Slashdot Mirror

We set traps for them.

It's probably because just about anything written about in the past sci-fi novels is now possible. Those little worm drones in Dune that could climb walls, relay video and sound as well as inject poison? That's doable. Tiny little drones with cameras? Done. Tricorder with multispectral scanner? Done. Touchscreens? Done. Full dome displays? Done. VR headsets? Done. Swarms of microbots? Done.
Video-on-Demand by cable? Done. Talking car? Done. Remote surveillance of your home by pocket videoscreen? Done.

If we look at how we lived back in the 1960's compared to now, the only changes have been the shape and size of TV screens, electronics and home appliances. We've mapped the human genome, virome, proteonome, and every other -ome there is.

The only things left are holographic displays, light sabers, flying cars, time travel and teleportation. Maybe the first two can be done using air ionization:
https://nerdist.com/the-future...

Black Mirror, S4E6 "Black Museum".

On the one hand, I can't think of anything wrong or stupid about a story involving a black female teenager in a mech suit. Mech suits are cool, no matter who is in them.

With good writers, one could spin compelling stories with any character, regardless of race, etc.

But, on the other hand, the only reason that this specific combination was chosen was to contrast it against the white male original character. And this isn't the only story in which this has happened. There is, in fact, a huge push to replace all the classic characters with women and minorities, not because there is something compelling about this plotwise, but in order to push an obvious agenda of social engineering.

And hell, if the whole agenda is just one of encouraging acceptance and respect, I don't even have a problem with that. But it is being grossly overdone, in an in-your-face and kind of insulting way, and the plots being produced are not compelling. "Oh look at me, I am a woman in a man's role" is just not good enough.

Why is a female Thor better than, say, brand new IP about the goddess Athena? Athena was a strategic badass in greek mythology, no need at all to turn a man into a woman who is just-as-good-or-better.

The answer is obvious. The goal is transparent. The push is to replace characters we have loved with more politically correct equivalents.....not to write badass stories with compelling plots.

And that is precisely why their sales are dropping. But their idealism won't allow them to admit this, not even to themselves, so they put the blame on bullshit.

Some talented startup is going to write some good comics in the next few years, and eat their lunch.

He will probably be recast for the purpose I described above.

J.J. Abrams Won't Recast Anton Yelchin's Chekov in Future STAR TREK Films. Since he would be producing this movie (assuming it gets made the way it is described so far), I doubt he would allow anyone to act against his wishes.

Someone else asked a related question, and Anton died after filming was complete. There would be no good way to alter the movie to include his character's death. The producers should do the same thing they did with Nimoy's death: the character died off-screen between movies.

https://nerdist.com/nasa-remin...

Actually, as I understand it, he's he's already filmed his cameos for the MCU.

The treaty is required especially on the basis of preventing nuclear weapons use in space. Just before the treaty the US tested nuclear weapons in space and they did less than ground bursts. Watch the video. In terms of economic development, the treaty only enforces property rights based on the nation launching and using vehicles in space. Both for assets and liability. The real risk is that private space companies in effect can privatize the gains while socializing the risk of destroying billions of dollars of equipment launched by other nations.

But they never tested anything like an exploding iPad or laptop. They were specifically testing shooting holes in a plane with a gun.

In fact they also tested blowing up a window with explosives, and then blowing out the side of the plane with a very large explosive. They still concluded that modern planes are very structurally sound and that it would suck for the person sitting next to the explosives, but everyone else will just get a bunch of air rushing past. Also covered in the more extreme scenario of a spacecraft decompressing in zero atmosphere by Kyle Hill of Because Science.

Mythbusters proved that it is at least plausible to carry around all your weapons DOOM style, as long as you are in very good shape.

http://nerdist.com/what-we-lea...

Is that endgame somehow connected to that "Endgame"?

Anyone knows a site that shares the solution of those puzzles?

Star Trek's original premise about social commentary being its true strength (City on the Edge of Forever, anyone?)

