Is there a term for coining a phrase for a word that already exists?

You have named textbook cases of the retronym, which AHD defines as

A word or phrase created because an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development, as acoustic guitar in contrast to electric guitar or analog watch in contrast to digital watch.

Language Log and others ascribe the term ca. 1980 to Frank Mankiewicz, a writer and Democratic political strategist who was later head of National Public Radio. You can find a large collection of them at Retronyms.org.

For a related phenomenon, see Word that means “outdated name”.

meaning - What exactly does it mean to "mug somebody off" in British English?

Anyone read his book or watched Sir Alan Sugar (the Apprentice) would have heard him say it many a time, Lock Stock Two Smoking Barrels? Snatch?

I'm an East Londoner born and bred, and yes it's common in most conversations with lads in London, and yes more common in East London. Obviously not in Mayfair or West London but I have heard Spencer in Made In Chelsea use it recently so who knows, it's spreading!

The cockney rhyming slang "Toby Jug" means "mug". Also Americans use frequently the term "mug shot" when referring to a police photograph. All references to the face. So to mug someone off is to say to their face something condescending or demeaning and usually for more impact when in a group of peers to belittle the person you are mugging off.

Got it? Or have I just mugged you off?

How did the bad guy actually die in Iron Man 3?

We were previously shown that those altered by Extremis aren't immortal. Tony killed one on the airplane by blasting out his heart. I think the assumption in that situation is that without a heart to feed blood to the rest of your body you'll die.

When Killian was blown up the first time, he took a lot of damage, but it seems that his body mostly stayed in tact.

The second explosion by Pepper, as Elfangor states, was probably too much for Killian's body to handle, and he died.

grammatical number - Is "either you or [third-person]" followed by a singular verb or a plural verb?

In short, it is best to recast the sentence.

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According to the 3rd edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage (R.W. Burchfield ed.), the verb should follow the number of the first element of a double subject if its elements are coordinated by or. Since the first element is "you" here, it should be "are"; but Burchfield seemed to be thinking rather about whether to use plural or singular in cases like "neither my opinion nor yours matters in this company", where both elements of the subject are singular 3rd person—not so much about cases where each element would require a different form.

About double subjects coordinated by "and", he says that they should normally take a plural verb, unless they are so strongly connected that they may be regarded as one in thought, in which case singular is also possible. He mentions "a certain cynicism and resignation comes along with the poverty of Italian comedy" as a good example.

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It seems Burchfield, otherwise a fine chap, is skirting the issue. Credit must be given where it is due: the real Fowler did find the courage. In the 1st edition, he advises the following options, "in order of merit" from top to bottom:

A. Recast the sentence by substituting a modal verb:

Either you or your sister will have to
do the chores.

B. Recast the sentence by ellipsis and rearrangement:

Either you are going to have to do the
chores or your sister.

C. Have the verb agree with the element nearest to it:

Either you or your sister is going to
have to do the chores.

After all these years, Fowler never ceases to amaze with his sense of style combined with common sense. I wish I could write like him—such clarity and vigour. If anyone knows of a modern incarnate, do let me know; he is not always up to date at present (...), and Burchfield does not have his great style.

directors - Why was Brenda Chapman released from directing "Brave"?

Unsurprisingly, the true details are hard to dig up, but this is nothing new. Pixar has a reputation for major shake-ups during production, see this extract from an article on hitfix.com:

They have the best track record in the business for a reason. They have a carefully managed story department, and they are ruthless during development. They have had several major shake-ups on films, including "Cars," "Ratatouille," and "Toy Story 2," with directors being replaced and big chunks of story being thrown out.

A line from cartoonbrew.com, which first broke the news and continues to cover it, reads:

“The key to their success is reworking and reworking a project until it becomes something great.”

Looking through comments from Pixar workers who had seen the original animatic for The Bear and the Bow, it appears Chapman's intentions were a little more off the wall (for that read 'daring and interesting') and not a guaranteed sell for Pixar - hence the change of director and storyline (and title).

It must be said, though, that this move raised a lot of eyebrows and led to much furious internet debate, exemplified in an article from theWrap.com which includes the opening paragraph:

Pixar reaped a heap of anger Wednesday as the blogosphere accused Disney’s animation house of sexism -- and worse, being formulaic -- for firing Brenda Chapman, the first female director in its history, from “Brave,” a film she had written and nurtured through the development process.

Help Identify Viking Time Travel Short Story

"Frost and Thunder" by Randall Garrett in the anthology Time Wars.

I read a short story in the mid-90s

Was it in an old paperback? The Time Wars anthology came out in 1986.

which was fairly similar to Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early." Different from that story, this was told from the modern protagonist's point of view. Theodore, the main character, was an avid combat pistol shooter who traveled to Sweden (or another Scandinavian country) to visit a friend,

Anyway, I got this letter addressed to me, Theodore Sorenson, with a Stockholm postmark. Sten, so he claimed, had introduced combat pistol shooting in Sweden, and had built a range on his property. He was holding a match in September, and would I come? There would be plenty of akvavit.

ventured out into the misty woods, and traveled back in time.

No mention of mist. Theodore goes out to practice his shooting:

It was cold outside, but there wasn't much wind. I saw the dead pine, and headed for it.

Night comes on slowly in the north, but it comes early east of the Kjölen. Those mountains make for a high horizon.

Sten had, indeed, used that pine for target practice; he'd painted a six-inch white circle on it. I went up to the pine, then turned to pace off twenty-five yards.

I was at twenty paces when the wind hit.

I don't know how to describe what happened. It was like a wind, and yet it wasn't. It was as if everything whirled around, and then the wind came.

And I was in the middle of the goddamdest blizzard I had seen since the time I nearly froze to death in Nebraska.

There he encountered a pre-Viking people

They were heavily clad in dark furs, like Eskimos wearing black bearskins. Each one carried a long spear and a roundshield.

They weren't Eskimos. Eskimos don't have blue eyes and blond hair. Those blue eyes regarded me with suspicion.

who were dealing with a Beowulf-style menace.

His shaggy gray eyebrows lifted. "You know not? Truly, you are from afar. They are the demons, the Evil Ones, the Eaters-of-Men. They are from the Far North, and they come to slay and to eat. They speak as do animals. They are Giants!" He paused. "Not so great as you, but Giants, nonetheless." Another pause. "And they wear frost about them instead of furs, as decent folk do."

Notably, they had problems pronouncing his name... Tador, or something like that.

"You speak well, Giant Tay'or," Vigalaf said. He raised a hand. "Bring him food."

He helped his allies beat the bad guys, but only with the help of his pistol,

They came at us, spears at the ready. When there was twenty yards between the two opposing ranks, I tossed away my spear and shield, dropped to one knee, and drew my pistol.

The thunder of that weapon echoed across the snowfield as I placed each shot. I think my own men hesitated when they heard that noise, but they charged on when they saw it was me doing the damage.

They didn't know what to make of it, but they saw the Demons, the Eaters-of-Men, fall one after another, and they knew I was doing my part, as I had promised.

Forty-five caliber hardball slugs from service ammo does more damage to living flesh than any other handgun ammo in existence. A man hit solidly with one of those bullets goes down and stays down.

I fired as if I were firing at pop-up targets, except that there was no "friend-or-foe." If it was wearing a polar-bear suit, it was a foe

which the locals thought was a hammer thrown with a clap of thunder.

I think I know what happened. I remember hearing Hrotokar in the background saying: "His hammer smashed them! Killed them! And then came back to his hand!"

I can see how that illusion could come about. I hold the hammer in my hand and there is a thunderbolt and the foe falls dead—his head smashed in. And then the hammer is back in my hand. Sure.

Those folk had already shortened my name from "Teydor" to "Tey'or"; why not one syllable further?

Then the mist overtook him and he returned to his own time,

There was no snow on the ground. I was alone in the forest.

Before me was the dead pine that Sten Örnfeld had drawn a target on.

I turned. There was Sten's lodge, fifty yards away.

I went toward it. It didn't fade or go away. It was solid, as it should be. Somehow, some way, I was back in my own time.

naming his pistol Mjolnir with a quote, "ja, the original."

My weapon has a name now, as Sten suggested. I looked up a man who knows Norse runes, and I had another man engrave those runes on my pistol, on the right, just above the trigger.

