Google = God

According to some people, we are in the presence of a new deity: Google, its holy self. There are nine reasons listed, not sure about them myself.

1. Omniscient - well it gives answers, yes.
2. Omnipresent - as long as you have an internet connection, so not really.
3. Answers prayers - see point 1.
4. Immortal - wouldn't say so, aside from "may exist as a piece of software stored somewhere", but then that would apply to programs on floopy discs that most people would consider gone.
5. Infinite - Aside from endlessly repeating information, no. 'sides, there's always a last page to the search list.
6. Remember all - Not everything is cached.
7. Do no evil - Omnibenevolent? Wouldn't say so, see their answer to point 3.
8. Results are believed - well, only in that we 'believe' Google found those pages. As, even in more generous allowance of 'the results are believed', about as much as Wikipeadia.
9. Evidence of Google - well, yes. Eg Google.

We can test the godliness with the The Do-It-Yourself Deity test. Onmipotent, Omnibenevolent, Omniscient, Eternally Existing, all check. Not the Creator, nor Sustainer. Not Perfectly Free (does what we tell it to), and one cannot have a personal relationship with it (aside from some unusual sexual considerations). Plausibiliy: 0.6. Better chance of existing that some deities.

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HC Again Again

Posted too quickly for this weekend. I got in on the Saturday game, and by 'got in' I mean I was awake when they started at 12pm... which was 4am for me. Why? Although it did take me 20 minutes to get around to actually joining. But, anyway, in I got.

First up, a mission to help find a missing child. Not that hard (wasn't 'prestige'), but did involve me reading a book and becoming MORE POWERFUL! (Finally got the Guard Eyesight spell I really wanted.) Happy Families.

Then we headed out to a haunted hotel. Once again, like a recent mission, getting to the climax was a much bigger problem than the climax itself. Meh. The Travesty.

Then Shawn took over GMing, for the first time for me. We find our place somewhere very nearby, and yet unknowably strange. Just as well as I had my alibi ready! Ulman's Blue Period. (Also after game chat not worth listening to.)

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Making an Impact

Epic disaster movies and tv series have always been with us, with an extreme example coming up (about the Mayan calender flipping the page), and the most recent example was a two-parter called Impact. The moon is impacted, it draws nearer the earth, and Strange Things(tm) happen.

Now, they do obvious tropes of "families in danger" who must cross vast distances to be reunited, etc, etc., and so on and so forth, but we must have this. Apparently. It's the "Human angle". Bah. But... that's nothing compared to another trope:

TV SCIENCE! Which has absolutely no bearing with actual, real, reality-based science. Gravity doesn't work like that. Objects don't react to impacts like that. Science doesn't work like that! "But it's more visual!" The actual science can be incredibly visual too, possibly not on a tv timeframe though. We need an impending clock! And if something like this did happen in this time scale, there's nothing we'd be able to do about it in time.

Check out Bad Astronomy for more. Phil Plait wrote about this after seeing the trailer, it wasn't well received. As he wrote about what really would happen in something like this in Death From The Skies! Movie science doesn't stand a chance.

But it's all about the people. Natasha Henstridge is a beautiful scientist that early on is presented as an atheist (to Chang Lee... I mean Yee Jee Tso's faith believer). You just know she'll be a believer by the end. We have the Dad With Kids whom will get his kids. And the Guy With Fiancee, a variation on a theme that we still know the outcome of.

As ever, at the end, we come back to one basic question: if we must have disaster porn, why can't we can good disaster porn?

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Yes, Virginia, Bees do Fly!

I was watching The Bee Movie (which was more a 'C' or even a 'D'), and it opens by saying that according to science, a bee is unable to fly, but bees don't know this and fly anyway.

Yes, it's one of those old jokes, we know about it, apparently from way back in 1934. This is about applying the model of fixed-wing aircraft to bees and this implied that bees shouldn't be able to fly.

