Poem: "Off the Street"
Sep. 11th, 2016 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the September 6, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It also fills Row 1 in my 9-2-16 Culturebuilding card for the Worldbuilding 4x4x4 Festival. This poem belongs to the Antimatter & Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
WARNING: This poem contains material that may be disturbing to readers. Highlight to read the spoilery warnings. It features drag racing, high risk to innocent bystanders, police pursuit of supervillains during an active crime, use of a tracking device to tag illegal zoomwagons, graphic description of car crash, messy medical details, light sensitivity, impromptu coordination between police and a superhera, and other angst. People who have recently been involved in a bad wreck, or know someone who was, may find this poem stressful. The overall approach focuses on good problem-solving, though. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Off the Street"
Hefty and Fiddlesticks were cruising
leisurely through Omaha when the call
came through about an impromptu drag race.
Those were the most dangerous kind,
not a gathering of fool kids on a quiet road,
but two hotshots gunning it up at a stoplight,
right in the middle of everyday traffic.
It was department policy to intercept them
en route instead of giving chase from behind,
in hopes of keeping the casualty rate lower,
so Hefty turned on the lights and siren
while Fiddlesticks stepped on the gas.
Super-Speed came with enhanced reflexes
that helped Fiddlesticks move safely between
the other cars on the road, but they only had
an ordinary squadcar instead of a zoomwagon,
so that limited what he could actually do.
Fiddlesticks angled their approach
to intersect the most likely course of
the race, as Hefty sent in their plans
so Dispatch could cover the most area
with the available personnel.
Soon they came across the culprits.
"There they are," Fiddlesticks said.
A sleek orange vehicle held the lead,
huge vents along its sides huffing and
growling so loudly that Hefty could
hear the engine even over the sirens.
Just behind it, a curvaceous yellow car
dipped and darted across the lanes as
nimbly as a wasp in flight. Even as they
watched, it overtook the orange one.
"Looks like the orange one is built for
maximum speed on the straightaway,
and the yellow for agility," Hefty said.
"Paint 'em if you got 'em," Fiddlesticks said.
"Oh, I got 'em," Hefty said, taking aim
with the squadcar's targeting system.
Two quiet whaps later, he said,
"Tracers are live on contact."
"Good job," Fiddlesticks said as
they watched the two cars come
cameling through traffic toward them.
"We can pick them up later if we lose them."
A young man with blue hair had one arm
out the window of the orange car, the light
flashing on his mirrored sunglasses.
A girl with fluffy white hair stuck up her hand
from the yellow car, flipping him the bird as
she swerved to take advantage of an opening.
"She's using strategy to get ahead of him,"
Hefty said. "His car is faster, but she's
smarter than he is and knows it."
"Strategize this," Fiddlesticks said
as he sprung the trap on them.
Ahead and to the sides, other squadcars
suddenly turned on their lights and sirens,
deftly hemming in the offenders while
shunting civilian vehicles aside.
The yellow car jinked out of the way,
barely avoiding a pincer move
between two squadcars.
The orange car jumped ahead
like a branded calf, its frantic driver
clearly banking on speed for escape --
only to smash into the pier of an overpass.
"Oh shit!" Hefty exclaimed as parts
rained all over the road around them.
Up ahead, the yellow zoomwagon
suddenly shimmered and disappeared.
"We lost the trace," Hefty said.
"Never mind that, we have bigger problems
to deal with now," Fiddlesticks said grimly.
"There is already an ambulance tailing
the chase, but they're at least four minutes
out in this traffic. You're on first aid."
"Got it," Hefty said. "Get me as close
to the car as you safely can."
Other officers were already taking over
traffic control, and thank God nobody else
had crashed and started a chain reaction --
the other drivers had sensibly been giving
the racers a wide berth on the road.
Pulling alongside the zoomwagon,
they could see that its long elegant nose
had crumpled into a distinct V shape.
As soon as the squadcar stopped, Hefty
grabbed the small first aid kit from the front and
ran to check the driver trapped in the wreck.
The driver looked younger than Hefty had
thought earlier, no more than twenty-one,
his face wild with fright as his blue hair
began to turn purple with his blood,
silently begging for reassurance.
"It's okay, kid," said Hefty as he started
assessing the victim. "I'm here, and
there's an ambulance on the way.
Can you tell me how you feel?"
"Chest hurts," the driver wheezed.
"Can't breathe. Legs hurt."
He'd hit the steering wheel, which
meant probable chest fractures,
possible facial fractures, and
who knew what else.
"Scene is secure," Fiddlesticks said,
appearing behind Hefty's shoulder.
"Good," Hefty said. "Get me
the oxygen and the trauma kit
out of the trunk." Then he turned
back to the driver. "Hang in there,
and we'll get you some air."
The driver coughed and nodded.
"Try not to move," Hefty said, bracing
the boy's head. The cervical collar was
in the big kit and definitely needed now.
"What can you tell me about your rig?
Is it safe for you to sit tight, or do we
need to get you out if it's likely to blow?"
"Tanks're shielded," the boy mumbled.
"Speed's inna frame'n engine."
"Oh, good," Hefty said. He didn't think
he could have pried the driver out
without his battlesuit, but he would've
tried if necessary. He reached down
to the oxygen kit that Fiddlesticks put
beside him and swiftly set up the mask.
"Here you go. Just focus on breathing."
He got the collar on, so that whatever
whiplash the driver already had wouldn't
get any worse now. Then Hefty started up
the ABC assessment again, this time using
the better equipment from the trauma kit.
"Hefty, look down," Fiddlesticks said.
"He's making puddles on the street."
Hefty obeyed and found his feet
surrounded by a spreading pool of red.
"Keep an ear on his breathing for me,"
he told his partner while he started
patting over the driver's body again.
He saw a number of cuts, probably
from the shattered windshield and
windows, but they seemed superficial.
The safety glass had done its job,
breaking down into tiny cubes
instead of knife-like shards.
"Still breathing," Fiddlesticks said.
"Medics should get here any second."
Something moved wrong under Hefty's hand.
"Oh, Christ, I found the leak," he said.
Pieces of the seat's interior had shattered,
driving into the boy's thighs and groin from
underneath. "I can't get to the wounds,
though, we need that ambulance."
The sound of sirens in the distance
gave truth to his partner's promise.
When Hefty tried to check pupil response,
the driver whimpered and struggled weakly.
"Light hurts your eyes?" Hefty asked.
"Always," the boy said. "Soup thing.
Need my shades, where're they?"
His sunglasses were in splinters
all over the inside of the car, which
left his peacock-colored eyes exposed.
"I have spares in the kit," Hefty said.
"These are cheap wraparounds,
meant for folks with migraines or
temporary light sensitivity."
He fished out a pair and
carefully slid them into place.
"Helps," the driver said.
Just then Hefty felt the double-tap
on his shoulder announcing the arrival
of the real paramedics on the scene.
"I'm gonna hand you over to the experts,"
he told the driver, then got out of the way.
Fiddlesticks packed up the scattered gear
in an instant, passing Hefty a package
of wet wipes to clean up the blood.
It was clotted under his fingernails,
though -- he'd need a bath and
a scrub brush to get it all off.
Just then a tiny electric car
tootled up the side of the road
and parked beside their squadcar.
"Hey! You can't be here,"
Hefty barked as the driver
got out. "This is a crime scene."
"I know," said the girl, flipping open
a wallet to show them a SPOON card.
"Do you know where my nemesis went?
Dvorak's driving a yellow zoomwagon --"
"She went thataway," Fiddlesticks said,
and pointed down the street.
Hefty looked at the dumpy white car
with its green stripes. "You are not
going to catch her in that," he said.
"Hell, we couldn't catch her even in
our squadcar. I managed to paint her,
but she killed the signal somehow."
"Oh yay!" Qwerty said. "Can I
piggyback your equipment, please?
I think that I can break through
her stealth ... um, eventually."
"Knock yourself out, kid," said Hefty.
"If you do get through, do us a favor
and bounce the signal back to Dispatch."
"Sure, it's your gear," she said.
"Give me a vddress or something."
"I'll get you a sticker, too," Hefty said.
"I already have one," Qwerty said.
She pointed her car, which displayed
a cute caped symbol and read Superhera.
"Riiiight," Hefty said slowly. He took out one
of the blue-and-silver Police Volunteer stickers,
wrote his badge number and then the case number
on it, put the Dispatch number on his business card,
and gave both to Qwerty. "Put that in your window
so the other cops know you're working with us."
"Thanks," Qwerty said. "Dvorak may always
get ahead of me, but she can never shake me.
I always catch up to her sooner or later."
"That's good to know," Hefty said.
"Thanks for the assist on this."
"Any time," Qwerty said as she
watched the medics scrape the driver
from the sad ruin of his zoomwagon.
"So what happened to that guy?"
"He and Dvorak were drag racing
when he lost control of his car and
hit the pier," Hefty explained. "We let
Dvorak go and stopped to render aid."
"Well, I guess that's one way
to get supervillains off the street,"
Qwerty said. "With a spatula."
* * *
Notes:
Dvorak (Imogen Kron) -- She has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and short wild white hair like milkweed fluff. Her hair used to be a slighter darker platinum blonde, a little thicker and more manageable. When she developed superpowers, it moulted over the course of a few weeks and came in much finer, a pure silver-white. Imogen has a heart-shaped face and a tall slender body, but generous cleavage for her size. She is an only child.
