THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
11/25/11 -- Vol. 30, No. 22, Whole Number 1677
Heckle: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Jekyll: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Corrections
Comments on the Psychic Discussion (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Google's Tribute to Stanislaw Lem
Saran Wrap in Space (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Another Mathematics Puzzle (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
My Thanksgiving Tradition (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Comments on the Psychic Discussion (letters of comment
by Tom Russell and John Purcell and comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
THE FLOODED EARTH by Peter D. Ward (book review
by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
THE DESCENDANTS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Words (letters of comment by Morris Keesan and Kip Williams)
THE WINDS OF DUNE (letter of comment by Joe Karpierz)
PROJECT NIM (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
THE STORY OF ONE HUNDRED COMPOSERS (letters of comment
by Kip Williams and Tim Bateman)
Mathematics, TREE OF LIFE, THE WINDS OF DUNE
(letter of comment by John Purcell)
This Week's Reading (CORIOLANUS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Corrections
Tinyurl broke at making the URL given in the 11/18/11 issue of the
MT VOID for "More Number Fun Related to 11/11/11", and that short
URL does not work. The correct link unfortunately is impossible to
give in the MT VOID, because it uses a special character not
available in ASCII:
http://blog.wolfram.com/2011/11/10/111111-111111[special character here]the-right-time-to-look-at-a-number/
(This is undoubtedly why tinyurl broke.)
The best way to find this is to Google "11/11/11 11:11:11" with
"Lederman".
Thanks to Andre Kuzniarek for catching this! [-ecl]
Also in response to Mark's comment in the same issue on the puzzle
(where he said, " The latter did not really solve the problem so
much as handed it off to Wolfram which will do automatic conversion
of decimals to fractions."), Andre writes:
More specifically, Wolfram Alpha--which is a free web service not
to be confused with Wolfram Mathematica which is commercial
software. Again, not trying to shill for something that costs
money. W|A is free and kind of fun, especially for exploring
numbers. [-ak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Comments on the Psychic Discussion (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
We have had a number of people comment on the article in the
11/18/11 issue of the MT VOID about the premonition of a building-
destroying level event that would make headlines. The responses
are below with the letters of comment.
As I said in the article, I do not believe in psychic powers. I do
believe in collecting data whether it fits into my world-view or
not. So far I have an interesting and unlikely coincidence and
that is all. And you readers do not have even that since you were
told about it when it was entirely in the past, prediction and
apparent fulfillment. Ideal (if that is the word) would be if the
timing were right that I could let people know in time and then
there was a fulfillment that goes beyond the likelihood of
coincidence. This last prediction I heard in what would have been
in time to say something in the MT VOID. At least that would prove
that I was not trying to be deceptive. I do believe in ESP, but I
would have to be convinced it occurs in humans. Animals clearly
seem to have some senses that we do not. There are species of cave
lizards who have no sight. To them our sight would be ESP. But
horses seem to be very skittish before earthquakes. They must have
some sense we do not or perhaps one of the senses they share with
us is more attuned and sensitive. So I think (at least in an
uninteresting sense) ESP exists. I believe in UFOs. I don't
believe they have anything to do with alien life forms. One simply
does not have the resources to identify all flying objects so some
are unidentified. I do believe aliens exist. I find it very
unlikely that any aliens are within a light-year of earth.
I do not believe in psychic powers. But I am willing to collect
data. They say that the most exciting words to a scientist are not
"Eureka!" but "That's odd." Here I have stumbled onto something
odd. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Google's Tribute to Stanislaw Lem
http://www.google.pl/
(at least as of 11/23/11)
What isn't clear is that it is interactive, and clicking on it gets
you a five-minute cartoon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vOxn3Qm2pw shows the full cartoon.
See also http://tinyurl.com/cn8apoq.
[-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Saran Wrap in Space (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
If I were Morbius on Planet Altair IV and I discovered in the
archeological study a standard diapensor of plastic food wrap like
we have on Earth, I would have concluded that the Krell had more
than two hands. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Another Mathematics Puzzle (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We have had some fun with mathematics puzzles in recent weeks.