That's right, they can't. According to that model. Thing is, that's the wrong model. Using a mobile wing model... way-hey, bees fly! They flap their wings fast. Really, really fast. Don't believe me? Just look at the video below.

The important point is: People know this. It was explained a while ago, and certainly way before Bee Movie was ever considered. Yes, I'm complaining about this in a movie in which there are talking bees, but considering the science behind the creation of this computer generated movie, I would have hoped they might have at least thought for a moment about presenting correct science. But, then again, where's the money in that?


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HC Again

Once more unto the breach, this time with me in the lead. Pete, who plays a higher paygrade person that me, was off sick. Richard joined us, with a character that again is higher than mine, but was on a 'no brainer' so couldn't lead.

Not that I had many people to lead. One person, who had signed up, didn't turn up. And someone else had pulled out, with a new guy taking that spot. Fortunately, the new guy turned up, so basically it was him and me.

Fine, I might not have lead us to victory, but... I lead!

Handbag Redoux.

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The Chronicles of Risan: Part the Thirty-First

There were two things we needed to know to progress further. One: we needed the Focus of the Gods, so we could channel powers appropriately. Two: the Gateway of the Gods, so we could get to the big bad thing to do something nasty to it. We managed to track down the location to a general area, and found out that the focus was the bones of some dead lichy thing. We girded our loins and set off. [The Endurance skill check I suggested really paid off!]

We head in, and go to find the focus while Reed secures the Gateway. The area aorund the focus is corrupted, and when we pass into the area of corruption we are immediately set upon by some creatures. We owned the fight pretty well, with sound thrashings handed out to all and sundry. [The GM is mainly picking on monsters from Monster Manual 2, which are more balanced than in 1, so it was a fiar fight all around.]

Further in, we see a glow at the heart of the area, but first need to deal with the guardians of the area, angels! I find out that some of them aren't as tough as they seem, although they knock us for a loop whenever we knock them down. This fight takes a while longer, and our tentacly Warlord has to actually be a Warlord, which comes as a surprise to all of us. An Angel of Strength (I think) decided to pick on me, but a careful shot by me put him out of my misery. Once he was down, the others didn't take long. [Annoying flying things, I'm a melee striker, dammit!]

And then we entered the golden glow, and found a large gold dragon sitting on a dias surrounded by great piles of loot, bathed in radiance. However, when it stepped forwards to not be bathed, it revealed itself to be a Dracolich! The fight was on! [And I couldn't roll worth a damn! No change there then.] Unfortunately the dracolich had a little problem getting its breath back [no recharge for the GM], so it wasn't the most fair of fights. Not that we're complaining, mind. Ultimately, as expected, the four of us beat it to a bony pulp.

After loot haulage, we're off to the Gateway...

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Fin vs Tentacle

After the culture of yesterday's post, an effective counter is a movie that screened on the SyFy (don't ask) network: Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus !!!(*)

This movie features... wait for it... a shark... and an octopus!!! Frozen back in the the history of time, they are released and immediately set about destroying various things such as an oil rig and an air plane(*). If only there were Scientists(tm) who could deal with these creatures.

Fortunately, we have Debbie Gibson (yes, the singer) as one of a trio of scientists, who turn from eco-friendly to eco-terrorists without so much as a character arc (which wasn't the only thing missing from this movie). You can tell they are scientists because they wear white lab coats and pour coloured liquid from one test tube into a beaker and so forth. Science! At least we don't need to worry about any dramatic "oh, I must save my child/family/drama point" as the movie doesn't bother with any of that.

Just like it doesn't bother with such things as decent editing (cut weirdly to indicate action, and insert white flashes randomly!) and any kind of direction. Or proper special effects. Or continuity. And the end fight was LAME! AS!

Basically... it's as bad as you expect. Also check out PZ's commentary on this movie as he watched it. Very apropos.

(*)!!!!!!!!!!!!

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