Did the Chinese Military Use Top Gun Footage?

Now you've done it by Chrisq · 2011-01-31 04:01 · Score: 2

Now you've done it ... just wait for Slashdot to be blocked from China!

Re:Now you've done it by LWATCDR · 2011-01-31 04:27 · Score: 2

Well let's be honest. This is for domestic consumption and it isn't like any news services in china will pick this up.
A few people in China will find it because it is so badly done. Those that bother to say anything will simply say that they used some stock footage.
It is at best amusing to us but will not matter a bit to the Chinese.

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Re:Now you've done it by davester666 · 2011-01-31 07:38 · Score: 2

You all have it backwards.
Top Gun used secret military spy film of their jet planes, stolen from China.

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Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Re:Now you've done it by LWATCDR · 2011-01-31 07:57 · Score: 2

While a funny also impossible since the plane shown being blown up was a Northrup F-5.
To make it work you would have to include how China stole US made F-5s and used them in their weapons tests. To make it even better the F-5s would be piloted by MIAs from the Viet Nam.
Make some effort after all.

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See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.

What does communist have to do with it? by Rinnon · 2011-01-31 04:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

Seriously, I don't see what being communist has to do with embarrassing yourself. Capitalist nations embarrass themselves pretty damn often too.

Re:What does communist have to do with it? by MightyMartian · 2011-01-31 04:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

The difference being that most capitalist nations are democracies, and everybody rather expects that impermanent governments are going to bugger things up. I'd say fuck-ups are the life blood of democracy.
In states like China, where the government asserts that it knows best, these sorts of stupid stunts have somewhat more dramatic connotations. Particularly in this case, it not only raises the question as to what kind of people it has in its military and PR that think it's a bright idea to rip off footage from a Hollywood film, it also raises the more important question as to why they would even need to.

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The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by h4rm0ny · 2011-01-31 04:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

In states like China, where the government asserts that it knows best
The US and UK governments assert that they no best through a never ending flood of requirements on educational practices, telling Doctors how to practice, how to manage land, what drugs and herbal remedies are legal and illegal, how local authorities may spend their money. There's no end to it really. In the US, it even decides who may or may not vote! All of which are direct assertions that they know best.

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Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by h4rm0ny · 2011-01-31 04:24 · Score: 2, Insightful

Your terrible grammar nullifies any argument you may have had.
I wrote 'no' instead of 'know' the first time I used it. That's not an error of grammar, it's just typing too quickly. It really has no bearing on any argument's legitimacy and I doubt you'd "nullify" an argument that you agreed with on those grounds.

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Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by MoonBuggy · 2011-01-31 04:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

By voting for representatives, you are seen as having had your say - it's not "the government" making the rules, it's "the people" doing so by proxy. Or so the theory goes.
Those in power might well act as if they know best, but at the end of the day they are, to some extent, beholden to the people. We can and do get rid of them if they piss us off too badly. I know it doesn't work that well, but it's still a damn sight better than being told "We are right, if you disagree you are a dangerous subversive, and there's not a thing you can do about it.".
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by Zeek40 · 2011-01-31 04:27 · Score: 2

The difference is, in the US or the UK, if you feel that you have a better idea than the government you can run for office and try to change things. In China, if you feel that you have a better idea than the government, you're sent to a re-education camp to convince you otherwise.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by Culture20 · 2011-01-31 04:32 · Score: 2, Informative

Yeah but communists are inherently retarded, so it's extra funny. Have you seen their baseball?
I think you forgot that Cuba is communist. They play great baseball.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by Quiet_Desperation · 2011-01-31 04:52 · Score: 2, Insightful

Sorry, but there are few things more retarded than typo Nazis.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by euroq · 2011-01-31 05:15 · Score: 3, Informative