The engraving says: Mjolnir.

Yah.

The original.

expressions - Appointment in one year

In healthcare, the noun phrase that we use in this situation is "wait time," as in:

Patients are concerned about long wait times for elective surgery.

I am continually frustrated by the long wait times for appointments with my GP.

The hospital has invested a lot of resources into reducing wait times for patients.

I'm sorry, but we're currently dealing with long wait times for that procedure.

Secret Service codenames for West Wing characters

The West Wing Wiki lists code names for only four characters:

President Josiah Bartlett: Eagle
Sam Seaborn: Princeton
C.j. Cregg: Flamingo
Zoe Bartlett: Bookbag

Wikipedia contains a few more:

President Jed Bartlet - Eagle or Liberty
Gus Westin (Grandson of Jed Bartlett) - Tonka
Arnold Vinick - Big Sur

There's also a reddit, but most of these seem to be humorous, rather than authentic.

story identification - Novel about first contact and traveling the universe at light-speed

I'm trying to remember the name of this book, by a classical american author.
In the 21th or 22th century, a physics effect is discovered which allows travel at the speed of light. Some time after, observations shows traces of aliens having traveled, using this effect, and a ship is sent to the alien home world.
When this world is reached, the aliens tell them that they suspect that traveling at light speed "unravels the fabric of the universe" and increases the probability of the universe ending because of a jump to a different quantum state (false vacuum?) or something like that. So they have abandoned space travel.
The ship returns to Earth where many years have passed and the society is a static one. Then they go on to a colony on a nearby star. At the end they discover that space travel increases and not decreases the stability of the universe.

etymology - Where does "shakedown" come from?

OED says that the noun shake-down is from the verbal phrase to shake down and links to this definition of the verb shake (sense 12a):

With adv. or phrase: To reduce by shaking (sense 7) to a specified condition. to shake down: to cause to settle or subside by shaking.

There is also an obsolete definition of the verb shake related to corn and it links to sense 12a:

simply. To cast down, scatter (fruit, blossom, corn, etc.) by shaking; = to shake down at sense 12a above. Also, to turn out (a fox) from a bag (cf. [to shake out 1 at Phrasal verbs][2]).

The earliest citation is from 1557 and includes a proverbial phrase:

All this wynde shoke no corne, all this moued him not.

_{R. Edgeworth Serm. very Fruitfull ccxxx. C 1}

And a non-obsolete and dialectal definition:

intr. Of fruit, blossom, corn: To fall, scatter. Now dial.

Here is a 1788 citation from the book The rural economy of Yorkshire (by William Marshall) where the verb shake is mentioned in the provincialism of East York:

To Shack (that is, to shake), to shed, as corn at harvest.

I've checked Google Books also and found this excerpt in the Report from the Select Committee on the Sale of Corn: With the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index (ordered, by The House of Commons, to be printed, 25 July 1834):

In measuring corn in England, the system is to measure lightly as it is termed, by pouring it gently into the bushel measure, or by entering the measure itself into a loose heap of corn so as partially to fill it, and then completing the filling of it by the hands ; and afterwards by passing the strike, or wooden ruler, along the top of the measure, when a little more than full, in order to scrape off the superfluous parts. By our ancient laws, it was illegal not only to require more than eight bushels to the quarter of corn, which appears to have been a common practice, but even to shake the bushel in measuring corn, which process compresses it into a smaller space, and therefore requires a greater quantity to fill the same measure. These statutes were enacted in the feudal ages, when rents were paid partly in kind, to protect the vassals, who were obliged to deliver a certain number of bushels of corn to their lords at stated times, from being harshly dealt with, by having compressed instead of loose measure exacted from them.

As a side note, bushel is a measure of capacity used for corn, fruit, etc., containing four pecks or eight gallons. The imperial bushel, legally established in Great Britain in 1826, contains 2218.192 cubic inches, or 80 pounds of distilled water weighed in air at 62° Fah. The Winchester bushel, much used from the time of Henry VIII, was somewhat smaller, containing 2150.42 cubic inches or 77.627413 pounds of distilled water; it is still generally used in United States and Canada.^[OED]

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Conclusion:

The noun shake-down meaning "a thorough search of a person or place" seems like an analogy to the act of shaking the corn down till it settles and there is no space left to fill in order to get a good measure. So in criminal slang, it is searching someone or somewhere till there is nothing left to search.

Note: In physics, the shakedown mechanism is explained with granular convection.

doctor who - Do Daleks Travel in Time?

Yes, they do travel through time, although in most episodes in a less sophisticated way than the Time Lords (as others, like Time Agents, do).

The Daleks envied the Time Lords' superior technology, and try to gain it for themselves. In "Remembrance of the Daleks" (7th Doctor) the Daleks try to steal the Hand of Omega, which could create a power source for (Time Lord style) time travel.

By the time of the Last Great Time War, Dalek time travel technology is perhaps as sophisticated as the Time Lords'. In particular, in Doomsday (10th Doctor) the Daleks are able to "emergency temporal shift" without (as far as we see) any external device, suggesting that the Dalek "travel machines" (their suits) incorporate some form of time travel device.

The Daleks sometimes use devices that create "Time Corridors" for travel rather than vessels like a TARDIS, for example:

In "The Chase" (1st Doctor), the Daleks are using ships (Vicki stows away on one when she gets left behind by the Doctor) that can time travel. Also with the 1st Doctor, in "The Daleks' Master Plan" we see the Daleks with time-travel capable ships (but not as sophisticated as the Doctor's or the Meddling Monk's).

In terms of how their choose their destination time, it differs with each of these stories. Generally the date and location have been chosen because they offer some opportunity to further the domination of the Daleks (sometimes, as in "The Evil of the Daleks", to improve their time travel technology and prevent anyone else having it). Presumably they have also travelled widely throughout time on occasions where the Doctor was not around to prevent it.

Plot summaries for the other two movies related to Moon

The second film in the trilogy is supposed to be Mute. Duncan Jones has stated it is a Blade Runner inspired movie, which he is a big fan of, and it takes place in a futuristic Berlin.

About the third film, there is not much known but I remember one of his interviews where he has said the third film could be the adaptation of Escape from the Deep which is an underwater epic focusing on a submarine and her crew.

Anyway, you can follow him on Twitter where he provides info on his future projects as well. In April, he announced another project which is a non sci-fi movie.

single word requests - What comes in between predecessor and successor?

A locus is the position of a gene on a chromosome.

As part of a sequence, a locus has both predecessor and successor (either of which, as in any sequence, can be null).

When talking about, say, a linked list, I find it more elegant and concise to say the locus of the list iterator rather than the node to which list iterator is currently pointing.

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Commenters have pointed out the hazards of borrowing an overloaded term like locus; if you want to use a more standard term, current element is well-understood.

identify this tv show - Teenager who warps into video games and has to defeat the boss of that level

Could it be Super-Human Samurai Cybersquad? From wikipedia:

As revealed in the first installment, "To Protect And Servo:" High
school student Sam Collins is the head of a band called Team Samurai.
During a recording session, Sam is zapped by a power surge and
disappears only to reappear seconds later with a strange device
attached to his wrist (which is at the time unremovable). Later after
his friends Amp, Sydney, and Tanker leave, one of his video game
programs dubbed Servo is subject to a power surge and zaps Sam again.
This time, the zap pulls him into the digital world and turns him into
his creation. As Servo, he roams the digital world and fights monsters
called Mega-Viruses.

Meanwhile, another student from Sam's school named Malcolm Frink is
designing monsters on his home computer when Kilokahn (an escaped
military Artificial Intelligence presumed dead in the power surge)
visits Malcolm via computer screen. Kilokahn strikes a Faustian deal
with Malcolm and turns his digital monster into a Mega-Virus Monster
who is not only capable of corrupting electronics, but is also capable
of affecting the real world.

