When Wolverine regenerates, why does his hair stop growing? EDITED TO ADD: In Avengers vs. X-Men #3, he goes from this to this Answer With a normal person, each individual hair grows for a while, then stops growing, then falls out and a new hair starts growing in its place. The maximum length it will attain (if not cut) varies from person to person, and from place to place on your body. Wolverine's hair works the same way, but its maximum length is fairly short. It grows quickly enough (but stays short enough) that he finds it pointless to get haircuts.

Following is an excerpt from Goblet of Fire : ‘Oh yes,’ said Mr Weasley, tucking the tickets safely into the back pocket of his jeans. ‘The Department of Magical Transportation had to fine a couple of people the other day for Apparating without a licence. It’s not easy, Apparition, and when it’s not done properly it can lead to nasty complications. This pair I’m talking about went and splinched themselves.’ Everyone around the table except Harry winced. ‘Er – splinched?’ said Harry. ‘They left half of themselves behind,’ said Mr Weasley, now spooning large amounts of treacle onto his porridge. ‘So, of course, they were stuck. Couldn’t move either way. Had to wait for the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad to sort them out. Meant a fair old bit of paperwork, I can tell you, what with the Muggles who spotted the body parts they’d left behind …’ Harry had a sudden vision of a pair of legs and an eyeball lying abandoned on the pavement of Privet Drive. ‘Were they OK?’ he asked, startled. ‘O...

In Star Trek Beyond , Captain Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship. I assume they do so in normal ole escape pods. But, then, Kirk instructs Sulu to get into his Kelvin pod. Since he called it by name, I have to assume it is special. I found on Memory Alpha : The Kelvin pod was a type of escape pod that were attached to the USS Enterprise in 2263. Kelvin pods were stowed beneath the bridge of the Constitution-class ship, allowing quick egress for the command crew in the event of a catastrophic event. My question is, how are they different and where in the movie (or externally) is this confirmed.

We've seen incoming activations of a stargate and before the wormhole forms, the wheel on the gate starts spinning, which helps provide a warning an incoming wormhole is about to form. Since the wormhole isn't formed yet (there's no event horizon at this point), that means the originating gate is in contact with the destination gate, even before a wormhole is created. If one stargate is attempting to create a wormhole between itself and another gate, once it has the coordinates, it will need to connect to the gate to to open a wormhole to it. Stargates have created wormholes over extremely vast distances light years apart. How do they communicate with each other over those distances before they open a wormhole? Answer There's a fair bit of evidence that there is a subspace communication of some kind in the SG universe. Furthermore, it is a known fact, from SG:U, that there is some kind of a very strong shock in subspace, sent when gates dial. Specifically, it's h...

In the X-Men: First Class movie, Sebastian Shaw holes himself up within the reactor chamber of his submarine. While in this room, Charles Xavier cannot sense or find him using his telepathy. He describes a "void" in the middle of the ship. The walls of this room appear to be covered in mirrors. Once Erik begins smashing these mirrors (or more correctly, Shaw begins smashing them using Erik), Xavier can start seeing inside the room. What is it about these "mirrors" that shut Xavier out? I am not aware of any instance in the comics where Xavier's telepathy was thwarted by standard mirrors. Answer The substance used to shield that room, making it proof against radiation is called Radiation Shielded Glass. This implies that Xavier's telepathic powers are, in theory, a form of electromagnetic radiation, capable of being shielded against using this material. This glass is a composite material using lead oxide and barium making the glass able to block radiation....

I found a box of books in the attic of a new house at age 12, the summer of 1963. It contained 2 sf anthologies. One was Damon Knight stories. The other one was a hard bound collection of multiple stories by multiple authors with many different themes. The (not Damon Knight) story I recently remembered involved a pathetic guy (with blond roots) who has been trying to seduce a beautiful non-stereotypical blond. She demonstrates, in the last paragraph, a "trick" that causes a fire poker to suddenly sag. I didn't get at age 12, but when something reminded me of the scene a while back I did and started laughing out loud. It probably would have been funniest when I was a high school sophomore, but I would like to see if I can locate the story and maybe even the anthology. Ah, retirement. I think the was yellow. Answer That's "A Trick or Two" , a short story by John Novotny ; first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , July 1957 , available ...

