The Weekend Mailbag (Monday Edition)

Privateer – Chapter 8

Hildebrandt says:

Pete,

I’m enjoying “Privateer,” but I enjoyed your shorter work more in the podcast format. A longer story (I think you said this was novella length) is harder to follow in a podcast medium. By the time a week has gone by, I’ve almost forgotten where we are and I feel like I have to spend time reacquainting myself with the Mendozas.

Gortafindle says:

The podcasts continue to be well-done. I’m eager to find out what happens on Europa, and a once-weekly dose isn’t cutting it. Post more and post faster!

Gliese

Dr. Star writes:

Excellent analysis on the probability of finding life on other worlds, Pete, but don’t be so shackled to the notion of carbon-based life, nor to typical Earth forms of life. There is no reason that a vastly different environment couldn’t force different evolutionary pressures on organisms to survive. A prime example of this on our own world would have been if sulfur metabolizing bacteria had risen to primacy rather than being an evolutionary dead-end. If so, then might there be a whole plant kingdom that uses sulfur compounds for an analog to respiration?

I lack the biological background to engage in intelligent debate, Dr. Star, but I was thinking more in terms of planets that are human-habitable. Stipulating that planets like that do exist, then what are the chances that they occur naturally? I’ve never been comfortable with the estimates provided by the scientific community.

Black Widows

Mark writes:

I hope that you’re not mindlesly killing spiders. Most of them have an ecological niche to fill…even if you don’t comprehend it. To make a mockery of their existence shows a lack of maturity and a poor regard for naturalism in general. Study these creatures and dicover if they might have something to teach you.

I’m not “mindlessly” killing spiders. In the past, I have killed spiders in the following ways, all of which required at least rudimentary thought:

• I have poured smokeless powder down the holes, inserted a length of dynamite fuse, and blown them up.
• I have sprayed them with deet (insect repellent).
• I have used a can of hairspray and a lighter to make an impromptu flame thrower.
• I have frozen them in liquid nitrogen and dropped them on a hard surface to watch them shatter.
• I have drowned them in countless toilet bowls.
• I have squashed them under a shoe.
• I have crushed them with newspaper.
• I have crushed a grass spider in my bare hand.
• I have shot them with a variety of handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
• I have immersed them in sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, concentrated hydrogen peroxide, ethanol, methyl ethyl ketone (I lit that spider on fire with a sparkler), and sodium hydroxide.

Pete will take the shot

Nina writes:

Thanks for bragging about your murder machine. Enjoy it before the next administration makes them illegal.

*rolls eyes*

SgtWebb writes:

Nice group there Pete! I recommend getting a nice red dot site for that weapon. Eotech makes a good one with a reticle site [sic] but I prefer the Burris speeddot sites [sic]. Target acquisition is fast and clean through the Burris but their [sic] pricey. I guess it depends on if you want another weapon or if you want to deck out the one you have. And good luck with the load experimentation. I’ll be interested in your final results if you and your pop don’t mind sharing the load data.

Thanks, Sarge. I have looked at a red dot sight, but they’re REALLY expensive for what you get. I’d rather go for another weapon, especially in light of how well I shoot with just the iron sights.

That’s all for this week, folks. We’ll talk again next week.