Court Claim: Chimps Are People, Too

By Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer

posted: 29 May 2008 08:40 am ET
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Matthew, 26, looks through the glass at his enclosure at an animal
sanctuary in Vienna on May 4, 2007. The chimp probably does not know
if he wants to be human or not. And that could be one of the many
differences that separates him from us. Still, anthropologists admit
it's hard to define what it is to be human. Credit: AP Photo/ Lilli
Strauss.
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Fairly recently AP did one of his drive-by's but this time he jogged
my memory about something I've been pondering.

AP was saying that Heinlein 'lied' about parts of the story. Dr Rufo
and I both thought Heinlein had contrived bits of the story to have it
come out the way he wanted.

I re-read Starman Jones not too long ago. It's been one of my
favorites for years. I've noticed that each time I re-read it I notice
something else 'contrived' to make the story. What interests me about
it is that I didn't notice all this stuff when I first read the book
as a kid, and there still may be things I haven't noticed.
We've discussed before how useless the computer seemed, which would
make Max's computational skill really important.
Some other things I've noticed :

The Guilds - if the Astrogator's guild wasn't closed except to
nominee's, Max's ability would probably win him admittance.

Max runs into someone who has the knowledge and inclination to help
him get forged papers as a starship crewman.

Then he befriends a passenger who has the social pull to talk the
Captain into letting Max 'strike' in the controlroom.

Not long ago, a non-AFH e-mail pal of mine approvingly attributed to
Robert Heinlein a sentiment which strikes me as most uncharacteristic
of RAH's life and work.

If the quote below does indeed come from RAH, please give its source
if you know it (I hope it comes from a villain!)

If (as I hope and suspect) it doesn't come from RAH at all, please
give its true source (if some identifiable source exists and if you
happen to know that source).

The purported quote runs as follows:
"Fair dealing and kindness are for fools who think the
universe cares. When the Sun freezes and the Earth is dust, it won't
matter which of us two-legged monkeys saved a kitten or set it afire
to toast marshmallows."

?!?!?!?!

Kate Gladstone — http://learn.to/handwrite

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the
love and thanks of man and woman."

-- Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)

/1/ Trivia question:
Which RAH work refers to "Khaugha" ...
and whom did "Khaugha" locate and pursue?

/2/ Topic for discussion:
Has anyone ever tried to prevent you (and/or to prevent people
you love)
from reading the work of RAH? If so, why?

I will post the correct answer to /1/ after seeing a certain (small
but non-zero) number of non-identical answers posted

("identical" here referring to propositional content
rather than to details of punctuation, word choice, or phrasing:

e.g., "You can read about 'Khaugha' chasing XXXXX in RAH's work titled
YYYYY "
and "Read YYYYY for a reference to Khaugha hunting down XXXXX"
*would* count as identical answers.)

Kate Gladstone — learn.to/handwrite

I watched it on NASA TV.

That says it all.

Steve J

Apple's iTunes now offers V's Starship Bloopers for download.

Some of the braindead have actually written positive reviews, but two
folks are
anti. My review is pending.

And the flack's "review" is the usual tripe about how deep, deep, is the
anti-fascist irony.

Regards,

Steve J

"Those who don't read have no advantage over those who can't."
-- Mark Twain

Grade? Do be gentle.

Steve J

Here are links to video by Reuters and Agence-France Presse on NASA's
Phoenix Mars lander mission which will, with luck, land on Mars this
Sunday:

AFP: http://tinyurl.com/6hwz5a

Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/6pv52j

Space.com text article: http://tinyurl.com/59ahfx

This is going to be sort of a nail-biter because NASA's only had a 50
percent success rating with its Mars lander program, half of the
spacecraft were lost somehow.

And Phoenix is using a different landing technology from the two
successful Mars lander missions - it will enter the Martian atmosphere
at about 17,500 mph, deploy a parachute, then drop from the parachute
and land on thrusters - all within 7 minutes. No protective "air bag"
this time - it's going to try to land like a proper SF spacecraft.

But Lockheed Martin Space Systems here in metro Denver built this
puppy, eo it'll work.
:-)

VPF

I realize that this is off-topic for this newsgroup but, given the erudite
nature of the regulars here, I thought it was worth asking here.....

I'm trying to determine the name of a game I used to play in high school,
umpteen years ago, so that I can learn more about it. If anyone can help me
identify this game, I would appreciate it.

It's a pencil-and-paper game. On a handy piece of paper, you draw a grid of
dots, typically 10 dots across and 10 dots down. You end up with this (I've
used lowercase o's rather than dots so that you can see them better):

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o o o