Forum: Story Recommendations

If that is sufficient then there is a similar constellation in Joe J's https://storiesonline.net/s/52784/el-paso-joe-j where "the greatest vaquero of all time in all the universe" (Pedro) gets his Rosalinda. That is a thread running through most of the story.

I don't normally think much of posts which simply add the links to a previous post, but given that AJ simply named a story without saying who wrote it I'll make an exception for myself.
https://storiesonline.net/s/43294/oscar-meyers, and it's part of https://storiesonline.net/universe/19/john-carter by Lazlo Zalezac. There's a couple of million words in there, and that's even without the Happy Harry series embedded in that Universe.

An excellent series until Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen, where she retconned the -very- married, very ethical Admiral & his Captain as swingers who screw young subordinates. I guess she needed woke points.

I bought every book the month it came out, starting with Barrayar when it was serialized in Analog back in '91. 23 years of happy reading with a story a year. She's the only author I know who has successfully produced space opera, coming of age, detective, high society romance, medieval fantasy & American Midwest fantasy, a genre she seems to have invented.

Her current World of Five Gods novellas about a doctor-spy and his chaos demon partner are great.

It was published when the Hugos had become a political battleground, a test run of modern internet social engineering & disruption techniques, as was Gamergate on the Chans a year earlier and Kony 2012 as a prototype twitter campaign before that. Old authors were being cancelled for imagined slights 30 years earlier.
I doubt that she was seeking approval from the gay and lesbian fandom, as Ethan of Athos, Bel Thorne, young Aral and Beta Colony all portrayed them as normal people, decades before the mainstream did. Those characters were all created during the 'don't ask, don't tell' period of social non-acceptance.
I do think she may have been currying favor to protect her career from the new Zampolits.

With Sargeant Taura she did the impossible and cast Furries in a good light. Thats a fetish community that managed to get banned from 4chan for being obnoxious...

Bel Thorne / Bella Thorne. Hmmm.... I think I know why Bella Thorne didn't follow through and provide the nudes she was paid for on Onlyfans. I'm not saying its Aliens, but...

IMHO Lois wrote it to get all the Barrayar/MVKverse fanatics off her back so she could put an end to that universe for good and concentrate on her other universes ...

Haven't read that one. I particularly liked the proposal scene in A Civil Campaign.

Komarr & A Civil Campaign were my two favorites. Too many good scenes to list. I'm surprised she didn't continue the series with more books about Ivan. He was finally a fully formed character in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. After 25 years she may simply have had enough of the same universe.

Short and tall can also be used relative to population averages. Of course, that can vary based on the population used. It can vary from nation to nation and regionally within a nation.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-height-by-state

The average height in the United States is 5 feet 4 inches (162.56 centimeters) for women and 5 feet 9 inches (175.26 centimeters) for men. This makes the United States the 40th tallest nation in the world.

Those height stats often are self-reported - taken from driver licenses or other documents where people are as accurate as when they post their penis size.

Those height stats often are self-reported - taken from driver licenses or other documents where people are as accurate as when they post their penis size.

I have to ask. Which jurisdictions require penis size to be shown on their driving licences?

Joy,
Isn't it a standard question?

Isn't it a standard question?

Apparently not.

One does wonder why it would be deemed necessary information for a driving licence, unless it refers to those driving a long one or maybe due to a heavy load?

:)

ETA

Do those who drive muscle cars have to stop at Whey stations?

Those height stats often are self-reported - taken from driver licenses

Cite required.

1. It would be possible to get data that is not self reported from anonymized medical records.
2. Most people in my experience do know their true height withing +/- 1 inch.
3. What is the basis for which people would like about their height on their driver's license. Having that information wildly wrong could cause them problems when they need to use it as an ID, or if they get stopped for a traffic violation.

1. Measured for medical records? Have you ever gotten an accurate height measurement at the doctor? Taken with or without shoes?

2. Yes they do - and they lie about it. Men who are really 5'10" claim they are 6'. Personally, my wife who is just 5'4" has always envisioned herself as 5'6"

3.The most obvious is that people get shorter with age. Significantly shorter. See how much that height changes from year to year. I would bet that most people put the same height on their DL at 65 as they did at 20.

