The Writers' Block

[Australian rePublic]

Do there exist any issues on e-crime, something like the e-mafia, where they threaten to steal your identity completely (e-murder) if you don't give them your money or card information, or something like that? It is a stupid idea, but i think it can be a hilarious issue.

If this isn't a thing yet, please don't give criminals ideas

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Don't worry Aussie, I don't think there's any moral irresponsibility in media depicting cons, especially when you can google pretty much con you want to. One could argue that by showing scams in media, you're raising awareness that they exist, and thus protecting the population against them.

[Varola]

The existence of skyscrapers warrants your attention, my good man. Those who reside in these skyscrapers, especially those who live on the higher floors, will have to endure the long elevator flights up. In addition, most skyscrapers are usually built for commercial use, so if an office worker were to get out of the elevator into their workplace, their co-workers who work near the elevator would have to put up with listening to music everytime the elevator were to reach their level.

Isn't that a matter for the landlord/strata manager?

Well, there goes one answer out the window.

[Trotterdam]

You know, I can't recall having actually heard music in an elevator. Do I just not get out much, or is that a practice particular to certain countries?

Of course, I also just tend to take the stairs.

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

Ditto.

I've never heard elevator music either. But maybe it is found in places where skyscrapers are more common? There isn't much sense in having elevator music when your typical elevator ride just takes 5 seconds, you know.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

It's much rarer now, I think, and mostly used in ostentatious lifts in grand hotels and the like, to try to evoke a more decadent age.

What could be an interesting issue on the theme would be a survey rating the capital's elevators as amongst the most unpleasant in the world, then something like:

1: "Smells of urine, graffiti, chewing gum on the buttons... and that's when the lifts are working. There should be legislation requiring cameras in elevators to stop youth crime and vandalism, and a guarantee of working elevators in every building with three or more floors. Disabled accessibility, public health and common decency demand it!"
2: Blah blah who is going to pay for this.
3: We'd all be a lot healthier if we made everyone use the stairs.
4: "People would be more inclined to respect elevators if they were lovelier," says @@randomname@@, a retired elevator operator from the @@capital@@ Grand Hotel. "Maybe subsidise companies that provide a better class of lift, with gilted mirrors, air conditioning, uniformed attendants, plush carpet and so on. No muzak though. Oh god, please no more muzak." @@HE@@ shudders and twitches a little.

There ya go, pretty much written the issue already.

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

It's much rarer now, I think, and mostly used in ostentatious lifts in grand hotels and the like, to try to evoke a more decadent age.

What could be an interesting issue on the theme would be a survey rating the capital's elevators as amongst the most unpleasant in the world, then something like:

1: "Smells of urine, graffiti, chewing gum on the buttons... and that's when the lifts are working. There should be legislation requiring cameras in elevators to stop youth crime and vandalism, and a guarantee of working elevators in every building with three or more floors. Disabled accessibility, public health and common decency demand it!"
2: Blah blah who is going to pay for this.
3: We'd all be a lot healthier if we made everyone use the stairs.
4: "People would be more inclined to respect elevators if they were lovelier," says @@randomname@@, a retired elevator operator from the @@capital@@ Grand Hotel. "Maybe subsidise companies that provide a better class of lift, with gilted mirrors, air conditioning, uniformed attendants, plush carpet and so on. No muzak though. Oh god, please no more muzak." @@HE@@ shudders and twitches a little.

There ya go, pretty much written the issue already.

You should be writing this issue now.

After you gave the skeleton of the issue like this, I would feel like I was plagiarizing if I undertook to write this issue.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Man, I got too many issues on the go. You go for it, I don't mind even if you cut and paste.

[Australian rePublic]

It's much rarer now, I think, and mostly used in ostentatious lifts in grand hotels and the like, to try to evoke a more decadent age.

What could be an interesting issue on the theme would be a survey rating the capital's elevators as amongst the most unpleasant in the world, then something like:

1: "Smells of urine, graffiti, chewing gum on the buttons... and that's when the lifts are working. There should be legislation requiring cameras in elevators to stop youth crime and vandalism, and a guarantee of working elevators in every building with three or more floors. Disabled accessibility, public health and common decency demand it!"
2: Blah blah who is going to pay for this.
3: We'd all be a lot healthier if we made everyone use the stairs.
4: "People would be more inclined to respect elevators if they were lovelier," says @@randomname@@, a retired elevator operator from the @@capital@@ Grand Hotel. "Maybe subsidise companies that provide a better class of lift, with gilted mirrors, air conditioning, uniformed attendants, plush carpet and so on. No muzak though. Oh god, please no more muzak." @@HE@@ shudders and twitches a little.

There ya go, pretty much written the issue already.

Sounds familiar

[Chan Island]

I've heard elevator music. It's normally used in grand hotels or in massive skyscrapers. Nowhere near enough of an item by itself to justify an issue.

It's much rarer now, I think, and mostly used in ostentatious lifts in grand hotels and the like, to try to evoke a more decadent age.

