The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

M&TV Feeds

01:12

0

Q: What was the point of the Sabre Data Protection technology in Elysium?

In Elysium, we see the CEO of Armadyne, John Carlyle, hammer out some code and upload it to his brain. He is asked if he wants to protect the data and is prompted to choose either "Paralyze" or "Lethal", and chooses the latter. At the end of the movie it is revealed that Max will die if the data...

M&TV Feeds

02:52

0

Q: sci fi animated tv series or movie series Being Human

animated sci fi series that shows earth has joined a federation of other planets and solar systems and humans being put into the society. We are viewed as stupid monkeys and picked on by the other species. One scene shows an alien classroom and the teacher showing videos of earth and about humans...

science-fiction

Yvette Colomb

03:21

daily floof - insert some date

Edlothiad

07:57

@YvetteColomb you might need to Capitalise your "Daily" and changed *insert some date* with the actual date and link the photo in your statement with the [link markup](some link here)

Gallifreyan

Daily floof 2017-07-14, courtesy of @YvetteColomb.

SQB

08:12

@YvetteColomb yours?

Yvette Colomb

08:29

@Edlothiad what will happen if I don't comply :)

@SQB yep she's my girl. The chicken is not lol

all the animals I floof are mine :)

SQB

Wait, floof is a verb now? :)

Edlothiad

Floof is.

@YvetteColomb The glory will be taken away from you, mua ha ha ha

Derpy

09:02

Is this some sophisticate troll so that @Mithrandir won't realize that either way the daily floof was a pony/horse?

we start by training the room to tolerate real pony pictures and then, when they will have dropped their guard, we will switch to candy colored carton ponies.

Mithrandir

09:19

Nope. Won't happen...

Yvette Colomb

@Edlothiad what?????? racked with shocks of terror

Edlothiad

09:51

Thanks @Voronwë for the spellcheck :D

Voronwë

@Edlothiad couldn't help but notice, you're welcome

Zaphod

5

Q: What is JK Rowling "bad" at?

We all have come to know that J.K. Rowling considers herself bad at maths. She has even admitted it freely; ES: How many wizards are there? JKR: In the world? Oh, Emerson, my maths is so bad. Has Jo ever confessed to be being "bad" at anything else? To possibly limit the "broadness"...

behind-the-scenes jk-rowling

Voronwë

@Zaphod well well, science isn't on the list!

Marvin

10:17

0

Q: What are the decency standards on stack exchange?

I have a particular question that I want to post that deals with somewhat unpleasant concepts. I do not want to rustle any feathers or step on any toes (I learnt my lesson from my question about gender non-conforming magical people in the Potterverse). So I want to ask here and get a better und...

discussion

b_jonas

10:47

Do you suppose it's time for me to post a question that might be controversial and hard to moderate because everyone thinks they know the answer and we might have to protect it?

Or two?

We more or less have every aspect answered already spread around on the site, but it would be nice to put it together to one question.

Mithrandir

...such as?

b_jonas

This is about Harry Potter. What I'd really like to ask is when underage people are allowed to use magic. There are various contradictory evidence on this. (1) It seems like they can't get a wand earlier than the summer they start Hogwarts. (2) It's unclear whether children in wizard family can use magic at home during the breaks with their parent's supervision, but from the way Fred and George tease Ron when they have to help cooking without magic it seems like they can't.

(3) Filch claims students aren't allowed to use magic in the corridors. But can they practice spells outside of class in classrooms or common rooms or something? It would be strange if the teachers would have to supervise them all the time for practice.

(4) On the other hand, Hogwarts isn't compulsory, parents can homeschool their children, which seems at odds with (2).

SQB

3) I think we see Harry and Ron practising in their common room, and Harry practises the summoning charm with Hermione in preparation for a task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

b_jonas

Relevant posts: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/102566/4918 Are there rules about using magic outside of class? ; scifi.stackexchange.com/q/99615/4918 Why isn't Harry punished for using magic outside Hogwarts? ; scifi.stackexchange.com/q/105399/4918 homeschooling ; scifi.stackexchange.com/q/114772/4918 wands

The whole thing seems messed up. If wizards are expected to never do any magic except during their classes and exams until age 17, then it's no wonder the wizarding world is so messed up.

