Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:51 pm

Why did Kaiser II scuttle Bismarck's attempted alliance with Russia? Was it incompetence or did he just think that the price of keeping it (indefinitely antagonizing Austria-Hungary) was too high? How would world history have been different if he had gone through with it?

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:25 am

My personal theory is that K2 was rather jealous of Bismark's prestige and was trying to make his own mark by contradicting Bismark. Russia's collapsing prestige following the 1905 loss to Japan helped his reasoning. I don't believe he could have kept the alliance with Russia and a relationship with AH in tact. Russia was spoiling for a fight come 1914 - I think to distract from internal problems with a nice win OS for slavic pride! It was always going to be hard to stay out of picking a side.

If we accept a war against France as inevitability, I think that there wouldn't have been a massive difference either way. Britain and later the US were the big problems for Germany. K2 really screwed the pooch in managing relations with Britain. If he managed to keep them out of the war, France probably would have folded eventually.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:05 pm

Okay, so I'm not too hip on internet and/or modern gaming pop culture (the eighties is really my forte), but could someone explain to me what the blazing balls the Slenderman is?

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:15 pm

Http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Slenderman&l=1

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:10 pm

Shrapnel wrote:Okay, so I'm not too hip on internet and/or modern gaming pop culture (the eighties is really my forte), but could someone explain to me what the blazing balls the Slenderman is?

A few years ago, Something Awful had a "make an urban legend" contest. The guy who won came up with the Slender Man.

The Slenderman is eight feet or taller, but only about as wide as a normal man. Always wears a snappy black suit, but has no face, no hair--just a blank white head. Sometimes he puts out tentacles. His entry spiel was that kids dream about the Slenderman standing outside their window and in their rooms for multiple nights before they disappear.

Folks ran with it, adding bits to it. Finally, some guys started doing a YouTube horror series.

Currently Slenderman stuff runs like this:

-The Slenderman stalks some people, and his very presence makes you sick and fucks with your mind, causing memory loss. It's also pretty hard on electronic equipment, causing video and audio distortion. If it's doing...something...actively, that can really fuck up electronics. And people.

-He comes and goes as he pleases, appearing and often doing nothing but watching or standing there.

-Once he's started stalking, he doesn't stop. Often working on people for years.

-Some people get broken and begin serving him, called Proxies. They get some of the weird appear-anytime powers themselves, knowledge, all that. Those girls who stabbed that other girl some months back? They had this idea they were gonna run off into the woods and be the Slender Man's proxies.

The big Slenderman series--Marble Hornets--has wrapped up, but there's some still ongoing. I like 'em for trying to bring back the slow horror instead of gorefests (they don't have the money for special effects, of course they can't use gorefests). Everyman Hybrids and Tribe Twelve, they're pretty good. Here's an MH episode that's pretty...well, typical of a Slenderman appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITooL9WegA

Since the Slenderman came around, there's been an upswing in other creepypasta. The Rake and all that.

Did that help?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:23 pm

Yes, very much so, much more the eric's post (where's the fun in using Google, man?). Thanks.

Although, I still don't understand why people would think that something that was made up on SA was real. It must be basic human stupidity, the kind that makes people think Jesus was white and could wise fwom his gwave.

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:48 pm

That, or they don't bother looking up where [creepy thing] came from. I didn't look up Slenderman's origins until I started watching a playthrough of Slender: The Arrival with my SO. Until I did I thought it was an actual urban legend that I just hadn't heard before. If so, it wouldn't have been the first time the internet went crazy over something that had been around for decades.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:12 pm

Slenderman has well and truly become a part of the modern human mythos, I think. People have heard of him without any idea of where he came from, making him essentially the most successful creepypasta yet. I mean, hell, there was a Slenderman Supernatural episode. When broadcast monster hunting shows namecheck you, you've pretty much made it. So I think kids can be forgiven for not knowing he's a modern creation for an internet forum contest. Kids are dumb and all that.

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:49 pm

Shrapnel wrote:Yes, very much so, much more the erik's post (where's the fun in using Google, man?). Thanks.

My post was meant to shame, not help! =-p

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 2:31 am

Shrapnel wrote:Yes, very much so, much more the eric's post (where's the fun in using Google, man?). Thanks.

Although, I still don't understand why people would think that something that was made up on SA was real. It must be basic human stupidity, the kind that makes people think Jesus was white and could wise fwom his gwave.

A lot of the websites and wikis and series do pretty convincing fiction if you don't know it's just made up. A bit like the Necronomicon, a lot of people think it's a real thing written by a madman from the Middle East.

