If you want to read Tolkien-like writing, look at Tolkien's contemporaries. In particular there's Silverlock by John Myers Myers, which was published at the same time as LotR. Silverlock is a very different kind of novel -- more of a Gulliver-esque romp than an epic swords-and-sorcery fantasy -- but it's still an amazing work of literature that deserves respect equal to the best that Tolkien produced.
Another poster remarked on the accuracy of 'mathematical concept'. Let's rephrase -- branes are mathematical concepts that describe the multiverse. You can't ask where branes came from, they're guaranteed to exist if you have a multiverse.
You *can* ask where the multiverse comes from. I don't know anyone who has speculated about that, yet. As creatures who live in a bubble of air in a pot of water, we barely know the water exists -- we certainly can't describe the pot! Not because it is scientifically unknowable, but because we are capable of seeing only so far outside our own universe.
If you must place a God somewhere, put him there at the creation of the multiverse. That kind of screws up the tenet that humanity (or indeed, our universe) is special or favored in any way, but I'm sure somebody will think up some reason. Meanwhile scientists will be working on things that we can prove.
He's making an analogy. A rigorous explanation is beyond the generalized audience he had there. Even those with proper background to understand it would probably have been bored -- they came there to see a scientist celebrity, and Hawkings did not disappoint.
For your enlightenment, the 'water' in question is a series of multidimensional branes, according to one cosmological theory. The universe may have been created when two branes collided, creating turbulence that manifested as a big bang in our dimensional space. These collisions go on all the time, but like the 'bubbles in boiling water' analogy not all the turbulence creates new universes.
Your next question is 'where did the branes come from'? Branes are mathematical concepts. If someone tells you 1+1=2, you can't really ask where '1' came from. If there is a multiverse it has to have some sort of brane structure, in much the same way as if humans exist they have to have skin.
So the universe was 'created by nothing' in a pretty accurate sense, as a mathematical concept is as close to 'nothing' as anyone is likely to conceive. But in the end, Hawkings' words were chosen for showmanship, not precision.
Those salaries are less than *half* what I'm making now. And that's a problem they won't be able to fix -- there is no way any state will be able to double their teacher salaries.
If I wanted to be a teacher, I'd suck up the low pay. But nothing entices me, and there are several disincentives. I really think the essential problem is making teaching a more attractive profession...not a higher-paid one.
There's one thing missing from all these news stories -- how much do teachers actually make? Because if they're looking for math and science teachers, I'm their target -- a masters in physics who is unhappy in my current job. But teaching is not something I really want to do. I could be convinced to do it if the price was right...but nobody ever states a price.
I think most teachers teach because that is what they love doing, but there are some qualified people who could be lured into it for proper compensation. If they're afraid of posting salary estimates, how will they lure people in who would not otherwise want to teach?
Isn't the root of the problem that teaching is something not many people want to do? The job comes with excessive bureaucracy, reduced personal privacy and risk of actual physical harm in some areas. Solve those problems and you'll get more teachers whatever the pay.
In America we have laws protecting the rights of homosexuals. Yet there are still places where you can be hanged as one.
You have a good point that much of the oppression in China is institutionalized in their system of government, while in America oppression mostly arises from cultural influences. But that only supports my point about socialization being difficult for deviants, and that China is a very, very bad place to deviate from the norm.
Living in an oppressive society certainly does affect your social relationships. You cannot talk about any activities that deviate from the norm (like obsessive gaming) for fear of being reported. You cannot ask for help or show illness for fear of being ground under the wheel of the system. You cannot find others with whom you might relate, because they're all hiding as well.
Think of how a satanist or pedophile might feel, living in America today. That's how a gamer (or democrat!) lives in China. Where's the line -- what kinds of obsessions should society accept, and what kinds should be shunned?
Anarchy Online belongs in an entirely different class of game launches, a class whose only other member that I know of is World War II Online. These games were not just rushed, and not just broken on release -- these games were coded and/or managed by incompetents.
At least Vanguard is playable on launch. AO and WWIIOL had bugs so disastrous that they made the game in some way unplayable or just plain laughable. Flying Panzer tanks in WWIIOL. Doors in AO that led outside the rendered world. Skills that didn't function at all, ASCII characters used in parts of the player UI, entire zones you could not go into or get out of. These games were travesties.
