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01:08
@DavidW Rule 34, I guess.
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Q: In Dune, was Leto Atreides plotting a coup?

DaveWhen Fenring attends the gladiatorial match, Thufir Hawat mentions the Atreides were training men to be the equal of Sardaukar, but it's never mentioned why Leto was so intent on upsetting the delicate balance of power between the Landsraad and an Imperial house. In addition, he has a good claim ...

 
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03:11
1
Q: Movie identification about defense shroud or aura

user143088Several years ago I watched a movie that I only have vague memories of. One of the distinct memories of the movie is particularly frustrating because of the current irony. The most prominent scene I remember seemed to be set in a marketing meeting for a defense system or military contract. There ...

04:02
1
Q: Was Boba Fett the first clone?

Sophie the Jedi KnightIt is established in AotC that Boba Fett is an "unaltered" clone of Jango - that is, he ages normally. By this logic, is Boba the first clone? Since he's around 10 in AotC, he must've been aging naturally for some time. Is there explicit confirmation that Boba was the first-ever Jango Fett clo...

 
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05:29
Nov 1 '18 at 16:57, by Jenayah
Googling Aestivate "short story" sleep universes has a fanfiction result with, from the two lines displayed in the Google search results, has Rita Skeeter doing naughty stuff with Lockhart -___-
 
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07:44
@DavidW no, but I once wanted to show a Belgian cow-orker a picture of our (then) queen Beatrix, so I searched for Beatrix, since the name seemed unique enough to me. Nowadays, Google filters NSFW results from searches, even with safe search off, unless you use NSFW terms in your query. This was before that time. And I was not using safe search.
As it turned out, there are quite a number of porn actresses called Beatrix (or Beatrice, which is close enough, apparently).
08:09
I think we've all done that when googling
Some story id queries have a habit of doing it for some unknown reason
 
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09:34
What name doesn't have quite a number of porm actors and actresses using it, though? ;-)
 
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11:55
1
Q: Who are these characters shown in post credit scene of Episode 4 of Loki?

Jash JacobIn Loki, Season 1 Episode 4 - During the post-credit scene, Loki is greeted by a couple of characters after he wakes up. Who are they?

@NapoleonWilson you tell me
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12:11
What do you call a woman balancing a six pack of beer on pool cue?

Beertricks Potter
2
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It's a play on Beatrix Potter. Hopefully "Beertricks" was obvious. A potter is someone who can sink individual balls but has no real strategy beyond that
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12:42
What do you call a pool player who really needs a shave?


Hairy Potter.
@fez oh, it was obvious :p
13:35
0
Q: TV kids show where there was a black and orange character looking bird

KrOObI remember very little from this but, they entered this virtual world from their computer, located in a room. Also there was a "bird" creature (not from cyberspace), this "bird" creature was almost a weird painting, it was black and it had an orange beak. It looks a lot like cyberspace, but I'm s...

1
Q: Anime about super athletes breaking world records

David NobleI recently watched part of an anime episode on my Roku. It was late and I was tired so I turned it off and went to bed. Now I can't remember the name of the anime. It was probably on Crunchyroll since that's the one I usually watch, but I do occasionally watch the other anime channels available o...

14:14
posted on June 30, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: I actually finished a draft of this where he was talking to an alien, but then realized the alien was making facial expressions the whole time. Today's News:

