>>>non-religious charities (as in not the church they attend)?
Yes and where do you think the church spends its money? There's rent of course, but virtually all of them run free food handouts for the poor. Some even provide shelter. Still others pool the money to help people who have been in accidents, or families with dead soldiers.
>>>A socialist premise would say that you should support such a program for the benefit of society anyway,
I agree in principle, but not in reality. Amtrak causes *damage* to society by losing money hand-over-fist. This is not an efficient use of limited resources. In contrast other methods of transport like Freight rail or ships or planes earn tons of money. Even the US DOT collects almost a billion year profit from personal cars (via gas taxes/tolls).
>>>Very little transit is self-sufficient, economically: mass-transit or personal
False. The last time I looked at the figures (2002), the personal transport we called "cars" and "freight trucks" was extremely profitable. GM isn't doing so hot, but Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, etc are raking in millions of dollars each year.
And the roads they ride on earn almost a billion in profit for the US DOT (via gas taxes/tolls).
>>>Amtrak was to preserve valuable infrastructure that the private sector was no longer able to maintain
Nonsense. The Freight Rail Industry is one of the most profitable shipping services in the United States. More tons of freight move by train than any other method. They did not then, or now, need government help to maintain the existing railroads. Even if Amtrak disappeared tomorrow, the US rail infrastructure would still be maintained by Conrail, BSF, and other private companies.
No it isn't. The road program charges a toll to every driver..... approximately 90 cents per gallon of gasoline burned. Plus other tolls for bridges, tunnels, et cetera. I've not seen any recent statistics but according to US DOT figures from 2002, they collected several billion *more* in gasoline taxes then they were spending for maintenance of the roads. I have no reason to think that's changed.
>>>whether they like/dislike public transportation on emotional grounds
People on the Baltimore MATA are rude, smelly, and disgusting. I'd rather carpool with friends. Or downsize to Volkswagen's 2-seat 200MPG car, than spend any further time on that train. I do it from time-to-time, and then I'm reminded why I keep my car.
And yes you're right: that's an emotional response but so what? I don't like hanging-round with rude, smelly persons. See http://www.seathogs.com/ for some images of those persons.
>>>You haven't taken into account the benefit Amtrak brought to the people who do take trains
Taxis and buses could do the exact-same job, and they are profitable.
>>>nor the alleviation of car traffic brought to congested cities
Yeah I've looked at the numbers for my area (Baltimore). The number of Amtrak riders is 0.1% of the total number of daily commuters, so any alleviation in congestion is negligible, and that money would be more wisely spent on improving Car travel (such as adding a 5th, carpool-only lane) rather than wasting it on a near-bankrupt train. .
>>>There's also the fact that some routes are more heavily trafficked than others
I agree with this point, but you'll notice those routes never get shutdown. For example the route between Fargo and Madison WI, and Madison to Minneapolis is losing millions of dollars per year. LOGIC would dictate these two routes should be closed due to lack of interest by customers, but the government refuses to do it. That is no way to run a company. .
>>>most of those things can be changed.
I disagree. I think it's as pointless as me trying to get my Commodore=64 to play youtube.com videos. The C64 is an old obsolete technology, and so too is the train, because it's tied to steel rails and can't go anywhere but where the rails lead it. The horseless carriage aka car is more flexible. I can hop in my car right now, and drive to the beach, without having to check schedules. I can even do it in the middle of the night, when trains do run.
To me Amtrak is like the C64. Sure it has a certain nostalgic appeal, but that's it. It's hopelessly behind the times.
I know lots of people receiving Medicare handouts (for pills, annual physicals) plus Social Security checks AND living inside half-million dollar homes and 2-3 million dollar bank accounts.
These people should not be receiving government handouts. (Neither should I for that matter.) Government safety nets should only be used for the poor to "save" them from being destitute, not the middle or upper classes that already have plenty of personal wealth.
>>>Which is perfect if life is fair and people have control over what happens to them.
