Because the Eagles didn't really care about what happened.
Not true. The Eagles had a racial hatred of the Orcs dating all the way back to the First Age. That's why they participated in the Battle of Five Armies (in The Hobbit).
On the other hand, a full frontal assault on Mordor itself would have been suicide, even for them.
Instead, Gandalf sent two of his weakest soldiers on foot. I can only assume he was suicidal or an agent of darkness... does Tolkien cover this in a sequel?
Even though this was modded "Funny," I'm going to respond because the question is asked all the time.
Sauron always expected a frontal assault, just as he always expected some Elf or Man to try to use the Ring against him. He expected it because it's what he himself would do, and as Gandalf's notes at some point, Sauron cannot conceive of any other possibility.
Remember what the Ring represents: raw, absolute power. Sauron craves that power so much, he cannot imagine that someone else would not.
That's why the Fellowship was formed, to attempt to sneak into Mordor whereas an army would be stopped at the gate. That's also why the Ring went to Frodo, because of everyone at the Council of Elrond, he was most able to resist it (for a while).
As for why they didn't use the Eagles earlier -- you saw Gwaihir in the first movie. He was pretty damn conspicuous. And the Fellbeasts aren't the only aerial defense available to Sauron. He also had crows and ballistas and stone-throwing trolls, not to mention his own magic. The Eagles would have been swatted down like flies, so long as they tried to go straight in.
Nope, it wasn't until after Aragorn used the Orthanc Palantir to get Sauron's attention -and- the Gondorian army attacked the Morannon -and- the Ring was already thrown into the Cracks of Doom that Sauron was finally distracted enough to let one (or two? I forget) Eagle zip through to rescue Sam and Frodo.
Regarding web sales...lets take a look at Moore's book's sales rank on Amazon.com. Wow! 24th! And it was first published in February. (Slander was published in June, and is at 148.)
Never mind the fact that Amazon is promoting the hell out of Moore's book right now, in conjunction with his recently released movie...
(...2, 3, 4...)
If you want your point to stick, I suggest you compare apples to apples and look up what Coulter's ranking was at the height of her summer book tour.
If this interests you, try reading Michael Flynn's Firestar saga of novels (i think there's 4 ni all)
I will second this recommendation -- I actually just started the fourth and last volume.
The story deals with the socioeconomic and technological changes that the world MUST go through before it will be capable of mobilizing to respond to such a threat. It's written as near-future hard SF, covering the period from 1999 through 2021, but it sometimes reads like a full-blown proposal to industry and government.
Re:Happened to me...
on
Add-Ons Add Up
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Blockquoth the poster:
On a side note: for the few who read this, it *really* pays to call your credit card issuer, act dumb, and ask them why their interest rates are so high(even if they aren't).
I'd like to second this bit of advice. I got one of my cards lowered from 14.99% to 9.99% in two calls using this very tactic.
If I were Apple (which I am not) I'd have this bundled with 10.2 and promote the living daylights out of it.
The majority of Apple's customers right now are still first-time buyers and existing owners. There are more "switchers" every day, but as a percentage of the overall customer base, they're still pretty puny. As such, it would be a huge waste of money to include this package with every single new Mac.
If it was software alone, then maybe it would work, but not if it requires a special cable...
Whatever, it shows you can't prioritize well. Your job as a college student is to learn everything in the classes you enroll in. If you are going to run 2 businesses and 3 clubs, you should consider not being in college, perhaps, and save a lot of money.
Ah, but the true value of a college degree is not in the content of the classes you take. Particularly when you're being graded by bored and bitter TAs who flunk anyone that doesn't regurgitate their own prejudices.
Nope, the true value of a college degree is in the development of critical thinking, writing, problem solving, socialization, and team management skills. That piece of sheepskin says "I've survived the silliest, most useless crap that college life could throw at me and I can still tie my own shoes."
In fact, I've had recruiters tell me that they actually prefer B-average students because they're the ones who tend to think outside the box and risk contradicting their professors. A-average students are suck-ups and C-average students and slackers.
Umm, it's been my experience that the folks with the real drive have shitty GPA's, because they want to spend all their time and energy on their other projects.
Why was this moderated "Funny"? It's absolutely true. I graduated with only a 2.85, because I was busy around the clock building two different home businesses and running three different student clubs. After I graduated, every company with which I interviewed was blown away by those accomplishments and couldn't care less about my transcript.
Obviously hero is based on perspective, but in the ring has been Ghandi, Moses, Shakespeare, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and/or Robert E. Lee (a hero to the south i suppose)
Those were extreme parodies, set up simply for the "what if?" factor. No one watching the show actually knows what those people were like, so they're complete fantasies.
On the other hand, all the other matches are between known celebrities that are alive today. They are satires. Important difference.
Re:Real vs. imaginary superheroes
on
Superhero Smackdown
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Blockquoth the poster:
This desire to see bloodshed between our heroes is obviously human nature, take the popularity of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch.
Celebrity Deathmatch is popular not because they're heroes but because they're NOT heroes. They are the spoiled, obnoxious, inbred children of our grotesque pop culture, and watching them beat the crap out of each other fulfills that secret fantasy we all have of doing it ourselves in real life.
