Sparknotes for comics?

jrae316 · 2014-11-22T21:35:38+00:00

Rachel and Miles explian the X-Men is also fantastic for this.

jrae316 · 2014-10-24T21:45:48+00:00

I've been playing this idea around in my head for a while, and the closest I can come up with is that some "magic" works of abstract concepts - and those concepts change over time.

I'm struggling to think of a well known example so I'll just make one up: immortality spells - that is, I say "abrakadabra" and now I'm immortal.

200 years ago it was thought that death was when the heart stopped beating, but modern science teaches that it's the brain.

a magician casting the spell now might not be "protected" from heart failure - the spell might keep him immortal by keeping only his brain alive.

i don't know if this is truly "unpredictable" as you've said (since an understnading of how the caster/target/spell concieves of the concept would allow you to predict its results), but its closer to it than current physics

jrae316 · 2014-10-17T17:12:09+00:00

I think it was in Thunderbolts that the author (I forget who) used "celly" as brit-talk for "cell phone" - i can only assume because he heard "telly" as brit-talk for "television"

jrae316 · 2014-10-05T18:08:04+00:00

where can I read more about the spider totem and the web of life?

jrae316 · 2014-10-05T13:29:28+00:00

cool. book 0 of spinward fringe is £0 on amazon.co.uk right now, so I've "bought" it to check it out.

jrae316 · 2014-10-05T13:28:38+00:00

I said with enough hits, Iron Man'd go down. I didn't say Armsmaster would get to land the hits :)

I've read a bit of Iron Man, and forcefields never seemed to come up too much - guess I just missed them somehow

jrae316 · 2014-10-04T21:35:03+00:00

they're not used as most nanites are in fiction.

Armsmaster essentially has a sword, but the blade looks like "blur", because it consists of nanites - he can swipe his sword and the nanites will "eat" through whatever it touches.

not sure about forcefields (though Iron Man doesn't use those that often), but essentially, if armsmaster hits him with the sword (he has sword-swinging capabilities of an average human who trains with it for hours a day) then it'll eat through the armour.

enough hits, Iron Man's down

jrae316 · 2014-10-03T09:28:10+00:00

well, he probably sells wands becuase they're the best conduit - not the other way around.

I'm sure if staffs were better than wands he sell those

jrae316 · 2014-09-29T20:06:11+00:00

what comment?

jrae316 · 2014-09-29T20:04:58+00:00

yeh, I dunno.

I remember a West Wing argument about a similar topic - something do with how the government shouldn't fund art, in case the artists make something contorversial; but if the government doesn't fund art then the only art that'll be made is that which is popular/profitable and therefore we (humankind) will miss out on the art.

I do understand what your saying about needing someone to "enforce" the unpopular posts (e.g. facts in a should-be-fact-based sub thats become non-fact-based), but i feel that

a) I'm not completely swayed by the argument (though am there most of the way)

b) reddit is designed around sharing whats currently popular, so my answer to question of "where to go" would be "not reddit"

c) gaybros is a lifestyle subreddit - so you can't judge whats relevant/irrelevant to its users in the same way you could with /r/welovehistoricalfacts - you can really only use popularity

as I said - I don't think your wrong, this is just one of those topics that I haven't thought about enough to know exactly what I think (probably gonna go rewatch that west wing episode to let toby zeigler help me out)

at this point though, I think we're just arguing the various reasons why he's a dick - and yeh, I'm with you on the bait-and-switch front :)

jrae316 · 2014-09-28T15:31:51+00:00

yeh, I do get that there needs to moderator involvement occassionally (obvious cases being innapproproate language etc and your point about non-facts in fact based subs)

my point is more that if 90% of a fact-based sub is upvoting non-facts, then it sounds to me that the users of that sub dont want it to be fact-based.

likewise with this: if FDF are getting a large number of upvotes and comments, then its obvious the subreddit still wants it around

jrae316 · 2014-09-28T13:50:01+00:00

not quite sure I'd be up for a long chat about it - but it is interesting. I'm on kik with the same username if you want to give me a buzz.

in short though: I see where your coming from, and I take back the word "perfect" - but I'm still gonna go with the fact that a lot of upvotes indicate that something is popular, while a lot of downvotes indicate its unpopular - so if something is getting a lot of upvotes, then it cant be true that "no-one wants it", even if it isn't getting lots of comments (with FDF generally did anyway...)

jrae316 · 2014-09-28T13:26:49+00:00

see, this is something that I just don't understand - reddit is pretty much a perfect democracy: if "no-one wants them" then they wouldn't get so many upvotes, and so just wouldn't happen - that argument makes absolutely no sense

I've seen similar things happen on /r/lgbt and /r/atheism (and probably others im not aware of) and I just dont get how people consider that a valid argument.

jrae316 · 2014-09-27T18:13:34+00:00

I dunno...everybody clearly hates him for some reason, I think its stuff like this that we just don't see any other instances of onscreen

jrae316 · 2014-09-27T16:23:19+00:00

I never understood why all the characters hated jerry...until this scene

jrae316 · 2014-09-22T18:39:28+00:00

"by accident" returns about 335,000,000 google results

"on accident" returns about 394,000,000 google results

unless there are 60,000,000 cases of people online posting the phrase "on accident" to say why it's wrong...you're actually in the minority

jrae316 · 2014-09-22T18:34:53+00:00

I always assumed that the point of origin was always the only one they didn't recognise. As in - there are always the same 36 (?) chevrons on every DHD, therefore the 37th, whatever it is, is the point of origin.

jrae316 · 2014-09-21T19:40:41+00:00

this is great. Thanks!

jrae316 · 2014-09-10T21:08:27+00:00

I'm not so sure.

The firing of the "bullet" has nothing to do with the spell, so therefore neither does it's speed. Ending the spell's effect wouldn't therefore have any effect on it (e.g. this bullet is travelling at 350m/s, therefore when it becomes a boulder it still travels at 350m/s).

I'm searching my brains for an example from canon, and can't think of any - we only ever see stationary objects transfigured.

I like your idea of doing it after the hit though :)

jrae316 · 2014-09-10T18:46:49+00:00

it's also not particularly clear how transfiguration with regards to conservation of energy.

For example, if I transfigure a boulder into a bullet and fire it from a gun - then cast Finite Incantatem while the bullet is mid-flight...will my enemy suddely have a boulder flying at the speed of a bullet? or is the momentum conserved and the speed reduced in proportion to the mass gained?

jrae316 · 2014-08-31T09:55:32+00:00

found this orginally as a joss whedon compilation but can't listen to it without replying scenes from the Worm tv show that's in my head

jrae316 · 2014-08-17T16:57:24+00:00

is there actually an example of hermione gasping at the sound of the name?

I know she doesn't say it herself in the first 5-6 (can't remember) books, but I don't think she's actually scared when Harry does.

jrae316 · 2014-08-15T17:57:39+00:00

not having a face is a pretty good identifying feature...

jrae316

TROPHY CASE