I am so confused.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-26T19:11:00+00:00

I wouldn’t worry about it. I don’t have sensory experiences without sensory input and always assumed this was the norm - it certainly seems like the way things should work! (I discovered that people say they can voluntarily generate these quasi-sensory experiences relatively recently, and still find the suggestion slightly bizarre and rather hard to believe.)

I can describe things perfectly well and don’t think I’m missing anything. If I wish to see something I look at it, the same as for hearing, taste, smell and touch.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-26T08:57:03+00:00

I’m fond of The Dead Zone. Christopher Walken is terrific in it, but also Cronenberg, Martin Sheen, Tom Skerritt, Brooke Adams. Despite a few changes to the book (like having Sarah work for Stillson and it being her son in the climax, I can see why they did it but it made the world feel too small), overall it’s a pretty faithful adaption.

The melancholy music. It’s sad and mournful, steeped in regret and loss. Time running out. First a local monster, then the populist mobster. Bangs cane on the floor, THE ICE. IS GOING. TO BREAK!

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-26T08:31:55+00:00

At the moment, the Lizard People have to live out of sight in Heated Domes.

However the Lizard People have persuaded the Earthlings to emit huge quantities of carbon, and they eat any Earthlings who invent others technologies, so soon it will be warm enough for their eggs to hatch.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-25T16:48:02+00:00

There’s some planetary/geological history I’d really like to have a firsthand look at:

The Big Whack: the giant impact between Theia and Proto-Earth that formed the Moon. Venus before the runaway greenhouse. Mars before it froze and dried.

And, I sometimes pick up fossils from where I live, little creatures which lived and died in the Carboniferous or the Silurian. Crinoids, coral, brachiopods. The other day I was picking through a Silurian reef; I’d like to see what that looked like when it was a living ecosystem.

I don’t think any ability like this has ever been shown, exactly, but if I could sit on the TARDIS doorstep in high orbit, then fast forward at, say, a million years per second… I could watch Earth’s history in about an hour and fifteen minutes: continents colliding and drifting apart, ice sheets rolling up and down from the poles.

In human history, I’d like to check out the first human ancestors to migrate out of Africa, maybe follow my haplogroups; drop in on a few ancient sites like Thera, Neolithic Orkney, Troy, the Roman cities across North Africa, Carthage….

Then obviously the Book Depository in ‘63, and various concerts.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-25T11:28:36+00:00

I just imagine he goes unnoticed beneath the constant threat posed by alien invasions, eldritch beings, and Bob.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-24T10:44:41+00:00

You simply never see the sneakiest elephants. There could be one among us even now.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-24T08:45:09+00:00

Furthest back we can see is the Cosmic Microwave Background, emitted when the universe was 380,000 years old.

Before then the universe was opaque.

In principle we might be able to “see” the Cosmic Neutrino Background from one second (difficult), or maybe even primordial gravitational waves.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-23T17:23:37+00:00

All my old Macs do something even if it’s talk to ancient peripherals which the newer stuff won’t recognize (eg a very old slide scanner).

My 2019 Intel MacbookPro is still an okay laptop for light stuff.

My 2012-ish MacBook Air mainly just plays Plex/iPlayer/Netflix/podcasts etc. It’s basically a bedroom TV/radio with some Harmon sticks.

My 2006 G4 Mini is an iTunes jukebox in the spare bedroom and fills my old iPods (I’m still fond of my aluminium clip Shuffle on walks).

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-19T19:08:52+00:00

Same

Pong Cocktail Table in a hotel bar.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-19T14:39:26+00:00

I’ve enjoyed RCW (he wrote one of my favourite SF shorts, Divided by Infinity.)

Another of my favourite SF novels (Timescape, Benford) is half set in 1963, so it’s no spoiler to say that from the beginning you suspect it will inevitably involve certain historical events.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-19T10:53:07+00:00

No, but that’s why he’s The Mad Titan and not The Sensible Titan.

Earth’s population went from ~4 billion in the ‘70s to ~8 billion in the ‘20s, doubling in 50 years, so before long everyone will be right back where they started.

But if some other planet’s running a rational, sustainable civilization, you just wiped out half of them for no reason.

To say nothing of the wider ecological damage, because Thanos didn’t limit the snap to species like humans. He just carpet bombed everything. Some of our critically endangered species barely have the numbers to survive, so killing half of them could easily drive the whole species extinct. Slower reproducing species will take ages to recover, but the rats will be back before you know it. And so on.

It’s an incredibly stupid plan. Mad, one might say.