What could be an interesting issue on the theme would be a survey rating the capital's elevators as amongst the most unpleasant in the world, then something like:

1: "Smells of urine, graffiti, chewing gum on the buttons... and that's when the lifts are working. There should be legislation requiring cameras in elevators to stop youth crime and vandalism, and a guarantee of working elevators in every building with three or more floors. Disabled accessibility, public health and common decency demand it!"
2: Blah blah who is going to pay for this.
3: We'd all be a lot healthier if we made everyone use the stairs.
4: "People would be more inclined to respect elevators if they were lovelier," says @@randomname@@, a retired elevator operator from the @@capital@@ Grand Hotel. "Maybe subsidise companies that provide a better class of lift, with gilted mirrors, air conditioning, uniformed attendants, plush carpet and so on. No muzak though. Oh god, please no more muzak." @@HE@@ shudders and twitches a little.

There ya go, pretty much written the issue already.

No way. You've not just posted a skeleton, but even some of muscles and one of its eyes. This one is now thoroughly yours to write. Enjoy!

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Eh, I'll let it go. I've deleted half a dozen of my old submissions recently, just to get closer to publishing the issues I like best. I've got no inclination to use up my self-edit slots on issues that aren't my favourites.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Aussie, heard a quiz question on the radio today and thought of you.

"What direction does the earth move, clockwise or anticlockwise?"

The show had the "correct" answer as anti-clockwise.

Annoying, eh?

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

Aussie, heard a quiz question on the radio today and thought of you.

"What direction does the earth move, clockwise or anticlockwise?"

The show had the "correct" answer as anti-clockwise.

Annoying, eh?

I know you think that this question is silly, because it assumes a "Northern Hemisphere" perspective, i.e. for an Australian, the logical answer would be "clockwise."

But here is the thing: The concept of clockwise/anti-clockwise, as far as the rotation of planets is concerned, is not determined according to the position of the North and South poles. It's the other way around. We start with the assumption that all planets rotate anti-clockwise, and based on that, determine where the respective poles are.

You may have heard that Venus rotates clockwise, for instance. That's actually incorrect. So far as I know, astronomers assume that it also rotates anticlockwise, but it is the case that Venus' South Pole is "up" and North Pole is "down."

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Aussie, heard a quiz question on the radio today and thought of you.

"What direction does the earth move, clockwise or anticlockwise?"

The show had the "correct" answer as anti-clockwise.

Annoying, eh?

I know you think that this question is silly, because it assumes a "Northern Hemisphere" perspective, i.e. for an Australian, the logical answer would be "clockwise."

But here is the thing: The concept of clockwise/anti-clockwise, as far as the rotation of planets is concerned, is not determined according to the position of the North and South poles. It's the other way around. We start with the assumption that all planets rotate anti-clockwise, and based on that, determine where the respective poles are.

You may have heard that Venus rotates clockwise, for instance. That's actually incorrect. So far as I know, astronomers assume that it also rotates anticlockwise, but it is the case that Venus' South Pole is "up" and North Pole is "down."

Huh, learn something every day. Cool.

[Sacara]

I have never heard of the term “anti-clockwise”. I’ve only ever heard “counterclockwise”.

[Trotterdam]

Aussie, heard a quiz question on the radio today and thought of you.

"What direction does the earth move, clockwise or anticlockwise?"

The show had the "correct" answer as anti-clockwise.

Annoying, eh?

The far more important question here is who uses "anticlockwise"? I've always heard it as "counterclockwise" before.

I know you think that this question is silly, because it assumes a "Northern Hemisphere" perspective, i.e. for an Australian, the logical answer would be "clockwise".

Yeah, it's a poorly-formed question. If I were asking or answering it, I'd make a point of explicitly saying "as viewed from the north".

But here is the thing: The concept of clockwise/anti-clockwise, as far as the rotation of planets is concerned, is not determined according to the position of the North and South poles. It's the other way around. We start with the assumption that all planets rotate anti-clockwise, and based on that, determine where the respective poles are.

There is logic to this. If you look at the solar system, you'll notice that the vast majority of things rotate/orbit in about the same direction. The orbits of all of the planets and dwarf planets around the sun (no exceptions), most of the major moons around their planet (with the notable exception of Triton, and in some sense Uranus's satellites, which are prograde to Uranus's rotation but mildly retrograde to the sun, due to Uranus being weird to begin with), and the rotation of most planets and moons (with the main exception being, as you noted, Venus, plus Uranus is almost side-on to the ecliptic but is slightly more retrograde than prograde) all go in the same direction (as viewed from some spot far enough from the sun to see the entire solar system at once), which derives from that being the direction that the dust clouds which our solar system formed from where swirling in before the sun or any of the planets even coalesced. So it makes sense to treat that as the "baseline" direction of rotation for everything, and measure things by how they deviate from the baseline, particularly since some objects (Uranus again) are so tilted that deciding which pole is north and which pole is south based on their actual direction they're pointing isn't really viable. Though on the other hand, it's quite likely that Venus wasn't flipped upside-down, but rather had its rotation reverse direction due to tidal effects without the poles ever switching places.

