The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

5:17 PM

0

Q: Is there an in-universe explanation given to the senior Imperial Navy Officers as to why Darth Vader serves Emperor Palpatine?

Answers can be from Canon or Legends. TL;DR: How do the senior Imperial Navy Officers with experience in the Clone Wars account for why a powerful force-using 'baddie' like Vader not only does not overthrow, but faithfully serves an apparently non-force-using human politician in the form of Em...

Napoleon Wilson

They really don't know the Emperor is a mad wizard?

Also why doesn't any physically superior henchman throw over their puny master?

But presumably when you actually read through that behemoth it makes more sense. ;-)

user132126

@Randal'Thor I dunno. Depends on how much trust you put into the public education system.

user132126

Spider-Man is still the most popular of all time though, yes.

user132126

:P

user132126

@Randal'Thor Harry Potter is on that list and was the first non-comics character that I ran across that I thought could give anyone a run for their money, popularity-wise.

Rand al'Thor

5:28 PM

2 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor

@WebHead rolleyes

And we've come full circle.

user132126

But so much about what makes Harry Potter so loved by fans isn't necessarily Harry himself.

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead I was thinking of HP all through our conversation earlier, but it's still modern trash and not (yet?) a classic.

@WebHead Yeah, also this.

Napoleon Wilson

Same with Spider-man. ;-)

user132126

There's been 105bn people in all of human history, estimated.

Rand al'Thor

The character is pretty standard as far as fantasy tropes go.

user132126

5:30 PM

We're at a time now where it's feasible for a currently-popular character to represent a full percentage point of all of human history, thanks to globalization and mass marketing.

Napoleon Wilson

I'd wager the entire series isn't sprawling with originality in its individual parts anyway.

But what is?

user132126

Harry Potter?

Napoleon Wilson

Yes.

user132126

Agreed.

user132126

It was an innovative mish-mash of existing tropes and ideas.

Napoleon Wilson

5:32 PM

And it inspired a whole generation to live out their emerging sexuality by "creative" writing instead of watching porn. ;-)

user132126

I think fanfiction.net would have been popular with or without HP

user132126

This shelf is now empty... :(

user132126

instagram.com/p/By6OQ8GAIV5

user132126

If a onebox can't onebox an IG post then what even is the point?

Rand al'Thor

Doesn't even onebox Twitter any more.

Oneboxing is goooooooooing ...

Napoleon Wilson

5:37 PM

Presumably the chat engine is growing up? ;-)

user132126

You mean aging?

user132126

It's ready to enter senior living.

Mithrandir

At least the SE blog post OB was fixed.

user132126

That Thor question being so highly view, as well as the SW viewing order ones, sort of show the potential of the non-core sites to generate views.

user132126

Many of the top-viewed questions have been linked well from other geek sites, or hit topics/titles that are literally what "everyone" wants to know.

user132126

5:43 PM

It should be possible to successfully grow the stack('s view count) by forming relationships with some of those other places and targeting the those types of questions.

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Pretty much all reading/viewing order questions get disproportionately many views.

If you check the most viewed questions in each tag.

user132126

data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/1097301

Rand al'Thor

It's an easy thing to Google for and something people want to know.

Along with ID questions, suggested-order questions are about the only way we can make a practical difference to people's lives.

Rather than just assuaging their curiosity about some fiction.

I was going to say useful, but, well, that's still debatable ;-)

Napoleon Wilson

Indeed, they're an embodiment of the site's service character.

user132126

Yes. That top 25 list I just linked... Pretty much all of those questions I heard people asking in real life before ever hearing about SFF.SE (except the later stuff, but even then I heard people asking about Point Break off-site first)

Napoleon Wilson

5:45 PM

Next only to actual recommendations or critiques, which are (still) off-topic.

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson Which we can provide on the blog.

user132126

Which is no longer officially supported by SE.

user132126

It probably costs me more money to run than it did them, and I don't even have an account on the stack anymore.

Rand al'Thor

I hear it's run by some guy who doesn't even have an SFF account any more ;-)

Jinx.

user132126

Jinx.

