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1:21 AM
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Q: Is lavabending hereditary in the Avatar universe

Bryce Nielsen Do you guys think that in order for someone to lavabend they need to have both earth kingdom and fire nation Heritage or be an avatar in order to do it? Ex Bolin

 
1:37 AM
-1
Q: Black magik ive been playing slot games and been losing and been losing real money

user942159Pretty scary but i think something i goin on witme ive been nothising this dude is so envious tht think did somethin like that you know something bout thisstrong text

 
2:08 AM
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Q: What was the name of the movie about an alien discovered by a drilling team

Brad JonsonIts a movie from some time ago 15+ years. All I can remember is a team is drilling, I think drilling in cold weather when the drill hits some goo. One of the drillers was sick came in contact with the goo and a few hours later is healthy. The scientist tests the goo and finds its made to heal h...

 
 
1 hour later…
3:12 AM
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Q: Sci Fi series of books about America being cut off from the world with no electricity

NgaireThis series began with the US being contained by some kind of pulse wall, anyone who attempted to cross it was vaporised. All electricity disappeared inside the wall and society quickly degenerated to anarchy. I had thought the author was Billingham, but apparently not. Anyone know?

 
3:28 AM
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Q: Why did Professor Umbridge specifically inspect Harry's classes?

AlexIn Order of the Phoenix the Ministry passes Educational Decree 23 which gives Umbridge the following responsibility: ‘The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Presumably Umbridge ended up inspecting every teacher...

 
4:00 AM
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Q: Unknown, maybe 'the others"?

PegUnknown, maybe 'the others"? There was a series of books I read way back in the 70s. About a group of beings from another planet? They had psychic powers but were trying to live with human society.

 
4:49 AM
1
Q: Story identification: First person story as an alien animal

samineruI'm trying to recall a short story I read some time ago. It was the life of a large alien animal. It began with the narrator, runt of the litter, and their mother. The alien is driven away by the mother, becomes a predator, eventually a parent if I recall correctly, and then climbs a mountain to...

0
Q: Michael Crichton's 'Sphere' ending

Ryan Leland JohnsonI realize there is already an open question regarding the ending of Michael Crichton's 'Sphere,' but apparently one has to have a respect score of 50 to comment. I understand it's generally accepted that only Beth remembers her powes, but other readers have disagreed. I just wanted to add a poi...

 
 
2 hours later…
6:56 AM
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Q: Late 20's or early 30's scifi story about a man resetting the earht time line with the press of a button

PegMy dad recalled reading a story of a man that had the job of pressing a button when the end of the world happened due to war (I think). Just as he presses the button he gets an overwhelming feeling of deja vu "I have done this before...MANY times!" It maybe a short story in an anthology.

 
 
2 hours later…
SQB
8:52 AM
@Jenayah the alternative to that story is one step longer, with the protagonist realising home isn't home anymore either and heading back out. I think a version of that was in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Heinlein.
Hm. It's not in that one. May even not be Heinlein.
 
1
Q: What is the significance of the Red Lotus?

AdamantThe theme of a Red Lotus seems to show up in various fantasy works. For instance: In Ice Fantasy, where the Red Lotus seems to a magical flower of great power. In The Legend of Korra, where it is an organization. In DC, where it denotes a mutant character. And elsewhere. Notably, all these ex...

 
 
2 hours later…
11:20 AM
3
Q: Late 20's or early 30's scifi story about a man resetting the earth time line with the press of a button

PegMy dad recalled reading a story of a man that had the job of pressing a button when the end of the world happened due to war (I think). Just as he presses the button he gets an overwhelming feeling of deja vu "I have done this before...MANY times!" It maybe a short story in an anthology.

^ This one is so vague there's probably an entire TvTropes page for it. I recall pbfcomics.com/comics/reset and I think even Casey & Andy has something like that.
And yeah, "Late 20s or early 30s" really is unusual to read in a story-id question, though it's not so impossible that we can entirely dismiss it.
I have read sci-fi stories other than Jules Verne ones older than that from the original Galaktika magazine.
Not any good ones, mind you, unless you count sci-fi elements in some Sherlock Holmes stories.
And a time travel story from that date is even more notable.
Admittedly H. G. Wells' famous time travel story is from before that, but IIUC (I never read that) that one uses the time travel only as a framing device to tell a story in the far future, not as a plot device.
 
