I understand why Severus is rude to Harry, but why to everyone else?
Snape is rude to Harry, over a grudge between him and James Potter, but he is also bitter to many Gryffindor students as well. This sentence from Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch player backs up this question.
It's not my fault, we've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us.
Why is Severus rude to almost everyone else?
In the Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King", Kodos, known as Kodos the Executioner, has been the governor of the Tarsus IV colony. He ordered the execution of 4000 colonists, and only nine survivors (including Captain Kirk) were able to identify him. Kodos had gone into hiding as the actor Anton Karidian. Several of the surviving witnesses died under mysterious circumstances, presumably as part of a scheme to protect Kodos's identity.
My question is this: How would killing all the eyewitnesses protect Kodos's identity? Kodos had been a planetary governor, hardly an obscure figure. It stands to reason that there would be plenty of photographs available to just about anyone in the Federation. In fact, Kirk is able to retrieve a photo of Kodos (and one of Karidian) from the Enterprise computer. His appearance had changed in the intervening 20 years, but anyone who had seen photographs of Kodos and Karidian should at least suspect that they're the same person. (Facial recognition software should turn that suspicion into a near certainty, but that probably wouldn't have been anticipated when the episode was written in 1966.)
For a modern parallel, imagine Osama bin Laden trying to hide in plain site as a touring actor. One wouldn't have to have been an eyewitness to recognize him.
My guess is that it's simply a plot hole, but is there an in-universe explanation?
One explanation that occurred to me is that (spoiler):
But all the characters involved, particularly both Kirk and Spock, seemed to accept that killing the witnesses made sense.
I've seen a bit about the history of x-wings but never saw any date when the prototypes and the full production runs came into existence (in galaxy date) so is there any official date there? (now naturally considered legends instead of full canon)
I stumbled across a picture about Severus whilst on the internet, and me being who I am, has its disadvantages. I am not a good reader of cursive what so ever, so if someone could help me out, that would be great. Here is the picture:
I know this question sounds either ignorant or sacrilegious but Peter Jackson clearly added a lot of material and characters that don't exist in the original Hobbit book, either from other Tolkien material or simply out of thin air.
Are there any plan to re-novelize the films the way they were actually made?
If not, what are the reasons? (Legal problems, fan-backlash, etc.)
I gather that Frankenstein's Monster has organs just anybody else and was reanimated by electricity (my memories are vague, here). So would smoking be a danger to his health? (If we ignore the fire he's so afraid of and would have to use to light his cigarette.)
(source)
I recall a few years ago I read the Canterbury Tales, and I believe at some point Chaucer described what a person with each sin looks like.
I did a google search, but it does not bring up the passage. Perhaps I'm thinking of someone else?
Something doesnt make sense. Since Thanos kept referring to "the orb" while talking to Ronan, it is implied he did not tell Ronan it contains an Infinity Stone. This makes sense, since he didnt want Ronan to keep it.
Yet, at the Kyln, Ronan says he doesnt want the Nova Corps to know what they were after and to kill everyone, which implies he knows the orb contains the Stone, or is at least worth hiding.
On Knowhere, Nebula said,
"The Stone is in the furthest pod."
This means Ronan already knew the orb contained an Infinity Stone, or Nebula just leaked the information to him. Gamora told Nebula that if Ronan gets the Stone, he will kill everyone, reinforcing the notion that Ronan would keep the Stone for himself and not give it over to Thanos. Nebula's response was an affirmation that Ronan would keep the stone.
So why did Nebula give it to Ronan? Why not take it to Thanos?
In Heart of Stone Odo professes his love to Kira. In Crossfire he becomes jealous of First Minister Shakaar. Are these emotions real or are they projected on to Odo?
Is his ethnicity ever specified in the books beyond "Scottish" (which I believe was added after Sean Connery's portrayal)?
I ask because there is currently some controversy on the subject since a minor celebrity has stated that Idris Elba would not be a good Bond because Bond is "white".
Is this backed by the books? If so, did mention of Bond's skin color predate the movies?
After reading Foundation's Edge I'm wondering if the Foundation series were the first literary work to consider the possibility of humanity (as a whole or most of it) forgetting Earth as it's place of origin?
We see them transform from their vehicular form to their "bipedal" form on the move numerous times in the movies. Several of these transformations happen at highway speeds (say 60-70 mph). Has it ever been established how fast they can actually run on foot? Obviously some would be faster than others so I'm looking for the fastest established or estimated foot speed.
I picked up a book a long time ago in a library and I want to read it now, but I can't remember the name. It's about WWI except the US/UK use genetically modified animals to fight, while Germany/Austria uses steampunk machines. I think it also had pictures and involved a Prince of some kind.
It just seemed strange that an ancient race that existed billions of years before the human race would use English.
Since he was the last regeneration, the Teselecta could have just showed him dead.
It's mentioned that tampering with past events is illegal in the Wizarding world. Hermione even states "We’re breaking one of the most important wizarding laws!" when they are using it.
The thing is, if tampering with the past is illegal, how does the ministry enforce it? For example, if a wizard were to travel back in time, effect a change, and then return to his origin place, with everything around him changing, wouldn't he be the only one who would have been aware of the change in the first place?
Obviously the Ministry seems oblivious to its use, as it was used illegally to make a change to the past and free an extremely "dangerous" criminal (Sirius), also a big no no, with no repercussions to its users.
Furthermore, if an official from the Ministry were to detect illegal use of a Time Turner somehow, could the wizard or witch who was caught not simply use the Time Turner once again, travel back in time, and do something in order to stop the official from noticing the use of a Time Turner?
At the end of Edge of Tomorrow, Cage and Rita convince the J squad to embark on the gunship to fly directly to Paris. Since they're down to their final "life", we know that it provided a fast and safe transportation to the final battle's theater.
So why did they insist on going by foot to the barrage? We see that this is by far the hardest way to do it, and in fact the entire plan seems senseless (they knew the entire beach is a trap to kill them, so why assume there will be cars available farther inland?). It seems like they could just as easily taken the ship (which doesn't even require a crew) and flew to the Alps.
I'm trying to remember which franchise this TV ep is from:
The lead characters find a spaceship. All the crew are missing/dead. Only "survivor" is an android, responsible for maintaining ship including cleaning. After detective work, at the end it turns out the android went a bit mad due to isolation for long periods in space and blamed the human crew for creating the mess he had to clean up, so he killed them so that things would stay clean.
I think it may have been a Trek episode, maybe Voyager?
TIA!
This question stems from the game portal and some scifi concepts of Teleporting. The question stemmed from an office conversation following everyone seeing the internet meme of a guy licking his "elbow" from one portal to another. The question was is the act considered teleportation. More specifically, does someone need to be completely moved somewhere to be considered teleportation, or is partial considered teleportation. If partial isn't teleportation then what is the term for the "continuous teleportation" or "worm-holing"?
Examples:
LoK will most likely be the last Avatar series (Legend Of Korra Co-Creators On 'Avatar) so this question is purely academical.
In book 2 Unalaq kills Raava and with this, Korra's connection with the past Avatars.
Her connection with Raava is later restored, but for the rest of the series, she never regains her connection with the past Avatars.
Can we conclude from this that she is the Last Avatar, breaking the cycle?
Early in the film, we see zombies headbutt car windows in order to reach their prey, but the ones inside the WHO facility do not seem to use that tactic. It is possible that some of the facilities glass is shatterproof, but the broken glass strewn about the place proves some of it is not. Furthermore, the female scientist zombie dosen't show the signs of head trauma one would expect if she had encountered glass she couldn't break through with her forehead. I may have missed the reason in the film, or maybe the book holds the answer to Why didn't the latter zombies franticly bash themselves to get the humans beyond the separating glass?
There is this famous quote from the Two Towers, where Aragorn says to Legolas:
What do your elf eyes see?
It is made clear that he can see at distances better than the other two (Aragorn and Gimli).
