Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 January 11

= January 11 =

question about the predators movie
MY BRAIN IS NOT ABLE TO THINK THAT HOW IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR NOLAND TO BECOME INVISIBLE IN THE MOVIE PREDATORS? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lateef wagay (talk • contribs) 11:59, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN A MOVIE! ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:20, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * NOT A USEFUL ANSWER. QUESTION-ASKER WAS CLEARLY LOOKING FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THE WRITER'S INTENT! NOT AN REMINDER OF WHAT FICTION IS! APL (talk) 02:16, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * NOT A USEFUL COMMENT, JUST YOUR TYPICAL ABUSE. WAY TO GO. I ALSO NOTE THE LACK OF CITATIONS IN THE "REAL" ANSWERS. I DON'T SEE YOU GRIPING TO THEM. SO NOT ONLY ARE YOU ABUSIVE, YOU'RE ALSO PRACTICING A DOUBLE-STANDARD. BULLY FOR YOU. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:31, 16 January 2012 (UTC)


 * In Predators, two forms of invisibility are used by the humans. They note that the predators only see in infrared. So, they can make themselves invisible by surrounding themselves with fire (hiding their body heat signature in the heat) or by covering themselves in mud, trapping the heat signature in the mud. Neither one works in real life. -- k a i n a w &trade; 17:36, 11 January 2012 (UTC)


 * The fire wouldn't work because the person would be much cooler than the fire, so would stand out against it. Of course, enough heat might just overwhelm the IR sensors, something like the problem we have when trying to see a plane flying towards us with the Sun behind it.  The mud trick might work for a minute, then it would warm up to match the body temperature.  Holding still was also important, as they could also detect movement.


 * I believe this was all with the optics built into the Predator's suit. Without those, the Predator apparently had rather weak eyesight.  You would think that such an advanced species capable of travel to Earth would have better optics, working in all frequencies.  Perhaps using such a device would be "unsportsmanlike", and the minimal optics they do use are considered acceptable, due to their poor eyesight. StuRat (talk) 17:20, 12 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Even for that instant before the mud warmed to body temperature it would only act as camouflage, not actual "invisibility". It'd be like painting yourself the same color as the background.
 * The movie comes from a time when Infrared technology was new to people who weren't in that industry. (Now IR cameras are cheap and commonly used as security cameras, so it's obvious to us that slathering mud on your face wouldn't make you invisible.) It's like how "Atomic Energy" can do anything in a movie from the 50s, and "computers" can do anything in movies from the 60s and 70s. APL (talk) 02:16, 13 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Being perfectly camouflaged is one meaning of "invisible", see def 7 at invisible. Def 3 also applies in this case.  StuRat (talk) 17:46, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Reverse Engrish
I am looking for a website like engrish.com. I would like to find one that shows bad use of Chinese and Japanese by Americans - such as girls who get a "house" tattoo (often backwards) and claim it means peace and love. -- k a i n a w &trade; 17:30, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * hanzismatter.blogspot.com -- LarryMac  | Talk  18:39, 11 January 2012 (UTC)


 * My favorite: 无恶不作， "there is no evil which I will not commit" --140.180.15.97 (talk) 22:58, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

James Bond Uncle Aunt Exact Relation
James Bond (character) states that Charmian Bond is the aunt of the character and Max Bond is his uncle. What it doesn't state is the exact relation. Which of the two (uncle, aunt) was related to Bond by blood, and which through marriage? Also, whoever it was, was he/she older than their brother/sister who was Bond's parent?

Example: If Charmian was Bond's father's sister, was she older or younger than Bond's father?

Google searches:, , , ,

Thanks--Siddhartha Ghai (talk) 20:05, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Our article calls Charmian "Miss Charmian Bond", so she would have to be an unmarried sister of JB's father. I can't find anything about Max in the article outside the infobox; but since his surname too is Bond, he'd have to be a brother of JB's father. (All this assuming that they aren't great-aunt or great-uncle or anything like that.) As for the relative ages, if Fleming or his successors didn't provide the information, there's no way to know. Deor (talk) 21:03, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
 * So Charmian and Max are not a couple? Hmm, that's interesting. Thanks, although it would be much better if I could know if Max is older or younger than James' father. Charmian's age isn't all that necessary when I think of it, however Max's age is. Could someone please help me out here?
 * Its for hi:जेम्स बॉण्ड and the relation's name changes depending on whether Max is older or younger than James' father. Thanks a lot for the help already provided. :) Siddhartha Ghai (talk) 08:17, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * If this is to be trusted, Max appears only in the young-adult novel SilverFin by Charlie Higson. Perhaps there it is said whether Max was Andrew Bond's older or younger brother; but since the character is outside the Fleming canon, mentioning him in the article at all might be considered dubious at best. Deor (talk) 11:37, 12 January 2012 (UTC)