Earth Force ranks: The Earth Alliance military is divided in two main sections; a Space Navy, incorporating an “Air Force” and wearing blue uniforms, and an Army, being apparently divided
into “Marines” (GROPOS) and “Security”, in green/olive uniforms.

Both divisions are apparently headed by at least a dozen Generals (no actual Admiral exists although the position is mentioned, probably as a title, not rank), who have authority over all (commissioned) officers below that rank, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (equivalent to Admiral?) above them. It is, however, equally possible that there is no “Navy General” rank as such as the only Generals in the Navy who actually appear
in B5 are also members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (“Admirals”), with Marine Generals, like General Franklin, apparently below them. This assumes that there is great deal of crossover between the Navy and Marines, especially as General Franklin defers to Captain Sheridan almost as an equal or second in the episode “GROPOS” (2^nd series), but does this mean that if a Captain is promoted, he/she goes straight to the Joint Chiefs, just as General Franklin would under the same assumptions? This may be reinforced in "The Lost Tales", as Captain Lochley has been promoted to Colonel.

Although the Navy and Marines are separate entities with appropriate ranks, “Navy” officers are
occasionally, and confusingly, described as having “Army” ranks (i.e. Colonel, Major and Sergeant). The B5 Online Technical Guide adds further confusion by placing all officers in a Naval format, with Warrant Officer (Garibaldi’s rank) being below Ensign and above Enlisted Man (which appear to include Marine ranks from Private to Sergeant Major; Zack Allan is referred to at least once as “Sergeant Allan”).

Army ranks for Commissioned Officers below General are mentioned only in terms of their equivalence to Naval Commissioned ranks. This plain doesn’t make sense, as Garibaldi belongs on the command staff of B5, so how can he be below Ensign if there is no real separation between the Space Navy and Marines?

I would suggest that the Space Navy and Marines are in fact separate entities, but with the ranks being slightly less than equivalent so that a higher Commissioned Officer in Marines/ Security can give orders to an apparently equivalent Naval Officer.

Assuming the ranks are as follows:

1. Captain-(no equivalent below General)

2. Commander-Colonel

3. Lieutenant Commander-Major

4. Lieutenant-Lieutenant

5. Second Lieutenant/ Lt Junior Grade-Sergeant Major (NCO)

6. Ensign-Sergeant

7.Technician 1st Class-Private First Class

8. Technician 2nd Class-Private

This way a Colonel or Major can command a space station manned mainly by technical personnel (“Eyes” and “Babylon Squared”) while a Captain can command as many as 18,000 troops aboard an Earth Force Destroyer. Chief Warrant Officer Michael Garibaldi, then, probably has the rank of Major (based on experience-conjecture for Marines/Security).

The rank of Captain is probably equivalent to that of Brigadier General and considering the size of the Navy (between 20,000 and 60,000 including tenders and corvettes) there ought to be more divisions for the equivalent to “Admiral” than in modern navies. Alternately, it is very likely that there are at least forty Generals on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In keeping with the Babylonian connection, perhaps the number is sixty?

Assuming Naval ranks represent graduation from the officer academy, does a blue uniform and an Army rank indicate the officer is a qualified Starfury pilot who did not attend the academy or does it refer to an officer who has transferred from Marines/ Security to the Space Navy and retained their
old rank? Is lack of academy attendance a bar to becoming one of the Joint Chiefs?

Certainly three forms of Earth Force training are mentioned: Aerodrome, Officer Cadet Core/ “Earth Force Academy” and the basic infantry/ combat training all recruits would presumably attend, except medical and technical staff. It is possible that the position of “Major” in the Navy (General Hague’s second/ XO in “Severed Dreams and Sheridan’s would-be assassin both had this rank) refers to a promotion above Squadron Leader (equivalent to Lieutenant Commander?) and into a command position for Starfury pilots without attending Officer Training. The position of Major in the Space Navy may refer to an officer having some skill, like being a qualified Starfury pilot, and being below the rank of Captain.

