Umbrella screensaver
Do AppleTV Screensavers really count as screen time?
2024.03.23 12:51 inpursuitofrx Do AppleTV Screensavers really count as screen time?
For those that may be unaware - the Apple TV streaming box has a function where after a certain period of time it switches over to aerial drone shots of different cityscapes, landscapes as well as some underwater videos. They really are quite stunning - lots of people say it's the best feature of the Apple TV.
We have a large living room space and as our baby is starting to become more aware of her surroundings (8 weeks), we're switching to not having the TV playing anything while she's in the room so she doesn't try to watch. Of course the screensaver then turns on, which is a feature that we love. Honestly the living room TV gets a lot more use playing these beautiful screensavers than it does actually watching TV.
My wife and I were discussing the other day whether this "counts" as the type of screen time we'd like to avoid for the first few years of her life.
On the one hand, these screensavers are real places, there is no noise (unless we're playing music, even kids music in which case the screensaver would still turn on) and they aren't like a TV show or Youtube video that's meant to get you to keep watching, though they can be mesmerizing.
On the other hand, well it's a screen, so of course it's "screen time".
I guess my question is aimed more at trying to ask, what are the specific elements most parents are trying to actively avoid when it comes to screens and having a negative impact on development, to see if this fits under that umbrella?
I know an exception should be made for video calls with relatives. We also have a digital picture frame in the living room that we don't plan on removing because while it's a screen, it will mostly show pictures of our family which we'll want her to see anyways.
submitted by inpursuitofrx to NewParents [link] [comments]
We have a large living room space and as our baby is starting to become more aware of her surroundings (8 weeks), we're switching to not having the TV playing anything while she's in the room so she doesn't try to watch. Of course the screensaver then turns on, which is a feature that we love. Honestly the living room TV gets a lot more use playing these beautiful screensavers than it does actually watching TV.
My wife and I were discussing the other day whether this "counts" as the type of screen time we'd like to avoid for the first few years of her life.
On the one hand, these screensavers are real places, there is no noise (unless we're playing music, even kids music in which case the screensaver would still turn on) and they aren't like a TV show or Youtube video that's meant to get you to keep watching, though they can be mesmerizing.
On the other hand, well it's a screen, so of course it's "screen time".
I guess my question is aimed more at trying to ask, what are the specific elements most parents are trying to actively avoid when it comes to screens and having a negative impact on development, to see if this fits under that umbrella?
I know an exception should be made for video calls with relatives. We also have a digital picture frame in the living room that we don't plan on removing because while it's a screen, it will mostly show pictures of our family which we'll want her to see anyways.
2023.12.31 06:51 bhp2903 DO NOT MAKE YOUR PARTNER YOUR SCREENSAVER!!!
I have an ongoing theory, that is, if you make your boyfriend or girlfriend your screensaver you will inevitably break up. I have definitive proof of this theory.
See, I was 22 and in a happy relationship. That is until one day my then girlfriend and i decided to take some pictures together. They were your quintessential couple pictures, actually they were quintessential for us, not everyone else. An alley way, dimly lit by strung up lights, a sprinkle of rain that added texture to the otherwise dark background, and a couple kissing under a little umbrella. That was the picture. A marvelous picture that seemed to describe my relationship perfectly. The alley way was, in a way, the state in which we found each other - dark, cold, and uninspired. The lights, above signified that together we were much brighter and we emitted an energy that could light up a any room. The rain and the umbrella, analogous to that of shitty situations and our optimism when dealing with them. It was so perfect i made it my screen saver. It evoked everything good about my relationship at just a glance. That is, until we broke up. Two months later. By then i was 23, and i felt like a bomb had just gone off in my life. I was moving out of the apartment i shared with ex, crashing with a friend, and then weeks later moving to new york city. All while trying to figure out what started the eventual demise of my relationship.
Thus the start of my theory.
Years later, i find myself in another relationship. The most fulfilling and loving relationship i could imagine. And everything is going great, but then she sent me a picture. She sent me picture on Christmas eve. A black background with her silhouette highlighted in the most angelic white. The picture was blurry but focused enough to make out the beauty in her face. Her natural curls spilling over her shoulders and to top it all off she was blowing me a kiss. She had gone home for the holidays and we had been apart a couple of days now but i missed her dearly. I set that picture as my screensaver. So when i looked at my phone she'd always be there, blowing me kiss, that i so desperately needed from her. It was perfect until, we broke up. six days later. Alas, here i am once again, my life in spiral and trying to figure out where it all went wrong. I blame my screensaver and nothing else.
submitted by bhp2903 to creativewriting [link] [comments]
See, I was 22 and in a happy relationship. That is until one day my then girlfriend and i decided to take some pictures together. They were your quintessential couple pictures, actually they were quintessential for us, not everyone else. An alley way, dimly lit by strung up lights, a sprinkle of rain that added texture to the otherwise dark background, and a couple kissing under a little umbrella. That was the picture. A marvelous picture that seemed to describe my relationship perfectly. The alley way was, in a way, the state in which we found each other - dark, cold, and uninspired. The lights, above signified that together we were much brighter and we emitted an energy that could light up a any room. The rain and the umbrella, analogous to that of shitty situations and our optimism when dealing with them. It was so perfect i made it my screen saver. It evoked everything good about my relationship at just a glance. That is, until we broke up. Two months later. By then i was 23, and i felt like a bomb had just gone off in my life. I was moving out of the apartment i shared with ex, crashing with a friend, and then weeks later moving to new york city. All while trying to figure out what started the eventual demise of my relationship.
Thus the start of my theory.
Years later, i find myself in another relationship. The most fulfilling and loving relationship i could imagine. And everything is going great, but then she sent me a picture. She sent me picture on Christmas eve. A black background with her silhouette highlighted in the most angelic white. The picture was blurry but focused enough to make out the beauty in her face. Her natural curls spilling over her shoulders and to top it all off she was blowing me a kiss. She had gone home for the holidays and we had been apart a couple of days now but i missed her dearly. I set that picture as my screensaver. So when i looked at my phone she'd always be there, blowing me kiss, that i so desperately needed from her. It was perfect until, we broke up. six days later. Alas, here i am once again, my life in spiral and trying to figure out where it all went wrong. I blame my screensaver and nothing else.
2023.12.31 06:12 bhp2903 A short story
 | submitted by bhp2903 to KeepWriting [link] [comments] |
2023.11.21 12:52 Emmett_Doc .
 | submitted by Emmett_Doc to DimlyLitAbattoir [link] [comments] |
2023.02.13 14:27 dirasv I reading Mr Mercedes and Stephen King mentions my little country. Feels so nice haha.
 | submitted by dirasv to stephenking [link] [comments] |
2021.04.01 04:30 D-OH-LED_TV Did I Lose the Panel Lottery?
Evening, lads (or morning, depending on where you are),
Query for anyone that might be able to provide a bit of insight, as LG's underabundance of information certainly isn't helping: did I lose the panel lottery?
Quick story time. (TL;DR got a discolored band running up the near center of my OLED [more pics below]; barely used the bloody thing, hasn't gone away in four days, even after a pixel refresh; did I wind up with a lemon that needs a return?)
I'm relatively new to the OLED scene (just last December, a Chrimbus present for me), and I bought a LG-CX 55" to hang up on my wall. I'm not much of a tele guy anymore, but I'm very much a film buff, so I went to the nines: good wall mount, kicking soundbar, 4K Blu Ray player, you get it. Being that I don't lounge around in front of it all day, it isn't used but maybe twice a week, if that. To date, I've maybe turned it on a grand total of thirty, thirty-five times, and amassed a use time of exactly 69 hours (nice). Hadn't had any problems whatsoever, but then last Sunday rolled around.
While watching Chernobyl Sunday evening, I had to go and hit the jacks. Paused the show--by the by, I highly recommend it, though the suspiciously English-sounding Russians might throw some people off--went and did what I needed to do, came back and resumed. The scene I halted it on was particularly dark (the scene in episode three where Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgard are walking in a dimly lit park), and after a moment I noticed a peculiarly dim ribbon running vertically down just a little to the left of center of the screen (there'll be pictures below). Figured it was just a bit of lightning, but then the scene changed and, well, not so much. Funnily enough, at the next scene (much brighter), I noticed that it's not just a darker ribbon, but a lighter one, as well, that goes unnoticed in aforementioned darker scenes.
I'd read about pixel burn-in and black banding in OLEDs before, but there's no way it could be burn in. The show was paused for all of two minutes and the screensaver kicked in, so I'm very much sure it isn't the former. As to the latter, the whole of the internet is a touch inconsistent on what they define as black banding, whether horizontal or vertical, so I'm still on the fence in that regard. Needless to say, I spent the next hour or so stewing on what the hell is wrong with my TV. Checked LG's product troubleshooter, and as I said before, their advice is about as helpful as an umbrella in a flash flood, and I very much do not want to have to resort to putting in a ticket and having them play telephone with me over the... telephone. If this isn't such a painful task, please let me know. I dread the idea of having to deal with corporate rigmarole.
Regardless, I did follow a few steps LG suggested. Ran the picture test to see if the ribbon was simply a matter of an input--spoiler: it wasn't (note the drab discoloration running through the greyed out 'no' key).
Then ran the pixel refresher--slim chance, I know--and, again, no dice. To my chagrin, I followed their direction of resetting the damned thing to factory, and even that didn't fix it. Without any other option, I'm staring down the barrel of a return or, heaven forbid, a tech repair call. To my knowledge, it's still well within factory and labor warranty, so it's not like I'll be out the money I put into it (unless I am mistaken, at which point ugh).
Hopefully anyone here can provide some insight. Like I said, not adverse to returning it. Just don't want to go through the process of pulling the thing off the wall if this case in particular is something that can be cleared up by more conventional means, or will clear itself up over a matter of use.
Your help is appreciated,
Ciao.
PICS:
Look at the trees, Lennie.
Note the lightedrab variation.
The green discoloration can really be noted here, as its near invisible in this snap.
Picture test (not an input aberration)
On grey coloring the leftmost side of the band is almost invisible; the green, though...