I've read this book about 15 years ago, but I think it's older than that. In the story people use some sort consciousness transfer technology to travel to distant solar systems. So basically an alien from planet A would want to visit Earth, and you would like to visit the planet A, by mutual agreement you'd transfer your mind into the alien's body and alien's mind would be transferred into your body. So the main character decides to travel and swaps bodies with an alien. However, he/she isn't able to return back to his/her own body and instead is transferred to another alien's body and so on. As the story progresses the protagonist jumps from body to body until he/she slowly loses his/her own identity. Also the story is written in a funny/light tone. I've read this story in Russian but I am sure that it was translated. The story was a part of collection of short sci-fi stories. Answer It sounds very similar to Mindswap, by Robert Sheckley. The plot you...

Who was reputed to be the best swordsman of all Westeros, if there is such person at all? I'm not interested on fan-made rankings, preferences or estimations, I'm talking about who, from an in universe point of view, held the reputation to be the best swordsman by other people in Westeros. I'm well aware of many names that could claim to be just one of the best (Jaime Lannister, Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, and many more), what I'd like to know is if there was someone that was considered so proficient and superior to everyone else to be reputed the best swordsman from an absolute point of view. If possible I'd like to know who was the best swordsman during the timeframe of the novels, and (if a different person) also who held this "title" if considering all the history of Westeros. Answer Or as I like to call him: Ser Arthur Dayyuum img src There is not a doubt that Arthur was considered to be the best swordsman of at least the past 100 years, if not...

As far as I know: we only see them in one brief flashback. . Did they play any significant role off camera, or in a deleted scene perhaps? Are they even still alive? Answer At the end of the film, Supreme Leader Snoke instructs General Hux to find and return Kylo Ren so that Kylo "...can complete his training." Earlier in the film, Snoke calls Kylo the "...Master of the Knights of Ren." If Kylo still needs training and he is in command of the Knights of Ren, it is logical to conclude that the rest of them are also in training during the film's events.

In an answer on another question about The Force Awakens , the author suggests that: Rey is Luke’s daughter. I’ve missed any indicators of any such relationship while watching the movie. For instance, I took neither Luke’s lightsaber calling out to Rey, nor her hug of consolation with General Organa as such. Is there any evidence that Luke is Rey’s father? Is it known who Rey’s parents are? Answer Any familial ties between Rey and other characters have yet to be confirmed. J.J. Abrams did release an answer to a young fan back in April of 2016, stating: "Rey's parents aren't in Episode VII. So I can't say in this moment who they are. But I will say it is something that Rey thinks about." J.J. Abrams later restated this remark later on: "What I meant was that she doesn't discover them in Episode VII. Not that they may not already be in her world." I always took this statement as Rey's parents aren't discovered in Episode VII, so it is up for...

The only information Tom Marvolo Riddle has about his parents are in his name. In HP 6 Dumbledore shows Harry how Voldemort found the house of the Gaunts before learning about his father, who might have been easier to find, given that he knew his whole name. So how did he find out about the Gaunts and how did he find their house? Answer Voldemort had a number of clues to work with, notably an attack that was recorded by the Ministry of Magic and which resulted in a charge being filed. Assuming wizarding justice is anything like muggle justice, both the name of the accused (Marvolo) and his victim (Tom Riddle) would be a matter of public record. ‘Oh, she survived,’ said Dumbledore, reseating himself behind his desk and indicating that Harry should sit down too. ‘ Ogden Apparated back to the Ministry and returned with reinforcements within fifteen minutes. Morfin and his father attempted to fight, but both were overpowered, removed from the cottage and subsequently convicted by the Wiz...

Inspired by How many people of Arya's list are still alive? , and also the recent excerpt from The Winds of Winter . In the prophecy of Maggy the Frog , Cersei is told quite a few true things, such as the number of children she will have, that Robert would have, that she would not marry Rhaegar, but Robert, that Melara Heatherspoon would die and that Cersei would kill her -- threw her down a well. She is also told that "the valonqar" will kill her: And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you. (As a side note, this sounds like she will be killed by a wight ) Cersei seems to think that this valonqar is Tyrion. Mostly, I guess, because "valonqar" means "little brother", plus the fact that she does not like him very much. But since this is ASOIAF and GRRM, anything is possible, and it is not a given thing that Tyrion is this "valonqar". Since GRRM has opened th...

