Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

The toy at 9:04 in this video (pause when the video loads, the timecode is included) is supposed to be the Silver Surfer. That's clearly not the Silver Surfer, beyond them both being silver skinned bald guys.

PNQ: Who does it look like?

I think it's Yul Brynner, and at least one commenter on the video agrees with me. Other commenters go for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Putin, Voldemort, and so forth.

[Nate the Great]

Perhaps some of you have heard about Grant Morrison's summary of Superman in eight words:

Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple.

On Twitter someone recapped Batman simularly:

Murdered parents. Broken window. Cowardly lot. Greatest detective.

PNQ: Do you care to attempt the same for other heroes?

Spider bite. Murdered uncle. Great Power. Great Responsibility.
Miracle child. Champion princess's secret. Win with love.
Spoiled brat. Deserted island. Survival training. Hunt evil.
One who lived. Lonely child. Magical discovery. Endure.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a YouTube video and one person asks another something to the effect of "if you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

Yikes. There's a toughie for you.

PNQ: What's your one book? All nonfiction (aside from humor) and religious texts are off the table, only pure entertainment books.

[Nate the Great]

So after the unfortunate passing of Anton Yelchin and the news that Chekov won't be recast, I've been wondering what they'll do (not that I'll be watching any Abramsverse films, understand)...

(Incidentally, apparently we're supposed to call it the Kelvinverse, but they took too long to decide on that, so I'm sticking with Abramsverse)

PNQ: Would it be cool to go the route that TAS took and replace Chekov with a new version of Arex? Would a fully CG alien on the bridge work?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

So I'm watching a YouTube video and one person asks another something to the effect of "if you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

Well, the --

religious texts are off the table, only pure entertainment books.

Oh. Uh. Imagine asking that, except it's only one particular thing you can eat. It wouldn't necessarily be your favorite food, it'd have to be a food you like that provides all the nutrition you need. Same thing, books nourish the mind. If I want something funny, something serious, something that goes down easy, something thought-provoking, I can't change my decision.

If the question were about movies, I'd probably go with Close Encounters based on that logic. I don't know of any book that would fit such a criterion, so I guess I'd go with Fellowship of the Ring and hope that nobody notices it's technically a volume of two books. There's enough going on in there to keep me entertained over many rereads.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: Would it be cool to go the route that TAS took and replace Chekov with a new version of Arex? Would a fully CG alien on the bridge work?

They could go the CG route nowadays, it could be fun, but (still not having seen Beyond yet) I wouldn't expect them to do anything to justify the investment.

[Nate the Great]

So if readily published omnibuses like The Lord of the Rings were options, you'd choose one of those? I've seen Narnia, the Baum Oz books, etc. as single volume omnibuses as well.

[Nate the Great]

I have an interest in topology, so I've known about the Klein Bottle for awhile. Cliff Stoll makes glass Klein Bottles. They're beyond my budget for now, but eventually I hope to have one.

Anyway, let's get on to today's PNQ. On this page they show double and triple Klein Bottles. At least, they look like two and three Klein Bottles that have been linked up. Anyway...

PNQ: The page says that only one of these has the topological properties of a normal Klein Bottle (or as he puts it, "One of these is homeomorphic to a Klein Bottle. The other is homeomorphic to a Torus."). Which is which?