Highly recommend David Attenborough's Our Planet on Netflix, even if he's a bit discolored here.
You can actually mark a bit of noise on this image within drab discoloration.
Again, note the lightedarker variation.
submitted by D-OH-LED_TV to OLED [link] [comments]
Query for anyone that might be able to provide a bit of insight, as LG's underabundance of information certainly isn't helping: did I lose the panel lottery?
Quick story time. (TL;DR got a discolored band running up the near center of my OLED [more pics below]; barely used the bloody thing, hasn't gone away in four days, even after a pixel refresh; did I wind up with a lemon that needs a return?)
I'm relatively new to the OLED scene (just last December, a Chrimbus present for me), and I bought a LG-CX 55" to hang up on my wall. I'm not much of a tele guy anymore, but I'm very much a film buff, so I went to the nines: good wall mount, kicking soundbar, 4K Blu Ray player, you get it. Being that I don't lounge around in front of it all day, it isn't used but maybe twice a week, if that. To date, I've maybe turned it on a grand total of thirty, thirty-five times, and amassed a use time of exactly 69 hours (nice). Hadn't had any problems whatsoever, but then last Sunday rolled around.
While watching Chernobyl Sunday evening, I had to go and hit the jacks. Paused the show--by the by, I highly recommend it, though the suspiciously English-sounding Russians might throw some people off--went and did what I needed to do, came back and resumed. The scene I halted it on was particularly dark (the scene in episode three where Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgard are walking in a dimly lit park), and after a moment I noticed a peculiarly dim ribbon running vertically down just a little to the left of center of the screen (there'll be pictures below). Figured it was just a bit of lightning, but then the scene changed and, well, not so much. Funnily enough, at the next scene (much brighter), I noticed that it's not just a darker ribbon, but a lighter one, as well, that goes unnoticed in aforementioned darker scenes.
I'd read about pixel burn-in and black banding in OLEDs before, but there's no way it could be burn in. The show was paused for all of two minutes and the screensaver kicked in, so I'm very much sure it isn't the former. As to the latter, the whole of the internet is a touch inconsistent on what they define as black banding, whether horizontal or vertical, so I'm still on the fence in that regard. Needless to say, I spent the next hour or so stewing on what the hell is wrong with my TV. Checked LG's product troubleshooter, and as I said before, their advice is about as helpful as an umbrella in a flash flood, and I very much do not want to have to resort to putting in a ticket and having them play telephone with me over the... telephone. If this isn't such a painful task, please let me know. I dread the idea of having to deal with corporate rigmarole.
Regardless, I did follow a few steps LG suggested. Ran the picture test to see if the ribbon was simply a matter of an input--spoiler: it wasn't (note the drab discoloration running through the greyed out 'no' key).
Then ran the pixel refresher--slim chance, I know--and, again, no dice. To my chagrin, I followed their direction of resetting the damned thing to factory, and even that didn't fix it. Without any other option, I'm staring down the barrel of a return or, heaven forbid, a tech repair call. To my knowledge, it's still well within factory and labor warranty, so it's not like I'll be out the money I put into it (unless I am mistaken, at which point ugh).
Hopefully anyone here can provide some insight. Like I said, not adverse to returning it. Just don't want to go through the process of pulling the thing off the wall if this case in particular is something that can be cleared up by more conventional means, or will clear itself up over a matter of use.
Your help is appreciated,
Ciao.
PICS:
Look at the trees, Lennie.
Note the lightedrab variation.
The green discoloration can really be noted here, as its near invisible in this snap.
Picture test (not an input aberration)
On grey coloring the leftmost side of the band is almost invisible; the green, though...
Highly recommend David Attenborough's Our Planet on Netflix, even if he's a bit discolored here.
You can actually mark a bit of noise on this image within drab discoloration.
Again, note the lightedarker variation.
2021.01.20 16:52 Simple_Bowler279 #CIDM - Cinedigm Corp. - now on the ROKU platform!
 | Cinedigm Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as distributor and aggregator of independent movie, television, and other short form content in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. The company operates through two segments, Cinema Equipment Business and Content and Entertainment Business. submitted by Simple_Bowler279 to trakstocks [link] [comments] It manages a library of distribution rights to various titles and episodes released across digital, physical, and home and mobile entertainment platforms, as well as services digital cinema assets on approximately 12,000 domestic and foreign movie screens. The company distributes its products for various brands, such as Hallmark, Televisa, ITV, Nelvana, ZDF, Shout! Factory, NFL, NHL and Scholastic, as well as international and domestic content creators, movie producers, television producers, and other short form digital content producers. It also collaborates with producers, various brands, and other content owners to market, source, curate, and distribute content to targeted audiences through existing and emerging digital home entertainment platforms, including Apple, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, and cable/satellite video-on-demand; and distributes DVD and Blu-ray discs to wholesalers and retailers with sales coverage to approximately 60,000 brick and mortar storefronts, including Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon. In addition, the company operates various branded and curated over-the-top (OTT) entertainment channels, including Docurama, CONtv, and Dove Channel; and Matchpoint, a software-as-a-service platform to automate the distribution of streaming content and OTT channels. Cinedigm Corp. has a strategic alliance with Starrise Media Holdings Limited to release films in China theatrically and to digital platforms. The company was formerly known as Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. and changed its name to Cinedigm Corp. in September 2013. Cinedigm Corp. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in New York, New York. https://preview.redd.it/aeujkdb6dic61.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=24b21038a7a4fa92b982e7fc4b8aa59545080ac9 Just today (Tuesday, January 19), CIDM announced it has acquired the assets of Fandor, a subscription-streaming service with a catalog of 4,600 films that has been in hibernation mode for the last two years. In late 2018, Fandor laid off nearly all of its employees and reorganized as a new entity that was seeking a buyer for the Fandor assets. Terms of Cinedigm’s acquisition of Fandor aren’t being disclosed. In announcing the deal, Cinedigm said it believes the relaunched Fandor service could top 1 million subscribers “within the next 24-30 months” with a focus on rapid global expansion and distribution. Cinedigm will continue to offer the service to subscribers without ads and also plans to offer a free, ad-supported on-demand tier for Fandor as well as a linear streaming channel. In addition, Cinedigm plans to beef up Fandor’s offerings with some of the 7,000-plus films titles in the Cinedigm library as well as relaunch the service’s apps. Cinedigm’s pickup of Fandor comes after it bought The Film Detective, a content distributor and streaming channel company focused on classic film and TV programming, via a deal that closed in December 2020. Cinedigm said it plans to relaunch Keyframe, Fandor’s online publication dedicated to the art of cinema. Phil Hopkins, president of Cinedigm’s Film Detective division, will oversee Fandor and Keyframe, with the goal of relaunching the service in the coming quarter. Fandor has been called "The Netflix for Indie Film" by The Wall Street Journal and "A streaming rabbit hole worth falling down" by The New York Times. https://preview.redd.it/tmvrhzbadic61.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=9aa4fa5c9df67cf3cf7eba5d31420e11a55e0232 Just last week, CIDM announced the promotions of three key executives. Gary Loffredo adds the title of President/Cinedigm to his current titles of Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of Cinedigm Corp. Erick Opeka adds Chief Strategy Officer, Cinedigm Corp to his current responsibilities as President of Digital Networks. Yolanda Macias is promoted to Chief Content Officer, Cinedigm Entertainment Group (CEG) from Executive Vice President, CEG. "We have expanded these key roles for the senior leadership team to fully capitalize on the tremendous growth we are experiencing in our digital streaming business," said Chris McGurk, Cinedigm Chairman and CEO. "Having secured the talents of Yolanda, Erick and Gary for the foreseeable future, I am fully confident that we now have the best leadership team in place to rapidly grow the business and expand our leadership position in streaming channels, content and technology. All aspects of our streaming business are already experiencing strong growth, from our ad-based channels to our viewership and paid subscriber base to our digital content licensing business, and this team is now perfectly focused and aligned to further expand that growth operationally, strategically and through the acquisition roll-up initiative of streaming assets we are currently pursuing." Two Streaming Channels on VIZIOEarlier this month, CIDM announced two of the company's streaming channels, CONtv Anime and MyTime Movie Network, have officially launched on VIZIO SmartCast, the award-winning Smart TV platform available to millions of viewers. VIZIO, Inc., is the #1 American-based TV brand[1] and the #1 Sound Bar brand in America.About the channels:► MyTime Movie Network offers an unparalleled library of curated content catering to women of all ages. The diverse library, which has been seen by a combined audience of upwards of 20 million viewers, features hundreds of popular and award-winning made-for-television films. ► CONtv Anime meets the needs of anime fans with acclaimed anime series & movies… cyberpunk, supernatural tales, gripping dramas and epic fantasy adventures. The channel aims to fill the void for the discovery of high-quality anime content not requiring a subscription. SmartCast is the award-winning operating system that comes equipped with every VIZIO Smart TV. SmartCast powers a vast array of entertainment options for millions of households with content for everyone including audiophiles, gamers, kids & families, multicultural audiences, sports enthusiasts, cinephiles, and more. VIZIO is continuously enhancing SmartCast with new features and content, providing users with a vast array of entertainment options all while staying healthy and safe in their home. SmartCast provides free content, available 24/7, from the SmartCast Home screen. Acquisition of Streaming Company The Film DetectiveLast month, CIDM announced the close of the acquisition of The Film Detective, a leading content distributor and streaming channel company focused on classic film and television programming.The deal adds The Film Detective's library, comprised of 3,000 content titles, an estimated 10,000 individual film and TV episodes and two Free-Ad-Supported-Television (FAST) linear networks into Cinedigm's expansive portfolio of streaming channels and content. As previously announced, Cinedigm expects to leverage the Company's Matchpoint technology platform to accelerate The Film Detective's distribution across Cinedigm's network of more than 100 digital retail partners. Additionally, Cinedigm plans to expand the distribution of The Film Detective's two current streaming channels (The Film Detective and Lone Star) across its network of more than 820 million consumer devices. The companies will also leverage Cinedigm's technical and operational capabilities to launch several new genre channels in the coming quarters. The Film Detective will continue to operate independently under the leadership of Philip Hopkins, Film Detective Founder and CEO, under the Cinedigm umbrella. Hopkins has assumed the new title of President, The Film Detective. Hopkins will continue with a focus on the acquisition of high-quality library content and the launch of additional streaming channels. https://preview.redd.it/ekp3k9jpdic61.png?width=200&format=png&auto=webp&s=09bd760f09d57b48af25709b908367cdd572c7e6 Bob Ross Channel Now Available On RokuAlso last month, CIDM announced the launch of The Bob Ross Channel on the Roku platform. The channel, which allows viewers the📷 opportunity to curate their own viewing experience, is easily downloadable through the Roku channel store and is powered by Cinedigm's proprietary Matchpoint Blueprint, a highly-scalable app development platform for OTT services.Now available as a stand-alone app on Roku devices, The Bob Ross Channel features all 31 seasons of the popular "The Joy of Painting" television series in their entirety, containing approximately all 380 classic episodes and delivering over 100 hours of quality entertainment that is enjoyable for the whole family. In addition, a series of Bob Ross screensavers for television showcasing many of his paintings in full-screen, synchronized to music and organized by theme will be made available within the Roku app. Approximately a dozen Bob Ross Gallery View screensavers optimized for high-definition televisions will be made available at launch with more to be released on an ongoing basis. I think that at the price of 1.26$ this stock is high UNDERVALUED! |
2020.11.04 08:32 Blood_Bleeder YoWindow - best weather app with live pictures v2.22.15 [Paid] [Balatan]
App Name:
YoWindow - best weather app with live pictures v2.22.15 [Paid] [Balatan]
Requirements: 4.1+
Description:
You just found a 🌈 magical weather app! 🌧️ When it's raining outside, it is raining in the app, and people open their umbrellas.
