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1:06 AM
-1
Q: Im looking for a penguin book

ABilal 40129I don't know much cause I remember throwing the book away 15 years ago so not much detail I think it was a chapter book you know the ones in school my teacher gifted it to me on Christmas not much detail hopefully someone can find it oh and it was an icy snowy village kingdom or something.

 
 
1 hour later…
2:21 AM
@DavidW less slacking off, more IRL stuff taking a LOT of my time and energy. :/
 
0
Q: Which Hal Clement books are in the same universe as 'Mission of Gravity'?

cometaryorbitObviously Star Light is a sequel to Mission of Gravity, and the other Mesklin stories "Under" and "Lecture Demonstration" are directly related. I noticed, though, a while back that Star Light is connected to Close to Critical -- Easy refers to 'when a concatenation of errors had stranded her in a...

0
Q: Anime about a club of high school girls that fight monsters

CATAI remember this watching this anime, with like madoka magica vibes, about a highschool club of girl members that (they dont know why it just happens) have to fight against monsters.I dont remember the name but i remember these details: The girls would obtain this "uniform" and weapons during the...

 
2:49 AM
0
Q: What picture book featured warring factions of mole-like creatures?

VillageI recall a colorful children's fantasy picture book with the following details: It featured a world inhabited by strange creatures, perhaps moles or another mammal, like a bear, or perhaps even wombat. They dressed like humans. Many had shaven heads or short hair. There were two factions, locked...

 
3:11 AM
Ironically, had the OP asked this on the Science Fiction SE, your answer would have been deleted because they have a standing rule against using Biblical (or other religious) references as sources of science fiction or magic tropes. — Graham 2 hours ago
Our policies are famous :-P
 
 
2 hours later…
5:06 AM
@Jenayah Hope it's nothing too unpleasant; apologies for the humour fail.
@Randal'Thor As well they should be! They are obviously the best of all possible policies and should be a model for others!
 
5:22 AM
0
Q: 60's TV episode about a man who discovers he is a Robot not: "In His Image" or "The Electric Ant"

RockyFaherBlack & white TV episode; A young man, dark hair, wearing khakis & a plaid shirt(?) is in town when he hurts himself, cutting his arm/wrist open, only he doesn't bleed, instead he sees wires inside his arm and ends up finding his way to the basement laboratory where he was made eventually discove...

 
5:48 AM
0
Q: Webcomic with anthropomorphic animals featuring a possible ghost in the library

FuzzyBootsI read this over a decade ago, probably somewhere in the early to mid 2000s. I remember it as being a fairly popular webcomic at the time, but I'm having trouble finding it now. Most of the webcomic was pretty grounded in reality, as I recall it, with the main character (a hedgehog perhaps?) mana...

 
6:00 AM
@DavidW And with that I finally figure out which side of the Atlantic you're on.
(Or at least which type of English you speak, to be pedantic.)
 
6:13 AM
0
Q: Fantasy (Novel/Novelette?) ... witches, a witch-hunter, a roller coaster, and a potted plant

BenboyJust fragments, I'm afraid; I think this is from the '70s. One of those "witches in modern times" things, in a world where ordinary people don't know there are witches. I recall they worked in an office, that there were male and female witches. One of the male witches urinated into a potted plant...

 
@DavidW no worries
 
6:39 AM
1
Q: Floating transparent sphere beaming something into a crater? (Space Force! theme song video)

uhohThe video Space Force - The Theme Song // Songify This is a rich source of old SciFi movie images. What vintage movie had this blue floating holographic head talking to some kind of military installation? At about 02:00 can be seen a large nearly-transparent sphere hovering over a large crater ...

 
6:58 AM
0
Q: MCU: Extracting the Reality Stone

anuragIn the movie Thor: The Dark World we come to know that once the Reality Stone (Aether) has taken a living being's body as a carrier host, it is extremely difficult to extract it. When Jane Foster asks Odin about whether or not his books tell him how to extract it, he says that information is unav...

 
 
3 hours later…
9:38 AM
1
Q: What did Kaladin draw in Shallan's sketchbook in Oathbringer when in Shadesmar?

stephenKaladin drew something in Shallan's sketchbook in Oathbringer around chapter 95-105 I think. While at the reverse Thaylen city in Shadesmar, I think. What was he drawing? There is an illustration at the end of chapter 107 I think is his.

