I know a lot of 'people' that would be willing to give up their claim to being "American" or "British" or whatever, just because they are disgusted with the way the current governments of the world work.
Having said that, I know for damn sure that not many 'politicians' are going to allow 'people' to have any more say in that than in how much they are taxed.
Of the people, for the people, by the people, yeah right. Try, of big business, for big business, by big business. That sounds a little closer.
Does Katz pay any attention to what is 'actually' happening in the world?
If he were paying attention, he might notice that the governments of the world (being pushed by the same big business that have owned them for decades/centuries) are doing everything in their power to turn the Internet into an extension of the 'real' world. Big business doesn't want the Internet to allow people a free 'republic', therefore government doesn't want it to happen either.
Now, maybe someone can argue that it will happen with or without the government interfering, but seriously, does anyone believe that? The government (US or other countries) will just regulate the piss out of it if they (and the businesses that really control them) can't keep it 'under control'. I don't doubt at all that someday soon we will have an 'Internet tax' for even hooking in. And then, we will be levied a tariff on product purchased over the Internet (because we aren't purchasing things the way the businesses want us to purchase them) and goods purchased over the Internet will be so expensive it won't be worth it.
Of course, assuming that big business and government manage to pull their heads out someday and realize the tracking capabilities in Internet purchases, they will jump at the opportunity to create 'online' countries. Then they can give the common people an excuse to think they are free of the old control, yet still the old control will still be in place.
This article must have actually sucked as much as I thought it did. I didn't start out hating Katz, but as time progresses, he becomes more and more like some deformed and disturbingly disgusting looking pet.
I think that Katz's time is about over. I mean, even the moderators are agreeing that Katz had one to many tokes before hitting the keyboard on this story.
Well, if you really want one, I've been kicking around this one:
If information really wants to be tied up and spanked (as some witty./er said), then it's nice to know that some party is happy with the DMCA and the current actions of the MPAA and RIAA. --Me
It still looks a little long for a good sig (that's why I'm still 'kicking it around'.)
On an on-topic note:
Does anyone else notice that Jon Katz seems to be totally obsessed with the idea of 'technological involvment' in the downfall of society? I have yet to read one of his 'articles' that sounds like anything other than 'technology (and the morons that created it) has caused yet another terrible incident which we should hold all geeks accountable for. And in other news, it was foretold by (some ridiculous book reference)'.
Sorry to rant, but I would think he could come up with something new to say after all this time of preaching that 'the end is upon us!'
I like your explaination of that. It is logical and seems to hold merit. Now, they claim that the rocks came to earth at different times (and spent different amounts of time in space on the way) so they couldn't have come from the same 'initial impact'.
To this I say, there was the initial impact (followed by your explaination above for the multiple craters). Then, there was a great out-pouring of many rocks into space. The earth caught a few of them on their way out from Mars (on their trip 'away' from the sun) and the others circled in various 'shaky orbits'(elliptical) until they fell to other planets, fell to Earth (some on their trip back 'towards' the sun), fell into the sun itself, or even fell back to Mars. Wouldn't that explain the various amounts of time in space, plus the fact that they arrived on Earth at various times?
Or am I missing something obvious that the article didn't mention? My feeling on this is that the 'Martian Geologists' are too close to the situation and are trying to look for the most complex and 'other worldly' type of explaination. Much like computer technicians get frustrated as hell because they can't figure something out (and they fight it and fight it looking at all of these complex possibilities), then some nearly computer illiterate person says, "hey, what about this?" and the techy smacks himself in the head for being a moron.
I say we 'open source' science, and put them (the scietists) on usenet and mailing lists that are easily accessible. Sure, they would get four hundred times as many useless messages as they got good messages, but I think it would be worth it if they got a few 'simple people's' explainations.
Go to a museum; see what they have to
say. I'm betting you'll find swords to be surprisingly light
Or better yet, visit the Weapons Emporium. Even the shipping weight of many of their 'Great Swords' and broad swords aren't up to 20 pounds. And that includes scabbards, sheaths and packing material.