Also, these comments about the wand crack them up. Re how her mother is looking for wands while the eleven year old Draco Malfoy is buying a robe in Diagon Alley:

@Doresoom - "looking at". My guess is, she'd pick the "proper" ones and then have him try them on. — DVK-on-Ahch-To Jan 13 '16 at 16:52

@DVK good point. It wouldn't do for her special snowflake to end up having a wand only fit for a Weasley end up choosing him. — Doresoom Jan 13 '16 at 16:54

The whole issue is strange. Even if Draco isn't allowed a wand before that summer, what exactly is the turning date when he can buy a wand? Surely he'd get a wand right on that afternoon. Does the turning date just happen fall on Harry's birthday?

Frankly it sounds to me like wizards are idiots.

2

SQB

11:12

My take on it is that there are laws on the books that are not strictly enforced.

First off, no magic in the hallways is a school rule, not law. Percy's a stickler for rules, Finch is a spiteful stickler for rules.

b_jonas

@SQB Oh sure, I'm not saying everyone keeps the rules. Draco may have already had a secret wand at home since he was three, but the rule is there so he was publically getting one when he was eleven, which is why he had to make such a show of it and tell it to everyone.

SQB

Like I said, we have examples of students practising spells in their common room. So wizards do practise outside of classrooms.

b_jonas

Mrs Weasley tries to enforce the rules at home, because he wants Mr Weasley to not get into any sort of trouble at the ministry, since he's the one earning money for the whole family (well perhaps Charley supports him too). Whereas clearly Harry and Ron breaks every school rule. But I'd still like to know what the rules are supposed to be.

@SQB Is that underage students? As opposed to ones who are over 17 years old.

SQB

@b_jonas Like I said, Harry and Hermione practising for the task with the dragons.

b_jonas

@SQB Yeah, there's that.

Still, all this information is spread around, and it would be nice to have a question or two that collects what we know about the ruels.

SQB

11:25

My guess is that
a) Home schooling takes place in wizarding families, so it would be impossible to use the Trace on them (since it detects magic in general).
b) You can probably get dispensation for home schooling your children.

The Weasleys are probably law-abiding ~~citizens~~ wizards. The Malfoys probably think themselves above such laws.

b_jonas

@SQB Yes, but the Malfoys still have to keep up appearances, like I said.

SQB

@b_jonas Yes, so you won't see Draco practising underaged magic.

b_jonas

@SQB There may be special rules about homeschooling. But there's still that scene about Fred and George cooking by magic and teasing Ron who has to chop veggies without magic.

(They use subtle magic to make Ron cut his finger with the knife.)

SQB

@b_jonas That "builds character". And like I said, the Weasleys (not necessarily the kids, but Molly and Arthur are law-abiding wizards — Molly more so than Arthur *cough* flying car *cough*).

I think there's a question there, but you're going have to be careful how to word it, otherwise it could get closed as a duplicate, or as too broad.

b_jonas

11:44

@SQB Yep.

I wonder what criteriums Narcissa would use to find a proper wand for his son. Are the heartstrings of some dragons more noble than that of other dragons?

@SQB Yes.

Gallifreyan

12:25

I really like Jae Lee's art.

Oh, wow

@Shokhet ^

(Not Jae Lee, that).

^ Now that is Jae Lee.

Cool, I'm going to be following this blog from now on.

Jae Lee also illustrated Before Watchmen - Ozymandias - good read.

M&TV Feeds

12:41

0

Q: Alien TV-show long term invasion

This TV show is from year 2004 or so. In the show you see aliens coming to Earth but with discretion. They start investigating on humans. Is a serious tv show, dont remember any comedy moments. Long duration and is the story of a group of families. There are human-alien hybrids and they hav...

identify-this-tv-show science-fiction

Skooba

two user ask the same question with 30 seconds of each other.... what to do....

