Blame Nimitz...

Theemile wrote:

ThinksMarkedly wrote:
Not exactly easy to find and I might be mis-remembering it, but I thought there was some discussion on how the Winton looks were also dominant genetic traits. Though... isn't Beth's skin colour far paler than that of her father? That Mike Henke's matches King Roger more closely?



I think it's the exact opposite: there is no fight between the widespread genies among the population and the rest of the population. They have integrated just fine, with no class conflict. Moreover, their genes have spread far and wide, since they are often designed to be dominant in the first place.

No, you are remembering right, the Winton skin color "mahogany" is part of the genetic upgrade package.

Is the predominant Winton bra size the result of genetic tampering?

Dunno if the Winton gene mods produce human vacuum cleaners at the dinner table like Honor, but just like Alison, if they chose to breast feed, they better have had something bigger than door bells to begin with, or they were in big trouble.

Poor Alison. Honor was probably like a leech as a newborn.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Is the predominant Winton bra size the result of genetic tampering?

Bra size for King Roger?

cthia wrote:Dunno if the Winton gene mods produce human vacuum cleaners at the dinner table like Honor, but just like Alison, if they chose to breast feed, they better have had something bigger than door bells to begin with, or they were in big trouble.

Poor Alison. Honor was probably like a leech as a newborn.

In seriously, no, Winton gene mods do not seem to cause increased apetite or increased metabolism. The Harringtons' do because they are heavy world genes: to support stronger muscles, they need more energy and thus have higher metabolism.

As for supplementing a mother's milk or stimulating production, I think we already have solutions for that today.

Now, if you think Honor was difficult for Allison, imagine Faith and James!

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Is the predominant Winton bra size the result of genetic tampering?

Bra size for King Roger?

cthia wrote:Dunno if the Winton gene mods produce human vacuum cleaners at the dinner table like Honor, but just like Alison, if they chose to breast feed, they better have had something bigger than door bells to begin with, or they were in big trouble.

Poor Alison. Honor was probably like a leech as a newborn.

In seriously, no, Winton gene mods do not seem to cause increased apetite or increased metabolism. The Harringtons' do because they are heavy world genes: to support stronger muscles, they need more energy and thus have higher metabolism.

As for supplementing a mother's milk or stimulating production, I think we already have solutions for that today.

Now, if you think Honor was difficult for Allison, imagine Faith and James!

I thought I recalled the overdriven metabolism was exclusive to Meyerdahl B, but wasn't sure. Thanks.

There are solutions, but they are imperfect solutions, like the bonding and psychological factors imparted to the newborn. Formula is great, many mother's don't have the luxury, but whether the Honorverse can completely duplicate the nourishment in formula, or even if using expressed milk is a substitute, nothing can replace the natural bonding, or the psychological factors of breast feeding.

That's right! OMG! Poor Honor. Providing Hamish will share.

cthia wrote:Dunno if the Winton gene mods produce human vacuum cleaners at the dinner table like Honor, but just like Alison, if they chose to breast feed, they better have had something bigger than door bells to begin with, or they were in big trouble.

Poor Alison. Honor was probably like a leech as a newborn.

As a general rule, motherhood enhances a woman. Her breasts rise to the occasion. As Robin Williams joked, the titty fairy arrives, then the woman informs her mate, "No! These are for the baby."

TFLYTSNBN wrote:

cthia wrote:Dunno if the Winton gene mods produce human vacuum cleaners at the dinner table like Honor, but just like Alison, if they chose to breast feed, they better have had something bigger than door bells to begin with, or they were in big trouble.

Poor Alison. Honor was probably like a leech as a newborn.

As a general rule, motherhood enhances a woman. Her breasts rise to the occasion. As Robin Williams joked, the titty fairy arrives, then the woman informs her mate, "No! These are for the baby."

LOL

So that's the motivation behind the old sayings ...

1. All men are just big babies.
2. The difference between men and boys is the size and cost of their toys.

Some men even buy huge toys for their wives.

If Beth had large breasts and Justin is dyslexic, he might've thought her name meant Ton of Wins. 'Ouch!'

We know Alison most likely breast fed, since she refused to tube Honor.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

cthia wrote:Why does Beth hide her exact genetic concoction? And does she also generally keep the very fact that she's a genie at all, in the bottle?

Am I correct that Haven doesn't seem to have any genies? Or at least none of it's main characters? Which would be ironic if they don't, making Haven not exactly a haven for genies. Which would make it intuitive that the MBS would be sensitive to their plight.

