Recent content by cephron

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    Bohemian Gravity (Queen song parody)

    Exactly what the title says...a string-theory-themed a capella parody of Queen's famous rhapsody! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rjbtsX7twc This video came out recently, so I don't know if it counts as "classic youtube" quite yet...but I'm betting it's headed that direction.
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    What fantasy universe would you live in?

    Haha! The quiz gave me Middle Earth, but (as I mentioned in the other thread) I'd prefer Narnia.
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    Situations that generate unusual planetary conditions

    Re: deep crater--what if the planet was tectonically dead? Would the crater still get filled in? Speaking of which, a tectonically dead planet would present a whole lot of interesting situations, the first of which is--correct me if I'm wrong--no magnetic field to shield the surface from...
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    What SciFi universe would you live in?

    Isn't Game of Thrones more fantasy than sci-fi? But it Game of Thrones is allowed, then I would definitely most like to live in Narnia. If not, then I would probably go with Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe.
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    Dimensions of Science Fiction - Hard to Soft, Optimism to Pessimism

    Very good point about the world coherence dimension, lpetrich! World coherence plays an important part for me in being able to enjoy scifi. Always frustrating when their own physics leaves them with huge plot holes...
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    Mass dialation for space drive

    I think that problem would be easily solved by having two discs of equal mass spinning in opposite directions--and moving them both up and down the tube together. But, I have no idea if this plan would work or not because of some more fundamental reason. Good thinking, though!
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    Is Science Fiction Losing Its Charm Due to Unrealistic Space Travel?

    Fascinating! I'll have to read up on this. Would you basically need multiple neutrino detectors arranged at distance from each other, in order to pick up relative differences and calculate the position of the source? Or can a single detector obtain the direction of the source? *goes off to...
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    Dimensions of Science Fiction - Hard to Soft, Optimism to Pessimism

    Looks like my favorite science fiction falls neatly into "medium". Niven and Herbert are probably my favorite authors. If I were to write my own scifi, I would have the most fun writing medium--introducing new physics that are not observed in real life, but don't break existing physics too badly.
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    Habitability of tidally locked exoplanets

    Nice find! Wish I'd seen this earlier.
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    Ants Dominate the World: Fictionalized in Movies & Novels?

    I wonder if your super-brain ants would still have trouble manipulating fire and metals. Any given tool is derived from previous generation tools and the toolmaker's natural ability, all the way back to first generation tools which were derived from the toolmaker's ability and whatever was just...
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    Is Game of Thrones Really Overrated? An Honest Review of the First Season

    I wouldn't call GoT "overrated"--I found it riveting and full of interesting story, with or without archetypical characters--but I agree with Jow that most of the sexual content amounts to "socially acceptable pornography". In my opinion, this is a negative thing. But to discuss this would be...
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    Habitability of tidally locked exoplanets

    @Dotini: I am fairly certain that tides consist of a "pull towards" on the near side and a "pull away" on the far side--gravity and centrifugal force (ie. inertia) gently pulling in opposite directions on opposite sides of the body. So the ocean should rise both at the subsolar pole and the...
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    Volume Expansion of Solid and Hollow Objects at Different Temperatures

    (as an aside, wouldn't that have to be 26 cubes? Nine on "top", nine on "bottom", and 8 between them? Basically it should be the number of cubes visible on the exterior of a Rubiks cube) Anyway, my feeling is that the hollow and solid objects should expand the same amount--at least in...
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    Negative temperatures , BELOW 0 Kelvin?-Confirmation please

    "Negative temperatures", BELOW 0 Kelvin?--Confirmation please Someone shared this article with me: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/absolute-zero-record-setting-negative-temperature_n_2404666.html ...And I've seen a couple others apparently referencing the same thing. If it's a...
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    Hobbit Movie - Thoughts & Trailer Analysis

    For me, the biggest letdown in the LotR movies was the way the eye of Sauron was portrayed in the last movie--a great big ball of fire on top of a tower. The Eye should never have been visible in normal shots, but only in "Ring-vision" flashes or through the Palantiri. IMO, to do otherwise...
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