What are you reading right now?

[i3670]

I've read Crime and Punishment and recently finished Karamazov. Thanks for the tip.

[Adrianis]

I'm quite certain that fire is just heated gases, not plasma.

"Some flames, such as the flame of a burning candle, are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components and can be considered plasma.[2] This subject is, however, hotly debated.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame
There's also a bit in the Plasma page too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28...on_plasmas
Under 'Common Plasmas > Terrestrial Plasmas - lists 'Some flames'
Sources of course provided on the Wiki page


On a more on-topic topic, just finished reading "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" by Phillip K Dick, not his best but very enjoyable, and moving on to "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem.
Only Sci Fi

[DavidS]

If you like Lem and Dick, go for a Strugatzky next! "Roadside Picknick" might be the easiest for starters, as the others can get quite bizarre (and with bizarre I mean the Hunter Thompson kind.) and are also often commenting on political/society problems of their respective publication time.

[Alex Ros]

http://celfishdotme.files.wordpress.com/...-mckee.pdf

[Adrianis]

If you like Lem and Dick, go for a Strugatzky next! "Roadside Picknick" might be the easiest for starters, as the others can get quite bizarre (and with bizarre I mean the Hunter Thompson kind.) and are also often commenting on political/society problems of their respective publication time.

Done Roadside Picnic, that was an incredible novel for sure, never read any of their other stuff though, if you can recommend any then please do! I got a new translation of it recently that includes some great stories from Boris (iirc) about the troubles they went through trying to get it published, and a great foreword by Ursula le Guin

I've thought that there's a lot of great ideas in Roadside Picnic that would work well in a game that are not covered sufficiently or not at all in the STALKER games, as great as they are. At some point I hope to try out exploring the various mechanics that would be involved in creating the anomalies & artifacts, to try and get a system that would allow for some emergence in the exploration & problem solving. Something along the lines of Spelunky could work really well I think! Or fail horribly, it'll be fun finding out either way

Out of interest, have you seen the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky? He also did a film of Solaris, both of which stray pretty heavily from the source material but I think manage to create a great thing of their own, though I'm sure there are some loyalists who wouldn't appreciate the adaptation

[Wooderson]

Uhhm so yeah....

[7heDubz]

We could continue this forever :O

I'm reading the game of thrones series.

Fire is a mixture of hot gases. Flames are the result of a chemical reaction between oxygen in air and a fuel. The reaction produces carbon dioxide, steam, light, and heat. If the flame is hot enough, the gases are ionized and become yet another state of matter: plasma. So mainly it is a gas.

And just like that you pissed someone off.

I'm not english, so I'm not sure if the grammar is right. How did I piss someone off?

It's "A Song of H2O and Plasma" series not "Game of Thrones"

H2O(s) technically. Also, I cannot find any evidence that fire "is" a plasma. Source?

Fire is a mixture of hot gases. Flames are the result of a chemical reaction between oxygen in air and a fuel. The reaction produces carbon dioxide, steam, light, and heat. If the flame is hot enough, the gases are ionized and become yet another state of matter: plasma. So mainly it is a gas.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryf...mistry.htm

[failedALIAS]

Ponies Play D&D and Ponies Psychology Series. The first is perfect and amazingly good in every way, while the second is perhaps less great, it's still pretty fucking amazing.

---

I should mention that I convinced my nonbrony friend to read Ponies Play, and he really loved it.

[DavidS]

If you like Lem and Dick, go for a Strugatzky next! "Roadside Picknick" might be the easiest for starters, as the others can get quite bizarre (and with bizarre I mean the Hunter Thompson kind.) and are also often commenting on political/society problems of their respective publication time.

