« first day (1167 days earlier)      last day (2643 days later) » 

00:02
@SCPilot the whole inquisitorial thing?
Well, to the British that was scary plus it reminded them of the Spanish Inquisition. And a lot of Protestants were taughted by the Inquisition (although the Catholic Church actually protected Jews).
So, the whole thing about the Inquisition killing a lot of people was an urban myth. More people have been killed by the regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot than those killed by all of the Inquisitions combined.
@SCPilot yeah -- the Inquisitions are a reminder why religion and politics don't mix though
That depends. If you look at it, the Church actually kept a lot of wars during the Medieval Period to a minimum especially when the Pope said to stop fighting. And if the kings and queens didn't listen, he threatened with excommunication. In fact, there was a Pope who threatened excommunication to anyone who killed, injured a Jew, desecrated their graves, disrupted their customs and rituals, and harass their businesses.
@SCPilot they did have some positives from an international-relations standpoint, yes. I'm more thinking from a domestic-rule-of-law standpoint though
@Shalvenay Oh? What do you mean?
00:09
more like "who's in charge here?" problems
Ah I see. That makes sense. Anyhow, inquisitorial systems do add in the benefit of more people to ask questions. Also, in the Verrisiran justice system, jurors are allowed to ask questions, especially if the jurors think that there is evidence that was no submitted to the case!
00:58
@SCPilot -- so...I've always wondered what Krampus would do if he met real elves, not those holiday-season-Keebler-box-imposters :P
Um...........I'm not sure. I think St. Nick treats his elves with respect and kindness. :)
@SCPilot some elves don't want to be part of a toymaking sweatshop, no way, no how :P
I don't think it's a sweatshop
hrm. where does he get the budget to pay for all those elves then? elven labor is pretty expensive, yanno :P
Well, Santa doesn't need money and his elves don't want to be paid with money either. They just like making toys for all of the good boys and girls.

I remember that a store someone was fired for telling children that there was no Santa Claus. Manager was furious at him. It was his first offense, but still I think the manager made the right call.
01:03
-2
Q: Limitations to replicator technology

wizzwizz4Replicators have become a staple of science fiction. However, many stories treat them as magical, or with inconsistent abilities. This is not a magical device that makes anything for nothing. When fed a source of atoms, it will rearrange them into whatever it is programmed to create, such as fo...

This Q needs some love. See my comment there.
@Shalvenay They work for food and shelter against the fridge arctic climate in a company town of course.
@FerretCivilization heheh. paid in company scrip too, I reckon
But they're magical!
Probably not even paid, they working off their impossible debt that is passed down to their children, it is what keeps the elves stuck making toys forever.
@FerretCivilization yeah, my elves would take one look at that and go "screw that noise"
01:16
I'm sure a lot of people in real life said screw that noise too but more powerful people just blared the noise louder.
@FerretCivilization :P yeah...you're forgetting what sort of elves we're talking about here :)
Your high better than humans in every way elves that Tolkien rip off movies made famous right.
Though maybe it is the Claus family that are the slaves to the Eldritch Abomination thinking ways of the Elves.
@FerretCivilization hahahaha :P
01:32
BTW, anyone ever play Wing Commander? Man, I love those games. However, laptops and joysticks don't mix.
:(
In fact, the Verrisirs aren't the first alien race to tangle with Humanity: the first were the Kevarian Imperial Clans (similar to the Kilrathi, but with some of Halo's Elites tossed in for good measure).

Of course, the war with the Verrisirs was started by paranoid military commanders. Of course, having some bigoted (read: anti-religious) politicians helps stir up things too.
Also, I found this out: you can decide your callsign in the military. You are given one. To decide your own callsign is considered bad luck.
Oh. My bad. It's considered bad form to pick your own callsign. The more you complain about it, the more likely it'll stick.
02:34
-3
Q: Planet Classification

SaltedAssSay a society wanted to have a classification system for the celestial bodies they discover. What would be some of characteristics they would deem important?

