So you hear people say, nothing can move faster than light, well that's BS. Nothing can move faster than light in a vacuum, but there are situations where other things can move faster than light when you take different mediums into account. Take a very thick piece of glass, and fire a beam of muons at 99% the speed of light through it with a laser also aimed at it. The light will slow down in the glass, but the muons can pass through glass without interacting with it, so the muons that enter the glass at the same time as the photons from the laser will exit before the photons.
actually, you can go faster than the speed of light, its just that you cant send useful information faster, so its kind of pointless
with quantum entanglement you could separate 2 quantum entangled particles across the universe and if you manipulated one particle, the other one would instantly do the same at the very same instant, which would be faster than light speed
although the information that is used while doing this is gibberish, so we cant use it for our advantage
A useless fact I learnt yesterday is that chapter 29 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is called Careers advice in the original UK edition and Career advice in the US edition.
Another ancient form of divination was studying a butchered animal's liver. Livers were bloody and so some cultures thought of them as the heart of a critter (not the literal heart but the symbolic one), and since livers were really weird-looking and all the pieces could look different from animal to animal, it seemed like something people could read.
In ancient China, they'd use tortoise shells for divination: you'd write some symbols all over the shell, then drill into it with a heated rod until cracks formed. Whichever symbols the cracks touched (or rather, whatever the diviner claimed to interpret from them) determined the meaning of the divination.
These days we know the only reliable means of divination is to stick needles in a voodoo doll of your favorite celebrity and then check their Twitter account for signs.
chapter 29 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is called Careers advice in the original UK edition and Career advice in the US edition.
That seals it. The British can no longer be trusted with the English language.
It's the same issue as maths vs math. This site says that both are equally acceptable abbreviations, though of course everyone secretly knows that maths is correct .
Nope the only working method of divination is writing your prediction after the fact happens and then making a false sealed letter with a previous date with your prediction in it.
A fraud like this actually happened in my country...
Nope the only working method of divination is writing your prediction after the fact happens and then making a false sealed letter with a previous date with your prediction in it.
A fraud like this actually happened in my country...
No there's also the tried and true method of predicting something super-vaguely and using prophetic symbolism. That way, not only are you never wrong, you can even be right multiple times throughout history. Your divination(s) will be basically immortal!
Nope the only working method of divination is writing your prediction after the fact happens and then making a false sealed letter with a previous date with your prediction in it.
A fraud like this actually happened in my country...
No there's also the tried and true method of predicting something super-vaguely and using prophetic symbolism. That way, not only are you never wrong, you can even be right multiple times throughout history. Your divination(s) will be basically immortal!
Nope the only working method of divination is writing your prediction after the fact happens and then making a false sealed letter with a previous date with your prediction in it.
A fraud like this actually happened in my country...
No there's also the tried and true method of predicting something super-vaguely and using prophetic symbolism. That way, not only are you never wrong, you can even be right multiple times throughout history. Your divination(s) will be basically immortal!
There is also the method of putting out different predictions under different names or to different people. E.g. a classic scam is as follows:
You write to 1000 people that Stock X will increase. To 500 other people you write that Stock X will decrease.
If it increases, you continue writing only to the first 500 and offer a similar prediction about Stock Y (again 250/250 split between increase and decrease).
Then after enough iterations you are left with a small set of people who you have just demonstrated to that you can reliably predict stock movements.
Same can be done with prophetic symbols - either intentionally or just by there being a large number of false prophets arounds. One of them is likely to be correct by chance.
So you hear people say, nothing can move faster than light, well that's BS. Nothing can move faster than light in a vacuum, but there are situations where other things can move faster than light when you take different mediums into account. Take a very thick piece of glass, and fire a beam of muons at 99% the speed of light through it with a laser also aimed at it. The light will slow down in the glass, but the muons can pass through glass without interacting with it, so the muons that enter the glass at the same time as the photons from the laser will exit before the photons.
actually, you can go faster than the speed of light, its just that you cant send useful information faster, so its kind of pointless
with quantum entanglement you could separate 2 quantum entangled particles across the universe and if you manipulated one particle, the other one would instantly do the same at the very same instant, which would be faster than light speed
although the information that is used while doing this is gibberish, so we cant use it for our advantage
The entangled particles could be said to not really be moving or traveling, it's just there, but changed by the other particle. Einstein was right, it is spooky
* A wyrmling gold dragon has a higher stat total than an adult white dragon.