Done Roadside Picnic, that was an incredible novel for sure, never read any of their other stuff though, if you can recommend any then please do! I got a new translation of it recently that includes some great stories from Boris (iirc) about the troubles they went through trying to get it published, and a great foreword by Ursula le Guin

I've thought that there's a lot of great ideas in Roadside Picnic that would work well in a game that are not covered sufficiently or not at all in the STALKER games, as great as they are. At some point I hope to try out exploring the various mechanics that would be involved in creating the anomalies & artifacts, to try and get a system that would allow for some emergence in the exploration & problem solving. Something along the lines of Spelunky could work really well I think! Or fail horribly, it'll be fun finding out either way

Out of interest, have you seen the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky? He also did a film of Solaris, both of which stray pretty heavily from the source material but I think manage to create a great thing of their own, though I'm sure there are some loyalists who wouldn't appreciate the adaptation

Hmmm, even though it was a weird trip, I really liked "The Snail on the Slope". Stories I liked to are "The Second Invasion of the Martians", "Devil Among People" and "Hard to be a God". I haven`t read everything from them though (unlike Lem... I think I only miss Fiasko on my list now. I`d love to see a tv show or an adventure game series with pilot Pirx and his misadventures. )

Yes I own a few Tarkovskij movies. They are really good. You can look at them a dozen time and always find something new. "The Mirror" especially. THe only think that gets anywhere near his movies might be Lars von Triers "Antichrist" wich is a Lovepoem to Tarkovskij in its cinematography (clearly not in writing. Itis very good in its own regard though. ) Sad thing is that Lem himself was quite a pursit when itcame to his stories. He didn`t really like Tarkovskijs Solaris and rumor has it that he also disliked the newer one. (Wich I think was still a good movie.)

[Adrianis]

Spoiler below!

If you like Lem and Dick, go for a Strugatzky next! "Roadside Picknick" might be the easiest for starters, as the others can get quite bizarre (and with bizarre I mean the Hunter Thompson kind.) and are also often commenting on political/society problems of their respective publication time.

Done Roadside Picnic, that was an incredible novel for sure, never read any of their other stuff though, if you can recommend any then please do! I got a new translation of it recently that includes some great stories from Boris (iirc) about the troubles they went through trying to get it published, and a great foreword by Ursula le Guin

I've thought that there's a lot of great ideas in Roadside Picnic that would work well in a game that are not covered sufficiently or not at all in the STALKER games, as great as they are. At some point I hope to try out exploring the various mechanics that would be involved in creating the anomalies & artifacts, to try and get a system that would allow for some emergence in the exploration & problem solving. Something along the lines of Spelunky could work really well I think! Or fail horribly, it'll be fun finding out either way

Out of interest, have you seen the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky? He also did a film of Solaris, both of which stray pretty heavily from the source material but I think manage to create a great thing of their own, though I'm sure there are some loyalists who wouldn't appreciate the adaptation

Hmmm, even though it was a weird trip, I really liked "The Snail on the Slope". Stories I liked to are "The Second Invasion of the Martians", "Devil Among People" and "Hard to be a God". I haven`t read everything from them though (unlike Lem... I think I only miss Fiasko on my list now. I`d love to see a tv show or an adventure game series with pilot Pirx and his misadventures. )

Yes I own a few Tarkovskij movies. They are really good. You can look at them a dozen time and always find something new. "The Mirror" especially. THe only think that gets anywhere near his movies might be Lars von Triers "Antichrist" wich is a Lovepoem to Tarkovskij in its cinematography (clearly not in writing. Itis very good in its own regard though. ) Sad thing is that Lem himself was quite a pursit when itcame to his stories. He didn`t really like Tarkovskijs Solaris and rumor has it that he also disliked the newer one. (Wich I think was still a good movie.)

Ah I've never seen The Mirror though I do have it, was only really interested in his Sci Fi but many people have recommended it so I'll have to watch it.

There's actually a little blog post that Lem made before he had died on his website about the newer Solaris movie - he pretty much hated the idea of it I think haha. IIRC his comments amount to "If it was about romance in space I would have called it Romance in Space". It's all fair criticism, but like you I really enjoyed the movie, and it's strengths were different enough that I can say both the old and new movies were great in their own way, and I'm certain the book will be too.