How long after The Phantom Menace came out were some fanboys in denial about the fact that it sucked?
Denial of unpleasant truths seems to be a big part of living in Western culture.
Every fifth post through this whole thread is, "The Sky is NOT falling!" and "There is NO link between global warming and strange weather!" Essentially, "NOTHING IS ABNORMAL! LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
Interestingly, the evidence of past hurricanes categorized by decade suggests that there have been big hurricanes to make US landfall before. Indeed, the worst decade, from 1950-1959 saw a total of nine storms between category 3 and 4, (though none of category 5) during that ten year period. Sure. But we've just had four in just one summer. Nobody can say that this is par for any course.
Now, I am not claiming that this has anything to do with global warming. But anybody who tells me that everything is normal probably swore up and down that The Phantom Menace was a good film for a whole year after it came out.
Has any of this come soon enough to make any difference in three and a half weeks time?
Particularly when Theresa LePore, despite her strong-arming the debacle in 2000 is still elections supervisor in Florida.
Those stupid machines, many of which remain installed all over the country, are just a small part of the total corruption.
If Bush doesn't win, it'll be because the script calls for him not to.
Kerry has stated numerous times that he fully intends to continue and enlarge the 'war against terrorism', so in the end, the outcome of this election hardly matters. --Though, if he gets put on the throne and he somehow manages to create economic 'stability' for another 4 years, then I'd be happier. I wouldn't mind an extra 4 years before somebody pulls the plug and puts me in jail for refusing to carry a machine gun across the desert.
I think that's probably wishful thinking, though.
One way or another, this election is going to be far more entertaining than the Olympics were! The outcome is going to affect everybody on the planet! Think, "Quake without the instant save-game feature."
Yes, do let's label all creative types who want to remain sovereign but choose to work in a co-linear fashion with others of like mind! Now that we have 'Pro-Ams', we can get down to the silly business of setting up camps and shouting wars.
I mean, how will I know where to throw my rocks if the target remains undefined?
'Pro-Ams'??
Ugh. If I'm going to join an army, it had better come up with something better than, 'Pro-Am'.
How about, "Fuck off. My name is _____ and my specialty is _____ and I want to help make cool stuff without some evil elitists' yoke around my neck."? If you call me a 'Pro-Am' it means you're probably a crappy buzz-word journalist or some keener executive at AssCorp who Just Doesn't Get It or is Quaking In His/Her Loafers.
Billions of black, shrimp-size bugs with transparent wings and beady red eyes are beginning to carpet trees, buildings, poles, and just about anything else vertical in a wide region of the U.S. The invasion zone stretches from the eastern seaboard west through Indiana and south to Tennessee.
They don't report these sorts of things loudly. Even the National Geographic website didn't post any images. --And images of amazing turns of nature is one of the things they do best. Gee. Go figure.
One of the "other" reasons for Star Trek TNG going off the air was skyrocketing visual effects costs - from; none other than ILM.
No kidding? I didn't realize this was an issue. I remember reading somewhere during the earlier seasons of of TNG that episodes cost about 1-2 million per. Considering that the show was shot largely on permanent sound stages, this did seem quite expensive, (especially when compared to the Young Indys which cost about the same.)
Interesting!
-FL
Well, before George's brain melted. . .
on
Star Wars TV Show
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· Score: 1
There was this show called, "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." It was amazing. --Some of the best story telling I've ever seen on TV.
The VHS releases were a disappointment because the editors chopped out the narrative thread of Old Indy as story-teller. It's amazing how much this damaged the overall effect of the show. I still pull out the old VHS copies I taped of the unadultered versions to show during that whole media cross-pollenation period when you meet new friends. They are always blown away.
Young Indy was amazing for several reasons. ..
1. They hired real, well respected writers to pen the episodes. The fellow who did the screen treatment for Shawshank Redemption wrote a couple of my favorites.
2. They shot them on location, touring all over the world, and they used the proto-version of Lucas's non-linear editing system and digital graphics department to bring the viewer astonishing visuals you still never see in low-budget TV. (Each episode cost only about 2 million!)
3. They only made a dozen or so episodes per season. The crews worked themselves to the bone and spent the time to do their best work. Each episode watches with movie quality.
The experiment was a success; Lucas demonstrated that he could make amazingly high quality television for rock-bottom prices.
And yet. ..
Smart, exciting, lovingly shot and perfectly edited, this series somehow managed to achieve popular failure. I've only ever been able to deal with this by crying, "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU STUPID PEOPLE?!?!" (Clearly a redundant question.)
Further, when the hatchet job VHS copies hit the market, the show was all but a dead critter. Apparently, Lucas has this ability to create wonderful things and then suck the life out of them. Although the recent Star Wars films would suggest that he's skipping past the 'wonderful things' part, and jumping right into 'life-sucking'.
But maybe if he keeps his fingers out of the project and gives it to the right people, (as he says he wants to), Star Wars TV may have a chance of being as good as the Young Indy series. I don't have my hopes up. The intense desire to create something special at the Ranch has taken rather a lot of hits to the moral. But you never know. There's always a chance. We'll have to wait and see.
There is already full-spectrum surveillance in effect. What? Echelon and similar systems can't understand emails or VoIP? You think high-level encryption is any defense? Give me a break. These are people who can hear your conversations in a running shower stall from freekin' orbit if they so choose. Even a lightbulb can be a two-way transmitter if you have technology sensitive enough to exploit them, which some groups certainly do.
This FCC request is two things: 1. A piece of PR bullshit which only affects a meaningless department within a meaningless department, and which is primarily designed to shape public consciousness and herd populations. And 2. to clarify the list of trouble makers for later liquidation.
In short, the powers that matter are not going to ask your permission before eavesdropping.
spend $2000 on something like a canon 10d and an epson r800 and i think you'll find very different results - except for the crappy lighting and composure for which you'd only have yourself to blame.
I would certainly expect to be happy with my pictures if I were to spend $2000 dollars on a camera!
The only problem is that most people aren't professional photographers with access to thousand dollar equipment and expensive processing labs. The pictures I was enjoying on that sunny porch were taken on a very cheep film camera with a lense factory-locked at infinity. The results were beautiful.
The truth of the matter is that most people are simply going to lose another battle to the soulless maw of the digital paradigm as cheep film cameras and processing slip out of vogue. People are going to look at crappy images on crappy monitors, and print them out with crappy printers on crappy paper.