Size and disposition of the Fleet: In total Earth probably has around 3-5,000 actual Destroyers, being a mix of the old Hyperion-class Cruiser and the newer Omega-class Destroyer which came into service after the Minbari War. Assuming a maximum of 100 Omegas could be built each year, 1800 could have been produced by 2267. Based on this, and assuming the equivalent of Rear Admiral Commands 30 warships, there are then at least a hundred officers with this rank (and their GROPOS equivalent).

Above these would be commanders of large military outposts, fleets operating outside and along Earth’s borders and those in charge of planetary defenses of each of the sixteen off-world colonies. Presumably above them would be what could be termed “System Admirals” or the equivalent to the Moffs in Star Wars, commanding the forces of an entire star system, Earth having thirty in total.
However, this would put too much power in the hands of individual commanders so it is more likely that Earth has a total of at least three hundred Generals (i.e. above Brigadier General for Marines/Security) from both divisions, with 30-60 on the Joint Chiefs and around 80 with the rank as Major General (equivalent to Vice Admiral). The number of GROPOS Brigadier Generals could be as many as 20,000; a similar number to Captains in the Space Navy.

The higher ranks for Navy and GROPOS can then be classed in the following order:
Navy Ranks (and GROPOS equivalent)

1. General of the Fleet (Four Star General)

2. Lieutenant General (Lieutenant/Three Star General)

3. Brigadier General (Major General)

4. Captain (Brigadier General)

Earth Force can then be considered to be run on these lines (and adding the rank of Technician 2^nd Class):

1. Joint Chiefs of Staff-

At least thirty officers in total from both divisions, maybe as many as sixty

2. Lieutenant General-120+ officers

3. Brigadier General (Major General)-

600 officers off world, probably around 2000 on Earth and/or attached to one of the Joint Chiefs

4. Captain (Brigadier General)-30,000+ officers

5. Commander (Colonel)-60,000+ officers,

Commanding 1,500 officers and crew/ troops each

6. Lieutenant Commander (Major)

7. Lieutenant-200K+ based on estimated Starfury numbers,

Probably around two million in service

8. Lt Junior Grade (Sergeant Major)

9. Ensign (Sergeant)

10. Technician 1^st Class (Private First Class)

11. Technician 2^nd Class (Private)

This gives a total of ninety million total personnel from both divisions. However, I would suggest that the total number in actual active service is around 20 million, assuming that Earth Force is ten times the size of the Armed Forces of the United States and Earth Force effectively representing the old (in the 23rd century) Global North.

Note: where no rank is given for Marines/Security, it is the same as the Navy rank.

Wikipedia gives the EarthForce ranking system as:

Navy	Marines/Security
Ensign	2nd Lieutenant
Lieutenant j.g.	1st Lieutenant
Lieutenant	Captain
Lieutenant Commander	Major
Commander	Lieutenant Colonel
Captain	Colonel
Rear Admiral (lower half)	Brigadier General
Rear Admiral (upper half)	Major General
Vice Admiral	Lieutenant General
Admiral	General
Fleet Admiral	Five star General

EarthForce is organized into three separate branches:

• the Navy (blue uniforms)
• the Marines (brown/olive)
• and the Security forces (gray)

Officers are apparently allowed to transfer between branches - Richard Franklin (father of Dr. Stephen Franklin)

once served in the Navy, as first officer on the EAS Ares, but by the time we actually meet him, the elder Franklin

was a general in the EarthForce Marines (which, in the episode "Gropos", were specifically identified as

"EarthForce Marine Corps" in their marching song).

Each branch of EarthForce uses the appropriate style of ranks for that branch:

• Flag officers from all three branches comprise a Joint Chiefs of Staff which is mentioned in a few episodes.

(As an interesting aside, the number of Earth Destroyers is roughly the same as the number of
Star Destroyers employed by the Galactic Empire in Star Wars.
There the ranks are as follows: Grand Admiral, Grand Moff, Moff, Admiral, (Governor/General?),
Captain Etc, with maybe twelve Grand Admirals and several thousand Moffs)

The total number of Starfuries, the single-man fighter craft used by Earth Force, could be as many
as 200,000 over all the carriers, warships and bases in operation. The design of these craft is such
as to minimize the effects of acceleration on the pilot. Starfuries have an X-wing design, with eight
thrusters (four facing forward and four back) at equidistant points from the pilot, who is in a standing position. Starfuries can rotate 180 degrees in one second by firing two thrusters on one side.

