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Already in production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/ ... hopefully it will be done, since it seems a little shaky on that site.

Until I read this article, I thought that Hot Fuzz was a comedy.

-Peter

Did anyone else read that and see John Shaft instead of John Shalf?

Who's the computer scientist who's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shalf!
He's a complicated man and no one understands him but his supercomputer based on low-power embedded microprocessors.

First thing I thought about while reading that story on Fox news was the movie Idiocracy. It's becoming more of a reality (horror) movie than a comedy/scifi/adventure movie.

Go rent the movie Maxed Out and you'll get even MORE disgusted with the banks because the KNOW that these people can't pay the bills but they make most of their profits from them.

When they sue people Only $ 1 out of $ 3 is principle. The Other $ 2 are fees and charges.

It even mentions a new type of Credit Card that will go against your pension plan !

Who could ever forget this flying car from 1979?

And a couple years earlier, in 1977, there was a certain black Trans-Am that flew at least once.

I don't know what's worse: That I was going to reply with a link to the Gone in 60 Seconds Quote that uses the phrase, or that someone had already outdone me.

I've got to agree. Technically, though, the original timeframe was 14 years, plus an additional (one-time) 14 year extension that you had to apply for. Assuming most people applied for it and that copyright was returned to 14+14, this would mean that movies from 1980 would just now be entering the public domain. I was wondering how many movies from 1980 actually still made money, so I checked IMDB. The list was *WAY* too long to go through, though. I'd be willing to bet that 99% of those movies don't make any significant money anymore. So I figured, let's stack the deck a bit for the movie industry and only pick the top 30 movies from 1980 as voted by IMDB users. These movies would be more likely to still be making money. Here's the list:

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Shining, The (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
Blues Brothers, The (1980)
Airplane! (1980)
Elephant Man, The (1980)
Caddyshack (1980)
Superman II (1980)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Ordinary People (1980)
Fog, The (1980)
Gods Must Be Crazy, The (1980)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Blue Lagoon, The (1980)
Popeye (1980)
Kagemusha (1980)
Nine to Five (1980)
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Private Benjamin (1980)
Altered States (1980)
American Gigolo (1980)
Fame (1980)
Changeling, The (1980)
Final Countdown, The (1980)
Long Good Friday, The (1980)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Big Red One, The (1980)
Stir Crazy (1980)

Now, I'm sure that Empire is still making money for Lucas, but how many of those other movies are still making significant money now? Does anyone know of a good way to check? If 99% of movies made 28 years ago aren't making significant amounts of money, then why are we overextending copyright for the 1% that do? Not that "making money" is a good reason to extend copyright, mind you, but proving that most of these old titles no longer make their owners any money would be a serious blow against the arguments of the big copyright owners.

I've got to agree. Technically, though, the original timeframe was 14 years, plus an additional (one-time) 14 year extension that you had to apply for. Assuming most people applied for it and that copyright was returned to 14+14, this would mean that movies from 1980 would just now be entering the public domain. I was wondering how many movies from 1980 actually still made money, so I checked IMDB. The list was *WAY* too long to go through, though. I'd be willing to bet that 99% of those movies don't make any significant money anymore. So I figured, let's stack the deck a bit for the movie industry and only pick the top 30 movies from 1980 as voted by IMDB users. These movies would be more likely to still be making money. Here's the list:

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Shining, The (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
Blues Brothers, The (1980)
Airplane! (1980)
Elephant Man, The (1980)
Caddyshack (1980)
Superman II (1980)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Ordinary People (1980)
Fog, The (1980)
Gods Must Be Crazy, The (1980)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Blue Lagoon, The (1980)
Popeye (1980)
Kagemusha (1980)
Nine to Five (1980)
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Private Benjamin (1980)
Altered States (1980)
American Gigolo (1980)
Fame (1980)
Changeling, The (1980)
Final Countdown, The (1980)
Long Good Friday, The (1980)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Big Red One, The (1980)
Stir Crazy (1980)

Now, I'm sure that Empire is still making money for Lucas, but how many of those other movies are still making significant money now? Does anyone know of a good way to check? If 99% of movies made 28 years ago aren't making significant amounts of money, then why are we overextending copyright for the 1% that do? Not that "making money" is a good reason to extend copyright, mind you, but proving that most of these old titles no longer make their owners any money would be a serious blow against the arguments of the big copyright owners.

The one with Martin Sheen in it and they keep sending the soldiers into nuclear fallout to test whether or not they can advance to ground zero.. oh yeah, that's right Nightbreaker. How many times exactly does NASA need to study the effect of weightlessness? It's bad, ok? Long term exposure to "micro-gravity" causes not too nice symptoms. Great, move on. NASA never seems to approach anything as a problem that needs to be overcome - or at least they haven't since the '60s. Problem: without some form of gravity, long term space flight is bad for humans. Solution: provide some form of gravity. There's two that readily come to mind; either accelerate the vehicle at 9.8m/s/s or make the vehicle big enough so that you can spin it and not get dizzy. The first uses up way too much energy and just isn't an option at the moment. The second is so damn obvious that Von Braun was talking about it in the '40s. But it has never been done.

