QuietAmerican
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Posts
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Joined
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Finally a humane way to move beached whales!
(read article)
Or um, a bacteria a millimeter in a solution. PROGRESS! It's just a matter of scale, I tell ya! Ramp it up boys, RAMP IT UP! -
Quote:Originally Posted by Gehnen
Let's ignore many of the more talked-about flaws of Superman Returns for a moment. Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but I was struck by this only this past weekend:
If Superman is super thanks to our sun, how did he fly outside of our solar system to the ruins of Krypton and survive?
Did anyone else catch that? Seems like a bigger flaw than super-baby.
When I see posts like this, I think of Terry Pratchett and how he described how light works in a magic field.
Quote:An observer on some suitable high point, let's say for the sake of argument a wisp of cirrostratus on the edge of space, would remark on how lovingly the light spreads across the land, how it leaps forward on the plains and slows down when it encounters high ground.
Actually, there are some kinds of observers who, faced with all this beauty, will whine that you can't have heavy light and certainly wouldn't be able to see it, even if you could. To which one can only reply,
so how come you're standing on a cloud?
~Terry Pratchett "Equal Rites" -
I know I'm late to the party, but if this show looked this good from the get go, I would have watched it. As it is...
I'll wait to netflix it someday. -
Quote:Take a look at this book when you get the chance.Originally Posted by Lycanus
...
As to the senses thing, I hadn't really considered it myself. I do make a lot of use of emotional feelings almost as a sense, and the sense of touch fairly often given her tendency not to like being touched. Scent I haven't used much. Hmmm...
Hearing does get used.
well have to consider the scent thing
... Lu isn't one to put on perfumes despite her other trends toward femininity. Too much chance of being tracked based on that scent.
"Under the Jaguar Sun"
This book opened my eyes on how scent can be used to help tell a story without relying on the obvious. These short stories really draw you in in ways that normal descriptive methods can't.
Back on topic,
FANTASTIC!
Congratulations on the new book, and good luck on the self marketing! -
At first I thought it read Decapitations, and I was like, who would be dumb enough too..
...then I read what the thread is really about.
Really? Really! Really?! Really.
Programing human extinction. FOR SCIENCE! -
Just talk about heroes. -
Quote:I don't get it. I have Iconic names on my characters and I didn't need to use obscure Jargon to get them.Originally Posted by Street_Wolf
I agree with this. I'd much rather put up with seeing multiple of the same names if it meant I could finally have decent, single-word names. I like my character names to be iconic, not obscure jargon. I don't care if everyone else can use the same name, because I focus on my character.
I got
Juvie
Penny Tuesday
Bronz Vigil
Coin Trick
For Villians,
Juvinile Delinquent
Fagin
Quartermaster Agent
And these are on Virtue!
On the less populated servers I got a Ulysses! Ulysses on CHAMPION! Come on people!
Really what is the problem? Just come up with a decent name, use some creativity. -
Office Space
The effects of hypnotism and how it effects how the character deals with issues in the office is better than the embezzelment plot. -
Also,
Captain Kirk's death in Generations.
They build up how important taking risks are to living life, and how Picard needs Kirk in order to win the battle, and after all that what do we get?
He throws a few punches, quips a joke, then falls to his death when the scaffolding beaks under his weight.
Really? Seriously? -
Tosha Yar,
Great opportunity to kill off a recurring character and they drop the ball by making it so anti-climatic.
Wash,
Suffered from a Joss moment. -
I don't get this article. Maybe it was funny or informative back when there were only one or two web sites available.
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I chose Lex Luthor.
Really, I hate him as a villian. Here we have the ultimate villian, and he faces off against who? A bald guy who likes beach front property?
Ok, ok, even I like the movies and I know Lex of the comics is more interesting than that. Still, Darkseid, General Zod, Bizarro, Brainiac, all are better.
The guy went evil mad at Superman because he lost his hair. Because he lost his hair? The Joker became horribly disfigured, while Lex lost his hair?
Serious. I hate Lex Luthor.
Oh and Mr. Mxyzptlk, PLS OMG someone retcon Mr. Mxyzptlk out of creation, out of canon, and out of everyone's memory! -
Bah, that guy should thank Bruce Campbell.
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Quote:1) I do not believe that colonization would solve the population problem. I don't think we would be able to send enough people off world to decrease the load. Kim Stanely Robbinson points out that fallacy pretty well in the Red / Green / Blue Mars books.Originally Posted by Mothers_Love
Four things will force us to take expansion of our species more seriously.
1): The exponential expansion in World population and the starvation therein.
2): The total depletion of mineral resources.
3): When a large asteroid hitting shows us that we cannot afford to stay exclusively on our homeworld.
4): The expansion of our own star to Red Giant status in 5 billion years which consumes our solar system. If we haven't got our ship together by then, then i absolutely despair and reckon we deserve to go extinct.
2) If we deplete our mineral resources, how will we have the mineral resources necessary to build huge interplanetary colony ships with FTL Drives?
3) Hopefully we will have time between finding the killer asteroid and building the colony ships. Again, the majority of us will die, as with #1 we won't be able to evacuate the entire population.
4) Sounds about right. However, I don't think the human race will be around that long. We'll die out long before then due to natural selection or some other natural force. I for one welcome our new Bee overlords. -
Quote:And all the wonderful space microbes we'd get infected by. Like War of the Worlds, an Earth like planet that's filled with life would be toxic to us. One breath and their common cold would kill us.Originally Posted by Lothic
A second Earth would make us actually want to get to the Moon and Mars first as a stepping stone to the stars.
After the millions of years of evolution that allow us to be immunized to Earth's smallest life forms, can you imagine how long it would take us to find "cures" for all the stuff floating in an alien's world? It might be better to just terraform.
