From: blakes7-d-request@lysator.liu.se Subject: blakes7-d Digest V00 #252 X-Loop: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se X-Mailing-List: archive/volume00/252 Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/digest; boundary="----------------------------" To: blakes7-d@lysator.liu.se Reply-To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blakes7-d Digest Volume 00 : Issue 252 Today's Topics: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny [ Judith Proctor ] [B7L] Horizon videos [ "Deborah Day" ] Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny [ Tavia Chalcraft ] Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny [ Tavia Chalcraft ] [B7L] Re: 54124 = SARA [ Helen Krummenacker ] Re: [B7L] Monetary systems SF, fanta [ "Ellynne G." ] Re: [B7L] Re: 54124 = SARA [ "Ellynne G." ] Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny [ "Una McCormack" ] Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny [ Tavia Chalcraft To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Wed 06 Sep, Nic Mayer wrote: > I was watching Mission to Destiny the other day (ta, Judith!), and some of > it confused me. > > When Avon points out that 54124 is in fact a word (SARA), how on earth > does he make 4 an A? The 5 and the 12 I can see, but since when did a 4 > look like an A? Extend the left side of 4 to make a capital A. > > Now, Blake goes back to the Liberator and they set off for this planet to > deliver the thing (you can tell I'm good with names). neutrotope > He explains what's going on, where they're going and why. It seems only > natural that he would then open the box to show them the thing. Although of > course, this would make the ep much shorter given that only 2 people had the > opportunity to remove it. Well, it was rather valuable and looked fragile. Opening the box risks someone dropping it. Besides, wasn't the box locked? > > That bloke with the beard - given that he had Sara's homing device at one > point, did he know what she was doing? Yes. I seem to recall he was blackmailing her for a share of the profits. (But it's a while since I watched it - so I might be wrong) > > Last point - As far as I can tell, Blake doesn't actually kill anyone > unless he has to. So why does he quite happily blow up the two ships? I > know that these were 'bad' people, but he (or someone else) should have > made sure that Sara didn't get an opportunity to take the teleport > bracelet off. This is a question that a lot of people ask and it has no perfect answer. My own approach is partly based on the fact that they haven't yet used the Liberator's weapons in combat. They may not know whether they can take on the enemy ship in a fight and take the safer option. It's also certain that having been twice throught the astroid field, the ship's energy banks are almost totally drained. They probably couldn't have fought off a paper dart. Sara murdered several people - why the worry about her continued health? She chose not to go with them and stand trial. She'd probably have faced the death penalty or life imprisonment. Judith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.knightwriter.org ) Redemption '01 23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 12:46:04 -0600 From: Betty Ragan To: B7 Lyst Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <39B690EC.D6DC8DA5@sdc.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nobody seems to have responded to this yet, so what the heck, I'll throw in my 2 cents... Nic Mayer wrote: > I was watching Mission to Destiny the other day (ta, Judith!), and some of > it confused me. Not terribly surprising, IMO. It's not nearly as well-constructed a mystery as it might have been, and the more you think about it, the more holes there seem to be. I still kind of like it, though, if only for the delight of watching Avon do his Sherlock impression. > When Avon points out that 54124 is in fact a word (SARA), how on earth > does he make 4 an A? The 5 and the 12 I can see, but since when did a 4 > look like an A? Or am I missing something here? (When he started to > explain I thought he was going to stick it in a calculator and turn it > upside down, but 2 isn't a letter, nor is 54124 a word) Well, a 4, hastily written, might look a little like an A with the bottom part of the left-hand leg missing. (Um, does that make sense? I'm rotten at describing visual things.) Given that the man was scrawling it with his dying breaths, it's not too implausible that his writing was sloppy enough to make it look more like a 4 than an A. (Personally, I thought the bigger mystery was why nobody saw it earlier... Unlike the audience, who only saw glimpses of it, *they* spent a lot of time staring at the thing.) > Now, Blake goes back to the Liberator and they set off for this planet to > deliver the thing (you can tell I'm good with names). Actually, this one should be easy. It was -- ready for it? -- "Destiny." ;) > He explains what's > going on, where they're going and why. It seems only natural that he would > then open the box to show them the thing. Although of course, this would > make the ep much shorter given that only 2 people had the opportunity to > remove it. Yes, Our Protagonists to have some moments of truly astonishing stupidity. This oversight doesn't even win first prize for this episode, though. That particular blue ribbon has to go to Avon, for *turning his back on the