First of all, I think you meant to cast the Author into a Troll, not the return value of Feed into a Troll.
((Troll*)(&comment.GetAuthor()))->Feed( false );
Second of all, that is an unnecessarily complicated way to cast it by dereferencing the item, and then using pointers. It probably would have made more sense if GetAuthor() returned a pointer (then it could possibly be null sometimes), but that is not the case. The easiest syntax, then, would be as follows:
((Troll)comment.GetAuthor()).Feed(false);

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Just because the U.S. is a republic does not mean it is not a democracy. Democracy/republic are not mutually exclusive.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-31 05:19 · Score: 3, Interesting

Do you really thing that a government body is THAT stupid? Its probably misinformation to look stupid - a very common political tactic, especially if you cross it with the current spotlight on whether or not they created a space plane. Just look at it this way: how does this make you perceive them, as a gut reaction - I know my first reaction was "well if they doctored footage with Top Gun as a basis for avionics propaganda, surely they couldn't have a space plane"
My tin foil hat has multiple layers - for foil-penetrating mind-control.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by royallthefourth · 2011-01-31 05:20 · Score: 3, Informative

The difference being that most capitalist nations are democracies,
You're making a false distinction here. China is ruled by a nominally communist party and doesn't have open elections, but the actual form of the economy is quite capitalist. There's huge factories with workers getting paid $10/day to work 16 hours in horrible conditions with no union. The factory is owned not by the state or the workers, but by a billionaire living in Shanghai. For the peasant farmers living in the country, they have little access to electricity, running water, medicine, or education. The state provides them with nothing and sometimes even takes their land to hand directly to real estate developers.
Nothing communist about it.
Also, the various dictatorships of the Middle East and South America from the past and present century were/are nearly all capitalist. What's the king of Saudi Arabia? A communist? Franco? Pinochet? Qaddafi? The kleptocrat nepotist Mohammad Karzai? Just a democratic facade. I don't have time to prove you wrong about the majority of capitalist economies existing in democracies, but it's a huge and highly suspect assumption.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by cdp0 · 2011-01-31 05:21 · Score: 5, Interesting

The difference is, in the US or the UK, if you feel that you have a better idea than the government you can run for office and try to change things.
Do you really believe that ? I mean really, give it a try. Without money, without support from "big business", nobody will ever hear about you. And even if people hear about you, you won't be one of their favorites, mostly because they don't know you. Running for office involves much more than just the will to do it.
And the kind of people that have the will, the money and the support are in the game for power, for their own benefit, not for ours.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by forkfail · 2011-01-31 05:47 · Score: 2

And this is why we have code reviews ;)

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Check your premises.
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by scot4875 · 2011-01-31 06:48 · Score: 2

Pointing out one exceptional, contrary case isn't really the best way to "prove" someone is wrong.
--Jeremy

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Jesus was a liberal
Re:What does communist have to do with it? by Blade · 2011-01-31 06:58 · Score: 2

Maybe that's true in the US, I can't comment. It's not true in the UK where it's entirely possible to get 'involved in government' with nothing more than drive and local support. Whether one MP can achieve anything in the House of Commons is another question entirely, and whether being an MP let's you influence much other than your own expenses claim is beside the point.

"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselves"? by sznupi · 2011-01-31 04:03 · Score: 2, Interesting

First, this seems to be the work of a TV broadcaster, not a nation (certainly not a communist one...) ... does anyone here really think "non-commie" media are any better?

Secondly, apparently it was used as a demonstration of effects of their new missile - using a footage of exploding F-5 is even somewhat fitting, might even be not simply a case of lazy TV crew... (even if not lazy, capturing real hits would be extremely hard for little effect, they aren't particularly "cinema impressive")

And generally, regarding embarrassments - yeah, because in non-commie lands works of visual fiction would never be used in real military contexts, that's unheard of, would be ... too, too embarrassing.

But yes, you all read that right, their main TV broadcaster is called CCTV / sarcasm meter implodes :>>

PS. BTW, regarding such movies - Les Chevaliers du ciel (aka Sky Fighters), while obviously also with completely redundant plot, is much more enjoyable all-flash-no-substance kind of deal - it has much more spectacular cinematography, nvm lots more minutes of actual flying. Unlike Top Gun (where most flight sequences filming was done from the ground) - in Les Chevaliers du ciel the majority of filming was done from the air, largely via cameras hidden in modified fuel tanks of fighters, to great effect.