But how far can he see? Did Tolkien ever mention it in one of his numerous books? (including but not limited to HoME)
In peter jackson verse the nazgul know frodo has the ring as he almost willingly gives the ring to them, so in turn sauron would know that a halfling still has the ring unlike in the books where he thinks aragorn is wielding it. Is there an inclination to why sauron would still attack early?
I recently purchased a new copy of The Lord of the Rings, because my previous copy was frayed and falling apart. The new copy has the book split into three volumes, each with a unique cover.
The covers for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers each have Elvish script clearly written with Tengwar characters. However, the cover for The Return of the King has text that vaguely resembles Tengwar, but the characters are much more blocky; as such, I am having a difficult time actually identifying the characters, let alone what is written:
I initially wasn't sure if the cover text actually said anything, but apparently the design goes back to J.R.R. Tolkien himself, so I have no confidence he would write complete gibberish here:
In comparing the cover I have with the original design by Tolkien, it appears some of the text may not even have been copied properly, e.g. the last letter of the (faint) text inside the ring (the second image) appears to have a left-facing hook not found on last letter of the book cover I have (the first image).
Is the text written in Tengwar? What does it say?
In Last Christmas, most of the characters eventually woke up for real (I assume) and thereby killed the dream crabs that were attached to them. But Professor Albert died in the dream, so the real-world dream crab that was on him should still be alive.
I guess the Doctor might be tracking down that crab off-camera before series 9 starts, but considering he forgot who those four people were even during the course of that episode, it seems unlikely he'd remember enough information to locate Albert and his crab in the real world.
So is there still a dream crab running around on Earth that everyone simply forgot about?
In Toy Story 2, Woody is a highly valuable collectible, but in Toy Story 3 this isn't true anymore. We know Andy has internet on his room, so he could check for his toys' price easily, but it seems that they have no monetary value in Toy Story 3. For example, In a scene when Andy is packing his stuff before going to college, Ham says he is going to check the toy's value on ebay in a tone that indirectly says "we are worthless". In another scene, Andy says they are just trash, and at the end of the movie, Andy gives Woody to the little girl just considering the emotional value. So, something had to happen between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 to turn Woody from a "collector's treasure" into "trash".
I don't remember much about it except one girl is named Tavi. I'm not sure about the spelling. They had powers like being able to see through eyes of a flying bird. "Sept the bird, Tavi" I remember one said to the other and suddenly camera view was from the bird. There was an Earth boy with a dirtbike whose nickname was Dirt. That's all I remember. Not much to go on, I know.
To anyone who hasn't seen this Christmas' Doctor Who special ("Last Christmas"), this entire post may be a spoiler.
There were, as far as I could see, four main plot points in "Last Christmas" (titles obfuscated to prevent spoilage):
While the fellowship is trying to make for the pass of the Redhorn Gate, during Book 2 Chapter 3, why is it that Legolas seems so much lighter than his companions of other race? Are elves actually physically lighter than others or is it just one of the many graces given to the Eldar by Eru?
With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow.
As a side note, my brothers and I used to always joke that the reason Legolas was so light on his feet was because elves are hollow-boned, but I seriously doubt that that's the actual reason.
I've been trying to find a book that I read in the early 90's, but that judging from the cover was published in the late 60's/early 70's about a drug epidemic that was actually backed by the UN because of overpopulation. If you take enough of the drug you disappear, but end up in another world that has an extra color.
Since there is no electricity, wouldn't all the nuclear reactors around the country be down and already released radiation into the air? Why is there no sign of this?
Harry gets his letter, is met and escorted by Hagrid to Diagon Alley, where he (1) picks up some of his family money (in the currency of the magical world), (2) uses the money to buy his wand and other items. He boards the train not yet having any explicit magical knowledge.
Hermione appears to already have extensive magical knowledge by the time she meets Harry and Ron. She makes reference to several books, and is already able to cast spells (fixing Harry's glasses, among them). This despite her being muggle born (parents oblivious to her magical abilities/inclinations/aspirations).
How could she have come by her pre-Hogwarts knowledge and experience apparently without any of the sort of help Harry got from Hagrid? Did she have an unseen/unmentioned magical escort too? How could she have (1) discovered her connection to the magical world (discounting the letter), (2) found her way to Diagon Alley to obtain her wand etc., and (3) pay for it all?
As we know people born in and connected to the Matrix retain a residual self image (Morpheus told Neo: "Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of your digital self."). Freed people that hack back into the matrix keep that projection and do not change it at will (see: Did People Within The Matrix Always Resemble their Real World Bodies?).
But here's the question: How do people born (or grown for that matter) in the Matrix develop a residual self image that resembles their own body in the first place? You simply do not know how you look if you never saw yourself. It would therefore require that the Matrix feeds your brain with a mental image based on your real body thus requiring some scanners (or whatever) inside the tank to obtain ones features within the goo.
That leads to the more important question as to why would the machines go through all this trouble to provide "proper" residual self images for their connected humans? The prime purpose of the Matrix is to keep their "guests" attached for live, pretty unaware of the fact that they are in the Matrix - as Morpheus puts it, blinded from the truth of being a prisoner. That goal could be perfectly achieved without everybody knowing his/her own look safe those who are freed from the Matrix (but then again why would the machines be worried about them)?
For the sake of the discussion lets assume that there is only one layer of the Matrix - that being: the "Zion-real world" is the real world - as nested layers of the Matrix would of course simplify things greatly.
So we know that in the Potterverse they celebrate Christmas. Hopefully most people on here know the original reason for Christmas is the supposed birth of Jesus.
What is Jesus considered to be when taken from a in-universe point of view? Is Jesus considered a wizard by the wizarding community or the author/narrator?
(It seems plausible seeing as most of his miracles would not be too difficult for a wizard such as Dumbledore, and other mystical/magical figures like Morgan le Fey or Merlin were shown to be wizards in-universe).
Is the Imperio spell recursive?
I read a short story in the early 1960's (maybe!) in which, because the character had to stay in radio contact, he had to be careful to avoid conductive materials, "even a grid" (of metal). His mnemonic for this phrase was "Eva and Agrid". Anybody know this story?
The story is basically told from an alien's point of view. Essentially they observed us from far off, deemed us as violent and a danger to the universe, and set course (asteroid or something) to kill us. They kept observing and saw all the art and beauty we created and realized we were actually not so bad, but by then they couldn't stop it. So it was sort of also an apology letter to Earth in the end.
First read it like a year ago online and I can't find any trace of it anymore, nor can I recall the site it was on. Anyone know what short story this is?
On my 5th watching of Captain America: The Winter Soldier recently, I suddenly realised that I don't actually understand what sets the events of the film in motion.
At the start of the film, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and the STRIKE team are sent to rescue a ship, the Lemurian Star, from pirates. It turns out that;
So my question is;
I am looking for the title of a cyberpunk novel from the early 90's. The cover of my copy was red with a silver circular saw disk logo.
The story revolved around three characters; a female cat burglar and her two male roommates, a skinny welded-metal artist and a good-looking gigolo. They live in a warehouse in a future-city slum.
The cat burglar is approached by a 'feely-tv' representative to be their latest 'feely-tv' program - her life will be broadcast to their subscribers for the contracted period. People normally have anything from dumb reality TV stuff to witnessing staged murder happen to them under such contracts, but the pay is very high, so she agrees. She thinks that she can predict what will happen; it is agreed the broadcast will begin in a few days, the tv people will possibly even kill her artist friend, but she decides she can live with that if she takes the money and she leaves town with the gigolo.
Before she can adjust to the probable time frame in which the program will start, she is contracted to steal a piece of technology, and thinks she can probably do this before her feely-tv gig starts.
Things go badly wrong; she botches the heist and is chased, returns to her place to find the gigolo dead by the hand of her recent theft victim, and goes on the run with her artist friend. Eventually things get so bad she has to involve her burglary mentor, an almost legendary figure known as "the Shark", who has never been seen in person and no-one still alive knows what he truly looks like, as he never fully drops his camouflage technology to allow himself to be seen.
