Subject: Ackanomic Digest V2 #44
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Digest)
To: ackanomic-digest

Ackanomic Digest       Saturday, April 12 1997       Volume 02 : Number 044

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 01:47:50 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Bond-Harfer

> he could help most by keeping the trinket description page
> when Malenkai is gone.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
	Did I miss something?  :o(

- -- Mohammed
worried

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 23:41:04 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert 

>The Senate has voted three to one in favor of Malenkai's request to be
>granted Expert status in the topic of "Bandwidth-Wasting Gizz", with
>ThinMan providing the dissenting vote.

In light of this decision, I am once again formally applying for Expert
Status on the subject of "Ackanomic Headwear".  I am well qualified.  I am
the foremost designer of Prosthetic Foreheads (asSPEC and otherwise) and
the author of the silly vacation hat rule. I fought a duelk (guberniya) to
defend the honor of Ackanomic Headwear. The only person (well, undead) who
came close to matching my expertise in this area is Guy Fawkes.

snowgod

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 23:45:20 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Duel 

Can I call you Betty?

You except this Duel, or so you say, but you have yet to even choose your
weapon.  How then does Habeous Corpus wished to be vanquished?  WOuld he
prefer a challenge of the limericks, or a game of Ghost against my friends,
Robert Sevin, the reigning IRC Champion.  Perhaps he wishes to just get it
over with and be bludgeoned by the bloody U of the Uestiox?

Pray tell, Alvin, How does Habeous Corpus wish to meet his doom?

snowgod
Second to Robert Sevin

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 01:43:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert

>> The Senate has voted three to one in favor of Malenkai's request to be
>> granted Expert status in the topic of "Bandwidth-Wasting Gizz", with
>> ThinMan providing the dissenting vote.
> 
> In light of this decision, I am once again formally applying for
> Expert Status on the subject of "Ackanomic Headwear".  I am well
> qualified.  I am the foremost designer of Prosthetic Foreheads
> (asSPEC and otherwise) and the author of the silly vacation hat
> rule. I fought a duelk (guberniya) to defend the honor of Ackanomic
> Headwear. The only person (well, undead) who came close to matching
> my expertise in this area is Guy Fawkes.

I would just like to remind snowgod that the reason for the Senate
turning down your original application was that the subject matter was
considered to be too narrow. I don't think anyone actually doubts your
familiarity with the subject.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 00:08:42 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert 

>I would just like to remind snowgod that the reason for the Senate
>turning down your original application was that the subject matter was
>considered to be too narrow. I don't think anyone actually doubts your
>familiarity with the subject.
>
>breadbox

Okay, well, very good then. I don't think anyone told me that the first
time. Let's see.... Too narrow?  How many rules do we have dealing with
Internomic?  4.  How many rules deal with headwear?  Almost as many. How
many rules deal specifically with bandwidth wasting gizz?

snowgod

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 10:04:07 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: Treasure found

I hereby announce that Malenkai found Treasure 124 on April 6th at 2:42
pm.  He was not the first to attempt to do so; at least three other
players decoded the clue, and two of them made attempts at satisfying
the map requirements.  The tricky part of the whole thing was that few,
perhaps none, of the entities owned by players have defined locations,
and the map required a player to go to the location of one of a
particular class of entities.  Malenkai solved that problem by creating
an appropriately-named trinket and donating it to the Museum -- thus
establishing its location.  Other treasure hunters attempted to use
Techno's Amber Banana Tree to satisfy the map conditions, but were not,
in my judgement, successful in going to its location.  Anyway, here is
the actual map:

The treasure shall be found by the first player who is not already a
Swinger who goes to the location of an Amber Banana Tree and then posts
a public message containing the words "Jane," "Cheetah," "throw," and
"vine." 

Except for formatting this is the same as the decoded version of the
clue, save that the sentence "Remember to look up!" was appended to the
clue.  Malenkai is now the proud owner of Tarzan's Treehouse -- the
office of a truly great swinger indeed -- and a Capital Swinger's
Office.

ThinMan

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:16:20 -0700
From: [email-masked] (fnord)
Subject: Re: Acka: Duel (Narf)

/dev/joe spake thusly
> I, /dev/joe, as second to fnord, am announcing that fnord challenges
> Narf to a Duel.  (See rule 1215.)

