The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

b_jonas

9:02 PM

@Jenayah Nice question. Thanks for linking.

Marvin

0

Q: Spinning Silver - first Jewish MC in fantasy?

Naomi Novik's recent novel Spinning Silver made me wonder: is it the first fantasy novel with a Jewish main character? Or were there others before it? (I am not looking for a shopping list here. Trying to understand if there were many and I just missed them, or just a few; if this is new, or has ...

Jenayah

@b_jonas well it was mainly because the answer had the quote you were looking for

b_jonas

@Jenayah Sure, but still. It's an interesting one.

I don't think I'll ever fully understand Snape, but the answers help a lot.

Jenayah

Well there's two ways of looking at Snape

b_jonas

Four good answers.

Jenayah

9:06 PM

1. devoted man who would heroically dedicate his life to protect the son of the only person who ever cared about him

2. absolute creep who couldn't move on after being turned down by a girl in their teenage years, when he was embracing the dark arts

b_jonas

@Jenayah I don't think that was it. Those answer say that Snape was avenging Lily. Joining the Order and protecting Harry because of Dumbledore's plans and orders was a mere side-effect.

I still can't completely forget what I thought about him when Prince was published but Hallows wasn't, but that doesn't really match Hallows, so I have to change it.,

Alex

@Jenayah Should I remind you to edit your answer?

Jenayah

@Alex mmh?

oh right

grawlix

b_jonas

@Alex Which answer?

Alex

11

A: Which SFF comics first used a grawlix (symbol swearing)?

TL;DR: 1936. Answer goes from describing the one I found, how I found it, what could be an earlier instance, and ends on a treat for nitpickers. I've done some research (see below) and the earliest one I can trace is this panel from "The Secret Ray", also known as "Manitoba no reply", the firs...

b_jonas

9:14 PM

Oh, that reminds me. There's another "what was the first" question that I want to look up.

4

Q: What is the first instance of a Seeing Stone or Magic Mirror with multiple simultaneous connections?

What is the first science fiction/fantasy world that used a seeing stone or magic mirror in a way where a message/connection is duplicated across multiple endpoints at the same time? I know the Lord of the Rings Seeing Stones (Palantir) could hypothetically connect with multiple other Seeing Sto...

magic history-of

Hmm. No answer yet.

Alex

@Alex Perhaps surprising that ten people upvoted an answer suggesting that the first instance of something was 17,002 years from now.

b_jonas

I wonder if I should try to find all questions automatically protected (by user -1), since that filter is so stupid and those questions often get forgotten in protected state when we should unprotect them.

Jenayah

Unrelated. What does This comment will be automatically removed by the system when the post is corrected mean when raising a mod flag?

@Alex oh c'mon :p

b_jonas

I could probably find them with SEDE.

Jenayah

Also, don't underestimate Neaderthal's comic strip abilities

Alex

9:18 PM

@Jenayah Well the alternative is that no one cared to fix a typo.

Jenayah

@Alex aye

b_jonas

@Jenayah Rand and Null are not here, so either ping JNat with that or ask in chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/tavern-on-the-meta , possibly after searching Meta SE.

Unless @Mith knows of course

Mithrandir

@Jenayah screenshot?

Jenayah

I hate searching on Meta :p

@Mithrandir sec

b_jonas

@Jenayah Then ask in that chatroom. They work pretty well when you have such questions about SE software, IME.

Work well as a human search engine that is.

No guarantees of course, but IMO worth a try.

It's getting late so I'll probably leave in leave in like half an hour or something, but thanks for the nice conversation about HP, @Jenayah and @Alex.

Jenayah

9:22 PM

Alex

17

Q: Community's test comment can't be removed?

I was viewing a question about anchor tags and clicking them to run some javascript, and below the top answer, I saw that somebody had posted the comment: "this is a test comment". I re-read the post and looked at the dates, and saw that the "test comment" had been posted in 2017, wheras the que...

bug status-completed comment-flags community-user

@b_jonas Anytime.

