The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Q: What are the tactical advantages to having a flying aircraft carrier?

3:16 PM

too bad this is too old to be migrated to WB

14

Both Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and The Avengers have flying aircraft carriers. Sky Captains and the World of Tomorrow's "Mobile Airstrip" The Avenger's "Helicarrier" Furthermore, a number of these platforms have apparently been developed in real life. What are the tactical advant...

vehicles

also, free close vote ^

Do close votes normally cost?

10 pence a vote, you don't see it cos your rep is high enough that you have enough credit

free close review if you'd rather

Do reviews normally cost?

The first to VTC doesn't get the review progress

3:21 PM

Not necessarily correct if you want to be pedantic about it

roooh right the first 3k repper to send it to review queue...

exception case being if someone <3k flagged, you know what I meant ;p

I mean just VTCing outside of review means you won't progress whether there's an open review or not

@Jenayah Ah, that's what you meant.

@TheLethalCarrot aye aye

Too bad you can't flag without logging in.

3:23 PM

@Alex tis actually TLC ici présent who made me realize it ;p

@Jenayah So when you first said it... it was nonsense?

@Alex no, it's just that I got why some people were slow on the closing due to TLC

Hey sometimes I close first ;P

Ah.

Exhibit A:

3:26 PM

Aug 31 '18 at 9:52, by TheLethalCarrot

Actually yeah go ahead, give me some close votes ;P

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/203143/did-thanos-exclude-certain-ali‌en-races-from-the-snap

still haven't seen it

may you please unonebox

Do yourself a flavour already

:P

but aye aye I know you do close... We take turns don't we? ;p

Vanilla?

3:28 PM

Meh I'm more coffee ice cream

I think Infinity War has got to be a bit more exciting than Vanilla

Eh, a few hours back I closed ~10 questions in less than a minute.

Coffee/caramel/blackcurrant

I love coconut ice cream

Enjoy that little factoid

woah, we got a lot of insight at your personal life today innit

the dog, a vague reflection of a face, favorite ice cream flavour

3:34 PM

Hey two dogs! But you'd seen those before

aye

Oh, is it Post Personal Information day?

2

@Alex sure, and now it's your turn and you picked "Bank account credentials" card

@Jenayah I think it's a bit of a jump from "rather secretive" to "bank account credentials". Maybe I should start more slowly.

@b_jonas you should have my e-mail address. Should you have more questions on what to visit in The Netherlands (if and when), feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

3:38 PM

Start with things like home address and birth day... I can work from there

@TheLethalCarrot that can do too

Full name can also be useful if you're willing

Anything more innocuous?

Fingerprints?

Passport scan?

DNA sample?

Favorite teacher when you were a kid?

3:42 PM

Mother's maiden name?

First pets name?

Your mother's maiden name?

high fives TLC

Address where you grew up?

Dec 28 '18 at 18:45, by Alex

Nov 30 at 17:10, by Alex

@Jenayah So you're not a kid anymore?

Question isn't whether I'm a kid, it's about your past childhood :P

Dad's second name?

Haven't heard that one before

Oh more importantly too, email adress?

3:44 PM

Heard/saw a funny one the other day.

Jan 7 at 21:31, by Alex

@Jenayah Well I don't have the option of editing your lines.

My past lines.

> "Your gamer name should be the name on your mom's credit card + the last five digits of its number. So what's your gamer name?"

@Alex :P

@SQB Hmm, I don't see where I would have your email address from.

@b_jonas I once sent you an e-mail asking about an addictive story.

3:46 PM

@SQB That joke doesn't really work for me, last 4 numbers on cards are the ones usually revealed from my experience

@TheLethalCarrot well, something along those lines anyway.

@SQB Hehe, nice.

Aye :)

@SQB Oh! Now I remember.

It was HP:MoR.

3:47 PM

Yeah.

There's even a question I am considering to ask on the main site about that.

I've read the first third of that, then skimmed the rest to read the conclusion.

About another thing that's probably in the text but I'm missing it.

Already had.

@SQB oh so that was it? I thought it was a book?

@Jenayah well, story.

3:48 PM

@SQB I've read the first two chapters and dumped it

Q: What happens if a wand chooses a wizard who cannot afford it?

0

In Harry Potter with the recent question (How much do wands cost?), we know how much a wand costs which is 7 gold galleons. What if the young wizard family can't afford that? Like the Weasleys were always poor, that seems like a big push for them to be able to afford that much for each child's wa...

harry-potter wandlore

I think I read it until it introduced time travel.

I liked its premise, but it lost its appeal when it turned into yet another fanfic.

@Marvin Gotta be a dupe right?