I notice that the galaxy is ruled by genies.

Hiding the Royal House's exact genetics is a security precaution. Creating a targeted virus isn't too difficult for Manpower / Mesa, which they had known to be adversaries for centuries. But I don't think they hide the fact that they have some genetic mods, most visibly the one that gives them their skin colouring.

As for whether Haven has genies, it's a different question as to whether the characters we see are genies. There's a complete certainty that there are lots of genies in the 300 planets that comprise the Republic of Haven. But the leadership and characters we see? That's not necessarily the case and we simply don't know.

And even if genies have higher intellectual skills and would would naturally rise above the other people (exactly what Beowulf wants to prevent), given that the Committee killed almost everyone who had been ruling the PRH, then itself got removed from power, it seems like any genie ruling proportion would have reset.

Per the part of your post that I bolded.

This is a thing that makes you go, hmmm.

1. That would imply that Annachie's notion about targeted nanotec en masse is certainly attainable.

2. If Beth's exact genetic makeup is classified for the reason you stated, then the Admiralty should have been able to come to grips with what was happening with the nanites more easily. At the very least, put the pieces together sooner, since the very possibility is the motivation behind keeping her genetics secret.

It would be nice to know the concentration and absolute dispersion of genies throughout the Galaxy. I know at least one planet which kept track of that type of thing. Censuses in the Honorverse must be a copper-plated Ransom for planets which maintain that type of data.

Late edit: Corrected link.

cthia wrote:1. That would imply that Annachie's notion about targeted nanotec en masse is certainly attainable.

Not exactly targeted to a single person or a handful of them, but a population. That's not very far from our technology today, so I imagine it's been available in the Honorverse for a millennium. But the problem with attacking a population is that the virus will likely contaminate other people before the target and their illness will be quickly diagnosed.

Targetting a small group of people has the difficulty of the delivery vector. You'd have to make a lot of people carriers without showing symptoms, which makes things more complex. And it might still be detected, given good healthcare monitoring.

2. If Beth's exact genetic makeup is classified for the reason you stated, then the Admiralty should have been able to come to grips with what was happening with the nanites more easily. At the very least, put the pieces together sooner, since the very possibility is the motivation behind keeping her genetics secret.

It would be nice to know the concentration and absolute dispersion of genies throughout the Galaxy. I know at least one planet which kept track of that type of thing. Censuses in the Honorverse must be a copper-plated Ransom for planets which maintain that type of data.

Late edit: Corrected link.

Targetted viruses that make people sick are one thing. Nanotech infections that can control people's bodies are quite another. That was the jump that was difficult to accept.

Plus the fact that no evidence was found on Meares or Hofschulte. The Havenites did catch that there was something weird on Grosclaude's blood, but didn't know what it was.

cthia wrote:

TFLYTSNBN wrote:


As a general rule, motherhood enhances a woman. Her breasts rise to the occasion. As Robin Williams joked, the titty fairy arrives, then the woman informs her mate, "No! These are for the baby."

LOL

So that's the motivation behind the old sayings ...

1. All men are just big babies.
2. The difference between men and boys is the size and cost of their toys.

Some men even buy huge toys for their wives.

If Beth had large breasts and Justin is dyslexic, he might've thought her name meant Ton of Wins. 'Ouch!'

We know Alison most likely breast fed, since she refused to tube Honor.

One should not presume that in the Honorverse, women such as Allison who are described as " Asian", have small breasts. Obviously; women from India and Turkey do not necessarily fit the stereotype of Chinese or Japanese women. While the Gausian distribution of bra size in Japan might be severely skewed to A-cup or smaller, there are outliers. More importantly, it is reasonable to presume that 2,000 years in the future, the gene pool has been stirred vigorously, especially for colonies.

I have a realtor whose mother was a Japanese exchange student and her father was an African-America. In spite of her dark complexion, her facial features are very Asian. As to other attributes, she looks like a young Pam Grier.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:One should not presume that in the Honorverse, women such as Allison who are described as " Asian", have small breasts. Obviously; women from India and Turkey do not necessarily fit the stereotype of Chinese or Japanese women. While the Gausian distribution of bra size in Japan might be severely skewed to A-cup or smaller, there are outliers. More importantly, it is reasonable to presume that 2,000 years in the future, the gene pool has been stirred vigorously, especially for colonies

... though IIRC, Allison was described as being almost purely "east Asian" (which typically means Chinese, Japanese, or Korean to Americans).