Subject: Ackanomic Digest V2 #80
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Digest)
To: ackanomic-digest

Ackanomic Digest        Saturday, May 10 1997        Volume 02 : Number 080

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 00:14:47 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka:  CGI

The bot is still down because I need to reprogram it to recognize the
difference between voting and nonvoting players now that we have so
many of those all of a sudden.  :o)  I've pretty much got the mail
part fixed, but the cgi part will take a few hours.

In the meantime, I'm sick and tired so I am going to go to sleep.

'night.

- -- 
Mohammed
Half a world away, zombies overran the world.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 00:19:08 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: CGI puzzle prizes (stage 3)

On Fri, 25 Apr 1997, John Frederic Mc Coy wrote:
> > Three winners jumped at the chance to own their share of the PCs offered 
> > as a prize in the CGI puzzle.  They were Vynd, Antimatter, and Habeous 
> > Corpus.
> > 
> > I am offering the following trades:
> > #transfer mohammed, vynd: 2 Processing Chips : CGI puzzle prize
> 
> I accept this.  Should I be doing some sort of funky thing for the bot?
> Are we ever supposed to do anything for the bot if all we're doing is
> accepting something?  I'm still rather confused by the whole thing, I'm
> afraid.
	I'll post that again someday.  At least one other player has
requested it, too.  Thanks for your eagerness to help, if I can
interpret it that way.  :o)

I don't care who puts the trade in bot-speak as long as someone does
it.  If you're acking something that someone else offered to you,
and they already put the bot commands in there, just quote them and
I'll be perfectly happie.
	You don't have to *send* anything to the bot directly; I copy
all the financier commands to the bot by hand as it were.

- -- 
Mohammed
The one and only kid, a smelly pretty blind baker, and one violent giant
aquatic parrot joined forces to fight a detective from Zaire.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 00:28:45 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: CGI puzzle prize (stage 3)

I wrote:
> > I am creating a Trinket worth A$ 1 called the Amber Heptahedron.  It
> > is an oddly cut block of amber about the size of a softball.  Three
> > of its seven faces are rhombic.  Three of its faces are five-sided
> > shapes.  All the faces are flat.  The Heptahedron is convex.
> > 
> > This Trinket will go to the first of the remaining winners to give
> > me A$ 20 or publicly reveal how many edges the Heptahedron has,
> > giving conclusive reasoning.

On Fri, 25 Apr 1997, Brian Raiter wrote:
> The seventh face has to be triangular, otherwise two adjoining faces
> would have to share more than one edge, which is not possible given
> that every other face has more than three sides (and that the
> heptahedron is convex, and the faces are flat).
	From "which" to the end of the sentence is okay in my mind,
but I don't think "two adjoining faces would have to share more than
one edge" is trivial from the facts.  It may be true, but please
elaborate.
	I posted this puzzle without knowing whether there was one
solution.  I did get so far as deciding the seventh face had to be
either a triangle or a pentagon, and quickly found that a triangle
worked, but could neither prove nor disprove that it was possible to
complete the figure using a fourth pentagon.

- -- 
Mohammed
Farmers led the big parade.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 01:36:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: More results stuff

It looks like Mohammed also missed CarsesraC and Red Barn (both were
active players when that whole voting results bit started, and apparently
neither of them voted.)

On the earlier proposals enough people voted that it doesn't matter.

Note that the quorum rule counts all players who voted (including
vacationing ones) but only active abstaining players count against
quorum.  I don't think Mohammed's bot is counting that correctly.

Proposal 1966 reports 12 votes cast (but really only 11 since YccmA's
vote didn't count) and 7 abstains (8 with YccmA, 10 with CarsesraC
and Red Barn).  So it meets quorum.

