How exactly do the people survive the multi-year winters as far as feeding themselves? You can't grow crops in winter. Nor can you feed your livestock off what grows. But ordinarily you can't save food for people or animals for multi-year periods, because it will spoil. Do they have some extra-advanced refrigeration technology allowing them to store grains, animal feed etc. for many years? In addition, since you can't predict how long the winter will be, you don't know how much to stockpile; and the summer may be significantly shorter than winter, so you either have to front-load all your stockpiling on the first couple of years, or starve in case the winter is much longer than summer. Answer First off... an unusually long winter is its own refrigeration. You don't need the Frigidaire when it's -10F outside. (Of course, waiting for it to come, things would spoil.) I'm only a lowly agriculture student and hardly an expert, but even today with mechanized agr...

I read this novel when I was young. It is probably a children's or young adult novel. I think I read it in 1997 or earlier. I remember very much enjoying it, but the title and most of the details are unfortunately quite hazy for me. Here is what I have: The main character was a girl in her early teens (I think) She was sent to live with a man who was some sort of master of dragons She may have been related to this man (his niece, perhaps), but I also may have made that up The man wore gloves at all times. When he removed them and touched someone he could see something about them. Their future, I think? Sound familiar to anyone? Update: Thinking back on it some more, I think I remember that the dragon lord guy and the heroine ended up in some kind of romantic relationship (making it less likely that he was her uncle). Also, he did at one point take off his gloves and touch her, seeing her future (I think). 'nother Update: It's possible that I'm confusing dragons with vol...

I read a book about students who were graduating from some kind of academy where they trained to be the first people visiting a new planet and to scout it out or otherwise prepare it for colonisation. There is some kind of technology available on earth like a waygate that colonists can pass through to reach the other planet. The problem is, this class of graduates end up being lost on the other planet, instead of returning to earth a few days or weeks after they arrive on the other planet and graduating, they are stuck there because there is some malfunction with the waygate back on earth or perhaps interference from a supernova. Eventually after months or years they have established a society within some caves on the planet with their own form of crude government. Only then does a waygate open up from earth again and they are rescued. Could anyone identify this story for me please? Answer This is one of Heinlein's juveniles : Tunnel in the Sky There's a minor difference betw...

Non-spoilerish, other than "something happens in Cryoburn ," but this question is probably best answered by readers of that book. Please keep your answers non-spoilerish as well. There are (more or less) 14 novels in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold , the latest of which is Cryoburn , a 2010 Hugo nominee. Since we're voters, Cryoburn must be read. I've previously read all the novels. My spouse Dori has read none. There's an event at the end of Cryoburn that emotionally affects the reader, and will certainly impact future stories in the timeline. I'm thinking that the whole series need not be read to get the full impact of the event. So thinking of it in terms of the following characters, which minimum subset of books in the series would you suggest? I think that any books that cover the above should also adequately deal with Ivan Vorpatril and Kareen Koudelka . I was planning to include A Civil Campaign just because it's such a fun ...

I read this book from the mid to late 90s. There were humans on Earth but these two specific humans were from another planet. They were lovers from a long time ago, possibly thousands of years ago. They would lose each other periodically and then find each other again. I think the time was set in current times but they were together in Egyptian times (they may have ruled together?) as well. He dies then and he dies in the current time as well (I think) I'm not sure if they are reborn or what. These creatures are human but they somehow live a very long time and have seen a lot. It might be a love story.

This was an American TV series that was aired about 10 years ago. This series focused on mysterious artifacts with supernatural abilities, i.e. there was a credit card which teleported people after touching. It was later revealed that all of the artifacts came from certain hotel room. In this room some kind of supernatural "incident" occurred many years ago. As a result, all items in the room acquired supernatural abilities, There was also a one-eyed man who was present in the room when the incident occurred. Answer This is most likely The Lost Room From the Wikipedia link: The Lost Room is a 2006 science fiction television miniseries that aired on the Sci Fi Channel in the United States. The series revolves around the titular room and some of the everyday items from that room which possess unusual powers. The show's protagonist, Joe Miller, is searching for these objects to rescue his daughter, Anna, who has disappeared inside the Room. Once a typical room at a 1960s m...

Can someone become artificially Force-sensitive? I'm a film student working on a script on a Star Wars film as a personal project. Without giving too much away, one of the main key parts of the story involves two siblings, the older one was Force-sensitive while the other was not. Their father, a master Physicist, spends his career to make it possible for non-Force users to become Force-sensitive and to further understand how the Force works so it can be used to help the public with advancements in medical, criminology, and social understanding, but more importantly for him, to make his youngest child happy (keeping with the idea of balance with both selfish and noble traits at the same time). Does something like this already exist in Legends or is it impossible? Also, would the Jedi (about 40 years after Episode VI) reject or accept someone who was not born Force-sensitive? Also would they accept or try to stop an organisation like the one mentioned above?