murderer* just as he's about to reveal who it is. > That bloke with the beard - given that he had Sara's homing device at one > point, did he know what she was doing? IIRC, the implication was not that he was in on it with her or anything, but that he had found the device and thus become suspicious. Although this was not as clear as it might be. > Last point - As far as I can tell, Blake doesn't actually kill anyone > unless he has to. So why does he quite happily blow up the two ships? I > know that these were 'bad' people, but he (or someone else) should have > made sure that Sara didn't get an opportunity to take the teleport > bracelet off. Yeah. This is, I think, often cited as evidence of Blake's ruthless streak. But, while I certainly admit that he *has* a ruthless streak, this still seems a bit out of character to me. If nothing else, I imagine the _Ortega_ crew probably were not happy about the loss of their ship. -- Betty Ragan ** ragan@sdc.org ** http://www.sdc.org/~ragan/ "Imposing Latin rules on English structure is a little like trying to play baseball in ice skates." -- Bill Bryson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 22:11:02 +0100 From: "Deborah Day" To: "b7" Subject: [B7L] Horizon videos Message-ID: <012101c01847$c71bb3c0$5927073e@oemcomputer> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Has anything happened with the Deliverance videos? I remember sending off a cheque ages ago and don't seem to have got anything yet. Debbie Day. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 23:28:31 +0100 From: Tavia Chalcraft To: 'Lysator mailing list' Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <01C0185A.2EC9BC30.tavia@btinternet.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nik wrote: >I was watching Mission to Destiny the other day (ta, Judith!), and some of it confused me. I fear MtD rates as my 10th least favourite episode (how do I know this, well I typed out my Worst Ten Episodes a while back and helpfully pinned it onto my noticeboard, so there, next to Pharmacokinetics: symbols and abbreviations, a table of pharmacokinetic parameters of protease inhibitors, my key client organogram and my current project timelines...it still is). My comment then and now is dull, dull, dull, no real involvement as fate of the Liberator crew is unlinked to the Ortega, the writing in blood reeks of plot device, boring and underutilised setting. Also, I didn't think much to either Blake or Avon's characterisation. Blake for the reasons others have given, although Judith's justifications are very interesting. (I'm more intrigued by Blake's execution of Sara's accomplices than Sara herself: she clearly deserved it, but could one swear that they did?) Avon because he seems far too slow to catch up to the murderer. I'm not impressed that they managed to need the written-in-blood clue. And all that endless 'will Cally tell him about the transmitter/homing beacon' gubbins... Plot-devical, methinks. There again, Levitt is one of my favourite-ever female guest stars. Interesting, quiet, competent, scientific, not flimsily dressed and not done up to look stunningly attractive -- what more could a gal want...? Betty wrote: >I still kind of like it, though, if only for the delight of watching Avon do his Sherlock impression. Again, this just didn't seem to be in character: Sherlock would have caught on much quicker. >If nothing else, I imagine the _Ortega_ crew probably were not happy about the loss of their ship. I read recently online a really interesting and well-written story about the Ortega crew on the Liberator on the way to Destiny after the end of the episode. Unfortunately, I can't remember where... or the title or author or anything useful, perhaps someone else can help. However, they certainly weren't happy about the loss of the ship. Tavia --When the fire and the rose are one ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000 09:56:35 EST From: "Jessica Taylor" To: Blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Tavia: >I fear MtD rates as my 10th least favourite episode (how do I know this, >well I typed out my Worst Ten Episodes a while back and helpfully pinned it >onto my noticeboard, so there, next to Pharmacokinetics: symbols and >abbreviations, a table of pharmacokinetic parameters of protease >inhibitors, my key client organogram and my current project timelines...it >still is). Ooh, I'm curious, what are the others? Best Wishes Jessica _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 18:48:20 -0600 From: Betty Ragan To: B7 Lyst Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <39B6E5D4.A968D54D@sdc.