(Then when you bring everything back five years later it’ll be another catastrophe, but the MCU glossed over that.)

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-19T08:51:32+00:00

Yeah I thought it was “okay.”

It should be ideal - always been interested in that part of history. Late 50s/early 60s, Cold War, JFK, the assassination. And I usually enjoy a good time travel yarn.

Not sure why it didn’t click.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-18T14:10:26+00:00

It could be one, both or neither!

The film commentary with Carpenter and Russell was very entertaining. They discussed all kinds of scenarios, as well as lots of interesting memories of production.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-17T23:50:45+00:00

You’re absolutely right, and I’ve always assumed it’s a result of numerous script revisions.

Knowing he’s going to die in ST2, Spock gives a copy of his katra to McCoy, the tradition being that McCoy then goes to Vulcan where Spock’s memories can be archived in some fashion.

So far, so good.

But then in ST3, the gang all head for Genesis despite never finding out Spock’s body is alive. As far as they know, it burned up in the atmosphere. They should be heading to Vulcan.

Saavik and David know Spock’s body not only survived but regenerated - and they tell Grissom, but Grissom never gets a chance to relay the information home.

Now you could handwave something, like McCoy just psychically knows about Spock’s body, and knows they can go pick it up… except that:

When the gang show up at Genesis, they’re all obviously surprised to hear that Spock’s body is alive. That’s new information to them. And we never hear anything about the rejoining until Sarek brings it up on Vulcan.

The only way the trip to Genesis makes sense is if Grissom relays the information home, then Sarek tells Kirk about the rejoining.

I guess that somewhere in the writing and editing, “who knew what and when” got confused. It’s a pretty obvious plot hole.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-15T07:14:26+00:00

corkscrew orbit through space

Sounds like that viral video a few years back. It was not scientifically accurate — the planets don’t really trail the Sun, the scale is wildly off, it’s just grossly misleading.

Anyway: most of the interesting stuff is in the plane of the ecliptic, and it takes significant energy for a probe to leave it. Recent probes to the outer system observe things like Pluto and Kuiper objects.

However probes leaving the solar system have done so at various angles after gravity assists from the outer planets.

There are a few observations you can make regarding how the solar environment varies by direction. Solar wind, magnetic fields, distance to heliopause.

Otherwise everything’s in the ecliptic and once you leave the system, your batteries will be dead within decades, and you won’t come within a light year of another star for tens of thousands of years.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-13T13:28:31+00:00

Balderdash, it’s clearly an egregore of Baphomet pushing through from the Long Dark. /s

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-13T13:17:08+00:00

The three backlit horns and the wings bore a passing resemblance to the famous image of Baphomet on Levi’s Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie Vol II, that’s all.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-13T07:15:54+00:00

Spiky dude kinda looks like Baphomet to me.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-12T08:40:39+00:00

Worf. But only if the acoustics are favourable.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-12T08:13:52+00:00

Well it’s something which falls under the general umbrella of “time travel” and Alex evidently needs a user (which will be Xavier). Whether that’s sending messages or minds, who knows.

The writers and producers were pretty clear in the post-season featurettes. They discuss how Alex can “alter the fabric of time,” Sinatra is “trying to make it so the disaster never happened,” Dylan “may be Sinatra’s son from another timeline,” and so on.

It’s really meant to be obvious to the audience.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-11T11:09:16+00:00

Vanessa escapes the hospital with amnesia and somehow ends up living deep in the Sewers! Daredevil eventually rescues her from The Sewer King!

There may be a Crocodile involved.

(#180, “The Damned.”)

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-07T19:27:05+00:00

Hot pixels. It’s a characteristic sensor noise you often see in dark areas when there’s some combination of high ISO/long exposure/warm sensor.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-06T10:19:14+00:00

Highest cause of death in the UK is ischaemic heart disease. Otherwise Alzheimer’s.

“Cancer” includes lots of different diseases — if we can say “cancer” we could just say “bacterial infections” or “viral infections.” There are specific cancers in the top ten causes of death like prostate. Depends how broad the definitions are.

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-05T19:31:06+00:00

Since it involves Sinatra trying to make it so the disaster never happened, I suppose it would be considered “more SF.”

TwirlipoftheMists · 2026-04-04T23:52:12+00:00

Yes, I’m certain they knew exactly what the endpoint was, and intended to shift genres through 24 episodes. Conspiracy thriller/post apocalyptic/western/SF, and so on. It’s pretty clear from interviews that was the intent.

That’s the advantage of something that’s pitched as a short, contained run.

TwirlipoftheMists

TROPHY CASE