What part of "After you run out of money I'll gladly help you (via welfare, medicare)..." did you not comprehend? I don't want to leave people hungry or homeless, and I'm frankly insulted that you think I'm that cold-hearted of a bastard.
I just don't think that people who have tons of money, like myself and virtually all my friends/coworkers, should be receiving handouts from the government. We have jobs and money, and don't need the assistance. Therefore we should be exempted from getting gov't checks, until we run out of cash, and THEN the government can step in with the assistance to "save" us.
They claim to have caught the main guy Grant, and also some of the lesser hunters, manufacturing evidences/sounds. I think GH started as a genuine honest show, but now their fame has led Syfy to pressure them to produce "evidence" that is, at best, flimsy. Why? For Syfy ratings and money.
That's nothing. TNT also wanted to have an episode about a Wrestler visiting the ship (which JMS was willing to do), an episode about the Captain being a drug addict (JMS refused), and another episode where Captain Gideon would order his female officer to be raped, for the purpose of entrapping a Psicop (JMS refused saying no captain would ever order a rape).
It was later discovered that TNT didn't like Babylon 5 or Crusade, regretted having purchased these shows, and wanted to redirect the money towards buying Law & Order reruns instead. BUT they were trapped by their contract with Warner Brothers. So they decided to setup JMS by making ridiculous demands, and declare him "unworkable". Then they nullified the contract, and Crusade was canceled before it ever aired.
Well Syfy is the only cable channel I watch. Sure sometimes I tune to CNN or the Iceroad Trucker Channel (history channel), but my main interest is Syfy.
So I canceled my cable and just use an antenna instead.
In my opinion it's cheaper to just buy the DVD sets of my favorite shows (like Babylon 5 or Stargate or Eureka) rather than spend ~$800/year to watch their reruns on syfy.
Atlantis had good ratings, just as good in season 5 as season 1. Syfy pulled the plug for a different reason.
Maybe they thought five seasons was enough, just like they decided four years of BSG and Farscape was enough. It came as a surprise for most people that SGA ended, because they were still doing very well.
BTW the writers strike came *after* SGA was already announced to end, so that was not the cause. (But the strike did kill the Dead Zone and 4400, which was a shame because they ended on cliffhangers.)
The first 4 or 5 seasons of Smallvlle were good "coming of age" drama. The problem is that it outlived its usefulness and turned to crap, but WB and CW refused to cancel it. (Until now.)
Well I'm frankly shocked. I think Haven is even more boring Caprica was. At least Caprica was based on reality (robots with AI could be built) where Haven is about as fake as Harry Potter.
Maybe it's like NBC's seaQuest.
They spent so much money getting rights to that show, they had to renew it three years to recover their money. Syfy might have spent a small fortune for the Haven rights, and they need to keep it on the air to recover their investment.
>>>>>"Episodes offered via this medium should display no interstitial advertising. Ads should only appear just prior to and just after an episode plays." >> >>Already the way it's done.
Not quite true. NBC.com, Syfy.com, and hulu.com insert either 1 or 2 ads at every standard commercial break. The writer is saying they should stop doing that, and just play the episode straight through w/o interruption.
>>>Stupid, stupid stunts like calling NINE SHOWS a "season"
They didn't. Season 1 of Caprica is actually 20 episodes long, and as far as I know, they've all been filmed so we'll probably see them appear on Hulu.com even if Syfy yanks the show off the air.
I like SGU's first 5 or so episodes. Why? Because they are constantly on the verge of death, such as running out of air or water or shields.
But then after that, they stabilized every on board and ran out of ideas. So the writers turned towards political crap with the Lucian Alliance, and it has been just as boring as the SG1 episodes about politics. Ick. I'd rather be watching Seasons 6 and 7 of Atlantis, because I liked the people better and the premise.
>>>It felt more like a corporate drama than a sci-fi story. The only thing sci-fi about it was that it happens in the future.
