Doc Quantum

Re: 11 Victoria's Secret models hit the catwalk as superheroines

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? OK, but how many of us wouldn't turn out like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty?

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction? Easily. Aliens? Well, there's always John 10:16(And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd). JMS had humans and Minbari crossing species during reincarnation cycles in Babylon 5. Delenn explains a view that every sentient being in the universe is just a splinter of the universe as the universe tries to understand itself. In Alan Dean Foster's Nor Crystal Tears, some human philosophical factions found their perfect counterparts among the Thranx and got along like a house on fire. In Warhammer 40,000, the Continuum puts a lot of effort into preventing humans from being exposed to Tau philosophy and religion. The scientific method is valuable for discovering how and why things work. Religion puts it in perspective by answering the question of why it all matters.

Re: Augmented Reality Start-Up Ready to Disrupt Business I don't know but that vid reminded me of this Conan O'Brien sketch.

Re: So Which Hideout are you looking at? I just got the luxury penthouse and it's awesome! Check the pics! http://champions-online.com/hideouts_penthouse "Bringing you champagne wishes and caviar dreams, this is Robert Lamprey in a very special episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Today, we'll prove that not every superhero lives in an underground cavern or a solitary Antarctic fortress as we take a look inside the downtown Millenium City penthouse apartment of billionaire playboy Maksim Winthorpe, aka Maximum Man. We'll see how this superhero enjoys his time off between foiling alien invasions, undead uprisings and Dr. Destroyer's nefarious plots after this this important message from our sponsor, Nar-Cola."

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf? Back in the good ol' days, my FLGS had a family-run distributor that had the books in the store the Friday after release almost without fail. Then the old man died and nobody in the family wanted to keep the business going. Now my FLGS is stuck with a comics/games distributor that uses its contract with the major comic book publishers as a license to screw over store owners and their customers.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

Re: "Neat" Pictures Eeewww! That's disgusting!

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf? My FLGS checks with his supplier every week for me but no joy so far on Champs Beyond or Star Hero.

Re: "Neat" Pictures FRA-GI-LE! It must be from Italy!

Re: Has anyone seen this Star Wars scenario anywhere? Hey, while we're on the subject of ex-padawans, it occurs to me that there are probably a lot of interesting stories that could be written about low-powered force-sensitive subculture. These are the ones with measurable talents but not strong enough or too erratic to be recruited into business or government service. What kind of prejudices might they face? Example:A kind-hearted female who, when frightened, generates force lightning just at her skin's surface that can stun and sometimes severly injure any living or mechanical being that happens to be touching her at the time. The Jedi Order would probably consider it a dark side manifestation (fear, the dark side is of) but not consider her a darksider. But what about her neighbors? Their knowledge of the force would be gleaned from holonet entertainment programs and since force lightning is a trademark of Sith... "If she weighs the same as a duck...she must be made of wood...and therefore...she's a Sith!" IIRC, in one of the Hand of Thrawn novels there was an Imperial Remnant bit character inserted to move the plot along. He was analyzing intelligence data with star charts and had a strong feeling about one system. He remembered being a child and watching a parade in the Imperial capital led by Vader. Vader stopped just before passing the boy and walked over to him. He place his hand on his head and advised him to trust his feelings in his future service to the Empire. Vader then resumed his place in the parade. The bit character recommended that his superiors begin their search for the heroes in that star system and wouldn't you know that's where they were.

Re: Augmented Reality Start-Up Ready to Disrupt Business It sounds like the wi-fi tech of the new edition Shadowrun. There is an office building near where I catch the bus that has a sign over a vacant ground-level space. The sign has one of those scanner codes on it like UPS uses now and the label on it says "AR APP".

Re: Science: Particles seen moving at FTL speeds (CERN) Clarke's Law:Technology sufficiently advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic. Everybody from theologians to quantum physicists agrees that humans have an imperfect perception and understanding of time and space. If we improved enough, we might discover that a lot what is currently science fiction plot devices and setting flavor is actually easier than we ever imagined.

Re: Has anyone seen this Star Wars scenario anywhere? I don't know. While it's explicit that full Knights can voluntarily leave the Jedi Order, it's not so clear as to what happens to the kids. Of course, almost all of them would go with the flow and join whatever service corps they were assigned to. Knowing no other way of life and being taught from infancy to obey the Council's rules, that's a given. As far as I know, a book called The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force is the only place that says the kids can leave rather than join a service corps. But that doesn't really make sense for the more advanced students, who could do a lot of harm with just the skills they have. My thinking is that it works on a sliding scale. The younger they are, the less training they've had and the easier it would be to let them go. If Dooku had not passed all his tests, I have no doubt his aristocratic family would have demanded his return. But what if, say, Obi-wan had grown disenchanted with the Jedi Order's way of service a few months before TPM? His master implied that he had reached the point where only experience could increase his knowledge and understanding. Would the Jedi Council have simply let him go? I tend to doubt it. As for wiping his memories or disconnecting him from the Force(which is a dark side power, imo. yes, I know that planet did it to the Yuuzhan Vong but I would still argue that's not really a light side act just a way to clear up loose ends in the novels), wouldn't that just reinforce his status as property? Some people in the Star Wars Universe routinely flush their droid's memories as soon as it begins to develop a real personality. I'm mostly basing my reasoning on how the Jedi were portrayed in the prequels rather than the novels because the films give a much better insight into Lucas' views on the Star Wars Universe. He did have near-total creative control on the prequels unlike the original trilogy. Based on the film portrayal, I think the advanced students wouldn't be allowed to leave because they have just enough knowledge and power to be dangerous to regular folks. They would become even more dangerous still if they fell in with criminal gangs and began tapping into the dark side. One failed padawan with intuitive flashes about economics could wreak havoc with the galaxy's stock exchanges. While it could possibly be justified, it would still mean that children recruited into the Order are property of the Order as well. And if they were mind-wiped or disconnected prior to leaving or simply mind tricked into accepting their fate, that means the Jedi Order isn't all that good. Individual Jedi might be virtuous, but not so much the organization. And to my thinking, it would certainly fit with Yoda's callous attitude toward Shmi Skywalker. For the Blackadderish Jedi, I had more in mind he learned a lot of his skills from various minor force users and the occasional dark jedi. When the minor leaguers taught him all he could get out of them, he'd just leave. When the dark jedis began ranting villainously about revenge on their enemies and using him as their tool, BlackadderJedi would decide he'd gotten all he could from them, slip away and drop a dime to the cops. And steal what he could from the dark jedi, of course.

