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"I don't have an e-mail address. As much as I admire the Internet I suffer literally agoraphobia, which in it's original sense means a fear of the marketplace. I do not want to receive three hundred e-mail messages per week from strangers…"
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![]() In the book, the Way Station is a galactic transfer point that has been built into an existing building. In this case, an old cabin belonging to a Civil War veteran. The entire exterior surface of the cabin is protected by an impenetrable, frictionless coating.
The concept of a frictionless surface is relatively modern. In the 4th century BC, the natural philosopher Aristotle postulated that, to keep a body in motion, a constant force must be applied. Given our daily experience, this seems to be true - nothing keeps moving forever. Following the work of Newton and others, however, the idea of a frictionless surface or environment (like airless space) came to be widely discussed in science.
What solid has the lowest coefficient of friction? As far as anyone knows, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polymer of fluorinated ethylene, is the slipperiest solid material. PFTE is better known under its brand name - Teflon. It was discovered in 1938 by Roy J. Plunkett at DuPont; it was made available as a commercial product after WWII in 1946.
Compare to telelubricator from The Exalted (1940) by L. Sprague de Camp. Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
JAXA Int Ball 2 Coming Right Along As Star Wars Remote
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
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'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
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It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
Dino From Magical Toys An AI Companion To Children
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
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