fluffy: [quote]I'm missing the reference. It sounds vaguely like Ringworld, or is it something else?
It's from Gene Wolfe's "Long Sun" books, which take place in a generation ship but much closer to the present in terms of who's in it, at least (humans, robots, and some genetically engineered mutants.) There's an axial "sun" similar to Unity's, and a "shade" that rotates around it to create day and night - I assume, I don't recall a direct reference.
I was thinking of the danger of viewing a solar eclipse, and the moment of dawn or dusk is about as close as such a world gets to that situation.
Ah, yes. That is also how the day/night cycle happens in Unity, of course, and darkness doesn't get particularly dark thanks to backscattering from the other side of the world. I have no idea how bright the direct illumination from the hub is, though... it's hot plasma being funneled directly from a stellar fragment held in a magnetic cage at the fore of the ship, but Wikipedia doesn't have any good numbers for how much visible-spectrum flux that generates.
Presumably whatever material contains the hub itself also has a significant amount of light filtration, particularly in the ultraviolet. I have a feeling that the first few generations of whatever colonies the, er, Unitarians leave behind will have to rediscover sunscreen (and protective clothing, in the case of the Kayohash).
I also have to wonder how much UV protection the various synthesized melanin-analogs provide. But these will have to be things for some other story.
Juni: Mom, we got here as soon as we could. What is it?
Hira: Oh, Juni. It is so wonderful to see you. [Hiero]Hello Tanya. We sit beside you at trial tens-rounds ago. It's is nice to meet you properly.
Tanya [in Kajoshi]: Good evening, ma'am.
Hira: You speak Kajoshi!
Juni: Only a little. She's been trying to learn.
Tanya: Very little.
Hira: Well, have you eaten?
Tanya: I am well-fed.
Hira: She's a keeper, this one.
That was quite purposeful, and hardly an isolated instance. Hira isn't a native speaker of Hiero. Neither is Juni, for that matter, but Juni's been living in the South long enough that it only has an accent and a couple odd turns of phrase.
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It's from Gene Wolfe's "Long Sun" books, which take place in a generation ship but much closer to the present in terms of who's in it, at least (humans, robots, and some genetically engineered mutants.) There's an axial "sun" similar to Unity's, and a "shade" that rotates around it to create day and night - I assume, I don't recall a direct reference.
I was thinking of the danger of viewing a solar eclipse, and the moment of dawn or dusk is about as close as such a world gets to that situation.
Presumably whatever material contains the hub itself also has a significant amount of light filtration, particularly in the ultraviolet. I have a feeling that the first few generations of whatever colonies the, er, Unitarians leave behind will have to rediscover sunscreen (and protective clothing, in the case of the Kayohash).
I also have to wonder how much UV protection the various synthesized melanin-analogs provide. But these will have to be things for some other story.
I swear I enjoy these comics immensely as well as nitpicking.