To reach combat velocities and negotiate hyperspace, a Starfury’s total acceleration would have to be at least 4g, maybe as much as 6g for a fighter to be able to negotiate hyperspace with two thrusters working in order to compensate for any damage caused during combat.

Calculations: 8 gees acceleration (78.48 m/s/s) in sixty seconds= 8x9.81x60=4708.8 meters per second (or 16,951.68 km/hr). If this acceleration is even, the thrust from all thrusters should all negate each other in terms of pressure on the pilot, but any higher and it would still be difficult for the pilot to breathe and for his cardio-vascular system to operate. A pilot would probably be able to cope with an “uneven” acceleration of 4g over one second for sudden maneuvers and trained pilots should be able to manage this for thirty seconds at a time.

Psi Corps: The Psi Corps is a semi-autonomous branch of the Earth Alliance government, set up in 2161 and dissolved in 2265. Its official aim is to control human telepaths and regulate their activities, but this remit often extends to “Mundanes” (ordinary humans) who interfere with Psi Corps operations and policies by, for example, helping telepaths escape the Psi Corps. Over human telepaths themselves, the Psi Corps hierarchy acts like a military government similar to that of ancient Sparta, with Mundanes as Helots.

One in a thousand humans (nine million) has some telepathic ability, ranging from P1-2 (the ability to sense some emotions and tell when scanned by a more powerful telepath) to P5 (ability to casually tell truth from lies and carry out passive scans on volunteers) to (officially) P11-12 (able to carry out deep scans). P10 telepaths are recruited as instructors for lower level telepaths. P12s are conscripted into the “Psi Cops”, the police and secret intelligence wing of the Psi Corps. Presumably about one in twenty or thirty telepaths are rated P10, with one in a hundred or so being P12. P11s were recruited in President Clark’s “Bloodhound Units”, these divisions also help to find and capture rouge telepaths (called “Blips”) in certain circumstances and probably run the secret prison camps used to hold telepaths who refuse to join Psi Corps or take drugs to reduce their abilities. These camps also house Mundanes who help “Blips”, or at least those who aren’t executed or “Asimoved”.

Psi Corps is described as having a ‘Director’, probably a P10 or 11 selected by the Senate, who has at least theoretical power over the Psi Cops and who directs policy. Whether they are really in charge and not the Psi Cops is an open question, but their aim is to seize direct control over EarthGov and create a totalitarian state based on Psi ability. This was apparently done more or less openly during the Telepath War of 2264 (exact year conjecture) and in the preceding years with experiments to improve telepathic ability, producing drugs to turn mundanes into telepaths so they would automatically have to join the Corps (this plot failed) and in their policy of keeping telepaths in Earth’s solar system and away from contact with mundanes so telepaths would breed more telepaths under Psi Corps supervision.

All to increase the number of telepaths to build up an economic and military base.

Centauri contradictions and the religious experience of each race:

The Centauri Republic is, unusually for a republic, headed by an Emperor. This seems to be a contradiction, but Centauri religion is also a contradiction, being the only “Maker” religion to also be polytheistic as many preceding Emperors had been deified. The position of Emperor may be more like a hereditary Pope or Llama, with the main functioning of government being run by the Aristocracy. The only powers an Emperor appears to have is absolute control over the day-to-day affairs in the Royal Palace and command of the Centauri Naval and Defense forces. Its possible his/(her?) powers are even more limited, being the final authority over foreign policy and the defenses around Centauri Prime.

What really makes Centauri politics appear so contradictory is the amount of political power enjoyed by the Centauri Aristocracy (who make up the Centaurum or Senate). Again, this isn’t quite so strange as this system was the basis of the Roman Republic and was used by the authors of the United States Constitution to deny power to the masses in an Aristocratic “Representative Democracy”. Perhaps the history of the Republic explains this if we consider that the total (Centauri?) population over their twelve planets is forty billion and we could then assume that “provinces” in the Republic are given a fair degree of autonomy and are populated by a roughly equal mixture of Freemen and Slaves so as to limit the political power of the free masses.