"Measured" isn't often better. You always see that the Netherlands has the tallest men in the world - over 6' on average. All from a single study of less than 100 university students.

ETA: A reference I left out

Introduction

Self-reported data on weight and height are much easier, simpler and inexpensive to obtain than measured values. Therefore, in many cases, self-reported data are used, but their validity may be questioned. Recent reviews1,2report a general trend to overestimate one's height and also to underestimate one's weight, especially by overweight or obese persons. Body mass index (BMI) values that are computed from weight and height are therefore also underestimated. These observations are confirmed for adolescents.3 The self-reported data can substitute for measured data for most purposes, especially if only means are used, since the correlations between self-reported and measured heights and weights are high.4–7 However, for other applications, such as health surveys (e.g. prevalence of obesity), clothing sizes., or input for ergonomic design, it is important to know how trustworthy the reported values are.

Many articles describe overall effects: over-reporting of height and under-reporting of weight. More specifically, a tendency toward the mean or 'flat slope syndrome',8,9 meaning overestimation of lower values and underestimation of higher values, is also reported frequently (see, for instance, refs. 4, 6, 7 and 10). Factors that are related to the accuracy of the self-reported data are gender, age7,10 and weight status (underweighted–obese).4,5

The present study investigates whether also regional differences exist with respect to the errors in reporting weight and height. Our specific aims are (i) to explore the effect of regional information in relation with gender, age and height or weight or obesity status on systematic errors in reporting weight and height, and (ii) to examine the same effects on the resulting calculation of BMI. The data used have been assembled by identical procedures in three countries (Italy, the Netherlands and North America).

https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/21/4/414/434809

The data used have been assembled by identical procedures in three countries (Italy, the Netherlands and North America).

Well, right off the bat, North America isn't a country. Obviously there are serious issues with their methodology.

You want me to post the dozens of other studies with the same conclusions? Men over-report height. Women underreport weight.

3.The most obvious is that people get shorter with age. Significantly shorter. See how much that height changes from year to year. I would bet that most people put the same height on their DL at 65 as they did at 20.

This is true. When I was 20, I was 6'6" and some change. The height I mentioned earlier was from my physical last September at 6'4". As I understand it, long term compression of the joints and spine are responsible for this.

Just from morning to night you can shrink about a half inch. Astronauts are around 2 inches taller in space from lack of compression from gravity.

Astronauts are around 2 inches taller in space from lack of compression from gravity.

I've read something like that in the past, but an insomnia riddled brain has me wondering how NASA got around the problem of spacesuits fitting for long term missions? 2" is sufficient to be a problem for getting into a fitted suit.

Only the gloves of the eva suits are custom fitted, everything else is mix & match parts with lots of expansion room.

Only the gloves of the eva suits are custom fitted, everything else is mix & match parts with lots of expansion room.

Do you have a source for that information I could read?

I know we are supposed to get shorter as we get older. And I am definitely getting older. But I'm convinced that I'm actually getting taller. I base this on the fact that when I drop something, the floor is much further away than it has ever been in the past

So True! Been there done that. Had to get my dog to pick up the sock I dropped this morning.

I am 6'4" so both of those averages are short to me.

That's backwards. At 6'4", you are tall. :)

That's backwards. At 6'4", you are tall. :)

Nope, from my perspective, everyone else is short. :)
Last project I worked in Mexico, I was the short one on the project. There was a Mexican I worked with that was seven foot even. His nickname was pequeño jefe.

Nothing sweet & heart warming about Matt Moreau's exploration of people who wallow in being victims, so definitely not want OP wants.

Matt Moreau is for those who want to wallow in failure. His characters all get cheated on & abandoned by wives & children, live miserable lives in doss house accomodation, never improve their education or employment if they have any, go to jail for crimes they didn't commit, end up amputees and of course their only friend is cheap booze. Apart from that they are good stories.

A classic story & a great way to make me laugh hard enough to snort coffee out my nose. Q hit a home run with this.

Wow! Wouldn't have read it without the recommendation here, but so fun!

Baldy?