Re:Radio Waves (was: RE: FTL: ON TOPIC ADDED)

At 9:21 PM -0500 9/17/97, "Why is it always 'thin air'? Why can't it be
'fat air'? 'Most wrote:
>(but as an idea for other....things/items/whatnot being the Achilles
>Heel to alien races, this could something that might be fun to explore)
>
>Mk

IIRC, Poul Anderson had a first contact story in which the "twist" was
that the aliens communicated at ultrafrequencies but emitted random
noise at audible requencies. It drove the translation computers nuts
since they were working on the human-audible component, which was
meaningless and varied widely from individual to individual. I forget
the name of that one.

One I do remember the title of was H. Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy." That
had an alien that made	a cute "yeek" sound, but also carried its
content at the ultrasound frequencies.

Anybody who hasn't read Piper really should do so immediately. "Star
Viking", "The Cosmic Computer", and "Uller Uprising" are the most
promising as sourcebooks for FT or DS gaming. SV and CC both feature a
lot of grav combat, fought with hyper velocity cannon, missiles and
electronic warfare. Very sophisticated for stuff written in the 60s.

»»»»» stay on topic Yellow 3, stay on topic.... ««««««

Michael Carter Llaneza	  http://www.hypnotic.com/
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
Devolution is very real to me.

Whenever I hear the "Odd Couple" theme, I get this image of Dennis
Rodman borrowing Marge Schott's toothbrush.