We may still get bad games like Vanguard these days, but it's been a long time since we saw anything that was a blatant travesty. (NWN2 comes close.) That may be a hopeful sign; maybe the art of game development is advancing, even if very slowly.
First, let me be yet another person to say that I won't use any encyclopedia that forces me to register before I can read. I know that's probably a temporary flaw, but it's a major one.
Second, I'm intrigued by the editor approach. But Wikipedia is not only known for the occasional inaccuracy -- it is also famous for arbitrary decisions, using a star chamber of editors, about what is worthy of inclusion. The webcomic world is up in arms about arbitrary, nonsensical decisions involving comics. Will Citizendium take the advice of people knowledgeable in their fields about what should and should not be included? Or will that be left up to some uber-editor who may or may not have prejudices against the topic?
I'm in a similar boat -- ready to upgrade to a new gaming PC. But in addition to Xp and Vista, I was considering Linux as a third alternative. I know very little about it these days (my last Linux box ran Slackware back in 1995) but if Linux gets DX9 or DX10 support I'd consider going that way. Any articles out there making this kind of comparison?
Step 1: Allow PvP griefing in your game. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit!
Sounds like someone is trying to invent step 2, there. Like any other PvP, whether it works will depend on how well the game is balanced. One player -- who probably is not a die-hard PvPer -- against a swarm of PvP-savvy opponents? That sounds very difficult to balance correctly. Best of luck to the designers, they're gonna need it.
I feel the same way as the original submitter, except I'm a scientist. In my current organization there are no advancement options for scientists -- you either go into management, or you go back to school and get additional degrees so you can demand more money. Although my skills have improved dramatically, I have not had the time to get my PhD, and I do not have the patience or temperment for management...not to mention that science is what I love, while managing people and budgets would drive me to gunplay.
This may or may not be good advice, but I'll offer what I'm looking at doing -- changing career just slightly. I'm looking to move into a related field where my experience would be applicable and desired, but which hopefully will have better career options. Some companies love getting cross-field applicants that will increase the company's skill set.
I work on a satellite program that's partially owned/funded by NASA. We use metric units for everything we do. The only exceptions are when we do press releases, where we often use English units with metric translations (so we might write, "the spacecraft is moving 40 miles/second (64 kilometers/second)").
I think this is only going to affect design specs, which as another poster mentioned often uses machinists' imperial units. I have no explanation for the Mars Orbiter -- I cannot conceive calculating spacecraft trajectories in anything but metric units, and I don't know anyone with whom I work who would do so.
EO-1 was a technology demonstration in *many* ways. It has a couple new type of sensors, a new bus, and yes -- new heuristic detection algorithms, although I don't think those were in the original specs when it was launched. It was not by any stretch of the imagination a waste of money. It is likely to be the progenitor for the next generation of Landsat-type sensors, and the next generation would not have been possible if not for this technology test.
You may also be interested in knowing that EO-1's mission was just one year long; that's all they needed, just to get it into orbit and test the new equipment. The fact that it's still running after *six* years goes to show how marvelous -- and cost efficient -- this bird is.
Which just shows that, once again, game producers are taking their cue from the world of novel publication. Cutting bloated, oversized stories into thirds is a classic technique in books.
This has nothing to do with loss of mental faculties. The elderly are from a different era, and in general they have little training on computers and no desire to learn more about them.
My mother was a brillant woman who did the accounts for an insurance form with pen and paper. She used a computer at work when she had to, so she knew the basics. Then she retired and I told her to get a computer to stay in touch and shop from home. A year later I visited and that computer was an unholy mess, infested with adware and zombified by worms and viruses. And that was all from just leaving it turned on all the time -- she never actually used it because she hated the thing.
The elderly need help with computers. Hell, I'm going to need help using and maintaining the androids my grandchildren insist that I buy.
Most researchers never bothered looking for deep ocean impact craters because they assumed the craters would be covered in sediment. In fact, they probably *are* covered in sediment, and it's only because of the new gravimetric technology that we can see them at all.