In Iron Man 3 movie, I saw that Mark 42 suit was being recharged with domestic electricity. And within less than a day, it was ready for action. How much power does Iron Man's Mark 42 suit really need? Answer According to the Iron Man Wikia (based on details found on the " official JARVIS iPhone App ) The Mark 42 "Prehensile" Suit is made from; "An advanced titanium alloy that can resist powerful attacks, including energy attacks, that can destroy normal materials. It is reinforced with silicon infused-steel, enhanced composite armor with ceramic plating, a fiberglass frame and an advanced titanium alloy with high durability, hardness, compressive and tensile strength" It also incorporates the Mark 33's energy enhancement technology which projects a slight forcefield that enhances the armor and improves durability greatly" In the film Iron Man 3 , when the Mark 42's battery falls below a charge of 5% the main systems (engines, computers, A...

In Frank Herbert's Dune books, the planet Arrakis has an interesting and well thought-out alien ecology. As summarised in this answer , the sandworms eat sandplankton (which consists, at least in part, of larval sandworms), while the sandplankton eat the spice, which is produced by side-effects of the sandworm life cycle. However, one thing has always bothered me about this: where does the energy come from? On Earth, most ecosystems are powered ultimately by sunlight, while others are powered by chemotrophy . But either way, you need a source of energy or life can't survive. There seems to be no substantial photosynthesis on Dune, since the planet is almost all either open sand or bare rock. (Some plants are mentioned, but they are all familiar Earth species and were presumably brought there by humans.) Perhaps the sand plankton, or even the sandtrouts or the sandworms themselves, are autotrophs --- but if so, where do they get their energy from? In short, where are the primar...

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , we see that it is possible to train yourself to resist the Imperius Curse . How is it that Harry, a 14 year old boy, was able to resist Barty Crouch Jr. after about an hour, but Moody, the paranoid, experienced, always prepared Auror was trapped for a whole year? Answer Moody was kept in a trunk so it might not matter if he had fought it. It seems like Moody was placed under the Imperius Curse after he was already captured using other methods. “We journeyed to his house. Moody put up a struggle. There was a commotion. We managed to subdue him just in time. Forced him into a compartment of his own magical trunk.” - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 35 (Veritaserum) Moody was kept in a trunk and tied up, so if he had moments of clarity where he fought the Imperius Curse, it wouldn't have likely helped him much. Unlike both Barty Crouches, he wasn't allowed much freedom and was kept not just confined to a house but actively tie...

I seem to remember several dating systems mainly in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Furthermore, I was wondering if periods of time such as seconds, days, or months represent the same amount of time as they do in the real world. So these are the main points of this question: Which are the different dating systems (if there is indeed more than one) in the Star Wars galaxy? How are they related in regard to time offsets and such? (e.g. One system's year 5000 is another's year 268) An explanatory timeline graphic - perhaps including some important events - would be especially appreciated! Do amounts of time in the dating system(s) such as minutes or hours represent the same amount as in the real world? If more than one system exists, do the amounts of time carry over between them? (e.g. 1 minute is the same amount of time in all systems.) If the times carry over (or there is, in fact, only one system), what planet are the units of time based on? Coruscant? Sorry if it seems I hav...

In the Thor movie, Thor puts Mjolnir on top of Loki at the end of the movie to stop him from moving. Why did this not crush Loki? And if it did not crush him, why could he not just roll out from under it? Answer Quick and dirty answer without references ? Because the reason Thor's hammer can't be moved isn't merely because it's super HEAVY; Odin's enchantment on it means it can't be moved by anyone of insufficient "worth." Thus, Mjolnir isn't heavy enough to crush Loki, nor is Loki of sufficient worth to move it or roll out from under it. Mjolnir or the Marvel Wiki. "Worthiness Enchantment: This enchantment surrounding Mjolnir prevents it from being wielded by anyone save those who have been found worthy or anyone Thor deems acceptable to wield Mjolnir for a time; certain Asgardians, such as Skurge, have successfully lifted its handle from the ground, but not entirely lift Mjolnir itself. Thus far, this includes Thor, the Awesome Android, ...

Trying to find title/author of story I read many years ago, around 1964. Story was written from the point of view of a snail like creature. The central character describes (stream-of-consciousness?) himself and other characters moving along a path in a constant search for food. The story ends with the main character falling into what turns out to be the fuel tank of a space ship. Answer This is "On the Fourth Planet" (1963) by J. F. Bone. The question was asked before as "Short story where creatures have squares of territory." Originally published in the April 1963 issue of Galaxy and widely anthologized .