Proposal 1967 reports 11 votes cast (but really only 10 since YccmA's
vote doesn't count) and 8 abstains (which becomes 9 with YccmA, and
11 with CarsesraC and Red Barn).
So it actually fails to meet quorum.  And I get to re-do the scores.

breadbox, CnH, two-star, mr cwm, Mohammed, Vynd, Niccolo Flychuck, fnord,
You can call me Al, CarsesraC, and Red Barn became non-voting after the
results from P1967.

On P1968, Bascule and Guy Fawkes are the only real abstains left, so
it meets quorum (and passes, 5-1).

P1969-1973 are unchanged.  Then P1974 fails quorum, with 4 votes
and 5 abstains. (Robert Sevin, IdiotBoy, Antimatter, Guy Fawkes, and
Bascule become non-voting here).

P1975 still also fails quorum, with ThinMan, snowgod, and Techno now
becoming non-voting.  And we reach the end of the cascading quorum
failures, after 11, 5, and 3 players (respective) became non-voting,
leaving just me as the only active player.

In two days (late Saturday night) the 19 newly-turned-non-voting players
may return to active status by posting so publicly.

I should've submitted a "dictator" proposal 1976 before killing the bot. :-)
It would have passed 1-0, meeting quorum with 1 vote and no active abstains.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 01:59:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: Score/entity report

AKA "what really happened last night"

P1944 rejected, foolish
P1945 rejected
P1946 -retracted-
P1947 rejected (NF A$40 tammany bribe) (Mohammed loses his eggplant)
P1948 accepted, modest, short (Mal A$2 elec. potato)
P1949 rejected
P1950 accepted, modest, short (Mal A$2 elec. potato)
P1951 accepted, modest (Mal A$2 elec. potato)
P1952 rejected
P1953 rejected (NF A$40 tammany bribe)
P1954 accepted, modest, short (Mal A$2 elec. potato)
P1955-1958 rejected, foolish (Bascule loses eggplant on 1957)
P1959 rejected
P1960 accepted, modest, short
P1961 accepted (Guy Fawkes 3 pcs)
P1962,1963 rejected
P1964,1965 -retracted-
P1966 accepted, tuba (Bascule 1 pc)
P1967 failed quorum
P1968 accepted, potato (NF 3 pcs)
P1969-1973 rejected
P1974,1975 failed quorum

The current scores and players states (note that I've changed the way
I show players states to accomodate non-voting players)

Score   Ackanomic Name    Status Real Name
- -----   --------------      1234 -------------
41      Guy Fawkes           N   (Robert Shimmin)
35      IdiotBoy             N   (Matt Miller)
25      Techno               N   (Jerome Herrman)
18      Bascule              N   (Matt Black)
16      You can call me Al   N   (Wally Holland)
15      Mohammed             N   (Jason Orendorff)
13      Vynd                 N   (John McCoy)
7       mr cwm               N   (Eric Murray)
3       Niccolo Flychuck     N   (Uri Bruck)
0       Alfvaen             NP   (Aaron Humphrey)
0       Sunflare            NP   (Phil Bordelon)
0       Ackers               Ii  (Sean Crystal)
- -1      Red Barn             N   (Daniel Knapp)
- -2      two-star             N   (Alexandre Muniz)
- -2      Antimatter           N   (Ross Morgan-Linial)
- -5      breadbox             Ng  (Brian Raiter)
- -5      Calvin N Hobbes      N   (Thierry Joffrain)
- -6      ThinMan              Nv  (John Bollinger)
- -9      /dev/joe             Av  (Joseph DeVincentis)
- -11     Robert Sevin         Nv  (Mitchell Harding)
- -12     CarsesraC            N   (Jeroen M.W. van Dijk)
- -15     fnord                N   (Michael Thomas)
- -15     Habeous Corpus       N   (Ed Graham)
- -26     snowgod              N   (Phil Ackley)
- -91     Malenkai             Vv  (Randy Hall)

Status:
Column 1: N=New R=Returning (for Pending players)
Column 2: A=Active, P=Pending, N=Non-voting, V=Vacation, I=On Ice, D=Dead
Other columns: v=Victory Eggplant, g=Chartreuse Goose,
f=Frobbed Widget of Yendor, i=Involuntary (last put-on-vacation)

BTW I think I have a proof that the 7th face of the heptahedron
cannot be a pentagon but it's too late for me, and it looks long.
I'll do that and update the rules sometime tomorrow.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 11:33:08 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Uri Bruck <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: P1975 failed quorum (Is the flea always right?)

