Sam McConnich wrote:

> sorry for the crosspost, I'm not at home computer this is interesting
> some question if it is true and if there is not some other
> explanation for scifi games well, thought it could be interesting
> http://io9.com/5352998/physicists-discover-a-magnet-with-only-one-pole

I posted that to the Larry Niven discussion list, but unfortunately it
seems the article fatally overstates the facts.  Here's the reply I
received from someone with a masters degree in physics:

> Sadly, the Nature article is very misleading (at least to me).  I
> looked at the actual abstract
> (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1178868v1) for
> Morris's paper and found this
>
> "While sources of magnetic fields-magnetic monopoles-have so far
> proven elusive as elementary particles, several scenarios have been
> proposed recently in condensed matter physics of emergent
> quasiparticles resembling monopoles. A particularly simple
> proposition pertains to spin ice on the highly frustrated pyrochlore
> lattice. The spin ice state is argued to be well-described by
> networks of aligned dipoles resembling solenoidal tubes-classical,
> and observable, versions of a Dirac string. Where these tubes end,
> the resulting defect looks like a magnetic monopole. We demonstrate,
> by diffuse neutron scattering, the presence of such strings in the
> spin ice Dy2Ti2O7. This is achieved by applying a symmetry-breaking
> magnetic field with which we can manipulate density and orientation
> of the strings. In turn, heat capacity is described by a gas of
> magnetic monopoles interacting via a magnetic Coulomb interaction. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

Sam McConnich wrote:

> depending on how the planet originally formed and from what,could
> radioactives within the planet contribute to maintaining heat

I think any sufficiently large terrestrial (rocky) planet will have
radioactives helping keep it warm.  Mars isn't large enough, it's cooled
off too much.  Earth is large enough; Venus may be.

The process by which *all* elements heavier than oxygen are formed, in
supernovae, will be the same everywhere.  The dust out of which planets
are formed all comes from supernovae explosions, which will all produce
the heavier elements.  I can think of no reason why the percentage of
radioactives in the dust should vary much from star to star, so we have
no good reason to believe the Earth is especially high in its percentage
of radioactives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

> *From:* Carl Brown <catodon@...>
>
> New Scientist ran an article a few years back on orphan worlds. One idea
> was that the lower size limit for lone bodies could be quite low and
> that perhaps there were numerous gas giants even rocky world out there
> on thier own without a star. In my own future history I assume that
> these orphan worlds are quite common. They have thick atmospheres, even
> the rocky worlds retain amonia and hydrogen because there is no sunlight
> to give these light gasses the engergy for escape. The thick atmosphere
> can trap the heat of creation for billions of years so perhaps there is
> life. In my future history one such world spawn an alien civilisation
> for which what humans call visible light is an invisible and deadly
> radiation.

Sam McConnich wrote:

  > interesting there have been times I thought that as well, but the
  > science minded of the group always scoffed

Well, if the conditions really are as you describe, with an atmosphere
that's not frozen, and trapped heat keeping the planet from cooling too
far even after billions of years, then certainly life could evolve.
Clearly it wouldn't be based on sunlight, but then there are ecosystems
on the Earth that aren't, such as the ecosystems around the undersea
"smokers", or volcanic vents, which have at the bottom of the ecosystem
bacteria which metabolize high-energy sulfur compounds.

Now, it seems to me that over the course of billions of years, these
planets would be slowly cooling, so life may or may not have time to
evolve to a complexity sufficient for us to believe it could reach
intelligence.  But I can see a justification for having at least one
such civilization.  Heck, Niven made a space-traveling critter with a
metabolism run by a nuclear reaction-- the Starseeds!  Compared to that,
your "orphan world" civilization doesn't seem so unlikely.

Niven also has the Helium II critters on frozen, airless worlds, as
described in "The Coldest Place" and "Flatlander" (short story, not
collection).  But I wouldn't try to justify this sort of critter
developing a civilization; with the temperature so close to absolute
zero, there isn't any realistic energy source available to power their
industrial processes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

--- In RingworldRPG@..., Lensman <lensman@...> wrote:
>
> Sam McConnich wrote:
> > didnt ftl 2448 also have a list
>
> Never heard of that game, sorry.  One big advantage of
> "2400 A.D."'s star list is that it has x, y and z
> coordinates, making mapping quite easy.  Unfortunately most
> star atlases have only right ascension and
> declination (and perhaps estimated distance), which is fine for
> observational astronomy, but doesn't help much when it comes
> to mapping stars.

If that's what you're after, you might try to locate a copy of the
old SPI "Universe" RPG (copies appear on eBay occasionally).

It had a lovely stellar map showing stars within (IIRC) 50 or 100ly
of Earth, including x,y,z coordinates.

I also just stumbled across this web site which may also be of
interest in this context:

http://www.projectrho.com/starmap.html

In fact, I also just discovered you can download a .pdf version of
portions of the original Universe starmap here:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~avalon11/Universe/APC.htm

HTH

Stephen Posey
stephenlposey@...

Would this help?

http://www.caco.demon.co.uk/2300ad/NearStar.html

I'd also search through the following:

http://www.geocities.com/pentapod2300/kevin.htm

http://www.caco.demon.co.uk/2300ad/2300ad.html

...as there might be more hidden within.

