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FWIW, the first time I heard "gynoid" was in a review of Blade Runner, so this isn't that new a neologism.

I've also read stuff about how too-realistic computer-generated images of people weird people out, which is why Pixar et al could make their animated features look a lot more realistic, but don't. The subject of this article is firmly in weird-out territory.

...laura

So who got the quote wrong?

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master

I think is correct. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Alpha_Centauri and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292917/quotes

The ability to record an actual death experience is the centerpiece of Brainstorm, a classic science fiction movie from the 80s, starring Natalie Wood (in her last screen role, I believe) as the user experience designer, Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher as the idealistic genius scientists, and Cliff Robertson as the entrepreneur. They invent a way to record brain activity, and then play back the experience so the user feels he or she has actually done it themselves. They make a "demo tape" of riding a roller coaster, hang-gliding, riding on horseback, eating great food, having sex, etc. When the chief scientist has a heart attack, she records her slow, agonizing death in an unforgettable scene. Whenever anyone plays it back, the shock starts to kill them, too.

Mod the parent insightful; Given that the 2006 Patent is real, the question is how could it have possibly been granted given that the Guardian Angel came from the movie Disclosure, released in 1994 !?

I'm sure it will be just like The Wave .

President Thomas Whitmore: I saw... its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next. Nuke 'em. Let's nuke the bastards.

Link

Very practical, but beware the consequences.

Rumors have recently been denied by a guy named Will Smith. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1926356/

An '-ism' is a belief. Beliefs make you blind to anything which disagrees with your belief. This guy's belief is an idealized fervor for the ecosystem. It's his dogma to help the environment at personal cost. He's blind to the fact that others won't do that.

As pointed out in, of all places the Kevin Smith movie Dogma, "I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant."

People often think only religions that talk about supernatural beings foster beliefs and blindness to the differences of others. I think any kind of unquestioning blind faith is bad, even if very smart people promote their own variety.

Hell, I one time given a burned copy, of a torrented version, of Equilibrium, and still felt cheated!

Wasn't this an episode of the Mentalist?

This was all predicted over 17 years ago -- Toys.

And by numerous science fiction stories and novels decades before that.

This ruling reminds me of a segment I saw in a documentary ( the corporation - scroll down for quote). It always shocked me that something like a gene or life form could be patented simply by discovering it. You didn't invent it, why should you own the rights to it?

Just so you know, Chakrabarty did invent a new life form, and this opinion even cites the Chakrabarty case approvingly. The distinction would be that here, the gene already exists in nature.
The new issue in this case is whether the isolated gene is patentable when only the non-isolated gene exists in nature. Previously, that answer had been yes, but this opinion says no.

The Chakrabarty case is one of the great judicial moments in world history. And the public was totally unaware it was actually happening as a process was being engaged. General Electric and Professor Chakrabarty went to the patent office with a little microbe that eats up oil spills. They said they had modified this microbe in the laboratory, and therefore it was an invention. The patent office and the U.S. Government took at look at this "invention"; they said, 'No way. The patent statutes don't cover living things. This is not an invention". Turned down. Then, General Electric and Doctor Chakrabarty appealed to the U.S. Customs Court of Appeal. And, to everyone's surprise, by a 3-to-2 decision, they overrode the patent office. They said, 'This microbe looks more like a detergent, or a reagent, than a horse or a honeybee". I laugh because they didn't understand basic biology; it looked like a chemical to them. Had it had an antenna, or eyes, or wings, or legs, it would never have crossed their table and been patented. Then the patent office appealed. And what the public should realize now is the patent office was very clear that you can't patent life. My organization provided the main amicus curiae brief. "If you allow the patent on this microbe," we argued, "it means that without any congressional guidance or public discussion, corporations will own the blueprints of life". When they made the decision, we lost by 5-to-4, and Chief Justice Warren Berger said, "Sure, some of these are big issues but we think this is a small decision". 7 Years later the U.S. Patent Office issued a 1 sentence decree, "You can patent anything in the world that's alive, except a full-birth human being". We've all been hearing about the announcement that we have mapped the human genome. But what the public doesn't know is now there's this great race by genomic companies and biotech companies and life science companies to find the treasure in the map. The treasure are the individual genes that make up the blueprint of the human race. Every time they capture a gene and isolate it, these biotech companies claim it as intellectual property. The breast cancer gene, the cystic fibrosis gene, it goes on and on and on. If this goes unchallenged in the world community within less than 10 years a handful of global companies will own, directly, or through license, the actual genes that make up the evolution of our species. And they're now beginning to patent the genomes of every other creature on this planet. In the age of biology the politics is going to sort out between those who believe life first has intrinsic value, and therefore we should choose technologies and commercial venues that honor the intrinsic value. And then we're going to have people who believe, "Look, life is a simple utility, it's commercial fare", and they will line up with the idea to let the marketplace be the ultimate arbiter of all of the age of biology.

