lord of the rings - How Did Éowyn Slay the Witch King of Angmar if He Wasn't Alive?

Another detail to note: Sauron sent the Lord of the Nazgûl, to fight the Northern Dúnedain, located in Arnor (to the North of Middle Earth). He founded the kingdom of Angmar and named himself 'The Witch-King of Angmar'. He gathered men and orcs to him and attacked the Northern Dúnedain, who got the Elves to help them.

The warriors who fell in that conflict were buried in the barrows, which were not evil places until the Witch-King sent evil spirits to occupy them. The long and the short of it is that the weapons that were buried with them were specifically forged (and enchanted, or at least it was intimated) to battle the forces of Angmar and even the Witch-King himself. That is why that blade in particular is anathema to the Witch-King.

I've seen debates where people argue for that reason that Merry's blow was what actually killed the Witch-King, and Éowyn merely gave the coup-de-grace. (After all, isn't a Hobbit not a man, either?) Regardless, it's a nice example of the level of intricacy Tolkien regularly employed.

You want to lose yourself in a very well organized and comprehensive Tolkien-Lore repository, google 'Encyclopedia of Arda'.

What is the correct word for a person whom I am interacting with?

I need to program computer agents that interact with each other (for example they play a computer game with each other). Sometimes it happens that two agents are interacting with each other. I need to find a word to describe who they are to each other. I have the following options:

1. opponent


2. companion


3. partner

My main requirement is that the word should be neutral (since the interaction can be of different kinds: cooperation, competition, fight). I am afraid that opponent is a bit "negative" (in the sense that it assumes that two agents are enemies, that they are fighting). Partner, in contrast, seems to be positive to me (assuming that agents cooperate with each other). What about companion? Or may be you can propose other words?

star trek - Why did Ceti Alpha VI explode?

The odds against a planetary collusion in a system old enough to have multi celled life on one of the planets, are well - astronomical.

Planetary collisions are the type of crazy stuff which happens in young solar systems. But in the first few hundred million years bodies in unstable orbits are removed, spiraling inward and being adsorbed by the sun, or spiraling outward and being ejected from the solar system. And sometimes they collide with other planets and protoplanets when on their way in or out. After all the bodies in unstable orbits are removed that way in the first few hundred million years, the odd against any more planetary collisions are astronomical.

It took billions of years for multi-celled plants and animals to evolve on earth, so the Ceti eels prove that the Ceti Alpha system was billions of years old and thus the odds against any planets colliding and exploding would be astronomical.

But that would still be more more likely to happen than a planet exploding from internal forces. Exploding as a result of a collision would be more likely than exploding from internal forces by an amount that would also be - astronomical

single word requests - what do you call a civilized person?

In colloquial AmE there is the admonition, "Why don't you act like a human being?" which implies civilized behavior - or the shorter, "C'mon, be human" which means the same thing.

In the NE US, we often say "He/She is 'good people'" (using the plural for a single person) to mean someone who is thoughtful, friendly, down-to-earth, and/or generous. We also borrow the Yiddish expression mensch (literally, 'person') but used in the same way.

Why is Michael Mann's The Keep currently unavailable?

Paramount Studios had intended to release The Keep on DVD in 2004, but this would have been the (frankly incomprehensible) version, edited down to 96 minutes from Mann's original 180 minute version, and the release was shelved for no apparent reason.

The edited version seen in theaters and on VHS is indeed pretty poor and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, due, I would think, to being only half a film!

There appears to be no clear evidence over who is blocking the film, and I am not convinced that Mann has enough power to do so, but efforts have been underway for a while now to get a full, director's cut, release made. You can follow these efforts on this fan-run site here and sign the petition here. This site does include a fascinating interview with Mann from 1983.

Incidently, a graphic novel was produced, which F Paul Wilson adapted himself.

Is "very much" an adverb or an adjective?

