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------------------------------

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blakes7-d Digest				Volume 99 : Issue 67

Today's Topics:
	 [B7L] Flat Robin 27
	 Re: [B7L] Flat Robin #23
	 [B7L] communication (fwd)
	 Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
	 Re: [B7L] communication (fwd)
	 [B7L] Horizon news - colour of justice
	 RE: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
	 Re: [B7L] Flat Robin #23 - By Arkaroo
	 Re: [B7L] Flat robin, chptr 26
	 [B7L] Blake's 7 theme music
	 Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
	 Re: [B7L] Fannishness
	 Re: [B7L] trip trap
	 Re: [B7L] trip trap
	 [B7L] Some things never change...
	 Re: [B7L] Blake's 7 theme music
	 Re: [B7L] Flat Robin chapter... 25?
	 [B7L] Blake's XI v Babylon XI cricket match at Redemption
	 Re: [B7L] Blake's XI v Babylon XI cricket match at Redemption
	 Re: [B7L] Flat Robin chapter... 25?
	 Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 22:22:30 PST
From: "Penny Dreadful" <pdreadful@hotmail.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Cc: egomoo@geocities.com
Subject: [B7L] Flat Robin 27
Message-ID: <19990218062234.25216.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain

>Gytha hummed as she led the way out of the inn. Let Esme fixate on
>dangerous elves; Nanny was about to have two handsome young men in her
>bedroom. And one was too drunk, and one would too injured, for either
>man to go away. The day was looking brighter and brighter.

***

"You've got quite an aura on you, kid," Nanny Ogg had remarked to her, 
as they had stood watching Blake struggle with his burden while Granny 
Weatherwax made what could easily be interpreted as disparaging remarks 
about his manhood.

"Um..." Cally had not been sure how to respond.

"Your magneticomagical whatsit," the old woman had explained. "Very 
strong, nice colour, I can tell you've put some effort into it." Her 
daughters-in-law all tended for some reason to have auras so small and 
pale they rendered the body they surrounded nearly invisible.

Avon had snorted, then tried to conceal it with a cough when the witch 
had turned to look directly at him. "More than *he* has," she had 
remarked, and had followed Blake and Granny. A short time later Avon had 
also left her, adjourning for unfathomable reasons of his own to a 
tavern with an aura like a coating of hot tar, and an odour not half so 
pleasant. 

Cally was just as happy to be alone with her thoughts. Or rather with 
her sensations. She was currently experiencing the psychic equivalent of 
a decongestant finally kicking in. This whole world was a telepathic 
Tesla ball, the minds of its inhabitants a discernible, bloodthirsty 
background hum. And octarine strands arced between her fingertips and 
anything with a magic-field of its own. She had the kind of eyes that 
could see octarine -- a wizard's eyes.

And to a wizard's eyes the High Energy Magic Building, though tucked 
deep in the heart of Unseen University, burned like a beacon even in the 
full light of day.

***

"High...Energy...*Magic*...Building?"

"That's what they call it," Rincewind said.

"And *that's* where I'll find old Hex," Avon said dubiously.

"If he hasn't stepped out to stretch his legs." Rincewind giggled 
idiotically. Avon wondered if he hadn't coshed him a mite more 
enthusiastically than necessary the last few times.

"Well...then, I suppose that's where we ought to go next. Lead the way, 
wizard," Avon said, holding tightly onto a handful of Rincewind's collar 
and moving toward the front entrance.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Avon?" Jenna nodded toward the chair 
in which Vila had been sitting when he vanished.

"I like to think of *this*," Avon said, tapping the wizard's pointy hat 
with the tip of his gun, "as our new improved Vila. Same old alcoholism, 
but now *twice* the cowardice. Anyhow, he said he'd be back in a jiffy. 
We could leave him a note..."

"I'll stay here," Jenna said, and sat down in the vacated chair, after 
cautiously feeling to see that he hadn't in fact merely turned invisible 
and inaudible like his erstwhile drinking companion. Not that *he'd* 
mind in that case if she sat down, she thought.

Avon bit back the phrase 'I think we should stick together', predicting 
with his latent psychic ability that the rejoinder would be 'Oh yeah? So 
where's Cally?'. "Fine," he said instead. "I'll meet you back here in an 
hour."