Imogen lives in Rain City. She has a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in nanotechnology from North Seattle College. For a foreign language, she took Esperanto. She loves movies, especially science fiction ones, and collects movie posters. One of her favorites is The Little Ninja. Dvorak wants to be rich and powerful. Also she just kind of loves playing with people. Beautiful and sexy, she doesn't hesitate to use seduction to get what she wants. However, she can just as well take it by subterfuge or force. Her nemesis is Qwerty, and Dvorak usually runs rings around her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty she wears a hip-length cape of white capery, a utility belt, and a catsuit of platinum dexflan with a round boob window. A glowing blue ring around the rim of the boob window makes the "Power" symbol: Her white boots have heels high enough to look sexy, but low enough to run and fight in effectively. Off-duty she enjoys wearing fashionable clothes, and her favorite pair of earrings resemble paperclips. However, she dresses for locale, so often that means business chic. In the workshop she changes to a slim jumpsuit with many pockets and a tool belt.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Computer Wizard, Expert (+4) Corporate Espionage, Expert (+4) Sexy, Good (+2) City Girl, Good (+2) Concentration, Good (+2) Geek, Good (+2) Logical, Good (+2) Movie Fan, Good (+2) Ninjutsu
Poor (-2) Dealing with Nature
Powers: Average (0) Super-Gizmology, Average (0) Super-Immunity, Average (0) Super-Intellect
Motivation: Money and power.
Expert (+4) Zoomwagon, Expert (+4) AI System, Good (+2) Gyroscopic Agility, Good (+2) Stealth Mode
Poor (-2) Asshole Magnet
See the front view, full view, interior, and closeup of driver's side. Watch a video of it in motion.
Bangshift (Nash Hudson) -- He has fair skin and peacock eyes. His short curly hair was dark originally but is now changing to indigo with faint streaks of lighter blue and purple. He has abundant body hair. Tattoos include a long-legged alien spider down his right arm, a bust of his mother on his left, and a hawk on his right collarbone. He is 21 years old. Bangshift works for various supervillains stealing, modifying, and selling cars or car parts. He is good enough at what he does that he can drive and maintain zoomwagons, although he can't build them.
Origin: Bangshift was visiting a college in hopes of charming his way into some girl's panties, when a zetetic accident happened. Despite getting caught in the blast and hearing the public service announcements recommending that victims seek help, he fled the city instead and never reported his involvement.
Uniform: Usually blue-collar men's wear: boots, jeans, and either a muscle shirt or a band t-shirt. In colder weather he switches to denim or flannel shirts and adds a leather jacket.
Qualities: Master (+6) Car Hustler (Signature Stunt: Zoomwagon Maintenance), Good (+2) Charmer, Good (+2) Tattoo Fan, Good (+2) Tough Guy
Poor (-2) Overconfidence
Powers: Average (0) Super-Speed, Average (0) Teleportation, Poor (-2) Enhanced Vision
Vulnerability: Although he can see ultraviolet and polarized light, his eyes were damaged by the blast. Because he never sought treatment, the damage has become permanent, which leaves him hypersensitive to light. He wears sunglasses all the time to compensate.
Motivation: To impress girls.
Bang Shift: To quickly shift a standard transmission.
-- Hot Rod Slang
Expert (+4) Zoomwagon, Expert (+4) Acceleration, Good (+2) Chick Magnet, Good (+2) Traction
Poor (-2) Maneuverability
View the exterior and interior. See a video of it on the road.
Qwerty (Nora Hale) -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long straight brown hair perpetually escaping attempts to contain it. She wears glasses with heavy lenses and thick rims to correct her terrible vision. She has three older brothers. Growing up in rural territory near the Hoh Rainforest has given her an understanding of nature, but she finds cities overwhelming and confusing. One of her favorite movies is The Aikido Kid. Nora has a two-year Associate of Science in Engineering degree from North Seattle University. For a foreign language she took Spanish. She sings filk songs and plays 12-string guitar. Her nemesis is Dvorak, and Qwerty has a hard time trying to keep up with her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty, Qwerty wears hyperlight trail shoes, a utility belt, and an ankle-length cape of gray capery that's big enough to roof a lean-to in an emergency. (She knows it is. She's done that, more than once.) A jumpsuit of navy blue dexflan hugs her body, the knees and elbows thickened with leathery krevel armor. It's not pretty, but it's practical. Off-duty she favors denim and flannel and other practical wear, although she can dress up if she has to. She loves hats, though, and enjoys collecting ones to suit different occasions.
Qualities: Master (+6) Determination, Master (+6) Smart, Expert (+4) Gizmology, Good (+2) Aikido, Good (+2) Country Girl, Good (+2) Geek, Good (+2) Filker
Poor (-2) Awkward
Powers: Average (0) Super-Immunity
Motivation: "Always practice, even when I fail."
Qwerty drives a dumpy little electric car. See the exterior and interior. The video is just as dorky as the car. There are sophisticated electrics, especially in Terramagne, such as the Tesla; Qwerty just doesn't drive one.
* * *
(Some of these links are graphic.)
Drag racing, also known as street racing, spans various types of illegal and dangerous driving. Terramagne-America uses multiple techniques to discourage such risky practices which include public awareness, law enforcement, and the providence of safe off-street racing facilities. But tracks have rules, and supervillains don't like rules, so drag racing remains a serious problem. Generally T-America discourages police from chasing supervillains, but drag racing zoomwagons through traffic is a crime which puts innocent bystanders at lethal risk, so immediate intervention is required. Watch videos of graphic crashes, straight drag racing on streets, and cameling in traffic. For the location of this race, see the Judgmental Map of Omaha where it says Omaha Municipal Street Raceway.
Like many crimes, it is difficult to find reliable statistics for drag racing. I have used some from drag racing proper, and extrapolated others from high-speed police chases. In T-America, drag racing causes 275 fatalities per year, roughly twice the L-American rate. That includes approximately 30 deaths, 62 injuries, and 590 prosecutions per metroplex each year, about twice the L-San Diego rate. Plus of course people drag race in rural areas, where it's often harder to find them. In both T-America and L-America, nationwide statistics indicate that 49 people are injured for every 1,000 involved in drag racing. In T-America, innocent third parties who just happened to be in the way make up between 20-25% of fatalities and over 75% of minor injuries caused by drag racing. Many of the minor injuries come from fender-benders on the side, bystanders hit by flying debris, or pedestrians hurt while trying to get out of the way. Further, 1 out of every 52 illegal races results in a fatality. That's worse than L-American statistics from high-speed police chases, because supervillains and especially illegal zoomwagons run up the number of casualties.
In T-America, location is treated as intimate information and heavily protected by privacy standards, because it can be used to hurt people. L-American police have early, clumsy technology for tagging vehicles. T-American technology is considerably better, firing a tiny tracker in a blob of clear sticky goo. Their police are allowed to use this type of tracking only during an active crime, or when they have probable cause to suspect a crime and believe that the suspect would not stop on command. They have to report it and uses are reviewed, but for the most part people are pretty responsible about it. (Outside those situations, tracking citizens requires a warrant.) This greatly reduces the need for risky high-speed chases, and makes it easier to set up traps ahead of a speeding vehicle. There are questions and techniques for protecting your location.
Cameling means weaving through traffic at high speed, usually in a zoomwagon and often during a drag race or pursuit. The term comes from the phrase "fit a camel through the eye of a needle."
(Some of these links are graphic.)
Overpasses allow traffic to cross without interacting. This can create hazards if a vehicle impacts part of the support for an overpass, particularly large trucks. Here is a detailed analysis of crash risks for trucks. Short overpasses may not need piers in the middle; longer ones do need central support, which creates an opportunity for collisions. Various pier designs exist. L-American overpasses are often supported by columns, which minimizes the cost of materials and the weight of the overpass on its substrate. T-American overpasses use solid oblong walls for piers in locations with a high risk of collisions, which is costlier and heavier, but much safer. Zoomwagons raise the effective risk due to traveling at high speeds; this applies to official, licensed civilian, and illegal vehicles. Discoveries made in areas with significant zoomwagon traffic have led to improvements in the safety of infrastructure design which can then be replicated elsewhere. Colliding with a comparatively narrow object such as a pier can cause a distinctive V-shaped crush pattern on the vehicle.
Hefty and Fiddlesticks carry a good basic first aid kit under the front seat of their squadcar. See the exterior and interior of the kit. T-American kits are customarily labeled by type on the outside, and police officers on duty often favor kits in a blue container. Their police all have at least basic first aid training and carry supplies to match their skill level; some have more than that. T-American police are obligated to render aid to citizens in distress, although for medical emergencies the protocol is to call an ambulance for backup.
ABC is a fundamental part of first aid, standing for Airway, Breathing, Circulation. It gives the first steps to do on reaching a victim, and you need to recheck periodically during care because conditions can deteriorate. There are also instructions for sizing up and managing the scene of an emergency. Here are simple instructions for first aid in case of a car accident, because you never know when you might need that.
Hefty has more first aid training, not quite EMT level, so he carries a major trauma kit in the trunk. See the exterior, interior divisions, and contents. He also stocks an oxygen kit similar to this one, which is useful for treating a wide variety of problems. This is also why Hefty's battlesuit is optimized for search-and-rescue, with combat as a secondary function. For a major pileup, they can have him suit up and assist with victim extraction. T-American police departments customarily have at least a few officers cross-trained in intermediate to advanced first aid, and Hefty is one of Omaha's. The partnership with Fiddlesticks means that Hefty doesn't have to waste time getting his big bags out of the trunk; he can grab the small one in immediate reach, and Fiddlesticks will fetch the rest instantly if needed.
