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by Junghalli
2015-09-10 05:54pm
Forum: User Fiction
Topic: Why We Aren't All Things ("The Thing" prequel)
Replies: 4
Views: 5931

Re: Why We Aren't All Things ("The Thing" prequel)

madd0ct0r wrote:very intetresting. what suggested the dual conciousness to you?
The idea just kind of came to me, really, and the rest flowed from there.
by Junghalli
2015-09-10 01:47am
Forum: User Fiction
Topic: Why We Aren't All Things ("The Thing" prequel)
Replies: 4
Views: 5931

Why We Aren't All Things ("The Thing" prequel)

I wrote a prequel fic to John Carpenter's The Thing once but didn't think it turned out well, encountering this article inspired me to try a second take on it. ---------- “Please, kill us…” There is Joy and Sorrow, and there is a horror. The horror is a mass of limbs, without symmetry, like five or ...
by Junghalli
2014-03-16 09:43pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Global labor force: where'd the missing 1.5 billion go?
Replies: 2
Views: 1617

Global labor force: where'd the missing 1.5 billion go?

I was reading this and I noticed something: Between 1996 and 2006, the global labour force, consisting of people who were either working or looking for work, had grown by 16.6 per cent, to 2.9 billion, based on International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates.1 That labour force represented about t...
by Junghalli
2014-03-02 12:53am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Basic spherical geometry/math question
Replies: 17
Views: 4022

Re: Basic spherical geometry/math question

Ah, thanks, let me try that again: Let me try a continent 40 degrees wide in longitude and stretching from 10 N to 60 N, first on a planet with Earth's radius and then on a planet with .9 times Earth's radius: Earth: 4TT(6371^2)/9 = 56,673,830.21 km^2 sin10 = .1736 sin60 = .866 .866 - .1736 = .6924 ...
by Junghalli
2014-02-27 02:57am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Basic spherical geometry/math question
Replies: 17
Views: 4022

Re: Basic spherical geometry/math question

As far as calculating the area of made-up continents go, I think I've found a quick and dirty method. This site says: Suppose we divide a hemisphere into q equal lunes by drawing great cirles all from one point on the great circle which froms the boundary of the hemisphere. The lunar angle of each i...
by Junghalli
2014-02-22 05:59pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Basic spherical geometry/math question
Replies: 17
Views: 4022

Basic spherical geometry/math question

Probably a stupid question, I know, sorry: Say I have a sphere with a radius of 10 (inches, miles, whatever). Now I draw a square 4 (inches, miles, whatever) on a side on that sphere Now say I have a sphere with a radius of 5 It will have 1/4 the surface area of the first sphere And I draw a 2 X 2 s...
by Junghalli
2013-04-09 06:26pm
Forum: History
Topic: Genuine support for the lower classes in Roman history?
Replies: 8
Views: 5404

Re: Genuine support for the lower classes in Roman history?

How would you go about figuring this out? Were Roman statesmen in the habit of leaving descriptions of their motivations in such matters? I agree, but it might be just as bad to assume that modern ideas are entirely modern. Abraham Lincoln was not a modern liberal, maybe in a thousand years people w...
by Junghalli
2013-04-09 05:35pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Roger Ebert dies at 70
Replies: 75
Views: 20217

Re: Roger Ebert dies at 70

Christians would hate this shit if this happened to them but they have the thoughtlessness of the privileged. Christianity has the whole exclusive monotheism thing where alternative belief systems are bad and evil and engaging in them is a form of sin, so it's pretty easy to imagine why they would ...
by Junghalli
2013-04-08 07:08pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Boyd Packer says to avoid 'Tolerance Trap'
Replies: 36
Views: 5337

Re: Boyd Packer says to avoid 'Tolerance Trap'

FaxModem1 wrote:Tolerance can be a vice, huh?
There are plenty of behaviors I imagine most liberals would not want to see society tolerate too.

Just saying.
by Junghalli
2013-04-08 05:56pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Roger Ebert dies at 70
Replies: 75
Views: 20217

Re: Roger Ebert dies at 70

Who cares. Fuck, it's nice to think him and his pal get to watch movies together again even if it is nonsense. I mean geezuz, you think a forum built completely around made up shit could handle some made up shit. :roll: And to the point, the way most people think, they want him in heaven in whateve...
by Junghalli
2013-04-08 05:34pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: The Purge Trailer
Replies: 50
Views: 14939

Re: The Purge Trailer

The people in positions of power would hire people to guard them or simply leave the country for a day. I would suspect that it would be much the same as a riot and act in a similar sort of way and that the violence would mainly effect those already most at risk for such things. I could see large s...
by Junghalli
2013-04-06 08:44pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Roger Ebert dies at 70
Replies: 75
Views: 20217

Re: Roger Ebert dies at 70

Ebert was an Atheist. Those editorial cartoons are by people with a religious agenda, or the ignorant. Just because somebody's an atheist doesn't necessarily mean they'd object to something like that cartoon. Personally (as an atheist) I think my reaction to somebody wishing or thinking I go to Hea...
by Junghalli
2013-03-19 06:25pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: NPR: The New Perfectionism?
Replies: 6
Views: 2295

Re: NPR: The New Perfectionism?

