The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - 2018-07-30

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TheLethalCarrot

8:14 AM

@SQB It's a good general overview, as the user who cast the final vote though I'm going to see if I can write up a more specific answer here

TheLethalCarrot

8:44 AM

Posted an answer on it now

0

A: Why it's so hard to please the admins here on this site?

I cast the final close vote when the score was tied 2-2 and so had the casting vote on what the close reason would be. To be clear this is the revision of the post at the time it was closed. Power of Infinity Stones in the Avengers Infinity War movie Is it just me or the power of Infinit...

It's quite long and I do sometimes muddle my words so let me know if I need to reword anything

@TheLethalCarrot I stopped reading at Infinity War - I don't know the consensus on spoilers in Meta, and I agree that too much spoiler-hiding is too much, but if there are indeed spoilers, might want to hide them since IW is still fairly new

TheLethalCarrot

I don't know to be honest

Though the meta is about a specific IW question where the original isn't in spoiler tags

It depends how much you consider spoilers really, there's nothing really spoilerish in the question but you may find it spoilersome

Depends how you read the wording of it too

Infinity War is on my hidden list so I didn't see the original question I guess

TheLethalCarrot

Ah fair enough, if you don't want any spoilers for it I suppose best to ignore the question

I meant I stopped reading at "Infinity war" in the excerpt of your post that appears in chat

TheLethalCarrot

8:54 AM

I get ya

@TheLethalCarrot Yeah sure, just a "general" RTOCB

TheLethalCarrot

RTOCB?

@TheLethalCarrot RTOCB = Random Thought On Coffee Break. I called dibs and patented the abbreviation on this very chat, but I'm still struggling to popularize it, heavens know why...

TheLethalCarrot

I like it, hadn't seen it before though and I'm 99% sure I will forget it next time you use it haha

ahah

9:03 AM

6

Q: Story I read in an EC Vault of Horror/Tales From The Crypt style comic book

I remember reading an issue of a Vault of Horror/Tales From The Crypt type comic in the late 70s/the early 80s, and one story stuck with me and I am trying to track it down. The story centers around a honeymooning couple who are on an ocean cruise liner. Everything is going fine until the crew o...

story-identification comics horror

9:40 AM

@TheLethalCarrot great!

TheLethalCarrot

I think I covered the main points

user image

Daily floof ^ "Dog steals owner's GoPro and subsequently the show"

taken from here

TheLethalCarrot

Use .gif and I think it'll onebox it

Still loading...

neato

TheLethalCarrot

Sometimes quicker if you click to the gif, close the tab and then refresh chat

Or just refresh chat

@Jenayah Have you seen stick cam? Similar to above but intended

9:59 AM

Woah it makes the mobile chat lags like crazy though

Why can't I delete it?

Am I doomed to have no mobile chat until that thing goes into the older messages?

Is this the end?

TheLethalCarrot

This is the end yes

And can only delete before 3 or 5 mins, I forget which

Oh God

Well

Gonna have to wait for this to go in older messages I guess

TheLethalCarrot

Looks that way

Just trigger someone for a discussion\argument :P

Dang we already did cats or dogs some days ago

TheLethalCarrot

I know :/

10:07 AM

Hum... Milk before or after the cereal?

TheLethalCarrot

You don't have milk with cereal?

Yes, but do you put the milk or the cereal in the bowl first?

Even though everyone knows the correct order is chocolate powder > milk > cereal > chocolate powder again

TheLethalCarrot

I don't have cereal anymore but it used to be cereal > milk

Although now I buy coco pops knock offs and eat them dry as a snack :P

@TheLethalCarrot Heresy!

@TheLethalCarrot Well I do that too, can't judge

TheLethalCarrot

T'is a good snack, I fill a mug up and pour them into my mouth too haha

10:12 AM

Who needs a spoon anyways right?

TheLethalCarrot

Exactly

A quick snack is just grab a handful straight out the box too

My gf doesn't eat them so don't worry about germies :P

Meh, even if she did, you love each other so you're going to be sharing stuff

(don't take that the wrong way ^ ahah)

TheLethalCarrot

We all know you're just dirty minded... tut tut tut

I was talking about joint accounts! Seriously! :p

TheLethalCarrot

Oh well I take that back then

It's so obvious now

10:24 AM

Hey, you know the story of the database ghost?

TheLethalCarrot

Don't think so

When the info you presumably fetched from the database isn't in the database in the first place

That one's a good one...