If it'sthe Senate reform,then I dont think I retracted. I was going
to,but when R106 was abducted, I forgot about it.

Niccolo Flychuck

On Thu, 8 May 1997, Jason Orendorff wrote:

> On Thu, 8 May 1997, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:
> > > Proposal 1975
> > > Is the flea always right?
> > > Techno
> >
> > This is wrong.  I voted right after the rule came back, but the bot was
> > down so who knows where the message went.
> 	Correct.  /dev/joe voted NO on Proposal 1975.  The proposal
> fails on that one NO vote and no other votes.
> 	Bummer.
> 
> 	I think proposal 1973 was retracted, so it would not have
> failed.  The retraction is not in my mail, so I must have accidentally
> deleted it.  I'm just about sure I saw it tho; not sure about the
> date... could you check me on that, Acting Speaker?
> 
> - -- 
> Mohammed
> You know, it's dangerous out there.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of Ackanomic Research Digest V2 #55
> ***************************************
> 

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

Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 23:43:01 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Name Change 

I am changing my Ackanomic name to Mr. Nacho because it feels like the
right thing to do.  My old Ackanomic name is, of course, snowgod.  My email
adress remains unchanged.  My real life name is still Phil Ackley.  The
moon is still made of green cheese.

I am acking the name change.

Mr. Nacho

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 11:43:00 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Uri Bruck <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure

On Thu, 8 May 1997, Jason Orendorff wrote:

> On Fri, 2 May 1997, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:
> > The treasure may be found by publicly posting the name of the hobbit
> > who found the ring after Gollum lost it.
> 	My girlfriend recently read the Prose Edda for a Mythology
> class she is taking and was surprised to find a few familiar names
> among the characters... as it turns out Tolkein must have lifted the
> names of Galdalf, Thorin, and in fact all thirteen of the dwarves from
> Norse mythology!
> 	(I'm sure there's at least one die-hard Tolkein fan here who
> already knew that, but *I* was astonished.)

Since this was not far from his expertise, it's not very surprising.
What always irkes me is the local bookstore which insists his translation
to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on the fantasy shelves,because
they don't that it's one of his scholarly works.

Niccolo Flychuck
 > 
> - -- 
> Mohammed
> A nomad taunted funny bald televangelists.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 08:44:16 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CGI puzzle prizes (stage 3)

Mohammed wrote:
> Mohammed
> The one and only kid, a smelly pretty blind baker, and one violent
> giant
> aquatic parrot joined forces to fight a detective from Zaire.
> 
ROFL

Mohammed, are you archiving these?

ThinMan

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 09:07:23 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Speed viruses

I still can't manage to get Acrobot to send me a password; it's still got
that file locking thing on.  (Not that there's anything to vote on, but as
I've said before, I'm tired of being Pending.  And I can't even submit
anything _myself_ until I'm a Voting Player...  Sorry, I'm not griping at
you, I'm just griping _near_ you.)

> Mohammed
> Weird things happen to quick detectives.

Either you've got a tagline file at least as interesting as mine, or you're
very good at coming up with these things on the spot...either way, I like,
and I may be appopriating.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:Your Racist Friend
Current Book--Storm Constantine:The Monstrous Regiment
Holo Graham Crackers--FREE invisible ink pack!

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 09:18:14 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Flee

You know, I've been in this game for a week and a half now, and I can't
recall having heard Phoebe say anything.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:Chess Piece Face
Current Book--Storm Constantine:The Monstrous Regiment
"Do you want me to talk about the dramatic unities again?"