FPK3

--- In RingworldRPG@..., Lensman <lensman@...> wrote:
>
> General call for assistance:
>
> I used to have a boxed role-playing game (not a computer game) entitled
> "2300 AD", and it contained a star catalog.  I would very much like to
> get my hands on a copy of that catalog, as it contains positional data
> dating from 1966, and thus would be invaluable in constructing a Known
> Space star chart.
>
> Unfortunately I seem to have lost my copy.  I see it is now
available on
> CD in a .pdf file.  Is there anyone here who has this file, or knows
> someone who has it, who would be willing to share it with me?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Clear ether!
> Lensman
>
> Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
> http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/
>

Sam McConnich wrote:
> didnt ftl 2448 also have a list

Never heard of that game, sorry.  One big advantage of "2400 A.D."'s
star list is that it has x, y and z coordinates, making mapping quite
easy.  Unfortunately most star atlases have only right ascension and
declination (and perhaps estimated distance), which is fine for
observational astronomy, but doesn't help much when it comes to mapping
stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

Adrian Sayle wrote:
> (helps if I remember to add the clearance classification to the title
> if I don't want it blocked)
>
>>>> Adrian Sayle 2/03/09 10:34 am >>> Lensman
>>>> <lensman@...> 1/03/09 9:46 pm >>>
>> 2300 AD
>
>
> Do you remember if it was 2300 or 2300 AD ?
>
> I have both versions at home and happy to hunt for the star cat.  Was
> it a separate ~4 page booklet by any chance?  (as I have some vague
> memory of something similar.)
>
> A scan of it would be ok?

Adrian:

Someone already sent me the requested file.  (Yes, it's a separate
approx. 4-page booklet)

But thank you muchly for offering!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

(helps if I remember to add the clearance classification to the title if I don't
want it blocked)

>>> Adrian Sayle 2/03/09 10:34 am >>>
>>> Lensman <lensman@...> 1/03/09 9:46 pm >>>
>2300 AD


Do you remember if it was 2300 or 2300 AD ?

I have both versions at home and happy to hunt for the star cat.  Was it a
separate ~4 page booklet by any chance?  (as I have some vague memory of
something similar.)

A scan of it would be ok?


Adrian

Carl Brown wrote:

> I'm sure I've also seen the data on the net as an Excel file somewhere...
> Also be sure to check out extrasolar planets on the web to keep up to
> date and fill in all those systems not visited by Beowulf and Lois et
> al. (unless of coarse like me you want to harken back to the classic
> stories of the 70's).

Actually, I only plan to map those stars (and between-star locations,
such as where the /Angel's Pencil/ made first contact with the Kzinti)
which are significant to the stories.  There are at least hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of stars within 50 light-years of Sol.  While it may
be helpful for gaming purposes to map them all, for the purposes of my
Known Space Concordance, including stars having no significance in any
story would only make it difficult to spot the significant ones.

And I deliberately choose to use that game's data, which according to
what I've read on the Internet is from 1966.  That's the "classic era"
of Known Space, and the data from that era is much more relevant to the
data Niven used when writing the stories.  I'm shocked to discover in
one of the latest Known Space stories a reference to our galaxy being a
"barred spiral".  This is *completely* incompatible with "At the Core".
   Obviously the Known Space galaxy has a spherical core, as described in
"At the Core", indicating it's a *normal* spiral, as was theorized until
rather recently.

And as long as I'm complaining about Known Space revisionism, I don't
care for the reference to "virtual mail" in "Fly-By-Night", either.  (I
was just looking at "The Defenseless Dead", and noted that Gil had a
computer spit out data onto his desk in tape format.  Now it's true that
the Beowulf Shaeffer and Ringworld stories occur centuries later, but
note that in "Grendel", Bey and Emil *go* to the spaceport to look up
records; they don't look up online records via their own computers.)

E-mail and the Internet do *not* exist in Known Space.  No doubt those
are among the many technologies suppressed by the ARM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

General call for assistance:

I used to have a boxed role-playing game (not a computer game) entitled
"2300 AD", and it contained a star catalog.  I would very much like to
get my hands on a copy of that catalog, as it contains positional data
dating from 1966, and thus would be invaluable in constructing a Known
Space star chart.

Unfortunately I seem to have lost my copy.  I see it is now available on
CD in a .pdf file.  Is there anyone here who has this file, or knows
someone who has it, who would be willing to share it with me?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman

Visit the Incompleat Known Space Concordance at:
http://www.freewebs.com/knownspace/

Does a Defence Health card count? :)                            (p.s a Defence
Health card is basically the same as most other private health cards.. just
better :) )

Make a bigger list and I'm sure I can take a few off your hand and place them in
a nice safe (if not somewhat warm (just for total random list trivia, part of
Australia is expected to be the hottest surface temp in the world anywhere in
that 24 hour period, while another part is busy fighting big firefronts while
another part is suffered flooding on a scale bigger than some of our states.

Adrian


>>> "Carl Brown" <catodon@...> 6/02/09 12:48 pm >>>
I'm slowly reducing my bookcase, old games need good homes.
If you have a current Australian Health Care Card (low income) contact
me and I'll offer them to you at half the price below.
Either way I'll cover postage within Australia.
Both books are contacted with the good Nylex stuff and are in excellent
condition.

For Faeire Queen and Country (Amazing Engine, Victorian era fantasy).
Map missing  $10

Al Qadim ( AD&D, Arabian adventures setting). $15


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A team at Princeton University offers evidence that evolution is not
entirely random.

Quoting from the article:

~~~~~~~~~~~
"The discovery answers an age-old question that has puzzled biologists
since the time of Darwin: How can organisms be so exquisitely complex,
if evolution is completely random, operating like a 'blind watchmaker'?"
said Chakrabarti, an associate research scholar in the Department of
Chemistry at Princeton. "Our new theory extends Darwin's model,
demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own
evolution to create order out of randomness."
~~~~~~~~~~~

http://tinyurl.com/5mnnxa
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5mnnxa

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clear ether!
Lensman