The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - 2018-09-05 (page 1 of 2)

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1:09 AM

0

Q: Why didn't Sirius use polyjuice potion?

Why didn't Sirius Black use Polyjuice Potion to escort Harry to platforms 9 and 3/4. Instead he transformed into his dog form. Also he could have used the potion to get out and about, away from grimmauld place once in awhile. It is a good disguise, why didn't he ever use Polyjuice Potion in the e...

harry-potter sirius-black

user132126

1:19 AM

@Jenayah I appreciate your enthusiasm, but that seemed a little excessive (both the language and all caps). While occasional cursing can be okay, that ended up being a pretty unwelcoming greeting for me.

2:10 AM

0

Q: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Book 7 (Horcrux Hunt)

Why didn't the Order of the Phoenix assist with the trio (i.e. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger) in horcrux hunt?

2 hours later…

4:25 AM

0

Q: What's behind the significant shift in the second series?

The second series, or sequel series to Ice Fantasy, Ice Fantasy Destiny, seems to represent a massive tonal shift from the first series. Ka Suo and various other characters have been...reincarnated?...as people in a world very similar to modern-day, real-life China (and the rest of Earth, of co...

@Marvin Does Science Fiction & Fantasy have the highest incidence of (near) identical answers?

5:02 AM

@WebHead ay, okay sorry! :D

5:26 AM

Oh no, is SFF also part of the redesign campaign?

@Jenayah Everything is, eventually.

I think.

But it wan't one of the original candidates.

2

Q: Rollout of new network site themes

For the remainder of updates, see the tracking post: Rollout of responsive design site themes - Tracking post See updated schedule below and updated stock theme As promised (albeit delayed), we are posting site themes for our first group of network sites for comment. The goal here is to...

discussion design navigation announcements

That post shows the original ones.

@Jenayah This post has Science Fiction & Fantasy in the "Up Next" list:

22

Q: Rollout of responsive design site themes - Tracking post

This post will be updated as the responsive design and left navigation layouts are released on each site. Previously, we tried this out by releasing still screenshots of the site designs and getting input on them and then releasing them live. This was problematic because users couldn't actually ...

discussion design announcements

6:01 AM

Noooo

6:16 AM

@Jenayah It can't be that bad.

@Alex left sidebar is ugly

@Jenayah You'll get used to it.

6:52 AM

@Alex I can get used to stuff and still rant about it :^)

@Jenayah Sure, I'm always down for a nice rant.

1 hour later…

TheLethalCarrot

8:11 AM

@Jenayah I just let that part slip

Still sounds wrong

We're here for fun and there's no real-life implications of the stuff that goes on there

(unlike IPS for instance, where I could understand that very very bad quality answers would get to stronger handling)

TheLethalCarrot

Oh it does, I just ignored it cos they seem to be posting with best intentions and of course more than that user has thought about making the meta

Sure, I mean, it's not the biggest deal of the year, but words matter

Granted, I'm biaised on this one (forcing compliance)

Hence the jump-start

TheLethalCarrot

I don't like the wording there either but the rest of he post was fair enough so I just let it slip

Sure sure

I wasn't pointing at you personally :)

TheLethalCarrot

8:23 AM

I know

TheLethalCarrot

8:35 AM

@forest About your comment on that meta, if you spot a less than ideal title you can always edit it yourself

@TheLethalCarrot don't edit it too much though, might not want to delay Bella's Illuminator badge x)

TheLethalCarrot

Delay it indefinitely until I have it in ~2 years time :P

0

A: Why didn't Sirius use polyjuice potion?

The Polyjuice Potion, which is a complex and time-consuming concoction, is best left to highly skilled witches and wizards. [...] The effect of the potion is only temporary, and depending on how well it has been brewed, may last anything from between ten minutes and twelve hours. ...

Additionally, it wasn't in Sirius character, I think, but I'd need the quotes for that.

@SQB great answer, +1

But I reckon he would've thought Polyjuice Potion boring, while being Padfoot was his great trick. Cocky, swagger, and all that.

@Jenayah Thanks.

But I'm still debating adding that bit about his personality.

Oh well, not now. Real life — AFK.

