The evolution of Paul, the love affair with Chani, the conflict with his mother, the political intrigue, the religious mania, the ecological message, all of that is intrinsic to the story, but I personally think that Herbert went to great pains to describe every aspect of life in the time.
Some of the Bene Gesserit dignity and mystique is destroyed when you whore them up in eye shadow and kimonos. Some of the ruthlessness of the Harkonnens is destroyed when you dress them up like shoguns.
The guild navigator....ehh... well I won't even get into that one.
The stillsuits looked like extra Sub-Zero and Scorpion uniforms re-painted from Mortal Kombat: The Movie. They had no nose plugs either.
Enough people have complained about the eyes of Ibad effect going sour, so I won't bother.
The kid who played Paul actually ended up doing a good job, imho, though the first part of the series did a piss poor job of developing Paul's character, since he is the exact opposite of how he was acting in that episode. And the superfluous sexual tension scenes between Paul and Irulan, indeed Irulan's role at all, was bothersome. This is a person he will never feel for, isn't supposed to feel for in the next book. Irulan was played to be too naive as well. She is a Bene Gesserit! I guess that was supposed to be explained in that 30 second scene where we see her doing what looked like Qigong and I ASSUME was supposed to be Prana-Bindu exercise.
I really liked the person they got to play Liet though. He does a good job of capturing the Liet we read about in HH, who is a desert-wise Fremen that is thrust into the seat of Imperial Planetologist by the untimely death of his father Pardot. That was one of the few things I liked about the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson prequels.
Ian McNiece was half the baron, I think. He did a decent job of showing the intelligence of the Baron, but he just couldn't do that maniac side of him. The Baron is supposed to be fear-inspiring, not to mention have a deep basso voice. Ian is fat, and that is about his only qualification for the movie.
Overall though, I can't complain. It was nice seeing the series I so love rendered on the screen again.
The Smithee version was actually worse than the Lynch version. There WERE a few extra scenes, like the drowning of a baby worm to get the water of life, but the few extra scenes didn't make up for the fact that Irulan was dubbed over as the narrator. The impression I got of the narrator based on the voice was that it was the same guy who did the pilot episode for Ren and Stimpy. You know, the episode that the theme song is based on? "I've been known to lie, but this here story is true as (whatever)" And there was more superfluous narration than ever before. At least the Lynch movie tried to incorporate that whole quote-before-chapter thing to some extent. The mini series overplayed Irulan, and the Smithee version totally cut her out as narrator, though I believe her scenes weren't removed. Maybe the miniseries would have been better if Toto had done the soundtrack:-)
Yes, Herbert repeatedly described the cinnamon smell/taste qualities of Melange in all the books in the series. But... I got another one for you:
Melange is described repeatedly as SMELLING and TASTING like cinnamon, but it was NEVER ONCE in the books described as LOOKing like cinnamon. (Not including the two stupid prequels that are FULL of plot holes and mistakes anyway) Furthermore, for those of us who have read God Emperor, please tell me if you remember this: When Leto takes Moneo to one of his spice caches, isn't Melange described as being *whispers* blue ??? Let me quote:
"The place had filled Moneo with awe. Great bins of melange lay all around in a gigantic room cut from native rock and illuminated by glowglobes of an ancient design with arabesques of metal scrollwork upon them. The spice had glowed radiant blue in the dim silver light. And the smell-bitter cinnamon, unmistakable."
Both the Lynch movie and the mini series like to make Melange look orange, but I thought the fact that it was blue was the explanation for the Ibad eyes and the ease of spotting a spice patch in the open desert. Just goes to show how much research both the movie writers and the series consultants bothered to do....