I haven't finished my re-read of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I just finished The Two Towers ), but, at least in the movies, Samwise Gamgee consistently refers to Frodo Baggins as "Mr. Frodo." Why is this? I noticed that Merry and Pippin call Frodo and Sam by their first names only, and vice versa, so why is Frodo bestowed with the formality of being called "Mr. Frodo"? Answer There are some good answers here already, but some of the comments betray an unfamiliarity with the social system that Tolkien was portraying in the Shire. The Shire is very specifically based on the rural English Midlands of the late 19th century that existed, although already starting to disappear, when Tolkien was growing up. In that society, there was a very clear distinction between the different classes. Frodo represents the landed gentry - not actually aristocracy, but powerful and influential as a result of owning large amounts of land. It's not made explicit, but as owner...

Help. I recall reading a GREAT Sci-Fi story sometime in the late 70's or early 80's and can't recall the title. In the book a man's consciousness is sent back in time and downloaded into the body of a young woman. His goal was to capture and download the consciousness of humans as they die so that they can be recovered in the far future and added to the whole of all humans who ever lived. The book tied together life after death, the singularity (although that term was not used), and several other interesting plot threads. One note: I think I recall that the first line of the book was "Every word in the story is a lie", and the last line on the last page was, "Every word of this story is true". Answer That's Time Pressure , the second in Spider Robinson's Lifehouse series. You remembered it pretty close to correctly. It's actually from the late 80s, but feels older, since the main character, and many of the secondary characters, are hip...

Saruman was strong enough to defeat Gandalf the Grey, but upon banishment from Orthanc and his taking over of the Shire he seemed like nothing more than a normal old man. He apparently retained his powers of persuasion (somewhat) but his great fighting strength seemed to all be gone. Why did Saruman lose all or most of his power? Answer I don't think the books ever went into much detail, but from this... Book III, ch.10: ‘Be­hold, I am not Gan­dalf the Grey, whom you be­trayed. I am Gan­dalf the White, who has re­turned from death. You have no colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Coun­cil.’ He raised his hand, and spoke slowly in a clear cold voice. ‘Saru­man, your staff is bro­ken.’ There was a crack, and the staff split asun­der in Saru­man’s hand, and the head of it fell down at Gan­dalf’s feet. ‘Go!’ said Gan­dalf. With a cry Saru­man fell back and crawled away. ..and this... Book 6, Ch.8: A sud­den light broke on Frodo. ‘Sharkey!’ he cried. Saru­man laughed...

Do the Borg believe that Data is inferior to them somehow? Data's technology is demonstrated to be somewhat compatible with (and perhaps superior than) the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds , and in Descent Part 1 , Data shows that he is physically stronger than a Borg drone. Certainly the Borg want to assimilate all of humanity, however they have shown favoritism (the Drone episode from voyager comes to mind as an example) when there is a particularly "juicy" target. Does Data not qualify as such? or is the entire enterprise at the same level of "juiciness" for the Borg? Answer In the movie First Contact the queen actively attempts to assimilate/turn Data into a Borg, by giving him skin implants that allow him the real sensations of a biological being, thus tempting Data. The Borg are unable to assimilate Data as he is technically more advanced than they are mechanically, however Data can choose to join the Borg and he would then be able to assimilate into the...

We find out in the Deathly Hallows that a snitch has a "flesh memory" and can recall the first person that touched it. It is claimed that this is to help settle a "disputed capture". Does this imply that one doesn't need to "catch" the snitch as much as you just need to be the first to touch the snitch? I seem to recall that you need to actually catch it though, which raises the question: Does the flesh memory of the snitch really settle anything? Answer Scrimgeour says: "A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released, not even by the maker, who wears gloves. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in case of a disputed capture." -- Rufus Scrimgeour , The Will of Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows "Lay hands upon it" is a bit more ambiguous than "touch" because the definition implies to manage with the hands , i.e. to have control of it. So...

I just re-watched the first two films in the Terminator series. The T1000 (Robert Patrick) does a lot of running, and is quite fast. I didn't see many scenes where the T800 (Arnie) ran. Is it because he's really heavy? Is he mainly designed as a heavy "stand your ground" machine? The only scene I could see him running is in T2 in the mental hostpital where the T1000 morphs through the metal gate and his gun gets caught. Then the T800 does a little jog to get into the elevator following John and Sarah. (anybody know of any other running/jogging scenes?) (EDIT Arnie also breaks into a run while pursuing Reece and Sarah down the alley after the NOIR nightclub attack.) If he can at least jog though, why wouldn't he do this throughout the entire film? You would think that from a "chance of survival" point of view, if he could get a John even the slightest bit faster then he'd do so. Of course, maybe I am overthinking this... Arnie walking around slowly ...