0

Q: Which VISOR does Levar Burton own?

Levar Burton recently offered funders of his Reading Rainbow show the opportunity to wear his VISOR at an exclusive fan-event. The ULTIMATE STAR TREK "VISOR" Package -- NOW WITH ADDED DATA! // You and a friend will join LeVar and Brent Spiner for a PRIVATE DINNER in Los Angeles, and you will...

star-trek-tng

0

Q: Which VISOR does LaVar Burton own?

This answer says that Penny Juday, Senior Art Dept Coordinator for TNG, owns the original from the beginning of the series and that another was sold at auction to an unknown buyer. However, in 2012 LeVar Burton was offering a chance to wear his VISOR as a Kickstarter reward. LeVar Burton i...

star-trek star-trek-tng

EXACT same title.... different bodies

SQB

Knowing Valorum, he'll close his in favour of the new user's.

Already did.

Skooba

ah good

Gallifreyan

I was about to flag for merging.

Skooba

13:08

@Randal'Thor 'eh mate, wotcha tink bout dis?

buzzfeed.com/jamiejones/…

xkcd

For the final exam, you take a screenshot showing off all the work you've done in the class, and it has to survive being uploaded, thumbnailed, and re-screenshotted through a chain of social media sites.

3

SQB

13:25

@Skooba "this country is not like that other"

Gallifreyan

@xkcd Particularly relevant for SO and the likes, but applies to us on occasion.

Gallifreyan

14:04

@Randal'Thor rename-request - witcher to the-witcher

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba Wow, that's quite the coincidence. Did something specific trigger those questions?

Also, tut tut, Valorum should know better than to use star-trek-tng without star-trek ;-)

Skooba

@Randal'Thor I don't know. I would have to assume so, either comments on another question/answer or a press release/event

Null

@Randal'Thor Valorum apparently asked the other user to ask the question.

@Gallifreyan He requested I ask the question. Guess I took a bit too long lol — Brian Ortiz 1 hour ago

Yvette Colomb

I need to ask. Are my daily floofs up to your standards in here? nothing worse than me posting pics of the animals I love and you all think sigh Not another pic of her cat, horse, dog, ant,....

Rand al'Thor

@Null Aha, that explains it.

Gallifreyan

14:15

@YvetteColomb Anything is better than what @Mithrandir posts.

Or @Derpy's ponies.

Yvette Colomb

hm ok then

I have 100s of pics of my pets

Gallifreyan

You floofs are great ^_^

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb Cats and dogs are awesome. Horses and ants maybe not so floofy as such.

And the personal touch makes it even better!

amflare

@Randal'Thor What about dust bunnies?

Gallifreyan

Spiders can be very floofy.

Yvette Colomb

14:16

@Gallifreyan you are so kind, and if I remember I will dedicate my next floof to you shakes head knowing memory is flawed

Gallifreyan

Capaldi as well.

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor omg grasps at chest did I hear what you just said about horses and ants? What has a poor little ant ever done to you LOLOL

@Gallifreyan we are riddled with spiders and snakes in Australia

true story

Rand al'Thor

"LeVar Burton is levaraging" ... yes, he does look a bit older now. — Rand al'Thor ♦ 1 min ago

I'm cracking myself up here :-P

Gallifreyan

@YvetteColomb I demand fresh pics of koalas and wombats.

Yvette Colomb

@Gallifreyan ones I've taken myself? there's a wallaby that is often in my horses' paddocks

@Randal'Thor omg! I laugh at my own jokes!!

Gallifreyan

14:19

Doesn't matter, I just like them :)

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb Oh, you're Aussie? Aussome!

Yvette Colomb

oky doky, I will bear (pardon the floofy pun) that in mind

Rand al'Thor

Australia, the land of Things That Will Kill You.

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor ikr! we are. It's an amazing place. We see other people get hysterical about snakes and spiders and just smile

Yes! it is the land of all things that will kill you - except the things that will kill you in other places that are not here

we have an abundance of crocodiles, great white sharks, brown snakes, taipans, red bellied black snakes, funnel webs, bad politicians.. to name a few

Rand al'Thor

Why Australians don't have wall clocks

2

@YvetteColomb That last category isn't limited to Australia, unfortunately.