Another picture of the chevrons is here. Features like this are visible all over the world, as the graphic accompanying the NYT article shows. Pretty spooky...I just never realized before how much scar tissue the Earth has on her.
MC Chris is a rapper and the voice of cartoons on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. He's most known as Hesh on Sealab 2021 and MC Pee Pants (aka Sir Loin) on Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
On the internet rap scene, he's a driving force behind the whole 'Nerdcore' subgenre -- rappers talking about subjects that, well, show up on Slashdot. I think his Nerdcore cred more than earns him an interview on Slashdot.
Here's an example, the lyrics from his nerd anthem 'Geek':
Chorus: Stop pickin on me. Because I'm a geek. I'm strange to you. You're strange to me. Well, one of these days. I'm gonna pack heat. Your brains on the wall. My face on tv.
They dissipate the pungent odor of a power holder. Sand kickers comin' sixty clicks upon the sonar. They're gonna fold me over like a trapper keeper folder. If this was D&D, you'd see me jump into a portal. I'm a geek, spelled g double-E k. I meet my boys in the basement about every day. Card table, comic books, and cans of coke. That we blow out our nose after a Star Wars joke. We got style. Tape on our glasses, zits on our faces and hair on our asses. Shiny shoes, belt buckles and pocket protectors. Tricked out back packs like my main man Venkman's. We got problems, namely the jocks. The SUV suckers with class rings on their cocks. Otherwise known as the motherfuckers touchin' the tit. If I was wolverine, you'd hear my knuckles go snikt. I'm not perfect, the before picture of Peter Parker. I always trip and drop my tray in front of the girl that always sparkles. I got brains, fuck B's and C's. I got a grade point average higher than Hendrix on New Year's Eve.
chorus repeat
Don't fuck with a geek, just cuz he got a gift. You get in my way bitch you get a Vulcan neck pinch. One night I didn't go to sleep, up playin' Risk. At dawn, I won, got global dominance. But it in the hallway it's completely different shit. Can't get my locker open and my pants are always split. Can't seem to catch a ride, can't ever get a date. But in my mind 7 of 9 thinks I'm great. Prom night bites, primadonnas prevail. I'm at home reciting lines from the Holy Grail. Stuffed nose, and some swollen glands. Never been kissed, never been holding hands. Just blow my biscuits over Britney in a bubble bath. Darth Vader with inhalers, in case my lungs collapse. The dragon died from a heart attack You may advance and yo, I upped your armor class. Being a geek, it aint so bad. I can't get laid, I got Japanime stashed. And a mind jam packed with sci-fi facts. Dreadknocks rock, dinobots kick ass.
chorus repeat
Tell me those lyrics don't get him into Slashdot.:)
Now, according to one of the interview questions, he's not as much of a geek as his songs indicate. But we fans wouldn't have known that if Slashdot didn't give him an interview.
I agree it wasn't a great interview, but then y'all gave him really lousy questions. Sorry I missed the original thread.
The Preacher movie is supposed to be in production this fall. Early reviews of the script were not good. The big question is whether they'll make it PG-13 or not. If they do, at least you'll know right away how badly it will suck.
In the early days, Disney's films were highly original, because they had to basically invent the process upon which modern animation studios basically get a free ride.
When where Disney's films highly original? Do you mean their remaking of traditional fairy tales like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinnochio and Jungle Book? Bambi and Fantasia are the only 'original' full-length Disney films I can think of from their early days.
Disney has a reputation for Borg-like assimilation of traditional myth, and a reputation for horribly dumbing those myths down in the process. They've never been what anyone would call an avant garde company. Pixar is, and it would serve Pixar well to get away from the all-consuming mouse.
I looked into becoming an astronaut. I have the academic qualifications, but they wouldn't take me. Minor health problems (reflux, colorblindness) exclude me from the program because 'I could get hurt'.
Sorry that I expressed my passion in violent terms. Don't know how else to convey it. If you give me a 50/50 chance of surviving a spaceflight, I'm *going*. But we're so timid and risk averse as a society, I would probably not legally be allowed to take that kind of chance. It's frustrating.
The essence of fiction is that it is not real, and "science fiction" is supposed to take the idea a step further -- beyond real, if you like. To the unreachable, beyond what we consider possible.