Someone I know was having a 47th birthday and I wanted to show him
some interesting fact about the number 47. I discovered an
interesting property.
4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47
If we split up the 4 and the 7 of 47 and treat the two resulting
digits as the first two members of an integer sequence in which
each subsequent number is the sum of the two numbers to its left
(i.e. like the Fibonacci sequence), it comes back to 47. Find all
integers from 10 to 99 that have the same property. Extra credit
if you can write a publishable explanation of how you did it. I
used a fact I knew about the Fibonacci sequence that might not
quite be common knowledge, but readers can use any approach they
want. Let's say you should not use Wolfram, though I am at a loss
as to how you might use it. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: My Thanksgiving Tradition (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Our general Thanksgiving tradition is to get together at the house
of some close friends of ours and sit down to what is probably the
best meal of the year. There is a spread of traditional foods.
(The stuffing is the star of the show. I really like that
stuffing.) After dinner we watch a film I provide of my recent
acquisitions. Generally that is not a film that they will have
seen and so I can give them an opportunity to see something new.
The only film that stands out at the moment for this year as a
major film is CONTAGION. It has a star-power cast, is a major
film, it is fairly accurate scientifically, and it is a compelling
film. In the film there is a disease that is spread by being close
to other people--more or less like we just will have done. Or you
can get it from eating meat--more or less like we just will have
done. You get the disease and you start coughing and looking
terrible (or as bad as Gwyneth Paltrow ever looks) and then you die
miserably and you are thrown in a big trench because there is no
time or facilities for all the people dying. Okay, maybe CONTAGION
does not quite make it a perfect film for showing at a festive
Thanksgiving.
My hostess-to-be suggests that movies are not a traditional part of
Thanksgiving. And it strikes me she is at least half right.
Norman Rockwell does not have a movie going on the television in
his famous painting of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. But you
know for me it is a tradition. When I was growing up all there was
to watch on television was what was being broadcast at that precise
moment from the local television stations. And the TV stations
would save their most interesting family movies for Thanksgiving.
The other candidate holiday was Christmas, but most of the country
was Christian, which means what they wanted to be seeing was
thirty-seven different adaptations and variations of Charles
Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL, interrupted only by a showing or two
of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. You will note
this was still before the advent of A CHRISTMAS STORY, which has
grabbed a big chunk of Christmas watching. Of course for one group
of people, there is a Christmas holiday tradition of seeing a
movie. Jews get a little sick of these wonderful, wonderful,
joyous Christmas movies and a common Jewish tradition is to go out
for Chinese food and/or to see a movie. But I am digressing.
There are a lot of films I remember just because I saw them the day
of Thanksgiving or the night before.
Maybe the second time I saw KING KONG--for those years it is
redundant to note it was the 1933 version--it was the late movie
the night before Thanksgiving. That now always seems like the
right time to see KING KONG.
Then there is ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, which I first saw one year with
the smell of roasting turkey wafting through the house.
One Thanksgiving we returned from going out to dinner someplace to
find on the Thursday Night Movie the film JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.
So that is a Thanksgiving film for me.
I don't know where I picked up this tradition, but after visiting
my sister in Long Island, we drove a two-hour route home and at
about 10 PM or later I would put in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS.
So that is it. At Thanksgiving the night before my thoughts are of
KING KONG, the early afternoon it is ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, in the
evening it is JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, and in the late evening it
is THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS. We must have our traditions. Of
course rare is the Thanksgiving I see any of these films. And I
doubt I would watch more than one in any year. But I still think
of these films each Thanksgiving. "It is a custom ... More honor'd
in the breach than the observance."
These days the films I see at Thanksgiving have been THE BLIND SIDE
and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1. I guess that
makes them Thanksgiving films also, but they do not have the same
panache. I probably like CONTAGION more than either of these
films. But perhaps it is just not right for this particular
moment. I do not want to become the man who came to dinner. Say
now there is an idea for a film. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Comments on the Psychic Discussion (letters of comment by
Tom Russell and John Purcell)
We have had a number of people comment on the article in the
11/18/11 issue of the MT VOID about the premonition of a building-
destroying level event that would make headlines.