⛅ Scroll the time through the day and watch the weather change. Simply slide your finger from left to right.
🌅 The sun sets at the same time as in the real world. 🌙 The phase of the moon is real.
🏡 State of the art Living Landscapes. Birds are singing and animals are strolling about in the Village. People and cars abound in the City. Planes are landing at the Airport. Sheep are grazing in the Valley.
🍂 The landscape changes 5 times a year, to reflect nature changes in your area.
📷 The weather on your photo. YoWindow can show any weather, sunrises, sunsets and the phase of the Moon on a photograph. For example, the view from your window.
🇺🇸 Accurate weather forecast for the USA. High-precision weather sources - National Weather Service (NWS), Weather Underground, Foreca (nowcasting), yr.no (met.no), METAR, Open Weather Map. The forecast is based on data from national and foreign weather stations, radar and satellite images.
Watch the weather change today, tomorrow, over the week, and even 14 days ahead!
⛅ More weather? - Water temperature (Foreca). - “Feels like” temperature. - Chance of rain (Foreca). - UV Index.
🗽The app automatically shows the weather at your location. It doesn’t matter where you are right now - in Manhattan, Washington DC, Chicago, LA or San Francisco. You will always have the accurate forecast at your fingertips.
🍭 Make your Android happy. - Temperature on the status bar. - Weather forecast in the notification area. - Live wallpaper - animated weather of YoWindow on your desktop. - Wallpaper on the lock screen. - Weather widgets (clock and weather widget, weekly weather forecast, 14 day weather forecast, widget for today's weather). - Radar and Weather Map. - Alarm clock with the weather — two in one — wake up to the sounds of nature. - Screensaver (Daydream) "weather on the phone screen."
🌇 Scenic photo-landscapes from cities in the USA and all around the world. Boston, Frisco, Seattle, New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Tokyo and hundreds of others. The photo of the city is reflecting actual weather conditions or the weather forecast.
Enjoy the weather! YoWindow team.
What's New:
🏙️ Handy location management - Change favorite locations order to your taste. - Remove locations you don't need anymore. - The latest city you visited (longer than 2 hours) is remembered. 🤖 YoWindow is ready for Android 11 ⛅ Widgets got better.
Mod Info:
Google Play: Link
VirusTotal: Link
Download: Link
submitted by Blood_Bleeder to ApksApps [link] [comments]
YoWindow - best weather app with live pictures v2.22.15 [Paid] [Balatan]
Requirements: 4.1+
Description:
You just found a 🌈 magical weather app! 🌧️ When it's raining outside, it is raining in the app, and people open their umbrellas.
⛅ Scroll the time through the day and watch the weather change. Simply slide your finger from left to right.
🌅 The sun sets at the same time as in the real world. 🌙 The phase of the moon is real.
🏡 State of the art Living Landscapes. Birds are singing and animals are strolling about in the Village. People and cars abound in the City. Planes are landing at the Airport. Sheep are grazing in the Valley.
🍂 The landscape changes 5 times a year, to reflect nature changes in your area.
📷 The weather on your photo. YoWindow can show any weather, sunrises, sunsets and the phase of the Moon on a photograph. For example, the view from your window.
🇺🇸 Accurate weather forecast for the USA. High-precision weather sources - National Weather Service (NWS), Weather Underground, Foreca (nowcasting), yr.no (met.no), METAR, Open Weather Map. The forecast is based on data from national and foreign weather stations, radar and satellite images.
Watch the weather change today, tomorrow, over the week, and even 14 days ahead!
⛅ More weather? - Water temperature (Foreca). - “Feels like” temperature. - Chance of rain (Foreca). - UV Index.
🗽The app automatically shows the weather at your location. It doesn’t matter where you are right now - in Manhattan, Washington DC, Chicago, LA or San Francisco. You will always have the accurate forecast at your fingertips.
🍭 Make your Android happy. - Temperature on the status bar. - Weather forecast in the notification area. - Live wallpaper - animated weather of YoWindow on your desktop. - Wallpaper on the lock screen. - Weather widgets (clock and weather widget, weekly weather forecast, 14 day weather forecast, widget for today's weather). - Radar and Weather Map. - Alarm clock with the weather — two in one — wake up to the sounds of nature. - Screensaver (Daydream) "weather on the phone screen."
🌇 Scenic photo-landscapes from cities in the USA and all around the world. Boston, Frisco, Seattle, New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Tokyo and hundreds of others. The photo of the city is reflecting actual weather conditions or the weather forecast.
Enjoy the weather! YoWindow team.
What's New:
🏙️ Handy location management - Change favorite locations order to your taste. - Remove locations you don't need anymore. - The latest city you visited (longer than 2 hours) is remembered. 🤖 YoWindow is ready for Android 11 ⛅ Widgets got better.
Mod Info:
- Unlocked Paid Content
Google Play: Link
VirusTotal: Link
Download: Link
2020.06.17 16:40 MarkDMill Great deals for 6/17, including 10TB hard drive, iPads, Calcvier, Encrypt.me, and a further price drop on the Limited Edition Mac bundle
- Amazon Tech Deals for 06/17 - Today's tech deals include Aukey 18W Charger, Western Digital 5TB Portable Hard Drive, Apple Silicone Case for iPhone Xs Max, Apple 10.2” iPad. Amazon doesn't allow me to give prices or links here, so check MDM Deals to see full info, prices, & links.
- Western Digital 10TB hard drive - Massive 10TB hard drive by Western Digital; recommended. 32% off, was $249, now $169!
- Calcvier - Keyboard Calculator (📱) - The Calcvier will turn your keyboard into Calculator! Add calculator keyboard to make fast calculations anywhere. No need to switch between apps or use some widget, no need to copy and paste results!; recommended; avg 4.4/5 stars; was $2.99, now free!
- Picture Perfect - All in One (📱) - A fun and simple way to make beautiful photos in seconds. Picture Perfect also brings in features that you won’t find on any other mobile apps such as ‘ToneCurve’ which allows you to modify simply by clicking and dragging on the areas you wish to change; avg 4.6/5 stars (1,800+ ratings); was $1.99, now free!
- This War of Mine (📱) - In This War Of Mine you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city; struggling with lack of food, medicine and constant danger from snipers and hostile scavengers. The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle.; avg 4.4/5 stars (1,100+ ratings); 67% off, was $14.99, now $4.99!
- Encrypt.Me (💻) - Keep your devices secure & private; highly recommended. 67% off, was $299, now $99.99!
- Hyperbolic Software Utility bundle (💻) - A collection of 4 utilities: Tidy Up 5 to keep your Mac cleaned Umbrella to identify duplicates, Smart Trash, & Quick Print. 57% off, was $69, now $29.99!
- Further price drop on the Limited Edition Mac bundle (💻) - Use code MACBUNDLE25 to drop the price do this bundle to $24.99. Features 8 Mac apps including TextExpander, Disk Drill Pro, iMazing, & more; highly recommended. 97% off, was $818, now $24.99!
- Theine (💻) - Prevent your Mac from falling asleep, dimming your screen or starting the screensaver. Theine keeps macOS awake just like caffeine does with you. • It just works Caffeinate your Mac through a simple click on its menubar icon or even better: define a custom global hot key.; highly recommended; 80% off, was $4.99, now $0.99!
- Hamilton (📔) - A soundtrack ebook by Lin-Manuel Miranda. 71% off, was $13.99, now $3.99!. A backstage pass to the groundbreaking, hit musical Hamilton, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, including the award-winning libretto, behind-the-scenes photos and interviews, and exclusive footnotes from composer-lyricist-star Lin-Manuel Miranda, now streaming on Disney+ with the original cast. Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States..
- Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions (Unabridged) (🎧) - A business & personal finance audiobook by John Kotter. 46% off, was $12.99, now $6.99!. The revised and updated tenth anniversary edition of the classic, beloved business fable that has changed millions of lives in organizations around the world. Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple story about doing well under the stress and uncertainty of rapid change.
Support MDM Deals via Patreon and unlock rewards and perks for you!
