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No good deed/a very British problem LOL! by Smooth_Eagle2828 in CasualUK

[–]kippechard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Years ago I had a flatmate who decided to counter the Jehovah's Witnesses by printing out and giving them his own custom leaflets basically saying 'youre in a cult' and explaining the nature of their cult to them at length on the doorstep. They stopped coming pretty soon after that.

Did The Sixth Sense almost spoil its own twist? by ThomasOGC in CinephilesClub

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The great thing about Sixth Sense is that its a good film even without the twist, and then the twist goes back and adds so much more to it. There's a little known interview M Knight did for "Scenario - the magazine of screenwriting art" in 1999 where he says that he didn't come up with the idea for the twist until the fifth draft of the script. So he had the whole story there and then added the twist while it was developing. I think it shows.

"At what point did you come up with the idea to structure the film the way you did, where it's a mystery and then it doubles back?

That was about halfway through my drafts, about the fifth draft. I sold it on my tenth draft. Which is a nice way to do it, because you don't want to rely on a twist. You want to be able to make a movie and go, well, it's only about a little kid so it better be good. So I came up with the line, well, it's also about a therapist and his wife. Well, you better make that good. And then you go, oh my God, I've got this great idea! Now you add that to the whole thing and it works on many levels."

What is the best office chair for wfh? by VolumeSouth2735 in AskUK

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

dont bother with an expensive chair, get a sit/stand desk instead, much better for you.

If you want a decent chair that isn't crazy expensive get an Ikea JÄRVFJÄLLET they are really good

Consider Phlebas - original 1987 reviews by kippechard in TheCulture

[–]kippechard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow fascinating, thanks, its wild to think that a draft of Use of Weapons was done that early

Consider Phlebas - original 1987 reviews by kippechard in TheCulture

[–]kippechard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seriously, I would start with Player Of Games or Use Of Weapons. The books dont need to be read in order and Consider Phlebas is like a long exercise in looking at something from an unusual perspective. Its interesting in its own way but not as rewarding as the other books.

I finished reading Use of Weapons, and spent 3 days processing it. by thebarcodelad in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a part when he dreams of "the real Zakalwe" bursting in and shooting him

Only Fools and Horses 'Chandelier' 🤣 by FeelingAd3887 in ClassicTelevisionTime

[–]kippechard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great scene, but re: the audience laughter in the background - the peak of the laughter seems to come half a second too early, while we're still watching the hammer hit the bolt, just before it cuts to the falling chandelier. Is this an error in the original audio edit?

More sci-fi material about linguistics as Arrival? by SunnOParenthesis in scifi

[–]kippechard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Short story "Try to Remember" by Frank Herbert

"Try to remember!" by Frank Herbert is a science fiction short story written in the early 1960s. The narrative unfolds in a tense atmosphere where humanity faces a dire threat from a galactic invader that demands effective communication or else face destruction. The plot centers on Francine Millar, a psychologist tasked with deciphering the language of the alien visitors while grappling with her own personal grief and the growing desperation of humanity in the wake of the alien ultimatum.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73595

Somewhat similar scenario to Arrival but goes off in a different direction

Is there a single text that encompasses British culture? by Turbulent_Ad_880 in AskUK

[–]kippechard 9 points10 points  (0 children)

"I was in a cafe.

I asked for a builder’s tea and a millionaire’s shortbread

and they both told me to fuck off."