The book ends after a confrontation on a roof where the Shark sacrifices his reputation to save the cat burglar's life, as he considers her his adopted daughter. He drops his cloaking completely, revealing a man so old he makes extensive use of implants merely to stay alive. However, this leaves his fearsome and shadowy reputation in tatters - he's just an old man. Everyone is shocked and the entire confrontation stops. It is of course revealed that the cat burglar was being recorded for feely-tv broadcast from right after her contract signing. She is paid for both her theft and TV contracts and she and the artist leave the city for good.
Any leads appreciated! Thanks in advance.
I am looking for the title of a book from the early 1980's, available through Scholastic Book Clubs.
It is a science fiction story about a human boy who goes to a training academy on a desert planet. They are taught to survive in the environment with minimal technology, and the heroes are often drinking from spongy water-filled tubers they find in the desert sand. The planet has very little in the way of visible life but lizards and specialised plants.
The academy's graduation test is to be dropped in the desert and find your way back to the academy. The boy is dropped in the desert with an alien humanoid classmate with silver skin. As this happens, they realise an enemy warship is scouting the planet and has possibly taken the academy over. They must detour across even harsher terrain than normal to reach a city to warn of the impending establishment of a forward base on the planet.
After much hardship, there's success and the usual happy ending with 'you graduate even though you didn't really finish the proper test' device.
Thanks in advance for any help!
If I remember rightly all the nazgul were fighting at gondor, so is there any hint of who may have led the forces of dol guldur?
I used to read a lot of ghost short story collections when I was younger. One story has stuck with me and I'd like to be able to identify:
a) the name and author of the story and
B) Which collection it was featured in.
I probably read this story 20-15 years ago here in the UK. I'm pretty sure it wasn't in one of the Armada ghost books.
It is in a contemporary setting, the story centres around someone who has moved into a flat in a town house. The centre floor of this town-house is empty from what I remember, and they have to climb a few flights of stairs to get around their property.
The man who lives there starts hearing tuneful whistling and footsteps in the night coming from the stair way, gradually getting louder as if someone is climbing the stairs. Of course no-one is there.
He tells his friends about this, and one of his friends pretends to be the ghost on one occasion, whistling the same tune while coming up the stairs as a prank.
Well I hope that jogs someone's memory! I don't know why this story has stuck with me, but it'll be great to find it again.
I am kind of new here, and my other question (Shark vs. Gorilla) got quite a bit of criticism for being off topic. If this question is not up to community standards, please feel free to let me know, as what I am about to ask is out of pure curiosity. I have read a few posts about the types of questions that I should and should not ask, and I do believe that this question is valid.
Anyway, say that a Charizard is placed inside a box which begins to heat until it reaches a theoretical infinity. At what point does it 1.) feel pain 2.) burn 3.) die. If anyone has any canonical feats that would answer this, that would be great.
Again, sorry if this is off-topic
The story was about a universe where people were segregated by different aspects and trait of personality. I remember that there were 7 different planets (?).
One of these planets was the world of partying, where every sin imaginable was OK. It was even the law to take drugs if you were a citizen of this planet.
There was another planet of "Wisdom" or "Order" (?) where every person with good logic and a passion for learning and expanding their knowledge lived. Everything was calm and silent on that planet.
I just remembered a 3rd planet wich was the planet of "creativity"
I can't remember the other 4 planets.
I just remembered that all of this univers was govern by "The Immortals". The last human alive after the last war. and they've decided to divid the society into these 7 group based upon an important person's study in the far past. No one knew how they could still be alive.
The story was about one man who was at his 20th birthday more or so. I think this was the day you were assigned to your new planet. This man refuses to go where he is assigned so he is send to be judged. And then, at the audience, he attempt to flee. He suddenly bumps into a girl, that was there because she refused to have sex on her planet wich was the planet of partying, and they decide to make their way out together.
The last thing i remember reading was that this duo just had learn about the immortals and that those immortals had just been afflicted by an illness that may end their immortality. So they decide to go on an adventure to learn more about the past of the humans by learning more about these immortal (Last remain of the ancient human civilisation).
There were shuttles or crafts/ships but not for everyone. You were expected to stay on your planet and obey your own laws.
So the story is basically told from an alien's point of view. Essentially they observed us from far off, deemed us as violent and a danger to the universe, and set course (asteroid or something) to kill us. They kept observing and saw all the art and beauty we created and realized we were actually not so bad, but by then they couldn't stop it. So it was sort of also an apology letter to Earth in the end.
First read it like a year ago and I can't find any trace of it anymore. Anyone know what short story this is?
I'm trying to recall a short science fiction story, I think from the 80's.
It involved a military strike team, going through some tunnels/maze with deadly traps in each section which kill off various members of the team.
The very last guy arrives and talks to the person in the bunker who informs him he is his successor. I think they call this guy the, "Great Satan(?)". He basically suppresses the excessive military in the world, firing missiles if anyone steps out of line, aka, the sole superpower.
I was originally thinking it might be a John Varley story but it's not him.
At the end of Metroid Prime
My question is how did Metroid Prime get in there?
So how did she get in there?
In the Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King", Kodos, known as Kodos the Executioner, has been the governor of the Tarsus IV colony. He ordered the execution of 4000 colonists, and only nine survivors (including Captain Kirk) were able to identify him. Kodos had gone into hiding as the actor Anton Karidian. Several of the surviving witnesses died under mysterious circumstances, presumably as part of a scheme to protect Kodos's identity.
My question is this: How would killing all the eyewitnesses protect Kodos's identity? Kodos had been a planetary governor, hardly an obscure figure. It stands to reason that there would be plenty of photographs available to just about anyone in the Federation. In fact, Kirk is able to retrieve a photo of Kodos (and one of Karidian) from the Enterprise computer. His appearance had changed in the intervening 20 years, but anyone who had seen photographs of Kodos and Karidian should at least suspect that they're the same person. (Facial recognition software should turn that suspicion into a near certainty, but that probably wouldn't have been anticipated when the episode was written in 1966.)
For a modern parallel, imagine Osama bin Laden trying to hide in plain site as a touring actor. One wouldn't have to have been an eyewitness to recognize him.
My guess is that it's simply a plot hole, but is there an in-universe explanation?
One explanation that occurred to me is that (spoiler):
But all the characters involved, particularly both Kirk and Spock, seemed to accept that killing the witnesses made sense.
In Revenge of the Sith, according to the title crawl, Anakin and Obi-Wan "lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor." They do this by arriving in two one-man starfighters. Grievous' flagship appears to only hold droid fighters, so they couldn't have stolen ships, and they probably didn't originally intend to crash-land the entire flagship. Do any sources explain how they originally planned to get Palpatine off of the ship?
It has been a long time since I read the first book but will remember what I can. There were dragons but they could not survive alone they needed human hosts but they were beneficial to the human. There wasa war going on. I remember at the end of the first book the dragon was looking for a new host and he flew over a crippled girl and she asked him to save her but the dragon scorned her and looked for someone stronger.
In The Deathly Hallows pt. 2, right before The Battle of Hogwarts starts, Draco apparates to the dungeons to get Goyle and 'black Crabbe'(I don't remember who they replaced Crabbe with in the movie). It's impossible to apparate/disapparate within the walls of Hogwarts(except for Dumbledore of course). So how was Draco able to do so?
Harry has part of Voldemort living within himself, when Voldemort's spell rebounded when he first tried to kill Harry, part of Voldemort's soul latched on to Harry, which basically makes him and Voldemort the same person(that's why Voldemort didn't kill Harry in the forest, he essentially killed part of himself). We know that the wands choose the wizard. Draco killed Dumbledore and became owner of the wand, then Harry 'defeated' Draco and won the allegiance of the Elder Wand. However, he did this when there was still a part of Voldemort's soul living within him. So when Voldemort killed Harry in the forest and the two had their final battle, why was the Elder Wand not conflicted on who its master was? Did it not recognize the part of Voldemort that lived in Harry? Why would the wand not answer to the both of them since Harry was still part Voldemort when he 'defeated' Draco?