9:25 AM

Self-answer on story-ID, which could use some upvotes to rise to the top: scifi.stackexchange.com/a/120295/98028

0

Q: Was the “future” world predicted in Back to the Future 2 intended to be genuinely predictive?

The Back to the Future series of SF films are also arguably somewhat comedic as well. In BTTF 2, Marty travels to the year 2015 and we, the audience, get to enjoy a spectacle of futuristic technologies from self lacing shoes to hover boards. My question is whether or not the filmmakers were mak...

back-to-the-future-ii

9:39 AM

3

Q: Identify science-fiction short story where superintelligent test subjects fight with sense-based mental programming

Some time ago, I recall reading a short sci-fi story, set in the modern or near-future day, the central premise of which was that the government/military had tested an experimental intelligence-enhancing drug. The results were initially fruitless so the test subjects all went on their ways (I pre...

story-identification short-stories

was a comment deleted ? I can't see any kind of acceptance in that and the dupe wasn't confirmed by Community thingy

TheLethalCarrot

Maybe but we can't see that

Then again I can't see acceptance on either post

Yes, that's the one! Thanks very much Will try and get the book as well — user25631 Apr 28 '14 at 13:50

probably unregistered user making two accounts

@TheLethalCarrot can mods see it?

TheLethalCarrot

Mods can see deleted comments yes

Time to ping @Randal'Thor then

TheLethalCarrot

Ah I looked for the OP commenting, as the accept account is deleted now no way of us knowing if it was the OP though

9:44 AM

Well it's still more "acceptance" than the one I linked

TheLethalCarrot

Sure but we can't know for sure if it is the OP

Can't mods see the account email or stuff?

I'm pretty sure I saw a "I'm a mod and can confirm the two accounts were made by same user" comment on a dupe

No idea which one it was though, I've been browsing a lot of dupes lately

TheLethalCarrot

They can, not sure if they can see old details for nuked accounts though

Dunno

But no need to VTR/VTC again if there was indeed a deleted comment

TheLethalCarrot

Aye

9:50 AM

Well I say that but I pushed one to the VTR queue for the exact same reason... Consistency!

TheLethalCarrot

Let's run a new campaign: "Try and get a new election and TLC for mod" and I'll let you know ;P

Ahah

TheLethalCarrot

If you like meta links I added a whole bunch...

7

A: What can be done about (new) users who don't take feedback regarding community expectations/standards on board?

For what it's worth the user in question is the second user who has acted like this in recent times. The first user eventually took the feedback on board after lots of prompts and editing by community members and have since gotten better at writing titles. Now these titles aren't great but let...

27 mins ago, by Jenayah

Self-answer on story-ID, which could use some upvotes to rise to the top: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/120295/98028

And another: scifi.stackexchange.com/a/185758/98028

Oi Mith

TheLethalCarrot

10:31 AM

@Jenayah I'd stop VTRO these posts at this point, flag for mod attention and get them to check for deleted comments

@TheLethalCarrot ok will do next time

Sorry :p

TheLethalCarrot

Well no point in VTRO if it should in fact be closed, just let the mods handle it if you want to be safe

@TheLethalCarrot yeah I'll mod-flag the next ones

Starting with the one above

TheLethalCarrot

Rightho

Or I could just ping the OP, they're still active

TheLethalCarrot

10:36 AM

If they're active, sure

done

@Jenayah *waves*

not at home, set up laptop in the corner, procrastinating

@Jenayah yes, I think the comments got deleted. It is definitely a duplicate and the answer in the linked question was the one I was looking for. — Carcer 8 mins ago

that was fast :p

TheLethalCarrot

They're quite active and about on RPG by the looks of it

10:51 AM

aye

They were "active 15 mins ago" on RPG when we were discussing it so I thought I'd give it a shot

Hurray for network inbox

TheLethalCarrot

Aye

:46592584 That was fast, thanks Smokey

And self-delete works now :) (cc @Mithrandir)

TheLethalCarrot

34 seconds to spam nuke... how many auto flags was that?

0

Q: Are the Harry Potter movies canon?

We know there are differences between the books and the movies (the Battle of Hogwarts, etc.). Which version is considered canon? Also, if the books are canon in cases of contradiction, are things that don't contradict the books, but do include details that are not in the book, such as hermione b...

