# The Gaming Den

Welcome to the Gaming Den.

Skip to content

## Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Mundane & Pointless Stuff I Must Share: The Off Topic Forum

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply

- Print view

6614 posts

- Page 212 of 265
  - Jump to page:
- Previous
- 1
- …
- 210
- 211
- 212
- 213
- 214
- …
- 265
- Next

Count Arioch the 28th
  King
  Posts: 6172
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:40 pm

I can't find a decent explanation anywhere, but how does Neptune along with its moons revolve around the sun? I know it's sideways but I can't visualize the orbit along with its moons. Do they orbit sideways too or are the moon orbits along the solar system plane?
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Top

virgil
  King
  Posts: 6339
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by virgil » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:48 pm

All of the moons, except Triton, roughly follow an orbit around the equator.
Last edited by virgil on Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
Top

Fwib
  Knight-Baron
  Posts: 755
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Fwib » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:56 pm

Isn't it Uranus that rotates sideways? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Axial_tilt
Top

Prak
  Serious Badass
  Posts: 17329
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Prak » Tue Sep 15, 2015 7:55 am

So, in Fury Road there's a line about bullets being "anti-seeds," plant one and watch the thing die. I feel like I've heard this idea used somewhere else before, and I know it's not from other Mad Max movies, since I hadn't seen any until just a few weeks before I saw Fury Road.
Am I just remembering things, or is there some other work that's used this idea before?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

Count Arioch the 28th
  King
  Posts: 6172
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:14 am

> Fwib wrote:Isn't it Uranus that rotates sideways? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Axial_tilt

Turns out I'm a dumbass. That's what I meant to ask about.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Top

Fwib
  Knight-Baron
  Posts: 755
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Fwib » Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:15 am

If you scroll down the Wikipedia Uranus page, you get to this picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ESO_ ... 8by%29.jpg It seem that it's the whole Uranus system that is tilted vs the ecliptic, not just the planet.
If I'd bothered to skim through the whole article, I'd probably have helpfully included that in my previous comment, but sadly I seem to be more lazy than helpful.
Top

Eikre
  Knight-Baron
  Posts: 571
  Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:41 am

###

- Quote

Post by Eikre » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:03 pm

> hyzmarca wrote:I need a dirty acronym for a military research project and all the backronym generators I can find are most unhelpful.

"Federal Aviation Research Team" would be elegant.
More contrived, the "Compact on the Underdevelopment of National Transportation."
..."Financial Utilization Committee Concerning Boycotts Of International Services?"
Top

Maxus
  Overlord
  Posts: 7645
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Maxus » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:06 pm

From the Politic thread

> RobbyPants wrote:
> All I can think of is "Yeah! Remember how we won the Cold War by kicking the Soviet Union's ass militarily and not through diplomacy?".

I was alive when the USSR fell, but I can't say I was paying attention to politics, given how I was, oh, in the pre-school age, so I'm going to ask this: Why did the USSR fall? I've heard all kindsa of reasons--the administration being unable to do the planning to run some kind of effective communistic economy and it finally fell apart, them chickening out and even Gawd Got 'Em For Us (look, you grow up in the Deep South...)
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Top

virgil
  King
  Posts: 6339
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by virgil » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:10 pm

My impression is that the reason, in super simplistic and broad terms, was that the States and USSR were in a military arms race and the USSR went bankrupt first.
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
Top

hyzmarca
  Prince
  Posts: 3909
  Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

###

- Quote

Post by hyzmarca » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:25 pm

> virgil wrote:My impression is that the reason, in super simplistic and broad terms, was that the States and USSR were in a military arms race and the USSR went bankrupt first.