They are going to forget what the world can be, what it was before the 'assistance' of computers. And their kids won't even have the option of forgetting. Their world will be crappy right out of the box.
True, there is always the matter of choice. One need not accept crappiness if one doesn't want to. But it's shaping up to be the default position in a world where it needn't be the case. It's a shame that every inch must be fought for.
Feed the Hobbits shit, you get shitty Hobbits. They don't know any better, but I'd prefer to live among a happy population.
Digital cameras are fun and handy and convenient, but man, they do they ever suck!
I had a digital camera for a while and quickly forgot how great it was to hold a set of glossies in my hands. I mean, after screwing around with JPEGs and Photoshop and all that, the images from a disposable camera blew me away. I really had forgotten just how good an image could be, and that was the part which struck me; that I had forgotten so easily.
Having to be sitting in front of a crappy CRT or a TFT to view a photo? Lame. Very lame.
Oh, but color printers!
I repeat: Lame. Very lame.
Nothing looks cheesier than some crappy inkjet output. Even a good color copier can't hope to compare to a nice photo print.
Yeah, yeah, everybody's heard the whole, "You can't curl up with a computer," argument before. But the fact is, this is an analog universe. Digital is a tool and a toy built on soulless approximations. Very useful and lots of fun, but when all is said and done, nothing beats sitting on the deck with the girlfriend going over your holiday snaps.
--You know, out in the sunlight and fresh air. Where humans don't turn into pasty Morlocks.
Time in the cave and time out doors. Balance is everything, and all these damned computer toys make it easy to forget that.
Now all one has to do in order to be a solid Lois Lane is to sneak in regardless and cover whatever happens to you first. --The arrest, or the dog & pony show. (Neither, I expect, can be very pretty.)
The crappiest times to be a journalist are also the most important times to be a journalist.
I should print out your comment and give it to my American Studies teacher.
I welcome it! But please, be sure to also review and include the other two or three comments I've made in responses to the others who commented on my post.
--I think it may be very likely that you are jumping to conclusions regarding my intent and beliefs. In any case, I'd be fascinated to know what your teacher's take would be.
Yes, there is a difference. One believes the Jews control everything and the other believes the Jews want to control everything.
Interestingly, this is not wholly accurate. --It suggests that ALL Jews want to control everything, whereas my experience with Jews tells me that the power-mongers are, as in other nations, a small number of elite. Their supporters are either connected to that elite, or are, largely, programmed masses.
Zionism is masked as a Jewish creation. Zionism, after the history is examined, is clearly a manipulative force which has through many, many means, artificially created threats of all types to Jews in other nations, both direct and indirect, pushing them to re-locate to Israel. There is plenty of evidence of Zionist ties with the Third Reich and various non-Jewish power brokers such as Rothschildes, and of course, the US government.
The end goal, as I have said before, is to "Put all the eggs in one basket" to enable a more effective termination of the Jewish blood lines, and that this is one of the primary objectives to the coming World War.
The Jews are one of the most heavily manipulated groups on the planet, and one which is being herded ever closer toward self-destruction.
I don't see it as being avoidable at this point, but perhaps with continued warnings and muck-raking, some people living in Israel, or who are planning to move there, will wake up and perhaps manage to avoid the hammer before it falls.
There are such things as conspiracies. There is no such thing as The Conspiracy. The former requires the cooperation of several people; the latter would require the cooperation of thousands of people, all of whom would need to be clever enough not to get caught. And People are just too Stupid for that to happen.
I don't want to make you feel stupid, but the argument you present here is a actually a common misconception; I believed it once as well until I began to examine the puzzle more closely.
Try thinking of it this way. ..
Your trying to discredit the idea of, "The Conspiracy," through ridicule (re, "CUCKOO, CUCKOO"), is in fact part of the very same 'Conspiracy'. --But you didn't take orders, nor did you receive an envelope from a shadowy figure. Still, this doesn't alter the fact that you are a part of a large group of people engendering a certain belief system, and that you are affecting how the world filters and perceives data and events. --If you get enough people doing as you do, repeating, "He's Crazy" often enough, then the perception is created of a sort of 'moral majority' at work. And people can be counted on in most cases to react in a few very specific ways;
-People, on a gut level, will Fear the ideas being ridiculed and want to look away or in fact join in the chorus of disagreement so as to be part of the 'popular' crowd and thus avoid being ostracized themselves. This social programming is typically installed during childhood on school yards, and it is one of the most powerful methods to control population behavior in use today.
That is, ridiculing and heaping social abuse upon a subject with enough strength will cause the rest of the world to look the other way. Almost every time. Amazing! And yet, where is the 'Vast Conspiracy?' to make this happen?
Oh, it's there. It's just far more effective than most people give it credit, and far more invisible. The interesting fact is that when it is in full effect, conspirators do not NEED to keep secrets because the population is actively, deliberately looking the other way.
That's why the points you raise about the impossibility of thousands of people keeping a secret, (while true!), is not an issue.
And let's look at an example of a recent 'conspiracy' which was caught, which has massive implications, and which everybody ignored, choosing instead to believe in the installed falsehood. ..
--This recent story about Canwest Global [www.cbc.ca], which owns much of the news pie in Canada is an excellent example of a small number of people influencing millions in regard to the activities of Zionist Israel.
There are those two charged words; ask yourself. . . Are you reacting at this moment rationally or emotionally?
You're also a fucking anti-semite.. "look a virus came out, it must be the Israeli secret service"
--And you are a sputtering, pre-programmed fool. Anybody who has bothered to look beyond Fox and CNN will know; the Mossad is one of the most dangerous and prolific secret agencies on the planet; anybody who criticizes Israel in any significant way is asking for trouble. (Or air to surface missiles into their wheel chair.)
Seriously. Look beyond the prescribed. There are some very smart and very even-keeled people who, (unlike the shouting poster I'm responding to), are not filled with knee-jerk emotional buttons. These are people who have studied the many various issues, not with hate, but rather out of curiosity and a sense of responsibility to know what the truth is and to share it.
Look up: "Israeli Moving Companies" and "Dancing art students". Those two threads alone will pull an avalanche of data into your hands. --If you want to see it. --Don't stop on the first hysterical webpage and say, "See! I looked and it's all insane crap!" If you only want to see evidence to support your delusions, then that is certainly all you will find.