Tom Russell wrote:
It seems earthquakes happen all the time, "big ones" maybe every
week or so.
http://www.earthweek.com/quakecat.php
Not enough time for fun this week to do your puzzles. I still plan
to work on them. [-tlr]
Mark responds:
Of course that is true. But events that fit this particular
description have to be both big and have to endanger people. Four
days after the description arrived an event was the #1 story in
Google News. There has been nothing that large in the interim. I
genuinely do not believe in the supernatural. I am trying to look
at this claim objectively. If the observation seems significant
to me I don't want to reject it because of my preconceived ideas.
[-mrl]
John Purcell wrote:
As for the psychic section of this issue, I remember trying this
sort of thing with my best friend in high school. Steve and I
thought that we could transmit playing card information from across
a room, so one Saturday afternoon we wasted a few hours staring at
cards and each other, more or less guessing at which playing card
the other was staring at. I don't even think we hit 20% accuracy.
Empirical nonsense marches on!
Other than that, I don't believe in ESP, ghosts, aliens, or other
unexplainable phenomena. Unless I experience something personally,
I remain a skeptic. Dreams are weird, that's true. My wife
sometimes has premonitions--or so she claims--in her dreams, but
they never come to pass. Sign me up as a member of the Anti-
Psychic Friends Network. My philosophy is along the lines of what
George Carlin proposed years ago: I experience vuja de--the feeling
that I have never been here before! [-jp]
[See my comments at the beginning of this issue. -mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE FLOODED EARTH: OUR FUTURE IN A WORLD WITHOUT ICE CAPS by
Peter D. Ward (copyright 2011) (book review by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
There is a considerable overlap between "serious" books on climate
change and science fiction, as climate change is all about
predicting the future. FLOODED EARTH takes this a bit further by
including a series of fictional scenarios that are far more
detailed than is typical of those found in books that include
little fictional scenarios. Some are auto-biographical and some
are Mad-Maxish, but they combine to drive home the point that
global warming is really bad and will *wipe us out*. Well, maybe
not all of us, but six out of seven billion, so who's counting?
Mr. Ward is the opposite of the reasonable, balanced authors of the
two previous global warming volumes I have reviewed here. He is an
advocate of what he calls the "Medea Hypothesis" which proposes
that most of the past major extinctions are due to volcanic driven
global warming causing an eruption of hydrogen sulfide into the
atmosphere leading to mass death.
FLOODED EARTH reminds me of the classic POPULATION BOMB from the
1970s, which also contained some fictional scenarios of future
disaster. These just-so stories clearly did not occur as
predicted, and frankly, seem more silly than anything else when
read today. It is hard to evaluate the scientific content of
Ward's hypothesis since he gives very little idea of the evidence
for or against it, except perhaps in his footnotes. As he tells
the tale, everyone who is against him is lazy, cowardly, or
mendacious, points made throughout the book by snitty little
stories that have no real content except to make fun of or insult
people Ward disagrees with.
One thing is certain, Ward is obsessed with global warming. The
idea that human-caused warming might be putting off the upcoming
Ice Age and preventing my house from being covered by a mile high
glacier is not on his radar. It is hard to see this position as
anything but political. Ice ages, we can deduce, are okay since
they mostly hurt rich white folks who live in the north, while
global warming is bad since it will make rich white folks who live
in the north even richer while hurting poor brown folks who live
near the equator near the equator. In any case, as even Ward would
probably admit, the horse is out of the barn, and we're going to
get quite a bit of warming and sea level rise no matter what is
done to control carbon emissions. I plan to focus on reviewing
Ward's science fiction, rather than his science. I don't recommend
the book as a source of authoritative facts on climate change since
Ward is clearly a minority advocate of an extreme position.