Mithrandir

@Jenayah I have no idea. I've never seen that.

Jenayah

@b_jonas same!

b_jonas

@Jenayah What are you flagging? Question, answer, comment? Which site?

Jenayah

@b_jonas comment, SFF

Third comment here

6

Q: Please identify a comic strip in mid 70's about astronaut who crashes on Mars and rebuilt by them

I remember a short comic strip in the back of (I think) a DC monthly which depicted an astronaut who crashes on Mars (I think) and is tended to and fixed by the Martians. He subsequently is returned to Earth and in the last panel it's revealed the Martians didn't know what a human looked like, so...

story-identification comics mars

Mithrandir

9:24 PM

Interesting.

b_jonas

@Mithrandir And you have "2458 helpful flags" on Sci Fi SE according to your profile page, so you would have seen it.

Jenayah

@Alex soooo... Mod flag on the Q, reading to rmove third comment?

Mithrandir

@b_jonas Yeah, I think I still have the most helpful flags on the site...

b_jonas

@Mithrandir Wow.

Mithrandir

@Jenayah Doesn't look like mods can delete it either.

Jenayah

9:25 PM

@Mithrandir lol, what?

b_jonas

I'm not surprised that you have many,but I wouldn't have suspected that you have the most.

I'll try to check that.

Jenayah

How can mods not delete stuff

Mithrandir

I can't delete it either, with the same error message. I can edit it however. — Samuel Liew ♦ Aug 3 at 21:32

Jenayah

@Mithrandir ah I skimmed over that post tbh :p

Mithrandir

lemme see if I can poke animuson

b_jonas

9:27 PM

@Mithrandir Lol. "It's a magic comment that attract upvotes and we cannot delete it ... "

Alex

@Jenayah I don't think that will help.

Jenayah

dangit

b_jonas

Let's see. scifi.stackexchange.com/help/badges/71/marshal

Mithrandir

@b_jonas script.google.com/macros/s/…

@Jenayah comments are gone

Adamant

The real question for the Netflix Marvel Cinematic Universe: Why do all the gangsters in Harlem have piles of guns, while the ones in Chinatown and Hell's Kitchen seem rather fond of knives, hatchets, and even more exotic weapons?

Jenayah

9:33 PM

@Adamant stereotypes

next!

Adamant

@Jenayah Actually, I don't think so at all.

I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that Luke Cage is known for his bulletproof skin, and well....

Let's say that Daredevil and Iron Fist...aren't.

Jenayah

@Mithrandir holy... That's when I realize this NLN-comment-flagging campaign of mine this summer was aggressive. By today's numbers I'm 10th on this list oO

Adamant

If as many people fired bullets at Danny Rand as at Luke Cage, he wouldn't be among the living much longer.

Jenayah

@Adamant true.

Adamant

It's a bit irritating. We're treated to a picture of a violent city flooded with guns and ammunition...where people only use it when it's useless.

b_jonas

9:36 PM

@Mithrandir You are correct. You have the most helpful flags on main.

Jenayah

@Mithrandir so what was the trick?

Mithrandir

@Jenayah "ping a CM and have them delete all comments by Community around the network"

Jenayah

@Mithrandir wait, all of them?!

that seems like

a lot

oh noes!

was that funny one also deleted?

sec

Mithrandir

spoiler: it wasn't a lot

and it didn't include Meta.SE

b_jonas

@Mithrandir Sorry, I'm a programmer, so I checked it directly rather than searching for something that already does that.

Jenayah

9:39 PM

No it's fine, it's still there

yet. #yolo — Community ♦ Jul 24 '14 at 14:24

Meta SE indeed

b_jonas

I just had to check the 24 users who have the gold badge.

Mithrandir

"all' = "6"

Jenayah

@Mithrandir lol

you know which ones were the others?

Mithrandir

nope

Jenayah

'k

Mithrandir

9:40 PM

@b_jonas Yeah I've done that out of curiosity as well, but not in months

b_jonas

@Mithrandir What? It took me only like ten minutes.