"Fine," said Jenna. She stuck out her chin. "Seems like everyone's had 
the chance for a pint but me. Barkeep--" The landmass that was the 
Mended Drum's bartender this week reappeared out of the shadows. "I'll 
have whatever *they* were having." She waved at the sea of overturned 
tables all around her.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," said Avon, nudging Rincewind out the 
door.

"Yes," Jenna was saying to the bartender, "as a matter of fact I *do* 
mean all of them.

***

The god Eddwode smiled broadly.

He was a bit of an anomaly among the gods of the discworld, and not 
solely because of his unique fashion sense. Whereas most gods depended 
upon the strength of the belief of their followers, Eddwode's fortunes 
rose and fell depending upon how strongly his followers (or, as he 
preferred to call them, probably far more accurately, his Audience) 
chose *not* to believe in him. In other words he derived his power from 
the *willing suspension of disbelief*. Therefore he had managed to 
maintain a comfortable position among the bourgeoisie of Dunmanifestin 
since the dawn of time, despite being absolutely superfluous, merely by 
*not* performing miracles, so that the clear evidence of his existence 
could *not* be discredited. And therefore, as well, it was not at all 
surprising that he always felt at his very best in the vicinity of a 
tavern.

And the 'Pullet and Whippet', although having lost almost all the 
fundamental characteristics of tavernliness when the spaceship had 
flattened it, still managed to retain the one that mattered to Eddwode: 
it was surrounded by incredulous drunks.

Right now they were all staring open-mouthed and pointing at the thing 
which rested where their watering-hole had been. A cynic might have said 
it looked suspiciously like the hubcap of a midpriced American 
automobile from round about the McCarthy era. But a cynic, as the old 
adage goes, is just a rube who isn't drunk yet.

The god Eddwode strode confidently toward the craft, wearing a grin like 
the grille of the aforementioned automobile, just as its occupants 
emerged through the hatch in the top.

"Superb landing job, Toise," said the first entity to appear. He was 
wearing his Outfit For Venturing Outdoors, which above the 
aforementioned shiny black boots consisted of a silver lame 
body-stocking encircled by the kind of belt pro wrestlers can only dream 
about, black leather gauntlets which flared out at the elbow, and a 
heavily-tinted visor, because he didn't trust the concept of direct 
sunlight. "Toise," he continued nonchalantly, "apropos of nothing at 
all, has the sedan *always* looked like this? I don't recall it being 
quite so...saucerlike." The second entity, Toise, was dressed basically 
like the first, except that his body stocking was gold. Both brandished 
implausibly Plexiglas-heavy pistols. Both twitched visibly as they 
became aware of Eddwode standing in front of them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Eddwode said, indicating the gleaming chrome 
surface of their craft. "That's *my* work. I hate to say anything, but 
the original design just did *not* scream 'interstellar invasion', in my 
humble opinion."

"It *does* go very nicely with our outfits," said Toise, holstering his 
pistol. 

Eddwode crept up behind Krantor, who had walked to the edge and was now 
waving and making odd hand gestures at the crowd. "I suppose you'll be 
wanting us to take you to our leader," Eddwode suggested.

"Not particularly," Krantor said. "We're just here for a little 
sightseeing, actually." Eddwode's smile wavered, and the spaceship 
suddenly lurched as though it was made of something too light to support 
the weight of all three of them. Krantor tumbled, but managed to land on 
his feet. Toise scrambled down after him. "There it is, Krantor!" he 
exclaimed, pointing toward the spires of Unseen University, which rose 
high enough to pierce the haze that hung over Ankh-Morpork. The crowd 
followed his finger as best they could in their inebriated state, and 
gasped in horror when at length their befogged minds managed to 
determine what it was that he was pointing at. But of *course* the alien 
invaders would want to take out the wizards first.

"Krantor," Toise continued presently, "how did they get all those 
torches and pitchforks so quickly?"

Eddwode's grin grew broad again.

"Very well," sighed Krantor. "Take us to your leader."

At that, a brilliant white figure appeared out of the grey of the 
milling crowd. Krantor gurgled an exclamation of recognition. "No need 
for that," smiled Servalan, sweeping toward the two men, their god, and 
their really gigantic hubcap. "Their leader will come to you."

"It's *her*!" he trilled. "The *witch*," he added with a scowl, but not 
as much conviction as their previous history might have warranted.

