Comic Genesis Forums

DracoDei wrote:

Kerry Skydancer wrote:Helium requires a uranium or thorium mine, and they don't have that (or they'd be using the metal as metal).

Uranium or Thorium are low enough ratiation to be safe to be around (and yes, they probably WOULD know the dangers if they had samples), and have good enough mechanical and melting properties to be on a par with iron, lead, or copper as working materials??
I don't know anything about the above for sure, but I am always glad to learn.

For an anti-materialist society I could see the use of a metal that shouldn't be gathered into too high quantities...

Nice ship, now she needs a name, may I suggest. Come on, you know what I will say...........Enterprise.

how about 'deathtrap'?

Rillcreek's Raspberry? The HMS Noxious? Freeman's Hope?

shyal_malkes wrote: what I find disturbing is that Q of R would copy from somewhere. see if it were a guide from him I figure he'd use his own knowledge about things. but if he copied it makes me wonder about why he didn't use his own knowledge. hmmm. too many theories and possabilities. just too many.

He wasn't writing for others, he was writing for himself, and if the book was good, it was worth sticking into the same binding so he could carry it easily.


I suspect that the journal he was using for the expedition was a new one, and it's at his corpse.

besides, I still can't find anyting on rescue dog stories in the swiss/austrian alps on wiki or anywhere else! but i haven't tried dogpile yet...

DracoDei wrote:

Kerry Skydancer wrote:Helium requires a uranium or thorium mine, and they don't have that (or they'd be using the metal as metal).

Uranium or Thorium are low enough ratiation to be safe to be around (and yes, they probably WOULD know the dangers if they had samples), and have good enough mechanical and melting properties to be on a par with iron, lead, or copper as working materials??
I don't know anything about the above for sure, but I am always glad to learn.

Uranium and thorium are technically radioactive, but the level is very low due to the extremely long half-lives involved. Dunno much about thorium, but they use depleted uranium (that's the non-fissionable isotope) for various items that require a very tough, high-melt-temp metal. The ignorati jump up and down and screech about it, but it's no more dangerous than lead and much more useful for some things.

I admit, I'm assuming that Airth is about the same age/composition as Earth, so that natural uranium would be too low in U-235 to fission as-is. But if so, then there is no danger of spontaneous fission, TML. And thorium is never a danger for fission.

Cuerden wrote:

shyal_malkes wrote: what I find disturbing is that Q of R would copy from somewhere. see if it were a guide from him I figure he'd use his own knowledge about things. but if he copied it makes me wonder about why he didn't use his own knowledge. hmmm. too many theories and possabilities. just too many.

He wasn't writing for others, he was writing for himself, and if the book was good, it was worth sticking into the same binding so he could carry it easily.


I suspect that the journal he was using for the expedition was a new one, and it's at his corpse.

I guess no one has thought that maybe it's possible that he wrote those parts and that it was later used in the scout and guardsman's guide?

A journal is just one thing. He could have written several other books too.

Squeaky Bunny wrote:Rillcreek's Raspberry? The HMS Noxious? Freeman's Hope?

STOP READING MY MIND!!

Now I'm gonna have a creepy feelin' all night...

Squeaky Bunny wrote:Rillcreek's Raspberry? The HMS Noxious? Freeman's Hope?

Wigwam! Penguin! IGLOO!

Squeaky Bunny wrote: I guess no one has thought that maybe it's possible that he wrote those parts and that it was later used in the scout and guardsman's guide?

I thought of it, back on the second page. -.-;

Cuerden wrote:

shyal_malkes wrote: what I find disturbing is that Q of R would copy from somewhere. see if it were a guide from him I figure he'd use his own knowledge about things. but if he copied it makes me wonder about why he didn't use his own knowledge. hmmm. too many theories and possabilities. just too many.

He wasn't writing for others, he was writing for himself, and if the book was good, it was worth sticking into the same binding so he could carry it easily....

I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:
Plagiarize!

Plagiarize,
Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.

--Tom Lehrer, "Lobachevsky"

Kerry Skydancer wrote:

DracoDei wrote:

Kerry Skydancer wrote:Helium requires a uranium or thorium mine, and they don't have that (or they'd be using the metal as metal).

Uranium or Thorium are low enough ratiation to be safe to be around (and yes, they probably WOULD know the dangers if they had samples), and have good enough mechanical and melting properties to be on a par with iron, lead, or copper as working materials??
I don't know anything about the above for sure, but I am always glad to learn.

Uranium and thorium are technically radioactive, but the level is very low due to the extremely long half-lives involved. Dunno much about thorium, but they use depleted uranium (that's the non-fissionable isotope) for various items that require a very tough, high-melt-temp metal. The ignorati jump up and down and screech about it, but it's no more dangerous than lead and much more useful for some things.

I admit, I'm assuming that Airth is about the same age/composition as Earth, so that natural uranium would be too low in U-235 to fission as-is. But if so, then there is no danger of spontaneous fission, TML. And thorium is never a danger for fission.

U-235 is naturally available today in concentrations of 0.7%. Now you can make a good living in certain sections of the US creating venting systems in basements to remove the decay products that naturally seep into basements from this concentration of uranium (look up radon). I wasn't particularly worried about fission. I was much more concerned with cancer. If you have a Scrooge McDuck sized money vault when money's lightly radioactive, you're going to have a shorter life. If they didn't understand radioactivity, it would look like greed made them ill and eventually killed them.

I was thinking about Quentyn using the Luftship for his travels. A luftship, even a small one like the one Rillcreek made, will stick out like a sour thumb in the sky outside the mist wall. How does one hide a luftship? Well if they had a Mage along he could use the same magic that created the mist wall only this time it would be a cloud that would hide the luftship in the air and a mist wall when it is on the ground. This reinforces my belief that Reelcreek will be going with Quentyn on at least his first trip outside the mist.

Perhaps, but we'll still have to see if anyone has mastered a more subtle cloaking spell for a large object.

Or he could simply paint it white and fly only when it's cloudy.

I think that flying during the night would be the easiest way to remain unseen.

Hehe... true

Straw wrote:I think that flying during the night would be the easiest way to remain unseen.

Yeah, but what happens when you want to put down (or HAVE TO put down in an emergency) in the middle of the night?

JakeWasHere wrote:

Straw wrote:I think that flying during the night would be the easiest way to remain unseen.

Yeah, but what happens when you want to put down (or HAVE TO put down in an emergency) in the middle of the night?

You land?