14:38
@CerealBot I love the idea of other (alien/robotic) species finding normal human things gross
Like eating?
14:57
@NapoleonWilson like in the comic
I know a lot of people who find "normal human things" gross. The sound people make when chewing. A visibly running nose. Coughing up phlegm. Sneezing. Stomach noises. Biting one's toenails...
@DavidW I mean those are things that are normally 'annoying', I guess what I mean is 'things humans don't normally find gross'
So I can't call those people aliens then?
@AncientSwordRage I figured. ;-)
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15:24
How is biting one's toenails a "normal human thing"?
I'm not even sure I could reach mine.
Hm. I can. Not sure I could bite them, though. And I'm not going to try.
Wasn't that the point? A lot of what he listed is genuinely gross.
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I'm sure I've read a book in which aliens found eating gross.
I did very recently, too.
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Wasn't that in Heinlein's Space Cadet, where Venusians found it repulsive?
@SQB I was going for humour by including that. Even I find that gross, and I really hope it's not "normal."
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15:30
Well, I recently saw a video of a woman who was born without arms, using her feet for everything β€” even tending to her young daughter.
If regular people bite their finger nails, what would she bite?
Well, first off, lots of us get by for years without ever biting our nails.
Secondly, if she does have to bite her nails, I'd hope she'd wash her feet first. (Unlike the guy at university who used to bite his nails while he was studying.)
@SQB oooh that's interesting
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@AncientSwordRage it's good you specified what was interesting.
I'm planning a novel with aliens that eat and speak from one hole, and breath through another...so I'm guessing they could find human's eating and breathing from the same hole disconcerting
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IIRC, (minor spoiler) our heroes used that to establish that they were civilised too, unlike the other human that was captured before them.
15:38
> eat and speak from one hole, and breath through another
now I'm trying to figure out how the biology of speaking works if the speaking-hole isn't connected to the breathing apparatus
I would have expected breathing and speaking from one hole, and eating from another
@ToxicFrog move their mouths and dub it over by an actor speaking
@ToxicFrog they have a gastropod-like radula that they can tap and scrap against a hardened plate in their mouths
they're probably going to sound like a cross between beat boxing and Morse code but that's not my problem... :D
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> β€œWhat manner of city is thine? Have I, perhaps, journeyed so far that manners are no longer observed?” The Venerian word meant much more than β€œmanners”; it referred to the entire obligatory code of custom by which the older and stronger looked out for the weaker and younger.
> The entire audience stirred. Matt wondered if Oscar had overplayed his hand. The expression of the leader changed but Matt had no way of reading it. β€œMy city and my daughters live ever by custom—” She used a more inclusive term, embracing tabus and other required acts, as well as the law of assistance, β€œβ€”and I have
> A noise rose from the spectators which Matt correctly interpreted as the equivalent of a shocked gasp. Oscar had deliberately used the offensive word β€œeat,” instead of talking around it. Matt was sure now that Oscar had lost his judgment.
> If so, Oscar went on to confirm it. β€œAre we fish, that such should be done to us? Or are the customs such among thy daughters?
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@DavidW What about other people's toenails?
@AncientSwordRage oh cool
15:51
@SQB oh cool
@ToxicFrog thanks, I thought it was a little bit creative
@fez Remind me never to ask you for a pedicure.
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@AncientSwordRage it's indeed Space Cadet. Heinlein ain't half bad; too many people get hung up on Starship Troopers.
@SQB I'm sure I will one day read some Heinlein
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You haven't? At all?
not that I know of
please don't take my diamond away D:
I definitely haven't deliberately avoided him
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16:02
I can recommend The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to start with. That gets you a good taste of Heinlein.
Well, I have read some Heinlein, and most of it was annoying, so you're not missing a lot.
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Tunnel in the Sky is a good example of his "juvies".
Maybe his juveniles still kind of stand up a bit, and it's hard to ignore Starship Troopers (which I think was one of his best), but basically ignore all the late-career crap.
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And I really like Double Star.
I don't think I've anything past The Number of the Beast.
Ugh. That was an appallingly bad book. I think that's the last Heinlein I ever bought.
Unfortunately, I picked it up after Friday, so I'd read that one too. :-P
Everything after Stranger is suspect IMO, though there were troublesome signs well before that, like the protagonist of The Door Into Summer marrying his step-daughter. (Shades of Farnham there.)
16:19
@DavidW ooof
that doesn't sound good
I certainly bothered me, though it does seem to be a popular idea among Libertarians.
I think the whole Libertarian thing prevented me from liking TMiaHM. (I practically had an allergic reaction to The Fountainhead.)
@DavidW do I want to know more...?
I dunno how much more there is to say. I found TMiaHM had too much "Libertarianism is logical! It can solve anything! It's a dessert! It's a floor wax!"
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To me Libertarianism looks like Lord of the Flies.
-2
Q: What "damage" is Tom Riddle referring to?

Ken JerichoTom Riddle says to Harry Potter, who was bitten by snake: Tom Riddle: I'd guess you have little more than a minute to live. You'll be with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry. Funny, the damage a silly little book can do...especially in the hands of a silly little girl. What "damage" is Tom R...

@DavidW sounds like our opinions might match if I ever listened to one of his books, and I could always return it if I didn't like it
I don't mind doing that so much with big name authors or ones who've long since passed
I've definitely heard people decrying doing so on smaller authors who're still relying on their books for a living
This is the link I was looking for on that theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/26/…
16:46
@AncientSwordRage I return books after reading them all the time. I call it "going to the library." :)
@DavidW :-o
I've not libraried in a loooong time
longer ago than I finished a physical book
I like to read physical books, but the public library here has both e-books and audio books to lend.
Apr 7 at 21:17, by AncientSwordRage
I haven't finished a book in years
how does one borrow an audio book...?
The advantage of the latter is that you only need to go in to the library when you need to get a new card.
I'll have to see if it's possible to do that locally/in the uk
almost certainly if I can find a library card it'll have expired
16:49
I've never done it, but I believe there's an app that a lot of libraries use that downloads and manages a temporary copy of the audio files.
worth investigating
LOOK AT THE TIME!
I have to go
It's beer o'clock!
...TTFN.
whats a beer?
Your _be_v_er_age of choice.
Wow, that really didn't work.
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Q: Trilogy? of books with "Lightsabres" powered by blood

