rec.arts.sf.written Google Group

Re: Conan's realism (was Re: The Books That Founded D&D)

marko.amn...@kolumbus.fi (Marko Amnell) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:50:06 UT

Blah blah blah. It's clear from the forum discussion that it is
at least humanly possible for someone to break the neck of
a bull with the right technique. You got caught bullshitting
and you are trying to cover your ass.
Furthermore, Conan might have been lying when he said that.
So put up or shut up. Give me an example from the original

Re: Conan's realism (was Re: The Books That Founded D&D)

k...@busiek.com (Kurt Busiek) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:45:49 UT

No, you haven't. You've pointed to a bunch of Conan fans who agreed
with each other that it's possible, and by your own account, one of the
"most knowledgable" comments came from a pseudonymous stickfighting
student about something he saw on TV that didn't actually involve
breaking a bull's neck.

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:23:02 UT

In article <heueiu0...@drn.newsguy.com>,
Oho. He's putting the tail of the Dipper in the Bear's *nose.*
That makes a lot more sense, and it's the reverse of every other
depiction of the Bear that I've ever seen.
E.g.,
[link]

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:17:23 UT

In article <heue930...@drn.newsguy.com>,
Exactly. That's a basic troff coding for o-umlaut. (There are
more complicated ways of doing it too. Lordy, I haven't done any
troff in twenty years.....)

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:15:34 UT

In article <2fc3e9a5-5bfb-4a74-82fd-0ee58 24f4...@m16g2000yqc.googlegrou ps.com>,
Yeah, you gotta watch out for spellcheckers, their AI isn't very
I. I once worked for a scientist named Cozzarelli. Every time I
typed his name (which was, you understand, pretty often), the
spellchecker asked plaintively if I didn't mean Mozzarella.

Re: Genesis 1 & 2: Is There A Contradiction?

coryalbre...@hotmail.com (Cory Albrecht) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:28:39 UT

Calvin Ramsey wrote, on 09-11-25 09:09 PM:
Because when people admit they know nothing about a subject, they say
something like "I don't enough about Mennonites to comment on their
beliefs".
When a person wants to imply all sorts of nasty things (like how you did
by putting the word church in scare-quotes) but still look all superior

Re: Conan's realism (was Re: The Books That Founded D&D)

k...@busiek.com (Kurt Busiek) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:37:39 UT

I begin to see why you declare so many things to be "historical fact."
You take it as a given that "Max the Gaijin" knows what he's talking
about, because, well, he says so. And no one on the internet ever
bullshits anyone. And we won't bother to note either that "Max the
Gajin" is attesting to dumogging, which does not invove breaking the

Re: The Books That Founded D&D

jsav...@ecn.ab.ca (Quadibloc) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:33:49 UT

Given that Japan would have had China in Hitler's case, I suppose one
could argue that there wouldn't have been much else left of the world
worth conquering...
John Savard

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

szy...@bastard.operator.from.hell.pl (Szymon Sokół) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:30:42 UT

In this particular case Microsoft just tries to adhere (be it so very much
unlike them...) to the long-established tradition of typesetting.
The "straight" quotes, I believe, before the computer era appeared only on
typewriters, but not in print.

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:09:11 UT

In article <mfj5h5h98icoi01cign9i7vbvr6q8 k4...@4ax.com>,
That's where the tilde *came* from. Medieval scribes, to save
space (hey, vellum was expensive) did lots of abbreviations, one
of which was *an[tilde]s_ for _annus_. _Dn[tilde]e_ for _Domine_,
"O Lord." Many of the tildes didn't even stand for a nasal

Re: Starving people refuse to eat food aid

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:13:13 UT

In article <slrnhh5hjt.5v6....@gatekeeper .vic.com>,
Not exactly. As You probably Know, Dave, Tolkien modeled Quenya
on Finnish (a Fenno-Ugric language). He modeled Sindarin on Welsh
(an Indo-European language). He then sat down and worked out a
whole system of sound-changes to explain how the latter evolved

Re: Dr. Arthur Becker-Weidman (Tower of Hands)

djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:05:34 UT

In article <b7070f8205d522e7c7ba02b52220c ...@mixmaster.it>,
Hey. For once, just once, the spammer speaks truth.

Re: Conan's realism (was Re: The Books That Founded D&D)

marko.amn...@kolumbus.fi (Marko Amnell) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:26:05 UT

Even if Conan were telling the truth about breaking a bull's
neck, I have already shown that this is not impossible but
merely requires the right technique.
So put up or shut up. Give me an example from the origional
Conan stories in which Conan performs a feat of strength
that is clearly beyond what any human being could accomplish.

Re: Dune: Son of revenge of Dune, part two

nom...@nomail.com (Splicer) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:24:03 UT

"Taemon" <Tae...@zonnet.nl> wrote on 29 Nov 2009:
Only read the trio of "House" novels and went no further. "Atreides" was
interesting enough as an escape but I immediately knew that Anderson
(presumably the main or chief writer here) did not remotely have the chops
that FH did. "Harkonnen" heaped on the melodrama and the death count in a

Re: blurble

dtra...@sonic.net (Dimensional Traveler) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:20:00 UT

I'm saying Weber's infodumps are pale, weak ghosts of Ahern's historical
lectures.