@TheLethalCarrot For what it's worth, when I clicked there were already three DVs

Dunno if they're grouped with flags

TheLethalCarrot

10:58 AM

Spam and R/A flags give a DV

2 days ago, by Mithrandir

@Jenayah cast 3 autoflags

TheLethalCarrot

For that case aye, should be the same here but it was a hell of a lot quicker than usual

I didn't even have time to flag it and I clicked on it straight away... though my internet is being slow today

I don't know where you can check how many auto flags were cast though

@TheLethalCarrot metasmoke?

user image

@Jenayah web dashboard for Smokey, includes all our records

@Mithrandir yeah

11:11 AM

in this case, @The would be looking for metasmoke.erwaysoftware.com/post/134187/flag_logs

or install the above script: github.com/Charcoal-SE/userscripts/raw/master/sim/sim.user.js

TheLethalCarrot

TL;DR what does the script do?

adds a "smokey" button (like "edit", "flag") that loads the above box when clicked

TheLethalCarrot

Fair enough

@AncientSwordRage Hello!

AncientSwordRage

@TheLethalCarrot waves

TheLethalCarrot

Don't think we've ever really spoken, how's it going?

11:20 AM

Hiya!

AncientSwordRage

@TheLethalCarrot gooood?

TheLethalCarrot

Good... haha

@AncientSwordRage mooooorning Vietnam?

1

Q: Children's book about fairies and purple cards with poems

I don’t remember much but it was a children's book. I’m pretty sure it was about fairies, inside there were small inserts that were purple pieces of card with poems on.

story-identification childrens-novel fairy

0

Q: What really happened to the USS Voyager in "Living Witness"?

In Star Trek: Voyager, episode 23 of season 4 (remember), the episode begins with a civilization unknown until now. They claim to hold the ruins of the USS Voyager, which has otherwise contributed to the history of this civilization in a negative way, whereby Captain Janeway formed an alliance wi...

star-trek star-trek-voyager

AncientSwordRage

@Jenayah pretty much maxed out with RL, so good is variable :p

11:42 AM

@AncientSwordRage eheh

tilt

AncientSwordRage

@Jenayah untilt

We were talking about deleted comments an hour ago @AncientSwordRage since I pushed two questions to reopen queue based on no acceptance

And realized later I may not see deleted comments

Could you take a quick look? :)

8

Q: Sci fi movie where Earth's most influential figures are revealed to be alien androids

1960s or 1970s, I don't remember much about the film except at the end, the big reveal was that all the great minds in history were alien androids (Einstein, etc). The last scene takes place in a massive cavern where all these androids are lying down in a nearly infinite line.

story-identification movie aliens androids

4

Q: 80's/90's sci-fi movie about passengers on a ship crewed/commanded by people in sealed environments

I'm trying to identify a sci-fi movie I saw in the late 80's to early 90's, for some reason I want to say it was on Cinemax. The highlights I can recall: The story focused on passengers on a large starship; Opening of the film was some type of facility or star port that featured a massive dom...

story-identification movie spaceship

Wouldn't want to start an unhelpful reopen/vote war

AncientSwordRage

@Jenayah no deleted comments from OP

@Jenayah that ones is already open?

@AncientSwordRage it was reopened an hour ago or so

@AncientSwordRage ok, good to know. Might want to include that for Ed

Voting to leave this closed as the policy is far older than this post, and we should await confirmation from a mod if a deleted comment exists. — Edlothiad 1 hour ago

AncientSwordRage

@Edlothiad no deleted comment content detected — AncientSwordRage ♦ 10 secs ago

11:49 AM

@AncientSwordRage well technically it's the dupe that has no acceptance IIRC

@AncientSwordRage !cookie

AncientSwordRage

@Jenayah yes?

@AncientSwordRage yeah, it was closed as dupe of scifi.stackexchange.com/q/71910/98028 for which there's no acceptance

Hence the reopen vote, but there might have been acceptance in the comments

Am I even making sense at this point? :')

AncientSwordRage

@Jenayah I thnk so

one we're asking "Can we reopen, we don't think there's a deleted accpetance comment, please check"
The other we're aksing "Should be have reopened, ... etc."