Sam (now as Servo) must enter the digital world and stop Malcolm's and
Kilokahn's Mega Viruses. Sometimes, when Servo was unable to handle a
virus by himself, he would call on the help of his friends using his
Arsenal Programs. The Arsenal Programs could fight the viruses solo,
transform (with the help of other Programs) and attach to Servo as
armor. Since Team Samurai consisted of only 3 people at any one time
(excluding Sam), only 3 vehicles were available at any one time. When
Servo linked up with these Programs as armor, he changed his name to
either Phormo or Synchro (when he combined with Drago or Xenon,
respectively).

star wars - How many seats were there in the Senate of the Galactic Republic?

We don't know. Sources are conflicted as to how many there were.

The best source I can find for a canon answer is the Databank article on the Galactic Senate, which simply says that there were "hundreds of politicians". By visual inspection, there do appear to be hundreds (perhaps thousands) of repulsorpods (I count about 20 in the part of the lowest row that is visible):

Moving to a pseudo-canon source, the Episode III novelization mentions the Delegation of 2,000, which was a group of senators who opposed Palpatine (the Delegation was also shown in a deleted scene from Episode III). Since the Jedi allege Palpatine has control of the Senate, these 2,000 senators are likely in the minority -- meaning there are possibly 10,000 senators in total. Presumably, each of these senators had their own repulsorpod.

Some sources, including Wookieepedia and Wikipedia, claim that there were exactly 1,024 repulsorpods. Neither source points to a source with that number -- Wikipedia links to the Databank article mentioned above, but that Databank article does not include the exact number. The number is probably based on the number of sectors that made up the Republic at the time of the Ruusan Reformation (Legends). The Ruusan Reformation Wookieepedia article in turn appears to get its number of 1,024 sectors from the Legends "Sector" article, which cites the Legends Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections reference book.

warp - Star trek shields

In the DS9 Technical Manual on page 14 under future advancements: "defensive shield impermeability. Total energy isolation is being studied as a subspace field generation method which allows no interaction between an established shield bubble and an outside force."

According to the TNG Technical Manual page 138, deflector shields are gravitational devices, that bend space around the ship, by passing gravitons through subspace field coils.
The warp drive is a propulsive phenomena that generates its field, by passing energized plasma through the subspace field coils. Furthermore on page 139 "Because of the spatial distortion inherent in the shielding generation process, there is a measurable effect on the geometry of the warp fields that propel the ship."

Both are different methods of creating subspace fields with different properties and effects.

A warp field, is propulsive and intended to lower the mass of the ship, being directed towards the ship, it would be quite useless as a shielding system other than by causing the incoming EM projectile to lose some of its energy due to a weak interaction.

A shield however is a static bubble directed outward from the ship and is therefore effective against incoming material, making it lose most of its energy, although there is always going to be some bleedthrough.

A warp field is not comparatively intense, and is directed towards the ship. A shield is intense, and is directed away from the ship. A warp field sits outside the shield bubble and will allow most energy to pass through it, the shield sits close to the hull and will not allow most energy through it.

Also according to page 138 of the TNG Technical Manual, the shield generators are rated for 473,000 MW per generator. By my calculations, a warp 1 warp field is only 1,000 MW.

Think of the shield as a ball of metal around the ship, and the warp field as a haze of heat and light beyond it.

meaning - What does "No choice, no problem" mean?

Coming from a banking institution, I can tell you what Blankfein meant in that context. They were speaking about regulation in the banking industry and how "oppressive" some bankers find it. Blankfein made the opposite argument, stating that regulation is a fact of banking - "no choice, no problem." In other words, there is no way to avoid strict regulation in the banking industry. Since it's a fact of life, so to speak, there's no reason to see it as a "problem." See? You don't have a choice about it, so there is no problem, or reason to feel "oppressed" by it; you just deal with it as a part of doing business.

Looking at it in a different way - this phrase can mean that when you have real, difficult choices to make, they tend to be seen as problematic. See this book: Read the last paragraph on page 24 and the first on page 25, and you'll see the context. When you have no choice, you have no decision to make, and therefore no difficulties in making, implementing and living with the consequences of that decision. With choice comes the responsibility of choosing.

Movie where an artifact attaches itself to a man and turn him into a monster

What's the name of the movie where a young man finds this item that attaches itself to him and somehow turns him into a monster? I think it is from the '80's or '90's.

Other people are looking for that same item and they can turn into monsters, too. The movie goes on and the young man eventually kills the other guys in their monster form and the last bad guy transforms into the biggest monster of all and was killed by the young man in monster form, too.

There was this one part where they thought they had killed him but he emerged from another monster's belly by cutting his belly with a blade on his elbow.

Was it called Magiver?

etymology - Where does "noogie" come from?

Some theories

Wiktionary's etymology:

Unknown, possibly from Yiddish נודזשען ‎(nudzhen, “to badger”), or possibly from Hebrew נוגות nugot (afflict) (see Eicha/Lamentations 1:3) or possibly via an alteration of nudge, matching the alteration of wedge to wedgie.

Copying wedgie?

The OED's first-known wedgie is from 1977. Whilst this is later than the first noogie in 1968, it's not a million miles away, and playground humour won't necessarily have been documented thoroughly; I'm sure both terms were in use earlier (commenter Bib remembers noogie from the mid-1950s). But it does lend some doubt on the wedge->wedgie/nudge->noogie theory.

Yiddish?

I searched Google Books, but didn't find anything earlier than the OED's 1968:

I. Horovitz Indian wants Bronx 11 Now I'll give you twenty noogies, so we'll be even. (He raps Joey on the R. arm.)

The American author Israel Horovitz was born to a Jewish family, and the play is set in New York City. This lends some weight to a Yiddish origin.

NY / knuckles?

At least there appears to be a New York origin. Etymologist William Safire received plenty of correspondence from New York Times readers who recollected its use in the Bronx and Brooklyn (one class of '47) and added:

Noting the hard g, making the word rhyme with boogie-woogie, etymologists will make the connection of noogie with knuckle, rooted in the Dutch word knook, ''bone.'' That was related to the Middle Low German knoke, and to the Middle English knockel. By the 1940's, knuckle was also a slang word for the head,'' leading to the World War II use of knucklehead as a jocular put-down.

Further evidence that the Bronx term has roots in Holland is that the transitive verb knuckle, ''to press or rub with the knuckles,'' is also known as giving a ''Dutch rub'' (causing many a victim to ''knuckle under'').

game of thrones - The battle of the bastards is this week on GoT

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

star wars - Where does the name "Ewoks" come from?

George Lucas was sued by a guy named Dean Preston, who claimed

he invented the Ewoks in a script called "Space Pets" that he wrote in 1977 and mailed to Lucas in 1978.

Lucas testified in court that

he created the Ewoks in his original 1974 draft of "The Star Wars" and came up with the name by reversing the syllables of the character he called Wookie and rhyming it with the Northern California Indian tribe known as the Miwok (pronounced: mee-walk).

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Wookiepedia explains:

The name "Ewok" only appeared in the script directions, the novelization, the movie's credits, and other spin-off and promotional materials.

grammar - Can you begin a sentence with 'It's because...'

The sentence "it's because..." is grammatically correct. The pronoun it refers to the preceding sentence, "I want to become a fireman". Using substitution, we get "I want to become a fireman because...". It isn't necessarily the most fluid or succinct method of writing, but it isn't wrong either.

Of course, it's important to ensure the referent for "it" is clear, as always.

I agree splitting the single thought process into two sentences seems a little unnatural. However, there are cases where it makes sense. One example is after a rhetorical question, with a full stop for dramatic effect:

Why do we take air for granted?
It's because...

What happened in the end? Was it just a dream?

In an interview with the writer/director JT Petty, he explains that the burrowers, creatures who lived underground and came out periodically to feed, were "basically part of nature. Like if white people didn't show up, they would have kept on their feeding cycle, and everything would have been fine. They come up every 30 years or so; and they came up one time and all the buffalo were gone." So they had to find another warm mammal to eat, and what they found were the people who had slaughtered all the buffalo.

In researching for his movie, Petty discovered that 40% of cowboys in that time were black, and the majority of the rest were immigrants - it wasn't a job anyone wanted. So the inability of people to communicate with each other leads to a lot of mistrust and bad assumptions, which sort of drives the film, and reinforces the underlying message of our historical lack of understanding and subsequent assumptions with regards to Native Americans, a tendency which perhaps persists today with regard to other cultures.

