Miscellany

[stoutfellow]

1. It looks like we've got Murphy's skin condition licked. This afternoon the vet told me he needed to finish the course of antibiotics and vitamins, but I wouldn't have to bring him in again. He does look much better, and the bare spots aren't fever-warm any more.

2. I finally got Season 4.3 of Farscape, plus The Peacekeeper Wars. They weren't available last September, when I bought the rest of the DVDs; now I have the complete set. (And just in time; I'm about to start in on watching Season 4.2.)

3. On a related note, a bit of trivia: in the episode "Natural Election", the crew of Moya elect a captain. The voters are John, D'Argo, Rygel, Pilot, Aeryn, Chiana, Sikozu, and Noranti. There is one vote each for Scorpius (certainly cast by Sikozu), Rygel (presumably by Rygel), The Great Beyond or something like that (Noranti), and Aeryn, and four votes for D'Argo. I'm wondering who voted for Aeryn. Not Chiana - she's an almost certain vote for D'Argo. Probably not Crichton, given their estrangement at that point. I doubt that Aeryn would vote for herself, either. Pilot seems most likely to me - he's had a special bond with Aeryn since "DNA Mad Scientist". It's conceivable that D'Argo would be humble enough not to vote for himself, though. Any other Farscapers care to comment?

4. I just finished reading Vernor Vinge's Tatja Grimm's World, and something's bothering me. Among the key plot points are that a) the (Earthlike) planet in question is very low in metals and b) there is a high mountain range, one of whose peaks is high enough that the partial pressure of oxygen near the top is 0.7 PSI. Now, I'm not that knowledgeable about geography/geology, but that combination doesn't sound right to me - tectonics on Earth are driven by radioactive decay in the mantle, aren't they? The planet is part of a double-planet system, though. Could tidal effects substitute? Anybody know more about it than I do?

Comments

[pompe.livejournal.com]

4. When you mean Earthlike, would you be able to specify?

Otherwise, metal-poor is perhaps a problematic issue. Is the planet metal poor or just the crust of the planet? I'd argue that a terrestrial planet with ongoing tectonics probably has a lot of metals and that would mean some tend to end up in the crust.

About 4/5 of Earth's internal heat is radioactive decay, about 1/5 is "Leftover Heat". Tidal effects could generate heat, but I'd guess a double planet system realistically would be tidally locked to each other and then you need the tides to change because such a stable system is poor at generating tides! Perhaps solar tidal effects in combination with a locked system could generate enough tidal activity.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"Any other Farscapers care to comment?"

I think that Pilot voted for Aeryn. However, that does mean that D'Argo would vote for himself, which is a bit too egoistic for him. OTOH, maybe he just went through all the other candidates and decided that he didn't want to obey any of *them*.

[filkferengi]

Woof!

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Glad to read that the Murph is doing better. We've been struggling with a similar problem with our Kasey-gal. I can't really complain: any dog whose survived a throat-and-larynx-and-fargin'-spinal-cord tumor is doing just great having nothing more than skin condition, but still... It's a pain, and the poor dog...

So I'm glad it's working out. Have you been using the fish-oil supplements? We buy ours from our local vet (they cost the earth, but, well, that's a long story for another day) but you can get them fairly cheaply from Doctors Foster and Smith (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/?ref=3442&subref=AJ&cm_mmc=PPC-_-Google-_-DFS%20Keywords-_-foster%20and%20smith&s_kwcid=foster%20and%20smith|914620581).

I'm slowly working my way through the library system's copies of Farscape too--we should compare notes if we ever get to the same spot!