@Jenayah which is why I always consolidate a comment-in-lieu-of-formal-acceptance (cilofa) in the "accepted" answer.

@TheLethalCarrot Yo dawg, I heard you like meta, so I put a meta in you meta, so you can meta meta.

AncientSwordRage

12:05 PM

@SQB Its so meta even this acronym

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB I got lost at about the third meta but I think I know what you mean haha

user image

TheLethalCarrot

Lol

12:41 PM

I've now added a bit about Sirius' character to my answer.

Napoleon Wilson

Noice, that adds some serious character to it.

@SQB yep, what Napoleon said. Even greater answer

Thanks.

Oh, seeing @NapoleonWilson reminds me... @steelershark might like this:

lastexittonowhere.com/catalogue/nakatomi_4815

user image

(that works)

@SQB that's a good Christmas present.

Or any of their other Die Hard-inspired merch.

I haven't bought anything yet, but I like what they're doing — making merch with fictional brands.

Cyberdyne Sytems, Amity Police, United States Colonial Marines, Tyrell Corp...

Napoleon Wilson

12:48 PM

> More human than human.

"More human than you, man."

2

Q: Book with uncontrolled/subconcious teleportation acress worlds

I try to remember the name of a book I read maybe 10 years ago. There was a protagonist whom we followed across this book. Main thing was, there were teleporter disks, which would bring you to other places/worlds. But, you could not consciously choose where to go, instead the disks would decide w...

story-identification books hard-sci-fi

Is there a way to opt out of R/A/S flags in Russian?

Not effective.

TheLethalCarrot

Chat flags are network wide aren't they? So I don't think so

Been insulted in Russian?

1:03 PM

Probably not. But having a way to signal "give me chat flags for English and Dutch" would be nice.

@Jenayah no, chat flags. Someone somewhere said something that someone thought offensive.

TheLethalCarrot

Would be... post a FR and let it go ignored if you want

@SQB I still don't understand

@TheLethalCarrot want me to insult you in French? :p

Chat flags showed up (is that tied to a certain amount of rep?), but the things that had been said were in Russian.

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB 10k or 15k network rep... I think

So even with the help of Google Translate, I couldn't decide.

Napoleon Wilson

1:04 PM

@SQB 10,000 network rep.

TheLethalCarrot

10k... should have trusted my gut

Is annoying, especially as most chat flags I see are the Russian ones

@TheLethalCarrot you can see chat flags even without being a mod?

TheLethalCarrot

As said above chat flags are shown to all users on the network in chat at the time when you hit 10k network rep

I don't know all the details on it though

@TheLethalCarrot ok ok

Sergei Lukyanenko bibliography

This is the bibliography of Sergei Lukyanenko. == Sergey Lukyanenko ., et al. (1990), Knights of Forty Islands == The story is about several contemporary teenagers "copied" into an artificial environment, where they are forced to play a game with very harsh rules. The action is set on a set of small sand islands, which are interconnected by narrow bridges, and all the world is under a giant dome, similar to the one from "The Truman show". Inhabitants of each island try to conquer their neighbors. The mission is difficult primarily due to the fact that forces on each island are roughly equal in...

For reference.

1:13 PM

The Night Watch series is great.

And the movies were entertaining too!

Yeah, tentatively putting on my to-read list.

I'm still waiting for the Twilight Watch movie.

It will never come out.

But I will wait.

Napoleon Wilson

I watched the first film once and didn't really know what to think of it. But maybe I'll give it another chance some day.

On the topic of Russian works, The Interceptor rocks too.

imdb.com/title/tt1245736

Chernaya Molniya is fun if you want a no-brainer "Spider-Man, but replace the spider powers with a car, and it's in Russian" movie :)

Napoleon Wilson

I'm really not up to par on da Russian scene nowadays.

user132126

2:07 PM

@Jenayah We'll be on the next round of deployments, IIRC.

@WebHead Now I find myself hoping these matters will take as long as usual when SE commits new stuff

Napoleon Wilson

YDRC.

@NapoleonWilson As in don't really care or don't remember correctly?

Napoleon Wilson

Heh, no, do remember.

user132126

Let's acronym everything!