At the end, just when the Irishman is about to learn the secret from the Indians for how to kill the beasts, the Cavalry arrives "misinterprets the situation and ruins their chances of success...Where misunderstanding piles onto misunderstanding and causes everyone to get f**cked."

While the soldier brags about killing the Indians, the Irishman (Fergus Coffey, played by Karl Geary), stares off into space, reality dawning that their only hope of survival is hanging from a makeshift gallows. It is a desolate ending suited to the horror genre!

single word requests - Xylophone-like, piano-like, and violin-like

Instrument sellers sometimes use "tunable" and "un-tunable" (or non-tunable); plus "hand-tunable" to specify that features exist enabling the player to tune it themselves without expert help or tools.

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In the context of percussion, tunable is often used (the word is also used in the context of other frequency-based instruments, e.g. radio emitters and lasers). Merriam-webster:

capable of being tuned

For example, drum sellers selling drums that are tunable, in a category that isn't always tunable, will often advertise the fact. Example:

The new NINO® Tunable Hand Drums are a great sounding drum in a kid-friendly form with a natural goat skin head

Plenty of guides to piano tuning warn that neglect or improper use could render the instrument "un-tunable" (example):

Loose tuning pins or brittle strings can make a piano un-tunable.

As for the distinction between instruments that require professional tuning and those that can be tuned by the player, the best I can find is "hand-tunable", as seen here in an advert for a particular type of bodran (traditional Irish drum) that can be tuned by the player (most can't and need special tools and skill to tune). Example:

These beautiful hand-tunable bodhrans require no tools and can be easily fine-tuned without fuss

Another example from a book:

He was also instrumental in helping to develop the first hand-tunable conga

So you could say something like, "Violins and pianos are tunable, unlike xylophones. Violins are particularly hand-tunable".

lord of the rings - Gandalf - open displays of power versus his restrictions as an Istar

Throughout both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (and I need to stress that I'm talking about the books, not the movies) we see Gandalf quite liberally tossing magic about.

• He uses lightning in his battles with the Nazgul (on Weathertop) and the Balrog (in and above Moria).


• He regularly ignites fires.


• He casts light from his staff.


• He uses spells to (attempt to) open doors, to close doors (even bragging about how many of the former he knows).


• He speaks "words of command".


• He casts shafts of white light at flying Nazgul.

And many more examples.

Yet, as a member of the Istari he is supposed to be restricted from using power. He is supposed to inspire, encourage, and get results primarily through the actions of other people.

Now, I consider myself quite well-read in my Tolkien, but I'm having some difficulty reconciling the two. What's going on there, then?

Answers I'm looking for would include sourced quotes that need not go so far as to explain this exactly, but at least support it's plausability.

animation - Similarities of Pixar and Dreamworks: any published explanation?

To be honest I don't think there is any real issue here regarding similar films from the two animation stables and disagree with anyone who thinks there are more than two comparable sets of films in the original question.

Firstly, we can eliminate two of your examples, as Dreamworks were not involved (The Wild, Robots), so perhaps the question could be made more general - this then negates the alleged 'conflict'.
Also, Flushed Away was an Aardman production before Dreamworks came on board as a distribution partner.
In fact, the only films that show any resemblance to each other are A Bug's Life (which was a remake of Seven Samurai) and Antz (which was an semi-original story), and Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, which share nothing else other than being set under the sea.

Is it well known that there are occasional years when live action releases seem to follow a similar theme (Armageddon/Deep Impact, Volcano/Devil's Peak, Snow White and the Huntsman/Mirror, Mirror, even this year with Olympus has Fallen/White House Down). In most cases this is down to coincidence, or one production company rushing to get their version out before the other, thus affecting the release dates.

Pixar and Dreamworks have no reason to copy each other. The amount of time and money invested in any given animated feature is phenomenal and both companies know that merely copying the other (or even entertaining the fake notion that there is a rivalry between the two houses) does them no favors.

In fact, Pixar went so far as to scrap one of their future releases, Newt, due to possible conflicts with other productions. Some industry insiders believe it was the similarity of the story to Blue Sky's Rio, others attribute it to the success of Rango (ILM) with Pixar not wanting to turn out 'another' lizard/amphibian flick.
You can see some of the concept art for Newt at the Pixar Wiki page.

Bottom line: the similarities are few and far between and these can be put down to coincidence.

single word requests - What would I call this 'attitude'?

A friend of mine has a bad habit of undermining people who are not the best in their respective fields.

If in a car-race, player A wins out of 26 players (A,B,C...Z). He would claim 'A' to be the best but then he would start calling all the other players stupid, pathetic, unworthy of respect heck! even a small appreciation and acts as if the other players don't even deserve to live on this planet.

In every competitive aspect of life, someone would lose and someone would win. That's the nature of the law. The person who came out as 2nd perhaps lagged by an insignificant time interval. He would start to worship the winner and would start calling all the other players as 'worst player' each (starting from B,C,D,E,F...Z).

There are only two categories: Winner(A) and losers(B,C,D...Z) with absolutely no distinction between, let's say player 'D' and 'V'. I would like to add that the field may be and usually is something which he knows very little of.

What do we call this attitude? I would prefer a colloquial word.

The sentence which I would like you to fill up would be:

Stop acting so ______; It's not okay to be so critical about the other
players.

If you have any alternative equivalent of this sentence, possibly humorous, do suggest. Thank you.

No "spider-sense tingling"?

During Spider-Man 2, Parker goes through a puberty, if you will, regarding his identity and what it really means for his life as a whole.

Due to all the stress of school, MJ seeing what seems to be the perfect guy for her, and being Spider-Man, he decided to try to give up being Spider-Man when his powers start to diminish as a result of all these burdens upon him and his desire to just be normal.

Due to this, it would indicate that his Spider-Sense would also be not working just like his web and his wall-climbing abilities; hence him not being able to predict actions and crimes as well as he used to.

---

As far as the bank job specifically, I believe it has been mentioned in the comics that because Doc Ock's tentacles are mechanical it causes them to not be picked up by his senses very well, hence Ock being able to get the drop on him in the bank as well as during their fights (I cannot find any sources for this at this time, however).

During the first fusion reactor scene (which is the one I assume you mention), this might be due to his powers dwindling that he does not sense the explosion or because he is too distracted by being at a demonstration from his idol that this gets in the way as well; it is made quite clear during this film that his emotions control his powers. Another explanation is obviously a plot hole or even that because he was surrounded by so many people, by the time he could react without leaving to put his suit on, he would expose his identity.

Did any of Alfred Hitchcock's American films receive poor reviews upon release?

Hitchcock likely received bad reviews as commonly as any filmmaker did in his day or ours. Criticism is by definition made in the eye of the beholder: a subjective review.

The thrust of your question appears to be more about "how did viewers react to socially shocking elements" in Hitch's films. That question, I would suggest, is self-answering. Hitchcock wasn't afraid to tug on cultural norms a little bit in order to influence his audience, to make them uncomfortable. The plot itself of Rope (1948) is arguably an exercise in this tactic.

Worth noting that when you reference "Hitchcock's American films", that period is generally considered to be from Rebecca (1940) to Family Plot (1976), well over half of his career. Of those, very likely the worst reviewed of the bunch, albeit something of an outlier, was the domestic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). He never dabbled in straight comedy again.

Regarding Psycho and the references Legion6000 gives in his answer, keep in mind that Hitchcock produced the movie with his television crew. He did this in order to produce the movie cheaply under his own expense since Paramount didn't want to produce the script. I also recall that he wasn't happy with the tacked-on ending of the psychologist's explanation, but I don't have a reference for why. Possible that's from Francois Truffaut's interviews, which I highly recommend reading if you're at all interested in Hitchcock's work.

house elves - Why didn't Harry go with Dobby from the infirmary in Chamber?

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, chapter 10, we have Harry

keeping a firm hold on Dobby's wrist to stop him from hitting himself with the water jug again.…

There was a loud crack, and Harry's fist was suddenly clenched on thin air.

The loud crack, we know from elsewhere in the series, is due to Dobby's disapparition. Now, a house-elf (like Dobby) can bring a human along when he disapparates: we see this in another of the books in the series, when Dobby brings humans from Malfoy's house to the Burrow (if I recall correctly: or something like that, anyway). Moreover, such side-along apparition can work even without the consent of the one apparating: we see this in another book also, when someone lands with an Order of the Phoenix member on the step of the Order's headquarters through such apparition.

