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It's disappointing how these measures always seem to be about protecting the rights of whichever host country is involved, while completely ignoring any intrusion/violation of the rights of visitors.

Let's see what is the current status quo
1. Non Americans seem to have almost no rights. We can gitmo them and call them enemy combatants, never giving them a trial, even though they aren't part of any recognized war.

2. People living and contributing in America often have fewer rights, and certainly can't vote. H1B holders, illegal aliens, etc. This also includes people who can't afford or simply haven't taken the time to hop through whatever new hoops the republicans have throne at them, such as renewable voting only IDs that have to be continually renewed. People act like it would have been the end of the world if the millions of illegal aliens who have been living and contributed had some say in their government. Now I don't support illegal immigration, but neither do I support selective rights for some. We need legal immigration.

3. People with the right to vote often get their voices minimized. You'd think it would be one person one vote, but between the electoral college and all the modern art based redistricting, the influence of some voices are given more credence. Both do the same thing, by often making land ownership linked with a more powerful vote.

4. People with the right to vote often are exposed to news and sources of information (facebook fake news, fox news, right wing radio, etc,) that intentionally slant information, so as to present incomplete or intentionally inaccurate accounts. Sure there is some of that on the other side, but not nearly as much. There should be none.

5. Our society is based on freedom of the press. It is why it is in amendment number 1. It is crucial. Without it we might as well fold up and go back to a monarchy, and just hope the children are raised well. It is also based on separation of powers, with a strong legislative, judicial and executive. Trump has said the press is the enemy of the people(state), and is actively trying to destroy all voices that do not support his lies. He has done the same with judges that do not agree. People say you can't take trump seriously. Listen to the Ted talk on how Hitler came to power. I am taking him dead seriously. For crying out loud, he started this whole trail of tears by targeting Mexicans and blaming them for everything. All he needs is a terrorist attack, and we could see some seriously dark crap come to be. (Special mention to the Babylon 5 arc of where the Earth Government is taken over by a corrupt vice president is worth a look and in particular Intersections In Real Time, if you can find a copy.)

6. And of course you have the illegal searches and seizures of documents and devices as well as any accounts they want. For crying out loud they want you to give them social media account access. That is a form of the press and they are blatantly violating that amendment. It is not forgivable and there is no excuse. You don't run a government by finding excuses on where rights apply. They are rights for a reason. You can't give them up.

7. Let's not forget putting a political guy at the table when defending the country (bannon), or hiring guys who want to destroy their departments(energy/epa/education). Hell let's not forget all the news about collusion with Russia, and I'll eat my shoes if Trump isn't hiding something there. He has taken on everyone who remotely looks at him funny, up to and including the Pope, but he never says anything bad about Putin? Really? I'm seriously beginning to question who is really running our country. I'm only grateful that it seems in his second (err third try) try he seems to have put someone competent in place to help with defense. The second apparently said no way, and mentioned something about a sh*t sandwich.

8. We can't forget h

I'm sure there have been plenty, but the first one that I thought of is the B5 episode The Long Dark.

As much as I'm an Amiga fanboy 4ever, that rumor needs to DIE, they used a wide mix of SGI workstations, Pentium & DEC Alpha renderfarms and even Macs for compositing for the actual series, only the pilot episode mostly had effects created on Commodore HW.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/...
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/...
Sorry for being pedantic, but this IS Slashdot after all ;)

IIRC this is what connected the various "MarsDomes" on Babylon 5. I seem to remember them proving extremely resilient to getting blown up. See: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/...

On the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, on the episode page for "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I", there is a quote of something you said:

> I tried to develop a basic language structure for each of the races on B5. There are certain commonalities to the structure of names. I came up with some prefixes and suffixes, and assigned meanings to them, the same as real names. For instance, Rathenn (referred to by Delenn in "Voices") and Delenn have the same suffix, which has a specific meaning. You can break it down; Ner-oon (Legacies), Del-enn, Rath-enn, Der-onn, and so forth. The various parts do have specific meanings, but I generally keep that to myself, just for amusement.

Please, what meaning have you given to those name prefixes and suffixes?

(Additionally, I have previously asked this on SciFi.stackexchange.com, and it would be amazing if you could also enlighten us there!)

Asked and answered.

I voted for the the Green...much good it did, but there it is.

That's your problem right here. Should have voted for the Purple.

According the the Lurker's Guide, he wasn't consciously referencing that, and considered changing it when he realised how similar he'd ended up making it.

