Retcon?

A thread of 2 messages, 14 June 1993 to 15 June 1993, in the order they were sent.

#5662 Retcon?

Stewart Eyres · 14 June 1993

Hi

Echoing Bruce, what does retcon mean?

NEGATIVE MATTER

The matter we are all used to is, according to Einstein, all positive matter.
This means it exerts a force on all other matter directly proportional to its
mass and inversely proportional to the separation (no, really, it does!).

Negative matter simply has *negative* mass, so that the force is negative, or
*repels* all other matter.  This is *not* anti-matter, which so far only has
been found with positive mass.

In some book I read (I can't remember the name, but can find out), someone
proposed a spaceship drive which involved mounting a plate of negative matter
next to a plate of positive matter, and then charging the two.  The result is
a forward force, although I'm not sure why.

	+ve matter <----
	pulls	__        __
		| |       | |
		| |	  | |
		|+|	  |-|
		| |       | |
		| |	  | |
         -ve matter <---
	pushes

As we have two forces pushing in the same direction, and the plates are braced
to stop them coming together or apart (if the masses were unmtached)(in fact
unmtached masses may make this work better).  I really don't know what
difference the electric charge makes, but as gravity is a weak force, it
presumably enhances the overall effect somehow.  The result seems to be that
modulating the charge changes that thrust.  Sounds a bit like a thruster plate
to me!

This works even better if you consider Classic Trav gravitics to work on an
`amplifying gravitons' basis.  All you have to do is amplify the number of
negative gravitons streaming off your negative matter thruster plate, and you
have thrust (I think).


What is Chuck on !?!
____________________________________________________________________________
"Traveller Done Wrong
         - Let's get the Fiction back into Science Fiction Roleplaying"

Stewart								N.R.A.L.
								Jodrell Bank
								Macclesfield
[email removed] 						Cheshire
								[address removed]
____________________________________________________________________________

#5671 Re: Retcon

Bertil Jonell · 15 June 1993 · reply to #5662

> From: Stewart Eyres [email removed]
> Subject: Retcon?
>
> Echoing Bruce, what does retcon mean?

  Retcon, short for Retroconceive(?) is a word that was was invented by
persons unknown on the rec.arts.comics newsgroup on Usenet.

  It means changing something that has already been established.

  For example (since it was invented on rec.arts.comics I'll use a comics
example:), Chris Claremont want to do an Xmen/AD&D crossover, and to get
a lead-in to the story he decides that Storm is a half-Drow, that is a retcon,
because it has previously been established that she isn't.

  Revealing things that has previously been hidden (like Norris right hand,
and the Aslan engigma) isn't retcons. Neither is providing more detail on
a subject that previously been undefined.

  But saying that 99% of the commerce of the commerce of the Imperium was
transported in unmanned unpowered barges with a hull grid, that was launched
from space stations that held the powerplant and actual jump drive, and
claiming that the players somehow never noticed all those big barges with
'Tukera' lables on them, that's a retcon.

- -bertil-
- --
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
 strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
 exercise for your kill-file."