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"I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Twing | ||
| Used in the hold of spaceships to keep articles all together, and to prevent them from floating around in free fall, or falling during periods of acceleration. |
NASA worked hard on the problem of what to do with loose items in space ships. They float around when you are in free fall, and they might hurt someone (or damage something else) while you are accelerating.
The answer? Twing! It's kind of like a string netting that keeps everything in its place, but can easily be released for access.
| He picked up the flat-nosed softener key...
Twing was tough, but not invulnerable...Phssthpok applied the softener key to the twing. Thump - and a foot of crude glass rod slammed through the twing. |
| Technovelgy from Protector,
by Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey in 1973 Additional resources -
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
