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Inferno was the best Niven/Pournelle collab. Less dense and more fun than Mote in God's Eye, or Lucifer's Sledgehammer-of-a-Book.
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Dec 6, 2013 05:15
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SynthOrange posted:It's not Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series was it? no in that one the aliens have like 2050-level tech but they invade during world war 2 the parts i read were alright i guess but turtledove sex scenes uuuugh 
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Dec 6, 2013 05:16
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niven is pretty creepy but he has some good short stories
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Dec 6, 2013 05:35
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Gardner Dozois' Years Best Science Fiction Volume 30 continues the trend of being the years best science fiction.
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Dec 6, 2013 06:18
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i'm about to watch "traveling salesman". don't really know anything about it; don't even know if it's sci-fi or not. will report back.
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Dec 6, 2013 06:35
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Shaggar posted:stephen king is pretty creepy but he has some good short stories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMqUmb-S10
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Dec 6, 2013 06:37
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i watched the final cut of blade runner recently after being mostly familiar with the dc for many years. i literally couldnt tell the difference at all, which leads me to believe that the dc is fine for 99.9% of the public and the final cut is for the most part worthless. also i love this thread, i need to make more time in my life for reading. it seems all cool sci fi is limited to novels and im seriously missing out
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Dec 6, 2013 06:38
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BANME.sh posted:i watched the final cut of blade runner recently after being mostly familiar with the dc for many years. i literally couldnt tell the difference at all, which leads me to believe that the dc is fine for 99.9% of the public and the final cut is for the most part worthless.
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Dec 6, 2013 06:44
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BANME.sh posted:i watched the final cut of blade runner recently after being mostly familiar with the dc for many years. i literally couldnt tell the difference at all, which leads me to believe that the dc is fine for 99.9% of the public and the final cut is for the most part worthless. or vice versa I can't think of anything that's in the dc but not the final cut except "fucker"
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Dec 6, 2013 06:50
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hm okay so it starts off slow but then it picks up, at least by the standards of "five guys sitting in a room talking" movies. the ending was a bit silly imo. worth a watch if it comes up on netflix and you're bored and have a passing interest in computer science i guess. alternatively just watch "sneakers" again because it's way better.
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Dec 6, 2013 08:01
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haveblue posted:if history were constantly being changed how would anyone know? for all you know you remembered a different history of the world five seconds ago and will remember a different one five seconds from now yeah, that was kind of the point, it was a tongue-in-cheek argument why time travel is impossible
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Dec 6, 2013 08:30
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ol qwerty bastard posted:just watch "sneakers" again
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Dec 6, 2013 08:31
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Can-O-Raid posted:no in that one the aliens have like 2050-level tech but they invade during world war 2 I came across them when I still had the terrible habit of 'must read entire series' so I went all the way from ww2 with space lizards to bacon and spice addicted space lizards in space in 1980. I think that ended up breaking that habit though.
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Dec 6, 2013 09:46
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theflyingexecutive posted:also they consulted carruth for looper but they ignored him and had bruce willis tell the audience to not worry about it i don't think he's really talking to the audience there. bruce willis' character has excellent in-story reasons for trying to convince himself/others not to think about time travel. he's trying to convince himself that what he's doing makes sense, and he's trying to bully JGL into cooperating by handwaving the science away, when in fact both of them have a pretty good handle on how time travel works. if he actually thought about it for a single second he'd realise that there is literally no way his plan can ever end with him happy and he is just murdering children for no reason and getting mired further and further from the ideal outcome as he goes, which makes everything more horrific
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Dec 6, 2013 11:02
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Heresiarch posted:yeah, that was kind of the point, it was a tongue-in-cheek argument why time travel is impossible he does this with psychic powers too. basically his argument is psychic powers are completely unreliable or completely useless otherwise we'd be inundated by superpowered psychics
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Dec 6, 2013 15:59
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MANIFEST DESTINY posted:There definitely is a short story with a similar premise, I know what DiD is talking about but I can't recall the name. The idea was that an alien invasion fleet shows up in basically wooden ships with all sorts of old crappy tech, basically age of exploration stuff except for the fact that they have some kind of field bubble generator that lets them travel between stars/in a vacuum that is supposedly very very basic and they're shocked that we haven't discovered it despite having otherwise far more advanced technology. gently caress yeh thanks
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Dec 6, 2013 16:04
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please do not insult such a national hero
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Dec 6, 2013 16:52
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ol qwerty bastard posted:i'm about to watch "traveling salesman". don't really know anything about it; don't even know if it's sci-fi or not. will report back. no don't, it's np-hard
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Dec 6, 2013 17:40
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Mr. Wynand posted:she wasn't wearing a diaper, my immersion dude, you realize that it is Sandra Bullock and not Julia Roberts in Gravity, right?
