Re: More on ranks, SF, etc.

Doug_Evans/CSN/UNEBR@UNebMail.UNeb.EDU
Thu, 10 Jul 1997 09:15:06 -0500 

Ditto on the headache; it's always been the assumption that space warfare,
and therefore military culture would be based on navies. As the main push
in the US, at least, has been to involve the air force and naval aviation,
I've always wondered if use of the word 'fleet' and not wing or group was
less than  apropos, but always realized that was me showing my parochialism
and quickly shut up.

As for the funny little  , I figured that was whatever editor she's using,
not necessarily DELPHI's fault.
Like I know? I just finished explaining to someone that task names under
IBM's MVS system must be alphanumeric or national characters. He said,
'National Characters? Like Madonna?' ;->=

Ditto on liking Dune the movie, even with flaws and gaffs; never claimed to
be a sci fi(sic) fan, and refrain from judgements on others. Course, I also
never heard of the TV version.

Now, if somebody could give me a mail-order source for this Vermillion
game... *sigh*

The_Beast




cmhung@insti.physics.sunysb.edu on 07/10/97 08:32:59 AM

Please respond to logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU

To:   logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
cc:    (bcc: Doug Evans/CSN/UNEBR)
Subject:  Re: More on ranks, SF, etc.




On Jul 10,  8:42am, CSUE@delphi.com wrote:
> Subject: More on ranks, SF, etc.
> (Aplologies in advance: I can't "quote" from Delphi mail, the silly
thing)
Looks like that's not the only silly thing.  Notice the many funny  signs
that pop up in seemingly random places? ^_^

> Actually, Field Marcshal is a German rank.  Rommel was a Field Marshal.
> (Although I doubt he was the highest ranking German army officer in WW2!)
I'm having a headache thinking about these military rank thingy.  First,
could someone explain to me why there's a distinction between army and
navy in the 20000th century? ^_^  I mean by definition, an army is a unit
that spends most of its time on the ground, but in the age of space wars
like in LoGH, what silly army will spend most of its time on the ground?
I mean in order to reach a planet, you'll have to travel through the vast
sea of space first won't you?  Only after that can you fight on the ground.
But that's exactly what the marines in the navy do!  So strictly speaking,
there shouldn't be any army in LoGH ^_^
QED
Now that I've proven armies don't exist in LoGH ^_^, would someone (Sue
preferably ^_^) please check out the rank translation of the navy ranks
in this page:
     http://looney.physics.sunysb.edu/~daffy/LoGH/ranks.html
and see if it looks reasonable?

> And, BTW, if you got your _Dune_ from WATCHING it and not READING it, I
can
> state with some authority that you are NOT an SF fan.
Now why does everybody hate the Dune movie so much?  I'm a die-hard SF fan,
and yes I've READ Dune before watching the movie, but I love the movie.
It's
as authentic as a 2hr+ movie of a humongous novel can get people!  To me,
in
some places (like that beautiful shot of those giant Spacing Guild
transport
ships ferrying the Atreides to Caladan), the movie gives one the
audio/visual
mood that even the novel can't match.  Overall, Dune is one of my all-time
favorite movies, way up there with Blade Runner, 2001, Alien(s), Empire
Strikes Back etc.  So stop trashing the Dune movie OK! ^_^
Now Alan Smithee's unauthorized TV version is a different story...

Ming.
"Truth suffers from too much analysis."
Ancient Fremen Saying

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