Who cares about the Tolkien fans? The LOTR films didn't become massive blockbusters by appealing only to hardcore Tolkien geeks. There's no reason why any Silmarillion film would have to do so - in fact, it wouldn't be financially viable if it did.
And yes, I'm a Tolkien fan, and I've even read the Silmarillion.
In the Real World, brand recognition and mass market appeal make for good movie scripts. Not intricate histories and complex mythologies.
Sure, but Jackson and co have already created the brand recognition and mass market. There are a lot of people who loved the LOTR films who hadn't read the books, but would probably enjoy another foray into Middle Earth. The fact that the Silmarillion is virtually unreadable would not necessarily be an impediment to making a good film - there are some great stories in there, so the trick would be to take the book as a starting point, pick one or two of the stories and rewrite them into a coherent script, not try to film the whole thing.
The Hobbit would be much easier to write, film and market, of course. But I'd love to see Anacalagon breaking mountains as he fell...
Personally I don't think you're a racist, but actually the quoted comments do have something to do with race - I'm sure "diversity" (near the end) is just a codeword for race.
Big Science doesn't work like that. No big telescopes, on Earth or above it, charge for use. They are paid for by taxpayers and philanthropists. You may also be surprised to learn that astronomers from countries which don't contribute financially can be quite successful at obtaining time on major telescopes. For example, Australia has paid nothing at all towards Hubble's costs, but our
astronomers regularly get time on it.
I think this is a good thing. Not everything is about money.
Hey! I thought of this too. My one good idea for the year, and you beat me to it!
Or if not a volunteer org, how about handing them over to another space agency? The Europeans, Japanese or even Chinese or Indians could take this on (might be a good learning experience for the latter two, who have ambitions but no deep space experience yet). Or a consortium of universities or research
institutes or other quangos. In fact, why not just put all the communication protocols etc on the web and say, we can't do this anymore, but if anyone else wants to, they're welcome to try?
Deflection? Me? Are you for real? The OP was clearly talking about Israeli helicopters firing missiles into builtup areas, and you pretended to believe that in fact it was talking about terrorist rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. I was just returning the thread to the original point, so where do you get off accusing me of deflection?
Have you ever seen Hamas apologize when they hit a baby? Never. An Israeli soldier who kills a baby palestinian can and will be jailed.
Rubbish. There have been a few prosecutions for the more extreme examples, but this is not routine, as you imply. Or - just to take one example - can you tell me which Israeli soldier was jailed for killing 3 year old Burhan al-Himuni in December 2001?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning terrorism, and Israel has the right to defend its citizens. But its methods are so incredibly blunt, the enormous number of noncombatants killed is just sickening. Israel has lost any claim to the moral high ground.
I'm blessed & fortunate to be part of the vocal minority who believe in God and reject the rampant, ubiquitous humanism and materialism around us.
As a secular humanist, I also reject the rampant materialism,but I can't see that humanism is ubiquitous as well. Not sure why it would be a bad thing, either - except of course, it doesn't exalt the desires of a hypothetical being above the needs of real people. Well, nothing's perfect.
Not actually "Air To Ground missiles", seing as they are ground-launched, but nice try. Oh, and how many innocent civilians have Israeli missiles killed? A lot more than 4, that's for sure.
The 12 volume reissue was done in 1933, and the main body of the work hasn't changed since then, though they do issue supplements. In short, they've long since recovered their costs, and any income from it is pure profit.
What ARE you talking about? The 2nd Edition was completed in 1989, at a cost of 13 million pounds, and they have been revising it constantly since then. See for yourself.
Diplomacy is the only boardgame where I've been physically assaulted by one of the other players. Well, I had double-crossed him 3 turns in a row, but more fool him for believing me after the first, or even the second time. (Oh, and no alcohol was involved!)
Naval War! Completely agree, that was a very fun game, which I sadly haven't played in years. In similar vein (but on steroids), is Modern Naval Battles, which has been renamed Cold War Naval Battles and can be freely downloaded.
Well, perhaps, but why pick India? The British still had substantial colonies for decades after it let go of India (still have some minor ones, of course), and in some places their actions hardly enhanced their record as model world citizens...
Labour - the Liberal party - is currently in government in Britain.