Explanation 1: There is no 'weirding way' in the book. That was totally invented by Lynch for box office profit. Explanation 2: N/A Explanation 3: The Saudakar(sp) are not better fighters than the Fremen hand-to-hand. The Saudakar were trained on a harsh planet called Salusa Secundus, which was destroyed in a nuclear attack. The Saudakar are 75% ex-prisoners. The Fremen live in a MORE harsh environment that Salusa. The book explains very carefully that a single Fremen can take down as many as 3 Saudakar. Explanation 4: The best weapon available to them is the lasgun. However you don't know, because you didn't read the book, that lasguns and personal shields react with each other to create a large sub-nuclear explosion. Lasguns are ONLY used in places where shields are not. Maybe you remember that scene in the mini series where that CGI clear-blanket envelops that building outside Arrakeen. That was a shield. Explanation 5: see explanation 1 Explanation 6: The space ships are equipped with planetary bombardment weapons. However, due to complicated Landstraad/CHOAM/Guild/Emperor political elements that the series didn't bother to bring up, planetary bombardment from space is a violation of Kanly. One of the most important values in the Dune universe is adherence to the 'forms'. The forms MUST be obeyed. Setting: Arrakeen is built on a rock slab, it is surrounded by rocks on most sides. And you are right about the worms. They did eat a bunch of Saudakar and Harkonnen in the book. And I already mentioned that there is no such thing as the 'weirding way'. The term was used in the book, but it was in reference to Voice, an ability the Bene Gesserit use to manipulate people aurally. The Saudakar do shoot at the oncoming Fremen, but worms don't give two shits about lasgun fire. It burns them a little bit, but they heal just as quickly. This is known because Leto II is shot a few times with one in God Emperor of Dune and Children of Dune. Lasguns are not close-range weapons, though. Quite the contrary. There could be no airstrike, because there was SUPPOSED to be a storm going on, and all thopters were SUPPOSED to be grounded. That scene that showed Fremen thopters flying in the storm made me do a double take. Nobody can force the evacuation of the Emperor. Come on, he is the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe. Are YOU going to take him somewhere he doesn't want to go? They didn't know that their Saudakar were weaker than the Fremen. That is why there was no evacuation. You don't seem to get that hand-to-hand fighting is the standard in the time of Dune. You can't compare it to a movie like Saving Private Ryan because there are very few projectile weapons in 10,19* (the years Dune takes place in). The only projectile weapon I can think of off the top of my head is the maula pistol. I think that was those crossbow things the Fremen had in the miniseries. I thought the book described them a little differently myself...
As well, you assume the Saudakar had many advantages they didn't really have. I strongly urge you to read the book, because it WILL add a new dimension to the plot you don't see yet.
Consider this:
Do you feel bad that your ancestors were bacteria?
Do you make an effort to remember your bacterial heritage?
What about your anthropoidian heritage?
Did it not occur to you that biological evolution has carried us as far as we are going to go? Why should we not use our technology to continue where nature left off? I can understand that people will be naturally paranoid about eugenics for a long time due to certain nutbags...*cough*Hitler*cough... but if we are capable of improving upon ourselves, why shouldn't we? It's not like someone is going to put a gun to YOUR head and tell you that you have to be implanted with a pig's spleen or some such nonsense. From my point of view, status quo thinking like that is how discrimination came to be. Look at that guy, he has cybernetic eyes. Look at that girl, she has an mp3 player in her arm. Look at that guy, he's black. Beliefs that limit future possibilities are death. The human body is not sacred, it's not perfect, and being human means recognizing your instinct for self preservation. It is only natural that if we have the means to better ourselves with some artificial tweaking, we would do it.
There was a geomagnetic storm over western Chicago about 7-8 months ago. That night I was sitting at my computer, when all the sudden I saw a bright flash outside a window to my left. I figured it was raining, and it was a lightning strike.
A few minutes later, a brownout occurred and my computer rebooted. This happened continuously for about an hour, and after the third instance I just turned it off. At this point I went into my living room, when the power went totally out. I was sitting on my couch in total darkness when suddenly there was a BRIGHT GREEN flash from the window. This was too weird. I had to go outside.
I found that it had become extremely cold. The green flashes continued, and I also started hearing noises not unlike circuits being grounded. That stereotypical zap-zap noise. I must have stayed outside for an hour wondering how often something like that actually happens. I still had no idea what the hell it was, until I remembered that there was a Coronal Mass Ejection the previous night. It was a plasma storm!
I'm reading this book right now, and I found a rather large discontinuity in House Harkonnen..
When Liet decides to go to Salusa with Vernius, he meets Gurney. Well, why doesn't that relationship come out in Dune, when Gurney meets the Planetologist when the Atreides take over Arrakis?
I liked the book despite the fact that is INDEED not the style of Frank. Even still it continues some important parts of the back story.
The Ginaz information was the most interesting, next to Liet's journies.
So if you make something in a nanofactory, is it made OF nanothingies, or do they just steal raw material from thin air? If the former they better be chocolate flavored nanomachines...
I think this view is typical of most people who went through the DARE brainwashing...er..um...education, and I can't disagree at all. The way to educate youngsters is not to lie to them, because that builds resentment. I know it did in me. I mean even if the lies had been more subtle it may have worked better, but apparently most government types believe the ends justify the means...
Come on now, Pluto isn't really even a 'planet' as far as planets go, it's just an asteroid that has a regular-ish orbit. Its moon, Charon, doesn't even really orbit it; both bodies orbit a point in between them. Sending probes to places like Europa and Titan is a much more promising use for NASA's meager funding. But I agree that Mars should come first. We'll eventually colonize the hell out of it, and we don't need any suprises like giant living dust monsters (Mission to Mars) for the colonists. There may be water on Europa or Titan, but for now, using it isn't practical anyway. Water on Mars IS practical.
DC isn't in violation unless they have sent you a bill for the CueCat you received....