2018.12.13 03:36 Oblique9043 Pole Shift and some possible unforeseen consequences / A connection between 9/11/01 and Easter weekend 2019
 | All signs are pointing towards a pole shift coming soon. A pole shift would literally turn this world upside down and inside out. There are a few clues to this in the Economists covers and pictures I have looked at as well as many other people saying that God is telling them this. You can be the one to judge who or what they are communicating with. I'll just vouch for the fact they are 100% in contact with something powerful and supernatural because I have seen enough to come to that conclusion and have also been in contact with something myself. Not directly as in hearing a voice but more like a feeling thats guiding me places. This post will mainly deal with the possible pole shift and another aspect I haven't talked about besides possible nukes going off in the ocean. submitted by Oblique9043 to TheGreatDeception [link] [comments] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U7CU9UU8p4 First lets look at these Economist pictures again. https://preview.redd.it/l5hameetdx321.png?width=1550&format=png&auto=webp&s=6620ac6070e6088e73703de20a0bcdc5670ba2b2 The battery seems obvious with the + and- symbols on them. Interesting to note the red and white colors. Upper Egypt wore the white crown yet it actually was the southern kingdom and the red crown was called Lower Egypt yet was in the North. Seems to indicate a possible pole shift as well as lower Egypt taking over upper Egypt . How does Spider-man fit into this? Well he is on this cover, as well as the Roku screensaver swinging from the Chrysler building and I can't think of a single relevant thing related to him that he could represent. Except when you look at his logo and you notice it looks a lot like a distorted magnetic field due to the sun. https://preview.redd.it/sh0m7xbwdx321.jpg?width=1098&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52d03c075015d2dc4f14c68fc02291b2d4d3c0a3 https://preview.redd.it/pr5l4kb4ex321.jpg?width=1190&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e6b831839cee048c6e55031471f9bd35f4adb7a https://preview.redd.it/up1fvwdpex321.png?width=397&format=png&auto=webp&s=c680c0fbc5d68ae3329c51a6340dcbc5a13fe170 Here is a direct reference to magnetism coming from the sun. It's directly aimed at what looks like a cell phone tower. I wonder then if this is truly a solar flare or a direct energy attack. It's hard to not notice they put "Swamp 2: The Sequel" and a snake with the American flag in the frame of this shot. Along with a dragonfly. https://preview.redd.it/y2ea2k3rhx321.png?width=1266&format=png&auto=webp&s=f52fd5bf4d852bf4ee5b7f65bd0cef60965f06cc You got someone in blood red in a life boat labeled "Client" pulling a boat in the shape of the Dragon Logo of the Space X craft we just "captured" which is now incubating, right into Trump's Swamp, which must be America. A guy dressed in purple standing right on the end of the dragon boat. With Trump in a deep blue suit with a red tie. The four babies on the black sheep ,no idea whats what about but since their directly in the frame, it seems like it means something related to this "brokering." https://preview.redd.it/qdxlxjcejx321.png?width=356&format=png&auto=webp&s=866591725f2f3e3bdcd05af876450bcf43e89b03 Here we have a Mary Poppins character, who represents the Christ, descending from the sky on to a judges gavel. Instead of her usual umbrella, she has what looks like 4 propellers shaped like 2 8s above her head. The is obviously alluding to the judgment of nations as disasters are suppose to happen all over the Earth. https://preview.redd.it/361c5cluwx321.png?width=1038&format=png&auto=webp&s=2012c61901fdfd7112ccc7270eb61604a82c556d Now that I've seen the Mary Poppins one, this from 2 years earlier makes a lot more sense. Notice how there is 4 propellers here too? As well as a nuke cloud and the nuclear symbol is in Kim's hand from from the Mary Poppins picture. Since Mary is going to "Judge", then I'd say this represents "throwing the book" at whoever she is judging. Or dropping a bomb... After reading this about the movie Avatar, seeing the kinds of helicopters they used and why, I couldn't help but relate it to this drone and Mary Poppins character and the incoming magnetic issues we will be facing. https://www.quora.com/In-the-movie-Avatar-why-didn-t-RDA-bring-jets-or-tanks-How-did-a-primitive-species-manage-to-win-over-a-technologically-superior-humanity-who-can-nuke-the-planet-with-ease In the movie Avatar, why didn’t RDA bring jets or tanks? How did a primitive species manage to win over a technologically superior humanity who can nuke the planet with ease?They could not use modern advanced weapons on accounts of the magnetic anomalies on the planet Pandorahttps://preview.redd.it/hemewfkxyx321.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85e3d84c46bc85c0ec6c08baffd3d3c454fe043c https://preview.redd.it/jaobi1dyyx321.jpg?width=852&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfb2fed38eada3dc8d71bcb51cf797ef8de7f48f These helicopters are literally called Scorpions and Dragons. They have propellers just like the above pics and they still work even with the magnetism problems. Now if a country was aware of such an event taking place and they desired to overtake another, do you think they might prepare a vehicle like this for the perfect time to strike? https://preview.redd.it/2i15b6sxfy321.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fec01b2a1c595bc0cb923c496eef0d974171ac9 https://preview.redd.it/oi39xd0fzx321.jpg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a1fe20827a8b4f546f7b6fee14ace44114872c4 Revelation 99 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. Of course there is a debate about what this means. Whether its literal bugs, an army or a spiritual attack. It also sounds like a volcano eruption. Personally, I think its spiritual with a human aspect of it which would be an invasion. The perfect time to strike would be during an event like this where there is mass confusion and there lacks of any kind of communication. 9/11 and the Capture of the DragonI noticed a numerical pattern the other day in relation to 9/11 and the upcoming Passover and Easter weekend next year that could be very telling. Four passenger airliners operated by two major U.S. passenger air carriers (United Airlines and American Airlines)—all of which departed from airports in the northeastern United States bound for California—were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. Within an hour and 42 minutes, both 110-story towers collapsed. Debris and the resulting fires caused a partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia, which led to a partial collapse of the building's west side. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was initially flown toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers thwarted the hijackers. 9/11 is the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed, respectively. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively 2 planes. Flight 11 and 175. 1+7+5 = 13. America's favorite number Within an hour and 42 minutes, both 110-story towers collapsed. 1+4+2 = 7 = completion Two 110 story towers. 11 / 11 Debris and the resulting fires caused a partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures. 47 stories = 11 Damage to 10 other buildings. 10+1 = 11+ twin towers = 13, America's favorite number A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia, which led to a partial collapse of the building's west side. 77 The Pentagon started construction to be built on 9/11/61, exactly 60 years prior to the attack. As well as being nicked named "ground zero" due to assumptions it would be the target during a nuclear attack. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was initially flown toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers thwarted the hijackers. The one plane that didn't fit the numerical pattern crashed and didn't make it to its destination. Shanksville is kind of a funny name for the area where they crashed. 9/11 is the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed, respectively. 343 = 1 and 72 = 9 9+1= 1 9/11 So how does this relate to anything? Passover and Easter will be on 4/20 weekend. 4/20/19 will be the 130th birthday of Hitler and the 20th year anniversary of the Columbine shootings. A columbine is a dove. It will also be 3 years since this tombstone was put in Central Park with the Jesuit IHS logo in the middle of it. https://preview.redd.it/re1bbm276y321.jpg?width=638&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6846b2426b0be53adfc1062628d99fff1a09d6e4 So you have the 130 which equals 13, 20 which equals 11 and 3. 3 being the number of years since the Easter this tombstone was placed. Easter is about Jesus dying and then 3 days later, rising from the dead. The only plane that didn't fit the numerical pattern on 9/11 (13 and 11) was the number 3. It was headed toward the capital building apparently and it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania due to the people on the plane taking action to stop the hijacking. 1600 Pennsylvania ave is the address of the White House. 1600 = 88 which ultimately = 7 https://preview.redd.it/43qrqv2y6y321.png?width=831&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9677c885ba24d13ccdaa3e628ab579fe614351a Knowing [33.88.911] https://preview.redd.it/1umpmlym7y321.png?width=873&format=png&auto=webp&s=236504287695a69e37a262f920e10e4d879af085 https://i.redd.it/d7ycecur7y321.gif Trump confuses 9/11 with 7/11 Speaking of dying and rising again. Ever since I saw the picture of his tombstone framed like that with the odd rock formation in the background, I've had a weird feeling about it. Like it meant something. Well I have a theory about an upcoming event where I think we're all going to be struck by lightning and die for a short period and then come back into a less dualistic world and that involves gender as well. "For as the lighting flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day." People will be more androgynous which seems to be where our society was heading in the first place but I believe this H-K event I keep referring to, will be the catalyst to a fundamental change in our DNA itself. Inhabiting both male and female principles in one body. I think this short death period is the judgment talked about in the Bible. Well, after looking at some pictures of Melania in Egypt and noticing she was dressed uncharacteristically non-feminine, I came across this picture. https://preview.redd.it/8xxtef716y321.jpg?width=1365&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb5829cce67a4e4c876a5c723403de088bb0caf0 Closer picture so you can see her better To me, this is a HIGHLY symbolic representation of the H-K event I just described as well as the Resurrection of Jesus. Even has the basic "2 become 1" Canaanite shape. She's emerging from this "dark tomb" dressed in the least feminine thing I have ever seen her wear. One more possible relation to all this. Space X just "captured" their space craft named "Dragon" Dragon completed its first flight around the world 8 years ago today. Since then, Dragon has visited @Space_Station 16 times. Next year, SpaceX will take another important step with an upgraded Dragon capable of returning human spaceflight to the US for the first time since 2011. https://preview.redd.it/ufo65587ey321.jpg?width=1118&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=414d1de33f2e888b8712097bf2e5b97df2e6c5ce Dragon Rendenzvous Go to 3:25:00 if you just want to see the end. 8 years ago it took its first flight and its visited the space station 16 times. 8 & 8. It's called "Dragon". They just recently "captured" it at 4:21am, about a minute later, there is lightning and a thunderstorm on Earth that you can see behind the space craft. Easter is 4.21. 3 years after that tombstone was put in Central Park. |
2017.03.29 16:42 thetablt Seeking help explaining a Terry Pratchett computer joke
Hi,
I'm looking for some help from vintage computers users in explaining a computer-related joke in Terry Pratchett's 1994 Discworld novel, Interesting Times.
As some of you may know, Terry Pratchett's “Discworld” novels take place in a fantasy setting which may be considered, wrt technological level, reminiscent of late Renaissance. The level of technological development is anterior to the steam machine (animal force is the main source of motion, etc.).