Spock's Brain, anyone?

yeah

The Nerdist blames Paramount.

I submit the Jar Jar Binks candy. That's not an unfortunately placed functional element, the candy IS his tongue. I mean...that is his tongue, right? 8-(

But it is indeed hard to beat the cup due to Buzz's facial expression.

...this is pretty cool, but I'd rather prefer to control a QuadCopter with the Oculus rift!

Oh wait (searches)...it's done already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Hm, wonder if I can play GTA 5 etc... with the oculus rift (googles again before pressing preview)
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/06...

Hm...not quite conclusive, but we're getting there...

If your IP address if favoured by our media overlords, there's a better quality version of the video here: http://www.nerdist.com/2014/05...

"citizens killed by their own government on bogus pretexts"

If so, isn't essentially everyone on the planet is in some sense living under the USA government to some extent? And even if not, then certainly they are living under neoliberal capitalism to some extent. If so, then couldn't one argue that anyone killed anywhere in the globe by the USA was, to some extent, killed by his or her own de-facto government?

You might say, well they did not vote for the US president. But it used to be that black people, and natives, and women living in the USA could not vote for the US president either.

Maybe the global spread of neo-liberal economics has implicitly redefined what it means to be a global citizen? If global economics (including possible collapse or nuclear war) affects everyone's lives, then are we not, to some extent, all under that form of neo-liberal governance?
http://steadystaterevolution.org/neoliberalism-as-a-waterballoon/

Perhaps "Elysium" (a movie coming out next month) is *optimistic* in that sense, that there are still people around in a century?
http://www.nerdist.com/2013/04/elysium-takes-class-warfare-into-space/

In any case, my opinion is that if the internet is not used to "free" us all in some sense, and soon, then it will no-doubt likely be used to enslave us or worse.
http://pcast.ideascale.com/a/dtd/The-need-for-FOSS-intelligence-tools-for-sensemaking-etc./76207-8319
"Now, there are many people out there (including computer scientists) who may raise legitimate concerns about privacy or other important issues in regards to any system that can support the intelligence community (as well as civilian needs). As I see it, there is a race going on. The race is between two trends. On the one hand, the internet can be used to profile and round up dissenters to the scarcity-based economic status quo (thus legitimate worries about privacy and something like TIA). On the other hand, the internet can be used to change the status quo in various ways (better designs, better science, stronger social networks advocating for some healthy mix of a basic income, a gift economy, democratic resource-based planning, improved local subsistence, etc., all supported by better structured arguments like with the Genoa II approach) to the point where there is abundance for all and rounding up dissenters to mainstream economics is a non-issue because material abundance is everywhere. So, as Bucky Fuller said, whether is will be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race to the very end. While I can't guarantee success at the second option of using the internet for abundance for all, I can guarantee that if we do nothing, the first option of using the internet to round up dissenters (or really, anybody who is different, like was done using IBM [punched card equipment] in WWII Germany) will probably prevail. So, I feel the global public really needs access to these sorts of sensemaking tools in an open source way, and the way to use them is not so much to "fight back" as to "transform and/or transcend the system". As Bucky Fuller said, you never change thing by fighting the old paradigm directly; you change things by inventing a new way that makes the old paradigm obsolete."

Anybody else have a recommendation for a site with similar functionality, clean interface, and good browser addon support?

I'll bite. I use Opera as my Browsing weapon of choice. You can import bookmark files (Opera, IE, Firefox, Konqueror) into it easily. Nerdlist has published instructions on how to export to an html file, which you can then import into your browser, but I'm not sure how well the tags & notes would import along with the bookmarks.

Opera has nicknames where tags could go and description fields you can add notes to on Bookmarks, but whether you can port them over automatically or have to do it by hand I don't know. Maybe a canny coder will make an Opera Widget or Extension to help user port their bookmarks over. If you make use of Opera Link you can synch your bookmarks (and more) to your online Link account and choose to make your bookmarks public or private, as you so desire.

How about Refreshing Crack!