This is a mirror of the copy of Title 39, Sec. 3009 , taken from Glenn Powers' site:
Title 39, Sec. 3009 of the United States Code Quoted from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/39/3009.text.ht ml
(a) Except for (1) free samples clearly and conspicuously marked as such, and (2) merchandise mailed by a charitable organization soliciting contributions, the mailing of unordered merchandise or of communications prohibited by subsection (c) of this section constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair trade practice in violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15.
(b) Any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, may be treated as a gift by the recipient, who shall have the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender. All such merchandise shall have attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender.
(c) No mailer of any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, shall mail to any recipient of such merchandise a bill for such merchandise or any dunning communications.
(d) For the purposes of this section, ''unordered merchandise'' means merchandise mailed without the prior expressed request or consent of the recipient.
What this says is that DC is not allowed to send you a BILL for any merchandise they give you that you didn't ask for. THAT would be a violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15 as an unfair method of competition.
What they CAN do is mail you anything they want, and IF THEY DO, this section clearly states that YOU have NO OBLIGATION to pay them for it. You can keep it, use it as a door stop, as fuel for your fireplace, whatever. But they aren't in violation of anything unless they send you a bill. The fact that it isn't marked with a "clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender" is a moot point, because section (b) ONLY applies if they are in violation of section (a), and they are not.
I personally thought everyone already knew there was a black hole at the center of the galaxy.
But this brings up new questions in my mind...
Since the galaxy spins as a spiral on a single plane, does the black hole spin with us? If so, it's event horizon is largest on the plane of the galaxy, and, if spinning fast enough, nonexistant at it's poles. But if the black hole spins, doesn't the singularity have to be a torus (donut for the laymen)? And if it is a torus, isn't it possible that the inner singularity could be bridging a gateway to another part of the universe, or even another universe?
Or does the black hole not spin, and is that why the center of the galaxy have that huge bulge, it being the demarcation of the event horizon?
Even more interesting, is all the stellar material, including us already within the event horizon? Perhaps that is the only reason such galaxies exist at all, as feed for super massive black holes. After all, we have never found free ranging planets, just sorta floating aimlessly in deep space....
A Zen mentality is very useful when dealing with computers, I find. I even go so far as a Dirk Gently mentality sometimes. It helps when you have the inclination to use said hammer on your box because it refuses to recognize that you do, indeed, have a cdrom.....but that's just me...
I would like to think that the US government has enough sense to NOT shut down the Internet. That would be veeeeeeery bad. They know better. Whole scores of people would get recalled from office, there would be scandals everywhere, and someone would marry Janet Reno. None of this will happen. The entire internet-using country would go apeshit, to put it in a nice, blunt way. The world is too reliant on the Net now for anyone as large on the power list as the US to pull crap like that. course that's just my opinion, I could be Dennis Miller
I'm sure someone must have mentioned this already, but I thought I may as well put it up, just in case.
There are lots of fuels that are cheaper/more/efficient/more enviro-friendly than gas, but guess what. They aren't gonna be even CLOSE to mainstream for a long long time.
Wanna know why? I know you do.
It's quite simple. The economy of the entire world revolves around petroleum! Simply replacing it would totally wreck everything! Talk about depression. You think the 1930's were bad? *scoff* You ain't seen nothing. The sheer mass of petroleum cranked out of the middle east EVERY DAY is proof that the world would simple cease to function without it.
I live in Chicago, so I have a somewhat unique perspective. Our gas prices were the highest in the country for a while there, and it may be still. I don't know. That is more of a political stage though, so nevermind for now. The point is that gasoline SHOULD be replaced as a fuel source.
Wasn't it on this very site, about 1/3 of a year ago perhaps, that I saw an article on cars efficiently powered by the excretions of ALGAE? I believe it was. Maybe someone can dredge that one up. The object of my soap box, anyway, is this: gas should be replaced, but there is no way in hell it is gonna happen until seriously proactive people get in a whole bunch of positions of power, and delegate that power correctly. That, as they say on Capitol Hill, is about as likely to happen as a stray comet coming to Earth and crushing Tipper Gore.
That is the funniest article I have ever seen on/. and rights-over-domains type legal action is getting more and more absurd. It's like trying to sue the restaurant because the particular table you wanted to sit at is already taken. Where was it written in the Law of the Internet (for dummies) that these major organizations had exclusive rights to every concievable domain that includes a word in the english language that remotely pertains to their organization? I must have missed that commandment. Oh crap, I better watch out, I already took jookynet.org from Namezero, I hope Sprite doesn't ask for it! And those poor poor people at jooky.com and.net! Yikes. Or what if the US Postal service claims Hotmail, since they are, after the ORIGINAL mail people?! Or what if Union Pacific wanted every single domain name imaginable with the word 'union' in it? Don't they have rights to them? Apparently....*walks away* I'm already fed up with it.
South Park, even without the cut scene, would have been X-rated if it wasn't a cartoon. At least I read that somewhere.