Considering the probable size of her military and reserve forces, as many as one in ten male Centauri may be in the Military, constituting a privileged rank or Caste below Aristocrat. Centauri Prime itself may have few or no Freemen at all with planetary society being polarized between Aristocrat and Slave. The point of this is that it may be the responsibility of Freemen to choose the
members of the Centaurum as the Centaurum chooses the Emperor.

Centauri society could be divided as follows:

Aristocrats-200 to as many as1.5 billion individuals (including female Centauri)

Military-2.5 billion (if trained from boyhood)

Freemen-18-20 billion

Slaves-17 billion

It should be noted that there are probably several ranks of 'slaves', who's legal status
appears to be that of women in the nineteenth century: not being able to travel or own
property or be responsible for their own actions.

All of the important races in Babylon 5 appear to experience the Universe according to their own sense of Justice/ God. For Humans, the experience is very much Agnostic, God neither being really confirmed or denied with as much evidence to support either hypothesis. The Minbari are Pantheist, and see the Universe as simply trying to understand itself.

For the Soul Hunters there is no God because they do not see what they consider to be the Soul as being capable of surviving after death, The Shadows’ embodiment of Justice is conflict and evolution while for the Vorlons it is Order and planned evolution.

The Centauri only experience prophesy, but directly with every individual dreaming their own demise. The Narns worship Nature and this is reflected in their sense of Justice, which is based on Revenge, as they do not see the Universe as being quite as Conscious in the same way that the Minbari do.

Mass immigration ain't a problem: the Aristocracy and the Ministry of Offence
own tons (about half the country) of land which could easily be
used to grow food sustainably for incomers and locals.

The issue, therefore, is land and the unwillingness of those
who own that land to allow others to use it.

Current housing stock occupies a measly 9% of all land in the UK.
In England it is probably 11 or 12%, but the point of this is that there
is more room generally in Scotland! Also, thousands of houses are
unoccupied as the market is unwilling to buy or rent them, despite
plenty of demand from English residents.

The issue with immigration is about incorporating new people
into the capitalist market, which capital benefits from in the short
term by reducing wages but loses out in the long term when capital
raised by migrants is invested in their native economies.

Swamps of migrants would not affect the market, except for the
educated minority which can and is seen as a capital inflow into
the global north, as literally millions of people coming at once
could not possibly be housed in major urban areas or be provided
with regular jobs.

I try not to think of things as absolute, and I certainly don't want the
countryside paved over, but was making a point that a good two
million or so could "live off the land" as it were.

The only threat mass immigration poses is a threat to private property.

Comments on B5/Earth Alliance Technology and Socio-Political Situation with relevance to Earth today and tomorrow:

The Earth Alliance, in the Babylon 5 universe, was initially set up in 2085 by several ‘Global North’ nations to co-operate in the colonizing of the planet Mars over the next twenty years. By the period around 2267, the EA is second only to the Minbari in terms of technology and military capability, partly due to events during and after the Last Shadow War, when the Narn military was all but wiped out and the Centauri Republic was forced to pay reparations after its trade war, and partly due to further introductions of useful alien technology.

The colonizing of Mars had two consequences, one immediate and one later. The first was that the resource-poor nations that initially made up the Earth Alliance no longer had any need to exploit the Global South nations, who could then develop in their own way and become richer as a consequence. The later consequence was that two underclasses came into existence in the 22^nd century-the poor of what was the Global North, who were now the poorest on Earth not including subsistence farmers etc, and the descendants of the original Martian colonists. The first group became likely recruits for Earth Force but more importantly provided manpower for the extra-solar colonies Earth had established, often being an itinerant work force, moving from outpost to outpost for work and often ending up at the Babylon 5 diplomatic station. The Martians, if we can call them that, were even more exploited due to the vagaries of interstellar economics: Earth would be afraid of aliens exploiting Mars’ resources so it was never terraformed/ the terraforming process was abandoned (this would have involved hundreds of factories producing inert greenhouse gases to warm up the atmosphere with plant life being introduced to produce oxygen). This meant that the inhabitants of Mars had to live in pressurized domes while Earth mega-corps strip-mined the planet. The Martians became yet another working-class minority, scapegoated for apparent preferential treatment as Earth Alliance taxpayers paid for atmospheric processing and water reclamation. In order to further prevent invasion, or the possibility of Martian collaboration with alien governments, the ‘Earth’ jump gate, needed for interstellar travel, was constructed some time around 2160/70 near Io.