Yet, in this magical world, some wizards have been able to build a computer, called Hex (an obvious pun) which is saturated with references to the “heroic days” of early computer science and early home-computer era. But in another way, the computer builds itself: Terry Pratchett explains that "the wizards invented something sufficiently computer-like that computerness entered into it." (The Art of Discworld). In the stories,such self-building appears in the form of new parts of the computer seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
Most parts and behavior of Hex refer to actual computer software/hardware/culture: the first error messages Hex prints comes from the Commodore C64 BASIC interpreter (?REDO FROM START) , and later in the novels, whenever Hex is performing some long task, it lowers a fish tank on a spring so the operator has something to watch while the computer works, in an obvious reference to the common “aquarium” screensaver.
But, and here's my question: “a broken umbrella with herrings on it” left everyone baffled for now.
I assume it references something from pre-1994 computer culture. Beyond that, it may be anything: a UI element, a hardware part, a famous demo.
Edit: for reference and inspiration, here the /discworld thread, and the one on /amiga.
Edit': my post was really too long, added some titles for clarity.
submitted by thetablt to vintagecomputing [link] [comments]
I'm looking for some help from vintage computers users in explaining a computer-related joke in Terry Pratchett's 1994 Discworld novel, Interesting Times.
A bit of context: Terry Pratchett, the Discworld and the computer Hex
(People who've already read the Discworld novels may skip to the next section, people who haven't may go on, what follows is spoiler-free)As some of you may know, Terry Pratchett's “Discworld” novels take place in a fantasy setting which may be considered, wrt technological level, reminiscent of late Renaissance. The level of technological development is anterior to the steam machine (animal force is the main source of motion, etc.).
Yet, in this magical world, some wizards have been able to build a computer, called Hex (an obvious pun) which is saturated with references to the “heroic days” of early computer science and early home-computer era. But in another way, the computer builds itself: Terry Pratchett explains that "the wizards invented something sufficiently computer-like that computerness entered into it." (The Art of Discworld). In the stories,such self-building appears in the form of new parts of the computer seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
Most parts and behavior of Hex refer to actual computer software/hardware/culture: the first error messages Hex prints comes from the Commodore C64 BASIC interpreter (?REDO FROM START) , and later in the novels, whenever Hex is performing some long task, it lowers a fish tank on a spring so the operator has something to watch while the computer works, in an obvious reference to the common “aquarium” screensaver.
The problem
Yet, there's one joke I (along with /discworld and /amiga) absolutely can't understand. It comes from the 1994 novel Interesting Times, and reads as follows:(...) the thing like a broken umbrella with herrings on it appeared just behind the thing like a beachball that went 'parp' every fourteen minutes.There are two parts: “the thing like a beachball that went 'part' every four minutes” may very well be a reference to the famous Amiga “boing” demo, later ported to various other platforms and OSes. Other have suggested an older "beachball of death" Apple/Nextstep cursor.
But, and here's my question: “a broken umbrella with herrings on it” left everyone baffled for now.
I assume it references something from pre-1994 computer culture. Beyond that, it may be anything: a UI element, a hardware part, a famous demo.
A few extra remarks
- Bluetooth, the Bluetooth logo, and anything related to Airport/Wifi would be anachronic.
- A lot of people have suggested a mouse cursor. This is not necessarily wrong, but notice how the “broken umbrella” appears (cursors don't appear, AFAIK, unless there were platforms on which they disappeared during a long task) behind another UI element (cursors are above).
- Terry Pratchett liked and knew computers, the references were aimed at fellow computer nerds. They're not just some pictures he has seen; AFAIK he was a Commodore, Sinclair and Amiga user at least.
- A “broken umbrella with herring on it” is how a Discworld wizard perceives this thing, the description is not gratuitously ambiguous. Whatever it is, it is not a kind of object a wizard would actually know. This rules out arrows, clocks, and hourglasses, and more generally any object which would be known in such a world.
- Last remark: a lot of people suggested an antenna, and this may be right, but it's still lacking some context. Why, how and when would a pre-1994 computer display an antenna? The herrings are also important.
Edit: for reference and inspiration, here the /discworld thread, and the one on /amiga.
Edit': my post was really too long, added some titles for clarity.
2017.03.27 13:34 Pulsecode9 [PI] The Temporal Receiver (3,722 Words)
In the near future, the secret to time travel has been discovered - in order to travel back into the past there needs to be a 'receiving station' at the other end - explaining why nobody from the future has been observed up 'til now. The first such 'station' is about to be completed.
They converged on a small cafe from three directions, to plan what they had to do. His colleague arrived first, ten minutes early as ever, and settled into a small booth with a black coffee. His sister arrived next, somewhat flustered, shaking the rain from a collapsible umbrella as she hurried over. She flashed a weak smile, and squeezed herself into the opposite side of the booth.
“Afternoon, Paul.”
“Rachel.”
And for a moment, that was about that. They weren’t particularly familiar, drawn in by a common concern rather than friendship. They had met before, technically, but had both been called to the cafe by the third member of their group, predictably late. In his absence, Rachel tried to find a bridge across the stained table.
“So, ah… how are the kids, Paul?” She fidgeted uncomfortably with the fasteners of her coat, trying to draw Paul’s eyes away from his coffee.
“Hmm? Oh. Well enough. Growing up fast.” He glanced up, suddenly feeling the pressure to contribute a question of his own.
“When did you last actually see Oliver? Outside of his workshop, I mean.”
So much for small talk. Rachel pursed her lips. In truth, it had been a very long time. But was she just being defensive, or had there been something accusatory in his tone? It certainly wasn’t her fault her brother had retreated in on himself as he had. And in any case, she was here now, wasn’t she? Here to try to pry him out?
Before she could reply, the bell over the cafe door jingled again. Ed stuck his head inside, his posture apologetic but at sore contrast with his shameless grin. Same old Ed.
“Morning, morning, morning!” It was half two in the afternoon. “Shame about the rain, hey? Rachel, you’re looking lovely as ever. Paul, long time no see, glad you could make it. Both of you.”
After a moment’s feigned indecision he sat beside Rachel, peering into Paul’s mug with a curious air.
Rachel smiled, glad to feel the tension break. It was hard to imagine an awkward silence anywhere near Ed. He could cause his share of awkwardness, but you could be sure it wouldn’t be silent.
Paul pushed back his mug decisively, and glanced at the others with a conspiratorial air.
“So, how are we doing this? I’ll be frank, we need him back at work. We just can’t keep extending his sabbatical any longer.”
Rachel tugged a napkin from the dispenser at the centre of the table, and began to slowly worry at it, eyes focused intently on her fingers.
“I haven’t even seen him in over a year. He doesn’t answer his phone. I must have sent messages through every platform there is, but as far as I know he doesn’t even read them. He won’t even tell me what it is he’s working on, but it’s obviously far more important than we are…”
The napkin was in shreds now, and Rachel conscientiously gathered the pieces into a pile, and brushed it under the edge of the laminated menu. Ed watched in silence as the little scraps of paper disappeared, before looking up at Rachel’s face. A moment’s scrutiny was seemingly all he needed to make up his mind. Standing, he adjusted his coat and looked down at the other two.
“Bit pointless making too much of a plan if we don’t know what he’s up to, hey? And we could sit here all day working ourselves into tizzy. Let’s just go.”
Murmuring assent, the others gathered their things and joined Ed at the door.
—
They had chosen that particular cafe as it was just around the corner form the building Oliver had been renting. It wasn’t a good neighourhood, but nor was it the worst. The shop fronts were freshly painted for the most part, and the passers-by intent on their own inner narratives seldom seemed to look up past the bright shop banners to the dark and boarded windows of the upper floors.
They found the door they were looking for sharing an entrance with a Polish food shop painted; painted in the same colours as if to disguise it as a staff-door to any who didn’t know otherwise. There was a buzzer, but no name written on the little card. When Paul pressed it they heard nothing but static, and Rachel was already stepping back into the street to confirm the road signs when a voice eventually crackled through the little grate.
“Hello?”
“Oliver?” Ed reacted first, leaning in close and talking loudly, although with a note of concern in his voice. “It’s me, Eddie. I’m here with Paul and Rachel. We’ve come to see how you’re getting on.”
There was no sound from the intercom bar a series of static clicks and ops, until a loud buzz indicated that the door had been unlocked.
The hall beyond was dark and musty, and the sweep of the door had only re-organised the pile of letters, fast-food fliers endless identifiable junk that had piled up inside. What the door revealed about the state of the carpet would perhaps be better left unsaid. Paul grimaced, but Ed didn’t give his surroundings a second glance, instead heading up the narrow and surprisingly steep staircase to the upper floors.
They were met at the top by Oliver, wearing an expression of mild consternation as he blinked at his visitors. It was plain that he hadn’t been expecting any company, dressed as he was in stained sweat-pants and an overlarge t-shirt bearing a slogan from a long-cancelled TV show. He seemed a loss for anything to say. For once it seemed so did Ed, as it was Paul who broke the silence and stepped forward to put a hand on Oliver’s unresisting shoulder.
“We’ve missed you, old boy. And not just us, but everybody. We all got together and thought… well, we thought we should come round and see that you’re alright. See if there’s anything we can do.”
“Alright?” Oliver seemed genuinely puzzled. “Why shouldn’t I be alright?”
Rachel broke in. “We haven’t seen you in over six months! You haven’t answered texts, you’ve missed appointments, and that week in the country we’d planned for Mum and Dad’s anniversary. What on earth have you been doing with yourself?”
“We’re not judging.” Ed interrupted. “You know we want to help. Debt, drugs, online gaming… I’ve seen it all before. You know me. I’m unshockable. We just want to help you back to… you know. To the world.”
Oliver’s face passed quickly from incredulous to affronted, before he burst into a sudden laugh that dissolved into a spasmodic fit of coughing.
“Bah… hah… ahum. Excuse me. I’m sorry. But… well, I think I might shock you, at that. What, you thought I’d been holed up in here drunk and playing World of Warcraft? No. No no. I suppose I should thank you for your concern; but not, perhaps, for your opinion of me. I have been busy. Very busy. And it’s yielding results!”