 
7 hours later…
09:25
@SCPilot why not?
@Secespitus sup?
09:50
Good morning @dot_Sp0T
How's your hard-sci Meta-discussion-worthy question doing?
10:17
@Secespitus schleppend
Aber bin somewhat zuversichtlich dass sich das ganze retten lässet. Sofern ich dann von Molborg ne reaktion kriege.
@dot_Sp0T Ja, ich frage mich auch wie reality-check helfen soll. Aber ich bin sowieso gegen reality-check und science-based seit wir die Meta Diskussion hatten bei der mal wieder rausgekommen ist, dass wir alles lassen wie es ist statt die tags zu burninaten.
10:38
@Secespitus jo, science-based hatte ich drinn und hat nicht gereicht, darum die eskalation zum hard-sci; das argument von MichaelKjörling im Meta Thread hat Fuss, auch wenn ich dem widersprechen muss, die Seite hier ist da um Wissen zu sammeln und zu katalogisieren. Nur weil etwas auf einer anderen Seite verfügbar ist heisst es nicht dass es hier nichts verloren hat.
@dot_Sp0T Solange es auf beiden Seiten on-topic ist kann es auf der Seite gepostet werden, die der Autor für passender hält. Wenn er worldbuilding möchte dann Worldbuilding und sonst halt Astronomy/Physics/...
11:04
@Secespitus aber mal ganz unparteiisch - findest du die frage, als solche, gehört hier hin oder eher nicht? Ich dachte es sei eine Frage die gut zur Seite passt. Es gibt genügend Fragen danach welches das beste Triebwerk ist (mit Listen zur Auswahl), aber keine Fragen die Infos zu verscheidenen Triebwerken sammeln und katalogisieren. Katalog-Fragen sind immer heikel, darum dachte ich dass ein Vergleich nach Zahlen es ermöglicht die Frage beantwortbar zu machen und trotzdem ein pseudo-Nachschlagw
erk zu schaffen
 
