« first day (1440 days earlier)      last day (1090 days later) » 

12:41 AM
1
Q: 90s film where the Devil impregnates a woman and she kills herself with glass on a balcony

BcrawfordI vaguely remember watching a movie back in the 90s (I think) where the devil impregnates a woman. She then kills herself with glass on a balcony. If I remember correctly he was the typical red beast you would usually see him portrayed as.

 
1:05 AM
0
Q: Help me.find the title of this book?

Shawna BellI am looking for book that has a black dragon falling for a red head human girl after she is almost killed after running away from her evil brother's men who want to marry her off to the enemy. It is here after fighting off some of her brother's men that she is wounded and about to die when she i...

 
 
1 hour later…
2:11 AM
 
2:39 AM
2
Q: An illustrated book of short science fiction stories I read as a kid in the late 80s, early 90s

BazI’ve been searching for a book of science fiction short stories, with black and white illustrations interspersed throughout. I can’t be sure of the publication date, though I read it in the late 80s, early 90s. I can recall to some degree two of the stories; One was about a young boy who terroriz...

 
3:02 AM
0
Q: Where did the scenery for the Star Wars anti-smoking PSA come from?

BuzzA saw a link today to the classic Star Wars droids anti-smoking public service announcement. It looks like C-3PO and R2-D2 are in warehouse or storage area filled with large, probably obsolete power electronics. However, the many of the devices, lined up in rows,...

0
Q: What does "take you in" mean?

Louis MarieEarly on in Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan and Anakin are flying a half-burned spaceship: Obi-Wan: Five thousand. Fire ships on the left and the right. Pilot: We'll take you in. (Pilot sprays water on spaceship) OBI-WAN: Copy that. What does "take you in" mean?

 
 
1 hour later…
4:30 AM
Nine days left in the David Weber / Honorverse topic challenge. Also, more votes welcome on other proposed topics - currently Rivers of London leads by a hair, but it'd be nice to get some more votes before announcing the topic for May.
 
0
Q: Is there a deleted scene with a Jyn and Cassian kiss?

Sophie the Jedi KnightThis is probably a rumor, but I can't get it out of my head now that I've heard it. What I heard was that Rogue One initially made Jyn and Cassian's relationship romantic in nature, having them share a kiss on the beach. However, they apparently cut out this scene, preferring to keep the nature ...

 
4:56 AM
0
Q: The alien who could duplicate himself

man of the boxI'm looking for the title of a science fiction book of the 80s (I think) about an good alien who came to Earth chasing a hostile race of reptilian aliens. I'm not sure but I think his name was Akor. This Akor guy could create unlimited copies of himself. And a bloody fight happens between multipl...

 
 
2 hours later…
6:30 AM
0
Q: How did Captain (mirror) Georgiou reach Qo'nos without notice?

HBhatia How was she able to reach there without being noticed? Klingons should have noticed a ship near the planet.

 
 
3 hours later…
9:16 AM
 
9:57 AM
@Randal'Thor I still feel like we need to shift focus to something a bit more known and popular. It's all well and good getting more content on the site about little known works. However, if we only ever get 3-4 posts it seems a bit fruitless. If we get something more popular and draw people in, it may drive more participation in the challenges in general
FWIW I think the focus to drawing attention should also be a TV series or film... I feel like that would draw people to the challenges more than a little known book series
Also if someone decides to foot a bounty (or SE introduce Community user bounty awards for challenges) it'd drive more content in general anyway
SE works quite heavily through gamification and there's no real extra gamification benefits to topic challenges currently
 
 
2 hours later…
11:37 AM
@TheLethalCarrot excellent point
 
0
Q: Book ID: alien who uses "it" pronouns (YA/kids)

Nathan HincheyThere's a book I read in the late '90s that I'm trying to remember. Definitely in it The scene I remember very vividly is one of the aliens telling the point of view character (a kid, I think) that it would be ruder to call it "he" or "she" than to call it "it". Probably in it I think the aliens ...

 
11:54 AM
posted on April 22, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: Don't worry. On the very last SMBC there'll be a house for them. Today's News:

 
12:29 PM
1
A: What is Tony Stark's PhD field subject?

TheLethalCarrotTL;DR: We don't know for certain exactly what field he studied in at MIT. However, we know he has a degree from MIT where he graduated summa cum laude. He won the Robot Design Award four years in a row though so he potentially studied in Robotics but it doesn't necessarily have to be the case. I ...

The article from Tony's award intro is somewhat interesting, if repetitive, if anyone's into that sort of thing and can squint hard enough
 
1:14 PM
@TheLethalCarrot that was fun
 
2:12 PM
@TheLethalCarrot I'd lose interest in topic challenges if they were just about known and popular things. We get enough questions about known and popular things already, so there wouldn't be any point to the topic challenges then.
 
