FrankO

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• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
  Charlie, I know there is no PLR in the USA. The idea for the US is that the "donor" buys an actual copy of one of your books (not used) and donates it to the library. Your "tip" then gets...
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
  Charlie's Tip Jar is most easily accessed at your local library. Check out which of his books they do not carry, and offer to get them a copy of that book. Checking is probably a good idea, because otherwise it...
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
  Book 4 of the New Management? Something after Skulls? Eve and Imp, or off in a different direction? Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on On inappropriate reactions to COVID19
  JBS, If you can lay your hands on a copy of Jane's Fighting Ships for 1953-54 or 1954-55 it is quite likely they will have construction costs for Nautilus. Plus you can go through the US section and catalog the...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Labyrinth Index
  Maybe Peter's family name is actually Russell-Wilson or Wilson-Russell? Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  The US National Archives fire in 1973. https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/archives-recalls-fire https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/fire-1973 Can't Enjoy! this one. Frank....
• Commented on Countdown to Crazy
  I am reminded of the quote by John von Neumann in Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2: Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Countdown to Crazy
  The front end-papers of the book Behind The Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ by John Ferris is a map labelled "Cable Map of the World". Dust jacket says the map is from 1919; it was published by the Geographical...
• Commented on Countdown to Crazy
  Philippines? Are you sure you didn't mean Puerto Rico? Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Upcoming Attractions!
  Charlie, Speaking of GCHQ, this book was just published on the 20th. Behind the Enigma : The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency, by John Ferris. https://www.bookdepository.com/Behind-Enigma-John-Ferris/9781526605474?ref=grid-view&qid=1603466099925&sr=1-2 Available in hardback and soft cover. 848 pages. I do not...
• Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
  With regard to the matter of de-orbiting the junk materials in earth orbit, high, low, or otherwise: it seems to me that de-orbiting into the atmosphere just pollutes the upper atmosphere with a large supply of various elements, especially heavy...
• Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
  Going forward at least, they should put the two "debaters" in separate isolation booths, like those used on the old $64,000 Question (now there is an old reference). Separate mikes in each booth, controlled by the moderator, which would take...
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  Might I point out Mike Resnick's fourth Weird West tale, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs? https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Dinosaurs-Weird-West-Tale/dp/1616148616/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1600369795&sr=1-1 This involves Doc Holiday and two real life American paleontologists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  Charlie, I am less concerned with him stealing "the silverware, the art, and the copper wire" than I am about the possible destruction of the materials that are supposed to go to the National Archives as part of a future...
• Commented on Cough Cough
  Now there is a purpose for a space program. Wicker Men in Orbit. Would that hill be high enough? Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on "It'll all be over by Christmas"
  For the railroad buffs, here is a publisher you would not normally search: Aeronaut Books. The publisher is Jack Herris, very active in publishing WW1 books on aviation, and the League of World War One Aviation Historians. Go to Amazon,...
• Commented on Update to Public Appearances in a time of pandemic
  I saw a group of men in the ExCel one evening during WorldCon a few years ago; one of them had a long beard. But they were performing a ritual to propitiate some god or other, so that couldn't possibly...
• Commented on Public appearances in a time of pandemic
  The Golden Fleece awards were from William Proxmire, not Everett Dirksen. Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  John Coster-Mullen. https://www.amazon.com/Atom-Bombs-Secret-Inside-Little/dp/B0006S2AJ0/ref=sr_1_1?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=10&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9&qid=1577194382&refinements=p_27%3ACoster-Mullen&s=books&sr=1-1&unfiltered=1 He used to sell copies himself on Amazon, but apparently it is no longer available. Enjoy Frank....
• Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
  Blom, Suzanne Alles Inca - the Scarlet Fringe Frank....
• Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
  After the two bombs were dropped, Gen George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, ordered that no further bombs were to be dropped on Japan. They were to be held for use in the invasion of Kyushu, starting on...
• Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
  You might check F W Mote's Imperial China 900 to 1800. About 1000 pages to cover 900 years. It has several chapters on each dynasty. Typically, a chapter on the history of the dynasty, a chapter on the bureaucracy, a...
• Commented on Quiet in here, isn't it?
  I suggest that you have two light switches that control the same light. The question is whether both switches are in your house in this universe, or if one of the switches is in a nearby universe. Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on Bad puppies, no awards
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_gubernatorial_election,_2014 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_These_Candidates Enjoy! Frank....
• Commented on That "Annihilation Score" spoiler thread you're all asking for
  Charlie, A probable typo, in the Acknowledgements page (IX) of the US hardback edition. In the second paragraph, listing the tire kickers, you note Seanan Maguire. I suspect that should be Seanan McGuire. Frank....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  Two suggestions. The first is a modification of Charlie's proposal. Change "No Award" to "No Award Now" (someone else suggested this term). If "No Award Now" wins in a given category, that category is renominated and revoted down the road,...
• Commented on An age-old question
  Given Charlie's original question, is it reasonable to ask if the Elder Gods themselves could suffer from senility, or Alzheimers? Could that explain the nature of the recorded encounters with them? And would that mean that their might be young...
• Commented on Yet another bad idea
  Charlie, John G Roberts, Jr is Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, not Anton Scalia. Which might make it a little harder to annex part of Leningrad to the U.S. Now, if the US had an embassy in Leningrad,...
• Commented on Yet another bad idea
  Can we start a rumor that Putin was born in Hawaii and can't be elected Czar of Russia? Frank....
• Commented on Introducing Hugh Hancock
  Canvas, sir? CANVAS? M. Bleriot would never have gotten across the Channel if he had used canvas. Linen, sir. The future is in linen. Plastic will come later. Enjoy! Frank....