After having just re-watched all bab5/crusade/movies in the past few weeks it's become quite clear to me that Babylon 5 seasons 1-4 had a fairly well thought out story that engaged audiences and while a few movies have filled in some unanswered questions the overall quality of everything that came after was just not there. Why do you think that is and what will be different about your upcoming project?

A side question: Will you ever revisit http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/master/eplist.html and update the episode order fully? The order specified for Crusade has many seemingly unneeded inconsistencies - especially as it relates to the relationship between Gideon and Lochley

When are we going to get a device that lets us live an entire life in 25 minutes? That's some cool tech.

Just do some "Dust." Dust, an addictive drug, allows non-telepaths of several races to probe the minds of others, experiencing all the victim's memories and thoughts in the space of a few minutes.

The Nightwatch were clearly modelled on the Hitler Youth/Gestapo and McCarthyism. It was historical, not prescient, though JMS was aware that history could repeat. The first reference is straight from the mouth of the creator JMS.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/044.html
"jms speaks ....
There's also a certain amount of McCarthyism inherent in the Nightwatch, the emphasis on revealing spies in our midst, enemies of the people.

The problem with pointing to the Nazis or the Gestapo exclusively is that it allows us the safety of saying, "Well, it happened just there, and only once, *we* could never fall for that."

Wrong.

http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/babylon-5-in-the-shadow-of-zhadum-1995/
"Series creator J. Michael Straczynski conceived of the series in the late 1980s and got it on air in the 1990s. He drew on history–in this case, from the Third Reich–think of Night Watch as similar to the Hitler Youth."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightwatch_(Babylon_5)
"In the Babylon 5 science fiction universe, Nightwatch was an Earth Alliance paramilitary organization set up during the Presidency of Morgan Clark. Like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, Nightwatch became the secret police organization of Clark's New Order."

Similarly the Centauri Empire was obviously modelled upon the Roman Empire. Lots of other parallels with Earth history. Sheridan has been described as Christ like (dying then coming back from the dead)....

By 1994, PC memory was faster and more abundant than anything the Cray had. It was common to have 60ns 72-pin SIMMs in sizes up to 128MB per module and transfer rates of about 200MB/sec. One of my PCs at work in 1994 was a Pentium 100MHz with 256MB of RAM, for example.

The B5 effects teams, both at Foundation and at NDI, use Lightwave 3D by NewTek and specialized software to design and render the visual effects. For the pilot, the effects were rendered on a network of Amiga computers; later, Foundation used 12 Pentium PCs and 5 DEC Alpha workstations for 3D rendering and design, and 3 Macintoshes for piecing together on-set computer displays. The NDI team uses a similar array of equipment; see George Johnsen's comments below.

Babylon 5 Behind The Scenes

As a reference librarian, my main goal is to be Bablyon 5. I'd love it if we succeeded in creating a powerful enough search and retrieval tool with an intuitive interface that negated the need for library user instruction.

That sounds cool but I'll take 2011 tech searching over 2260 tech any day. (Watch the episode.)

;-) Just picking nits. I loved B5 but boy did it mispredict text searching.

1) Never, ever, EVER allow time travel. Every single timeline can be undone. Nothing is believable.

Actually, I think Babylon 5 did a great job with time travel. It consisted of one episode in season 1 ("Babylon Squared") and a two-parter in season 3 ("War Without End" part 1 and part 2), which was the flip side of the season 1 episode.

1) Never, ever, EVER allow time travel. Every single timeline can be undone. Nothing is believable.

Actually, I think Babylon 5 did a great job with time travel. It consisted of one episode in season 1 ("Babylon Squared") and a two-parter in season 3 ("War Without End" part 1 and part 2), which was the flip side of the season 1 episode.

1) Never, ever, EVER allow time travel. Every single timeline can be undone. Nothing is believable.

Actually, I think Babylon 5 did a great job with time travel. It consisted of one episode in season 1 ("Babylon Squared") and a two-parter in season 3 ("War Without End" part 1 and part 2), which was the flip side of the season 1 episode.

That's funny, I hear that's what the people on the other side said too, except possibly in another language.

Mark Twain put it quite eloquently in The War Prayer.

His criticisms did get increasingly harsh as time went on, esp. about US military action overseas -- for example, The War Prayer. At one point, he suggested that this be the new American flag. He had a lot of pressure on him not to ruin his reputation by being too vocal of an antiwar voice.

