h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: ITIWBS NaJoPoMo 2017 - A87898711
Author: ITIWBS - U10713001

Projects for itiwbs NaJoPoMo 2017 include a short story, "The GMO Jungle" and, though the second item will go beyond November, exercises in developing form for discrete articles developable as chapters for a basic primer on space colonization, title: "Space Colonization 101".

Hello ITIWBS

Good to see you doing the NaJoPoMo
Unfortunately this conversation is in Peer Review, which is for the review of factual entries rather than for NaJoPoMo. I've checked and your NaJoPoMo page is definitely linked to from , so it has definitely been spotted in the right place - and so you don't need it to remain here in Peer Review (which isn't the right place).

So I'll move this conversation out of Peer Review and will enjoy reading what you're writing each day.

Any questions, give me a shout.

<BB<

So I should just continue in this thread?

itiwbs NaJoPoMo 2017 M 6 Nov

Copying the completed portion of "The GMO Jungle" here, somewhat revised so as to have it all in one thread.




>>>>>THE GMO JUNGLE









Standing on a balcony, leaning against a railing overlooking an informally lanscaped garden area, savoring a deliciously cool and moist gentle evening breeze as the daylight faded, Robert was puzzling over a distant sound.

Finally he turned to his host.

"James, is that foghorns I hear in the distance?"




James got up from a lounge where he'd been reading from a magazine, over a mild evening cocktail, went to stand beside his guest, listened attentively a moment, then smiled.

"No, Robert, those are not foghorns, what you are hearing is the giant electrical bullfrog.

James chuckled.

"You're here for a tour anyway. I'll take you by to see one in action tomorrow."




Robert returned to his chair, resumed sipping his own cocktail, a mai tai.

"A giant electrical bull-frog?" He said, enunciating clearly and carefully.




"You're wondering how it came to be here?" James chuckled again.

"I can give you a basic rundown on how it was created." James resumed his seat, taking up his cocktail again.

"The basic raw material was, of course, the common bullfrog, lithobates catesbeianus.

To induce giantism, the recombinant DNA staff here took advantage of the natural processes of frog metamorphism and growth.

It was noted that the common leopard toad, amietophrynus pantherinus undergoes an preliminary stage of metamorphism on hatching from the egg in which it resembles an eel, or at least an eel larvae, so they overwrote the DNA from the bullfrog, splicing in the preliminary eel-like metmorphic stage of the leopard toad, then over wrote that with the growth regimen of the electric eel, electrophorus electricus, reinforcing the electrical trait.

When the eel-like larva maxes out at the size of a mature electric eel, the eel-like metamorphic stage borrowed from the leopard toad phases out, the metamorphic process of the bullfrog takes over and the eel's head begins swelling into the bulbous body of the tadpole, with growth regulators borrowed from the leopard toad and the bullfrog fixing the relative size of the tadpole's head by reference to the eel-like tail.

Next, the growth regulators of the bullfrog take over again and the tadpole continues to grow until its increase in size in the tadpole stage is proportionate to that of an unaltered bullfrog.

The electrical traits of the eel are reinforced and carried forward through the tadpole stage and again into the final bullfrog-like form in an exercise of induced neoteny.

Even then they never quite stop growing, though the rate eventually levels out on an asymptotic curve where it indefinitely approaches without ever quite crossing a limit.

Their eggs, by the way, are no larger than those of the common bullfrog.




Robert coughed inyo his hand. "But I thought that the electric eel is a catfish, no an eel at all, though about the size and shape of a moray eel.




James chuckled again. "So it is, but that makes little practical difference."<<<<<




To be continued....

Continuuing.... ...THE GMO JUNGLE...




>>>>>Robert looked up. "You know, I think Arthur C. Clarke had something in his poetic comparison of the city and the stars, city lights seen beneath a starry sky from a remote hilltop, for example.

Here, on the other hand the city lights replace the starry sky during the artificial night, though I have seen the view from the hub, first day here.

I noticed the lights in the hub spindle didn't go out all at once."




"Nope.

Its a means of simulating seasonal progression.

There are 1461 light strips running the length of spindle, with lengths of illumination varying around the circumferance of the spindle according to the variation between solstices at 45 degrees latitude on the Earth.

The light strips running the length of the spindle rotate every six hours between those extremes of long and short daylight periods, completing a circuit atound the spindle once per terrestrial year.

Night time is synchronous throughout the entirety of the habitat, but intensity of twilight varies from day to day."

James got up. "Morning comes early.

We've a busy day tomorrow."<<<<<

Had hoped to put more time writing today.

Unfortunately my home fax is still down and I had to make a run into to town to send off a fax for my doctor.

On the bright side, I don't have any more commitments coming up until Monday 13 Nov 2017 and Tuesday 14 Nov 2017.

10:50pm PST now.

Continuing: ...THE GMO JUNGLE... itiwbs NaJoPoMo 2017, Tu 7 Nov 2017




James got up. "I'm turning in."