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 10:42:59 -0500 (CDT)
From: Guy Fawkes <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Score/entity report

On Fri, 9 May 1997, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> -9      /dev/joe             Av  (Joseph DeVincentis)

Amazing.  You know, it's a good thing the provision for ending a 
proposal's voting period when all active players have voted is no longer 
in the rules; otherwise, there would be no obstacle to /dev/joe naming 
himself emperor on the spot.  There still might be some way for him to do 
it as the only voting player.  If there is, I would like to see him try.

Guy Fawkes

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 10:30:58 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Officer Listing

I have just put up a Web page at
http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/acka/officers.html that lists all the
holders of offices(as far as I can discern them, at least), because I can't
keep you all straight in my head, and I'm tired of groveling over the PE
page when I want to figure out who's who.  I realize that it's totally
unofficial, but if anyone wants to put up links to it, or make any helpful
comments on it, I would be vastly obliged.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:We Want A Rock
Current Book--Storm Constantine:The Monstrous Regiment
If you sit around anywhere long enough, you'll die.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 10:40:56 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Officer Listing

As our good Web-Harfer has so ably pointed out, I made a typo in my
original message.  Try http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/acka/offices.html
instead.  (I.E. "offices" instead of "officers".)  I also made some attempt
to list the owners of unique entities, which I figured might also come in
handy.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:We Want A Rock
Current Book--Storm Constantine:The Monstrous Regiment
When cryptography is outlawed, only xumweer snoeykq ijpqrgm pziebtcc

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:30:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: mr cwm <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Speed viruses

On Wed, 7 May 1997, Sunflare wrote:

>Anyone else here on the Acka have ideas for books that can increase our
>gaming enjoyment, either by presenting interesting polisci stuff (like
>_Themas_ with Nomic) or games we can "easily" translate into the Acka
>scheme?

Umm ... is Suber's _The Paradox of Self-Amendment_ too obvious?  I read it
over spring break last year, and was inspired to found (None Yet) upon my
return.

- -mr cwm

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 12:59:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: bot

On Tue, 6 May 1997, Jerome Herrman (Techno) wrote:
> #vote 1975 yes

Yesterday I wrote:
> This vote was just a day late; the proposal's voting period
> had already expired by Tuesday.

Techno replied:
> The bot on the web would not take my votes on monday.  The alien
> rule abductions expired on monday and i tried to vote then.  I would
> like you to reconsider.

What do you think of this?  It does not affect the outcome of the
proposal but would give techno a few points.  Technically.. the
"message" was indeed "sent" to me.. but I have no proof, and no way of
knowing when it was sent or what was in it.  The bot doesn't log
failed attempts in detail.  (It can't; it doesn't dare write to any
files unless it can get a proper lock.)

- -- 
Mohammed
Save bossy aliens!

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:20:52 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CGI puzzle prizes (stage 3)

On Fri, 9 May 1997, Bollinger, John C. wrote:
> Mohammed wrote:
> > The one and only kid, a smelly pretty blind baker, and one violent
> > giant aquatic parrot joined forces to fight a detective from
> > Zaire.
> 
> Mohammed, are you archiving these?
	No need; there are plenty more where that one came from.
	See for yourself:  http://www.cbu.edu/~jorendor/bab.cgi

- -- 
Mohammed
Oh no, not a pretty bald giant ant from another planet!

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:31:53 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jason Orendorff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: and the bot is..... still down.

On Fri, 9 May 1997, Aaron Humphrey wrote:
> I still can't manage to get Acrobot to send me a password; it's still got
> that file locking thing on.  (Not that there's anything to vote on, but as
> I've said before, I'm tired of being Pending.  And I can't even submit
> anything _myself_ until I'm a Voting Player...  Sorry, I'm not griping at
> you, I'm just griping _near_ you.)
	Actually I believe you can submit stuff. None of the rest of
us can, but as a Pending player you qualify.
	There are four player states-- Active, Pending, Vacation, and
Non-voting.  Both Active and Pending players count as Voting, I think.