"No, no, my good spaceman," Eddwode corrected Krantor. "You see *that*?" 
He indicated the figure all in black creeping up behind Servalan as she 
left the safe environs of her gold-enchanted Mob. "*That's* a witch. 
Note the pointy hat, and perhaps most tellingly the broomstick -- ouch! 
Truly an all-purpose tool, the common household broomstick. Ah! But the 
harlot in white is certainly no slouch with her elbows..."

"Oh boy!" said Toise. "Catfight!"

***

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 22:58:28 PST
From: "Penny Dreadful" <pdreadful@hotmail.com>
To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flat Robin #23
Message-ID: <19990218065829.8055.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain

Arkaroo yowled triumphantly:

>Now Penny can't tell filthy and 
>highly dubious stories about me behind my back. 

Now I'll just have to tell them in front of your face. So, an orangutan, 
a rabbi, and Arkaroo walk into a bar...and someone screams "F'crissake 
take it to th' spin-list already!"

--Penny "Smut-Shunt" Dreadful

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 09:59:20 +0000 (GMT)
From: Iain Coleman <ijc@bsfiles.nerc-bas.ac.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] communication (fwd)
Message-Id: <Pine.OSF.3.96.990218095755.7542A-100000@bsauasc>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I'm forwarding this as Judith accidentally sent it to me rather than the
list. Reply to follow when I've achieved my morning caffeine quota.
 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 18:30:06 +0100 (BST)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Iain Coleman <ijc@mail.nerc-bas.ac.uk>
Subject: communication

On Wed 17 Feb, Iain Coleman wrote:

> Regardless of the speed of travel, B7 does have effectively instantaneous
> interstellar communication. In "Horizon" we see how this is used to
> enforce colonial rule on distant planets. A small ruling body of
> Federation officials and loyal local leaders takes care of the day-to-day
> running of things, with regular communications with Earth to keep tabs on
> everything. It seems workable to me (in terms of politics, if not
> necessarily physics).

Actually they did have limits on communocation.  In Horizon, there was initially
no one in range to intercept the commisar's message.  In Star one, Orac was
recognised as being faster than any other method of communication.

As was said earlier though, earlier empires from Romans to British have survived
on communications that took months or years.

Judith
-- 
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7

Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention  
26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent
http://www.smof.com/redemption/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:26:06 +0000 (GMT)
From: Iain Coleman <ijc@bsfiles.nerc-bas.ac.uk>
To: "'B7'" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
Message-Id: <Pine.OSF.3.96.990218100313.7542B-100000@bsauasc>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

This apparent disagreement about the meaning of the Roche limit is
actually quite a nice example of the same physics manifesting itself in
quite different contexts. I've underlined the main points below.


On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Taina Nieminen wrote:

> 
> 
> Ian wrote, re the Roche limit:
  ^^^

Iain. Hmph.


> 
> Neil wrote
> <<'The Roche limit is a distance equal to 2.44 times the radius of the planet
> from its centre.  If a moon should approach closer than this distance, it is
> shattered into fragments by the planet's gravitational field.  Saturn's
> rings were probably formed in this way.  The limit does not apply to
> artificial satellites, which are held together by their structural
> cohesion.'>>

As Neil pointed out, it's fundamentally the planet's mass that's
important, not its radius. Patrick Moore is still an amateur, and is not
immune to the odd howler. However, all shall become clear.

> 
> >From my brother's astronomy text book:
> 
> There is a minimum distance a satellite can be from its planet. At smaller 
> distances a large satellite could not withstand the differential, or
> tidal, forces exerrted on it by the planet and would be torn apart. E. 
> Roche investigated the problem in 1850 and found that if the constituent
                                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
> parts of a satellite are held together only by their mutual gravitation ...
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is exactly the same as the scenario I described when one member of a
binary stellar system expands into the Roche limit of the other: it is
pulled apart because the gravitation of the companion dominates over its
self-gravitation. The stellar case is also more realistic: in fact, stars
_are_ held together by self-gravity, whereas satellites are generally held
together by chemical bonds as well.
 
> as if the satellite has the same density as its planet, the critical
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This explains the discrepancy Neil pointed out. In fact the Roche limit
depends on the mass of the object: in the case where both objects have the
same density one can cancel out the mass and express everything in terms
of relative radii. (At least, that's what I guess: I haven't actually
performed the calculation to check. Hey, I'm not getting paid for this,
OK?)