Rand al'Thor

5:47 PM

Double jinx.

user132126

*mumble mumble*

user132126

Technically Jack runs the blog, I just pay for the infrastructure.

user132126

Oooh, Spongebob is super popular, too

Napoleon Wilson

Yeah...

Then let's stay with Spider-man rather. ;-)

user132126

Oh, wow, a Supernatural question is in the top 25. Very suprising.

user132126

5:51 PM

What's more surprising to me is how the longest-running SFF show on TV gets relatively minuscule questions on your stack.

Napoleon Wilson

I thought it's quite popular around here?

user132126

146 questions ever

Napoleon Wilson

I count 1419 questions.

Unless that's not actually the longest running one.

user132126

scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/supernatural

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead "your" ... ouch :-(

DavidW

5:52 PM

@NapoleonWilson Maybe it would help if you each clarified which show you're talking about?

Rand al'Thor

@DavidW Just check the tag lists ;-)

user132126

:( I had to change it, as we've both pointed out I don't have an account anymore

Napoleon Wilson

I'd wager Doctor Who runs longer than Supernatural?

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead You can still be here in spirit ...

Napoleon Wilson

Or are you sperating it into old and new?

DavidW

5:53 PM

@Randal'Thor That doesn't tell me which show each of you thinks is "longest running"

user132126

@NapoleonWilson I honestly don't know. It's a "record" determined by someone else, not me.

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson Apparently CE/WH likes promoting new stuff and forgetting classics ;-P

user132126

Ah, and it's longest-running American SFF show, so how it rates to Doctor Who I don't know.

Napoleon Wilson

Ah, okay then.

user132126

15 seasons though.

Napoleon Wilson

5:55 PM

Presumably Law & Order isn't sci-fi yet.

And Star Trek doesn't count as a single show.

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Darn US-centrism ;-)

@WebHead Doctor Who has 37 and counting.

(26+11, so even if you split into old and new, Classic Who is still way ahead)

Napoleon Wilson

@DavidW Where's the fun in that? You have to keep people on their toes and not reveal every enigma as soon as it arises.

user132126

@Randal'Thor I misread it and thought it was calling it an American TV show

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson I spy a kindred spirit.

Napoleon Wilson

That would sure be taken by some Brazilian telenovela.

Oh wait, American American. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

6:00 PM

^^

user132126

DW also has like 600 more individual episodes, but not sure if that includes radio episodes or not.

Rand al'Thor

Radio episodes?

Napoleon Wilson

But relating it back to the earlier discussion and trying to adress the apparent inequality in question quantity, it's also immensely more pop-culturally relevant than Supernatural.

(Maybe to some degree due to age, too, though.)

user132126

Yeah hasn't Doctor Who had a number of radio plays?

Napoleon Wilson

Though, Supernatural is also inherently American in its appeal and themes (or at least it was in the first few seasons I watched). Maybe not too dissimilar to the Britishness people have come to associate with Doctor Who.

user132126

6:12 PM

List of Doctor Who radio stories

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The show has been a large influence in the media since its inception. 1966 saw the first radio broadcast of the show. There have been many Doctor Who radio broadcasts over the years. In addition to a small number of in-house BBC productions, a larger number of radio plays produced by Big Finish began to be broadcast on BBC Radio 7 from 2005, featuring the Eighth Doctor (again played by Paul McGann) with mainstay companions Charley Pollard and later Lucie Miller. Initially, these were broadcasts of Big Finish productions...

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Are you thinking of the Big Finish audio dramas?

Ah, right, yeah.

No, they're not counted on the "official" episode lists that you'll find on Wikipedia.

(Scare quotes mandatory because DW has no real concept of canonicity levels.)

user132126

Google just gives a card with the episode count, probably from Wikipedia

user132126

@NapoleonWilson What is? DW?

Napoleon Wilson

@WebHead What else? ;-)

Rand al'Thor

Although they are part of the same continuity, because "The Night of the Doctor" (the online minisode covering the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor and the genesis of the War Doctor) mentions some of the Eighth Doctor's companions who appear only in audio stories.

user132126

6:13 PM

I'm distracted now so just need to make sure I'm following along.

Rand al'Thor

So much fangasm opportunity in that minisode.

Napoleon Wilson

Neither Spider-man nor Spongebob.

