The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

SmokeDetector

01:27

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer (86): Why didn't Dumbledore realise that Moody had been replaced? by Aaron James Peavler on scifi.SE

Marvin

02:36

0

Q: Humans dumped on a hostile planet and adapt over generations

Humans dumped on a hostile planet by nasty aliens. Many humans die but they gradually adapt, they tame some of the native animals (one is a sort of massive wolf linked telepathically to the humans using another animal) The aliens land again and the humans storm the ship and take it over

humans

0

Q: Which sci-fi movie best describes the fear observed during the covid-19 pandemic?

I live in France where the government's measures to fight the epidemic have taken the traits of dictatorship only seen before in movies, and I'm wondering which movie exactly. Some of the "safety" measures include: staying home as much as possible mandatory written certificate to go out 135€ ...

dystopia 1984 equilibrium

Marvin

05:10

0

Q: In the Prisoner of Azkaban film, Harry tells Hermione something, why did she reply that she doesn't understand

In the Prisoner of Azkaban film, Harry tells Hermione something, and she replies that she doesn't understand. Harry says this line in the Prisoner of Azkaban film, just moments before Buckbeak was going to descend on the cell where Sirius Black was held captive: "You were right, Hermione. It wa...

harry-potter

SmokeDetector

08:04

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer (86): Why didn't Dumbledore realise that Moody had been replaced? ✏️ by Aaron James Peavler on scifi.SE

Jenayah

08:32

Welcome to lockdown, Brits! I'd say give me a high five, but we'll, that would be inappropriate. @TheLethalCarrot @Randal'Thor

@DavidW, I think you're the only one currently in the room whom I have no idea where you're based (status by design, I know ;) ). So in case you're in Britain, the above applies to you, too

Mithical

@Jenayah Slowpokes.

We've been in lockdown for days already! ;)

TheLethalCarrot

@Jenayah virtual air five from 3+ meters away then I guess!

Marvin

08:58

0

Q: Old movie about robotic crabs that eat metal, grow and reproduce

I once saw a movie as described in the title, but don't know it's name or how old it is. I remember some scenes from it: A man gives his son a kit (robot crab), they assemble it, it comes to life, and runs to the wall socket and fries itself with it's 'antennas'. Two people in a dessert, where ...

robots

Marvin

11:11

-1

Q: What's the point of Super Star Destroyers?

To my knowledge, a regular Imperial Star Destroyer is a massive source for firepower and will intimidate most opposition in to not even trying to fight back. As for the few that would try and fight back, they can be stopped by fielding even more Imperial Star Destroyers. With this, and the fact ...

star-wars spaceship economics

Zaphod

11:35

10

Q: Mystery 1970's Sci Fi Novel titled "Planet of the Gworfs" (or perhaps planet of the "Gwarfs")

In 1977-78 i bought a sci fi paperback, I remember titled "Planet of the Gworfs"( or perhaps planet of the "Gwarfs") The cover featured your standard, over the top 70's sci fi cover painting with garish green colors, some kind of wolfman-looking creature and a large toad. It may have been a compe...

story-identification

SQB

12:36

@Jenayah damn, Uderzo has died.

Marvin

-2

Q: Could Tom Bombadil have healed Frodo’s wound?

After Frodo had been stabbed at Weathertop, if they had taken him to Tom Bombadil, is it likely that Tom would have healed Frodo’s wound, perhaps by singing a song that can heal people? Is there anything in LOTR canon that says that Tom Bombadil had healing powers?

tolkiens-legendarium the-lord-of-the-rings tom-bombadil

Babel fish

12:56

0

Q: Who ordered Bran's assasination?

After Jaime Lanister sent Bran down in the first season of Game of Thrones, someone tried to kill him to shut his mouth. Who? Jaime? Cersey? Baelish? Catheline pretty much think Tyrion did it. Baelish is in King's landing and doesn' know that Bran must be silenced. So who?

game-of-thrones

0

Q: Does it make sense that Bronn can get a castle by pretty much robbing?

