While we're on the subject, can someone explain to me what exactly is up with the rather horrible Warhammer 40K aesthetic? Is there a reason why everyone in the Warhammer future is built on the same general lines as a refrigerator and spends their entire life stomping around in a preposterously baroque suit of armor,…

Hand-waving.

Which code do I use if I had to make a forced landing of my spacecraft after being hit by a tuba-playing turtle? Do I just enter a comma-separated list, or is there a separate code for that? And will my health insurance carrier treat it as a pre-existing condition if it turns out that it was either my tuba, or my…

Each to his own, but I hope I'm long dead before they have woolly mammoths flying around with jetpacks. That sounds like something that can only end badly.

I read the title of this article and thought "Best. Concept for a Superhero. Ever"

I hadn't realized that Houellebecq had written a biography of Lovecraft, but it makes sense. Both writers paint a picture of a universe that is bleak and horrifying and without hope or meaning. The difference is that Lovecraft's is populated by alien monsters; Houellebecq's is populated by human beings.

I want to know if this is cause or effect. Crudely put, do musicians learn to become better at distinguishing signal from noise as part of their musical training, or are they drawn to/gifted at music because they are innately better able to pick out the signal in noise?

You say it's the atmosphere. Personally, I suspect David Byrne of being involved somehow.

I'm surprised to see overpressure in emergency stair wells touted as a new feature. I used to work in the McGraw-Hill Building (an art-deco skyscraper - no, really - on 42nd St in NY, built in the 1930s) and as I remember it there was a perceptibly higher air-pressure in the fire stairs. It was fairly subtle, but you…

I thought I was ready until I read the part about millions of New York rats being driven out of the sewers and subways by flooding.

You're sure it's not because someone has finished calculating all the nine billion names of God?

From the Evil Overlord List:

It's been a long time since I saw the movie, and I don't remember many details. However, this commentary makes it sound as if not only is Childs infected, but that the likely vector was Blair - who seems to have been close to Childs during the time that the infection probably occurred. As evidence that Childs is…

TRANSCRIPT 00078121212 — XVIII Sector planetary supervisor's office

Having watched a New York rat run vertically up a brick wall, I believe there are no limits to what they can do or be. Rabbit-sized rats? We should just be grateful that they aren't the size of great danes. Yet.

It's the SF/fantasy nerd equivalent of rick-rolling. Get the audience softened up with a few Conan pictures and then, whammo! Sean Connery in an orange diaper! Gets 'em every time.

For some reason, it makes me think of Jack Chick comics.

"Baby, it totally doesn't count if it's extra-terrestrial, you know that. Haven't I always been faithful to you? We've been married for six years and I've never even looked at another woman ... well, yeah, OK, there aren't any other women on this space station, and the maintenance robots are not what you'd exactly…

I rather liked Toombs and Eve Logan, neither of whom - if I remember correctly - are actually killed in "Chronicles" (Logan is arguably in a bad way when last seen, but still ...)

Kyra's words are: "... Only there wasn't a doctor here who could shine my eyes, not even for 20 menthol Kools. Was there anything you said that was true?"