Gallifreyan

14:23

@YvetteColomb I think Thor has been living in Australia for some time now.

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor lololol looks like a huntsman, they are harmless and everywhere. I have had one drop on my head

@Randal'Thor true :'(

@Gallifreyan really? @Randal'Thor are you over here??

Gallifreyan

@YvetteColomb No, I meant the MCU Thor.

Mithrandir

@Gallifreyan You have no soul.

Gallifreyan

Team Thor - Official Marvel | HD

►

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb OMG. I can't even imagine.

Gallifreyan

14:27

@Mithrandir Children are hellspawn and you have no taste.

Yvette Colomb

@Gallifreyan ah I see

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb No, I'm a pommie b*****d.

Mithrandir

@Gallifreyan I repeat: You have no soul.

Gallifreyan

@Mithrandir Little crying spawns of Satan.

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor I've had a 5 foot snake in my bedroom. I remember I had my son (he was a baby) sitting at my feet while I was hanging washing on the line. I took him inside. When I went back there was a 4 foot snake where he had been sitting.

@Randal'Thor ah! we'll get along fine. I get along well with pommes ;) I married one (he has died - a long time ago now)\

amflare

14:29

@YvetteColomb Its reasons like this that mean I will never move to australia

Yvette Colomb

@Gallifreyan creeps off to upload baby photos

@amflare you say that, but I know the real reason is vegemite

amflare

@YvetteColomb I mean, to be fair, thats basically just as horrible

Mithrandir

Yvette Colomb

@amflare I really love vegemite. [No one puts vegemite in a corner])youtu.be/28A9Jgo92GQ?t=24s)

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba OK, I read your list. 1) Wait, is it Americans or Brits who are/aren't supposed to have washing machines in their kitchens? 2) Wth is wrong with beans on toast?! 5-6) Hang on, Americans don't have eggcups or washing-up bowls? 12) Rofl at "thousands of cups of tea smash to the ground in shock". 16) Yeah, don't use that F-word in Britain. 17) That's why our politics is more civilised than yours ;-)

SQB

14:33

Deadly Animals (Come to Australia)

►

Gallifreyan

Skooba

@Randal'Thor i was disappointed it didn't explain some of these... I still don't know hwy you have "washing up bowls"

Americans have a whole room for the washer/dryer

Gallifreyan

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb I hate to come over all pommie on you, but ... marmite >> vegemite.

@Skooba Where do Americans put their dishes before they actually do the washing up?

Mithrandir

Skooba

14:35

@Randal'Thor in the sink, then in the dishwasher

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba You and your big houses.

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor On the table. Or leave 'em in the sink.

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba Oh, well, if you're too helpless to do your own washing up and need a machine to do it for you ... :-)

@Mithrandir Tut tut, dirty habits.

Skooba

@Randal'Thor its all about time... also a solid screw that to washing dishes by hand

Gallifreyan

Mithrandir

14:37

Also: washing up = cleaning hands

Gallifreyan

@YvetteColomb I'm looking for something like this ^

Or this.

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor which came first? I actually like marmite. It reminds me of my nanna

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan Awww.

Mithrandir

Rand al'Thor

@YvetteColomb I assume marmite, since inventions tended to travel from Britain to Australia rather than the other way round.

Skooba

14:39

@Randal'Thor i am saving up to build more house on my house

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor yes, as did convicts lol

Derpy

@Gallifreyan since you asked....

Donald.McLean

Greetings, Earthlings.

Rand al'Thor

> In 1902 the Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England with Marmite as its main product

> Vegemite [...] was developed by Cyril Percy Callister in Melbourne, Victoria in 1922.