TheLethalCarrot

Ah think I've heard that before

I'd rather have that than a heisenbug though

Ghosts > Quantum Stuff. This is SFF.SE after all! Though you could argue that quantum stuff is dark magic... Especially Heisenbugs.

TheLethalCarrot

Oh Heisenbugs are dark magic, quantum probably also dark magic and the more I learnt about it at uni the more confused I got

Extremely interesting though

10:30 AM

user image

TheLethalCarrot

Sounds right enough

Great now I just want to post all those quantum jokes with Schrodinger's cat

TheLethalCarrot

Haha, trying to explain the premise of that to someone is really annoying

10:46 AM

You're just gonna end up as someone who likes to kill cats anyways

TheLethalCarrot

True

Though no one really likes cats anyway so...

Indeed

I guess Schrödinger knew that his paper would never get published if he put a puppy in the box

Actually, I never wondered if he explained why he chose a cat for the example but now I want to know.

TheLethalCarrot

Well that would just be monstrous

Maybe he just had some milk spare so it was easier to lure a cat? :P

C'mon nobody asked that on the whole network? query

TheLethalCarrot

I don't know where you'd even ask such a question

10:55 AM

History?

Maybe off-topic for Physics

TheLethalCarrot

Mmmhm maybe

Oh, I know! Pets.SE !

Let the rage flow

TheLethalCarrot

Lol

Apparently it's because he had a cat though the article is pure guesswork and says some odd things

pictures-of-cats.org/…

History of Science and Mathematics probably (this)

Hum... does a website called "pictures of cats", not quoted by any other at-least-a-bit scientific source actually counts...?

You know what I might ask the question on HSM some time, if it's on-topic

TheLethalCarrot

Probably not, there are lots of other pages that indicate he had a cat named Milton at that time though

Also wow we have some oddly specific sites on the network haha

I just learned about HSM when you linked it haha

11:02 AM

Yeah but just having a cat doesn't justify your will to kill it... Or does it?

TheLethalCarrot

Well it justifies his reasoning to think of a cat first I suppose

I didn't know either, went browsing through "all sites" but I did suspect something like that existed

Wow I wanted to ask on their chat, but it's unsurprisingly even more desert than History.SE's one :/

TheLethalCarrot

I haven't spent much time in chat other than SFF and briefly over on PPCG but yeah, lots are dead

@TheLethalCarrot You mean you don't just remember the list of 174 sites? ;)

TheLethalCarrot

Lol, I haven't even looked to see all the sites we have

11:11 AM

(I.. remember most of them. I've raised flags on 180 sites, including meta sites :P)

Meh I'll just post that after lunch

You're on each of every 174 sites, @Mithrandir?

TheLethalCarrot

Easy way to get a few thousand network rep though haha

Better to have 2k on one site than 100 on 20 sites :p

TheLethalCarrot

Sure

Especially if that comes from association bonus ahah

TheLethalCarrot

11:16 AM

@Mith whilst you're here can you cast a vote on the CV review please :)

@Jenayah Aye I meant the association bonus

@Jenayah aye

@TheLethalCarrot i'm not actually here, but I assume you mean the GoT POB one

TheLethalCarrot

I just meant whilst you was in chat but aye

@Mithrandir for association bonuses, or do you actually have an interest in all those? That's a wide range of topics :o

@Jenayah For flagging spam

TheLethalCarrot

For Charcoal?

11:24 AM

yep

TheLethalCarrot

I'm still 50/50 on the idea of essentially using a bot account on sites you aren't interested in

?

What, Charcoal, the language?

I'm lost

I'm interested in the network as a whole.

@Jenayah charcoal-se.org

TheLethalCarrot

Well I think you know what I mean by that comment, you're never really going to go to some of the sites so having an account, that essentially acts as a bot there, to moderate it is odd to me

I mean I like the work Charcoal does but I think it does need to be bit more restrictive on certain things

11:27 AM

@Mithrandir ok, thanks

@TheLethalCarrot Meh. I think you're separating the network too much - it's all the same network, intertwined. The sites aren't super different. While sites are individual, they're all part of one network that has the same overarching rules.

Then again, I also seek out spam on sites where I'm not active at all, such as Medium. Make of that what you will.

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir I agree on that but it's harder for you to know if you're actions are being questioned if you aren't active there

@Mithrandir Well i doubt all Charcoal members do that, I'm on about the team, and it's volunteers as a whole not just you

@TheLethalCarrot i keep an eye on half the metas around the network and CHQ has a feed of every question tagged [spam] on metas

TheLethalCarrot

I know a lot of good stuff, and good monitoring, is done

And is there any downside to that?