Bronn put a crossbow aim it at both Jaime and Tyrion, hand of King, demanding a castle. Does this make sense? Usually, robbing is done to steal wallet or things whose property is far away from governments' control. Also how to enforce the deal? I don't kill you, I got riverrun. After he's not ...

game-of-thrones

Jenayah

2

SQB

@Jenayah you want to do an in memoriam on meta?

DavidW

13:21

@Jenayah *waves sadly* Work sent us all home 2 weeks ago, even before the official lockdowns started, so it's not like anything has changed for me.

Except for walking the dog, I've been out twice for groceries; it's getting kind of old. And I'm gaining weight despite trying to cut back on calories.

TheLethalCarrot

13:51

10

A: Some improvements to blockquotes

Suggested compromise The major design goal of this change appears to be to remove the "overpowering" background: Historically, we had a bit of feedback that the yellow backgrounds were overpowering, reducing the contrast of the quote itself. The yellow border also lacks contrast with the bac...

I actually like that proposed change to block quotes, a grey might be better but if they want to differentiate from spoilers too that blue fits current themes and looks quite nice

But they'll probably just ignore that answer and leave quotes as they are now: terrible

CC @Jenayah cos of your comment on the answer

Napoleon Wilson

14:04

You really had me for a moment. But no, it's just an ordinary user's suggestion that will be ignored like every other answer.

2

TheLethalCarrot

Oops didn't mean to make that read like it was an official proposed change

Jenayah

@SQB I think it's a good idea, but wouldn't know what to write

@DavidW I'm probably going to have to hit the groceries today or tomorrow, depending on when work meetings get scheduled. Wasn't planning on it, since I was in the process of moving out before this whole thing started, but well, sounds like it's back to storing a bit, at least some fruit and protein, which I've really lacked the last week

@TheLethalCarrot I still don't get what was wrong with the previous design, sigh

TheLethalCarrot

Me neither, I wasn't 100% a fan of the yellow but no background is a thousand times worse

b_jonas

14:22

@SQB I'd say it's impossible because Sci Fi Meta has no obituary of him, but there is none of Max von Sydow either, so I don't quite trust Meta enough for that.

Napoleon Wilson

14:33

@Jenayah Nothing, other than that SE's design team was bored for being unable to engage actual problems and thought "hey, the other cool kids in tech that work nothing like SE are doing it in this neat e-mail reply bullshit style, let's do this so we can claim to have done something to advance SE's UX to the next level of our mission of becoming the voice of the digital society".

TheLethalCarrot

Most of the pointless CSS changes of late have fixed nothing with debatable improvements

In fact most of them are breaking things

Apart from quotes, been lots of contrast issues and outright bugs showing little to no testing being donw

DavidW

14:52

@Jenayah Are you stuck until after the lockdown ends, or can you still move in the meantime?

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Seem to be lots of random design changes in recent months, mostly minor and largely pointless things, apparently unasked-for and unannounced.

I agree with Napoleon's theory of bored designers. Even if they can't improve stuff, at least they can change stuff.

b_jonas

Meh, as long as it's just the styles of quotes in posts, I don't care. If it turns out to be ugly, that's one I can override on user side easily. Unlike some of the chat brokenness.

And the old quote style wasn't too nice, the new one is just not nice in a different way.

Obviously I have to pay some attention to how the posts display in other users' browsers, to avoid stupid mistakes like alcohol.stackexchange.com/a/7037/7187 which often used to break the 7 bottles to two lines when I posted it, simply because the main text column is slightly wider in preview than when viewing normally.

(Some later formatting change accidentally fixed that.)

Jenayah

@DavidW nope, doesn't fit into the authorised trips. I mean it may fit if I had only one or two trips, but there are about fifteen back-and-forth trips, since I'm moving out on foot. (I don't have a car, won't pay a moving service to carry a couple pieces of furniture and general stuff, and don't know anyone anymore here who may help me with their car)

So, I'm stuck until the lockdown ends. Bad enough I'm reminded every day that "hey, that big flat where your roommates used to be? Yeah, you're alone in it now and they're gone - have you noticed they're gone?", the double rent is also going to sting

There are way worse situations though, so, it wouldn't really be appropriate to complain further.

