"Sorry, my suspension of disbelief doesn't stretch that far." (Open Spoilers)

[Frylock]

@jayjay

The South Vietnamese were (ostensibly) on our side, so having dealings with a Vietnamese person per se wouldn’t be unusual enough to note. It wasn’t that he was toking with a Vietnamese person. It was that he was toking with a North Vietnamese person.

Got it. :smack:

[Peter_Morris]

@BMalion

What the hell is gold pressed latinum good for anyway?

Because latinum is liquid, and without the gold pressing you have to measure small change with an eye dropper.

Oh, wait, you mean what is latinum good for. Okay, dunno. But here’s a guess - maybe replicators are fuelled by latinum.

If there’s no money, what have Riker and his poker buddies been betting all this time?

[Lemur866]

@Peter Morris

If there’s no money, what have Riker and his poker buddies been betting all this time?

Remember earlier when someone said there’d always be a market for blow jobs?

[OneCentStamp]

@Lemur866

Remember earlier when someone said there’d always be a market for blow jobs?

<reaches for bottle of brain bleach> :eek:

[Love_Rhombus]

@True Blue Jack

First, the television. Except for a handful of quirky aficianados, like Paris, there is no audience for “television” as we know it. Probably because folks have access to holodecks, or at least something close enough to it. I think that the complete disappearance of baseball from human society (again, except for a few fan-atics, such as Sisko) is much more of a strain on believability, even given 3 or 4 centuries elapsed. So much of human society and values have remained the same-- even World War 3 has apparently had relatively little disruptive effect as a whole. Rather than becoming an antique item baseball would have evolved into different forms. At the very least little kids and teens would still be playing some form or forms of it. And I’m not even a sports fan, BTW.

Blernsball! BLEEEEERN!

I can’t accept that Batman’s identity is still a secret. He only wears half-a-mask! And he’s not a damn urban legend anymore! The public-at-large in DC has seen him on TV and whatnot!

[flight]

@Siege

Sure. I’ve got one from the pilot of Lost which kept me from getting into the series, even though I tried. It wasn’t the plane deliberately being off course or the monster or the others or the other myriad mysteries I’ve read about in the threads on the series. It came down to one simple thing a few minutes into the pilot. No way do I believe a jet engine which was separated from the rest of the plane was running fast enough to produce enough suction to suck a rather large person into it. I saw the set up, figured out what was coming and thought, “They couldn’t possibly!” but they did. What was worse, as far as I could tell, it didn’t further the plot or establish characters; it’s only purpose was to show a gross scene of a fat guy getting sucked into a jet engine.

To be fair I think that the engine is still connected to the rest of the plane. The structure has been cracked and bent but the fuel lines could still be intact. By the way it was whining it was increasing/decreasing in RPM meaning that it was still getting fuel but that it was not being regulated.

[Happy_Clam]

@Peter Morris

Because latinum is liquid, and without the gold pressing you have to measure small change with an eye dropper.

Oh, wait, you mean what is latinum good for. Okay, dunno. But here’s a guess - maybe replicators are fuelled by latinum.

If there’s no money, what have Riker and his poker buddies been betting all this time?

Latinum doesn’t need to be good for anything, it just has to make a good currency material (which it does, because its the one substance you can’t replicate). Look at gold in the modern world. Gold isn’t really worth much for its properties (okay, it is used in some computers and for wiring and things, but the majority of gold’s value historically has come from its scarcity and permenance, not its industrial uses), but it is valuable because we agree that it is worth X amount of some valuable substance (feet of steel, crates of tomatos, whatever) represented by its dollar value.

Now, latinum may be similar- it is not worth anything in and of itself (any more than the paper of dollar bills is worth anything, to switch to a more useful analogy), but since there are a few things that maintain worth (sentient beings and land, basically) even in a replicator society, latinum is used as a convenient shorthand for the exchange of those goods.

[Lumpy]

But actually, the monetary history of the twentieth century was about getting away from the idea that gold=money. Or more generally, having the money supply be fixed against the availability of a non-reproducable prime resource. Having the entire economy of the Alpha Quadrant be yoked to how many metric tonnes of latinum are in circulation and how many more are produced each year would be even more primitive than what we have now.

[Peter_Morris]

@Happy Clam

Latinum doesn’t need to be good for anything, it just has to make a good currency material (which it does, because its the one substance you can’t replicate). Look at gold in the modern world. Gold isn’t really worth much for its properties (okay, it is used in some computers and for wiring and things, but the majority of gold’s value historically has come from its scarcity and permenance, not its industrial uses), but it is valuable because we agree that it is worth X amount of some valuable substance (feet of steel, crates of tomatos, whatever) represented by its dollar value.

Now, latinum may be similar- it is not worth anything in and of itself (any more than the paper of dollar bills is worth anything, to switch to a more useful analogy), but since there are a few things that maintain worth (sentient beings and land, basically) even in a replicator society, latinum is used as a convenient shorthand for the exchange of those goods.

Hmm, I’m not an economist, but I think that’s wrong. To be valuable a commodity must be rare, but also must have some actual use. Gold has a use: you can make pretty jewelry/ plates/ candlesticks/ etc from it. Other minerals may be equally rare, but not so pretty, or can’t easily be worked into jewelry.

As for banknotes, I’m English and only familiar with UK currency. UK banknotes contain a written promise signed by the Chief Cashier of The Bank Of England: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of (whatever) pounds.” The notes are a written contract that can (in theory) be exchanged for gold.

[Hostile_Dialect]

Good lord! Didn’t somebody start a Star Trek thread already? I realize I participated in the 'Nam hijack, but come on!

[astorian]

Here’s one that flunked the plausibility test for me early on: Tom Cruise’s “The Last Samurai.”