Ward opens with a vignette set in Miami in 2120 C.E. assuming a
ten-foot [three-meter] rise in sea level. Most of south Florida has
been abandoned to a Mad-Maxian existence. The general assumption
is that the inhabitants of Miami stood around and watched the water
rise until it was too late to do anything about it, like move
north. As will become a theme, Ward's little scenarios never
focus on any sort of rational response to sea level rise, but
instead project a dystopian and simple-minded response to disaster.
Next we are treated to an actual incident that occurred on James
Ross Island, Antarctica, in March 2009, when Ward and some
companions encountered an usually powerful storm. Ward is a decent
writer, and the store is readable, but boils down to--the ice is
melting. This chapter makes the good point that it's not just the
three-foot, or ten-foot sea level rise you have to worry about--
it's the new worst case--three extra feet plus high tide plus storm
surge in a bad storm. Still, Ward seems to do a glass empty
exercise--see, the oceans might rise *ten feet* in 100 years!!!!!
But 100 years is a long time to deal with an ocean rise of ten
feet. Just recall for a minute everything that has changed from
1911 to 2011! To achieve his flooded Miami disaster, it would need
to rise ten feet in under ten years, more likely in just a few
years.
Next Ward journeys to Athabasca region, Canada, circa 2030 C.E., to
show rapacious technological man ripping up the tar sands and
poisoning the Earth while pumping vast amounts of carbon into the
air. It may or may not be a good idea to mine the Canadian tar
sands, but we can only assume from the vast destruction Ward
describes that the environmental movement has somehow been wiped
out by an asteroid strike, since little is done to mitigate the
impact of the mining operations.
Ward moves from Canada to El Kef, Tunisia, 2060 C.E., to describe
the horrible conditions in over-heated and over-populated Tunisia
as atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 500ppm. This is possibly the
worst chapter in the book as Ward reprises the ground first treaded
by THE POPULATION BOMB, beating the toscins that there are *too
many people*, and even worse, they all want to be *rich* and live
like *Americans*!!!! He focuses on a whole planet of Third-
Worlders buying cars and burning coal, and in the process heating
things up. Everything else I read reports that population growth
is rapidly decelerating, even in the Third World, and that, even by
Ward's statistics, some European countries will face extinction by
low birth rate long before global warming floods them. Italy, for
example, had about 1.3 births per woman in 2009, well below the
replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman. Doing a little math,
you can see that if this trend continues, Italy (assuming no
immigration) will depopulate by roughly 90% in 4 generations, or
about 100 years. This rate of depopulation will be catastrophic,
with a graying mass of the elderly supported by an ever-dwindling
population of young workers. Clearly, this is not going to happen.
Rome will not sit empty for long. Either the Italian birth rate
will rise, or a tide of immigrants will transform the country into
something new, perhaps North Tunisia, with St. Peter's refurbished
as a mosque.
Since Ward is mainly concerned with drawing as dark a picture as
possible, the words "nuclear power" appear only once or twice in
the book, although nuclear reactors are the most likely way to
maintain anything like a modern civilization while avoiding
increasing carbon production. This solution can't be considered in
detail, since it would interfere with the draconian regime Ward
envisions will be needed to tame our evil Western Ways and restore
the Earth by ending industrial civilization based on oil and coal,
but more anon. It is fairly obvious that the Third World's demand
for mobility could be met by nuclear power plants and electric
cars, especially over a hundred-year time frame, but, hey, why ruin
a good scare story?
Next we move to the Northern Sacramento Valley, 2135 C.E.. The
general theme of this vignette is how a rising sea level will ruin
agriculture in California. Ward then spends a good bit of time
looking at whether rising carbon dioxide will make agriculture more
productive. He concludes that it will, but that there are not
likely to be any net gains considering all the changes, positive
and negative, that will take place. The major issue I have with
this chapter is that it gives no weight at all to any effort to
create salt-tolerant crops via genetic engineering, something that
seems highly possible, given an abundance of existing salt-tolerant
plants. I just visited an island in the Caribbean where I found
trees growing well right in the salt-saturated beach next to the
ocean. Ward even helpfully provides a list of salt tolerant
plants, including sugar beets and rye, but just assumes that
farmers will apparently make no effort to adapt to changing
conditions.
