent while greys didn’t. Reds visited feeders less, fed for shorter periods of time and were more vigilant – standing on their hind legs with their head upright and tail twitching from side to side. Meanwhile, the greys continued as if nothing had changed. In some cases, grey squirrel visits to feeding stations actually increased while their vigilance decreased around pine marten scent.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

That's why I said operas about Drake and Weber. They're okay, but were I their editor I'd want to work on their style some. I'd want Drake to cut his references to iridium gun barrels to about one per novel rather than one or more per narrated firefight, for instance. There is the pitfall of overdoing, as the Bulwer-Lytton Contest's finalists can show us. Weber at least tries to show his readers some economy and social context, and how they interact, and manages this to be essential to the story and not bog it, not too much -- yet still, his and Drake's baddies both do things in deep space that require incredibly cheap interstellar flight -- like ocean voyaging in the age of sail and a like number of sailing days too.

There will never be anything faint about my praise of Heinlein -- Starship Troopers was seminal to my entire philosophy of life. I seem to have read it at exactly the right time of life. I've managed a suitable degree of values thereby. Yes, that's my boast.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And how many books have you sold?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

And how many books have you sold?

How many books have I written?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

take-charge heroines deciding that having had no little life and career success they would now spend some concentrated effort to bag a mate

Exactly. Like he'd never met a real one.

[glatt]

I'll fess up. I liked Heinlein. Like Urbane, I was a teenage boy and had posters of Porsches with bikini clad women draped over them on my walls, and I read Heinlein.

I remember one scene from Friday, where the main character, a woman, needed to catch a space elevator up to the station orbiting the planet so she could take a rocket to the next destination. The elevator was cramped with only one seat, and the ride up lasted many hours. When she got there, the seat was taken by a man. So she acted all frail, like a weak woman, and the man got up and gave her his seat. So to repay him, she made sure to frequently bend over and dig around in her bag at her feet so the man, who was standing over her, could catch frequent glimpses down her partially-open blouse. She was thoughtful that way.

[Griff]

I enjoyed The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Other work seemed childish and maybe a bit fascist.

[Luce]

Originally Posted by Griff

I enjoyed The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Other work seemed childish and maybe a bit fascist.

Well, yes. "There are no problems that can't be solved by a white man with a gun."

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Luce

Well, yes. "There are no problems that can't be solved by a white man with a gun."

And just what call was there to inject a complexion?? Shame on ya. How do you escape leaving the impression you've only known Heinlein's works second- or third-hand, from invidious persons lacking RAH's personal virtues, and apparently resentful of them into the bargain? He knew they existed, and had some choice words for them, too. (A couple of examples stole... a donkey's gravestone.)

Really, "competent adult with etc." would have been much more accurate. Certainly less sloppy of conception.

[Luce]

Originally Posted by glatt

I'll fess up. I liked Heinlein. Like Urbane, I was a teenage boy and had posters of Porsches with bikini clad women draped over them on my walls, and I read Heinlein.

I remember one scene from Friday, where the main character, a woman, needed to catch a space elevator up to the station orbiting the planet so she could take a rocket to the next destination. The elevator was cramped with only one seat, and the ride up lasted many hours. When she got there, the seat was taken by a man. So she acted all frail, like a weak woman, and the man got up and gave her his seat. So to repay him, she made sure to frequently bend over and dig around in her bag at her feet so the man, who was standing over her, could catch frequent glimpses down her partially-open blouse. She was thoughtful that way.

Heinlein reads like it was written by a kid that had never actually met a girl.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Eh, I had misremembered the title as Double Star, oy gevalt.

[fargon]

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Farg, I bet there is a biiiig bowl of buttered popcorn in your future after your big bowl of smoke.

n.b. to whom it might concern: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress had the Lunar population as millions of convicts and descendants of convicts -- maybe into the third or fourth generation. Polyglot. Whites only? Puh-lease.

[sexobon]

Might've been zombies … they've got brains for shit.

[richlevy]

MSNBC just had an on-site reporter giving a report on the increasing New York death rate. Her name, Cori Coffin....