Plus it's much less of "a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality" (via Quentin Tarantino)

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One that hath name thou can not otter

so where's the RIAA now? by v1 · 2011-01-31 04:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

this ought to be good... I want to see the suits show up at a door, knock, and open it to see a tank barrel in their face. (sort of like in the Simpsons episode)

oh wait I forgot, the RIAA doesn't pick on anyone that can defend themselves.

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I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by egamma · 2011-01-31 04:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

First, this seems to be the work of a TV broadcaster, not a nation (certainly not a communist one...) ... does anyone here really think "non-commie" media are any better?

The difference is that in China, that TV broadcaster IS the government, or at least highly controlled by them. The American media are stupid all by themselves.

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In Communist China... by kerskine · 2011-01-31 04:10 · Score: 4, Funny

...Maverick Gooses You

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"I'd never want to join a club that would have me as a member" - G. Marx

Re:Embaras? You dont get it.. by MightyMartian · 2011-01-31 04:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

I beg to differ. China has made all sorts of bellowing noises against things they felt would embarrass them on the international stage. I'm thinking here of the film about the Uighur leader that China demanded an Australian film festival not show, and the film festival's website was suddenly the victim of cyberattacks pretty obviously coming from China.

China is extremely sensitive of its reputation.

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The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.

WSJ report and comparison video by Novus · 2011-01-31 04:11 · Score: 5, Informative

The Wall Street Journal has a report including a comparison video.

Damn! by PPH · 2011-01-31 04:14 · Score: 4, Funny

I was looking forward to a video of a Chinese pilot lip-syncing You've Lost That Loving Feeling.

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Have gnu, will travel.

Re:Damn! by halivar · 2011-01-31 04:19 · Score: 4, Funny

"You've rost... dat ruvvving feering... whoah dat ruvving feering...."
Re:Damn! by Tablizer · 2011-01-31 04:29 · Score: 2, Funny

"You've rost... dat ruvvving feering... whoah dat ruvving feering...."
-1 Twoll

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Table-ized A.I.
Re:Damn! by martyros · 2011-01-31 05:08 · Score: 2

Funny, but Chinese have an "L" sound. You're thinking other asian languages, like Japanese / Thai. [/nitpick]

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TCP: Why the Internet is full of SYN.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-31 04:16 · Score: 2, Insightful

Yes. Big difference. Here the media owns the state and not the other way around.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by h4rm0ny · 2011-01-31 04:16 · Score: 2

The American media are stupid all by themselves.

If you assume that the people in control of the US media got where they are by being stupid, you're very wrong. And if you think there aren't endless close ties between the mainstream media and the government, you're even more wrong.

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Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by Bill_the_Engineer · 2011-01-31 04:18 · Score: 5, Informative

You post appears to be propaganda masquerading as sarcasm. So just in case, I'd like to make the following points:

CCTV stands for China Central Television which is a state run television network. It is communist.

CCTV is the main outlet of propaganda for the government. Western broadcasters may at times use film scenes or in-house produced animations to illustrate a story, but they disclose it as a animation or for illustration purposes only. They are a third-party entity reporting an event, not part of the government trying to fabricate the event.

Your example of Powell's UN presentation doesn't seem applicable, since Powell wasn't the media and that the slide was produced by analysts and not a scene from a movie.

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These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...

Riceman? by locutus53 · 2011-01-31 04:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Riceman?

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by advid.net · 2011-01-31 04:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

PS. BTW, regarding such movies - Les Chevaliers du ciel (aka Sky Fighters), while obviously also with completely redundant plot, is much more enjoyable all-flash-no-substance kind of deal - it has much more spectacular cinematography, nvm lots more minutes of actual flying. Unlike Top Gun (where most flight sequences filming was done from the ground) - in Les Chevaliers du ciel the majority of filming was done from the air, largely via cameras hidden in modified fuel tanks of fighters, to great effect.

