hkmaly

He should be able to analyze the wand and determine what sort of stick makes a good wand "blank", and his first lesson was in making a stick into a true wand. There is probably less difference between "empty" stick and "empty" watches than between creating wand without and with help of computer.

It was. OS/2 started to be developed in 1985 and first version was released in 1987. Never gained track. Also, compared to 80286 being introduced in 1984 it was sort of too late. And, 80286 already contained hacks specifically to allow older software to work (like A20 gate). It shouldn't. 640k might've been enough for anyone running 8086 or 80186, but NOT 80286, yet the limit still mattered even MUCH later on even newer CPUs. Also, that statement was possibly never made, so it's hard to analyze it's context.

Even Grossman himself stated as much. I think that you are correct in that the exact numbers are uncertain. What does seem certain is that an unknown but large percentage of combat soldiers simply cannot bring themselves to kill other human beings even in extremis. He cites eyewitness accounts that confirm this, though these obviously are no good for statistical purposes. And I don't doubt the eyewitness account ; I just don't believe the statistics. Lot of people died in WW2 and someone must've killed them. Obviously, statistics on earlier conflicts would be even less believable (if any). There would certainly be lot of differences between various conflicts and armies. Those differences were probably not analyzed by psychologists, but I think they were noticed. And I don't believe generals, military commanders etc before second world war were idiots. They didn't have modern science, but some of them are regarded as tactical genies even today. Killing enemy soldiers used to be much harder work in past than today, and there certainly were ways how to make your soldiers more likely to do it. And one of those methods was dehumanizing the enemy. There probably isn't any scientific research about how effective it was, but considering how often it was employed, I think it must've worked. On the other hand, you are right that this has little to do with Susan. Susan didn't have any military training (and even Nanase martial art training certainly didn't included killing), and she was raised in 20th century with globalization and decline of nationalism and racism ... not in 18th or 8th. (You may complain about racism today, but it IS better than in past.) She was totally not prepared to see the vampire as something less than human, and explaining it to her afterwards wouldn't be very effective (although, as I mentioned, probably better than nothing). And, talking about how it used to be harder to kill someone ... she used axe, not gun. And while the vampire changing to dust afterwards instead of bleeding there certainly helped, it WAS harder than shooting him.

Someone said something like that about Susan and Jeremy, too, and I have to ask, where the h#!! do ya'll live that you do not have ubiquitous felines? Perhaps for someone living in Alaska, the eagles have carried them all off, but not near Chicago. Plus, Tedd reads the InterWebs, which as we all know, it primarily inhabited by cats. Lol. Can haz amenz? There is a big difference between toddler, child starting school and almost-adult teenager. I dunno how long the Dunkels have had Brownie, but if they had her longer than Tedd's had Jeremy, I'd be surprise if Tedd hadn't seen her before. And before anyone says that maybe Tedd had never been to Elliot's before, I gotta wonder who Edward would have trusted to watch over Tedd while away on "government business"? it might have been split between the Dunkels and Kitsunes, maybe not evenly split, like the Dunkels might have in case the Kitsunes weren't able. Earlier, someone though Jeremy is too old for cat. Brownie might be younger. However, even if not or if Dunkels had another cat before, there are different breeds of cats. Considering both of these are cats, realizing Jeremy is not just another little more exotic breed may not be so simple: Note also that I don't think Dunkels were involved in watching Tedd when he was young and needed it most. Remember that Elliot only met Tedd in 4th Grade. MAYBE Kitsunes were involved, but I suspect that Edward send some agents to watch Tedd ...

Dave Grossman's excellent book 'On Killing' describes the problems and cites multiple sources. I will send you some of the sources he used in a private message later when I have slept. Yeah, that book is also mentioned on one of my links. BECAUSE it apparently uses Brigadier General Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall as source. Can you also specifically look if some of those sources are involving other than US army? Note that I'm not disputing the solution. One post in that thread says it nicely: What is not in any doubt is that western militaries have gone to great lengths since the end of World War Two to develop sophisticated, realistic training environments to prepare soldiers for battle and develop instinctive responses to stimuli: in effect to stop the soldier from thinking. It just seem that how bad the problem actually was in WW2 - and how big effect had dehumanization of enemy especially in German and Japan armies - was poorly researched subject.