@Randal'Thor But is the online minisode canonic?! O_O

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson As said, it covers the genesis of the War Doctor, so it's actually pretty vital for the Doctor's whole timeline.

Napoleon Wilson

For all we know Doctor Who is ultimately living in Tommy Westphal's head, too.

user132126

Is Doctor Who pop culture?

Rand al'Thor

6:17 PM

(The War Doctor being the surprise extra regeneration that was dreamed up for the 50th anniversary special.)

Napoleon Wilson

@WebHead In Britain it would very much seem so.

user132126

Pop Culture is as vague of a term as "popular"

Napoleon Wilson

Oh, of course.

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead We could argue all night about the precise definition of "pop culture". I'm not even going to try.

Napoleon Wilson

Even more so, since "culture" is also vague, and I'm sure vagueness is at least multiplicative. ;-)

user132126

6:19 PM

Doctor Who has a section in every Barnes and Noble here, and Target now, but not so much Walmart

Napoleon Wilson

But if you get a segment at the London Olympics opening ceremony, I'd say you're at least British pop culture. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

I generally can't stand these "let's poke fun at well-known films because I'm a cool Youtuber" things, but the Honest Trailer for New Who is something I keep going back to because it's actually genuinely funny and good.

(Cinema Sins is anathema to me, and I don't mean the Good Omens character.)

user132126

Good Omens was good

user132126

I haven't disliked anything that I've watched with Tennant in it, either.

Rand al'Thor

Amen to that.

Napoleon Wilson

6:22 PM

Of course if you take the globalized world, I'd argue zero people around here know who that is, apart from the people already engulfed in American nerd-culture, which in turn seems to be much in love with him, too.

user132126

He's going to be in town soon for a con and my wife wants a photo with him.

user132126

But it's $100 for the photo op + $25 for the ticket to the con, plus taxes, plus waiting in line for a few hours :(

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead I bet she does :-P

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor That's how you say "amen" in chat!

user132126

He's the best doctor. I wanted to do it, too, but we can't both go because I'm not also going to try to find a sitter.

user132126

6:24 PM

I don't want 2 separate photos,

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson ?

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor By starring that is.

Rand al'Thor

Oh.

Well, stars aren't upvotes ;-)

Napoleon Wilson

Though, in retrospect you might have said it to the message right before the one I starred.

I'd still have to check the veracity of that, but I'd make a good guess it wouldn't change anything about the other statement.

user132126

I have no idea what's in reply to what anymore

Napoleon Wilson

6:29 PM

It's not too difficult to follow. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson No, I meant the one you starred.

Napoleon Wilson

Oh, good.

Rand al'Thor

I haven't actually watched the TV Good Omens (yet).

Napoleon Wilson

So you liked Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

user132126

It's where HP got better.

Rand al'Thor

6:30 PM

@NapoleonWilson Wellllll ...

Let's say it was less "so much worse than the book" than the films either before or after it.

Although that ridiculous chase scene with the dragon, my God.

Cut out the nonsense like that and do some interesting character development instead, jeez!

Dammit Napoleon, don't start me on a rant :-P

Napoleon Wilson

Granted, it wasn't the humongous fiasco that the previous one was, where they left out the amazing part about the awesome Marauders that changes the entire story. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Napoleon (at least) is being deliberately cryptic, I think:

34 mins ago, by Napoleon Wilson

@DavidW Where's the fun in that? You have to keep people on their toes and not reveal every enigma as soon as it arises.

Also, if you think this is hard to follow, you should watch me and humn some time :-)

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor If I had worded everything with clear 3-word sentences, the entire conversation would be quite boring really.

Rand al'Thor

That is true.

Or is it?

Napoleon Wilson

I still have to watch Good Omens.

Rand al'Thor

6:33 PM

Let us try.

Napoleon Wilson

But it's probably good because David Tennant.

There! ;-P

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson must ... not ... agree ... with ... this ...

Marvin

0

Q: Has Matt Murdock ever tried to pass as sighted?

It seems that Matt Murdock's abilities would allow him to convince most people he had normal vision. Particularly if he wore sunglasses, in case something about his nonexistent eyesight might convey strange body language. So it seems to me that he has made a choice to present himself as blind -...

marvel comics daredevil

user132126

@Randal'Thor Humn is... a person?