TheLethalCarrot

11:31 AM

My point is it's just more awkward and harder to track down any problems if you're not actually around that site

@Mithrandir Well according to SFF there is some downside to the amount of work Charcoal does, though before you question me I was actually on the side of raising the flags. I just didn't think it should be done automatically without the site being able to have a specific say in the matter (which again is another problem)

A site does have a say in the matter - case in point, SFF, which has lower autoflag numbers than the rest of the network.

Wait there's a Star Trek/X-Men crossover? So Marvel got the rights at some point and still holds them? Doesn't that go against the Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover from like two years ago?

TheLethalCarrot

Right but only because we raised it ourselves

My point is it should go per site before any changes are made

I'm lost in this law stuff

@TheLethalCarrot That's a heck of a lot of work. We were originally going to create a meta post for each site, but Shog said to just do it network-wide on Meta.SE.

TheLethalCarrot

11:36 AM

@Mithrandir A lot of work is what's needed to moderate the site properly though but if Shog said so that's fine. Doesn't feel right but whatever, I think you know some of my disagreements with it

@Jenayah Are you saying Marvel has the rights to Star Trek?

@TheLethalCarrot I dunno the details of it but there's a X-Men/Star Trek comics crossover so they've got to have bought the rights at some point right?

Damn these rights issues are a wreck for the mind

TheLethalCarrot

Not necessarily, I know next to nothing on law though but I believe if both sides mutually agree it can be possible

@Jenayah Getting easier now Disney are closer to owning everything though

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(comics)#Publishers

Man these Star Trek comics are like the kid passed onto every member of the family when their parents undergo divorce

9

Q: Book where a soldier is transported to an alternative Earth during the Battle of Verdun (WW1)

This is a long-shot as I remember very little about the book. It may not even have been written in English, but in Dutch. I read this in the first half of the 1980's. Got it from my school library. I read it in Dutch (had to be Dutch because the school library only had "proper literature" in E...

story-identification books parallel-universe

TheLethalCarrot

Ah so Marvel have had 2 rights to publish ST comics

But yeah they've gone through way too many hands haha

11:43 AM

@Zaphod that one might be for @SQB (poke :) )

@TheLethalCarrot my opinion: people are offering to shovel your crap for you, quickly, so that you don't have to see it. They've proven they're good at shoveling crap and they like it. You get to sit back and take care of the occasional piece they miss (or go over and say "hey, you missed this one"). They can pull up stats on exactly what crap they've shoveled, who shoveled it, when, and have several people look at each piece before getting rid of it. What, exactly, is the downside?

@TheLethalCarrot Don't know how that worked out, I'll try to get my hands on an issue/scan of that Star Trek/X-Men one

I've read the Star Trek/Green Lantern one and I'd recommend it. It's stupid but entertaining, but as I'm not a big fan of Star Trek in the first place, I can't guarantee actual fans would like it

@Jenayah I've got a Star Trek / X-Men novel...

Is it any good?

It... wasn't as bad as other parts of the STEU, but not as good as some of them either.

11:49 AM

And from an X-Men point of view?

I'll admit I was more interested in the Green Lantern part for the previous one ahah

*shrugs* I know nothing about them, it was in with a bunch of other SFF stuff that the library didn't want

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir As I've said above it appeared as if they would make changes to how they moderate the whole network without specifically letting each individual site know or even be able to question it, that isn't right. Also it's not exactly easy to know Charcoal handled something if you're unaware of it. I personally still see crap to be shovelled so that argument doesn't work on me personally.

And moderating a site you aren't personally a part of is odd to me and it makes it harder for those users to be accountable

Always funny seeing new Lanterns, and if they have to be from Star Trek, eh, why not

Ok then!

@TheLethalCarrot this probably isn't worth rehashing again now - agree to disagree? i don't think either of us are unbiased

@TheLethalCarrot I've known Charcoal for like 10 minutes but phrased like that you sound right TLC, aye

11:51 AM

@Jenayah Drop in and take a look sometime:

Charcoal HQ

Where smoke is detected, diamonds are made, and we break thing...

Oh, sensitive issue which lead to meta wars?

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir Sure, and I know we won't agree on it anyway, like I said I like Charcoal but there are parts of it I would love to change around

@Jenayah Only on SFF, actually.