I have legally challenged Narf to a Duel, under the conditions
listed under Rule 1215.  The challenge was issued by my Second,
/dev/joe, on Mon, 7 Apr 1997 13:55:24 -0500 (CDT).  Neither
Narf, nor a Second for Narf have responded to that challenge
within the three day window alloted to em.  Therefore, Narf 
is considered to have forfeited the Duel.

fnord

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:43:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CFJ 371 (Calvin N Hobbes)

> That does not penetrate to the heart of the matter, however.  At the
> moment that the three day period expires, the Scientists have
> collectively broken the rules if no report has been written.  It is
> this potential situation that breadbox is actually addressing.  I
> claim that a more reasonable interpretation than the one breadbox
> suggests is that each Scientist has then broken the rules.  Each
> one, by acting differently, could have caused the rules to not be
> broken, so each one is individually culpable if no report is written
> within the three day limit.

I'm afraid this seems a little unfounded to me. When the Senate,
through inaction, falls into Contempt, the rules explicitly say that
each and every Senator is placed in Contempt. And this is for a
situation that already requires the cooperation of the group. Without
such an explicit clause in the W-File Rule, I don't think I could
agree that each and every Scientist has unambiguously committed a
Crime.

It seems to me that you're arbitrarily choosing to have the
"action-is-illegal" state to override the "action-is-legal" state,
without justification.

> Summary: No Scientist can have broken the rules at any time before the
> three-day "grace period" expires.  When the grace period expires, the
> rules will have been broken if no report has been written -- the
> Scientists, as a group, would then clearly be culpable.  This group
> culpability implies individual culpability for each Scientist.

I could agree that a Scientist could be culpable once it is *publicly
knowable* that no other Scientist has written a report within the
grace period. By then, however, it is simply too late for any
Scientist to change that fact! As I said: the rules are broken even
though every player has obeyed the rules.

Which, I might add, seems to have happened very recently. Are you
now going to issue three CFCJs?

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:38:46 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: Postmasterness

Mail to Narf, [email-masked], is bouncing marked "no such user".

I am exercising my privilege as postmaster to move him to the
digest lists.

/dev/joe
Postmaster

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:50:13 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: Vulcan Actions

I am attempting the following actions on the behalf of Vulcan.
They will occur after 7 days if no member of Vulcan objects, or
sooner if all the members of Vulcan approve the actions.  (and in
the second case, after I accept the transaction)

Vulcan is building a Vending Machine in its Secret Laboratory.
Vulcan is transferring its Vending Machine to /dev/joe.

I, as one of the three members of Vulcan, approve of these actions.

/dev/joe

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 15:34:45 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: Vulcan Actions

> I am attempting the following actions on the behalf of Vulcan.
> They will occur after 7 days if no member of Vulcan objects, or
> sooner if all the members of Vulcan approve the actions.  (and in
> the second case, after I accept the transaction)
> 
> Vulcan is building a Vending Machine in its Secret Laboratory.
> Vulcan is transferring its Vending Machine to /dev/joe.
> 
> I, as one of the three members of Vulcan, approve of these actions.
> 
I approve these actions.

ThinMan
Vulcan

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 18:48:14 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  P1907 accepted (...And Justice for All)

> Proposal 1907  ...Proposal accepted.

> ***
> Upon creation of this rule, a hearing shall be called with valid responses
> of [with responses sent to [email-masked]]:
> 
> 1) The Judicial system is fine the way it is
> 2) We should allow the Justices the option to decline to sit on certain CFJs
> 3) We should not permit the Justices to sit on their own CFJs

This hearing ends Monday at 12:05.  Reply to vote.

Malenkai

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 18:21:49 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Bot on the Web

In a desperate scramble to avoid doing actual work, I wrote another CGI 
script.

Log into the bot as normal at http://www.cbu.edu/~jorendor/acka/
and you'll notice a new button marked "Cast Votes".  Since there are only 
four proposals in the queue right now (as opposed to last week when we 
averaged four per *day*) it won't be quite as froody-looking as it could 
be.

If you're not really familiar with the web, be careful to read the 
instructions.  If you don't "send" the ballot when you're done with it,
then obviously I won't get it....

