Coverpage ([info]primroseport) wrote,
@ 2007-03-15 16:36:00
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Regretful inventors
I am writing a lyric about inventors who regretted having loosed their inventions on the world. So far, I have included Alfred Nobel, Sarah Winchester (though she felt guilty by association), and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Can you think of anyone I've forgotten?

Thanks for the Kalashnikov suggestion, Moppy.

EDIT: I'm also accepting applications for inventors who had little or no regrets, but whose inventions everyone else regrets.

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[info]mopmonster
2007-03-16 12:25 am UTC (link)
Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 12:58 am UTC (link)
Oh, perfect! Thanks.

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[info]pandrax
2007-03-16 01:30 am UTC (link)
I found a few sites without references saying he did. Then an interview with The Guardian stating:
Yet "the positive has outweighed the negative," he insists, "because many countries use it to defend themselves. The negative side is that sometimes it is beyond control. Terrorists also want to use simple and reliable arms. But I sleep soundly. The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1059879,00.html

It's nuanced, I guess.

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 01:34 am UTC (link)
For my purposes, Kalashnikov is fine. Hell, I even threw in John Moses Browning, though, to my knowledge, he had no regrets. This lyric is a kind of inferno or purgatory for inventors of violent things--any guilt they felt only makes it easier to throw them in the fire, if only for fun. Browning comes out looking for like a Christ figure than a poor soul, the way I wrote it

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 01:35 am UTC (link)
more like a christ figure*

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[info]lil_octopie
2007-03-16 12:29 am UTC (link)
does einstein count?

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 01:00 am UTC (link)
Yes, thanks! I thought of him, but his role in the making of atom bombs was pretty indirect--far overshadowed by Oppenheimer

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[info]thatdamnninja
2007-03-16 01:24 am UTC (link)

Do my parents count? ;)

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 01:35 am UTC (link)
no sir ;)

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[info]firekite
2007-03-16 06:56 am UTC (link)
Vannevar Bush! Development of the atomic bomb AND pioneered concepts for the world wide web.

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 09:24 am UTC (link)
Aha! I'll consider him. Unfortunately, as with (that dumbass) Einstein, Bush is overshadowed in the atomic bomb department by Oppenheimer, who not only was more directly involved, but who quite beautifully stated his lamentations. I've got the A-bomb covered with poor old Oppie.

As for Bush pioneering the WWW, we all know that was Al Gore!

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[info]imrygels_ho
2007-03-16 01:00 pm UTC (link)
the managers responsible for the formation of boy bands?

just kidding. i'll try to come up with something serious....

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 07:09 pm UTC (link)
:P

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[info]d14n
2007-03-16 05:24 pm UTC (link)
He and it are fictional, but Felix Hoenikker invented ice-nine in Kurt Vonnegut's book Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine basically ended life on earth.

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 07:09 pm UTC (link)
Makes me want to read that book. :) Can't use it for my lyric, though

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[info]d14n
2007-03-16 08:10 pm UTC (link)
Understood.

Cat's Cradle is my favorite Vonnegut book (out of the 14 of his that I've read). I highly recommend it. (Fairly quick read, btw.)

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[info]mordicai
2007-03-16 07:04 pm UTC (link)
fantasy post-deathray tesla?

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-16 07:07 pm UTC (link)
You and I think alike. Tesla keeps popping into my head, but I don't know of anything he's done that's regret-worthy. Did he try to make a death ray?

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[info]mordicai
2007-03-16 08:42 pm UTC (link)
he claimed to have made one. also an earthquake machine. also one time he said he knew how to split the earth in two.

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hyades
2007-03-16 08:42 pm UTC (link)
BTW, you are invited to the community despacho.livejournal.com. Your icons indicate that you have an innate understanding of what despacho is. For more information, go to popupdespacho.livejournal.com.

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[info]mortimer_ford
2007-03-21 02:19 pm UTC (link)
You have a fascinating journal here.

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[info]primroseport
2007-03-21 02:38 pm UTC (link)
Thanks--yours is not so mundane, either

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[info]nenya_kanadka
2007-05-30 01:32 am UTC (link)
Popping in to ask if you are, possibly, the Callishka behind this character on the Chanur & Compact Space roleplay board last year? If so, we are playing again and are wondering where the eccentric mahe missionary got to!