Robert lingered for a while, watching the night time city lights overhead, visualizing the space colony, a rather typical, Eros class asteroid, about 20 miles in diameter, a central atrium hollowed out inside in the shape of a conch shell, about 16 miles in diameter, close to the hyperbaric limit at which a breathable atmosphere could be maintained internally without hyperbaric controls, within which an internal artificial gravity was maintained varying from the living areas at accelerations between 10m/s^2 and 9.6m/s^2, to the hub at an effective microgravity, which left abundant overburden in place to provide sheilding against even a worst case nearby GRB, while at the same time several hundred square miles of internal territory were opened as a wildlife park, central recreation area, flanked on the ends with a pair of 16 mile diameter artificial gravity life support facilities, one residential, one industrial in specializations.

A bat flew by, ending Robert's existential revery.<<<<<

itiwbs NaJoPoMo 2017 Tu 7 Nov 2017









>>>>>James and Robert arrived at the coffee shop almost simultaneously the following morning.




"You're right on time, Robert." James remarked cheerily.





Robert smiled back. "I admit I cheated a little and had my first coffee earlier in my room. I frankly think its mild analgesic effect accounts more strongly for coffee's popularity than it stimulating effect."




"Table for two, Sally." James remarked to the waitress, a cheerful looking teenager as they entered.

She led them to a table poured coffee and took their orders.




Sipping at his coffee, Robert remarked, "So you're going to let me have a look at the giant electric bullfrog today?"




"Yes," James responded.

"As a matter of fact we're releasing a liger today.

Introduction to the Giant electric bullfrog is the last step before we walk away and let them find their own way in the wilds.

They're beautiful cats, learn well from instruction and experience and are worth the bother.

Dennis, the liger, will be beginning his orientation tour of the frog breeding facility at about 10:00 am.

It won't hurt us to be a little early."




Sally arrived back at the table carrying a couple of breakfast platters.




"Lets eat." James remarked.<<<<<

ITIWBS Am I exceptionally dim? or do you keep throwing things in to confuse us?

So, in a conversation about electric bullfrogs, we get a couple of sentences about a liger.

There's more to come.

Actually, its a story about a jungle.

Dear ITIWBS, this is still coming up in Peer Review, please click on a button to remove it from Peer Review as this is not the place for NaJoPoMo.

Electrageoghini, problem noted.

DG knows about it.

I'll be contacting BB who offered to help.

itiwbs NaJoPoMo 2017, W 8 Nov 2017

Still hung up here in PR. Working on it.

Will be spending the day alternating between major housecleaning tasks, homework on PR and NaJoPoMo composition in short stints, 1/2 hr to an hour or so per.

I've moved this, or at least attempted to move this, to Alternative Writing workshop F74130?thread=8318669

Back to the grind ... Mandatory major housecleaning that must be completed today.

Back here with a continuation later today.

Back from the grind.

Stopping for a little supper and some writing.

Still NaJoPoMo W 8 Nov 2017

>>>>>"James," Robert asked teasingly, "I thought you were going to show me the giant electrical bullfrog, instead you say something about a liger."




"Don't you worry, you'll get to see the GEB in all its successive stages of metamorphic development, from egg to eel-like form, through bulbous headed tadpole though tadpole sprouting arms and legs to the final bullfrog form.

The liger comes extra.

Everyone thought it would be a bit unfair releasing the liger on one of the deadliest predators in the known universe without first training the cat in avoidance."

James took a final sip of coffee.

"If you to tidy up a bit, now's the time.

I see our coach arriving up front."




The two men met again in front where a coach, drawn by a pair of unicorns awaited.




Robert smiled. "Your famous unicorns, I see."




"Yes." James responded, "These are half Indian rhinoceros, rhinoceros unicornis and half Clydesdale. They're tetraploid, have a full set of chromosomes from each parent and breed true.

The destriers, as distinct from these draft animals are half Percheron."






"Robert, meet your coachman, Malcolm."




The liveried coachman smiled. "Sir," he said, "you can call me 'Mack' for short."<<<<<

James stepped forward. "Mack also carries the emergency 50 cal repeating rifle. Though its almost never needed, it'll stop the largest animal we have here, correctly used.

Would you rather ride in the open box or the cab, Robert."




"Good to meet you, Mack.

I think I'd prefer the view all around from the box, James."




"Its about fifteen minutes by coach to our next stop."<<<<<

(I did wonder for a minute what a 50 calorie rifle was).

In the American arsenal, the .50 caliber Browning rifled machine gun is the heaviest firearm still considered a small arm.

Anything heavier is classified a cannon.

It did have precursors, the 19th century .50 cal Sharps rifle favored by some of the buffalo hunters and for African big game, though most considered the .45 Sharps adequate for buffalo.

One of the disadvantages of heavier weapons is that it takes considerable muscle to handle them safely.