If you all stampede to the page at once you might get access errors.  The 
bot tries to avoid letting users step on one anothers' toes.  You'll know 
an access error when you see it (the page will say "access error") and it 
shouldn't happen but once a month, maybe.

- -- Mohammed

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 18:31:50 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  Supreme Court

I hereby resign as Supreme Court Justice.
I can't do work *and* keep up with the rules.  :o)

I had a great time and wish whoever replaces me feels consistently better 
about their decisions than I have.

- -- Mohammed
Ex-Supreme Court Justice

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 00:39:04 +0000
From: "Bascule" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  Supreme Court

> I had a great time and wish whoever replaces me feels consistently better 
> about their decisions than I have.
> 
> -- Mohammed
> Ex-Supreme Court Justice

Yeah, I had that problem too. FWIW, I thought all your decisions 
were great.

Bascule

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 19:43:02 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure found

ThinMan wrote:

> Malenkai is now the proud owner of Tarzan's Treehouse -- the
> office of a truly great swinger indeed -- and a Capital Swinger's
> Office.

So what pieces does this come with, or do I get to pick some?

Malenkai
chess newbie

If anyone is interested in how I solved the treasure, I have posted it
below, as per tradition.  I'm also curious as to when the other
attempts happened; I only noticed fnord's attempt go by:

- -------------------

Treasure 124 (ThinMan, Jan 31, 1997): 

I now create a treasure out of TARZAN's Treehouse [a capital swingers 
office]. I bury the treasure and very
carefully make a map of how to find it. 

Fellow Ackanomians, something horrible has ocurred! The map that I so 
carefully wrote has been altered! 

Let me tell you the whole story: 

I was walking home after burying the treasure. Burying treasure is hard work, 
so I decided to take a roundabout
path and enjoy the cool, breezy day. I threw my champion's cloak over my 
shoulder and strolled all over
Ackanomia -- past the Senate, past the Courthouse, through the residential 
district, and past Cow Town's lake
and the Ackanomic Afterlife -- before winding up back home. I got a close up 
look at Lestrade's Lighthouse,
passed a truly raunchy-looking pink place, and spent quite some time 
examining Swann's singularity from as
close as I could bring myself to come. You know, if I didn't know better, I 
would say that the Tower of
Bandwidth is starting to lean over towards the Singularity next door. 

Anyway, when I got home I took the map out of my pocket so I could store it 
away someplace safe. I almost
didn't notice, but something caught my eye; when I actually looked at the 
text, this is what it said: 

T ei l wu htarsabhnnehsshyeodo eutae   tt r lrfib rfepl osya
lh anohAsBreatgfom ae  ie  btnalSorageoadown nor nyci w e ta
 maeeat uoTen nistbrrsdc n hldes opiaeiseatnon  c  ghtsgpw "
J  .tm" ,oa"""aett"knvC hmho  eih ,br au,neR"eolnp"eee rwod!

- -------

I was certain that it was a scramble due to the letter distribution,
punctuation, and general look of it.  However, it took me awhile to find
the key due to ThinMan's narrative before the scramble.  I started by
tracing the path on the map described by ThinMan's wandering.  The first
part describes a diagonal path from NW to SE.  Looking at the scramble and
following that path exposes the word 'The', so I figured that was it.
However, following the rest of the pattern described by the wanderings on
the map, I could not get another word to follow after that 'The'.  It 
appeared that ThinMan's map wanderings were Treasure Hider's Gizz, 
something I've been known to include in my clues :).

The next realization was that the number of capital letters in the scramble 
was greater than the number of periods.  That indicated proper nouns
of some sort.  What sort?  Probably acka entities.

fnord or someone onced asked where the Amber Banana Tree was, and I
probably replied in the Treasury, but I do not remember.  One day I 
was looking at the scramble, though, and that 'AsB' in the puzzle stuck
out, and I remembered the talk of where is the ABT?  I searched the line
containing 'AsB', and sure enough the letters spelling the words 'Amber'
and 'Banana' are in there, with 9 characters of gizz seperating each
character in those words.  I started with the 'T' at the beginning of 
the puzzle, and sure enough, 'The' was spelled with 9 characters seperating
each letter.

