Tassie Dave’s Comments (group member since Mar 27, 2011)

Tassie Dave’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Mark wrote: "The Statler & Waldorf of Sword & Laser?"

Great minds think alike ;-)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Mary gives all the relevant inputs if you want to run the program for your area.

https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

These are approximates but...
Set: Diameter = "Hartley"; Density = "8000"; Angle = 60 degrees; Velocity = 25km; Water of depth = 21 ft.
For distance, put in your distance from Chesapeake Beach.

If you think you are okay, remember winter is coming.

Thanks Mark.

That Impact calculator is a fun little program.

Looks like I'd be OK if it hits Chesapeake Beach :-)
I'm 16,457 kilometres from Impact site


Little rocky ejecta reaches this site;
The fireball is below the horizon. There is no direct thermal radiation.
Nothing would be felt. However, seismic equipment may still detect shaking.
The air blast will arrive approximately 13.8 hours after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 295 Pa = 0.00295 bars = 0.0419 psi
Max wind velocity: 0.695 m/s = 1.55 mph
Sound Intensity: 49 dB (Easily Heard)
Tsunami wave amplitude is less than 10 cm at your location.

You do need to factor in that Trike and I are the cynical, grumpy old men of this forum ;-)

Iain wrote: "Well it certainly starts with a bang! (nudge nudge, wink wink)"

Say no more ;-)

Iain wrote: "remind me what age you are aiming at (high school is not universal), twelve or 14."

I was 11½ when I started High School. 15½ when I finished.

We did mostly classics and f....... Shakespeare ;-)

I preferred it when we did more modern classics like Grapes of Wrath or The Catcher in the Rye

Rob wrote: "I'll be curious to see what the top pick from this year will be."

I think this month's pick will be up near the top. I'm loving it so far.

Yeah it's not that good. I lasted a bit longer than Trike, hoping it would get better.

It didn't :-?

Trike wrote: "Finally read Fahrenheit 451, which is as good as everyone says. The predictions he makes are eerily prescient, especially the ones about TV and the anti-intellectual beliefs infecti..."

It would make a good S&L pick and would make up for us, amazingly, not yet reading a Ray Bradbury.

Though I prefer to call it "Celsius 233"

;-)

On my iPad, on Goodreads there is an option at the very bottom of every page to change to Mobile version or desktop version. Depending on which one you are on at the time.

Trike wrote: "Don’t. Get. Me. Started."

or he'll tell you why Star Wars is all sci-fi.
Why "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best SW movie ever
and why JJ Abrams was a great choice as director of the sequels.

John (Nevets) wrote: "It's all art, and thus open to interpretation. Much like the quality of the limericks penned in the other thread."

Which was all of the highest quality :-)

Matt wrote: "Despite all my cleverness I seriously did not even consider lightsaber, but that is now my vote. Isn't Star Wars still firmly more Sci-fi though, or has that changed too?"

You ask that leading question on a SFF forum full of geeks ;-)

We've done that argument a few times. I'm firmly in the "Star Wars is Fantasy" camp for reasons I've stated multiple times here already.

Even the lightsabre is a fantasy, non-scientific weapon.

So do we go with Swaser or Lasord?

Good one :-)

look what you started Trike.

Matt set the bar high with his excellent scientific explanation. Trike and I raised it using literature's highest form of poetry, the Limerick.

You are all welcome

:-)


;-)

We of the faction Liozh
take umbrage at your hideous prose
you're just a hater.
Our calendar's greater
and your whole stinking empire just blows

Nothing either.

Matt wrote: "Yeah, you can imagine how I felt when I had the realization that the people who are the most confused by this book are probably going to be the same people who also skip past my explanation because it is too long. "

Where's the TL;DR ?

;-)

We are all on a spectrum of visualisation. From bad to good.
I'm a reasonable visualiser. But for some things I do think in abstracts. I don't normally put faces on characters in books, unless I've seen the movie version first.

Even when viewing something with our eyes, what we see is how our brain interprets that input. Which is why we all experience visual Pareidolia. Seeing things that aren't there. (Shapes in the shadows, ghosts, etc) or seeing Jesus/Mary on toast, in clouds, paint blobs etc.

It's why eye witness accounts are the least reliable of evidence used in trials. We see what our brain interprets and the further away from the events, the less reliable our memory becomes and the more open to outside influence. Even to the point of remembering details that didn't happen. We all have false memories.

As long as the Sword and Laser book club lasts we will be analysing what is and isn't sci-fi ;-)

We are SFF nerds and that's what we do.

As long as it's fun & respectful of other's opinions.

In the end it doesn't really matter. As long as it is Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy, it's all the genre we love.