kengr

A "badge" that has a swinging needle meter (or a bar graph LED) labeled "SPOONS".

Either have a hidden knob to adjust the reading, or mauybe find a sensor that semi-reliably tracks your spoon level.

ETA
One labeled "STRESS" would be good too. and likely easy to rig a sensor for. :-)

(mostly old time fans will get this)

Ok which one is supposed to be Delos D. Harriman? Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson?

I've just realized that I forgot a point I was going to make in my last post.

Earth has several moons, but Luna isn't one of them.

Yes, really.
Compare the Terra/Luna pair with any other moon & planet in the solar system, and you find a number of *glaring* differences.

First of all the center of mass of the Terra/Luna pair is *outside* of Earth. Not true for any other planet/moon pair. Well, maybe Pluto/Charon, but that may be another special case like Terra/Luna.

Second and far more telling is that if you plot the orbit of the planet with respect to the sun, and plot the path of the moon on the same plot, for all the other moons (again, with the possible exception of Charon) you'll see that the orbits of the various moons have a number of points where they are falling *away* from the sun. At those points the satellite's orbit is convex with respect to the sun rather than concave.

But you do this with Terra and Luna, and Luna's orbit is always concave with respect to the sun. at the points where it is closer to the sun than Terra, the orbit is flatter, but still concave.

Terra/Luna is a binary planet, *not* a planet and moon.

This has a nuimber of interesting effects. For one, Luna stabilizes Terra's axis. We still get things like precession of the equinoxes and other long term cycles, but they are both longer term and less drastic than they would be without Luna's influence.

Mars doesn't have such stabilizing factor and its axis has flip-floped a lot over the millennia, making it a lot less suitable for life.

Also, Luna has stripped of some of Earth's atmosphere , especially in the early days. This may be a reason we didn't wind up like Venus.

So, binary planets may be a *lot* more favorable to life than other planets. Which reduces the odds of finding life in other star systems, as binary planets in the habitable zone aren't likely. Not impossible, just a lot less likely.


So other habitable worlds are less likely to have huge "moons" in the the sky (much less multiple ones).

If binary planets are *necessary* for life, then that biases things in favor of a huge "moon". But lowers the number of planets suitable for humans (and other, similar lifeforms) a *lot*.

If habitable planets are common, then most won't have the huge "moons".

This is inspired by something fayanora sent me

"English" measurements aren't as crazy as you may think.

For example, volume for liquids (including some obsolete measurements).

1 gallon = 2 pottles
1 pottle = 2 quarts
1 quart = 2 pints
1 pint = 2 cups
1 cup = 2 gills
1 gill = 2 jacks
1 jack = 2 fluid ounces
1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon= 3 teaspoons

And in the US one gallon is *defined* as 231 cubic inches.

On the other hand, weight is a bit odd

1 long ton = 20 hundredweights
1 hundredweight = 4 quarters
1 quarter = 2 cloves
1 clove = 7 pounds

There are many more oddities, but the above will do for now.

I've read E E. "Doc" Smith's The Skylark of Space more times than I can remember. I've kicked myself for years at passing up an opportunity to get a first edition.

A while back I bought a cheap collection of Doc Smith stories on Kindle. I've slowly been working my way thru them reading a chapter here and there between reading other things. So far they'll all been things I've read before.

Recently, I hit The Skylark of Space and it turns out to be the *magazine* version (which I believe that first edition I passed up was as well). Turns out to have significant differences from the version I'd read before.

Smith had a co-author (to add in some love interest). Many of the changes are in scenes between Seaton and his fiancee.

But others are not. There are some minor differences in how World Steel is portrayed and the things they get up to. but some significant differences are in the workings of Perkin's Cafe. Such as a telephone setup to make it hard to track goings on (which I don't think would actually work, but still).

A really big one is that World Steel and their operatives have "wireless telephones". Not a major plot point, but they are used well.

I'm only up to the point where DuQuesne and company are planning to kidnap Seaton's fiancee, so there are likely to be other differences to be found.

I'm rather enjoying this look at an old favorite.

I've been seeing this one truck a lot recently due to construction going on across the street. No idea what they do, but the truck is white and has black lettering on the side:
ASPLUNDR

This reminds me of a few other "legendary" local businesses:

HARDER
Mechanical Contractors

think "something that contracts" not "someone who does contract work"

PALM
Abrasive
and Tool
Company

INDUSTRIAL CRATERS
A division of O'Neill Transfer, LTD

I 'm starting with gallon both because it's a defined measurement, but also because I don't have the info for larger measures on hand.

A gallon is legally defined as 231 cubic inches.

1 gallon = 2 pottles = 128 fluid ounces
1 pottle = 2 quarts = 64 fluid ounces
1 quart = 2 pints = 32 fluid ounces
1 pint = 2 cups =16 fluid ounces
1 cup = 2 gills = 8 fluid ounces
1 gill = 2 jacks = 4 fluid ounces
1 jack = 2 tablespoons = 2 fluid ounces
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = 1 fluid ounce
1 teaspoon = 1/3 fluid ounce

I know some of you have heard mention of fun chemicals like chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) and dioxygen diflouride (FOOF).

Well, here are a few more

Chlorine pentafluoride (ClF5)
surprisingly, this is *less* reactive than ClF3. Thought to be because the fluorine atoms are packed tightly enough to interfere with each other when it comes to reacting with things.

Trioxygen difluoride (FOOOF)
*Way* more unstable than FOOF. Also, in storage (at extremely low temps) the liquid tends to recombine to form FOOF and FOOOOF. Yes, that's *four* oxygens in a row. and that last reacts explosively with damn near anything.

For some reason a variation on the old Pillsbury jingle keeps popping up in my head.

At first it was just:

Nothing says lovin'
like something from the coven
and [blank] says best

The blank was irritating and finally I came up with "Avesbury" to fit the rhyme.

Now, mind you most of the fictional references to Avesbury that I've encountered were in Cthulhu Mythos stuff. Mind you, "coven" can work in that context so it's maybe acceptable.

Now part of me wants to *write* it. But the rest of me is going "Hell no!"

So I'm throwing it out there from anyone does like writing that kind of thing.