2:09 PM

Too much acronyms.

user132126

Aw, did I miss ASR ?

Napoleon Wilson

I wouldn't know if he cares. Past experience suggests he does, though.

user132126

2:23 PM

If people ever miss the old SFF theme when the new one hits, they can always enjoy it over at thesffblog.com

2

Obligatory "we have a blog?!" post

TheLethalCarrot

First comment when the meta lands asking for feedback "Is there any point anyone spending their time on feedback as with most other sites you've ignored it all until the new theme is live?"

user132126

They have fixed actual bugs and major usability issues, but most of the feedback regarding the designs doesn't seem to be something they're really looking at changing. Maybe later they can tweak some things, but from everything I've seen right now is all about making sure it functions.

user132126

Which, frustrating as it might be for us, is in all fairness a reasonable deployment plan.

TheLethalCarrot

The main functional change request is about the space given to everything and that has gone ignored since day 1

2:29 PM

2

Q: Movie where monster transforms into people's desires

I'm trying to remember the name of this movie where a monster would transform into people's desires in order to kill them. A few scenes I can remember are: The monster transforms into a girl in order to seduce one of the guys. At the end of the movie they escape on a boat but the monster was o...

story-identification movie

TheLethalCarrot

But the main complaint I have is, don't ask for feedback if you are going to ignore it anyway

user132126

I still struggle with the new mini SE logo button being how I get to other sites :P

user132126

I no longer seem to click the old spot to do it, but I have to remind myself where to look for the new one still.

@WebHead mh?

TheLethalCarrot

I don't mind the "new" top bar but why they moved the site switcher there instead of keeping it where it was I have no idea

user132126

2:31 PM

The logo on the very top left that says "Stack Exchange" used to have the drop-down with the links to meta, your other top stacks, chat, etc.

9

Q: How were the Cylon Centurions re-enslaved by the biological Cylons?

It’s explained in the opening to the miniseries that the original robotic Cylons were created by humans on twelve colonies. Eventually, the Cylons rose against the humans leading to the first Cylon war. During the course of the war the robot Cylons began experimenting with the creation of biolo...

battlestar-galactica cylon battlestar-galactica-2004

user132126

It took me too long to stop clicking on it first every time

TheLethalCarrot

Haha, took me a while too

I am happy though cos a lot of my feedback about the top bar was implemented

user132126

Speaking of designs still, the cool thing about our blog is that when SE axed site blogs, they provided the contents and gave us permission to continue using the theme. Importantly, this includes the background and header images.

TheLethalCarrot

Which is something I hold out zero hope for with the left nav + new theme

2:34 PM

@WebHead oh, like on mobile web you mean?

All Stacks looking the same on mobile trips me up every time.

There's the one on the right though

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB Mobile app or mobile site? I use the desktop site on mobile :P

@TheLethalCarrot I find the full site unusable on mobile.

user132126

@Jenayah Yeah, on the full website, the site switcher used to be on the left and not the right. The mobile website still has it on the left, which feels like a more natural placement for a menu button (on mobile).

TheLethalCarrot

2:36 PM

@SQB It's not great but I can't work with the mobile one, I just zoom in to all the different areas whenever I need to but then i only really use mobile for reviews and checking in

Napoleon Wilson

@WebHead Well, the essence of the theme will still be there anyway. I doubt even the new site will look considerably different from the blog.

user132126

I'm curious to see if the existing images will be incorporated.

When I go to a question from a link on mobile chat, there's no real difference between Stacks except the name, so I'm half way through a "what's SFFnal about this" comment before realising I'm on Lit.

@WebHead meh, I guess the switcher isn't something I care enough about :^)

user132126

I don't care that much, it was just a muscle memory problem

Napoleon Wilson

2:38 PM

@TheLethalCarrot Not exactly. This is also due to their bad handling of the publishing process (i.e. using really bad mockups instead of a working site until it was too late). With the new beta testing, that process should improve.

@SQB that's not design, that's occupational hazard.

user132126

I think our "Science Fiction & Fantasy" text logo will fit in the new design space.

Well, mobile site design looks more like SFF than like MTV or Lit, so it always seems as if I'm on SFF.

Napoleon Wilson

@TheLethalCarrot Sure, but the whitespace complaints also hinge on something that is pretty much out of the discussion for being the entire point of the design change, the new left-nav. Of course noone really wants or even needs that, but it's understandable that this part is out of discussion somewhat.

user132126

The left nav is probably the only thing I'm not bothered by, lol

user132126

2:41 PM

It follows the F heat-map of user eye movement for people who use LTR languages.

TheLethalCarrot

@NapoleonWilson From what I've seen on other metas all feedback to the "Please test and give feedback" has been largely ignored but feedback on the "design is now live" post is considered a bit more

@NapoleonWilson Left nav and the new theme are rolling out together though aren't they?

Napoleon Wilson

Yes. But saying they ignore complaints that just want them to stop the process altogether is...missing the point a little. ;-)

user132126

Hmmmmm.... Maybe I should update the site blog to have the top menu have buttons like our existing "Questions" "Tags" "Users" links.

user132126

I need to put that on my to-do list and get it done before they're removed. Shouldn't take too long, but I've been sort of busy lately.

TheLethalCarrot

@NapoleonWilson I wasn't entirely serious with my first comment but it was backed in seriousness because from what I've seen feedback to the "we want feedback" posts isn't being listened to and I've seen SE employees openly state the devs and designers are openly ignoring feedback

Napoleon Wilson

2:47 PM

Well, sure, the process ahs been far from amazing.

TheLethalCarrot

It's been only slightly above useless

0

A: Minor technical issues with off-topic close box

It seems to have been fixed. All links are now either explicitly https or protocol-relative. The link to our policy on "scientific explanations" now points to https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/q/7364.

Napoleon Wilson

My highly upvoted answer about mismatching link-colours went without any comment from the devs. Only to the realize upon deployment that the entire complaint was only caused by an awful mockup and was entirely moot in practice.

@Randal'Thor or @Kevin, can I get a status-fixed?

Napoleon Wilson

Fortunately, they've dropped the mockups, though.

TheLethalCarrot

2:49 PM

Well yeah I'm commenting from what I've seen on the beta release + feedback posts not the mockup ones

Napoleon Wilson

@TheLethalCarrot I thought those are the mockup releases. The new ones without the mockup don't have two different metas (yet). They just have a "we're beta testing now" post.

TheLethalCarrot

Well I mean the "we're beta testing now" posts because it asks for feedback

@SQB I commented on your answer.

Seems like one link is still http :-/

I saw.

Looks like too much transcript for me to catch up on here ...

Napoleon Wilson

2:54 PM

Good, if that means sparing out on the literature snob remark about the Night Watch movies. ;-P

@Jenayah Yes, OP had deleted their own comment.

@Randal'Thor nope, that one is protocol-relative. So if you're using https, it remains https, while if you're using http, it remains http.

TheLethalCarrot

@Randal'Thor This is the only comment that matters :P

5 hours ago, by TheLethalCarrot

Let's run a new campaign: "Try and get a new election and TLC for mod" and I'll let you know ;P

You mean the one in

> This question does not appear to be about science fiction or fantasy within the scope defined in the help center.

?

@Jenayah Oh yay, another Night Watch fan? (cc @Gallifreyan @DVK)

I'll even forgive you for having watched the film :-P

@SQB I don't know what that means, but I copied the link and pasted it to make sure, and it was http.

2:56 PM

user image

The original Night Watch.

@Randal'Thor I followed the link and remained https.

@Randal'Thor ay, and I think I'll order them on Amazon or stuff soon, been a while since I read them

Napoleon Wilson

Is...the slow reveal a feature? ;-)

Or is it the 100MB file?

@Randal'Thor oh come on, it wasn't that ba... It was entertaining :^)

user132126

Night Watch movies? Are those those German scifi ones?

Napoleon Wilson

Russian.

2:58 PM

@WebHead Russian

user132126

Oh. Yeah, that seems right, lol.

user132126

I always meant to watch them on Netflix to see what they were like, but never did.