And before you argue it, they are using the same construction methods and almost the same materials (with rust inhibiting carbon steel instead of iron) as they used back in that time period.
There is scientific proof that there was a 'race of woman warriors' way, way back in Roman and Greek times. The female warriors were large women, and quite battle ready.
Sorry, I don't know of any links (I saw it on the History Channel). Can anybody help me out?
The show I saw had them digging up a 'city' of what appeared to be all women (with a few men in a 'sanctuary building' which was supposedly a holding pen for breeders or some such). And it seemed that there was a lot of weaponry and most of the women wore battle gear.
Really, what is the world coming to (or at least the US)? I feel that there's going to have to be a revolution before
too long, ya know? Kill all the stupid people!
1. We only have enough nuclear arms to destroy the Earth seven times over. That's not nearly enough to kill all the stupid people.
2. The Earth would be extremely lonely if all the stupid people were dead (think of it, one person per million sqare miles or so, maybe less).
3. We should keep a few stupid people around just for entertainment value. Perhaps, leave them in a constantly televised place (Big Brother II, it would be almost as intelligent as the current show).
Perhaps they were thinking clearer than what would at first appear.
After all, they would have to be pretty moronic if they thought they could *stop* the distrobution of this software (and that way stop the products use *huh*). But, they are probably smart enough to realize that if they made a stink about it it would get that software distributed faster and make more people interested in the product to begin with.
Remember, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Of course, they were stupid enough to not realize that the entire slashdot crowd would get their panties in a bunch and avoid them like the plague:-).
Anyone who's a long-distance runner knows the sweet feeling you get after a long run and how you get irritable
and a little depressed when you don't run for a few days. This isn't so different from when my father used to get
headaches without his morning coffee. We were both addicts: him to caffeine, me to endorphin.
So endorphins are the reason I always feel so good after a good thrash metal session on the guitar heh? My irritability comes whether I play or not though. I get irritable when I don't play (built up energy, plus I suppose the effects of endorphin withdrawal). Plus I get irritable when I play (something about the neighbors calling the cops cause your playing at 110 db again at 2 am;-).
The previous sentence is a joke, I only play on weekends when I know the neighbors are gone. Unless I'm angry with them for something:-).
Caffeine prevents sleep? Damn, somebody better tell that to my cells. I drink a couple of Mountain Dews at night and I'm out like a light. Of course, if I don't drink them, I don't fall asleep, and don't sleep well, I fall asleep about three minutes before the alarm goes off, and I don't get up when it does go off.
*YAWN* I wish my wife wasn't trying to break me of the pop habit. Trying to be healthy is going to kill me yet!
I made a vow that if Leonardo Dickcrapio had gotten the part of Anakin I would have hired a hit man to take out Lucas (anyone that insane needs to be 'put down' like a rabid dog).
You have no idea how happy I was to hear it was actually going to be someone else (anyone else).
The trolls vacated the surface and waited for the day of a site called slashdot. Then they all got T1 lines installed in their caves and spend their days first posting and writing pornographic drivel and homages to Natalie Portman (or course, while pouring hot grits down their pants).
begin obscure Dan Simmons reference:
Beware the void which binds
the lions and tigers and bears are there
waiting to take over the world
of human understanding.
end obsucre Dan Simmons reference.
Personally, I've always felt that if we create the 'super intelligent machines' that we are always planning (and that play such an important part in the aforementioned Hyperion saga), they will keep us around as pets, or as curiosities. We assume that a super intelligent, seemingly all powerful computer will kill us all because of the 'threat' we pose. But we wouldn't be a threat to something that powerful. Just something to amuse them at the end of the day. Unless you are one of those people that think a fish in an aquarium is going to jump out of the tank and try to find a way to strangle you in the night. That's all we will be to 'them'. Just a fish in a tank.
write their own BIOSes is that they feel that the
generic Phoenix sorts aren't very good.
