Not really... I like novels about submarines ("Run Silent, Run Deep" has to be the all time classic) but mostly I am cursed by an overly analytical temperament. If I read a sci-fi novel, and the heroes go to the moon at a continuous acceleration of .7G, I have to stop reading and work out the math to see if the author got it right (4.2 hours assuming zero velocity when they arrive). Watching a movie where the bad guy takes off in his car, tires squealing on a dirt road makes me crazy. And when I see claims involving numbers, particularly numbers that have to correlate with other numbers, I can't rest until I check them out. A little Newtonian physics, a bit of knowledge about drag and power from my flying days, and a bit of common sense, and suddenly things don't add up so well.

This makes us two (besides seeming to be among this list seniors ). I will look up the novel right away. I enjoyed Clancy sub-novels well enough (real Clancy's, of course, 'Hunt for Red October' and 'Red Tide Rising' or something, not garbage like 'SNN'), so I suppose I will like your favourite.

Several friends of mine have 20-something year long custom of comunal video (now DVD) watching, once a week or so. Whenever the movie has anything to do with technology or science (including mechanics of driving or flying, as you mentionend), the hostess jokes I have to keep my mouth full of food, beer or something, so that I cannot complain at goofs all the time.

One of my all time favorites is the pirate move, where the pirates pick up the chest full of gold bars and load it in their dinghy and row across the bay. Well, if the chest were three feet by two feet by two feet (12 cubic feet) it would weigh... let's see, 3*2*2*(1728/231)*167 pounds, or close enough to 15,000 pounds (about 6800 kilograms) as not to matter. About $45 million worth at modern prices.

Now, I challenge anyone to figure out what "3*2*2*(1728/231)*167" is all about!

Well, 3*2*2 is volume in cubic feet, additional factor od 1728 gives cubic inches. Now, just to figure out what has volume of 231 cubic inches and how do we know it weights 167 pounds if made of gold...

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green