After all, if we devise faster than light space drive or if we have the patience to travel that far in colony ships then we should also achieve the technology or patients to create habitable worlds in our image. Like the genesis device. That way we don't die of alien acne or something.
Then again with the same argument, if we had the tech or the patience to get us there, then perhaps the argument holds that we would have the tech or patience to create a cure for everything.
hmm
Heck, I'll stick to my first idea. Give me an immortal robot body so I don't have to deal with it.
Beep, boop, beep. -
Quote:...but some of his ideas are fun to think about. :POriginally Posted by MasterJediJared
Kurzweil is a hack.
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Dropping some Villian Logic, yo!
(Darth Maul > Count Dooku) < Darth Vader
Anakin Skywalker and EP3 Darth Vader < EP4,5,6 Darth Vader
(EP2 Boba Fett < EP5 Boba Fett) and (EP5 Boba Fett is >Special Edition EP4 Boba Fett and EP6 Boba Fett) but = Star Wars Holiday Speical Boba Fett
Doctor Evil is > Goldmember
Die Hard Villian > Die Harder Villian > Die Hard with a Vengence Villian > Live Free or Die Hard Villian
G1 Soundwave > G1 Star Scream > G1 Megatron > Any other incarnations of all three
Pennywise the Clown > Giant Spider
The Beyounder from Secret Wars > The Beyounder from Secret Wars II
For reference
Are you kidding me? Seriously?
Fun topic! I can go forever. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Mothers_Love
127 light years away = 746,585,422,394,318.2 Miles away.
Never gonna get there until Warp theory is realised, and thats never gonna happen until Mankind makes an astonishing breakthrough in a capable new powersource, and we are unfortunately far more likely (given our track record) to blow ourselves up through new said technology through war.
I used to love to speculate about stuff like this, but the more you research it the more you find that we are still a pretty low-tech and basic species, still dependant on dead plant and animal remains for the majority of our power sources.
I'd say concentrate on major outposts on the Moon and Mars to avoid the 'all your eggs in one basket' doomsday scenario - and then lets see where technology is in a thousand years or so.
One things for certain. As long as we let our differences divide us here on our own home planet, we haven't a hope in hell of making the steps we should be doing as a species.
I'm hoping for a Technological singularity to occur first. And I hope it expresses it self in either advanced AI that takes our place, or that we transfer our consciousness into explorer ships because to Quote Brother Cavil from Battle Star Galactica:
Preach on, Brotha'!Quote:Originally Posted by Brother CavilI don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way! -
Looks like it was made withÂ… you know, longing. Made by a person really longed to see a swan.
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Quote:Sounds like the Doctor.Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
the fact that he's so far out there grants him outside thinking that allows him to access strategies most other people can't conceive. He is the dark mirror of Batman: He can win if he doesn't have time to plan.
You don't get it, boy. This isn't a mudhole... It's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon.Quote:Originally Posted by ebon3
::Raises hand::
If the situation demands it, I'd break the law and murder a villian in cold blood. One could argue that it would make me no different from the vilian I just wasted, but I'd argue in a case like that the results far outweigh whatever legal code or process I would have been bound to (to put things generally) or maybe I've just watched 300 to damn many times
My take is that while Batman my be an enabler, he not responsible for the Joker's actions. Only Joker is responsible for Joker. Batman may make things worse, but if Batman didn't exist, I think the Joker would have found some other hero to latch on too.
Also if you put Batman to task for Joker, you would have to put every hero to task. Superman should be able to stop the Joke with no problem, yet he doesn't. -
The scene described was also in the Novelization of the movie.
Think they will put as extras the Biggs / Luke scene from the beginning of Star Wars, as well as the Tosche Station scene? -
In Star Trek the battle of Wolf 359 is in fact, around Wolf 359.
Also check out this wiki
Stars and planetary systems in fiction
There are a number of real world stars that are home to fictional planet. Here are a couple I pulled from the list.
The City on the Edge of Forever", episode of Star Trek (TOS) television series. Captain Kirk recalls a book written around 2030 or so by a famous novelist from "a planet circling that far left star in Orion's Belt".
and...
The fictional planet of Cybertron in The Transformers comics continuity by IDW Publishing) orbits the star system Shaula (Lambda Scorpii).
Fun topic. -
With such a radical change isn't he afraid of people not recognizing him? I mean, he needs to protect his brand!
Shesh.
We've seen how many bat costumes? Nothing new here. Nothing at all to make me take notice.
He changes costumes so often between so many books and other media that a slight cosmetic tweak does nothing to thrill. -
Having Branagh point to The Lion in Winter is a great sign! I have doubts about Thor, however if Branagh is trying to evoke O'Tool in that movie, then he's reaching for something really great! It makes me happy to see this.
If any of you haven't seen The Lion in Winter then...
Go! Rent! It! Now!
Also, the fact that a very young Anthony Hopkins was in this movie and worked with Peter O'Tool while making it, means that not only is Branagh on the right track, but Tom Hiddleston will have an enormous amount of help on set from his fellow actor to help him reach this goal. -
Quote:For instance:Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
No. Explosions and hyperviolence have their place.
The problem with Mr. Bay is that he has no idea where the place is, and couldn't find it with a map and a guide who knows the way.
Pearl Harbor was not about Explosions and Hyperviolence. In real life, yes, there were Explosions and Hyperviolence, but this was not what the event is about. However, Mr. Bay seems to belive so. There was no glory to be shot when the Arizona went down, yet Mr. Bay found exploitable glory shots.
Another weird Michael Bay moment:
Mini gun attached to asteroid rover in Arrmageddon. Why? Why did it have a minigun? Why? Oh it was a Bay movie.
That guy just sucks.