	The bot is still down until I can modify the CGI programs to
do proper checks to make sure it doesn't allow Vacationing or
Non-voting players to cast votes.  This probably will not be done
today because I have a busy day ahead of me.

> > Mohammed
> > Weird things happen to quick detectives.
> 
> Either you've got a tagline file at least as interesting as mine, or you're
> very good at coming up with these things on the spot...either way, I like,
	Thank you!  Actually, it's neither, although I do have a
tagline file around here somewhere...

"I just forgot to increment the counter," said Tom, nonplussed.
Drink your coffee!  There are poor people in India sleeping.
John Wayne's World:  Party on, Pilgrim.
Energizer Bunny Arrested! Charged with battery.

et cetera, ad nauseum

(A surfer from Yale, hmm...)

- -- 
Mohammed
A happy surfer from Yale taunted a transparent rude intelligent slick
cartoonist.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:33:47 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: bot

Mohammed wrote:

> On Tue, 6 May 1997, Jerome Herrman (Techno) wrote:
> > #vote 1975 yes
> 
> Yesterday I wrote:
> > This vote was just a day late; the proposal's voting period
> > had already expired by Tuesday.
> 
> Techno replied:
> > The bot on the web would not take my votes on monday.  The alien
> > rule abductions expired on monday and i tried to vote then.  I would
> > like you to reconsider.
> 
> What do you think of this?  It does not affect the outcome of the
> proposal but would give techno a few points.  Technically.. the
> "message" was indeed "sent" to me.. but I have no proof, and no way of
> knowing when it was sent or what was in it.  The bot doesn't log
> failed attempts in detail.  (It can't; it doesn't dare write to any
> files unless it can get a proper lock.)
> 
I think it is debatable whether the situation described constitutes a
message being "sent" to the Tabulator.  Techno apparently made an
attempt to vote, but did he actually vote?  I am inclined to say not,
but I am open to arguments.  I note also that Techno could have sent a
vote by e-mail, but did not.  The bot being down is no reason to
allow tardy votes to be counted as if they were timely.  Indeed, the
Rules do not permit tardy votes to be counted even if the whole Net
goes down for a week.

I imagine that Malenkai might say something at this point about the
dangers of becomimg too dependant on various Web technologies, but I'm
not him :^)

ThinMan
Acting Speaker

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:02:05 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: and the bot is..... still down.

> On Fri, 9 May 1997, Aaron Humphrey wrote:
> > I still can't manage to get Acrobot to send me a password; it's still got
> > that file locking thing on.  (Not that there's anything to vote on, but as
> > I've said before, I'm tired of being Pending.  And I can't even submit
> > anything _myself_ until I'm a Voting Player...  Sorry, I'm not griping at
> > you, I'm just griping _near_ you.)
> 	Actually I believe you can submit stuff. None of the rest of
> us can, but as a Pending player you qualify.
> 	There are four player states-- Active, Pending, Vacation, and
> Non-voting.  Both Active and Pending players count as Voting, I think.

Well, cover me with bacon grease and roll me in oatmeal!  I was somehow
thinking that Active and Voting were more or less the same.  Silly me.
Well, then, it's time to start sending in the proposals I've been working
on over the past week...

> 	The bot is still down until I can modify the CGI programs to
> do proper checks to make sure it doesn't allow Vacationing or
> Non-voting players to cast votes.  This probably will not be done
> today because I have a busy day ahead of me.

Fair enough.

> > > Mohammed
> > > Weird things happen to quick detectives.
> > 
> > Either you've got a tagline file at least as interesting as mine, or you're
> > very good at coming up with these things on the spot...either way, I like,
> 	Thank you!  Actually, it's neither, although I do have a
> tagline file around here somewhere...