> distance is 2.44 times the planet's radius. At a greater distance, the
> satellite suffers only tidal distortion, but holds together. At a smaller
> distance it is torn apart by the tidal forces, for they are greater than the
> gravitational forces holding the satellite together. If the satellite
> has a higher density, or a high rigidity, so that cohesive forces add to
> gravitational ones in binding it together, it could survive at a
> somewhat smaller distance from the planet. The critical distance at
> which a large satellite can survive destruction is called Roche's limit. 
> 

And, due to the same fundamental physics, the critical distance at which a
test particle (of negligible mass) will orbit a body in a binary system is
also the Roche limit. Scorpio can safely be considered a test particle.

Isn't physics fun? 

Iain

(This would be so much easier with a blackboard, you know.)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:36:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: Iain Coleman <ijc@bsfiles.nerc-bas.ac.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] communication (fwd)
Message-Id: <Pine.OSF.3.96.990218103217.7542C-100000@bsauasc>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Judith:

> Actually they did have limits on communocation.  In Horizon, there was initially
> no one in range to intercept the commisar's message.  In Star one, Orac was
> recognised as being faster than any other method of communication.

It appears FTL communications are narrowcast rather than broadcast, in
that the recipient has to be in the appropriate location to receive the
message. Thus, sending a message from (say) Star One to Space Command HQ
would involve contacting an intermediary who would pass the message to
another known intermediary and so on. However, once the link is in place
communication is effectively instantaneous: I'm sure we see some
conversations over interstellar distances, don't we?

Iain
 

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 12:00:35 -0000
From: Robinson Paula <Paula.Robinson@RCN.ORG.UK>
To: "'blakes7@lysator.liu.se'" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>,
        "'space-city@world.std.com'" <space-city@world.std.com>
Subject: [B7L] Horizon news - colour of justice
Message-ID: <E9263E031959D211B5A80008C71E93C35BBE98@RCN-LONDON5>
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Quick info-splurge:

"The Colour of Justice" is to be shown on Sunday in the UK - It is on BBC2
at 10:10pm and is a filmed version of the stage play based on the events of
the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, in which Jan Chappell plays
DC Holden.

Paula

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 01:33:13 +1000
From: Taina Nieminen <tenzil@bigpond.com>
To: "'B7'" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: RE: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
Message-ID: <01BE5BA7.D357B840@TENZIL>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> 
> Ian wrote, re the Roche limit:
  ^^^

Iain. Hmph.


I have problems with concentration and sometimes
letters drop out when I'm typing and I don't always 
pick them up. If you were offended, I apologise.

Taina

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 18:33:18 +0000
From: Julia Jones <julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flat Robin #23 - By Arkaroo
Message-ID: <j83spJAuzFz2EwO$@jajones.demon.co.uk>

In message <199902180242.VAA13731@netroamer.com>, Arkaroo Fleabane
<arkaroo@conk.com> writes
>'Hah hah! You appear a sultry and willing wench, desperately in need of some 
>semi-masochistic codependency! Howsabout we go back to my Pollock-Canning 
>Factory and *can* some Pollock of our own, if you know what I mean,' he asked, 
>sidling up alongside her.

Who needs The Other List with stuff like this going on here?#

Encore!
-- 
Julia Jones
"Don't philosophise with me, you electronic moron!"
        The Turing test - as interpreted by Kerr Avon.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 18:58:34 +0000
From: Julia Jones <julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flat robin, chptr 26
Message-ID: <a$qS5OAaLGz2Ew5L@jajones.demon.co.uk>

In message <36CB9A13.3BE9@jps.net>, Helen Krummenacker <avona@jps.net>
writes
>Gytha hummed as she led the way out of the inn. Let Esme fixate on
>dangerous elves; Nanny was about to have two handsome young men in her
>bedroom. And one was too drunk, and one would too injured, for either
>man to go away. The day was looking brighter and brighter.

More perversion seepage...

I *like* the idea of Servalan as an elf a la Pratchett :-)
-- 
Julia Jones
"Don't philosophise with me, you electronic moron!"
        The Turing test - as interpreted by Kerr Avon.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 19:18:51 +0100 (BST)
From: Judith Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] Blake's 7 theme music
Message-ID: <Marcel-1.46-0218181851-3efRr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

Does the music for Blake's 7 exist in written form anywhere?