Well then you better not read any Heinlein or Asimov stories. They are basically about humans like us, but set in the future, and they involve almost no laser shooting or spaceships. In fact most of Asimov's stories are a lot like our society, but with the addition of robots. Such as The Caves of Steel or Robots of Dawn. .
>>>dragons and wizards.
That's not science fiction. That's fantasy fiction, and it belongs in the same genre as Harry Potter, Xena, Hercules, or Buffy.
FALSE. According to J.Michael Straczynski (you know, the guy who created the thing), here was his original plan for the storyline:
Season 4 Finale: Sheridan captured (cliffhanger) Episode 501-503: Sheridan rescued/earth defeated. Episode 504-522: As shown: telepaths, Centauri War
So as you can see, all he did was move 503 back to 421. That's all. Your claim that season 5 was crammed into 420-421 is false and contrary to what the JMS has told us in his own words. Stop spreading misinformation.
>>>the final resolution of the Shadow War was moved to Season 4
Which is precisely where it was supposed to be - the War was always meant to end shortly after Sheridan's dramatic death dive on Z'ha'dum. Did you not pay attention to my last post? Or do you just think JMS is lying to all of us?
His own words: "All I did was move the season 4 finale back three episodes. A minor change." In other words, had B5 been canceled, we would not have season 5 at all. The season five story would have remained untold.
>>>THE thing to do for geeky nerds who couldn't get a date.
Uh..... it's sad but true. Fridays were ideal for nerd type shows, and Sci-Fi Channel built its brand on that night. Now they just threw it away (nerds don't want to watch wrasslin').
The X-Files become popular on Friday nights. As TV Guide wrote in their review of the show, it became popular with younger viewers who needed something to do between 7 and midnight (when the partying begins). I suspect Sci-Fi Friday experienced the same phenomenon.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll just switch to that browser instead, since it has the same core as Firefox 4
>>>non-religious charities (as in not the church they attend)?
Yes and where do you think the church spends its money? There's rent of course, but virtually all of them run free food handouts for the poor. Some even provide shelter. Still others pool the money to help people who have been in accidents, or families with dead soldiers.
>>>A socialist premise would say that you should support such a program for the benefit of society anyway,
I agree in principle, but not in reality. Amtrak causes *damage* to society by losing money hand-over-fist. This is not an efficient use of limited resources. In contrast other methods of transport like Freight rail or ships or planes earn tons of money. Even the US DOT collects almost a billion year profit from personal cars (via gas taxes/tolls).
>>>Very little transit is self-sufficient, economically: mass-transit or personal
False. The last time I looked at the figures (2002), the personal transport we called "cars" and "freight trucks" was extremely profitable. GM isn't doing so hot, but Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, etc are raking in millions of dollars each year.
And the roads they ride on earn almost a billion in profit for the US DOT (via gas taxes/tolls).
>>>Amtrak was to preserve valuable infrastructure that the private sector was no longer able to maintain
Nonsense. The Freight Rail Industry is one of the most profitable shipping services in the United States. More tons of freight move by train than any other method. They did not then, or now, need government help to maintain the existing railroads. Even if Amtrak disappeared tomorrow, the US rail infrastructure would still be maintained by Conrail, BSF, and other private companies.
>>>heavily subsidized road program
No it isn't. The road program charges a toll to every driver..... approximately 90 cents per gallon of gasoline burned. Plus other tolls for bridges, tunnels, et cetera. I've not seen any recent statistics but according to US DOT figures from 2002, they collected several billion *more* in gasoline taxes then they were spending for maintenance of the roads. I have no reason to think that's changed.
>>>whether they like/dislike public transportation on emotional grounds
People on the Baltimore MATA are rude, smelly, and disgusting. I'd rather carpool with friends. Or downsize to Volkswagen's 2-seat 200MPG car, than spend any further time on that train. I do it from time-to-time, and then I'm reminded why I keep my car.
And yes you're right: that's an emotional response but so what? I don't like hanging-round with rude, smelly persons. See http://www.seathogs.com/ for some images of those persons.
