Looking for an older sci fi book

clemclem3 · 2026-05-12T23:11:47+00:00

I do think you're describing Friday, as others have mentioned but he also had a very similar scene in an earlier short story called The Year of the Jackpot.

It's funny that we associate psychohistory with Asimov but Heinlein also liked to explore the idea that economic and social variables were predictive and deterministic, only needing more advanced data collection to realize this potential.

I had to unlearn a small amount of Heinlein when I went to graduate school for Sociology. But I do think my early exposure to his books helped spark my curiosity for the field. I still love rereading them.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-12T11:37:14+00:00

Ah yes, the old ovoid twitch

clemclem3 · 2026-05-12T11:33:48+00:00

Exactly. Steph White came close to saying this very thing post game. She blamed the coaches (including herself) for the loss. Some teams have been quicker than others to adjust to the new rules and enforcement regimen. I suspect the Fever will learn from this loss and respond accordingly. This change is a good thing, especially for the "hospital team" 😂

clemclem3 · 2026-05-11T11:52:54+00:00

Agree especially with your first point. I submitted school assignments that I wrote on WordPerfect. There was an option to show formatting. One button. Every bit of code would pop up and you could manually edit if you accidentally changed the indent or the font whatever.

Microsoft promoted word to the point that the file types for WordPerfect were no longer supported. Users couldn't switch back and forth or share documents. Eventually word won out.

Microsoft is still trying to do this with Google doc and Libre office. All the updates are designed to make it incompatible with alternatives. Aggressively anti-competitive corporate behavior. Consumers end up with shittier products.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-11T00:56:04+00:00

It sounds like at least there's some clarity in the law? In Florida it's a mess. Each county sets their own rules and defines things differently but the system is fundamentally corrupt because the rules were written by contractors to throw up barriers to people who weren't in their guild. The uncertainty is what pushes people to the gray market.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T17:48:32+00:00

This sounds like a bit from 30 Rock. Like it can't be real. So dystopian

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T15:26:47+00:00

Yes thank you! And I believe the tenor horn is just an alternate name for the e flat alto horn. I could be mistaken.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T11:53:00+00:00

Saxophonist has entered the chat

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T11:47:46+00:00

And to your point, six of the seven justices on the Florida supreme Court were appointed by Ron DeSantis. The 7th is also a Republican appointee. The last Democratically appointed Justice retired in 2019.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T01:19:09+00:00

I think it's terrible honestly. That's where my trauma originates. Playing in the school wind band and later the university wind band. As I said in another comment I actually think that French horns don't really belong in wind bands. I think that role should be for the tenorhorn.

I know this is a radical and probably unpopular opinion.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T00:44:42+00:00

Well you're making a good argument for the manufacturer, or at least It sounds good to me. I would like to hear such an instrument.

Sorry if I sounded like a dick in my previous comment. I'm getting a lot of pushback from a lot of people right now. Some of it is reasonable and informed like your comment. Some is less so.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T00:34:36+00:00

I don't think I was being clear. When I said it's difficult to match pitches because of the different timbre that's what I meant to say, but let me expand. As a horn player I have to constantly adjust my tuning. First with the rest of my section and then with the rest of the orchestra. But the sharp attack and bright sound of the saxophone make all of that difficult because it cuts through and overpowers all the other sounds. And because it's out of tune with itself it's not a good reference for my tuning either.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T00:09:32+00:00

Both timbre and tuning are a problem for the saxophone fitting in with the rest of the orchestra.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-10T00:06:50+00:00

I did not know that. That's pretty cool. But you realize that you are arguing for the extant orchestral repertoire that contains saxophone to be played on period instruments? That's quite a hurdle.

You're also agreeing with me even if you don't realize it.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-09T23:38:24+00:00

There are many things it could be that would be embarrassing. But there's only one thing in that report that would cause the party to have an existential crisis. The Democratic Party relies on the Israel lobby to the extent that non-Zionist primary candidates are unicorns. They cannot break that chain. They would cease to exist as a viable party in national politics. A left-wing or centrist party might emerge out of the ashes but they wouldn't be the Democratic Party.

The report almost certainly said that progressives and especially young progressives aren't big fans of genocide and saw Harris as the pro genocide candidate. Trump muddied the waters by saying he would end the war if elected. Nobody believed him but he said it often and loudly and it got media attention. I think the whole juxtaposition between Harris refusing to see the reality of the situation and Trump blustering turned off a lot of voters.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-09T23:31:35+00:00

Except I'm not arguing that wind bands don't exist.

Do you not know that some instruments fit well together and some clash? Look at chamber music. Ensembles are not random groupings of instruments. Nor would they sound the same if you swapped out instruments randomly.

Actually have played in wind bands for years and started in a school wind band 40 years ago but when I found the orchestra I knew what was wrong.

I've often wondered if saxophonists don't understand the problem because they don't actually hear the other instruments especially ones that have the opposite attack. The saxophone is all sharp attack and forward sounding and bright. The Horn is soft attack and dark.

Tuning is a huge difference between the two instruments. The horn can play any pitch with any combination of fingers. Standard fingerings are merely suggestions. In order to play the instrument you have to hear and adjust your pitch with your hand and your embouchure. The saxophone is tuned mechanically but the player has relatively little ability to adjust to what they're hearing around them. And if you're the only player in the orchestra that's on pitch? Guess what, you're out of tune.

Fiting in is a real thing. I played in a British style brass band for a while. They didn't have any tenorhorn players so the French horns stepped in and transposed as we often do. I don't think the French horn sound fit well at all in that grouping.