That's part of it. The real reason is that Gorbachev saw that pervious policies just weren't working and so tried to impliment reforms in the form of Glasnost and Paristroika, as well as diplomatic talks with Reagan.
This produced problems on two fronts.
1) With the state no longer censoring ever bit of critiscism, people are suddenly learning that things are much worse than they thought, and the reforms aren't enough to assuage them resulting in a rush of nationalistic sentiment.
2) Hardliners and militarists see the reforms and diplomacy with America as a huge mistake and attempt to correct it through a military coup.
These two issues come together in a perfect storm, the coup attempt destroys the USSR's political legitimacy and there is a cascade of nationalist secessions. Without the coup Gorbachev may have been able to cut off any secession attempts. But with it, the USSR was fucked. Gorbachev knew that and just let everyone leave the Union. More countries left until Russia was the only member, and the USSR government had no real power even over Russia.
The arms race with America was certainly a contributing factor. As was its end.
But saying that it's all America's fault is really downplaying the importance of nationalists, especially in Lithuania state, as they're the ones who basically started the whole thing off by splitting their Communist Party from the Soviet Communist Party.
Fuck, even Russian Nationalists resented the USSR by that point. And Russians basically ran the USSR.
Basically, the USSR dissolved because its member states no longer wanted to be members, they all wanted more independence. The choice was between appeasement and fighting a civil war against literally everyone, including Russia. And appeasement went out the window when military hardliners decided stupidly that fighting a civil war against everybody was preferable. Their coup failed, but the damage was irreversible.
The USSR was held together by the iron fist. Attempting to replace it with the velvet glove just resulted in everyone wanting to leave. And conservative backlash against that just resulted in everyone actually leaving.
Last edited by hyzmarca on Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:50 pm, edited 8 times in total.
Top

virgil
  King
  Posts: 6339
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by virgil » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:29 pm

Are there any non-subterranean geographic regions (valleys in all likelihood) in Europe that never get direct sunlight, even during the summer?
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
Top

angelfromanotherpin
  Overlord
  Posts: 9691
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by angelfromanotherpin » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:00 pm

If there are, my guess would be the depths of the Black Forest. Not that the region doesn't get sunlight, but that the canopy is thick enough that it doesn't penetrate.
Top

Maxus
  Overlord
  Posts: 7645
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Maxus » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:10 pm

> virgil wrote:Are there any non-subterranean geographic regions (valleys in all likelihood) in Europe that never get direct sunlight, even during the summer?

I've heard about some places in Switzerland where they get direct sunlight only seasonally, or at noon. So probably some around the alps.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Top

Stahlseele
  King
  Posts: 5930
  Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:51 pm
  Location: Hamburg, Germany

###

- Quote

Post by Stahlseele » Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:47 am

yeah, italian alps has one and i think norway has such a village as well.
they both basically only get sunlight for a few months in the summer.
and they both decided to install mirrors to rectify that exact situation.
Welcome, to IronHell.

> Shrapnel wrote:

> > TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.
> > Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.

Top

Blade
  Knight-Baron
  Posts: 663
  Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:42 pm
  Location: France

###

- Quote

Post by Blade » Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:09 am

The fall of the USSR is the result of a combination of factors, but in many explanations, the role of the organized crime is often downplayed (as it often is throughout history).
Due to the large restrictions in consumer goods, criminal organizations had a big market, and due to corruption they were able to expand greatly and become too big for the government to be able to contain them. This was another factor that led Gorbatchev to implement reforms to allow private companies.
Top

RobbyPants
  King
  Posts: 5201
  Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:11 pm

###

- Quote

Post by RobbyPants » Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:13 pm

> Prak wrote:So, in Fury Road there's a line about bullets being "anti-seeds," plant one and watch the thing die. I feel like I've heard this idea used somewhere else before, and I know it's not from other Mad Max movies, since I hadn't seen any until just a few weeks before I saw Fury Road.
> Am I just remembering things, or is there some other work that's used this idea before?

Assuming IMDB isn't lying to us, here's what you're looking for

> Toast: [counting their remaining bullets] Well, we've only got four for big boy here, so he's all but useless.
> [holds up a tiny derringer]
> Toast: But we can squirt off this little pinkie a raunchy twenty-nine times.
> The Dag: Angharad used to call them anti-seed.
> Cheedo the Fragile: Plant one and watch something die.