I was thinking as I was reading that that a lot of this culture is probably driven by capitalism and its institutional incentive to create new consumer "needs". "You are inadequate, but thankfully there is a solution: buy this product and/or service I am selling!" The point about...
by Junghalli
2013-01-20 08:31pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Missing Primarchs (40K)
Replies: 101
Views: 15625

Re: Missing Primarchs (40K)

This is based on a very idiosyncratic reading of what the Emperor is* that I don't expect many people to agree with and explicitly contradicts the stated backstory I've heard, but one possibility I kind of like is he was actually completely sincere in The Last Church , and didn't react well to at so...
by Junghalli
2013-01-20 08:07pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Missing Primarchs (40K)
Replies: 101
Views: 15625

Re: Missing Primarchs (40K)

I don't know.My personal feeling was always Mutant/Alien lover instead. A Primarch falling on a xenos world, say Eldar or something and becoming a part of the xenos. Reminds me of what they did with Sanguinius in that Dornian Heresy fan AU (he was adopted by the mutants of Baal Secundus instead of ...
by Junghalli
2013-01-19 04:04pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Missing Primarchs (40K)
Replies: 101
Views: 15625

Re: Missing Primarchs (40K)

It might be as simple as they refused to join a xenocidal dictatorship bent on galactic domination. Back then, perhaps traitors could be just disappeared... but centuries later Horus is just too high profile (to say nothing of the real imminent threat of him) to make go away with an information pur...
by Junghalli
2013-01-18 03:17am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist
Replies: 20
Views: 6700

Re: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist

You might not feel that way, but to me, this is a worse insult than telling some that you think he does evil (=morally wrong) things. Your milage may vary. I think I kind of have the opposite feeling myself. All else being equal, I have a higher opinion of someone who's factually mistaken than some...
by Junghalli
2013-01-17 04:26pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist
Replies: 20
Views: 6700

Re: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist

I did not get the sense he assumes people aren't vegan only because they "don't know any better", rather that our perspective is always shaped by our experiences and he thinks it's possible that one reason they might have a different perspective from him is they they have not had the exper...
by Junghalli
2013-01-16 06:44pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Study shows casualties of GOP's War On Women
Replies: 29
Views: 4196

Re: Study shows casualties of GOP's War On Women

I find the weird intersectionality of patriarchy and modern scientific health consciousness here kind of interesting, I wonder what Straha would say about it. Apparently we're seeing the emergence of a kind of technocratic sensibility that pregnant women should be subjected to state impositions on t...
by Junghalli
2013-01-16 05:35pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist
Replies: 20
Views: 6700

Re: Confessions of an Ex-Moralist

The article paralleled some of my own thoughts on the true nature of morality (that it is basically an extension of instinct, and hence of desire). My point was that he just dropped the word "morality", but still keeps the conviction that his opinion and desires are more important thatn th...
by Junghalli
2013-01-16 02:58am
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Death by Degrees
Replies: 13
Views: 3294

Re: Death by Degrees

Yeah, to be honest I have no idea what the point of that article was. Maybe I'm just tired from work, but I just got no read on what the author's opinions or reasons for writing the piece were. I'm pretty sure it's about how in our system degrees have become less a real measure of qualification and...
by Junghalli
2013-01-11 04:56pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Blindsight - can intelligence exist without Sentience?
Replies: 28
Views: 8634

Re: Blindsight - can intelligence exist without Sentience?

I think you are missing the point of what he tried to explain. He said that non sentients as would be less likely to develop that technology because sentience is the drive that leads creatures to develop technology in the first place. A creature that is not self aware will not think about how to ma...
by Junghalli
2013-01-08 03:45pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Legalizing of Marijuana Raises Health Concerns (NY Times)
Replies: 65
Views: 8759

Legalizing of Marijuana Raises Health Concerns (NY Times)

From the New York times science section (any spelling or grammar errors are probably mine, I'm copying from the newspaper): In the '60s, marijuana was a hallmark of the counterculture, along with free love, bell bottoms, long hair and bandannas. But marijuana has had the most staying power. This mon...
by Junghalli
2013-01-06 06:27pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Greetings from Darth Mencken
Replies: 146
Views: 24397

Re: Greetings from Darth Mencken

Just curious, are you the same Darth Mencken who posts on my message board?

I'm Somes J over there.
by Junghalli
2013-01-06 06:19pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: Teenage gang rape victim commits suicide as second woman f
Replies: 111
Views: 15911

Re: Teenage gang rape victim commits suicide as second woman

It's also pretty amusing to realize that to a conservative muslim, they believe that their rules against scanty clothing to prevent such objectification based on dressing for the entertainment of men. That that in of itself is a form of objectification is i suppose a lost irony. It's just another i...