SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.com http://www.well.com/~bubbles/ Issue #156 New Moon of September 11, 2007 Contents copyright 2007 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of "fair use". In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I get a cut of the profits. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. Details of how to sign up are at the end. ********************* This issue happens to come due on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. That brings up questions such as where you were and what you were doing when you got the news. Most of the carnage happened during the morning, East Coast time. I'm in California. What with the time difference, things were starting to get into the aftermath phases by the time I got up. So when I logged on to my computer and brought up a local radio station's Web page to check the morning news, both World Trade Center towers were already down. Things were still rather chaotic. For example, estimates of the number of people killed varied by at least an order of magnitude, from a couple of thousand up to the tens of thousands. And nobody really knew how many planes might at that very moment be on their way to other targets. Some semblance of order gradually returned, although some effects linger. One effect I've noticed on me personally is that I tend to check the news, or at least the headlines, more often than I used to. If something of the sort does happen again there may be nothing I can do about it, but I still feel a need to know. Or maybe I'm just seeking reassurance that what's left of the world is still more or less intact. ********************* I'm reminded of other major news events that became world-wide (or at least nation-wide) shared experiences that people remember for the rest of their lives. For me they include the events of September 11, along with the launching of Sputnik, the JFK assassination, and, on a happier note, the first Moon landing. Nowadays more and more people are too young to remember Sputnik or JFK, or even the Moon landings, although we do share memories of more recent events such as the killing of John Lennon and the Space Shuttle disasters. Likewise, my parents' generation had their share of events I'm too young to recall, such as the "War of the Worlds" panic, the Hindenburg disaster, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But what of my grandparents and great-grandparents? Did they too share world-wide experiences that my parents were too young to remember? I suspect not. Although there have been major tragedies and triumphs down through history since time immemorial, only within the last hundred or so years has technology allowed the whole world to see or hear such events more or less as they unfolded. ********************* October 4, which is coming up in about three weeks, is the fiftieth anniversary of the first successful artificial satellite, launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union. At the time it was seen as a significant Cold War triumph for the Soviets. Thus most Americans took it as bad news rather than an occasion for rejoicing. I've written about this at length before, so rather than repeat it here I'll just offer the URL. You'll need to scroll way down, almost to the end. http://www.well.com/~bubbles/SS0022.txt I also mentioned it in a couple of subsequent issues, but they mostly referenced that same article, with little new material added. If you wish, you can check issues 34 and 132: http://www.well.com/~bubbles/SS0034.txt http://www.well.com/~bubbles/SS0132.txt And don't forget Wikipedia (even though I didn't write the entry): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik ********************* Possible cartoon idea, unless someone else has already thought of it: A mother is breast-feeding a baby. Tattooed (or otherwise printed) on her skin near the nipple is the nutrition information for human breast milk. ********************* There I was, sitting at my computer writing up some idea about life in various magical kingdoms and fairylands and such, when I heard a bunch of emergency vehicles going by outside, sirens blaring. That got me to thinking about emergency responders in the various magical realms, and whether they would use sirens. Emergencies in many such places are likely to be dealt with by knights on horseback or wizards or some such. These are almost never depicted using sirens and flashing lights and the like to warn other traffic to let them pass. Why is that? Do they not need to give advance warning to others to clear the way? Is a horse maneuverable enough to just step around obstacles and through other traffic? How often is traffic congested enough to be a significant problem? That's probably part of it, but I suspect that even if some equivalent of a siren was needed they'd use something more in tune with local conditions, such as birds flying ahead to cry out a warning. And don't forget magic carpets. They could perform functions analogous to helicopters in our world. There could be a whole set of very efficient emergency services, but based on magic rather than our kind of physical technology. How often do we see that in