How the Mdlbear got its name

[mdlbear]

Ganked from slothman, who saved me the trouble of removing the replication code:

Explain your LiveJournal name and its meaning.

This is a multi-step process. First, you have to realize that "mdlbear" is short for "Mandelbear". It's only seven characters; a fact that hackers who cut their teeth on eight-column tabstops will readily appreciate. It's also faster to type, and fits conveniently in DOS filenames, IRC nicks, and so on.

The "Mandelbear" is the name this fractal, which you can also see in my default userpic, acquired when I described myself that way in a post on alt.callahans. I'll track that one down eventually, meanwhile this post includes the following description:

"The Mandelbear started out in Callahans as a medium-sized teddybear. He is presently a three-dimensional cross-section of a four- dimensional fractal, usually the one defined by iterating z^3+c, with Mandelbrot sets in one direction and Julia sets in the other. The cubic Mandelbrot set looks a lot like a sort of weird teddy-bear made out of hearts, with two antenna-like structures on its head. It is, of course, infinitely fuzzy."

The "medium-sized teddybear" was originally derived from the "Middle-Sized Bear" in Cordwainer Smith's story "Mark Elf". Here it is. It's in the collection The Instrumentality of Mankind from Del Rey, 1979, original copyright on the story 1957. I quote the relevant passage in this post:

[The story so far: Carlotta vom Acht has awakened from 16,000 years of suspended animation, and has spent several days wandering around in the wilderness that Earth has become. At the end of the story she encounters the Middle-Sized Bear.]

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Middle-Sized Bear who lives in these woods."

...

Carlotta was angry, confused, frightened, and sick again. She started to run.

Something as solid as a blow hit her.

She knew without being told that it was the bear's mind reaching out and encompassing hers.

It hit--boom!--and that was all.

She had never before stopped to think of how comfortable a bear's mind was. It was like lying in a great big bed and having mother take care of one when one was a very little girl, glad to be petted and sure of getting well.

The anger poured out of her. The fear left her. The sickness began to lighten. The morning seemed beautiful.

She herself felt beautiful as she turned--

And there you have it.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Oooooh. Now I gotta go get the rest of that story.

Thankfully, I shall be in Powells range this weekend.

[mdlbear]

I recommend the NESFA Press 2-volume (The Rediscovery of Man and Norstrillia) collection.

[elimloth.livejournal.com]

I love Cordwainer Smith's stories. Anyone who creates a universe in which the starships are lined with living clams to protect the travellers, and employ telepathic house cats to fight the 'dragons' has my attention.

---
[from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperspace_(science_fiction)]
Instrumentality of Mankind series (Cordwainer Smith)
In the short stories of Cordwainer Smith (writen in the 1960s and 1970s), the early eras of interstellar travel, crossing open space far from a star originally presented an incomprehensible danger: ordinary lifeforms, even protected within a hull environment, would die horribly for no apparent cause. Initially, this danger was met with the creation of the Habermen (humans, usually criminals, modified to be semi-automatons) and the Scanners (elite volunteers who underwent the Haberman process and served as ship's officers), who could survive whatever this unknown threat was unharmed. Later it was determined that if a large number of living organisms (clams, specifically) were used as a 'living shield', organisms further inward could survive unharmed. With the discovery of Space2 and the 'planoform' drive, the cause of this was finally determined: living entities, sometimes referred to as 'dragons', which existed in Space2 and fed on life energies. Since these creatures were disrupted and killed by bright physical light, they avoided the areas near stars. Thus, the practice of 'pinlighting' developed: ships would be accompanied by smaller vessels piloted by genetically engineered telepathic housecats, whom guided by human telepaths on-board the ships, would attack the creatures (which they perceived as enormous rats) with minature nuclear flares.

Aside from this, and the strange effects of the first attempts to travel through Space2 (and later, Space3), little is known about the planoform drive.

[mdlbear]

"Drunkboat" and "The Game of Rat and Dragon".

And who could forget C'Mell?

[elimloth.livejournal.com]

C'Mell! I forgot. Well, I guess I need to reread Cordwainer's works.

I sometimes wonder about my cats; they manage to be at the front door by the time I ride home on bicycle (and no, they do not think of me as a giant rat). Selene tells me they often leave her lap and run to the door minutes before I arrive. Since I arrive at varying times, this is a pretty good feat for them.