This also distrubs me. It brings to mind a passage from Niven &
Pournelle's book _Fallen Angels_. Sherrine Hartley and freinds are
amazed to be breathing ice rainbows while on a glacier, when one
explains that the moisture in the breath is being flash frozen to ice
crystals that are diffracting the light to form the rainbows. Sherrine
states, "Mundanes think that if you can explain the underlying causes to
why something is acting as it does, that you 'ruin the magic'. I think
that knowing how something as beautiful as this can naturally occur
makes it even more magical."
This is how I look at it, as I beleive most people on this list....
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com
Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Now Featuring: Mikey's Animatronic Factory http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/animations.htm My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA) MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Arms Exporter-see below. ------------------------------------------------------------ #!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL @k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_ ]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256; &S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}