June / July issue

[Robert_Moriyama]

It's lovely to see lots of activity here and in the Fun and Games folders... if only there were more than 80 posts relating to the 25-plus items in the June / July issue...

[Lester Curtis]

Maybe some kind of unknown threshold has been reached . . . it can't be the heat; I saw the input stop days ago.

I'll see if I can start something, but it may not be soon . . . I have no A/C, and I may be forced to take refuge in the basement where it's cooler.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Maybe some kind of unknown threshold has been reached . . . it can't be the heat; I saw the input stop days ago.

I'll see if I can start something, but it may not be soon . . . I have no A/C, and I may be forced to take refuge in the basement where it's cooler.

For that matter, maybe the computer should be in the basement! I'm pretty sure that at least one of my machines died partly because heat eventually damaged some of the components... All them fancy liquid-cooled high-speed fan case modifications may not be as silly as we think when the ambient temperature is stuck at record- or near-record levels.

Scientific American has an article comparing the current hot spell with previous periods when global temperatures reached similar levels. The all-natural warming periods apparently took thousands of years, allowing species to survive by migrating as the climate changed. The current warming trend looks like it will involve the same change in global average temperatures -- but over the course of centuries (if not decades) instead of millennia! This year in particular seems to be frying much of the grain- and corn-growing land in the U.S....
Start hoarding those corn flakes in the storm cellar (where the tornadoes can't get them)...

Er, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah... It hurts to see the Forum games and challenges drawing more attention and effort than the 'main' parts of the webzine. Maybe we should just change it to the Aphelion Online Writers' Workshop and Social Club, and skip the 'publishing' part.