I think you forgot to properly attribute that quote. It's from Babylon 5: 1x04: Infection.

what's a vcr?

A Babylon 5 character.

From: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/000.html
Yep, we're working on the re-edit now. There's still just so much that can be done, we can't shoot new material...but it's still going to be tighter, with additional material, new music, and new CGI in many places

Looks like they included new CGI. I've never compared the two episodes but I remember the remake being cleaner (which was probably thanks to VHS :-)

Also according to JMS, the Amigas and Video Toasters were not retired until after season 1.

Lightwave for the PC wasn't released until 1995 and Season 1 was produced in 1994, so you must be right.

Off topic, but the Lurker's Guide is an awesome site. Interviews, air dates, synopsis, it's all there.

IIRC, they did the CGI to Babylon 5 on Amigas.

From http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/effects.html
For the pilot, the effects were rendered on a network of Amiga computers; later, Foundation used 12 Pentium PCs and 5 DEC Alpha workstations for 3D rendering and design, and 3 Macintoshes for piecing together on-set computer displays. The NDI team uses a similar array of equipment; see George Johnsen's comments below.

So the only Pilot was rendered with Amiga. I know the pilot had its CGI upgraded later, so if you want to see the original Amiga rendering you'll probably have to torrent it.

Basically, started the whole process of CGI.

CGI existed as far back as the early eighties and you can see it in movies like Tron. That's before the Amiga's time.

She's pretty hot. My heart belongs to Delenn though.

Yuck. Go visit beautiful downtown Beijing and then we'll talk about what a fabulous idea it is for everyone to own their own little coal plants.

For the young 'uns among you, see here ;-)

Direct to DVD Babylon 5 movies are being made. See http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/118.html for details of the first DVD.

Oh, geez, if you want to slap religion around a bit, show the Babylon 5 episode "Believers." And then, if you want to show that religion can be beneficial, show "The Parliament of Dreams" right after that.

Kind of moot, though, since the OP was asking about books. Otherwise I would have suggested the anime "Planetes."

Oh, geez, if you want to slap religion around a bit, show the Babylon 5 episode "Believers." And then, if you want to show that religion can be beneficial, show "The Parliament of Dreams" right after that.

Kind of moot, though, since the OP was asking about books. Otherwise I would have suggested the anime "Planetes."

They were obviously destroyed during the Shadow War, as documented on Babylon 5 episode Into the Fire...

Or--knowing Israel--that it will be used, and have unforeseen side effects (as in a certain Babylon 5 episode).

In particular, God kills a kitten every time someone watches TKO.

There are two resources with this information:
a) Lurker's guide to B5 coverage, http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/misc/cc-leave.html
b) Google groups archive of rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, a search for all words, Claudia Christian contract, in that group gives a nice selection.

To set the stage... the fifth season was totally up in the air. Previously, B5 had aired on in syndication via an entity called PTEN, but by the end of season 4, the syndication market was drying up as previously independent stations were vacuumed up by Fox, WB, and UPN. All of the talent had contracts with some sort of a drop-dead date for WB (the production arm, not the network) to pick up their option for a fifth season. As the drop-dead date approached, somehow or another they got negotiations going with TNT to pick up season 5 (as well as IIRC reruns), but there was no arrangement in time for the lapsing of the talent's contracts.

To buy more time, WB asked for short extensions from the talent, and got them from everyone but CC. Consequently, she was out of contract, and a new contract would have to be arranged prior to the start of production. I'm not sure to what extent there was ongoing negotation to try to get her back under contract, but the long and short of it is, at the point where they absolutely had to know whether she was in or out, there was no contract, so she got written out of the story.

There was some speculation during the days when this was playing out that there was a lapse in communication or CC's agent tried to play hardball without fully consulting her. However, subsequent statements from jms about the interactions of he and cast members with CC make it pretty clear that she was aware of the situation and the deadlines, although possibly she didn't fully realize that the final deadline was nonnegotiable (due to the production schedule requirements for when scripts would be written). I believe she tried to claim at one point that WB or jms didn't want her back, and has since backpedaled from that position.

