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Long Shot (Niven)
"At the Core" is an English language science fiction short story by American writer Larry Niven, published in 1966. It is the second in the series of ''Known Space'' stories featuring crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The short story was originally published in ''Worlds of If'', November 1966, and reprinted in ''Neutron Star'' (1968) and ''Crashlander'' (1994). The novel ''Fleet of Worlds'' is set in the aftermath of the story, from the Puppeteer point of view. The story is retold, from the point of view of Sigmund Ausfaller, in ''Juggler of Worlds''. The events are also referred to in ''Ringworld''. Plot summary Four years after the events in the other short story "Neutron Star", spaceship pilot Beowulf Shaeffer is on Jinx, a planet orbiting Sirius B, when he is again contacted by the Puppeteers, this time by the Regional President of General Products on Jinx, who offers him a chance to guide a cramped (but very fast) experimental ship to the center of the galaxy as a promotional stun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic ( Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 million stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a hundred million stars, to the largest galaxies known – supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Most of the mass in a typical galaxy is in the form of dark matter, with only a few percent of that mass visible in the form of stars and nebulae. Supermassive black holes are a common feature at the centres of galaxies. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology as elliptical, spiral, or irregular. Many are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories By Larry Niven
Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as the Short Arts, entertainment, and media * Short film, a cinema format (also called film short or short subject) * Short story, prose generally readable in one sitting * '' The Short-Timers'', a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by Gustav Hasford, about military short-timers in Vietnam Brands and enterprises * Short Brothers, a British aerospace company * Short Brothers of Sunderland, former English shipbuilder Computing and technology * Short circuit, an accidental connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit * Short integer, a computer datatype Finance * Short (finance), stock-trading position * Short snorter, a banknote signed by fellow travelers, common during World War II Foodstuffs * Short pastry, one which is rich in b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Known Space Stories
Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinct from opinion or guesswork by virtue of justification. While there is wide agreement among philosophers that propositional knowledge is a form of true belief, many controversies in philosophy focus on justification: whether it is needed at all, how to understand it, and whether something else besides it is needed. These controversies intensified due to a series of thought experiments by Edmund Gettier and have provoked various alternative definitions. Some of them deny that justification is necessary and replace it, for example, with reliability or the manifestation of cognitive virtues. Others contend that justification is needed but formulate additional requirements, for example, that no defeaters of the belief are present or that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apocalyptic Fiction
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronomical, such as an impact event; destructive, such as nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, such as a pandemic, whether natural or human-caused; end time, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or more imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion. The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time may be directly after the catastrophe, focusing on the psychology of survivors, the way to keep the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including that the existence of pre-catastrophe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1966 Short Stories
Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is deposed by a military coup in the Republic of Upper Volta (modern-day Burkina Faso). * January 10 ** Pakistani–Indian peace negotiations end successfully with the signing of the Tashkent Declaration, a day before the sudden death of Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. ** The House of Representatives of the US state of Georgia refuses to allow African-American representative Julian Bond to take his seat, because of his anti-war stance. ** A Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference convenes in Lagos, Nigeria, primarily to discuss Rhodesia. * January 12 – United States President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended. * January 15 – 1966 Nigerian coup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost (Niven)
''Crashlander'' is a fix-up novel by American writer Larry Niven, published in 1994 () and set in his ''Known Space'' universe. It is also a term used in the Known Space universe, denoting a human born on the planet ''We Made It''. Plot summary Crashlander brings together the short stories featuring the space pilot Beowulf Shaeffer — " Neutron Star" (1966), "At the Core" (1966), " Flatlander" (1967), " Grendel" (1968), "The Borderland of Sol" (1975), and " Procrustes" (1993). The stories are linked, and some of them extended, by a framing story, "Ghost". This story recounts Shaeffer's reunion with a ghostwriter whom Shaeffer had used to write about his adventures at the neutron star and at the core, Ander Smittarasheed. Ander, working for ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the uppe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procrustes (story)