Whiplash happens most often in rear-end collisions but can happen with head-on collisions too. Rapid, violent movement of the head and neck can cause injuries ranging from minor jarring to torn ligaments and fractured vertebrae. In a serious car crash, it is advisable to assume whiplash and immobilize the neck until expert care is available. An advantage of the cervical collar is that you can often protect someone's neck even if they're in a position where you can't get them on a backboard yet. There are steps for treating whiplash at various stages.
Safety glass has gone through many iterations. One option is tempering, which causes glass to shatter into tiny cubes instead of large knifelike shards. You can still cut yourself on it, but not very badly. Lamination offers a way of holding broken glass together so the bits don't scatter. The choices all have their own pros and cons.
This is one style of wraparound sunglasses for people with migraines. Automotive first aid kits in T-America often include a pair because it's also good for glare-induced eyestrain. Wraparound sunglasses can be cheaply made from a few precast pieces snapped together; prescription models are much more elegant and secure.
People in T-America often carry a flip wallet that contains only couple spaces for ID and/or emergency information plus cash and/or a cash card. The idea is that you can quickly flick it open in a crisis, and if you lose the thing it's not a big deal like losing a full-sized wallet with all of your credit cards and photos. Among the advantages for superheroes registering with SPOON is the official ID card and contact info where SPOON can vouch for you. This makes it much easier to interact with soup-friendly authorities. The superhera symbol appears on this sign.
T-American police departments customarily include some citizen volunteers. Here is some general information and a sample program from L-America. Notable differences in T-America include provisions for junior volunteers with a parent or guardian, and a very active effort to recruit reformed criminals. Volunteering for law enforcement activities such as staffing fundraisers or roleplaying at a police academy often plays a part in community service or other reparations. One reason their cops are better trained is simply a generous supply of real live (former) criminals to practice with, who can coach trainees on how criminals actually think and behave. There is a growing trend among some police departments to interface with superheroes as citizen volunteers.
T-America is serious about identifying people who are serving in an official capacity, including volunteers. The police badge sticker is printed with "Police Volunteer" in silver across the blue bar. Top banner lists the state, second banner has the department number, third banner is blank and usually used for the badge number of the officer giving out the sticker, and bottom banner is blank usually for a project or case number. Similarly, officers carry vests marked for police volunteers. That makes it easy to mobilize citizen responders at the scene of an emergency, and tells other officials not to shoo them away or try to give them other jobs. Anyone wearing a Volunteer vest already has a job, and knows to check in with a supervisor if they finish that job to see if they can get a new assignment.
WARNING: This poem contains material that may be disturbing to readers. Highlight to read the spoilery warnings. It features drag racing, high risk to innocent bystanders, police pursuit of supervillains during an active crime, use of a tracking device to tag illegal zoomwagons, graphic description of car crash, messy medical details, light sensitivity, impromptu coordination between police and a superhera, and other angst. People who have recently been involved in a bad wreck, or know someone who was, may find this poem stressful. The overall approach focuses on good problem-solving, though. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Off the Street"
Hefty and Fiddlesticks were cruising
leisurely through Omaha when the call
came through about an impromptu drag race.
Those were the most dangerous kind,
not a gathering of fool kids on a quiet road,
but two hotshots gunning it up at a stoplight,
right in the middle of everyday traffic.
It was department policy to intercept them
en route instead of giving chase from behind,
in hopes of keeping the casualty rate lower,
so Hefty turned on the lights and siren
while Fiddlesticks stepped on the gas.
Super-Speed came with enhanced reflexes
that helped Fiddlesticks move safely between
the other cars on the road, but they only had
an ordinary squadcar instead of a zoomwagon,
so that limited what he could actually do.
Fiddlesticks angled their approach
to intersect the most likely course of
the race, as Hefty sent in their plans
so Dispatch could cover the most area
with the available personnel.
Soon they came across the culprits.
"There they are," Fiddlesticks said.
A sleek orange vehicle held the lead,
huge vents along its sides huffing and
growling so loudly that Hefty could
hear the engine even over the sirens.
Just behind it, a curvaceous yellow car
dipped and darted across the lanes as
nimbly as a wasp in flight. Even as they
watched, it overtook the orange one.
"Looks like the orange one is built for
maximum speed on the straightaway,
and the yellow for agility," Hefty said.
"Paint 'em if you got 'em," Fiddlesticks said.
"Oh, I got 'em," Hefty said, taking aim
with the squadcar's targeting system.
Two quiet whaps later, he said,
"Tracers are live on contact."
"Good job," Fiddlesticks said as
they watched the two cars come
cameling through traffic toward them.
"We can pick them up later if we lose them."
A young man with blue hair had one arm
out the window of the orange car, the light
flashing on his mirrored sunglasses.
A girl with fluffy white hair stuck up her hand
from the yellow car, flipping him the bird as
she swerved to take advantage of an opening.
"She's using strategy to get ahead of him,"
Hefty said. "His car is faster, but she's
smarter than he is and knows it."
"Strategize this," Fiddlesticks said
as he sprung the trap on them.
Ahead and to the sides, other squadcars
suddenly turned on their lights and sirens,
deftly hemming in the offenders while
shunting civilian vehicles aside.
The yellow car jinked out of the way,
barely avoiding a pincer move
between two squadcars.
The orange car jumped ahead
like a branded calf, its frantic driver
clearly banking on speed for escape --
only to smash into the pier of an overpass.
"Oh shit!" Hefty exclaimed as parts
rained all over the road around them.
Up ahead, the yellow zoomwagon
suddenly shimmered and disappeared.
"We lost the trace," Hefty said.
"Never mind that, we have bigger problems
to deal with now," Fiddlesticks said grimly.
"There is already an ambulance tailing
the chase, but they're at least four minutes
out in this traffic. You're on first aid."
"Got it," Hefty said. "Get me as close
to the car as you safely can."
Other officers were already taking over
traffic control, and thank God nobody else
had crashed and started a chain reaction --
the other drivers had sensibly been giving
the racers a wide berth on the road.
Pulling alongside the zoomwagon,
they could see that its long elegant nose
had crumpled into a distinct V shape.
As soon as the squadcar stopped, Hefty
grabbed the small first aid kit from the front and
ran to check the driver trapped in the wreck.
The driver looked younger than Hefty had
thought earlier, no more than twenty-one,
his face wild with fright as his blue hair
began to turn purple with his blood,
silently begging for reassurance.
"It's okay, kid," said Hefty as he started
assessing the victim. "I'm here, and
there's an ambulance on the way.
Can you tell me how you feel?"
"Chest hurts," the driver wheezed.
"Can't breathe. Legs hurt."
He'd hit the steering wheel, which
meant probable chest fractures,
possible facial fractures, and
who knew what else.
"Scene is secure," Fiddlesticks said,
appearing behind Hefty's shoulder.
"Good," Hefty said. "Get me
the oxygen and the trauma kit
out of the trunk." Then he turned
back to the driver. "Hang in there,
and we'll get you some air."
The driver coughed and nodded.
"Try not to move," Hefty said, bracing
the boy's head. The cervical collar was
in the big kit and definitely needed now.
"What can you tell me about your rig?
Is it safe for you to sit tight, or do we
need to get you out if it's likely to blow?"
"Tanks're shielded," the boy mumbled.
"Speed's inna frame'n engine."
"Oh, good," Hefty said. He didn't think
he could have pried the driver out
without his battlesuit, but he would've
tried if necessary. He reached down
to the oxygen kit that Fiddlesticks put
beside him and swiftly set up the mask.
"Here you go. Just focus on breathing."
He got the collar on, so that whatever
whiplash the driver already had wouldn't
get any worse now. Then Hefty started up
the ABC assessment again, this time using
the better equipment from the trauma kit.
"Hefty, look down," Fiddlesticks said.
"He's making puddles on the street."
Hefty obeyed and found his feet
surrounded by a spreading pool of red.
"Keep an ear on his breathing for me,"
he told his partner while he started
patting over the driver's body again.
He saw a number of cuts, probably
from the shattered windshield and
windows, but they seemed superficial.
The safety glass had done its job,
breaking down into tiny cubes
instead of knife-like shards.
"Still breathing," Fiddlesticks said.
"Medics should get here any second."
Something moved wrong under Hefty's hand.
"Oh, Christ, I found the leak," he said.
Pieces of the seat's interior had shattered,
driving into the boy's thighs and groin from
underneath. "I can't get to the wounds,
though, we need that ambulance."
The sound of sirens in the distance
gave truth to his partner's promise.
When Hefty tried to check pupil response,
the driver whimpered and struggled weakly.
"Light hurts your eyes?" Hefty asked.
"Always," the boy said. "Soup thing.
Need my shades, where're they?"
His sunglasses were in splinters
all over the inside of the car, which
left his peacock-colored eyes exposed.
"I have spares in the kit," Hefty said.
"These are cheap wraparounds,
meant for folks with migraines or
temporary light sensitivity."
He fished out a pair and
carefully slid them into place.
"Helps," the driver said.
Just then Hefty felt the double-tap
on his shoulder announcing the arrival
of the real paramedics on the scene.
"I'm gonna hand you over to the experts,"
he told the driver, then got out of the way.
Fiddlesticks packed up the scattered gear
in an instant, passing Hefty a package
of wet wipes to clean up the blood.
It was clotted under his fingernails,
though -- he'd need a bath and
a scrub brush to get it all off.
Just then a tiny electric car
tootled up the side of the road
and parked beside their squadcar.
"Hey! You can't be here,"
Hefty barked as the driver
got out. "This is a crime scene."
"I know," said the girl, flipping open
a wallet to show them a SPOON card.
"Do you know where my nemesis went?
Dvorak's driving a yellow zoomwagon --"
"She went thataway," Fiddlesticks said,
and pointed down the street.
