meme time
Comment on this entry and I will pick 5 interests from your userinfo and ask you to explain them.
fremen, melange and muad'dib are all from Dune, a book by Frank Herbert, but which I came to know first as the Dune II computer game, then the 1984 Movie, then the series of books, and most recently the Sci-fi channel mini-series.
fremen
In Dune, the fremen are the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis. I'd call them the "natives" of Arrakis, except they're not, they're more the most ancient settlers, and the ones who have adapted their customs to suit the planet. The most striking feature of the fremen are their deep, rich blue eyes as a result of the constant exposure to the fine powdered spice melange.
melange
The simplest explanation I can give for melange is that it is a fictional drug in the Dune novels which is capable of giving the user an increased lifespan, greater vitality and heightened awareness. For some unique individuals it also gives the ability of prescience, and a special organization, the "spacing guild" use this prescience to travel interstellarly. The only side-affect appears to be the tinting of the eye to a dark shade of blue.
muad-dib
In Dune, the name of the shape of a mouse on the second moon of Arrakis, it is the "manhood" name of the main character Paul Atreides. Interestingly, in Arabic mu'addib means "educator" which is very appropriate for the character of Muad'dib in Dune.
laudate
"Laudate" or "Laudate Nomen Domini" is the signature songbook piece/anthem of all AICSA choirs (Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association), which is basically all the University Choirs around Australia. Traditionally it is sung backstage after every concert.
r. daneel olivaw
R. Daneel Olivaw is a humanoid robot from Isaac Asimov's Robot series of books. The most significant thing about R. Daneel is that he is virtually indistinguishable from a human, aside from the whole having to obey the three laws of robotics thing. I absolutely adore the character of R. Daneel (if it wasn't for the fact that he's fictional and a robot, I would want to have his babies :p ), because he is the ultimate robot, and he's a good guy. Too many books paint robots, particularly humanoid robots as the bad guys wanting to murder and destroy the world. Daneel on the other hand comes up with the Zeroeth Law of Robotics - "A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction allow humanity to come to harm", and for that alone I love him.
fremen, melange and muad'dib are all from Dune, a book by Frank Herbert, but which I came to know first as the Dune II computer game, then the 1984 Movie, then the series of books, and most recently the Sci-fi channel mini-series.
fremen
In Dune, the fremen are the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis. I'd call them the "natives" of Arrakis, except they're not, they're more the most ancient settlers, and the ones who have adapted their customs to suit the planet. The most striking feature of the fremen are their deep, rich blue eyes as a result of the constant exposure to the fine powdered spice melange.
melange
The simplest explanation I can give for melange is that it is a fictional drug in the Dune novels which is capable of giving the user an increased lifespan, greater vitality and heightened awareness. For some unique individuals it also gives the ability of prescience, and a special organization, the "spacing guild" use this prescience to travel interstellarly. The only side-affect appears to be the tinting of the eye to a dark shade of blue.
muad-dib
In Dune, the name of the shape of a mouse on the second moon of Arrakis, it is the "manhood" name of the main character Paul Atreides. Interestingly, in Arabic mu'addib means "educator" which is very appropriate for the character of Muad'dib in Dune.
laudate
"Laudate" or "Laudate Nomen Domini" is the signature songbook piece/anthem of all AICSA choirs (Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association), which is basically all the University Choirs around Australia. Traditionally it is sung backstage after every concert.
r. daneel olivaw
R. Daneel Olivaw is a humanoid robot from Isaac Asimov's Robot series of books. The most significant thing about R. Daneel is that he is virtually indistinguishable from a human, aside from the whole having to obey the three laws of robotics thing. I absolutely adore the character of R. Daneel (if it wasn't for the fact that he's fictional and a robot, I would want to have his babies :p ), because he is the ultimate robot, and he's a good guy. Too many books paint robots, particularly humanoid robots as the bad guys wanting to murder and destroy the world. Daneel on the other hand comes up with the Zeroeth Law of Robotics - "A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction allow humanity to come to harm", and for that alone I love him.