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mark merrens wrote: Yes, didn't Harrison write a story about a transatlantic train tunnel?
He did: A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah![^]
Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers
--- Serious Sam
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And don't forget the "Stainless Steel Rat" stories.
Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers
--- Serious Sam
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Oh yes: they were very good. 
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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Agreed - but so did Asimov's Foundation series as well.
Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers
--- Serious Sam
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Foundation was more social commentary than SciFi, IMO.
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A lot of SF/Fantasy is disguised social commentary - it's a very long tradition!
Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers
--- Serious Sam
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I think a lot of Asimov is just that, which bugs me somewhat. I want my SciFi to be full of science and technology!
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I know what you mean, but...<WhisperItQuietly>science and technology is boring</WhisperItQuietly>
It needs interaction with "people" to make it a "story" - without them, it's just a technical manual!
Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers
--- Serious Sam
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Whenever I cannot open a package, I think of this scene:
[^]
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I can relate to that scene, but I've found a better way. I have one of those big syringes used to inject chickens with marinade before cooking. I fill it with water, inject the package, then toss the lot into the microwave. A couple minutes on High generates enough steam pressure to blow any package open. The product inside rarely survives, but it's usually still under warranty, and after enough destroyed products are returned, someone will change the packaging, I'm sure. 
Will Rogers never met me.
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So true-
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Damn it. I really have a dirty mind.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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Yes, you Googled "Insert tab A into Slot B".
Dave.
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I thought I'd start another thread within this one. "What did you know and when did you know it?"
When did all of you start reading science fiction, at what age and not necessarily the year?
In my case, I broke my lower leg at the beginning of the summer between grade school and high school (1953). I couldn't do any of the normal things, so I walked to the bus stop on my crutches, transferred to another bus to get to the library, and started reading juvenile SF. I would get 6 or 8 books and take them home under my arms (between my arms and the crutches). I started out taking three days to read the books, but later was finishing them by the next day. I soon read the entire lot on the shelves and graduated to the hard core of SF. I read all of that as well. I then took to bringing several books to the librarian at the desk and showed her the lists of "other books by Doubleday" and asked her if she could order these books from some other library. She did. She did this many times. One day (toward the end of the summer), she started quizing me about the plot and characters of several of the books I had just returned, thinking that I was not really reading them. I knew the plots and main characters. She kept ordering more books until the end of the summer and my starting high school. Let me tell you, the ability to read fast and retain the information for extended amount of time sure helped me in my education career. Wish I could read that fast now, or even retain it for half of the old time.
Dave.
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Quote: Wish I could read that fast now, or even retain it for half of the old time.
Me too. I started reading "real books" when I was 3 1/2, adventure stories mostly, and then graduated to science fiction at 5 - my dad made sure I started with Asimov of course, I skipped all the juvenile stuff, the first book was "I, Robot" which I read around 1964ish. I then rapidly consumed all his robot books and the the Foundation stuff and just about everything he had written by then. Heinlein and deCamp followed. I first met the Stainless steel rat by Harry Harrison around the mid eighties when they came out in paperback - and I've never looked back.
I wrote my first [fiction] book in 1975ish but it was never published, 35 years later I tried to give it another go but haven't got past basic plot planning, and re-planning, and re-planning, and.... ho hum, one day maybe.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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My Dad had shelves full of the original SF pulps - and I started reading them almost as soon as I could read at all.
My problem is that I can never remember which authors wrote what (which is great if I want to re-read a story!)
Best Authors? I loved Asimov's robot series most of all (mainly because Dad was a Cybernetic Engineer I think) I adored Stanislaw Lem's short stories. Iain M Banks probably tops my list - I shed a tear when he died.
these days I go to the library, and just grab SF books I don't recognise off the shelf (they are kind enough to stick a 'planet' sticker on them in my local library) and read 'em.
I also listen to audio books in the car while commuting - but the choice is severely limited (indeed the one I am listening to now has a narrator with a speech impediment (or really bad false teeth))
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Aged 11. Started with "Dr Who and the Zarbi" and several Andre Norton novels ("Sargasso of Space" is the only one that I recall now), then moved on to "The Infinite Worlds of Maybe" by Lester Del Rey.
After that was introduced to E.E.Doc Smith and the "Lensman" series, and went from there to Asimov.
modified 10-Jan-14 4:47am.
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From Article: An Oklahoma man... ...got into a drunken family fight.. ...the men got into a fight while drinking together when St. Clair made offensive remarks about his wife.
Sounds like a normal Friday or Saturday night to me.
The comments are hilarious.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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The dude is being held without bond in Pottawatomie County
"Pottawatomie" ... peculiar name for a county given the instance of the "atomic wedgie".
None-the-less, condolences to those in their loss.
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Dafuk? 
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
- Mitchell Kapor
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Who has seen this TV show?
I can't stop loving it; main actress is really fascinating.
Women are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen; men are also composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, but in such proportions that force respect.
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Smart and intelligently written, and the main actress is very good.
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