I don't know who modded this off topic, but they apparently haven't seen Back to the Future.

One movie that describes this perfectly, is "my cousin vinny". In the movie, Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid interprets a teenager who just happened to buy something at a store where 5 minutes later the clerk was shot.

One of my favorite movies, btw.

One movie that describes this perfectly, is "my cousin vinny". In the movie, Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid interprets a teenager who just happened to buy something at a store where 5 minutes later the clerk was shot.

One of my favorite movies, btw.

I remember that movie. Too Many Secrets!

Witnesses report seeing John Cusack holding the server over his head outside Ione Skye's window. Authorities are en route. (Link for the 80s-impaired.)

Will it work for Marty Feldman? http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3708590080/nm0001204

Anyway - I think it would be better with someone a bit younger - and with some style. Why not Ewan McGregor?

Colin Ferguson may also do fine!

Anyway - I think it would be better with someone a bit younger - and with some style. Why not Ewan McGregor?

Colin Ferguson may also do fine!

Third Option: Truck-Driving Orangutan Wrangler

It may just be that it is physically impossible to have privacy in the future. If that's the case, then we should accept it and

First of all, whether this is inevitable or not, it doesn't mean that the lack of it will make things better or happier. Global climate change is likely inevitable, but that doesn't mean we're obliged to put up a Mission Accomplished banner and say "bring it on". Even if something is inevitable, I'm not sure society is enhanced by racing to embrace it without regard to its goodness. Bad government may be inevitable, but the voting booth is still a tool for deciding which bad or how bad...

I think Blank Reg in the Max Headroom series is a better example of how "the inevitable" is likely to play out. Surveillance can be both ubiquitous and uneven at the same time, and it's a fantasy to think "happens all over" should be confused with "homogenous deployment" or "uniform access".

There are many reasons this. One is that access is not the same as focus; just because you have access to things doesn't mean you are continually focused on it. People on the internet now have access to all manner of information but they aren't any better educated. Power still resides with people who can afford to pay for the complex sifting and harvesting and re-combining and consolidation and countering that needs to happen with information, so that scenario has already been playing out and we already know the outcome: some positives, some negatives, but not Utopia by any means.

But on top of all of that, we're entering a time of a likely energy crisis that may affect more than just driving but also how much power people can pay for in their houses. And the US (at least) is entering into a financial crisis that may keep the average household person from being able to afford many luxuries they're used to, so I'm not sure that banking on people to rush out and buy gadgets to monitor the government is a sane bet either, even if it turns out that such gadgets run on little enough power that they'd be willing to pay for it on top of other utility costs.

I'm all for doing the thing of having transparent government, by the way. But I'm not so naive as I sometimes think Brin to be as to say that that will make it ok. It's a very weak form of protection, but better than nothing. So I don't mind pursuing such strategies, I just mind saying that Brin's rationales are the reason for doing so.

Oh, and if ubiquitous does come to be something we'll just have to live with, couldn't it at least be something cuter than spiders or snakes? Why not butterflies?

This should definitely revive his career.

It's an Actors Guild thing. There was already an actor called Richard Anderson.

I have two kids aged 3 & 5 and here are a few things that they've taken well to (even though they're a bit young for them, should be perfect for your target age group):

Hyperspace http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273608/
I'm not a big fan of Sam Neill, but they've done a pretty good job making the basics interesting, even though they go quite a bit over the top sometimes.

Cosmic Voyage http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115952/
This is the updated version of that old "Powers of Ten" video you must have seen back in the 70s / 80s. It might be a bit slow at times, but it nevertheless helps fuse the "big parts" and the "small parts" of physics and astronomy together.

I was pretty surprised my kids took to this at all, since they're still at the stage where they usually tune out anything that's not a cartoon.

I pretty much learned about both of these through visiting the local science center. I just got the annual membership this year and it's been great... I can use it at just about any science / children's museum in the country and it pretty much means I never have to worry about having nowhere interesting to take the kids on a rainy Sunday. It's already paid for itself several times over the past few months.

Also don't forget Magic School Bus.

Of course, I have to admit that the thing that initially got my son turned on to space was from watching the Futurama episode where the Titanic gets sucked into a black hole. We've since gotten rid of Futurama from our repertoire once he learned to talk and imitate Bender a bit more, though :P

I have two kids aged 3 & 5 and here are a few things that they've taken well to (even though they're a bit young for them, should be perfect for your target age group):

Hyperspace http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273608/
I'm not a big fan of Sam Neill, but they've done a pretty good job making the basics interesting, even though they go quite a bit over the top sometimes.

Cosmic Voyage http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115952/
This is the updated version of that old "Powers of Ten" video you must have seen back in the 70s / 80s. It might be a bit slow at times, but it nevertheless helps fuse the "big parts" and the "small parts" of physics and astronomy together.