11:42 AM
On the flip side, that question seems like a marked improvement over the other, earlier question of the same new user: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/194481/4918 .
The “Jack’s Bad Movies” series is so funny and accessible, that if Jack's lungs get fixed, he could probably start a talking head Youtube channel where he just reads each of those, and he'd get a ton of subscribers and perhaps ad revenue enough to pay for the lung.
 
12:26 PM
@b_jonas Wasn't it Mike who needed a lung?
 
1:05 PM
0
Q: Crossed virus outbreak in the Mass Effect universe

Zeke HousleyThe Crossed Virus causes individuals effected with it to carry out their most violent and carnal thoughts, the Crossed retain their abilities to drive vehicles, use guns, make traps, and use biotic abilities. It spreads through bodily fluids and takes effect almost immediately on anyone in contac...

 
 
2 hours later…
2:41 PM
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Q: Applying the Time Stone to beings

SevenImagine what would happen if we applied the Time Stone to a being, not to send him back to the past (as it is done several times in the movies), but to send him forward to the future. Recall that when we send someone to the past ( Dr Strange did it to the people of Hong Kong) his memories are er...

 
2:57 PM
0
Q: Why not J Edgar Hoover in Ghostbuster (1984)?

SeamusthedogIn Ghostbusters (1984) when Gozer asks the 'busters to choose and perish Venkman clarifies by saying if we think of J Edgar Hoover, JEdgar Hoover will appear and destroy us so why does the Stay Puft marshmallow man appear and not J Edgar? I know Ray thinks of Stay Puft but Venkman must have thoug...

 
 
1 hour later…
4:17 PM
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Q: Can Iron Man be considered the modern day "Captain America"?

ClockworkAs some of you may know, Captain America was originally created during the 2nd World War, for the purpose of propaganda and/or motivation (a bit like Uncle Sam, though the latter wasn't a comics character). He was depicted fighting against the evil enemies of the United States, or on a poster ask...

 
 
1 hour later…
5:21 PM
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Q: Looking for a short story about an investigator trying to contact a man who refuses to see him. 1970 to 1990.

Richard ParksThe investigator is trying to get a large amount of money to a man who desperately avoids him even though his family lives in poverty. Investigator follows him and finally discovers the man (who's father was a drunken musician, and who's mother raised him religiously) forces himself to play piano...

 
6:09 PM
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Q: Is the "bear monster" in Annihilation film a deliberate reference to alzabo from The Book of the New Sun?

MithoronIt might be coincidental, but to me the bear-like speaking creature encountered by characters in the Annihilation film adaptation seems so similar to alzabo that it's probably a deliberate reference. Even whole encounter does seem a bit reminiscent of the scene from The Sword of Lictor in which S...

 
6:59 PM
@Mithrandir Oh. Right, sorry, that was stupid of me to confuse. They both write the blog, but Mike is a green frog figurine, and Jack is a black billiard ball.
(Not really a frog, and not really a billiard ball. That's just what the avatars look like in small resolution.)
 
7:40 PM
Is there any point in getting a gold badge in sub-tags for Harry Potter?
(Or, for that matter, any other tag that has sub-tags that always use the same overall tag.)
 
If you have a sub-tag gold badge you will have the HP gold badge anyways
 
@Jenayah Precisely my point. The additional gold badge doesn't add anything.
 
@Alex no, but if we're honest, most badges don't add anything ^^
Tags are for fun
Mostly
 
@Jenayah True, but tag badges give you the ability to unilaterally close duplicates because you are considered an expert in that tag. If you're already an expert in Harry Potter you can close all Dumbledore questions, so getting the Dumbledore badge doesn't give you any greater ability.
(I'm not complaining, by the way, just wondering.)
Specifically, whether this is unique to Science Fiction & Fantasy. Do other sites also have tags that are by definition subsumed under other tags?
I don't think I've seen it.
 
