metadigital

I said that. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes, but I was writing it as you were adding your epilogue. But it would be so similar as to be of no consequence. It's all archetypal really. Good guys, bad guys, big villain. I'm a firm believer in the Joseph Campbell... um... camp. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But the details are what make the fiction Tolkien Fantasy. You are describing a template for all myths, not Tolkienist fantasy specifically. If the hero wasn't a halfling, then a lot of the point of the story is void. Ergo, not Tolkien. That's the point of the question. Be creative! Be the Tolkien!

Don't forget the occurrance of earthquakes of necessary vibrational frequency to turn the ground under Hades's feet to a porous liquid-like substance that would swallow him, turning solid again as soonn as the quake subsides. I'm all for it. When do I get to send rockets into the Oort cloud? (w00t) Written by Moose in superposition of Badger. (w00t)

Looks like this is the reason: Reality is a harsh tutor. It is, unfortuantely, inevitable that the class of supremacy of sacred and secular law will directly effect all free societies. Cute. Not that this is ANY different from historical fact, regardless of the spin. Nations always act in their interests, only the stupid/arrogant ones declare war first, however (Hitler).

... Although humans do tend to have a fetish for pointy ears (Mr Spock, anyone), so they probably would be in any fantasy setting.

So, what exactly is it entangled photons do ? " <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Technically speaking the photons are travelling FTL, they are just communicating with each other faster than light can travel between them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The Alpha Quadrant in 1/4 of the Milky Way. There is also the Beta, Delta and Gamma quadrants. So says the Star trek scriptures. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Um, yes I know. I mean the Alpha QUADrant (i.e. one of the four) refers to the Milky Way Galaxy. The closest galaxy to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy, one of our local group. The (known) universe is billions of light years across, and we can only see the far away stars because they are uncommonly bright / technological advancements. As I recall the theory was a strange particle (literally a particle called a strange) might be created, which would in essence 'seed' a black hole by converting every other particle it touched into the same thing, thus sucking up the Earth and surroundings. If memory serves the predicted chances of this happening per an experiment were the same as winning the lottery 6 times in a row which is aproximately 1 in 7 trillion. Needless to say I'm not worried. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Exactly. But those that advocate a strategy of total risk avoidance might disagree. Innumeracy: thy name is Hades.

Verily astr0creep has spake the words of truth.

He wrote The Hobbit before the war, didn't he? Does that affect the question Wals posed? The elephant in the middle of your essay is that if Tolkien died prematurely, someone else's vision of nordic myths, with or without anglo-saxon imagery (as this is a far less well known area of expertise), would be what we regard as fantasy. I doubt any single person would duplicate Tolkien's effort, and certainly not his peculiar tastes and biases.

The alpha quadrant refers to our Milky Way galaxy (100,000 light years in diameter). All we have is information on is the known universe. So, what exactly is it entangled photons do ? " <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Technically speaking the photons are travelling FTL, they are just communicating with each other faster than light can travel between them.

He was still tinkering with the script when he was auditioning actors: take a look at the screen tests for Kurt Russell et alia on the DVD, there is confusion about Alderaan and Organa, for example. Pity he didn't stop when he and we were ahead. Cloning is a very old concept: after all, single cell organisms clone themselves. Co-incidentally the technology to clone people became headline news when he was writing the second film. (The Emperor has been cloned a lot in the comics, apparently, so it could have been a war started over that, or between two or more of the "Emperors" fighting each other.) Mass cloning was the convenient subject for episode two, just as GL used episode one as his soapbox against multinational corporations that exist above the laws of society. One thing is for sure, GL has been uncommonly lucky.

The solar system is travelling through space, orbiting around the huge agglomeration of black holes at the centre of our galaxy, like planets around a star. So is our Milky Way Galaxy, which is on a trajectory outwards (presumably from the big bang). That's what relativity is all about: everything is moving relative to everything else. Our galaxy is less than the age of the Universe, which is calculated at about 15 billion years. Our solar system is about 5 billion years old, IIRC. Million seconds equals about eleven and a half days. A Billion seconds is over 32 years. Yes.

Serenity

No.

So I just played the first bit of FEAR. And I think it is trying really hard ... somewhere between Half-Life and Max Payne ... though without much story. The developers seem to be relying on the fact that the audience will be "Wow! I'm a super-soldier!" factor. I am significantly underwelmed so far. I'm not even sure I should be shooting at everyone (are they on my side?) ... every time I shoot someone their cries for help come over my intercom.)

You know you want one! Just the thing to make a prissy elf into a way-cool dude of the undergrowth; just what's missing from dwarven hoopy frood.

I'm not a mascochist. I live in the Athens of the US Empire's Rome. And I still can't get a store in reality that has half the use of a virtual store.

It's really annoying that I have to use the internet to buy any good games. All the games that are kept in games stores are crap (apart form the new releases, which are only available because they are new).

If he liked doing it, then I would have thought he'd do it more often. Hee hee. The Empire that merchandizing built. )

Well they get kinda hungry, so I woudn't put it psat them. After all, the only reason they aren't spilling out onto the keyboard is because they're all eating each other ...

How was the learning curve for EU2?

It is about twenty years old, now. I managed to pick up Life of Brian yesterday for a fiver (the new digitally remastered print: SCORE!), so I am waiting for a downbeat moment to watch it again.

If he did it due to good foresight, or just because he couldn't afford to be the control freak he subsequently has become? Good question ... as he had a different script writer and director, maybe it was the former. Pity he didn't do it more often, though.

It is the trumpet call of the Omega: God of Ages has signalled the return of heaven to creation.

There was a cover of New Scientist a few years ago that illustrated the postulate whereby there are mini-singularities everywhere all the time, just not stable. I think it's a good risk to take, anyway, because one "risk management" becomes "total risk avoidance" we have ceased to be human. Just point that particle accelerator over there, please.

You are assuming that GL had a detailed script. He didn't. He sketched out an opera of (six or) nine parts, then chose the second three as the interesting series (because that's when the baddies gain an upper hand and threaten to overwelm the goodies in ALL formulaic plots), then fleshed out the first story as a film because it was the most interesting plot. He never expected the first film to be successful, so he only wrote it as a single film. Afterwards, he added the other two films in the trilogy (with varying success), one at a time. When he poured all his net worth into The Empire Strikes Back, he was betting everything on red in the casino of life: he came away from the roulette table with more money than he could spend. The prequel trilogy was just made up on the spot to retro-fit into the existing trilogy. When he wrote Star Wars (later renamed to A New Hope), the "clone wars" were just a neat-sounding name for some historical event. GL gave the prequels their flavour based on his own whims during his writing of them, twenty years after the first series.

Tip: try not to brow-beat the poor religious folk about the mindlessness of religious faith whilst doing good works. It looks churlish and one doesnot want to impede good works. (Also religious girls are gullible, but not when you insult their religion. Let them do it first.) Which church is it?