Are you serious? You've never heard of The Last Starfighter? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/

This was all predicted over 17 years ago -- Toys.

They named it after the character from Twin Peaks. The demon that went around possessing other people's souls.

Same here. Of course, I also like Timestalkers.

"Krispy Kreme Donuts are so good, if I told you it had crack in it, you would be like, "I knew it was something in there. These donuts are too good. Got me going there at 4 o'clock in the morning going, "Come on, man, open up. Let me have at least one donut. I'll do anything. I'll suck your dick!" That should be the new slogan. Krispy Kreme: So good, you'll suck a dick."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405832/quotes?qt0369690

Great paraphrase of a quote from one of the funniest stoner movies, Half Baked: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120693/quotes?qt0426764

That was a real funny quote that actually got me thinking years back that cannabis might not be so bad as some people try to scare you into believing... Nobody sucks dick for weed, and nobody overdosed on the stuff *ever*... Sadly you can't say the same about fatty (or sugary) foods, the death toll is like 0 to a couple million. But I must note that there might be a slight correlation between the two caused by the munchies. :)

Halle Berry: Oscar for Monster's Ball and Razzie for Catwoman (she actually went to the show to get the award, same as Bullock).

Problem is just that this is kinda an achivement that locks up some others forever. I dunno a single person that won a Razzie AND an Oscar. And I guess we agree that the Oscar is the achivement most want, unlike the Razzie.

Sandra Bullock: Oscar and Razzie

Yeah like this one : "2012: Supernova" from the "Let's make a movie whose title sounds like another movie so people will rent it by mistake" school of filmmaking, starring the guy from Charmed. I think they mean worst as in worst movie made by Hollywood insiders and intended as a serious project.

A customer can ask you to replace the driver of the watch with 3 interlocking gears that all connect, but that doesn't mean it will reach their goal of telling time.

Similarly, if you're on a project where the 3rd party forced limitations prevent reaching stated goals, it would be easier to step aside. "We want you to make a heroic, gritty action film, that launches a popular character and isn't at all campy. And it has to make back it's 100 million dollar budget" "Can do." "Oh, and the bad guys are made of toxic healthcare practitioners, the hero is in a wheelchair, and he fights by throwing his theatans from his brain at them." "What?" "The hero can only be in 20% of the film, and at least 95% of overall showtime needs to be expository dialog. Remember, it can't be campy and it has to make back it's budget." "Can't be done." "Fine, we'll find someone else who will claim that it can." Who they found was Corey Mandell, who penned an unused script for a TV show before being given a 100 million dollar movie.

Huge credit for accepting a Razzie in person, even if it was to deflect claim for it.

Sounds like they took a page straight from The Producers.

When ever in causal conversation scientology comes up I simply say;
John Trivolta is to a Scientologist like Charleton Heston to a Christian Fundamentalist,
"Battlefield Earth" is to a Scientologist like "The Ten Commandments" is to a Christian Fundamentalist, then I put "Battlefield Earth" in the DVD player and let them decide for themselves! Gee I wish Tom Cruise was in it too. If "Battlefield Earth" doesn't convince them I put The Profit in next.

Getting blowjobs from Barbarella does sound like my ideal work week.

T,FTFY

It only sounds retarded to you because you just learned about it (you aren't very tech savvy, are you?)

I've been hearing it for the last few years and it still sounds retarded. If you say 'cracker' with a lisp, it sounds gay. If you say Mebibyte, it sounds retarded. Period.