In that case, why didn't Harry go with Dobby?

star trek - Borg Nanoprobes and shapeshifters/changelings

I believe we don't have any instance of the borg interacting with the founders. Mostly because the changelings primarily inhabit the gamma quadrant, while the borg are primarily in the delta quadrant.

Because we have no known encounters, we now must speculate.
The changelings are one of the most advanced lifeforms that interacts with the federation (yes there are many advanced life forms in startrek, these are active players however). Their abilities make them highly resistant to physical damage, as well as being able to shape-shift almost perfectly.

Another race we encounter Species 8472 have very similar abilities as the changelings in that their bodies are highly resilient, as well as being able to shape-shift again almost perfectly. This is the only know species that we know of that the borg cant assimilate.

So based on the similarities between the changelings and species 8472 i would hazard that the changelings would be extremely difficult if not impossible to assimilate. The fact that the changelings primary form is a liquid, it would seem that they could simply liquefy and shrug off all nanites.

As a side note, Species 8472 are from fluidic space, and the changelings are primarily a fluid, and they both shapeshift hrmmm lol.

etymology - The origins and usages of "waffle"

REVISED

A lesson in the dangers of relying too heavily on Google Ngram (aka mea culpa)

Previously, I posted an Ngram chart illustrating my surprise that waffle used in its verb form seemed to not exist before the late 1950s. When using Ngrams I started with a much wider timescale: 1800 to 2008, I hadn't noticed the tiny bump that appeared sometime in the 1920s. My error, my fault and for that I apologize. Here is the same Ngram updated.

When I dug a little deeper, I found a quote dated 1913 using waffle in its gerund form. Here is a new Ngram chart with "waffling" included in the search. As you can see, it tells a very different story.

Notice how waffling dominates the map, making he waffled insignificant and irrelevant.

Furthermore, by sifting through the results on Google books I discovered that the term, waffling, refers to the art of making waffles and can be jokingly called a sport. On top of that, it's often used in the compound noun waffling-irons with and without the hyphen, and its past participle can be used as an adjective, as in a waffled breakfast, waffled toast, waffled potatoes, waffled surface, waffled chiffon, waffled material, waffled leather or a waffled quilt. (Who would have thought being an etymologist could be so exhausting!)

As a result, I still maintain that the question is not one of general reference. The scope for discussion is much wider than simply looking up waffle in Wikipedia.

A British speaker commented:

If someone keeps changing their mind, they are by definition being
vague and talking about nothing in particular. There could be other
reasons to (hiding something... not knowing what they are talking
about, etc) but that doesn't alter the fact that BrEng and AmEng agree
that indecisive people waffle.

I believe the difference is more marked than the one suggested by the user. And I'll do my best to explain why.

Collins Dictionary gives this definition

British English: waffle If someone talks or writes a lot without saying anything clear or important, you can call what they say or write waffle. He writes smug, sanctimonious waffle.
Word Origin C19: of unknown origin

Merriam-Webster offers

intransitive verb
1: equivocate, vacillate “waffled on the important issues”; also : yo-yo, flip-flop “she waffled when asked what she thought of her sister's new boyfriend”

Origin of WAFFLE
frequentative of obsolete woff to yelp, of imitative origin
First Known Use: 1868

1.

I'll include my personal definition of the BrEng sense of the word waffle which I left in a comment to the aforementioned British speaker who argues that there is no discernable difference.

Waffling in BrEng is primarily someone who keeps talking
endlessly about nothing in particular, it's like a drone sound, a lot
of words being said or written without coming to any conclusion. I wouldn't include hesitation or indecisiveness. The act of waffling could disguise someone's insecurity, as people do have a tendency to rattle on when they are nervous. Some, instead, become tongue-tied

From 1957 a British newspaper clipping (1957)

“... little darling that ever walked this earth! She's a princess! She's a
fairy! She's a — ” The rhapsodist broke off short, and flushed red.
“Forgive me,” he said “for waffling like that, but I don't quite know what I 'm doing just at present. Dad, I'm the happiest man that ever lived!”

---

2.

From The New York Times the AmEng sense

Wishy-washyness, often spelled wishi-washiness, is not synonymous with
flip-floppiness. I dealt with flip-flop, both noun and verb, a few
months ago, defining the side-switching not so much as a permanent
change of mind but with its verb synonym "waffle" (from the Scottish
waff, "gust of wind"; nothing to do with the Dutch wafel, "cake baked
on a grid").

The American journalist, William Safire, in this excerpt is
clearly saying that flip-flop is synonymous with waffle and not with verbosity or excessive wordiness. The journalist continues “The standard English synonym for the flip-flop verb is "vacillate."”

Another instance, which illustrates more clearly the difference between AmEng and BrEng use of waffling

Think of how much time you waste waffling between a yes and a no,
deciding whom to hire, where to locate your business and how to
organize your day. Now there is software that can make your choices
easier.

^{Source: InfoWorld - 15 Aug 1983 - Page 88}

A British speaking person may have said “humming hawing” (US hem haw), “wavering” or “dithering” in its place. “Sitting on the fence” is another alternative.

• The earliest instance I found for "waffling between" is dated 1964 in the Ontario Library Review, Volumes 48-49

His hero is a 30 year old Catholic bachelor waffling between the
priesthood and love of a lass, who is, alas, both a protestant and a
librarian. This is a readable novel with many droll characters.

The earliest reference I found in Google books with waffled as it is used today is dated 1962 from The U.S. Government Printing Office.

It's interesting to note that the term waffled is described as local jargon and in the earlier clipping it is quoted, implying that the term was relatively new and considered almost dialectal.

Conclusions

The findings so far seem to suggest that the verb waffle as used in the UK and in the US is much more recent than any of the references or dictionaries I consulted have suggested. There is no evidence that proves that the AmEng verb existed (at least in print) before the 1950s. Whereas in the UK the earliest instance of waffled, meaning to speak at great length without meaning, is dated 1913.

Star Wars Time Measurement and Dating Systems

I seem to remember several dating systems mainly in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Furthermore, I was wondering if periods of time such as seconds, days, or months represent the same amount of time as they do in the real world.

So these are the main points of this question:

1. Which are the different dating systems (if there is indeed more than one) in the Star Wars galaxy? How are they related in regard to time offsets and such? (e.g. One system's year 5000 is another's year 268) An explanatory timeline graphic - perhaps including some important events - would be especially appreciated!




2. Do amounts of time in the dating system(s) such as minutes or hours represent the same amount as in the real world? If more than one system exists, do the amounts of time carry over between them? (e.g. 1 minute is the same amount of time in all systems.)



3. If the times carry over (or there is, in fact, only one system), what planet are the units of time based on? Coruscant?

Sorry if it seems I have asked too much in one question - splitting this question up into multiple questions did not appear to be a good idea as much of its content is very related.

Thanks for your time!

24 - Trying to remember a specific character that Jack Bauer tortured

Really hope someone can help with this as it's bugging me to death.

In one specific episode (no idea which season, sorry), either a captured enemy or a person of interest who I think was an arms dealer is brought in to CTU headquarters for questioning.

Typically Jack is impatient, and this quickly turns in to a bizarre torture scene (although I can't remember how) where the guy ends up dead on the floor of CTU, leading Jack using a couple of power cables to jump start the guy back to life. The power cables part is what I seem to remember the most.

I know that's a really sketchy outline of the plot, but I can barely remember it. If this sparks memory in anyone, can you tell me who this 'arms dealer' was that Jack was torturing?

grammar - Order of words and punctuation in a sentence

I don't think the sentence is excessively long, but you could reduce the ambiguity by moving one of its elements to the front:

After the show ends, ask him what becomes of the dogs he claims to have rehabilitated on the show and he leaves them again in the hands of their ignorant owners.

You could also simplify the "leaves them in the hands" part:

After the show ends, ask him what becomes of the dogs he claims to have rehabilitated on the show and they {go back / are returned} to their ignorant owners.