[Bears Armed]

The far more important question here is who uses "anticlockwise"?

That's the standard British usage, AFAIK.

[USS Monitor]

The far more important question here is who uses "anticlockwise"?

That's the standard British usage, AFAIK.

Yeah, that's a British vs. American thing.

But it's not why I came in this thread. Do we have any issues that deal with tourist visas for travelers visiting @@NAME@@?

When I was planning a vacation for later this summer, I looked at a variety of possible destinations, and I discovered that Bhutan has a very unusual way of handling tourism. You have to book a tour through an authorized tour company, and then you pay a daily rate that covers accommodations, food, and logistics. It's very organized. Also a little control-freak-ish. Unlike North Korea, which is the only other country I can think of that is this level of control freak, Bhutan seems to actually want tourism -- they just want it on their own terms.

Other countries I looked at had a variety of systems for handling visas, and I thought it was interesting how many different systems there are.

China has a thing where tourists are only allowed to stay at certain hotels, but they don't insist on organizing everything for you the way Bhutan does. They actually did not have this when I lived in China, but they brought it back in recent years.

Some countries are very easy to get into and poke around for short visits, but you need a permit to work or to stay long-term.

In an issue about the subject, there should also be an option to let people just hop off the plane and apply for jobs.

Obviously, IRL, countries will have different rules depending on where you're traveling FROM, so @@NAME@@ might have different rules for Maxtopian tourists than for Bigtopian tourists, but for the sake of simplicity, it would probably work better not to get into that.

[Trotterdam]

In an issue about the subject, there should also be an option to let people just hop off the plane and apply for jobs.

So, #292 option 5?

Obviously, IRL, countries will have different rules depending on where you're traveling FROM, so @@NAME@@ might have different rules for Maxtopian tourists than for Bigtopian tourists, but for the sake of simplicity, it would probably work better not to get into that.

If it's relevant, the assumption should probably be that the tourists are coming from a nation that you're on relatively good terms with, since treating people of particular ethnicities with automatic distrust is already a subject of multiple issues.

[USS Monitor]

In an issue about the subject, there should also be an option to let people just hop off the plane and apply for jobs.

So, #292 option 5?

Obviously, IRL, countries will have different rules depending on where you're traveling FROM, so @@NAME@@ might have different rules for Maxtopian tourists than for Bigtopian tourists, but for the sake of simplicity, it would probably work better not to get into that.

If it's relevant, the assumption should probably be that the tourists are coming from a nation that you're on relatively good terms with, since treating people of particular ethnicities with automatic distrust is already a subject of multiple issues.

They definitely should be from an established NPC nation that you have extensive contact with, where it's believable to have large numbers of tourists (not refugees). 292 is probably the closest existing issue to what I had in mind, but it's not exactly the same.

[Pogaria]

When I was planning a vacation for later this summer, I looked at a variety of possible destinations, and I discovered that Bhutan has a very unusual way of handling tourism. You have to book a tour through an authorized tour company, and then you pay a daily rate that covers accommodations, food, and logistics. It's very organized. Also a little control-freak-ish. Unlike North Korea, which is the only other country I can think of that is this level of control freak, Bhutan seems to actually want tourism -- they just want it on their own terms.

I'd love to go to Bhutan. The $250/day fee pays for almost everything, so it's not that bad. I suppose it is a rather effective method to prevent your country from being overrun by mobs of tourists.

China has a thing where tourists are only allowed to stay at certain hotels, but they don't insist on organizing everything for you the way Bhutan does. They actually did not have this when I lived in China, but they brought it back in recent years.

Really? I wasn't aware of any such restrictions, although I have a business visa, which might not have those restrictions.

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

Do you think an issue on transableism would be viable?

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/be ... ing-bodies

[Australian rePublic]

Do you think an issue on transableism would be viable?

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/be ... ing-bodies

Ha. That's interesting. It'd make an excellent issue, and needs someone abusing the system to get the disabled pension

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

Do you think an issue on transableism would be viable?

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/be ... ing-bodies

Ha. That's interesting. It'd make an excellent issue, and needs someone abusing the system to get outta working

Exactly. That's what I thought as well (if I understand you correctly). Normally, you can just let them be, and I see no reason for the State to get involved when an otherwise healthy person wants to be physically disabled. But what if they amputate themselves, and then apply for disability benefits?

[Trotterdam]

Related is a story I once read about deaf parents who had a child that was diagnosed with a condition that would cause permanent deathness if not treated in early childhood (but which, if dealt with quickly enough, was perfectly treatable), and chose not to allow the doctors to perform this treatment because they feared it would alienate their child from the "deaf community".

But what if they amputate themselves, and then apply for disability benefits?

Even aside from all the other obvious problems with this, I also note that amputating yourself without proper surgical training and equipment is likely to be extremely risky. But I somehow doubt there will be significant support for professional doctors providing amputation-on-request services to prevent botched back-alley operations...