Okay, I did check out bab.cgi.  You'll have to give me the source for
that...or just tell me your algorithm, and I'll rewrite it in Perl.  :-)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--Grease:We Go Together
Current Book--Storm Constantine:The Monstrous Regiment
Quasimodometer--A device for measuring the quality of hunches.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 11:58:37 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Uri Bruck <[email-masked]>
Subject: acka: R106 after shock

I see some proposals failed, possibly as a result of the alien activity.
I will be resubmitting them. I may to have a couple of days, since I think
this put me in non-voting status.

Also, I think that some of those proposals should have made Quorum:

Rule 107/6 
Quorum and Active Players

     If the number of players who voted on a proposal is equal to or
greater than the number of
     abstaining Active players at the time the results are posted, the
proposal meets quorum;
     otherwise it does not meet quorum. 

Niccolo Flychuck

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 14:30:39 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: Score/entity report

Guy Fawkes wrote:

> Amazing.  You know, it's a good thing the provision for ending a 
> proposal's voting period when all active players have voted is no
> longer 
> in the rules; otherwise, there would be no obstacle to /dev/joe naming
> 
> himself emperor on the spot.  There still might be some way for him to
> do 
> it as the only voting player.  If there is, I would like to see him
> try.
> 
Funny you should say that.  I note the following from Rule 401:
"Non-voting players may not hold offices unless a rule says otherwise
for a specific office" and also "Non-voting players may only be acting
officers for offices which may normally be held by non-voting players."

As far as I can tell, there are no offices that the rules permit to be
held by non-voting players.  There are two possibilities, therefore:
(1) All non-vacationing officers and acting officers except /dev/joe
have committed, and continue to commit, a Crime by holding office; (2)
all non-vacationing officers and acting officers except /dev/joe are
booted out of their offices. If (2), then /dev/joe becomes acting
Speaker by R405.  In thread 2 there is no President to perform the
duties of the vacant functional offices, nor to conduct a nomination
or make an officer selection for any of them.

And we have another problem: if Mr. Nacho has been booted out of the
Acting Clerk of the Courts position, then there is currently no-one to
coordinate any CFJs to decide whether he (and the rest of us) still
hold any offices.  We can merge the threads back together enough to do
business if we defer the CFJ for two days until Mr. Nacho can become
a voting player again, at which time possibly acting Speaker /dev/joe
can appoint him to be acting CotC.  I also recommend that /dev/joe
call for nominations for all political (i.e. non-functional) offices
that are possibly vacant.  This will give us a head start if we find
that we are in thread 2 rather than in thread 1.  In thread 2, most
business is blocked until appropriate Functional officers are
installed, which cannot happen until we get a new President.

ThinMan
possibly Acting Speaker, but more likely not

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 14:36:14 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Re: Acka: Score/entity report

ThinMan wrote:
> Funny you should say that.  I note the following from Rule 401:
> "Non-voting players may not hold offices unless a rule says otherwise
> for a specific office" and also "Non-voting players may only be acting
> officers for offices which may normally be held by non-voting players."
> 
> As far as I can tell, there are no offices that the rules permit to be
> held by non-voting players.  

No, read rule 207:

V. Effect of Proposals which do not meet Quorum

If a proposal does not meet quorum, each active player who was not on
vacation and abstained on the proposal shall lose 5 points and become
non-voting.  The events which Rule 254 generates when a player voluntarily
changes to non-voting status do not occur in this case, but if a player
who became non-voting by this rule does not become a voting player
within a week of having become non-voting, then the events in Rule 254
are carried out as if the player voluntarily became non-voting.  Players
who become non-voting in this manner do not lose offices they hold because
of doing so, until they have remained non-voting for one week; this takes
precedence over rule 401.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 14:44:59 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: Score/entity report

/dev/joe wrote:

> No, read rule 207:
> 
> V. Effect of Proposals which do not meet Quorum
> 
[...]

> Players
> who become non-voting in this manner do not lose offices they hold
> because
> of doing so, until they have remained non-voting for one week; this
> takes
> precedence over rule 401.
> 
Ah, silly me.  I'm starting to look like an alarmist.  I checked over
all of the officer stuff, but forgot that R207 makes special provision
for this sort of situation.  I've got to find some time to go and
re-read the entire rules document.

