Daniel M. Bensen

“The darkness knows.” Fleeing an execution order, Russian army doctor Andrei Trifonovich stumbles into the secret world or ruthless, cave-dwelling pagans. Wealthgiver I: Darkness is a novella about cave-Thracians. It launches on October 31st 2025.

What sound does it make?

@slatestarcodex From my December book reviews: patreon.com/posts/december… The original story: slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sor…

“Sort by Controversial” by @slatestarcodex Remember that thing with the white-gold/blue-black? What if you could do that, but with morality? Oh wait. This story was so good that I read the first two-thirds of it to my wife, who is a tech CEO and laughed several times. links ->

I read the first two books of Corcoran's Aristillus series, and enjoyed them immensely. Really looking forward to Red State Mars.

.@MorlockP hasn't nearly exhausted the possibilities of forcefield applications in fusion and space flight.

@ToughSf thank you. I've asked several people to tell me why Bussard ramjets are impossible and yours is the best answer. I would quibble about the word "impossible," though.

@Evil0Dan We don't have those dragless forcefield. PP fusion requires confinement times of years plus a stellar mass blanketing the reaction to recycle the heat lost to Xray radiation. A starship gets maybe a millisecond in a thin tube.

Bussard Ramjets have a special place in classic SciFi, as they were once thought capable of endless 1g acceleration - enough to roam the Universe. Some took it further and worked out the details of Bussard Ramjet *combat* at relativistic speeds: #id--Go_Fast--Bussard_Ramjet--Bussard_Ramjet_Combat" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">projectrho.com/public_html/ro…

@ToughSf Ohhh! Drag: even if arbitrarily sophisticated force-fields making a streamlined profile for the ship? Proton-proton fusion: well, stars do use the p-p chain. Why is that impossible in a ship?

@Evil0Dan Impossible to overcome drag at relativistic speeds, plus it's impossible to fuse proton-proton fusion.

@HariSel57511397 I suggest prayer. Even if you're just emptily going through the motions.

I’m at a point in my faith life where platitudes, even from homilies, feel completely empty. I seek something real but have yet to find it in personal prayer or the Sacraments. This isn’t a cry for help or a drama post. I’m never converting to another religion, so don’t bother in the replies. I’m fine. The reason I’m posting this is because I literally have no other avenues to ask for advice on this on this conundrum.

how did their hats work?

I'm really curious about what that thing is in Mar's L1. It would make a great setting for a murder mystery.

Facial reconstruction of a 13,500-year-old WHG from Switzerland The “Bichon Man” was a young male, approximately 20 to 23 years old. His skeleton was discovered in 1956 about 15 meters from a cave entrance, alongside the remains of a female brown bear, flint arrowheads, and traces of charcoal. Evidence suggests the bear had been struck by arrows and retreated into the cave, where the hunter likely followed and attempted to drive it out using fire. The encounter appears to have ended fatally for the hunter. The Bichon Man stood about 1.64 meters tall and weighed just over 60 kg. From a broad evolutionary perspective, his features reflect a mix of archaic and modern human characteristics. Studies have focused on his health and diet. Overall, his condition was good, although he showed signs of long-term physical strain, possible joint issues, and nutritional stress visible in his teeth. Isotopic and dental analyses indicate a meat-heavy diet that was not highly abrasive. At the time of his death, he was a great consumer of meat and a vigorous walker, but he did not possess the robustness of his Upper Paleolithic ancestors. Broad and low-set, with prominent cheekbones and relatively open eye sockets, he displayed many hallmarks of a Cro-Magnon individual. He carried Y-DNA haplogroup I2a1a1b1b and mtDNA haplogroup U5b1. Unlike most WHG individuals, he had brown eyes.

1/ those endpaper maps absolutely make the book I had to fight for them (not that hard - @tonydaniel777 & @dafsharirad have excellent taste!) and amateur cartographer / professional data scientist @graffle4more delivered above and beyond expectations Note that papers are COLOR

@scimeetsfiction @J_Von_Random Sorry I misremembered

@Evil0Dan @J_Von_Random My plan is importing H2O *from* Mars. The CO2 stays right where it is, underneath the floating surface. (The goal of the plan is that you don't have to move it.)

Even easier is @scimeetsfiction 's idea of giant inflatable cities floating on top of Venus's atmosphere.

Many are describing finishing a CAIRO SMITH BOOK as having “woken up from a nightmare”!!

@J_Von_Random @scimeetsfiction The Gardens of Lune have to grow out of something, don't they?