The new SI prefixes just sound retarded. It doesn't matter how many people say it, or for how long they say it.

Your way of doing things is what will lead to Idiocracy

You're right--saying 'megabyte' means a power of 1024 when you are talking about base-2 will lead to morons roaming the earth...

* Fix decades of code that refer to Mb so they either say the correct numeric value or change the unit to MiB.

The world won't end if OLD computers say it wrong (like they have for years). But NEW computers should say it right.

* 'Educate' IT to start saying Mebi and also convince them they don't sound retarded when they say it.

If hard drives and computers all list things in MB (megabytes -> 1,000,000 bytes) or GB (gigabytes -> 1,000,000,000 bytes) then you don't have to re-educate the IT folks. If they decide to list it in MiB or GiB then the ignorant IT people will notice the weird "i" and probably look it up on wikipedia. And, it won't sound retarded if people use it regularly. It only sounds retarded to you because you just learned about it (you aren't very tech savvy, are you?)

* 'Educate' the public so they don't think their IT person is retarded, but rather talking about a convoluted new scheme to 'fix' things because some people don't understand base-2 verses base-10

The general public already thinks that their IT person is retarded. And, most IT people I have met are retarded. And, the general public is going to keep saying what they have been saying because they don't give a shit. But, I don't think that we should keep the vernacular wrong in the tech industry just because people outside the industry will use the wrong term. Your way of doing things is what will lead to Idiocracy.

I saw a documentary about this once

On note from the article, I don't really see how that is that important. Yes there are less Nukes, but there are still more than enough to destroy the world a few times over. It just seems like a waste of air negotiating.

There's never been enough nuclear weapons to "destroy" the world a few times over. And the huge reductions in the nuclear arsenal greatly reduces the maximum damage from a short term nuclear war. This especially includes secondary effects like fallout and nuclear winter which are more likely to harm third parties.

Nuclear weapons are extraordinarily destructive, but even that can be greatly exaggerated. For example, in the movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, a cruise missile with a five kiloton warhead wipes out a large US city. The only problem? That bomb is only a fraction of the explosive power of the only nuclear bombs used in war, Hiroshima (13 kilotons) and Nagasaki (21 kilotons). Even Nagasaki wouldn't have wiped out that city (there'd still be plenty of mostly intact zombies running around, for example).

For whatever reason, people like to exaggerate the effects of nuclear weapons yet at the same time downplay their effectiveness as peacekeeping tools.

See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/ even.

This study utterly refutes you

Wasn't that the entire plot of the movie Body Armor, aka The Protector? Run up to a guy, inject him with a magic 48-hour disease and hide the cure on an oil rig? Apparently injecting someone on the street is easier than shooting someone, but there's no known magic cure for a bullet.

Shades of the Hogwallop boy in Oh Brother, Where art Thou?

"I nicked the census taker."

"Now there's a good boy."

"it sneaks in, evades the immune system..."

Um, this doesn't catch anyone else as potentially really scary? What else might (now or eventually) sneak in and evade the immune system along with it?

Not that it's relevant to anything, but Hollywood touched on this subject a few years ago.

Has anyone done one of those "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "sicko" style documentaries exposing American agribusiness and all the stuff they dont want you to know?

Yes.

King Corn

Food, Inc.

Has anyone done one of those "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "sicko" style documentaries exposing American agribusiness and all the stuff they dont want you to know?

Yes.

King Corn

Food, Inc.

Your Soviet candy story is re-enacted in Europa, Europa.

While I have for the moral relativism that some people have in this thread ("both sides had hideous propaganda which needlessly vilified others"), there's a certain truths that need to be spoken. Like atheists in the US (while discriminated against) aren't sent to prison camps like their theistic brethren in the USSR.

No society is truly just. But that doesn't mean that we can't try (and get closer) to that ideal and be judged by our distance to it.

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to." -- Col. Jessup

...perhaps they can harvest some of that cheese from the moon again?

woooosh

1-900-Beavis

Looks like someone missed Airplane!

Yeah, this pretty much sums up the extent of the anti-nuclear crowd's thinking. They've been to see the movie The China Syndrome about 100 times too many.

