Music & Movies

I like Terry Pratchett. I have only read Small Gods (excellent!) and Reaper Man (just okay, but maybe that was because I was exposed to it endlessly before ever reading it).

Ulrike: I heard an anecdote about a teacher discussing the logical failing of the 'earth on four elephants on a giant turtle' cosmology. After describing the model (without the ocean, apparently), he posed the rhetorical question "What does the turtle stand on?" One of his students answered "Another turtle." The patient teacher then asked "What does THAT turtle stand on?", to which the student replied "Another turtle." The teacher asked again "Then what does THAT turtle stand on?", to which the slightly exasperated student replied "It's turtles all the way down!"

Ah, you're not a Pratchett fan... Pratchett solves the dilemma by having the turtle be a space-dwelling turtle that, well, swims through space! It's not standing on anything, it's just floating in space. (Now the question of how dense it has to be to avoid violent decompression in a vacuum is another matter altogether..., not to mention how long it takes signals in its brain to reach its flippers)

Folding space is what they do in Dune.

And, of course, the gender of said turtle.

Has anybody seen previews for 'Sky Captain and the Worlds of Tomorrow'? I'm going to see it just for the visual style. I have no expectations for plot and acting - if they're lousy I won't be disappointed, and if they're good it will be a bonus.

I agree with you sollunessen, that noir style is great! WHen is it out?

Ah! I'd forgotten about Dune! It still falls mainly along hyperspace lines, though, since you need an extra dimension to fold it in. Into? Within?

Well, how else would you fold space except into another dimension?

With space being folded so often, someone's gonna need to iron it eventually.

Well, we could fold it into a pretty rose... but the kusudama fold is a pain and a half to work with. It'd be much easier to fold it into a box or even a crane.

Or we could fold it into the cake batter...