Amber Zone - Academic Patron Nuggets

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1999 #1323

Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 15:30:45 -0600
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Academic Adventure Seeds (was Re: Wild Blue Claims)

On 11/07/99 at 12:42 PM,  Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> said:

>> << You seem to have quite an axe to grind on this point. >>

>> I do.  My undergrad degree was in American and European History,
>> I wanted it in military history, but couldn't find a program.

Yep, but that was my experience 30 years ago too.

>Sorry to burst your bubble there, but the military history of the
>Civil War is predominantly of interest to military historians. As
>iomportant as the actions of Grant, Sherman, Lee, Jackson et. al.
>were, they were of secondary importance to the overall picture.

Certainly, and I don't disagree that the study of political and
culture history is most important for the general student...and the
general public, *but* I was going to be a history major and could
not find *any* interest in military history at 3 separate
universities.  I was advised to try joining ROTC by the only person
in the history department that offered any positive advice at all.

>The second problem is your assumption that assignments in academic
>departments have any relationship to what the professors specialty or
>training is...That professor probably had little choice over her
>subject matter...

Only if she wasn't up the ladder in seniority.  Full professors
can strongly influence what they teach, at least for the occasional
course in their special interest area.  Graduate seminars...don't
you know.  <g> You can usually get into a grad seminar even as a
lowly undergraduate if you talk to the professor, express an
interest, and show some knowledge of the subject.

Ob Trav, think about academic careers and academics as patrons...

  The party is approached by a man/woman who wants to hire a
  ship/crew/bodyguards for an expedition to system X.

  1.  The patron is a biologist that wants to study the life cycle
      of the greater spotted Rdo. The party are his support team, or
      maybe just hired hands.  The professor talks incessantly about
      the spotted rdo, but fails to tell you about the rest of the
      ecology on Macardal.

  2.  The patron is a grad student in sociology writing her
      dissertation on the changes in cultural patterns during large
      scale TL6 wars, and her committee has recommended some
      empirical research on the balkanized world of Bonzi.  You have
      to get her there and keep her (and yourselves alive) in the
      middle of a world war..ie England or Germany in 1944.

  3.  The patron is an astrophysicist who wants to test a theory and
      needs to get *very* close to a M9V. He insists that it must be
      in an uninhabited system, but doesn't say why.

  4.  The patron is an archaeologist who is sure he has found the
      location of an Ancient Library on a TL4 world from his study
      of old archive records, but needs to go there to confirm it
      before he can risk writing it up for publication.  He doesn't
      even *know* that the area where the library may be is
      dominated by a humophobic (it *should* be called homophobic,
      but that has taken on another meaning) Vargr culture.

  5.  The patron is an academic that tells the party that another
      academic has stolen a copy of her data and she wants them to
      get it back and prevent him from acting on it until she has a
      chance to publish.

  6.  The patron has a simple courier job of transporting some data,
      or a specimen, to a collaborating professor in another system,
      or perhaps transporting supplies to a research site.

  7.  The patron is a rich young student who wants to charter the
      party's ship (or hire them as crew for his yacht) for an
      "outing" by his fraternity to the subsector gravball
      championship game.

  8.  The patron is the Duke of Tolliver who wants his daughter
      delivered to the Hape Finishing School on Rondai.  He tells
      the party that Marie is "a little high spirited" and may not
      really want to go, but that "it is *his* wish" and you won't
      get paid unless you deliver her to Madam Pallet the head
      mistress at Hape.  And heaven help you, if you lose Marie!

>For instance, imagine what the data warehouse of a megacorp like
>Sharushid contains within it... the purchasing patterns and intimate
>detail on the lives of trillions and trillions of customers reaching
>back millenia...

...and what are the odds that Sharushid would let any outsiders have
access to *that* data?  Authorized access anyway...

Eris
- --
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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#1324

Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 21:55:06 -0600
From: "Chad Russell" <mindbreaker@unforgettable.com>
Subject: Academic Adventure Seeds

Eris Reddoch wrote:

>       He doesn't even *know* that the area where the library may be is
>       dominated by a humophobic (it *should* be called homophobic,
>       but that has taken on another meaning) Vargr culture.

Maybe we want to use the term "anthrophobic" for this case?


Just a thought...
- -Chad

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#1325

Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 22:09:53 -0600
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: Academic Adventure Seeds

On 11/07/99 at 09:55 PM,  "Chad Russell" <mindbreaker@unforgettable.com> said:

>Eris Reddoch wrote:

>> He doesn't even *know* that the area where the library may be is
>> dominated by a humophobic (it *should* be called homophobic,
>> but that has taken on another meaning) Vargr culture.

>Maybe we want to use the term "anthrophobic" for this case?

Good idea...

Well, as I understand it anthro refers to "man."  So, assuming we
limit the meaning of man to "human" it would work.  <g>


Eris
- --
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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#1325

Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 02:54:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Terry Mixon <tlmixon@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Academic Adventure Seeds

- --- Chad Russell <mindbreaker@unforgettable.com> wrote:

> Eris Reddoch wrote:
>
> > He doesn't even *know* that the area where the library may be
> > is dominated by a humophobic (it *should* be called homophobic,
> > but that has taken on another meaning) Vargr culture.

> Chad Russell wrote:

> Maybe we want to use the term "anthrophobic" for this case?

Or just leave it to the academic to use the right word not even
realizing the PC's thought it meant something entirely different.

- --------

PC group huddled behind hasty cover with Vargr bullets whining
overhead.

<academic> "I warned you this might happen! Why didn't you take
better precautions?!?"

<PC> "Warned us? You didn't say they might attack us!"

<academic> "Of course I did! What do *you* think homophobic means?"

- -------

Terry

=====

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