Your suspicion would be slightly off there. It isn't that the Phoenix sort of BIOSes aren't very good, it's in fact that they are too 'good' (they offer too much flexibility).
Here's the story we got when I was working at Gateway. A 'normal' bios (a Phoenix type of generic BIOS) is made for maximum performance and maximum customizability on the given hardware. An OEM doesn't necissarily want that. An OEM wants a BIOS that is 'stable' (in other words, as little customizability as possible) and anything that gets in the way of that is 'removed' from the generic BIOS.
Of course, this also causes some problems with performance, and is one of the reasons that Gateway is no longer allowed to show the name of the original BIOS maker on their new systems. They have to list it as a 'Gateway' specific BIOS. And if you find out what generic BIOS you can load on your system, you usually will see performance gains right away (I know I have on the two Gateways that I own). This is true of motherboard BIOSes as well as vid card BIOSes.
An OEM wants a simple and stable BIOS, a generic BIOS maker wants a high performance, extremely customizable BIOS. That's the difference.
Well, assuming the usual Slashdot hooligans actually put comments into this thing they will assume the following: we are all
Penis Bird loving
Penis fish loving
Natalie Portman obsessed
Beowulf using
Self congradulatory
OSM worshipping
Dumbass kneejerking
...teenagers so obsessed with our own superiority that we fail to understand the simplest concepts, yet accuse others of failing to see it to make ourselves feel better.
You call yourselves open-minded, yet you refuse to even consider the possibility that those words may be right.
You claim they are wrong, but since you haven't bothered to examine the beliefs, you have no idea. That has got
to be a very scary world to live in.
Since this seems to be the most rational of the posts in this thread, here is my reply:
Most of us have 'examined' those beliefs from the inside. For myself, I was raised christian (both Lutheran (on dad's side) and Baptist (mom's side)). I studied and contemplated the bible. I asked questions, and was constantly told not to ask questions. I was told that questions are not good. You are not to ask questions, just accept it as is.
Then a preacher in the Lutheran church said that god used his son to block the bullet that was aimed at us. He 'loved us so much that he threw his son in front of the bullet'. Personally, I saw that as a cowardly, abusive, and patently stupid act. It caused many more questions in my mind. Eventually, those questions led to me being thrown out of church for being 'possessed' simply because I asked questions.
Christianity has been an excuse for killing, and rape, and torture, and now it is an excuse for abusive words, and being ostrasized from your community. It is an abusive religion, and an absolutely impossible to breach ignorance. Once I finally gave up on religion, I was happier, and far more satisfied with my life. I treat people with respect, I repect myself, and I enjoy my life. When I was 'into' religion, I was constantly beating myself up because 'I was not worthy' (as this is the main tenet of christianity, all humans are scum, and we are not worthy).
It is not a sense of guilt or discomfort that seeing Christians babble about their 'god' causes in me. It is anger, and outrage. That an entire sect of our 'modern' world can believe so wholly and fully in such a fairy tale, and use it as an excuse to deride any scientific advance, not to mention any personal advance, is beyond incredulity. If you choose to believe such, so be it. Believe what you wish, but please, shut up about it already!
If people want to be christian, they will be. If they don't, the last thing that they want to hear is how they are going to burn in hell if they don't 'drop to their knees and pray to god to save our imortal souls'.
BTW, slight ontopic rant:
Why the hell would someone post this on slashdot? Does anyone really think whoever is around in 50,000 years is going to want to see a thousand copies of the penis birds and penis fish posts? Or any of the other completely idiotic and childish crap that the people of slashdot are going to try to put in there. I just hope to god that someone edits out the stupidity before they put it up.
If a movie sucks, it sucks. Please don't make excuses.
Personally, I didn't think the movie sucked. I liked it, and enjoyed it each of the four times that I went to see it in the theater (not the mention the six times I've watched the video).