Real fighting between real heroes... nope, that just wouldn't be very enjoyable.
for all the users crying OSX rulez, dont forget the Freedom in GNU/Linux has a purpose - to avoid being owned by MS or Apple or Sun or many others who would enslave your computing lives.
When Apple has retaken 95% of the market and starts using its 100 MWatt master Airport transmitters to force-download 3 GB trailers for 'Toy Story 5' onto my desktop, then I'll worry...
To be fair, the original poster is right about Apple laptops having ADB keyboards.
Well, okay, technically the keyboard still uses ADB "under the hood," but that doesn't matter to anyone except a kernel hacker. Thus the paradox: if the original poster is such a l33t Unix hacker, then he should be able to directly hack the drivers to make the keys do whatever he wants. If not, then it's irrelevant what bus the keyboard is on.
Furthermore, the Ctrl key on an Apple keyboard is in exactly the same place as on any other standard PC keyboard, desktop or laptop. If there is a special Unix laptop with a special Unix keyboard like he describes, I'd love to see it...
I know this was supposed to be funny, but given Ford's current debt load, the downgrading of its stock, and the general malaise in the auto market, well...
Geeks are people who are curious about technology and make a living and a hobby out of utilizing technology different ways.
Not quite. Geeks can have an obsessive interest in just about anything: computers, movies, games, comics, math, politics, cars, whatever. It is the obsession itself, and the behavioral quirks resulting from it, that defines us as geeks.
Sure, geeks are often also technologically literate, but that is because we are more willing and eager to use new technology to satisfy our individual obsessions. Outside of the Slashdot / Register / Ars Technica crowd, most geeks still see the computer as merely a tool.
I think we can assume Shelob will be present in TTT.
Uh, no. Peter Jackson has already said that Shelob has been moved to third movie, not only to give Sam and Frodo enough to do but also to have the events line up chronologically. Here is the report.
Lighten up -- Peter Jackson has simply taken a bit of poetic license. Since the climb past Minas Morgul and the encounter with Shelob have all been moved to the third movie, it just didn't make much narrative sense to have Minas Morgul be the second tower.
It isn't reasonable to talk about what the world would be like if the US were suddenly not there - as the saying goes, if it didn't exist, you'd have to invent it. If there were no US, then there would be another country with similar influence and power; there wouldn't just be a big US-shaped hole.
And once again the point is missed entirely. Or rather, the point is demonstrated perfectly even though the person has no clue he is demonstrating it.
What's so hard to understand? Without us, they have no economy. Sounds like foreign aid to me. Or would you prefer we annex them outright?
If anything it's a part of the problem.
Okay then, starting tomorrow, it all stops. We will build a wall 30 miles high all the way around the entire country and not one atom will go in or out. No immigration, no trade, no technology, no culture, nothing.
Slashdot Mirror
Blockquoth the poster:
Not true. The Eagles had a racial hatred of the Orcs dating all the way back to the First Age. That's why they participated in the Battle of Five Armies (in The Hobbit).
On the other hand, a full frontal assault on Mordor itself would have been suicide, even for them.
Blockquoth the poster:
Even though this was modded "Funny," I'm going to respond because the question is asked all the time.
Sauron always expected a frontal assault, just as he always expected some Elf or Man to try to use the Ring against him. He expected it because it's what he himself would do, and as Gandalf's notes at some point, Sauron cannot conceive of any other possibility.
Remember what the Ring represents: raw, absolute power. Sauron craves that power so much, he cannot imagine that someone else would not.
That's why the Fellowship was formed, to attempt to sneak into Mordor whereas an army would be stopped at the gate. That's also why the Ring went to Frodo, because of everyone at the Council of Elrond, he was most able to resist it (for a while).
As for why they didn't use the Eagles earlier -- you saw Gwaihir in the first movie. He was pretty damn conspicuous. And the Fellbeasts aren't the only aerial defense available to Sauron. He also had crows and ballistas and stone-throwing trolls, not to mention his own magic. The Eagles would have been swatted down like flies, so long as they tried to go straight in.
Nope, it wasn't until after Aragorn used the Orthanc Palantir to get Sauron's attention -and- the Gondorian army attacked the Morannon -and- the Ring was already thrown into the Cracks of Doom that Sauron was finally distracted enough to let one (or two? I forget) Eagle zip through to rescue Sam and Frodo.
Yes, I'm a Tolkein geek.
It is truly a sad day for America when Michael freakin' Moore is cited as an "unbiased" source...
Blockquoth the poster:
"Hard" science fiction most certainly is about the science. What you're describing is "soft" science fiction.
Blockquoth the poster:
Never mind the fact that Amazon is promoting the hell out of Moore's book right now, in conjunction with his recently released movie...
(...2, 3, 4...)
If you want your point to stick, I suggest you compare apples to apples and look up what Coulter's ranking was at the height of her summer book tour.
Blockquoth the poster:
I will second this recommendation -- I actually just started the fourth and last volume.
