Tim Collinson wrote:
 > So would they, in fact, have an omotransversarius muscle which my limited
 > googling tells me is a muscle humans don't have but which dogs do.
 > And one that might reasonably be 'exercised'?

Looks like omotransversarius pulls the front leg forward (equivalent to
internal rotation of our arms at the shoulder) and allows the head and
neck to move down and out.

It can definitely be exercised:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KYAOuuvJTU

 > Is my calculation of a 40km horizon at height 200m on a size 5 world
(let's say radius 2500 miles)
 > about right?

d^2 = h^2 + 2Rh
h = 200m, R = 4000km: so  40km is right.
(you wrote d^2 = h^2 + 2 * R^2 * h, but didn't square R, so you got the
right answer)

 > I needed to name some TL4 explosives (on Pysadi, harvesting howood)
and came up with
 > quadroglycerine - it was supposed to be a sort of homage to triticale
being turned into
 > quadrotriticale for Star Trek's Trouble With Tribbles episode.  But
is the nature of
 > glycerine such that that's just completely ridiculous?

 From the perspective of a biochemist, yes as glycerine is a three
carbon compound which you can't nitrate four times with tech level 4
chemistry, if at all.

Call it howoodite - it's a locally sourced improvised explosive
containing a mixture of barely stable nitrated compounds.

Rob O'Connor