AlithI'm trying to remember the name of a series of books (I think it was a trilogy) that I believe originally dates from the late 1980's or early 1990's.. What I can remember of the plot is as follows: Interstellar empire/kingdom setting Young man is a Hidden King Young man is not aware of his true ...

17:10
@DavidW You mean Librarianism.
@NapoleonWilson No, that's where you sort your book collection by topic and alphabetize each topic by author. It sounds like a lot of work to me.
It doesn't sound particularly liberating, no.
I tend rather to the geological filing system.
(A.k.a. "the oldest stuff is on the bottom.")
And it's also the most valuable?
Or would that already be socio-geological?
1
Q: In Wall-E, was "Eve" engineered to fail?

EngrStudentMotivation: I was watching Wall-E with my daughters (again) and there was a part where the Storm came upon them both, and Eve was caught up badly. I thought "how would she have survived without native/local help?" This has stayed with me, and I keep seeing things that suggest there were many (ma...

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18:02
@DavidW funnily enough, to me, that is part of what I like about it. Since it's so far away from both who / how I am and how the society I live in is. It's alien to me.
I like books that immerse me in an alien society. C.S. Friedman is good at that. I don't like books that preach at me about their society. I like Brin, but I skimmed over the parts of Earth extolling his philosophy of transparency.
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@DavidW I don't recall her being his step-daughter, but I do remember her being inappropriately young, which was "solved" by time-travel and cryogenic sleep. Then again, The Vampire Diaries is about a teenage girl and two hexadekagenarians (is that the correct word for 160+ year old vampires?).
And then there's Dark, in which β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆ and β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆ β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆ β–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆβ–ˆ. I mean, it is creepy, but it's unfair to single out Heinlein.
Has anyone here seen Dark, by the way?
I wonder if @Slytherincess has, it seems like a series she'd like.
18:37
0
Q: PC game about a boy that uses a magic book while exploring different planets

lamitrixI played this game when I was a kid so I probably misremember some of the details. What I do remember is that this boy wakes up and gets this enchanted book as a gift or something and throughout the game you make choices whether to use a spell in different scenarios or not. I remember there's a h...

0
Q: Book identification: '90s sci-fi, "Kilimanjaro" in title

Tessa NI'm trying to find a book I bought when I was younger. Here's what I can remember: Somewhere in 1990-1995. "Kilimanjaro" in the title, possibly ended in "to Kilimanjaro." Cover art had green on it, potentially a jungle? May have featured a character in an insect-like suit (this is very murky and...

Could this be [Toward Kilimanjaro](www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?42285)? — TheLethalCarrot ♦ 1 min ago
Why’s that markdown failing? Cos the link doesn’t start with https:// ?
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Probably.
I'm very tempted to put on a bounty challenge for Green Arrows 80th anniversary
Yeah it was, I tried it with https:// initially but forgot that isfdb isn’t https
@TheLethalCarrot isfdb is the noise I make when I find out a site doesn't use https
Do people think a meta post is enough?
19:26
posted on June 30, 2021 by Jack B Nimble

It has probably been twenty years since I last read The Death Gate Cycle, a seven book series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I recently reread the series and here my quick impressions and past remembrances about each book. This is less of a review of the series (which as a whole is ... Read more

20:03
@SQB You mind if I edit that quote to have proper paragraphs?
 
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21:31
0
Q: What are the different professions in TVA?

codeczarIn the Loki series in the TVA there people doing different tasks like some are judges, some are analysts, some are like policemen (Minutemen), some people have desk jobs. There are also people who do some other work like the person checking whether someone is a robot or not, or the person asking ...

22:05
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A: Community Ads for 2021

AncientSwordRageList of bounties with no deadlines List of bounties with no deadlines right sidebar self

That's an ad for this:
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Q: List of bounties with no deadlines

StormblessedI like the list of "bounties with no deadline (which is based on Puzzling and Code Golf equivalents) on Literature, so I am stealing it with attribution; this is almost completely copied and pasted from the other site. This is a list of unofficial, deadline-less (hence not searchable) bounties...

Which shamefully I wasn't aware of

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