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Profile Donald L. Johnson
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Message 1656247 - Posted: 24 Mar 2015, 4:35:48 UTC - in response to Message 1656184.  

I am afraid to open a discussion thread in politics
about the this election cycle for fear it would denigrate
into chaos......

Still Double Down is not a bad read, I think the authors
were very concerned with over taxing the minds of the targeted
readership....
(This is not a criticism, but the book sort of reads like a
Sunday supplement.)


Doesn't a election cycle have a certain amount of Chaos Theory built into it?

Read "Double Star" by Robert Heinlein. How to run for elected office and hold it. Even if the real candidate is incapacitated and later dies. And his double has to go forward in office.

"Double Star" is one of the few by Heinlein I have not read, have to find it soon.

There was a very good movie a few years ago based on that premise. Can't think of the name, starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, as I recall.
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Message 1656405 - Posted: 24 Mar 2015, 13:54:21 UTC

Tetragravitron
SAVING THE WORLD HAS NEVER BEEN SO MUCH FUN! J. D. Crayne's bestselling science fiction romp is a rollicking and hilarious space adventure that pays unabashed homage to science fiction greats of the past. Here is a book with touches of Terry Prachett's Diskworld, E. E. Smith's Lensmen, and Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella. Tetragravotron is classic interstellar adventure, with a bit of a feminist twist, and its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. The Earth hovers on the brink of destruction as black robed Phanot, evil ruler of an alien empire, aims an artificial quasar at the solar system! The only person who can save the world from this horrific threat is gorgeous, red-headed, emerald-eyed Captain Spycer of the Command Fleet. Accompanied by her trusty companions -- Peter, a pain-in-the-rear robot, Colonel Krabchake, a scaly red alien with attitude, and the pickled head of her astrophysics teacher, plus a naive little anthropologist named Brian -- Captain Spycer must rocket straight into the enemy's clutches and allow herself to be captured, in hopes of discovering the secret of Phanot's awesome weapon. Taken prisoner, she and her dauntless crew find they face the threat, not only of the cruel, despotic Phanot, but of his suave nephew, Prince Agramon, a man with wide-ranging interests -- from hunting the local aborigines to designs on Captain Spycer's virtue -- and his sister, Princess Carnadine, a sultry, white-haired, ruby-eyed beauty with taste for naive little virgins like Brian, and the hot irons to brand them with! If Captain Spycer and her crew survive these perils, they still have to find Phanot's weapon, the mysterious tetragravitron, an ancient device of unspeakable power that lies hidden away in the depths beneath his great citadel. With time running out and the fate of the solar system hanging by a thread, our courageous heroine finds herself helpless behind dungeon walls. Can Captain Spycer and her companions escape from the Phanot's prison in time to thwart his fiendish plot and save the Earth? Can the gentle six-legged hargs save themselves and their world from the Phanot's retribution? And, will innocent young Brian ever understand the words to that indelicate song the pickled head was singing? Follow the pulse-pounding, comical, and always bizarre adventures of Captain Spycer's determined but motley crew as they do their level best to save civilization from destruction!

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Message 1656862 - Posted: 25 Mar 2015, 20:57:14 UTC - in response to Message 1656247.  

I am afraid to open a discussion thread in politics
about the this election cycle for fear it would denigrate
into chaos......

Still Double Down is not a bad read, I think the authors
were very concerned with over taxing the minds of the targeted
readership....
(This is not a criticism, but the book sort of reads like a
Sunday supplement.)


Doesn't a election cycle have a certain amount of Chaos Theory built into it?

Read "Double Star" by Robert Heinlein. How to run for elected office and hold it. Even if the real candidate is incapacitated and later dies. And his double has to go forward in office.

"Double Star" is one of the few by Heinlein I have not read, have to find it soon.

There was a very good movie a few years ago based on that premise. Can't think of the name, starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, as I recall.

I think you mean Dave. Dave was a small town actor who looked like the President and was brought in to make one public appearance while the Prez had a dallyance with some floozy. They kept him there after the Commander in Sleaze had a stroke during his dallyance. He fell in love with the First Lady, Sigourney, who had completely separate sleeping quarters from her husband.
David
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Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

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Profile Donald L. Johnson
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Message 1657103 - Posted: 26 Mar 2015, 6:48:37 UTC - in response to Message 1656862.  

There was a very good movie a few years ago based on that premise. Can't think of the name, starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, as I recall.

I think you mean Dave. Dave was a small town actor who looked like the President and was brought in to make one public appearance while the Prez had a dallyance with some floozy. They kept him there after the Commander in Sleaze had a stroke during his dallyance. He fell in love with the First Lady, Sigourney, who had completely separate sleeping quarters from her husband.

Sounds like the one. And at the end, after the real President dies, Dave runs for local office, and the Former First Lady shows up at his campaign office to volunteer......
Donald
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Message 1657347 - Posted: 26 Mar 2015, 18:36:55 UTC - in response to Message 1657103.  

There was a very good movie a few years ago based on that premise. Can't think of the name, starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, as I recall.

I think you mean Dave. Dave was a small town actor who looked like the President and was brought in to make one public appearance while the Prez had a dallyance with some floozy. They kept him there after the Commander in Sleaze had a stroke during his dallyance. He fell in love with the First Lady, Sigourney, who had completely separate sleeping quarters from her husband.

Sounds like the one. And at the end, after the real President dies, Dave runs for local office, and the Former First Lady shows up at his campaign office to volunteer......

I actually typed out essentially that sentence and then deleted it.

I thought it was rather clever how he managed to get himself out of the whole mess and clean it up too.
David
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Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

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Profile Julie
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Message 1659725 - Posted: 31 Mar 2015, 7:49:34 UTC - in response to Message 1635770.  

Sounds like the Watchtower from the JW's :-))

LOL, remembers me of a JW at my door a few months ago. She first rang the doorbell(I live on the second floor), she didn't want to come in, just left a watchtower in the mailbox, she said. Then for some reason she rang again to wish me good luck in life <3 Still have that booklet somewhere...


I found the booklets back. There were two of them. One was entitled 'Does Satan exist' and the other 'True Happiness'.
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Message 1669579 - Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 23:10:11 UTC

"The Fall of the Ottomans", by Eugene Rogan.
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Message 1669651 - Posted: 25 Apr 2015, 1:53:12 UTC - in response to Message 1669579.  

"The Fall of the Ottomans", by Eugene Rogan.


I'm just finishing 'Lawrence in Arabia', by Scott Anderson. Great book! This one is now on my library wishlist...

A Living example of Artificial Intelligence.

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Message 1674137 - Posted: 5 May 2015, 12:53:45 UTC

Reading the science magazine EOS here. There's an article on SETI in it this month.
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Message boards : Cafe SETI : book readers


 
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