Occluded Sun · Post by **Occluded Sun** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:07 am

Those things are perfectly cromulent myths. Just because they're recent doesn't make them unreal. The Mi-Go are just as 'real' as the Wendigo or alchemical transmutation.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 4:07 am

Huh, I always assumed Slenderman started with the Flash games.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 10:54 am

Maxus wrote: A lot of the websites and wikis and series do pretty convincing fiction if you don't know it's just made up. A bit like the Necronomicon, a lot of people think it's a real thing written by a madman from the Middle East.

I remember when I first got my Rifts book as a young lad and saw references to works by Victor Lazlo and was excited to read the primary work they represented. My dad has tons of sci-fi books and what not so I asked him and my dad told me the were no books- shattering my expectations.

I knew it was fiction, but didn't know it was imaginary fiction.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 11:08 am

erik wrote:
Maxus wrote: A lot of the websites and wikis and series do pretty convincing fiction if you don't know it's just made up. A bit like the Necronomicon, a lot of people think it's a real thing written by a madman from the Middle East.
I remember when I first got my Rifts book as a young lad and saw references to works by Victor Lazlo and was excited to read the primary work they represented. My dad has tons of sci-fi books and what not so I asked him and my dad told me the were no books- shattering my expectations.

I knew it was fiction, but didn't know it was imaginary fiction.

I read From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler in an anthology the first time I read it, and for the longest time I was convinced there was a longer version - The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler - but I couldn't ever find it.

Similarly, I don't know how long I looked for the unabridged version of The Princess Bride.

sigh

Eikre · Post by **Eikre** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 6:19 pm

Maxus wrote:A few years ago, Something Awful had a "make an urban legend" contest. The guy who won came up with the Slender Man.

It was just a photoshop thread. Nobody was awarding prizes.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... t361861415

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 6:50 pm

momothefiddler wrote: Similarly, I don't know how long I looked for the unabridged version of The Princess Bride.

Don't feel bad. I thought that was a thing, until just now.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:58 am

Eikre wrote:
Maxus wrote:A few years ago, Something Awful had a "make an urban legend" contest. The guy who won came up with the Slender Man.
It was just a photoshop thread. Nobody was awarding prizes.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... t361861415

Huh. Well, I stand corrected.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Sep 26, 2014 7:29 am

They were awarding Internets...

Eikre · Post by **Eikre** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 10:56 pm

Strictly speaking, the guys who write the SA front page (there's a front page?!) were awarding glib captions and inclusions in Photoshop Phriday. Whether that can be construed as a "prize" is left to question.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:22 am

Why are there 'lizard hipped' and 'bird hipped' dinosaurs? Why is the hip structure of modern birds different from the 'lizard hipped' raptors they descended from?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:34 am

It's been a good while since I was really up on dinosaurs biology, but I'm pretty sure raptors were bird-hipped, as lizard-hipped referred to dinosaurs with splayed legs, rather than legs directly under them. Then again, it's been roughly 17 years of progress in paleontology since the last time I poured over the latest thinking on them.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:40 am

Raptors are lizard-hipped, actually. All the therapods and sauropods were. The bird-hipped ones are the hadrosaurs, ceratopsids, etc...

Also: dinosaurs are weird now. Ceratopsids had quills and were omnivorous. And not the scavenging kind, they chased stuff down to kill it... they were bigger than rhinos but incredibly agile once they realized they ran on their toes...

To answer the question I have no fucking clue how the lizard hipped dinosaurs evolved into birds... And the difference is that the pubis bone runs parallel to the ischium in bird-hipped dinosaurs while the pubis runs perpendicular in the lizard hipped dinosaurs. However, since the groups have a lot of species that aren't that similar it's not considered a proper order anymore (any more than cats and guinea pigs being related because they have claws...)

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 11:48 pm

A question for the Queen's English-speaking peoples.

How offensive are "slag" and "burk" compared to words like "fuck" and "shit"?

I want to know because it's fun to insult my fellow Americans with words that they don't know are insults.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 2:15 am

"Slag" is about the same level as "slut" (and indeed has the same meaning most of the time*).

"Berk" is Cockney rhyming slang. It's short for "Berkley Hunt" which rhymes with the c-word. But by dint of not actually being that word, it's not as insulting, but you'd be best not to throw the term around in a pub.

*London police are fond of "Shut it you slag!" as a phrase**, to anybody, so I imagine in that area, it's a common enough term that's about as offensive as "tool" or "dickhead".
**Going by The Thin Blue Line.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:39 am

Ah, good to know, good to know. Thanks.