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Old 07-31-2009, 08:37 AM   #91
yvanleterrible
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Stephen Hawking once guess starred on Star Trek TNG. He was given a tour of the sets after telling them he had always been a big fan.

When he saw the set for the warp engine he said "I'm working on it."

I don't know if faster than light travel will ever be possible but if Stephen Hawking gives the idea enough credit to even suggest that it might be, then I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to claim I know it will never be.

Something to think about anyway.

Cheers,
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Let's say that it is possible. My question then would be; can a living being survive it?
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Old 07-31-2009, 08:48 AM   #92
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IIt seems pointless to read something written by somebody who is clearly intellectually duller than I... hell, what if I catch what they have?
But that would mean I hardly read anything at all...
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Old 07-31-2009, 09:02 AM   #93
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Let's say that it is possible. My question then would be; can a living being survive it?
Interesting question.

I guess the easy answer is that if we could figure out how to do it then figuring out how to survive it should be child's play in comparison.
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Old 07-31-2009, 09:39 AM   #94
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Let's say that it is possible. My question then would be; can a living being survive it?
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Originally Posted by PKFFW View Post
Interesting question.

I guess the easy answer is that if we could figure out how to do it then figuring out how to survive it should be child's play in comparison.
Clearly, y'all need a vacation in the Llounge last week. Adrian's Bar is open 25/7.5, but closes for second breakfast. The whole question will resolve itself for you while you are there. Hope you had a nice vacation there next week!
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Old 07-31-2009, 09:56 AM   #95
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Clearly, y'all need a vacation in the Llounge last week. Adrian's Bar is open 25/7.5, but closes for second breakfast. The whole question will resolve itself for you while you are there. Hope you had a nice vacation there next week!


In the Llounge EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE, and VERY PROBABLE as well . . . . a strange but factual truth.
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Old 08-04-2009, 01:55 AM   #96
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...And he told me that it's all pretend anyway so it doesn't have to make sense. I say fiction or not, it still has to make sense and if there is some special explanation for something illogical, they need to clue the reader in. So, what do you think...it's all pretend so who cares, or I am right to demand an explanation.
I can't help but to think of the original Twilight Zone series here. Many of the classic episodes require a giant leap of disbelief at the very beginning in order to set the stage for the story that unfolds.

An episode titled "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" comes to mind: A couple of state troopers are investigating reports of a flying saucer crash in a relatively unpopulated area, while in that same area, a bus driver and his passengers wait out some bad weather in a diner. They soon realize that there's one more among them than were on the bus, and the immediate supposition is that one of them is actually a Martian. I actually rather liked that they didn't try to explain anything at all about the flying saucer crash, that the level of panic fell far short of what one would expect should a flying saucer crash land on Earth, or even the assumption that a Martian would be indistinguishable from a human. You just accept the basic premise and enjoy what follows.

Of course, an episode of an anthology show and a novel are two completely different things, but in my opinion a good writer can ask a whole lot from you up front so long as he/she delivers a well-crafted story from that point forward.
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Old 08-04-2009, 04:25 AM   #97
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Just remembered something that really irritated me: In George R. R. Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" there's these flint mountains, and AFAIK it's a geological impossibility. It just kept taking me out of the story and I never got futher than the first book.
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Old 08-04-2009, 05:35 AM   #98
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Just remembered something that really irritated me: In George R. R. Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" there's these flint mountains, and AFAIK it's a geological impossibility. It just kept taking me out of the story and I never got futher than the first book.
Mountains made of flint? Yep, that'd pull me up quite sharply too. Flint occurs in layers of lumpy nodules in chalk, and sometimes in almost complete sheets. But a mountain of flint just can't happen.

There's a neolithic flint mine near me - great site - one of the mines has been excavated, and you can go down the main shaft.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/s...hosenImageId/2
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Old 08-04-2009, 07:23 AM   #99
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Mountains made of flint? Yep, that'd pull me up quite sharply too. Flint occurs in layers of lumpy nodules in chalk, and sometimes in almost complete sheets. But a mountain of flint just can't happen.

There's a neolithic flint mine near me - great site - one of the mines has been excavated, and you can go down the main shaft.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/s...hosenImageId/2
It worked really well for atmosphere, but it was just the wrong kind of departure from reality.