>>>You haven't taken into account the benefit Amtrak brought to the people who do take trains
Taxis and buses could do the exact-same job, and they are profitable.
>>>nor the alleviation of car traffic brought to congested cities
Yeah I've looked at the numbers for my area (Baltimore). The number of Amtrak riders is 0.1% of the total number of daily commuters, so any alleviation in congestion is negligible, and that money would be more wisely spent on improving Car travel (such as adding a 5th, carpool-only lane) rather than wasting it on a near-bankrupt train.
.
>>>There's also the fact that some routes are more heavily trafficked than others
I agree with this point, but you'll notice those routes never get shutdown. For example the route between Fargo and Madison WI, and Madison to Minneapolis is losing millions of dollars per year. LOGIC would dictate these two routes should be closed due to lack of interest by customers, but the government refuses to do it. That is no way to run a company.
.
>>>most of those things can be changed.
I disagree. I think it's as pointless as me trying to get my Commodore=64 to play youtube.com videos. The C64 is an old obsolete technology, and so too is the train, because it's tied to steel rails and can't go anywhere but where the rails lead it. The horseless carriage aka car is more flexible. I can hop in my car right now, and drive to the beach, without having to check schedules. I can even do it in the middle of the night, when trains do run.
To me Amtrak is like the C64. Sure it has a certain nostalgic appeal, but that's it. It's hopelessly behind the times.
I know lots of people receiving Medicare handouts (for pills, annual physicals) plus Social Security checks AND living inside half-million dollar homes and 2-3 million dollar bank accounts.
These people should not be receiving government handouts. (Neither should I for that matter.) Government safety nets should only be used for the poor to "save" them from being destitute, not the middle or upper classes that already have plenty of personal wealth.
>>>Which is perfect if life is fair and people have control over what happens to them.
What part of "After you run out of money I'll gladly help you (via welfare, medicare)..." did you not comprehend? I don't want to leave people hungry or homeless, and I'm frankly insulted that you think I'm that cold-hearted of a bastard.
I just don't think that people who have tons of money, like myself and virtually all my friends/coworkers, should be receiving handouts from the government. We have jobs and money, and don't need the assistance. Therefore we should be exempted from getting gov't checks, until we run out of cash, and THEN the government can step in with the assistance to "save" us.
Visit this website: http://www.skepticalviewer.com/
They claim to have caught the main guy Grant, and also some of the lesser hunters, manufacturing evidences/sounds. I think GH started as a genuine honest show, but now their fame has led Syfy to pressure them to produce "evidence" that is, at best, flimsy. Why? For Syfy ratings and money.
>>>They kept billing it as rogue rangers
That's nothing. TNT also wanted to have an episode about a Wrestler visiting the ship (which JMS was willing to do), an episode about the Captain being a drug addict (JMS refused), and another episode where Captain Gideon would order his female officer to be raped, for the purpose of entrapping a Psicop (JMS refused saying no captain would ever order a rape).
It was later discovered that TNT didn't like Babylon 5 or Crusade, regretted having purchased these shows, and wanted to redirect the money towards buying Law & Order reruns instead. BUT they were trapped by their contract with Warner Brothers. So they decided to setup JMS by making ridiculous demands, and declare him "unworkable". Then they nullified the contract, and Crusade was canceled before it ever aired.
Well Syfy is the only cable channel I watch. Sure sometimes I tune to CNN or the Iceroad Trucker Channel (history channel), but my main interest is Syfy.
So I canceled my cable and just use an antenna instead.
In my opinion it's cheaper to just buy the DVD sets of my favorite shows (like Babylon 5 or Stargate or Eureka) rather than spend ~$800/year to watch their reruns on syfy.
Atlantis had good ratings, just as good in season 5 as season 1. Syfy pulled the plug for a different reason.
Maybe they thought five seasons was enough, just like they decided four years of BSG and Farscape was enough. It came as a surprise for most people that SGA ended, because they were still doing very well.
