TBY
illconsidered | September 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 58
Table of Contents
Chapter 60
Chapter 59
Asteroid Disaster January 27, 2058
Last week I got a late night call from Rhamaposa. He was stone cold sober and didn't waste time with preliminaries.
"We've lost contact with the Daedalus group."
"What happened?"
"We're not sure. We're waiting for the 24 hour summary."
Because of the distance and the danger involved, UNGETF had insisted on an automated video summary which would be transmitted by the computer every 24 hours. It was basically a compressed stop-frame video record. The algorithm tracked…
illconsidered | September 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 57
Table of Contents
Chapter 59
Chapter 58
Ecology 110 - Water Vapour, January 6, 2058
Occasionally I am caught flat-footed by questions from students. It is one of the hidden benefits of teaching --- being kept on your toes. Theories of education differ, but generally I aim for the broad middle band. I know there are some impatient, high percentile types who think my lectures slow and pedantic. Just as there is a segment of determined plodders who get through more by hard work than brainpower. Between them ranges the middle group who will…
illconsidered | September 13, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 56
Table of Contents
Chapter 58
Chapter 57
Moonchild, December 11, 2057
The moon consists primarily of iron, aluminum, silicon and manganese, with some calcium and oxygen. Some areas have concentrations of titanium. That was why the Hipparcus crater had been chosen.
Once the smelter was set up and they had full power, the mining began in earnest. It was all open pit. They used a large wheeled dragger to scoop up the material. They wanted aluminum and titanium. The lack of free oxygen on the moon made steel production problematic, but aluminum,…
illconsidered | September 5, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 55
Table of Contents
Chapter 57
Chapter 56
Petrov, October 19, 2057
The Daedalus reached Petrov in late September. On the internet a coterie of space enthusiasts and the climate concerned had followed their reports religiously, but until then there was little coverage in the corporate media. For twenty-four hours they were media stars again. The trip had been uneventful, which in the tech-besotted, bloodless language of the space agencies and corporations meant there were no major accidents and nobody died.
The asteroid was less than a kilometer in…
illconsidered | August 28, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 54
Table of Contents
Chapter 56
Chapter 55
Spacemen, September 11, 2057
From my vantage point in UNGETF, I was able to monitor the activities of the various groups. All year, I heard about rocket launches, mostly by the Swiss-German consortium Brahmaputra, but the odd one was by the L1 construction group Carillon. The Group 6 cloudmakers had their first batch of ships sailing for Antarctica. More of the old tankers were being refurbished weekly. The target number of vessels for north and south had been raised to 600. Sometimes when things don't work…
illconsidered | August 22, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 53
Table of Contents
Chapter 55
Chapter 54
Greenhouse, May 31, 2057
Things were not looking good. At UNGETF, we were all too aware of of the unfolding disasters. The storms and wildfires, the floods and droughts were bad enough, but food production was down again. The methane levels kept rising. Nothing we were doing seemed to have any effect.
I left the meeting with a heavy heart. As I headed for home, it was already hot. This was May. When spring starts in February, the season seems to go on forever. Calling April the cruellest month seemed like a…
illconsidered | August 16, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 52
Table of Contents
Chapter 54
Chapter 53
Carillon, March 8, 2057
When I got home that afternoon I discovered that one of my new students had surreptitiously video logged me. Edie met me at the door with, "I watched your whole lecture today."
"What?"
"It's true. You're all over the forums. There have been thousands of downloads."
I shook my head a little dismayed.
"People want to know what's really going on and nobody believes the official reports."
Anna heard my voice and came running into the kitchen. I was hot and tired, so I dropped down on one…
illconsidered | August 8, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 51
Table of Contents
Chapter 53
Chapter 52
Ecology 550 - Group 5 Overview, March 8, 2057
Notes on a lecture.
Spring term was near the half way point and Ecology 550 was ahead of schedule. I had been fielding a lot of questions about Group 5, so I decided to do an overview lecture on the UNGETF groups and wind up with some details on Group 5.
I made a list to structure the class. I opened a screen with my padd and projected the list.
Group 1 - Reforestation, ongoing, effectiveness minimal.
Group 2 - Stratospheric sulphates, effective but politicized…
illconsidered | August 1, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 50
Table of Contents
Chapter 52
Chapter 51
Soap, February 20, 2057
Anna came down the hall complaining. "Mommy, my tummy hurts." There were bubbles coming out of her mouth.
Edie took one look and yelled, "Luc, call an ambulance!"
I came out of the kitchen and saw Anna down on her hands and knees vomitting on the front room floor. There was a trail of liquid down the hall to the bathroom. Following the trail back, I found a shampoo bottle on the bathroom floor. It was about half full.
"Do you know how much was in this?"
"Oh my god!" exclaimed Edie. "…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 49
Table of Contents
Chapter 51
Chapter 50
Eco 110 - Carrying Capacity, January 15, 2057
Notes on a lecture
It was the first class of the term. I was purposefully late, because I wanted everyone to be present and impatient. I walked in, dropped my case on the wide black presentation desk and turned to face the old theatre style hall.
"Okay, here is the question: Are we collectively smarter than a vat of yeast?"
I let that sink in for a few seconds, then continued with:
"The topic for today is carrying capacity.