If, as Sven Yargs suggests, the emphasis of "after the show ends" is on what happens when the pets are returned to their owners, rather than on the timing of the question to be put to the show's star, it might be better to break out the long preceding phrase that defines which dogs the speaker is talking about:

Ask him what becomes of the dogs — the ones he claims to have rehabilitated on the show — after the show ends and he {leaves them in the hands of / returns them to} their ignorant owners.

Why is Ginger wearing a wire in Swordfish?

Undercover DEA agents will certainly not bother locking the door whilst undressing, right? :) Of course it was planned and was a push to convince Stanley Jobson to give Gabriel the "worm" and not derail the plan in any way.

Ginger (while undressed): But it's not you we're after. It's Gabriel. So just give him the worm, take the money, and get the hell out of here. That's all you gotta do.

There really was no way for Gabriel to verify that the worm was actually genuine as he would have needed another hacker of Stan's calibre to do so. Ginger's wire play was therefore a psychological ploy to improve the odds in his favour.

^{_{You ought to watch the alternate endings on the DVD.}}

When grabbing the commisoner what is Tyler Durden actually doing?

I always took that to mean one of the Project Mayhem members locked the door. Edward Norton's character imagined/remembered that it was him instead of someone else doing it. Presumably this was guided by Tyler.

We see Edward Norton's character imagine himself doing things at other points in the movie. For example during the Tyler and Marla having sex montage, Edward Norton walks up to Tyler's bedroom door and peeks in. Tyler and Edward Norton have a short exchange, Edward walks off, then Marla asks Tyler, "Who are you talking to?" which indicates that Tyler was in control of the body at that point.

What are the chase lights under Star Trek viewscreens for?

Well, it was my belief that in the original series (TOS), the chase lights have 2 modes. The first one being 2 lights next to each other - alternating left and right, and the more common line left to right. In Star Trek IV it switches to the format we see today. In TNG, DS9 and VOYAGER they are the equivalent to the CPU lights on a modern PC. Note that in Star Trek IV and later that only have one mode: 2 lights moving outwards towards the middle. Note that Voyager has 2 sets of chase lights: one under the view screen and one above the view screen.

In the unaired pilot of TOS, it had this view screen

And here is the NX-01 view screen:

And in the JJ Abrams reboot, they don.t even have chase lights.

grammar - Can anyone analyze the sentence structure for me?

I'll shorten the original sentence "Me staring in your dead eye with my hand around your throat" to the structurally equivalent "Me looking at you". Well, the equivalence extends to the part of the structure that counts, anyway.

Here, "me" is a disjunctive pronoun. The fact that the sentence doesn't follow the typical SVO structure of English sentence syntax isn't odd. It's an example of an elliptical construction, more specifically answer ellipsis. As has already been pointed out, sentences like "me looking at you" are pretty limited to being an answer to some question. Intuitively, it feels like there's something missing before "me" for this to be a full sentence that can stand alone without needing more discourse context. The standalone sentence would be SVO, and we can view the sentence with ellipsis as having an underlying SVO structure.

An example of something that would work to fill the gap is, e.g. "The last thing you'll see is" (for "The last thing you'll see is me looking at you"). If we take "The last thing you'll see is me looking at you" as the underlying, implied sentence, then "The last thing you'll see is" is a valid target for answer ellipsis, if the question is formed appropriately. By contrast, "The last thing you'll see is looking" is not a valid target for ellipsis given the underlying SVO sentence and so "Me at you" is ungrammatical in this context.

Something interesting is that as I mentioned, the answer "Me looking at you" is only grammatical if the question is formed appropriately. If the question is "What's the last thing that I'll see?", then the answer "Me looking at you" is fine. However, if the question is "What's the last thing that I'll see you looking at?", then the answer ellipsis sentence would be ungrammatical, but the non-elided answer would be fine:

Q: "What's the last thing that I'll see you looking at?"

A: *"Me looking at you" (bad)
A: "The last thing you'll see is me looking at you" (okay)

identify this movie - Desert high school kid whose mother tried to send him to rehab in Fiji or Samoa

An Independent movie. Time frame was maybe 2008 (a guess) – very modern – could be today. The location was the American Southwest desert, I think Vegas or Arizona

The kid was brilliant. Lived in a desert suburb. His mother was a mess, neurotic and concerned her son was wrecking his life with drugs. (and he was.) She did an intervention. Kid escapes (multiple times) - including faking to be sick and then escaping from the hospital bed before being sent to Fiji with a universal handcuff key he stitched into his shorts.

I believe, the main actor was the writer/director, and the story was actually based on his life. I think. (That's why I'm trying to find him and see if he's done anything since.) I can’t remember that kid’s name or the movie – and it’s killing me I can’t find it via Google-Bing.

technology - Why are there parallel technologies in the Star Trek universe?

There are several possibilities regarding technology.

Necessity

In most cases, the species encountered are space faring races and are encountered in space. The technology they use makes life in space possible or at least more bearable.

Examples

• The transporter eases planetary exploration and transfer between vessels.


• Replicators eliminate the need for large cargo areas filled with food and water.


• Universal translators make it possible to talk to members of other species, even if they were only just encountered.


• Holodecks/Holosuites allow for entertainment and a form of "shore leave" without leaving the ship.

Natural Progression of Technology

Many of the different technologies operate under similar principles and could be seen as "the next logical step" once the precursor technology had been perfected.

Examples

• According to Memory Alpha, the replicator is a variant of transporter technology that simply materializes matter in a different form.


• Holograms in all their forms (holodecks, holosuites, the EMH etc) use force field technology are a variant of the shield technology that protects the ship in battle, keeps prisoners in the brig, keeps shuttlebays compressed when the external doors are open etc.


• Subspace technology is used to both propel the ship at warp speed and to communicate at great distance.

Observation/Trade

In some cases, we've seen that some races had technology or more advanced versions of technology before others. In those cases, the "lesser" race either acquired the technology or eventually developed it on their own.

Examples

• On Enterprise, Tucker said he would like to get a look inside the nacelles of a Vulcan ship because it had a higher maximum speed than Enterprise did. The Vulcan captain refused but humanity eventually "caught up" to Vulcan propulsion technology.


• In the episode Dead Stop, the Enterprise crew observed and used replicator technology on the repair station. That may have prompted the eventual research and development of the technology by humans/Starfleet.


• The Klingons acquired holographic technology from the Xyrillians in exchange for not killing them.

continuity - What happens after the events of All Star Superman?

The Short Answer:

No, there is no follow-up to the All Star Superman movie. The events of this movie do not fit in any of the DC Universe continuities. It is a unique event having unique parameters in the creation of the character "All-Star Superman".

The DC Animated feature film All-Star Superman was based on the comic book series All-Star Superman. As noted in Wikipedia:

All-Star Superman is a twelve-issue comic book series featuring
Superman that ran from November 2005 to October 2008. The series was
written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Frank Quitely, digitally inked by
Jamie Grant and published by DC Comics. DC claimed that this series
would "strip down the Man of Steel to his timeless, essential
elements".

The series was the second to be launched in 2005 under DC's All-Star
imprint, the first being All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.
These series are attempts by DC to allow major comics creators a chance to tell stories showcasing these characters without being
restricted by DC Universe continuity. [emphasis mine]

With that said, the All Star Superman was not a single Superman but an amalgam or archetype of the iconic hero across his entire heritage encompassing all of his previous incarnations. This was done to allow a well known writer to try and expound on the legend of Superman unrestricted. Grant Morrison used elements from across the history of the character to create a single story that embodied every Age of Superman. All-Star Superman is not the canon character of Superman, he is the paragon of the archetype.

identify this movie - "Are you gonna get that?" "Get what?" Then a red phone rings

I think it's a film rather than a show. I thought it was Tom Hanks, or somebody similar in appearance.

What is the film where a young guy can tell what's about to happen a few seconds into the future? The scene I remember is something like the following:

The guy and a friend in a small room, like a dorm room. Maybe they're not talking, just reading. Or maybe they're talking about something and he interrupts.

"Are you gonna get that?"
"Get what?"
Then a red(?) phone between them(?) rings.

Where did the river of pink slime come from?

From the Ghostbusters Wiki:

The origin of the Mood Slime is tied to a juvenile Sloar, held in Shandor's Island, beneath the Hudson River.