Jedi youngling fails to get chosen for an apprenticeship. During studies of Republic philosphy, youngling has learned about individual freedom and its importance and wonders why that shouldn't apply to him, too. When told he's being assigned to Galactic Ag Corps, he requests release from the Jedi Order on the grounds that he is a free being not a slave. While the Jedi can spin a web of justifications and guilt for a lifetime of indentured servitude, the youngling rejects it and decides to run away at the earliest opportunity. Various adventures follow. I've always wanted to see how far the Jedi's eyes would bug out (at least those for whom that's not a normal condition) in such a situation. The Ag Corp and others always seemed unfair to me. "We decided you're not worth any further Force training but you have to follow our rules for the rest of your life." Also, I've been trying to think of a Blackadder-inspired Grey Jedi. I'm thinking he's not so great at TKing great weights but one of the best at fine manipulation(cheating at cards, drugging people's drinks, etc.) I've not yet found anything on the interwebs.

Re: Permian Civilization Resources? Thanks! I think what I'm aiming for is having societies run off real-world power sources but with magical catalyst/control systems like a lite version of magic tech in Piers Anthony's Incarnations series. Healing magic, magical construct household conveniences, etc are ok but the power grid and other infrastructure would be augmented and regulated with magical devices instead of magical streetlamps, toilets and other such things.

I'm trying to sketch out a set of Permian civilizations as part of the history of my superhero world. A long-range alien patrol ship gets chewed up in a fight just outside Sol system and crashes into Earth. The aliens are a telepathic hive mind but use a crystalline-based comm system to boost the range of their telepathy. The aliens are killed and their comm system is shattered into dust. GM handwave. The comm system dust is still able to maintain a link between motes for a very long time even as it's absorbed into the food chain. It's first priority is to recreate a communications link for its masters. Since their aren't any, it tries with local flora and fauna. It fails but its attempts trigger massive genetic mutations. Most of these mutants are nonviable and quickly die. The rest become the Cambrian explosion. By this time, the dust has completely deteriorated but left an adaptation imperative in the DNA of all the lifeforms it influenced. In some species, the evolution continues at a greatly accelerated pace until true sentience is achieved. Tribes form, then kingdoms and empires. Wars are fought. At the end of this period, a saurian empire creates dinosaurs as part of their plan to remake the ecosystem in their own image. Their final stroke is a technomagical doomsday weapon to wipe out their enemies but they lose control of it and cause the Permian-Triassic extinction. The surviving peoples scrape together what's left of their tech and culture and move to Mars, leaving Earth to the dinos. In the future, humans discover fossil evidence of these transplanted civilizations (including canals) and the remains of their terraforming machines (haven't decided if their should be a John Carter analog). All I've been able to find is http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Permian_Extinction:_Civilization

I'm trying to sketch out a set of Permian civilizations as part of the history of my superhero world. A long-range alien patrol ship gets chewed up in a fight just outside Sol system and crashes into Earth. The aliens are a telepathic hive mind but use a crystalline-based comm system to boost the range of their telepathy. The aliens are killed and their comm system is shattered into dust. GM handwave. The comm system dust is still able to maintain a link between motes for a very long time even as it's absorbed into the food chain. Its first priority is to recreate a communications link for its masters. Since their aren't any, it tries with local flora and fauna. It fails but its attempts trigger massive genetic mutations. Most of these mutants are nonviable and quickly die. The rest become the Cambrian explosion. By this time, the dust has completely deteriorated but left an adaptation imperative in the DNA of all the lifeforms it influenced. In some species, the evolution continues at a greatly accelerated pace until true sentience is achieved. Tribes form, then kingdoms and empires. Wars are fought. At the end of this period, a saurian empire creates dinosaurs as part of their plan to remake the ecosystem in their own image. Their final stroke is a technomagical doomsday weapon to wipe out their enemies but they lose control of it and cause the Permian-Triassic extinction. The surviving peoples scrape together what's left of their tech and culture and move to Mars, leaving Earth to the dinos. In the future, humans discover fossil evidence of these transplanted civilizations (including canals) and the remains of their terraforming machines (haven't decided if their should be a John Carter analog). All I've been able to find is http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Permian_Extinction:_Civilization