Michael Moore took a lot of care to avoid talking about the elephant in the living room with his latest film. He's no dolt; he knows that potato is just too hot. (That is, can you imagine an army of pre-programmed fools like the one I'm responding to burning copies of his film? I can.)
Despite the fact that the emotionally charged term, 'Anti-Semite' is growing less effective as rationality catches up to reality, I want to be clear:
I am not anti-semitic. I AM anti-Zionist. The Jews are caught in the cross-fire. The Semites, ALL Semites, both Jew and Arab, are the final target of this new World War. --You will probably not read a more essential and un-recognized truth for the rest of this year.
I've been saying it for several years, and now it's becoming very hard to ignore. . . WWII was a dry run. It's all starting to happen again.
JPEG viruses and plenty of tax-paid astro-turfing are par for this course. They only have to keep people confused and quiet for one more month and then guys like me can be arrested without hassle.
Interesting that this virus, which has been in the wings and known of by select groups for years now, should at this time be given lots of promotion, (a few virus releases and big, loud press attention like a freekin' summer movie advertising run), right when the most important US election in the history of mankind is gearing up.
Having people scared out of the public places so that they can't discuss the events which are about to unfold. . ?
And some dorks still laugh at me and say I'm a paranoid conspiracy nut.
--Goodness! Well, if conspiracies don't exist, why are there laws like, 'Conspiracy to commit _____' on the books? And who but the lying psychos in government are better suited to pulling such stunts? Only a nut would actually lower his/her guard over the next couple of months!
Count on this: If any 'terrorism' happens in the next 5 weeks, you can be sure it will have been be aided and abetted by the US and/or Israeli secret services.
Not that you'll be able to talk about it on-line, what with all the scary viruses and all!
Buckle up, kids. This stretch of road is about to get bumpy.
When I got my flatscreen, (A Samsung Syncmaster 570V - A fine piece of no-lag hardware), I was curious about how the thing worked.
So, of course, it got opened.
Specifically, I was curious about the fact that I was able to plug the thing directly into my (very) old graphics card which was built before there were such things as desk top flat screens, and actually have it work.
The signal being output by a graphics card is designed to be understandable by the average computer CRT. --Which, (when I've opened those in the past), don't contain a whole lot of extra electronics beyond on-off switches and very basic control systems. That is, with a standard CRT, the signal from the graphics card in my compy pretty much feeds directly into the electron gun and magnetics control system of the CRT monitor with very little intermediary electronics in between. All the really clever electronics is done by the graphics card back in the tower case.
So. ..
Since TFT monitors work on a radically different principal than CRT technology, this means that the output signal from my old graphics card, (which I'm guessing is analog), must be translated into a very different type of signal which can be interpreted by the TFT screen electronics, which I am guessing is a digital signal.
This would mean. ..
The original image dreamed up by the computer is digital, then converted to analog by the graphics card so that the CRT can apply it, and then because there is no CRT, it is converted back again into a digital signal for the TFT.
Oh yeah. Now that's efficiency!
And it worried me, actually. When I was shopping for my flatscreen, I was bugging sales people, "So are you SURE I don't need some kind of proprietary graphics card to run this thing? If that's the case, then I'm no going to get a flatscreen. I need a GOOD graphics card. Not some hunk of standardized junk made by the flatscreen manufacturer!"
The sales guys always just shook their heads. "No sir. You just plug it in."
"Oh. .." I wasn't feeling very reassured.
But what do you know? I plugged it in, and no problem. It worked like a charm. So, like I said, I had to open it up.
When unscrewed and pulled apart, voila! Unlike the guts of a standard CRT, there before me inisde the TFT was a whole LOT of extra circuit board and chip set confusion sitting between the monitor cable plug and the flexi-cable which feeds into the actual screen system. So there is some serious signal in interpretation going on! --And none of it, I imagine, would be industry standard; each CRT to TFT signal converter is probably designed and built by whoever happens to be making the flatscreen. This extra engineering necessity provides a whole pile of room to make bad decisions and crappy electronics.
My guess is that this is where the lag you are experiencing is coming from.
For my part, I was fortunate in that Samsung did the job well. I ended up with a system which works invisibly, with no perceivable lag between any input and screen output. Perhaps you can sell your screen off on Ebay and get a better monitor.
Of course, the problem may be something else entirely, but that's my two cents. Hope it helped!
Occam the monk who created his 'razor' in order to prove the existence of God? THAT Occam? Is THAT the 'air-tight' system of logic you want to use here?
I was only joking when I pulled Occam out in my post, but since you want to raise the same thing here, well, I asked first, and I haven't seen any answer yet. In fact, I've yet to see any evidence that a single point or argument I've made has been considered.
The question you pose:
Is it more plausible that:
1) The U.S. government conspired with Microsoft and independent OSS software developers all over the world to develop buffer overflow bugs to distract people from the coming election in the hope that a buffer overflow bug would sway them to vote one way or the other (or not vote) in order to get a particular candidate elected (presumably Bush)
That's your straw man, not mine. While I do write with a lot of thunder, there is sound logic and thought behind my words.
If you do bother to go back and read what I DID say, and if you still have objections, then please do come back and present them. --But I would request that you don't deliberately mis-interpret my words or twist my intent.
Ah. Now you're in the plural, I see. (And you're recommending that I see a shrink?) Do you actually know each other or do you really find it so necessary to seek comfort in numbers when trying to protect your belief system from any sort of analysis that you'll jump at the chance to use the word, 'We'?
That's pack mentality, buddy. Stems from a desire to submit one's individuality and critical thinking in favor of gaining the protection of numbers. --Which is a symptom of Fear. And yes, actually, I do know a little something about psychology, so be careful who you call crazy.
Whatever the case, identifying yourself as an 'Anonymous Coward' is wonderfully appropriate.
Did you really not understand what I was saying about how so-called 'conspiracies' work, or did you simply not allow it inside your mind as you flicked your eye to the end of my post, ('Threads'), with pre-conceived notions to deliver your light-weight jab? Could you even explain the argument presented there? Did you look at the link provided?
This is why I'm saying I'm wasting my words. You're giving me little evidence that there's much rationality at work in your head.
Simply repeating the assertion, "You're Wrong!" doesn't alter anything, though it does aptly demonstrate the caliber of your mind.
Oh god, I just posted this in a tongue in cheek replay to the grandparent, but someone actually proposed it seriously.