Charcoal is nice to lit up barbecues

@Mithrandir alright, but if I see me falling into a time-consuming death trap like I fell in so many others, I'll show myself out :p

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir Like I've said though is that just because only SFF realised they could raise it themselves (i.e. my meta post)

11:54 AM

(i've been around Charcoal for over a year and a half and actively participate in everything from flagging posts to submitting abuse reports and getting sites taken down (I've gotten over 30 spam sites taken down, whee) to tagging domains to blacklisting keywords. I'm rather more involved than a lot of people, so not exactly unbiased.)

TheLethalCarrot

Again good work but the process as a whole needs, imo, some changes

I'd be interested in seeing you drop into CHQ and (productively) suggest those changes. You never know, could actually be implemented, depending on the idea ;)

TheLethalCarrot

Well I believe I've been saying my arguments productively here... and I would at some point but I'd have to put some thought into how to word it because CHQ, in my experience, have been known to get on the defensive easily

There, posted.

@TheLethalCarrot eh, i'll back you up and make sure that they don't go too hard on you if you really want to

TheLethalCarrot

12:03 PM

@Mithrandir Well it won't be today, I think, anyway. I have stuff to do on my breaks

@Jenayah Maybe someone should tell them how to set a feed up

But that is one dead chatroom

@TheLethalCarrot I mean... Looking at their frontpage I think the feed's already there, just that the site doesn't get much activity

(just look at the dates on the starred messages ^^')

TheLethalCarrot

Well that's someone manually posting the links, I don't think it's an actual feed

oh, I thought it was

TheLethalCarrot

12:18 PM

No i believe that's an actual user

Feeds have negative user id's and I doubt they can even earn rep nevermind 50k odd

Aye, I didn't check that

TheLethalCarrot

TBH I thought it was a feed initially too haha

Hope someone will answer me anyway

^^

TheLethalCarrot

Aye hopefully

user image

Wow as an orienteer I could never back that enough ^

(credit goes to random user on Cracked)

TheLethalCarrot

12:23 PM

Did I miss something? Haha

Nah, just spotted that on Cracked and it's relevant

TheLethalCarrot

Lol okay

Whenever I see that kind of scene in a movie I rant on and on about how it couldn't be damn possible because of the bushes, the charcoal gaps, the brambles... So friends have learned to only suggest we watch movies set in cities ahah

My life as an orienteer...

TheLethalCarrot

@Kevin Are you actually here or not? (Got a quick question if you are)

TheLethalCarrot

12:56 PM

@Jenayah Apparently I did miss something, the image has only just shown up

(For me at least)

Oh, I see why you were confused then :)

TheLethalCarrot

And I know what you mean now, though if you do it enough (I lived next to a forest as a child) you get very good at it

I mean, although none human, animals like deer and dogs are very good at sprinting through forests

Oh, I know that, I can sprint in the forests too

I'm captain of the school's orienteering team actually

TheLethalCarrot

Ah cool

I was part of the army cadets when I was younger (and spent a lot of time camping and walking with the family) so have done a lot of map reading and what not

:)

Orienteering is the best!

I mean you're seen as a weirdo when you say you just love to go running in the bushes under the rain, show up with your arms covered in scratches from the low branches and reveal that the animal you fear the most is the dreaded tick, but who cares?

TheLethalCarrot

1:03 PM

Exactly haha

Ticks are the bane of my life, even more so with the dogs

Don't even know what their purpose is in Nature's big scheme

Might be a good question for Worldbuilding, actually

"The world has magically gotten rid of ticks. What happens now?"

Well first off no more awkward situations at the pharmacy upon buying tick tweezers.

"Are those for a dog or a cat?"

"They're for me"

"...oh"

@Jenayah theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/10/…

@Derpy Before reading, don't male mosquitoes pollinate flowers like bees?

or something

TheLethalCarrot

LOL, yeah at least I haven't had to have that conversation

lucky you

1:12 PM

@Jenayah both genders do.

and they are eaten by birds, spiders, ants and the such.

That said, it would probably be less damaging as a change than many other we did.

(which obviously doesn't mean "go ahead and do it")

@Derpy read the article and as expected the main counter-argument (apart from the "don't play God" one) is that they're part of a food chain - though their place would be taken over if they were to disappear

But mosquitoes breed like everywhere, especially water spots aye

I'd be curious to see if ticks have such an important role in the food chain.

C'mon, ticks.

TheLethalCarrot

Hopes not

Seriously I'm biased on this one but ticks are the couch potatoes of Nature

At least mosquitoes fly around looking for their food

Ticks just stand there and dive when they feel a source of heat

Main tick purpose is to ruin your run - especially if you have the luck to find them on a Curse Of The Blind floor

You don't earn your food you get kicked out

@Derpy from what I can see here these guys didn't implement a long-lasting Lyme disease curse. Shame.