--Rajani

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[info]primroseport
2007-05-30 01:40 am UTC (link)
It is, in fact, I! I just got to busy. I take RPG pretty seriously, in the sense that I try to make each post interesting and meaningful, and with grad school, work, bands, and other writing projects, I found that I couldn't participate in the C&CS group fully and adequately anymore.

There's a good chance that I can return for a couple of months, because my school load is slacking off during the summer. Have the storylines progressed much since I was last around?

Thanks for finding me, by the way

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[info]nenya_kanadka
2007-05-30 02:05 am UTC (link)
Hee, I hoped there weren't very many people called Callishka online, and figured I'd try looking for you. Glad to find you!

I get what you mean about taking RP seriously. Don't feel bad about not posting--the board sort of goes on hiatus every few months, because everybody ends up with other commitments, and then someone goes, "Hey, I liked that place! Don't die, Chanur! Come on, post, you guys," and we get something going again. At the moment we're back in business, and would love to have you again (got a few of our old players back, including one of our other mahendo'sat and a few new kif).

As for plotlines...last I remember that you were there, we were scraping posters off the atevi front doors, right? It's only been two days (!) game-time since then, so I think you can post anything you like about what Olo has been doing. What's happened, let me think... when was the last time you posted? Did you see the multispecies fair thread? (Atevi meet & greet hani, stsho, kif, etc; the kif Khikkikh ends up telling the atevi leader that she's his hakkiktl; atevi go "???".) After that, the two major events were that a kyo ship attacked us (yelled loudly, skirmished with several small Station ships, and disappeared, leaving one of the mri dead) and that the next day an out-of-timestream human exploration ship showed up, scaring everyone because they thought it was the kyo again. Lots of other subplots running in between those major events, of course. Current state of play is everyone reacting to the presence of the human explorer, and dealing with the repercussions of the kyo having been there (it turns out they were in touch with some kif--Chancellor Rhaurr is not happy with said kif). A few new players & characters now, including a hani ship, Handur's Independence.

The messageboard players say "tell him we miss him!" so please come play if you're so inclined. :D

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[info]primroseport
2007-05-30 02:12 am UTC (link)
Wow--thanks for the update! I will digest all this soon.

I do hope the player who controls "Khikkikh" is still around, because s/he and I have an interesting storyline in the works with our Kif.

Were you the one involved in my proposed storyline about Mahen religion and Atevi number code?

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[info]nenya_kanadka
2007-05-30 02:18 am UTC (link)
Hehe, sorry to infodump on you. :D I love all the interconnected plot threads in that roleplay, with all the different races and points of view, but it does make it hard to tell the plot to someone concisely!

Yes, Khikkikh's character has recently come back to play. He's currently defending (as he sees it) Nepenti from Aha, a mahe who is anti-atevi, after having been involved in the plot about the kif/kyo connection.

Yes, I was the one playing the atevi side of that storyline. Would love to see where that goes!

The OOC thread for the incoming human ship (which no one is sure isn't threatening yet--alarms have sounded on station but the all-clear hasn't) is here, and the OOC atevi thread is here.

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[info]primroseport
2007-05-30 02:24 am UTC (link)
Awesome.

Well, I have massive work to do for the next three days, but after that I can start going through many of the critical threads. I just now read through some of my other threads to remind myself of my character and the plots I'm involved in or have hinted at, haha. Well, see you guys around. (PS, I finished Deliverer a few weeks ago--is that really the final foreigner book? Say it ain't so!)

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[info]nenya_kanadka
2007-05-30 02:29 am UTC (link)
I heard at Shejidan that there were going to be three more Foreigner books, but I think she is writing a sequel to Cyteen at the moment, so we probably have to wait...

See you around! :D *rubs hands together and cackles in anticipation* Hehe.

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[info]primroseport
2007-05-30 02:34 am UTC (link)
I KNEW THAT COULDN'T BE THE END! Gosh, if it were, I'd be disappointed.

See you 'round....

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