Paul chose his words carefully in the shocked silence that followed this outburst, and he spoke in a soft voice.
“What have you been working on, old friend? Can we see?”
Oliver’s brow furrowed, and looked for a moment like the urge to privacy would be too great. Whatever internal battle was raging, in the end it was pride that won through.
“I suppose I don’t see why not. Someone has to be the first, after all, and there probably should be witnesses. Impartial third parties, eh? Come through, come through.” He opened a door, and ushered his guests into what had originally most likely been the living room, now thoroughly repurposed to a makeshift workshop.
“Take a seat, take a seat, I imagine I’ve got quite a lot of explaining to do, after all. It might take ma short while.”
The three of them looked around the room to see where they might be expected to sit, and came up empty. The only actual chair was behind Oliver; a threadbare thing push under a desk creaking under the weight of repurposed computer parts and other, less identifiable technical detritus. The room in general gave the impression of a laboratory after ra hurricane, and was dominated by racks of computers, elaborate metalwork and endless, endless paper.
Shrugging, Ed cleared a complicated looking valve apparatus and two folders of notes off the end of a low table, and sat there. Paul perched himself on a sturdy looking crate. Rachel furrowed her brow and glanced around the room, before electing to stand. Ed wordlessly offered her his seat, but she raised a placating and took a spot near the window.
“Practical experiment into Chaos Theory, is it?” Ed asked, dryly.
“What? Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, it isn’t its most presentable at the moment, is it?” fretted Oliver.
Ed grinned, and waved dismissively. “Oh, never mind that. I’m sure we’ve all had our vaccinations.”
Rachel lifted a drawing from the top of the nearest pile and tilted it towards the light, before silently admitting defeat and placing it neatly back where she had found it.
“What have you been working on, Oli?” she asked, tentatively.
A light filled Oliver’s eyes. Distracted from their embarrassing surroundings and back on the topic of the passion that had consumed him for so long, he was a different person. He gestured as he spoke, with the enthusiasm and confidence of a magician on the verge of producing the white rabbit.
“Well! It all goes back to an idea I had years ago. I worked on it off and on in my own time. As a hobby, you know? I wasn’t sure if it was really workable, and you know how the academic circles can be. I wanted to be certain before I put anything forward to be torn apart by the wolves. It got to the point where I was maybe ninety, ninety-five percent sure, so I put together a presentation to the University for funding. Unfortunately-“
He was cut off there by a sharp exhalation from Paul. The other two looked around in surprise to see their companion - an academic himself - pinching the bridge of his nose with a pained expression.
“Please.” There was a bitterness to Paul’s voice that had not been there before, and a weariness too. “Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is. That you haven’t spent the last god only knows how long chasing this… this LUDICROUS idea.”
“It is not ludicrous! If you had only looked at the notes I showed you…” Oliver bristled, but Ed cut in, easily talking over the two of them.
“What on earth are the two of you on about? Paul seems to have twigged to what you’re doing here, but I - and Rachel, I daresay - haven’t the faintest clue.”
Rachel nodded uncertainly, and Paul waved a hand toward Oliver, conceding the floor with markedly bad grace. Oliver took a moment to compose himself, before turning to face Ed and Rachel, framing Paul out of his field of view.
“In a phrase… time travel.”
He waited for the reaction he felt the claim should evoke, but was disappointed. Rachel merely stared at the floor,and Ed’s expression had frozen in place completely. Paul made an impatient gesture, and turned to face the window.
“Oliver, mate…” Ed spoke slowly and softly. “Maybe we should get some fresh air, yeah? A change of scenery might be just the thing. Maybe a pint?”
“You’re talking to me like you think I’m unwell. Is it really so hard to believe?”
Ed’s expression creased in a desperate attempt to find an answer that was both diplomatic and honest. Paul, meanwhile, settled back to face the room with the air of the vindicated.
“You’ve got to admit, mate, it’s a little far-fetched. A bit sci-fi.” Ed raised his hands in a peacekeeping gesture as he spoke, smiling apologetically. Oliver had already framed a sharp retort before he thought better of it, and bit it back. While he sought the words to get across what he wanted to say, Paul took his chance to lean back into the conversation.
“Let’s start from the basics, shall well? Leaving aside the hopelessly impossible physics of it, what about Hawking’s Paradox? If time travel is or ever will be possible, where are the time travellers? Oughtn’t they be coming back to see how people lived in the past? Shouldn’t ever major historical event have a crowd of strangely dressed witnesses?”
Oliver shook his head emphatically, and leant forwards in his obvious excitement.
“But don’t you see? That’s like asking Alexander Graham Bell ‘if telephones are possible, why hasn’t anybody called?’. According to my theories, time travel requires a machine at either end of the process. Departure and destination. Nobody would ever be able to travel back further than the very first successfully activated time machine. So it stands to reason that we won’t see time tourism. At least, not until we crack the technology.”
Paul’s pomposity pricked, he quickly tried to change the subject to the physics he’d previously skirted around. It was a topic neither Rachel nor Ed were familiar with, so as the debate rolled on they were more or less reduced to judging which viewpoint was winning just by the tones of their voiced. Before long a whiteboard was produced, and equations began to sprawl, fading from numbers to letters, to greek, to stranger notations still. And throughout, Paul stalked amidst Oliver’s mathematics, challenging and questioning every aspect. But at each stage, Oliver was able to rebuke him, and Paul’s protests grew ever more feeble.
“But still… there’s a lot of speculation here. I mean, you’re drawing on theories with no strong proof behind them yet. Even CERN is still decades away from proving some of these ideas…”
“Well then, when I carry out a practical demonstration, that will function as proof.” said Oliver, aloof.
“Wait a minute.” Rachel spoke, to everyone’s surprise. Never the most outgoing person, she’d been particularly quiet since the debate had begun. “A practical demonstration is a terrible idea.”
Paul sneered. “I should’t worry about that.” But Oliver smiled a sanguine smile in his direction, and waved towards the array of gutted computers, and the alien metalworking.
“In fact, a practical demonstration is imminent. I’ve tried on four other occasions, but met with problems each time. This time though, I’m confident. All the preliminaries ands et-up checks have passed. You’ve arrived just in time.”
Paul rose from his perch like an eagle from a rock, and stared down at Oliver, before laughing a curt, unpleasant laugh. “You’ve re-written physics in the bedsit above a delicatessen, and now you’ll carry out time travel with the proceeds of a car-boot sale and a domestic power supply? I think I’e heard just about enough. If you expect me to believe-“
“Believe what you will, Paul, I’ll do it anyway.”
“If you will LISTEN-“ but nobody did. Ed cut in over the top of Rachel, pointing an incredulous finger at Oliver.
“You’ll do it? How far away are you from… activating it, or whatever the term would be?”
Oliver paused, settled back against the wall and adjusted his glasses, a faintly smug smile on his face. He nodded towards the computer atop the desk, currently only showing a default screensaver, spectral colours waving back and forth across the screen.
“As soon s the new control code has finished compiling. Then it’s just the press of a button. It’s all set.”
At this point, Rachel clearly decided she’d had enough, and stalked into the centre of the room to confront Oliver, near enough face to face.
“Which you must not do. Listen to me, if you’re EVER going to listen to me, because this is important. I might not know anything about Physics, but I know a hell of a lot about history, and every single thing I know tells me that this is a horrible idea.”
Oliver paused, and opened his mouth to defend himself against this unexpected attack, but Rachel gave him no opening.
“Say it works. Say you connect us to the infinite history of the future, with us as - us ALWAYS as - the very earliest point. Have you any idea how often throughout history two cultures with different levels of technology have met? Because I defy you to name a single one where it went well for the less advanced nation. Conquistadors and Aztecs. Pilgrims and Native Americans. The British Empire and… the rest of the world outside Europe. Go on. Name one.”
Oliver looked lost, trying to feel his way forwards in thoroughly unfamiliar territory. He glanced sideways at Ed, as if appealing for aid, but Ed’s eyes were locked on Rachel, appraising.
“But surely… we’ve moved past that, as a society? All the examples you’ve given are from far in the past, and those we contact will be even further removed from that level of barbarism…”
Rolling her eyes, Rachel interrupted.
“Lord, save us from scientists. We sure as hell have not moved past that, but let’s say that the future people have, and ignore the fact that once time travel becomes widespread, the future people could be from next Tuesday. Even where the more advanced society comes in the guise of a benefactor, they tip the local balance of power in all kinds of directions. The worst case scenario is still total subjugation, but even the best is economic dependency.”
Paul had been nodding with increased emphasis throughout Rachel’s diatribe, and chose this moment to put in a little of his own.
“That’s even being kind and treating this world and the future world as two distinct entities. What about nationalism? It’s all well and good and very big of you to assume people will act in the benefit of humanity, but aren’t - say - the French far more likely to act in the interests of the French? And would you be confident in saying that the interests of France are the interests of humanity? I’m sure the French would.”
“Right! Exactly.” Rachel pointed at Paul, glad of the support. “And don’t forget, we’ve got the whole of future history to worry about. Suppose an enlightened, fair and completely global society has arisen. Suppose it reigns in peace for a thousand years. What then? All good things must come to an end, and even oif the thought of travelling back in time and changing things around a little doesn’t occur for… for five thousand years, until the very last men, it’ll make no difference to us, here. They’ll arrive.”
Doubt flickered across Oliver’s face for the first time, as he scrambled to put together a defence against this suddenly co-ordinated onslaught.
“And imagine modern man travelling back to our past.” Paul was in full flow, now. “No intention of hurting anybody, perhaps even wants to help. Maybe he warns the people of the past about September 11th, about the Haitian earthquake. Leaving aside the paradoxes. He also buys a few shares in Apple when the company is almost bankrupt. Who could blame them? Maybe buys up some land. The kind that’s full of resources nobody knows the value of yet. And then-“
He was interrupted by a genteel chime from the computer, and the screensaver fading away to be replaced by a wide array of readouts, controls, and notes.
“It’s ready.” Oliver didn’t turn to look, instead making weary eye-contact with his sister. “Look… maybe you’re right. I’ve been too focused the science, and never really thought too deeply about all this kind of thing. Societal implications. I suppose it is something that needs thought. But thank you. Thank you for at least believing me.”