The story deals with the socioeconomic and technological changes that the world MUST go through before it will be capable of mobilizing to respond to such a threat. It's written as near-future hard SF, covering the period from 1999 through 2021, but it sometimes reads like a full-blown proposal to industry and government.
The volumes are, in order:
Blockquoth the poster:
I'd like to second this bit of advice. I got one of my cards lowered from 14.99% to 9.99% in two calls using this very tactic.
Blockquoth the poster:
The majority of Apple's customers right now are still first-time buyers and existing owners. There are more "switchers" every day, but as a percentage of the overall customer base, they're still pretty puny. As such, it would be a huge waste of money to include this package with every single new Mac.
If it was software alone, then maybe it would work, but not if it requires a special cable...
Blockquoth the poster:
Ah, but the true value of a college degree is not in the content of the classes you take. Particularly when you're being graded by bored and bitter TAs who flunk anyone that doesn't regurgitate their own prejudices.
Nope, the true value of a college degree is in the development of critical thinking, writing, problem solving, socialization, and team management skills. That piece of sheepskin says "I've survived the silliest, most useless crap that college life could throw at me and I can still tie my own shoes."
In fact, I've had recruiters tell me that they actually prefer B-average students because they're the ones who tend to think outside the box and risk contradicting their professors. A-average students are suck-ups and C-average students and slackers.
Blockquoth the poster:
Why was this moderated "Funny"? It's absolutely true. I graduated with only a 2.85, because I was busy around the clock building two different home businesses and running three different student clubs. After I graduated, every company with which I interviewed was blown away by those accomplishments and couldn't care less about my transcript.
Blockquoth the poster:
Those were extreme parodies, set up simply for the "what if?" factor. No one watching the show actually knows what those people were like, so they're complete fantasies.
On the other hand, all the other matches are between known celebrities that are alive today. They are satires. Important difference.
Blockquoth the poster:
Celebrity Deathmatch is popular not because they're heroes but because they're NOT heroes. They are the spoiled, obnoxious, inbred children of our grotesque pop culture, and watching them beat the crap out of each other fulfills that secret fantasy we all have of doing it ourselves in real life.
Real fighting between real heroes... nope, that just wouldn't be very enjoyable.
Blockquoth the poster:
By all means, I invite you to fire a projectile weapon inside a rickety old spacecraft. Just be sure you don't miss...
Blockquoth the poster:
When Apple has retaken 95% of the market and starts using its 100 MWatt master Airport transmitters to force-download 3 GB trailers for 'Toy Story 5' onto my desktop, then I'll worry...
Blockquoth the poster:
No, Apple started asking for testimonials last year, after the release of OS X 10.1, and the user community responded. It's really that simple.
Why is it so hard for you to believe that these testimonials are genuine?
Blockquoth the poster:
Ooo, the tests all said I was gifted, but I didn't know I was actually God... (Apple's "Tell Us" Page)
See my reply to the other person who responded like this.
Blockquoth the poster:
Well, okay, technically the keyboard still uses ADB "under the hood," but that doesn't matter to anyone except a kernel hacker. Thus the paradox: if the original poster is such a l33t Unix hacker, then he should be able to directly hack the drivers to make the keys do whatever he wants. If not, then it's irrelevant what bus the keyboard is on.
Furthermore, the Ctrl key on an Apple keyboard is in exactly the same place as on any other standard PC keyboard, desktop or laptop. If there is a special Unix laptop with a special Unix keyboard like he describes, I'd love to see it...
Blockquoth the poster:
*begin Inigo Montoya impression*
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...
*end Inigo Montoya impression*
ADB is a device bus, not a keyboard layout. Apple hasn't used ADB since it first introduced USB on the iMac in 1998.
I know this was supposed to be funny, but given Ford's current debt load, the downgrading of its stock, and the general malaise in the auto market, well...
Blockquoth the poster:
Not quite. Geeks can have an obsessive interest in just about anything: computers, movies, games, comics, math, politics, cars, whatever. It is the obsession itself, and the behavioral quirks resulting from it, that defines us as geeks.
Sure, geeks are often also technologically literate, but that is because we are more willing and eager to use new technology to satisfy our individual obsessions. Outside of the Slashdot / Register / Ars Technica crowd, most geeks still see the computer as merely a tool.
Blockquoth the poster:
Uh, no. Peter Jackson has already said that Shelob has been moved to third movie, not only to give Sam and Frodo enough to do but also to have the events line up chronologically. Here is the report.
Lighten up -- Peter Jackson has simply taken a bit of poetic license. Since the climb past Minas Morgul and the encounter with Shelob have all been moved to the third movie, it just didn't make much narrative sense to have Minas Morgul be the second tower.
Blockquoth the poster:
And once again the point is missed entirely. Or rather, the point is demonstrated perfectly even though the person has no clue he is demonstrating it.
Blockquote the poster:
What's so hard to understand? Without us, they have no economy. Sounds like foreign aid to me. Or would you prefer we annex them outright?
Okay then, starting tomorrow, it all stops. We will build a wall 30 miles high all the way around the entire country and not one atom will go in or out. No immigration, no trade, no technology, no culture, nothing.