Gallifreyan

Australia... is it the place where they hang the world map upside down? :D

Mithrandir

14:40

Yvette Colomb

@Randal'Thor 20 years! well I'll just blame you guys every time someone hates on vegemite :)

@Gallifreyan ¿uɐǝɯ noʎ op ɥʇɹɐǝ uo ʇɐɥʍ

Rand al'Thor

> A version [of Marmite] with a different flavour has been manufactured in New Zealand since 1919.

Yvette Colomb

I really didn't know that.

Rand al'Thor

Ha @Yvette, even the New Zealanders were quicker than the Aussies! :-D

Yvette Colomb

NZ is a very beautiful place

Rand al'Thor

14:42

It really is.

Yvette Colomb

haha they are ahead of us!

literally, in time

Gallifreyan

@YvetteColomb It appears to be another urban legend.

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan No, but they do centre it on the Pacific rather than the Atlantic.

Gallifreyan

So it seems.

Yvette Colomb

@Gallifreyan ǝɹǝɥdsᴉɯǝH uɹǝɥʇɹoN ǝɥʇ ɯoɹɟ ƃuᴉɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ sdᴉlɟ ʎllɐɔᴉʇɐɯoʇnɐ ʇɐɥʇ ǝɹɐʍʇɟos ǝʌɐɥ ǝʍ

I must go to bed now. I will floof you all tomorrow

please god I never run for a political position and have that on the front page of a cyber newspaper

Rand al'Thor

14:49

Good ~~night~~ afternoon! :-)

Skooba

15:34

@Randal'Thor this is why a simple good day works

That 70's Show, Fez: Good day

►

Shokhet

16:51

@Gallifreyan Wow those are really nice. Thanks for the ping!

@Gallifreyan Why does Death need a knife?

(In other news, I started Brief Lives)

Gallifreyan

@Shokhet Maybe she was... cutting? I don't know :)

Shokhet

@Gallifreyan At least as far as I've seen, she doesn't kill anyone. She just...leads them somewhere after they die? That's probably covered in more detail later.

FezWasTaken

Severing people's life lines

Scissors aren't that intimidating

Edlothiad

Anyone Tennis?

Catija

17:12

10SNE1

Edlothiad

What?

Oh that's cool!

Where does that come from?

Rand al'Thor

I don't know what either of you are on about.

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor ten-s-en-ee-one

Tennis, anyone?

Skooba

17:27

@Randal'Thor seems to be a recurring theme XD

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan OK, I suppose that's quite clever.

FUNEX?
SEFX.
FUNEM?
SEFM.
OKLFMNX.

Edlothiad

what?

Rand al'Thor

If you can't understand it, post it on Puzzling :-P

Edlothiad

I have one answer on puzzling, that's enough for me

Catija

@Edlothiad Someone had it as their license plate.

Edlothiad

17:37

Ah cool

Marvin

2

Q: Why are search results different from suggested similar questions?

Sometimes I will search a topic and skim through dozens of questions on the search results page to conclude that a question hasn't been asked, but when I put the exact search term into the title of a new question, far better results pop up and I find the question has already been answered. Has an...

support

DaaaahWhoosh

17:53

whoa... random LotR fan-theory incoming... I don't know if I should ask on the main site, so I'm bringing it up here first

Edlothiad

Go on

DaaaahWhoosh

...can the Nazgul only interact with Frodo when he has the Ring on?

Rand al'Thor

How do you mean, interact?

DaaaahWhoosh

like, are they otherwise incorporeal

but since putting the Ring on puts him in the spirit-world or whatever it's called, he allows them to stab him

Rand al'Thor

They're corporeal enough to ride horses around the Shire and ask people questions without being taken for anything more than sinister men.

DaaaahWhoosh

17:56

@Randal'Thor hmm yeah, so I guess they have some form. But they are invisible, and don't seem to use physical force all that much

amflare

If they could only stab the people wearing The One Ring, they would not be much use

DaaaahWhoosh

@amflare their main weapon is the fear they spread in the hearts of men

pretty much only one of them ever seems to actually use weapons. The rest just make people really scared

Edlothiad

@DaaaahWhoosh This is a very strange interpretation.

amflare

Merry didn't have the ring when he and Eowyn got in a fight with the Witch King.