Replicators have been cited as the invention that allowed humans to stop working for a living. This implies that replicators are cheap and even free because they produce food at super-low cost. So low that humans can stop work. However, if replicators are indeed so low-cost, why were they shut down in the Voyager? Cooking replaced replicators in the Voyager. This implies that replicators are more expensive than manual cooking. If so, how can replicators give humans the luxury to stop working? Answer The lack of ready supplies of energy is a constant feature of the first season of Voyager. Limiting the use of secondary systems like the replicators (and their rationing) was a good way of showing this to audiences. KIM: There's an ancient Chinese curse, Captain. May you live in interesting times. Mealtime is always interesting now that Neelix is in the kitchen. JANEWAY: We shouldn't judge him too harshly. He is helping us conserve replicator energy. Voy: The Cloud and NEELIX: ...

Looking for the title/author of a science fiction short story. The protagonist was a dissident in captivity. The government had the ability to kill him and bring him back to life multiple times. They tortured him to death multiple times (boiling in oil, crushing, etc.) and made him clean up his own corpse afterwards. In the beginning, he wanted to convince them that he was no longer a dissident to get them to stop, at the end, he no longer feared death, and gave a speech convincing some listeners that the government was wrong. He was shipped off to a colony world at the end, since they didn't believe in capital punishment. Answer That's ' A Thousand Deaths ' by Orson Scott Card; your recollection of the details is quite accurate. It ties in with a number of his other stories, but can be read stand-alone. It may be found other places, but I first read it in: Flux: Tales of Human Futures

There's talk of wizards abroad and we see the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, but if Voldemort really is trying to take over the world of magic, why was there never any sign of any wizard armies from abroad coming over to help? Answer Fear. Politics. Fear. Closer to Home. The Chosen One. Psychology. No other country wanted to try and help through fear if Voldemort won then who would be next? The country that helped the people standing in his way. You have to remember that the British Ministry of Magic fell. That would instill fear into the Ministry of Magic equivalents in other countries. Also the wizarding worlds don't really have armies, the Ministry has Aurors, up until The Battle Of Hogwarts only the Order of The Phoenix stood in Voldemort's way and only a few members were known openly. (It can be argued all good teachers were also members of the OOTP however not openly) Yet more fear, Dumbledore was known to be the most powerful wizard of the time although ...

Why is it that more rings of this nature/power could not be made again? Are there no elven smith's left with the capability? How were the rings of power "enchanted" with their magical properties to begin with if Sauron did not directly forge them? You would think that more would be made to aid in the battles against Sauron and his armies if someone had the capabilities to do so. Answer I can think of a few reasons. Lack of knowledge. The elves of Eregion were the ones who crafted the rings of power. Celebrimbor alone crafted the 3 elven rings. Celebrimbor is dead, and Eregion was wiped out by Sauron. I'm sure Sauron made sure that there wasn't even a leaflet of notes on how to craft rings of power, and I'm sure a lot of knowledge was lost in death. Fear of the past. You see what happened the last time they crafted rings? Didn't go so well. Lack of skill. Elves created other rings of power alone for practice...they were just less potent which implies they...

After subduing Vader, Luke appears to have profound control of his anger. I understand that he was far too angry earlier to kill the Emperor as that would lead to the Dark Side. This is the perfect time for Luke to kill the Emperor the way a true Jedi would... but no. He just lugs his lightsaber across the throne room. Why would he do such a thing? Why would he waste this perfect opportunity to safely kill the Emperor the way Yoda and Ben would have wanted? Or am I just missing something here? Answer 1. Because he was still trying to redeem his father: Luke: Then you know why I have to face him. Leia: No! Luke, run away, far away! If he can feel your presence, then leave this place! I wish I could go with you. Luke: No, you don't. You've always been strong. Leia: But why must you confront him? Luke: Because there is good in him. I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try. [kisses Leia on the...

At the end of Return of the Jedi, Anakin killed the Emperor, bringing balance to the Force and completing the ancient Jedi prophecy. There was peace in the galaxy and Luke and Leia were reunited. I watched the Star Wars in the mid-2000's (I was born in the late 90's) and before I saw George Lucas' quote: Star Wars is a saga of Good vs. Evil, divided into nine parts I thought the saga ended with the Return of the Jedi. Now after watching The Force Awakens, I wonder: will the Star Wars saga never end? Because no matter how "perfect" or satisfying the end is (in the latest trilogy), 30 or 50 or 100 years later the Dark Side will rise again, and the saga will never actually end?