Interesting. On a similar note, I once read somewhere that a man gave birth to a 60-lb walrus. Good thing you included that citation that prevents you from sounding like a jackass (oops, too late).
And I think you are also missing the point. Restriction is restriction is restriction. The point that minors are the targets is quite moot. Restricting violent games or pornography will simply inspire more children to want either one. Someone as 'educated' as yourself should understand that long-time and simple paradox. I say give it to them if they want it. One of two things will happen : they will prove mature enough to deal with it, or they won't. In the case of the latter there will be no more desire to obtain these forbidden things and the problem will solve itself. You obviously model yourself after they whom you shun, in that you believe rights OUGHT to be restricted. Too much freedom is inherently an oxymoron. Children don't rebel for rebellion's sake, dullard. They rebel because they were not given enough liberty at a young age. And anyway, who are you, or more poignantly, who is the government, to tell children what they can and cannot see? It reminds me of the hysterical fact that Fahrenheit 451 was once banned from Americal libraries. It seems to me that Germany didn't quite take to heart what they should have learned from Hitler's occupation. Or if they did, you don't. And don't try to pull that crap that you, being a German, know something more about it than me. You get a cookie for trying though. The German government would just as soon forget that Nazism ever existed, I don't think they would want that sort of connotation over their heads; the most vocal party in the effort to remember their atrocities has always been those that were subjected to it most: the Jews. So don't pretend that you have some sort of special wisdom in the matter as you have twice implied, because you insult the people that WERE there, and I seriously doubt that you were one of them, because you wouldn't be so cynical about the restriction of rights.
I am not trying to split heirs about the issue of restriction. God knows the US is worse. But that can be said of the US on nearly any topic. You are trying to imply that you have some sort of unique perspective, and I don't see that. The only unique perspective you could have that is pertinent to the rights of children, is if your rights as a child were limited more severely. But that would have taught you. And that can't be so because you are here, after all, waving your banner of "God save the children from the big bad immoral technocrap" Don't talk to me about "modern Germany" because you are no embodiment of it.
Don't worry, I'm not going to mention the 'kettle-pot' thing again, it's apparent that you have no grasp of 'metaphor'.
(The violence is gauged on the psychological impact it causes. This is very subjective, but helps you to distinguish between Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick which glorifies violence. America has that, too. South Park the movie, would have been x-rated if it weren't a cartoon.)
South Park was going to be X-Rated anyway, they had to omit a scene to prevent it. And are you trying to tell me that people in Germany can't distinguish between "Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick" on their own? Hello? Hello?? How do you translate 'independent thought' into German? By the way, violence is glorified every day by every government with a military, including yours. Move to Switzerland.
We had our experience with a totalitarian organization that ursurped a democracy and we do not want it to happen again.
Sounds to me like the pot is calling the kettle black.
Now if only there was independent software made for Be....hmmmm...*calls major software companies*
"Being a hacker means thinking differently.. it's the difference between taking 6 years to solve a Rubik's Cube or spending 10 minutes popping the little squares out and putting them back in the right order, either way people think you're a genius." -The Book of Phar
There is a perfectly valid reason why you couldn't understand the plot in the original Mission: Impossible,
You're just stupid I know that's not nice, but truth sometimes isn't.
And if you really think that Gladiator is at all similar to Braveheart, they you win the DOUBLE dumbass award. Braveheart was a story about a man who started Scotland's movement to freedom, and I don't recall Wallace ever being sold into slavery, or fighting the King of England in a duel pit. Perhaps the beginning of the Gladiator can be likened to the end of Braveheart, but, with that reasoning, every movie with fighting in it is the same. Russel Crowe is definately just as good an action star as Mel, but that probably has something to do with the fact that they both are Aussies.
To say that Mission: Impossible was confusing is like saying that Barney the dinosaur would make a decent role model. Au contrare, Mission: Impossible was way to easy to predict; the entire plot can be predicted when Phelps resurrects himself at the train station, just as Hunt tells him.
If MI2 is a dumbed-down version of the original, there is no way in Hell I'm going to see it now. Although I began this post as a flame, I feel I should thank you for saving me $8. And as long as my soapbox hasn't collapsed yet, please do the gene pool a favor and kill yourself before you reproduce. Thanks in advance.
...mumbles to himself...
...probably thought Fight Club was about soap, too...
supruzr ---------------------------------- Windows 2000: Is that the year or the bug count?
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you to some extent.
The evolution of Paul, the love affair with Chani, the conflict with his mother, the political intrigue, the religious mania, the ecological message, all of that is intrinsic to the story, but I personally think that Herbert went to great pains to describe every aspect of life in the time.
Some of the Bene Gesserit dignity and mystique is destroyed when you whore them up in eye shadow and kimonos. Some of the ruthlessness of the Harkonnens is destroyed when you dress them up like shoguns.