Now we move forward in time to 2215 C.E. in Greenland, following a
Russian geologist as he surreptitiously searches for uranium ore
revealed by the melting ice cap. This is followed by a glimpse of
Antarctica in 2515, with carbon dioxide stabilized at 1500ppm. The
main character is an engineer involved in covering Antarctica with
topsoil from the American Midwest so that crops could be grown. The
chapter concerns the mechanics of the melting of the polar ice
caps, concluding with a 200-foot sea level rise.
A step backward in time takes us to the Netherlands, March 2200,
for a ringside seat as three million people die in a massive flood
as the dikes are finally overtopped by the rising sea. The
following chapter focuses on areas such as Venice, Florida, New
Orleans, and the Netherlands that are certain to sink under rising
seas in most scenarios. Ward also gives consideration to areas
that will surely benefit from a warmed world, including Canada,
Alaska, Greenland, and Russia.
The next chapter, "Extinction," opens with a tour of an Australian
reef in 2045 C.E., transition to a tour of the Devonian Canning
Barrier Reef during the same year. This tour serves to introduce
Ward's theory that 365 million years ago a mass extinction was
created by a bloom of bacteria that flooded the earth with hydrogen
sulfide. This is certainly an interesting and dramatic theory, but
the dogmatic presentation is less than convincing. If Ward is
correct, one wonders why the scientific community, which is
strongly pre-disposed to support evidence of the dangers of global
warming, has not rushed to endorse his views. In any case, Ward is
worried that by blowing carbon into the atmosphere, we are
artificially bringing about a new mass extinction. I'm concerned
that he thinks there have been three or four other mass extinctions
due to hydrogen sulfide initiated by natural causes, perhaps
volcanism. If true, this is just more evidence that the Earth is a
very unstable and unsafe place for technological civilizations.
First Ice Ages and now Deadly Hydrogen Sulfide!!! For a more
balanced perspective than Ward's, check out the Wikipedia article
"Extinction Event". I found this article more scary than Ward's
book--it makes the message crystal clear--the Earth is quite
unstable, and most species go extinct after a pretty short run,
geologically speaking.
In Chapter 8, "Stopping Catastrophic Sea Level Rise", Ward offers a
vision of a 3200 C.E. where humanity has created a vast array of
orbiting solar mirrors to cool the Earth, an Earth now much
impoverished by strict regulations on the usage of carbon based
fuels. This chapter is very selective and unsystematic in its
survey of solutions to global warming. On one hand we are asked to
believe that an array of large mirrors can be built in space, and
on the other hand there is essentially no discussion of nuclear
power. Although mention is made of Freeman Dyson's proposal for
"carbon fixing" trees, zero weight is given to genetic engineering
as part of the solution, although it seems crashingly obvious that
this would be the most effective and easiest solution. Ward does,
however, trot out a wide variety of fairly silly geo-engineering
schemes to poke holes in.
Chapter 8, the final chapter, concludes with gusto, first showing
us the Bangladesh-India border in 2400 C.E., with a sea-level rise
of twenty-four feet, as the entire population tries to walk into
India to escape the rising water. This does not end well. An even
further in the future vignette shows us Seattle in 5515 C.E., with
a drowned Space Needle being the least of the problems. A global
sea level rise of 240 feet has brought about a hydrogen sulfide
disaster, and six billion out of seven billion people have died.
Humanity has fallen back to a pre-technological civilization mainly
living on yams and corn, lacking any concentrated power sources.
Although Ward avoids purely political statements for the most part,
we can only wonder what he means when he says things like, "I am
not referring to our political freedoms, although those too will
have to be infringed upon to enact the necessary changes," on page
202. Does he envision rounding up climate change denialists and
putting them in prison? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that
Ward has much more radical views than he gives full voice to in
this book.
