Posts: 3,315
Threads: 306
Joined: Feb 2004
Reputation:
0
You're missing Raygun Gothic and Atom Punk. Or, as GURPS called it, "Atomic Horror."
And now I'm smacking myself in the head trying to dislodge modpunk and discopunk. That is, tech casemods like putting a fragging ginormous mp3 player into the case for an old radio shack "Berry" Transistor radio, etc and making it LOOK like it belongs in the 60s-70s.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Posts: 2,232
Threads: 169
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
1
Quote:I look at it as more of a progression, or a gradient even. Victorian gives way to Steam Punk, which gives way to Art Deco, which gives way to Diesel Punk, which gives way to Postmodernism, which gives way to Cyber Punk. Thoughts?
Not really. Punk is the ur-culture, which gave rise to cyberpunk. Steampunk is a loose aesthetic whose attached fiction celebrates pretty much everything punk and cyberpunk are against, so it's not really "punk" and more "Victorian imperialist deification."
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
this-punk, that-punk, something-else-punk... It's only a matter of time until we see "Og no understand 'stonepunk'" in a serious work of fiction.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Tom Lehrer's Gonna Need Bigger Lungs
02-22-2011, 06:26 PM
How many elements are there? A hundred and some, right? Wrong. That's how many are known. Some scientists think there are four or five thousand possible elements -- and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/larg ... known.html]they're planning on using the Large Hadron Collider to make them all.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Bob Schroeck Wrote:How many elements are there? A hundred and some, right? Wrong. That's how many are known. Some scientists think there are four or five thousand possible elements -- and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/larg ... known.html]they're planning on using the Large Hadron Collider to make them all. Of course according to our current knowledge most trans-uranic elements are pretty unstable.
And anything beyond iron is made by supernova explosions, so its pretty uncommon in the universe. Carbon, oxygen and nitrogen are common, because they are easy to create in stars...
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Well yeah, unless there actually is an "island of stability", everything they're going to make is, like most of the most recent new elements, going to vaporize itself almost immediately.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Bob Schroeck Wrote:Well yeah, unless there actually is an "island of stability", everything they're going to make is, like most of the most recent new elements, going to vaporize itself almost immediately. Unfortunately we don't know enough about physics to be sure there is one (or not)... so it stays interesting. GO CERN, GO ! 
Posts: 589
Threads: 49
Joined: Apr 2010
Reputation:
0
I'm actually surprised the number is that small: I would've thought that the boundary where a collection of nucleons ceased to be an atomic nucleus and became instead a neutron star would be much higher.
Proginoskes Wrote:I'm actually surprised the number is that small: I would've thought that the boundary where a collection of nucleons ceased to be an atomic nucleus and became instead a neutron star would be much higher. Gravity is a weak force compared to electromagnetism. You need HUGES amounts of matter to overcome it and produce neutronium... stellar amount of matter to be exact.
The problem with larger nuclei is that they all seem to be very instable and decay into smaller nuclei very quickly. The "island of stability" is the idea that there might be heavier elements that are stable for a long time, but we have not found any up to today.
Posts: 4,964
Threads: 305
Joined: Jul 2010
Reputation:
8
We haven't gotten near the theorised island yet. It needs a specific number of neutrons and protons to be stable and perfect... which is rather difficult to do. I for one would love to name an element 'Keiyurium'.... but I doubt anyone would allow that. Too risky.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Posts: 589
Threads: 49
Joined: Apr 2010
Reputation:
0
Keiyurium should totally be an alternate name for Kaboomite.
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/23 ... ectronics/]Current-bearing plastic - who needs metal for circuits?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Yale scientists have invented the http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors ... r-invented]anti-laser.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 4,964
Threads: 305
Joined: Jul 2010
Reputation:
8
The final launch of Discovery: here
I wonder what she'll feel when she's on the ground again, and they wheel her into some museum. Looking forward to a well earned retirement after years of dutiful work, or a sorrow that she won't ever be able to fly in space again?
Or am I a lunatic for wondering this?
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Posts: 589
Threads: 49
Joined: Apr 2010
Reputation:
0
Given that she seems quite pleased with her position as the Artemis Foundation flagship, I don't think retirement agreed with her enough for her to miss it.
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
What Proginoskes said.
(And I just added a quirk to her writeup...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
Such a pity we probably can't use http://www.stephenfry.com/2011/02/27/4d6ae0a0466df/]this photograph...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 8,933
Threads: 386
Joined: May 2006
Reputation:
3
well, I'm pretty sure if someone asked nicely, we could say he's the representative for the Kilingon Empire at Kandor Con. 
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Posts: 3,315
Threads: 306
Joined: Feb 2004
Reputation:
0
Silly casemods for computers are common in Fenspace, but sometimes the Mundane Corporation tops them all:
This video shows an example from Taiwan's ASUS
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Posts: 3,315
Threads: 306
Joined: Feb 2004
Reputation:
0
I'll just leave this here.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Posts: 28,138
Threads: 2,301
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
What's interesting about that clip is not how much they got wrong, but how much they got right -- and yet still didn't come close to the world as it actually turned out.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
We've got Google Earth, Google Moon, and Google Mars... and now that MESSENGER has achieved orbit, we have http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/google.html]Google Mercury.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 26,590
Threads: 2,111
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
13
"West-northwest of Mösting A is the Oceanus Procellarum, where the Galactic Republic maintain a small Jedi Academy." - from the FenWiki entry for Luna.
Thanks to the Indian Space Research Organization, we now know the overall dimensions of this Jedi Academy (or, at least, the oldest section): http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/IS ... 79567.html]1.7-km long and 120-metre wide
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
|