 
10:04 AM
0
Q: Book about a girl who builds a robot who finds out she herself is a robot version of the real her

robynI read this book about five years ago. The cover of the book was green and I feel like it had an eye on it or something; an unnaturally green eye. The main character was a girl and she built a robot that looks exactly like her. Then she realised that she herself is a robot, built by the real her....

 
 
1 hour later…
11:26 AM
0
Q: My question was closed as a duplicate but it's not really a duplicate

essayThis question of mine, Which sci-fi book is this quote from?, was closed as a duplicate of this other question, What is Series Where There is an AI Born on the Solar System-Wide Network. I can see why that happened: the answer to the two questions is the same (book 2 of Ender's Saga, Speaker for ...

 
11:46 AM
1
Q: Old movie where young astronaut returns to Earth very aged

Jim BradshawIt was about an astronaut who went into space, young guy, and came back. In the hospital, the doctors are looking at him in shock after he came back. We don’t see his face yet, then there is a sudden close up of him. He is a grizzled old man. It's possibly from the 50s or 60s.

0
Q: Who set the tasks for the Triwizard Tournament?

BeginTheBeguineWe know that the Departments of International Magical Co-operation and Magical Games and Sports were working on the latest attempt to bring back the Triwizard Tournament, so I always assumed that they had set the tasks. But on a re-read I noticed this: The instructions for the tasks the champion...

 
 
2 hours later…
1:23 PM
Greetings, Earthlings.
As part of the Hal Clement promo, shouldn't we be reading and voting on the questions/answers?
 
I think the main idea is to ask new questions i.e. to generate content
 
Reading and voting also helps, for sure. If we can get some HNQs, that might help to attract Hal Clement enthusiasts from elsewhere on the network.
Funny thing about my Albireo question: it got a whole load of comments from different people but no answers yet. At least that means we have people around who know Hal Clement well enough to have some idea - they just need to muster the confidence to post answers.
 
The idea is for more for new stuff than going through the old stuff, if any
@Randal'Thor And then there's me, who just made a random stab in the dark :P
 
@TheLethalCarrot Yeah, but excluding you, the other commenters seem to have some clue what they're talking about :-P
And 14111, surprisingly enough. He probably is familiar with Hal Clement's work, but it just doesn't show in that comment.
 
2:20 PM
0
Q: What bullet incident is Neil referring to?

Naomi. JNeil driving ambulance: Protagonist: You knew it was me coming out of that vault. Why didn't you say? Neil: That's a lot of explaining when someone's about to put a bullet in their own brain. Protagonist: But afterwards? Neil: Thing's the same, I knew you'd be okay. What bullet incident is Neil...

 
2:31 PM
Jul 14 '20 at 18:12, by DavidW
Correct spelling is important to me, but I refrain from downvoting everyone who spells "colour" wrongly. :)
 
2200 lines! Can't trim it down further without splitting the thing in several classes, but that's already WAY better than the 3300-lines monster it was yesterday 💪
 
You're brave, I mostly just cross my fingers and pray to the heavens for the slightest change in legacy code and hope it'll work
And there's zero way my boss would ever let us change anything, fix the broken mess with as few changes as possible
 
I did test my changes
As I said it generates code, so just run the generation thingy and compare with what's on Bitbucket
 
Ah should be easily comparable then
 
@TheLethalCarrot we're lucky enough to be at the beginning (ish, about 10-15% into) the project so the higher-ups are still OKish with preventing legacy code
@TheLethalCarrot yeah, simple enough
 
2:46 PM
0
Q: Which was the first sci-fi story to feature power armors for military use?

PabloAs far as I know, the first attempt to have a power armor for military use was made in 1965 by United States, being that the case, the science fiction concept predates reality. Some science fiction stories showing power armor are Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983) and Tales ...

 
@Jenayah You're at the beginning of a project and the code is already a mess?
 
3:26 PM
posted on February 05, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: Later it turns out dolphins are an alien delicacy, so it's all good. Today's News:

 
3:48 PM
@Randal'Thor Damn, but you are fast. I saw that answer come in for 'Who wrote a book about a libertarian moon colony?' and was about to flag it when I saw you delete it :)
 
@K-H-W Well, for SF readers of a certain age, that would be a blindingly obvious question. I knew the answer as soon as I saw "libertarian moon colony".
 