I generally forgive and make allowances when I can actually manage to wade through broken grammar, screwed up wording and bent idea structures to find some germ of meaning, but in this case I can't figure out at all the message being attempted here.
Honestly. Every layer of pre-filtering I need to apply to an incompetent post moves my eyebrow up another notch on the, 'Who is this loser?' scale.
Wow, a buffer overflow bug is part of a vast conspiracy
And guess what? Your trying to discredit the idea through ridicule is a part of the same 'Vast Conspriacy'. But did you take orders? Did you recieve an envelope from a shadow figure? Of course not! But this doesn't alter the fact that you are a part of a large force of awareness, and that you are affecting how the world percieves events. Get enough people doing as you do, and the world looks the other way. Amazing! And where is the 'Vast Conspiracy?'
Oh, it's there. It's just far more effective than most people give it credit.
Let's take the current example: --All it takes are people in the news force with Computer Bug Stories kept in waiting for release at appropriate times, and then to do so with the appropriate level of alarm and coverage. Instant cultural change is affected in very controlled and predictable ways. If I was in charge and evil, that's definitely how I'd do it.
Or are you suggesting that news agencies are not massively influenced by powerful people with agendas? Do you really believe that?
I certainly hope not, because there is ample proof to the contrary. Do you want some links? There are lots. --Look up the most recent story about Canwest Global in Canada, which owns much of the news pie in Canada for a brief example.
Are you trying to tell me that the world presented to you by your TV and your government is an accurate picture of reality?
Only a fool would answer Yes to that, so my next question is, "How much of that presented reality is false?" Ten percent? Thirty percent? Eighty?
The problem is that the loose threads of the make-believe reality are many and very easy to pull on. Those who chuckle lightly at this assertion and who find me, 'entertaining' are those who have never pulled a thread or questioned a teacher, or stepped outside the socially accepted bounds in their lives.
And the reality of the matter is that it is far more likely that such tactics are used than not.
To pull out Occam's rusty razor, one can ask, "Which is more likely: That sneaky tactics and social manipulation are used by greedy, manipulative people, or that everybody is good and honest?"
Or as I like to put it; "So you don't believe in Conspiracies? Fine. How about if I change the word; Do you also not believe in Corruption?"
The fact that you are reacting in the way you are is evidence that you are one of the mind-controlled. Take a few minutes to ask yourself how such could be possible; explore the notion, don't just cast it off, and see where that takes you. (How much time every day do you spend staring at a TV screen with your eyes wide and your brain hypnotically opened?)
Do you want some links about how that works? Or would you prefer to be 'entertained'.
People have known about this vulnerability for ages. Microsoft created the damned thing, for goodness sake. The people in charge of determining how JPEGs are processed when they return a data overflow ARE NOT THAT INCOMPETENT! This is NOT a bug.
And it was carefully timed. The more fear and confusion on the web, the less attention will be given to the important issues, namely the election coming up in. . . How Many Days??
For goodness sake, Gates is part of the Homeland clique; he's spent time in planning meets with Homeland honchos to better determine how Microsoft could 'help out'.
Not that it actually matters. This is now merely an internal struggle between pawns; Kerry is just as much a dangerous bastard as Bush. ..
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign blasted the Bush administration for "another national security failure" on Iran's nuclear program and urged that Tehran be threatened with tougher sanctions.
Campaign spokesman Mark Kitchens told AFP that the White House's "arrogant unilateralism" had made it harder to get the necessary cooperation from European allies and the UN nuclear watchdog to rein in Iran's ambitions.
He made his comments a day after a State Department spokesman expressed alarm over Iran's admitted program of uranium enrichment and declared that Tehran was making an "unrelenting push toward nuclear weapons capability."
"Recent developments represent another national security failure for the Bush administration," Kitchens said as the Kerry campaign sharpened its attacks on President George W. Bush six weeks before the November 2 election.
--That is, (pardon my editorializing), both parties, despite their surface disagreements, are pushing for an escalation against Iran. This is the exact same technique as was used against Iraq. There is almost no difference.
Run a bunch of bullshit stories about the 'sudden' threat of Iranian nuclear intentions to gain a big, sloppy, predictable and easily directed emotional response from all the American twits and drones.
Israel complains and whines that the UN should do something, despite the fact that there have been illegal nukes in the arsenals of the Promised Land for decades. Double standards, anyone? (Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. The Zionists are the Good Guys. They're allowed to commit genocide so long as they own all the news papers and have it called 'anti-terrorism'.)
The UN is bullied into creating a half-assed directive by which Iran can be observed, tested and punished if they don't meet some arbitrary dead-line.
It doesn't matter what the heck the actual findings are when the UN inspectors are sent in, the American media and the psychopaths in government will simply tell lies and spin the hell out of everything to get what they want, which is. ..
Cluster bombs in Iran, dead children, de-stablized government and CIA installed despot. Just like in Iraq. --And needless to say, all Americans between the ages of 19 and 38 carrying machine guns.
The most ridiculous part is that EVERYBODY WILL FUCKING FALL FOR IT AGAIN. --Because Americans have been the subject of a century long campaign to make them poor, ignorant, fat, drugged, and retarded.
A nuclear bomb in some American city set off by the Mossad or CIA in yet anotherfalse-flag operation around election time would be a good way to spur things along if this JPEG bullshit driving people away from the web doesn't prevent enough communication and public discourse.
I learned a long time ago not to bother with either label. Regardless of which song the band happens to be playing, the parade is still marching toward the same destination. Snowball fights between the two camps are just a distraction. A waste of energy and awareness. A great big, dumb trap which so many people fall into. Willingly!
But I must say. . , that website link on your post, (Democrats for Bush) was pretty astonishing!
Anybody who doesn't recognize that Bush is a psychopath is either stupid, or is deliberately avoiding reading anything outside the prescribed jingoistic dogma. (Which is also pretty stupid.) Or, of course, such a person could also be evil, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
You might also be joking, but I've run into enough people who have bought the line to know that this is unlikely. What a world, eh!
I could provide you with a lot very illuminating material if I thought you wanted to be illuminated, but I don't get that impression.
It seems likely at this point that those who are still living with blinders on are doing so deliberately. Reality is a much more complicated and depressing place than the fiction, after all. (Or so some find; for me the whole show is entirely fascinating to watch unfold. --Though, I do recognize that my attitude is an unusual one. Global destruction and mass-misery can be very upsetting, and I do sympathize with those who are horrified by the prospect of the ends of their various worlds.) Regardless though, studied ignorance despite the calming effect, has ZERO use in the long run. Protection only comes from knowledge.