Did he really talk to the Finn from the sword, or just imagined him answering.
I am trying to recall the name of some educational workbooks and characters that would have been in circulation when I was in 3rd grade (United States) (around 1974).
These texts were part of the curriculum at the public school I attended and were used to teach Greek Mythology. My recollection was that that the books were centered around a couple of fictional kids who "discover" mythology or are led to it by uncovering secrets about it through "teenage sleuth" type adventures. I can't recall for certain, but it seems like there may have been some kind of portal that allowed the kids to actually enter the Greek Mythology realm.
I recall the books had quite a few illustrations as you might expect in a grade school educational books. The books were used as a vehicle to generate interest in mythology.
From the Hobbit:
If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took's great-granduncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfibul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf was invented at the same moment.
Is there any other mention of Golf in Tolkien's work? The existence of Golf seems out of place with the rest of Middle Earth
In the Robots of Dawn, Baley invites Daniel into the Personal, to which Daniel says
"It would not be appropriate for me to enter. It is not the custom for robots to enter the Personal. The interior of such a room is purely human."
For those who don't know a Personal is a Restroom or Water Closet.
Later, at the Robotics Institute, Baley requests access to a Community Personal. When they arrive the following dialogue takes place.
Giskard: "Sir, we may not enter with you."
Baley: "Yes, I am aware of that, Giskard."
Giskard: "We will not be able to guard you properly, sir."
Giskard and Daneel decide they must allow Baley enter the Personal without their protection.
When he reaches the door of the structure, Daneel wordlessly indicated the contact that would open it. Daneel did not venture to touch the contact himself. Presumable, thought Baley, to have done so without specific instructions would have indicated an intention to enter--and even the intention was not permitted.
Even with their strict instructions for the protection of Baley, they would not so much as enter the Personal (unless an immediate danger was recognized). So are there other non-humanoid robots that do the cleaning, are the Personals self cleaning, or do humans do that work?
I have been having tremendous luck with story identification queries, so I figured I'd ask one more while I was at it. It was a pasteboard book cover, showed a set of forboding gates — I want to say that it showed a realistic looking boy recoiling away from them — black iron in my memories. The story involved the protagonist at a boarding school and learning that a computer program housed a demon. The demon offered him a wish, but said that, if his wish was not found worthy (I don't remember the criteria for worthiness assuming it wasn't just a matter of whether it amused the demon), he would arrange an accident for the boy. They boy made a wish regarding his family, his parents I think, and then spent the rest of the day quailing at every sign of trouble. I vaguely remember him suddenly being aware of how many swamps and ponds there were around the school and I vividly remember him insisting on wearing a football helmet when playing outfield (baseball) at the school.
Beyond that, I have a vague feeling that either the boy's or the demon's name was in the title of the book, that it was short, maybe 20-30 pages, and that I read it somewhere between 1986 and 1993. Oh, and the boy got his wish and was not killed, but I don't remember what happened after that.
In Last Christmas
Coincidentally,
Is there any (known) significance to this?
After re-watching the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who I was wondering at what point on time David Tennant's doctor was along his own timeline. He mentions to the rabbit that he is 904 and he recognises Bad Wolf because of Rose.
So at when, according to his companions, does the Doctor get married to Queen Elizabeth 1 and meet his past and future selves, and then what time does he go back to in the Tardis?
In Harry Potter, the portraits of people move and behave as though they are actual people. It's even possible to converse with them. So what's the deal with them? Are they simply extensions of the person(s) they're renderings of? Do they have the same memories of the actual person? Can they learn like people do?
As seen in the answer to this question
What causes the portraits of Wizards to behave interactively?
and this one
Why could the pictures and paintings in Hogwarts talk and the photos of Harry's parents couldn't?
Rowling basically says that they repeat catch phrases and then goes on to explain that if Harry had a picture of his parent's that they wouldn't have been able to help him. Yet Harry actually converses with the portrait of Dumbledore. Aberforth, actually gives instructions to the portrait of his sister. Gryffindor's fat lady actually interacts with the students. So, are the portraits 'sentient' beings that are capable of emotion, memories, and with learning potential?
We know from erdiede's and spong's respective answers to the questions Why was Darth Vader given a downgraded version of General Grievous's mechanics? and Why is Darth Vader's body suit considered an upgrade to General Grievous? that Darth Vader was intentionally given armor with obsolete tech to slow the Sith progression and to make him less of a threat to Palpatine. But this seems like a half-measure when he could've hidden a killswitch or self-destruct option in the armor?
If he really wanted to go all the way he could have put Vader in one of these slave collars that were used by the Sith Empire. They apparently work against force users as well, given that Jaina Solo was forced to wear one during the Yuuzhan Vong War:
Sure, it's drastic and humiliating. But I wouldn't put it past the man who punishes Vader by removing his flesh to do that.
Qui-Gon: Obi-Wan is ready
Obi-Wan: I am ready to face the trials.
So, Obi-Wan wanted to face the trials and change his rank from Padawan to Jedi Knight... Later, after the battle on Naboo we see Yoda granting Obi-Wan the rank of Knight after he killed Darth Maul...
The image has been altered with a CGI Yoda, but it was the only pic I found from the scene :)
Yoda: Confer on you the level of Jedi Knight, the Council does...
Since, judging by the background they are still on Naboo, should we assume Obi-Wan never faced the trials to change rank? I can see how killing a Sith Lord is a huge trial, but isn't ther any protocol in this matter?
A movie about a man is driving a capsule inside another man blood stream he control his face by changing it to another man.
When Brand and Cooper return to their ship from Miller's planet, Brand sees the aged Rommily and says 'why didn't you sleep?' Later, on Mann's planet, Dr. Mann says he didn't specify an end date the last time he went into cryo-sleep.
Would Dr. Mann have eventually died of old age in cryo-sleep, or would he have stayed the same age? If Rommily had been in cyro-sleep for the 23 years that passed (relative to him) would he have stayed the same age as he was when Brand and Cooper returned?
I am wondering why what makes batman Bruce Wayne so different then the bad guys? he uses force and goes beyond the boundraies of the law and keeps all the superheros weakness that could kill them all
A simple enough question.
MEDICAL DROID: Medically, she is completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her.
OBI-WAN: She's dying?
MEDICAL DROID: We don't know why. She has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies.
Medically healthy humans don't die for no good reason. So what did Padmé die of?
I'm trying to find a childrens film (possibly TV show episode), that was likely either British or Australian.
I don't remember much about the film except that the protagonist was a male child/tween who wanted to be closer to a girl. One of his wishes resulted in him becoming her baby.
There was some kind of entity following him and responsible for granting his wishes.
Film/show was likely made in the early 90s.
IS LIGHTSABER HILT RESIZEABLE ??
I saw in Episode 1 that when obi wan kenobi and qui gon jinn follow jar jar binks into water (River) to his city, they hold their lightsaber in mouth and that time size of lightsaber hilt is too small then actual ( like ballpen or like that ) and When they come out, Size of lightsaber hilt was actual as before. Also Same thing happen when Order 66 was executed ( Episode 3 ) and colne shoot Obi wan (utapau) and he fall into river and when he came out, lightsaber hilt's size was small.
Now Other Question come out...
WHY LIGHTSABER HOLDER BELT NOT WORKING IN WATER ?
As we see that whenever they are in water, they hold lightsaber in mouth, and in normal case they put lightsaber to their holder belt. Why they avoid to use belt in water for hold Lightsaber ?
I read a story where a man spends 20 long years alone on an island.
The man reached the island after his ship wrecked by the storm, he started living there making a shelter for him. Just before the end of the story he meets a tribe man and saves him from man eaters. he gives him a name "Friday". Both assist each other there for few days. Finally the is rescued by a ship from his land.
While Frodo is in the wight's barrow, during Chapter 8 of FOTR, what is the pale green-ish light that appears?
