Random Questions Thread

That's a little over 100 miles on a side, if I'm doing the math right.

Yep. One of my stories has an island 100 miles in diameter with roughly that population.

I think the real issue is getting utilities to run for all of that, and properly arranging public services and the like. That's if air and temperature are within habitable limits.

For all those, I defer to any urban-planning experts in the audience.

Lots of excessively tall buildings (not like kilometers tall, but maybe a hundred floors or more on average) and especially apartment buildings, with some way of getting enough food to everyone should work.

A major overlooked problem with high rise high density buildings is the logistics. With 100 times the people, you have 100 times the traffic, and most major cities are already at the breaking point with traffic. So you'll need innovations across the board to support it.

So as we all know, Achilles kills a lot of people during the Trojan War, because he's Achilles (duh). One of the most famous is Penthesilea, the Amazonian queen with the lasting honor of being one of the few people who could hold their own in combat with Achilles for any period of time aside from Hector. The story of course goes that they meet on the field of battle and (according to most versions) engaged in an epic, drawn-out slugfest that inevitably ended with Achilles killing Penthesilea because he enabled cheats in his console and turned on godmode. Achilles takes off her helmet, and upon seeing that he's killed such a strong and beautiful woman, either kisses her and sobs with grief or rapes her corpse depending on how cynical you are and what university professor you're listening to.

But I've seen a few different variations on this story here and there, the most notable one I have brought to you fine folk. I've seen (more than once) versions of the story where Penthesilea actually exhausts every last ounce of her strength and kills Achilles, only for him to be resurrected by his divine parentage to continue fighting. As one could guess, he then kills her, but in this version of the myth she demonstrably provided one of the greatest feats any Amazon or woman warrior of classical mythology ever accomplished i.e. killing the supposedly invincible Achilles. I personally think this version of the myth totally rocks (mostly because someone actually beat Achilles in 1v1 combat), which is why I'd like to use it as part of a mythology-inspired story.

You can probably guess that this may not be from entirely reliable sources (as far as I know anyway), but the official "canon" of Greek myth is about as consistent and makes as much sense as DC Comics, so I was wondering if it was possible that, at one point, this was a legit retelling of the myth. Anyone else ever heard this version before?

edited 30th Jul '14 8:37:07 PM by KSPAM

Just testing a line to make sure that it actually makes sense; I don't want people to misread it and get the wrong impression.

Before I carry on any further with this line... what would one expect from such parents?

edited 2nd Aug '14 5:38:19 PM by KillerClowns

The first phrase coming to mind is "literary nerds".

Obnoxious, at least a bit.

"stuffy"

I don't know why, but "stuffy" springs to mind. Perhaps the use of "Carroll" instead of "Carol".

Another question about the Japanese language: What's is the most archaic honorific for "Father (i.e, which may predate "Chichi-ue")?"

Theoretically, if China had the power projection the US has, could they occupy a good chunk of the Asian landmass, considering that 1 in every 7 humans live in their country?

I suppose. If the US or Russia sat around and did nothing.

China's big army would collapse if it tried to do any serious moving but since that's not an issue the biggest problem is their gear. Frankly it's pretty shit and can't match modern Russian or American technology.

Two superpowers who really don't like the idea of Chinese expansionism.

I have a quesation if cahracter development isn't the absence of negative traits then what is true character development?

China's army lacks combat experience, and bluntly, it has a major struggle with just instilling its soldiers with the sense they can win against a foreign power. They've lost every war which the PRC as a country has committed to; the rank and file know they exist primarily to provide the threat of force rather than force itself in international relations and that they mainly exist as tool of internal repression.

China's army is too large for it to be effectively modernized on China's budget, as hilarious as that sounds.

"I have a quesation if cahracter development isn't the absence of negative traits then what is true character development?"

Finding constructive ways to accept one's limitations.

I've hit upon an interesting conundrum while writing a downplayed benign version of God Is Flawed that exhibits both the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues: Exactly how would a relatively "omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and omni-benevolent" supreme deity demonstrate a benign version of the sin of Envy?

I mean, Pride and Wrath are absurdly obvious; Greed is embodied with extravagant wealth and great possessiveness (tempered by equally generous desire to share the wealth with the less fortunate); Gluttony takes the form of a huge appetite tempered by abhoring Jabba Table Manners and overconsumption. Sloth... Well, this god is quite cranky and stubborn if you wake Them from Their "nap" unless it's a priority-alpha-omega matter for Them, and would rather leave the actual work to the admittedly rather well-organized and well-run Celestial Bureaucracy, otherwise They're quite Diligent and energetic. Lust... Well, said deity is a wild beast in bed, in stark contrast to Their sophisticated, pure, and elegant persona outside the bedroom. But it's Envy that stumped me completely.

Envy? I Just Want to Be Normal even when the cosmic order doesn't allow you to relinquish your role, maybe?

You know, that could work. And its countering virtue, Benevolence^note I am translating from the official Latin term for the virtue, for clarity's sake; benevolentia means "wishing good (for others)"., would be about being not willing to act upon Their envy because They would never be able to live with Themselves if either anyone else had to bear Their burden or the mortals and non-gods in Their domain suffered from the vacancy of their position.

In order to avert turning this into a religious debate, I got this question: Is obtaining citizenship in Japan done like in the US?

You mean for an immigrant? My understanding is that it's damn near impossible.

Speaking of Japan, do Asian cultures have the equivalent of a "middle name"?

As far as I know, the Japanese don't employ middle names. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Since you asked about Asian cultures, in the Philippines at least, we do use middle names. Then again, we've got a pretty heavy western influence around here.

edited 5th Aug '14 6:56:02 AM by KylerThatch

From what I've heard, you'll still be considered a foreigner in Japan, even after living there for 50 years. It's very culturally homogenous.

98.5 % of Japan is ethnically Japanese, and most of the rest is Asian. So...yeah.

There is essentially no way to become a naturalized Japanese citizen. Even Korean-descended people who have lived there for generations and speak no other language are legally classified differently from ethnic Japanese.

edited 5th Aug '14 8:52:58 AM by Night