Hefty looked at the dumpy white car
with its green stripes. "You are not
going to catch her in that," he said.
"Hell, we couldn't catch her even in
our squadcar. I managed to paint her,
but she killed the signal somehow."
"Oh yay!" Qwerty said. "Can I
piggyback your equipment, please?
I think that I can break through
her stealth ... um, eventually."
"Knock yourself out, kid," said Hefty.
"If you do get through, do us a favor
and bounce the signal back to Dispatch."
"Sure, it's your gear," she said.
"Give me a vddress or something."
"I'll get you a sticker, too," Hefty said.
"I already have one," Qwerty said.
She pointed her car, which displayed
a cute caped symbol and read Superhera.
"Riiiight," Hefty said slowly. He took out one
of the blue-and-silver Police Volunteer stickers,
wrote his badge number and then the case number
on it, put the Dispatch number on his business card,
and gave both to Qwerty. "Put that in your window
so the other cops know you're working with us."
"Thanks," Qwerty said. "Dvorak may always
get ahead of me, but she can never shake me.
I always catch up to her sooner or later."
"That's good to know," Hefty said.
"Thanks for the assist on this."
"Any time," Qwerty said as she
watched the medics scrape the driver
from the sad ruin of his zoomwagon.
"So what happened to that guy?"
"He and Dvorak were drag racing
when he lost control of his car and
hit the pier," Hefty explained. "We let
Dvorak go and stopped to render aid."
"Well, I guess that's one way
to get supervillains off the street,"
Qwerty said. "With a spatula."
* * *
Notes:
Dvorak (Imogen Kron) -- She has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and short wild white hair like milkweed fluff. Her hair used to be a slighter darker platinum blonde, a little thicker and more manageable. When she developed superpowers, it moulted over the course of a few weeks and came in much finer, a pure silver-white. Imogen has a heart-shaped face and a tall slender body, but generous cleavage for her size. She is an only child.
Imogen lives in Rain City. She has a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in nanotechnology from North Seattle College. For a foreign language, she took Esperanto. She loves movies, especially science fiction ones, and collects movie posters. One of her favorites is The Little Ninja. Dvorak wants to be rich and powerful. Also she just kind of loves playing with people. Beautiful and sexy, she doesn't hesitate to use seduction to get what she wants. However, she can just as well take it by subterfuge or force. Her nemesis is Qwerty, and Dvorak usually runs rings around her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty she wears a hip-length cape of white capery, a utility belt, and a catsuit of platinum dexflan with a round boob window. A glowing blue ring around the rim of the boob window makes the "Power" symbol: Her white boots have heels high enough to look sexy, but low enough to run and fight in effectively. Off-duty she enjoys wearing fashionable clothes, and her favorite pair of earrings resemble paperclips. However, she dresses for locale, so often that means business chic. In the workshop she changes to a slim jumpsuit with many pockets and a tool belt.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Computer Wizard, Expert (+4) Corporate Espionage, Expert (+4) Sexy, Good (+2) City Girl, Good (+2) Concentration, Good (+2) Geek, Good (+2) Logical, Good (+2) Movie Fan, Good (+2) Ninjutsu
Poor (-2) Dealing with Nature
Powers: Average (0) Super-Gizmology, Average (0) Super-Immunity, Average (0) Super-Intellect
Motivation: Money and power.
Expert (+4) Zoomwagon, Expert (+4) AI System, Good (+2) Gyroscopic Agility, Good (+2) Stealth Mode
Poor (-2) Asshole Magnet
See the front view, full view, interior, and closeup of driver's side. Watch a video of it in motion.
Bangshift (Nash Hudson) -- He has fair skin and peacock eyes. His short curly hair was dark originally but is now changing to indigo with faint streaks of lighter blue and purple. He has abundant body hair. Tattoos include a long-legged alien spider down his right arm, a bust of his mother on his left, and a hawk on his right collarbone. He is 21 years old. Bangshift works for various supervillains stealing, modifying, and selling cars or car parts. He is good enough at what he does that he can drive and maintain zoomwagons, although he can't build them.
Origin: Bangshift was visiting a college in hopes of charming his way into some girl's panties, when a zetetic accident happened. Despite getting caught in the blast and hearing the public service announcements recommending that victims seek help, he fled the city instead and never reported his involvement.
Uniform: Usually blue-collar men's wear: boots, jeans, and either a muscle shirt or a band t-shirt. In colder weather he switches to denim or flannel shirts and adds a leather jacket.
Qualities: Master (+6) Car Hustler (Signature Stunt: Zoomwagon Maintenance), Good (+2) Charmer, Good (+2) Tattoo Fan, Good (+2) Tough Guy
Poor (-2) Overconfidence
Powers: Average (0) Super-Speed, Average (0) Teleportation, Poor (-2) Enhanced Vision
Vulnerability: Although he can see ultraviolet and polarized light, his eyes were damaged by the blast. Because he never sought treatment, the damage has become permanent, which leaves him hypersensitive to light. He wears sunglasses all the time to compensate.
Motivation: To impress girls.
Bang Shift: To quickly shift a standard transmission.
-- Hot Rod Slang
Expert (+4) Zoomwagon, Expert (+4) Acceleration, Good (+2) Chick Magnet, Good (+2) Traction
Poor (-2) Maneuverability
View the exterior and interior. See a video of it on the road.
Qwerty (Nora Hale) -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long straight brown hair perpetually escaping attempts to contain it. She wears glasses with heavy lenses and thick rims to correct her terrible vision. She has three older brothers. Growing up in rural territory near the Hoh Rainforest has given her an understanding of nature, but she finds cities overwhelming and confusing. One of her favorite movies is The Aikido Kid. Nora has a two-year Associate of Science in Engineering degree from North Seattle University. For a foreign language she took Spanish. She sings filk songs and plays 12-string guitar. Her nemesis is Dvorak, and Qwerty has a hard time trying to keep up with her.
Origin: Her powers developed after using a metagenic vaccine base called Aegis. It causes about 1 in 100,000 people to develop Super-Immunity, and about 1 in 1,000,000 to develop additional superpowers.
Uniform: On-duty, Qwerty wears hyperlight trail shoes, a utility belt, and an ankle-length cape of gray capery that's big enough to roof a lean-to in an emergency. (She knows it is. She's done that, more than once.) A jumpsuit of navy blue dexflan hugs her body, the knees and elbows thickened with leathery krevel armor. It's not pretty, but it's practical. Off-duty she favors denim and flannel and other practical wear, although she can dress up if she has to. She loves hats, though, and enjoys collecting ones to suit different occasions.
Qualities: Master (+6) Determination, Master (+6) Smart, Expert (+4) Gizmology, Good (+2) Aikido, Good (+2) Country Girl, Good (+2) Geek, Good (+2) Filker
Poor (-2) Awkward
Powers: Average (0) Super-Immunity
Motivation: "Always practice, even when I fail."
Qwerty drives a dumpy little electric car. See the exterior and interior. The video is just as dorky as the car. There are sophisticated electrics, especially in Terramagne, such as the Tesla; Qwerty just doesn't drive one.
* * *
(Some of these links are graphic.)
Drag racing, also known as street racing, spans various types of illegal and dangerous driving. Terramagne-America uses multiple techniques to discourage such risky practices which include public awareness, law enforcement, and the providence of safe off-street racing facilities. But tracks have rules, and supervillains don't like rules, so drag racing remains a serious problem. Generally T-America discourages police from chasing supervillains, but drag racing zoomwagons through traffic is a crime which puts innocent bystanders at lethal risk, so immediate intervention is required. Watch videos of graphic crashes, straight drag racing on streets, and cameling in traffic. For the location of this race, see the Judgmental Map of Omaha where it says Omaha Municipal Street Raceway.
Like many crimes, it is difficult to find reliable statistics for drag racing. I have used some from drag racing proper, and extrapolated others from high-speed police chases. In T-America, drag racing causes 275 fatalities per year, roughly twice the L-American rate. That includes approximately 30 deaths, 62 injuries, and 590 prosecutions per metroplex each year, about twice the L-San Diego rate. Plus of course people drag race in rural areas, where it's often harder to find them. In both T-America and L-America, nationwide statistics indicate that 49 people are injured for every 1,000 involved in drag racing. In T-America, innocent third parties who just happened to be in the way make up between 20-25% of fatalities and over 75% of minor injuries caused by drag racing. Many of the minor injuries come from fender-benders on the side, bystanders hit by flying debris, or pedestrians hurt while trying to get out of the way. Further, 1 out of every 52 illegal races results in a fatality. That's worse than L-American statistics from high-speed police chases, because supervillains and especially illegal zoomwagons run up the number of casualties.
In T-America, location is treated as intimate information and heavily protected by privacy standards, because it can be used to hurt people. L-American police have early, clumsy technology for tagging vehicles. T-American technology is considerably better, firing a tiny tracker in a blob of clear sticky goo. Their police are allowed to use this type of tracking only during an active crime, or when they have probable cause to suspect a crime and believe that the suspect would not stop on command. They have to report it and uses are reviewed, but for the most part people are pretty responsible about it. (Outside those situations, tracking citizens requires a warrant.) This greatly reduces the need for risky high-speed chases, and makes it easier to set up traps ahead of a speeding vehicle. There are questions and techniques for protecting your location.
Cameling means weaving through traffic at high speed, usually in a zoomwagon and often during a drag race or pursuit. The term comes from the phrase "fit a camel through the eye of a needle."
(Some of these links are graphic.)