As he lay there, thinking and getting a hold of himself, he noticed all at once that the darkness was slowly giving way: a pale greenish light was growing round him.
It did not at first show him what kind of a place he was in, for the light seemed to be coming out of himself, and from the floor beside him, and had not yet reached the roof or wall.
I'm familiar with most of Tolkien's works that deal with Arda, but I've never understood what the pale-green light was supposed to be, or how it was produced. Was it perhaps, a manifestation of the Ring's power or of Eru Ilúvatar's influence in behalf of the ring-bearer?
Long ago, I watched an animated TV show or movie probably on Cartoon Network India. Here are details I can recall:
There was an Island in the ocean which was surrounded by big canyons. And, water from ocean was of course flowing down in the canyon like Asgardian water fall without an apparent bottom.
Our heroes were on a boat which was dragged by the water flow, but due to Kinetic Energy, they luckily didn't go down. They landed on the island. In order to escape, they tried bridge making blah blah, but without any luck.
On island, they learned that there was already a guy there trapped for very long time turning old. He crashed on the island with his aeroplane which was in no condition to fly again.
On island, there was an inactive volcano (with sideway opening, not top). That trapped old guy spent decades to carve the mountain outside to make it look like a dragon, in a hope that one day volcano would erupt and it would look like a dragon breathing fire.
In the end, they escaped from the mouth of the dragon using steam power when volcano erupted. Exact setup isn't in my mind, but they escaped on a boat which safely landed on water outside.
In the very end, when the old guy turned his head around, he saw dragon breathing fire and became happy admiring his work. And then, the island sunk down in the ocean probably due to volcanic activity.
Would the Captain America of the Marvel Cinematic Universe support torture or "enhanced interrogation" techniques for the purpose of gaining information?
Please support your case with quotes or explanatory scenes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or creative team quotes.
I'm not asking about fan opinion, popular opinion, or previous versions of Captain America from the comics.
There is this famous quote from the Two Towers, where Aragorn says to Legolas:
What do your elf eyes see?
It is made clear that he can see at distances better than the other two (Aragorn and Gimli).
But how far can he see? Did Tolkien ever mention it in one of his numerous books? (including but not limited to HoME)
Paperback, Golden age science fiction.
In this story, long-term sleep is fully developed and an integral part of society. The more important or wealthier a person is, the longer they can afford to sleep at a time. This created a world of stability with world leaders spending as much as a decade asleep per day awake. All the way down to the lowest level people who merely could live day to day.
The protagonist of this story is a day-to-day person who gets involved in the long game. A civilization game where players take on the role of world leaders. By this game, he lifts himself out of the slums and into the elites of society.
Spoiler Version (Long, because I can type most of it from memory):
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On the last Hobbit movie, after the Battle of the Five Armies, Legolas tells Thranduil that he won't be coming home. The latter tells him to go to find the infamous son of Arathorn, that goes by the name of Strider.
But, the Battle of the Five Armies was fought on T.A. 2941 and Aragorn was only born on T.A. 2931.
How could Aragorn be such an infamous rogue in the age of only ten?
Sources: Aragorn, Battle of Five Armies and History of Middle Earth Timeline.
I recently purchased a new copy of The Lord of the Rings, because my previous copy was frayed and falling apart. The new copy has the book split into three volumes, each with a unique cover.
The covers for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers each have Elvish script clearly written with Tengwar characters. However, the cover for The Return of the King has text that vaguely resembles Tengwar, but the characters are much more blocky; as such, I am having a difficult time actually identifying the characters, let alone what is written:
I initially wasn't sure if the cover text actually said anything, but apparently the design goes back to J.R.R. Tolkien himself, so I have no confidence he would write complete gibberish here:
In comparing the cover I have with the original design by Tolkien, it appears some of the text may not even have been copied properly, e.g. the last letter of the (faint) text inside the ring (the second image) appears to have a left-facing hook not found on last letter of the book cover I have (the first image).
Is the text written in Tengwar? What does it say?
I can't remember much of the details, but I was reading this around elementary school time for me (1999-ish). It's about a group of people who get transported to a new world via a spacecraft, and they run into issues like micro comets.
I think the name starts with a "M".
Sorry I know it's not a lot to go off of..
I've watched a lot of episodes in Stargate series. I'm not really sure, but whenever they mention ascended beings, they are always the ancients, the Ori and Anubis, which was half-ascended somehow. Why didn't the other advanced species ascend? For example, I remember an episode in which the Asgard were dying due to the weakening caused by cloning, that seemed like a great opportunity to ascend, I guess.
Why would students return to Hogwarts knowing that Snape was headmaster and that they would likely be mistreated there?
Why did Voldemort never seek the Hallows before the events of the second wizard war? It seems it would have been much easier for him to retrieve them. James had the cloak, Regulus had the resurrection stone(not sure if I remember that correctly, I could be wrong), and Dumbledore had the elder wand. It seems that it would have been much easier for Voldemort to get to the three seeing as the cloak was with Harry who's location was unknown and the stone was within the snitch Harry caught, which only he could open. So, why did Voldemort wait to seek the Hallows?
Now, the real reason is that the books were written in reverse order. However, you would think that at some point towards the end of Bridge of the Separator, Rhavas would make some kind of comment about no longer having the ability to curse people and/or things. Was there an explanation that I simply missed, or was it never explained?
Many times he went to face the witch king but time after time he was stopped whether it was his horse bolting off, glorfindel warning him against it or his steward advising him not to listen to the witch kings taunts which he in the end gives in too. My question is whether earnur thought he could genuinely dispose of the witch king? an enemy he had been warned against fighting against time and time again.
After the battle of five armies, Thorin died and i wonder what happen to the gold in erebor?
A future Big-Brother society where people wore wristwatches which both monitored their movements and kept them informed about their role in society. I don't remember whether the story was located on Earth or a fictional planet. The book was read late 60's or early 70's. I only read a small number of authors (max 10) so I would immediately recognise the author's name if the storyline was identified. Possibles: Brian Aldiss Piers Anthony Isaac Asimov Ray Bradbury Arthur C. Clarke Robert Heinlein Frank Herbert Ursula K. Le Guin Theodore Sturgeon Kurt Vonnegut jr.
What I'm thinking now is how uncannily like the Apple Watch and similar products this was. This is the only story I remember that foresaw the wireless/digital age.
I have horribly vague memories of this, but lasting ones. I played it on a Radio Shack Tandy Color Computer 2 (maybe the CoCo 3, but I think it was the CoCo 2). It was a point-and-click adventure which included traveling back and forth in time. I am 90% certain that it was set in a museum. It was fairly monochrome, typical for the time. I remember traveling back to a medieval dungeon and also a situation where, to get the diamond, you had to take a lump of coal back in time, put it in a hydraulic press, then go forward in time until it became a diamond. I'm pretty sure one of the game screens had a vintage car on display.
It being on the CoCo 2 puts its publication somewhere between 1983 and 1986.
Simple: every other race in Middle Earth has rings, why do Hobbits and Orcs not?
When Ronan makes his spectacular and violent appearance on Guardians of the Galaxy, he comes out from a covered hole fill with some sort of liquid. He is in this liquid hole in the foetus position.
Knowing that this hole is completely fill and sealled shut:
What is this liquid and how can he survive in that ? 
To add a bit more, why does he get covered in sand before being clothed ? 
I read the first two books a few years ago so details are hazy. I remember it was probably a young adult fiction series. It was a trilogy and the last book came out this year (2014). There was a princess in it and she had a dragon. The people in the palace knew (from what I think I recall) but she had to keep it a secret from the rest of the land as people were very scared of dragons. There was a servant boy in it too and I have a feeling his name started with C. I could be wrong though. I also think the name of the first book started with S but I can't remember for sure. I'm also pretty sure that in the second book, the princess and the servant boy fell in love. I remember something about a forest and the princess loving to ride her dragon and flying over it. I really can't remember much more except that there was a war in the second book (I think) and it related to the dragon as some people from outside the palace walls found out about the dragon. The dragon was obviously friendly, but as I recall, everyone in the palace wanted the dragon to go into hiding but the princess decided to fight in the war. I can't remember the outcome. The author of the series was a female.