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Dec 6, 2013 17:46
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axolotl farmer posted:dude, you realize that it is Sandra Bullock and not Julia Roberts in Gravity, right?
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Dec 6, 2013 17:59
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sandra bullock supremacy she defeated Mozart's Ghost dammit
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Dec 6, 2013 19:32
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Stross wrote a timetravel novella called Palimpsest - I read it late one night and was thoroughly confused by the end. If you managed better than I did;Should I go back and try again?
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Dec 6, 2013 19:44
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qntm posted:he's trying to bully JGL into cooperating by handwaving the science away, when in fact both of them have a pretty good handle on how time travel works that's why looper makes me mad. young bruce willis would have known to threaten suicide to make real bruce willis to look at his locket and force a happy ending (or at least shoot himself in the foot to make real bruce willis tip over)
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Dec 6, 2013 21:18
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angry_keebler posted:that's why looper makes me mad. young bruce willis would have known to threaten suicide to make real bruce willis to look at his locket and force a happy ending (or at least shoot himself in the foot to make real bruce willis tip over) iirc he was beyond shouting distance and had only seconds to do something
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Dec 6, 2013 21:20
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one thing i like about looper is the idea of the butterfly effect being less of a factor in things like, you change something and the timeline tries to preserve itself as much as possible, so cutting off someone's foot in the past doesn't radically change things in the now and everything is exactly the same except lol no foot
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Dec 6, 2013 21:23
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Cold on a Cob posted:lol no foot
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Dec 6, 2013 21:43
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Cold on a Cob posted:one thing i like about looper is the idea of the butterfly effect being less of a factor in things it's actually almost exactly the same time travel model as back to the future, complete with extremity-loss, except grim as hell
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Dec 6, 2013 23:01
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Except the Back to the Future model was moronic and only worked because it was a comedy, while Looper is just bad.
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Dec 6, 2013 23:14
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looper is a comedy too, hth
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Dec 6, 2013 23:23
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looper is really good and cool
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Dec 6, 2013 23:52
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i like that the psychics in looper are dipshits doing card and coin tricks
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Dec 6, 2013 23:52
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 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066040/ quote:Don't Deliver Us from Evil (1971) Hail
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Dec 7, 2013 02:23
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a diary? 
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Dec 7, 2013 03:01
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NoneMoreNegative posted:
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Dec 7, 2013 03:11
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The seduction scenes, in particular, are very erotic, and it's unlikely they would be attempted today in this highly reactionary, less sexually permissive era. 
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Dec 7, 2013 03:19
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MANIFEST DESTINY posted:blindsight is a yospos favorite. some aspects of it are quite good but there is a LOT of overindulgent crap stuffed into it. i recommended it to a friend and she found it insultingly implausible that consciousness is a pathological phenomenon unnecessary for intelligence but... it's a horror story. that's the monster. it only needs to be as plausible as draculas. i also don't agree but whatever we had fun talkin about it
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Dec 7, 2013 03:20
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Usagi-Sauce posted:i recommended it to a friend and she found it insultingly implausible that consciousness is a pathological phenomenon unnecessary for intelligence I'm kind of inclined to agree with your friend but I also agree with you that its totally valid as the main conceit of the story, it didn't bother me in context, possible or not its an interesting thought. My main gripe with Blindsight is how much time he spends enamored with his various Very Special Brains, which although its all thematically relevant, amounts to a lot of telling us how smart and perceptive everyone is without ever really demonstrating it. The sperg relationship interludes were insufferable, I had to skim and skip them, which is something I never do. In short, although I loved the alien and the way he structures the whole encounter, I hate all the characters. They're silly and obnoxious.
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Dec 7, 2013 04:32
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The ship AI is a good character. Ship is full of neurotic weirdos? Keep 'em in line with an unspoken threat of being eaten by a vampire.