Top

Prak
  Serious Badass
  Posts: 17329
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Prak » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:45 pm

Right, that's the quote I'm talking about, but I feel like that concept of bullets as seeds has been mentioned in another work. And I'm wondering if I'm just making things up, or what.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

angelfromanotherpin
  Overlord
  Posts: 9691
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by angelfromanotherpin » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:55 pm

http://markfearer.com/Bullets%20or%20Seeds.html
Top

Prak
  Serious Badass
  Posts: 17329
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Prak » Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:33 am

Ok, here's a question that occurred to my mind reading the "Of course Usain Bolt's on drugs" discussion
Can anyone give me a real, concrete reason why athletes should not be given carte blanche on performance enhancers that doesn't boil down to "drugs are bad, mmkay?" I don't much care what people do to themselves, and I literally could not care less about sports. Hell, professional athletes' lives are on the bottom of my list of priorities for lives, right above conservative politicians. So the whole "drugs are bad" argument doesn't hold water with me, and the whole "sports need to remain a pure exhibition of human ability!" argument is bullshit, especially given how much technology pro sports uses.
So is there any reason why professional athletes shouldn't be allowed to dope themselves up to whatever heights of ability science can give them?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

erik
  King
  Posts: 5847
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by erik » Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:49 am

Other than that it incentivizes people to destroy their body for a competitive advantage? And the only people who could compete would be the ones who are willing to kill themselves to win.
The argument that professional athletes don't deserve to die does hold water with most people.
Top

Prak
  Serious Badass
  Posts: 17329
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Prak » Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:21 am

I suppose that's fair, but then we should at least have separate leagues for the athletes who actively want to drug themselves into Bane from Batman. I can get on board with the idea that people who don't want to slowly kill themselves to win shouldn't have to, but I'm pretty sure some proportion of professional athletes literally don't care.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

erik
  King
  Posts: 5847
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by erik » Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:51 am

In some cases it may not be slowly at all. Some methods can lead to clots, cardiac arrhythmia or other conditions which can kill quickly.
And if a Bane league were to become popular, which would be its goal, then once again you are incentivizing people to kill themselves as the envelope gets pushed. The rules are there to protect against exploitation, same as child labor laws, and other worker protections. To keep things from being a race to the bottom.
The "let em use drugs" line on doping in sports is catchy and sounds like something that could be argued for as a freedom of choice, but the more you look at it, the more reprehensible it shows itself to be. The downsides are that more people die or are dealt debilitating conditions. The upsides are that... people break more records?
It's dubious that it would even be more entertaining as you're not really competing skill and talent anymore; you're competing who has the most abusive technology.
What if people put engines in their bicycles for the Tour De France? Doesn't that change the sport into something else? What if a body is augmented with an exoskeleton to propel the pedals? What's the point then?
Top

Kaelik
  ArchDemon of Rage
  Posts: 14491
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Kaelik » Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:59 am

PS, sports, despite your concern about how they are all millionaires paid more than you, is primarily made up of urban and rural poor athletes fattening the wallets of the super rich disproportionate to any work being done.
So if you did allow drugging, you are basically say that all the people who currently found a way out of being poor with only limited body destruction can now be forced by mega rich who take no personal risks to completely destroy their body even faster to even have a job.

> DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?

The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Top

Prak
  Serious Badass
  Posts: 17329
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

###

- Quote

Post by Prak » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:19 am

Damnit Kaelik, why do you have to give me reasons to actually care about professional athletes? I had this whole delusion built up that pro athletes were no different from the cockbags who made my life hell in high school.
Wait.
What about stocking the Bane league with the mega rich as a punishment for their various fiscal crimes?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

Judging__Eagle
  Prince
  Posts: 4671
  Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
  Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada

###

- Quote

Post by Judging__Eagle » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:54 pm

> Prak wrote:Right, that's the quote I'm talking about, but I feel like that concept of bullets as seeds has been mentioned in another work. And I'm wondering if I'm just making things up, or what.

That reminds me slightly of the Nazi party's "Guns or Butter" economic model.
The Gaming Den; where Mathematics are rigorously applied to Mythology.
While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
Top
Post Reply

- Print view

Display:
Sort by:
Direction:

6614 posts

- Page 212 of 265
  - Jump to page:
- Previous
- 1
- …
- 210
- 211
- 212
- 213
- 214
- …
- 265
- Next

Return to “MPSIMS”

Jump to

- Main
- ↳ About the Gaming Den
- ↳ In My Humble Opinion...
- ↳ I Gave the Mouse a Cookie...
- ↳ In The Trenches
- ↳ It's My Own Invention...
- ↳ MPSIMS