Before his death, Ivo Shandor and his Cult of Gozer had somehow lured the young Sloar from its home hell dimension and imprisoned it in our world within a Ghostworld pocket at the heart of Shandor's island mansion. Fueled by hatred, bile and anger the creature produced a steady stream of Black Slime.

Ivo Shandor, through experimentation and using equipment decades ahead of it's time, converted the Black Slime into what became known as the Mood Slime, which was then pumped directly into New York's sewers and abandoned tunnels, possibly as a means to help Gozer's crossing over.

This act was later used by Vigo to his own advantage.

Story - Roman Legionnaires travel through time and start our history

I originally read this story in German, but I'm pretty sure it is a translation from English. I have read it at around 2010, but the story was in a book already being older. I got it from a sale at a small price. I can remember some heavy wear on the book, so it might be from 2005 or earlier.
Please help me identify it, as I want to give it to a friend. Unfortunately, I can only remember some of the details.

---

In an alternate timeline Jesus was not betrayed by Judas, leading to him becoming emperor of the Roman Empire. The empire grows to great strength and a high technology level.

At the beginning of the story the empire is at a constant war with an American civilization, perhaps based on the Aztec or Mayan cultures. The European civilization never explored the American continents until the native civilization had grown too strong to conquer.

It is about a group of time travellers who are hit mid-travel and fall out of their travel at the time and near of Jesus workings (which they only find out after about one quarter of the story).

Thanks to some stolen uniforms and a matter-transformator they get into a nearby town and establish a base of operation. After some character development, tragedy, and so on they decide to visit Jesus. I don't know exactly what happens next, but in the end they are accused as wizards (because they made perfect copies of a coin when they arrived), some die and they decide to split up.

One of them is really disillusioned of what the future made of the Jesus he met, so he decides to change the timeline. He counts the silver coins remaining in his pockets and finds that he has 30 of them. He sees a guy leaving a house and approaches him with the words "You must be Judas, right?" (Story ends)

production - Why are there typically no more than 24 episodes in a TV Season?

There are 52 weeks in a year.
American TV series usually go from the end of September to May, about 34-35 weeks.

Before the late 1960s, a television season was closer to about 30 episodes in the United States.[Wikipedia] [Version]

Most shows go on hiatus over the winter holidays and thanksgiving, due to lower viewership. Events such as the president of the United States giving a speech, also usually means that there will be no new television that night. In the 2012-2013 year, there were 3 presidential debates and election night, so there was no new television for any of those nights. Some episodes end up not being shown on the originally-planned day because of being pre-empted by athletics games. There are some series that have 2-hour specials which cut into other shows at certain points in the season.

In order to have time to air all the episodes produced, the networks generally order seasons of 22-26 episodes.

lord of the rings - Why didn't Gollum kill Frodo and Sam?

To begin with, Gollum does not know Frodo and Sam are trying to destroy the Ring, only that they want to enter Mordor. In fact he reacts very angrily when he learns they want to destroy his Precious. In the film, Frodo tells him just outside Shelob's lair; in the books, Gollum doesn't work it out until he attacks them on the slopes of Mount Doom itself:

"Wicked masster!" it hissed. "Wicked masster cheats us; cheats
Smeagol, gollum. He musstn't go that way. He musstn't hurt Precious.
Give it to Smeagol, yess, give it to us! Give it to uss!" [Return of
the King, Book 6, Chapter 3, "Mount Doom"]

To answer your main question, Frodo and Sam do not trust Gollum. In the books they take it in turns to sleep, with one remaining awake to watch:

"Look here!" Sam whispered to Frodo, not too softly; he did not really
care whether Gollum heard him or not. "We've got to get some sleep;
but not both together with that hungry villain nigh, promise or no
promise." [The Two Towers, Book 4, Chapter 2, "The Passage of the Marshes"]

If Gollum attacked the hobbit on guard, he would wake the other; and Gollum is not strong enough to defeat both the hobbits at once, especially since they are armed and he is not. This is hinted at in the films as well, along with the fact that Frodo hardly sleeps at all.

Finally, it is suggested that possession of the Ring gives Frodo a power to command Smeagol/Gollum:

For a moment it appeared to Sam that his master had grown and Gollum
had shrunk; a tall stern shadow, a mighty lord who hid his brightness
in grey cloud, and at his feet a little whining dog. Yet the two were
in some way akin and not alien; they could reach one another's minds.
[The Two Towers, Book 4, Chapter 1, "The Taming of Smeagol"]

As Frodo says in the film, "The Ring is treacherous. It will hold you to your word." Of course, Gollum himself is treacherous and will take any opportunity to seize the Ring for himself, but he still finds it difficult to defy Frodo.

synonyms - Is there a single word for a document containing an individual's contact information?

I'm looking for a single noun to indicate a document (or web page) that contains a person's contact information (phone, email, etc.).

The context is a navigation element on a personal website, for example:

Home | Bio | Contact Page

I want to substitute the text "Contact Page" with the word I'm seeking.

Archaic, formal or loaned words are perfectly acceptable, even desired. The tone of the website is humorous.

A word that has a metaphorically connected meaning (similar to the way "Home" is understood to mean "The Home Page"), though less desirable, is still acceptable.

How do you measure magical ability in the Harry Potter series?

As far as I am aware, at no point in the books is a method of measuring the amount of magical power a wizard has ever mentioned. I found an interesting source after a Google search which has an interesting take on the matter:

The most accomplished wizards in the Potterverse are often described as elderly or hard-working. Voldemort began his reign of terror by the age of 40, but he had spent the previous twenty years working harder than anyone to become powerful. Horace Slughorn was already a teacher at Hogwarts in the late Thirties (and perhaps before), and he is described as an extremely able wizard who evaded Voldemort for one year (HBP4). Dumbledore is 150 years old and has spent most of his life studying. These wizards are powerful because they refined their abilities and amassed an extensive knowledge of magic, and because they had a lot of time to do it.

~http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-magical-power.html

Thinking about it, I would agree that instead of differing amount of raw power possessed by individual wizards, the thing that differentiates the different levels of ability is being dedicated to improving and having a quick mind to respond to situations (such as in a duel, where fast - thinking is critical). Whether everyone has the ability to use all their magic power (for example, if they are mentally disabled) is a different matter.

If the amount of raw power differed from wizard to wizard, it would seem likely that pure bloods would be far more powerful than half-bloods or especially Muggle-borns. Hermione is often described as being "the best witch in the year", so this seems unlikely.

Like Muggle exams, OWLS and NEWTS are qualifications, and someone who is not very good at magic, but studied hard, would probably do better than a talented one that was complacent and did no revision.

Why did Natalie Teager get a different job in "Mr. Monk and the Badge"?

According to Wikipedia, in this episode (based on the book Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu), it wasn't that Monk did not require her services so much as, perhaps feeling that she was no longer needed, she "reveals that she has an interview for a glamorous job with a concert promoter." Mr. Monk warns her that her new boss will not be as good as he was. In the end, she misses the excitement of working with him, and she returns to her job as he relinquishes his badge.

In the dialogue at the end, they disagree about whether she quit or was let go:

Monk: I pay $900 a week.

Natalie: I am not taking a pay cut, Mr. Monk!

Monk: Then you shouldn't have quit.

Natalie: I didn't quit, you let me go. Oh, God, you make me mad!

This episode was directed by Dean Parisot, whose only other episode was the pilot.

Interestingly, in the book, Natalie does not leave when Monk gets his badge back (which he only gets temporarily because he is operating as a scab during an unofficial police strike - "blue flu"), but continues working with him at his job. In the television series, they were trying to wrap up a lot of loose ends as the series came to an end, and one of those loose ends was Adrian getting his badge back. But once he had it back, he decides it is not for him. That storyline naturally had to consider what would happen to Natalie if Monk went back to regular work.

la jetee - In "La jetée" does the time-traveler's body stay in the present time?

The film La jetée - famous for inspiring 12 Monkeys - appears to feature a method of time travel that is more psychological than mechanical. There is no time machine. Instead, a man who is known for having a strong memory is given an injection. Then the movie cuts back-and-forth between scenes of the man in the past, in the future, and writhing on a cot in the present, under the influence of the injection:

Am I understanding the method of time travel in La jetée accurately? Does the time travel all occur within the time-traveler's mind, meaning his body never leaves the present?

