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San Francisco, 12:25 PM
Mon Nov 9
21 posts in the last 24 hours
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10:10 AM
Theres an old saying among Space Truckers! Its not the giant fleas that kill you. Its the giant Rabid space dogs! #moraeriver
09:08 AM
Creatures such as that giant flea (and giant spiders, giant ants, and other giant insects or Arthropoda) are not physically possible.
Has anyone noticed how elephants, large dinosaurs, and other large land animals have thick legs? That's not an oddity of evolution but a necessity because, otherwise, the creatures would not be able to support their own weights and would collapse.
It happens because weight is proportional to volume, but strength is proportional to surface area. Thus, the ratio of strength to weight is proportional to the ratio of area to volume. Since area is poportional to size squared and volume proportional to size cubed, it follows that the ratio of strength to weight *decreases* as the size increases.
Ergo, a large land animal that is scaled up without modifications in its physical structure cannot support itself.
Interestingly, this is an old argument, first made explicit by Galileo. It also works in the other direction, which explains why insects such as ants can lift and carry objects many times heavier than themselves, compared to larger animals.
Now, I know some of you will argue that the giant flea is not an Earth flea and that it may be on a planet with lower gravity compared to Earth, but neither argument is actually relevant; Galileo's scaling argument is true anywhere and for anything. Besides, look at the tree - it has a thick trunk, thicker at the bottom, suggesting a planet of surface gravity comparable to Earth's.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no such thing as "Them!"... #moraeriver
09:12 AM
09:17 AM
09:17 AM
Brynn just got served! #moraeriver
09:19 AM
Ah, there it is!
Biology if B-movie monsters - [fathom.lib.uchicago.edu] #moraeriver
09:29 AM
Here are few other lame impossibilities for everyone:
[www.kollectablekaos.com.au]
[phazing.files.wordpress.com]
[www.exzooberance.com] #moraeriver
09:30 AM
@Roklimber: "Has anyone noticed how elephants, large dinosaurs, and other large land animals have thick legs? That's not an oddity of evolution but a necessity because, otherwise, the creatures would not be able to support their own weights and would collapse."
Yup, notice that all the time :-).
09:39 AM
09:41 AM
09:44 AM
And while your observation of the structure of the tree is correct (it is "thicker at the bottom"), your implication is that this is a tree made of cellulose. It might be that the tree is no more made of earthly materials than the flea.
In short, those who live in intellectual houses of cards should not be so quick to blow hard. #moraeriver
09:49 AM
A DeLorean going 88 mph is both realistic and fun. But traveling in time by doing so is unlikely. But also fun.
Why suck the fun out of fun by not being fun? #moraeriver
09:50 AM
It's all about ratios. The size, mass, and average density of a giraffe are all such that its legs and hooves can be what they are. If you were to scale a giraffe to the mass of an elephant, with a proportional increase in size, keeping everything else about the giraffe the same, it would collapse or die of overheating (elephants have large flat ears to cool themseleves off). #moraeriver
09:59 AM
10:04 AM
I beg to differ. I explicitly said:
"Now, I know some of you will argue that the giant flea is not an Earth flea and that it may be on a planet with lower gravity compared to Earth, but neither argument is actually relevant; Galileo's scaling argument is true anywhere and for anything."
So, unless that flea and the tree are made of diamond (a possibility, given that diamond is carbon, though it would be the wrong crystalline structure for the kind of chemistry that life requires) or silicon-based life (also a possibility, though unlikely, given the preponderance of carbon-based life over silicon-based life in the one place we know life to exist for sure), my "intellectual house of cards" has a large strength-to-volume ratio. :) #moraeriver
10:06 AM
...
Why suck the fun out of fun by not being fun?"
You didn't say it before, but you said it now. :)
10:07 AM
10:09 AM
Me, along with the rest of science, right? Don't confuse the message with the messenger. My post was not merely my person opinion, but a scientific fact.
"the giant flea isn't possible for a different reason"
It's not possible for a variety of reasons. One is good enough, though.
