Lycius: Eh? Who could be greater than Jupiter the greatest and most powerful?
Augustus Caesar: Hm. Firstly, Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jupiter must bow to him; boundaries are the most important of things, Lycius.
-Neil Gaiman, "August" IN Gaiman, The Sandman: Fables And Reflections (New York, 1993), pp. 98-122 AT p. 107, panel 5.
To be is to be one thing, not another. Thus, boundaries define everything. Terminus asks Morpheus to inspire Augustus to set the bounds of the Roman Empire. Millennia later, Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire, says:
"'Oh, the empire won't have to expand forever. Just till it's big enough to defend itself against all comers.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Star Plunderer" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, 2011), pp. 325-362 AT p. 356.
Terminus is the name of the last inhabited planet at one end of the Galaxy in Isaac Asimov's future history and a terminus is the end of the bus route and this will be the end of my efforts for a while.
But checkout a good ghost story called "Terminus."
16 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Amd the real "Terminus" in Asimov's FOUNDATION books, at least the three original ones, was to figure where "Star's End" was located!
Sorry about your cold. Get well fast! And I think covid is here to stay, that it will become as endemic as the common cold and flu.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Thank you.
Paul.
Feel better soon!
Getting over a pulled back, myself. Six million years, and we still haven't gotten bipedalism right.
Mr Stirling,
Thank you and sorry to hear about your back.
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ditto, what Paul said! I strained some of my back muscles shoveling snow last Friday. So, while nothing like your pulled back, I'm still having some back soreness.
Ad astra! Sean
We hardly ever have snow these days. We dream of mild Christmases.
Kaor, Paul!
I think that is largely due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. But I thought you had a bout of heavy snow last winter?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Gulf Stream and global warming. I don't remember the snow last winter. But, even when it comes, it is rarely heavy here.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
If it hadn't been for the Gulf Stream, the climate of the British Isles would have been more like that of Labrador. Cold and bleak!
We generally get one or two blizzards and some less serious snow falls in Massachusetts, in winter.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that global warming may shut down the Gulf Stream, which would bring cold winters to northern Europe, with a vengeance!
Global warming might cause cold winters? Figures. Climate chaos.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Both: That I am not totally surprised by. Not after reading Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Michael Flynn's FALLEN ANGELS, about a very near future/contemporary Ice Age! Albeit, the Ice Age in that book was triggered by a lower output of energy from the Sun.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: to oversimplify, the Gulf Stream is energized by temperature differentials between tropical and Arctic water (with layering effects thrown in) which in turn depends on differentials in atmospheric temperatures.
If the differential drops, the current becomes less energetic. Less cold water drops to the bottom layer, heads south, and gets heated and returned in the upper layer.
So the overall planetary system gets warmer, but the current gets weaker and less tropical heat is pumped up to the surface and sent across the North Atlantic.
So the planet may get warmer while Northern Europe gets colder, because the -overall- warming doesn't compensate for the reduced heat-pump effect of the Gulf Stream.
Currently Europe is getting warmer because the planet as a whole is, -and- the Gulf Stream is still working, although it's been weakening.
But if it collapses, as is looking quite possible, then the overall warming won't fully compensate for the reduced effect of the current.
Which means that Britain and the rest of NW Europe would get colder -- quite a bit colder at crucial points (affecting the growing season) but with unpredictable fluctuations between highs and lows.
This is s good concise explanation: https://www.dw.com/en/gulf-stream-system-threatens-collapse-study-finds/a-58785622
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
An ominously interesting mini essay. Again, I'm reminded of Pournelle, et al, novel FALLEN ANGELS. We may well be living in far too "interesting" times!
Ad astra! Sean
The past 10K years have been ones of unusual climate stability, as we came out of the last ice age. There hasn't been much really drastic change since the Sahara went dry about 5000-6000 years ago.
Earlier periods have been much more variable.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And there were times when the Mediterranean basin was dry, due to it being cut off from the Atlantic Ocean by the Gibraltar land bridge or "plug." That too caused unusual climate variability, an idea I think I first saw in Julian May's SAGA OF PLIOCENE EXILE and Poul Anderson's story "Gibraltar Falls."
Ad astra! Sean
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