Rand al'Thor

15:11

@b_jonas Ha! adds to long list of sites which have no problems with ID questions

2

DavidW

15:26

@b_jonas Wraps on 2 lines for me... Interesting.

DavidW

15:37

@Jenayah Paying rent on 2 places, on top of having to pay double rent at your current place... ouch.

Rand al'Thor

@DavidW Depends on screen width, I guess.

Napoleon Wilson

@Jenayah Frankly, that is a situation that makes absolutely zero sense. The government can't force you to pay double rent for half a year. If that doesn't count as an authorised trip, your lockdown is bollocks. Or make them pay your rent, either way it's one of the 5 million situations where the government obviously didn't think quite two minutes ahead in its panic.

@Randal'Thor Which it absolutely shouldn't. Otherwise it annihilates any and all effort spent on proper post layout.

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson They've gotta weigh private inconvenience and economic issues (and even larger-scale economic issues) against the safety of everyone.

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Having to pay double the rent isn't a private inconvenience, nor is it weighing anything against anything if all it amounts to is some dude (or gal) walking a few metres for a few times.

Rand al'Thor

If any trip could be authorised on the grounds of "it costs me more money to stay home in this situation", then a lot of not-strictly-necessary things would start running again.

@NapoleonWilson I'm assuming that she's renting privately. That's a "private inconvenience or economic issue" in the sense that it's just between her and her landlord.

If she's renting from the state, it's a different matter, of course.

Napoleon Wilson

15:52

Although, if your lockdown is really as entirely ridiculous as that, it might explain why my order from France hasn't been moving from "packed" to "shipped" status for a few days now. But that's really not quite imaginable, you can't entirely deactivate letter and parcel exchange for months. People will literally die over it.

TheLethalCarrot

Of course you can for non essential things

Napoleon Wilson

What's essential?

TheLethalCarrot

I'd rather we have a proper lockdown for a few weeks/months than a partial one which keeps things going for longer and ends up with more deaths

Napoleon Wilson

You can't tell everyone to stay at home and simultaneously cut off non-personal goods exchange. Like, how are people even getting the shit at home that they need to stay alive?

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson For a start, food is essential but lego isn't.

TheLethalCarrot

15:56

Was literally about to say that

Rand al'Thor

(edited to make more sense out of context on the star-board)

Napoleon Wilson

@Randal'Thor Who checks the difference? Have a police officer next to the postal office to send you away after looking into your package?

Jenayah

@DavidW yeah. Fortunately rents in my city are very low and I have a good pay + I don't spend much money to begin with, so I can manage (not forever though), but that pushes back some other stuff, like buying a place of my own, my "been waiting 17 years for him" dog, to make sure I have enough savings in case of a medical urgency, stuff like that.

DavidW

@Randal'Thor Not on window width at least, even at 3000px wide it's still on 2 rows.

Rand al'Thor

@NapoleonWilson Presumably the shipper at least knows the difference. If you're buying from a company, they might be categorising their orders into "urgent" and "less urgent" right now.

TheLethalCarrot

15:58

It's usually on import as well isn't it when across borders?

Rand al'Thor

For a lot of international shipments, the contents of the package is actually written on the outside, presumably for customs purposes. I guess that's not the case within the EU though.

Napoleon Wilson

If it was a company, orders are urgent by definition.

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor no, I have a landlord. Well, the thing is managed by an renting agency, but it's not from the state

DavidW

@Randal'Thor I dunno, you had to pick that example. It's like saying that books aren't essential...

Napoleon Wilson

@DavidW Well, they aren't. (Until you're told to sit in a 2 m² room for half a year.)

TheLethalCarrot

16:00

@Jenayah Or just do what me and the wife did, get a dog out of the blue pretty much (I mean we both wanted a dog, but getting Stella was a spur of the moment thing in a sense)

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot I can't right now, I'm in a flat with no garden and no time to walk the dog during the day. He'd be sad in an apartment all day :/

TheLethalCarrot

See if you could take him to work haha

My cousin's office has an office dog

He's the bosses I think but is a possibility in some places

Jenayah

Can't either :/

Napoleon Wilson

Oh god. I've been to one of these once, it was a nightmare.