Based on subsequent statements, it seems fairly likely that a movie deal got in the way. It's not as clear what the sticking point was. jms has stated that CC's reps wanted her to be paid for 22 episodes while only working 18, and WB was understandably not willing to go along with that (not least because previously, Stephen Furst had worked a reduced schedule due to an outside TV commitment and was only paid for episodes worked). There was some talk about her wanting availability for specific dates contractually, with jms saying that he could give a personal assurance of that but it couldn't be contracted; I don't know whether one side or the other was taking an extraordinary position there, or whether that was ultimately the breaking point. Considering the number of parties involved (jms, CC, her agent, WB, whoever the outside movie deal was with), there may have been inadequate communication of the various sides positions. Also, CC (or her agent) may have overestimated how much she was "needed" by B5 (although there was already ample evidence that jms was willing and able to write anyone out of the story if circumstances dictated, see Talia Winters).

In particular, God kills a kitten every time someone watches TKO.

I thought that was Grey 17 is Missing? Or are we only talking S1 stinkers here?

I'm currently re-watching it, as I initially caught it very late at night on C4 in the UK, and I think I meandered in some time in season two, and started really paying attention in season three.

Anyway, I think anyone wanting to see what all the fuss is about should watch 2x14: And Now for a Word". It's a classic Bringing In the Newbies episode, has a good mix of all the elements that go into the show (political machinations, space battles, dark humour in places), showcases most of the characters pretty well (especially the late great Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar) and will give you a pretty good idea whether you like the show or not.

Personally, this season is blowing me away.

That said, it DID start off really slow in the first season. But the later seasons were some of the finest sci-fi I've ever seen on television.

I would also add that the second season was also very, very dark. I know some friends who had a hard time watching the series because of all of the bad things that happened in the second season, but I guarantee you, the payoff in seasons 3 and 4 are worth it. You certainly cannot stop watching before you get to Severed Dreams, the episode that forever hooked me to Babylon 5 never to recover. In order to truly enjoy the victory, you have to first taste the defeat.

The rest could probably be skipped.

In particular, God kills a kitten every time someone watches TKO.

On the contrary.

Good journalism doesn't involve censoring oneself because someone else wants you to do so. In fact, good journalism can and often is the very act of doing the opposite. If you're going to argue that journalistic censorship is a good thing, you then open the door to arguments such as "we shouldn't be talking about Falun Gong and the people who practice it because China hates that" or "we shouldn't be publishing anything that dictator X of country Y feels doesn't advance his/her causes" (in that case, we wouldn't know about illegal warrantless wiretapping here in the US, for example, because the publishing of the story was not in line with the power grab plans of the government).

Good journalism is telling the truth and getting that truth out to the people. Good journalism is not altering the truth to make it more palatable or convenient. Good journalism is not changing what one writes or photographs in order to get a more pleasing reaction to anyone from your words or images.

Reuters AlertNet - Reuters drops freelance Lebanese photographer over image

Fired. For altering the news and obscuring the truth. That's how unacceptable alteration of the truth really is. News organizations have an obligation to their readers or viewers -- and not to present, as one episode of a TV drama once put it as it covered the use of news manipulation, "the illusion of truth". (Guide page: "The Illusion of Truth"; notice in the summary that the writers also were honoring those blacklisted by anti-communist activists in the 1950s for producing material that was inconvenient to others).

Good journalism, then, is not censorship -- by any governmental body or by oneself.

Just part of the first season, and intermittant episodes after that.

I have no idea who they are

unless you consider Keanu Reeves a master thespian

One episode doesnt give you any reason to be addicted, two gives you something, after three episodes you cant wait to see fourth, after fourth you find yourself thinking how PPG's really work, after fifth you have lost the count.

Taking advantage of the fan base really helps with this. The Lurkers Guide to B5 is quite amazing in the amount of notes for each episode. When I bought the series on DVD, I watched each episode in conjunction with the episode guide (reading the what-to-watch-for bits beforehand, and JMS's catalogued usenet comments about the episode afterwards), and it added a lot to the understanding appreciation, and general enjoyment of the series.

There are quite a few shows toady that've copied the B5 pattern, or built on it in some cases. I have to admit that it's made more of an impression on me than any other SF show, however, just because of how much it revolutionised what could be done for writing and production of TV series' at the time.

It has the distinction of being possibly the best planned series of any kind in history.

I remember when B5 was on the air and I mentioned the whole "story arc" thing to a Singaporean coworker. He looked at me like I was crazy: "So? Half the shows back home are like that." Since then I've watched several Chinese TV shows and I have to say he was right; not to diminish B5 in the least, but some of those shows have every bit as much foreshadowing and plot twistiness. (But usually, in the case of fantasy stories, much cheesier special effects than B5 at its worst.)