@Alex I'd say yes, SO for instance
you probably have libraries badges but the library only exists for one language
 
7:56 PM
@Jenayah If only I understood what that means.
 
@Alex a library is kind of a set of tools for one programming language
some libraries are cross-languages, for instance I don't know, OpenCV which deals with image modifying and analysis stuff
(exists at least in Python and Java)
And I'd say some of those are only for one language
I'm not sure how SO tags their stuff though
Maybe they don't add the language tag like we do
 
@Jenayah So you're talking about the libraries tag, or specific tags for different kind of libraries?
 
8:17 PM
0
Q: Manga question - The son of a blacksmith and dead mother. what manga is it

Noam Henningso a few years ago i read this manga/manhua/webtoon about a boy who lived in a medieval era type setting with his father being a drunk blacksmith after his wife died, the son at the age of 12 goes to the ceremony for coming of age, during the ceremony he discovers that he has a very high aptitude...

 
8:33 PM
0
Q: Looking for short story about alternate reality inside "the computer", with a cloud city on an icy plain

David TonhoferI am vaguely remembering a short story about from the "cyberpunk" (mid-80s)era about an alternate reality running inside a computer. In the story, so-called "computerman" (system operators, eh) are sent "in" to check on the alternate reality from time to time. Said reality consists (at least in ...

 
8:43 PM
@Alex sepcific tags
 
scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/a/7743/4918 Ah. So Mithrandir says his new avatar depicts Mr. Incredible's daughter Violet from The Incredibles. That was less obvious to me than the previous avatar of Isabella.
 
@b_jonas oh right, I'll have to add mine to that Meta question sometime
 
@Jenayah So if I understand you correctly, you're saying that there could be questions about a specific language, and then within questions about a specific language there could be questions that are about specific libraries that are only used for that language. Therefore, if there was a tag for the specific library it would only ever be used as a sub-tag of the tag for the specific language?
And by extension, if you got a badge in the tag for the library you would automatically already have the badge for the tag for the language.
 
@Alex yes. That's how it would work, at least, with SFF's way of tagging stuff. I don't know how SO tags their questions, maybe the language-exclusive libraries don't need said language tag.
On second thoughts, it doesn't make sense, I guess, for SO to tag the way we do.
You can be pretty good with one library but that doesn't make you an expert in C, Python or whatever.
 
@Jenayah That could be a problem with many sites.
For instance, on Literature I posted a question on The Arabian Nights and it has an additional tag of Arabic Literature, but someone can be an expert on that particular book and know nothing about any other Arabic Literature.
But I guess that answers my original question – Literature does, to some extent, have similar sub-tagging.
 
9:07 PM
@Alex 140+ sites, can't expect to have the same tagging rules everywhere
 
@Jenayah True, though it does perhaps call into question how useful the sub-tags are for some sites. E.g. I think it's much more likely that someone who is interested in or an expert in Dumbledore will also be interested/expert in Harry Potter than that someone who is interested/expert in The Arabian Nights will be interested/expert in Arabic Literature.
Thus, in the former case the sub-tag is less useful, but by extension also less dangerous, while in the latter case the sub-tag is more useful but also more dangerous.
 
@Alex that's just a tagging issue on Lit, I think
Since the way it seems to be done, you can have an Arabic literature gold tag badge whileonly knowing about Arabian nights
 
9:24 PM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer: Is Jesus Christ ever mentioned in Supernatural? by FatAutismandEpilepsy on scifi.SE
 
@Jenayah Isn't that the same thing as:
31 mins ago, by Jenayah
You can be pretty good with one library but that doesn't make you an expert in C, Python or whatever.
 
Alex, care to R/A flag the one above?
if not done already
aaaaand it's gone
You know what, I take back what I said like two weeks earlier
I'm ok with Smokey in TREU
 
@Jenayah I clicked the link to go flag it. As I was about to click the flag it got deleted.
 
