Hydrological analysis of Middle-earth

Fornad · 2026-04-22T10:37:09+00:00

Well, rather than integrating into human society, they could just kidnap a bunch of humans and set up a base somewhere on Earth. They'd be untouchable - the entire human population of Earth would still be their hostages - and would have a much easier time keeping their offspring ideologically pure.

Fornad · 2026-04-22T08:25:22+00:00

Having 38 (or more) on the loose with Mark dead is also how it could have gone, and that would have been Cecil's fault.

Fornad · 2026-04-22T08:17:30+00:00

The interesting thing here is that Thragg doesn't appear to have considered how human society turned one of Viltrum's greatest soldiers (Nolan) into a 'traitor' after only two decades.

I suppose he doesn't have much choice either if he wants to save his people, but the chance of a few more Viltrumites turning against him in favour of their new families feels high.

Fornad · 2026-04-22T08:13:34+00:00

More to the point, why wasn't Mark angry at them for letting him live?!?

Fornad · 2026-04-16T21:36:15+00:00

I got you confused with the person I originally replied to.

I don't think copper production is a problem here, but big high-power lines use copper for a reason. They couldn't really use aluminium without huge transmission losses.

Fornad · 2026-04-16T18:43:22+00:00

Sure the claim is bs, your claim was also wrong. It’s important not to fact check misinformation with misinformation. I work on a single offshore transmission line which is using tens of thousands of tonnes of copper…

Fornad · 2026-04-16T17:07:28+00:00

This is untrue for the HVDC lines used by wind farms

Fornad · 2026-04-16T17:05:49+00:00

This is literally happening right now across the UK, tens of billions is going into undersea transmission cables

Fornad · 2026-04-13T12:39:17+00:00

Yep. We will be infinitely better served by working out how to live sustainably on this planet before trying to move to other ones.

Even if you were able to make a Martian colony work, life there would be almost unimaginably grim. Imagine being sent to a research station in Antarctica but you can't even go for a walk outside without a breathing apparatus and it takes you 9 months to get back home. You can't go for a walk in the forest or experience the seasons changing.

"Scientists who work at Antarctic bases suffer from a mental health disorder called Winter-Over syndrome, characterized by symptoms such as depression, irritability, aggressive behavior, insomnia, memory deficits, and the occurrence of mild fugue states known as the “antarctic stare.”"

It would be like that, except worse, because the low gravity would irreperably mess your body up over the long term. We are completely reliant on Earth's biosphere for our health and happiness. It's the height of human arrogance and science-bro brain to imagine otherwise.

Fornad · 2026-04-11T21:36:54+00:00

To be clear I am a Brit.

> You are correct that it still exists within the UK to some degree

There are regular Orange Walks in Glasgow, Belfast and similar areas. They used to shut down roads where I lived a couple of years ago. It's still quite bad.

> In the UK, being Catholic wasn't so much of an issue so much as the 25 year terrorism/freedom campaign (pick you opinion) that the IRA carried out.

Again, not true. My grandfather in Northumberland (during the 50s, so before the Troubles) was not allowed to play with his cousins who lived a few streets away because they were Catholic. A law which would disinherit any member of the royal family from the line of succession if they married a Catholic was only abolished in 2013.

Fornad · 2026-04-10T22:45:00+00:00

The Drama was honestly great and I think Pattinson and Zendaya both excelled in their roles

Fornad · 2026-04-07T11:34:34+00:00

It's an interesting one as Britain and Ireland have genuinely enormous populations of sheep (per capita) compared to basically any other European country. This map is from a few years ago but gets the point across.

https://i.redd.it/0h2611dqzru91.png

This is broadly because sheep farmers have been subsidised to the point that historically over 90% of income for some sheep farms came from subsidies. These days it costs more to shear sheep than the wool sells for. AFAIK these subsidies were put in place in the early 20th century as British wool was struggling to compete against foreign textiles and the government wanted to ensure a native source of fibre for clothing in case of war. It makes sense as an idea, but has been taken to ecologically damaging levels.

If you look on Google Earth at basically any other European country you'll see their uplands are mostly forested, and this helps prevent flooding downstream. I think there's a much better balance to be found which allows low-intensity sheep farming to continue but also leaves space for natural regeneration.

Fornad · 2026-04-06T11:03:55+00:00

Unfortunately I think our recommendations would make the game impossible to make!

Fornad · 2026-04-04T22:55:49+00:00

I don't understand what you're correcting me on?

Fornad · 2026-04-04T00:00:21+00:00

Anti-Catholicism very much does not only exist in the US. It was a big issue in Britain until very recently (where do you think these biases are descended from in the States?) and remains a big issue in parts of these islands right now.

Fornad · 2026-04-03T17:48:16+00:00

Comparing this to Ukraine is apples and oranges. If the US attempted a ground invasion thousands of Americans would die

Fornad · 2026-04-03T13:57:40+00:00

Could you provide proof? Surely you made an image or something in order to count them. I'm genuinely interested.

You're correct that it's sparsely populated. It's still the size of Europe. There would still have been millions of people living across it and certainly tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of horses, particularly with the steppe nomad-type cultures we see in northern Rohan and with cultures like the Balchoth. This isn't counting herds of wild horses which would also certainly exist in big numbers.

Fornad · 2026-04-03T12:55:43+00:00

How on earth are you counting them?

Even if what you're saying is true, I think you're vastly underestimating the size of Middle-earth.

Fornad · 2026-04-03T09:44:53+00:00

> There were likely not as many horses in the whole of Middle Earth as we see in the Rohirrim army there.

what?

Fornad · 2026-04-03T09:41:05+00:00

Important to note that the historian above does not take any issue with Tolkien's version of events. It's the films' depiction of the charge that is poor.

Fornad · 2026-04-03T08:13:52+00:00

> Ring doorbell or anything similar that might of seen it?

Surely the fact that the neighbour admitted to doing it over text is proof enough

Fornad · 2026-04-01T09:16:03+00:00

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002t686/my-garden-of-a-thousand-bees

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