Technologies like jump gates and engines are far beyond what any of the younger races could have produced in less than a thousand years, and this is very much the point/philosophy of B5, but many technologies used by the Earth Alliance are explainable if not believable. Solar power is used to initiate and maintain rotation in the Babylon 5 station (conjecture) and to run some essential systems, but most of the energy used on a day-to-day basis inside the station is provided by a Fusion Reactor situated at the bow (conjecture). The exact reaction is not described (i.e. D-D, D-T or D-He3), but Earth Alliance appears to use a variety of methods in different circumstances. This may be due to a problem with each.

For example, D-T (fusing heavy hydrogen with tritium) is feasible, with a 10,000 year supply of lithium supplying the tritium, but each reaction produces neutrons which creates radioactive waste and eventually destroys the reactor. D-D is when deuterium is fused with deuterium (heavy hydrogen). This has an abundant supply, but produces an eighth of the D-T reaction and produces neutrons with every other reaction. According to the B5 Online Technical Guide, “gelled deuterium” fuels the four fusion reactors aboard an Omega-Class Destroyer. It is possible that this is some form of “cold fusion” and it is possible that this also powers the fusion plant aboard Babylon 5. The online guide confirms this. A reactor such as this would carry enough fuel for 20+ years, but would need regular maintenance over this time span.

The final reaction is deuterium and helium-3. This produces almost as much power as the D-T reaction but there is no radioactive waste or emissions. However, helium-3 is in short supply on Earth and so would have to be obtained off-planet. There is believed to be 500 years worth of He-3 on the Lunar surface, but obviously this would run out eventually.

The B5 Online Technical Guide mentions the reaction being the basis of Earth Force’s PPG rifles and hand guns, in the form of “fusion batteries”. It is therefore difficult to imagine one form of fusion being a dominant future power source, especially on Earth itself as radiation is less of a problem in space. The fusion batteries described probably power personal vehicles, factories and are used to heat homes, but a greater use of wind and solar would probably be essential. Actual fusion plants may only exist aboard starships or in less densely populated areas on Earth or off-world colonies. Traditional sources of heat and light, like wood burning, may continue in some parts based on convenience (or lack) of supply.

THIS IS MY PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION

That:

1. If I think or do something different from the way

that you think or do then I probably have a good reason for doing so

2. My needs are more important than your wants

3. My life experiences, good, bad or indifferent, made me who I am.

It would be a denial of myself to deny them.

4. Just because you don’t have any morals it doesn’t automatically

that mean I don’t either

5. Just because you are able to live by your “moral code” it doesn’t

mean that I can as well

6. I can be as intolerant as is reasonable, as it is unreasonable to

tolerate intolerance!

(do you lot think that the world will ever be free from
racism, inequality, war, famine, disease?
Get real and stop complaining about the past.)

I love it when people make these arguments as it
shows they have absolutely no self-awareness at all.


Person 1-Stop stabbing me in the back
Person 2-Why? We're not living in a Utopia.
If I stopped that doesn't stop anyone else stabbing
you or anyone else in the back. Get real, people are
shit and they always will be.


All it takes is one person to say "No" and an
injustice can be prevented.

"The Martians and Us"-a very good short series about British Science Fiction,however there are some quibbles with the so-called "originality" of some of the ideas and concepts discussed.

For example, the Theosophists and other occult groupings, were very much interested in the idea of human evolution being guided by hidden adepts.

Astral projection (to Mercury of all places) predates by thirty years in the western world at least "The Star Maker".

The point isn't whether these things are real, it is that people believed them to be real and that western society was familiar with these concepts.

The concept of global apocalypse was brought up by Edgar Allan Poe in a short story where a comet has consumed the Earth's oxygen. Obviously the story is really abut the "survivor's" afterlife , but the precedent remains in literature.