ThinMan
Acting Speaker
not an alarmist.  really.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 14:49:28 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Falafel

Good Afternoon, Acka!

Curiously, although Malenkai's treasure archive entry for the Falafel
Fallen Off treasure (treasure 145) accurately copies the message I wrote
in which I buried it, it omits a crucial piece of information, without
which it may not be possible to find the treasure. Therefore, if anyone
missed or lost the original post, send me a private request, and I will
forward an exact copy of the post.
   Due to an interesting side effect of my fix to my computer, which I
did not discover until after I sent the map, it should be possible for you
to determine the exact number of times I applied the fix before I sent the
treasure map, once you discover what the fix is. However, if you receive
your first copy of the post by request as above you will not have enough
information to determine this, so I won't be giving anything extra to
anyone who finds this number. Between this message and the clues that I
had craftily hidden in my previous post about this treasure, you should
have little difficulty finding it.

**two-star

Weird things happen to non-voting players.

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 16:01:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Re: Acka: Falafel

> Curiously, although Malenkai's treasure archive entry for the Falafel
> Fallen Off treasure (treasure 145) accurately copies the message I wrote
> in which I buried it, it omits a crucial piece of information, without
> which it may not be possible to find the treasure.

Your computer crashes at a certain time, due to some system task that is
started (and fails to work correctly, uses all your memory, etc.) at that
time, or a virus that activates at certain times, or some similar thing,
and you "fixed" it by futzing with the computer's clock so that it doesn't
go through that time.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 17:52:52 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: Amber Heptahedron

The 7th face of the amber heptahedron is a triangle.
(The first 6 faces were three rhombuses and three 5-sided shapes.)

Here's the proof.  Geez this is long.

I. Limiting it to a triangle and a pentagon.
The other 6 sides have an odd number of total edges. (27)
Since each edge is shared by two faces, the total number of
the edges of all the faces must be even.  Thus, the last face
has an odd number of sides.  A 1-sided face is meaningless,
and a 7 (or more) sided face is impossible because it would
have to share more than one edge with another face.  (The
requirements that the faces are flat and the whole shape is
convex prevent this.)  Thus only a triangle and pentagon are
possible.

II. Proving it can't be a pentagon
If the last face is a pentagon, there are 3 rhombic and
4 pentagonal faces.  Each 5-sided face shares an edge with
5 of the other 6 faces.  Thus, each pentagon shares an
edge with at least two other pentagons.

Now, how many ways can the 4 pentagons be arranged.  Call
them A, B, C, and D.  A touches B and C.  B and C must each
touch at least one other pentagon.  If they both touch D,
that also fulfills D's requirements -- and it makes a loop
of four connected pentagons (possibly with two of the
pentagons across from each other also touching).  If B and C
instead touch each other, D must still touch two pentagons.
It could touch B and C, or any two, but the result is still 
the same -- you still have a loop of four pentagons, with
two of the opposite ones touching.

So, consider the possible cases:

1. No cross-touching:
  A-B
  | |
  C-D

This is a loop with two open ends; each end must be filled by one
or two rhombuses.  It is possible to fill one end with one rhombus
this way, leaving two for the other end, but now you have a shape
which looks like (when flattened out):

    /\
   /  \
  /\__/\
 /  | | \  This is crummy, but is only intended to get the idea across.
 \  |_| /
  \/  \/ <--- These are two separate edges, they aren't
   \  / <---- collinear in the actual figure.
    \/

(note, there are other shapes for the four-pentagon loop, but none which
allow one end to be closed by a single rhombus, which is required here.)

The remaining hole has 8 edges (2 each on four penatgons) to be filled by
two rhombuses.  Conceivably you could have pentagons such that this was
possible, but they would overlap -- as each one could only share one edge
with each pentagon; there are no sides left over for the rhombuses to share
with each other.