In the 1870s, the emperor of Japan wants to build an elite, modern army, so he hires… an American cavalryman.

Huh?

In the 1870s, the USA was not a serious military power, and the American Army commanded little or no respect around the world. At that time, anyone who needed a consultant to help him build an army would have hired a Prussian. Or, possibly, an Englishman or a Frenchman. But NEVER an American.

[mobo85]

@Peter Morris

As for banknotes, I’m English and only familiar with UK currency. UK banknotes contain a written promise signed by the Chief Cashier of The Bank Of England: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of (whatever) pounds.” The notes are a written contract that can (in theory) be exchanged for gold.

American money used to say “The United States of America will pay to the bearer on demand X dollars” and “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private, and is redeemable for lawful money at the United States Treasury or any Federal Reserve Bank.” Apparently lawful money is gold and/or silver coins. Since 1966, American money is no longer backed by “lawful money.”

[Frylock]

@Peter Morris

Hmm, I’m not an economist, but I think that’s wrong. To be valuable a commodity must be rare, but also must have some actual use. Gold has a use: you can make pretty jewelry/ plates/ candlesticks/ etc from it. Other minerals may be equally rare, but not so pretty, or can’t easily be worked into jewelry.

As for banknotes, I’m English and only familiar with UK currency. UK banknotes contain a written promise signed by the Chief Cashier of The Bank Of England: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of (whatever) pounds.” The notes are a written contract that can (in theory) be exchanged for gold.

Unless I’m remembering wrong, there is no such promise w.r.t. American dollar bills. There used to be, but the dollar-to-gold exchange was “nixed” (haha) in the 70’s. (Nix… Nixon… get it? Anyway.)

-Kris

[Diceman]

I know I participated in the Trek hijack, but comeone guys, enough is enough.

@ululate

I can buy the invisible car. I can’t buy the scene where he hides behind it.

Hey, good catch! I saw that movie, but I didn’t realize how absurd it was that Bond was hiding behind an invisible object.

[BMalion]

@astorian

…
In the 1870s, the USA was not a serious military power, and the American Army commanded little or no respect around the world. At that time, anyone who needed a consultant to help him build an army would have hired a Prussian. Or, possibly, an Englishman or a Frenchman. But NEVER an American.

5 years after the American Civil War? Grant? Sherman? Lee? Forrest? No respect? Are you sure?

[OtakuLoki]

@BMalion

5 years after the American Civil War? Grant? Sherman? Lee? Forrest? No respect? Are you sure?

In the international community? Hell yeah. If any of the Continental armies had paid attention to the lessons of the American Civil War, I doubt that the meat grinders of WWI’s face-to-face trench warfare would have happened. The lessons about mobility, and the costs to the attacker in rushing a well designed set of defensive works would have made such anathema to the generals of the time.

Of course, the American military was just as willing to repeat the same mistakes when they got into WWI, too.

Seriously, the Continental view of the American Civil War was that it was a bunch of backwards bumpkins fighting amongst each other, with no skill and less sense.

[ululate]

@OtakuLoki

Seriously, the Continental view of the American Civil War was that it was a bunch of backwards bumpkins fighting amongst each other, with no skill and less sense.

Heh. “Submarine warfare? Machine-gunned infantrymen? Ironclad warships slugging it out? Bah, that’s only three historical firsts; we can extrapolate nothing from this.”

[Gary_Robson]

@Peter Morris

To be valuable a commodity must be rare, but also must have some actual use.

Spend much time on eBay, antique stores, or auctions? The value of a commodity arises solely from two factors: how much is available (supply) and how much people want it (demand). Usefulness doesn’t fit into the equation at all.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Peter Morris

Hmm, I’m not an economist, but I think that’s wrong. To be valuable a commodity must be rare, but also must have some actual use. Gold has a use: you can make pretty jewelry/ plates/ candlesticks/ etc from it. Other minerals may be equally rare, but not so pretty, or can’t easily be worked into jewelry.

Not quite. Take paper money, for instance. The C-note in my pocket is worth far more than the value of the paper, ink, and manufacturing costs that went into creating it because American money is accepted as a medium of exchange, by common agreement. Counterfeiting is a problem because it dilutes the supply. I see latinum as being similar. Within a given nation–the Federation, the Feringi Commonwealth (or whatever the proper name is), it’s not necessary; they have their own media of exchange, probably electronic. But for trade between nations they use latinum, useful because it cannot be counterfeited by replicator. (Though I’m sure that some unenlightened Terran or Feringi, or some subversive agent of the Romulans or the Dominion, is working on ways to get around that.)

As for banknotes, I’m English and only familiar with UK currency. UK banknotes contain a written promise signed by the Chief Cashier of The Bank Of England: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of (whatever) pounds.” The notes are a written contract that can (in theory) be exchanged for gold.
[/QUOTE]

[NDP]

@astorian

Here’s one that flunked the plausibility test for me early on: Tom Cruise’s “The Last Samurai.”

In the 1870s, the emperor of Japan wants to build an elite, modern army, so he hires… an American cavalryman.

Huh?

In the 1870s, the USA was not a serious military power, and the American Army commanded little or no respect around the world. At that time, anyone who needed a consultant to help him build an army would have hired a Prussian. Or, possibly, an Englishman or a Frenchman. But NEVER an American.

I haven’t seen the movie but the hiring of an American by Japan during the 1870’s did make sense. In 1854, the U.S. got Japan to abandon its 200 years of self-imposed isolation and open the country to trade with the West so it had more of an established relationship than the European powers (who were still not entirely trusted). Plus, the U.S. was geographically closer in proximity than Britain, France, or Germany.