True False Prophet
- "There is an unusual amount of electromagnetism coming from an island near New Zealand. Some more radical theories regarding this island involve harnessing the electromagnetism to render the island invisible to the naked eye...or worse. Sounds an awful lot like Lost's island..."
Does anyone know where I can find out more about this example? It sounds intriguing, but there's no link, and an internet search for "New Zealand electromagnetic island" or somesuch seems to be too vague. At least give us the name of the island
Edited by BrokenEye If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is
Removed:
- Orson Scott Card predicted the internet in Enders Game. Although he was not the first person to propose the idea of a global communications network, Card actually called it 'the net,' and he even anticipated trolling.
Ender's Game was published in 1985. The Internet predates that.
Does this trope cover things that people have come up with, that have turned out to already exist or have existed in nature? The best example I can think of is moray eels' pharyngeal jaws - a second set of jaws inside the throat that spring forward to grab prey - just like the creature of the Alien franchise. Less life imitating art than life having had the idea first without art's knowledge. If that sort of thing doesn't go here, where does it go? And if there isn't a named trope yet, what should it be called?
Red Obsidian Django
Does anyone remember the SNL sketch "Land Shark"? I was thinking that this would kinda segue into the discovery of Concavenator. Now I know what you're thinking. What does a sketch based on Jaws have something to do with a dinosaur? Well, Concavenator belongs to a group of giant land carnivores which were armed with shark-like teeth used for ripping at prey. Another example? The giant triangular fin jutting from the back of its hip. I guess you can say it's something of a subversion considering that instead of humorous laughs, there would be terrifying screams.
"Bad guys do what good guys dream."
Doctor Where
Is the West Wing example legit? If the characters were, as claimed, based on the real people, shouldn't this be Art Imitates Life? I'm taking it down, unless I can receive an explanation.
- Lots of people have had fun playing 'spot the difference' between Matt Santos' fictional presidential campaign in the 2004-2005 seasons of The West Wing and Barack Obama's real life presidential campaign in 2008. It gets even spookier when you learn that Santos was actually based directly on Obama.
- Even weirder? Santos' opponent, Arnold Vinick, was based on John McCain. Vinick is a "straight-talking" maverick Republican who has to pick a more conservative VP because he is having trouble with his base. Sound familiar?
- And if that's not enough? Santos officially announces his campaign with a speech about how there is no such thing as false hope. He also appoints his former rival to be Secretary of State. He picks his VP candidate to back his lack of foreign policy experience. During the "lame duck" phase after the election, there is an armed conflict involving a former Soviet republic. The race gets swung in Santos's direction due to a nuclear accident, which takes place at roughly the same time of year as the credit crunch hit in 2008 and solidified Obama's lead. The list goes on.
- Don't forget that Josh was based on Rahm Emmanuel.
Tief girl with eartude
Removed an example. I removed an example claiming 1984 and V For Vendetta are occuring in Real Life (Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment, people). Here's the entry;
* The CCTV in the comic book version of ''VForVendetta'' has become reality.
** For that matter, it's fairly similar to ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''.
*** It's still not in people's homes. Yet.
*** Plus a large proportion is privately owned by various businesses to protect their own premises.
*** [[ParanoiaFuel "Smile, you're on camera!"]]\
hmm.. not doing too well on navigating this discussion interface.
Anyway, I've removed the final sentence from the bit about sliding doors being Egyptian:
"On the matter of automatic sliding doors, they're actually Older than You Think: they were first used by the Ancient Egyptians. Hand-operated, but in such a way that the people who went through the door couldn't see it. (just like the actual sliding doors on the Star Trek set). When the Greeks first saw this, they called it Techné, deceit, because it was the Ur-Example of hidden technology. So Ancient Egyptian Sliding Doors are the Trope Namer for Technology."
Techné (τέχνη) does not mean deciet - it means 'art', 'craft', 'device', or 'cunning', and it's been traced to a proto-indo-european root meaning 'to fashion' - you can check any decent etymological dictionary's entry on 'techno-' to see this.
Given that this bit of the story about ancient egyptian sliding doors is incorrect, I'm inclined to doubt the rest of it. It doesn't seem implausible that they could have doors like those described, but I'd like to see some evidence for it.
Edited by arcus
Um, what the Sam Hill is this?
Edited by BustlingEagle