JHomes

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• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  "I am looking for a word meaning the same thing as frivolous, but with overtones of bad faith, malice & corruption." In a legal context, "vexatious" is the usual term. How well that would carry over to the context you...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  "Who or What was "Agent Green" of the Nazgul? Remind me again which book they showed up in?" Officer Green shows up in The Apocalypse Codex when Angleton and the SA have a virtual meeting with the Nazgul. He appears...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  "I'm less inclined to give Exxon executives a pass, because they had clear reports from their own scientists, and chose to hide and obfuscate the evidence to protect the bottom line." And that is a real difference. Other people could...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  "Wouldn’t the universe be a fun place if you could make the distance to your destination contract just by going really, really fast?" From the viewpoint of the people on the ship, that's exactly what happens. And their viewpoint is...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  "Shoggoth Gap and the necromantic cold war? Presumably a reference to the Fulda Gap," I read it as a reference to the infamous "Missile Gap" (Oh, noes, they have more missiles than us do) of the late 1960s, IIRC, parodied...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  "Polydactylism in cats isn't necessarily significant. There are thumbs and there are opposable thumbs," I am reliably informed that some polydactyl cats do have (sort of) opposable thumbs, although whether they have the reach and strength to operate can openers...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  I'm going to have to bow out. My session keeps timing out. Probably not at Charlie's end. JHomes...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  "Neither of them forbid FTL via mechanisms such as 'space warps' or ansibles, because those are simply outside the relativity model." So you have ditched relativity. Why not admit it? JHomes...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  "Still, if you're writing FICTION you can have FTL travel with or without as it pleases you." Applause. Just please don't pretend that it's the real world as we currently know it. JHomes...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  "As I have posted several times before, that is NOT true; it's a provably false dogma of the Church of Relativity. Relativity, causality, UNCONSTRAINED FTL, pick two is correct." As you have done several times before, you ignore that Relativity...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "Then what happens to the naked singularity?" My personal opinion, FWIW, is that singularities are nature's way of telling you your theory is broken. To explain what is actually going on in this case, you need quantum gravity, and my...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "Theodore Beale" Yes, that's him. JHomes...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "It is not a mouse..." Whereas this is. JHomes...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  One thing worth noting from the original strip, which I have read. The characters were not complaining about the existence of works that did not pass the test, but about the non-existence of works that did. They were also talking...
• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  Science vs Magic. My ideas are based largely on a bit in Black Easter, by James Blish. Science depends on the basic components of the universe being mindless things, that do whatever they do, and respond to prodding however they...
• Commented on Shrinking the world
  "residents are fighting tooth-and-nail against the idea of water meters and paying for what they use." Around here water meters are seen as the prelude to privatisation, which is expected to go about as well as it did in England....
• Commented on Shrinking the world
  "I guess speed helped out with distributed dispersal." More, I think, a case of not wanting the material left in purview of those waiting on the platform.. JHomes...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  Martin, Your purported link does not work, as it is missing the URL. JHomes...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  "why couldn't a country be a republic and still have a figurehead king?" Because if it has a king, then it is not a republic, it is a (constitutional) monarchy. This is a matter of definitions, not of practice. This...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  "If you do replace the monarchy (...), try not to replace it with a pointless ceremonial head of state." There is a point to a separate head of state, as long as they do understand that they are supposed to...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  One possible adavantage I have seen suggested for a constitutional monarchy. There are those who for some strange reason want to tug the forelock and bend the knee. Giving them an object for their adulation which is generally lacking in...
• Commented on Place your bets
  "I don't want to use any weed killer because I'd basically have to use it everywhere and end up killing all of the plants and lawn." There are weed killers where you apply them to the leaves of the weeds...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Escape from Yokai Land
  From the OP: "Hello Kitty—or rather, Princess Kitty—is a mouthless cartoon cat created by Sanrio Corporation" I have read, from a source I cannot recall but I thought at the time reputable, that Princess Kitty is not a cat, but...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Moz, Your presumed link lacks a URL. Markdown issue? JHomes...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Damian, Your link is broken. The close parenthesis needs to be part of it, and isn't. JHomes....
• Commented on Place your bets
  "Any sufficiently large digital registers are indistinguishable from the analogue representation of the quantities being stored" Not always true in a system that exhibits chaotic (in the strict mathematical sense) behaviour. JHomes...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Your copy of the Web link is borked. Interested people should use the link in Moz's post. JHomes...
• Commented on Place your bets
  "I'd much rather have 30cm of snow in my front yard than 30cm of water." There are a good many people here in Aotearoa who have reason to agree with that sentiment. JHomes...
• Commented on Place your bets
  "watch the food fights over which translation is correct" Bearing in mind that the translators of one of the most ferociously defended versions (that authorised by one King James) complained at the time that they were not being permitted to...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  'Which one? There's a whole bunch of "Ryanair adverts" on YouTube?' If it's what I think it is, it's not an advert, but a satirical song, about some very cheap fares indeed, but everything is an extra that gets charged...