• (disco)

    They had the sonic screwdriver the old days too, but I don't remember a first appearance, complete with explanation, for the psychic paper. Doctor #9 just starts using it, and we don't get any story about how it works, what are its limitations, even when he picked it up (which matters because none of the first eight ever had this remarkably useful resource).

  • (disco) in reply to da_Doctah

    Huh... it seems Troughton used it at one point: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Psychic_paper

  • (disco) in reply to da_Doctah
    da_Doctah:
    psychic paper.

    Tardis wikia says it was given to the second Doctor by the Time Lords. I think they dropped it after that.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    Then Davies brought it back for Chris Ecclescake to use

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Then Davies brought it back

    Well, yes, but I think we all knew that, so I didn't bother to say it.

  • (disco)

    Ah, well that explains it then. I came in with Pertwee, and he never had it, nor did Baker et al, because if they had possessed such a thing it would have come in handy on any number of occasions.

    It's like Superman's power to change his facial features like putty. He had this power in some of his very earliest appearances and then it was dropped, never to be mentioned again.

  • (disco) in reply to Vault_Dweller
    Vault_Dweller:
    TIL the average citizen knows that they can kill a person by changing files on a computer miles away.

    When I worked in a prison, one of the sergeants, after shift over beer, told us that on the segregation unit, inmates on the flats (the floor level tier) could cause an inmate on the top (4th) tier to kill himself. Make of that what you will.

  • (disco) in reply to accalia
    accalia:
    PWolff:
    Hitler

    i really need to finish @godwin/@hitler/@hilter

    The problem with Godwin is that he did not consider whether some Hitler analogies were apter than others.

  • (disco) in reply to chozang

    Meta-Meta-Law of Godwin:

    As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a mention of the Meta-Law of Godwin approaches 1

  • (disco) in reply to PWolff
    PWolff:
    Meta-Meta-Meta-Law of Godwin:

    As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a mention of the Meta-Meta-Law of Godwin approaches 1

    It's Metas all the way down

  • (disco) in reply to PWolff
    PWolff:
    Meta-Meta-Law of Godwin:

    As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a mention of the Meta-Law of Godwin approaches 1

    Not to be confused with Godwin's Metta Law: http://www.godwin-home-page.net/

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    useful on Tupperware

    Ahh, no. Unfortunately you have stumbled across a world of pain that transcends the possible solutions offered by the Doctor. Actually, I don't think that even the Star Trek franchise can offer a technology (you know, something that has never been mentioned before, but is commonly available to solve any new, plot confounding, issue even if it takes until 3/4 of the way through the "3rd Act" for somebody to remember it) that will help to open Tupperware® containers.

    Note: I was going to just add "to", but I'm not that cruel

  • (disco) in reply to loose
    loose:
    Actually, I don't think that even the Star Trek franchise can offer a technology (you know, something that has never been mentioned before, but is commonly available to solve any new, plot confounding, issue even if it takes until 3/4 of the way through the "3rd Act" for somebody to remember it) help.

    When your parenthetical is longer than the entire rest of the sentence, maybe reconsider clicking the "submit" button.

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK

    As used by your Government today :rofl:

  • (disco) in reply to blakeyrat
    blakeyrat:
    When your parenthetical is longer than the entire rest of the sentence, maybe reconsider clicking the "submit" button.

    /looks for "delete" button.

  • (disco) in reply to blakeyrat
    blakeyrat:
    When your parenthetical is longer than the entire rest of the sentence, maybe reconsider clicking the "submit" button.

    Or at least move it to a footnote, title text, or something.

    loose:
    I don't think that even the Star Trek franchise can offer a technology ... help.
    I am failing to grasp how this applies to Tupperware.
  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    I am failing to grasp how this applies to Tupperware.

    I think that was supposed to be a potshot of some kind.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    footnote, title text, or something.

    That makes the reading of it optional at best and a distraction to the flow at worst.

    HardwareGeek:
    I am failing to grasp how this applies to Tupperware.

    Do you guys just read the post, do you not bother to scroll back and find out what the post was about (in the case of a reply to another post, specifically, or replies in general)?