The flint mine was interesting. I've read about it long ago, and I htink they also exported flint out of the country. I tracked down a photo from a Danish flint mine (Google books link)
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Old 08-04-2009, 08:09 AM   #100
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Originally Posted by Ea View Post
Just remembered something that really irritated me: In George R. R. Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" there's these flint mountains, and AFAIK it's a geological impossibility. It just kept taking me out of the story and I never got futher than the first book.
I don't remember that, but then again, I have no specific professional or personal interest in flint and / or geology, so it might explain why.
Well, if a book contains stupid things about computer science, I'm much more likely to remark them. It might not lead me to stop reading the book, though, because I'm used to it (to be frank, it would depend on the scale of the error).

Ea, it's too bad that this prevented you from enjoying the story, as Martin has created a very interesting setting.

I feel that it depends on the goal and advertised genre of the book.
If a book is hard sci-fi, it HAS to be solid and scientifically credible. There shouldn't be much suspension of disbelief at play, in fact, it should mostly consist in accepting the author's hypothesis about scientific progress.
If a book is *simple* science-fiction without claims of scientific accuracy, then I am much more flexible.
I think I'm even more permissive with fantasy, especially for magic-based stories.

In the end, for me it's more about internal consistency than about compliance with an external set of rules.
The author might have to explain important discrepancies, though, either in the foreword, a footnote or integrating it within the story.

This makes me think about the "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" intro to Star Wars, it's an easy way (a bit too easy maybe) to give oneself a great leeway for inventing /modifying stuff.
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Old 08-04-2009, 09:04 AM   #101
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there's these flint mountains, and AFAIK it's a geological impossibility.
It's also relatively frequent to have impossible sun/moon combinations, like thin waning moon high in the sky at midnight. My father also told me he had read in a book by Lobsang Rampa that he saw Mercury near the zenith... which is as impossible*

[*] Mercury and thin waning/waxing moons are always close to the sun, they cannot be high up when the sun is "low down".

And it's fun when you see these thin crescents in movies with stars inside the obscured portion
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Old 08-04-2009, 09:10 AM   #102
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Well, if a book contains stupid things about computer science, I'm much more likely to remark them. It might not lead me to stop reading the book, though, because I'm used to it (to be frank, it would depend on the scale of the error).
Same for me.
Watching TRON was impossible for me, because of all the honestly too stupid ideas about the cyberspace. And I get thrown off by every single movie or book about hackers and how they supposedly hack into other networks or computers.

"Aha, there are three layers of security... Oh my god, they discovered me! They are tracking me! Thirtyfive seconds and they will get my address!"
...seriously, this makes my nuts roll on the floor (and Italian way of saying "good chap! this is nonsense!")
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Old 08-04-2009, 09:13 AM   #103
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Same for me.
Watching TRON was impossible for me, because of all the honestly too stupid ideas about the cyberspace. And I get thrown off by every single movie or book about hackers and how they supposedly hack into other networks or computers.

"Aha, there are three layers of security... Oh my god, they discovered me! They are tracking me! Thirtyfive seconds and they will get my address!"
...seriously, this makes my nuts roll on the floor (and Italian way of saying "good chap! this is nonsense!")
I found my new sig line.
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Old 08-04-2009, 09:17 AM   #104
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It's also relatively frequent to have impossible sun/moon combinations, like thin waning moon high in the sky at midnight. My father also told me he had read in a book by Lobsang Rampa that he saw Mercury near the zenith... which is as impossible*

[*] Mercury and thin waning/waxing moons are always close to the sun, they cannot be high up when the sun is "low down".

And it's fun when you see these thin crescents in movies with stars inside the obscured portion
that's my personal favourite.
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I found my new sig line.
Lo Zeno, how do you say this expression in italian ?
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Old 08-04-2009, 09:26 AM   #105
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that's my personal favourite.

Lo Zeno, how do you say this expression in italian ?
It's quite a vulgar saying:

"Mi fa rotolare le palle sul pavimento"

Alternatively, "mi fa rimbalzare le palle sul pavimento" which is more like "this makes my nuts BOUNCE on the floor"
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