I then wrote some programs to implement this algorithm on the puzzle.
First try I got:

The trlready Tree Jane,"
easure a Swiand th "Chee  shallnger wen postah,"   be foho goets a p"throw
und bys to tublic ," andThe trlready Tree Jane,"
easure a Swiand th "Chee  shallnger wen postah,"   be foho goets a p"throw
und bys to tublic ," and

I was sort of right.  It was clear that 'tr' in the first line went with
'easure'.  It seems that ThinMan added a factor of +2 when you got to the
end of the line to wrap around; that new algorithm spelled out 'treasure'.

Rather than try to write the perfect program that would account for
whatever little tricks like this ThinMan threw into the puzzle, I wrote 
another one that built fragments with each letter, and the letter 10
letters away from it, and got the following:

The tr]
 the f]
easure]
irst p]
 shall]
layer ]
 be fo]
who is]
und by]
 not a]
***
lready]
he loc]
 a Swi]
ation ]
nger w]
of an ]
ho goe]
Amber ]
s to t]
Banana]
***
 Tree ]
messag]
and th]
e cont]
en pos]
aining]
ts a p]
 the w]
ublic ]
ords "]
***
Jane,"]
 "vine]
 "Chee]
."  Re]
tah," ]
member]
"throw]
 to lo]
," and]
ok up!]
***

- ----

from which the pieces could easily be put together by inspection, leading
to:

The treasure shall be found by the first player who is not a
lready a Swinger who goes to the location of an Amber Banana
 Tree and then posts a public message containing the words "
Jane," "Cheetah," "throw," and "vine."  Remember to look up!

The 'Remember to look up!' was gizz to make the thing come out even.
I have done the same in a previous treasure :).  The problem was that
the treasure was already found!  I reread fnord's post (on the web
as a clue for another treasure, by mistake), and it seemed to fulfill
the conditions.  I assumed the amber banana tree was in the Treasury.
But the rules say *unowned* entities are in the treasury, but the 
rules also say that the Amber Banana Tree is owned by Techno (either a
player, or a non-player entity, as the case may be).  Moreover, the
Treasury is not a Location, and the map clearly called for a Location.
I figured Techno's house would be the Location, but his e-mail was
bouncing, so I could not get permission to go there and try it out.
Later I remembered that ownership does not indicate location, as per 
various discussions.

So there was the keyword 'an' in the map.  I was living my life in chains
in that I did not need 'The Amber Banana Tree', but 'An Amber Banana
Tree'. That is when I realised  creating a Trinket as an amber banana
tree, and establishing its location in the museum and going there should
do it.  My message subject lined 'a little story' contained the
necessary words, with enough gizz to provide misdirection for those
who did not decipher it.

Malenkai

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 19:47:47 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka:  Supreme Court

Mohammed wrote:

> I hereby resign as Supreme Court Justice.

A reminder to whomever may replace him that CFJ 364 is still due.

Mohammed owes A$9 in tardiness fees for that CFJ.

Malenkai
Clerk of the Courts

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 15:57:02 -0800
From: "Ross Morgan-Linial" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Customs Officer Nomination

Phil Ackley <[email-masked]> wrote:
> >>Shun Red Barn and his selfish interests! Vote for Malenkai! Malenkai: Not A
> >>Member Of Any Other Nomic*
> >
> >  If you vote for me, I promise to do everything I can to shamelessly
> >exploit the position!
> >
> >-Red Barn
> 
> I'm serious about this office.  If you elect me I promise to use it in a
> scam-free respoonsible way.  Who better to know about other nomics than the
> Ambassador?

Serious? Ackanomic? Are you into your mind? I think that, if I were a player, I 
would avoid both extreme positions and vote for Malenkai. Of course, voting for 
Red Barn might be fun too...
- -------------------------------
Antimatter * [email-masked]
You have the power of negation.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 01:19:36 +0000
From: "Bascule" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert

> > Oooh! What a disgusting slander! You'll be hearing from my lawyer.
> > Bascule
> 	Need a lawyer?  I'll work for you for a A$ 15 retainer.
> 
> -- Mohammed

I might take you up on this offer Mohammed, if I had any sort of 
legal redress. I should have written "You'll be hearing from my 
second" but I didn't want to alert Malenkai prematurely

Bascule
Too cheap to pay legal fees

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 20:21:18 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert

Bascule wrote:

> I might take you up on this offer Mohammed, if I had any sort of
> legal redress. I should have written "You'll be hearing from my
> second" but I didn't want to alert Malenkai prematurely

Try Malenkai's Loophole Service, acka's oldest law firm.  We have no
morals, we'll go after Malenkai for a fee.

