From: Myles Corcoran [myles@irls3101.ck.cit.alcatel.fr] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 7:35 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Plastic plants Here's an interesting news item from BBC Online Science and Technology site. Reminded me of the bioplastic in Blue Planet. Any one have further ideas for biologically produced industrial materials, like coral housing, tree-bark insulation or packaging material, pharmacological products in cow, sheep or goat milk, etc? [Article from BBC Online] Tuesday, September 28, 1999 Published at 08:23 GMT 09:23 UK Scientists unveil plastic plants [_459126_rubbish300.jpg] Scientists unveil plastic plants Biotechnology giant Monsanto says it has created genetically-modified (GM) plants that can grow plastic. The plastic produced in the plant factories is not only biodegradable, it is also suitable for widespread commercial use. It is being produced experimentally in special varieties of GM oilseed rape and cress. Conventional plastics are made from oil and do not degrade easily. But the University of Lausanne's Yves Poirer, commenting on the research published in Nature Biotechnology, said: "There is a growing awareness that petroleum is a finite resource and that the indestructibility of plastics can be more of a nuisance than a benefit. [ image: width=150] "Synthesis of the materials in crops represents not only an attractive approach to the renewable production of bioplastics, but also an excellent method of increasing the value of crops by adding novel characteristics to plants." Scientists have long been looking for ways of making plastics that are better for the environment. They have already tried using special strains of bacteria that produce plastic naturally under certain conditions. But this is a costly process. One kilogram of this plastic would at best cost $3-5, compared with $1 per kilogram for petroleum-derived plastic. Furthermore, the end product is too brittle for most applications. [ image: width=150] However, the scientists at Monsanto in the US have managed to produce biodegradable plastic from plants using genetic engineering. They have done this by inserting four genes from the plastic-producing bacteria into varieties of oilseed rape and cress. This turns the plants into biological factories making plastic that can then be extracted from the plant. Unlike bacterial plastics, the plant plastic is suitable for commercial use. Also plastic-producing bacteria have to be fed carbon, in the form of glucose, which has been extracted from a crop. In contrast, plants take carbon directly from the air and so the plastic from the GM crops is likely to be relatively cheap. However, the yield of plastic in the crops is currently only 3%. This is six times lower than has been managed in other experiments. Monsanto scientists say the next step is to refine the GM process to make it suitable for high-yield production. This may be possible but cannot be taken for granted. Research programmes by both Monsanto and Zeneca, investigating other approaches to bioplastics, have ended in failure. Interesting, no? Myles -- Myles Corcoran | myles.corcoran@ck.cit.alcatel.fr Alcatel Ireland Ltd. Bandon, Cork. | (home): (+353) 021 503904 "Women like the simple things in | (work): (+353) 021 20469 (direct) life, like men." | (fax) : (+353) 023 41542/42256 *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Brian Betty [bbetty@glad.org] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 7:29 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Forever War / Peace The Rabbitman wrote: "As is the (non-sequel) follow-up, 'Forever Peace'." It's actually allegedly the *same* novel, written 25 (30?) years later. I liked 'em both, but the modern one is considerably more sophisticated. Forever War reminds me of 60s Heinlein-esque, Forever Peace is just plain 90s trippy. Thank you, time. I also liked that bits of FP were set in Cambridge, right near where I live, at real places I like to hang out at. Cool lah. - Monkeygod (8-0) Illegitimi non carborundum. "My God, aren't we all spoilt children of the bourgeoisie? If the bourgeoisie hadn't made a botch of us, we wouldn't need to kill them." - Raf the Jackal, "A Good Old-Fashioned Future" (Bruce Sterling) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Brian Betty [bbetty@glad.org] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 7:33 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Space Travel (was: 1st time Planeters) Herr Feirr wrote: "Actually, the novel I saw this in was _Macroscope_, involving a device that could see anything, a child prodigy, competing alien races trying to teach and destroy us, a game of connect-the-dots, and a rather bizarre form of astrology..." Early Anthony is wondrous and *way* campy - his tarot series was good, too. - Monkeygod (8-0) Illegitimi non carborundum. "My God, aren't we all spoilt children of the bourgeoisie? If the bourgeoisie hadn't made a botch of us, we wouldn't need to kill them." - Raf the Jackal, "A Good Old-Fashioned Future" (Bruce Sterling) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 8:51 AM To: 'blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com' Subject: RE: [BLUE PLANET] - Space Travel > -----Original Message----- > From: Bryan Feir [mailto:jenora@sympatico.ca] > Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Space Travel (was: 1st time Planeters) > > Actually, the novel I saw this in was _Macroscope_, > involving a device that could see anything, a child > prodigy, competing alien races trying to teach and > destroy us, a game of connect-the-dots, and a rather bizarre > form of astrology... > ----------------- > Bryan Feir VA3GBF|"Every man has somewhere in the > Bingo. That's it. I seemed to remember that the technology for the ship and the soup machine were from some sort of alien device but I couldn't remember enough of the details. The ship thing was the only part that stuck in my head. Tx. Jim -- Jim Heivilin, 884-3898, IAT Services, Systems & Applications Group -- University of Missouri, mailto:banzai@missouri.edu *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 1:12 PM To: blue planet list (E-mail) Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Convention project -----Original