This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Janitor: Yeah, sorry, Kizor. I called up Fast Eddie about this file extension case thing, and he was all <unintelligible-geek-speak about "regexes">, or possibly he lapsed into his native Gaelic. Hard for me to tell.
Red Shoe: There must be an example of someone powering a ship/device/whatnot from the perpetual motion/flight machine generated when you strap a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back, and then drop it.
Janitor: Red Shoe, put the pipe down! You are starting to make the kind of sense that is ... not.
it's good to know i'm not comedity's only fan on the wiki
Kizor: Slide.
The Grim Sleeper: I would like to start a discussion about the validity of the portal-example, as to me it seems more like standard jump physics and then at least deconstructed as the springs were added by the production-team as an explanation for surviving these falls, rather then just handwaving it. Ok, moved it. GENERIC HUMOROUS POST ENDER.
Kizor: Clean.
- The Orks in Warhammer 40000 have a strange mechanical aptitude... but much of their technology seems to run on nonsensoleum. For example red Ork vehicles move faster than non-red vehicles, explicitly because they are painted red. The nonsensoleum is explained in the setting as the Ork race having, subconsciously, a psionic gestalt that actually serves as the power source for much of their 'technology'. Thus, the red vehicles go faster because the Orks believe that red vehicles go faster, and for no other reason. And yes, this means that an Ork can make a vehicle go faster just by painting it red. For an extra few points a red-painted vehicle will move an extra inch per turn.
- This applies to all their technology; many Imperial fluff articles explain how captured Ork weapons and vehicles will not work when used by non-Orks, or simply be extremely unreliable and break down. Although most of the extreme examples have been retconned away, a diagram in a Rogue Trader book depicted a cross-section of an Ork 'Slugga'(large-bore pistol) which contained nothing more than a few gears and bullets laying inside the gun.
- Not to rain on the parade (this editor loves the idea that Ork technology only works because they think it does) but there is a more sensible explanation, usually used in conjunction with the "vehicles painted red are faster than those which aren't" theory. Basically, if a vehicle which is painted red proves to run faster, the Meks (Ork engineers, basically) will take better care of it, and as a result it works better. Not a perfect explanation, but a fairly rational one (and one which this troper likes to link to Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. It's mostly a case of people confusing cause and effect. The "it works because they think it does" explanation is cooler though.
- Oddly enough, in the fluff of the '99 Ork Codex, an Imperial researcher tries to apply the very same logical reasoning to the creations of the Meks, noticing how they just might not be aware of minor imperfections in design or fuel efficiency...then he all but breaks down in tears because a red Ork vehicle will still outperform another Ork vehicle identical in all respects except the paint job. While this sort of Darwinian process would be a rational justification, the "because they think it does" is the right one.
Some Guy: I recommend a clean on the whole section about The Core. Way, way too much conversation. If only I wasn't so tired right now...
Haven: Removed this example because I don't think it ever said in the movie that the ship was faster because it was red.
- Lilo and Stitch uses this in the first movie, with the red ship that Stitch stole being faster that the standard issue blue ships. Justified in the fact that the red ship was a Super Prototype, and I'm not sure what it is when it's revealed (somewhere) that Stitch stole that ship because 'it looks cool'.
Master Hand: Anyone here remember that one Let's Play collaboration (I think it was Shadowgate but I'm not sure) between DeceasedCrab and Madam Luna where DC suddenly asked this logic puzzle where the answer was completely random? I can't remember it, but it'd be perfect for the quote page.