TheLethalCarrot

One of our engineers used to bring his dog up when he'd come to the office, was great

@Jenayah Ah shame :(

DavidW

16:03

If you're ordering groceries from Carrefour (for instance) and you also order other crap, you'll probably get your other stuff. But if you're ordering from a comic book store, well, they're probably not even going to work anyway.

Napoleon Wilson

@DavidW The advantage of having a postal department to your store is that you can work in situations like these where you better oughtn't open your real doors, though.

DavidW

True.

@TheLethalCarrot I interviewed at a place that was dog-friendly, and they had 2 or 3 dogs wandering around. (Small company, < 20 people.) That could be very cool, assuming your dog was chill enough to hang out and not to try to play all day long.

TheLethalCarrot

Oh yeah certainly depends on the dog

I probably couldn't have Stella at work all day, for example. She loves to sleep but would get bored and start barking until she got to play haha

Napoleon Wilson

The entire point of letter and parcel exchange is that it's something that can be done safely and risk-free in situations like these. In such an extreme situation you have to grab for every straw there is, and prohibiting shipping is throwing out the baby with the bathwater for zero gain. It's a sign of blind panic.

DavidW

The previous place we sent the dog for day care had webcams, and you could hit their website to check up on your dog. I never actually saw him, just a black-and-tan blur. (Low quality/framerate.)

@NapoleonWilson As someone suggested yesterday: Do not lick your parcels

TheLethalCarrot

16:10

@NapoleonWilson The virus can spread through post, it's not necessarily worth the risk to still deliver everything and at times like this delivery services are already stretched incredibly thin. Delivering toys isn't really a priority

In my area at least, don't know if it's countrywide, Parcelforce/DPD are doing food deliveries Morrisons, I think, because their own services can't handle the load

Napoleon Wilson

Who defines which business is whose priority? There is trade involved here.

TheLethalCarrot

I think everyone can agree food and basics for survival come first

DavidW

Interestingly I've heard that the coronavirus has a much longer survival time on plastic (think FedEx mailing wrappers) than on old-style paper packaging.

Napoleon Wilson

@TheLethalCarrot That assumes you can declare what it is you're shipping beforehand and have someone check it. If that's how it works, that might be a thing, yes.

TheLethalCarrot

There are always going to be ways round things so yeah people can lie, as they always do

Rand al'Thor

16:15

@DavidW Only your stamps?

TheLethalCarrot

17

Q: Disease transmitted by postage stamps

The United States is afflicted by a cold- or flu-like disease that has the epidemiologists floored because its distribution is so spotty. In one town practically every adult person comes down with it, but not the children. Children aren't immune, however. Postal employees seem immune to the disea...

story-identification short-stories

?

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor have the dog lick it.

DavidW

If you're like me, your stamps have been in the drawer long enough you have to check they're still valid, which is far too long for the crud on the hands of the postal worker who sold them to still be contagious. :)

Napoleon Wilson

@Jenayah And then lick your face afterwards, yes.

(Not that this wouldn't already be disgusting without a virus, but well, dog people, ya know.)

Jenayah

@DavidW if you're like me, you don't have stamps to begin with

@NapoleonWilson fine, have the dog wet the stamp with a postal sponge, then.

Complete with a little postal dog suit

TheLethalCarrot

16:21

DavidW

Nice fast response!

Jenayah

Ahahaha, this is awesome.

UPS delivery dog costume

►

Marvin

18:08

0

Q: Why hide the Philosopher's stone behind solvable puzzles?

The purpose of placing the Philosopher's stone where it was placed was to hide it from Voldemort. Is there any in-universe reason why it was hidden behind a series of solvable puzzles? It looks like it was set up such that a worthy hero could solve the puzzles and get the stone (there were even w...

harry-potter

0

Q: Since Cedric Diggory's wand and Charles' Weasley's first wand have the same wand wood and same wand core

Since Cedric Diggory's wand and Charles' Weasley's wand have the same wand wood and same wand core, can we assume their personalities to be similar? Since wands choose the wizard, and the two wands are the same type of wood and core, does that imply a similarity in their personalities?

harry-potter

SQB

@Marvin because plot.

