Phil K

Recent Actions

• Commented on Traveller RPG, Firefly, Dumarest, Vatta's War... are they all "Star Punk"?
  Ships as weapons: "A Dagger At Efate", Amber Zone in an early JTAS. Fun scenario: Bad Guys point ship at planet, smash drives and boobytrap ship....
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  GCU You'll Have Had Your Tea...
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  Speak Softly And Carry A Markov Chain...
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  Our Kind Do Not Go Sane?...
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  Ship names: Don't Fight It, Feel It Higher Than The Sun We Go Down Slowly Rising Eighties Fan French Navy I Know You Are But What Am I I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School Scotland's Shame...
• Commented on The End of the British nuclear deterrent?
  To find an enemy sub, a commander should first get drunk. (Stats joke)...
• Commented on Placeholder? Placeholder!
  It seems that modern assassins don't read Guns and Ammo. They read Walter Jon Williams, Ken MacLeod, and OGH. They use proxies and squirt-guns, or special materials in the sushi. I don't think they're tooling up with zip guns like...
• Commented on Upcoming travel
  Don't forget to do some shopping if you're not going to be back in the US for a while. Maybe take some time to sightsee and grab some memories of a wonderful country with many lovely people - that just...
• Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
  Bank in Delhi. Old man with older double-barrel, both eligble for a bus pass. Hammering away at the stock trying to use a screwdriver as a chisel. "Excuse me? Is that loaded?" "Oh yes, sir!" "umm.. bye then.."...
• Commented on A world-building puzzler
  Self-modifying tally stick morris dances. Jacquard punched dance cards. Bell-ringing patterns as signals....
• Commented on A world-building puzzler
  The great breakthrough came with Thomas Tallis's work for 600 choral philosophers, the Principia in Dm. Later composers such as Charles Babbage with his Singing Engine .... extract ends...
• Commented on A world-building puzzler
  "Here's your Mark 3 gizmo. And this is Caitlin, who is going to teach you the Operator's Song."...
• Commented on Clickbait spasm: 14 gizmos I used in 2015
  Cheers! I enjoyed "Spitfire" but had forgotten they exist. That's me happy....
• Commented on Clickbait spasm: 14 gizmos I used in 2015
  Offtopic, but I always miss out on Ask Charlie things. Hoping for some seasonal lee-way Charlie - I'm in a wide & comfortable rut in the music I listen to. If it's not much trouble could you (and the esteemed...
• Commented on Fantasy shibboleths
  My random toughts on this and the preceding SF thread. I have things that will put me off a book by an unknown author, and they are the general things already well-covered. However a good writer can take me along...
• Commented on Clickbait spasm: 14 gizmos I used in 2015
  multipurpose short(ish) drunk post Gadgets: recently forced to re-equip, here's a brand-heavy list of toys new (to me) Vox Tonelab Mini - small but tough portable amp, mostly guitar. Good emulation of popular amp types. Good at AC30 emulation, when...
• Commented on The Future Is Not American
  Star Wars isn't about humans of any type: it's about bees. http://www.tor.com/2014/04/30/every-human-in-star-wars-is-really-a-humanoid-bee/...
• Commented on The present in deep history
  Thanks. Prolific. Me, I won't sing for my supper when I've got money for food. I have to admit he's damn good at his job, though not to my taste. I've noticed that the more someone cares about music, the...
• Commented on The present in deep history
  Who is responsible for 90% of pop music? Sorry, it's a huge thread and I can't find the comment...
• Commented on Two Thoughts
  Theory: Charlie is testing out a new character in this blog, just as he did with the vet character in Equoid (who still comments)....
• Commented on Two Thoughts
  A commenter here has claimed the US make the best subs. An Astute observer might disagree. (Well, once initial production problems are sorted. The Anson will hopefully be the "best sub in the world"?)...
• Commented on That "Annihilation Score" spoiler thread you're all asking for
  There is a sort of forum, though it's not used much - iirc Charlie set it up for when this site was offline - the https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/antipope-storm-refugeStorm Refuge....
• Commented on Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology Is Indistinguishable From Cthulhu
  Throws peanut We're all in the same gallery, mate. Except Charlie and his guest bloggers....
• Commented on Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology Is Indistinguishable From Cthulhu
  There's a lag betwern a scientific discovery and it's acceptance - even by "insiders". Consider Michelson-Morley (1887), Einstein (1905) - surely there's no excuse for the 1911 Britannica to have a very long and detailed article about the Aether, by...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
  Re: "Our Kind do not go mad": William Burroughs claims in "Junkie" that heroin addicts do not suffer from schizophrenia - I don't think it's actually true. In "Excession", Grey Area specifically discusses their role as a pretend "eccentric", stating...
• Commented on In defence of Traditional (Eurocentric Quasi-Medieval) Fantasy: #3 It's the Archetypes, silly!
  MZB's on my "Don't ever read" list, after recent and credible allegations against her and her husband....
• Commented on Interlude: Swords! Or how I met Charlie, and became an author too
  My father used to have a very nice broadsword made in Konstanz and presented to him as a gift. He arrived home one night just as burglars left the house by the back door with his cd collection, my mother's...
• Commented on Things I would make if I had a 3D printer ...
  Scale models of fell walking and rock climbing routes would be useful. Small mountains all over the house might be cute, too....
• Commented on Ask the Author
  What would your 8 desert island discs (and luxury) be?...
• Commented on Let's put the future behind us
  It's set in the era of the "New Russians", and is essentially about criminal gangs in Moscow....