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Went to Wendy's the other day and got a #2 combo because it looked pretty awesome on the order board. Got back to the office and opened it up to discover something pretty gross looking, a mash of squashed bun and grey meat.

When I experience something like that, I always think of D-FENS. For those who have not seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it.

The repairs will actually be done a little sooner, but they pushed back the release date so they wouldn't have to fight with Star Trek, Transformers, or Harry friggin Potter. Just be lucky Iron Man is waiting until 2010 or we'd never get any sciencing or universe imploding done.

The repairs will actually be done a little sooner, but they pushed back the release date so they wouldn't have to fight with Star Trek, Transformers, or Harry friggin Potter. Just be lucky Iron Man is waiting until 2010 or we'd never get any sciencing or universe imploding done.

The repairs will actually be done a little sooner, but they pushed back the release date so they wouldn't have to fight with Star Trek, Transformers, or Harry friggin Potter. Just be lucky Iron Man is waiting until 2010 or we'd never get any sciencing or universe imploding done.

That's Hedley!

Allow me to point you to something that explains much of the disagreement you are having:

People who hold the same views as you are morons.

In perspective:
- I saw the signature Moryath had before he put it on hiatus during the election. It wasn't provocative and had been there long before Obama was even nominated (or won enough votes to be the "presumptive nominee"), yet Obamatons were routinely verbally attacking Moryath and downmodding incredibly insightful, well-thought-out and sourced posts for the mere presence of the signature.

- For some reason, the same downmodding on slashdot does NOT happen to people for having some pretty disgusting anti-Bush/"antiwar" hippie signatures.

- For anyone who is a fan of the movie Idiocracy, or who has paid attention to their Civics and History courses, there comes a time when they realize that the current form of "Democracy" is having problems because the vote is not an informed choice.

Seriously, I want you to think about this. Not just in America, but everywhere, what percentage of voters do you think are actually of decent IQ and possessing enough knowledge to understand what they are voting on?

This is the point of the Mencken quote that Moryath posts, and whether or not you like it or not, I think it's a valid insight into the problems we are facing today. Far too many "votes" are cast, from the Presidency on downwards, with the people pulling the lever having absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing except that "that guy has X skin color", "I ain't voting for no ticket with a wimmin on it", or other reasons that have no place in the ballot box.

In short, the "right to vote" and "responsibility to vote" are bad ideas. Citizens should carry the responsibility to educate themselves on the issues and candidates and then, only when educated, cast an informed ballot so as not to fuck the rest of us over with their cluelessly random "choice."

As for the other things you write:
His generalization that the left needs to do "homework" because they lack an understanding of the Geneva Conventions has no basis. Many people on the left have studied the Geneva Conventions quite thoroughly.

And many more have absolutely no fucking clue what the Geneva Conventions say , but shout about "war crimes" in between taking bong hits anyways. see above: YOU may have studied the Geneva Conventions thoroughly. I guarantee that most of your fellow travelers have not, because there are people who hold the same views as you who are morons.

Those statements are faulty generalizations on which he seems to have built at least part of his argument.

No, those statements are pretty accurate generalizations of the course of history surrounding Islamic society in warfare, both in wars between competing Islamic factions and between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, as they refer to societies of Muslims and exterior non-Islamic societies (and please note, dar al-harb literally means "domain of WAR", which is another point against your theory).

Many Islamic groups adhere quite strictly to a moral code, and, in fact, many of the Islamic militants fighting in Iraq are acting on the conviction that our culture and our invasion of Iraq go against that code.

If you insist on claiming that the Koran's "moral code" is in any way compatible with the Geneva Conventions, how about I start going through the list of things the Koran lists that are completely contradictory to them, starting with the taking of slaves from the battlefield or the killing of prisoners who fail to convert to Islam (unless they're valuable in which case they are to be ransomed for tribute)? I warn you now, I'll have a field day with this one.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0197521/

(alias: Raymond Burr)

This entire discussion, even baited with the category, goes by with 600+ comments, and not *one* reference to Hardware?

Splash some body fluids here, drop some hair there, and smear some skin cells at a strategic location, and voila "we have DNA evidence that places the defendant at the scene of the crime."

Congratulations on stumbling on the plot from GATTACA. But your +n insightful is deserved because of the twist--although I've heard that prostitutes sell used condoms for this very reason. I can't find any links on the web to this effect so maybe its simply a urban legend. Hopefully defense attorneys with a modicum of intelligence will figure out that they can use planted DNA evidence as a defense.

Really? Cause they had to pry the last EVs from the cold dead hands of their owners. Every salesperson who sold them had a larger waiting list than GM could manufacture. I bet that they discovered that EVs didn't need many replacement parts which is why all car companies are trying to avoid making EVs. There is a documentary about the EVs in the late 90's http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/ that you should watch. In fact, nothing in your post is factual correct about the situation exception for maybe the range problem.