@WebHead they're Russian movies, and they were directed by the guy who made Wanted and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. My point, bring popcorn and leave your brain behind

(not the same advice with the books!)

user132126

I keep my brain secured in a jar at an undisclosed location

@Randal'Thor darn, you're right.

user132126

3:01 PM

My point, I always leave my brain behind

@WebHead Don't. Read the books instead.

:-)

user132126

I don't know Russian!

@Jenayah Well, now you're just confirming my decision not to watch them.

Napoleon Wilson

Oh, right, they were Bekhmambetov's(?) door to Hollywood.

@WebHead Neither do I - well, not well enough to read books like that. There's a good English translation.

user132126

3:03 PM

I like my popcorn flicks.

@Randal'Thor I thought you had watched them already?

user132126

Who's seen all the live action Trasformers movies in theater on opening weekend? THIS GUY

Napoleon Wilson

I didn't see the last one. I...was finally not at all in the mood to go to the cinema for that. And that when I thought Marky Mark actually was a nice addition to the series.

@Jenayah The books are so deep and soulful and moral and philosophical, and that's exactly why I enjoy them. I don't trust a film to capture all of that, and everything I've read/heard about the films online has further convinced me not to touch them.

user132126

#5 had a lot of very fun moments and scenes, but it definitely had problems. Fortunately, none of those things keep me from watching stuff like that.

Napoleon Wilson

3:05 PM

But maybe I'll check it out on Amazon Prime. They're running all the others on TV currently anyway.

user132126

But I do think that the young girl character could have been edited from the movie completely and you'd never know.

@SQB Want to retract your flag on meta, so it doesn't have to be declined? :-)

@Randal'Thor sure.

Done, thanks.

@Randal'Thor well, I kind of agree, but you can watch the film as "something else", a standalone work of sorts, and still enjoy it.

@TheLethalCarrot *eyebrow*

Napoleon Wilson

3:12 PM

That...is something many people simply can't wrap their minds around, though.

This is highly hypocritical from my part, though, because I will jump-start at anyone mentioning the Jumper movie for instance.

@Jenayah ...pun intended?

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir Left or right?

@Mithrandir lol, not even but now that you mention it it's a funny one indeed.

user132126

Jumper was fun. :D

3:13 PM

@TheLethalCarrot Right. I can raise that one on its own higher than the left, and the right is more appropriate there. Left is more confrontational.

@WebHead don't push your luck.

>:(

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir My right or your right?

user132126

I like seeing visual interpretations of textual works. Just seeing some of the environment or characters helps fill up my imagination repository.

@Jenayah Meh. People have said that to me before, about other books/films, but I don't buy it. Everyone has their own version of what a book character looks like, in their mind's eye, and seeing a film version of the same character is naturally going to corrupt that impression.

user132126

I don't know. The Seeker TV show didn't change my impression of how I imagine any of the Sword of Truth characters.

user132126

3:15 PM

It did make me say "No, no, they've got them all wrong", what little I watched of it.

@Randal'Thor Eh, the books are OK if one doesn't mind occasional excessive moralising

This one doesn't.

Does Hollywood ruin books? - Numberphile

@TheLethalCarrot My right. You're overanalyzing now, though ;)

@Mithrandir Did you have to train yourself to be able to do that?

@Mithrandir Welcome to SFF.

TheLethalCarrot

3:17 PM

@Mithrandir My right? So your left?

@Randal'Thor Nope. But I did when I figured out how to wiggle my ears.

Napoleon Wilson

You don't actually have genuine pictures of people you read about anyway. You have a rough feeling for the person. Same with their voice. They all sound like yourself in your inner ear, but feel different.

Wiggling each ear individually took practice.

@SQB now that is over-analysing it. I love it.

@Mithrandir Like Rabadash?

user132126

3:19 PM

Some characters I've developed pretty solid images of, but not great ones.

user132126

I've tried drawing myrddraal so many times.

I'd have thought Myrddraal should be easy.

You don't even have to bother with facial features ;-)

user132126

The have facial features! Just smooth eyes.

user132126

Err... Not-eyes.

user132126

They have very intricate, detailed armor, though.

3:26 PM

I just did a Google image search for Myrddraal, and none of the fan art really gets it right for me.

Too ornate.