Rachel’s stern expression, never entirely at home on soft features, melted away. It took three steps to close the difference, and she embraced her brother. Paul wasn’t far behind, clapping his hand onto Oliver’s shoulder.
“Alright, yes, it needs more thought. More discussion. I saw a restaurant around the corner that I’ve heard good things about. Perhaps we could talk it through more thoroughly over dinner, hmm?”
“I’d like that…” Oliver rubbed his eyes, and looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “I don’t know when I last…. when did I last leave here?”
Paul and Rachel shepherded their friend towards the door, making soft small-talk and guiding him to change into something a little more restaurant appropriate. Ed stood looking out of the window, a pensive look on his face.
“Hell of a thing…” he whispered to no-one in particular.
Oliver came back through the room, dressed rather sheepishly in as clean a set of clothes as he could find.
“Shall we?” Oliver seemed slightly on edge at the notion of leaving, of going outside again after so long, but Paul and Rachel stood at his shoulders, smiling encouragingly. The battle was won. It wouldn’t be far from here to persuading Oliver - never the strongest willed, not when it came to human confrontation - that not only should the machine never be turned-on, but that the research was too dangerous ever to be published.
Ed watched them bustle, and he knew that his friend would never be the same again. This project had consumed him day in and day out for six months, and haunted him for years before that. To destroy al this work would be… well, it would be criminal. He exhaled slowly, before stepping away from the window and locking his eyes on Oliver’s.
“You know, Oli, there’s just one thing left that I have to know.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Just… whether it works.”
Before anyone could stop him, Ed lunged across the room to the computer, seized the mouse and hit the glowing green button marked ‘System Activate’. Paul cried out, Rachel’s eyes widened, Oliver just stood there stunned. The server-racks of computer parts began to hum and whirr, and deep within the stacks of metal and wiring something began to glow.
And all around the four of them, figures began to blur into view. Figures in all modes of dress, of all heights, races and genders, united only by their focus as they faced the glowing machine.
submitted by Pulsecode9 to WritingPrompts [link] [comments]
“Afternoon, Paul.”
“Rachel.”
And for a moment, that was about that. They weren’t particularly familiar, drawn in by a common concern rather than friendship. They had met before, technically, but had both been called to the cafe by the third member of their group, predictably late. In his absence, Rachel tried to find a bridge across the stained table.
“So, ah… how are the kids, Paul?” She fidgeted uncomfortably with the fasteners of her coat, trying to draw Paul’s eyes away from his coffee.
“Hmm? Oh. Well enough. Growing up fast.” He glanced up, suddenly feeling the pressure to contribute a question of his own.
“When did you last actually see Oliver? Outside of his workshop, I mean.”
So much for small talk. Rachel pursed her lips. In truth, it had been a very long time. But was she just being defensive, or had there been something accusatory in his tone? It certainly wasn’t her fault her brother had retreated in on himself as he had. And in any case, she was here now, wasn’t she? Here to try to pry him out?
Before she could reply, the bell over the cafe door jingled again. Ed stuck his head inside, his posture apologetic but at sore contrast with his shameless grin. Same old Ed.
“Morning, morning, morning!” It was half two in the afternoon. “Shame about the rain, hey? Rachel, you’re looking lovely as ever. Paul, long time no see, glad you could make it. Both of you.”
After a moment’s feigned indecision he sat beside Rachel, peering into Paul’s mug with a curious air.
Rachel smiled, glad to feel the tension break. It was hard to imagine an awkward silence anywhere near Ed. He could cause his share of awkwardness, but you could be sure it wouldn’t be silent.
Paul pushed back his mug decisively, and glanced at the others with a conspiratorial air.
“So, how are we doing this? I’ll be frank, we need him back at work. We just can’t keep extending his sabbatical any longer.”
Rachel tugged a napkin from the dispenser at the centre of the table, and began to slowly worry at it, eyes focused intently on her fingers.
“I haven’t even seen him in over a year. He doesn’t answer his phone. I must have sent messages through every platform there is, but as far as I know he doesn’t even read them. He won’t even tell me what it is he’s working on, but it’s obviously far more important than we are…”
The napkin was in shreds now, and Rachel conscientiously gathered the pieces into a pile, and brushed it under the edge of the laminated menu. Ed watched in silence as the little scraps of paper disappeared, before looking up at Rachel’s face. A moment’s scrutiny was seemingly all he needed to make up his mind. Standing, he adjusted his coat and looked down at the other two.
“Bit pointless making too much of a plan if we don’t know what he’s up to, hey? And we could sit here all day working ourselves into tizzy. Let’s just go.”
Murmuring assent, the others gathered their things and joined Ed at the door.
—
They had chosen that particular cafe as it was just around the corner form the building Oliver had been renting. It wasn’t a good neighourhood, but nor was it the worst. The shop fronts were freshly painted for the most part, and the passers-by intent on their own inner narratives seldom seemed to look up past the bright shop banners to the dark and boarded windows of the upper floors.
They found the door they were looking for sharing an entrance with a Polish food shop painted; painted in the same colours as if to disguise it as a staff-door to any who didn’t know otherwise. There was a buzzer, but no name written on the little card. When Paul pressed it they heard nothing but static, and Rachel was already stepping back into the street to confirm the road signs when a voice eventually crackled through the little grate.
“Hello?”
“Oliver?” Ed reacted first, leaning in close and talking loudly, although with a note of concern in his voice. “It’s me, Eddie. I’m here with Paul and Rachel. We’ve come to see how you’re getting on.”
There was no sound from the intercom bar a series of static clicks and ops, until a loud buzz indicated that the door had been unlocked.
The hall beyond was dark and musty, and the sweep of the door had only re-organised the pile of letters, fast-food fliers endless identifiable junk that had piled up inside. What the door revealed about the state of the carpet would perhaps be better left unsaid. Paul grimaced, but Ed didn’t give his surroundings a second glance, instead heading up the narrow and surprisingly steep staircase to the upper floors.
They were met at the top by Oliver, wearing an expression of mild consternation as he blinked at his visitors. It was plain that he hadn’t been expecting any company, dressed as he was in stained sweat-pants and an overlarge t-shirt bearing a slogan from a long-cancelled TV show. He seemed a loss for anything to say. For once it seemed so did Ed, as it was Paul who broke the silence and stepped forward to put a hand on Oliver’s unresisting shoulder.
“We’ve missed you, old boy. And not just us, but everybody. We all got together and thought… well, we thought we should come round and see that you’re alright. See if there’s anything we can do.”
“Alright?” Oliver seemed genuinely puzzled. “Why shouldn’t I be alright?”
Rachel broke in. “We haven’t seen you in over six months! You haven’t answered texts, you’ve missed appointments, and that week in the country we’d planned for Mum and Dad’s anniversary. What on earth have you been doing with yourself?”
“We’re not judging.” Ed interrupted. “You know we want to help. Debt, drugs, online gaming… I’ve seen it all before. You know me. I’m unshockable. We just want to help you back to… you know. To the world.”
Oliver’s face passed quickly from incredulous to affronted, before he burst into a sudden laugh that dissolved into a spasmodic fit of coughing.
“Bah… hah… ahum. Excuse me. I’m sorry. But… well, I think I might shock you, at that. What, you thought I’d been holed up in here drunk and playing World of Warcraft? No. No no. I suppose I should thank you for your concern; but not, perhaps, for your opinion of me. I have been busy. Very busy. And it’s yielding results!”
Paul chose his words carefully in the shocked silence that followed this outburst, and he spoke in a soft voice.
“What have you been working on, old friend? Can we see?”
Oliver’s brow furrowed, and looked for a moment like the urge to privacy would be too great. Whatever internal battle was raging, in the end it was pride that won through.
“I suppose I don’t see why not. Someone has to be the first, after all, and there probably should be witnesses. Impartial third parties, eh? Come through, come through.” He opened a door, and ushered his guests into what had originally most likely been the living room, now thoroughly repurposed to a makeshift workshop.
“Take a seat, take a seat, I imagine I’ve got quite a lot of explaining to do, after all. It might take ma short while.”
The three of them looked around the room to see where they might be expected to sit, and came up empty. The only actual chair was behind Oliver; a threadbare thing push under a desk creaking under the weight of repurposed computer parts and other, less identifiable technical detritus. The room in general gave the impression of a laboratory after ra hurricane, and was dominated by racks of computers, elaborate metalwork and endless, endless paper.
Shrugging, Ed cleared a complicated looking valve apparatus and two folders of notes off the end of a low table, and sat there. Paul perched himself on a sturdy looking crate. Rachel furrowed her brow and glanced around the room, before electing to stand. Ed wordlessly offered her his seat, but she raised a placating and took a spot near the window.
“Practical experiment into Chaos Theory, is it?” Ed asked, dryly.
“What? Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, it isn’t its most presentable at the moment, is it?” fretted Oliver.
Ed grinned, and waved dismissively. “Oh, never mind that. I’m sure we’ve all had our vaccinations.”
Rachel lifted a drawing from the top of the nearest pile and tilted it towards the light, before silently admitting defeat and placing it neatly back where she had found it.
“What have you been working on, Oli?” she asked, tentatively.
A light filled Oliver’s eyes. Distracted from their embarrassing surroundings and back on the topic of the passion that had consumed him for so long, he was a different person. He gestured as he spoke, with the enthusiasm and confidence of a magician on the verge of producing the white rabbit.
“Well! It all goes back to an idea I had years ago. I worked on it off and on in my own time. As a hobby, you know? I wasn’t sure if it was really workable, and you know how the academic circles can be. I wanted to be certain before I put anything forward to be torn apart by the wolves. It got to the point where I was maybe ninety, ninety-five percent sure, so I put together a presentation to the University for funding. Unfortunately-“
He was cut off there by a sharp exhalation from Paul. The other two looked around in surprise to see their companion - an academic himself - pinching the bridge of his nose with a pained expression.
“Please.” There was a bitterness to Paul’s voice that had not been there before, and a weariness too. “Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is. That you haven’t spent the last god only knows how long chasing this… this LUDICROUS idea.”