To paraphrase my favorite movie of 1986:

It's a machine, Ronald. It doesn't get pissed off, it doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it doesn't laugh at your jokes... IT JUST RUNS PROGRAMS!

Ronald's premise makes two key assumptions which are deeply flawed:

1) It's entirely the human soldier's fault that he's unethical.
2) The person directly in charge of putting the robot to work is entirely ethical.

I pose that the soldiers in Iraq haven't been trained to deal with a situation like this properly. The fact that 17 percent of US soldiers in Iraq think all people should be treated as insurgents is more reflective of poor education on the US military's part. The US military prides itself on having it's soldiers think as one unit, and 17 is a very high discrepancy that they have failed to take care of, mostly because there are plenty in the leadership who think that way themselves. Treating everyone they come across as an insurgent and not treating them in the proper manner is a great way to "lose the war" by not having the trust of the people you are trying to protect.

It's that same leadership who'd program a robot like this to patrol our borders and think it's perfectly ethical to shoot any human on sight crossing the border illegally, or treat every citizen as an insurgent, all in the name of "security."

Besides, a robot is completely incompassionate. A properly trained human has the ability to appear compassionate and yet treat the situation skeptically until they know for sure the target is or is not a threat.

This is not a problem that can be solved with technology. The concept is a great project and hopefully will be a wonderful step forward in AI development, but at no point will it solve any "ethical" problem in terms of making war "more ethical."

I remember that episode of star trek TOS A Taste of Armageddon or perhaps the future you describe would be more like the movie Robot Jox

Of course, that only holds true for your hypothetical corner case.

Oh, you are so wrong!

In the real world, people share tastes. $40 from one person isn't enough to make a movie, but $40 from a million people is.

OK, but what if there aren't a million people willing to put up cash up front? If the work is released, you don't just get money from the early adopters (for lack of a better term), you get money from people who pick it up and like it, you get money from people who withhold their judgement and then buy. You might even get money from people determined to hate it, but love it after they experience it. It's true: people share tastes, but it's more difficult than providing a framework. You have to convince them to pay significantly before they get any real indication of the quality of the work, or any benefits from it, and that's tough, especially from the large group of people who are looking for instant-fix entertainment.

Sure you do. You have exactly the same guarantee as with any other service: if you pay but the service isn't provided, or is substantially different from what was agreed upon, the provider has failed to hold up his end of the contract and you can take him to court.

Hmm. The problem with that solution is that artistry is a trial and error operation. What started out as a serious nuclear doomsday thriller could easily turn out to become a comedy classic. Under that system, that could constitute fraud. Turning artists into contract workers will turn a lot of artists away from their art. Most of them, I predict, would want to avoid the legal issues.

It's only a disincentive to the extent that the project is likely to be funded without your help. If it's a popular project, then sure, keep your money and someone else will probably fund it instead. If not, then you have a clear choice: if you want to see the work completed and released, you'll pay; if you don't really care whether it's ever made, then keep your money and maybe it won't be.

That's true to an extent. I thought of that while writing it, but I was more referring to the assumption that someone else will do it, which isn't so rational. It's laziness more than anything, and I predict it won't just affect the popular works.

In any case, I don't think these are realistic criticisms. Look at political campaigns again: no one has any guarantee that their money will be used for any particular thing (much less any guarantee that their candidate will win if he raises $X), and everyone knows that there are other contributors out there. And yet every time someone puts up a contribution button with a monetary goal and a shiny thermometer graph indicating progress, they meet that goal.

The argument never was that no-one would contribute, the argument was that the amount contributed is considerably less than the demand. Out of all the voters who vote for a specific party, how many of them contribute? Not many comparatively. Many of them who don't will think (correctly) exactly that: someone else will do it for them. Of course, those numbers are inflated compared to entertainment, because one is politics, and the other is, well, entertainment. People are going to be a lot more interested in politics.

In fact, every dollar spent on politics counts, even if the person doesn't get elected. It represents an ideology being spread through advertising. It amounts to people's voices being heard by proxy, whether or not the figurehead rises to power. With music, you get nothing if the project fails. Nothing.

As I already mentioned, I don't think artists will have much incentive to try a new system as long as they can still use copyright as a crutch. This isn't about making a system that's more appealing to artists and winning their allegiance, it'

Also: Classic movie time! Watch "The man in the white suit"...

This guy seemed to have a good solution to that particular problem.

What's next, outsource the drive-through window person overseas?