I noticed that the article highlighted a couple of rather reasonable-sounding ones, and presented them in a positive light. Hmm.
I wonder about the other 80 or so bills which are now law. Does anybody know?
Basically, after cutting a deal with Enron before his election, I think it is highly unlikely that Arnold is a man with anybody's interests other than his own at heart. --And all in the wake of the CA energy scandal, (which the capitalists defended from the get-go; Nice job guys! Enron is the logical end result of greed-based policy. Did you learn anything?)
If Bush hasn't been crowned "Dictator For Life" by 2008, then I'll be pretty spooked about Arnold taking the throne.
I'm probably making myself look very old, but I used to have a handheld mechanical pong game in the early 80's
Old? Hell, I remember the television ad jingle! Thusly, I ended up owning one. The thing I didn't like about the toy was that it made a wind-up motor buzzing sound which seemed pretty low-tech to me.
When I finally took it apart, I found of course that it was Etch-A-Sketch inside, rather than Star Wars. Wind-up was not magic robot moon-rocket stuff in my opinion. It was just dumb.
Interestingly, now that we have flat screens and hand helds which can play the biggest, brightest video games, I find myself these days pining for mechanical wonders like Pinball machines. ..
Slashdot Mirror
Denial of unpleasant truths seems to be a big part of living in Western culture.
Every fifth post through this whole thread is, "The Sky is NOT falling!" and "There is NO link between global warming and strange weather!" Essentially, "NOTHING IS ABNORMAL! LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
Ahem. .
First Ever South Atlantic Hurricane Hits Brazil. (March of 2004)
South American Glaciers Melting Faster, Changing Sea Level.
Alaskan Glaciers Melting Faster.
desertification in China.
desertification in Africa.
.
Heck, even the rest of the solar system is acting funny. Remember the. .
Blue Band on Jupiter this past March of 2004?
and
the Huge X-class solar flares of last year?
Interestingly, the evidence of past hurricanes categorized by decade suggests that there have been big hurricanes to make US landfall before. Indeed, the worst decade, from 1950-1959 saw a total of nine storms between category 3 and 4, (though none of category 5) during that ten year period. Sure. But we've just had four in just one summer. Nobody can say that this is par for any course.
Now, I am not claiming that this has anything to do with global warming. But anybody who tells me that everything is normal probably swore up and down that The Phantom Menace was a good film for a whole year after it came out.
-FL
Particularly when Theresa LePore, despite her strong-arming the debacle in 2000 is still elections supervisor in Florida.
Those stupid machines, many of which remain installed all over the country, are just a small part of the total corruption.
If Bush doesn't win, it'll be because the script calls for him not to.
Kerry has stated numerous times that he fully intends to continue and enlarge the 'war against terrorism', so in the end, the outcome of this election hardly matters. --Though, if he gets put on the throne and he somehow manages to create economic 'stability' for another 4 years, then I'd be happier. I wouldn't mind an extra 4 years before somebody pulls the plug and puts me in jail for refusing to carry a machine gun across the desert.
I think that's probably wishful thinking, though.
One way or another, this election is going to be far more entertaining than the Olympics were! The outcome is going to affect everybody on the planet! Think, "Quake without the instant save-game feature."
-FL
Yes, do let's label all creative types who want to remain sovereign but choose to work in a co-linear fashion with others of like mind! Now that we have 'Pro-Ams', we can get down to the silly business of setting up camps and shouting wars.
I mean, how will I know where to throw my rocks if the target remains undefined?
'Pro-Ams'??
Ugh. If I'm going to join an army, it had better come up with something better than, 'Pro-Am'.
How about, "Fuck off. My name is _____ and my specialty is _____ and I want to help make cool stuff without some evil elitists' yoke around my neck."? If you call me a 'Pro-Am' it means you're probably a crappy buzz-word journalist or some keener executive at AssCorp who Just Doesn't Get It or is Quaking In His/Her Loafers.
-FL
They don't report these sorts of things loudly. Even the National Geographic website didn't post any images. --And images of amazing turns of nature is one of the things they do best. Gee. Go figure.
-FL
No kidding? I didn't realize this was an issue. I remember reading somewhere during the earlier seasons of of TNG that episodes cost about 1-2 million per. Considering that the show was shot largely on permanent sound stages, this did seem quite expensive, (especially when compared to the Young Indys which cost about the same.)
Interesting!
-FL
The VHS releases were a disappointment because the editors chopped out the narrative thread of Old Indy as story-teller. It's amazing how much this damaged the overall effect of the show. I still pull out the old VHS copies I taped of the unadultered versions to show during that whole media cross-pollenation period when you meet new friends. They are always blown away.
Young Indy was amazing for several reasons. .
1. They hired real, well respected writers to pen the episodes. The fellow who did the screen treatment for Shawshank Redemption wrote a couple of my favorites.
2. They shot them on location, touring all over the world, and they used the proto-version of Lucas's non-linear editing system and digital graphics department to bring the viewer astonishing visuals you still never see in low-budget TV. (Each episode cost only about 2 million!)
3. They only made a dozen or so episodes per season. The crews worked themselves to the bone and spent the time to do their best work. Each episode watches with movie quality.
The experiment was a success; Lucas demonstrated that he could make amazingly high quality television for rock-bottom prices.
And yet. .
Smart, exciting, lovingly shot and perfectly edited, this series somehow managed to achieve popular failure. I've only ever been able to deal with this by crying, "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU STUPID PEOPLE?!?!" (Clearly a redundant question.)
Further, when the hatchet job VHS copies hit the market, the show was all but a dead critter. Apparently, Lucas has this ability to create wonderful things and then suck the life out of them. Although the recent Star Wars films would suggest that he's skipping past the 'wonderful things' part, and jumping right into 'life-sucking'.
But maybe if he keeps his fingers out of the project and gives it to the right people, (as he says he wants to), Star Wars TV may have a chance of being as good as the Young Indy series. I don't have my hopes up. The intense desire to create something special at the Ranch has taken rather a lot of hits to the moral. But you never know. There's always a chance. We'll have to wait and see.