As for "Comes the Inquisitor," JMS acknowledged that he had a braino. His words:

What happened is...basically...Joe is a moron.

I did my research. I called up the info on the encyclopedia, got all the dates right, and my eyes saw East End and for whatever stupid, idiotic reason, my fingers typed West instead of East, and nobody, NObody, caught it until now. I'd loop it, but alas the line is on his face, and it'd look real stupid, and the delivery is *so* perfect as it is; if we looped it, we'd destroy it.

So I content myself with the notion that it's west...of B5.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shoot myself.

It's worked before, as when Todd Rundgren's "Change Myself" drove development of Lightwave. Not to mention a certain sci-fi show...

Season 1, Episode 4: Infection

Reporter: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home?"

Sinclair: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."

If I had mod points you'd have them in an instant!

In my opinion this is the attitude that has to be taken about this subject. To stay is to definitely die off while to go is to preserve as much as we can of our species.

Though admittedly going by the B5 comment if all we have to worry about is the sun going out we have plenty of time. Unfortunately due to planetary history such as meteor strikes, pollution, war, etc. we have far far less time than that.

Again, only my opinion...

Season 1, Episode 4: Infection http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/0 04.html

Reporter: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home?"

Sinclair: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."

I don't know what story you're referring to, but it sounds like "Infection", a Babylon 5 episode from the 1st season.

B5 was produced under its budget, which was half the budget of Star Trek:TNG, which was half the budget of Firefly. Firefly only avoided the issue with aliens in rubber masks because they had no aliens at all. You may complain about the makeup in B5, but they did win three Emmys for it. (Well-deserved, I thought. Sometimes the effects didn't work at all, like N'grath in the first season, but sometimes they really did, like the Narn makeup.) Also, eight years in the evolution of cheap computer graphics is a long, long time. It'd be just as unfair to compare the effects from Battlestar Galactica (the new one) to those from Star Trek:DS9.

But some of the things that made Firefly great also made Babylon 5 great, like a series composer who could give a uniform feel to the show which you just can't get without a dedicated musician. (The X-Files and BtVS benefitted from Mark Snow and Christopher Beck, respectively, in the same way.)

What really got me about Firefly was that Babylon 5 was barely watchable in its first season. Oh, there were good ideas in there, but the acting was occasionally terrible, the tone was all over the place, and the creator didn't seem to have a consistent idea of what he was doing. But it picked up considerably from about episode 13 ("Signs and Portents"). Yes, there were bad episodes after that, but the arc had started up, and I was hooked. And unlike, say, on The X-Files, there was actually a plan behind the arc, other than "drag the audience around until they notice there's no man behind the curtain".

Firefly, by contrast, was dead brilliant from its very first act. And that's what made me so, so sad, because there's so much that's been lost, so much that could have been... and now won't be. Broke my damn heart at the end of "Objects in Space", when I knew there weren't no more t' be had.

Interesting. B5 changed my life at the time. It helped me see things differently. Even it this is the past and I'm focusing on other issues now, B5 will always have place in my heart.

Some great links:
Babylon 5 Lurker's Guide
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html
B5 quotes I gathered (and published in an open book):
http://www.alexandre.leroux.net/quotes/quotes_e.ht ml#b5-anchor
Free B5 great game:
http://ifh.firstones.com/

Cheers :-)

We were designed to live for ever, but the Universe decided to try something else ;)

>I despite the general "far fetchedness" of this >article. I think the wackiest part is that >somehow we might revive organisms on Mars.

What about the Shadow vessel buried under the surface?

After hearing statements coming out of the G8 summit, I am reminded of a scene in Babylon 5 episode Acts of Sacrifice:

Sheridan: G'Kar, everyone in this room knows too well that the first casualty of war is always the truth.

Franklin: Unfortunately, the rest tend to be too small or too weak to defend themselves.

--
The events in London were terrible. Those who committed those horrific acts they believe they are fighting a just war. And to them anyone is a legitimate target; no one is innocent. To them it is total war. We are caught between idiots and madmen. Our leaders say, the terrorists won't win, but how many will die before they lose? Is George Orwell's vision of perpetual war, becoming a reality? I hope not.

I watched the PBS special "In Search of Ancient Ireland." They talked about dark ages that coincided with the dark ages in classical Greece, 12th century BC. Not the more well known one in the 6th century AD. One scholar pointed out that in times of stress, people become more warlike and more religious. I was stunned to see that is the parallel with today's events.