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Dec 7, 2013 12:24
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WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND—In an appalling incident that has sent shockwaves through the surrounding community, authorities confirmed Thursday that the decayed, dismembered remains of 15 missing hobbits were found in the attic of highly acclaimed film director Peter Jackson. Jackson, 52, was reportedly taken into police custody immediately and is now awaiting charges. “At this time, we can confirm that 15 halflings between the ages of 25 and eleventy-one were discovered inside the home of Peter Jackson at approximately 4 p.m. this afternoon,” said Wellington Police District Commander Stephen Jones, adding that authorities were initially called when Jackson’s neighbors complained of “a rotting odor” emanating from his home, after which officers conducted a comprehensive search of the property. “We eventually found a hidden hatch on the perpetrator’s ceiling, which was held shut by three heavy-duty locks. Once we opened the door, we came across the victims, already deceased, all of whom had the hair ripped out from the tops of their feet.” While stressing that autopsies are still pending, Jones told reporters the hobbits appeared to have been gagged, beaten, and routinely starved, often receiving only one breakfast per day. The bodies were reportedly completely emaciated, while several were missing entire rows of teeth and covered in abrasions consistent with Hithlain rope burns. Upon being apprehended by police, sources said Jackson, who was reportedly nearly incoherent at the time, claimed that he was “just preparing a lovely feast for his guests from the Shire” and then began shrieking that “old Odo Proudfoot is up to all sorts of mischief again.” “From what we’ve gathered, Jackson lured these hobbits to his home with promises of pipe-weed, seed cake, and Barliman’s Best ale,” Jones said. “He then knocked them unconscious, stripped them naked, and bound their hands and feet before confining them in the windowless space above his bedroom, where they were kept alive for varying spans of time.” “We can also confirm at this time that a number of the victims had been sexually assaulted,” Jones added. Jones confirmed that alongside the corpses in the attic, authorities found blindfolds, whips, chains, and several Morgul-blades, as well as a long row of severed oversized feet nailed to a wall. Reportedly uncovered in a separate room of the house were hundreds of plastic bags filled with curly brown hobbit hair. Although officials have yet to release the names of all the victims, reports indicated that among those imprisoned in Jackson’s home were Shire residents Reginard Brockhouse, 49, Myrtle Underhill, 62, Donnamira Boffin, 57, and Fredegar Smallburrow, 74. Also said to have been found was the body of Daisy Gamgee, a 30-year-old adolescent hobbit from Bag End who was reported missing by her parents this past Mid-Year’s Day, having been last seen in Bywater at the Green Dragon Inn. Furthermore, sources said the body of one hobbit, whom investigators have yet to identify, was discovered skinned from head to toe and hung by the ankles from a 4-foot-high ceiling beam. “We are obviously dealing with an incredibly disturbed individual here,” said Jones, adding that Jackson will be investigated in connection with the two bloodied hobbit corpses dumped in the Brandywine River last year, eventually identified as Tolman and Mirabella Grubb of Bree. “It is still unclear what drove this man to such heinous and unconscionable acts. We did, however, confiscate a personal journal from his bedside, which will perhaps provide some insight into his mind once it is translated from Adûnaic.” Residents of Jackson’s Wellington neighborhood, meanwhile, expressed their utter shock that such a terrible tragedy could occur right under their noses. “It’s unthinkable that something like this could happen here,” said 38-year-old accountant Allison Gaines, who lives two houses down from Jackson. “This is a quiet, friendly neighborhood, and I’ve lived here my entire life. I didn’t know Peter very well, but he would occasionally wave when I passed him on the sidewalk.” In light of the tragedy, candlelight vigils for the victims are reportedly being organized this evening in Bucklebury, Whitfurrows, Hobbiton, and Long Cleeve. Thousands from the four Farthings are expected to be in attendance. “That man is an absolute monster who deserves to rot in the dungeons of Dol Guldur for the rest of his life,” said 77-year-old Erling Mugwort, speaking to reporters outside his hobbit-hole in Crickhollow. “I can’t believe we used to actually welcome him here. He would come and share in our songs and stories, and the thought of that makes my stomach churn.” “He said he loved us,” added Mugwort, grimacing as his eyes welled with tears. “He’s a very sick man.”
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Dec 7, 2013 17:18
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@HardSciFiMovies has been pretty good: A medical officer demands to know if a coworker is out of his Vulcan mind. He is sent to racial sensitivity training by Humanoid Resources. Teen hackers infiltrate a secret military database containing designs for a new superweapon. They deface the database with ASCII genitalia.
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Dec 7, 2013 18:11
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