1 hour later…
12:08
@dot_Sp0T Für jemanden der keine Ahnung von diesem ganzen Thema hat liest sich deine Frage sehr gut (sehr schönes Verhältnis von spaßiger story zu sinnvoller Frage) und ich würde mir da Antworten erwarten, die für viele Leute auf dieser Seite sehr hilfreich sind. Insbesondere durch "I am looking for answers with current-day technologies or plausible extrapolations of current-day technology." hast du die Eingrenzung soweit vorgenommen, dass Zahlen möglich sein müssen.
Es ist schließlich aktuell oder in absehbarer Zukunft möglich. Wenn es dazu keine Zahlen gibt ist die beschriebene Technologie unpassend. Was auch eine Antwort wäre - aber ein "Nein, solche Ergebnisse kannst du nicht kriegen. Die Zahlen können nicht mal ansatzweise geliefert werden." muss halt auch begründet sein. In Antworten erwarte ich bei deiner Frage entweder Zahlen, oder ein vernünftig begründetes "Nein" - kein Zwischending. Dafür haben wir schließlich das hard-sci tag.
12:33
hi
2
Good afternoon @ashveli
Haven't seen you around before. New to this site?
12:57
Howdy
13:19
Good afternoon @TrEs-2b, long time no see.
Hello people
13:51
@TrEs-2b soup!!!!
14:05
I log on, nice and peaceful, and...german??? I think?
I'm somewhat confused.
@PatJ Hello person
@Gryphon Yeah, we are plotting how to take over WorldBuilding.SE ;)
I'll have to go over to google translate to decode your secret plans.
@Gryphon It was a discussion about whether to use the tag on a question or not.
I see.
@Secespitus We believe you.
14:11
@PatJ Great, it's working. They will never find out about our secret plans @dot_Sp0T. Muahahahahahah
And, google translate kinda concurs. What it gives you is slightly more intelligible than german. Slightly.
@Secespitus I wish I could read Italic-English.
4
Good afternoon
@PatJ It's a skill that takes years of hard speaking-secret-german training.
@Separatrix Good afternoon
@Separatrix Howdy
14:14
Good <timezone>!
Indeed, it's morning over here.
@Green A good diurnal isomorphism to you, too.
@Secespitus Thank you! It's good to be here.
@PatJ Copy and paste it into a word processor, and then de-italicize it.
@Gryphon I wouldn't trust automatic translation. I know for a fact they're unreliable.
14:25
It might give you a rough idea of what they're saying. Don't trust it too much.
@PatJ Don't listen to @Gryphon. Trust everything I tell you. Always.
@Secespitus I understand that, so it must be true.
It is true that listening to me is generally a bad idea.
14:42
@Gryphon As long as you say things with enough confidence by the time people work out that you're making it up as you go along it's usually too late
15:33
@Separatrix Ah. :) The fine art of bullshitting; oh how I love it.
Spending lots of time on WB will help you a lot with that skill.
@Green It's not bullshitting. It's showing leadership potential.
5
15:52
@sphennings Er, I mean, spending time on WB helps you hone your inner sociopath so that you too many climb the corporate ranks.
@Green It's certainly changed my writing.
I find myself wanting to reply to emails "In one sentence what is the point you are trying to make?"
3
@sphennings that's an Engineering skill; alas you usually give them 3 sentences to explain their issue (premise, question, expectation)
@sphennings I tend to just say that to my colleagues, they've mostly got used to me
It's done wonders for my writing as well. I keep wanting to go back and delete/rewrite my early answers
@Separatrix I usually review my old answers when they get randomly upvoted. Sometimes there's grammar errors, sometimes logic errors.
there are* grammar errors ;)
16:00
Sadly the question "In one sentence what is the point of your book?" isn't really answerable. Otherwise I'd be an excellent novelist.
Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl
in space
@Separatrix It's important to add "in space", "but steampuk", or "with dinosaurs" to the end. Otherwise you've lost me by " boy looses girl".
That's even the plot to Hitch Hiker's Guide
@sphennings Don't forget the all-time favourite "with lazers"
Never spell it "lasers".
16:05
Which can also be appended to the already mentioned things. Nothing beats "with dinozaur lazers".
Ah, the beauty one can create by replacing random "s"s with "z"s
"in space but steampunk with dinzaur lazers"
@Secespitus I don't know "but like in Mad Max" is a compelling alternative to "with lazer dinosaurs"
Lazer dinozaurs?
@Gryphon Shouldn't that be "in zpace but zteampunk with dinzaur lazerz"?
@Bellerophon No, Lazer Dinozaurz
16:07
@sphennings Just put them together: "but like in Mad Max with lazer dinozaurs". Because more is always better.
@sphennings I said "random 's's", not "all 's's".
@Gryphon More z makez it cooler.
We zould just replaze all our z's with z'z.
@Gryphon Zat's a great idea!
It'z probably a good id3a to ztart zubztituting 3z az w3ll.
Y3z, l3tz zp3ak kiddi3.
Thiz iz kinda not und3rztandabl3.
16:10
If it's incomprehensible the worldbuliding must be good.
6
@Gryphon It tak3z zom3 tim3 to get us3d to it.
Ztill b3tt3r than z3cr3t-g3rman.
@PatJ Googl3 Tranzlat3 zhould mak3 a tranzlat3r for thiz.
Although, with th3 3ff3ctivn3zz of googl3 tranzlat3, thiz might be mor3 und3rztandabl3 than what3v3r it putz out.
16:15
@Gryphon I reckon it would take about 5 minutes to make one.
@sphennings Zackr3lidg3! Th3r3's an '3' that izn't a '3' in that link.
@Bellerophon More like 2.
1 |-|@\/3nt f3lt t|-|1z 3dg3y z1nc3 m1ddl3zc|-|00l
3
gives up
@sphennings Edgy is only has one 'e' and I think there is a space in middle school.
@Gryphon What?
16:26
It means I give up in response to sphennings saying "I haven't felt this edgy since middle school". It's actually quite readable, but I still think it's rather excessively obfuscated.
@Bellerophon I wouldn't be channeling myself circa 2005 if there weren't at least a few spelling mistakes.
@sphennings Edginess is no excuse for poor spelling.
@Bellerophon There was no excuse for 14 year old me.
 
2 hours later…
18:39
@Separatrix I've felt the same way sometimes. My writing style (and knowledge base) has changed a lot over three years. . .

« first day (1167 days earlier)      last day (2643 days later) »