-FL
This FCC request is two things: 1. A piece of PR bullshit which only affects a meaningless department within a meaningless department, and which is primarily designed to shape public consciousness and herd populations. And 2. to clarify the list of trouble makers for later liquidation.
In short, the powers that matter are not going to ask your permission before eavesdropping.
-FL
I would certainly expect to be happy with my pictures if I were to spend $2000 dollars on a camera!
The only problem is that most people aren't professional photographers with access to thousand dollar equipment and expensive processing labs. The pictures I was enjoying on that sunny porch were taken on a very cheep film camera with a lense factory-locked at infinity. The results were beautiful.
The truth of the matter is that most people are simply going to lose another battle to the soulless maw of the digital paradigm as cheep film cameras and processing slip out of vogue. People are going to look at crappy images on crappy monitors, and print them out with crappy printers on crappy paper.
They are going to forget what the world can be, what it was before the 'assistance' of computers. And their kids won't even have the option of forgetting. Their world will be crappy right out of the box.
True, there is always the matter of choice. One need not accept crappiness if one doesn't want to. But it's shaping up to be the default position in a world where it needn't be the case. It's a shame that every inch must be fought for.
Feed the Hobbits shit, you get shitty Hobbits. They don't know any better, but I'd prefer to live among a happy population.
-FL
I had a digital camera for a while and quickly forgot how great it was to hold a set of glossies in my hands. I mean, after screwing around with JPEGs and Photoshop and all that, the images from a disposable camera blew me away. I really had forgotten just how good an image could be, and that was the part which struck me; that I had forgotten so easily.
Having to be sitting in front of a crappy CRT or a TFT to view a photo? Lame. Very lame.
Oh, but color printers!
I repeat: Lame. Very lame.
Nothing looks cheesier than some crappy inkjet output. Even a good color copier can't hope to compare to a nice photo print.
Yeah, yeah, everybody's heard the whole, "You can't curl up with a computer," argument before. But the fact is, this is an analog universe. Digital is a tool and a toy built on soulless approximations. Very useful and lots of fun, but when all is said and done, nothing beats sitting on the deck with the girlfriend going over your holiday snaps.
--You know, out in the sunlight and fresh air. Where humans don't turn into pasty Morlocks.
Time in the cave and time out doors. Balance is everything, and all these damned computer toys make it easy to forget that.
-FL
The crappiest times to be a journalist are also the most important times to be a journalist.
Kudos to you.
-FL --Where the heck is Supes when you need him?
I welcome it! But please, be sure to also review and include the other two or three comments I've made in responses to the others who commented on my post.
--I think it may be very likely that you are jumping to conclusions regarding my intent and beliefs. In any case, I'd be fascinated to know what your teacher's take would be.
-FL
Interestingly, this is not wholly accurate. --It suggests that ALL Jews want to control everything, whereas my experience with Jews tells me that the power-mongers are, as in other nations, a small number of elite. Their supporters are either connected to that elite, or are, largely, programmed masses.
Zionism is masked as a Jewish creation. Zionism, after the history is examined, is clearly a manipulative force which has through many, many means, artificially created threats of all types to Jews in other nations, both direct and indirect, pushing them to re-locate to Israel. There is plenty of evidence of Zionist ties with the Third Reich and various non-Jewish power brokers such as Rothschildes, and of course, the US government.
The end goal, as I have said before, is to "Put all the eggs in one basket" to enable a more effective termination of the Jewish blood lines, and that this is one of the primary objectives to the coming World War.
The Jews are one of the most heavily manipulated groups on the planet, and one which is being herded ever closer toward self-destruction.
I don't see it as being avoidable at this point, but perhaps with continued warnings and muck-raking, some people living in Israel, or who are planning to move there, will wake up and perhaps manage to avoid the hammer before it falls.
-FL
I don't want to make you feel stupid, but the argument you present here is a actually a common misconception; I believed it once as well until I began to examine the puzzle more closely.
Try thinking of it this way. .
Your trying to discredit the idea of, "The Conspiracy," through ridicule (re, "CUCKOO, CUCKOO"), is in fact part of the very same 'Conspiracy'. --But you didn't take orders, nor did you receive an envelope from a shadowy figure. Still, this doesn't alter the fact that you are a part of a large group of people engendering a certain belief system, and that you are affecting how the world filters and perceives data and events. --If you get enough people doing as you do, repeating, "He's Crazy" often enough, then the perception is created of a sort of 'moral majority' at work. And people can be counted on in most cases to react in a few very specific ways;
-People, on a gut level, will Fear the ideas being ridiculed and want to look away or in fact join in the chorus of disagreement so as to be part of the 'popular' crowd and thus avoid being ostracized themselves. This social programming is typically installed during childhood on school yards, and it is one of the most powerful methods to control population behavior in use today.
That is, ridiculing and heaping social abuse upon a subject with enough strength will cause the rest of the world to look the other way. Almost every time. Amazing! And yet, where is the 'Vast Conspiracy?' to make this happen?
Oh, it's there. It's just far more effective than most people give it credit, and far more invisible. The interesting fact is that when it is in full effect, conspirators do not NEED to keep secrets because the population is actively, deliberately looking the other way.
That's why the points you raise about the impossibility of thousands of people keeping a secret, (while true!), is not an issue.
And let's look at an example of a recent 'conspiracy' which was caught, which has massive implications, and which everybody ignored, choosing instead to believe in the installed falsehood. .
--This recent story about Canwest Global [www.cbc.ca], which owns much of the news pie in Canada is an excellent example of a small number of people influencing millions in regard to the activities of Zionist Israel.
There are those two charged words; ask yourself. . . Are you reacting at this moment rationally or emotionally?
-FL
--And you are a sputtering, pre-programmed fool. Anybody who has bothered to look beyond Fox and CNN will know; the Mossad is one of the most dangerous and prolific secret agencies on the planet; anybody who criticizes Israel in any significant way is asking for trouble. (Or air to surface missiles into their wheel chair.)
Seriously. Look beyond the prescribed. There are some very smart and very even-keeled people who, (unlike the shouting poster I'm responding to), are not filled with knee-jerk emotional buttons. These are people who have studied the many various issues, not with hate, but rather out of curiosity and a sense of responsibility to know what the truth is and to share it.
Look up: "Israeli Moving Companies" and "Dancing art students". Those two threads alone will pull an avalanche of data into your hands. --If you want to see it. --Don't stop on the first hysterical webpage and say, "See! I looked and it's all insane crap!" If you only want to see evidence to support your delusions, then that is certainly all you will find.