* An aboleth's highest ability score is Strength. That is also true of unicorns.
* Stone giants are really cool! From playing Neverwinter Nights, I had thought that stone giants were just stupid evil brutes like ogres. But they're actually reasonably intelligent, neutral, and they're expert rock throwers! And despite the hierarchy of giants, stone giants live the longest of the giants, they have a higher stat total than frost giants, and they are as tall as fire giants.
* Hobgoblins aren't dumb brutes either - the average hobgoblin has 10 Intelligence.
* A regular bugbear with a greataxe would deal 2d12+2 damage per hit. Even the average damage from that (15) would be enough to instantly knock out a level 1 fighter with 18 Constitution. A squishier level 1 character could be killed instantly!
* If a goristo (huge minotaur demon) charges at you and hits you with a horn attack, it deals 14d10+7 damage (84 on average). That's as much damage as THREE claw attacks from a tarrasque!
* A balor by default dual-wields a fire whip and an electric sword. When it dies, its death explosion destroys the balor's weapons. But if you managed to steal the balor's weapons and then kill it while the weapons are too far away to be hit by the explosion, you could keep them!
* A wyrmling gold dragon has a higher stat total than an adult white dragon.
* An aboleth's highest ability score is Strength. That is also true of unicorns.
* Stone giants are really cool! From playing Neverwinter Nights, I had thought that stone giants were just stupid evil brutes like ogres. But they're actually reasonably intelligent, neutral, and they're expert rock throwers! And despite the hierarchy of giants, stone giants live the longest of the giants, they have a higher stat total than frost giants, and they are as tall as fire giants.
* Hobgoblins aren't dumb brutes either - the average hobgoblin has 10 Intelligence.
* A regular bugbear with a greataxe would deal 2d12+2 damage per hit. Even the average damage from that (15) would be enough to instantly knock out a level 1 fighter with 18 Constitution. A squishier level 1 character could be killed instantly!
* If a goristo (huge minotaur demon) charges at you and hits you with a horn attack, it deals 14d10+7 damage (84 on average). That's as much damage as THREE claw attacks from a tarrasque!
* A balor by default dual-wields a fire whip and an electric sword. When it dies, it's death explosion destroys the balor's weapons. But if you managed to steal the balor's weapons and then kill it while the weapons are too far away to be hit by the explosion, you could keep them!
I think I want to add some of those to my things I want to see in BG III list
word of the day: floccinaucinihilipilification
the act of determining if something is worthless.
Sounds like half the job of a major finance company. There are conglomerates whose entire business model is just acquiring smaller companies they think are going to be successful in the future, and those decisions are based on advanced business analytics and data that other companies don't have access to.
I always found it spectacularly pathetic that there are companies who make big money by doing absolutely nothing except for purchasing other companies.
luposlipophobia: The innate fear of running around a kitchen table, being pursued by wolves, while wearing fresh socks on a newly waxed floor because you can slip.
word of the day: floccinaucinihilipilification
the act of determining if something is worthless.
Sounds like half the job of a major finance company. There are conglomerates whose entire business model is just acquiring smaller companies they think are going to be successful in the future, and those decisions are based on advanced business analytics and data that other companies don't have access to.
I always found it spectacularly pathetic that there are companies who make big money by doing absolutely nothing except for purchasing other companies.
There are executives and companies that force adjustment plans and close companies for a living, which IMHO is far worse.
Comments
actually, you can go faster than the speed of light, its just that you cant send useful information faster, so its kind of pointless
with quantum entanglement you could separate 2 quantum entangled particles across the universe and if you manipulated one particle, the other one would instantly do the same at the very same instant, which would be faster than light speed
although the information that is used while doing this is gibberish, so we cant use it for our advantage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon
Ancient form of divination that involved the burning of a donkey's head to determine who was guilty of a certain crime.