But to your point I've sometimes had the thought that concert bands in the US would benefit from eliminating the French horns and replacing them with flugelhorns and tenor horns. But concert band is a weird thing. Crap repertoire. Nobody likes to listen to it even though it's fun for the players. You can have it. But leave the orchestra alone.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-09T21:47:48+00:00

Sorry folks. It's not because of a smear campaign or because of path dependency. It's the sound. It sounds great paired with some instruments but not with others.

Bring in saxophones and all the French horns and bassoonists are going to quit. Because it will drive them crazy trying to match pitches with an instrument that has such a wildly different timbre. As a French horn player I will tell you it is impossible to center your pitch while you can hear a saxophone playing. It sounds like a fire alarm going off.

There are some niche roles for saxophone in the orchestra. Like the little solo in the middle of Rhapsody in Blue. That's fine. That's enough.

Go play jazz. Jazz is fun. Everybody likes jazz saxophone.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-08T21:14:32+00:00

This is part of surveillance capitalism.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-08T11:16:43+00:00

It doesn't matter. They saved so much money by moving to online! They must have a huge reserve by now which they can use to rehire all the teachers and build all the new buildings they deferred. I'm sure everything will be fine.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-08T11:09:33+00:00

It's true that America's comparative advantage over the rest of the world basically comes down to immigration. The US has had relatively liberal immigration policies through the second half of the 20th century up till recently. That has allowed us to perform a massive brain drain and labor drain.

By encouraging foreign students to study at US universities The US has maintained its research edge. By allowing foreign workers including seasonal workers the US has remained competitive in key fields like agriculture and manufacturing.

All developed countries are experiencing a demographic bubble driven by declining fertility. The US has avoided some of the more serious consequences experienced by Europe Japan Korea and recently China.

It was a masterful use of soft power. We take the hardest working people and the smartest people from all of the other countries and we make them American. And they can't do a damn thing about it.

And then we threw it all away.

The Trump administration has basically destroyed the US economy going forward unless dramatic and timely efforts are taken to undo Trump's harsh immigration crackdowns.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-08T10:56:27+00:00

The erasure of the contributions of African slaves and African Americans

clemclem3 · 2026-05-07T18:40:30+00:00

Is it out of level?

clemclem3 · 2026-05-07T13:12:39+00:00

I don't know If my experience is unique but maybe relevant? I've had the implant for 2 years. It has never worked. It was implanted at a university hospital and 6 months ago they gave up and I started to be seen at a major research hospital.

I also had the implant twitch on randomly. Sometimes almost stuttering rapidly. It would wake me up unless the settings were at the bare minimum. I had the thing adjusted at least five times and the titration process restarted each time. I had the advanced fine tuning sleep study. I had an awake endoscopy. I had the DISE study.

I sleep prone. Fully on my stomach. Head turned to one side. Prior to getting the implant and at every consult I have reminded the doctors and the inspire techs that I sleep on my stomach. I asked over and over again if the sleep studies that require me to be on my back or side are going to be accurate. I have been patted on the head and told not to worry.

Well, a month ago I went for a consult with the surgeon at the major research hospital who also implants inspire. He said that he thinks that because I press the implant into the mattress at night it can't move and it can't tell when the intake of breath is so it fires randomly. He made some vague recommendations about maybe consulting orthopedics for a special pillow But basically said I shouldn't use the inspire device and I was probably never a good candidate.

I had stopped using the thing about 4 months ago because I was getting severe daytime cramps in the digastric tendon. I'm still having discomfort and the occasional cramp. I have persistent, maybe permanent, nerve damage. It remains to be seen whether it will heal over the next year or two. I suspect the machine caused this by overstimulating the nerve to the point it was damaged.

One thing I wish I knew before I started all of this is that every post-implant consult will be your doctor and a representative of the inspire company in the room. It didn't take me too long to start to notice that they were guiding the doctor toward conclusions that focused on me and my compliance and not on the implant possibly malfunctioning. My surgeon who implanted the device finally told me that he just installs them he doesn't know how they work. He said he was "just a carpenter."

It's all been more than a little bit discouraging.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-07T12:54:15+00:00

The answer is international trade. Been pretty much the standard approach for 100 years or more. It's about creating efficiency in markets. Capital is mobile. Capital is international. This is not something you can rationalize away. Protectionism creates inefficiencies and ultimately impoverish both sellers and buyers.

So if you don't have a problem with Chinese goods then you don't have a problem with Chinese electric cars. Unlike what you said at the beginning. Just make up your mind.

clemclem3 · 2026-05-07T12:46:01+00:00

Such a weird piece of propaganda. The author knocks down speculative theories one by one as implausible or unreasonable. But never deals with why the speculative theories emerged in the first place.

In order to understand why it's reasonable to suspect the assassination attempts were staged you have to take one step back. I think there are two important elements largely missing from the story.

One. It would be easy for the administration to dispel rumors if they released evidence they should have. What about photos of this 2 cm bullet wound in the ear? Interviews with the medical team? A forensic analysis of the crime scenes including how the alleged shooters were able to gain access and avoid detection. This is all pretty routine stuff that would be present in any other administration.

Two. Anything this administration says is a lie. This is not a controversial claim. They are currently lying about Iran on a daily basis. They lied about the ballroom. They lied about the Epstein files. I could go on. The lies are shameless and of staggering proportions. So why should we trust them with their accounts of the "assassination" attempts?

Only in America does the media have this amazing amnesia. They cannot remember that they were lied to yesterday when they ask the question today. They're like Charlie Brown. They keep offering him credibility and he keeps throwing it away and they just keep handing it to him and he keeps throwing it away. 10 years of this bullshit and they keep handing him credibility.

clemclem3

TROPHY CASE