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3:22 AM
4
Q: In which comic did Dhruva go to the future to defeat a villain capable of creating vacuum bubbles?

user931I remember reading a comic in which Dhruva was called to the future because only his intelligence could defeat a villain capable of creating Vacuum Bubbles. Police were mostly ineffective against him because once trapped inside vacuum bubble, no one could survive and the bubble couldn't be penetr...

 
3:42 AM
0
Q: Fantasy book about a girl who performs in a circus and gives magic tattoos

BaileyDailySet in a place that idolizes some woman who symbolizes good that makes tattoos appear on other's bodies (thought to be messages from her). Protagonist is a teen girl who was forced to draw the tattoos and ends up running away and joining a circus with her friend. At the circus, the love interest ...

 
 
4 hours later…
SQB
8:08 AM
@DavidW actually, it's complicated. Currently on mobile, but it's an interesting discussion that I'd like to continue tomorrow.
 
8:18 AM
Don't know if any of you lot care about this stuff but... when I was active over on PPCG one of the users was developing an esolang called Carrot. I started using it cos, y'know, and ended up confusing him with something I came up with in it haha
I did not even know why this code worked (the A^ part, partly because I had long forgotten about its implementation), but then I realised it was because of my terribly-written interpreter that lacks a proper parser. Here, have a +1 for confusing the creator of the language. — user41805 Jul 6 '17 at 3:04
 
8:56 AM
I wish "Stacey" would stop changing their name. Must always be lining up to get deed poll forms
 
9:46 AM
@TheLethalCarrot ahah
 
10:17 AM
-1
Q: Fantasy book about female hypnotist

Juliet BrownThe female lead unknowingly influences her friend to date better men.

 
11:07 AM
2
Q: Looking For A Mistaken Identity Super Hero Book About A Woman Who Works Fast Food

JoesephI read this book a few years ago. (Between 3-10) It is about a woman who keeps getting mistaken for a popular super hero and attacked by villains as she works at a fast food place. Nobody believes her when she tells them that she isn't the hero so she has to defend herself. She uses a fire exting...

 
@Marvin Sounds like a fun little book/series if you're into that sort of thing
 
@TheLethalCarrot I'll add it to my reading list when we find out what it is
 
Did you click through? OP's already accepted my answer
 
@TheLethalCarrot I did but I didn't scroll down
 
Ah, got good reviews on goodreads too
A lot of the complaints are that it's actually too short, or too much happens in too few pages so they waned it to be longer
 
11:54 AM
I followed a link from a question about My Favourite Martian to a film called Mystic Pizza, which looks interesting but nothing at all to do with SFF sadly
they should remake it but make the title literally relevant not just geographically
The Associate also looks great
but alas non SFF
 
 
2 hours later…
2:04 PM
Finally, after 10 years and 110K rep, I've made it.
 
Those need to be dismissed for every single review queue, as well as the main /review page, on each of main and meta.
I suppose the rationale is that some people with high rep might not have a clue about reviewing.
 
@JackBNimble On which site?
 
@b_jonas This one. I guess they put that banner up at some point, and it has been a long time since I went to Late Answers.
 
C'est incroyable!
 
To quote another mod candidate:
> I didn't post my review stats because Carrot stole them all. (No Steward for me!)
 
2:17 PM
@Randal'Thor There have been days I've wondered if Carrot is real, or is actually just a bot.
(A very fast bot, mind.)
 
But bots aren't allowed to run for mod!
panics
 
@Randal'Thor Maybe in another 5 years I will have a 40/40 mod score
 
You heard it here first people: A vote for Carrot is a vote for the robot apocalypse.
5
 
2:49 PM
You step out of chat for a minute to get some work done and all of a sudden you're leading the robot apocalypse
 
I would say you'd feel proud, except we know your cold robot heart feels nothing.
 
@Randal'Thor Tell that to Glorfindel.
 
3:28 PM
I would say it's a lot more hard science fiction than the previous two. Science is really taking the front seat over everything else. And without at least a layman's understanding of basic modern physics, you won't take much enjoyment out of it, in contrast to the previous two, whose stories also work on pure entertainment principles.
Sure you haven't put that the other way around?
It might not focus on space travel and space living specifically, but is that the only science that makes something "hard science fiction"? Though, maybe it is, but in that case "hard science fiction" would seem like a rather useless genre for classification.
 
