Random Questions Thread

Classroom building corridor? If so, which classes meet there? The building with the science labs may have cabinets in the hallways, but the building where the lecture classes meet probably won't (there may be a blackboard in the hallway there, though.) Dorm corridor? A framed portrait, or maybe a statue or bust of someone who made a sizable donation (more likely if the donation was big enough tat the dorm is named after him) College offices building? That's going to make a difference. In the building with the offices, you may find a bust or statue(s) of previous administrators or major donors. Portraits or other framed pictures. Other decorations, perhaps a cabinet for supplies...

Anyone with some knowledge of sailing, please help!

My character is a prince onboard a ship—a wooden frigate, let's say. A rogue wave (or otherwise massive wave) kicks up. Is it physically possible for a large ship to be lifted up with the wave? Could someone be aware of going up and up and suddenly be looking down from the top?

Would the ship be more likely to come crashing down or be carried down with the subsiding wave? The point is this unstable guy gets the idea surviving this massive wave means he's destined to be king. He's an experienced seaman and in his mind it's not just a lucky break during a storm, but something he wouldn't think was survivable.

If that is totally impossible, is there a more realistic alternative you'd recommend? If it is somewhat possible, what kind of damage would a ship most likely receive? Lastly, if his ship has gotten a lot of water from the waves, and another wave or strong wind makes the ship tip so that it's perilously close to a death roll but manages to right itself, could possibly get rid of most of the water?

Sorry for the long question. Ehm, if anyone has any horse-related questions I'll give you a super thorough answer

x5 — if it's in a dormitory and the guy doesn't mind destroying property, what about a record player? In multiple locations, maybe a ladder left out from somebody washing windows?

edited 6th Nov '14 7:58:53 PM by Phoenixflame

Yes, although he'd have plenty of warning. Certainly any competent crew would be working like mad to make sure the ship rides the wave stem-to-stern as opposed to broadside on.

The latter. The former will break the ship in half: you are slamming a wooden object weighing dozens to hundreds of tons down against the water. Remember that you rarely see breaking waves out in deep water, and if you're by the coast when a storm hits you'll drop anchor and button up if you have any sense. (And for the love of god, make sure the shoreline is to windward, not to leeward, or you are about to have a very bad day.)

Storm damage can be extensive and easily ship-threatening. If a wind or a wave carries away a mast or blows away a critical sail, the ship might easily steer out of control and broach. (This is one reason sails are furled during serious wind.) An old ship's timbers can sustain serious storm damage by the 'working' of the ship: the timbers flex, letting in water.

That's what a ship's pumps are for. Whether or not it'll remove the water quickly enough to stop the ship from settling in the water, losing forward momentum, and be battered to destruction? That's a different story.

Recommended reading to help you: C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books and the associated mini-series, Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin book series and the associated movie.

You are the best, thank you so much!

If it's not too much trouble, can I please make sure I understand one thing? I've read a few articles on rogue waves and listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast on them, but in addition to my previous questions, I couldn't figure out how fast they form. The podcast made it sound like they pop up out of nowhere. So, is the out-of-nowhere relative? Like, as you said, you'd see it forming for awhile? Thank you!

edited 7th Nov '14 11:48:40 AM by Zeanobia

I agree with her for reasons that I can't fully articulate at the moment, but note that this is a thread for random questions pertaining to writing. In the future, try Post Your Random Thoughts or Troper Updates for things like this.

Or perhaps the Yack-Fest "Quickie Questions Thread".

Madrugada, you're a star So many wonderful things to knock over that now I can't decide which'd be most spectacular... perhaps set them up in a row and go for the domino effect.

re: Phoenixflame: from what I know, nobody really knows how they form either—the assumption is that it forms over the horizon and then comes sweeping towards you. Under perfect conditions, then, the lookout might be expected to see it at the horizon (the distance to which depends on the height of the mast) and shout a warning. In practice, this can be much harder: it's not easily identifiable outside the coastal shelf, it doesn't stand out against the ocean, the lookout might not be all that alert (especially bad on merchant ships), and fog can shroud the horizon, making it even harder to distinguish the wave. As with many things on the ocean, preparation—and hence warning time—is absolutely critical.

And thanks. I knew all those re-reads of the Aubrey-Maturin series would pay off. (That, and they're amazingly-written literature.)

I'm looking for consultants on some things, like, say, rhythmic gymnastics, for example, in writing my stories. Anyone here know enough about rhythmic gymnastics to help me?

You may want to add General Politics Thread to the list of special-interest threads in the stickied post.

I need a list of 5-10 sub-Saharan African countries that have suffered particularly horrible, crimes-against-humanity-plagued (civil) wars in the last 2-3 decades. Can anyone help?

edited 15th Nov '14 2:57:05 AM by MarqFJA

Sierra Leone and Rwanda spring to mind.

Hello everyone!

I am wondering if this would be ripoff.

I am planning to write a story and I wanted to have the character of Death portrayed as a goth girl. Sadly it came to my attention that Neil Gaiman had the same idea before me.

I have never read the sandman series or anything from him about that matter. But I don't know if this would be considered a ripoff of him...

My story doesn't have anything to do with his sandman series, what do you think?

There is a thing called apophenia that describes the phenomenon that people see meaningful patterns in actually random data.

One manifestation thereof is that some people will take coincidental similarity between two works as evidence that one is derived from, or a ripoff of, or a Shout-Out to another work.

So I would not consider it as such (given what you said here), but other people might.

Thank you!

What worries me the most is that people will just say I am stealing from Neil.

... On second thought, nevermind that. Turns that there's a list of African wars on Wikipedia, though I'd have to check them one by one to see if they can fit with my plans. I wish there was some sort of interactive map of Africa where I can pick a year, and it would show me which countries had been embroiled in war either with each other or with internal insurgencies.

For context, it's for an African character who, under the watchful eyes of a George Sears-like freelance mercenary and a number of his trusted associates, is moved across borders multiple times to be passed around from one insurgent militia or criminal gang to another, always serving as part of a Child Soldier unit.

edited 15th Nov '14 1:42:23 PM by MarqFJA

So no comment on the rhythmic gymnastics consulting?

Never heard of it.

What? You've never heard of rhythmic gymnastics? Because I'm going to need a consultant on the subject for one of my stories.

Nope, sure haven't. Good luck. I'm sure there's one on the internet somewhere.

Aside from Beau Billingslea, any other African-Americans who have done anime dubbing?

Ryanasaurus: Your best bet is to find a school in your area that teaches it and talk to the instructors.

Any existing African cities you guys would suggest as candidates for possessing a poverty- and crime-ridden slum environment that can serve as a perfect Victorian London-analogue setting for a mysterious Jack The Ripper-style Serial Killer stalking the dark streets at night? Preferably ones where smog is a nigh-omnipresent feature of said slum? Or do I need to create such a city from scratch?

edited 16th Nov '14 7:07:17 AM by MarqFJA

American cities have become better about smog than they were in the past. I think the Rust Belt cities and the like (like Detroit) would make a good place for such a story.

Smog is generally the result of either a highly industrialized area or a highly vehicle-dependent one (or both), now that most people don't use coal or wood directly to heat their houses. I'm not sure what cities in Africa would qualify as either one.

edited 16th Nov '14 7:32:54 AM by Madrugada