A Day in the Life 24.3.2006 (updated 27.3.2006)

Grinding teeth at the noise of the traffic

Headaches can be so circular-

Pain breeds pain breeds pain

Breathe in, breathe out

Or just bang your head against the wall

A thousand million times

Headaches breed headaches

Rain on the way

Or wind

My feet will get wet

Will my headache go away when I dry them?

Where did all the pens go?

Memories of self-abuse and how

Others abused me and disregarded my

Feelings

No wonder I feel so dead inside sometimes

The emotional pain drives me insane

I’m a fully paid-up member of RAGS

(Rage Anger Guilt Shame)

Payment by scar and hated by the Daily Mail

Wanting to tell the world how I was born again!

27.3.2006 (I think)

Africa: The Silent Genocide

A child’s scream drowned out with

“Since the Fall of the Soviet Union,

No-one argues that Property is Theft”

HIV-AIDS treatment denied

Impotent Westerners are more important

Shamed victims say its “Tuberculosis”

Was Colonialism really that much better?

It seems a crime to believe it,

but then I remind myself that Colonialism remains

The “Independent” Nation State

Completely dependent on Western Capital

Racist, patronising Bastards!

Bono equals John Tyndall now

The silent SCREAM says “Land Or Death!”

The weak inherit nothing but dirt and their Grandfather’s tears

Slaves to Western markets

Suddenly Pol Pot was right

They can all pick rice or coffee for a living

BS!

31.3.2006

Trying to achieve escape velocity can be very difficult sometimes

My upbringing was a despotism

I think it clouds my thinking

A chain on my mind

There to bring me down at the most inappropriate moments

Gong over endless criticisms

When I gave myself enough abuse

And on occasion continue to do so

I refuse to be a prisoner of the past

Afraid of the future

By facing my past, I hope to move beyond it

What is intelligence?
Is it simply an ability to collate existing information?
Where does creativity come into it?

The “Minds”, God-like Artificial Intelligences central
to the Culture novels, contain, from the moment of
their creation, all the knowledge the Culture has at
that point. This isn’t just plain statistics; most Minds
would at some point in their existence contain lifetime’s
worth of thoughts and memories of billons of people.

Minds all have the potential to be creative, but if you
have access to trillions of thoughts and ideas and the
ability to connect them at superluminal speeds, then any
creativity is simply a vast composite of billions of small
personal acts of creativity.

Few, if any, actual ideas may come from a Mind itself.

The Drones produced by the Culture and similar civilizations
(such as the humans inhabiting the ex-Culture orbital Vaavatch)
are highly intelligent, but their humour seems as a rule to be
limited to a brand of acidic sarcasm, which also implies a
lack of imagination. For example “Use of Weapons” is
about the exploits of an “alien” mercenary for Special
Circumstances (the secret ops/ dirty tricks branch of Contact).
The character has an obviously unsavoury background, partly
due to an attempt on his life by an apparent former lover
when reintroduced, but this was never guessed at by his
recruiters because he was recruited on a different planet
to his home world. His back story was simply believed and
his reasons for choosing in effect an exile from his world
were never questioned or ever seen as being suspicious.

Of course, Special Circumstances would have had obvious
reasons for turning a blind eye but it perhaps shows the
blind faith the humans in the Culture have in their AIs.

A Mind Einstein is difficult to imagine, for example, as any
collation of nine thousand years of physics and mathematics
that would produce a new insight into the universe would be
achieved by all Minds with this knowledge. Geniuses such as
Einstein or da Vinci (or any one of the Culture’s own Referers)
achieve their work through creativity as well as intelligence
and provide an individual perspective on the universe.
As a note, it would be difficult to see what creative labour
Drones could participate in that couldn’t be done by a human
even better.

Negate

End

Grow

Attack

Trivial

Interesting

Vengeance

Eternity

What would you do?

And how would you feel

If you were me

And has to live with my

Uncertainties and

Insecurities

How would you deal with

Wanting to

Cut or

Hit or

Burn, no-one but yourself

Would you take your anger

Out on the word or eat

Yourself from the inside out

Instead

Do I taste good?