But in this century, what is beyond possible? Exploring the planets? Been there, done that, got pictures.
In other words, perhaps science fiction is suffering from too much science!
Bollocks. Absolute bollocks.
Is it possible to go to the moon for a holiday? To relocate the family to Mars? Is it possible for our children to take orbital field trips? Not at this time. Some people still have the fire to do such things, but the mass culture has discarded these dreams. Because they're boring dreams, you say, within the outer limit of possibility? Bollocks, I repeat. Mankind has a history of grabbing dreams at the edge of what they can see, if they have the bravery to dream at all.
The explorers who mapped North America didn't dampen the fire of those who followed them, they inflamed it. Lewis and Clark proved it was possible to hike to the pacific -- did people then say, 'Oh, as long as they've proven that, we don't have to go.'? No. There was a spirit of exploration back then, and an excitement in dealing with the unknown. Those are things we no longer have. Today exploration is neglected, and mankind fears the unknown more than ever before.
The problem Robinson outlines has a simple explanation, though. As lives become more complicated, people feel nostalgic for simpler times. As the world moves faster, and becomes more dangerous and violent, people are turning to medieval and historical fantasies where life was simple, evil and good were in black-and-white contrast to one another, and the world was more easily understood. People are, in mass, reverting to our cultural childhood, because at the moment our adult culture sucks.
This is a symptom of Future Shock. Nothing more, nothing less. And it'll get worse before it gets better. Some people will handle it, able to adapt to the future as fast as it comes, but the majority of humanity is going to want to go backward as fast as their cowardly feet will take them.
Let me be clear. I would kill, with my bare hands, each and every person reading this post if it meant I could have a chance to go into space. For those with the fire for exploration, the drive is *that* strong. And it's a tragedy that the rest of humanity has lost it. I can only hope that someday they'll find it again.
Slashdot Mirror
So they know about the endless hours of porn I watch?
Why else would they be constantly emailing you porn spam?
If your hands are shaking that badly there's probably more than just caffeine in your latte.
So what you're saying is that it's perfect to power his meth lab.
If you want to read Tolkien-like writing, look at Tolkien's contemporaries. In particular there's Silverlock by John Myers Myers, which was published at the same time as LotR. Silverlock is a very different kind of novel -- more of a Gulliver-esque romp than an epic swords-and-sorcery fantasy -- but it's still an amazing work of literature that deserves respect equal to the best that Tolkien produced.
Another poster remarked on the accuracy of 'mathematical concept'. Let's rephrase -- branes are mathematical concepts that describe the multiverse. You can't ask where branes came from, they're guaranteed to exist if you have a multiverse.
You *can* ask where the multiverse comes from. I don't know anyone who has speculated about that, yet. As creatures who live in a bubble of air in a pot of water, we barely know the water exists -- we certainly can't describe the pot! Not because it is scientifically unknowable, but because we are capable of seeing only so far outside our own universe.
If you must place a God somewhere, put him there at the creation of the multiverse. That kind of screws up the tenet that humanity (or indeed, our universe) is special or favored in any way, but I'm sure somebody will think up some reason. Meanwhile scientists will be working on things that we can prove.
He's making an analogy. A rigorous explanation is beyond the generalized audience he had there. Even those with proper background to understand it would probably have been bored -- they came there to see a scientist celebrity, and Hawkings did not disappoint.
For your enlightenment, the 'water' in question is a series of multidimensional branes, according to one cosmological theory. The universe may have been created when two branes collided, creating turbulence that manifested as a big bang in our dimensional space. These collisions go on all the time, but like the 'bubbles in boiling water' analogy not all the turbulence creates new universes.
Your next question is 'where did the branes come from'? Branes are mathematical concepts. If someone tells you 1+1=2, you can't really ask where '1' came from. If there is a multiverse it has to have some sort of brane structure, in much the same way as if humans exist they have to have skin.
So the universe was 'created by nothing' in a pretty accurate sense, as a mathematical concept is as close to 'nothing' as anyone is likely to conceive. But in the end, Hawkings' words were chosen for showmanship, not precision.
Thanks for the links.