“It is not ludicrous! If you had only looked at the notes I showed you…” Oliver bristled, but Ed cut in, easily talking over the two of them.
“What on earth are the two of you on about? Paul seems to have twigged to what you’re doing here, but I - and Rachel, I daresay - haven’t the faintest clue.”
Rachel nodded uncertainly, and Paul waved a hand toward Oliver, conceding the floor with markedly bad grace. Oliver took a moment to compose himself, before turning to face Ed and Rachel, framing Paul out of his field of view.
“In a phrase… time travel.”
He waited for the reaction he felt the claim should evoke, but was disappointed. Rachel merely stared at the floor,and Ed’s expression had frozen in place completely. Paul made an impatient gesture, and turned to face the window.
“Oliver, mate…” Ed spoke slowly and softly. “Maybe we should get some fresh air, yeah? A change of scenery might be just the thing. Maybe a pint?”
“You’re talking to me like you think I’m unwell. Is it really so hard to believe?”
Ed’s expression creased in a desperate attempt to find an answer that was both diplomatic and honest. Paul, meanwhile, settled back to face the room with the air of the vindicated.
“You’ve got to admit, mate, it’s a little far-fetched. A bit sci-fi.” Ed raised his hands in a peacekeeping gesture as he spoke, smiling apologetically. Oliver had already framed a sharp retort before he thought better of it, and bit it back. While he sought the words to get across what he wanted to say, Paul took his chance to lean back into the conversation.
“Let’s start from the basics, shall well? Leaving aside the hopelessly impossible physics of it, what about Hawking’s Paradox? If time travel is or ever will be possible, where are the time travellers? Oughtn’t they be coming back to see how people lived in the past? Shouldn’t ever major historical event have a crowd of strangely dressed witnesses?”
Oliver shook his head emphatically, and leant forwards in his obvious excitement.
“But don’t you see? That’s like asking Alexander Graham Bell ‘if telephones are possible, why hasn’t anybody called?’. According to my theories, time travel requires a machine at either end of the process. Departure and destination. Nobody would ever be able to travel back further than the very first successfully activated time machine. So it stands to reason that we won’t see time tourism. At least, not until we crack the technology.”
Paul’s pomposity pricked, he quickly tried to change the subject to the physics he’d previously skirted around. It was a topic neither Rachel nor Ed were familiar with, so as the debate rolled on they were more or less reduced to judging which viewpoint was winning just by the tones of their voiced. Before long a whiteboard was produced, and equations began to sprawl, fading from numbers to letters, to greek, to stranger notations still. And throughout, Paul stalked amidst Oliver’s mathematics, challenging and questioning every aspect. But at each stage, Oliver was able to rebuke him, and Paul’s protests grew ever more feeble.
“But still… there’s a lot of speculation here. I mean, you’re drawing on theories with no strong proof behind them yet. Even CERN is still decades away from proving some of these ideas…”
“Well then, when I carry out a practical demonstration, that will function as proof.” said Oliver, aloof.
“Wait a minute.” Rachel spoke, to everyone’s surprise. Never the most outgoing person, she’d been particularly quiet since the debate had begun. “A practical demonstration is a terrible idea.”
Paul sneered. “I should’t worry about that.” But Oliver smiled a sanguine smile in his direction, and waved towards the array of gutted computers, and the alien metalworking.
“In fact, a practical demonstration is imminent. I’ve tried on four other occasions, but met with problems each time. This time though, I’m confident. All the preliminaries ands et-up checks have passed. You’ve arrived just in time.”
Paul rose from his perch like an eagle from a rock, and stared down at Oliver, before laughing a curt, unpleasant laugh. “You’ve re-written physics in the bedsit above a delicatessen, and now you’ll carry out time travel with the proceeds of a car-boot sale and a domestic power supply? I think I’e heard just about enough. If you expect me to believe-“
“Believe what you will, Paul, I’ll do it anyway.”
“If you will LISTEN-“ but nobody did. Ed cut in over the top of Rachel, pointing an incredulous finger at Oliver.
“You’ll do it? How far away are you from… activating it, or whatever the term would be?”
Oliver paused, settled back against the wall and adjusted his glasses, a faintly smug smile on his face. He nodded towards the computer atop the desk, currently only showing a default screensaver, spectral colours waving back and forth across the screen.
“As soon s the new control code has finished compiling. Then it’s just the press of a button. It’s all set.”
At this point, Rachel clearly decided she’d had enough, and stalked into the centre of the room to confront Oliver, near enough face to face.
“Which you must not do. Listen to me, if you’re EVER going to listen to me, because this is important. I might not know anything about Physics, but I know a hell of a lot about history, and every single thing I know tells me that this is a horrible idea.”
Oliver paused, and opened his mouth to defend himself against this unexpected attack, but Rachel gave him no opening.
“Say it works. Say you connect us to the infinite history of the future, with us as - us ALWAYS as - the very earliest point. Have you any idea how often throughout history two cultures with different levels of technology have met? Because I defy you to name a single one where it went well for the less advanced nation. Conquistadors and Aztecs. Pilgrims and Native Americans. The British Empire and… the rest of the world outside Europe. Go on. Name one.”
Oliver looked lost, trying to feel his way forwards in thoroughly unfamiliar territory. He glanced sideways at Ed, as if appealing for aid, but Ed’s eyes were locked on Rachel, appraising.
“But surely… we’ve moved past that, as a society? All the examples you’ve given are from far in the past, and those we contact will be even further removed from that level of barbarism…”
Rolling her eyes, Rachel interrupted.
“Lord, save us from scientists. We sure as hell have not moved past that, but let’s say that the future people have, and ignore the fact that once time travel becomes widespread, the future people could be from next Tuesday. Even where the more advanced society comes in the guise of a benefactor, they tip the local balance of power in all kinds of directions. The worst case scenario is still total subjugation, but even the best is economic dependency.”
Paul had been nodding with increased emphasis throughout Rachel’s diatribe, and chose this moment to put in a little of his own.
“That’s even being kind and treating this world and the future world as two distinct entities. What about nationalism? It’s all well and good and very big of you to assume people will act in the benefit of humanity, but aren’t - say - the French far more likely to act in the interests of the French? And would you be confident in saying that the interests of France are the interests of humanity? I’m sure the French would.”
“Right! Exactly.” Rachel pointed at Paul, glad of the support. “And don’t forget, we’ve got the whole of future history to worry about. Suppose an enlightened, fair and completely global society has arisen. Suppose it reigns in peace for a thousand years. What then? All good things must come to an end, and even oif the thought of travelling back in time and changing things around a little doesn’t occur for… for five thousand years, until the very last men, it’ll make no difference to us, here. They’ll arrive.”
Doubt flickered across Oliver’s face for the first time, as he scrambled to put together a defence against this suddenly co-ordinated onslaught.
“And imagine modern man travelling back to our past.” Paul was in full flow, now. “No intention of hurting anybody, perhaps even wants to help. Maybe he warns the people of the past about September 11th, about the Haitian earthquake. Leaving aside the paradoxes. He also buys a few shares in Apple when the company is almost bankrupt. Who could blame them? Maybe buys up some land. The kind that’s full of resources nobody knows the value of yet. And then-“
He was interrupted by a genteel chime from the computer, and the screensaver fading away to be replaced by a wide array of readouts, controls, and notes.
“It’s ready.” Oliver didn’t turn to look, instead making weary eye-contact with his sister. “Look… maybe you’re right. I’ve been too focused the science, and never really thought too deeply about all this kind of thing. Societal implications. I suppose it is something that needs thought. But thank you. Thank you for at least believing me.”
Rachel’s stern expression, never entirely at home on soft features, melted away. It took three steps to close the difference, and she embraced her brother. Paul wasn’t far behind, clapping his hand onto Oliver’s shoulder.
“Alright, yes, it needs more thought. More discussion. I saw a restaurant around the corner that I’ve heard good things about. Perhaps we could talk it through more thoroughly over dinner, hmm?”
“I’d like that…” Oliver rubbed his eyes, and looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “I don’t know when I last…. when did I last leave here?”
Paul and Rachel shepherded their friend towards the door, making soft small-talk and guiding him to change into something a little more restaurant appropriate. Ed stood looking out of the window, a pensive look on his face.
“Hell of a thing…” he whispered to no-one in particular.
Oliver came back through the room, dressed rather sheepishly in as clean a set of clothes as he could find.
“Shall we?” Oliver seemed slightly on edge at the notion of leaving, of going outside again after so long, but Paul and Rachel stood at his shoulders, smiling encouragingly. The battle was won. It wouldn’t be far from here to persuading Oliver - never the strongest willed, not when it came to human confrontation - that not only should the machine never be turned-on, but that the research was too dangerous ever to be published.
Ed watched them bustle, and he knew that his friend would never be the same again. This project had consumed him day in and day out for six months, and haunted him for years before that. To destroy al this work would be… well, it would be criminal. He exhaled slowly, before stepping away from the window and locking his eyes on Oliver’s.
“You know, Oli, there’s just one thing left that I have to know.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Just… whether it works.”
Before anyone could stop him, Ed lunged across the room to the computer, seized the mouse and hit the glowing green button marked ‘System Activate’. Paul cried out, Rachel’s eyes widened, Oliver just stood there stunned. The server-racks of computer parts began to hum and whirr, and deep within the stacks of metal and wiring something began to glow.
And all around the four of them, figures began to blur into view. Figures in all modes of dress, of all heights, races and genders, united only by their focus as they faced the glowing machine.
2012.04.29 15:40 grozzle [Kindle screensaver] Umbrellas are fun! [My Neighbour Totoro]
![[Kindle screensaver] Umbrellas are fun! [My Neighbour Totoro]](https://external-preview.redd.it/Kee25vKjiKuxPv4jEvQLj37Zy3PUkrG5yljMgWDDjH0.png?width=320&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=764e79bb448f595f1c21313ff5d8b2fdd15c8b23 "[Kindle screensaver] Umbrellas are fun! [My Neighbour Totoro]") | submitted by grozzle to awwnime [link] [comments] |