Huh? Labour aren't the Liberal Party. The Liberal Democrats are, or rather they are descended in part from the old Liberal Party, which fractured during the First World War and kept on doing so into the 1930s, becoming more and more irrelevent in the process. The last time there were Liberals of any sort in power was as part of Churchill's coalition government during the Second World War.
Labour traces its origins back to the Labour Representation Committee, founded in 1900 (and before that, to the Independent Labour Party founded in 1893). Although they cooperated with the Liberals (being more progressive than the Tories) in the early years, they were not in any way Liberals themselves.
Fair enough - but I think if it hasn't clicked for you by season 3, it probably never will! That was the best season as a whole.
I'd agree with both of those answers. JMS isn't as good a writer as he thinks he is, but sometimes he almost is, and I appreciate the bold attempt, flawed as it is, to bring such a grand epic to the screen. Sometimes it's cheesy and melodramatic, but sometimes it's brilliant (eg Severed Dreams, The Long Twilight Struggle, And The Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place, any scene with Londo and G'Kar in it). And as others have said, at the time it was a refreshingly darker, grittier, more realistic change from the shiny plastic future of Star Trek (although it now seems tame in comparison with Battlestar Galactica). I'm not quite the one-eyed fan I used to be, though; the B5 has had 5.5 seasons and 5 TV movies, that's a pretty good run. Now I would probably prefer more Firefly or BSG to another B5 film, if I had to choose.
Geez, man, if you don't like it, don't watch it! Nobody's forcing you - it's only your own time that you're wasting.
Myself, I'm surprised at how many of my friends laughed at me for watching B5... and then eventually turned into fans themselves (one as recently as a few months ago). I mean, I'm seriously surprised - I loved the show, but I recognise it had limitations, particularly some of the acting (I won't name any names, but if you were a telepath you would know who I mean;) So I'm surprised that it became as popular as it did.
Kyoto has nothing to do with the environment. It is an attempt to squash North American industry
Oh, those devious Europeans - how clever of them to be able to squash US industry with Kyoto EVEN THOUGH THE US HASN'T SIGNED. Jesus, what is wrong with you people? I see this stupid conspiracy theory again and again on slashdot. Can't you think about it for 5 seconds and figure out that if Kyoto was some sort of anti-US conspiracy, then as soon as it was realised that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of the US ratifying it, everyone else would drop it too, instead of continuing to carry it out? They would only be harming themselves. All it would have taken was for Russia, say, to not ratify it and it would have never come into force.
And from the rest of your post, you don't seem to realise that Kyoto isn't about toxic waste or generic pollution, it's about CO2 emissions, and that's all. And the US emits more CO2 than any other country, including China. And that's why the rest of the world cares whether the US is inside Kyoto or not, not because they are trying to drag you down. Got it? Good.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't a scaled-down Big Gemini be just a Gemini? :P
Bob Zubrin of the Mars Society has also expressed his approval of the choice of Griffin, though I couldn't find a link on their website.
And yes, I'm a Tolkien fan, and I've even read the Silmarillion.
Sure, but Jackson and co have already created the brand recognition and mass market. There are a lot of people who loved the LOTR films who hadn't read the books, but would probably enjoy another foray into Middle Earth. The fact that the Silmarillion is virtually unreadable would not necessarily be an impediment to making a good film - there are some great stories in there, so the trick would be to take the book as a starting point, pick one or two of the stories and rewrite them into a coherent script, not try to film the whole thing.
The Hobbit would be much easier to write, film and market, of course. But I'd love to see Anacalagon breaking mountains as he fell ...
Personally I don't think you're a racist, but actually the quoted comments do have something to do with race - I'm sure "diversity" (near the end) is just a codeword for race.
Don't ever believe your work was for nothing! However much the Voyagers have cost, the knowledge they sent back to us is priceless. Thank you.
I think this is a good thing. Not everything is about money.
Or if not a volunteer org, how about handing them over to another space agency? The Europeans, Japanese or even Chinese or Indians could take this on (might be a good learning experience for the latter two, who have ambitions but no deep space experience yet). Or a consortium of universities or research institutes or other quangos. In fact, why not just put all the communication protocols etc on the web and say, we can't do this anymore, but if anyone else wants to, they're welcome to try?
Have you ever seen Hamas apologize when they hit a baby? Never. An Israeli soldier who kills a baby palestinian can and will be jailed.