Mithrandir

Yes, I mean I haven't done that in months.

b_jonas

@Mithrandir Ah ok.

Yeah, I'm tired and misread your line.

Mithrandir

it's like... 11:45PM there, isn't it?

b_jonas

@Mithrandir Yes.

Jenayah

9:43 PM

41 but yeah

Alex

43

Mithrandir

(it's like 12:45AM here so I feel the sleepy urge as well)

b_jonas

@Alex “with all the big numbers and stuff?” giantitp.com/comics/oots0675.html

Adamant

OMG, I saw a non-powered character on Iron Fist literally grab a police officer's gun and just toss it away.

Jenayah

10:25 PM

Woah, the anime version of Iron Man is stupid.

Y'know, I like this site, but in the span of one week, to write backed-up answers I've had to watch American-produced cheap anime and listen to K-Pop. That can't go on forever :p

SQB

10:45 PM

-2

A: Spinning Silver - first Jewish MC in fantasy?

Genesis [Bereshit in Hebrew], verse 12 (King James version) 1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name g...

Flag: religious text presented as fantasy.

Adamant

@SQB I'd rather just downvote. Though it's a rather poor answer.

And the question always was going to invite such answers.

Jenayah

Hey, what's our stance on pastafarism?

Alex

@SQB Is there a particular flag reason for that?

Jenayah

Genuine question

Adamant

The other one, for all that it's from a Talmudic scholar, is a pretty blurry example as well, and long lists of answers are not great anyway.

@Jenayah The same as any religion, I suppose.

b_jonas

10:49 PM

@Jenayah Lol.

Jenayah

It's a trollish religion, though.

(doesn't beat zuism anyways)

Adamant

If the text is written as a religious text, we don't deal with it. If a novel exists that's clearly written as fiction, wherein the flying spaghetti monster makes an appearance, it's on-topic.

Jenayah

(the Icelandic one I mean)

Zuism

Zuism or Sumerian-Mesopotamian Neopaganism define a modern Pagan religious movement based on the Sumerian religion (and later Mesopotamian religions which continued it), and calls itself the "oldest religion, foundation of all major religions". Modern Sumerian-Mesopotamian religious groups already existed since the 1980s; however, the first institutional form of the movement was founded in Iceland in 2010 by Ólafur Helgi Þorgrímsson, and in 2013 Zuism was registered among the religions recognised by the Icelandic government. After the mid-2010s, branches of the church were established in other...

@Adamant hey, the flying spaghetti monster exists for real

Adamant

@Jenayah Right, that's the point.

b_jonas

1

Q: Should we include parody religions like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

So someone recently posted an answer about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Is that acceptable?

discussion

Adamant

10:51 PM

So does Marduk, but Marduk showing up in a clearly fictional book not only doesn't disqualify it but might actually make it fantasy.

Jenayah

Deep sea creature dubbed the ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’ is found floating off African coast

►

Adamant

Magical stuff in a work makes it on-topic, even if you believe that magic also really exists.

b_jonas

@Jenayah We have a precedent for allowing questions on Middle-Earth mythology on Sci Fi, but IIRC not allowing them on Mythology. It would be great if pastafarianism didn't fall into the cracks between the two.

Marvin

0

Q: Eighties novel about Robot killers who look like kids

This was a hardback book from a UK library – I read it in the late eighties. No memories of the book cover. Some may say this is just a ‘techno thriller’ but there was a strong robot element. What I remember, evil organisation (or Cold War enemy) with bad scientists is having a go at world dom...

story-identification

0

Q: What determines the number of Fists a person has?

Clearly, Danny has a single Iron Fist, from the moment he was granted it. He only ever uses a hand, and the same hand, to manifest the Fist. However, when . he ends up with Clearly, there's no "conservation of Fists" here. By contrast, ends up with a single Fist particularly ha...

marvel marvel-cinematic-universe iron-fist-2017

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The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…