Ward ignores the real problem with the global warming issue--
requests for great changes require great evidence, not scare
tactics. He actually weakens his case by trying to frighten the
reader with the hydrogen sulfide disaster. The question we all
ought to be asking is this--why do all the "solutions" to global
warming seem to originate from the "Luddite Left" and have a not-
so-hidden agenda of restoring humanity to living in grass huts and
riding horses? In any case, your time is better spent reading DEEP
FUTURE by Curt Stager or COMING CLIMATE CRISIS? by Claire L.
Parkinson. [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE DESCENDANTS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is an amiable comedy-drama directed and co-written by
Alexander Payne. Matt King (played by George Clooney) has at least
three problems all at once. His wife is in a coma after a boating
accident, his two daughters are rebelling against him, and he has
to decide to whom to sell a sizable family estate of Hawaiian land.
Matt finds himself searching for a man from his wife's past whom he
has never met. Along the way he hopes to reunite his family. As
with his previous film SIDEWAYS, Payne leaves the watcher wondering
where the film is going. Well-acted and touching with a mild eye
for human foibles, this is one of the better-written films of the
year. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
Matt King is from one of the great old Euro (Haole) families of the
Hawaiian Islands. His family was granted large stretches of now
very valuable Kauai land. Generations ago Hawaiian royalty made
the grant when one of King's white ancestors married a Hawaiian
queen. The law has now changed and says that the family has seven
years to sell the land. Matt's task is to decide to whom. All
over Hawaii, locals are anxious over Matt's upcoming decision. But
Matt has a lot more on his mind. Just a few days earlier Matt's
wife Elizabeth fell off a boat in a Waikiki boat race. She struck
her head leaving her in a coma. Matt also has to make decisions
about her and her future. And to add a little spice to these heavy
decisions, his two daughters, aged 17 and 10, both unhappy and
unpleasant, are making his life more difficult. Matt never has had
time to be with his family. Now as the only parent, he has to make
time to be with his two resentful daughters. He soon realizes his
daughter Alexandra knew more about his wife than he did himself.
The film is by turns sad, touching, and funny. Matt finds he will
have to search for a man he has never met but who is an important
piece of Elizabeth's life.
Payne gives us the expected lush views of Hawaii plastered over by
native songs (though luckily not the "Hawaiian War Chant").
Clooney's character is supposed to be at least in small part native
Hawaiian. But apparently that heritage is well diluted--we all
know George Clooney does not look particularly Hawaiian. This is
not a memorable role because it is not flamboyant or greatly comic.
But he does play the role perfectly, giving us the impression that
this is the real George Clooney showing through the character.
Some of the faces we see in the film are familiar, even if they are
not pivotal roles. Beau Bridges is little used playing one of the
cousins concerned about the sale and the usually mild-mannered
Robert Forster plays Elizabeth's abraded and abrasive father. Just
as Clooney allowed himself to be upstaged by young Anna Kendrick in
UP IN THE AIR, here he affords the same courtesy to Shailene
Woodley in a memorable if not star-making role as the rebellious
daughter Alexandra. Her sister Scottie, ten years old, seems a
little bewildered and starting to be troublesome. Nick Krause
plays Alexandra's friend Sid who just seems to hang around, even on
plane flights, giving a vibe like Keanu Reeves in PARENTHOOD.
THE DESCENDANTS seems like too old-fashioned and simple a story to
get much attention. That was just about exactly what I thought
about Payne's SIDEWAYS, so we know about how reliable that instinct
is. I rate THE DESCENDANTS a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_descendants_2011/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Words (letters of comment by Morris Keesan and Kip Williams)
In response to Evelyn's comments on words in the 11/11/11 issue of
the MT VOID, Morris Keesan writes:
And in my dialect of American English, a dialect which contains
many Yiddish (or, as Leo Rosten would have it, "Yinglish") words,
this relationship is covered by the term "mishpacha". I've never
felt the need to refer specifically to "in-law's in-law". [-mk]
Evelyn replies:
I actually ran into this problem recently when I referred to my
sister-in-law's mother-in-law (or maybe it was Mark's brother-in-
law's mother), and had someone ask, "Isn't that just your mother?"