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    That's what I thought, too, but I'm not quite sure of the point. I'm guessing, since the original comment was about a sonic screwdriver, and the most common use for such a tool is to open or close something, that he is trying to disparage the difficulty of opening or sealing Tupperware, but IME, such a disparagement is not justified.

  • (disco)

    Is there a :badger: for persistently failing to recognise sarcasm and it's derivatives?

    Added Note: If not, can it be called a "sheldon". :sheldon: <-- one of those while you're at it, thank you.

  • (disco) in reply to loose
    loose:
    Is there a for persistently failing to recognise sarcasm and it's derivatives?

    Well, since nobody got your joke, perhaps you deserve an inverted whoosh :badger:.

  • (disco) in reply to loose
    loose:
    That makes the reading of it optional at best and a distraction to the flow at worst.

    If a parenthetical remark is so long that the reader wonders what is the context of the word following the parenthetical, it is also a distraction to the flow.

    loose:
    Actually, I don't think that even the Star Trek franchise can offer a technology ... help.
    The parenthetical represented by the ellipses was so long that when I got to the word *help*, for a moment I was confused why that word was there.
  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    If a parenthetical remark is so long that the reader wonders what is the context of the word following the parenthetical, it is also a distraction to the flow.

    That's your issue with processing information.

    HardwareGeek:
    The parenthetical represented by the ellipses was so long that when I got to the word help, for a moment I was confused why that word was there.

    Point taken, I can see the mistake I made (resulting from my inability to type at the speed of my thought [and you can make what you want of than {not that my assent is required}]). I will correct it immediately after submitting this post.

    Thank you.

  • (disco) in reply to loose
    loose:
    I will correct it immediately after submitting this post.

    Correction noted. It certainly clarifies the intent of your post. However, I still disagree with your disparagement of Tupperware. I might concede you the point, despite excessive (IMHO) hyperbole, if you complaining of the difficulty of closing them, but I have never found them difficult to open.

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Tupperware, which is about as electronic as a rock

    Rocks are frequently semiconducting in part, so this is overstating it for Tupperware.

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    I… what?

    Back at the time of Dr. Who, the TV news was always quite anodyne, whereas TV programs for children could be quite scary. Nowadays, the news seems to be looking for things to frighten us with. The idea in the past seemed to be that adults should be kept in line by being persuaded that everything was fine, citizen, while children should be worried about what might happen if they stepped out of line. Nowadays everything seems to be about protecting children, while adults are being kept in line by being frightened of the outside world.

  • (disco)

    @RaceProUK, seems I've taken a bullet (or two or three) for you, over your issues with tupperware. According the the Code of Discourse, you have to either:

    • Come clean about your issues with tupperware, or
    • Owe me one (you have the right, under the Code, to choose what the "one" will be)

    :) Or not.

  • (disco) in reply to loose

    List of reasons I mentioned Tupperware:

    1. It's plastic
    2. Erm... it's plastic?
  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK

    Not living plastic is it?

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat

    Funnily enough, I've never found the need to check the pulse of Tupperware…

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Funnily enough, I've never found the need to check the pulse of Tupperware

    You need to open yourself more to new and potentially exciting experiences.

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Funnily enough, I've never found the need to check the pulse of Tupperware…

    Does living plastic even have a pulse?

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    cyberpunk is going to be just as ersatz-retrocool as steampunk currently is.
    It probably still needs a while so that its future really is some way in the past in the real world. I ran a Cyberpunk 2020 game last spring, with all players in their early 20s, and it took a while for them to get it through their heads that the game’s 2020 is far less advanced than today’s 2015 in most ways. Give the genre (not just that particular game) a few more decades so people don’t really remember the time when mobile phones became smartphones and it’s probably a lot more believable again.
  • (disco) in reply to loose
    loose:
    regardless of the accuracy or lethality of the payload, it's weapon is pointing up in the air
    It’s also great fun to watch ST:TNG episodes with “firefights” and comparing the direction in which the character is pointing the phaser to the direction the beam comes out of it. My conclusion is that phasers, like those sliding, wooshing doors on the Enterprise,¹ are psychic and know what the characters intend to shoot regardless of what they’re actually aiming at.

