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#41 | |
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(Semi unorganized) Playlists of Real World Harper Songs on YouTube (Nascent) Wiki for Real World Harper Songs Glimpses of Pern books in Esperanto. |
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#42 | |
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(Semi unorganized) Playlists of Real World Harper Songs on YouTube (Nascent) Wiki for Real World Harper Songs Glimpses of Pern books in Esperanto. |
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#43 |
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Did I read that Pernese grasses contain boron?
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#44 | ||
Journeywoman Healer
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http://philipmould.com/browse-art/portrait-miniatures A lot of ivory and enamel and even a couple on paper. Wood, as well, a lot of very small icons are done on wood blocks. And you could make a teeny canvas or canvas board. That's even a thing right now--I have some very wee canvas boards I still need to do something with (as in 2" x 3"). I think you're right. Don't have the DLG here but IIRC they had to modify the Earth livestock in utero to be able to eat boron-based plant life. Which suggests any Earth plants probably had to be modified, too, since the native fauna suggests the soil chemistry is different. They could have modified an industrial hemp species to thrive. It's not ideal for a lot of things, actually (despite what the 'pot will save humanity' crowd, who mostly just want to smoke it, tell you) other than high-quality rope, but it could be used to make paper. So could reeds (you don't HAVE to do the time-consuming artisan-papyrus-for-tourists look if you have the technical knowledge the settlers would.) |
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#45 |
Dolphineer
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papyrus I think that what was used in The MasterHaper of Pern, down by Southern Boll When he was traveling, Petiron, Merelan, and Robinton it would soak up a lot of ink, and some his notes were blotchy, but Petiron, counted on his memory to re transcribe them when he got back to the Harper Hall.
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#46 |
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As for hemp, one of my sons had a hemp shirt, which looked like unbleached linen, but he said would wear for ever. I don't know if it was mixed with other fibre though. One advantage is that it can get very big, very fast. And industrial hemp is not supposed to be worth smoking. At least, the niece that tried it thought so.
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#47 |
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There was as time when hemp was a cash crop for farmers in Suffolk (at least).
And Shakespeare describes some yokels as 'hempen homespuns'.
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"Truth is stranger than fiction: fiction has to make sense." Leo Rosten. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." C. S. Lewis "I find television very educational. Whenever somebody switches it on I go in the other room and read a book." (attributed to Groucho Marx) The Pedants are revolting! (against bad grammar) |
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#48 |
Journeywoman Healer
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It works, but it's not as versatile as cotton or linen and it's not actually any easier to grow. Not as strong as silk, either (but IIRC the silkworms didn't survive so the Pernese don't have it.) It wouldn't be more ecologically sound, but it will grow where cotton won't (you have the toss-up of devoting crop space to that versus flax, which grows far north, too, or pasture for sheep--down side, well, they're SHEEP, living animals, up side unlike flax and hemp you get way more nutritional bang for your buck out of an animal and with sheep you get fiber that's very easy to work with, too. Llama and alpaca would be good as well--they'd like the mountainous parts of the northern continent, their fiber's super-easy to spin, and they're also pack and eating animals. Maybe the one cover of Nerilka's not THAT silly...)
And no, industrial hemp apparently isn't smokeable, but scratch the surface of any OMG HEMP IS TOTALLY THE SAVIOR PLANT and you find people who just want to be able to grow the kind you CAN. (Large-scale hemp farming makes it easy to conceal other varieties from aerial surveillance which is why the US DEA is not big on the notion. If you could trust people, that would be one thing, but you can't.) Why you'd think, though, that they almost HAVE to have it is natural hemp rope is one of the best kind for maritime use. We know they were planning major shipbuilding and for sailing vessels they would need rope. They must get it somewhere and it would seem easier to transition that to paper making than to wait for trees (even pines take at least five years to mature.) |
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#49 |
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I just remembered that a degree certificate (formerly, at least, written out on vellum) was often referred to colloquially as a 'sheepskin'.
Mine was printed on card-stock. No fair! |
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#50 |
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There have been some trials using hemp as a cavity insulation material.
Actually, the hot dry climate of, say, Igen, would preserve papyrus for ages. We have papyri older than 4,000 years.
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"Truth is stranger than fiction: fiction has to make sense." Leo Rosten. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." C. S. Lewis "I find television very educational. Whenever somebody switches it on I go in the other room and read a book." (attributed to Groucho Marx) The Pedants are revolting! (against bad grammar) |
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#51 | |
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Hiver
Join Date: Feb 2015
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To be honest, I don't see why they wouldn't've brought both kinds of hemp: the kind you make rope out of that isn't good to smoke, and the kind you smoke that isn't good to make rope out of. In a group of 6,000 people, there's going to be at least one pothead who cares enough to bring a stash of seeds in his or her personal allowance. One of the first things the colonists did on Pern was make hooch, so they don't seem to have had anything against intoxicants. Last edited by pearldiver; Mar 20 2016 at 06:40 AM. Reason: sssssssssssss |
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#52 |
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But no tobacco!
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"Truth is stranger than fiction: fiction has to make sense." Leo Rosten. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." C. S. Lewis "I find television very educational. Whenever somebody switches it on I go in the other room and read a book." (attributed to Groucho Marx) The Pedants are revolting! (against bad grammar) |
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#53 |
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Probably not. It's not completely useless - makes a good insect repellent in a pinch, and on industrial scales a lot of modern pesticides are nicotine derivatives - but there's not a whole lot else to recommend it, and anyway there's no guarantee that would work on Pernese pests anyhow.
It's more addictive than alcohol, right up there with caffeine, and the carcinogenic properties aren't something you could get rid of since inhaling large quantities of any sort of smoke on a daily basis is just fundamentally a bad idea. I don't think any of the traditionalists who came with the colony were preserving cultures that used tobacco for ceremonial use, either. Again, someone who was really dedicated to the habit could've brought seeds with them, but overall the Pernese seem happier drinking their bad ideas rather than inhaling them. |
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#54 |
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That sounds like Annie.
I wonder what the carcinogen load is in bonfire smoke?
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"Truth is stranger than fiction: fiction has to make sense." Leo Rosten. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." C. S. Lewis "I find television very educational. Whenever somebody switches it on I go in the other room and read a book." (attributed to Groucho Marx) The Pedants are revolting! (against bad grammar) |
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#55 | |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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But I should think that by the time the settlers left Earth, they would have stopped using nicotine for killing insects. I believe there's some kind of downside to using it anyway --- some bad side-effect on plants unaffected by the pests? |
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#56 |
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A quick Search reveals that a disease called Tobacco Mosaic Virus can easily spread to a range of other plants (105 different types of plants, including tomatoes and peppers). Not a good candidate for taking to a new planet, and even if somebody took some seeds in his own stash, once Thread started they'd only be growing food, fibre and medicinal plants.
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