Why does everyone think that it sucks!?! I just don't get it. It was not as bad as everybody seems convinced it was. If you were to watch the first Star Wars movie today for the first time (without the twenty years of worship you have built up in your head) would you say it sucked too? Because honestly I could (if I wanted to) sit here and pick apart the first movie. Bad acting, bad special effects, bad models, terrible interiors on the Death Star....
But I don't pick it apart, just like I don't pick apart the new movie. It isn't worth it. The new movie filled in a lot of gaps for me (and made me ask new questions). It gave me information that I'd always wanted. It filled in backstory that I always wanted to know about. It was political, and I'm not big on politics, but that doesn't mean it sucked.
I think it's just popular to say that Ep. I sucked and that's what everybody does. God forbid someone show any gumption and admit to liking something that the critics didn't like. GEEESUZZ, get over it.
You wonder why movies suck, maybe it's the idiot watching the movie that made it suck. I don't bother going to movies with a couple of my friends anymore because no matter how good the movie is they will pick it apart. They will point out every short-comming of the movie, regardless of how good it was overall. Sounds like you are just like them.
I went to the movie for entertainment. I went, and didn't try to keep track of each little piece of info I could use to bash it. I went in with the idea of seeing a 'story' not a series of special effects. I saw a story, and a the beggining of a damn good story in my opinion.
I find it funny that everyone says it sucks, but the only reason they have for it is the CGI character of Jar Jar Binks sometimes not matching up perfectly with his surroundings. That's the biggest complaint I've heard. Forget about the rest of the movie, Jar Jar is enough to complain about. Yeah, OK, whatever.
I think a lot of people forgot that EP I was a setup for the other movies. Everyone was expecting the same thing they saw in the first Star Wars movie (EP IV) and were disappointed because we weren't thrown instantly into the midst of the rebellion (we aren't even to the Empire yet, how do people expect there to be a rebellion?).
BTW, I have a magazine from the time right before the movie was 'released' with an interesting analysis of the similarities between the first movie (EP IV) and the latest movie (EP I). The story centered on two main planetary systems (with side trips elsewhere). They both had a princess. They both had Jedi in training (Luke and Anakin). And there were all sorts of other things they had in common.
I actually have higher expectations for the next two movies. As I've said elsewhere, it's going to get darker and far more 'intense' as the story progresses.
Would you care to define exactly how outlight lying and a marketing spin are different.
Marketing spin usually uses statistics to propogate lies (nevermind that the statistics are pulled straight out of the ass end of some subsidiary, this subsidiary is a 'non-partial' party).
Outright lying is much easier. You don't need to do nearly as much 'research'.:-)
If you can tell that it's
CGI, it's just a waste of screen time.
If you didn't know it was CGI before you saw it, would you be sitting there with pen in hand (figuratively) waiting to tear apart each CGI part?
I wish he'd get back into myths and legends like the originals. Wars over trade routes aren't exactly the most
exciting plot glue.
While it isn't the most exciting, it is essential to the 'back story' nature of Ep. I. This was the movie that is the 'first chapter' of the story we are viewing. Every first chapter does some sort of back story viewing. And let's face it, that back story is important in understanding how things got so f**ked up by Ep IV. I mean, where would you want to start to explain how the Empire was formed, and a basically good man was turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader and helped hunt down and destroy the people he was supposedly a part of. There's a lot of back story to explore there, and I'm happy that Lucas chose to let us explore it. I'd expect the next two movies to get progressively more dark and exciting.
Your comment brought an interesting thought to mind:
What if we heard absolutely nothing about the 'makings' of the films and just saw them? I mean, Episode I was not that bad (in fact, I felt it was pretty damn good). But if you listened to the months (years?!) of hype surrounding it, then went to the theater high off of the fumes from the shit the media blitz had thrown at you, you would have been disapointed. Nobody could make a movie that lives up to that kind of hype.
So, would you feel the same way about Ep. I if you had heard nothing about it before hand? Or is it just that you are so 'prepared' for greatness that you have no choice but to be disappointed?