Those salaries are less than *half* what I'm making now. And that's a problem they won't be able to fix -- there is no way any state will be able to double their teacher salaries.
If I wanted to be a teacher, I'd suck up the low pay. But nothing entices me, and there are several disincentives. I really think the essential problem is making teaching a more attractive profession...not a higher-paid one.
There's one thing missing from all these news stories -- how much do teachers actually make? Because if they're looking for math and science teachers, I'm their target -- a masters in physics who is unhappy in my current job. But teaching is not something I really want to do. I could be convinced to do it if the price was right...but nobody ever states a price.
I think most teachers teach because that is what they love doing, but there are some qualified people who could be lured into it for proper compensation. If they're afraid of posting salary estimates, how will they lure people in who would not otherwise want to teach?
Isn't the root of the problem that teaching is something not many people want to do? The job comes with excessive bureaucracy, reduced personal privacy and risk of actual physical harm in some areas. Solve those problems and you'll get more teachers whatever the pay.
In America we have laws protecting the rights of homosexuals. Yet there are still places where you can be hanged as one.
You have a good point that much of the oppression in China is institutionalized in their system of government, while in America oppression mostly arises from cultural influences. But that only supports my point about socialization being difficult for deviants, and that China is a very, very bad place to deviate from the norm.
Living in an oppressive society certainly does affect your social relationships. You cannot talk about any activities that deviate from the norm (like obsessive gaming) for fear of being reported. You cannot ask for help or show illness for fear of being ground under the wheel of the system. You cannot find others with whom you might relate, because they're all hiding as well.
Think of how a satanist or pedophile might feel, living in America today. That's how a gamer (or democrat!) lives in China. Where's the line -- what kinds of obsessions should society accept, and what kinds should be shunned?
Anarchy Online belongs in an entirely different class of game launches, a class whose only other member that I know of is World War II Online. These games were not just rushed, and not just broken on release -- these games were coded and/or managed by incompetents.
At least Vanguard is playable on launch. AO and WWIIOL had bugs so disastrous that they made the game in some way unplayable or just plain laughable. Flying Panzer tanks in WWIIOL. Doors in AO that led outside the rendered world. Skills that didn't function at all, ASCII characters used in parts of the player UI, entire zones you could not go into or get out of. These games were travesties.
We may still get bad games like Vanguard these days, but it's been a long time since we saw anything that was a blatant travesty. (NWN2 comes close.) That may be a hopeful sign; maybe the art of game development is advancing, even if very slowly.
First, let me be yet another person to say that I won't use any encyclopedia that forces me to register before I can read. I know that's probably a temporary flaw, but it's a major one.
Second, I'm intrigued by the editor approach. But Wikipedia is not only known for the occasional inaccuracy -- it is also famous for arbitrary decisions, using a star chamber of editors, about what is worthy of inclusion. The webcomic world is up in arms about arbitrary, nonsensical decisions involving comics. Will Citizendium take the advice of people knowledgeable in their fields about what should and should not be included? Or will that be left up to some uber-editor who may or may not have prejudices against the topic?
I'm in a similar boat -- ready to upgrade to a new gaming PC. But in addition to Xp and Vista, I was considering Linux as a third alternative. I know very little about it these days (my last Linux box ran Slackware back in 1995) but if Linux gets DX9 or DX10 support I'd consider going that way. Any articles out there making this kind of comparison?
Step 1: Allow PvP griefing in your game.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
Sounds like someone is trying to invent step 2, there. Like any other PvP, whether it works will depend on how well the game is balanced. One player -- who probably is not a die-hard PvPer -- against a swarm of PvP-savvy opponents? That sounds very difficult to balance correctly. Best of luck to the designers, they're gonna need it.
I feel the same way as the original submitter, except I'm a scientist. In my current organization there are no advancement options for scientists -- you either go into management, or you go back to school and get additional degrees so you can demand more money. Although my skills have improved dramatically, I have not had the time to get my PhD, and I do not have the patience or temperment for management...not to mention that science is what I love, while managing people and budgets would drive me to gunplay.
This may or may not be good advice, but I'll offer what I'm looking at doing -- changing career just slightly. I'm looking to move into a related field where my experience would be applicable and desired, but which hopefully will have better career options. Some companies love getting cross-field applicants that will increase the company's skill set.
