BioGio

So, it looks like Hussie gave us an extra Flash.Some pretty good examples of the trademark bizarre cause-and-effect mixing; you could almost use this update as an entry-level primer in how convoluted time gets in Homestuck.~ BioGio

They'll do anything to garner a little more interest. Filming it in 3D got us talking, so I guess it's worked.

Isn't it just such an interesting concept? Almost... inspiring, I guess you could say, to think that human reason could have so much ability. Oddly, I was talking about Platonic realism and idealism (specifically, its application to geometry) earlier today.

Well, this might be interesting. I really hope Luhrmann uses music from the 1920s in the soundtrack but fear he may prefer pop as he did in Romeo + Juliet. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio looks great as Gatsby, but I have to question whether he has the ability to say "old sport" convincingly.

Honestly, that was probably my biggest issue with the series. In the first episode or two, we see Amon and Equalists actually making sense and talking about reasonable ideals. Then, all of a sudden, they go off the deep end and start doing all this crazy stuff that amounts to magical mutilation. Bryke didn't treat them with much subtlety or with a lot of consistency: It's almost as though the writers realized that their villains were just a bit too sympathetic, so they started making them into more clear villains.~ BioGio

The way of expressing the number "sixty" in base-12 would be the digits "50," because 60=5x12. Just like four in base-4 is "10." We use base-10 (decimal), though, which means that we express that value--sixty--as 60 (60=6x10). You've claimed that the Babylonians used a base-60 system, but I though that they used a base-12 system (hence their use of 12 zodiac signs and 12 hours in a day).50, therefore, does not mean the value fifty in base-12; it's the value sixty, even though it's written with the digits 50. Similarly, base-60 makes sixty "turn into" (i.e., be written as) 1. But we don't have one second in a minute, nor fifty, as the value remains sixty no matter how it's written. God this is difficult to express.~ BioGioEDIT: I did a bit more research and it seems that the Babylonians did use base-60, although they had something of a love affair with the number twelve. And their method of writing numbers was pretty convoluted, making it look like they actually used base-10 or base-3 at first glance.

I thought the Babylonians used base twelve. (60 in base 10 is just 50 in base 12.)~ BioGio

Source: Been A While...

Happy birthday! How is it being officially an AFOL?

Happy slightly belated birthday! Good to know you enjoyed it.

Nobody. But do you remember when Occupy Wallstreet protesters got arrested for wearing masks? Who even knew that was against the law? The New York police don't arrest anyone on Halloween, but silly laws are allowed to keep on existing, partially because no one enforces them. France has a national dress code, but it's easier just not to actually enforce it.~ BioGio

I just got through a line-by-line review of the prologue. Here it is. At this point, I had more to say about style than plot or characters, since nothing much happened.One thing: When I refer to an "academic" tone or style, I mean something very neutral, almost like you'd see in a paper--but not necessarily journalistic. ("Academic" isn't quite the right word, but I can't think of any other way to phrase it.) To sound "academic," you can use big words and complex sentences, but you shouldn't be too poetic. My recommendation that you write in this style is restricted to the prologue.~ BioGio

Id wash you a happy birthday but I thunk that--at, this point--that would..... be qualified as OFF-_TOPPIC.. So here are some spelilng gramar an formating erors `a la you're comics and their inspirotion. !!

I'd be a Deliverator from Snow Crash. Since most people don't know about Neal Stephenson and his works, here's a little description: Of course, the most interesting aspect of the career is that the Deliverator is a pizza delivery boy.I'd also love to be a Mentat or avout (from Stephenson's Anathem: basically, monks from space who study math).~ BioGio

"Posted by Phyoohrii in BZP Issues" Proto is an issue?

Oops, my bad. I was working on a science project, so I guess the subject matter floated across. Fix'd for clarity.

*obligatory reference to being the best country in history*

Woodworking, huh? Actually, that would also make a lot of sense. It implies a good understanding of plant life and how to manipulate it, although it's more of a vocation than a skill. Still, I prefer that sort of thinking--talking about manipulating plant life (to make it easier to live in a place with a lot of it).I recall another reference in a book to a "garden of death" (but maybe that was on Spherus Magna?), so there are obviously a few gardens, but the narrative seems to be more aware of them than characters are (since it uses "garden" symbolically and to refer to the East Garden of Mata Nui, which wasn't really a garden).Also, by decreased I mean from their reference of Spherus Magna, so there's less in the MU than on Spherus Magna.~ BioGio

We have yet to see any gardeners or gardens in the MU other than one in Mata Nui, where the Matoran had no option other than to grow materials for basic construction. Given the presence of greater technology in basically every other corner of the MU that we’ve seen, most Matoran weren’t making wooden dinghies. Further, the only use for plant matter (other than Mata Nui Matoran eating it in lieu of their typical “energy”) was eating a root medicine. Clearly, they weren’t growing plants in large amounts, but scavenging for them occurred.Finally, the Great Beings’ rationale for changing Jungle to Air was that there’s very little plant life in the MU. Emphasizing gardening would be rather useless; if the Great Beings deliberately decreased the presence of plants, they probably wouldn’t also include a talent that would increase it.The best way to approach this sort of a question is to assume that, if we haven’t seen it, it doesn’t exist/occur. One could easily say that we’ve never seen what life is like on the continents, so it’s too early to rule out the presence of Matoran eating a diet in line with ours. Sure, anything could happen, but we need to look at what has happened. And gardening isn’t one of those things.Also, the definition of “green thumb” is as follows:n. informal natural talent for growing plants: you don’t need a green thumb to grow them(Oxford American Dictionary, 2006).It’s all about gardening. We could redefine it, but it would just cause unnecessary confusion, especially among non-Americans and non-native speakers.

"Green Thumb" is actually a pretty specific term for "a skill for gardening" in specific. There's a lot of potential for confusion if the skill is unrelated to gardening (as I think it should be, given the lack of gardeners in the MU). (Plus, it's a US idiomatic term, so it may confuse non-native speakers and non-Americans.) Whatever power wins will probably have a potential name more along the lines of "heat resistance"--not necessarily a common phrase, but clear in meaning.~ BioGio

Perhaps you could go more generic--something along the lines of "an affinity for plants"? It wouldn't necessarily be about gardening (since that actually seems uncommon in the MU) but could involve, say, a good sense of which plants are edible, et cetera.~ BioGio

How do they know? Years of theoretical particle physics--basically, asking "What would cause *mass* and how would it work?" (and then answering the question, of course, using models and related problems and a lot of other esoteric things). It's neither something that can be explained easily to, or really understood by, the lay man (including myself). However, not understanding how something (i.e., scientific inquiry on this sort of a bizarre, indirect level) works doesn't mean that it doesn't work.

I don't think that you've got any problem with ambiguity, although that little snippet of dialogue at the end would work better in a medium like film, since here it feels kind of out of place. I don't know exactly how to articulate my issue, though, so that probably means it's not too bad. This sort of horror is rather reminiscent of creepypasta: short, shocking, and emotionally effective. I don't have a very strong opinion on the quality of the style, but it may be divisive. I liked your story, nevertheless. It's a good idea, and you execute it well.Grammar and style-wise, you're pretty good. There's one time when you don't capitalize "it" before the first break. Also, "It's green armor" should read "Its green armor." I'm not sure what to make of this phrase. Doesn't Kiina already have teeth?~ BioGio

Make a blog entry. Dump quotes in it. Link to it in the content block. Congratulations, your problem is now solved, and your blog will no longer have a bunch of colored text plastered on the side. Everyone wins.