Personally, I saw Ep. I four times in the theater, and I loved it. It wasn't dark and mysterious, but it showed plots and sub-plots that have been lurking question marks ever since the first three movies (IV-VI). And the next two episodes will show more of the same (and progressively get darker and more like the original films in feel I would think).
If the hype is setting you up for disappointment, don't listen to it. Enjoy the damn movie, and see if it actually 'tells the story' which is what I feel is the entire point of the movies. In my mind, Ep. I did just that (and who cares how many frames were computer generated and how many were 'real' shots).
Slashdot Mirror
I know a lot of 'people' that would be willing to give up their claim to being "American" or "British" or whatever, just because they are disgusted with the way the current governments of the world work.
Having said that, I know for damn sure that not many 'politicians' are going to allow 'people' to have any more say in that than in how much they are taxed.
Of the people, for the people, by the people, yeah right. Try, of big business, for big business, by big business. That sounds a little closer.
I've considered creating one, but thus far demand hasn't been too high.
In fact, including myself I now have heard of two people that would enjoy it (you and I).
Just hang in usenet. There's lots of philosophy groups there. Some even have a techno slant.
I'm sure I'll get flamebaited for this but:
;-).
Maybe that's because the real trolls avoid Katz articles like the plague that they are.
The rest of us are apparently too stupid to apply the same logic
Does Katz pay any attention to what is 'actually' happening in the world?
;-).
If he were paying attention, he might notice that the governments of the world (being pushed by the same big business that have owned them for decades/centuries) are doing everything in their power to turn the Internet into an extension of the 'real' world. Big business doesn't want the Internet to allow people a free 'republic', therefore government doesn't want it to happen either.
Now, maybe someone can argue that it will happen with or without the government interfering, but seriously, does anyone believe that? The government (US or other countries) will just regulate the piss out of it if they (and the businesses that really control them) can't keep it 'under control'. I don't doubt at all that someday soon we will have an 'Internet tax' for even hooking in. And then, we will be levied a tariff on product purchased over the Internet (because we aren't purchasing things the way the businesses want us to purchase them) and goods purchased over the Internet will be so expensive it won't be worth it.
Of course, assuming that big business and government manage to pull their heads out someday and realize the tracking capabilities in Internet purchases, they will jump at the opportunity to create 'online' countries. Then they can give the common people an excuse to think they are free of the old control, yet still the old control will still be in place.
Sorry, I must have forgotten my meds today
This article must have actually sucked as much as I thought it did. I didn't start out hating Katz, but as time progresses, he becomes more and more like some deformed and disturbingly disgusting looking pet.
I think that Katz's time is about over. I mean, even the moderators are agreeing that Katz had one to many tokes before hitting the keyboard on this story.
Well, if you really want one, I've been kicking around this one:
If information really wants to be tied up and spanked (as some witty
It still looks a little long for a good sig (that's why I'm still 'kicking it around'.)
On an on-topic note:
Does anyone else notice that Jon Katz seems to be totally obsessed with the idea of 'technological involvment' in the downfall of society? I have yet to read one of his 'articles' that sounds like anything other than 'technology (and the morons that created it) has caused yet another terrible incident which we should hold all geeks accountable for. And in other news, it was foretold by (some ridiculous book reference)'.
Sorry to rant, but I would think he could come up with something new to say after all this time of preaching that 'the end is upon us!'
I like your explaination of that. It is logical and seems to hold merit. Now, they claim that the rocks came to earth at different times (and spent different amounts of time in space on the way) so they couldn't have come from the same 'initial impact'.
To this I say, there was the initial impact (followed by your explaination above for the multiple craters). Then, there was a great out-pouring of many rocks into space. The earth caught a few of them on their way out from Mars (on their trip 'away' from the sun) and the others circled in various 'shaky orbits'(elliptical) until they fell to other planets, fell to Earth (some on their trip back 'towards' the sun), fell into the sun itself, or even fell back to Mars. Wouldn't that explain the various amounts of time in space, plus the fact that they arrived on Earth at various times?