Message----- Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 10:55:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Adam Lewis Reply-To: adamlewis@earthling.net Subject: Convention project To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com I have this grand idea of list members collaborating on an adventure to be ran at GenCon 2000. (or any Con) We've got plenty of time to get it into the registration book and even more time to come up with a completed adventure. So there's no hurry. When finished, we'll have an official Tidewater Grill adventure for anyone to run. Anyone interested? Thx, AdamL __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Michael Czaplinski [MCzaplinski@NPR.ORG] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 2:01 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: RE: [BLUE PLANET] - Convention project: Scenario proposal > From: Heivilin, Jim [mailto:banzai@missouri.edu] > > I have this grand idea of list members collaborating > on an adventure to be ran at GenCon 2000. (or any > Con) > > We've got plenty of time to get it into the > registration book and even more time to come up with a > completed adventure. So there's no hurry. > > When finished, we'll have an official Tidewater Grill > adventure for anyone to run. > > Anyone interested? Certainly. <*I guess I should say that there are probably aborigine related spoilers in this scenario idea, in case anyone cares. You Hath Been Warned!*> . . . . . . . . . . . . First off: how about a scenario where all (or most) of the PC's are dolphins/orca or aquaforms, and the aborigines figure prominently? From a purely promotional point of view, it will help to show off the unique aspects BP's settings, and it would also give a pretty good role-playing challenge for the participants. As far as a possible scenario (which borrows an idea I've been toying with for my own personal BP game, though since I don't know when I can get it up & running, I have no problem sharing it here). One of Hydrospan's remote research outposts has been lost with all hands (fins). For months there was no word, but some pieces of wreckage were found by a native enclave on their island, including a sonar recorder unit from their main computer that has what appears (after heavy data retrieval and enhancement) to be the sounds of a terrestrial Great Whale (Blue? Humpback? Sperm?). Not only would Hydrospan be interested as a coropration on the fate of their research outpost, but one of the PC's could be a Whalesong Theogenist who is VERY interested in tracking down the apparent appearance of and extinct whalesong. The team would eventually find the remains of the research station strewn about the seafloor several hundred klicks away, swarming with both normal and a previously unseen variant of aborigine (designed for combat against mechanized opponents). These new abos are slowly tearing the station apart, while the 'normal' abos are picking the wreckage apart for the corpses of the crew (both human & dolphin) and carting them off. Apparently, the mobile research platform had set up shop near an aborigine 'breeding complex', and one of their dolphin survey teams had been captured. The abos 'interrogated' the team leader (another Whalesong Theogenist), and based on the images in his mind of a primal uber-whale, they abos decided (for whatever reason) to try and recreate a great whale, using the captured dolphin survey team as a template. This new creature is still a work-in- progress, and is only barely-controllable by the abos: they did not understand the basic hostility to humans and their work in Whalesong Theogeny, and the resultant 'Ghost Whale' broke free of their custody and attacked the research station. They recaptured it and have continued to 'tinker' with it, with varying results. The Ghost Whale itself would be a mish-mash of terrestrial whales combined with a greater white, perhaps with a Narwhal-like horn to cap it off. The dilemma would be what to do about this monstrosity: if/when it gets free again, it will go on another rampage, yet to capture or study it will reveal vast amounts of info about the true extent of the abos' genetic technology, combined with the fact that the abos will NOT want their little project to be transmitted to the outside world.... I know this may have echos in a section of ARCHIPELIGO (which I own but haven't yet read), but I love the fact that the abos are able to do anything they damn well please with their nanotech. Hows this for a start? MikeC mczaplinski@npr.org *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 4:20 PM To: blue planet list (E-mail) Subject: Re: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - 1st time Planeters -----Original Message----- From: "sp!Key" To: Subject: Re: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - 1st time Planeters Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 16:14:46 -0700 > Ugh. In Bad Moon Rising, there's a teleporter used to get the > PCs from Earth to the Moon. It just struck me there that the > Creators could use nanites to take the PCs apart, atom by atom, > transmit a blueprint for the pcs to the destination, and then > have another set of nanites recreate the PCs in perfect detail, > down to the last neuron.... > Even better...maybe the duplication isn't quite perfect... *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 4:19 PM To: blue planet list (E-mail) Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - BP: the Movie? -----Original Message----- From: "sp!Key" To: Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - BP: the Movie? Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 17:27:44 -0700 ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 5:07 PM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - BP: the Movie? > In a message dated 9/27/99 1:23:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > Jared@memento-mori.com writes: > > > http://www.3d-design.com/magazine/0998/blueplanet.html > > Wow, this could really cause some confusion. If this movie is ever > actually released, many people may associate the Biohazard RPG with > the movie What's stranger is that the film is based on a Microsoft game and the movie had a different title before they changed it to Blue Planet. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 4:20 PM To: blue planet list (E-mail) Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - blue planet movie? -----Original Message----- From: "sp!Key" To: Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - blue planet movie? Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 18:34:21 -0700 http://www.3d-design.com/magazine/0998/blueplanet.html this link has more info, as well as a trailer that works... *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 4:21 PM To: blue planet list (E-mail) Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Web update -----Original Message----- Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 13:28:43 +0200 To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com From: Jerome Darmont Subject: Web update An AD review and a campaign seed have been added to http://fly.to/bleue.planete -------------------------------------------------------- Jerome DARMONT, ERIC, Universite Lumiere - Lyon 2 Bat. L, 5 Avenue Mendes-France, 69676 BRON Cedex, FRANCE Tel.(33)478-774-492 mailto:jerome.darmont@univ-lyon2.fr http://eric.univ-lyon2.fr/~jdarmont/ *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jason Hockley [jason.hockley@skynet.be] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 5:25 PM To: Blue Planet Mailing List Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Teleporter Tricks All this talk of space travel vaguely reminds me of a short story I once read in some old science fiction anthology. I can't remember what it was called or who it was by but the gist of it was that they had invented teleportation devices, and that there was something weird on the far side of the moon that they needed investigated. To do this they rigged up a transporter that sent its signal to two receivers, one on the moon and one in a base somewhere. In the story this created two copies of the same person, with a sort of telepathic link. They were doing this because the thing on the moon was testing people and usually they ended up dead. The main character in the story was the only person they could find that would stay sane after dying several times. Now I come to think of it the story wasn't that great, but I'll mention this anyway just in case anyone can remind me what it is called or who the author is ( I suspect Heinlein or someone of a similar style, just for the annoyingly talented main character). Jason Hockley "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert A. Heinlein *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jared A. Sorensen [Jared@memento-mori.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 5:52 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Teleporter Tricks I can just see telepods on Poseidon... David Cronenberg's THE DOLPHIN: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid...eeeep! eeeeep! eeeeeeeeep! > Specialization is for insects." > - Robert A. Heinlein GREAT QUOTE! *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Tun Kai Poh [t_poh@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 8:31 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Convention project Adam wrote: >I have this grand idea of list members collaborating >on an adventure to be ran at GenCon 2000. (or any >Con) Count me in. Kai Poh Malaysian Lagomorph ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Ankfix@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 8:48 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Convention project In a message dated 9/28/99 2:29:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, banzai@missouri.edu writes: > I have this grand idea of list members collaborating > on an adventure to be ran at GenCon 2000. (or any > Con) > > We've got plenty of time to get it into the > registration book and even more time to come up with a > completed adventure. So there's no hurry. > > When finished, we'll have an official Tidewater Grill > adventure for anyone to run. > > Anyone interested? Count me as 'interested'! - Fixer *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Ankfix@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 8:58 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Blue Planet Online Club I've been thinking of doing this for a while, and it seemed like a good idea. I just created a Yahoo! club for us Blue Planet list members called Prosperity Station. You can check it out at: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/prosperitystation The main reason I did this was for the chat room. Yahoo! chat supports online die rolling, so that makes online gaming possible. This could be an excellent way to playtest new adventures and con demos! Maybe we could even set up a chat with the Biohazard Dudes once in a while. :-)The club also has a message board, which can be used to find players in your area or to post interesting ideas and characters. I belong to another Yahoo! RPG club (Gamers Guild of Ohio), and it works quite well. This could be a pretty cool tool for the list members. Anyway, let me know what you think. Goofy or not? - Fixer :-) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Trajan@frontiernet.net Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 11:42 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Convention project *Lurk: disengaged* I'm "interested" as well. JIM At 01:12 PM 9/28/99 -0500, you wrote: >-----Original Message----- >Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 10:55:42 -0700 (PDT) >From: Adam Lewis >Reply-To: adamlewis@earthling.net >Subject: Convention project >To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com > >I have this grand idea of list members collaborating >on an adventure to be ran at GenCon 2000. (or any >Con) > >We've got plenty of time to get it into the >registration book and even more time to come up with a >completed adventure. So there's no hurry. > >When finished, we'll have an official Tidewater Grill >adventure for anyone to run. > >Anyone interested? > >Thx, >AdamL > > > > > > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com >*************************************************************************** >To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com >with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. > > > *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.