10:12 AM
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10:36 AM
Oh, and hearted for reminding me of my dad's "THIS IS WHY WE DON'T HAVE SUPER ANTS" lectures back when I was eight.
10:40 AM
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11:01 AM
11:06 AM
"Oh, and hearted for reminding me of my dad's "THIS IS WHY WE DON'T HAVE SUPER ANTS" lectures back when I was eight."
You're welcome, son. :))
Search your feelings, Luke. You'll know it to be true.
11:09 AM
11:16 AM
Though I have to say that I feel a bit insulted by your calling me an anal nerd. I am not a nerd! :))
Here's the thing, though. There is a line between acceptable fiction and stupid fiction.
If someone makes a movie where a normal human being flies to the sun, and survives, how many people here would *not* be complaining about a) the fact that a normal human cannot fly on his own, b) a normal human cannot survive in the vacuum of space, and c) a normal human cannot survive the sun's coronal temperature?
I'm all for imaginative and original fiction, but I enjoy it much more when it's based on what really can happen, rather than some completely off-the-wall breaking of rules.
Just because something is solidly rooted on science it doesn't mean that it is not, or cannot, be entertaining. Since no one really has tried, we don't know, but it could actually be even more entertaining than the stuff we have that violates basic scientific knowledge.
11:18 AM
11:27 AM
Dragonflies have wings, which provide lift, thereby decreasing the pressure on their legs when they touch land.
As for giant scorpions, the fossil you might be thinking about is that of a *sea* scorpion. Water creatures benefit from buoyancy forces.
I'm not saying that your oxygen argument is wrong. In fact, it's correct. I'm only arguing that there are other, more general reasons, why abnormally large creatures *identical* in shape and constitution to their modern versions cannot exist. Even ancient giant arthropoda, which apparently did exist, aren't the same as their modern counterparts.
Giant Fossil Sea Scorpion Bigger Than Man
[www.sciencedaily.com]
"Plus, you have to factor in the planet's gravity"
Yes, but for a given planet, that's a fixed constant. So, an ant on Earth cannot be scaled up to the size of a human being on Earth and still support its own weight. The same is true on any other planet.
Of course, if the surface gravity on planet X is much smaller than that of Earth, it could be that a creature on planet X could be much larger than a human being, but now you're comparing creatures of different planets.
Edit: Recall, though, that a planet with very low surface gravity cannot hold an atmosphere. Case in point, the Moon, with a surface gravity one-sixth that of the Earth. Thus, huge creatures (which would depend on oxygen and would have to consume lots of it) could not exist because there wouldn't be an atmosphere to begin with.
11:28 AM
"Its the deseased an infected body of BABORA STREISAAAAAND thats scary"
Isn't that her current state, already? #moraeriver
11:29 AM
11:33 AM
"is there any way that such an organism could exist? Let's just ponder for the fun of it, as a sort of mind expanding exercise."
I wish I knew enough about biology to answer that question. See, the thing is that there are structural as well as metabolic reasons why that giant flea could not exist as depicted.
I already mentioned the most basic structural reason, but there are others.
I recommend, to anyone interested, the reading of the article pointed to by Pijus. It goes through some of those more biologically related reasons.
The Biology of B-Movie Monsters
[fathom.lib.uchicago.edu] #moraeriver
08:55 AM
09:05 AM
09:11 AM
Have you read his "Expedition"? That's what immediately sprung to mind when browsing the gallery. #moraeriver
10:15 AM
08:48 AM
11/04/09
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George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Carl Hiaasen - Tourist Season
Thomas Perry - The Butcher's Boy, Metzger's Dog
and particularly in 'lowlife', 'outsider', crime capers:
James Grady - Six Days of the Condor
Donald E. Westlake - The Hot Rock
Jay Cronley - Quick Change, Good Vibes
I don't think it's a coincidence that nearly all of those were made into very good films (particularly in the early Seventies).