I've just had a query from a guy who wants to have it played on the organ at his
wedding (I can imagine it sounding pretty good on a organ).

Can anyone help?  (I'm pretty certain it was never released as sheet music)

Judith
-- 
http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7

Redemption 99 - The Blakes 7/Babylon 5 convention  
26-28 February 1999, Ashford International Hotel, Kent
http://www.smof.com/redemption/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 17:56:13 -0000
From: "Neil Faulkner" <N.Faulkner@tesco.net>
To: "lysator" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
Message-ID: <000201be5b7d$80ce5cc0$3b14ac3e@default>
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Iain/Taina:
    Thanks for the clarification on the Roche limit.  It's particularly
gratifying to see that my speculation on the importance of mass are
confirmed (I'm something of a dunce when it comes to physics.  I prefer
ecology).  However, going back to the original line in Traitor:

    'It's above Roche's limit so it must be a spacecraft'

Well, I can't see how that is vindicated - Holmes is still wrong, surely.
If satellites are torn apart _below_ the Roche limit, then an object _above_
the Roche limit need not be a spacecraft.  It could be anything.

On the other hand, an orbitting body _below_ the Roche limit would have to
be a spacecraft, not a natural satellite.  In fact, Scorpio's altitude in
this episode is given as a mere 40 miles, presumably well within the Roche
limit of Earthlike Helotrix.

So I stand by my assertion that Holmes gaffed on this one.

Neil

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 20:28:34 -0000
From: "Neil Faulkner" <N.Faulkner@tesco.net>
To: "lysator" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Fannishness
Message-ID: <000401be5b7d$8268d2e0$3b14ac3e@default>
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Meant to address this sooner, but Work got in the way...

Helen wrote:
>I believe in keeping characters in
>character. If one can expand it out beyond the canon, fine. In fact, I'm
>outraging a number of Sherlock Holmes fans and delighting others by
>setting a story with him and Irene Adler in the days of their youth. But
>I feel Canon should be kept in mind, because otherwise you aren't
>writing "the" characters Avon and Vila, you are just using those names
>on very differnt people.

I agree in principle, but putting it into practice is probably next to
impossible.  You can't write 'the' characters, only your own interpretation
of them. This is what the scriptwriters themselves did, with consequent
irregularities - by and large it worked, though, because the series does not
delve too deeply into character, being primarily plot-oriented.  Fanfic,
OTOH, is frequently character-dominant, and the various interpretations of
the characters show up more starkly.  Compare, for example, Sondra
Sweigman's Blake with Judith Seaman's - both are recognisably Blake, despite
being poles apart in almost every respect.

When I criticise fan writing, it's not so much because the writer allows
her/imself to be bound to 'the canon', but because s/he is self-restricted
to a canon that does not really exist.  Blakes 7, the TV series, is not a
canon, it is merely the basis for one, which the fans have to construct for
themselves.  The series is too insubstantial and too self-contradictory to
qualify as complete and coherent resource in itself.

>I have fun writing pastiches and fanfic, because I like writing, but in
>writing for a fan audience, one has to spend less time on explanations
>and more time exploring. It's well and good to write essays about why
>this character may act the way he does, but it's more intriguing to show
>why.


That's true of good writing anyway.  I agree entirely with the reduced need
to explain the fundamentals - that, to me, is one of the appeals of writing
fanfic.  But more time exploring - the level of fannishness I've been
criticising does _anything but_ explore.  I wouldn't like to say if this is
because the non-explorative authors are disinterested in exploration,
disdainful of it, perhaps even afraid of it.  A sizable chunk of fanfic is
distinctly non-daring.

Neil

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 18:02:05 -0000
From: "Neil Faulkner" <N.Faulkner@tesco.net>
To: "lysator" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] trip trap
Message-ID: <000301be5b7d$819f6860$3b14ac3e@default>
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Penny wrote:
>I tend to think of men as 'it', when I have to think of *them* at all.


I like these sarcastic posts of Penny's, because it proves it's got a sense
of humour, though its contributions to the Flat Robin are proof enough of
that.  I hope we'll continue to hear more from it in the forseeable future.