stories? ********************* Another candidate for least popular Super-Hero: Tattle-Tale Man. Powers: Limited flight, limited teleportation, X-ray vision, super-hearing, limited mind-reading ability. Tattle-Tale Man goes around telling school teachers about kids who misbehave in class while the teacher's back is turned. All the kids hate him, and even the teachers don't care for him all that much. But that's his job, so he keeps doing it. The police have tried to recruit him as a crime fighter, but so far have not succeeded. The Homeland Security people have had no better luck. He is rumored to be working for Santa Claus, who will neither confirm nor deny the reports. Even though nobody likes him, he's in the official Super-Hero Registry, with a caped costume and everything. That makes him technically eligible for a movie, a TV series, and a comic book, but so far no studios or publishers have expressed interest. In the absence of any credible reports that he is negotiating with toy companies and fast-food chains for a line of action figures and other merchandise, several such companies have issued pre-emptive denials. ********************* Lesser-known super powers: Neutrino vision. The power of neutrino vision lets you see through doors and walls and such like they weren't even there. You can't hide anything from it. That's because neutrinos go right through ordinary matter like it wasn't even there. The downside is that neutrinos also go through whatever you might be looking for like it wasn't even there. Ordinary matter is effectively invisible. But it isn't totally useless. The sun puts out a lot of neutrinos, as do many stars. Thus you can always see the sun, even at night when it's below the horizon and even when you're deep in a maze of twisty little passages, regardless of whether or not they're all alike. This can be useful for navigation. ********************* The subject of divination by reading entrails, animal or human, came up on an email list. The writer mentioned it as an example of a barbaric practice that used to be common but has now largely died out. My immediate thought was that with modern medical technology such as laproscopic surgery, or even non-invasive techniques such as ultrasound or CAT scans or MRI, it may be possible to get a reading without actually harming the person or animal whose entrails are being read. There would still be problems. Diviners accustomed to the traditional way of reading entrails might have difficulty learning the newer methods. And then there's the matter of getting time on the equipment, since it's likely to be busy with medical patients. But in a society where such practices were more generally accepted than they are here, those problems would be solvable. But be that as it may, I don't expect a resurgence of entrail-reading any time soon. ********************* The 9/11 issue date reminded me of this. Although it was written months after those events, I was thinking of the likes of Osama Bin Laden when I wrote it. If you ignore the specific details it can apply almost universally. Lessons in Pain When the evil ruler arrives in the Martyr's Paradise May he begin to learn. May the maidens who serve his carnal desires Begin to arouse deeper feelings. Little by little, over eons of eternity, May he learn to share his soul. Then once he has learned love, Let him learn pain: Beyond the physical pain of fire or falling buildings, Let him know the cutting short of hopes and dreams, The desperation of having to choose one death over another, The fallen comrades and the empty firehouse, The child whose parents will never return, And the emptiness of the hole in the heart when a loved one's fate is simply Unknown. Let every death that has brought him joy Now bring its full measure of sorrow. And then ... Knowing that whatever we ask for others we also ask for ourselves, And that I too have caused my share of pain, Once we have known the pain we have caused, Let the gods be merciful. -- Tom Digby Written 18:16 12/19/2001 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU If you're getting it via email and the Reply-to in the headers is ss_talk@bubbles.best.vwh.net you're getting the list version, and anything you send to that address will be posted. That's the one you want if you like conversation. There's usually a burst of activity after each issue, often dying down to almost nothing in between. Any post can spark a new flurry at any time. If there's no mention of "bubbles.best.vwh.net" in the headers, you're getting the BCC version. That's the one for those who want just Silicon Soapware with no banter. The zine content is the same for both. To get on the conversation-list version point your browser to http://bubbles.best.vwh.net/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi and select the ss_talk list. Enter your email address in the space provided and hit Signup. When you receive an email confirmation request go to the URL it will give you. (If you're already on the list and want to get off there will be an Unsubscribe URL at the bottom of each list posting you receive.) To get on or off the BCC list email me (bubbles@well.com or bubbles@well.sf.ca.us). I currently do that one manually. -- END --