I guess for me the hard science components of The Martian and Artemis are there is no reach into the fantastical discoveries of Project Hail Mary, and maybe I was blind to it, but I felt like Mark Watney and Jazz talked about and applied a lot more scientific principles than Grace.
But my first impression could be wrong, just like it was on Artemis
 
Really? Artemis was a pure adventure story and I didn't really get the impression Jazz even knows much about science.
But all Rocky and Grace do all the livelong day is science things out.
Granted, the setting is a lot more fantastical, yes.
 
Perhaps I'm saying the setting is more hard science fiction than the actual things going on it the story.
 
I just can't imagine someone reading or even enjoying it without having at least a decent school education in modern physics, which made it so surprising to have you call it less science oriented than the previous two.
 
posted on June 15, 2021 by Jack B Nimble

Amazon’s description:  Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that ... Read more

 
3:39 PM
I would agree it's less re-readable than Artemis or The Martian, maybe because the actual adventure story in the former two is a bit more exciting and less exposition-heavy. Also, I can imagine the flashbacks to be more annoying than exciting once you know the story.
 
Maybe I know just enough modern physics that I didn't really notice it.
I read the book 2-3 weeks ago, but I don't remember a lot of talk about physics, other than centrifugal force for artificial gravity and time dilation.
 
Though, I haven't ever even considered re-readability is any kind of criterion for books, since reading a book twice wouldn't really cross my mind as something worthwhile, given how much there is to read out there. Although, I have fallen for re-reading things too in the past.
@JackBNimble Well, physics, microbiology, xenobiology, xenolinguistics. It didn't throw around a lot of technical terms maybe, but you need to get the concepts and even more so enjoy people finding out things by science, rather than just having stuff happening to them.
 
I reread a lot of books. I used to tell people I read 1 book a week. I tallied up my reading list last year and it turns out I am a fraud, because I only read 49 books in 2020. However 12 of those were books that I had previously read.
 
Jazz Bashara had a lot more stuff just happen to her as part of her adventure. It wasn't like she did a lot of experiments. Granted, Whatney maybe more.
 
That is true.
 
3:47 PM
Whereas if you don't get how astrophages actually work in the first few pages, you really don't need to read any further. ;-)
 
It didn't occur to me that the book might feel inaccessible to the layman or too steeped in science, because it certainly didn't feel that way to me.
 
Well, it probably still excites the same clientel that celebrated The Martian.
But I can't really imagine it as a Ridley Scott movie as much as that (or Artemis, which I would love being adapted into a film), despite the interesting setting.
 
0
Q: Life of Clara A. Walsh

Richard StanleyI am looking for any biographical information concerning Clara A. Walsh. She wrote "The Master-Singers of Japan," a selection of classical Japanese poetry translated into English. It was published in 1910 and reprinted in 1914 by John Murray.

 
What in the world made the bot think this question should be fed into here?
 
It knows SciFi people love identification questions of all kinds. ;-)
 
3:54 PM
It sounds like the person has already identified it. They know the author and the title.
 
Was just the id tag aye
Newest questions tagged strugatsky-brothers or j-k-rowling or j-r-r-tolkien or gene-wolfe or isaac-asimov or neil-gaiman or comics or fantasy or science-fiction or story-identification - Literature Stack Exchange posted by Babel fish
 
I think the book they mention isn't the one they are searching for. It's just one from the author they're searching any kind of biographical information for. (Not that this would seem all that on-topic, but I guess the Literature people'll sort that out.)
 
That feed might want updating tbh
 
0
Q: What made Harry Potter to yell, "You liar!"?

Alfonso MarcVoldemort trying to get stone from Harry Potter: Voldemort: Together, we'll do extraordinary things. Just give me the Stone! Harry Potter: (yelled) You liar! What made Harry Potter to yell, "You liar!"?

 
Could he be...considering Voldemort...like...a liar?
 
4:27 PM
1
Q: Cartoon about fighter pilots in 2000s?

wolfpirateI remember a cartoon about futuristic plane fighters. The cartoon was launched around the year 2000, it is in computer graphics not in classical drawing. There are two girls in the group, one of the guys can turn into a beast, like a werewolf and had special googles not like the rest of the chara...

 
5:25 PM
Since y'all nuked this question as "opinion based" I'll just ask informally here:
What's up with the prevalence of the phrases "I can assure you..." and "I assure you..." in Star Trek shows?
 
sounds fancy
 
Dukat, in particular, says it a lot.
Yeah sure it's fancy and all but it's so over-used that it seems like an inside joke.
 
I am rather surprised that Picard never said it.
 
Oh he did.
The transcript search is fail.
Picard definitely says it.
 