"Intuitively, the idea is how many…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 48
Table of Contents
Chapter 50
Chapter 49
Solstice, December 27, 2056
I have not been writing much, because I have been busy with the lichen. Annoyingly, the symbiotic signalling continues to elude me. A colleague at CCU collaborated with me on a paper. "An examination of the laboratory growth rates of the lichen eFontaine1" by Luc C. Fontaine and George R. Collins. eFontaine1 was the proper name, but we all called it eF1.
Last year by unspoken assent, Edie and I both more or less ignored xmas. This year Anna was old enough that she would realize…
illconsidered | July 20, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 47
Table of Contents
Chapter 49
Chapter 48
Edie's Questions , October 4, 2056
Since our talk about Neurolin last spring, Edie had applied herself to her distance courses and done well. She had stopped taking it when she finished the courses. Judging by the steady stream of customers who dropped around for fab created items, her basement business was thriving.
I mentioned it to her once. "I noticed you set up another fab," I said.
She nodded with a funny little smile. "Yeah, I've been busy," but no more was said.
Several times Edie ambushed me with…
illconsidered | July 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 46
Table of Contents
Chapter 48
Chapter 47
Symbiosis, September 27, 2056
The next time I got into the lab, I started pulling apart lichen just to get a feel for the territory. Lichen is a symbiosis of an algae and a fungus. The fungus in the north is usually an ascomycetes. The algal component is usually a simple green algae, although occasionally a blue-green algae is found. A lot of work had been done on green algae earlier in the century while investigating their suitability for biofuel. It was the fungal component, the ascomycetes, which had not…
illconsidered | July 14, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 45
Table of Contents
Chapter 47
Chapter 46
Boo-Boo, August 26, 2056
I found myself becoming quite anthropological watching Anna learn to walk and talk over the summer. She is a curious and rambunctious child who is always getting into things we thought out of reach. If it isn't pots and pans, it is the media padd, old shoes -- you name it -- any damned thing we inadvertently leave open. I walked into the kitchen one day and Anna was sitting in the middle of the floor chewing on a mud-covered carrot she had pulled from a pile on the counter. The dirt…
illconsidered | June 21, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 44
Table of Contents
Chapter 46
Chapter 45
Daedalus, August 19, 2056
What is it that makes the PR efforts of the space industry always look so lame? Don't get me wrong. I love space. I think humans are bound to colonize the solar system sooner or later. As Tsiolkovsky said, "The earth is the cradle of mankind, but we cannot stay in the cradle forever." But I have yet to see a space agency that could sell their mother a ride to the corner, let alone to Pluto.
Carson Tyler Inc. announced the Daedalus Project with great fanfare when the five astronauts…
illconsidered | June 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 43
Table of Contents
Chapter 45
Chapter 44
An Unsettling Meeting, July 19, 2056
With the summer trimester, my schedule changed. Peter cut the UNGETF meetings down to once a month. I no longer had classes on Wednesday, the regular UNGETF meeting day. Usually I went in to work in the lab, but occasionally I stayed at home.
As I walked downtown to the meeting that day, the sun was burning hot. I was sweating within a block. It was uncomfortable and I was thirsty, but mainly I was troubled by my membrane design. My artificial biology project was going…
illconsidered | June 7, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 42
Table of Contents
Chapter 44
Chapter 43
Group 5, July 12, 2056
No announcement of Group 5 commencement was made. I heard one day that a rocket had been launched from Whitesands. A week later there was another and I wondered. I remembered Rhamaposa's call in March. I checked UNGETF's Group 5 website and saw that launches had been happening for a month and a half. Project Daedalus was going ahead.
Group 5 was subdivided into four subgroups. At the heart of it was the L1 construction group. They were responsible for building the actual sun shield.…
illconsidered | May 29, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 41
Table of Contents
Chapter 43
Chapter 42
The Daily Battle, July 7, 2056
Things were not looking good.
In the Arctic, there was no sign of the methane abating. In some places the water was milky, churning with the gases. Lightning triggered explosions were not unusual. The Group 6 cloud makers had some 150 ships sailing there. Precipitation patterns had changed, but there was no appreciable cooling. Anxiety levels were rising.
In the Antarctic the breakup of the Ronne ice sheet was continuing apace. A few more islands disappeared.
In Europe the…
illconsidered | May 23, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 40
Table of Contents
Chapter 42
Chapter 41
Theft and Meditation, June 27, 2056
I was between classes in mid-afternoon when Edie phoned.
"Luc. There are men in the shed stealing things."
"Call the police."
"I did. There's no answer."
"What?"
"I tried to stop them, but..."
"Where are the police?"
"I don't know."
"Okay. Lock the door and stay in the house. I'll be right there." I knew she would probably be safe, because of the heavy metal door and frame.
"Good."
I hung up and called the police while I checked my schedule. I was…
illconsidered | May 15, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 39
Table of Contents
Chapter 41
Chapter 40
Learning To Stand, June 17, 2056
The weeks ground by. The meetings, the lack of progress really grated. I wasn't doing well in my work. The damned membrane grew, but it kept wanting to curl up in tubes and I didn't know why. It had something to do with humidity.
At UNGETF, Group 7 was monitoring corporate activities, but it was soul destroying. Fifty low energy ships were now sailing around the Arctic making clouds to no noticeable effect. One hundred more were planned. They were retrofitting them at a rate…