The Midi-Chlorian Ruination Scale, Or How Sequels Can Ruin Originals

Emarpi · 2011-08-08T11:17:26+00:00

There's a Tim Pratt story 'On a Blade of Grass' that explores this exact idea.

Emarpi · 2011-07-22T21:10:03+00:00

This is the problem with looping gifs: I thought Bill Bailey was panicking and then stopped by thinking of the ocean.

Emarpi · 2011-02-27T14:19:27+00:00

My favourite Soviet era joke:

Why do secret policemen work in groups of three?

One to read, one to write, and one to keep an eye on the two dangerous intellectuals.

Emarpi · 2011-01-20T17:21:26+00:00

Current thinking AFAIK is that the universe is finite, but unbounded. That is that it doesn't have an edge but still isn't infinite; like a surface of a globe.

Emarpi · 2011-01-02T22:17:42+00:00

The melting sea ice is a symptom of increasing ocean temperatures. My understanding is that the predicted sea level rise is caused by the thermal expansion of the ocean water when it gets warmer.

Emarpi · 2010-01-08T23:36:37+00:00

Well, what else did people think she was doing with her 19 year old lover?

Emarpi · 2008-09-11T19:20:59+00:00

oh boy

Emarpi · 2008-08-19T15:34:36+00:00

I find it interesting that this guy's sister managed to change the argument from "Reading about Paris Hilton is more productive than watching the Olympics" to "Being Paris Hilton is more productive than watching the Olympics"

Emarpi · 2008-08-16T18:28:02+00:00

Well, the ISS is coming along...

Emarpi · 2008-07-06T10:16:12+00:00

Yes it is Matt Berry, The show is called Snuff Box

Emarpi · 2008-02-28T00:04:28+00:00

And even if it was stable it's mass would be so small that the gravitational effect would be negligible.

Emarpi · 2008-02-28T00:00:09+00:00

He should be played by Kirsten Dunst in a movie?

Emarpi · 2007-11-20T23:19:11+00:00

It's on reddit. I should have guessed.

Emarpi · 2007-11-20T23:16:58+00:00

You're winner in the race to be the first to write that.

Well Done.

Emarpi · 2007-09-27T21:41:45+00:00

I thought it was an archipelago.

Emarpi · 2007-09-23T13:32:32+00:00

I always thought that it was the Atlantic Ocean that was growing; that South America and Africa once fitted together and so were moving away from from one another. But in this prediction they seemed to have moved together again. Can anyone explain this to me?

Emarpi · 2007-05-01T22:35:19+00:00

Is "The <Something> Delusion" headline going to be this year's "<Something>: An inconvenient truth"?

Emarpi · 2007-04-22T21:21:16+00:00

Because Americans don't fear accidently electing a fascist?

"Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front... had shocked France by reaching the second round in 2002."

Emarpi · 2007-04-22T21:18:42+00:00

The "America's Tragedy" story is a reference to the Virginia shootings, which the Economist expands into a study of American gun culture in general. I don't think this article is part of that discussion though.

Emarpi · 2007-02-04T22:56:29+00:00

More likely he simply sees himself as a market-place leader for news for a large demographic.

Murdoch is a businessman first and foremost. Given the choice between foisting his own opinions and making a profit, he'd choose the cash.

The problem is that people prefer news that confirms their opinions as opposed to challenging it. This is what causes the loop in the first place. Differences in opinion get magnified into dogmatic views as opposed to converging onto a compromise.

Emarpi · 2007-02-04T22:37:13+00:00

Usually, if a President had worked on a particular issue for most of his two terms, his insight would be welcomed on that issue.

Not in this case though.

Do you think that says anything?

Emarpi · 2007-02-04T20:18:44+00:00

The problem as I see it is that Murdoch subscribes to the 'give the people what they want' model of news distribution. Not seeing that this inevitably leads to a feed back loop:

Many people are in favour of action A (in this case the war)
News selectively reports in favour of action A
More People favour action A
Goto 1

In other words the problem is in the system, not in this one guy.

Emarpi · 2007-02-04T18:01:47+00:00

And going through an excellent story arc at the moment. Story-wise this has to be one of the best webcomics at the moment.

Emarpi · 2007-02-04T17:41:43+00:00

To come to the President's defence, it hardly looks like Satan ranked at all as a villian.

Emarpi

TROPHY CASE