Malenkai
all BWG comments were in good fun :)

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 15:47:57 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Expert 

>I might take you up on this offer Mohammed, if I had any sort of
>legal redress. I should have written "You'll be hearing from my
>second" but I didn't want to alert Malenkai prematurely
>
>Bascule
>Too cheap to pay legal fees

Now if you could just find a way to claim that said slander was published
in a newspaper.... Mayber mr cwm would be able to work out something with
is....

snowgod

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 20:58:13 -0400
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Acka: Duel 

>Can I call you Betty?

[Sound of You can call me {insert clever name here} groaning in mock anguish]

>Pray tell, Alvin, How does Habeous Corpus wish to meet his doom?

Ha ha ha ha ha!! According to the rules, I need not specify, but I hereby do
EXACTLY THAT, to spare one Mr. R. Sevin the ignominy of enduring the public
humiliation that walks hand-in-leprous-hand with his spouting of
Harf-related matters!

It's LIMERICKS AT 40 PACES, my friend! May the best man win!

You can call me Al (only my relatives call me Alvin or Betty) ;)

Ha ha ha ha ha!!
                                     __________
                                    /          \
                                   /            \
                                  |   o     o    |
                                  |    |   |     |
                             ----------|   |----------
                             -----------\_/-----------
                           [email-masked]
                             -------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 19:33:14 -0700
From: [email-masked] (fnord)
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure found

Malenkai writes:
> 
> So what pieces does this come with, or do I get to pick some?

As I recall, the pieces were with the Treasure.

> If anyone is interested in how I solved the treasure, I have posted it
> below, as per tradition.  I'm also curious as to when the other
> attempts happened; I only noticed fnord's attempt go by:

Actually, I had two attempts, maybe a third, as I kept roaming
all over Acka looking for Techno's Amber Banana Tree.

[Malenkai's long description of his solution, including writing
a program to solve it deleted]

AI solved it by remembering a trick I had always intended to use
for a treasure map, which is based off of something I learned
when studying how they were transmitting messages into space.

What they do is send a number of bits that is a multiple of
two primes numbers, so that when you tried to put them in a
tableau/array, there were only two possible ways of lining them up.

I split the text up into 10 character chunks, and then lined them
up one on top of another.  Reading down easily revealed the text,
I just had to skip columns.  

I was, however, trapped in the chains of no duplicate named
entites, so I didn't even think to create my own entity.

fnord

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 21:45:45 -0500
From: [email-masked] (John Bollinger)
Subject: Acka: Duel 

breadbox,

You may inform Bascule that Malenkai accepts his challenge.  As an Expert in
Bandwidth-Wasting Gizz, Malenkai is fully qualified to judge its production,
consumption, and comprehension, and he will not bow to the feeble attempts of
disgruntled individuals to strongarm him into making only wishy-washy,
mamby-pamby, feel-good proclamations concerning his area of expertise.
Furthermore, although Malenkai at one time supposed that his comments might
be taken in a humorous light, it is now clear from the response that they pierced
to the core, cut to the quick, hit where it hurt, and more or less shined the
light of truth somewhere in Bascule's general direction.  Tell Bascule, therefore,
to prepare for ignominious defeat at Malenkai's hand in a game of Ghost.

ThinMan
Malenkai's second, and his ironic Twin

"Three out of four Senators agree: Malenkai knows as much as anyone about
Bandwidth-Wasting Gizz."

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 22:12:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Re: Acka: Duel

ThinMan (Malenkai's second) wrote:
> Tell Bascule, therefore,
> to prepare for ignominious defeat at Malenkai's hand in a game of Ghost.

Hmm, you're going to need a referee for that Duel, and the referee is going
to need a Gamesmaster to start the game.  I volunteer for the vacant office
of Gamesmaster, and I'll also be your referee for the ghost game.

As Gamesmaster, I'm announcing the start of this game of Ghost between
Bascule and Malenkai.  Bascule has been randomly selected to play first.

As Web-Harfer, I note that the official dictionaries used for Ghost
are still available (unlike one of the fictionary dictionaries).