The guild navigator....ehh... well I won't even get into that one.
The stillsuits looked like extra Sub-Zero and Scorpion uniforms re-painted from Mortal Kombat: The Movie. They had no nose plugs either.
Enough people have complained about the eyes of Ibad effect going sour, so I won't bother.
The kid who played Paul actually ended up doing a good job, imho, though the first part of the series did a piss poor job of developing Paul's character, since he is the exact opposite of how he was acting in that episode. And the superfluous sexual tension scenes between Paul and Irulan, indeed Irulan's role at all, was bothersome. This is a person he will never feel for, isn't supposed to feel for in the next book. Irulan was played to be too naive as well. She is a Bene Gesserit! I guess that was supposed to be explained in that 30 second scene where we see her doing what looked like Qigong and I ASSUME was supposed to be Prana-Bindu exercise.
I really liked the person they got to play Liet though. He does a good job of capturing the Liet we read about in HH, who is a desert-wise Fremen that is thrust into the seat of Imperial Planetologist by the untimely death of his father Pardot. That was one of the few things I liked about the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson prequels.
Ian McNiece was half the baron, I think. He did a decent job of showing the intelligence of the Baron, but he just couldn't do that maniac side of him. The Baron is supposed to be fear-inspiring, not to mention have a deep basso voice. Ian is fat, and that is about his only qualification for the movie.
Overall though, I can't complain. It was nice seeing the series I so love rendered on the screen again.
The Smithee version was actually worse than the Lynch version. There WERE a few extra scenes, like the drowning of a baby worm to get the water of life, but the few extra scenes didn't make up for the fact that Irulan was dubbed over as the narrator. The impression I got of the narrator based on the voice was that it was the same guy who did the pilot episode for Ren and Stimpy. You know, the episode that the theme song is based on? "I've been known to lie, but this here story is true as (whatever)" And there was more superfluous narration than ever before. At least the Lynch movie tried to incorporate that whole quote-before-chapter thing to some extent. The mini series overplayed Irulan, and the Smithee version totally cut her out as narrator, though I believe her scenes weren't removed. Maybe the miniseries would have been better if Toto had done the soundtrack :-)
Yes, Herbert repeatedly described the cinnamon smell/taste qualities of Melange in all the books in the series. But... I got another one for you:
Melange is described repeatedly as SMELLING and TASTING like cinnamon, but it was NEVER ONCE in the books described as LOOKing like cinnamon. (Not including the two stupid prequels that are FULL of plot holes and mistakes anyway) Furthermore, for those of us who have read God Emperor, please tell me if you remember this: When Leto takes Moneo to one of his spice caches, isn't Melange described as being *whispers* blue ??? Let me quote:
"The place had filled Moneo with awe. Great bins of melange lay all around in a gigantic room cut from native rock and illuminated by glowglobes of an ancient design with arabesques of metal scrollwork upon them. The spice had glowed radiant blue in the dim silver light. And the smell-bitter cinnamon, unmistakable."
Both the Lynch movie and the mini series like to make Melange look orange, but I thought the fact that it was blue was the explanation for the Ibad eyes and the ease of spotting a spice patch in the open desert. Just goes to show how much research both the movie writers and the series consultants bothered to do....
Explanation 1: There is no 'weirding way' in the book. That was totally invented by Lynch for box office profit. Explanation 2: N/A Explanation 3: The Saudakar(sp) are not better fighters than the Fremen hand-to-hand. The Saudakar were trained on a harsh planet called Salusa Secundus, which was destroyed in a nuclear attack. The Saudakar are 75% ex-prisoners. The Fremen live in a MORE harsh environment that Salusa. The book explains very carefully that a single Fremen can take down as many as 3 Saudakar. Explanation 4: The best weapon available to them is the lasgun. However you don't know, because you didn't read the book, that lasguns and personal shields react with each other to create a large sub-nuclear explosion. Lasguns are ONLY used in places where shields are not. Maybe you remember that scene in the mini series where that CGI clear-blanket envelops that building outside Arrakeen. That was a shield. Explanation 5: see explanation 1 Explanation 6: The space ships are equipped with planetary bombardment weapons. However, due to complicated Landstraad/CHOAM/Guild/Emperor political elements that the series didn't bother to bring up, planetary bombardment from space is a violation of Kanly. One of the most important values in the Dune universe is adherence to the 'forms'. The forms MUST be obeyed. Setting: Arrakeen is built on a rock slab, it is surrounded by rocks on most sides. And you are right about the worms. They did eat a bunch of Saudakar and Harkonnen in the book. And I already mentioned that there is no such thing as the 'weirding way'. The term was used in the book, but it was in reference to Voice, an ability the Bene Gesserit use to manipulate people aurally. The Saudakar do shoot at the oncoming Fremen, but worms don't give two shits about lasgun fire. It burns them a little bit, but they heal just as quickly. This is known because Leto II is shot a few times with one in God Emperor of Dune and Children of Dune. Lasguns are not close-range weapons, though. Quite the contrary. There could be no airstrike, because there was SUPPOSED to be a storm going on, and all thopters were SUPPOSED to be grounded. That scene that showed Fremen thopters flying in the storm made me do a double take. Nobody can force the evacuation of the Emperor. Come on, he is the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe. Are YOU going to take him somewhere he doesn't want to go? They didn't know that their Saudakar were weaker than the Fremen. That is why there was no evacuation. You don't seem to get that hand-to-hand fighting is the standard in the time of Dune. You can't compare it to a movie like Saving Private Ryan because there are very few projectile weapons in 10,19* (the years Dune takes place in). The only projectile weapon I can think of off the top of my head is the maula pistol. I think that was those crossbow things the Fremen had in the miniseries. I thought the book described them a little differently myself... As well, you assume the Saudakar had many advantages they didn't really have. I strongly urge you to read the book, because it WILL add a new dimension to the plot you don't see yet.