Or am I missing something obvious that the article didn't mention? My feeling on this is that the 'Martian Geologists' are too close to the situation and are trying to look for the most complex and 'other worldly' type of explaination. Much like computer technicians get frustrated as hell because they can't figure something out (and they fight it and fight it looking at all of these complex possibilities), then some nearly computer illiterate person says, "hey, what about this?" and the techy smacks himself in the head for being a moron.
I say we 'open source' science, and put them (the scietists) on usenet and mailing lists that are easily accessible. Sure, they would get four hundred times as many useless messages as they got good messages, but I think it would be worth it if they got a few 'simple people's' explainations.
Or better yet, visit the Weapons Emporium. Even the shipping weight of many of their 'Great Swords' and broad swords aren't up to 20 pounds. And that includes scabbards, sheaths and packing material.
And before you argue it, they are using the same construction methods and almost the same materials (with rust inhibiting carbon steel instead of iron) as they used back in that time period.
There is scientific proof that there was a 'race of woman warriors' way, way back in Roman and Greek times. The female warriors were large women, and quite battle ready.
Sorry, I don't know of any links (I saw it on the History Channel). Can anybody help me out?
The show I saw had them digging up a 'city' of what appeared to be all women (with a few men in a 'sanctuary building' which was supposedly a holding pen for breeders or some such). And it seemed that there was a lot of weaponry and most of the women wore battle gear.
1. We only have enough nuclear arms to destroy the Earth seven times over. That's not nearly enough to kill all the stupid people.
2. The Earth would be extremely lonely if all the stupid people were dead (think of it, one person per million sqare miles or so, maybe less).
3. We should keep a few stupid people around just for entertainment value. Perhaps, leave them in a constantly televised place (Big Brother II, it would be almost as intelligent as the current show).
Perhaps they were thinking clearer than what would at first appear.
:-).
After all, they would have to be pretty moronic if they thought they could *stop* the distrobution of this software (and that way stop the products use *huh*). But, they are probably smart enough to realize that if they made a stink about it it would get that software distributed faster and make more people interested in the product to begin with.
Remember, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Of course, they were stupid enough to not realize that the entire slashdot crowd would get their panties in a bunch and avoid them like the plague
So endorphins are the reason I always feel so good after a good thrash metal session on the guitar heh? My irritability comes whether I play or not though. I get irritable when I don't play (built up energy, plus I suppose the effects of endorphin withdrawal). Plus I get irritable when I play (something about the neighbors calling the cops cause your playing at 110 db again at 2 am;-).
The previous sentence is a joke, I only play on weekends when I know the neighbors are gone. Unless I'm angry with them for something
I thought you got side effects from de-caffeinated (sp?) coffee, seeing how they use super chemicals (like cyanide) to remove the caffeine.
Caffeine prevents sleep? Damn, somebody better tell that to my cells. I drink a couple of Mountain Dews at night and I'm out like a light. Of course, if I don't drink them, I don't fall asleep, and don't sleep well, I fall asleep about three minutes before the alarm goes off, and I don't get up when it does go off.
*YAWN* I wish my wife wasn't trying to break me of the pop habit. Trying to be healthy is going to kill me yet!
I made a vow that if Leonardo Dickcrapio had gotten the part of Anakin I would have hired a hit man to take out Lucas (anyone that insane needs to be 'put down' like a rabid dog).
You have no idea how happy I was to hear it was actually going to be someone else (anyone else).
The trolls vacated the surface and waited for the day of a site called slashdot. Then they all got T1 lines installed in their caves and spend their days first posting and writing pornographic drivel and homages to Natalie Portman (or course, while pouring hot grits down their pants).
begin obscure Dan Simmons reference:
Beware the void which binds
the lions and tigers and bears are there
waiting to take over the world
of human understanding.
end obsucre Dan Simmons reference.