/dev/joe
Gamesmaster until some other willing person steps forward to do the job

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 22:20:24 -0500
From: [email-masked] (John Bollinger)
Subject: RE: Acka: CFJ 371 (Calvin N Hobbes) 

breadbox wrote:
[I wrote:]
> > That does not penetrate to the heart of the matter, however.  At the
> > moment that the three day period expires, the Scientists have
> > collectively broken the rules if no report has been written.  It is
> > this potential situation that breadbox is actually addressing.  I
> > claim that a more reasonable interpretation than the one breadbox
> > suggests is that each Scientist has then broken the rules.  Each
> > one, by acting differently, could have caused the rules to not be
> > broken, so each one is individually culpable if no report is written
> > within the three day limit.
> 
> I'm afraid this seems a little unfounded to me. When the Senate,
> through inaction, falls into Contempt, the rules explicitly say that
> each and every Senator is placed in Contempt. And this is for a
> situation that already requires the cooperation of the group. Without
> such an explicit clause in the W-File Rule, I don't think I could
> agree that each and every Scientist has unambiguously committed a
> Crime.

Evidently that is why you called the CFJ (the fact that you are also
trying to win notwithstanding :^)  I do not dispute that the rules are
not entirely clear on the subject, but I do not think that the
Scientists' (in)actions seem _equally_ legal and illegal.  I don't
think that they even seem similarly legal and illegal.

Also, the fact that the Commission D'Arts rule does not suffer from the
same ambiguity that the W-File rule does simply means that the former
rule is better-written.  Indeed, the case is only roughly parallel,
because whether the Senators are placed in Contempt or not, they have
not broken the Rules.

> It seems to me that you're arbitrarily choosing to have the
> "action-is-illegal" state to override the "action-is-legal" state,
> without justification.

Not at all.  That is to say, there is nothing arbitrary about my
opinion that the rules indicate that the Scientists' (in)actions
are, in fact, illegal if they persist through the end of the
three-day "grace period."  See below.

> > Summary: No Scientist can have broken the rules at any time before the
> > three-day "grace period" expires.  When the grace period expires, the
> > rules will have been broken if no report has been written -- the
> > Scientists, as a group, would then clearly be culpable.  This group
> > culpability implies individual culpability for each Scientist.
> 
> I could agree that a Scientist could be culpable once it is *publicly
> knowable* that no other Scientist has written a report within the
> grace period. By then, however, it is simply too late for any
> Scientist to change that fact! As I said: the rules are broken even
> though every player has obeyed the rules.

I do not see how public knowability applies to the legalities involved
in this matter.  One rule specifically says that at least one Scientist
must write a report.  Another rule says that as an action required of
an officer, the writing of the report must be performed within three
days.  Any time before the three days expire, it is perfectly legal
for any or all of the Scientists to not write a report.  Even one millisecond
before the deadline, there is the possibility of one of the Scientists writing
the report half a millisecond before the deadline.  As soon as the
time expires, it is immediately illegal that no Scientist has written a
report.  It is still, however, perfectly legal for the Scientists to
not write a report -- then because the requirement is past, despite being
unfulfilled.  It is at no time illegal for any one Scientist to not write a report.

How then, you ask, is it possible for the rules to have been broken?  Well,
there are two possibilities.  One is that it is simply a quirk of the rules
that it is possible for the rules to be broken without anyone, individually,
performing an illegal action.  This is not as farfetched as it may sound, and
I urge the judge to consider it.  The position that I have argued, however, is
that each Scientist has broken the rules -- not by not writing a report, apparently,
for that is never illegal, but rather by allowing the time limit to expire without
a report being written.  As I reflect upon it, the former position is the stronger.

Moreover, it does not matter whether any Scientist knows whether any other
Scientist has written a report.  Its just tough patooties that they have to
work in the dark; they always have the option of writing a report themselves
so that they can be assured of not breaking the rules.

I will not be calling any CFCJ's, certainly not until CFJ 371 comes back, but
likely not at all.  I just don't usually like writing the things.  Normal CFJs
are a different matter, but CFCJs just don't tend to be fun for me.

ThinMan
Former winner by Paradox
wearing his Champion's Cloak
Expert in Paradox Wins

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End of Ackanomic Digest V2 #44
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