It's interesting---against the United States Navy's 3rd Fleet, Japan's attempts to to use islands to hold a perimeter against the United States in WWII, while certainly causing the issue to be in doubt from time to time, ended up stranding and wasting more resources than not.

Not that we'd ever get to a hot war except through miscalculation and bad judgement---but defending each of those "islands" against a full strike might get tricky.

But this is the internet and I could easily be wrong.

Eärendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.

In panoply of ancient kings,
in chainéd rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.

Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.

There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
and long-forsaken seas distressed:
from east to west he passed away.

Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl
where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll
the yellow gold and jewels wan.
He saw the Mountain silent rise
where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar
beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night
to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair
where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
a-glimmer in a valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion
are mirrored on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry,
and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told,
and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then
of folk of Men and Elven-kin,
beyond the world were visions showed
forbid to those that dwell therein.

A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon.

From Evereven's lofty hills
where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light,
beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World's End then he turned away,
and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadow journeying,
and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came,
a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn
where grey the Norland waters run.

And over Middle-earth he passed
and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids
in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid,
till Moon should fade, an orbéd star
to pass, and tarry never more
on Hither Shores where mortals are;
for ever still a herald on
an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar,
the Flammifer of Westernesse.

#1 Its not fake.
#2 this is probably one of the first couple of full runs, no one but the home owners even know about it.
#3 It is not actually that difficult. The kits to synchronize these lights have been out for a decade now. In a case like this I would;

a) Get permission to handle everyones lights for the year.
b) Using the same kit, I wouldn't get too fancy, gutter icicles, trees, garage outlines, not much more for each house.
c) only need to make one routine, this routine can then be loaded into all houses with only the need to tweak the strands of lights used in each group.
e) syncing would be no problem with an internet aware kit that synchs its internal clock online.

The place turns into kind of a strobe mess because there are not many types of light groups to alternate between, but that can wait for next year. Great effort.

Your video, Time Trap (Short Film): Stranded in Space, but not in Time.., has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

The law of inertia is that things tend to do what they are already doing. That would mean staying still if they were let go.
That may explain the opposite force that moves the feather strands and gravity takes over, opposing the inertia - even though it is a very small amount.

@eric3579 and @dag -
I thought about that...but the entire feather is under the same gravity, so being accelerated at the same rate. Without anything to disrupt that, like air, I was confused. If you wave the feather in a vacuum, it would make sense because the force would travel through the quill then out to each 'strand' (just like the flag 'waving' on the moon when they moved it)...but being dropped as it was, it didn't make sense to me. Perhaps it's not near a perfect vacuum, only close enough to do the experiment?

My alternate guess is moment of inertia...but I can't fully explain why.

Seems like no one else noticed or cared, but why is it that in the zero-air environment when they did the release the tiny "strands of feather" (I don't know what each little thread on a feather is called, if anything) looked like they were getting pushed back by air?

Am I seeing things?

It must be a hoax. They're probably on a sound stage where they faked the whole thing. Probably not even a real bowling ball.

I can imagine it:

Beneficent aliens on a survey mission (the Kritchans) crashed onto our planet due to an unpredictable burst of solar energy. Stranded and alone, their ship destroyed, they were rescued by a local farmer. In time they taught him of their Kritchan ways.

The farmer now knows that in their culture, not holding a door open for someone is considered the ultimate insult. But they were hungry and desperate and had a coupon for a value meal.

They tried to just come in and order a burger, but people were rude and slammed the door in their face.

Confronted with the judgmental reactionary stupidity of mankind, our alien ambassador farmer friend finally freaks out and wrecks some fake flora in a fast food joint, facilitating the flight and future fury of our foreign friends. Was it worth it?

It's just a theory.

Hell yeah, I can feel this vibe.

He actually lives in SF... so if I still lived there I know plenty of people who like going for stoney or drunken strolls which is a lot fun at night.

But, I live one BART stop away from SF, it's $4.50 to get anywhere there, requires going under the bridge and quite possibly the BIG one would hit while I was under there and I would drown with drunken asshole tech bros; but then I would also have to come back to the East Bay at least by 12:15am and everyone knows the real fun is happening between 1am-3:30am - but I don't want to get stranded staying and passing out on someone's couch.

Hmm... I'll probably just stay at home and look at my container of DMT and think about entering the 8th Dimension, for real, instead.

All the counters and stores definitely close down in most airports after, say, 2am. You'll never find yourself completely alone - there are always a few security guards, cleaning staff and other stranded travelers milling around - but if you're sharing an airport designed to process tens of thousands of travelers per day with only a few dozen people, there are plenty of places perfect for lonely music video making.

As a Canadian of Asian descent, I just want to back up Colbert, here. If satire is "the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues," then I think he knocked this one out of the park. A lot of folks don't see "Redskins" as an offensive term because they grew up with it being everywhere; exaggerating and applying the same idea to the Asian population really highlights how ridiculous the name of this foundation is, but only because Western culture has only just recently started to agree that phrases like "Ching chong ding dong", "orientals" (unless you're Rob Ford), "gook", "slant", "chink", etc, are actually really offensive. If a pro sports team came up with the name "Vancouver Chinamen" or "Detroit Negroes" today (coupled with stereotypical logos) there would be a massive and immediate outrage. The only reason the Redskins have gotten away with their name is that the team was named long enough ago that the racial slur was widely acceptable to the non-First Nations public.

And really, this parallels racial awareness in North America; although racism is still very much a thing for people of all races, the First Nations population is still being outstandingly and horribly marginalized with very little support or attention being paid to them or their (still appallingly denied) rights. Here in Canada (in which we boast great racial and cultural diversity, the "cultural mixed salad" vs the US "melting pot"), we still haven't done anything to amend the fact that when we got here we took brutal advantage of a trusting and helpful culture, booted them out to the worst parts of the country and stranded them there.

I don't remember the next part either, Sandra. But when I was in 7th grade I did... I also learned the Dinosaur rap that was at the end of this lame-ass Disney Channel movie about going back in time and being stranded Land of Lost style.

Oh wait, was that Land of the Lost? I don't recall, but it was dumb and I learned the rap phonetically rather than actually knowing the words. I wrote it down and it made NO SENSE, but I rapped it anyway. Sort of like learning a Beck song -- Soooooyyyy own a bend a door. lolz

Not just for ease of storage and for un-rolling ease, this method extends the life of your cable. When you do it the wrong way, you break cable strands inside.

I used to DJ a bit and help with concerts at the University. Anyone that got this wrong got fired, as the cables were worth more than their wage.

So is this going to be two astronauts, stranded on EVA after a disaster, having a profound conversation while they wait to die or what?

@bmacs27, it's still a very, very specific scenario. Essentially this is just another take on the old "Crazy Bill Gates" argument, which is, what if a crazy Bill Gates bought up all the land around your home and prevented you from crossing his land. Or what if a crazy Bill Gates hired an army and invaded your homes and made you slaves. Etc.

These kinds of specific "gotcha" scenarios always create questions, like, how did the island people get on this island? Are they native, and if so, why haven't they culminated the land yet before this crazy Bill Gates bought it up? And who did this crazy Bill Gates appropriate the island from and why did none of the stranded people own any of this land before he possessed it? How did Bill Gates claim the land? Why are these people stranded on an island suddenly overnight without ownership of anything? Did they not foresee the need for a boat before Bill Gates marched in and took the island? I just don't see such a specific scenario like this could every happen.