I work on a satellite program that's partially owned/funded by NASA. We use metric units for everything we do. The only exceptions are when we do press releases, where we often use English units with metric translations (so we might write, "the spacecraft is moving 40 miles/second (64 kilometers/second)").
I think this is only going to affect design specs, which as another poster mentioned often uses machinists' imperial units. I have no explanation for the Mars Orbiter -- I cannot conceive calculating spacecraft trajectories in anything but metric units, and I don't know anyone with whom I work who would do so.
EO-1 was a technology demonstration in *many* ways. It has a couple new type of sensors, a new bus, and yes -- new heuristic detection algorithms, although I don't think those were in the original specs when it was launched. It was not by any stretch of the imagination a waste of money. It is likely to be the progenitor for the next generation of Landsat-type sensors, and the next generation would not have been possible if not for this technology test.
You may also be interested in knowing that EO-1's mission was just one year long; that's all they needed, just to get it into orbit and test the new equipment. The fact that it's still running after *six* years goes to show how marvelous -- and cost efficient -- this bird is.
Which just shows that, once again, game producers are taking their cue from the world of novel publication. Cutting bloated, oversized stories into thirds is a classic technique in books.
This has nothing to do with loss of mental faculties. The elderly are from a different era, and in general they have little training on computers and no desire to learn more about them.
My mother was a brillant woman who did the accounts for an insurance form with pen and paper. She used a computer at work when she had to, so she knew the basics. Then she retired and I told her to get a computer to stay in touch and shop from home. A year later I visited and that computer was an unholy mess, infested with adware and zombified by worms and viruses. And that was all from just leaving it turned on all the time -- she never actually used it because she hated the thing.
The elderly need help with computers. Hell, I'm going to need help using and maintaining the androids my grandchildren insist that I buy.
Most researchers never bothered looking for deep ocean impact craters because they assumed the craters would be covered in sediment. In fact, they probably *are* covered in sediment, and it's only because of the new gravimetric technology that we can see them at all.
Another picture of the chevrons is here. Features like this are visible all over the world, as the graphic accompanying the NYT article shows. Pretty spooky...I just never realized before how much scar tissue the Earth has on her.
MC Chris is a rapper and the voice of cartoons on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. He's most known as Hesh on Sealab 2021 and MC Pee Pants (aka Sir Loin) on Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
:)
On the internet rap scene, he's a driving force behind the whole 'Nerdcore' subgenre -- rappers talking about subjects that, well, show up on Slashdot. I think his Nerdcore cred more than earns him an interview on Slashdot.
Here's an example, the lyrics from his nerd anthem 'Geek':
Chorus: Stop pickin on me. Because I'm a geek.
I'm strange to you. You're strange to me.
Well, one of these days. I'm gonna pack heat.
Your brains on the wall. My face on tv.
They dissipate the pungent odor of a power holder.
Sand kickers comin' sixty clicks upon the sonar.
They're gonna fold me over like a trapper keeper folder.
If this was D&D, you'd see me jump into a portal.
I'm a geek, spelled g double-E k.
I meet my boys in the basement about every day.
Card table, comic books, and cans of coke.
That we blow out our nose after a Star Wars joke.
We got style.
Tape on our glasses, zits on our faces and hair on our asses.
Shiny shoes, belt buckles and pocket protectors.
Tricked out back packs like my main man Venkman's.
We got problems, namely the jocks.
The SUV suckers with class rings on their cocks.
Otherwise known as the motherfuckers touchin' the tit.
If I was wolverine, you'd hear my knuckles go snikt.
I'm not perfect, the before picture of Peter Parker.
I always trip and drop my tray in front of the girl that always sparkles.
I got brains, fuck B's and C's.
I got a grade point average higher than Hendrix on New Year's Eve.
chorus repeat
Don't fuck with a geek, just cuz he got a gift.
You get in my way bitch you get a Vulcan neck pinch.
One night I didn't go to sleep, up playin' Risk.
At dawn, I won, got global dominance.
But it in the hallway it's completely different shit.
Can't get my locker open and my pants are always split.
Can't seem to catch a ride, can't ever get a date.