Wow, people actually counted that? O_O
 
5:29 PM
I just used a google search of the transcripts, as suggested by another user.
i.e. the interwebz did the counting.
 
@NapoleonWilson You haven't noticed how much the Trekkies here like to count stuff? ;-)
15
Q: How many times has "Make It So" been demanded by anyone other than Picard?

PraxisIn Star Trek, how many times has been demanded by anyone other than Picard? I'm looking for a complete list. The question is not necessarily exclusive to the The Next Generation.

 
But take a look at this as well.
There's an inside joke here and I wanna know what's up with it.
 
@Randal'Thor I probably suppressed it.
 
5:55 PM
posted on June 15, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: You can always just feed it to a bat or something. Today's News:

 
6:06 PM
1
Q: Is Wanda Astral Projecting?

HahemLovesYouIn the last postcredit in WandaVision, why are there 2 Wandas? Is she astral projecting like in Dr. Strange?

 
@DanielSank Sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar...
 
6:31 PM
1
Q: Sci-Fi novel from 70s? Rich men adopt boys as sole heir; transfer minds into them. Howard Hughes involved. Reporters find out. “Children” in title?

GZatixCharacters: Romanello, Bauer, Peterson, Male newspaper columnist (Chandler?), Female TV news anchor. Author Robinson/Roberts/Richardson or some variant Secret clinic in Switzerland

1
Q: Identification of a sci-fi/fantasy cartoon where bread is somehow rolled up and used like a bomb

TylerJNAI have been trying to identify this for years with no success. I was born in the early 90s and watched this as a small child, most likely between the years 1996 and 2001. What I remember: English language, but could have been dubbed. Western style cartoon animation. It did not seem particularly d...

 
@Marvin why would bread betray us like that!>
 
Watch out for bread, 72.3% of sudden deaths have been exposed to bread in the preceding 24 hours.
 
6:56 PM
0
Q: In BBC Merlin, why does Agravaine side with Morgana rather than Arthur?

E. J.In BBC Merlin, Agravaine is the brother of Arthur's mother, Queen Ygraine, and he resents Uther for his role in causing Ygraine's death. It's understandable that Agravaine would want Uther to be overthrown. What makes less sense is that, rather than wanting to install Ygraine's son in Uther's pla...

0
Q: How can the prophecy of the Chosen One be re-interpreted in light of Palpatine's return in the Disney canon?

noob328932893289The explanation I usually hear for Rey playing an equally, if not more, dramatic role in defeating Palpatine compared to Anakin's (while still not formally replacing him as the Chosen One) is that the prophecy referred only to a single, temporary event, one that could be repeated any number of ti...

 
@Michael I heard dihydrogen monoxide is the real killer, found in concentrations of ~60% in all dead people!
 
Funnily enough, there's a significant concentration of it in bread as well!
 
7:16 PM
"My question is whether we (fans, theorists) can ever get this to make sense". No. There is no point in trying to get it to make sense. — Null ♦ 13 mins ago
Does that make this very prone to being opinion based?
 
If we go directly to the election phase, will we never know the ordering of the candidates?
 
@AncientSwordRage slightly but with all the secondary material in SW universe it still may be answerable. I lean more towards TLC and that it is a dupe.
 
@Adamant we'll know the order in which they were voted for
@Skooba I think the phrasing in this one is asking about fans which to me hints at the OP wanting speculation/opinion
 
@Adamant You get a breakdown of the results when it ends
 
@Skooba but if we closed as a dupe as @TheLethalCarrot says, then that one is asking for supportable facts
 
7:25 PM
@AncientSwordRage we, the fans, can make sense of it through supportable facts.
 
@Skooba then why not go directly to asking about that?
 
I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to Disney lore, so I'd be really glad if this question was discovered by someone with background knowledge about 1) the prophecy and 2) the post-IX future, if any.
 
Asking if the fans can make sense of it implies (to me) without their opinionated interpretation it doesn't make sense
 
that background knowledge can come from canon sources
like i said it is borderline, and if it answered through canon and/or reasonable extrapolation I think it just becomes a dupe.
 
@Adamant No, we'll get all the voting data except for the identities of voters.
See the results post for the 2015 election which didn't have a primary phase: the "view a summary report online" link goes to a visual representation showing the distribution of 1st votes (and then subsequent vote distributions after taking account of 2nd and 3rd choices), and there's also an option to download the complete raw data of all vote choices.
 