You might be surprised to learn that this isn't very effective either. Careful investigation of soldiers in battle showed that in an average WW2 army only 10% of the soldiers in any given unit actually attempted to directly kill the enemy soldiers. In some exceptional units this rose to as much as 20%. Humans just aren't that happy about killing one another and simply dehumanising the enemy is not enough. If it is shaped and moves like a human being, your basic person on the street will face stiff psychological resistance against killing it. Couldn't this be just because in WW2 they failed to dehumanize the enemy enough? Was the investigating really done on all armies or just Allies? Or was that "investigation" just claim of Brigadier General Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, which only referred to US army and is not exactly considered true, sometimes even called debunked? (Another link). I don't want to claim the problem doesn't exists ; I just find hard to believe that even AFTER military training for WW2 it was THIS serious, and sorry, but my internet search doesn't seem to confirm what you said, so I would like some sources. (Note: of course, what is problem for effectivity of soldiers in battle is considered advantage in civilian life. That aversion to killing another human being may be mostly result of "civilian training".) ... yeah, on second though it's really unlikely to be effective afterwards ... ... and of course Susan had no training ... and even if Helena and Demetrius though about it, they would be unlikely to manage to train her enough in the short time they had ... ... also, originally it was Nanase who was supposed to kill the vampire ... not that SHE had more training ... ... still might be better than nothing, which appears to be what she got.

Load of nonsense. After all, IBM themselves said that some stupid device for making copies of written material would never be of any use in office work. Was Robert Lloyd involved in that statement? The engineer of the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM who said "What the hell is it good for?" in 1968 when his colleague insisted that microprocessor was the wave of the future?

A dream fueled by Grace's fantasy. I mean, Dan links back to Grace's fantasy in the dream commentary as emphasis. Hmmm ... ok, that's possible but doesn't invalidate what I said. He can easily have another dream fueled by Grace's fantasy.

It's this part that I'm making note of, if Grace can now use wands (and watches for that matter) she may not need to learn how to suppress her Uryuom power. Watches ARE technically wands. And yes. I don't think it was directly confirmed in canon already, but it's what I expect. That would make it a retcon though wouldn't it? I'm not sure if that would be the case with the Q&A being so close to the arc the reveals Grace being able to resize her clothes. If it was back in Q&A#5 (being directly after New and Old Flames) I'd me more inclined to believe that it might have really been referencing Noah. No it wouldn't make it a retcon. It would make it a "damn, I need to explain this before I complicate it even further". It's not retcon if something in the story's universe actually changes. We never got canon confirmation that Noah is Seyunolu, but he almost certainly is. He's also quite obviously awakened. This Q&A was a way to explain how it's possible without admitting that yes, Noah is Seyunolu. I would even assume that the question Dan actually GOT was about Noah and he changed it. Although maybe he got both questions.

Tedd could have been a toddler, and it may have been the first cat he ever saw. It could've been first cat he saw even if he was older - or not first, but considering there are different breeds of cats ... Diane didn't knew how ethnicity worked on age six. Tedd might only realize Jeremy is not normal cat when learning biology in school. Hmmmm ... noone seen the first moment, but you may be right about the second.

Yeah, good luck explaining that to a thirteen year old girl who was just forced to kill one in self defence. With an axe. I am sure she is in a real mood to debate philosophy. You might be surprised. Dehumanizing the enemy is time tried method of reducing psychological problems with killing. Although usually is done BEFORE the killing, not sure if it's still useful afterwards. And not just enemy. I would though you have experience with that. I'm sure there were lot of Nazis claiming they would never do to human being what they did to Jews. Similar issue certainly happened (and possibly is still happening on some places) regarding slaves ...

Oh. Xerox might comment about this. Interesting. (BTW, how can any web developer think that if he displays big overlay complaining about blocking ads it will help? Removing the overlay is EASIER than "enabling" the ads, especially considering I already see the ads there suggesting the detection process is buggy.)

It's possible that in name of faster progress, they decided to do multiple tests at once instead of one after another. Still, someone should've re-read those tests and think about possible conflicts ...

It may have been difficult to awaken before the Magic "change", but considering she's able to resize clothing now, and that foreshadowing with the pyro Uryuom, it might be easier than they thought? It's not about "being easier than they thought". It's simply that the "difficult to awaken" part CHANGED. So yes Grace can awaken now without suppressing her Uryuom power. And might actually start getting spells which will help her with stuff which is hard for her doing with Uryuom power ... like resizing clothes OR flying while looking human ... Note however that the Uryuom was using wand. Which is also change: before Uryuoms were not able to use wands. It WAS referencing Noah. It become obsolete before it could referenced Grace.

Commentary: All good points. Really, this doesn't look like anything any of the cast would write. However, there are several candidates who can dream this ... with prime candidate being Elliot, who already HAD dream involving kissing Tedd. My school also lacked in this regard.