Relax, you're just a humanist.
Consider this:
Do you feel bad that your ancestors were bacteria?
Do you make an effort to remember your bacterial heritage?
What about your anthropoidian heritage?
Did it not occur to you that biological evolution has carried us as far as we are going to go? Why should we not use our technology to continue where nature left off? I can understand that people will be naturally paranoid about eugenics for a long time due to certain nutbags...*cough*Hitler*cough... but if we are capable of improving upon ourselves, why shouldn't we? It's not like someone is going to put a gun to YOUR head and tell you that you have to be implanted with a pig's spleen or some such nonsense. From my point of view, status quo thinking like that is how discrimination came to be. Look at that guy, he has cybernetic eyes. Look at that girl, she has an mp3 player in her arm. Look at that guy, he's black. Beliefs that limit future possibilities are death. The human body is not sacred, it's not perfect, and being human means recognizing your instinct for self preservation. It is only natural that if we have the means to better ourselves with some artificial tweaking, we would do it.
Default Dennis Miller disclaimer here
Well gee, maybe the sandtrout are blocking it all, and it's under the surface, and the Makers destroyed all the evidence of previous life there.
Oh wait, my bad, getting Mars and Arrakis confused.
There was a geomagnetic storm over western Chicago about 7-8 months ago. That night I was sitting at my computer, when all the sudden I saw a bright flash outside a window to my left. I figured it was raining, and it was a lightning strike.
A few minutes later, a brownout occurred and my computer rebooted. This happened continuously for about an hour, and after the third instance I just turned it off. At this point I went into my living room, when the power went totally out. I was sitting on my couch in total darkness when suddenly there was a BRIGHT GREEN flash from the window. This was too weird. I had to go outside.
I found that it had become extremely cold. The green flashes continued, and I also started hearing noises not unlike circuits being grounded. That stereotypical zap-zap noise. I must have stayed outside for an hour wondering how often something like that actually happens. I still had no idea what the hell it was, until I remembered that there was a Coronal Mass Ejection the previous night. It was a plasma storm!
Called Plastic
I'm reading this book right now, and I found a rather large discontinuity in House Harkonnen.. When Liet decides to go to Salusa with Vernius, he meets Gurney. Well, why doesn't that relationship come out in Dune, when Gurney meets the Planetologist when the Atreides take over Arrakis? I liked the book despite the fact that is INDEED not the style of Frank. Even still it continues some important parts of the back story. The Ginaz information was the most interesting, next to Liet's journies.
So if you make something in a nanofactory, is it made OF nanothingies, or do they just steal raw material from thin air? If the former they better be chocolate flavored nanomachines...
I think this view is typical of most people who went through the DARE brainwashing...er..um...education, and I can't disagree at all. The way to educate youngsters is not to lie to them, because that builds resentment. I know it did in me. I mean even if the lies had been more subtle it may have worked better, but apparently most government types believe the ends justify the means...
Come on now, Pluto isn't really even a 'planet' as far as planets go, it's just an asteroid that has a regular-ish orbit. Its moon, Charon, doesn't even really orbit it; both bodies orbit a point in between them. Sending probes to places like Europa and Titan is a much more promising use for NASA's meager funding. But I agree that Mars should come first. We'll eventually colonize the hell out of it, and we don't need any suprises like giant living dust monsters (Mission to Mars) for the colonists. There may be water on Europa or Titan, but for now, using it isn't practical anyway. Water on Mars IS practical.
DC isn't in violation unless they have sent you a bill for the CueCat you received....
t ml
This is a mirror of the copy of Title 39, Sec. 3009 , taken from Glenn Powers' site:
Title 39, Sec. 3009 of the United States Code Quoted from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/39/3009.text.h
(a) Except for (1) free samples clearly and conspicuously marked as such, and (2) merchandise mailed by a charitable organization soliciting contributions, the mailing of unordered merchandise or of communications prohibited by subsection (c) of this section constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair trade practice in violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15.