Neil

'I am not a man, I am a free number'

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 13:26:06 -0800
From: mistral@ptinet.net
To: B7 list <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] trip trap
Message-ID: <36CC856D.B15ACD5B@ptinet.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Neil Faulkner wrote:

> Penny wrote:
> >I tend to think of men as 'it', when I have to think of *them* at all.
>
> I like these sarcastic posts of Penny's, because it proves it's got a sense
> of humour, though its contributions to the Flat Robin are proof enough of
> that.  I hope we'll continue to hear more from it in the forseeable future.

> Neil
>
> 'I am not a man, I am a free number'

 LOL hysterically! Good for you, Neil.
Mistral

--
"And for my next trick, I shall swallow my other foot."--Vila

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 21:32:46 +0000
From: Julia Jones <julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: [B7L] Some things never change...
Message-ID: <Pxz3qYA+bIz2EwbU@jajones.demon.co.uk>

Just been watching the latest Red Dwarf. I see that the Beeb's effects
have improved over the last twenty odd years, but they still require at
least one gratuitous nose-cam shot per episode of a science fiction
series :-)
-- 
Julia Jones
"Sickbags on Standby"

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 21:34:55 +0000
From: Julia Jones <julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: Lysator List <Blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Blake's 7 theme music
Message-ID: <IhD2ucA$dIz2Ewb2@jajones.demon.co.uk>

In message <Marcel-1.46-0218181851-3efRr9i@blakes-7.demon.co.uk>, Judith
Proctor <Judith@blakes-7.demon.co.uk> writes
>Does the music for Blake's 7 exist in written form anywhere?
>
>I've just had a query from a guy who wants to have it played on the organ at his
>wedding (I can imagine it sounding pretty good on a organ).
>
>Can anyone help?  (I'm pretty certain it was never released as sheet music)
>
It was - I have a rather poor (but legal) photocopy. Chappell music,
IIRC, it may be possible to order it still.
-- 
Julia Jones
"Don't philosophise with me, you electronic moron!"
        The Turing test - as interpreted by Kerr Avon.

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Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:52:35 +1100
From: Kathryn Andersen <kat@welkin.apana.org.au>
To: "Blake's 7 list" <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flat Robin chapter... 25?
Message-ID: <19990218225235.63754@welkin.apana.org.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Wed, Feb 17, 1999 at 08:56:15PM -0700, Helen Krummenacker wrote:
> chauveline@lycosmail.com wrote:
> > 
> > The scumble scoured its way through Travis's bloodstream.
> > 

I didn't seem to get chapter 24 at all!  What happened?

This stuff is... incredible.  Sort of like scumble, really.
I am enjoying this insanity; obviously mixing Discworld with Blake's 7
has overcome my Discworld allergy, increasing my Terry-Pratchet-humour
tolerance... or perhaps not, considering that my pterry humour
tolerance runs to about half a novel before I give up.

Keep it coming, folks.

No, I am not a vegetarian.

-- 
 _--_|\	    | Kathryn Andersen		<kat@welkin.apana.org.au>
/      \    | 		http://home.connexus.net.au/~kat
\_.--.*/    | #include "standard/disclaimer.h"
      v	    |
------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere
Maranatha!  |	-> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 21:37:07 -0500
From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com>
To: "Blake's 7 (Lysator)" <BLAKES7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: [B7L] Blake's XI v Babylon XI cricket match at Redemption
Message-ID: <199902182137_MC2-6B00-B7D9@compuserve.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline
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Just over a week until Blake and Sinclair hold the toss in the Blake's XI v
Babylon XI cricket match at Redemption.  Suddenly it occurs to me that no
umpires or referee have been appointed.  Should the umpires be supplied
from the two different universes?  And if so, should they be wise and
well-respected (eg Sinofar, who stood in the last match between Blake's XI
and the Federation, and Lorien) or be working to their own agenda (eg
Servalan - who does at least wear white - and Bester)?  Or should they be
neutrals (eg Spock and one of the Drs Who)?  
And who would the Interstellar Cricket Council choose as referee?  This
post really should be guaranteed neutral.  Which leads me to think it must
be the Man in the Shack (aka the Ruler of the Universe) from Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy.  Hey, wait a minute.  Rulers of the Universe.  Do we
not have three candidates standing for this position at Redemption?  And
might they not be persuaded to stand (on paper, at least) in this match? 
So, on the one-from-each-universe principle, that would be Servalan and the
Emperor Cartagia, with the Sandman as the vis replay umpire back in the
pavilion.  Which is a pretty good job, as he just has to sit there watching
TV and chatting to the Man in the Shack (and his cat).