I may get back up to it some day but so far reading everyone dismissing everything with "Can't be done, [insert physics theorem being violated here]" was kind of dull

3:50 PM

@Alex But you didn't stop reading Harry Potter after the third book, right?

@b_jonas There's a difference.

Prisoner of Azkaban was one discrete instance of time travel, that didn't fundamentally change anything (though it still managed to not make much sense, in my opinion). If I recall correctly, Methods introduced time travel in a much broader fashion, and used it to change the storyline.

@Alex Yep. The fanfic tries to find better explanation for a lot of parts of the story where JKR just didn't think through the implications or didn't go deep into the worldbuilding, but does that without just discarding all the fantastical elements.

@Alex I don't think it changes the story that much. Sure, time travel is used several times, not just once, but it isn't really a game-changer in the story I think.

Nobody travels back fifty years to drown baby Riddle.

I hope that's not too big of a spoiler.

That's probably better too than using time travel once, then Hermione handing back her time-turner and all the time-tuners getting smashed so that nobody can use it in the future, until Cursed Child.

Harry Potter and the Non-Existent story: "Avada Kedavra!" Baby Tom Riddle dies... The End."

@TheLethalCarrot Right. And apparently both HP and HP:mor claims that that won't happen, because history cannot be changed.

How Harry Potter Should Have Ended

►

3:59 PM

@Jenayah Is that one of those where they shoot the Dark Lord with semi-automatic guns?

@b_jonas It's been a while since I read it, but I just remember being turned off when like an entire chapter was just about Harry doing a bunch of time jumps.

@b_jonas I didn't like Cursed Child either.

Did anyone?

In fact I wrote elsewhere that the time travel in Cursed Child is contradictory to the books.

@Alex Yes, that particular chapter where he used time travel was stupid and boring, but that doesn't really mean that the time travel itself should be blamed.

Harry could do something almost as stupid with obliviation or some of the other powerful magic things, although possibly not that early in the book yet.

@b_jonas Perhaps I was going through a stage at that time.

4:02 PM

@b_jonas nah. Regular gun IIRC.

Mind you, I do understand that HPmor won't appeal to everyone. Sure.

@Jenayah Dumbledore got the name wrong in the first ten seconds.

@Alex deal with it :P

Aren't those videos supposed to be inaccurate "for the lolz"?

The voices actually sound pretty close.

4:05 PM

@TheLethalCarrot spoofing the HP material? Shocking

Sci Fi SE isn't the only place where Harry Potter is popular.

Given how it's got to be one of the most profitable book and films series I'd guess so

This is inaccurate:

Wait, SE isn't the only internet community in the world? My whole life is a lie...

4:08 PM

Doesn't it happen that way in the films?

yeah she wasn't in her cage or stuff

isn't it even implied she took the shot for Harry?

Don't know about the film, but that still wouldn't make it accurate.

Course it would just accurate to the film

Right cause HP movies 7-8 are diamonds of "accuracy"

@TheLethalCarrot That is accurate but misleading. It shows Hedwig as already dead. The interesting part is how she dies from the dragon fire flamethrowers that Hagrid rigged to the motorbike.

4:10 PM

By the way, the inaccuracy that I was referring to is not about Hedwig.

oh, the Death eaters flying?

They fly everywhere in the movies

Sure. Hagrid too. He doesn't actually wear pilot goggles.

well not everywhere but... it's not faithful to the books IIRC

@Jenayah They fly in the book too in this scene, the one with the seven Potters.

yeha but on broomsticks and stuff

not on their own

4:11 PM

Nah, I was referring to Harry being on the front of the motorbike.

gee so much inacurracy in one picture

I know eyes don't turn to crosses when you die

THEY DON'T?!

So I'm led to believe

my life is based on a lie

4:16 PM

For some reason Tom Riddle sounds like Seamus Finningan.

4:33 PM

Could the two newest HP askers be the same person? Same name but ine was unregistered

and both have very close questions

Potentially

Q: What is actually happening when Harry Potter is trying out wands?

0

When Harry is in Ollivanders, he holds certain wands and magic happens whilst trying to find a wand match. Is this similar to when he uses magic uncontrollably in the third book to inflate someone? What is the spell that happens when Harry Potter touches his wand at first?

harry-potter wandlore

Q: 70's Horror film with people in a mansion: girl turns to mud in front of a guy

4:52 PM

0

I'm looking for a film I watched at home on TV when I was a kid, probably between 1976 and 1980. The film deals with a band of people settling in a big house, perhaps a mansion. I remember a scene where one man, in his bedroom has the great surprise to see the girls he's secretly in love with, j...

story-identification movie tv horror

xkcd

5:20 PM

CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.

6:23 PM

From this ghastly eyrie, I can see to the ends of the world

?

And from this vantage point I declare with utter certainty

Re-?