@Donald.McLean Yep; me, too -- it was one of my early favorites... Then that rant disguised as an answer came in, and I was JUST about to flag it (was re-reading it to see if there was any actually valid content in it), when I got the 'This has been deleted' message.
 
That user is quite notorious for content like that
 
Mycroft Holmes remains one of my favorite computer characters in any book :)
@TheLethalCarrot That's a shame, but at least, known about, it's easier to step on it when it happens.
 
Aye exactly, the shame is that a lot of the time (not all) the content is actually quite useful or knowledgeable, just not in the right place
 
3:58 PM
@K-H-W Sometimes I get lucky and see an answer right as it comes in :-)
@Donald.McLean I actually downvoted the question for not being detailed enough. Even if "libertarian moon colony" is so distinctive, it's not much description to go on.
 
@Randal'Thor And I would have gotten away with it too it first, if it weren't for you my meddling kids work
 
Well, there are aspects of Rand's philosophy that are absolute ... crud, and theory libertarians are mostly people who just don't understand that their theories are no more practical than Marx's.
 
@K-H-W Oh great, perhaps you can answer my question on Sci Fi SE about him.
No wait, it's not there. It's on Literature SE. literature.stackexchange.com/q/8434/139
 
Jan 24 at 20:48, by Rand al'Thor
> Famine: Not sure I got that.
> Death: I ᴅɪᴅ. Lᴇᴛ ᴜs ɢᴏ.
 
@b_jonas It would take a few hours to compose a worthy answer to that question and I don't have the time right now, but I'll take a look later.
 
4:05 PM
@Donald.McLean The question is two years old. It will keep.
And thank you for the offer.
 
@b_jonas If you had asked it here, it would have had the author tag and I would have gotten an notification.
Now I'm watching that tag on literature too.
 
Good, I should try to remember this chat line so I can point to it about why I often say it's better to ask questions about sci fi works on Sci Fi.
 
@b_jonas As Don said, it would take a while to compose a proper answer.. But the short answer, is no -- he wasn't an anarchist as such; he didn't think about it to that degree. Prof was a 'Rational Anarchist', and Wyo had her opinions, but Mannie was portrayed as just fond of what he knew, and trying to preserve it.
Mannie was apolitical by nature, as he mentions.. He just gets dragged into it by his associate with Mike, and by being the right person, with the right feeling of obligation at the right place in the right time. :)
 
@K-H-W Strange, that's not my impression. I thought Manny has his political convinctions, it's Mike whose opinion I can't read.
 
@b_jonas Or to convince some sci-fi book fans like Donald McLean to join Lit too :-)
Especially since Lit has a more consistent policy on author tags. Not all Heinlein-story questions on SFF will have the Heinlein tag, so you'd miss some here even by following the tag.
 
4:15 PM
I mostly agree, though I would say that Mike is even less political than Manny. He mostly just wanted to be Manny's friend and help him out as best he could.
 
If it helps, you can think of Mannie and Mike as foils for each other; they have a lot in common, but neither was inherently interested in the conflict -- Mannie talks about having trouble drumming up patriotism from his fellows, when they are interested in Beer, Betting and Women, primarily -- and he knows, as he's one of them, until circumstances pull him into it. Like many of them, tho, when shown the need, he stepped up.. he just wouldn't have, on his own.
 
@Donald.McLean I didn't say he was less political, I'm just saying I couldn't figure out his true motivations from the book.
 
His true motivation? His family, and friends, including Prof and Mike. :)
 
Manny had more opportunities to speak frankly with new people and explain his beliefs.
@K-H-W That's just part of it. He was certainly bored at the start, and wanted more interesting people to talk to.
 
Mike's real motive? Making his friend Manny (and later, Mike & Wyo) happy.
Which I think was part of the message; you don't go to war for an idea -- you go to war to preserve your friends, family and neighbors.. I forget where that quote (that I'm sure I butchered) is from, but the message comes across.
Later Prof & Wyo, not Mike & Wyo. Too braindead this morning.
 