Edlothiad

The Nazgul can interact with whatever they want when they want.

DaaaahWhoosh

18:00

@Edlothiad but they are essentially ghosts, right?

Edlothiad

Well if you want to think of it like that yes

DaaaahWhoosh

they are invisible and... can they fly? I think they can fly

amflare

They can't inherently fly

They use Fell Beasts

Also, a wraith is undead a ghost is dead

Edlothiad

They can't just fly around

They walk

amflare

to be pendantic

Edlothiad

18:02

Yes, thank you amflare

@DaaaahWhoosh, they're wraiths. There lives were stretched far longer than their bodies could live. They are now just spirits. They have physical form but only in the wraith world (which confusingly is part of the real world) and the cloak forms round the wraith form. The Witch King also wears a crown

Rand al'Thor

@amflare "Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?"

DaaaahWhoosh

I guess my main problem with the Nazgul is that they don't just kill people. The Witch-king does, but the rest just hang around. I'm trying to figure out why that is, other than "that's just not how they like to do things"

amflare

@Randal'Thor I mean, they are transparent xD

DaaaahWhoosh

I appreciate that Tolkien's world is full of things that are simply against getting involved, but if the Nazgul were incorporeal then I think it would make a lot more sense

amflare

@DaaaahWhoosh The 8 remaining were involved in the fight at the Black Gate

DaaaahWhoosh

18:07

@amflare were they? And with weapons? Not just flying on their beasts of the fell variety?

amflare

But bear in mind the rest of the story occurs over about 6 months and we still have 4-5 interactions with the Nazgul. So it seems they are proactively doing things

Edlothiad

@DaaaahWhoosh You answered your own question. Don't overthink

Tolkien had less care for everyone killing everything, he wanted to build his world.

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, well, I'm trying to build his world too

or at least better understand what he built.

I guess I just don't like invisibility

amflare

@DaaaahWhoosh I just checked the book. I appears they were there with their fell beasts and got in a tussle with the eagles before being called off to get the ring from frodo at Mount Doom where they died

So I suppose the whole weapons thing is still ambiguous, since it is not explicitly mentioned

Edlothiad

I don't understand what you don't understand

DaaaahWhoosh

18:16

@Edlothiad because the Nazgul are invisible.

Edlothiad

Yes sorry changed it

Apologies

DaaaahWhoosh

it's not so much that I don't understand, more that it doesn't feel like how things would've actually been. I like the 'Leaf by Niggle' approach, where the world exists, and Tolkien is just representing it based on how it looks to him

Rand al'Thor

11

Q: Ring-bearers - who can notice what about whom and when?

So, I want to get something straight with respect to the bearers of the 20 rings of power (3 Eldar, 7 Dwarves, 9 Men, 1 Boss). Before asking my question(s), here is some Motivation: Sometimes when Frodo Baggins puts the ring on, he is noticed by Mairon, sometimes he isn't. Sometimes when Fro...

lord-of-the-rings tolkiens-legendarium rings-of-power magical-theory

DaaaahWhoosh

the Nazgul, to me, feel like an equation that doesn't quite match up. Something is off about them, some variable needs an adjustment

when I realized they could be without physical form, things started clicking. So I wanted to pursue that

Edlothiad

Umm if your issue is that the other ones don't do much in the physical world, that's because they are very weak

the Nazgul other than the WK would use fear because it was more powerful than they were.

DaaaahWhoosh

18:21

you don't need to be that strong to stab a guy whose weapons dissolve when they hit you

Gallifreyan

So the soundtrack of The Witcher 3 featured some songs by the band Percival Schuttenbach. But turns out the songs in the soundtrack were actually reworked versions of their previous album songs.

Edlothiad

These are tolkiens words not mine :D

amflare

@Randal'Thor HA! "they knew him (presumably not Biblically)"

Edlothiad

@Randal'Thor That is a really broad question.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Probably makes it a good dupe target for things like this.