My interpretation for La jetée is that the man is not actually time-traveling. Instead, the injection (and whatever other treatment) he is given sends him deep into his mind and his memory, allowing him to mentally re-visit the world he grew up in vividly enough to deliver to the scientists the information they need from the past. Similarly, the injection enables the man to anticipate the future and again get the information the scientists need.*

Here's link to Spanish-language-dubbed version of La jetée. Starting at about 9:00, you can see how the "time travel" seems to consist of the man writhing on his bed. The narrator says something like "After 10 days, scenes began to come through."

(At the end of La jetée, the man realizes the scientists are going to execute him. He asks to be sent back to the past, and appears to be killed while he is "in" the past. My interpretation is the scientists were kind enough to first give him one last injection before executing him while he was under the influence - so in his mind, he felt like he was dying in the past.)

production - How do the Whale Web Cams on Revenge TV Series work?

There would be several ways for the cameras to get a live signal to Nolan's computer.

One would be satellite (i.e. what television news has been doing for decades), but as the cameras are indoors, that's not a real possibility.

A second would be for the whale cams to connect to the local WiFi router wherever they're placed, and with Nolan's hacking skills this is a theoretical possibility, but it would require a lot of preparation - he'd have to hack each individual WiFi network and then encrypt all his intrusions so that the whale cams couldn't be tracked.

The third possibility, and by far the most likely, would be for the cameras to transfer their stream via cellular technology... any smartphone can already do this. You would just need the camera, a 4G radio, and a battery, and it could then transmit to a server that Nolan could log into and watch the live streams. Something like these, for example.

More support for this last possibility has to do with NolCorp - though it hasn't been explicitly stated, it has been very subtly implied that NolCorp manufactures mobile technology... in episode 2 of season 1, the big announcement about which company would be making components for a NolCorp product is reminiscent of Apple always making such a big deal over who makes their components. What's more, the ABC site has a series of supposed memos that Nolan wrote to his company, and one of them mentions how the NolPad will be better and faster than the iPad or Samsung tablets. If NolCorp makes mobile technology, then a 4G hidden camera makes more than enough sense for the fiction of the show.

grammar - We like to wish you .. VS We would like to wish you...

I'm having some difficulty with this sentence.
Can one say: ''We like''...(to wish, to ask, to join etc)

In my opinion one can never say ''we like to'' but must always say ''We WOULD like to'' or ''we'd like to''.

Not a native speaker, help me out :)

margin call - Significance of Sam Roger's dog references?

The dog may also be a metaphore for his job and the firm (or at least the team) that he is running. Rogers is a compassionate character who cares about the work, but is not afraid to take hard decisions. His speech at the end shows that he recognises what he has done. The film focuses on his moral choices.

The dog is a selfish indulgence - he spends a fortune on it. It is sick with cancer, as is the business he works for. It is living on borrowed time, being kept alive by money (like the business). In the end, when it is clear the music has stopped, he puts the dog down, destroys his job with a quick death (he puts it down), destroying his relationship with his clients. He has no control over either event. In the end, he accepts what has happened, buries the dog, mentally buries the events of that day (he decides not to quit) and moves on.

single word requests - What's a good adjective or phrase to describe your feeling when confronted with absurdity?

If you are feeling the anger and the hilarity simultaneously, you actually are feeling

ambivalent

ADJECTIVE

Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about
something or someone:

The strength of your anger, and the strength of your amusement are both at play in your mind:

"simultaneous conflicting feelings," 1924 (1912 as ambivalency),

from German Ambivalenz, coined 1910 by Swiss psychologist Eugen
Bleuler (1857-1939) on model of German Equivalenz "equivalence," etc.,

from Latin ambi- "both" (see ambi-) + valentia "strength,"

from present participle of valere "be strong" (see valiant).

A psychological term that by 1929 had taken on a broader literary and
general sense.

Usually the ambivalence is between the strength of love and hate (anger), rather than anger and hilarity.

The etymology of absurdity intersects at incongruity and dissonance of your emotional experience:

late 15c., from Middle French absurdité,

from Late Latin absurditatem (nominative absurditas) "dissonance,
incongruity," noun of state

from Latin absurdus "out of tune;"

figuratively "incongruous, silly, senseless,"

from ab-, intensive prefix, + surdus "dull, deaf, mute" (see
susurration).

You're so mad you shouldn't be laughing, but you are!

etymology - When did people start "boinking"?

The OED dates boink as a verb back to 1984, citing Stephen King's Thinner, where it appears to be used as onomatopoeia, similar to bonk:

He half-expected them to begin bopping and boinking each other.

For this sense, the OED gives the definition "to strike, to knock", which is fairly similar to how bonk is used. As for the sexual meaning, their earliest cite is from two years later, a 1986 posting to the newsgroup net.singles by Andrew Tannenbaum:

When you and your honey boink away, you're doing what the doggies do.

Can boink be antedated? Perhaps. But take a look at the following chart from Google Books Ngrams Viewer:

So at the very least, boink wasn't widespread until after the mid-80s.

Searching Google Books, I was able to find some examples of boink from before 1986, but none with a sexual meaning. I chose to search for boinking first to reduce false positives because Google Books (unlike their Ngram Viewer) is case-insensitive and Boink is a name. I did also search for boink, but it was less useful. Searches for boinked and boinks had fewer false positives than boink did, but neither turned up any pre-1986 citations with a sexual meaning.

Most of what I found was like the following snippet from The Complaint Booth (Jack Kurtz, 1978):

Fairies pass through audience boinking people with their wands. Elves up and down aisles "beeping."

Here it seems similar to bonk. And we can find scattered earlier uses with the same meaning, as in the following 1966 use with a similar meaning in Science & Technology:

This causes a mechanical wave to travel around the circumference of the sleeve―in the same way it would if you kept "boinking" the top of a metal can with your fingers.

Using the same tools, Frank found an even earlier example, apparently quoting something Senator John Thye said in a 1947 congressional committee meeting:

Mr. Sears, how would you propose to perfect the general farm program, disregarding soil conservation which is just one small phase of the enter program, but boink back to parity price, the ever-normal granary, and those programs?

There are more like this, but it didn't seem to be especially common and none of the pre-1986 examples I found had a sexual meaning. Of course, that doesn't mean people didn't use it that way, only that I can't find it in print using online tools. It seems likely that the word was used in speech before it appeared in print, but I can only speculate as to how much earlier.

Given the dates, including the citation Frank found, it seems reasonable to guess that boink goes back about as far as bonk. As for the sexual use, it seems safe to say it became commonplace after the mid-80s.

word choice - "Nikki's and Alice's X" vs. "Nikki and Alice's X"

Wikipedia has this:

A distinction is made between joint possession (Jason and Sue’s e-mails: the e-mails of both Jason and Sue), and separate possession (Jason’s and Sue’s e-mails: both the e-mails of Jason and the e-mails of Sue). Style guides differ only in how much detail they provide concerning these.[7] Their consensus is that if possession is joint, only the last possessor has possessive inflection; in separate possession all the possessors have possessive inflection. If, however, any of the possessors is indicated by a pronoun, then for both joint and separate possession all of the possessors have possessive inflection (his and her e-mails; his, her, and Anthea’s e-mails; Jason’s and her e-mails; His and Sue’s e-mails; His and Sue’s wedding; His and Sue’s weddings).

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Possessive_apostrophe

So in your example, unless they are writings that Giovanni and Walker co-wrote, you should use Nikki Giovanni's and Alice Walker's writings. Although I agree that it trips off the tongue better with just the second 's, and no doubt only the pedants in the audience would pick you up on it ;)

Is Nebula 9 a real (or maybe inspired) show?

In Episode 6 of Season 5 of Castle ('Final Frontier'), there is a murder, wherein the body is placed inside a fake spaceship designed for the 'Nebula 9 Fan Experience'.
I Googled Nebula 9 and all results are abc.com or Memes released by it.

I'm pretty convinced that it's made-up, but just wanted to confirm it is.
And if it is made-up, was it inspired by some long-forgotten failed Sci-Fi show?
If yes, which one?!