Gambling Grand Slam

I play Bridge occasionally so I thought I’d put some interesting hands up here when they occur and I remember enough about them for it to be worthwhile. This one involves making a grand slamat a duplicate event which no-one else even bid.

The Jovian System in Space 1889

The official Space 1889 universe consists of Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon and Mars. It is stated in the official rules that the solar boilers that power the ether ships do not work due to being too far from the Sun when the ships get much beyond Mars. However,it occurred to me that an exploratory vessel with a secondary power system with its own fuel supply might make through the Asteroid Belt to the Jovian System, particularly with the invention of the steam turbine in the 1890s. In our world Sir Charles Parsons built the SS Turbinia and disrupted the Spithead Review in 1894. In the Space 1889 Universe he could have followed that up with a trip to Jupiter.

World of the White Dwarf

No, not the account of the life of a pale-skinned person of restricted growth but thoughts on the possibilities raised by the concept of life on the planet of a white dwarf star as discussed in Ken Croswell’s article in the 2 July 2011 issue of New Scientist.