But in my mind 7 of 9 thinks I'm great.
Prom night bites, primadonnas prevail.
I'm at home reciting lines from the Holy Grail.
Stuffed nose, and some swollen glands.
Never been kissed, never been holding hands.
Just blow my biscuits over Britney in a bubble bath.
Darth Vader with inhalers, in case my lungs collapse.
The dragon died from a heart attack
You may advance and yo, I upped your armor class.
Being a geek, it aint so bad.
I can't get laid, I got Japanime stashed.
And a mind jam packed with sci-fi facts.
Dreadknocks rock, dinobots kick ass.
chorus repeat
Tell me those lyrics don't get him into Slashdot.
Now, according to one of the interview questions, he's not as much of a geek as his songs indicate. But we fans wouldn't have known that if Slashdot didn't give him an interview.
I agree it wasn't a great interview, but then y'all gave him really lousy questions. Sorry I missed the original thread.
The Preacher movie is supposed to be in production this fall. Early reviews of the script were not good. The big question is whether they'll make it PG-13 or not. If they do, at least you'll know right away how badly it will suck.
In the early days, Disney's films were highly original, because they had to basically invent the process upon which modern animation studios basically get a free ride.
When where Disney's films highly original? Do you mean their remaking of traditional fairy tales like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinnochio and Jungle Book? Bambi and Fantasia are the only 'original' full-length Disney films I can think of from their early days.
Disney has a reputation for Borg-like assimilation of traditional myth, and a reputation for horribly dumbing those myths down in the process. They've never been what anyone would call an avant garde company. Pixar is, and it would serve Pixar well to get away from the all-consuming mouse.
I looked into becoming an astronaut. I have the academic qualifications, but they wouldn't take me. Minor health problems (reflux, colorblindness) exclude me from the program because 'I could get hurt'.
Sorry that I expressed my passion in violent terms. Don't know how else to convey it. If you give me a 50/50 chance of surviving a spaceflight, I'm *going*. But we're so timid and risk averse as a society, I would probably not legally be allowed to take that kind of chance. It's frustrating.
Look for 'The Golden Globe' and 'Steel Beach'. Both came out in the last five years and they are high-flying science fiction. Good reads, too.
The essence of fiction is that it is not real, and "science fiction" is supposed to take the idea a step further -- beyond real, if you like. To the unreachable, beyond what we consider possible.
But in this century, what is beyond possible? Exploring the planets? Been there, done that, got pictures.
In other words, perhaps science fiction is suffering from too much science!
Bollocks. Absolute bollocks.
Is it possible to go to the moon for a holiday? To relocate the family to Mars? Is it possible for our children to take orbital field trips? Not at this time. Some people still have the fire to do such things, but the mass culture has discarded these dreams. Because they're boring dreams, you say, within the outer limit of possibility? Bollocks, I repeat. Mankind has a history of grabbing dreams at the edge of what they can see, if they have the bravery to dream at all.
The explorers who mapped North America didn't dampen the fire of those who followed them, they inflamed it. Lewis and Clark proved it was possible to hike to the pacific -- did people then say, 'Oh, as long as they've proven that, we don't have to go.'? No. There was a spirit of exploration back then, and an excitement in dealing with the unknown. Those are things we no longer have. Today exploration is neglected, and mankind fears the unknown more than ever before.
The problem Robinson outlines has a simple explanation, though. As lives become more complicated, people feel nostalgic for simpler times. As the world moves faster, and becomes more dangerous and violent, people are turning to medieval and historical fantasies where life was simple, evil and good were in black-and-white contrast to one another, and the world was more easily understood. People are, in mass, reverting to our cultural childhood, because at the moment our adult culture sucks.
This is a symptom of Future Shock. Nothing more, nothing less. And it'll get worse before it gets better. Some people will handle it, able to adapt to the future as fast as it comes, but the majority of humanity is going to want to go backward as fast as their cowardly feet will take them.
Let me be clear. I would kill, with my bare hands, each and every person reading this post if it meant I could have a chance to go into space. For those with the fire for exploration, the drive is *that* strong. And it's a tragedy that the rest of humanity has lost it. I can only hope that someday they'll find it again.