Overpasses allow traffic to cross without interacting. This can create hazards if a vehicle impacts part of the support for an overpass, particularly large trucks. Here is a detailed analysis of crash risks for trucks. Short overpasses may not need piers in the middle; longer ones do need central support, which creates an opportunity for collisions. Various pier designs exist. L-American overpasses are often supported by columns, which minimizes the cost of materials and the weight of the overpass on its substrate. T-American overpasses use solid oblong walls for piers in locations with a high risk of collisions, which is costlier and heavier, but much safer. Zoomwagons raise the effective risk due to traveling at high speeds; this applies to official, licensed civilian, and illegal vehicles. Discoveries made in areas with significant zoomwagon traffic have led to improvements in the safety of infrastructure design which can then be replicated elsewhere. Colliding with a comparatively narrow object such as a pier can cause a distinctive V-shaped crush pattern on the vehicle.
Hefty and Fiddlesticks carry a good basic first aid kit under the front seat of their squadcar. See the exterior and interior of the kit. T-American kits are customarily labeled by type on the outside, and police officers on duty often favor kits in a blue container. Their police all have at least basic first aid training and carry supplies to match their skill level; some have more than that. T-American police are obligated to render aid to citizens in distress, although for medical emergencies the protocol is to call an ambulance for backup.
ABC is a fundamental part of first aid, standing for Airway, Breathing, Circulation. It gives the first steps to do on reaching a victim, and you need to recheck periodically during care because conditions can deteriorate. There are also instructions for sizing up and managing the scene of an emergency. Here are simple instructions for first aid in case of a car accident, because you never know when you might need that.
Hefty has more first aid training, not quite EMT level, so he carries a major trauma kit in the trunk. See the exterior, interior divisions, and contents. He also stocks an oxygen kit similar to this one, which is useful for treating a wide variety of problems. This is also why Hefty's battlesuit is optimized for search-and-rescue, with combat as a secondary function. For a major pileup, they can have him suit up and assist with victim extraction. T-American police departments customarily have at least a few officers cross-trained in intermediate to advanced first aid, and Hefty is one of Omaha's. The partnership with Fiddlesticks means that Hefty doesn't have to waste time getting his big bags out of the trunk; he can grab the small one in immediate reach, and Fiddlesticks will fetch the rest instantly if needed.
Whiplash happens most often in rear-end collisions but can happen with head-on collisions too. Rapid, violent movement of the head and neck can cause injuries ranging from minor jarring to torn ligaments and fractured vertebrae. In a serious car crash, it is advisable to assume whiplash and immobilize the neck until expert care is available. An advantage of the cervical collar is that you can often protect someone's neck even if they're in a position where you can't get them on a backboard yet. There are steps for treating whiplash at various stages.
Safety glass has gone through many iterations. One option is tempering, which causes glass to shatter into tiny cubes instead of large knifelike shards. You can still cut yourself on it, but not very badly. Lamination offers a way of holding broken glass together so the bits don't scatter. The choices all have their own pros and cons.
This is one style of wraparound sunglasses for people with migraines. Automotive first aid kits in T-America often include a pair because it's also good for glare-induced eyestrain. Wraparound sunglasses can be cheaply made from a few precast pieces snapped together; prescription models are much more elegant and secure.
People in T-America often carry a flip wallet that contains only couple spaces for ID and/or emergency information plus cash and/or a cash card. The idea is that you can quickly flick it open in a crisis, and if you lose the thing it's not a big deal like losing a full-sized wallet with all of your credit cards and photos. Among the advantages for superheroes registering with SPOON is the official ID card and contact info where SPOON can vouch for you. This makes it much easier to interact with soup-friendly authorities. The superhera symbol appears on this sign.
T-American police departments customarily include some citizen volunteers. Here is some general information and a sample program from L-America. Notable differences in T-America include provisions for junior volunteers with a parent or guardian, and a very active effort to recruit reformed criminals. Volunteering for law enforcement activities such as staffing fundraisers or roleplaying at a police academy often plays a part in community service or other reparations. One reason their cops are better trained is simply a generous supply of real live (former) criminals to practice with, who can coach trainees on how criminals actually think and behave. There is a growing trend among some police departments to interface with superheroes as citizen volunteers.
T-America is serious about identifying people who are serving in an official capacity, including volunteers. The police badge sticker is printed with "Police Volunteer" in silver across the blue bar. Top banner lists the state, second banner has the department number, third banner is blank and usually used for the badge number of the officer giving out the sticker, and bottom banner is blank usually for a project or case number. Similarly, officers carry vests marked for police volunteers. That makes it easy to mobilize citizen responders at the scene of an emergency, and tells other officials not to shoo them away or try to give them other jobs. Anyone wearing a Volunteer vest already has a job, and knows to check in with a supervisor if they finish that job to see if they can get a new assignment.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-11 11:24 pm (UTC)A Smart Four-Two is *not* dumpy, it's CUTE! it's a *gutless bloody wonder* when it's got a gas engine and an automatic in it, but I'll bet you a case of Krispy Kremes it's sierra hotel when it's got an electric motor and a fat wad of LiFePO4's under there instead... and will also have a better CG, and thus be more maneuverable.
Kinda want one. They park like a dream...
(Although what I really want is an electric bike.)
Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 12:35 am (UTC):D I have a soft spot for woefully mismatched nemesis pairs.
>> A Smart Four-Two is *not* dumpy, it's CUTE! <<
I rather like it, but compared to a zoomwagon -- or even a Tesla -- it's a pokey little thing. It's meant to be concise and economical, not sexy.
>> it's a *gutless bloody wonder* when it's got a gas engine and an automatic in it, but I'll bet you a case of Krispy Kremes it's sierra hotel when it's got an electric motor and a fat wad of LiFePO4's under there instead... and will also have a better CG, and thus be more maneuverable.
Kinda want one. They park like a dream... <<
I did notice the impressive turn radius in the video.
>> (Although what I really want is an electric bike.)<<
Not a bad idea. Some of those are excellent.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 03:32 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 04:57 am (UTC)The number of times I've seen badly designed lots with single motorcycles in whole car spaces, trucks shoehorned in small-car spaces, SmartCars all on their lonesome, and someone parked across two spaces... And no bike rack, of course. Worse in Kansas City, but decent mixed-use parking design is surprisingly uncommon even here in Portland with all the bike lanes and public transit. You'd think a Park'n'Ride would be easy to enter, park at, and leave... *shudders* I'm an offender too, though, because I haven't removed the rear bike rack on my car.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 07:20 am (UTC)Alas!
>> Worse in Kansas City, but decent mixed-use parking design is surprisingly uncommon even here in Portland with all the bike lanes and public transit. You'd think a Park'n'Ride would be easy to enter, park at, and leave... *shudders* I'm an offender too, though, because I haven't removed the rear bike rack on my car.<<
In order to get things working properly, you have to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing. That requires an eye for design, because you need the correct proportion if you have spaces of different sizes. Otherwise it's a waste.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 12:56 am (UTC)Ok, it doesn't go any faster, but my god, the range !
Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 01:01 am (UTC)However, cold fusion is active in Terramagne at zetetic levels. People are still trying to figure out how to reverse-engineer it for mass production, because it is indeed quite efficient. It's also extremely dangerous. If you're going to put the sun in a bottle, you better make damn sure you can keep it there. Fireballs are bad enough when you only spill gasoline. There's a reason Hefty asked the questions he did.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 01:24 am (UTC)Traditional hot fusion, sun-in-bottle. If you loose containment, depending on plasma density is either kiss goodbye to the city, or, 'oh bugger I'll need to replace the magnetic winding because it melted the innermost couple of millimetres of the torus'. Most reactors that are smaller than a bus tend towards the latter. [fundamental laws of physics, it's very, very hot, but there's only a tiny amount of energy in it really..red hot needle as opposed to a steam boiler.]
Cold fusion, it has all the explosive potential of a pressure cooker. Because that's more or less what it is.
Sonoluminescent fusion, aka micro-cavitation fusion.. you have a fluid media filled with bubbles, each one of which is a tiny sun, for about 0.01 milliseconds. If you loose containment it stops working. No more bubbles, no boom [despite the Tom Cruse film]. It's physically impossible for one to explode.
Muon catalysed fusion.. requires super-cooling to work, as it only takes place at or below 85oK and probably isn't ever got to be a power source.
Fleischmann and Pons fusion.. in theory you could get enough excess heat to cause the water to disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen, which in the presence of red-hot pallidium catalyst would explode. With about as much force as a gas tank...
As an aside.. I have either built or operated three of the above types of reactors. Nuclear fusion is not hard to do, getting it to produce more energy than it requires to run, that's the hard part. The coupling/unity problem is the tough nut to crack.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 03:45 am (UTC)I have not yet researched its subtypes in great depth.
>> Traditional hot fusion, sun-in-bottle. If you loose containment, depending on plasma density is either kiss goodbye to the city, or, 'oh bugger I'll need to replace the magnetic winding because it melted the innermost couple of millimetres of the torus'. Most reactors that are smaller than a bus tend towards the latter. [fundamental laws of physics, it's very, very hot, but there's only a tiny amount of energy in it really..red hot needle as opposed to a steam boiler.] <<
Fascinating. I hadn't known about the smaller version. I had known about the larger and more dangerous kind. People worry about it. Given current tech, they tend to worry too much -- we can't really get it going that big yet.
>>Cold fusion, it has all the explosive potential of a pressure cooker. Because that's more or less what it is.<<
Exploding pressure cookers can kill people. It's just a room-sized explosion instead of a building-sized or city-sized one. So, "Will the car blow up?" remains a valid question. Pressure cooker safety is largely based on the security of its seals (the usual failure point) and thickness of its shell (less common but known). Making something like that safe for use in a car would thus require careful shielding; for instance, you don't want a pressurized system suddenly breached during a crash.
