The New Hobbit Hole

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Communications satellites, PCs, virtual reality, even the Internet. I learned about Orion spaceships by reading Niven & Pournelle's Footfall (Michael taking off after the alien spaceship is still one of my favorite sequences in SF... Corin, if Footfall isn't on your reading list yet it should be!) I learned that the vacuum of space can be survived for short periods of time by reading SF. Even the inventions and ideas that SF authors don't originate, they bring into the mainstream by featuring in their stories

what would happen if someone tried that Schroedinger experiment?

Heinlein featured Schoedinger's cat in The Cat Who Walked Through Walls.

[JenB]

Yeah... just re-read Clarke's short story where he first wrote of the fact that you can survive in space - he estimated up to two minutes, with proper precautions - this evening, it was in the anthology I was reading. Wouldn't be pleasant, but... well, being spaced is not as quick a way to die as the movies show. Anyone see - what was it - Mission to Mars, I think? The astronauts are hanging around in space and for whatever reason, the one takes off his helmet and is instantly "freeze-dried". Not realistic at all, I sat there yelling at the tv for ten minutes. The movie got worse from there...

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

being spaced is not as quick a way to die as the movies show.

The TV series Babylon 5 got it right. On the show, "spacing" is an accepted form of capital punishment for some crimes, and while it never happens on the show, several times characters describe how it is neither a slow nor a pleasant way to die.

The movie got worse from there...

I'm glad I didn't see it.

[JenB]

The real SF guys get spacing right; it's not pleasant, but sometimes it's necessary for shipboard discipline. "A starship captain is the last of the absolute monarchs" as Heinlein wrote, and space is cold and unforgiving. The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space.

[Sam Cree]

I liked the Hyperion books pretty well, speaking of Schroedinger's cat, but can't remember the author.

But I thought they were very well written.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space

Exactly right... and I agree with you, the real SF people get these concepts right.

I'm going to have to log off for the night, but in honor of tonight's discussion let me post this "night-light" snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The kind of screw-ups that we deal with daily could mean death in space.

The Cold Equations, by Tom Godwin, is one of the best stories about this. A real classic. 'I didn't do anything to die for - I didn't do anything'.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Maybe it's referring to it as "work" this is causing all of the Hobbits to be elsewhere.

Okay, lets try this: It's party time!! Everybody get ready for the big party for the 10,000th post for the Hobbit Hole. First we will have the athletic events. The warm-up event is page-sneaking. OK everybody, line up and head for the '00' post. On your marks, get set, sneak!! (Not yet though, still too far).

[HairOfTheDog]

Party time! - Oh goody!
- I love a good party! Maybe that shy cutie pie hobbit over there will talk to me!

[LinnieBeth]

Morning HotD, I'm writing to you thinking you are moderator for these threads. The Green Dragon thread seems to have stopped, The New Hobbit Hole has disappeared from the LotR special section - at least on my browers, I tried to go to www.ecurbh.com and it wouldn't load.

Is there a new thread that ya'll are posting on these days?

[Overtaxed]

Good Morning, spacefaring hobbits!

[Sam Cree]

"There is good new stuff, really. It depends what you want"

I still like sci fi and fantasy, but look for good writing, mainly. It can be hard to find.

One that made an impression on me was (JenB's) Doomsday Book. I discovered it because it was mentioned on an FR thread, but no longer remember who made the recommendation.

[ksen]

Bright! Too bright!

Morning OT.

I watched FoTR last night and I just wanted to share one scene that always makes me chuckle. Gandalf has returned from his information seeking quest, he has thrown the ring in Frodo's fireplace, and they now know that Frodo's ring is the One Ring.

After Frodo decides to take the ring away from Hobbiton he busily starts to pack. There is one scene in this episode where Gandalf is telling Frodo where to go. While Gandalf is giving Frodo instructions he is helping Frodo to pack.

The scene I am thinking about has Gandalf carefully folding a shirt for Frodo. Frodo grabs it out of Gandalf's hands, shakes it out and stuffs it in his pack. For some reason that always brings a smile to my face. Heh heh.

[ksen]

Sneak

[Overtaxed]

Good Morning ksneak...er...I mean ksen.

Hehehe. Either Gandalf can't fold shirts or Frodo likes that wrinkled bachelor's look!

[Sam Cree]

Good morning Overtaxed.

I like reading about space and (unlike J.R.R.T.) love machinery and contraptions, though I'm not so sure about that space shuttle, which seems like maybe too much of a hybrid.

But I'm not too sure I want to be in space, I like certain parts of good old U.S.A. an awful lot + I seem to be getting pretty set in my ways with age...

[Overtaxed]

I like reading about space too. However, I got tired of wading through a bunch of crappy fiction and haven't been reading much SF lately.

I'm not all that thrilled about doing space travel either. There's something about the thought of sitting on top of high explosives that's unsettling. And I'd probably get space sick too! (Barfing in 1G is bad enough. I'd hate to think what it would be like in 0G!)

[Sam Cree]

My wife actually irons my T shirts, but when she is away, I usually try to get them out of the dryer at just the right moment...if they look too wrinkled, I hang them up for a while...not sure what the kids do, away at college.

Will look for that scene next time I see the movie.

[Sam Cree]

"However, I got tired of wading through a bunch of crappy fiction and haven't been reading much SF lately."

Yes, me too, I guess that goes for all fiction. I'm really an avid reader, but I often find it difficult to find stuff that's any good. I suppose there's plenty of it out there, it's just hidden in the midst of so much stuff that's no good.

I'm going over to the library and try to find some worthwhile art history books, maybe I can figure out some of what the masters were doing. Not the same as good escapist fiction, though.

There was a thread posted on modern art last night that I want to find and read.

[HairOfTheDog]

Good morning! - We are still here... and we will continue to be here, or nearby...

Going to start a new thread for the Green Dragon when we start reading TTT, which should be soon... I have just been busy, and no one else has clammered for it yet.

The "hobbit hole" topic is probably just pushing us off because there are new threads.

Hullo all! - Good Morning!