Napoleon Wilson

You can draw Sword of Truth characters and get some helpful critique from Goodkind on it. ;-)

They're supposed to be terrifying by their featurelessness. Smooth faces without eyes, black cloaks that never stir, no emotion or excitement.

@NapoleonWilson Oh gawd ;-)

user132126

@NapoleonWilson LOL

user132126

Myrrdraal show emotion, like hate or anger, I thought. At least they scream when they're dead.

I thought the "cloaks that never stir" sort of sets the theme for the rest. They're terrifyingly unflappable.

Of course they do become less scary as the books go on, due to the main characters becoming more able to deal with them.

user132126

3:36 PM

wot.wikia.com/wiki/Shaidar_Haran

XOSAR - THE CALLING

Shaidar Haran is a very atypical Myrddraal.

I mean, if it's that easy to get a theorem named for you ... "a straight line that passes through the center of a coplanar circle always divides the circle into two equal halves." Can I have that one? Wait, can I auction off the naming rights? It can be the Red Bull Theorem or the Quicken Loans Theorem, depending who wants it more.

The Analog Session - Fun Fare

@xkcd Well, it is important in mathematics to prove 'obvious' facts rigorously.

Sometimes an apparently 'obvious fact' turns out not to be true after all, or true only under certain assumptions (which might seem 'natural' but it's still worth examining cases where they don't hold).

user132126

3:47 PM

It does more that that though, right? Because it also allows you to say "this function is not differentiable, because it doesn't have a slope of 0 anywhere between these points"

Well sure, but that's just the contrapositive.

The statement is 'obvious'. Doesn't make it not worth proving it rigorously.

The Jordan Curve Theorem is a great example of a very 'obvious' fact which is hard to prove.

Napoleon Wilson

Jordans' Robert?

No, Camille ;-)

1

Q: Short story: Milky Way was unexplored because it checked out as uninhabitable to all other life, shocked when humans inhabit it

I've been looking for a short story that I read online a few years back. I was told it could be "All the Way Back" but it just doesn't sounds right. The one I read was the same concept that Earth is in a void of the universe that all other life thinks is a dead zone but it didn't have the same ...

story-identification short-stories

4:34 PM

@TheLethalCarrot out of curiosity why edit the timeframe out of the title?

user132126

I don't like the new title at all. You have to know what "All the way back" is to know the summary, and good story-id titles generally have a summary of the key points in them so it can trigger a memory if you know, and be easy to research if you find out.

For what it's worth I was referring to the cryopod thing, but agreed with above

user132126

\whoosh

4:56 PM

Is there a way to search for questions that you and a specific other user have answered?

@Alex nope.

6

A: Is it possible to exclude questions I've already answered from the search criteria?

What I'd like to see, is the option hasanswerby:user, where user can be me or any other user ID. That way, we could include or exclude questions answered by ourselves or by any other user.

user132126

You can do it with SEDE, but it won't show the newest stuff, as it only refreshes weekly.

@WebHead That's a good start (well, if I knew anything about that).

@Alex without SENSE you mean?

@Jenayah Considering that I don't know what SENSE is...

user132126

5:12 PM

@Alex data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/894725/…

@WebHead Amazing, thanks! That's exactly. what I wanted.

@Alex SENSE is SEDE, but without me checking that the autocorrect didn't screw it up before pressing enter and tucking my phone back into my pocket.

@Jenayah Well in that case, the answer to your question is no. It does not need to be without it. Web Head's link is perfect for what I'm looking for (minus the delayed updating).

@Alex what are you looking for, out of curiosity?

@Jenayah That's getting a little too personal.

Just kidding.

5:19 PM

@Alex ok, nevermind :)

33 secs ago, by Alex

Just kidding.

@Jenayah I'm trying to run a comparison of all the answers that I and another user have given to questions.

@Jenayah I don't know, but I can imagine myself looking for "story-identification questions without an accepted answer that I haven't answered and user14111 neither" so that I still have a chance.

Or Valorum, on any tag.

@SQB ahah

@Jenayah I hope you weren't insulted by my joke.

@Alex not at all, don't worry

5:26 PM

Greetings, Earthlings.

user132126

I'd rather be a Zergling.

@Donald.McLean greetings, Hubble guy :^)

Golden, Earrings.

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