What do you mean, "would have"?

It appears to be Travel Month on the Infinite Revolution - here's a card from Laurie, aka the Evil Doctor Smith.

 Is it just me, or is it a bit creepy to end a sentence about the domination of humanity with a little smiley face?

- Sid

Chicago 3: The Bean...

And now I present to you the Chicago Bean - one part neutronium sphere, one part Slaver stasis box, one part time bobble.*

Hmm...okay, actually that's not quite accurate.  All of the above would be perfect spheres, this is more like an alien spacecraft of some sort.  Not to mentioned that a neutronium sphere that size would weigh...lessee, if we pretend it actually is round, call it ten meters high, which is 523,599,000 cubic centimeters.....a cubic centimeter of neutronium would weigh 1,212,541,000 tonnes..so that's about 6.35 x 10¹⁷ tonnes…the earth weighs 6.585 x 10²¹ metric tonnes...okay, so it wouldn't quite weigh as much as the Earth, but certainly well up there.  Probably not the sort of thing that you’d leave lying around in a park, although I'm sure it would pull in the tourists.

- Sid

*Respectively, Larry Niven's short story There is a Tide, and Vernor Vinge's novel Peace War.

UPDATE:  First, in answer to a couple of inquiries, no Photoshop is involved in the second picture, just a wide angle lens and careful positioning.  If you click on the picture to open it at full size, and lean forward to the monitor and squint a bit, you can see me in front of the trees, almost in the exact middle of the sphere, taking the picture.  What was involved was a lot of patience while waiting for people to get out of the way.

Second, I have been remiss in not thanking Dan Cooke from my office, who suggested that I visit the Bean during my visit to Chicago.  My apologies, Dan - now stop harassing me about it or I won't help you with your CMS problems anymore.

Chicago 2: "Quick, everyone, back to the Knickerbocker!

Watch her, trail her, pipe her as she goes,
With her high-heeled boots and her patent leather toes.
That she was one of those flash girls I soon found out in time
When her high-heeled boots went clattering down the Knickerbocker Line.

The Flash Girls, The Return of Pansy Smith and Violet Jones

As per my previous posting, I'm writing this in Chicago, where I attended a four day publications conference.  I've booked a couple of days of vacation time in order to do some sightseeing, but because my pockets aren't quite as deep as those of my employers, I've switched hotels.  I'm now staying at the wonderfully named Millennium Knickerbocker, which sounds to me like the perfect name for Han Solo's ship in the steampunk version of Star Wars.

 - Sid