Where I live(NOVA), they already have. I spent 5 minutes arguing over what I ordered with the guy in the drive thru only to realize that (in his almost passable version of English) we were both reciting the items correctly. At that point, I apologized and told him to cancel the order, my rational being that if his friends thought I was just being difficult, I would get "extra" condiments on the burgers.(just see "Waiting" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348333/)

In the last movie, Ballmer was played by Bender!

There are not enough military ships in the world to really control the affected area.

Kill enough of them and the others will be scared away.

any real solution has to change something within Somali territory

Something like this has been tried before. Controlling cities is much harder than controlling the sea. What else would you suggest? Pay them to stop piracy? This is called "extortion", and usually only leads to more payoffs.

Meteor my ass. More cover-up about the fucking space bugs now running our world. Christ, as if GWB wassn't proof enough.

FYI, Men In Black was not a documentary.

"For Duty and Humanity!"

Reminds me of Ernst Stavro Blofeld's quote: "The satellite is at present over... Kansas. Well, if we destroy Kansas the world may not hear about it for years."

That sounds familiar...

Gee, were they talking about The Dish? They could have included the title.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/

When in Rome!

Almost any thought is inappropriate in the context of something else. I agree that the burden of parenting falls to "the parent(s)." But I really feel like in "Man of the Year" Whoops! Hopefully the new Prez will realize the devastation of censorship.

The interwebs freedoms (freedom to speech, free viagra for 6 months, and free "entertainment") are the last freadoms we still have in the world. You will be shot if you try and stake a claim to new lands (unless your heading to antartica). You will be on the news (and in jail) if you open the throttle of just about any car out there. You just can't go out and tinker anymore: You can't make modifications to your house w/o an inspection, you can't build your own chemistry sets, you can't create your own fireworks, god forbid if you actually make the devices you use every day. You are labeled a terrorist if you do these once playtime activities.

For god sakes, let me at least use the internet to help me and my kids imagine w/ graphic images, surround sound, and the like, what a real gun looks like, or the difference between real and fake tatas, the chemistry behind gunpowder, why the largest slaughters of humans have been in the names of religious deities.

Curiosity is the mechanism by which we live, and the mechanism to which we grow. W/o curiosity we would not lose our innocence, discover new things, or taste new fruits. The internet gives us a medium to try before you buy. To see what really happens if you set yourself on fire. You can google you how to fix a sink, build nuclear weapons, refine uranium, put together a solar installation that won't pass inspection but will produce e-, start your own business, and more. The interenet is a great place to satisfy curiosity.

With all sources of information, discretion (the better part of valor) belongs to the user, and in the case of a minor, the user is the one who pays the cable bills (parents & taxpayers (for library filtering only)).

I say if there is any censorship (I'll vote no), that any act of censorship is forced also to remove anything that isn't true, real, or declared a work of fiction.

that's my .02 not that anyone asked.

Please moderate this guy Obama! Not into the ground, lest you lose your purpose in picking him, but not into the sky lest we lose one of the things we rely on, inaccurate wiki's! (and more.. that was just to illustrate that the net is not the source for all knowledge, just a means to access knowledge presented)

...led by Laurent Lellouch...

Wasn't he the pitcher in "Bull Durham" that hooked up with Susan Sarandon?

Oh wait, that was Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh; nevermind!

Zardoz.

And in case you're wondering. The Penis is Evil. It shoots the seed upon the Earth that spreads the Plague of Men.

Good thing you posted as Anon. Coward.

Think of the movie rights!!!

First Sharks, then Snakes and now Spiders!

Think of the movie rights!!!

First Sharks, then Snakes and now Spiders!

Huh.

Ooops, too late. Prior art: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm241015040/tt0120738/

We've probably all seen the video on youtube with the stoned spiders, and the kooky webs they make. I wonder what the effects of cosmic radiation will be on this spider who will be waiting a long time for a snack to buzz into his web. Unless, by space-surviving spider, they mean he can eat non-living things like dust? I think he likely drifted off like the $100000 tool belt that one space-walking astronaught lost yesterday. At least this loss wasn't as expensive. However it's possible this is a mutated spider that craves the media attention for the lulz, in which case it's possible that the spider unlatched the tool-belt in order to make a getaway, and build his own Evil Spider Space Station, with his newly acquired tool set, and other classified missing materials (that would not be reported)!

Although in another scenario, the tool belt will fall to earth with the spider riding it, Slim Pickens style, to crash land and obliterate some curious bystander, ala Dead Like Me. I still think it is more likely the spider will crash land somewhere and start another internet meme (link site contains articles that are 100% NSFW).

You obviously never saw Flesh Gordon.

It may be the single dumbest yet hilarious movie you can see. It certainly is the cheesiest porno I've ever seen. (Yes, I'm a nerd, so I've seen lots of pornos. There, I just saved you a lame attempt at a joke.)

