Well, since it's an imaginary signal, you can invent what happens.

There's no such thing. The speed of light is an absolute limit. There's no such thing as time travel, either.

That said, even ordinary light from another star is from the past. If it's 4 light years away it's for years in the past. If it's 100 million light years away it's 100 million years in the past. (Actually, since the universe is expanding, the light we see now is from when the star was 100 million light years away, 100 million years ago -- but at present it would be much farther than that.)

What's not possible is for the light to arrive here any faster than the speed of light, so that we see what's happening now, or more recently than the number of light years between us and that star when the light starts traveling towards us.

The Byrds, Badfinger.

Why the West Rules—For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, a history book by a British historian Ian Morris, published in 2010. It has nothing to do with psychopaths, but it changed my perspective on life, and it contained some dark thoughts. Essentially Morris examines the way civilizations rise and fall over history, and suggests that in the long run -- i.e., anything much longer than one powerful person's lifetime -- people have little control over history.

He also suggests that the next collapse of civilization will be global, because we are now a global civilization. He suggests several possibilities for and signs of that collapse, which has been long delayed through ever accelerating technological innovations since the Industrial Revolution. There's no guarantee that technological innovations can continue to accelerate fast enough to hold off collapse, and the longer the collapse is delayed the more devastating it is likely to be.

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien may know that Beorn’s hall in The Hobbit, Theoden’s hall in The Lord of the Rings, and even the Hall of Fire in Rivendell were likely modeled on Viking or Anglo-Saxon halls such as those found in Denmark.

Apparently goose bumps are a relic of our ape-like ancestors. Back when our ancestors were covered in fur, the goose bump reflex would make their fur rise and make them look bigger. This was useful in scaring off predators.

It was also useful when cold, because it would create a layer of air for insulation. This reflex is common in many mammals, and is most obvious in porcupines, since they have long quills.

Now that our hair is sparse it doesn't do us much good. But we still have some vestigial body parts (like the appendix) or reflexes (like goose bumps) that used to be more useful.

It's the same reason Qatar spent a lot of money to host the World Cup: sports diplomacy. Sports transcends national boundaries, and by getting involved in sports a wealthy nation can attract attention to its country, allowing it to put its culture on display and increase its global presence and influence.

Big glasses were all the rage back then.

I like how the photographer (your mother? father?) gave up trying to get you in the picture and just let you stand apart.

Viruses aren't strategic thinkers. If one virus is too deadly to survive, another variant will take over.

The virus responsible for the 1918 influenza pandemic still circulates today, but in a far less deadly form. Viruses reproduce so quickly and so often that they are self-correcting and rarely disappear altogether. Those that are too deadly disappear and others survive.

And that was the last time they were happy...

Just kidding! They look like a cute couple.

I have had that problem and the only way to avoid it is to resist Google searches. Just don't do it. It's not worth it.

That would make sense but it sure looks alive. Thanks for answering.

That’s what I thought. No need to patronize me. I’m just curious what it’s doing in his arms.

Is that a fox in his arms or a dog that looks like a fox? And if it’s a fox, can you explain? It doesn’t look dead.

Me too!

She was one of David Letterman’s favorite guests. She appeared 32 times.

Lots of small forest fires are better than a few huge forest fires. Without human intervention forest fires should be frequent but small. When humans prevent all fires the fuel accumulates and eventually turns into a huge fire that cannot be controlled and does more damage than a lot of little fires combined. The idea of controlled fires deliberately set by humans is to simulate nature without allowing random fires in inhabited areas.

I don’t know the reasoning behind your local laws. But that’s the reasoning behind controlled forest fires.

I’ve noticed that young women in older pictures often look to me like they are playing dress up as older women. That’s because I identify their hair styles and clothes with older women who retained those fashions. In fact, of course, that’s how young women dressed and styled their hair back then.

Oh, and your grandma was beautiful!

Shakespeare’s plays inspired numerous operas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Operas_based_on_works_by_William_Shakespeare

I haven’t read Bakker. But I don’t consider aSoIaF to be nihilistic. There’s a definite sense of good and evil in George R.R. Martin’s work. It’s brutal, but not nihilistic.

Have you read the second trilogy?

Also, what author is more nihilistic? Maybe that’s not an author I know.

I recommend the three standalone novels. I may like them even better than the first trilogy.

But you might want to skip the last trilogy. It really doubles down on the lack of hope.

Abercrombie is the most nihilistic fantasy author I know. In the end he doesn't offer a glimmer of hope or heroism. West is the most heroic character in the trilogy, so of course Abercrombie gives him a random and meaningless death.

>Probably a lot of my annoyance is hype blackslash.

Yep. Clearly you heard too much hype.

What I like about Abercrombie's characters is the mix of good and bad. He makes me feel for bad people because it's a world full of bad people and difficult choices. Also, there's a lot of black humor and badassery involved.

Glokta's private thoughts are full of black humor. If I were not privy to his thoughts he would just be a conniving torturer.

Logen is such a badass that I love to see him let loose even though he's just as likely to kill friend as foe. He's literally insane, but he is a badass. And yes, in the end he doesn't accomplish anything. That's Abercrombie's black humor at work.