Greymarch's Website for Advanced Internet Research

It can't be bargained with. It can't be re...

2011-01-15T02:14:49.706-07:00

It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. It always phrases its responses in the form of a question. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

Actually, they fed the computer the question, so voice recognition wasn't a factor. What was impressive is being able to parse the sometimes punny and roundabout questions of the format.

Is there such thing as a liberal future that ISN&#...

2010-12-07T17:33:32.433-07:00

Is there such thing as a liberal future that ISN'T a dystopia?

Doubtful.

Good thing I have time off - I have a lot of new c...

2010-10-11T23:31:58.626-07:00

Good thing I have time off - I have a lot of new conservative blogs to check out. However, that list is nowhere near adequate if he immediately disallowed any of the Pajamas Media and doesn't include Jim Treacher's DC Trawler and Jeff Goldstein's Protein Wisdom. And IMAO has been really lacking lately...

And as for the Blu-Ray thing...yeah...that won't happen for some time. The vast majority of people simply do not have broadband; and even those that do have bandwith caps that'll limit you to only a handful of HD movies a month. The infrastructure's not there yet. It'll happen, sure, but you're looking at over a decade at least - and it's going to take an upgrade in another medium to seriously kickstart it, such as televisions incorporating technology - I think the new AppleTV might be the start of that (which should scare Microsoft even more). The competing businesses will have to agree on a consistent model, too...otherwise the net neutrality people will be all over that. Add to that the fact there are certain capabilities that are available on discs that aren't on streaming yet (7.1 HD SURround sound seems to be a huge sticking point), I think saying that "streaming is the future" isn't terribly prophetic, but saying that it's going to happen soon is...not going to happen. Hell, Microsoft was telling us how Zune was going to destroy the iPod.

I'm glad Moon is on the list - I thought it wa...

2010-08-31T18:53:50.497-07:00

I'm glad Moon is on the list - I thought it was pretty amazing.

I'm not happy that Eternal Sunshine is on the list. Pretentious drivel.

Heroes VI announced. Thoughts?

2010-08-18T12:53:08.556-07:00

Heroes VI announced. Thoughts?

I check my email maybe twice a week, and never, ev...

2010-06-03T19:35:57.566-07:00

I check my email maybe twice a week, and never, ever on my iPod Touch. I have several dozen accounts, business and personal, linked to my email, though. So...

Randal, I could easily give you a dozen sensible r...

2010-06-03T16:58:37.179-07:00

Randal, I could easily give you a dozen sensible reasons (including iPhone 4G integration)to switch to gmail, but I will bug you about this in person. Much more effective that way.

Eh...my email account says that I got on AOL at it...

2010-06-03T15:57:10.197-07:00

Eh...my email account says that I got on AOL at its dawn almost twenty years ago and there is no sensible reason to switch.

Hey, so I turned on TMC and they have the 1997 version of 12 Angry Men...that's one HELL of a cast. Check it out.

I slightly leans towards Reed Richards. My 2nd pi...

2010-05-13T21:53:09.601-07:00

I slightly leans towards Reed Richards. My 2nd pick would be Walter Bishop, but I can make an argument for all five:

- From everything I know about the Marvel universe, Reed Richards is considered the smartest human being in the cosmos.

- Walter Bishop has a PHD in biochemistry, and was the head of the biochem departments of Harvard, Yale and MIT...all at the same time!

- Doc Brown works faster than all the others, and he just seems to have this aura of luck about him.

- Banzai is a world renown neuro-surgeon and he has a PHD in particle physics.

- The Professor can make robots and radios from mere coconuts. Nuff said.

Of that list, only Banzai is a medical doctor, and...

2010-05-13T19:53:08.020-07:00

Of that list, only Banzai is a medical doctor, and has done some medical research. Bishop seems to have some sort of medical knowledge, but he might have accidentally invented the fatal illness in the first place.

As far as Reed Richards, he's at the very least third on the list of Marvel super scientists...Bruce Banner and Hank Pym come ahead of him (Pym is actually this dimension's Scientist Supreme, analogous to Dr. Strange being Sorcerer Supreme), and since Banner could never cure himself of being the Hulk, and Richards could never cure Ben of being the Thing, I'd give the nod to Pym (although when the three of them, among others, tried to cure Captain Marvel's fatal cancer, they failed).

Speaking of Dr. Strange, he might be a good bet - he's one of the best surgeons on the planet and has that whole mystical hoojoo to back up (although he's not Sorcerer Supreme anymore).

Believe it or not, Lex Luthor would be at the top of my list. He's actually invented and is sitting on cures for cancer, AIDS, Alzheimers and a whole bunch of others because he refuses to help humanity until Superman's taken care of.

And I think I've spent far too much time thinking about this topic. Good question.

Reed by a mile. Not even close. "It's g...

2010-05-13T18:35:23.014-07:00

Reed by a mile. Not even close. "It's great, steal it."

-Scott

That was a rather interesting article on Hugo Gern...