"Procrustes" is an English-language science fiction short story written in 1993 by Larry Niven. It is the sixth in the series of stories about crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The short story was originally published in ''Bridging the Galaxies'' (1993). The story is retold, from the point of view of Sigmund Ausfaller, in '' Juggler of Worlds''. Plot summary Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer, half-dreaming, fitfully remembers events leading up to the moment he is shot with an ARM punchgun, a weapon best described as a large-caliber handgun. The recent events, and his memories leading up to them, keep replaying in his head, and Shaeffer realizes that he must be inside Carlos Wu's special autodoc, and that he must be terribly damaged. When he finally awakens, Shaeffer learns he has been in the autodoc for four months and eleven days. He crawls out of the autodoc, feeling unbalanced, and finds himself on the same deserted island on which they had all landed, though he is alone. Moving to the cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Borderland Of Sol (story)
"The Borderland of Sol" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Larry Niven. It is the fifth in the ''Known Space'' series of stories about crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The story was originally published in ''Analog'', January 1975, printed in the collection ''Tales of Known Space'', Niven, Del Ray, reissued 1985 (), and reprinted in '' Crashlander'', Larry Niven, New York: Ballantine, 1994, pp. 160–207 (). The story won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1976 and was nominated for the Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette in 1976. It is one of the earliest works of fiction to feature a black hole. Segments of the novel ''Fleet of Worlds'' serve as a prequel to the story. Plot summary A rash of spaceship disappearances around Earth results in a dearth of available transit, stranding Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer on Jinx away from his love, Sharrol Janss. While visiting the Institute of Knowledge he runs into his old friend Carlos Wu. Carlos is the father of Janss' t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grendel (story)
"Grendel" is an English language science fiction short story written in 1968 by Larry Niven. It is the fourth in the series of Known Space stories featuring crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The short story was originally published in ''Neutron Star'' (1968), and reprinted in ''Crashlander'' (1994). It has no connection to the creatures called Grendels in Niven's ''Heorot'' series. Synopsis Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer is on a flight between Down and Gummidgy when the ship's captain, Margo Tellefsen, announces that she is dropping of out hyperdrive so passengers can witness a starseed setting sail. Just after this happens, all passengers are knocked out by a gas introduced in the ship's life system; while no cargo is missing, a Kdatlyno touch sculptor named Lloobee has vanished. Soon enough, the kidnappers make contact with the local government and demand ten million "stars" (the interstellar form of currency) for Lloobee's safe return. Because Kdatlyno cannot spend extended time in smal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flatlander (story)
"Flatlander" is an English language science fiction short story by American writer Larry Niven, published in 1967. It is the third in the series of ''Known Space'' stories featuring crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The short story was originally published in '' Worlds of If'', March 1967, and reprinted in ''Neutron Star'', and '' Crashlander''.''Crashlander'', Larry Niven, New York: Ballantine, 1994, pp. 57–101 () Plot summary Traveling to Earth after his trip to the core of the Milky Way Galaxy, Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer befriends Gregory Pelton, a fabulously wealthy and gregarious flatlander (Earth-born human) who calls himself Elephant. Irritated at always being labeled a flatlander despite having logged many hours in space, Elephant decides to visit the most unusual system in or near Known Space and has his agents put in a call to meet with the nearest Outsider vessel. Elephant, as well as two women named Diana and Sharrol, show Shaeffer around Earth for a few days; Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stock Market Crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often follow speculation and economic bubbles. A stock market crash is a social phenomenon where external economic events combine with crowd psychology in a positive feedback loop where selling by some market participants drives more market participants to sell. Generally speaking, crashes usually occur under the following conditions: a prolonged period of rising stock prices (a bull market) and excessive economic optimism, a market where price–earnings ratios exceed long-term averages, and extensive use of margin debt and leverage by market participants. Other aspects such as wars, large corporate hacks, changes in federal laws and regulations, and natural disasters within economically productive areas may also influence a significant decline i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