(b) Any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, may be treated as a gift by the recipient, who shall have the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender. All such merchandise shall have attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender.
(c) No mailer of any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, shall mail to any recipient of such merchandise a bill for such merchandise or any dunning communications.
(d) For the purposes of this section, ''unordered merchandise'' means merchandise mailed without the prior expressed request or consent of the recipient.
What this says is that DC is not allowed to send you a BILL for any merchandise they give you that you didn't ask for. THAT would be a violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15 as an unfair method of competition.
What they CAN do is mail you anything they want, and IF THEY DO, this section clearly states that YOU have NO OBLIGATION to pay them for it. You can keep it, use it as a door stop, as fuel for your fireplace, whatever. But they aren't in violation of anything unless they send you a bill. The fact that it isn't marked with a "clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender" is a moot point, because section (b) ONLY applies if they are in violation of section (a), and they are not.
i thought that was the center of the universe? and wasn't that john rhys-davies who played that part? *shrug*
I personally thought everyone already knew there was a black hole at the center of the galaxy.
But this brings up new questions in my mind...
Since the galaxy spins as a spiral on a single plane, does the black hole spin with us? If so, it's event horizon is largest on the plane of the galaxy, and, if spinning fast enough, nonexistant at it's poles. But if the black hole spins, doesn't the singularity have to be a torus (donut for the laymen)? And if it is a torus, isn't it possible that the inner singularity could be bridging a gateway to another part of the universe, or even another universe?
Or does the black hole not spin, and is that why the center of the galaxy have that huge bulge, it being the demarcation of the event horizon?
Even more interesting, is all the stellar material, including us already within the event horizon? Perhaps that is the only reason such galaxies exist at all, as feed for super massive black holes. After all, we have never found free ranging planets, just sorta floating aimlessly in deep space....
-supruzr
http://cha.c2032.net
A Zen mentality is very useful when dealing with computers, I find. I even go so far as a Dirk Gently mentality sometimes. It helps when you have the inclination to use said hammer on your box because it refuses to recognize that you do, indeed, have a cdrom.....but that's just me...
I would like to think that the US government has enough sense to NOT shut down the Internet. That would be veeeeeeery bad. They know better. Whole scores of people would get recalled from office, there would be scandals everywhere, and someone would marry Janet Reno. None of this will happen. The entire internet-using country would go apeshit, to put it in a nice, blunt way. The world is too reliant on the Net now for anyone as large on the power list as the US to pull crap like that. course that's just my opinion, I could be Dennis Miller
I'm sure someone must have mentioned this already, but I thought I may as well put it up, just in case.
There are lots of fuels that are cheaper/more/efficient/more enviro-friendly than gas, but guess what. They aren't gonna be even CLOSE to mainstream for a long long time.
Wanna know why? I know you do.
It's quite simple. The economy of the entire world revolves around petroleum! Simply replacing it would totally wreck everything! Talk about depression. You think the 1930's were bad? *scoff* You ain't seen nothing. The sheer mass of petroleum cranked out of the middle east EVERY DAY is proof that the world would simple cease to function without it.
I live in Chicago, so I have a somewhat unique perspective. Our gas prices were the highest in the country for a while there, and it may be still. I don't know. That is more of a political stage though, so nevermind for now. The point is that gasoline SHOULD be replaced as a fuel source.
Wasn't it on this very site, about 1/3 of a year ago perhaps, that I saw an article on cars efficiently powered by the excretions of ALGAE? I believe it was. Maybe someone can dredge that one up. The object of my soap box, anyway, is this: gas should be replaced, but there is no way in hell it is gonna happen until seriously proactive people get in a whole bunch of positions of power, and delegate that power correctly. That, as they say on Capitol Hill, is about as likely to happen as a stray comet coming to Earth and crushing Tipper Gore.
That is the funniest article I have ever seen on /. and rights-over-domains type legal action is getting more and more absurd. It's like trying to sue the restaurant because the particular table you wanted to sit at is already taken. Where was it written in the Law of the Internet (for dummies) that these major organizations had exclusive rights to every concievable domain that includes a word in the english language that remotely pertains to their organization? I must have missed that commandment. Oh crap, I better watch out, I already took jookynet.org from Namezero, I hope Sprite doesn't ask for it! And those poor poor people at jooky.com and .net! Yikes. Or what if the US Postal service claims Hotmail, since they are, after the ORIGINAL mail people?! Or what if Union Pacific wanted every single domain name imaginable with the word 'union' in it? Don't they have rights to them? Apparently....*walks away* I'm already fed up with it.
supruzr
South Park, even without the cut scene, would have been X-rated if it wasn't a cartoon. At least I read that somewhere.
