Re: [FT][SG][DS] Canada, the US Civil War II, and the structure

On Sun, 13 Dec 1998, Adrian Johnson wrote:
> >> THE NEW ANGLIAN CONFEDERATION
> >> Executive Body:
> >Sounds British .... and possibly what would have originally been in 
> >place. Or perhaps the Prime Minister is elected.... like in Canada? 
> 
> The Prime Minister in Canada isn't elected as such.  We vote for our
> local MPs by political party.  The party leader of the party with the
> most seats in the House of Commons is by tradition asked to become the
> Prime Minister

same as in the uk.

> Someone else has suggested that the NAC Council (or whatever we decide
to
> call it) be more akin to the House of Lords in the UK - which from a
story
> point of view is interesting.

that was me. i agree strongly with what you say later on; given that the
NAC is the fusion of the USA and the UK, the arguably the two countries
with the strongest democratic traditions on earth, it will be some
wonderful democracy. this is likely, but it is no fun - oligarchies are
much better from a gaming point of view!

> >> While the official spoken language of the Monarchy
> >> and NAC Council is English, the NAC government and Supreme Court
are
> >> required to provide all services, publications, etc and publish all
> >> laws, policies, decisions and so on in English, French and Spanish.

> >
> >Expensive.

well, not that expensive. probably cheaper than maintaining a
battleship.

also, there have been big advances in mechanised translation recently -
see below for what altavista's babelfish translator did to god save the
queen. things can only get better - the time may come when most of the
translating can be done automatically, only requiring human intervention
for the hardest bits.

> Just imagine the Queen's Own Royal Buenos Aires Dragoons charging into
> battle in their Challenger MK XII Grav Tanks, singing God Save the
Queen in
> Spanish... :)

the lyrics to which, incidentally, are now on my website:

users.ox.ac.uk/~univ0938/gzg/dsr.html

ah, the joys of babelfish! note that the translation is far from perfect
-
when taken back into english, it is a total mess:

	choicest of Thy in warehouse
	In her it is satisfied to spill;

is beyond words.

Tom