When someone travels across a planetary surface, there are places that they visit and other places that they know of but do not visit. Poul Anderson's fictional planets are complex enough for this to be the case. High Commissioner Desai leaves Imperial House to visit the University of Virgil but unfortunately does not also visit the industrial Web - at least not while we are watching him, which is what matters here.
Ivar Frederiksen travels with tinerans, then Riverfolk, to the Orcans but does not visit the Highlanders although Tatiana Thane concocts a ruse to use the Highlanders as a decoy to mislead the authorities hunting for Ivar.
In The Game Of Empire, Diana Crowfeather and her companions, while on Daedalus, travel along the Highroad River from Aurea to the Cynthian village of Lulach but, because of a change of plan, do not also visit the Donarrian settlement of Ghundrung, instead flying directly to the island of Zacharia.
Like real places.
15 comments:
China produces 52%-54% of global CO2, and burns five billion tons of coal; India's coming up fast behind, and Indonesia behind India.
Short form: nothing we do matters.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And NOTHING the UK/US might do matters a darn compared to Chinese/Indian pollution. And the politicians in Peking/Delhi have only contempt for woke virtue signalers.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
You sound full of hate!
Of course there are things that individuals and groups can do, and not necessarily by woke virtue signaling, but it is not easy especially with so much social inertia, so many powerful vested interests and so much contempt marshalled against us! We can start by opposing some current wrongs even if we are going to go down with the environment like everyone else - although nothing in the future is certain.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Because I am IMPATIENT with nonsense and foolishness. There is only one off the shelf alternative to fossil fuels that can be used right now: nuclear power. And I still see a lot of fanatical and ignorant opposition to nuclear power.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We all dislike nonsense and foolishness and we see it different places! We could all become impatient, contemptuous and even hating/hateful. I regard that as unnecessary, unpleasant and even counterproductive.
I am not making an issue of nuclear power. Many people better informed than me are against it but there you are. I want whatever works best for everyone longer term. If that includes nuclear power, then argue with someone other than me. All governments need to cooperate and to take the best available environmental scientific advice (not from me). They are not doing that. Quite the contrary.
Paul.
The US President denies climate change.
Kaor, Paul!
Then I will try to moderate my tone. But I am never going to have anything but contempt for certain groups, such as Hamas/Hezbullah.
We are not going to have the kind of international cooperation that you hope for, because human beings are tribalist, quarrelsome, and strife prone. The best I can see as being possible/desirable is a unification of Earth by a United Commonwealths or a Solar Commonwealth. And that's certainly not going to happen peacefully!
The Trump Administration has also been trying to chop away some of the bureaucratic nonsense making it so hard to build new nuclear power plants.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Opponents of nuclear power and Hamas/Hezbollah are two different groups.
Your views are never gong to change even in the light of new evidence?
Please watch the most recent video that I have emailed to you which shows who is doing what in Gaza and the West Bank.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No, different groups can be despicable in different ways.
You don't understand the 10/7 massacres changed everything in Israel, including a drastic decline in support for further attempts at making peace with people who have no wish for peace. That rage and fury have led to barbaric incidents of the kind you mentioned. And Hamas/Hezbullah (along with their puppet masters in Tehran) are responsible for that, not Israel.
I suggest you look up the video made of the horrors of 10/7, including material seized from some of the Hamas jihadists.
You are sympathizing for the wrong side and an evil cause.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Very few people are despicable.
You don't understand. The conflict did not start on 10/7. 10/7 did not change everything in Israel. Have you watched the video I sent? That is not rage and fury caused by a single incident. You are making excuses for it. Israel is responsible for what Israel is doing. Government Ministers and Members of Parliament saying that every Gazan child is a terrorist and that no child must be left in Gaza, that the IDF must be backed, whatever they do?
I have seen videos of what happened on 10/7. I know both that it was bad and that it has been (completely unnecessarily) exaggerated. It does not justify what the IDF is doing now.
You are sympathizing with the wrong side and an evil cause. How can it be "evil" to condemn what that video shows is being done in Gaza and the West Bank? This is a complete inversion of the truth, serving US interests by backing Israeli atrocities to the hilt.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
The conflict did not start on 10/7, it started long ago, even before 1948, with fanatical Arabs rejecting all offers of compromises, including very unfavorable proposals that the Jews accepted.
Refused, 10/7 changed moods in Israel, meaning there is less and less willingness among Israelis to propose terms they know are never, ever going to be negotiated over in good faith. And that was because of the horrors perpetrated by the Marcomanni (oops, I meant the Hamas jihadists). Atrocities exactly similar to what we see in Chapter Twelve of TTTT.
This isa an impasse. I have no sympathy for people unwilling to make peace with Israel.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Have you watched the video that I emailed about Israel's current policy of systematic atrocities to depopulate Gaza? IDF soldiers use Gazan youths for target practice, shooting at a different part of the body each day. Doctors have said this. It is in a UN report.
Have you read the many other new reports that I have emailed about Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Israel's now consistent contempt for any ceasefire agreements? In Lebanon, Hezbollah kills IDF soldiers who kill civilians and refuse to leave occupied territory unless driven out - which has happened. Your remarks about "horrors" are completely one-sided. Are you sure about that comparison with TTTT? People and animals blinded and crucified? If so, that is is vile, of course. You seem not to know or care about current IDF horrors. These are openly reported facts that you completely ignore.
I have no sympathy for the Israeli regime which is incapable of making peace with anyone.
Paul.
An impasse because you merely repeat what you have said and do not respond to new evidence.
Kaor, Paul!
Impasse because you refuse to face hard facts, that the people you sympathize with, or at least their leaders, are fanatical jihadists consumed with a genocidal lust to exterminate Jews. Read the "charter" of Hamas.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I do not support Hamas politically.
Listen to the Zionists in the Knesset.
You refuse to face hard facts. Have you watched the video that I sent which shows the consistent brutality of the IDF in Gaza and the settlers in the West Bank? The blockade starves the population. You do not respond to any of the evidence that I have sent to you. I really do not understand how you can maintain your position while apparently not even looking at (?) the evidence about current Israeli policy and practice. Have you watched the video? That is "hard facts."
Paul.
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