waldo

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• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  Something about this reminds me of a story called ... ... 'Examination Night', by a chap called Charles Stross. I always felt that was worth further development, though it's clearly more a 1990s Charlie than a 2020s Charlie....
• Commented on Shrinking the world
  Re "morningstars": Could we just call them "ball-flails"? Especially since that seems to be one of their failure modes :)...
• Commented on Signed copies of "Season of Skulls" available for pre-order!
  There is another sense of "bunting" which that omits - flying an outside loop in an aircraft. Earliest reference I know is 1930s RAF slang. (Bunting in this sense is not generally felt to be wise, as the blood is...
• Commented on Minor updates
  Hopefully it will heal well and quickly. Good luck!...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Escape from Yokai Land
  Heteromeles at 524: I am no kind of planetologist, but it occurs to me that waterworlds are supposedly prone to Really Big storms. Presumably those will cause big waves, and big waves should add extra erosion and thus more mineralisation....
• Commented on Minor updates
  So do hornets. European hornets are usually placid and unaggresive. When they have been eating rotting fruit, not so much......
• Commented on Place your bets
  Glad to hear it....
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Escape from Yokai Land
  I'm hoping that many of the MAGA can be persuaded to boycott Dominion voting machines in future, as a protest....
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Quantum of Nightmares
  So the gun may have had a serial number? (Sorry, not got round to reading it yet.)...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Quantum of Nightmares
  Dagon is surely sitting on a throne in the Marianas Trench, peevishly picking fibre-optic cables out of Its scales and reviewing defence plans against the sudden infestation of New Managers in the near-vacuum above. Hastur, canonically, Shall Not Be Mentioned....
• Commented on Place your bets
  I read, in several places, that Russia has a problem with laser rangefinders being stolen from its mothballed tanks. Who buys these stolen rangefinders, and why? I'm missing something here; is there really a substantial black market for them, or...
• Commented on Place your bets
  I have read that desertion and other morale issues were an increasing problem late in the war. Probably in Sheffield's 'Forgotten Victory', but I can't be certain....
• Commented on Place your bets
  'I'd love to see science fiction based on this premise: Earth is unique or incredibly rare in being populated by discrete individuals. Every other biosphere we find is essentially a single creature. ' IIRC Ursula le Guin went part way...
• Commented on Place your bets
  I always thought that the Noah's Ark story (and its predecessors) was primarily about technology....
• Commented on Place your bets
  Thanks (and to OGH also). I am still puzzled by the absence of general understanding about syphilis being deadly to begin with, but that's a separate question and the Wikipedia article has interesting discussion about it. Now that I think...
• Commented on Place your bets
  SFreader said: 'About early hominids in Europe and why only one hominid group survived: I think the likeliest comparable scenario is the European 'conquest' of North America - germs not weapons.' That exposes a question I've never asked: Do we...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Back in the day, I knew someone who had a valve amp in his hi-fi system (it was old even then). He repaired it, but lost the screws to put the case back together. End result, he strung it around...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Some Apple=oriented design pseudohistory. Apple people will probably find this funnier than I do, though there's at least one joke which made me laugh out loud. https://newsletter.shifthappens.site/archive/the-cursed-universes-of-dana-sibera/...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Well, there are already claims on the Web that AI can be used to spoof banking audio authentication......
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  It appears that it may not be possible to copyright AI output in the USA. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/24/copyright_ai_art_us/...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  My favourite insane VTOL/fixed-wing hybrid. Never flown, sadly. At least for those of us who didn't have to go up in it or be underneath it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_XV-2...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Impressive. I do observe a nice calm sea, though. I suspect it might be more problematic (both in terms of difficulty, and of wear and tear on the airframe) in a more energetic sea state....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Poor girl. I hope she is given some help....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  I've just heard Charles Dance read a ChatGPT "Shakespearean sonnet" on BBC Radio 4 (for Valentine's DaY). I've no doubt at all that it will make advertising copywriter an occupation of the past....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Interesting. I'd like to see a reference for the claim that "All the pilots died shortly after."...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  I'm sure, but nobody would be able to hear it. Double bass players bring amps to jazz gigs....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  This is probably old news to people, but it appears that someone has worked out a way to steal cryptocurrency funds with the aid of a photograph. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/08/webaverse_crypto_stolen/...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Not much in the bass register, then?...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  "There's at least one SF story about life extension where the cabal who supply it charge "all your wealth less X, minimum lots"." Joe Haldeman, 'The Long Habit of Living'....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Mindless pop music....