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dammit, is this the month for misdirected e-mails, or what? I meant to send this to the Lyst, and it ended up just going to Tavia instead. Apologies for socking you with two copies, Tavia. Tavia Chalcraft wrote: > Betty wrote: > >I still kind of like it, though, if only for the delight of watching Avon > >do his Sherlock impression. > Again, this just didn't seem to be in character: Sherlock would have caught > on much quicker. Maybe he was suffering lingering effects from the sleepy-gas? :) > I read recently online a really interesting and well-written story about > the Ortega crew on the Liberator on the way to Destiny after the end of the > episode. Unfortunately, I can't remember where... or the title or author or > anything useful, perhaps someone else can help. However, they certainly > weren't happy about the loss of the ship. Erm... I *know* I read something like this, somewhere. (As I believe I mentioned at some point on one of these lists, *all* stories, now matter how good or bad, eventually tend to jumble together in my mind until I can never recall individual details.) I think the one I'm thinking of was written as Levitt's personal log or diary, and I seem to recall her having a fling with Avon (although those may have been two entirely different stories). Totally unhelpful, huh? -- Betty Ragan ** ragan@sdc.org ** http://www.sdc.org/~ragan/ "Imposing Latin rules on English structure is a little like trying to play baseball in ice skates." -- Bill Bryson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 01:51:50 +0100 From: Tavia Chalcraft To: 'Lysator mailing list' Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <01C0186E.37E83D50.tavia@btinternet.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jessica asked: >Ooh, I'm curious, what are the others? Well, by popular request and FWIW, the Worst Ten Episode Awards go to: Drum roll... 10: Mission to Destiny 9: Power 8: The Web 7: Stardrive 6: Voice from the Past 5: Moloch 4: Sarcophagus 3: Dawn of the Gods 2: The Keeper 1: Animals All purely IMO, of course... My nine favourites, for the record, in some order are: Space Fall, Seek--Locate--Destroy, Redemption, Killer, Countdown, Gambit, Star One, Terminal, Blake. I could not work out which was tenth. And no, I'm not primarily a Blake fan, and I'm as surprised as anyone that they all contained Blake. Tavia --When the fire and the rose are one ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 17:49:34 -0700 From: Helen Krummenacker To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Monetary systems SF, fantasy, etc Message-ID: <39B6E61D.1C42@jps.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > nd let's not forget Rowling. As soon as Hagrid started explaining all > the complications of wizarding money, I went from adoration to... uh, > well, _more_ adoration. > I thought that was a bit of a sendup-- considering what I've read of the old British monetary system vs. the new. How long ago was the change made? And the reason for a decimal based system in most science fiction is that it is unlikely for a society with a decimal numerical system to go *away* from decimal monetary systems to other kinds. I certainly don't think any country on metric would be foolish enough to go to the American system of weights and measures. Now, if your fantasy or SF society has a numerical system based on twelve, yes, they would not use a decimal currency unless that was a leftover from an earlier system that hadn't gotten changed yet. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 17:56:11 -0700 From: Helen Krummenacker To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: [B7L] Re: 54124 = SARA Message-ID: <39B6E7AB.67CA@jps.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Write the S blocky and it is mistaken for a 5. Write the A with no perceptible leg on the front. It now looks like a slanted 4 (sort of). Seperate the R in half vertically while writing it. And it is still rather hard to think it wouldn't look more like SARA than a random string of numbers. Handwriting that sloppy may be the real reason she killed him. Imagine if you had to read long notes in that style! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 23:30:32 -0600 From: "Ellynne G." To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Monetary systems SF, fantasy, etc Message-ID: <20000906.233119.-396193.1.rilliara@juno.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Wed, 06 Sep 2000 17:49:34 -0700 Helen Krummenacker writes: > > And the reason for a decimal based system in most science fiction is > that it is unlikely for a society with a decimal numerical system to > go > *away* from decimal monetary systems to other kinds. But the math nuts would always be pushing for something more efficient. Hexidecimal, perhaps. Or how about a simple binary? I've actually had it explained to me that a base monetary unit, a, with b being twice the value of a, and c being twice the value of b, with d = a+b+c would be ten times more efficient for making change. OK, decimal is natural, given how many fingers we have, but it's such a mathmatically awkward number (base 2 and 5. I mean, _really_). But I suppose most of the cases I could cite where they used something else originated in more barter oriented economies that also had much more limited trade. Ditto the weird number systems (Babylonians may have used base 60, but they weren't teaching more than a few people to use it, the same with the Roman's rejection of Arabic numerals and place value [it was too easy. _Anyone_ could use it]. As my favorite math teacher used to say, you _want_ to be lazy mathmaticians. The whole purpose of doing math is to find the easiest, quickest, most efficient way of getting the right answer). I certainly > don't > think any country on metric would be foolish enough to go to the > American system of weights and measures. Not without strong reasons. A government deliberately trying to identify itself with a 'golden past' might do it. The U.S., being a nation of immigrants, gets oddly uptight about some of the odd systems all our ancestors had to learn when they got here. I tend to think of our conservatism about this as part of the oddball ductape that helps hold this country together, a bit of common culture we are loath to undermine (I mean, you'd thing kilograms would be enough to convince every woman who ever stepped on a scale and didn't like the big numbers that a change was in order, but noooo). Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 23:14:53 -0600 From: "Ellynne G." To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: 54124 = SARA Message-ID: <20000906.233119.-396193.0.rilliara@juno.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Wed, 06 Sep 2000 17:56:11 -0700 Helen Krummenacker writes: > Write the S blocky and it is mistaken for a 5. > Write the A with no perceptible leg on the front. It now looks like > a > slanted 4 (sort of). > Seperate the R in half vertically while writing it. > > And it is still rather hard to think it wouldn't look more like SARA > than a random string of numbers. Handwriting that sloppy may be the > real > reason she killed him. Imagine if you had to read long notes in that > style! > Once, while working out ways in which B7 was connected to Trek (two theories going, B7 as later history and B7 as alternate universe [and I may or may not get around to typing this all up for you someday, Judith]). Going with the alternate universe, I saw the critical event as the aftermath of the Eugenics War*. Suffice it to say the B7 universe was more eastern hemisphere based and ST was more western hemisphere based (I'm sure that just shocks everyone, doesn't it?). Since the pre-Atomic Wars era seems to have been reasonably democratic, I don't see that as the critical point in the Federation's rise, but that's another story. For part of this, I was also speculating about language differences. Both, I assumed, had a English as their primary parent language, but (gradual change aside) there were also borrowings and influences from other languages. To make a long story simple, ST English would have most strongly influenced by Spanish. Other Terran influences would probably include French, Creole, Portuguese, Native American languages (especially as still spoken by Latin Americans [larger numbers of speakers]). Languages spoken by other immigrant groups already established may have influenced things but probably not as much. Also look for heavier borrowing from alien languages and possible structural influence (I know this doesn't work perfectly with ST history [whose consistancy, I might add, is not legendary], but I have a few theories involving the study of dead languages and how small translators can be to smooth over the bumps). B7 English would have had extremely limited borrowing from nonhuman languages since the Federation was established (the Federation also probably tries to discourage use of nonTerran borrowings as low prestige dialect [what are sometimes called sounding like a hick, a blue collar worker, a thug, or an uneducated lout, etc]). Terran influences could include revitalized Celtic languages, any European language, possible nonEuropean ones, but _definitly_ Slavic influence (for those not into Trek, Khan Noonian Singh ruled large portions of Europe and Asia. Although his name obviously isn't Slavic, there's a variety of reasons for believing he had some roots in that direction [if nothing else, when a world dictator written in the Cold War rules an area taking in the USSR and is part of an evil experiment that created a bunch of other, largely European looking dictators, one somehow feels Tibet is not being blamed for this turn of events]). Whew. So, what does this have to do with Sara? Well, mix the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets, possibly borrow from a few others while your at it, mix and modify over a thousand years, and 54124 might be harder to see. Since the planet in question was nonFederation, it might have had the kind of freedom where different languages are more encouraged. The dead guy, who was dealing with dying, after all, reverted to the writing system he'd grown up with, not the one the others were used to. Any writing seen in B7 that would contradict this theory is simply the result of Zen, Orac, or Slave providing translation services for viewers (be warned, if it's Orac, there's probably billing involved in it somewhere - perhaps in the form of secretly downloading your computer files). Ellynne (Who once again proves that Ockham's Razor is for wussies [well, _proves_ might be overstating things]) *In Trek, North America makes first contact with the Vulcans shortly after the war. This set off a chain of events keeping North America prominent (the excess of North Americans among the humans in Trek should probably be put down to NA having a larger chunk of its population survive the war or, at least, better conditions for reestablishing its population apart from first contact elements [less biological warfare induced sterility, perhaps]). In B7, there weren't any Vulcans. Although possibly less devastated in some respects, NA had exhausted more resources or lost more of what was needed to reestablish them. Over the long term, Europe prospered and pulled ahead. ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 08:09:21 +0100 From: "Una McCormack" To: "'Lysator mailing list'" Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <136e01c0189a$9e531890$0d01a8c0@codex> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Tavia: > Jessica asked: > >Ooh, I'm curious, what are the others? > > Well, by popular request and FWIW, the Worst Ten Episode Awards go to: > > Drum roll... > > 10: Mission to Destiny > 9: Power > 8: The Web > 7: Stardrive > 6: Voice from the Past > 5: Moloch > 4: Sarcophagus > 3: Dawn of the Gods > 2: The Keeper > 1: Animals Hmm. Una ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 08:08:29 +0100 From: "Una McCormack" To: "B7 Lyst" Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <136d01c0189a$9de38de0$0d01a8c0@codex> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Tavia/Betty: > > I read recently online a really interesting and well-written story about > > the Ortega crew on the Liberator on the way to Destiny after the end of the > > episode. Unfortunately, I can't remember where... or the title or author or > > anything useful, perhaps someone else can help. However, they certainly > > weren't happy about the loss of the ship. > > Erm... I *know* I read something like this, somewhere. (As I believe I > mentioned at some point on one of these lists, *all* stories, now matter > how good or bad, eventually tend to jumble together in my mind until I > can never recall individual details.) I think the one I'm thinking of > was written as Levitt's personal log or diary, and I seem to recall her > having a fling with Avon (although those may have been two entirely > different stories). Totally unhelpful, huh? I read a story like this, but not on-line. It was in 'Deadlier than the Male', and it was a story called (I think) 'Seven Days to Destiny', by Vega. Una ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000 02:08:52 -0600 From: Betty Ragan To: B7 Lyst Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <39B74D14.795B9209@sdc.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Una McCormack wrote: > I read a story like this, but not on-line. It was in 'Deadlier than the > Male', and it was a story called (I think) 'Seven Days to Destiny', by Vega. That sounds very familiar, and I think it's the one I was thinking of, at least, but I haven't read "Deadlier Than the Male,"so presumably it's appeared somewhere else... -- Betty Ragan ** ragan@sdc.org ** http://www.sdc.org/~ragan/ "Imposing Latin rules on English structure is a little like trying to play baseball in ice skates." -- Bill Bryson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 12:13:45 +0100 From: Tavia Chalcraft To: 'Lysator mailing list' Subject: Re: [B7L] Mission to Destiny Message-ID: <01C018C5.17DCE3B0.tavia@btinternet.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Una informed us: >It was in 'Deadlier than the Male', and it was a story called (I think) 'Seven Days to Destiny', by Vega. Yes, I think that was the one I meant. Well, it must be online somewhere these days.... Tavia ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 12:16:04 +0100 From: "Una McCormack" To: "lysator" Cc: "Freedom City" Subject: [B7L] Kudos for Zenith Message-ID: <148701c018bd$a65137c0$0d01a8c0@codex> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Zenith has been voted 'Fanzine of the Month' by SFX magazine, who described it as 'a glossy, good quality zine with interviews, episode reviews, costume info, and some geezer insisting that B7 was really responsible for a B5 arc plot...' There's also a nice piccie of the cover. Congrats to all concerned! Una ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 09:45:31 -0400 From: Harriet Monkhouse <101637.2064@compuserve.com> To: "INTERNET:blakes7@lysator.liu.se" Subject: [B7L] Vote B7 [was Re: BFI poll] Message-ID: <200009070945_MC2-B282-94C9@compuserve.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Neil wrote: >The British Film Institute have just published the results = >of their poll on the Top 100 British TV programmes of all time. > >B7 isn't on it. > >But the list was culled from critics, producers and other industry = >insiders. Now they've thrown it open to public, so if you want = >to vote for our lovable mob, nip over to = >http://213.253.19.130/features/tv/100/index.html Done. They say they'll announce the results on October 5, so get down there everyone... Harriet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 08:14:27 +0100 (BST) From: Judith Proctor To: Lysator List Subject: Re: [B7L] Monetary systems SF, fantasy, etc Message-ID: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Thu 07 Sep, Ellynne G. wrote: > But the math nuts would always be pushing for something more efficient. > Hexidecimal, perhaps. Or how about a simple binary? I've actually had > it explained to me that a base monetary unit, a, with b being twice the > value of a, and c being twice the value of b, with d = a+b+c would be ten > times more efficient for making change. As anyone who's worked in a shop in recent years will tell you, the biggest pain affecting change is that cash machines dispense money in 20 pound notes. Your float is gone in a flash, if you sell a lot of relatively low-cost items. JUdith -- http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7 - Fanzines for Blake's 7, B7 Filk songs, pictures, news, Conventions past and present, Blake's 7 fan clubs, Gareth Thomas, etc. (also non-Blake's 7 zines at http://www.knightwriter.org ) Redemption '01 23-25 Feb 2001 http://www.smof.com/redemption/ -------------------------------- End of blakes7-d Digest V00 Issue #252 **************************************