@Evil0Dan @scimeetsfiction Luna is also carbon-poor.

@J_Von_Random @scimeetsfiction I think Howe's plan included shipping the extra C02 to Mars.

@Evil0Dan @scimeetsfiction You can combine the two: sunshades, and floating habs. The habs provide the all-important economic basis for the effort by exporting manufactured carbon compounds at industrial scale. Which also helps with the problem of how you deal with all the excess carbon after cooling.

@johncwright2001 My thoughts exactly! A weapon that, since this version of the Cold War is a domestic rebellion, the People's State will use on its own civilian population. Forced to this extreme with much reluctance, of course.

@Evil0Dan As I recall from ATLAS SHRUGGED the evil scientist Stadler had developed a sonic disintegration ray "Project Xylophone" -- this would be the signature superweapon of the bad guys.

"Going Galt" means going on strike, refusing to lend your genius and hard work to a social order that grows increasingly malign. It means refusing to help one's own destroyers. We have seen communists and collectivists from Marx to modern Wokesters make endless demands on more productive men, demand we provide them with doctors and medicine, food and housing and basic income, entertainment, comfort, and changing pronoun use, all to accommodate those whose only contribution to society is their utter inability to contribute to society. Myself, I would caution against departing from a society even if it is hostile to Christ, to life, to reason, to common sense. Even when the society is filled with irrational hatred for your religion, race, tradition, history, accomplishments and virtues, we still owe certain civic duties to the laws heaven has placed over us. We are to obey secular law in all things, until and unless we are asked to disobey divine law. But why, John Galt might ask (were he real) should a genius aid a fool, particularly when that fool means to use whatever aid he is given to destroy the genius? Good question. I can only answer as someone who is not a genius, quoting those wiser than I. I take this as a case of almsgiving: when we have abundance, and the needy need our help, it is a Christian duty out of brother love to aid him. Generally, this is done without regard to the merit of the needy person, just as all shipwrecked sailors without distinction are received in a port, so we should not sit in judgment upon those who have fallen into poverty, but hasten to help them in their misfortune. But prudence says there are exceptions to this.  St. Thomas considers the case in which a needy person begs alms in order to commit sin: “We ought not to help a sinner as such, that is by encouraging him to sin, but as man, that is by supporting his nature” (II-II q32 a6). Fr. Francis Spirago discusses this further, mixing prudence with mercy: "To give to those who are known to be idle and addicted to drink, is to encourage them in sin; but it is better to err on the side of charity than of severity" John Galt, alas, is morally crippled. The Atlas Shrugging character is portrayed as selfish, and regards altruism as a sin (but, ironically, altruism is allowed when one is in love with another, or respect another, provided this love and respect is ultimately self-centered -- a matter of what you want to do, regardless of the merit of the, provided you authentically and deeply want to do it as an act of rational willpower. Or something). To Galt, all acts of public service, even participation in the market economy, if it benefits the common good, is immoral unless one is rewarded in due proportion. "Going Galt" is sulking. It is a womanly thing to do -- John Galt is a woman's idea of what a man should be like, after all -- because one way women get needed attention is by pretending indifference. To withdraw her companionship from an ungrateful lover, so that, agonized by loneliness, he realizes his error, is a matter of feminine revenge fantasy. The anger of Ayn Rand, in part, may be due to the fact that she is wise and clear sighted enough to see that Communists will never realize error, never admit wrong, and would rather die than allow their self-righteous self-esteem to be diminished. Ironically, with her insistence on reason, logic, and results, Ayn Rand is far more masculine, in that sense, than any Communist. Collectivism is pure maternal instinct inverted to evil: a smothering mother insisting everyone share everything, and no games have winners or losers. Ayn Rand is angry because the prime maternal instinct in life, namely, to teach wayward children to return to the right path, the path of life and happiness, can never work on Communists. They do not want happiness. They want you miserable. They do not want to live. They want you to die. JCJW

@KarlKGallagher @scimeetsfiction But that's what seals in the juices!

@Evil0Dan @scimeetsfiction Both beat hell out of the plan to encase the planet in a steel shell.

@martianwyrdlord I might have met the same guy in Bulgaria!

I met a British guy in Romania who did this. Absolute Chad Chadington physiognomy. His work had taken him all over the world, and he spent his downtime - which was most of his time - traveling. Had a fun story about getting in a fight with Mongolians who objected to his dancing with the local girls in Ulan Bator.