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Comment Threads

• Greg. Tingey commented on Hello My Name Is The Problem of Memory
  Privateeleron OK 1066 fully successful invasion. Admitedly Harald Godwinesom had no more "right" to be king than William, but he was in legal posession. After the death of John, the Frebch were ejected. because Dover castle held out, and some "barons who had sised with the Frogs decided to change sides (again) On the Mediaval to-&-fro-ings I shall ignore. As for 1588, I suggest you read G. Mattingly on the subject. The wind scattered the Spanish, but they were facing imminent defeat, UNTIL the wind enabled them to escape - not that it did many of them much good in...
• brucecohenpdx commented on Hello My Name Is The Problem of Memory
  I'm starting to wonder what kind of Great Game would have happened if the explorers from the 19th Century empires had found their way into Faerie. I don't think anyone's really tried that yet in a fantasy novel. Not quite Faerie, but David Duncan's "Great Game" trilogy (Past Imperative, Present Tense, Future Indefinite) takes place in a world parallel to ours, in which travelers from our world have magical powers (and no one else does). Some of those travelers in a previous generation were British agents, who've carried the concepts and strategies of the Great Game over to their...
• brucecohenpdx commented on Hello My Name Is The Problem of Memory
  I don't think I can live up to Heinlein's specification--can anyone--but I can, at a glance, tell a Mauser rifle from a javelin. And a hawk from a handsaw? I've lived in farm country, though never worked on a farm for more than a few hours at a time, and I've lived in places that were distant enough from large towns that it was a good idea to know how to fix little things and know how to tell when big things weren't working right and needed to be fixed soon so you can find someone who can fix it....
• brucecohenpdx commented on Hello My Name Is The Problem of Memory
  Most white-collar jobs don't require either scientific knowledge or technical competence. They may require skill with a particular set of computer applications or knowledge of a set of policies, but that's usually just a matter of training; anyone with somewhat less than average intelligence is capable of that level of competence. The problem is that these are precisely the jobs that have been outsourced, and are being automated out of existence now. Even a lot of what's called "managerial" work like project management can be largely automated to the point of sharply reducing the number of humans required to manage...
• Moderator Alan commented on Hello My Name Is The Problem of Memory
  As you term it yourself, 'raiding'. I wouldn't consider this invasion in the sense discussed, which is one of an enemy coming into the land in an attempt to conquer it or exert long term power over it. If you want to include raids, then all sorts of other invaders come into the picture, from the Irish in the West onward....