If I had said my concunado's mother, that would have been somewhat
less ambiguous. [-ecl]
And Kip Williams writes:
"Friolero" has a concise English adjective equivalent: nesh. I
always thought I was nesh, but it turns out I'm whatever its
opposite is when compared to my daughter. She's super-nesh. [-kw]
Evelyn replies:
And when Kip says English, he means English, not American. "Nesh"
is apparently used almost exclusively in the part of England that
is east of the northern part of Wales. (Wikipedia has the
details.) [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE WINDS OF DUNE (letter of comment by Joe Karpierz)
In response to Todd V. Ehrenfels's comment on Bronso of Ix in THE
WINDS OF DUNE in the 11/18/11 issue of the MT VOID, Joe Karpierz
writes:
All I can say is, "Oops." I missed that completely. My fault for
not going back and checking more thoroughly. Thanks for catching
me in my mistake. The lesson learned here is never write a book
review when sleep-deprived. Thanks again. [-jak]
Evelyn notes:
Todd wrote. "Bronso of Ix appears briefly in the original DUNE
MESSIAH." I think Joe is too hard on himself if he is expected to
remember every name ever mentioned in the "Dune" saga, currently at
sixteen novels. [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: PROJECT NIM (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
In response to Mark's review of PROJECT NIM in the 11/18/11 issue
of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:
There's a book on the same topic (more than one, actually) that I
Read recently, NIM CHIMPSKY: THE CHIMP WHO WOULD BE HUMAN. Indeed,
it made me feel keenly for this simian and his fate, even as I was
aware that he was a menace to those around him. It is downright
science-fictional to read of someone who was elevated partway to
humanity in a way that left him mostly unable to be with people,
and unable to go back to what he was. As you no doubt know,
there's a pretty interesting cast of humans going in and out of
Nim's life as well.
The writer seemed uncertain whether communication was going on
between Nim and the people around him, but it seems clear enough
that when he made certain signs, he expected certain responses. He
asked for things, he asked for answers, and most of the people in
his life ended up turning away from him. His last years, I was
happy to see, weren't as bad as I had first imagined. This may be
cold comfort in light of his expectations, but I know what people
are capable of. At least it seems he had somebody around who
cared, and some companionship of his own species. We should all be
so lucky, I suppose.
Evelyn notes:
There seem to be some elements of FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON in Nim's
story. [-ecl]
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TOPIC: THE STORY OF ONE HUNDRED COMPOSERS (letters of comment by
Kip Williams and Tim Bateman)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE STORY OF ONE HUNDRED
GREAT COMPOSERS in 11/11/11 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams
writes:
I have THE STORY OF ONE HUNDRED GREAT COMPOSERS, though I've so far
resisted the temptation to carry it everywhere. I suppose its
usefulness in bringing a capsule of a composer's life to me has
been supplanted by the GROVE'S DICTIONARY set Dad gave me, which in
turn is supplanted by the internet, but it still seems useful in
its small way, and dang it, it's so compact. I don't recall it
being a wartime edition, but that may be why it's the size it is
(half of octavo? 16vo?).
Wartime editions, though, are often a lovely size. I found one of
my beloved BOOK OF A THOUSAND SONGS, and it's shot from the same
plates at a reduced size from the cumbersome original, on paper
that's not quite as thick. Now, that one I actually carried around
in my backpack for a few years. (Note to self: As time permits,
get back to the Thousand Songs project. As time permits.)
Evelyn adds:
Half of an octavo (usually seen abbreviated as 8vo) is a decimo-
sexto or sixteenmo (16mo). As an aside, when I first started
seeing "8vo" in book descriptions, I found myself wondering how all
these books could have been issued in eight-volume sets! [-ecl]
And in response to Evelyn's response on the topic in the 11/18/11
issue, Tim Bateman writes:
Just a very quick response to the 100 COMPOSERS item. Yes, CSM is
Company Sergeant Major. I think I assumed that the book was
British in origin because you mentioned that it was produced to
wartime rationing standards. I had actually forgotten that there
was any rationing of paper in the United States.