I was pretty surprised my kids took to this at all, since they're still at the stage where they usually tune out anything that's not a cartoon.

I pretty much learned about both of these through visiting the local science center. I just got the annual membership this year and it's been great... I can use it at just about any science / children's museum in the country and it pretty much means I never have to worry about having nowhere interesting to take the kids on a rainy Sunday. It's already paid for itself several times over the past few months.

Also don't forget Magic School Bus.

Of course, I have to admit that the thing that initially got my son turned on to space was from watching the Futurama episode where the Titanic gets sucked into a black hole. We've since gotten rid of Futurama from our repertoire once he learned to talk and imitate Bender a bit more, though :P

How about Michael Welch as MacGuyver? He's (almost) done it before.

What could work is if RDA took over for Pete Thornton's job (since Dana Elcar passed away 3 years ago) and possibly have Jared Padalecki play the new Mac (and by uncle, it RDA's Mac was an only child, HOWEVER, uncle sometimes can be a term used for a close friend of the family...) since he filmed a pilot for Young Mac in 03. He's probably off Summer time anyway between Supernatural seasons.

Has anyone else watched the 1st season of Burn Notice? The main character is almost like a modern-day MacGyver, especially with his use of on-hand materials and with the voice-over narration of his MacGyveresque antics like RDA did in MacGyver. And just how many times can I say MacGyver in this MacGyver related post?

I think Jeffrey Donovan would make a half-decent MacGyver (damnit, I said it again).

John Connor: You know what you're doing?
The Terminator: I have detailed files on human anatomy.
Sarah Connor: Makes you a more efficient killer, right?
The Terminator: Correct.

There was a supposed to be a show a while back called Young MacGyver. I can't recall the actor, but the producers at least had someone cast. They can't run MacGyver by casting some moron like Ben Stiller or some other half bit comedian. AND definitely not Tom Cruise. Matt Damon maybe? Young Mac write up on imdb.

Not about the big bang etc, but as for biology this is a great series: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284735/

As the user comment on imdb says: "This animation TV series is simply the best way for children to learn how the human body works. Yes, this is biology but they will never tell it is." That's exactly how I remember it from when I saw it (and at the same time, a lot of the information stuck and came back later on when I learned about those topics in school).

There's a related one about space ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282303/ ), but as far as I remember that was less edutainment and more pure entertainment.

Not about the big bang etc, but as for biology this is a great series: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284735/

As the user comment on imdb says: "This animation TV series is simply the best way for children to learn how the human body works. Yes, this is biology but they will never tell it is." That's exactly how I remember it from when I saw it (and at the same time, a lot of the information stuck and came back later on when I learned about those topics in school).

There's a related one about space ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282303/ ), but as far as I remember that was less edutainment and more pure entertainment.

there is a new one out she may find interesting:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091617/

It's a start, let her learn to think for herself.

Falcon, Yes, but I don't recall exactly where. If you haven't seen it, it is well worth watching, almost a cautionary tale, considering the current U.S. Government security hysteria.

Though I like Natalie Portman's acting especially in the movies "Where the Heart Is" and "Leon, the Professional" I wasn't interested in either "Garden State or "V for Vendetta".

Falcon, Yes, but I don't recall exactly where. If you haven't seen it, it is well worth watching, almost a cautionary tale, considering the current U.S. Government security hysteria.

Though I like Natalie Portman's acting especially in the movies "Where the Heart Is" and "Leon, the Professional" I wasn't interested in either "Garden State or "V for Vendetta".

Falcon, Yes, but I don't recall exactly where. If you haven't seen it, it is well worth watching, almost a cautionary tale, considering the current U.S. Government security hysteria.

Though I like Natalie Portman's acting especially in the movies "Where the Heart Is" and "Leon, the Professional" I wasn't interested in either "Garden State or "V for Vendetta".

Pffft!

Like that's going to be better than David Hasslehoff's version. :-)

What, no love for Justin Hartley?

Six words: Get away from her you bitch!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136298/

How about billing prisoners for their incarceration or torture? Apparently it's not just a fantasy from Brazil .

Don't fight it son, confess quickly. If you hold out too long, you could jeopardize your credit rating.

I thought he'd be taller...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088000/quotes

turn in yer nerd ID please....

if the crime has a name, someone thought of it....

And then we can all say, "Snake robot! I thought you were dead!"

The Iron Giant can re-assemble himself too!

They have created The Iron Giant!
Maybe they could combine it CMU's Snake robot, so the snake can reassemble itself when it falls out of a tree.

Yes we wouldn't want books or TV shows about serial killing, or books and movies about rapists, let alone movies about cannibalism.

Well, in The Hunt for Red October the Soviet Union had accurate charts and the US Navy didn't. I'd imagine the Soviet Navy might be upset that all the US has to do now is google Red Route One.

> It makes you seem ... somehow ... less intelligent.
Very similar quote from the Drac (Louis Gossett Jr.) in Enemy Mine when Davidge (Dennis Quaid) shaves.
Planet of the Apes is quite possibly the original source of that quote.