I don't mean keep them popular, more to use some popular works to draw people to them (or rather more popular than obscure)
And not as a permanent change, rather something temporary to see if it draws people and keeps them doing topic challenege stuff
 
To me, the whole point of them is to promote some less popular topics rather than inflating what we've already got loads of. So far they seem to have been fairly successful: sure, there haven't been a hundred questions each time, but for example the tag is now populated and it wasn't before.
They've also been an opportunity for less prominent users to shine. Popular topics are generally answered quickly by people like you and Valorum, but more obscure topics allow for some Subject Matter Experts in those specific areas to come and share their knowledge. Who knew Ubik was such an expert in before the topic challenge spotlighted it?
@TheLethalCarrot I have been dishing out bounties for topic challenge answers every month.
 
@Randal'Thor True didn't think of that angle at least
I was thinking more to get more users total involved rather than let users in different areas jump in and out
@Randal'Thor Maybe that wants advertising?
There's the vague maybe but if you're willing to keep doing so (or can get others to) it might be worth making it prominent in the post
 
@TheLethalCarrot The latter is actually more desirable IMHO. More users total involved, if you mean a regular thing being involved every month, probably means the usual suspects, prominent site users who're involved in everything anyway. People in different areas jumping in and out might mean we're attracting the specific SMEs each time and giving them their chance to shine.
 
I mean ideally you'd get both involved but yeah I agree. It's a good point
 
2:24 PM
@TheLethalCarrot Maybe. I've kinda deliberately kept it a bit low-key because I didn't want people to start gaming the system for bounties. I haven't been awarding the most voted or viewed post each time, more like choosing a personal favourite (since that isn't a quantitative thing that can be gamed).
I suppose I could say that I'll definitely award a bounty each month (provided some good answers are posted in the topic challenge, of course) without stating specific criteria.
 
I was thinking along the lines of a section like: "In this month's topic challenge the following bounties are up for grabs: .... X from Y for top voted answer X from Z for their favourite answer"
 
Not sure what you mean by X from Y/Z.
Oh, Y and Z are different people and X are bounty amounts?
 
Yeah essentially
 
Darn, after my pin in here there's now a three-way tie for the next topic. Someone cast some more votes please :-P
@TheLethalCarrot So far it's been just me ... if some more people will pitch in, we can increase the number of bounties offered.
I kinda want to give myself some wiggle room in case the top voted answer is crap.
 
2:54 PM
0
Q: In Shrek, did the Fairy Godmother get Rapunzel together with a Prince she didn’t really love?

Alex DownsThe entire plot of Shrek 2 was the Fairy Godmother getting Charming together with Fiona even though they weren’t each other’s true loves. However, Shrek was Fiona’s true love, obviously, and, as seen in Shrek the Third. Rapunzel was Charming’s true love. So was Rapunzel set up with a Prince she d...

 
 
1 hour later…
4:05 PM
0
Q: Cartoon show similar to X-Men, with magic stones (it was on Netflix in the 2000s)

no oneA man goes around finding kids and adults with magic stones. One of the kids is like twelve, but is built like a grown man, and is super strong, and has a blue gem inside of him. Another person has a green gem, I think, and is in a wheelchair; he has telekenisis.

 
4:29 PM
0
Q: Isekai light novel about a powerful mage summoned to the middle of the forest who could analyse the envionment

ojyakeecThe main character is a powerful mage in his game and he got isekai, I only remember some details as his name was Marion or Marian. He was summoned in the middle of the forest. There was also a snow mountain. He also used his skill to analyse the environment (leaves, etc) around him.

 
4:54 PM
0
Q: Why didn't Voldemort's soul die in Harry when he was bitten by the basilisk in "The Chamber of Secrets"?

user140205The basilisk venom is one of the few things that can destroy Horcruxes. In Harry's encounter with Tom Riddle, he ends up getting bitten by his basilisk which should've destroyed Voldemort's piece in Harry which ends up becoming a big plot twist in later books. Therefore, the venom should've destr...

0
Q: Plot explanation for Cryostasis

Kinzle BIn the final battle of the FPS game Cryostasis, the player seems to compete with Chronos to kill more zombies. How does it fit in with the overall game plot?

 
5:17 PM
1
Q: Book about a young woman who was a warrior and a princess, who was accompanied by a magical talking cat that she carried around in a bag

janiceLooking for the title of a book that I read in the late '80s or early '90s. It was about a young woman who was a warrior and a princess with magic. She wore her hair in braids. She was accompanied by a magical cat that she carried in a bag. The cat could speak to her and one time shapeshifted i...

 
 
4 hours later…
9:19 PM
1
Q: Book ID: Demons in tanks

fpd011I read part of this book in the 1980s, so it is at least that old. The story was based on 13 WWII black Sherman tanks abandoned in a field somewhere that had their hatches welded shut (and I believe they had a crucifix on the hatch as well). Years after the war, people open the hatches and find...

 
 
2 hours later…
11:43 PM
0
Q: Warp Drives - Inside the Warp Bubble and Accounting for Velocity

MarkSo, obviously this question is regarding technology that is only theoretically possible at this point in time, but as a science fiction lover I have always wondered about this one concept - if during a warp, a spacecraft is considered "stationary" in space, with space time moving around it to bri...

 

« first day (1440 days earlier)      last day (1090 days later) »