I've seen a bit about the history of x-wings but never saw any date when the prototypes and the full production runs came into existence (in galaxy date) so is there any official date there? (now naturally considered legends instead of full canon)
Obviously, Ozma is not mentioned in "Oz the Great and Powerful".
Will Disney put her in the sequels, or just leave her out?
The story I'm looking for is very, very similar to the YA novel mentioned above, but predates it by at least a decade, probably more. Like A., the protagonist awakens in a new body every day (or at least regularly, perhaps with every sleep period). IIRC, unlike A., he self-identifies as male specifically. The impetus for the first switch, in this case, was something medical: I believe the character first transferred when the original body died, or possibly was being abused (but I'm trying to avoid conflating it with Gould's "Jumper"). There is no explanation, either scientific or magical, for the transference. Did David Levithan write an early short story that later became "Every Day"? The similarities are so striking, but I've been looking for this story for years and only discovered the book last week.
This is not a duplicate of In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, why did Stryker want to apply adamantium to Logan?. In this question, it was discussed why Stryker applied adamantium to Logan before weapon X. But my question is not this.
Stryker need to test adamantium for weapon X/deadpool. So, he tricked wolverine to the test using sabretooth.
This Wiki clearly says that Sabretooth also have super healing factor.
If the main motto of Stryker is to test adamantium to a mutant with super-healing factor, why didnt he use sabretooth?
Please correct me if I am missing anything?
To anyone who hasn't seen this Christmas' Doctor Who special ("Last Christmas"), this entire post may be a spoiler.
! There were, as far as I could see, four main plot points in "Last Christmas" regarding the dream crabs:
! 1. Neither the Doctor nor any of the other dreamers could tell whether they were awake or asleep. (Despite the apparent ability of the dreamers' to sense a slight headache in their temple, this does not seem to have helped the doctor determine he was in a dream when he met old-Clara, so it may have just been part of the dream or it may be easily overlooked if the dreamer does not already suspect they are dreaming.)
! 2. Due to the dream crabs' ability to fold one dream within another, the dreamers were also unable to tell if they were actually waking up or not.
! 3. Santa was a product of the dreamers' subconscious. This was important, because it was how Clara first realized that she and the Doctor were part of the dream from the beginning ("Santa was on my roof").
! 4. Clara was expecting to see a wound on her temple as evidence of waking up (seeing as, according to the doctor, there should be a half-inch gap in her head/skull causing agony if not for the analgesic of their dream).
! In the final shot of the episode, we see a tangerine (presumably left by Santa), indicating that they were not awake. Also, there was no wound on either the Doctor or Clara (or any of the others). Given that they seem unable to tell via any other means that they've awoken, are we supposed to assume that they are still sleeping? Or did the Doctor have some as yet undisclosed means for determining that, at last, they were both awake?
In Last Christmas, most of the characters eventually woke up for real (I assume) and thereby killed the dream crabs that were attached to them. But Professor Albert died in the dream, so the real-world dream crab that was on him should still be alive.
I guess the Doctor might be tracking down that crab off-camera before series 9 starts, but considering he forgot who those four people were even during the course of that episode, it seems unlikely he'd remember enough information to locate Albert and his crab in the real world.
So is there still a dream crab running around on Earth that everyone simply forgot about?
The question is simple, when are they planning to reboot the franchise? I searched the internet but couldn't find authentic results. Does anyone have genuine information regarding following queries?
Are these things finalized or am I asking questions 2 & 3 too early?
I've found several notes of where Athiss is located but I did not manage to find it on any map of the Star Wars universe (I know that planet is a part of the Loro Babis system).
Does it appear on any of the maps of the Galaxy?
Once there are ships that can take them to the Undying Lands, what is the motivation for the Elves to stay in a war-torn, darkened land full of Men and Orcs and other undesirable creatures? We know that Elves could become wraiths if they stayed in Middle Earth, so something would have to be of value to them enough to outweigh that risk. Their purpose as the Firstborn was to show Men the way and prepare Middle Earth for them, but many of them are not doing that so what then are they doing.
What's keeping them there?
Sailing into the West seems like an all around better deal for them and I can't find any discussion of a motive to stay.
The catalogue of a video rental store contains necessary details and information of each recording. Every recording is a recording of some film or songs. Comedies, Dramas, Romances, Science Fiction, and Thrillers are types or genres of films. A film has a title, a short description, a director, a rating. The rating of each recording can be given on its video quality, cast, sound quality, plot, story and overall score out of 5 stars. The movies also comprise of characters where each character has a name and an actor who plays the character. Actors, directors, and customers are persons. A person has a name. Customers also have an ID number, a telephone number, and a rental history. Finally, the system must allow the video rental system owner to add new movies, manage the movies and manage the rental history. It should also maintain a catalogue of movies and help the customers to search for movies and songs, and also to rent the recording of video. For purpose of understating video rentals you can refer to http://store.cineplex.com/store/guidedsearch or similar websites.do it using object oriented programming.
In Fringe S1E3, "The Ghost Network", we see an attack on a bus which leaves the people on it trapped in a substance not unlike what we later get to know as Amber 31422.
In S3E5, "Amber 31422", we learn that while people trapped in amber are officially pronounced dead, they actually aren't.
In S3E14, "6B", we see some of the victims of the attack on the bus, still trapped in amber.
So was the amber used in the attack actually Amber 31422, and could the victims have been saved, or was it just an amber-like substance?
In all honesty, this isn't 100% sci-fi, but this still seems the best SE site to ask.
I remember a book (may have been a collection of shorts, or a novel, but it was all about the same group of boys). I would've read it in the late 70's or early 80's, but I think it was from and set in the mid/late 60's; I remember a comment about one of the characters' father being a Linotype operator.
At any rate, they run around town, all the townsfolk think they're hooligans. Somewhere along the way, they buy a midget submarine that they want to refurbish, as well as causing a massive UFO scare in their town.
Like I said, I didn't see any other SE sites that covered general fiction, and their stunts were "science-ey", so I thought it might be worth a try here.
Thanks
I read a short story many years ago with a twist ending similar to Ray Bradbury stories. the story was post apocalyptic and the ending involved a strange alien bird like creature that poos on the road Tarmac and a plant begins to grow that cracks and destroys the road. The implication being that the birds presence has led to the end of the world as we know it because all concrete etc has been destroyed. I was reading a lot of Bradbury and Allen Dean Foster at the time so it could have been them but I have never come across the story again despite searching every few years.
I'm running out of good science fiction books to read, any good sugestions?
I really enjoy books about xenoarcheology (rama, heritage universe, McDevitt, etc.) I think I've read all of the current mainstream sf (Hamilton, Corey, Ian Banks, Scalli,Reynolds) and most of the famous classics (Clark, Asimov, Niven, Pohl, Simons (hyperion), v. Vinge, , Greg Bear, Greg Egan)
A haunting quote from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is
"Many Bothans died to bring us this information."
I love how the actress looks as she delivers this line, as if she is remembering specific individuals that were lost. From what I can remember, this is the only mention of Bothans. I have only watched the films, so I don't know anything about their race beyond this quote. Do Bothans appear anywhere in the Star Wars films? Are they depicted in any group shots?
I have just read Stephen Baxter's PROXIMA and as it is early on mentioned in the novel, the protagonit's name "Yuri Eden" is not his real name. Yuri is the nickname he was given on Mars, Eden is the name of the Mars colony he lived in. Yet, I somehow missed his real name.
Over the course of the novel I began to suspect that he might be the original Robert Braemann. But this is only a speculation.
Is his real name mentioned in the novel or Have I missed something?
I read a book quite a while back (probably quite a few years ago) that I downloaded (probably for free, but maybe not) on iBooks. I do not have iTunes anymore so I can't find it from there.