I'm trying to recall an SF story that was serialized in Analog magazine in the 1960s. Aliens invaded Earth by using a gas that made almost everyone fall asleep. A few individuals were either immune or in a protected environment. One of these was a man who had lost one or both legs. Normally he used robotic legs, but for some reason they were taken away. He may have been in a prison. Together, the few humans left awake somehow defeat the invasion. I'm not sure if this story was ever published in book form. I read in Analog. If anyone can point me in the right direction, that would be wonderful. Thanks! Answer Sleeping Planet by William R Burkett Serialized in Analog , 1964, July, August, and September. Science Fiction Encyclopedia described this as a “hard-edged” tale of the 24th-century conquest of Earth by an alien empire the humans had judged too stupid to pull off such a coup. Only a handful of humans escaped the effects of a mutated narcoleptic drug that put humanity in...

The batcave, in any version of Batman, is large. Plus there's the batmobile, which required special construction, plus the batcomputer and numerous other batwidgets. How did a good sized batcave get built without the land above it being torn up and without requiring a huge construction crew? And, after the cave was built, how was the batmobile built in secret, without someone involved in it being able to make the connection between the car they built and the one that shows up in the news when Batman is first seen? (While he's in Gotham, a masked vigilante is news that would end up nation wide.) There would also be the need for secrecy so vilains can't find out how it is built and what the specs are. And then there's the continual supply of batwidgets. Just as with the batmobile, there's the need for these items and how they work to be kept secret. It'd take several factories to produce all that Batman uses and major construction for any batcave I've seen (wh...

In this 2004-09-15 interview with J. K. Rowling (see also another transcript on Rowling's website ), we find this question and answer. What form does Dumbledore’s Patronus take? Good question. Can anyone guess? You have had a clue. There was a little whisper there. It is a phoenix, which is very representative of Dumbledore for reasons that I am sure you can guess. In what sense is a phoenix very representative of Dumbledore? Answer I have a couple of theories, which are personally my own, based on the extended re-reading of the HP series. I should re-iterate these are just speculation. As we come to know in DH, Dumbledore was best friends with Grindelwald for a while in his youth. Both of them planned to control the Muggles of the world for what Dumbledore atleast believed was the "greater good" of wizardkind. However, Dumbledore saw the error of his ways and matured into one of the greatest wizards of all time and a fierce supporter of Muggle and Muggle-born rights. ...

In RWBY Volume 3, Chapter 4: Lessons Learned | Rooster Teeth - YouTube [embedded content] Winter hits again the first time was in [embedded content] Watch you see Winter asked Weiss "How have you been?" Weiss was telling her, and Winter for no reason hits her.

Orcs were the most commonplace villains serving the Dark Powers in all of Tolkien's Legendarium, a race of sentient beings bred by the evil Vala Melkor (Morgoth) during the time of the Great Darkness. If Orcs were made by Melkor (by breeding Elves he had captured and corrupted) then are they immortal? Answer There's a couple of nice quotes from text 10 of the " History of Middle Earth " (Morgoth's Ring) that directly address the issue of orc immortality and orc lifespans: "They needed food and drink, and rest, though many were by training as tough as Dwarves in enduring hardship. They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal , even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain " Robert Foster's " Complete Guide to Middle Earth " notes that the average Edain lifesp...

I have a rather obscure question about the ' Starship-and-Sun ' logo of the Galactic Empire from the Foundation Series of books by Isaac Asimov. Is there an official logo that was produced by Asimov himself or on the cover of a book edition? I've seen lots of renditions that are all nice (including the one from Wikimedia below) but I would like to know if there is an official version. I know this is a very odd question, and one that might not have an answer but I thought it was worth asking...

In the original Star Wars trilogy, we see a primarily light grey X-Wing used by characters such as Luke Skywalker. 1 In The Force Awakens we see a new model X-Wing used by characters such as Poe Dameron, whose personal Fighter is primarily black. 2 Old model X-wing fighter: New model X-wing fighter: These models vary by much more than color, such as the parts that appear to be intake vents are cylindrical in (1), but half-cylinders in (2) that form a complete cylinder when the wings are in closed configuration. What's the in-universe significance of these changes? Are the models like Poe's Black-Wing faster, more maneuverable, stealthier, etc.? Basically, is the design purely aesthetic or does it have different functionality/capabilities? Answer The X-wings in The Force Awakens are new models donated to the Resistance. The X-wing fighters used in the first Star Wars films were the T-65B model . The ones we see in The Force Awakens are the T-70 model . One can assume that ...