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Davis, Dr. Jim— Human male Flatlander, circa 2366 a crew member on the Angel's Pencil. He was the ship's doctor, 38, amiable and slightly paunchy, with long, delicate fingers. ["The Warriors"]
death penalty— see organ banks
debtor's prison— By 2641,
We Made It had re-established the practice of sending to prison debtors unable to pay their bills. ["Neutron Star"]
deep-radar— Radar or a radar-like detector, set for the deepest possible penetration. This takes different forms in two eras:
(a) In the pre-hyperdrive era (prior to circa 2409) it was used for ground penetration, and apparently was just a type of radar. [World of Ptavvs]
(b) In the hyperdrive era (after circa 2409), deep-radar used neutrinos for radar-like detection
[1]. Set for the deepest penetration, only
stasis fields and neutronium reflected the signal. Deep radar was often used to search for Slaver stasis boxes in uninhabited star systems. Deep-radar has most often been documented as a ship's system, although by 2657 it also existed as a bulky portable unit
[2]. The
Slower Than Infinity used it in 2645 to locate an
Outsider ship. The Court Jester used it in 2657 to locate a stasis box in the Beta Lyrae system. [Spoiler alert: "There Is a Tide"] Louis Wu used it to locate a sphere of neutronium in 2830. ["Flatlander", "The Soft Weapon", "There Is a Tide"]
Editorial Note: Continuity/Science
desk doc— a small, desktop autodoc of some diagnostic ability, but very limited in its treatments. In 2342 Douglas Hooker used one regularly to take blood samples and inject the anti-paranoia drugs he needed. It could also fight infections by dispensing antibiotics, and gave him manicured. Paul Jurgenson serviced that unit. In 2366 they were found on planes and short-hop aircraft, and were widely used by executives. ["The Ethics of Madness"]
Dianna— Human female Flatlander, in 2645 a friend of Gregory Pelton. ["Flatlander"]
vintage 2005 micro-cassette dictaphone
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dictaphone— An audio recording device, perhaps using tape. Beowulf Shaeffer used one in 2641 to document his observations during his flyby survey of the neutron star BVS-1.
Dr. Richard Schultz-Mann had one built into his spacesuit helmet in 2644. ["Neutron Star", "A Relic of the Empire", "At the Core"]
disintegrator— see Slaver disintegrator
displacement booth— see transfer booth
'doc— see autodoc
Dolphin's Hands— Prosthetic hands for Dolphins, resembling a squirt-jet motorboat motor with padded metal hands attached. The Dolphin controls it with his tongue. Circa 2646 the devices were manufactured by Garvey Limited. ["The Handicapped"]
Dolphins
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Dolphins— (scientific name Tursiops truncatus) Bottle-nose dolphins, a sentient species of
cetacean native to the oceans of Earth. In 2106 they began negotiating to send settlers to Human colony worlds; by circa 2646 they were running the fishing industry on
Down. [World of Ptavvs, "Flatlander", "Grendel", "The Handicapped"]
Interspecies Relations: Dolphins have an embassy off the coast of Italy on Earth.
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Donovan's Brains— Computer programmer
Sharrrol Janss worked for this company in 2645. ["Flatlander"]
Editorial Note: Literary
Down— A marginally habitable world orbiting a red dwarf star. Originally colonized by Humans before 2100
[3], Down was later conquered by the
Kzinti empire. Freed during the
Man-Kzin Wars, it became again a Human colony world. Circa 2646 it was still lightly settled; ultraviolet lamps were needed to grow crops there, and Dolphins ran the fishing industry.
Grogs are native to the deserts. Down was probably one of four Human colonies mistakenly settled following erroneous ramrobot signals; see
slowboat. ["The Handicapped", "Grendel"]
Downer— A Human native to Down.
Downtown— A city on Down circa 2646. ["The Handicapped"]
Downtown Zoo— A zoo on Down where circa 2646
Garvey saw the juvenile form of Grogs. ["The Handicapped"]
drinking bulb— A container for drinking in microgravity. By 2850 they were even in use on Earth. ["The Warriors", "Flatlander", Ringworld]
drinks, alcoholic— see liquor
Drunkard's Walk— The interstellar yacht owned by
Larchmont Bellamy in 2647. It had a compact, thick hull, and wide landing legs. Its paint job, brilliant orange with garish markings in clashing colors, made it look ridiculous. [Spoiler alert alert: "Grendel"] No playboy's yacht, it was a powerful and highly maneuverable ship. ["Grendel"]
Footnotes
[1] "...he reached toward his console to run a deep-radar scan. ... Why emit a discretionary neutrino pulse? ... Kirsten had wondered at being trained to emit a deep-radar ping on approach to a new star system" (Fleet of Worlds ch. 18, p. 156). 
[2] "They moved through the ship's pressure curtain, Jason toting a bulky portable deep-radar." ("The Soft Weapon", Neutron Star p. 79).
[3] "By 2100 AD, five nearby solar systems held budding colonies: the worlds were Jinx, Wunderland, We Made It, Plateau, and Down" (interstital notes, Tales of Known Space p. 81).
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![[title] The Incompleat Known Space Concordance](/knownspace/IKSC_LogoSmall.gif)
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