Bangshift is actually more prudent than usual in having a shielded fuel system -- most zoomwagon drivers don't want to waste the weight. But it can make the difference between whether your car fireballs and kills you, or not.
>>Sonoluminescent fusion, aka micro-cavitation fusion.. you have a fluid media filled with bubbles, each one of which is a tiny sun, for about 0.01 milliseconds. If you loose containment it stops working. No more bubbles, no boom [despite the Tom Cruse film]. It's physically impossible for one to explode.<<
I had not even heard of this one, and am utterly fascinated. I wonder if the whales could get something like this going. They understand bubble technology and sonic technology quite well.
>> Muon catalysed fusion.. requires super-cooling to work, as it only takes place at or below 85oK and probably isn't ever got to be a power source. <<
That sounds familiar. *ponder* Supercooling things is much easier with superpowers, although the EROEI remains a concern.
>> Fleischmann and Pons fusion.. in theory you could get enough excess heat to cause the water to disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen, which in the presence of red-hot pallidium catalyst would explode. With about as much force as a gas tank... <<
This is probably one of the ones I've read about.
>> As an aside.. I have either built or operated three of the above types of reactors. <<
I would so, so love for you to write about this in Terramagne. :D It's right on the cusp of development because they've had it for a while but only in the zetetic range, and there are people actively working to turn the various models into something replicable.
>> Nuclear fusion is not hard to do, getting it to produce more energy than it requires to run, that's the hard part. The coupling/unity problem is the tough nut to crack. <<
Yeah. I've been following this stuff casually for years. If I were planning to write about it in detail, I'd dig into it in more depth.
At a casual glance, my past reading indicates that it's something to be cautious about, because it can -- at least in theory -- generate a lot of energy even though we haven't had much luck with it here due to the limitations you've mentioned. Small-scale stuff. But any time you get enough energy out of anything to do serious work, it necessarily has hazards that can be activated by releasing that energy. (You can more-or-less make a cocked catapult explode if you hit it right, just from the sudden release of tension.) Enough energy to drive a car will typically make a car-sized explosion if mishandled.
Energy-producing systems with zero risk of explosive release are rarer. I am so enchanted with that cavitation system. That would be so awesome if we could harness its potential.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 05:04 am (UTC)Enough energy to do work is enough energy to do damage. A dose that can be effective is a dose that can have notable effects. Very important, very simple, I wish people kept it in mind. But! Safety technology is in part the craft of channeling effects to make the ones we want likely and the ones we don't want unlikely. Knife plus handle is more useful that just knife, because of improved leverage and safety. The trick is not to mistake the improved safety factor for license to do pointless unsafe crap with it... People need to take manageable risks regularly and from a young age, so they can tell the bloody difference between small risks, medium risks, and big ones.
...I need to replace my rice cooker. It's dented as of yesterday and I DO NOT want an explosion. *mutter mutter*
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 06:08 am (UTC)Exactly. Anything powerful enough to work is powerful enough to require some kind of caution. The details vary a lot, but the principle usually applies.
>> But! Safety technology is in part the craft of channeling effects to make the ones we want likely and the ones we don't want unlikely. <<
Agreed. Many safety precautions are simple, ranging from construction to maintenance to use.
>> Knife plus handle is more useful that just knife, because of improved leverage and safety. The trick is not to mistake the improved safety factor for license to do pointless unsafe crap with it... <<
Absolutely, and you need to understand the right tool for the job, too. One fascinating thing about zoomwagons is how variable they are. Bangshift's car is nothing like Dvorak's beyond the fact they are both fast cars. They're optimized in totally different ways.
>>People need to take manageable risks regularly and from a young age, so they can tell the bloody difference between small risks, medium risks, and big ones.<<
Absolutely. The current hypervigilance about safety is ruinous to human health. If a playground is safe to the point of boring, kids will climb on it the wrong way and hurt themselves. If they don't take age-appropriate risks growing up, and learn to deal with minor injuries that result, then they arrive at 18 and are put in charge of a car and a crotch with no clue how to handle either safely. >_<
>> ...I need to replace my rice cooker. It's dented as of yesterday and I DO NOT want an explosion. *mutter mutter* <<
Bummer. I hope you find a new one easily.
Failure analysis is a vital skill too. How do you tell the difference between cosmetic damage and structural damage? You need to know how things work in order to understand that.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 10:13 am (UTC)However, it's where hot-plasma fusion meets cold fusion. the reaction itself is taking place in the super-hot plasma that forms when the cavity implodes... but the way you're forming the plasma is not traditional, nor is the way it's [briefly] contained by the inertia of the water around it.
That said.. the whales could do. They've been observed in the wild producing the characteristic blue glow of sonoluminescence. [yes, and now we know what produces that blue glow, it's Cherenkov radiation from the alpha particles produced by the reaction.]
Given that cavitation has been known to melt pits and holes in boat propellers, the whales could probably use it to turn a ships hull into Swiss cheese. Or cook a shark or orca with the localised heat produced.
And yeah, I'm going to be writing about cold fusion tech at some point I think. The Exeter and T-Britannia have fusion reactors, but as I stated, they are huge things using hot plasma tech.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-15 06:48 am (UTC)I imagine this is much easier for whales. Their senses are more oriented to a fluid environment.
>> However, it's where hot-plasma fusion meets cold fusion. the reaction itself is taking place in the super-hot plasma that forms when the cavity implodes... but the way you're forming the plasma is not traditional, nor is the way it's [briefly] contained by the inertia of the water around it.<<
True, and that's what makes it interesting.
>> That said.. the whales could do. They've been observed in the wild producing the characteristic blue glow of sonoluminescence.<<
They're building flashlights. Or possibly playing lasertag. :D
>> [yes, and now we know what produces that blue glow, it's Cherenkov radiation from the alpha particles produced by the reaction.] <<
I'll just be over here when Steel refers to Ilyana as Bubble Girl.
>> Given that cavitation has been known to melt pits and holes in boat propellers, the whales could probably use it to turn a ships hull into Swiss cheese. Or cook a shark or orca with the localised heat produced.<<
Cavitation is how Steel killed the propeller on the whaling ship. Tearing the rest of the ship in half was metal control and telekinesis.
>> And yeah, I'm going to be writing about cold fusion tech at some point I think. The Exeter and T-Britannia have fusion reactors, but as I stated, they are huge things using hot plasma tech. <<
:D That would be awesome. I love it when actual scientists write science fiction.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-15 11:12 am (UTC)Or to put it another way... they could probably touch off a baby nuke under a ship or a fleet. [aka a nuclear fusion generated steam explosion in the sub-kiloton range]
It would probably not be a good idea to suggest this.
Blue blaze would probably be helpless with laughter should Steel call Ilyana Bubble Girl.
In the wild, in reality, sperm whales in particular use sonoluminescence to create point source lights in order to attract squid.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-16 10:03 am (UTC)That makes sense.
>> Or to put it another way... they could probably touch off a baby nuke under a ship or a fleet. [aka a nuclear fusion generated steam explosion in the sub-kiloton range] <<
I guess Dr. Infanta won't be the Maldives' only nuclear option.
>>It would probably not be a good idea to suggest this.<<
On the contrary, Steel + Moderato = 2-key solution.
>> Blue blaze would probably be helpless with laughter should Steel call Ilyana Bubble Girl. <<
:D
>> In the wild, in reality, sperm whales in particular use sonoluminescence to create point source lights in order to attract squid. <<
So basically, they're building fishing lures out of water, air, sound, and light. That is so awesome. Considering that people sometimes go lightfishing at night, I could see Aquariana wanting to try that and Steel just making a light. No overhead fishing spotlight required.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-16 11:00 am (UTC)Sonoluminescence is lot easier to do at depth, for obvious reasons, [which is why it was only observed not that long ago] but I'm sure Steel is skilful enough to set it off near the surface as well.
Aquariana had best keep some distance from the pretty lights though, it is a nuclear reaction and while water makes for good shielding, it produces gamma and neutron radiation. [4-5ft would be safe enough]. The whales wouldn't have a problem though, firstly because their sonar loses focus at about 3ft away [physics, they're sort of short 'sighted' as a species due to the 'optics' part of their echolocation and the way it focuses] and secondly 2-3ft of blubber makes for a pretty good shield.
Re: Well...
Date: 2016-09-16 05:51 pm (UTC)Yep. You don't want it to happen by accident, or coercion.
>> [and gods help the next whaling fleet]. <<
I don't think Japan will mess with them again. But if they did ... well, Steel is totally the guy who would copy-paste imagery of Hiroshima into people's heads with the caption "Next time, the hole will be bigger."
>> Sonoluminescence is lot easier to do at depth, for obvious reasons, [which is why it was only observed not that long ago] but I'm sure Steel is skilful enough to set it off near the surface as well. <<
That makes sense. The water density would help. But superpowers make things easier even under challenging circumstances. I think shrimp can do it at shallower levels.
>> Aquariana had best keep some distance from the pretty lights though, it is a nuclear reaction and while water makes for good shielding, it produces gamma and neutron radiation. [4-5ft would be safe enough]. <<
That makes sense.
>> The whales wouldn't have a problem though, firstly because their sonar loses focus at about 3ft away [physics, they're sort of short 'sighted' as a species due to the 'optics' part of their echolocation and the way it focuses] and secondly 2-3ft of blubber makes for a pretty good shield. <<
With superpowers they may succeed in throwing it a little farther, but that does explain how Steel got close enough to the propeller for it to cut him.
Actually...
Date: 2016-09-16 04:16 am (UTC)(And I *am* just teasing here - you were talking about fusion in a controlled state for power generation.)