Just to remind any interested parties, the two XIs are as follows.  Anyone
willing to roll dice, move our high-tech representations of the players
round the field, etc, more than welcome to join me at at 10.30 on Saturday
morning, subject to rain, fog etc in the boulevard.

Blake's XI                              
1:   Tarrant (RHB, occ RM) (batted a bit like Jayasuriya at Who's 7 - three
sixes in the opening over)
2:   Jenna (RHB, occ OB) (made a very classy century)
3:   Zen (LHB) (the only one calm enough to tackle the problem spot of No.
3)
4:   Blake (captain) (RHB, RM) (a first-ball duck, but picked up three
wickets in three overs with his military medium)
5:   Gan (RHB, RM) (batted very steadily)
6:   Avon (vice-captain) (LHB, RFM) (had Bartolomew stumped, but
incredulous when he was given out lbw to her)
7:  Orac (RHB, WK) (sledged the opposing batsmen and made an unorthodox but
brilliant hundred)
8:   Soolin (RHB, LF) (bowled very fast)
9:   Dayna (RHB, RFM) (her new-ball partner, who was especially pleased to
dismisss Servalan)
10:  Cally (LHB, LBG) (leg-spin savaged by Servalan, but had Jarvik caught
in the deep trying to slog.
11:  Vila (RHB, SLA) (whose many-times-great-grandmother once met Phil
Tufnell in a bar)
12th man: Slave (wasn't actually called upon, but someone suggested he was
Steve Barwick)

Babylon XI
1:  Mollari (RHB) (enjoys an occasionally effective partnership - when they
don't run each other out - with…)
2:  …G'Kar (LHB) (in the second innings they swap round and he faces the
first ball, so neither has the honour exclusively)
3:  Sheridan (vice-captain) (RHB) (um… well, I suppose he's a fairly
orthodox batsman)
4:  Delenn (LHB, occ SLA) (less orthodox, with an array of exquisite
strokes)
5:  Sinclair (captain) (RHB, occ RM) (the mainstay of the middle order)
6:  Marcus (RHB, RM) (well, obviously Marcus played cricket.  An
all-rounder - bowls first change)
7:  Ivanova (RHB, RFM) (opening bowler and can hit the ball quite hard too)
8:  Kosh (RHB, WK) (protective clothing suggests keeper)
9:  Garibaldi (LHB, OB) (closely related to Greg Matthews of New South
Wales, though his hair has undergone the reverse process)
10:  Lennier (RHB, LBG) (studied the googly and flipper during his priestly
training)
11:  Lyta (LHB, LF) (one of the Vorlons' adaptations made her bowl very
fast)
12th man: Vir (and Stephen of course is the physio)

And I'm the scorer.

Harriet

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Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 19:03:24 PST
From: "Joanne MacQueen" <j_macqueen@hotmail.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Blake's XI v Babylon XI cricket match at Redemption
Message-ID: <19990219030325.15916.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain

>Or should they be neutrals (eg Spock and one of the Drs Who)? [snip, 
snip, snippety] >Hey, wait a minute.  Rulers of the Universe.  Do >we 
not have three candidates standing for this position at >Redemption?  
And might they not be persuaded to stand (on paper, >at least) in this 
match?

Well, if you can't persuade them, Doctors 4 and 5 might be useful 
choices (ie the ones who seemed to have some interest in the game).

>6:  Marcus (RHB, RM) (well, obviously Marcus played cricket. 

With what, pray tell? The Swiss Army stick he carries with him? <grin>

>7:  Ivanova (RHB, RFM) (opening bowler and can hit the ball quite >hard 
too)

But of course. I keep hearing that she's God, so why not.

>8:  Kosh (RHB, WK) (protective clothing suggests keeper)

Actually, Kosh's suit suggests an umpire with the entire collection of 
fielder's jumpers hanging off him. But the question "Howzat?" might be 
met with something far too enigmatic for the scorer to handle. How's 
your knowledge of Vorlon, Harriet?