That THIS ONE IS IN THE BAG

It's skywrath mage from DotA2

Anyone else play DotA2 here

Depends what that stands for.

Dragracing on the Autobahn?

6:31 PM

Dude it's the second most played game on steam

The only game with tournaments with 24 million dollar prize pools

Ducks of tranquility Arcade?

@NeoDarwin So, not Lego Star Wars III the Clone Wars?

Desperately on time Astronauts?

Defeat of the Agony?

Day of the Artichoke?

Dawn of the Argonauts?

Disappearance of the Artwork?

Disheveled organically transfigured Artist?

6:37 PM

“‘Your penis, Lucius. I require your penis.' Voldemort drew out his own penis and compared the lengths."

Canon evidence

Q: Matrix - no one was ever in the "real" world?

0

I got the feeling that even when they thought they were in the real world, they were not. i.e. the whole matrix could have been a genetic AI trying to perfect a "natural" human interface/intelligence or some such. It seemed somethings in the "real" world hinted at just another layer of the matri...

the-matrix

7:13 PM

Childish

(I smirked :p )

"He lit the fuse, and next thing I knew, I was hit in the stomach with a round iron ball."

Cannon evidence.

Q: Earth sends fleet to destroy an alien species that requires a virus to reach maturity

7:45 PM

0

There's a sci-fi novel I encountered years ago, and I've recently become fascinated by the premise, but I cannot for the life of me remember author or title. The premise, as I recall, is this: An Armada is heading from earth to another planet with the mission of destroying that planet. The rea...

story-identification

-2

Q: Who would win a duel between Snoke and Palpatine

If you had to pick between those 2 villains, who'd win the duel with a lightsaber and who do you think is more powerful in the movies overall?

star-wars

8:07 PM

such poetry today!

Q: Movie Question: A man is trying to get across town to get home

0

I've been thinking about this one for a long time - mostly whenever it seems like I'll never make to a seemingly simple goal. I'd love to know what the memory is about. I once saw a movie (maybe on cable, don't think it was a serial show) about a man who is trying to cross a big city just to get...

story-identification

8:32 PM

@Marvin Another one of those.

always

@NeoDarwin Starcraft?

I wonder who'd win in a fight between Quisp and Quake?

Oh, DotA2. Right.

You said that earlier.

Defense of the Ancients 2, apparently, though it really appears to always be referred to as Dota2.

For those who wondered.

8:36 PM

Yes, the warcraft mod where you micromanage one hero.

8:52 PM

You can play Meepo and micromanage 4 heroes at once

Q: What's with all those "thimbles" in Neuromancer?

9:03 PM

0

I'm currently reading the book and as somebody for whom English is the second language understanding Gibson's fanciful vocabulary is quite a challenge. Now there is one particular term - "thimble" - that stroke my attention at least twice and I fail to get what it is supposed to mean - maybe some...

novel translation neuromancer

I don't understand how to answer this

How do you sip coffee from a thimble?

9:23 PM

maybe the main character is a rat?

Q: Why isn't Fiendfire an unforgivable curse?

9:34 PM

1

Why is Fiendfire not an unforgivable curse? It is capable of mass destruction as seen from Crabbe and Grindelwald, and it is a from of dangerous Dark Arts.

harry-potter unforgivable-curse

9:54 PM

@NeoDarwin I think it's a hyperbole for what he thinks is too small a cup.

I mean, thimbles were everyday objects back when I was young and people actually repaired damaged clothing instead of sending it to south and buying new ones.

Although the silver thimbles in the stories don't seem real to me. China thimbles exist, sure, but silver? Those must be decorative stuff for kings' courts that no sane person would actually use.

I mean, perhaps they did exist back before aluminum was invented, but still.

Q: Why isn't Fiendfire an unforgivable curse?

@NeoDarwin Not a coffee fan (I like my caffeine cold and bubbly), but aren't the cups for some coffee variants (espresso?) much smaller than an average coffee mug (6-8 oz or so, I think; sorry for the non-metric units...).

@Alex: So, is this the first use of your mighty powers?

1

Why is Fiendfire not an unforgivable curse? It is capable of mass destruction as seen from Crabbe and Grindelwald, and it is a from of dangerous Dark Arts.

harry-potter unforgivable-curse

10:19 PM

deffo not

11:03 PM

@RDFozz That's what some say. Other people instead say that the other coffee variants, especially ameriacn coffe or Starbucks coffee, have too much water and too big a cup.

I don't drink coffee, and for tea and coke I prefer the big mugs and lots of water, but I do understand that's different from what you want in coffee.

@b_jonas As alluded to, I get my morning caffeine from diet cola, so I wouldn't know....

Though I do prefer my soda to be undiluted as much as possible.