Personally, I've always felt that if we create the 'super intelligent machines' that we are always planning (and that play such an important part in the aforementioned Hyperion saga), they will keep us around as pets, or as curiosities. We assume that a super intelligent, seemingly all powerful computer will kill us all because of the 'threat' we pose. But we wouldn't be a threat to something that powerful. Just something to amuse them at the end of the day. Unless you are one of those people that think a fish in an aquarium is going to jump out of the tank and try to find a way to strangle you in the night. That's all we will be to 'them'. Just a fish in a tank.
Your suspicion would be slightly off there. It isn't that the Phoenix sort of BIOSes aren't very good, it's in fact that they are too 'good' (they offer too much flexibility).
Here's the story we got when I was working at Gateway. A 'normal' bios (a Phoenix type of generic BIOS) is made for maximum performance and maximum customizability on the given hardware. An OEM doesn't necissarily want that. An OEM wants a BIOS that is 'stable' (in other words, as little customizability as possible) and anything that gets in the way of that is 'removed' from the generic BIOS.
Of course, this also causes some problems with performance, and is one of the reasons that Gateway is no longer allowed to show the name of the original BIOS maker on their new systems. They have to list it as a 'Gateway' specific BIOS. And if you find out what generic BIOS you can load on your system, you usually will see performance gains right away (I know I have on the two Gateways that I own). This is true of motherboard BIOSes as well as vid card BIOSes.
An OEM wants a simple and stable BIOS, a generic BIOS maker wants a high performance, extremely customizable BIOS. That's the difference.
Go ahead, mark me flamebait, you know it's true.
Since this seems to be the most rational of the posts in this thread, here is my reply:
Most of us have 'examined' those beliefs from the inside. For myself, I was raised christian (both Lutheran (on dad's side) and Baptist (mom's side)). I studied and contemplated the bible. I asked questions, and was constantly told not to ask questions. I was told that questions are not good. You are not to ask questions, just accept it as is.
Then a preacher in the Lutheran church said that god used his son to block the bullet that was aimed at us. He 'loved us so much that he threw his son in front of the bullet'. Personally, I saw that as a cowardly, abusive, and patently stupid act. It caused many more questions in my mind. Eventually, those questions led to me being thrown out of church for being 'possessed' simply because I asked questions.
Christianity has been an excuse for killing, and rape, and torture, and now it is an excuse for abusive words, and being ostrasized from your community. It is an abusive religion, and an absolutely impossible to breach ignorance. Once I finally gave up on religion, I was happier, and far more satisfied with my life. I treat people with respect, I repect myself, and I enjoy my life. When I was 'into' religion, I was constantly beating myself up because 'I was not worthy' (as this is the main tenet of christianity, all humans are scum, and we are not worthy).
It is not a sense of guilt or discomfort that seeing Christians babble about their 'god' causes in me. It is anger, and outrage. That an entire sect of our 'modern' world can believe so wholly and fully in such a fairy tale, and use it as an excuse to deride any scientific advance, not to mention any personal advance, is beyond incredulity. If you choose to believe such, so be it. Believe what you wish, but please, shut up about it already!
If people want to be christian, they will be. If they don't, the last thing that they want to hear is how they are going to burn in hell if they don't 'drop to their knees and pray to god to save our imortal souls'.
BTW, slight ontopic rant:
Why the hell would someone post this on slashdot? Does anyone really think whoever is around in 50,000 years is going to want to see a thousand copies of the penis birds and penis fish posts? Or any of the other completely idiotic and childish crap that the people of slashdot are going to try to put in there. I just hope to god that someone edits out the stupidity before they put it up.
Personally, I didn't think the movie sucked. I liked it, and enjoyed it each of the four times that I went to see it in the theater (not the mention the six times I've watched the video).
Why does everyone think that it sucks!?! I just don't get it. It was not as bad as everybody seems convinced it was. If you were to watch the first Star Wars movie today for the first time (without the twenty years of worship you have built up in your head) would you say it sucked too? Because honestly I could (if I wanted to) sit here and pick apart the first movie. Bad acting, bad special effects, bad models, terrible interiors on the Death Star....