Well, the Uverse box, in particular, is a horrible device. It gets REALLY hot and craps out easily, especially if it's been left on all day/night (recording). The two replacements have had the same problems.

As far as "overblown", conservation only makes sense en masse. The City of Austin estimates it has saved an entire power plant's worth of KW over the last couple of decades through its conservation programs. Consequently, I see myself acting in the "think globally, act locally" sense, not because saving $2.50/mo is a big deal for me. I also upgraded the HVAC in my 1981 era house from its original equipment, added insulation, and have newish, Energy Star appliances.

The only thing I don't like is HVAC ductwork showing everywhere in every establishment. It's like Brazil down here!

-l

That was pretty much the plot of Wargames, wasn't it?

A thimbleful of antimatter would make any H-bomb look like a popgun.

A popgun. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!

You should know, from Kubrick films...

"how can you shoot women and children?"

"Easy! Ya just don't lead 'em so much! Ain't war hell? "

Tell that to the guy in this movie
WTF? You should have linked to Dune, not frigging Waterworld! Now go hand in your geek card.

Blasphemer. You linked to the 1984 Sting version of Dune!?!
Here. Have a nerd's Dune link... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/

Tell that to the guy in this movie
WTF? You should have linked to Dune, not frigging Waterworld! Now go hand in your geek card.

Blasphemer. You linked to the 1984 Sting version of Dune!?!
Here. Have a nerd's Dune link... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/

Tell that to the guy in this movie

WTF? You should have linked to Dune, not frigging Waterworld! Now go hand in your geek card.

Tell that to the guy in this movie. The only time I watched it I was thinking that couldn't possibly work.

Actually, Ender's Game has been approached so many times that 5 scripts have been written with Card turning away each one. He's been quoted to say that Serentiy is such a good movie that he wishes Ender's Game turns out like it.

See wikipedia and IMDb for more information.

Wouldn't 0,0,0 be where the Borg Queen lived with 17 trillion servants (from First Contact.

The coordinates need not be Cartesian, they could also be Spherical (latitude/longitude/radius). But to have a perfect set of integer values would indicate pre-knowledge of Earth. Maybe the Borg enhanced the V'Ger probe, and it was the first alien device they encountered.

His babyfaced looks have spoiled many a movie. The worst example is The Beach. Clearly the part he played was written for Ewan McGregor, but Boyle had to get a "big name" to get financing. The movie might have actually been passably okay if it weren't for the distracting sight of the lead being played by a guy who looked like he was about 13 years old. Sometimes looking a lot younger than you actually are works AGAINST you.

The fact that this occurred in June of '04 and he's being charged for it now implies that either it takes that long to build up evidence for a case or you don't hear about this until someone slips up.

Whatever happened happened in 2004, but he's being charged only in the last few weeks Bush can direct the SEC.

Funny how the other thing that happened recently was that Cuban just launched a website, BailoutSleuth looking into and organizing against the Bush/Paulson Wall Street bailout.

BTW, in America people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, especially when Bush has a political crusade at stake. Even if Cuban is guilty, it's pretty "coincidental" timing to start prosecuting him.

No, if that were the case, they would have gone after Cuban after he funded Redacted, or any of the other stupid stuff Cuban is guilty of.

Didn't work out too well for Harvey Keitel.

There are ten types of people in this world -- that's right; ten.

Really? I thought there were one hundred seventeen.

Coming up next...Land of the Lost!

Is 2009 soon enough for you?

When you ask Willie Sutton why he robs banks, the expected reply is "Because that is where the money is."

Banks aren't doing so very well right now.

Looking elsewhere:

The Dark Knight cost $185 million to produce and in theatrical release sold $528 million dollars worth of tickets in the US alone.

Clean industry.

Skilled labor and high-tech. High-paying on the production side.

Hog Heaven.

Generates billions in export dollars.

It doesn't matter whether your home district is in New York or Toronto, Vancouver or L.A. Protecting this industry is not a tough sell politically.

The genuine Sutton might hit the geek a little too close to home:

"Why did I rob banks? Because I enjoyed it. I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. I enjoyed everything about it so much that one or two weeks later I'd be out looking for the next job. But to me the money was the chips, that's all."

In the late 1960s Cleese, Idle, and Chapman were at the peak of their ability

You may be right about Idle (whose last big project was the hilarious, but milking it Holy Grail Musical) and Chapman, but I think Cleese did his best work later. I thought A Fish Called Wanda was actually Cleese's best work (late 80's). He managed to create the same ironic, dry, juxtaposition into a coherent -- but always hilarious -- storyline (the latter is something Python never managed to do...every movie felt like a series of sketches strung together with an overall theme...or sometimes without one entirely.)

I also notice you don't include Terry Gilliam, who went into the more surrealist bent post-Python with works like 12 Monkeys or the dystopian comedy Brazil.