Re: Actually...
Date: 2016-09-16 10:44 am (UTC)You have to figure that the Daedalus project and the Orion nuclear pulse drive started as a joke...
Re: Actually...
Date: 2016-09-16 04:27 pm (UTC)Hm. This does mean that one could use fusion as a blaster-weapon... though I'm not sure precisely what the effects would be, especially radiation-wise. In fact, it's not 100% certain that the fusion reaction provides the majority of the power of an H-bomb. There's a possibility (and I have no idea how good/bad it is) that the neutrons flying from the fusion trigger far more of the fissile material.
(You probably know this - but, for anyone else: a fission chain reaction blows itself apart before too much of the fission-able material breaks down. With the fission reaction causing fusion, we could see a lot of fusion, causing a lot of energy OR we could see the neutrons triggering more fission so incredibly fast that we cause a far bigger fission reaction than would normally be possible before critical density is lost.
(I'm not sure if "critical density" is actually a thing. But it's not really "critical MASS" because if you store enough fissile material close enough together, it does start interacting. I'd heard a physicist say that there was a national lab that didn't have an engineer design their storage space and were storing fissile material close enough to greatly increase the radiation hazard (decay from adjacent containers were mutually triggering additional decay), and closing in on the point that a low-grade chain reaction could occur.))
Re: Actually...
Date: 2016-09-16 05:05 pm (UTC)To some extent, yes. I suspect it would be more of a cannon than a handgun, though.
>> though I'm not sure precisely what the effects would be, especially radiation-wise. In fact, it's not 100% certain that the fusion reaction provides the majority of the power of an H-bomb. There's a possibility (and I have no idea how good/bad it is) that the neutrons flying from the fusion trigger far more of the fissile material. <<
Which kind of makes me wonder if you could make a neutron cannon by channeling them through a series of fissile cores.
>>(You probably know this - but, for anyone else: a fission chain reaction blows itself apart before too much of the fission-able material breaks down. With the fission reaction causing fusion, we could see a lot of fusion, causing a lot of energy OR we could see the neutrons triggering more fission so incredibly fast that we cause a far bigger fission reaction than would normally be possible before critical density is lost.<<
That's an interesting question.
>> (I'm not sure if "critical density" is actually a thing. But it's not really "critical MASS" because if you store enough fissile material close enough together, it does start interacting. <<
Critical proximity, perhaps? It seems to be based more on area than on density. That is, you could have one large lump or several smaller ones, and the purity/density of the actual material is variable. Some countries have better tech for refining it and can thus make more potent bombs, but the less-pure ones still work once you cross a certain threshold.
>> I'd heard a physicist say that there was a national lab that didn't have an engineer design their storage space and were storing fissile material close enough to greatly increase the radiation hazard (decay from adjacent containers were mutually triggering additional decay), and closing in on the point that a low-grade chain reaction could occur.)) <<
O_O Ffffffuuuuuuuck. You just know that has happened with some idiot supervillain. I bet poor Ilyana gets one of those calls every few years.
Re: Actually...
Date: 2016-09-16 07:22 pm (UTC)A conventional fission weapon only converts about 1-10% of the fissile material into energy, the rest of which essentially acts as tamper/reflector for the reaction. Plus, since the reaction is a statistical probability thing, you have to have a certain amount to be certain of a sustained reaction.
And yeah, I've heard of unsafe storage, before they got good at calculating neutron flux cross density.
Hmm... I remember reading somewhere about a 'Moon gun' fusion canon which was basically a converted crater, lined with lithium hydride salted with helium-3. The physics worked out...
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 01:06 am (UTC)Hmm... wonder if he might team up with Qwerty once he gets out hospital or jail [it's a toss up over which would be the longer stretch.] After all, he's got himself a reason to see Dvorak behind bars, and the enemy of my enemy etc..
Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 03:03 am (UTC)This is painfully true.
>> and now she's gone and he's left holding the bag, <<
That's par for the course with Dvorak. She does it to Qwerty all the time, and other people when she can. She loves playing with people, and with guys, her sensuality is a devastating advantage.
>> staring down weeks of time in ICU and the possibility of permanent injury. <<
Yep. Broken ribs and lung punctures for sure, a lot more punctures with heavy bleeding from hips to knees, both arms bruised to hell from about the elbows down, some facial damage, and the whiplash. Fortunately he is a tough guy, albeit at ordinary level; plenty of people would not have survived that wreck. He'll be mobile in a few weeks, although it will take a lot longer to finish healing all the damage.
>> Ok, he's an idiot... but what young man isn't when it comes to members of the preferred sex.<<
Nailed it. Bangshift has a tendency to think with his dick, and his overconfidence gets him in trouble with women as well as with cars. He's good, but he's just not as good as he thinks he is.
>>Hmm... wonder if he might team up with Qwerty once he gets out hospital or jail [it's a toss up over which would be the longer stretch.] After all, he's got himself a reason to see Dvorak behind bars, and the enemy of my enemy etc..<<
Well now, that's where it gets interesting. He'll be in the hospital for two or three weeks, then handed off to police custody when he leaves. The Omaha police department where Hefty works has a few holding cells, but for long-term containment -- especially supervillains -- they transfer people to a prison.
*gold star* You have correctly identified that Bangshift just totaled his supervillain identity. That means he won't want to go back to breaking the law later, which leaves him looking for ways to repair his relationship with society as a whole. The T-American justice system is actually designed for that. Jail is primarily reserved for violent crimes and/or cases where the perpetrator is unrepentant. In this instance, Bangshift certainly endangered others, but the only one who wound up getting hurt was himself. There's a certain reluctance to avoid adding insult to injury, because it can jostle people out of remorse, which is the opposite of helpful. Once someone regrets his poor decisions, the trend in T-America is to support that. So they have plenty of other avenues for making amends, and part of that process involves helping someone build a life as a responsible citizen. Most likely the Omaha department will hold Bangshift long enough to make a plan for restitution.
This is simplified by the fact that, for the foreseeable future, he isn't capable of repeating the same crime. Traumatic stress leaves Bangshift panicky at the thought of riding in a vehicle. That's going to take a while to work through. The poor kid is crushed mentally as well as physically.
So, in terms of teaming up with Qwerty, Bangshift might well be willing, but it will be a while before he's in any shape to do so. He's more likely to start making a show of good faith with the police department.
Feel free to prompt for more of this thread if you're intrigued by it.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 10:27 am (UTC)So... if he decided to make restitution by helping Qwerty and approached her with the same idea. He wouldn't even need to be all that mobile at first. Planning could be done from a hospital bed, and the first step would be working out what she wanted from the hypothetical lean green racing machine.
Which, come to think of it, might be where cold fusion tech is introduced... BangShift might know a guy who knows a guy. The Motor-part-guy network at work again.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-15 06:43 am (UTC)Yes.
>> and if Qwerty gets the idea that she wants something speedier [and still green] who is she going to go to?<<
That could get interesting.
>> Most of those that make zoom-wagons wouldn't listen to her, they're petrol-heads and zoom-wagons are uniformly fossil fuel beasts. I'd imagine a lot of them would tell her it couldn't be done. [most green fuels don;t have the kind of energy density you'd need for zoom-wagon, extrapolating from top-end dragsters.] <<
Bangshift can't build zoomwagons, only maintain them -- rather like Fortressa's Pit Group. But he would certainly know who's building or modding them, and who designs high-speed cars on the ordinary market.
>> So... if he decided to make restitution by helping Qwerty and approached her with the same idea. He wouldn't even need to be all that mobile at first. Planning could be done from a hospital bed, and the first step would be working out what she wanted from the hypothetical lean green racing machine. <<
True. If folks want to pick up the thread, my next move would be when the hospital releases him, because he's getting adequate but not great care and they bounce him out before he's all the way recovered, at the point where he no longer needs clinical monitoring but does still need help doing some stuff. The police can manage him at that stage, but they're annoyed by the brusque handoff, and poor Bangshift is too sore and bummed out to put up more than occasional protests. The fact that the police want to make sure he gets back on his feet is one of the things that helps encourage him to turn his life around.
>>Which, come to think of it, might be where cold fusion tech is introduced... BangShift might know a guy who knows a guy. The Motor-part-guy network at work again.<<
That has potential. He's working the margins between bleeding-edge ordinary tech, gizmology, and super-gizmology. So if we're looking at taking something like cold fusion which is extant but has been in extremely limited custom-built supply, with an eye toward retro-engineering it enough that it can be replicated, that's a good place for it to happen. Especially if we're also trying to make an electric zoomwagon. Bottled lightning.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-16 11:08 am (UTC)I'll try to remember to prod you again for this next fishbowl...
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-16 04:57 pm (UTC)Okay, great.
>>I'll try to remember to prod you again for this next fishbowl... <<
October 4 will be "monsters," which might suit with some creative interpretation. I expect family obligations to make me miss most of the Creative Jam this weekend.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-20 08:34 am (UTC)Oh, how I wish this were true in L-America! So many lives, of both victims and those who have wronged them, would be infinitely better if it were.
Yes...
Date: 2016-09-20 09:20 am (UTC)It's something you can watch for, wherever you are. These things come up for votes in town meetings sometimes, or you might see them in the local newspaper. Less formal examples include neighborhood or campus programs for conflict resolution.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 03:15 am (UTC)That could be interesting, though, giving him *real* Class Z training and maybe some other first responder stuff... And, yeah, I'd want Dvorak BAD....
I want cold fusion. Or a molecular reformer. Or both. I want my damn flying DeLorean!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 03:42 am (UTC)Did he now?