2. One pair of opposite pentagons shares an edge.
  A-B
  |/|
  C-D

One way this can look is:
   ___
   | |
  /\ /\
 /  v  \
/   |   \
\   |   /
 \  ^  /
  \/ \/
   | |
   ---

That is, the hole to be filled with three rhombuses has 10 edges.
The same problem is reached -- two of the rhombuses will share an edge;
the third must have all four edges touching different pentagons; this
cannot work.

3. Alternate one-shared-edge case

The case 2 shape takes the case 1 shape and closes the smaller hole, causing
two of those edges to meet.  The other possibility is that you still have
the shape from case 1, but two opposite pentagons meet on the other side.
This will, however, leave two triangular holes to be filled.  (This doesn't
really work anyway, because there are no open edges on opposite pentagons
which you can make touch without violating the planar faces requirement.)

4. Two opposite shared edges
  A-B
  |X|
  C-D

This isn't as ridiculous as it sounds.  You can have a polyhedron with
four pentagonal faces, each of which touches all 3 of the others.
I can't even draw this one, but imagine the case 2 shape above, where
the center line is stretched out, and the top and bottom pentagons
touch along the edges that appear at the very top and very bottom of
the diagram in case 2.  It looks sort of like a tetrahedron
(triangular pyramid) with two corners cut off, except they aren't
cut in a planar way -- the two faces with only one corner cut off
are cut so that they gain two edges by the cutting.

The 2 4-edge "holes" that are left by this cutting are necessarily
non-planar (making them planar would make then triangles, and make two
of the pentagons four-sided.  There's no way to fill the two holes
with 3 rhombuses.

There are simply no other possible ways to arrange the 4 pentagons.
Thus, the 7th face is a triangle.  The shape probably looks like
a cube (or a distorted cube whose faces are rhombuses) with one
corner cut off.

/dev/joe

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 20:40:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Frederic Mc Coy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Score/entity report

On Fri, 9 May 1997, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> ThinMan wrote:
> > Funny you should say that.  I note the following from Rule 401:
> > "Non-voting players may not hold offices unless a rule says otherwise
> > for a specific office" and also "Non-voting players may only be acting
> > officers for offices which may normally be held by non-voting players."
> > 
> > As far as I can tell, there are no offices that the rules permit to be
> > held by non-voting players.  
> 
> No, read rule 207:
> 
> V. Effect of Proposals which do not meet Quorum
> 
> If a proposal does not meet quorum, each active player who was not on
> vacation and abstained on the proposal shall lose 5 points and become
> non-voting.  The events which Rule 254 generates when a player voluntarily
> changes to non-voting status do not occur in this case, but if a player
> who became non-voting by this rule does not become a voting player
> within a week of having become non-voting, then the events in Rule 254
> are carried out as if the player voluntarily became non-voting.  Players
> who become non-voting in this manner do not lose offices they hold because
> of doing so, until they have remained non-voting for one week; this takes
> precedence over rule 401.
> 
> /dev/joe
> 

I noticed this as well, and all I can say is, thank god someone had the
foresight to include it....

                                  - Vynd

[email-masked]

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 17:44:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Score/entity report

> I noticed this as well, and all I can say is, thank god someone had
> the foresight to include it....

Hindsight, actually. This has happened before, when suddenly all but
five players were non-Vacationing. It might have been a game crash,
except that the two days of enforced Vacation were over before the
three-day Speed rule required an impossible action to be taken.

b

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

Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 18:42:43 -0900
From: Phil Ackley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Ambassadorness 

Ackazens,

There are two new internomic liasons.  The first is the Agoran Liason
office, which is now being filled by general choas.  The second liason is
Rishonomics.  Niccolo Flychuck has been replaced as liason by The Voting
Gnome.

Email adresses:

General Choas = [email-masked]
The Voting Gnome = [email-masked]

snowgod

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

End of Ackanomic Digest V2 #80
******************************