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Yes, and the source of the wackiest banter you'll find on SE.

user132126

6:39 PM

That's a bold claim.

user132126

Like saying Spider-Man is the most popular fictional character of all time.

Rand al'Thor

rofl

Napoleon Wilson

From personal experience I agree with that claim, though.

(The banter one, not the person one, for clarification.) ;-)

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson Though I'm not sure you see it as such a positive thing as I do ;-)

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Not really, no. There's neat weird and...weird weird. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

6:41 PM

Just let go and embrace the weird.

That should be my epitaph :-P

user132126

Ah, more meetings soon.

user132126

Also, don't think I didn't notice that all your popular character offerings were British, @Randal'Thor. I won't stand for that kind of Imperialism!

Rand al'Thor

Well, America doesn't have much history.

DavidW

@WebHead Culture comes from Britain. America gives us Chicken McNuggets.

Rand al'Thor

Unless we go back to famous Native American figures, and I don't think many of them are well known and popular for a wider audience.

DavidW

6:51 PM

@Randal'Thor Whiskey Jack...

Rand al'Thor

@DavidW Takes more than American Gods to make even a legendary figure famous again ;-)

user132126

If you add up all the years lived by US citizens and residents compared to all of the UK, it's more.

user132126

So, collectively, USAmericans have experienced more of time than Brits.

Rand al'Thor

Keep telling yourself that :-)

Napoleon Wilson

Also, America gave us Spider-man!

Rand al'Thor

6:53 PM

1 hour ago, by Rand al'Thor

2 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor

@WebHead rolleyes

Napoleon Wilson

And Nightcrawler.

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson That sounds like the same thing again tbh.

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Not really, no.

(Of course, not the X-Men dude!)

Rand al'Thor

Don't spiders crawl by night?

user132126

@Randal'Thor I'm honestly not sure the UK alone has had more citizens in it's entire world history than the current population of the USA

Rand al'Thor

6:56 PM

@WebHead Well, there's over 60 million now, and there were over 40 million a hundred years ago, so you do the maths.

Anyway, it's not your premise that I was disagreeing with, but your point.

DavidW

@WebHead Sure there were only 10m in 1800, but think about it; their lifespan was probably only about 27 years on average. :)

user132126

@Randal'Thor I'm trying to find someone else that has already done the maths!

Rand al'Thor

Anyway anyway, I've loitered in here enough today.

user132126

100 years ago the USA had 100MM people and now it's like 350MM so you do the math!

Rand al'Thor

In your second protestation, you said current population.

Napoleon Wilson

6:58 PM

He's a professional mathematician. What's that banal number counting you're expecting him to be capable of? ;-P

user132126

@Randal'Thor Right, I'm not sure you can add up to 350MM people, the number that have lived and died in the UK.

Rand al'Thor

I say "protestation" because you're basically going "waaah, OK we don't have much history, but somehow we can fiddle the figures to pretend we have more than you!"

:-P

@WebHead Well, we're probably at least halfway there just from the 20th century alone.

user132126

@Randal'Thor But it drops off considerably there

Napoleon Wilson

Though, to their defense I wouldn't say they don't have "much" history. But you probably defined it by length.

user132126

@Randal'Thor Timey wimey wibbly wobbly.

user132126

7:02 PM

If you created a timeline of all the lives of USAmericans vs the English, the USA timeline would be longer. So "history" only counts insofar as you give preference over smaller populations doing less at the same time.

Rand al'Thor

9 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor

Keep telling yourself that :-)

Napoleon Wilson

Also, if you discount a definition by national identity, their history also largely includes the British history (and a ton others). But...I guess by that measure we're all East Africans anyway.

user132126

@Randal'Thor I don't see how that fits. That's a lot easier math to do a comparison on.

Rand al'Thor

4 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor

I say "protestation" because you're basically going "waaah, OK we don't have much history, but somehow we can fiddle the figures to pretend we have more than you!"

user132126

But that's not what you quoted.

user132126

7:05 PM

It reminds me of the CPU problem.

