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[Sirus]

Dammit, it's not supposed to be reasonable, it's supposed to be cool.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

I have a t-shirt with that exact slogan on it.

[Vector]

Like, that's the problem.  The laws of what makes the most sense in narratives generally don't coincide with the laws of physics.  They're two different universes.  And there's a sliding scale, between narrative and physics.  A narrative is not bad because it does not conform to physics, and physics is not bad because it does not conform to a cohesive narrative.

It's kind of how the approach of physicists is totally non-rigorous in the math world (non-axiomatic, makes assumptions based on physical intuition), and math is totally non-rigorous in the physics world (does not adhere to experimental data).  People keep trying to create a hierarchy of math over physics or physics over math, reality over narrative or narrative over reality, and that just doesn't make any sense.

yes that's what the movie is about

ilu

[Descan]

Colonization of the air (on Earth or on like, Venus or Saturn) is so much cooler than giant metal people.

[mastahcheese]

Colonization of the air (on Earth or on like, Venus or Saturn) is so much cooler than giant metal people.

I have to agree with this.

[Bauglir]

physics is not bad because it does not conform to a cohesive narrative.

Define "bad".

Although, yes, your actual statement is absolutely right, but when's that ever stopped me?

I need to see this movie. I desperately hope it's popular enough to remain in theaters until next month, when I have the money to do it. Or maybe I can talk my FLGS to give me cash instead of store credit when I sell off some cards that are about to rotate out of Standard >________>

[Mr Space Cat]

Colonization of the air (on Earth or on like, Venus or Saturn) is so much cooler than giant metal people.

I have to agree with this.

What if we colonized the air with giant metal people? Is it twice as cool?

[Max White]

Changing my address for the electoral commission. Under the 'gender' bit there was a box labeled 'other'. I don't even need it, but it is nice to know that at least as far as census goes they don't still go for binary gender options.

Also managed to finally bench press my own body weight. Woo fitness! Endorphins! Finding something with achievable goals to attach my self worth to!

[mastahcheese]

Also managed to finally bench press my own body weight. Woo fitness! Endorphins! Finding something with achievable goals to attach my self worth to!

I can crisscross my legs and set my feet on top of my knees. Then I can press my hands down on the floor and lift my body up.
Does that count?

[Flying Dice]

You can't tell me giant metal people aren't cool, I've seen the Iron Giant. On a related note, you don't build mecha or flying fortresses, you build both and then launch the former from the latter with giant railguns. Geez, it's like half of the people in this thread don't understand what really matters in life. 

[Vector]

You can't tell me giant metal people aren't cool, I've seen the Iron Giant. On a related note, you don't build mecha or flying fortresses, you build both and then launch the former from the latter with giant railguns. Geez, it's like half of the people in this thread don't understand what really matters in life. 

I like the cut of your jib!

physics is not bad because it does not conform to a cohesive narrative.

Define "bad".

What I'm really trying to say is that our current culture is super-into hierarchies, but what's being fought over is, well, different ways of articulating value.  And those are more area-specific; the relative goodness or badness of these ways of articulation should be measured on their ability to articulate in their domain, not any external measure.  Their goodness is intrinsic, rather than extrinsic.

Some things are just incomparable.

[mastahcheese]

You can't tell me giant metal people aren't cool, I've seen the Iron Giant. On a related note, you don't build mecha or flying fortresses, you build both and then launch the former from the latter with giant railguns. Geez, it's like half of the people in this thread don't understand what really matters in life. 

Now you see, that's something that Warhammer 40k did right.

[Bauglir]

Some things are just incomparable.

Yeah, this is a fundamental truth. It's strange, because people generally seem to get it on an intuitive level - we even have proverbs about apples and oranges. But then we run into this sorta thing, yeah.

And yes, mechas are pretty much great. They're the gunfists of the robot world. Impractical? Pshaw. Their inherent awesomeness adds enough value to easily outweigh other concerns. That's a practicality all its own. Actually, though, do we have enough mechas with gunfists? Because, no, no we do not.

[Pnx]

physics is not bad because it does not conform to a cohesive narrative.

Define "bad".

What I'm really trying to say is that our current culture is super-into hierarchies, but what's being fought over is, well, different ways of articulating value.  And those are more area-specific; the relative goodness or badness of these ways of articulation should be measured on their ability to articulate in their domain, not any external measure.  Their goodness is intrinsic, rather than extrinsic.

Some things are just incomparable.

I think it's less a culture thing than it is human nature, as a species we're crazy into thinking of things in categorical terms, and hierarchies are just a method of organising categories.

I think it might be something to do with the nature of information, the reality of the world is that these things exist more like a complex web of ideas that link together in an ever evolving system that's difficult to succinctly quantify. But it's hard to think about things in a way that justifies the way they really are, so you break them down into categories, and try to connect and arrange the categories together to make sense of the whole really complex picture.

I wouldn't say some things are incomparable so much as they're hard to categorise around each other... if this is making sense.

[quinnr]

First ever real attempt at creating a cosplay prop is complete. It isn't super awesome, but it's my first try, so it's super awesome to me. Looking back, I should have used the matte side of the aluminum foil, because it would have looked much better and less...shiny. Especially in pictures. I had to turn the lights down because it was too shiny. I did it all by hand, it was pretty fun, regardless. Also, I might have used paint instead of EVA foam, but I really wanted to see what the foam felt like, and it sounded fun, so I put that on there instead. Basically it's pretty terrible but I'm perfectly fine with that because it was a fun, inexpensive experience, and practice for the future.

Link to not-too-high-quality picture.

[Solifuge]

That Chakram was soooooo ridiculous. But I approve.