Interesting. On a similar note, I once read somewhere that a man gave birth to a 60-lb walrus. Good thing you included that citation that prevents you from sounding like a jackass (oops, too late).
And I think you are also missing the point. Restriction is restriction is restriction. The point that minors are the targets is quite moot. Restricting violent games or pornography will simply inspire more children to want either one. Someone as 'educated' as yourself should understand that long-time and simple paradox. I say give it to them if they want it. One of two things will happen : they will prove mature enough to deal with it, or they won't. In the case of the latter there will be no more desire to obtain these forbidden things and the problem will solve itself. You obviously model yourself after they whom you shun, in that you believe rights OUGHT to be restricted. Too much freedom is inherently an oxymoron. Children don't rebel for rebellion's sake, dullard. They rebel because they were not given enough liberty at a young age. And anyway, who are you, or more poignantly, who is the government, to tell children what they can and cannot see? It reminds me of the hysterical fact that Fahrenheit 451 was once banned from Americal libraries. It seems to me that Germany didn't quite take to heart what they should have learned from Hitler's occupation. Or if they did, you don't. And don't try to pull that crap that you, being a German, know something more about it than me. You get a cookie for trying though. The German government would just as soon forget that Nazism ever existed, I don't think they would want that sort of connotation over their heads; the most vocal party in the effort to remember their atrocities has always been those that were subjected to it most: the Jews. So don't pretend that you have some sort of special wisdom in the matter as you have twice implied, because you insult the people that WERE there, and I seriously doubt that you were one of them, because you wouldn't be so cynical about the restriction of rights.
I am not trying to split heirs about the issue of restriction. God knows the US is worse. But that can be said of the US on nearly any topic. You are trying to imply that you have some sort of unique perspective, and I don't see that. The only unique perspective you could have that is pertinent to the rights of children, is if your rights as a child were limited more severely. But that would have taught you. And that can't be so because you are here, after all, waving your banner of "God save the children from the big bad immoral technocrap" Don't talk to me about "modern Germany" because you are no embodiment of it.
Don't worry, I'm not going to mention the 'kettle-pot' thing again, it's apparent that you have no grasp of 'metaphor'.
Auf wiedersehen
I......I'm......you.......
No, it's not worth it.
You, my friend, are simply an idiot.
And as a matter of fact I would love to live on the moon. It has one hell of a view.
-supruzr
(The violence is gauged on the psychological impact it causes. This is very subjective, but helps you to distinguish between Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick which glorifies violence. America has that, too. South Park the movie, would have been x-rated if it weren't a cartoon.)
South Park was going to be X-Rated anyway, they had to omit a scene to prevent it. And are you trying to tell me that people in Germany can't distinguish between "Tomm and Jerry and some kind of Blood and Gore Flick" on their own? Hello? Hello?? How do you translate 'independent thought' into German? By the way, violence is glorified every day by every government with a military, including yours. Move to Switzerland.
We had our experience with a totalitarian organization that ursurped a democracy and we do not want it to happen again.
Sounds to me like the pot is calling the kettle black.
I mean it.
mwahahahahahahaha
"Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n."-Paradise Lost, Book I, line 263
Amen my brutha.
Now if only there was independent software made
for Be....hmmmm...*calls major software companies*
"Being a hacker means thinking differently..
it's the difference between taking 6 years
to solve a Rubik's Cube or spending 10 minutes
popping the little squares out and putting them
back in the right order, either way people
think you're a genius."
-The Book of Phar
There is a perfectly valid reason why you couldn't understand the plot in the original Mission: Impossible,
...mumbles to himself...
...probably thought Fight Club was about soap, too...
You're just stupid
I know that's not nice, but truth sometimes isn't.
And if you really think that Gladiator is at all similar to Braveheart, they you win the DOUBLE dumbass award. Braveheart was a story about a man who started Scotland's movement to freedom, and I don't recall Wallace ever being sold into slavery, or fighting the King of England in a duel pit. Perhaps the beginning of the Gladiator can be likened to the end of Braveheart, but, with that reasoning, every movie with fighting in it is the same. Russel Crowe is definately just as good an action star as Mel, but that probably has something to do with the fact that they both are Aussies.
To say that Mission: Impossible was confusing is like saying that Barney the dinosaur would make a decent role model. Au contrare, Mission: Impossible was way to easy to predict; the entire plot can be predicted when Phelps resurrects himself at the train station, just as Hunt tells him.
If MI2 is a dumbed-down version of the original, there is no way in Hell I'm going to see it now. Although I began this post as a flame, I feel I should thank you for saving me $8. And as long as my soapbox hasn't collapsed yet, please do the gene pool a favor and kill yourself before you reproduce. Thanks in advance.
supruzr
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Windows 2000: Is that the year or the bug count?