Michael Moore took a lot of care to avoid talking about the elephant in the living room with his latest film. He's no dolt; he knows that potato is just too hot. (That is, can you imagine an army of pre-programmed fools like the one I'm responding to burning copies of his film? I can.)
Despite the fact that the emotionally charged term, 'Anti-Semite' is growing less effective as rationality catches up to reality, I want to be clear:
I am not anti-semitic. I AM anti-Zionist. The Jews are caught in the cross-fire. The Semites, ALL Semites, both Jew and Arab, are the final target of this new World War. --You will probably not read a more essential and un-recognized truth for the rest of this year.
I've been saying it for several years, and now it's becoming very hard to ignore. . . WWII was a dry run. It's all starting to happen again.
JPEG viruses and plenty of tax-paid astro-turfing are par for this course. They only have to keep people confused and quiet for one more month and then guys like me can be arrested without hassle.
-FL
Interesting that this virus, which has been in the wings and known of by select groups for years now, should at this time be given lots of promotion, (a few virus releases and big, loud press attention like a freekin' summer movie advertising run), right when the most important US election in the history of mankind is gearing up.
Having people scared out of the public places so that they can't discuss the events which are about to unfold. . ?
And some dorks still laugh at me and say I'm a paranoid conspiracy nut.
--Goodness! Well, if conspiracies don't exist, why are there laws like, 'Conspiracy to commit _____' on the books? And who but the lying psychos in government are better suited to pulling such stunts? Only a nut would actually lower his/her guard over the next couple of months!
Count on this: If any 'terrorism' happens in the next 5 weeks, you can be sure it will have been be aided and abetted by the US and/or Israeli secret services.
Not that you'll be able to talk about it on-line, what with all the scary viruses and all!
Buckle up, kids. This stretch of road is about to get bumpy.
-FL
So, of course, it got opened.
Specifically, I was curious about the fact that I was able to plug the thing directly into my (very) old graphics card which was built before there were such things as desk top flat screens, and actually have it work.
The signal being output by a graphics card is designed to be understandable by the average computer CRT. --Which, (when I've opened those in the past), don't contain a whole lot of extra electronics beyond on-off switches and very basic control systems. That is, with a standard CRT, the signal from the graphics card in my compy pretty much feeds directly into the electron gun and magnetics control system of the CRT monitor with very little intermediary electronics in between. All the really clever electronics is done by the graphics card back in the tower case.
So. .
Since TFT monitors work on a radically different principal than CRT technology, this means that the output signal from my old graphics card, (which I'm guessing is analog), must be translated into a very different type of signal which can be interpreted by the TFT screen electronics, which I am guessing is a digital signal.
This would mean. .
The original image dreamed up by the computer is digital, then converted to analog by the graphics card so that the CRT can apply it, and then because there is no CRT, it is converted back again into a digital signal for the TFT.
Oh yeah. Now that's efficiency!
And it worried me, actually. When I was shopping for my flatscreen, I was bugging sales people, "So are you SURE I don't need some kind of proprietary graphics card to run this thing? If that's the case, then I'm no going to get a flatscreen. I need a GOOD graphics card. Not some hunk of standardized junk made by the flatscreen manufacturer!"
The sales guys always just shook their heads. "No sir. You just plug it in."
"Oh. .
But what do you know? I plugged it in, and no problem. It worked like a charm. So, like I said, I had to open it up.
When unscrewed and pulled apart, voila! Unlike the guts of a standard CRT, there before me inisde the TFT was a whole LOT of extra circuit board and chip set confusion sitting between the monitor cable plug and the flexi-cable which feeds into the actual screen system. So there is some serious signal in interpretation going on! --And none of it, I imagine, would be industry standard; each CRT to TFT signal converter is probably designed and built by whoever happens to be making the flatscreen. This extra engineering necessity provides a whole pile of room to make bad decisions and crappy electronics.
My guess is that this is where the lag you are experiencing is coming from.
For my part, I was fortunate in that Samsung did the job well. I ended up with a system which works invisibly, with no perceivable lag between any input and screen output. Perhaps you can sell your screen off on Ebay and get a better monitor.
Of course, the problem may be something else entirely, but that's my two cents. Hope it helped!
-FL
Occam the monk who created his 'razor' in order to prove the existence of God? THAT Occam? Is THAT the 'air-tight' system of logic you want to use here?
I was only joking when I pulled Occam out in my post, but since you want to raise the same thing here, well, I asked first, and I haven't seen any answer yet. In fact, I've yet to see any evidence that a single point or argument I've made has been considered.
The question you pose:
That's your straw man, not mine. While I do write with a lot of thunder, there is sound logic and thought behind my words.
If you do bother to go back and read what I DID say, and if you still have objections, then please do come back and present them. --But I would request that you don't deliberately mis-interpret my words or twist my intent.
-FL
Ah. Now you're in the plural, I see. (And you're recommending that I see a shrink?) Do you actually know each other or do you really find it so necessary to seek comfort in numbers when trying to protect your belief system from any sort of analysis that you'll jump at the chance to use the word, 'We'?
That's pack mentality, buddy. Stems from a desire to submit one's individuality and critical thinking in favor of gaining the protection of numbers. --Which is a symptom of Fear. And yes, actually, I do know a little something about psychology, so be careful who you call crazy.
Whatever the case, identifying yourself as an 'Anonymous Coward' is wonderfully appropriate.
Did you really not understand what I was saying about how so-called 'conspiracies' work, or did you simply not allow it inside your mind as you flicked your eye to the end of my post, ('Threads'), with pre-conceived notions to deliver your light-weight jab? Could you even explain the argument presented there? Did you look at the link provided?
This is why I'm saying I'm wasting my words. You're giving me little evidence that there's much rationality at work in your head.
Simply repeating the assertion, "You're Wrong!" doesn't alter anything, though it does aptly demonstrate the caliber of your mind.
Go back and try again, or get lost.
-FL
I generally forgive and make allowances when I can actually manage to wade through broken grammar, screwed up wording and bent idea structures to find some germ of meaning, but in this case I can't figure out at all the message being attempted here.
Honestly. Every layer of pre-filtering I need to apply to an incompetent post moves my eyebrow up another notch on the, 'Who is this loser?' scale.