DaaaahWhoosh

18:25

@Edlothiad I guess if they're so weak they can't hold weapons, that essentially works in my favor. It's like that movie, Ghost, where the guy has to learn how to affect things in the physical world. The 8 have learned to use cloaks, WK has upgraded to using weapons

Edlothiad

Well why isn't it then?

No they can hold weapons

DaaaahWhoosh

@Edlothiad :( I'll make it head-canon then

amflare

@Edlothiad Likely because trying to find the correct answer for the "dup" would be a nightmare in that WoT

Edlothiad

WoT?

amflare

Wall of Text

Edlothiad

18:27

Ah

I'm just being cynical because I'm a grouch

@DaaaahWhoosh this might help

Rand al'Thor

@amflare Wheel of Time.

amflare

18:48

Why are we close voting a question 3 and a half years old? That seems slightly unnecessary.

Riker

@Randal'Thor I forget, how far are you in WoT?

Edlothiad

@amflare Why is time something that should matter?

Thanks for the cover @Rand I didn't expect Otis to mess up like that

amflare

@Edlothiad It clearly wasn't an issue back then and it seems a reasonably popular question with 1500 views. To go back and revise decisions ex post facto seems unnecessary. Not to mention a never ending task as our guidelines are malleable.

Rand al'Thor

@amflare Age doesn't matter if the question is off-topic.

@Riker At this point I've been the butt of so much ridicule that I feel I should just not say.

amflare

@Randal'Thor Too broad and off topic are different flags though.

(I suppose I should clarify, the close reason is "too broad")

Edlothiad

18:56

@amflare It should've been closed just because no one spotted it then doesn't mean we should now

Rand al'Thor

I'm debating whether it's clear enough to do a mod "Leave Open" vote.

It's broad, but its answerability clearly shows that it's not too broad.

Riker

@Randal'Thor lol

that's fine

Edlothiad

It asks more than one question, you're going to claim that as not too broad?

It's literally 5 answers in one block.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Yes, because they can all be subsumed into one question, as shown by the title.

amflare

The answer can be boiled down to, "TOR can sense everyone else, and everyone else can sense TOR". Thats not broad. The answer just happened to go into a lot more detail.

Rand al'Thor

19:07

@amflare Why did you vote to close then?

amflare

I have since retracted my vote

Rand al'Thor

k, fair enough.

Edlothiad

I left it to the people and the people have said no. I question what policies we have, but whatever

DaaaahWhoosh

@Edlothiad it sort of helps, sort of doesn't. I think I'm just going to look for how Tolkien describes them, and how he describes other similar creatures (barrow-wights and that one ghost army), and maybe see if I can figure out what historical wraiths were supposed to be like.

I feel like there should be some sort of consistency, and I want to avoid the normal sort of logic around these things- people seem to like definitive statements with numbers and such, probably coming from RPG experience

this seems more like a matter of the soul.

(Ima run away before I start getting too deep)

Edlothiad

19:35

The army of the dead are a little different, but you'll see they also do not take up arms.

Marvin

1

Q: Should we rewrite the lightsabre colour question?

The question Can lightsabers be ochre? has a very comprehensive answer covering all possible lightsabre colours in both canon and Legends. For this reason, other lightsabre-colour questions such as Can lightsabers be periwinkle? and Has there ever been a black lightsaber? have been closed as dupl...

discussion specific-question duplicate-questions editing

Bellatrix

19:49

Greetings! :)

amflare

Salutations

b_jonas

20:04

@K-H-W or someone else, do you have information about the story called "Marching Morons" in scifi.stackexchange.com/a/6063/4918 ? The link there is broken. I'm asking because scifi.stackexchange.com/q/163795/4918 is looking for a story similar to "Profession" and would like to know if this matches.

M&TV Feeds

0

Q: Where is Gendry?

