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"On-line gaming environments are completely different things... Essentially it's massive global role-playing."
- Peter Watts
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| Windtrap | ||
| A device which precipitates water from the air for use by people. |
In the desert planet of Dune, the inhabitants are in a constant battle to obtain water to live. One way to get water was from a windtrap, described as a device placed in the path of a prevailing wind and capable of precipitating the moisture from the air. This was accomplished by a sharp drop in temperature within the trap.
| Stilgar stopped at a yellow rock wall. He pressed an outcropping and the wall swung silently away from him, opening along an irregular crack. He led the way through past a dark honey-comb lattice that directed a cool wash of air across Paul when he passed it. "That air felt damp." A man behind them said "Plenty of air in the trap tonight." |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
The native inhabitants of Dune hid thousands of these devices across the surface of the planet in their quasi-religious quest to make the surface of their planet a fit place for humans to live.
Be sure to read the comments below for some excellent material on ancient sources for windtraps in the Middle East.
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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
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'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