Rubbish. There have been a few prosecutions for the more extreme examples, but this is not routine, as you imply. Or - just to take one example - can you tell me which Israeli soldier was jailed for killing 3 year old Burhan al-Himuni in December 2001?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning terrorism, and Israel has the right to defend its citizens. But its methods are so incredibly blunt, the enormous number of noncombatants killed is just sickening. Israel has lost any claim to the moral high ground.
As a secular humanist, I also reject the rampant materialism ,but I can't see that humanism is ubiquitous as well. Not sure why it would be a bad thing, either - except of course, it doesn't exalt the desires of a hypothetical being above the needs of real people. Well, nothing's perfect.
Not actually "Air To Ground missiles", seing as they are ground-launched, but nice try. Oh, and how many innocent civilians have Israeli missiles killed? A lot more than 4, that's for sure.
CCGs are not roleplaying games, so your post is irrelevent.
What ARE you talking about? The 2nd Edition was completed in 1989, at a cost of 13 million pounds, and they have been revising it constantly since then. See for yourself.
Diplomacy is the only boardgame where I've been physically assaulted by one of the other players. Well, I had double-crossed him 3 turns in a row, but more fool him for believing me after the first, or even the second time. (Oh, and no alcohol was involved!)
Naval War! Completely agree, that was a very fun game, which I sadly haven't played in years. In similar vein (but on steroids), is Modern Naval Battles, which has been renamed Cold War Naval Battles and can be freely downloaded.
Well, perhaps, but why pick India? The British still had substantial colonies for decades after it let go of India (still have some minor ones, of course), and in some places their actions hardly enhanced their record as model world citizens ...
We say "ta" here in Australia, too.
Good lord, I've learnt something by reading Slashdot. Thanks!
Huh? Labour aren't the Liberal Party. The Liberal Democrats are, or rather they are descended in part from the old Liberal Party, which fractured during the First World War and kept on doing so into the 1930s, becoming more and more irrelevent in the process. The last time there were Liberals of any sort in power was as part of Churchill's coalition government during the Second World War.
Labour traces its origins back to the Labour Representation Committee, founded in 1900 (and before that, to the Independent Labour Party founded in 1893). Although they cooperated with the Liberals (being more progressive than the Tories) in the early years, they were not in any way Liberals themselves.
I'd agree with both of those answers. JMS isn't as good a writer as he thinks he is, but sometimes he almost is, and I appreciate the bold attempt, flawed as it is, to bring such a grand epic to the screen. Sometimes it's cheesy and melodramatic, but sometimes it's brilliant (eg Severed Dreams, The Long Twilight Struggle, And The Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place, any scene with Londo and G'Kar in it). And as others have said, at the time it was a refreshingly darker, grittier, more realistic change from the shiny plastic future of Star Trek (although it now seems tame in comparison with Battlestar Galactica). I'm not quite the one-eyed fan I used to be, though; the B5 has had 5.5 seasons and 5 TV movies, that's a pretty good run. Now I would probably prefer more Firefly or BSG to another B5 film, if I had to choose.
Mod parent down!
Myself, I'm surprised at how many of my friends laughed at me for watching B5 ... and then eventually turned into fans themselves (one as recently as a few months ago). I mean, I'm seriously surprised - I loved the show, but I recognise it had limitations, particularly some of the acting (I won't name any names, but if you were a telepath you would know who I mean ;) So I'm surprised that it became as popular as it did.
But ... what are the strengths of imperial measurements, other than familiarity?
Oh, those devious Europeans - how clever of them to be able to squash US industry with Kyoto EVEN THOUGH THE US HASN'T SIGNED. Jesus, what is wrong with you people? I see this stupid conspiracy theory again and again on slashdot. Can't you think about it for 5 seconds and figure out that if Kyoto was some sort of anti-US conspiracy, then as soon as it was realised that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of the US ratifying it, everyone else would drop it too, instead of continuing to carry it out? They would only be harming themselves. All it would have taken was for Russia, say, to not ratify it and it would have never come into force.
And from the rest of your post, you don't seem to realise that Kyoto isn't about toxic waste or generic pollution, it's about CO2 emissions, and that's all. And the US emits more CO2 than any other country, including China. And that's why the rest of the world cares whether the US is inside Kyoto or not, not because they are trying to drag you down. Got it? Good.
Yes, Kyoto does SUCH a great job of ganging up on the US that it is somehow going to "slow the US down" without the US even ratifying it. Idiot.