I keep thinking something is missing in Game of Thrones, and I just realized what it is: where the heck is Gendry? The last thing I heard he was rowing off after narrowly escaping being one of the Red Queen's human sacrifices: Well, where is he? Rowing to America? Eaten by a whale? Doing a Dae...

game-of-thrones

b_jonas

"Profession" might be the second most popular Asimov story in story-id questions here.

b_jonas

20:18

Meta question. There are five story-id questions where the answer is definitely Asimov's Profession: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/6642/4918 (master) scifi.stackexchange.com/q/6060/4918 scifi.stackexchange.com/q/30918/4918 scifi.stackexchange.com/q/68883/4918 scifi.stackexchange.com/q/94842/4918 (four dupes). There are also a few where the answer might be that but the poster didn't come back to confirm.

Two of the latter have a good description of the story: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/127087/4918 scifi.stackexchange.com/q/95319/4918 .

Since this comes up so often, it would be nice if the master question to which we all mark duplicates had a good description. How should we achieve that?

Oh, I got it!

Thank you all! I have searched so long. — Dr. Bunsella May 14 '16 at 3:10

^ This comment actually confirms that Profession is the right answer there, even if the poster hasn't accepted. So we can make that one the master. I'll flag.

Ah: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

From the description there, Marching Morons isn't the answer.

Rand al'Thor

20:34

@b_jonas Just one quibble: does that comment necessarily refer to the answer?

It's a comment on the question, and some OPs thank people for every comment made.

Also, this one doesn't have a confirmed answer, so I guess we should reopen it. (Maybe the closure predated our policy on ID dupes.)

Edlothiad

Someone cast a reopen vote, I'll wait in the queues :)

Rand al'Thor

I already reopened it.

You and your review queues ...

Edlothiad

@amflare I'm sure you are aware, but you should really try to act on all First Posts. A first posted question should almost always have a comment on it. If you can't comment on it because you don't know the universe then please skip it for someone who does.

@Randal'Thor Hey I skipped a review today. I'm not that obsessed

amflare

@Edlothiad Will do

Gallifreyan

20:51

Jae Lee FTW!

Marvin

0

Q: Why are these joke question & answer allowed?

I understand this question and its accompanying answer were made in jest: What is JK Rowling "bad" at? I have a sense of humor, but unfortunately the question is blatantly off-topic (and not particularly funny either, but that's just my opinion): it's not about the Potterverse, or even about JKR...

discussion

Gallifreyan

^ Author.

b_jonas

21:52

@Randal'Thor He came back after the answer and says "I have searched so long." I think he'd say something else if the answer wasn't what he wanted.

Rand al'Thor

22:04

@b_jonas Could be as in "Thank you all [for your comments]. I have searched so long [and really want to find this]."

Again, why comment on the question and not the answer?

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor He commented on the question because he's a newbie to SE. But there's an answer that he must have noticed, with lots of info that are probably enough for him to decide whether it's what he wants. He wouldn't say JUST "Thank you all! I have searched so long." if he wasn't sure that's the story he thought of. He'd say that's not the story he was thinking of.

But if you're not convinced, then we can leave that question as is, and figure out what we should do about the Profession questions to get a proper description.

Kyle Jones

23:09

Any Dichronauts readers hanging out in here?

b_jonas

23:24

@KyleJones I think someone talked about that recently... was that this chatroom?

Kyle Jones

I did, a few days ago. Finished reading the book since then.

b_jonas

Hmm no... may have been somewhere else.

Jul 11 at 20:35, by Kyle Jones

@Randal'Thor Only read a chapter or so over lunch, so I can't say yet. It's Egan though, so I'm expecting to knock a good deal of rust off my math skills at the very least. The big idea is that life has developed in a universe with two time-like dimensions instead of one. Egan explores the consequences of that in his usual mind-binding fashion.

Yes, that was you.

Vroomfondel

23:48

0

Q: What evidence is there for Tolkien's One Ring being based on the Ring of Silvianus?

I recently heard a theory that parts of Tolkien's legendarium and the Lord of the Rings story may have been inspired by the real-life Ring of Silvianus: As Wheeler consulted with J. R. R. Tolkien on the name of the god invoked in the curse, the ring and curse may have inspired the One Ring in...

inspiration j-r-r-tolkien the-lord-of-the-rings

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan One for you, perhaps?

Yvette Colomb

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