Classically, an adverb can modify either a verb or an adjective (or perhaps other things), but there are subtleties. "Very" is an adverb that can modify adjectives but not verbs, which is useful to know for a grammarian, because it can be used to distinguish verbs from adjectives in cases where the difference is not obvious (such as participles).

At least sometimes, when "very" cannot be used because it would modify a verb, it can be converted to a verb modifier by adding "... much":

The new regulations bewildered him.  
He was very bewildered at the new regulations.  
*The new regulations very bewildered him.
?? He was very bewildered by the new regulations.  
The new regulations very much bewildered him.  
He was very much bewildered by the new regulations.  

star wars - How does the math add up in the success of Order 66?

Edit: Trying to make this less wordy without dropping relevant content.

In Star Wars Insider #87, the article Order 66: Destroy All Jedi features an in-universe report for Palpatine by presumably Sate Prestage. It states the official number of Jedi survivors at less than 100, or approximately 1% of the Jedi Order (unofficially, sources used in How many Jedi were there at the time of the purge? puts the final survivor count is at 200+, but the percentage isn't tied to this number).

That puts the Jedi Order at 9-10,000 strong. I assume the in-universe derivation of this percentage is based on some census obtained prior to the Clone Wars, during the Order's last known steady state.

To exterminate the Jedi order, Palpatine needs to kill 10,000 Jedi. This was achieved by:

• Being KIA during the Clone Wars (No. of in-publication deaths: 303)


• Being scattered across the galaxy commanding the GAR for easy pickings when Order 66 came down (430 Jedi officers, 1 each commanding 10 System Armies => 20 Sector Armies => 80 Corps => 320 Legions)


• Anyone in the Jedi Temple during Operation Knightfall were massacred by Darth Vader and the 501st Legion

Before leaving to confront Palpatine, Mace Windu had the Jedi Temple fortified, armed and on alert to an imminent Sith attack. Lightsabers were given to every last Jedi, even younglings. Although Palpatine had the element of surprise - Darth Vader and the 501st Legion were not initially recognized as the enemy - this didn't last long as Vader announced his intentions immediately upon entering the main hall (the first room and before the clones started fanning out). It was enough however to force the Jedi to start evacuating the younglings and Padawans, though most of them didn't escape successfully.

During the Clone Wars, when Captain Rex led the 501st and 212th to arrest Jedi General Pong Krell, the Jedi Master demonstrated the capability to hold off with his 4 blades 11 clone troopers when surrounded on 3-4 sides (The Clone Wars, Season 4 Episode 10) - and that may not even be the most he can handle.

A Jedi Knight on alert can reasonably expect to hold off with 1 blade 3-5 clones surrounded. Masters can maybe handle 7-9, but these guys are mostly dealt with by Vader, not the clones. This suggests that the 501st Legion, numbering 9,216 at full strength, could handle an alerted Jedi garrison of an estimated 1-1.3k, less to further guarantee success.

Order 66 was issued at 2100 hours and ended before daybreak. Assuming Vader had an average kill rate of 1 Jedi per 5, 15 or 60 seconds for 9 hours, he would be able to kill up to 6.5, 2.25 or 0.5 thousand Jedi that night respectively. The expected casualties in the Jedi Temple during Order 66 can be estimated to 1.5-7.8k Jedi if the massacre lasted all the way to daybreak.

From the above figures alone, 2.2-8.5k Jedi are accounted for - a lot of which heavily depends on how fast Vader kills Jedi - 4-4.3k dead Jedi is a more likely figure (at 15 seconds kill-rate). These are all uppermost estimates.

The way I see it, the remaining Jedi have to be either on missions separate from the war (likeliest to survive), be attached to the GAR in non-officer roles or be part of the unofficial existing casualties of war. Depending on what you believe about Vader, that can be over one or eight thousand Jedi to be accounted for in this manner. Are there any evidence to support this as the likeliest case or any evidence to correct any of the math thus far?