Something that has only just occurred to me writing this, which I
should have mentioned last time around: the dimensions of the book
may be designed to fit into a soldier's pocket.
I wish I had the time to congratulate Mark on his excellent piece
on psychics, or rather to give a detailed response rather than
congratulate him and say that his position is probably a lot the
same as mine. [-tb]
Evelyn adds:
In the United States during World War II, we had "Armed Services
Editions" of books, designed to fit in soldier's shirt pocket.
Information on these marvelous books may be found at
http://armedserviceseditions.com/index.htm and
http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/ase/Chapter_2.html. (Note
that the buttons to cycle through the pages at the latter are
broken; you have to adjust the URL by hand.) Quite a bit of
fantasy was included. [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Mathematics, TREE OF LIFE, THE WINDS OF DUNE (letter of
comment by John Purcell)
John Purcell writes:
Two cups of coffee have now been quaffed, so before I do some
writing on the next "Askance" I think I shall wing off a quick loc
to you folks. [-jp]
In response to the Mark's comments on decimal patterns in the
11/11/11 issue of the MT VOID, John writes:
Thank you so much (not) for the mathematics lesson. My eyes always
glaze over whenever I see long strings of equations and numbers
like this. Now, my son, who is a whiz at these things, would have
no trouble understanding the numbers. In fact, he probably
wouldn't even read what you wrote and go straight into the
equations after given the basic instructions of what to solve for.
Kid is damned good at that kind of thing, and he certainly didn't
get that from his parent's genes. [-jp]
In response to the link about number fun with 11/11/11 in the
11/18/11 issue, John writes:
As for the 11/11/11 fun, that I can get into. One of my students
had a cousin who turned 11 years old that day. How cool, eh? I
asked her if her cousin did anything particularly exciting at 11:11
AM that day. She had no idea, but thought that would have been a
great time to start the birthday party. Tough to do, though, when
you're in school at that time. [-jp]
In response to Mark's review of TREE OF LIFE in the same issue,
John writes:
That movie TREE OF LIFE sounds so interesting to me; it's one that
I might actually have to rent some day and watch. The premise is
suitably philosophical and sweeping, and I have always liked
Terrence Malick's films. Your review may be as cryptic and
disjointed as the movie, but that's all right. After all, consider
the source. [-jp]
And in response to Joe Karpierz's review of THE WINDS OF DUNE in the
11/11/11 issue, John writes:
I haven't read any of the DUNE novels past CHILDREN OF DUNE. Are
any of the ensuing books even worth reading?
So I think I shall end this now. Many thanks for the issue, and now
it's onto my fanzine for a bit before doing some chores. Such is a
Saturday, tra la. [-jp]
[See John's comment on the psychic discussion elsewhere in this
issue.]
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TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This week we watched a BBC production of a political thriller about
a politician who thinks he is above the people. The people are
clamoring for subsidized grain because there is a shortage due to a
recent troop build-up, but he dismisses this as wanting too much of
a "nanny state" on their part. All his opponents do the usual
thing, mingling with the people, bragging about their military
service, begging for the crowd's approval, but he thinks this is
pandering and when forced into it, does it very poorly. He rails
against making everything into sound bites and special pleadings,
but only manages to antagonize so many people that eventually they
turn on him, and he goes over to the opposition. After he starts
helping them make gains, his original party starts to wish they
hadn't driven him out, and eventually his family convinces him to
change his affiliation back. At this, the opposition has had
enough of these flip-flops and completely destroys him with
accusations and slurs.
And the name of this thriller? CORIOLANUS by William Shakespeare
(ISBN 978-0-451-52843-8). [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
The traditional mathematician recognizes and
appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it.
I propose to go one step further, and to consider
elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics:
if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics.
--Edsger Dijkstra