BTW the writers strike came *after* SGA was already announced to end, so that was not the cause. (But the strike did kill the Dead Zone and 4400, which was a shame because they ended on cliffhangers.)
The first 4 or 5 seasons of Smallvlle were good "coming of age" drama. The problem is that it outlived its usefulness and turned to crap, but WB and CW refused to cancel it. (Until now.)
Well I'm frankly shocked. I think Haven is even more boring Caprica was. At least Caprica was based on reality (robots with AI could be built) where Haven is about as fake as Harry Potter.
Maybe it's like NBC's seaQuest.
They spent so much money getting rights to that show, they had to renew it three years to recover their money. Syfy might have spent a small fortune for the Haven rights, and they need to keep it on the air to recover their investment.
>>>>>"Episodes offered via this medium should display no interstitial advertising. Ads should only appear just prior to and just after an episode plays."
>>
>>Already the way it's done.
Not quite true. NBC.com, Syfy.com, and hulu.com insert either 1 or 2 ads at every standard commercial break. The writer is saying they should stop doing that, and just play the episode straight through w/o interruption.
>>>Stupid, stupid stunts like calling NINE SHOWS a "season"
They didn't. Season 1 of Caprica is actually 20 episodes long, and as far as I know, they've all been filmed so we'll probably see them appear on Hulu.com even if Syfy yanks the show off the air.
I like SGU's first 5 or so episodes.
Why?
Because they are constantly on the verge of death, such as running out of air or water or shields.
But then after that, they stabilized every on board and ran out of ideas. So the writers turned towards political crap with the Lucian Alliance, and it has been just as boring as the SG1 episodes about politics. Ick. I'd rather be watching Seasons 6 and 7 of Atlantis, because I liked the people better and the premise.
>>>Cavil went off on his monologue about how humanity needed to be punished for what they did to his ancestors (the chrome cylons
Have you not studied history?
Leaders often commit the very crimes they Claim they are against.
Cavil is no different.
>>>It felt more like a corporate drama than a sci-fi story. The only thing sci-fi about it was that it happens in the future.
Well then you better not read any Heinlein or Asimov stories. They are basically about humans like us, but set in the future, and they involve almost no laser shooting or spaceships. In fact most of Asimov's stories are a lot like our society, but with the addition of robots. Such as The Caves of Steel or Robots of Dawn.
.
>>>dragons and wizards.
That's not science fiction. That's fantasy fiction, and it belongs in the same genre as Harry Potter, Xena, Hercules, or Buffy.
FALSE. According to J.Michael Straczynski (you know, the guy who created the thing), here was his original plan for the storyline:
Season 4 Finale: Sheridan captured (cliffhanger)
Episode 501-503: Sheridan rescued/earth defeated.
Episode 504-522: As shown: telepaths, Centauri War
So as you can see, all he did was move 503 back to 421. That's all. Your claim that season 5 was crammed into 420-421 is false and contrary to what the JMS has told us in his own words. Stop spreading misinformation.
>>>the final resolution of the Shadow War was moved to Season 4
Which is precisely where it was supposed to be - the War was always meant to end shortly after Sheridan's dramatic death dive on Z'ha'dum. Did you not pay attention to my last post? Or do you just think JMS is lying to all of us?
His own words: "All I did was move the season 4 finale back three episodes. A minor change." In other words, had B5 been canceled, we would not have season 5 at all. The season five story would have remained untold.
>>>THE thing to do for geeky nerds who couldn't get a date.
Uh..... it's sad but true. Fridays were ideal for nerd type shows, and Sci-Fi Channel built its brand on that night. Now they just threw it away (nerds don't want to watch wrasslin').
The X-Files become popular on Friday nights. As TV Guide wrote in their review of the show, it became popular with younger viewers who needed something to do between 7 and midnight (when the partying begins). I suspect Sci-Fi Friday experienced the same phenomenon.
>>>Copy what HBO is doing --
Charge $10/month to gain access? Yeah that won't work for Sci-Fi Channel. It would fail.