Rand al'Thor

My point is, I'm not even going to bother arguing this.

user132126

If there was a certain mathematical problem that 10 years ago would have taken 20 years to complete, it wasn't worth even starting.

Rand al'Thor

If you want to say the US has more history than the UK, go ahead, knock yourself out.

@WebHead Don't you mean computer problem?

Mathematical problems are usually solved by intelligence and ingenuity rather than machine processing time.

user132126

I said CPU already, it was a continuation.

user132126

If you want to figure out the 1 millionth prime number, for instance.

Napoleon Wilson

7:08 PM

15 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor

Keep telling yourself that :-)

user132126

@Randal'Thor If you want to give weight to the accomplishments of your people because they were around earlier, despite most of them being farming peasants that contributed, possibly, a net negative to society, knock yourself out.

user132126

There were, like any population, a few geniuses and innovators, and otherwise mostly the same as anyone else before or after: people just going about their day.

user132126

And we've had far, far more people than you who've just gone about their day. :)

Rand al'Thor

@WebHead Oh, I'm by no means trying to promote the country I came from. From slave owners and colonialists to sarcasm and xenophobia, the whole thing is pretty much a net negative from my point of view.

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Don't you mean computing problem?

Rand al'Thor

7:12 PM

I hate Britain too - I just hate the US more :-)

@NapoleonWilson Touche (maybe).

@NapoleonWilson Maybe?

Napoleon Wilson

It's a rhetorical question. Yes, you do. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

If we're being nitpicky, you forgot a silent H.

Oh, too late.

user132126

@Randal'Thor I don't really mean it in a country-vs-country sense, though, it wasn't my point.

Napoleon Wilson

I didn't. You just didn't account for editing time. ;-)

Rand al'Thor

You did originally.

Napoleon Wilson

7:14 PM

Also, I had to first look up where exactly it is, so I left it out to be on the safe side.

Rand al'Thor

Unless you deliberately make mistakes so you can edit them while someone points it out :-P

user132126

No, I was more trying to call out that the way of thinking about history doesn't seem to work like it did before.

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Yes, because it ultimately makes the complainer look odd. ;-P

(But no, not really.)

Marvin

-1

Q: Jack Vance in first person

Simple question: What stories did Jack Vance write in first person? I can't think of any, unless one or two of John Holbrook Vance's ‘straight’ mystery/adventure novels. One of these weeks I'll unbox the Integral Edition and post my own answer, but meanwhile, can you name one off the top of you...

jack-vance

Rand al'Thor

Hmm, actually, that's not really true considering the context I said it in. Sorry.

DavidW

7:16 PM

@WebHead As opposed to people who spend all their time not on Facebook watching "Reality TV!?"

Or people who spend their entire day on chat...

user132126

@DavidW Nope, same thing, which I mentioned later

Rand al'Thor

@DavidW And on that note, goodnight all.

I'm orf.

Napoleon Wilson

@DavidW Oh, they could have an important mathematical computation running in the background.

Oh, wait...

DavidW

'Are you stealing those LCDs?' 'Yeah, but I'm doing it while my code compiles.'

@Randal'Thor Ta!

user132126

7:36 PM

I wish that were still true.

user132126

My code compiles fast enough, it can just take forever to figure out configurations.

user132126

But, yes, history. I wonder if our concept of "history" is outdated now, when we have 6.5 billion people on the planet that are collectively working on, possibly, more inventions and innovations that benefit the greater whole than all of human history pre-1950

DavidW

Code compiles fast enough, true, but all the checking back to Nexus for dependencies plus the automatic running of all the unit tests in the build makes it pretty slow.

user132126

Aqueducts and Gutenberg's press which major things, but were so major then because the distinct lack of pre-existing technologies. Now our technologies are growing at such a rapid rate and there's so many it's harder and harder to distinguish a new technology form its predecessor.

DavidW

Especially the tests that create and populate an H2 database for each test...

@WebHead The Singularity approaches!

Napoleon Wilson

8:50 PM

History isn't the sum of our inventions, though.

user132126

11:32 PM

No, it's the record of human events and more humans means more human events

user132126

The concept of history being merely the older chronological stories seems a bit outdated to me, now, though. Especially as SFF fans where we think a bit outside of the traditional

Transcript for

The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…