    ¹ ISTR that quite often, somebody walks near a door and it doesn’t open because they don’t intend to go through it, or even because someone calls them back.

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    ISTR that quite often, somebody walks near a door and it doesn’t open because they don’t intend to go through it, or even because someone calls them back.

    That's because the doors are run by full AIs that are listening in, working out just when they actually need to open. It all sounds ghastly.

    https://youtu.be/Rs3pKS0pvZE?t=25m36s

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    somebody walks near a door and it doesn’t open because they don’t intend to go through it

    The advanced door opener sensors of the 24th century detect not only proximity, but direction, speed and acceleration to determine whether the person will stop before reaching the door. Contrast this with those of TOS, which sometimes failed to open at all, causing actors to crash face-first into doors that they expected to be open.

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Funnily enough, I've never found the need to check the pulse of Tupperware…

    Someone needs to review Eccleston's first episode.

  • (disco) in reply to abarker

    Nah, I'll be OK; I don't own any mannequins ;)

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    The advanced door opener sensors of the 24th century detect not only proximity, but direction, speed and acceleration to determine whether the person will stop before reaching the door.
    Why do I have a sinking feeling that’s the official explanation for it, probably from some Enterprise Tech Guide or something? Quite likely from the same book a ST semi-fan¹ once showed me that illustrated where there are dolphins on the bloody ship.

    ¹ I’m being generous here — I liked the guy.

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    dolphins on the bloody ship

    :question:

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth

    That's if they bother to explain it at all; this is probably an urban legend, but supposedly when the Trek writers were asked "How to Heisenberg compensators work?", their reply was "Very well thankyou!".

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek

    I kid you not. I’m hazy on the details, because this was between 15 and 20 years ago, but I have this memory of browsing through this book about the Enterprise from ST:TNG and it having a cross-section drawing of the ship in it that pointed out where there’s a basin with dolphins. My immediate thought was that it would have been nice if those had been mentioned on the show if they’re included in the book …

    Of course, it could be that my mind is going more than I already suspect it is, but I don’t think so in this case.

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth

    http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D)#Crew

    The ship also carried dolphins. (TNG: "The Perfect Mate")

    http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dolphin

    Also, :wtf:

  • (disco) in reply to abarker
    abarker:
    RaceProUK:
    Funnily enough, I've never found the need to check the pulse of Tupperware…

    Someone needs to review Eccleston's first episode.

    Partially my bad - I was too lazy to look up the official name of the monster.

  • (disco) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    ISTR that quite often, somebody walks near a door and it doesn’t open because they don’t intend to go through it, or even because someone calls them back.

    So the elevator technology finally became cheap enough to be applied to simple doors.

    https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_6_2 - last paragraph starting with "Modern elevators"

    (It seems wikiquote.org isn't whitelisted for oneboxing yet.)

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat
    PleegWat:
    I was too lazy to look up the official name of the monster.
    Autons
  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    Nah, I'll be OK; I don't own any mannequins

    Given the presence of the spinning Christmas tree in that episode, it's not safe to assume you're safe. I CBA to rewatch it now but I thought other things were becoming alive too.

    I'm also almost positive the Autons in TOS were able to use pretty much anything plastic: yep, Wikipedia agrees: "In [a Pertwee episode], the Nestenes also made use of more mundane objects, animating plastic toys, inflatable chairs and artificial flowers in addition to their Auton servants."

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    My only Christmas tree is a foot tall; if it attacked me, I'd simply step on it :smiling_imp:

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK
    RaceProUK:
    My only Christmas tree is a foot tall; if it attacked me, I'd simply step on it

    I'd feel bad about it, I really would, but if your toothbrush chokes you[1], I'd laugh.

    [1] or one of any number of other ways a plastic object could kill you.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    one of any number of other ways a plastic object could kill you.

    what you really have to worry about, is the stuff that sneaks up and wraps itself around you face when you are asleep...

    they don't call it cling film / clear wrap for nothing

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