>9:  Garibaldi (LHB, OB) (closely related to Greg Matthews of New South 
Wales, though his hair has undergone the reverse process)

I'd say yeah, yeah, but someone will probably hit me for doing so <grin>

Regards
Joanne

Like cannibalism, a matter of taste.
--G. K. Chesterton



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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 20:13:29 PST
From: "Penny Dreadful" <pdreadful@hotmail.com>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Flat Robin chapter... 25?
Message-ID: <19990219041330.6916.qmail@hotmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain

Kathryn said:

>I didn't seem to get chapter 24 at all!  What happened?

Chapter 25 seems to pick up seamlessly where 22 left off (23 being a 
Meanwhile), leading me to conclude that there *is* no Chapter 24. I 
deduce Chapter 25 was thusly named in an attempt to get the numbers in 
synch with reality (see 'Georgian Calendar') but without realizing that 
a Chapter 23 *had* been posted in the interim. Avona? Am I anywhere near 
the mark?

>I am enjoying this insanity; obviously mixing Discworld with Blake's 7
>has overcome my Discworld allergy, increasing my Terry-Pratchet-humour
>tolerance... or perhaps not, considering that my pterry humour
>tolerance runs to about half a novel before I give up.

We're currently sitting at over 25 000 words (I've been concatenating it 
for ease of reference, so help me). How many words in half a Discworld 
novel, on average, I wonder? I've never counted.

--Penny "And Thus Was Born The Legend Of Chapter 24" Dreadful

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------------------------------

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 11:08:58 +0000 (GMT)
From: Iain Coleman <ijc@bsfiles.nerc-bas.ac.uk>
To: lysator <blakes7@lysator.liu.se>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Roche limit (was Too much caffeine)
Message-Id: <Pine.OSF.3.96.990219102814.6349A-100000@bsauasc>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Neil Faulkner wrote:

> Iain/Taina:
>     Thanks for the clarification on the Roche limit.  It's particularly
> gratifying to see that my speculation on the importance of mass are
> confirmed (I'm something of a dunce when it comes to physics.  I prefer
> ecology).  However, going back to the original line in Traitor:
> 
>     'It's above Roche's limit so it must be a spacecraft'
> 
> Well, I can't see how that is vindicated - Holmes is still wrong, surely.
> If satellites are torn apart _below_ the Roche limit, then an object _above_
> the Roche limit need not be a spacecraft.  It could be anything.

Although I did adress this point, it may have been confusingly buried
within a lot of other astrophysical stuff. I'll try to be a bit clearer.

Forget this business about satellites being disrupted: that's not the
basic physical point. Consider a test particle P (an object of negligible
size and mass) and a massive body M (which is also one component of a
binary system). M has a Roche limit a distance R from its center. The
fundamental physics is this:

Below R, P is gravitationally bound to M.

Above R, P is not gravitationally bound to M.

In "Traitor", M is the planet Helotrix and P is Scorpio. (The other
component of the binary system is Helotrix's sun). Scorpio is above R, and
hence is not gravitationally bound to Helotrix. However, it is observed to
be orbiting Helotrix. If it is a natural body this is impossible: hence,
it is a spacecraft.


> On the other hand, an orbitting body _below_ the Roche limit would have to
> be a spacecraft, not a natural satellite.  In fact, Scorpio's altitude in
> this episode is given as a mere 40 miles, presumably well within the Roche
> limit of Earthlike Helotrix.

Ah, now that last point is a goof (I hadn't noticed that a particular
height was given). I make the Roche limit for Earth (with respect to the
Sun) roughly 260 000 km.

(I ignored the Moon, which is not really negligible, but that should still
give some feel for the order of magnitude.)

The only way Helotrix could have such a low Roche limit is if it is in
close orbit about a very massive body. If we assume that Helotrix has the
same mass and radius as Earth, and is in orbit about a planet of the mass
of Jupiter, its orbital distance must be about 120 000 km. This is not
impossible: Jupiter's equatorial radius is only 71 300 km and it has a
couple of satellites at distances of hundreds of thousands of km. However,
Helotrix would be seriously affected by being so close to such a planet.
Io is 422 000 km from Jupiter. Tidal heating induces massive earthquakes
and volcanoes, and it also interacts significantly with Jupiter's magnetic
field. Not a nice place to live.

Iain

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End of blakes7-d Digest V99 Issue #67
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