But I don't pick it apart, just like I don't pick apart the new movie. It isn't worth it. The new movie filled in a lot of gaps for me (and made me ask new questions). It gave me information that I'd always wanted. It filled in backstory that I always wanted to know about. It was political, and I'm not big on politics, but that doesn't mean it sucked.
I think it's just popular to say that Ep. I sucked and that's what everybody does. God forbid someone show any gumption and admit to liking something that the critics didn't like. GEEESUZZ, get over it.
You wonder why movies suck, maybe it's the idiot watching the movie that made it suck. I don't bother going to movies with a couple of my friends anymore because no matter how good the movie is they will pick it apart. They will point out every short-comming of the movie, regardless of how good it was overall. Sounds like you are just like them.
I went to the movie for entertainment. I went, and didn't try to keep track of each little piece of info I could use to bash it. I went in with the idea of seeing a 'story' not a series of special effects. I saw a story, and a the beggining of a damn good story in my opinion.
I find it funny that everyone says it sucks, but the only reason they have for it is the CGI character of Jar Jar Binks sometimes not matching up perfectly with his surroundings. That's the biggest complaint I've heard. Forget about the rest of the movie, Jar Jar is enough to complain about. Yeah, OK, whatever.
I think a lot of people forgot that EP I was a setup for the other movies. Everyone was expecting the same thing they saw in the first Star Wars movie (EP IV) and were disappointed because we weren't thrown instantly into the midst of the rebellion (we aren't even to the Empire yet, how do people expect there to be a rebellion?).
BTW, I have a magazine from the time right before the movie was 'released' with an interesting analysis of the similarities between the first movie (EP IV) and the latest movie (EP I). The story centered on two main planetary systems (with side trips elsewhere). They both had a princess. They both had Jedi in training (Luke and Anakin). And there were all sorts of other things they had in common.
I actually have higher expectations for the next two movies. As I've said elsewhere, it's going to get darker and far more 'intense' as the story progresses.
Marketing spin usually uses statistics to propogate lies (nevermind that the statistics are pulled straight out of the ass end of some subsidiary, this subsidiary is a 'non-partial' party).
Outright lying is much easier. You don't need to do nearly as much 'research'.
If you didn't know it was CGI before you saw it, would you be sitting there with pen in hand (figuratively) waiting to tear apart each CGI part?
While it isn't the most exciting, it is essential to the 'back story' nature of Ep. I. This was the movie that is the 'first chapter' of the story we are viewing. Every first chapter does some sort of back story viewing. And let's face it, that back story is important in understanding how things got so f**ked up by Ep IV. I mean, where would you want to start to explain how the Empire was formed, and a basically good man was turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader and helped hunt down and destroy the people he was supposedly a part of. There's a lot of back story to explore there, and I'm happy that Lucas chose to let us explore it. I'd expect the next two movies to get progressively more dark and exciting.
Your comment brought an interesting thought to mind:
What if we heard absolutely nothing about the 'makings' of the films and just saw them? I mean, Episode I was not that bad (in fact, I felt it was pretty damn good). But if you listened to the months (years?!) of hype surrounding it, then went to the theater high off of the fumes from the shit the media blitz had thrown at you, you would have been disapointed. Nobody could make a movie that lives up to that kind of hype.
So, would you feel the same way about Ep. I if you had heard nothing about it before hand? Or is it just that you are so 'prepared' for greatness that you have no choice but to be disappointed?
Personally, I saw Ep. I four times in the theater, and I loved it. It wasn't dark and mysterious, but it showed plots and sub-plots that have been lurking question marks ever since the first three movies (IV-VI). And the next two episodes will show more of the same (and progressively get darker and more like the original films in feel I would think).
If the hype is setting you up for disappointment, don't listen to it. Enjoy the damn movie, and see if it actually 'tells the story' which is what I feel is the entire point of the movies. In my mind, Ep. I did just that (and who cares how many frames were computer generated and how many were 'real' shots).