-FL
Uh, yeah. Just keep on 'wait' there, genius.
I don't know why I waste my words.
-FL
And guess what? Your trying to discredit the idea through ridicule is a part of the same 'Vast Conspriacy'. But did you take orders? Did you recieve an envelope from a shadow figure? Of course not! But this doesn't alter the fact that you are a part of a large force of awareness, and that you are affecting how the world percieves events. Get enough people doing as you do, and the world looks the other way. Amazing! And where is the 'Vast Conspiracy?'
Oh, it's there. It's just far more effective than most people give it credit.
Let's take the current example: --All it takes are people in the news force with Computer Bug Stories kept in waiting for release at appropriate times, and then to do so with the appropriate level of alarm and coverage. Instant cultural change is affected in very controlled and predictable ways. If I was in charge and evil, that's definitely how I'd do it.
Or are you suggesting that news agencies are not massively influenced by powerful people with agendas? Do you really believe that?
I certainly hope not, because there is ample proof to the contrary. Do you want some links? There are lots. --Look up the most recent story about Canwest Global in Canada, which owns much of the news pie in Canada for a brief example.
Are you trying to tell me that the world presented to you by your TV and your government is an accurate picture of reality?
Only a fool would answer Yes to that, so my next question is, "How much of that presented reality is false?" Ten percent? Thirty percent? Eighty?
The problem is that the loose threads of the make-believe reality are many and very easy to pull on. Those who chuckle lightly at this assertion and who find me, 'entertaining' are those who have never pulled a thread or questioned a teacher, or stepped outside the socially accepted bounds in their lives.
And the reality of the matter is that it is far more likely that such tactics are used than not.
To pull out Occam's rusty razor, one can ask, "Which is more likely: That sneaky tactics and social manipulation are used by greedy, manipulative people, or that everybody is good and honest?"
Or as I like to put it; "So you don't believe in Conspiracies? Fine. How about if I change the word; Do you also not believe in Corruption?"
The fact that you are reacting in the way you are is evidence that you are one of the mind-controlled. Take a few minutes to ask yourself how such could be possible; explore the notion, don't just cast it off, and see where that takes you. (How much time every day do you spend staring at a TV screen with your eyes wide and your brain hypnotically opened?)
Do you want some links about how that works? Or would you prefer to be 'entertained'.
Truth or lies. Pick one. Your life depends on it.
-FL
And it was carefully timed. The more fear and confusion on the web, the less attention will be given to the important issues, namely the election coming up in. . . How Many Days??
For goodness sake, Gates is part of the Homeland clique; he's spent time in planning meets with Homeland honchos to better determine how Microsoft could 'help out'.
Not that it actually matters. This is now merely an internal struggle between pawns; Kerry is just as much a dangerous bastard as Bush. .
--That is, (pardon my editorializing), both parties, despite their surface disagreements, are pushing for an escalation against Iran. This is the exact same technique as was used against Iraq. There is almost no difference.
Run a bunch of bullshit stories about the 'sudden' threat of Iranian nuclear intentions to gain a big, sloppy, predictable and easily directed emotional response from all the American twits and drones.
Israel complains and whines that the UN should do something, despite the fact that there have been illegal nukes in the arsenals of the Promised Land for decades. Double standards, anyone? (Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. The Zionists are the Good Guys. They're allowed to commit genocide so long as they own all the news papers and have it called 'anti-terrorism'.)
The UN is bullied into creating a half-assed directive by which Iran can be observed, tested and punished if they don't meet some arbitrary dead-line.
It doesn't matter what the heck the actual findings are when the UN inspectors are sent in, the American media and the psychopaths in government will simply tell lies and spin the hell out of everything to get what they want, which is. . .
Cluster bombs in Iran, dead children, de-stablized government and CIA installed despot. Just like in Iraq. --And needless to say, all Americans between the ages of 19 and 38 carrying machine guns.
The most ridiculous part is that EVERYBODY WILL FUCKING FALL FOR IT AGAIN. --Because Americans have been the subject of a century long campaign to make them poor, ignorant, fat, drugged, and retarded.
A nuclear bomb in some American city set off by the Mossad or CIA in yet another false-flag operation around election time would be a good way to spur things along if this JPEG bullshit driving people away from the web doesn't prevent enough communication and public discourse.
We'll see.
-FL
But I must say. . , that website link on your post, (Democrats for Bush) was pretty astonishing!
Anybody who doesn't recognize that Bush is a psychopath is either stupid, or is deliberately avoiding reading anything outside the prescribed jingoistic dogma. (Which is also pretty stupid.) Or, of course, such a person could also be evil, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
You might also be joking, but I've run into enough people who have bought the line to know that this is unlikely. What a world, eh!
I could provide you with a lot very illuminating material if I thought you wanted to be illuminated, but I don't get that impression.
It seems likely at this point that those who are still living with blinders on are doing so deliberately. Reality is a much more complicated and depressing place than the fiction, after all. (Or so some find; for me the whole show is entirely fascinating to watch unfold. --Though, I do recognize that my attitude is an unusual one. Global destruction and mass-misery can be very upsetting, and I do sympathize with those who are horrified by the prospect of the ends of their various worlds.) Regardless though, studied ignorance despite the calming effect, has ZERO use in the long run. Protection only comes from knowledge.
-FL
I noticed that the article highlighted a couple of rather reasonable-sounding ones, and presented them in a positive light. Hmm.
I wonder about the other 80 or so bills which are now law. Does anybody know?
Basically, after cutting a deal with Enron before his election, I think it is highly unlikely that Arnold is a man with anybody's interests other than his own at heart. --And all in the wake of the CA energy scandal, (which the capitalists defended from the get-go; Nice job guys! Enron is the logical end result of greed-based policy. Did you learn anything?)
If Bush hasn't been crowned "Dictator For Life" by 2008, then I'll be pretty spooked about Arnold taking the throne.
-FL
Old? Hell, I remember the television ad jingle! Thusly, I ended up owning one. The thing I didn't like about the toy was that it made a wind-up motor buzzing sound which seemed pretty low-tech to me.
When I finally took it apart, I found of course that it was Etch-A-Sketch inside, rather than Star Wars. Wind-up was not magic robot moon-rocket stuff in my opinion. It was just dumb.
Interestingly, now that we have flat screens and hand helds which can play the biggest, brightest video games, I find myself these days pining for mechanical wonders like Pinball machines. .
-FL