It was a fantasy book about a girl with magical ability. It was set in a different world to ours. Kind of medieval-esque? It starts with her in this keep, and she works there since her mother died. There are creepy guys there but she used her magic to hurt one and now they stay away. Then this man comes along, realises she can do magic, and takes her away and trains her. There is a big plot about saving the world I think. And there's a warm hot country where there is a man called something like Soluman.
That's all I can remember. If anyone knows or thinks they know what this is, could you please tell me? I know this is very vague, but it's all I can pin down. I'm pretty sure this was part of a trilogy or series of books. And I think it had a female author.
Back in the eighties I saw an apparently sixties-era film on afternoon UHF TV. In it a crew of men and women were on board a time-travelling vessel. I think it was not a ship, more of a stationary pod a la H.G. Wells' time machine. Through the film the crew finds themselves in troubling time-related predicaments.
I remember two of these situations, only because even at my young age it was clear to me how illogical these situations were and how great the plot holes were.
One of these situations occurred when the crew time-travels to their own recent past--a previous scene of the film, I think. But the "past" version of the crew is frozen still, and the "present" crew comes to realize it is because time is flowing for them at a greatly accelerated pace, so that the world around them is almost, but not completely, still.
Later the crew travels again to the past. While in transit to the past, the crew discovers their vessel is on a collision course, through time, with another vessel. They attempt to hail it, and fail. The only way they can survive is to fire on it, so they do, and the other vessel is destroyed, though their own takes damage.
The crew arrives in the past and they do what they set out to do (I forget what). Then they board again, to return to their own time. And on their way, they again discover their vessel is on a collision course with another vessel. And the other is hailing them! And they hear their own voices! And their transmitter is damaged so they cannot reply! The conclusion of that scene may have been left to the viewer. And all that was while they are travelling through time, in a vessel that, as far as I can remember, never spatially moves during the film.
The only reason I remember this obscure, poorly produced film at all is because the plot holes are so gaping and obvious. But as to its name, I completely fail to recall.
In the late 1990's or early 2000's, I read a short story online about a skeptic who lived in a near future in which every sort of supernatural thing was believed by everyone but himself, (quack healing, alien visitation, witchcraft, aromatherapy, cryptozoology, spoon-bending, conspiracy theories) if you can name it, they believed it.
He was frustrated at how little good it did to point out logical inconsistencies. He got arrested by the inquisitor for consorting with grey-aliens or succubi. He had to stand trial and the judge allowed mumbo jumbo evidence. The judge took breaks because the negative energy from the skeptic's questions distressed the judge.
I think there might have been an annoyed neighbor who falsely accused the protagonist.
I think it ends with the protagonist found guilty.
But it's clear in the world of the story that supernatural phenomenon are all fake.
The whole story was less than 20 pages.
What was the title?
In Last Christmas
Coincidentally,
Is there any (known) significance to this?
In Chapter XVIII - The return journey of the book 'The Hobbit', Tolkien uses the word gun.
'The roar of his voice was like drums and guns; and he tossed wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers'
As far as I know guns are not used as a weapon in Middle Earth and I don't remember them being mentioned neither in The Hobbit nor in LoTR.
Was this a mistake on Tolkien's part or is there another explanation?
From the fact that the Lian Yu is somewhere in the Pacific, we can assume that the Queen's Gambit left from the west coast of the United States.
In City of Blood (S02E21), Felicity mentions that she moved 1000 miles from Las Vegas, presumably to go to school in Starling City.
Where is the fictional Starling City located?
Since he was the last regeneration, the teselecta could have just showed him dead.
The Bene Gesserit were planning to have Leto's daughter marry Feyd Rautha Harkonnen, resulting in the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach, and the end of the feud.
How were they going to convince Duke Leto, and the Baron to accept the marriage?
so.. this has been bugging me for years, and for the life of me, I cannot remember the title/author.. is a short story, sci fi, from. i'm thinking the 80's.. involved a military strike team, going thru some tunnels/maze with deadly traps in each section, which kill off a member of the team.. the last guy arrives, talks to the person in the bunker, who informs him he is the successor.. I think they call this guy the.. great satan? he basically supresses the excessive military in the world, firing missles if anyone steps out of line.. aka , the sole superpower.. any help in title or author, would be greatly appreciated.. I was thinking it was varley, but.. not him..
thx all ! j
I am trying to find the name of a fantasy book series I read many years ago. It has a grandfather wizard who lives in a tower. His grandson who is also a wizard who becomes a king and his sister who is also magic. These characters often change into wolves. It even tells of how the wolf pack works. The world is overseen by a group of gods that are all related. I hope that's enough because I am having a hard time putting the idea from my mind into words on the page. Thank you in advance to anyone that can help and those that try
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book, Severus says:
But never - never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear... especially Potter's son... I want your word!
Dumbledore replies:
My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?
Dumbledore asked Severus to protect Lily's son, (this is Severus's response) so i'm guessing this is the "best" of him? Instead of making a whole new question about the same subject, can anyone confirm this, if not tell me what the "best" of Severus is? He also said, "especially Potter's son," can anyone include why he said this as well in their answer?
Anyway, why did Severus not want the best of him revealed? And what is the "best" of Severus?
Towards the end of Last Christmas (the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special), Shona has a Christmas Day itinerary, the last item of which is "Forgive Dave???", which she ultimately checks off.
Considering the (albeit brief) focus on this (and the fact that some of the other items seem to relate to the episode), is there some deeper significance to the Dave item in particular, whether in or out of universe? Is it some kind of reference or just a random unimportant detail?
The story was about a universe where people were segregated by different aspects and trait of personality. I remember that there were 7 different planets (?).
One of these planets was the world of partying, where every sin imaginable was OK. It was even the law to take drugs if you were a citizen of this planet.
There was another planet of "Wisdom" or "Order" (?) where every person with good logic and a passion for learning and expanding their knowledge lived. Everything was calm and silent on that planet.
I just remembered a 3rd planet wich was the planet of "creativity"
I can't remember the other 4 planets.
I just remembered that all of this univers was govern by "The Immortals". The last human alive after the last war. and they've decided to divid the society into these 7 group based upon an important person's study in the far past. No one knew how they could still be alive.
The story was about one man who was at his 20th birthday more or so. I think this was the day you were assigned to your new planet. This man refuses to go where he is assigned so he is send to be judged. And then, at the audience, he attempt to flee. He suddenly bumps into a girl, that was there because she refused to have sex on her planet wich was the planet of partying, and they decide to make their way out together.
There were shuttles or crafts/ships but not for everyone. You were expected to stay on your planet and obey your own laws.
Since there are many species of different creatures in The Hobbit, I was pondering on the subject of how and when each race was created.
Which race was created first and which order were the other races created?
I have another sci-fi short story I cannot remember the title of.
A spaceship with two human beings is blocked by an enormous alien spaceship. Their occupants ask, "Which side of the war you are?" The humans answer that they do not know what they are talking about, and they were explained that in the Galaxy there is a huge war between Creators and Creatures, robot-like beings. The alien spaceship contains Creatures, so the human replied "we are creatures too"; the aliens then asked them to prove it. Eventually the humans sent them a copy of the Bible, which should have settled the question: the aliens agreed that the humans were creatures, but then they added "Your Creator seems to be really important. Bring us to Him. The final catchline was something like "You cannot ever find a priest, when you need it!"
Could someone help me?
He told Padme didn't he? Did she keep it a secret? Surely Obi-Wan would know through the force, as well as perhaps even other Jedi. Why wasn't he punished for his crimes?
Would the Captain America of the Marvel Cinematic Universe support torture or enhanced interrogation techniques?
Please support your case with quotes or explanatory scenes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or creative team quotes.
Are the Slugthrowers, in The Star Wars Universe, basically modern guns or are they more advanced?
As someone who didn't read the books, what are the physical laws of magic? What are the man made laws of magic? Does mass and energy need conserved? What constitutes doing evil with magic?