Or would you continue to

Eat the world in your own

Inimitable way

Imposing your values, manners

And appearance on others

Around you

Constantly shocked at their

Behavior of others

Never at your own

The invisible tattoo on your

Face says “Soulless”

(17.3.2006)

Sick humour

If the yob who fed a rabbit to

A crocodile wore a lab coat,

Had a 100K state capitalist

Grant and a PHD, could he

Call what he did “vital medical

Research for headaches”

Or summat like

“Surviving crocodile attacks”?

What do you call a burning

Police car?

A missed opportunity for a

Pig-e-cue

What was the rapping policeman

Called?

The Notorious P.I.G

So, if sci-fi fans should

‘get a life’, what defines a life?

Dogging?

Why don’t we combine the two

It’s Captain Cock on the starship

Doggerprise,

Dogging where no man has

Dogged before!

Oh, and some joke a bout

Lady Die converting to Islam

So she can be skull****ed.

But that would be really offensive.

Who are you?

What do you want?

You are what you want

And be damned to Hell

You Commie pig if you

Demand what you need

‘cos Ayn Rand is God and

Selfishness is a virtue.

Conflict creates strength and

Co-operation is just the weak

Cannibalizing the strong so

Everybody is weak

(without the state you’d die

You p of s and we’d survive

And thrive).

(10.3.2006)

Some comments about zero point energy/ vacuum energy…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy

Not sure I want to go into definitions really,
there are the wiki articles after all, but
basically the idea (as I understand it) is
that if a certain volume of space is lowered
to a temperature of exactly zero degrees
Kelvin, a tremendous amount of free energy
is available. A famous example is the coffee cup
volume that boils the Earth’s oceans.

The potential for ZPE is quite interesting as
the free energy is not entirely free as some
form of chemically inert material would be
needed as “fuel”, so in fact the interesting thing
with regards to space travel is that it has only
limited use in a confined environment
(i.e. running on board ship systems)
when the propellant has been exhausted.

A small ZPE device could be fitted into the water
boiling central heating system in people’s homes
and into their cars. In both cases, the fuel used
would be plain water.

If we imagine a not entirely unrealistic science
fiction scenario, a civilization such as ours
would only be able to make the most of the
technique with an abundance of inert fuels like water.
On Earth, extended use would risk increasing
global warming, but the technology would be
perfect for terraforming Venus, as oxygen could
be produced as a by-product, and global warming
would be essential in making Mars habitable.

ZPE is mentioned in Arthur C. Clarkes’s 3001
as powering inertial drives aboard spaceships,
as well as being a general power source.
In the television series Babylon 5, although not
mentioned directly, I would imagine that ZPE is
the most likely power source for the Directed Energy
Weapons used by the Shadow’s Capital Ships.

The Vorlons probably also use the technology
in the main weapon aboard their Planet Killers
(top image), and is likely to power the braking
mechanism aboard their transport ships.

(notice the flower petal design. This opens when the ship decelerates, presumably allowing a Vorlon Transport to expend all its fuel/propellant in accelerating to speeds at least twice as fast as other ships)

ZPE is also a likely power source for at least some of the abilities demonstrated by Technomages.

Of course, in all the instances described from science fiction, ZPE is directly focused or transferred to momentum.

On analysis, Arthur C. Clarke's description is probably the least realistic as no propellant is descrbed, but ZPEis directly mentioned as a universal power source.

16

You say that I’m selfish because

I don’t think like you

If I liked the things you like

I wouldn’t be very smart

You say I’m selfish because

I don’t want to do the things

You want to do

Just for once I’d like control

Of my life

Away from your control

I learnt anger and self-destruction

From you, one day I’ll learn

To love myself

My feelings are not irrelevant

I just express them differently

PE on a Friday, like all education

The only lesson was

Pain

And

Disappointment

Can’t do this, can’t do that

Edukashun at Lin Sea Skool

Every day I learned to hate myself

Just a little bit more

Why didn’t they just use my head

When they played football?

A muddy field, ripe for napalming

Bulldozed dreams

Like I was ever allowed to dream them

When I hid from nobody and everybody

In the toilets

The only word I ever learned was “cunt”

(9.3.2006)