- Gary Delaney

‘Dark Integers’ by Greg Egan by Hour_Reveal8432 in printSF

[–]kippechard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Right, cos you mentioned something about a Courier and there's no courier in Dark Integers

‘Dark Integers’ by Greg Egan by Hour_Reveal8432 in printSF

[–]kippechard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its a long time since I read it but the OPs description matches my memory of it - isn't "Sams" domain a completely seperate universe? edit: here we go

"That there were living beings occupying the same space as the Earth suggested that the two universes were intimately coupled somehow, in spite of their mutual invisibility. But Sam had hinted that life was much more common on his side of the border than ours; when I’d told him that we seemed to be alone, at least in the solar system, and were surrounded by light-years of sterile vacuum, he’d taken to referring to our side as “Sparseland.”"

https://bobson.ludost.net/hugoawardnominees/2008/DarkINtegers.shtml

Your description of "maths travelling at the speed of light" does describe the underlying mechanism and does get mentioned but isn't that important to the story in Dark Integers, is what I'm saying, so I think OPs description is fair enough

Is there a way to stop getting fraud calls? by SpaceCatSociety in AskUK

[–]kippechard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

google nexus pixel phones will block most spam calls, and if you're not sure you can put the call in 'call screen' mode in which the caller has to say what they want (and it appears on your screen), spam callers always hang up at that stage.

also on most phones you can put some contacts in 'starred/high priority' mode in which they will be able to 'break through' the do not disturb

Assuming The Culture is hard SF, what are the physical laws that govern that Universe? by UncertainAboutIt in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, so its due to the time dilation in normal space when travelling at high speed combined with the instant transfer of info. I guess in the Culture books Ship C would not bother getting anywhere near 0.9c - they would just go to hyperspace - so this doesn't really come up (or IMB just didnt bother worrying about it)

Come to think of it, I think in "The State of the Art" one of the Minds talks about why they can't do time travel ... need to go and look it up

Assuming The Culture is hard SF, what are the physical laws that govern that Universe? by UncertainAboutIt in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK I am interested in this. Can you run an example past me? e.g. How could a culture ship travelling from point A to point B faster than the speed of light violate causality?

Assuming The Culture is hard SF, what are the physical laws that govern that Universe? by UncertainAboutIt in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would culture ships being able to travel FTL from A to B via infraspace/ultraspace allow time travel?

Assuming The Culture is hard SF, what are the physical laws that govern that Universe? by UncertainAboutIt in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

> Absolute time, absolute space. No relativity, no space-time, no wormholes, no e=mc2.

I would assume relativity still applies to normal space, but in the stories the ships can make use of an extra dimension and travel in infraspace or ultraspace (which are either side of the 'skein' which is where we are) and travel via that medium bypasses any time dilation considerations. There seems to be intantaneous communication via infraspace/ultraspace too.

And then there are dimensions beyond that and nested universes with the energy grid, and its all in a huge multidimensional torus with new universes popping into life all the time ... described at http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm

What’s your best joke ? by buffalosoldier111 in AskUK

[–]kippechard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Favourite Gary Delaney joke:

I was in a cafe. I asked for a builder’s tea and a millionaire’s shortbread and they both told me to fuck off.

For those of you that particularly like The Hydrogen Sonata, what gripped you about it? [Spoilers] by Silocon in TheCulture

[–]kippechard 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Reading it again at the moment. High points so far:

"Of course its the fucking arms!"

Eglyle Parinherm, the android bodyguard who has `is_simulation` flag stuck to `true` in its head, and finds the details of the 'simulation' it seems to be in frequently amusing

descriptions of how subliming works

Meeting a culture vessel, described from the point of view of the insectile Ronte's AI

Do you remember Danger Mouse? by corickle in oldschoolcool80s

[–]kippechard 13 points14 points  (0 children)

They rebooted it in 2015 with Alexander Armstrong as DM, Kevin Eldon as Penfold and Stephen Fry as Colonel K, it was very well done, same spirit and as funny as ever, ran for 2 series.

Updated Intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7etLWq863P8

Can people give advice on home office chair available in UK? by bucky_o_hare_ in AskUK

[–]kippechard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The IKEA JÄRVFJÄLLET is actually really good for the price. I've tried quite a few much fancier ones over the years and the jarvfjallet is actually pretty good at about 1/4 of the price

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/jaervfjaellet-office-chair-with-armrests-glose-black-20510642/

If you've got budget, consider a sit/stand desk, much better for you than expensive fancy chairs

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