On the last Hobbit movie, after the Battle of the Five Armies, Legolas tells Thranduil that he won't be coming home. The latter tells him to go to find the infamous son of Arathorn, that goes by the name of Strider.
But, the Battle of the Five Armies was fought on T.A. 2941 and Aragorn was only born on T.A. 2931.
How could Aragorn be such an infamous rogue in the age of only ten?
Sources: Aragorn, Battle of Five Armies and History of Middle Earth Timeline.
What defines a curse or spell as dark magic in the Potterverse?
I found this quote
Harry saw a clean, gaping hole where George’s ear had been.
‘How is he?’
Mrs Weasley looked round and said, ‘I can’t make it grow back, not when it’s been removed by Dark Magic. But it could have been so much worse ... he’s alive.’
Deathly Hallows - pages 64 and 66 - Bloomsbury - chapter 5, The Fallen Warrior
and was wondering what makes something dark, or dark magic.
I know both Sisters of Battle and Space Marines employ a lot of brainwashing and mental reconditioning to their recruits to assure loyalty to the Emperor and the Imperium, but there was only one occasion I can remember of a sister ever falling to chaos, but a lot of instances where Space Marines did the same, from single astartes to entire legins no less. What can be the cause of it? both are pretty much faithful.
In the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Lupin could practice the patronus on the boggart, but when Harry was in the final task in the Goblet of Fire, he tried to use the patronus on the boggart, it didn't work and he then moved on to use ridikkilus.
Why could he use a patronus against the boggart, but then not in another?
When Dumbledore tells Snape about Voldemort being held from death by the part of the soul attached to Harry, he then says that to be able to finish off Voldemort, the Dark Lord himself must kill Harry.
What was the point of this if Dumbledore could himself cast Avada Kedavra on Harry to remove part soul of Voldemort? Would it work? Or, would it only work if Voldemort himself killed Harry?
As a young boy in the 70's or early 80's I watched a film which took place on Mars. There was a family living and the boy discovered that his parents where robots. That's all I can remember. Does anyone know such a film?
In other words, how dangerous could an out-of-control mad House Elf be?
I am trying to remember the title of a science fiction novel about a man who has a car that can travel back in time, and he can park it about 10 seconds ahead, so no one but him can see it. He travels to the time of the dinosaurs and likes it there, so he goes to the middle ages to find a pretty woman who has no relatives and takes her with him to live among the dinosaurs. I read this book about 20 years ago, and the library no longer has it. Anyone know this novel?
I always thought about this whenever I saw Harry Potter movies or read books, that where exactly magic lies? Is it in wizards or wands? As mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry is able to disappear the glass. Then in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban he blows away his aunt without even touching the wand. So if magic is possible without wands why do they need it in the first place. But Ollivander tells Harry that wand chooses the wizards, so does wand actually have magic? Kindly help.
Seems to be a pretty even match up.
The A-10 thunderbolt II "tankbuster" is equipped with a 30mm GAU/8 Avenger cannon capable of making swiss cheese out formidable soviet armor. It has titanium armor thick enough to stop 23mm anti-aircraft shells and also deploys an array of explosive weaponry such as the Agm-65 hellfire missile and Aim-9 sparrow.
Samug is a freaking dragon. nuff' said.
Who wins in a death battle?
Simple, every other race in Middle Earth has rings, why do Hobbits and Orcs not?
When Ronan makes his spectacular and violent appearance on GoTG, he comes out from a covered hole fill with some sort of liquid. He is in this liquid hole in the foetus position.
What is this liquid and how can he survive in it ?
The boy had an electric blanket from Sears and somehow it turned him invisible. He takes off all his clothes and goes to the library to test it out. He meets this blind girl who is freaked out when she brushes his bare skin. There is some reference to "The King and I". The boy has to go to the Sears tower to find a solution.
No idea what the title is
Just to be clear, this novel is not in any way related to Edgar Rice Boroughs or Barsoom. It was clearly a knock-off meant to cash in on the popularity of ERB's books.
I remember the following about the novel:
It had an off-white cover with a man fighting a green martian (but not an ERB green martian).
The novels production value seemed like a pulp-reprint, even though I read it in the 1980s. Probably reprinted in the 1970s, or so I thought at the time.
Plot points:
Man grows up next door to a French fencing master that teaches him how to sword fight.
He takes part in a teleportation experiment that takes him to Mars.
Adventures ensue, including a gladiatorial fight where the hero has to stall for time, so he slowly cuts his less-skilled opponent into hamburger.
Runs into an issue where he cannot marry the girl of his dreams if he kills her fiance. Some cultural taboo.
He eventually returns to Earth with only a few seconds passing, but coming back with scars from his adventure.
That is all I have. Any thoughts?
In Robot Chicken and Galaxy Quest, Kirk is depicted as a man whore. The premise of the Robot Chicken parody is that Kirk has spread herpes across space because he slept with every alien he came across with. The relevant line from Galaxy Quest is
Gwen DeMarco: Self control? That's funny coming from the guy that slept with every Terrakian slave girl and Moon Princess on the show.
It may be a stab at Shanter (Jason Nesmith, who plays the commander) but the quote says on the show, implying that the sex was scripted. I have only completed season 1 and started the first few episodes of season 2, and I don't see where Kirk is depicted as being promiscuous. Is this just a general joke or are there specific elements of the show that these parodies are referring to?
I dont remember much from the movie, the only thing I remember was this fat kid and this little kid who liked to play with sword and stuff, and the big kid always walked around with the little kid on his shoulders
It becomes clear that James Potter and Co. have bullied and harassed young Severus during their time in school. Severus has hated them, and has kept a grudge on him until his moment of death.
It becomes clear during the series that Severus has moved his grudge onto Harry, just because he has the same characteristics as James. He called him,
"-mediocre,arrogant as his father, a determined rule breaker, delighted to find himself famous[...]"
Why didn't he realize that he could have been respectful, and not like his father? Why didn't Severus recognize Harry as a new man?
Could be a movie, could be a twilight zone episode, I don't actually remember. I saw this when i was a kid 10-15 years ago.
Story starts off in a rural suburban town out in the middle of a desert or something like that. I'm pretty sure the main character was male, but I'm not even really sure about that. He starts to see through the virtual reality simulation. I remember, at one point, he looks around and every thing is in ruins, the people are old and disfigured. One of them thinks they are eating bagels, but it's actually crackers in a box labeled bagels.
Fast forward, he's traveling to the big dome city supposedly controlling the little town he's in. Something happens on the way there, not clear what. Then he gets to the city. It's a big biosphere type city. He runs around like an idiot for a few minutes, and find the big computer controlling the simulation in his hometown. Then he looks around and notices that this big dome city is under the same illusion. They are actually living in a simulation as well, while thinking they are the ones controlling it. Everyones wearing tattered and torn robes and whatnot.
According to Legends (C-canon) game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the Rebellion's start was as follows:
Galen Marek, pretending to be a Jedi, convinced Senators Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis, and General Kota, to start a formal open Rebellion Alliance (Corellian Treaty in ~2 BBY).
In reality, Marek was Darth Vader's secret apprentice, and the whole thing was part of a plan to lure all the potential rebels into the open, under the pretense of creating an alliance to destroy the Emperor (and in reality, to flush them out and crush them).
The plan initially succeeded - at the signing, Vader and stormtroopers arrested Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis, and took them to Death Star I to meet the Emperor and their doom.
This was disrupted when Galen Marek switched to the Light side, and at the cost of his own life bought the escape of the leaders of the soon-to-start Rebellion.
Question is: that was 2 years before events of SW:ANH, and for those 2 years Vader and Emperor knew that Bail Organa was a rebellious traitor.
Why didn't Palpatine crush (either arrest, or assassinate) Bail Organa (or the others, for that matter - but with Organa, he knew where to find him, on Alderaan or in the Senate) in between 2BBY and Alderaan's destruction during ANH?
Answers from any pre-Disney level canon are acceptable.