And BTW, Jane Fonda is not longer hot.

You obviously have not seen Our Mr. Sun

Sunday, March 14, 2010

GNAA unveils new wiki-based corporate website

Today GNAA President weev shampooed his neckbeard, put on a greasy Linux t-shirt and left the warm glow of his spamcave to unveil the new GNAA corporate website in a keynote speech. "Inspired by the success of wikis like Wikipedia as platforms for spreading misinformation and infuriating trolls, we decided to transition our corporate webpage to the wiki format," said weev in between gulps and disgusting chewing noises as he stuffed his face with summer sausages and snack cakes to gain the calories needed to satiate his anxiety at being confronted with other human beings. "Jimbo Wales and his team of basement dwelling pedophiles have really taken the wiki platform leaps and bounds in propagating biased, inflammatory garbage. You can log on Wikipedia at any given moment and start or join some inane troll battle that amounts to semantics. They even manage to present defending child molesters as an encyclopedic pursuit while making active pedophiles who host child pornography paid members of their staff. I can't think of anything more offensive. I'd like to take a minute to recognize Wikipedia as one of the most wildly successful troll organizations on the planet."

Weev went on to deride the agents of Zionism on the Internet. "Of course, we couldn't possibly go with MediaWiki. Everybody knows that PHP is run by the Mossad. As a consistent promoter of racial equality we couldn't let our Wiki be subverted by Zionist control." He went along to praise the python-based framework the site now operates on. "We went with Trac primarily because it is written in Python. As you all know, Python is a fascist with whitespace. As an organization of black men, we do believe that whites need to be regulated in their spaces very carefully. All hail the prophet Mohammed, and the messenger Malcolm X." At this point weev made a fist in the air before switching his comfort food to fried chicken and watermelon. "May Allah bless us, and bring us to the day when we may see constant troll edit wars on our wiki, just like Wikipedia.

About GNAA:
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it. You can download the movie (~130mb) using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website.
• Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on irc.gnaa.eu, and apply fo

This is just the first step in a long convoluted law making process. More information on how law making in Switzerland works is found in this excellent (and entertaining) documentary:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381395/

Sunday, March 14, 2010

GNAA unveils new wiki-based corporate website

Today GNAA President weev shampooed his neckbeard, put on a greasy Linux t-shirt and left the warm glow of his spamcave to unveil the new GNAA corporate website in a keynote speech. "Inspired by the success of wikis like Wikipedia as platforms for spreading misinformation and infuriating trolls, we decided to transition our corporate webpage to the wiki format," said weev in between gulps and disgusting chewing noises as he stuffed his face with summer sausages and snack cakes to gain the calories needed to satiate his anxiety at being confronted with other human beings. "Jimbo Wales and his team of basement dwelling pedophiles have really taken the wiki platform leaps and bounds in propagating biased, inflammatory garbage. You can log on Wikipedia at any given moment and start or join some inane troll battle that amounts to semantics. They even manage to present defending child molesters as an encyclopedic pursuit while making active pedophiles who host child pornography paid members of their staff. I can't think of anything more offensive. I'd like to take a minute to recognize Wikipedia as one of the most wildly successful troll organizations on the planet."

Weev went on to deride the agents of Zionism on the Internet. "Of course, we couldn't possibly go with MediaWiki. Everybody knows that PHP is run by the Mossad. As a consistent promoter of racial equality we couldn't let our Wiki be subverted by Zionist control." He went along to praise the python-based framework the site now operates on. "We went with Trac primarily because it is written in Python. As you all know, Python is a fascist with whitespace. As an organization of black men, we do believe that whites need to be regulated in their spaces very carefully. All hail the prophet Mohammed, and the messenger Malcolm X." At this point weev made a fist in the air before switching his comfort food to fried chicken and watermelon. "May Allah bless us, and bring us to the day when we may see constant troll edit wars on our wiki, just like Wikipedia.

About GNAA:
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it. You can download the movie (~130mb) using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website.
• Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on irc.gnaa.eu, and apply fo

It was in reruns, at least when I was a kid. I can't say that I remember any of it though. :)

    some shows stick with us though, but some more my speed and still haunt my dreams. :)