As said before, only fools never change their minds :)
 
No useful flag for me.
 
9:28 PM
@Alex it would be but as said above I have no idea how SO tags its stuff
And SO is too big of a mess for me to care and check
 
@Jenayah I was about to suggest that you go hang out there for a couple of weeks and report back on their tagging system. Then I realized that I would probably be "my computer doesn't work, fix it"-ing you.
 
@Alex ahah, Stack Overflow is too much of a mess to do anything about it
@Alex :p
 
@Jenayah Get rid of it?
 
@Alex NO
Half of my studies is backed by Stack Overflow xD
 
@Jenayah But you don't use it?
 
9:41 PM
But those are Q/As which have been around for some time and got answers
@Alex I use it, but the QAs I use are those yielded by Google queries
What I'm saying is that if you intend to clean SO the way we clean SFF
Well
Good luck
They get like 50 questions in 2 hours... on a weekend
Most of them of various quality
Can't clean that
 
That's...a heavy underestimation.
 
@NapoleonWilson that's based on the SO tab I opened up quickly to get a number :p
 
If I'm on SO, it takes at most a few minutes to entirely overhaul the frontpage. And that's already only questions SO thinks I'm interested in.
 
@NapoleonWilson you hide the other tags you mean?
 
That already tunes out about 5 million Javascript and Facebook crap, I guess.
 
9:49 PM
@NapoleonWilson So how do any questions ever get attention?
 
@Alex dark magic
 
@Jenayah No, they have some kind of algorithm running for the default frontpage view.
 
@NapoleonWilson oh okay
 
@Alex Well, I don't know. ;-)
I guess the famous tags also have a ton of users to them.
 
Guess that makes stuff a bit easier
 
9:51 PM
@Jenayah I guess we're at a point where you could basically freeze and archive SO and have it have the same value.
If only people'd stop coming up with new languages, frameworks and libraries. ;-)
 
They do have over nine million users.
Compare to 77,000 here.
 
@Alex I think the percentage of active users on SO greatly differ from the one on SFF though
@NapoleonWilson not wrong
 
Well, you got enough throwaway users here, too. Especially in ID.
 
@Jenayah Probably. Notice the difference in questions per user.
 
But sure, the ratio of non-users (and questions of corresponding quality) is likely worse there. Simply due to the sheer volume and unmanagability on an individual post basis.
 
9:55 PM
Stack Overflow has almost two questions per user. Here there is lessthan one question per user.
 
I always wonder where the SO moderators even take the motivation for anything from. You just can't be all too personally engaged on a site and community of that scale. All you can do is work the flag queue, reject edits, work the flag queue, close questions, work the flag queue,...
 
@NapoleonWilson yeah...
 
@NapoleonWilson well they do have 26 moderators.
 
No kind of community either I guess?
Like, several sub-communities?
 
0
Q: Trying to find a story about an immortal

MellowI heard a story a few years ago about a man who threatened a woman (witch) into giving him an immortality potion or something like that, and so she did a while later he died and was buried. Then he wakes up in his coffin and is mad that she lied to him, but she didn’t lie she just didn’t tell hi...

 
user132126
10:54 PM
@NapoleonWilson Even if you take away the new languages... There's still so many questions I've wanted to ask on SO but I feel like would just not get answered because they're not easy, or get closed as a duplicate of a question that doesn't actually answer my question.
 
user132126
Meaning, there's questions to be asked, but people are being hampered in asking them.
 
user132126
Teams is a possible solution, at least, because at least you can get help from coworkers familiar with the specific problem, and not just get a dupe vote.
 
@WebHead teams as in IRL people you mean?
 
user132126
No, the new SE product
 
user132126
Paid, private "stacks" for your organization.
 
11:03 PM
Oh
didn't know about taht
Sounds good
Like, what are the paid plans?
 
user132126
 
That's surpsingly cheap
 
user132126
Not if your app dev and related org is 200+ people.
 
@WebHead well I guess the budget that the company can afford for Teams grows with the number of employees?
 
user132126
Not necessarily for a tool like that.
 
:/
 

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