Jenayah

@SQB because dupe

Okay, my bad, picked the wrong dupe. The actual dupe is then Why did the chambers in Philosophers Stone let people pass? — Jenayah 3 mins ago

Marvin

18:26

-1

Q: Why didn't Hermione, Harry, or Ron use the Summoning Charm (Accio) on the Basilisk Fangs during Deathly Hallows?

Why didn't Hermione, Harry, or Ron use the Summoning Charm (Accio) on the basilisk fangs in the Chamber of Secrets during Deathly Hallows? It was never stated that an Anti-Accio Charm was placed on them, so why didn't they use it?

harry-potter

DavidW

@Jenayah I agree, the 2nd is better; the first sentence of the accepted answer there states the answer very clearly.

Jenayah

@DavidW yup

They're both worth linking to anyways

[insert rant about a good chunk of new HP questions being dupes]

TheLethalCarrot

18:50

Good chunk of new questions in general

DavidW

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." Ecc1:9

Marvin

20:01

0

Q: Would the Genii's plan actually have failed?

The in Stargate: Atlantis season 1 episode 7 “Underground” we meet the Genii. Their plan is to build nuclear weapons, place them on all the hibernating Wraith ships, and take them all down at once. They are planning for about 50 more years of preparation to be able to do this. Dr Weir says that t...

stargate stargate-atlantis

0

Q: Sci-fi anime set in space with a spaceship on the run from bad guys

I’m looking for a 90's -00's anime I saw on TV on a channel called Spacetoon about 17 years ago. Here is what I remember from it: It’s set in space and centers around the crew of a spaceship that is always on the run from the bad guys. The majority of crew are women, and the main character is a ...

story-identification anime space

Marvin

21:36

0

Q: In-universe origin of the Ring poem

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all a...

tolkiens-legendarium the-lord-of-the-rings sauron

Rand al'Thor

21:48

10

Q: Report this Ad Feature

This post is in reference to the following blog post: Report this Ad [beta] provides more control over your advertising experience To start off, a quick introduction of myself; my name is Jascha Drel, Product Manager for Advertising at Stack Overflow. In this role, I am part of Teresa Dietrich’s...

discussion advertising announcements

^ time to close all @Jenayah's ad reports as duplicates ;-)

Jenayah

Aw C'MON

Hey, it's not network-wide yet

Rand al'Thor

Yeah that's surprising. They already put it on the blog but it's just on a few sites (not including SO).

Gamers will be happy, I guess.

Napoleon Wilson

22:29

Why would it be on SO? The precious ~~programmers~~ coders that are busy building our digital future don't have bullshit spam ads. Otherwise this thing would have exploded on Twitter (and consequently been solved) months ago.

Marvin

23:10

0

Q: Why did Harry fall in the Interrogation Court Room in GoF but not in subsequent memory viewings via the Pensieve?

Why did Harry fall in the Interrogation Court Room in GoF when viewing Karkaroff's trial but not in subsequent memory viewings via the Pensieve, such as Bob Ogden, Tom Riddle at the Orphanage, Morfin Gaunt, Hokey the House-Elf/Hepzibah Smith, wherein he was instead viewing it from a different per...

harry-potter

Marvin

23:29

0

Q: Do you have to watch all of the content in a memory that is on the Pensieve before bringing your head back from the Pensieve?

Do you have to watch all of the content in a memory that is on the Pensieve before bringing your head back up from the Pensieve?

harry-potter

Alex

23:45

@DavidW This may be the first time this site has been explained via a Biblical verse.

Slartibartfast

1

Q: Alberto Uderzo RIP: fantasy (Getafix and his magic potion) and laughter were his gifts

I read in the news today that at the age of 92, Alberto Uderzo passed away from a heart attack. He and Rene Goscinny brought us Asterix and Obelix, those zany and funny Gauls, and a variety of Roman officials like Nebulus Nimbus: all victims of bad Latin. Source = a German magazine, Der Spieg...

discussion

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The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…