120 minutes is just right to learn to love a 'voice' for what it is and not long enough to learn to loath it for what it isn't. #writing
11/04/09
Does it destroy the flow of the dialogue when the reader has to figure out written pronunciations of a particular accent? and are you better off just using word choice and sentence length and all the other tricks you describe above? #writing
11/04/09
On the other hand, I am reading a novel where the protagonist is from Liverpool, and he's back in his hometown after escaping to Oxford many years before. The author stresses some of the Liverpool-specific pronunciation because it grates on the protagonist. He's lost the ear for the accent that used to be his own, and it sounds strange to him. It works. But it's small and almost an aside as the character rides the bus, so it's a very light touch.
Everything in moderation, I guess. #writing
11/04/09
The question is: how much is just enough? I guess another way to handle it is to simply tell the reader there is an accent at the beginning of the story and then not to worry about it. #writing
11/04/09
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What enrages me is author who use the same accent for every character that speak a language, even if they come from different places (a French-speaker from Quebec, one from Paris and one from Lyon is not going to speak the same way at all. Just like a New-Yorker, a Londonian and a Texan doesn't speak the same way) #writing
11/05/09
11/05/09
But artificial languages are like accents in that regard--you can't use too many strange words, or the reader gets overwhelmed, and perhaps annoyed. #writing
11/04/09
But it's funny you brought up Joss Whedon. I was just thinking about a particular Buffy episode where Buffy and Faith switch bodies. And so you have Sarah Michelle Gellar speaking with Faith's idiosyncrasies, and Eliza Dushku talking like Buffy...
The whole body switch trope has been done a lot on TV and it usually sucks, but between Whedon's writing and Dushku & Gellar's acting ability, when Buffy & Faith switched voices (and mannerisms) it was completely, awesomely believable. #writing
11/04/09
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It's the second half of a two part episode.
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You should have seen my copy of Dune... there was a post-it on like every third page. #writing
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Robert B. Parker
Elmore Leonard
Raymond Chandler
James Ellroy
Martin Cruz Smith
that I could recommend as examples. Of those, Elmore Leonard writes dialog that I'm tempted to (and sometimes do) read aloud, it's so interesting. #writing
11/04/09
Not that I could write fiction if my life depended on it, but I long to write a science fiction western taking place in 1890. Or a circa 1950 noir about a private detective that foils an alien invasion plot. Or... you get the idea: mashups of favorite genres. #writing
11/04/09
People had very different mindsets in the past. Heck, 50 or 60 years ago beating your spouse was seen as a the basis for high-larious jokes. Go back further in some cultures and infanticide was a wise economic move. (Yeah, this stuff still goes on today in some regions) Even enlightened and sympathetic characters should not have present-day attitudes.
This is getting off Charlie's topic but It's been on my mind lately. Sorry. #writing
11/04/09
A friend of mine (who had three kids of his own) remarked it was an unusually accurate portrayal compared to other books that kind of ignored the realities of stuff like that.
I also recall reading the reason wealthy Victorians had lots of servants was (besides what the Game Theory folks would call "signaling" their wealth) was that the typical large household was tremendously labor intensive to maintain.
In his Westerns (e.g. ALL THE PRETTY HORSES) Cormac McCarthy has a lot of great detail about the care and feeding of the characters' horses.
Takes a good writer though to present that level of detail in their novels, whether SF, Victorian, Western, etc. without making it sound like a lot of exposition. Makes for good world building, though. #writing
11/04/09
Some of these things I can learn, some are just out of my reach because I lack the means to travel or because the culture / skill / detail in question is lost to history.
It's that whole "write what you know" thing. A lot of it you can get from books, or community college classes, but that only goes so far.
I'm often amazed at how much a given writer has had to learn just to write believably. #writing
11/05/09
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11/05/09
I think the other thing about research is that it's often expensive as well as time consuming. So, hopefully if you're planning to travel to Europe to research a new book, you're already successful enough to afford it, and disciplined enough not to let the trip stop you from writing.
That's the great thing about it, though. You can take a laptop or even a paper notebook just about anywhere, and write while you're there. #writing
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Tha play is The Rivals. #writing
11/04/09
Note to self: must read Sheridan. #writing
11/04/09
There is one modern master of dialogue: Elmore Leonard. Just read his stuff and you should be okay. #writing
11/04/09
#@! #writing