In ancient China, they'd use tortoise shells for divination: you'd write some symbols all over the shell, then drill into it with a heated rod until cracks formed. Whichever symbols the cracks touched (or rather, whatever the diviner claimed to interpret from them) determined the meaning of the divination.
These days we know the only reliable means of divination is to stick needles in a voodoo doll of your favorite celebrity and then check their Twitter account for signs.
It's the same issue as maths vs math. This site says that both are equally acceptable abbreviations, though of course everyone secretly knows that maths is correct
A fraud like this actually happened in my country...
No there's also the tried and true method of predicting something super-vaguely and using prophetic symbolism. That way, not only are you never wrong, you can even be right multiple times throughout history. Your divination(s) will be basically immortal!
I see you've been reading Nostradamus...
There is also the method of putting out different predictions under different names or to different people. E.g. a classic scam is as follows:
You write to 1000 people that Stock X will increase. To 500 other people you write that Stock X will decrease.
If it increases, you continue writing only to the first 500 and offer a similar prediction about Stock Y (again 250/250 split between increase and decrease).
Then after enough iterations you are left with a small set of people who you have just demonstrated to that you can reliably predict stock movements.
Same can be done with prophetic symbols - either intentionally or just by there being a large number of false prophets arounds. One of them is likely to be correct by chance.
Their only problem is that if they ever get it right there will be nobody left to brag about the fact
Except the ones that will somehow be able to enjoy their eternal bliss while 99% of the humans who ever lived are burning forever in a lake of fire...
The entangled particles could be said to not really be moving or traveling, it's just there, but changed by the other particle. Einstein was right, it is spooky
* A wyrmling gold dragon has a higher stat total than an adult white dragon.
* An aboleth's highest ability score is Strength. That is also true of unicorns.
* Stone giants are really cool! From playing Neverwinter Nights, I had thought that stone giants were just stupid evil brutes like ogres. But they're actually reasonably intelligent, neutral, and they're expert rock throwers! And despite the hierarchy of giants, stone giants live the longest of the giants, they have a higher stat total than frost giants, and they are as tall as fire giants.
* Hobgoblins aren't dumb brutes either - the average hobgoblin has 10 Intelligence.
* A regular bugbear with a greataxe would deal 2d12+2 damage per hit.
* If a goristo (huge minotaur demon) charges at you and hits you with a horn attack, it deals 14d10+7 damage (84 on average). That's as much damage as THREE claw attacks from a tarrasque!
* A balor by default dual-wields a fire whip and an electric sword. When it dies, its death explosion destroys the balor's weapons. But if you managed to steal the balor's weapons and then kill it while the weapons are too far away to be hit by the explosion, you could keep them!
I think I want to add some of those to my things I want to see in BG III list
Armor Class: 19 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 97 (13d8 + 39)
Speed: 30ft., fly 90ft.
STR 16 (+3) DEX 20 (+5) CON 17 (+3) INT 18 (+4) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 18 (+4)
Saving Throws: Con +5, Wis +7, Cha +6
Damage Resistances: radiant
Damage Immunities: psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non magical weapons
Senses: truesight 120ft., passive Perception 15
Languages: all, telepathy 120ft.
Challenge Rating: 4 (1,100 XP)
I wish my character had a stat total of 109, was immune to normal weapons, had truesight, and could speak all languages, fly, and use telepathy.
I wish 'I' had a stat total of 109, was immune to normal weapons, had truesight, and could speak all languages, fly, and use telepathy...
Fortunately I'm an immortal shapeshifting alien with psionic and magical abilities...
Then why are you still studying cows?
They are interesting. For a time we thought they were the dominant species on your planet. We're still not sure they aren't.
That would be cats...
No, no, no, its beetles. There are more species of beetle than any other creature on the planet. Its a beetles world, we just live here.
the act of determining if something is worthless.
I always found it spectacularly pathetic that there are companies who make big money by doing absolutely nothing except for purchasing other companies.