8:10 PM
0
Q: Short story about a detective and criminal who disguise themselves and interact while in pursuit

SinenomenI read a short story around 1996 in the US. I think it was part of a 5th grade reader book (kind of a compilation of short stories at the appropriate reading level). I remember thinking the story was kind of old, which would have meant about pre-1950 or so. Here are the details I remember: The s...

 
8:30 PM
@Michael Cigar wut?
 
0
Q: What if The Thing was befriended?

Devin MillerWhat would've happened if the characters in the movie "The Thing" didn't try to kill The Thing and instead tried to befriend it? would it still try to infect and kill them all or would it become passive as it would have no threat to it's survival?

 
@DanielSank It's a reference to some of the worst cases of Freudian thinking (cigar as a phallic symbol); sometimes coincidences do happen, or writers like a particular phrase, without their actually being a deeper meaning behind it.
 
Sure.
But as written in the question, I am wondering if anyone attached to the production has ever commented on it.
 
There might be some in-joke behind it, but it's not automatically the case even if the phrase is used more than expected.
 
Why this community thinks that's an "opinion based" question is beyond me, and I've been around the block on the Physics site for years so I'm not just a n00b with no idea how Stack Exchange works.
@Michael Certainly.
I guess I could ask a less interesting but more easily answerable question about how often the phrase is used.
 
8:47 PM
I don't have a strong feeling in the question, but you have written it (current version at least) suggesting that there must be a deeper meaning and asking what that is. A straight question (the phrase is used more often than chance would suggest; has anyone involved in the production commented on whether this was intentional?) would be answerable in principle - although always hard to prove a negative.
 
1
Q: Short story about a detective and criminal who disguise themselves and interact while in pursuit

SinenomenI read a short story around 1996 in the US. I think it was part of a 5th grade reader book (kind of a compilation of short stories at the appropriate reading level). I remember thinking the story was kind of old, which would have meant about pre-1950 or so. Here are the details I remember: The s...

 
@DanielSank FWIW I did not vote to close it as opinion based and someone else didn’t as well but majority rule took it as opinion based
 
-3
Q: Is Duloc in Shrek a manor?

Alex DownsIn Shrek 1, Farquaad is the LORD of Duloc. Since he’s a LORD, COULD Duloc be a manor? I mean, I can’t think of anything else it could be, other than an artificial kingdom after his marriage to Fiona.

 
@TheLethalCarrot Majority rule?
Stack Exchange doesn't use majority rule. Questions are closed as soon as the number of close votes crosses a threshold.
 
9:03 PM
I meant the close reason is chosen from the close reason with the most votes
 
ah yes
 
9:28 PM
0
Q: Game Identification Questions

Gnemlockguys. I've been a long time lurker. May I say, for all of you answering questions, the amount of SciFi knowledge I have learnt I have a great appreciation for. Do you know what I appreciate more? How you handle identification questions. If Im having trouble remembering a video game, I ask you guy...

 
10:13 PM
0
Q: Do we have any insight on why Cadsuane was written to be so bad at her goal?

DacioFull disclosure, I never cared for the character of Cadsuane. My favorite scene is when Tam al'Thor refuses to accede and calls her a bully to her face. It occurs to me that this may be the intent behind the character, that she's written to be a certain degree of unlikable. Robert Jordan clearly ...

 
 
1 hour later…
11:38 PM
@DanielSank In it's current form, at least, it is asking a clear factual question. I have voted to reopen it.
 
11:50 PM
@Alex Which question are you referring to?
 
4
Q: Why is the phrase "assure you" used so much in Star Trek?

DanielSankThe phrases "I can assure you..." and "I assure you" are used very often in Star Trek shows. The phrase is used so much that it seems as if its frequency must be a deliberate choice by the writers. Exhibit A Searching the transcripts with Google searches like this (thanks to user hypnosifl): "I c...

 
1
Q: Why did the Drakh put the Keeper on Sheridan and Delenn's child, not Sheridan and Delenn themselves?

AnonymousIn the episode Objects at Rest, Londo gives Sheridan and Delenn a trophy, containing a gift to "give to your children when they turn 16", which contains a Keeper to control their children. Why wouldn't they instead try to take over Sheridan and Delenn? They could try to start undermining the All...

 
@Alex Entirely agree with you. I'd vote also if I had enough rep.
 
Reminds me of a scheme I once had here.
Apr 28 '19 at 22:41, by Alex
Feb 7 at 22:47, by Alex
That got me thinking: Can two users below a privilege threshold make an agreement to constantly bounty each other so that one of them will always be above the threshold?
 

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