«T-American overpasses use solid oblong walls for piers in locations with a high risk of collisions, which is costlier and heavier, but much safer. ... Discoveries made in areas with significant zoomwagon traffic have led to improvements in the safety of infrastructure design...»
Not necessarily serious damage to that piece of infrastructure.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 03:49 am (UTC)Says the paranoid BOFH who used to be an electrician's apprentice who worked with concrete to make fixture pads...
Yes...
Date: 2016-09-12 05:12 am (UTC)Exactly. Damage in collisions increases in proportion to two things: speed and weight. Zoomwagons go fast. In traffic, they can't reach maximum speed, but I'd bet they were going over 100 mph at the time they tried to escape the police trap. Compared to a loaded semi-truck, zoomwagons are light. Bangshift was demonstrably not driving a featherweight, because he mentioned a shielded fuel system and because the main body of the car didn't crumple like a crushed pop can. It's still nowhere near the weight of a truck.
>> If it left a vee shape rather than a rounded shape in the 'wagon I'm going to want to check the matching corner for little bits that have come off.... once you knock the seal off a piece of concrete water can start doing bad things... <<
One of the links I found had fantastic closeups and analysis of structural failure in piers. Among the most common was shear damage: the truck ripped the column away from its base and/or header, with some columns being snapped in the center. The oblong wall design prevents this from happening. However, another common type of damage was when the truck crushed the concrete structure it hit, crumbling the pier and sometimes exposing the rebar underneath. Oblong piers are still susceptible to this type of damage. Less serious collisions frequently chip the outside of a pier. So long as the rebar is not exposed, this damage typically does not affect the structural integrity of the overpass and is straightforward to patch up.
>> he may not have necessitated a full safety inspection, but I'm gonna wanna have an eyeball on that just in case. <<
This is T-America. They won't fuss over a fender-bender but when it comes to a major collision like this, they will close the overpass to do a full inspection rather than risk it collapsing and killing people. Plus they need to clean up the kazillion car fragments scattered all over the road below the overpass before somebody runs over one and punctures a tire.
Based on the high speed and modest weight of the zoomwagon impacting a pier designed to withstand a semi-truck collision, my suspicion is that the pier has some fist-sized chunks missing. After the inspection, someone will need to log the damage (which influences the time until the overpass is due for replacement), clean the divots, apply patches, and then reseal the pier to make it waterproof again. That's probably a day's work to inspect the overpass and clean up the wreck, during which the overpass is completely closed and the underpass is half-closed with traffic routed to the far lane; followed by another day during which the overpass can be reopened but the underpass is either half-closed or completely closed depending on exact design and how the work crew decides to handle the patch job. But T-American road crews are quick and competent, so it's not going to snarl up the traffic for days or weeks on end.
>> Says the paranoid BOFH who used to be an electrician's apprentice who worked with concrete to make fixture pads... <<
:D One of the things I like about T-America is that they do the job right, they don't tend to half-ass it. They have decent funding and plenty of skilled workers. That includes people who fucked up in traffic being assigned to clean up after similar incidents, so after Bangshift can move normally, he'll probably spend some quality time with a bucket and tongs picking up after other yahoos. It helps impress on people that high-speed shenanigans tend to end badly.
Well...
Date: 2016-09-12 04:16 am (UTC)This is not cheap, and Bangshift is personally liable for it. He'll probably wind up owing, and paying, a mountain of fines. Fortunately, he has resources that will allow him to make restitution in reasonable time. T-American law takes into consideration an offender's ability to pay; they're not allowed to fine someone more money than he could legally obtain and then call him a criminal for not being able to pay it.
Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 04:00 am (UTC)That and fines, if he has money, which he almost certainly does because his gig has been stealing and working on cars. That's lucrative. He also has superpowers that are quite valuable, so he could barter with those. The main limitation is simply his health -- he won't be able to do more than light work for a while, due to the physical and mental injuries. Fortunately, T-American justice is designed to accommodate that. There's no gain from breaking someone who has already ceased to be a threat, and considerable gain if you can turn him into a functional citizen. Their society really does work like a Tesla fluid valve.
>> That could be interesting, though, giving him *real* Class Z training and maybe some other first responder stuff... <<
*gold star* I see you noticed that he doesn't have a Class Z license yet. In fact, that's one of the things which makes drag racing in zoomwagons so dangerous. Supervillains don't care about laws, which means a lot of them race without any real training in how to handle high speeds. This gets people killed.
One of the stipulations for Bangshift, in addition to the revocation of whatever driving credentials he currently has, is that he'll have to take the Class Z lessons before being allowed to requalify for a standard license. Whether he can pass the Class Z remains to be seen, but he'll have to sit through the material at least. Which is a serious barrier considering that right now he to panic just getting into a vehicle. (This is a fairly common result after a serious wreck.) It will take considerable work before he comfortably use anything more than a bicycle, and that includes riding public transportation.
>> And, yeah, I'd want Dvorak BAD.... <<
I think he blames himself more, but yeah, he'll want a piece of her if he can get it. And not in the same way he meant before the race.
>> I want cold fusion. Or a molecular reformer. Or both. I want my damn flying DeLorean! <<
:D I want my future back too.
And then I imagine people like Bangshift in 3D navigation and think, nah, flying cars are more trouble than they're worth.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 04:24 am (UTC)Yabbut, when you have vertical capability, you can have vertical *separation*. Like *a thousand feet* of it. Minimum.
Which of course a bunch of renegades could *exploit*... but still. The odds of them actually *hitting* something with that much space around them get pretty darn small.
Now, there are two huge problems here... one is, integration into the current airspace system even in good weather is going to be... interesting.... two is, getting people from point a to point b in weather that people insist on driving in but wouldn't currently dream of flying in. Precision, augmented GPS will help lots... and I'm guessing a certain amount of automation not possible here but possible in Terramange will help a lot. But designing ways to get people up and down from the relatively-to-us high-altitude airways.... that's gonna get *interesting*.
At the same time, that same tech will make getting places like Tenzing-Hillary Airport a LOT safer... that's the one on the approach to Everest, that has a .. less than stellar... safety record because once you turn in, there's no way out, and if a cloud gets in the way, you're gonna hit something... but if you have GPS-guided synthetic vision, it's easy. (Relatively.)
(They *already* have radar-transponder-based traffic avoidance on a global basis. (In some airspace it's *required* already, notably the crowded transatlantic and transpacific tracks that don't have terrestrial radar coverage.) This will help keep Bangshift out of trouble in his aircar...)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 10:34 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-13 09:43 am (UTC)... until you add a fey to the mix. I worry about the advent of self-driving cars because I kill electronics, and they'd probably kill me. And once something becomes possible, it tends to become mandatory. Cars are already moving outside the range of what I can drive or even ride in comfortably. I'd rather not speed that up.
>> Then you make it so you can't take off unless it's turned on.<<
That'll take 5 minutes for some geek to break through.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-13 09:52 am (UTC)and a software/hardware lock on taking off without autopilot isn't meant to stop the geeks, it just filters out the dumb ones. Hopefully the smarter ones know what they're doing.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-13 07:16 pm (UTC)Now there's a lovely idea. The best I've managed is a technomagic artifact that friend made for me, and using cabled items when I can find them. I'm worried by the trend toward wireless everything because then there is nothing to protect the signal from my field. >_<
>>You might get odd looks from mechanics, but believe me, it's not unusual actually. [roughly 5% of the population has the same sort of problems.]<<
I didn't realize it was that high. Usually nobody believes me because they've never seen it before. But there's one place I go regularly where, seriously, a receptionist clocked me as a superhero because if I touched the electronic scanner while trying to sign a form atop it, the thing wouldn't read. And hasn't forgotten it since, or hassled me about the illegible scrawl produced by holding my arm in midair so that only the plastic stylus touches the device.
>>and a software/hardware lock on taking off without autopilot isn't meant to stop the geeks, it just filters out the dumb ones. Hopefully the smarter ones know what they're doing.<<
*looks at Bangshift's zoomwagon spread all over the road* Yyyyeah, no.
Back in high school, I had a lab partner whose special ability was decimal shift. Chemistry experiments done near him were often one-tenth as effective, or ten times as effective, as usual. And he wanted to be a chemist. 0_o
Don't overestimate geeks. Intelligence and common sense are un-the-same.
Sure, a lock would keep out many of the dumber people, but the smart ones will still cause plenty of mayhem.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 03:40 am (UTC)Some, however, are emphatically more so than others. I've known guys BangShift's age and younger who would take one look at Dvorak and immediately think, "More trouble than she's worth." They might admire from afar, they might fantasize about her as wank-fodder, but they would absolutely keep a safe distance in reality.
Oddly enough, a lot of those guys are geeks. This doesn't mean that they're immune to making fools of themselves over a different girl -- but they tend not to be impressed by hot-dogs.
Thoughts
Date: 2016-09-12 04:03 am (UTC)This is true.
>>I've known guys BangShift's age and younger who would take one look at Dvorak and immediately think, "More trouble than she's worth." They might admire from afar, they might fantasize about her as wank-fodder, but they would absolutely keep a safe distance in reality.<<
LOL yes. Crucial rules:
* The penis is not your friend. Do not let him make decisions for you.
* Don't stick it in the crazy.
* No matter how beautiful she is, some guy somewhere is tired of putting up with her shit.
>> Oddly enough, a lot of those guys are geeks. This doesn't mean that they're immune to making fools of themselves over a different girl -- but they tend not to be impressed by hot-dogs. <<
Yep. I imagine that Dvorak has friends among other super-gizmologists who are guys to work on the car with, not guys to screw over the hood.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-12 04:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-09-16 04:57 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2016-09-16 05:22 pm (UTC)