4:21 PM
@K-H-W I wouldn't be surprised if it was from the American Civil War. Lots of people on the southern side were motivated by reasons other than politics, which is one of the problems that I have with moral absolutism.
 
@Donald.McLean Yup. And RAH was well aware just how hard it was to pin down real motives. In 'If This Goes On', Johnny fights against the Prophet, in the end, and can explain why.. But his REAL motive? Juddith. And it changes; he comes to believe in his new motives, even as Juddith leaves the story, but like most people, it's hard to ascribe a true single motive to his actions.
Mannie originally just went along to make Wyo & the Prof happy, but came to believe in the cause.. But originally he was just another 'Beer, Betting, Women' guy, as he would freely admit. Part of this is a character development thing, but it's also interesting to note that he probably wouldn't have developed had he not been drawn into the whole quagmire.
And Mike had no motives of his own; he was 'pathetically eager to please', I believe someone said -- he was lonely and when he had friends, he wanted them happy and to stay around. Politically, he couldn't have cared less, until they taught him to do so.
An argument could be made that Mike is an example of believing what you grow up with.
 
@K-H-W i completely agree with all that.
 
@Donald.McLean Thanks -- it's a fairly recurrent theme in a lot of RAHs works; the blissfully ignorant character who is drawn into something significant and grows from it into someone of significance.
 
1
Q: Where did Saleem Haddad get his idea from for the story, Song of the Birds?

Mozibur UllahIn his short story, Songs of the Birds, Saleem Haddad writes: "Everything seems so still. You would never thonk that we are hurtling through the universe at a crazy speed." "What's with all these riddles?" She asked. "All I'm saying is that things are mot as they seem they are. You know what th...

 
Kind of like a Bildungsroman for a grown, but not yet developed, character.
 
4:31 PM
@TheLethalCarrot I dunno 'bout you, but in my experience every project starts out having already inherited someone's "proof of concept" mess, or at least the code they "borrowed" to bootstrap it.
 
Good point
 
@K-H-W I'm not convinced. How would he already have a reputation as a fair judge if he was a "beer, betting, woman" guy? And he does a lot of exposition explaining how the current libertarian society on Luna works. He does get character development, but not about his convinctions, but how he's going to achieve them.
@K-H-W The part about Mike is possible.
 
@TheLethalCarrot this generator was inherited from another project, and it was already a mess, but the team member who worked on the new features didn't think of, or wanted to, refactoring it and kept the added lines of code in the same redundancy pattern there was
This adding to the pike of mess. The thing was 2700 lines long when we first got it from the other project. It was 3300 lines after adding our specific features. Now that I've factorised the redundant stuff, removed commented-out code and removed useless code (loops on a list, nested getters and... No modification? No flag?), it's 2200 lines.
I still have to add the feature I was originally tasked with, but I think that should be a hundredish lines.
 
5:04 PM
@Jenayah Burning out dead and useless code is one of the greatest sources of satisfaction I have in my work these days... :)
 
 
3 hours later…
7:54 PM
0
Q: Is a Watch classed as a Robot?

not a surviv botA watch like a thing people use to tell the time It has moving parts It can be told what to do It can think by itself It has enough intelligence not to skip over any numbers or such but can mess up if parts are faulty similar to a computer According to wikipedia A robot is a machine—especially ...

 
 
1 hour later…
9:05 PM
 
9:36 PM
0
Q: Spider-Man comic with him complaining about New York

Comicsfan4lifeLooking for a comic with Spiderman riding in or on a cab or car (holiday theme as well). He's had a terribly stressful day and asks, "God why do you hate New Yorkers?" Late 80s early 90s?

 
 
2 hours later…
11:19 PM
2
Q: Story about a man waking up early from cryogenic sleep and eats his crewmates to survive

JoshThere is a ship travelling to a planet for a reason I do not remember. On their voyage, one man (let's call him Bill) is woken up a couple of years early. The ship was only stocked with food to last all of them a couple months. Bill does his best to ration the food but after sometime, he runs out...

-1
Q: I am looking for a comic

ABilal 40129it's like a baby is born to some couple and then the girl thinks the baby will murder her and then she asks her family doctor doc says nothing then the boy is born one day the father comes home and the wife is dead on the floor he asks the doctor. the doctor says nothing and then the father Dies ...

 

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