Anyone who like technology, fighters, sonic boom at ground level, real footage from fighters, post-combustion by night, ... in widescreen should see this awesome movie.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-31 04:25 · Score: 3, Insightful

BTW, regarding such movies - Les Chevaliers du ciel (aka Sky Fighters), while obviously also with completely redundant plot, is much more enjoyable all-flash-no-substance kind of deal - it has much more spectacular cinematography, nvm lots more minutes of actual flying.

A movie made 20 years after Top Gun has better effects? Shocking!

Unfortunately, I'm no longer 10 years old, so I doubt I'll enjoy it as much.

You haven't experienced by confu2000 · 2011-01-31 04:30 · Score: 2, Funny

Top Gun unless you've watched it in the original Klingon.

Re:You haven't experienced by blackbear · 2011-01-31 05:18 · Score: 4, Insightful

I would have written:
You haven't fully experienced Top Gun unless you've watched it in the original Chinese.
With the above you allude to the original joke without hitting us over the head with it. Thus giving all of us who "get it" a chance to look down our collective noses at those of less depth in Sci-Fi pop culture.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by sznupi · 2011-01-31 04:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

Actual cinematography (in this case the results of most basic choices about camera placement) = effects? Since when?

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One that hath name thou can not otter

Chinese Innovation by ddd0004 · 2011-01-31 04:55 · Score: 2

That's brilliant. All government should punch up their official communications with movie and tv show clips. The state of the union address would be much more exciting dubbed over a couple old episodes of the A-Team

Re:Chinese Innovation by Minwee · 2011-01-31 05:11 · Score: 3, Funny

I love it when the economy comes together.

Re:"Commies skilled an(sic) embarrassing themselve by Bill_the_Engineer · 2011-01-31 05:09 · Score: 2

(and yeah, what Powell did was much worse than what here was done by some random TV crew ... not to mention how the US media licked from his hand)

Okay, I'll bite. How so?

Everyone seems to have forgotten that the days leading up to the Iraq war were filled with Saddam Hussein making grandiose claims of being close to producing nuclear weapons. They also seem to have forgotten that Hussein used chemical weapons against the Kurds (google "yellow rain iraq'). Unfortunately the US intelligence community was so incapable of gathering any credible evidence to the contrary that we had little choice but to act accordingly. You can also come up with your favorite conspiracy theory about this period. Unfortunately for Hussein, his erratic behavior and his continued and increasingly aggressive stunts against the UN inspectors made the old adage "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't" less applicable. This is why a lot of politicians that are now against the war voted for it originally.

People who are opposed to the war like to revise the history leading up to the event to further vilify the Bush administration. I didn't like the idea of the iraq invasion, but let's face it a lot of the blame falls on Saddam Hussein.

I would like to point out that unlike CCTV, the American news do follow up on their news stories. The American media did questioned the Bush administration about lapses in intelligence within Iraq leading up to the war. The fact that "yellow cake uranium" was never found. No weapons of mass destruction was found (or made public). I could also mention the Valerie Plame scandal...

Again, Just from the fact that the American media eventually questioned the validity of Powell's UN presentation makes your point moot. You'd never see CCTV questioning the actions of the Chinese government.

You reminded me about an old joke that Yakov Smirnoff told, it went something like this "The Soviet Union and US enjoy the same freedom of speech. In Washington D.C. you are allowed to assemble a protest against your American government. In the Soviet Union we are allowed to assemble in Moscow to protest against your American government."

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These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...

Re:I doubt it by Belial6 · 2011-01-31 12:20 · Score: 2

Could you please put a spelling error in there so that I can complain about it, as it seems you do have a point in this case, and since I don't want to admit it, I must find some typo, spelling, or grammar error to complain about.

Oh! OK is supposed to be capitalized! That's it!

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Did the Chinese Military Use Top Gun Footage?

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