2010-05-05T19:29:21.110-07:00

That was a rather interesting article on Hugo Gernsback. I suppose he's as good a candidate as any when it comes to the title "Father of Science Fiction." H.G. Wells could make that claim, I suppose. Hell, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote science fiction in the pulps before Amazing Stories was invented. Still, to attempt to define a genre and dedicate a magazine to it, yeah, Hugo's got that going for him. Of course, Campbell dwarfed him when it came to being influential in the pulp realm.

I've recently been getting familiar with Olaf Stapledon...that man created concepts that are still in use today. There's a great series that was published some years back called "The Road to Science Fiction." Probably one of my most treasured books (and try to find copies for under 50 dollars these days!)

Today I just finished Season 4 of my daily History...

2010-04-26T19:45:20.241-07:00

Today I just finished Season 4 of my daily History of South Park Tour (next episode, 5x01, is my favorite - Scott Tenorman Must Die). A pretty close second is Simpsons Already Did It, which I think is funnier than Professor Chaos. Then there's AWESOM-O, wherein Butters actually gets a win, and Go God Go gets special recognition for the Buck Rogers opening.

I like what one of South Park guys said...something along the lines of, "We hate Republicans, but we really fucking hate Democrats."

If you haven't listened to the Ghostbusters DVD commentary (I don't know if it's the same on the new edition that came out a couple years ago...I have the 20th anniversary one), it's worth it. One of the things that Dan Akroyd talked about was that in the original concept, the earth was overrun by ghosts, and the Ghostbusters were essentially vigilante heroes...and that the Stay Puft scene was in the first ten minutes as a kind of teaser...it was supposed to get BIGGER than that...but then they looked at the budget and realized that they had to tone it down a tad...so the opening, offhand scene became the big money climax of the film.

And yes, this man has no dick.

By the by, go here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/fi...

2010-04-19T19:31:10.414-07:00

By the by, go here:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/UpdateMar2010.pdf

Hunh. I never would have thought of Dustin Hoffma...

2010-04-19T19:30:46.034-07:00

Hunh. I never would have thought of Dustin Hoffman being that old, but he was supposed to be 20 in 1967's The Graduate (he was actually 30), so the math adds up pretty easy if you think about it.

Morgan Freeman, on the other hand, is nailing his granddaughter, so screw him.

My list is strictly for single player PC RPGs. I ...

2010-04-13T11:56:39.176-07:00

My list is strictly for single player PC RPGs. I guess I should have mentioned that.

Yes, I am an "old school" gamer, but WoW...

2010-04-13T09:53:18.121-07:00

Yes, I am an "old school" gamer, but WoW should at least be #2. Why not #1? Well, I am an old school gamer. Removing Ultima 4 from my top slot is just not gonna happen.

WoW is the Michael Jordan (hate to give MJ any face), Muhammad (sp.?) Ali, and Babe Ruth.

I am thinking the reviewer / writer of the linked article is my age, or older. And I am sure he does not have an "80." :)

The reason most people are convinced the plane cou...

2010-04-09T08:50:56.201-07:00

The reason most people are convinced the plane could not take off is because they fail to realize that a plain's wheels are free spinning with no drag one way, and no thrust the other (sure there is friction, but not nearly enough to dwarf the thrust put forth but a turbo jet engine).

Once you realize the wheels affect nothing, its clear to see that even without experimentation, the plane's engine thrust would push it forward as usual (and the wheels would actually be spinning twice as fast to no great affect).

The people that propagated this myth probably could not consider the fact that a plane's wheels are only used for resting the plane on, no propulsion.

Oh my yes. I quit posting there about a year ago,...

2010-04-07T20:15:09.249-07:00

Oh my yes. I quit posting there about a year ago, after I almost got banned lighting into the 95% liberal user-base there, but I still read some of the less charged forums, and that topic...and it comes up about once a year...makes people go ape-shit. The Mythbusters crew actually did an episode on it:

http://kottke.org/08/01/mythbusters-airplane-on-a-conveyor-belt

because of the controversy that was brought up by the question on the Straight Dope!

It's caused that much trouble at The Dope, huh...

2010-04-07T01:06:11.693-07:00

It's caused that much trouble at The Dope, huh? My intuition says that the plane couldn't fly because it's not generating lift under its wings, due to lack of forward movement. However, all the articles I have read about the conundrum state that the plane would lift-off and fly.

Jesus Christ, do you have any idea what that airpl...

2010-04-06T19:40:38.831-07:00

Jesus Christ, do you have any idea what that airplane on a treadmill question did to the Dope? Blood was spilled. It's still one of the Topics That May Not Be Discussed there. I can't believe you linked to that can of worms...

A much more intense look at the Taman Shud case: ...

2010-03-31T00:34:14.010-07:00

A much more intense look at the Taman Shud case:

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Taman_Shud_Case

I think the other four cases can be attributed to cultists, coincidence, or schizophrenics, but the Taman Shud case is different. It smells of cold-war shenanigans.

I, uh...I don't think that those are necessari...

2010-03-13T21:14:04.672-07:00

I, uh...I don't think that those are necessarily real people there, Greymarch...

One of my friends already told me about this place...

2010-03-13T01:40:07.643-07:00

One of my friends already told me about this place and I do not regret that I found this article.

I really like when people are expressing their opi...

2010-03-10T01:57:57.556-07:00

I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing