The so called 'action' movie, has done what Marshall Macluan referred to as the phenomenon of 'flipping', which is when something is pushed to the extreme so that it becomes the opposite of what it originally was. His example was the zipper, that was invented to provide an invisible joining device for clothing. This has 'flipped' to the point where you can buy clothing that is covered with huge, exposed zips.
So has the action film reached the same point. They are all so boring and predictable now. The dead guy who isn't dead, the explosions that just get bigger, the plot holes that an elephant could fall through, the bad guys who can't shoot, the crooks who are really smart at the start, and have a sudden attack of stupidity from then on, , the good guy who doesn't die, relentless pushing of the bounds of gore and evil. An action movie these days is guaranteed to send me straight to sleep.
I saw another article in the paper last week that claims they have cloned rabbits. Yeah right, like, rabbits are so rare, and so difficult to breed. They may as well have just spent their time playing quake.
Edison was nothing more than a basic hacker. He did not invent the electric light, other scientists had already thought of the idea, he just persevered trying thousands of materials till he found one that lasted long enough to be practical. It is just that he happens to be American, and America needed to create it's mythology, (ref. Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, Walt Disney, etc), that he ever became such a folk hero. Other geniuses were the real inventors. For example, quantum theory was being invented back in the time of the biplane.
One of the great rock anthems of the 20th, and now 21st, century. While I cannot comment on the content, at least recognition of one of the geniuses of rock is being acknowldged. Also, check out, The Skyhooks - Smut, Supercharge - She Moved the Dishes First, The Divinyls - I touch myself, (Previuosly acknowledged by the otherwise mundane Lyrics Guy), and Marianne Faithfull - Why didja do what ya did.
So the basic problem is not people like Novack, but a court system that does not function as a justice system any more. Justice at a price is not justice. Perhaps to keep everything simple from now on, legal cases should just ask people what they can ante up before a case starts, and award the case to the side with the most money. This would save a lot of time and money for everyone.
This sort of tactic has been used for many years now, and the only newsworthy point about it is that it is not newsworthy. People complain about the unions looking after their own, and sticking together. Take a look at the legal and medical 'unions'. They stick together tighter than a teamster or wharfie ever did.
And I can't see that a legal solution to this is going to work, as it just makes the whole process even more expensive, such as fining a frivilous law suit. Who will win that case? Once again, the guy with the most money.
I seem to recall a quote from an American President about one of their US propped uptin-pot dictators, "He might be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch".
Re:a little nonsense, but hey - it's near April Fo
on
Globalism Post 9/11
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Ask yourself why were guns banned at the Winter Olympics? Surely an armed population would have been a deterrence to terrorism?
Which is why the US is the worlds largest arms exporter, making sure citizens all over the world are tyrannised equally.
Re:a little nonsense, but hey - it's near April Fo
on
Globalism Post 9/11
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· Score: 1
USA and guns are like an alcoholic justifying drinking by describing the way it makes him feel better and quoting medical reports that one drink a day can help reduce heart disease. (Thats one drink, not a dozen!).
Re:a little nonsense, but hey - it's near April Fo
on
Globalism Post 9/11
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· Score: 1
Australia also has many ethnic groups, but still nowhere near the crime rate of the US. There can be tension between groups, but it is much easier to keep under control without guns getting mixed up in the equation.
Cheney is the real president, when 9/11 occurred, he was the one who was protected the most. Dubya is just the mouthpiece for a man who cannot be president due to lack of charisma and poor health. Dubya is merely a parrot, and already the fact that the president is not the president is apparent in the policy shambles now occurring over the middle east, where every camp in the white house has its own spokesman mouthing his own views. Dubyas views seem to change from day to day.
Not at all true, I saw a 'natural' type keyboard just the other day with the 6 in the right spot, some extra buttons in the wasted space in the middle, and a touchpad under the arrow keys. I'd buy one except I can't afford it at the moment. Even so, how often do you use the 6? It doesn't really bother me that much, it's not like they put the 'e' key in the wrong spot.
Now this is a very interesting question, as it is not at all obvious. I deduce that it is because of the name the author has used, and the a moderator has suspected that author is karma whoring for the purpose of carrying out a major troll sometime in the future.
I would like to share with you today, an article I read in the Australian Financial Review, but I can't because they insist on charging for access.
However, they did have a very interesting article from taken from Harpers Magazine, about how the Old Testament is exactly what many people have suspected, a typical myth in the tradition of Greek and Roman and Norse myths. There is no evidence supporting much of the Bible, but plenty of evidence to support the Old Testament being cobbled together at a certain point of time after the supposed incidents it mentions. In fact, there is a passage in the Old Testament that mentions old texts being found in a temple that were thought to have been long lost. Long lost, or just written?
My wife never stops complaining about how American film and TV insists on having to explain things all the time. Rather than just letting an image or situation speak for itself, we then have a virtual commentary explaining it all to us, ruining the whole effect. No other country feels the need to dumb it all down, and in the process, ruining what can be a good cinematic experience.
Re:How many do you think Two Towers is going to wi
on
LoTR Takes 4 Oscars
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· Score: 1
Just go over the list of past Oscar winners, (and losers), and you pretty quickly get the idea that the Oscars are NOT about the best picture, best actor etc. How many great actors have had to wait for the 'lifetime achievement' award? Here in Australia, there was all this speculation, (in the media, at least, not at home, or at work, or anywhere else I go), about how there were so many Australians nominated, (including New Zealanders who becom Australians because they lived here for a while, and didn't end up on the dole but made it big), and, hence, by implication, there were going to be many winners. Well of course, hardly any of them won. It is all about looking after your friends, the USA, etc. LOTR, even though it was the best film I have seen in a long time, was never going to win big because it was directed by a New Zealander, in New Zealand.
Ron Howard, as much as I like some of his films, (try Apollo 13, not some of that other c**p), was always going to get the most awards for his film just because it was American, and better than the rest of the American films.
Denzel Washington, while he is a good actor, should get an award for a good film he acted in, not just another trashy, "excuse for violence", cop film.
And finally, to prove my point, how about the two awards for Pearl Harbour, just about the most blatent case of, "We can't really give it an award for anything, it's such a turkey, we'll give it best sound and best sound editing".
Bush and friends cannot quite make up their minds on China. Prior to 9/11, they were being set up as the axis of evil, to justify massive increase in arms funding. Post 9/11, everything has become a little confused. But the need for the arms industry is much bigger than NK, Iraq or Iran can satisfy, there fore there is a LOT of pressure to keep China on the agenda behind the scenes.
Good idea, lets start with the greatest act of terrorism of all time, the vietnam war? How many millions of vietnamese died, how many tens of thousands of americans? I like the way that every US vietnam war movie treats the actual vietnamese as some sort of incidental part of the war. J***S, it was their country, and their people that died, much more than the US.
When is the US going to stop thinking that using the metric system is just a commie plot and any congressman who supports it is going to be voted out. ALL the industries have to work with it, they buy and sell parts using it, the rest of the world can make a decision to use it, just f**ing do it. The commies didn't even invent it, it was napoleon, and he was as good a dictator and high achiever as you are ever going to meet.
I think this article must be a mistake, this is surely a reference to the chronically inept Communist space program. Editors, please rectify. Nothing ever goes wrong with a cappo space program.
Slashdot Mirror
So has the action film reached the same point. They are all so boring and predictable now. The dead guy who isn't dead, the explosions that just get bigger, the plot holes that an elephant could fall through, the bad guys who can't shoot, the crooks who are really smart at the start, and have a sudden attack of stupidity from then on, , the good guy who doesn't die, relentless pushing of the bounds of gore and evil. An action movie these days is guaranteed to send me straight to sleep.
I bet the AMD merger with Nvidia leads to an unbeatable lead in performance in the future.
I saw another article in the paper last week that claims they have cloned rabbits. Yeah right, like, rabbits are so rare, and so difficult to breed. They may as well have just spent their time playing quake.
Edison was nothing more than a basic hacker. He did not invent the electric light, other scientists had already thought of the idea, he just persevered trying thousands of materials till he found one that lasted long enough to be practical. It is just that he happens to be American, and America needed to create it's mythology, (ref. Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, Walt Disney, etc), that he ever became such a folk hero. Other geniuses were the real inventors. For example, quantum theory was being invented back in the time of the biplane.
It's not hatred and it's not mindless. Merely observation.
One of the great rock anthems of the 20th, and now 21st, century. While I cannot comment on the content, at least recognition of one of the geniuses of rock is being acknowldged. Also, check out, The Skyhooks - Smut, Supercharge - She Moved the Dishes First, The Divinyls - I touch myself, (Previuosly acknowledged by the otherwise mundane Lyrics Guy), and Marianne Faithfull - Why didja do what ya did.
This sort of tactic has been used for many years now, and the only newsworthy point about it is that it is not newsworthy. People complain about the unions looking after their own, and sticking together. Take a look at the legal and medical 'unions'. They stick together tighter than a teamster or wharfie ever did.
And I can't see that a legal solution to this is going to work, as it just makes the whole process even more expensive, such as fining a frivilous law suit. Who will win that case? Once again, the guy with the most money.
I seem to recall a quote from an American President about one of their US propped uptin-pot dictators, "He might be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch".
Ask yourself why were guns banned at the Winter Olympics? Surely an armed population would have been a deterrence to terrorism?
Which is why the US is the worlds largest arms exporter, making sure citizens all over the world are tyrannised equally.
USA and guns are like an alcoholic justifying drinking by describing the way it makes him feel better and quoting medical reports that one drink a day can help reduce heart disease. (Thats one drink, not a dozen!).
Australia also has many ethnic groups, but still nowhere near the crime rate of the US. There can be tension between groups, but it is much easier to keep under control without guns getting mixed up in the equation.
Cheney is the real president, when 9/11 occurred, he was the one who was protected the most. Dubya is just the mouthpiece for a man who cannot be president due to lack of charisma and poor health. Dubya is merely a parrot, and already the fact that the president is not the president is apparent in the policy shambles now occurring over the middle east, where every camp in the white house has its own spokesman mouthing his own views. Dubyas views seem to change from day to day.
I can just see klerck wetting his pants right now.
Not at all true, I saw a 'natural' type keyboard just the other day with the 6 in the right spot, some extra buttons in the wasted space in the middle, and a touchpad under the arrow keys. I'd buy one except I can't afford it at the moment. Even so, how often do you use the 6? It doesn't really bother me that much, it's not like they put the 'e' key in the wrong spot.
Now this is a very interesting question, as it is not at all obvious. I deduce that it is because of the name the author has used, and the a moderator has suspected that author is karma whoring for the purpose of carrying out a major troll sometime in the future.
However, they did have a very interesting article from taken from Harpers Magazine, about how the Old Testament is exactly what many people have suspected, a typical myth in the tradition of Greek and Roman and Norse myths. There is no evidence supporting much of the Bible, but plenty of evidence to support the Old Testament being cobbled together at a certain point of time after the supposed incidents it mentions. In fact, there is a passage in the Old Testament that mentions old texts being found in a temple that were thought to have been long lost. Long lost, or just written?
Who forgot to order more?
My wife never stops complaining about how American film and TV insists on having to explain things all the time. Rather than just letting an image or situation speak for itself, we then have a virtual commentary explaining it all to us, ruining the whole effect. No other country feels the need to dumb it all down, and in the process, ruining what can be a good cinematic experience.
Ron Howard, as much as I like some of his films, (try Apollo 13, not some of that other c**p), was always going to get the most awards for his film just because it was American, and better than the rest of the American films.
Denzel Washington, while he is a good actor, should get an award for a good film he acted in, not just another trashy, "excuse for violence", cop film.
And finally, to prove my point, how about the two awards for Pearl Harbour, just about the most blatent case of, "We can't really give it an award for anything, it's such a turkey, we'll give it best sound and best sound editing".
Hang on, apple has $4,000,000,000 in the bank, cash, and it just put up its prices again.
Bush and friends cannot quite make up their minds on China. Prior to 9/11, they were being set up as the axis of evil, to justify massive increase in arms funding. Post 9/11, everything has become a little confused. But the need for the arms industry is much bigger than NK, Iraq or Iran can satisfy, there fore there is a LOT of pressure to keep China on the agenda behind the scenes.
Good idea, lets start with the greatest act of terrorism of all time, the vietnam war? How many millions of vietnamese died, how many tens of thousands of americans? I like the way that every US vietnam war movie treats the actual vietnamese as some sort of incidental part of the war. J***S, it was their country, and their people that died, much more than the US.
When is the US going to stop thinking that using the metric system is just a commie plot and any congressman who supports it is going to be voted out. ALL the industries have to work with it, they buy and sell parts using it, the rest of the world can make a decision to use it, just f**ing do it. The commies didn't even invent it, it was napoleon, and he was as good a dictator and high achiever as you are ever going to meet.
I think this article must be a mistake, this is surely a reference to the chronically inept Communist space program. Editors, please rectify. Nothing ever goes wrong with a cappo space program.