Interesting Links for 12-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• First Private Spaceship Flight to the ISS now has a date.
  (tags: space iss Spacex )
• Motorola secures Europe-wide sales ban on iPhone, iPad - oh for goodness sake.
  (tags: patents germany law europe apple iphone motorola )
• This Banana Alien Might Have Ascorbic Acid for Blood
  (tags: banana alien sculpture awesome )
• The Evolution of Fictional Characters
  (tags: Character Comics tv comic )
• If Tarot Cards Actually Predicted the Future
  (tags: funny tarot webcomic )
• D&D;: More accurate than you think
  (tags: roleplaying dnd reality )
• Problems with anti-Mormons and anti-Adulterers - will the demographics hurt the Republicans?
  (tags: republicans voting usa )
• 57% of people thought that David Cameron was right to use the veto, with 14% disagreeing and 29% don’t know.
  (tags: europe uk opinion )
• Alternative Engineering - the future of architecture!
  (tags: architecture Alternative funny satire )
• Why Spotify can never be profitable: The secret demands of record labels
  (tags: spotify music business )
• AdBlock Plus to allow "acceptable" ads by default soon. I'm actually in favour of this.
  (tags: advertising adblock firefox )

Comments

[andrewducker]

Aaah. I simply do not expect the physics in a show like Star Trek to map onto the real universe in any meaningful manner. I don't expect it from most SF novels either, unless they explicitly aim for that. I grew up with the likes of Lensman, and am quite happy with people turning solar systems into massive laser-death-weaponry because it sounds cool, without working out the physics behind it.)

(I will read the article though)

[simont]

Sure, there's nothing wrong with silly physics done on purpose for the sake of coolness or plot dynamic. The article's complaint is that a lot of these things aren't done on purpose any more: they've become unquestioned traditions of SF-in-general, and now ships' fusion reactors blow up all the time not because a particular show has decided to adopt a counterfactual premise for the sake of the plot but just because that's what writers in general think fusion reactors do – they probably don't even realise it's a counterfactual premise.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, gotcha.

I shall hold fire until I've read the piece!