Also that tick misses a pair of legs!

1:34 PM

@Jenayah who dares disturb my slumber?

@SQB eheh

Guy's looking for a book he read in Dutch. You're Dutch. So according to my lazy brain, since there aren't that much Dutch around, and even fewer who read scifi, you'd be qualified to answer. Stereotypes and shortcuts all the way :)

1:55 PM

I already took a look. Didn't ring a bell.

Well, too bad I guess

1 hour later…

3:04 PM

@TheLethalCarrot I'm here now for about 45 minutes

TheLethalCarrot

@Kevin Okay just wondering a flag of mine was marked helpful with the comment "escalated for consideration by the proper authorities", is there anyway to see the final outcome of that flag or not? (I mean by monitoring what the flag was about I can see but is there any feedback that would come from it?)

@TheLethalCarrot Not really. CM contacts usually don't go back to the flagger.

No, you'll have to actively monitor it

(I know, I'm not Kevin, sorry)

TheLethalCarrot

Rightho, what sort of time scale we looking at generally?

@Mithrandir No it's fine, you have insight into it to of course

3:10 PM

6-8 weeks :P depends on what specifically the case was, which I'm not aware of

TheLethalCarrot

Shouldda known you'd say that haha

Probably no more than a couple weeks for most CM escalations.

TheLethalCarrot

Fair enough

Soooooo... No That escalated quickly jokes? :p

TheLethalCarrot

media.giphy.com/media/j9djzcMmzg8ow/giphy.gif (de-oneboxed)

I did not copy that link...

Works though

media.giphy.com/media/Ev8KI8quNd5PG/giphy.gif (de-oneboxed)

Try that one out too

Oooh may have borked your phone ;P

3:18 PM

@TheLethalCarrot I hate you.

TheLethalCarrot

Lol

@TheLethalCarrot I don't hate you anymore.

TheLethalCarrot

Mod did it but I'll take it

@randomMob I like you too

first time I've been called a "randomMob", I've got to say

TheLethalCarrot

3:20 PM

Ah your name shows up in the edit history

Didn't know who did it, so you're getting the randomMob nickname :p

@TheLethalCarrot Well I didn't know that, you learn something new everyday

TheLethalCarrot

I didn't till I just checked

@randomMob you wanna change the link to .gifv too, I think it's a slightly better format ;P

3:35 PM

The heat index is calculated via looking up the "effective temperature" in a table of air temperature and humidity values, and then adding a bunch more degrees because it feels WAY hotter than that.

3 hours later…

6:09 PM

I'd like to post a question about which memory characters in HP use to cast their respective Patronuses. Browsing through the site doesn't seem to bring up dupes (see query and query), but could that be listed as too broad since it's kind of a list?

(on the other hand there are what, a dozen characters who casted a Patronus?)

Could be answerable. Most of them we don't know, though.

I'm pretty sure JKR must've revealed some in interviews.

Or DVD commentary and stuff

@Jenayah pottermore.com/features/what-is-a-patronus

@Mithrandir this provides a good list to narrow the scope

I'll wait a bit to see if there's any more feedback on that

1 hour later…

7:24 PM

@KutuluMike damn, I just realised I said "pity" yesterday while I meant "pithy". Sorry, man!

Oi @SQB! So, did you get a chance to call that bookshop? :)

8:08 PM

Nope. Been out all day.

Darn. Was trying to upload an image, but that doesn't work on mobile.

Funk.

user image

Ah, thanks.

That's in Vlissingen, in The Netherlands. We live near Vlissingen. Every year they dump a lot of europallets and hand out hammers and nails to the kids.

Parents are allowed to help the first few days.

So I did.

I think they dump about four truckloads the first days.

The woman with the THC cap is one of the staff, because this is The Netherlands.

(Bringing it back on topic) surprisingly few Lord of the Flies-like scenes.

@SQB What do they do with them?

8:23 PM

Build.

Huts, typically.

user image

(Not my kids)

Nice!

Groups of 3–8 kids, sometimes more.

@Mithrandir wishing you were half a decade younger and in Zeeland?

@SQB Eh, I don't exactly miss being 11 :P

The cut-off age for this is 12-ish, so...

They start at 6.

@TheLethalCarrot I hate ticks.

9:03 PM

Nice to see everyone here hates ticks.

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Jul '1830

The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…

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