I've only seen 2 films in 3D: Avatar and Prometheus. Luckily.
My immersion in Avatar was so significant that I felt like I was moving and teleporting with every panning shot and switch.
About the time the crew of the Prometheus were charging towards the dome, I thought to myself: "I haven't seen much that is this entertaining." The overt storyline was a little linear and many characters not fleshed out but, for me, proper 3D more than doubles the entertainment factor of even decent films.
In both films I thought 3D has a long way to go. Avatar started off brilliantly, the first shot from a cockpit flying over the jungle demonstrated 3D perfectly. My jaw literally dropped. I was there until I started getting motion sickness from the factors I mentioned earlier. In Prometheus, 3D wasn't apparent for the first minute or so of the film until the crucial-but-forgotten scene of the alien dosing himself. I started wondering about whether the film was set up for someone with a shorter distance between their eyes. [I don't have weird bug-out eyes but am male and do have a large head]. When there was a large distance between the foreground object and the background object, it really didn't look right, and I don't think it was a matter of the objects being in focus/blurred.
Agree the cesarean was extremely well done. The only thing lacking was the physical sensations (thank God). And the scene, although not properly set up by Ridley Scott (motivation and Shaw's immediate intention weren't properly apparent), was very powerful in a non-forced way.
When they start talking to the alien, Shaw's far more important questions get lost in the shouting -- and they miss referencing the first scene, which is the only way to answer them.
Sucrose and glucose cause insulin spikes which cause fat to be stored. If you've not eaten fat within 2 hours either side, they just make you hungry, but aren't a direct cause of becoming fat. Caffeine seems to block fat storage to some degree as well as help you burn those calories.
Being inactive probably also causes fat to be stored. Those calories have to go somewhere.
Anyway what you have and what I have are two very different diseases that happen to share a name, sometimes telling one from the other is difficult so everyone owes it to themselves to explore all the options for treatment. That being said don't call my drugs dangerous and ineffective and I won't call your therapy hippie bullcrap ok?
Actually, I think they're similar diseases that neither of you fully understand (which is fair enough, because nobody really understands them)... I am not a psychologist, but I have been through severe depression with suicidal tendencies. My psych at the time put it best... therapy on its own will work, some of the time. Meds on their own will work, some of the time. For best results, you need to combine them.
What I found from experience was that SSRI's took the edge off my feelings. They didn't make them disappear, but they made them bearable so that I could work on what the real problem was. There was a neurochemical imbalance: my brain was not producing enough seratonin. But blocking the reuptake of that neurotransmitter, which is how most anti-depressants work, didn't do anything to address the issue that was causing my problems in the first place. What it *did* do was make it so that I could see the exit, but I still had to work on getting there. What I found when I reached that goal was that I didn't need the medications any more, and was able to stop taking the SSRI medication. It's now been 5 years since I stopped taking anti-depressants, and 3 years since I stopped seeing a psychologist on a regular basis, and I have not had a single relapse.
Now, I'm not saying that you don't need it. I'm not saying you'll necessarily reach a point where you don't need it... there could be something weird with the way your brain is wired, such that going off the meds is not an option. But I'm also not saying that the person for whom pure therapy works is full of it. Mental health, and how the psyche and physical brain interact, is something we're only just beginning to understand. We've barely scratched the surface, and what we're realizing is that it's easily the most complicated field of medicine that exists. In my case, there was an elephant in the room that I was afraid to address, and it is what was causing my depression. There may be a similar issue going on for the both of you, and I don't think either of you should discount what's working for the other.
... for the chemical imbalance theory that created a $100bn industry.
Anyway, there are plenty of people who understand mental health decently. We're just outnumbered about 10 to 1 by people who don't have a clue.
It might be the most complicated field but the main problem is that it's almost impossible to test... so accurate models are chanced upon more than anything.
Depression is a bitch and if meds was the best help available to you, it's even more impressive to get past it. Respect.
"The study found no significant differences between the therapies; however, the two psychotherapies were slightly less effective than imipramine but more effective than placebo. A meta-analysis of four studies, which included 169 patients with major depression, showed similar results for tricyclic antidepressants and CBT."
Now when they say placebo, they actually mean sugar pill. It's well known now that medication doesn't outperform placebo on most forms of depression so saying CBT is as good as that is a low bar indeed.
Having said that, I'm a psychotherapist and CBT can work well for some kinds of depression. Worth a try.
My jaw dropped on the first scene (you flyover the jungle) and my mind made the effect so realistic I had persistent motion sickness from about 15mins in. Every tracking shot, I felt like I was moving. Every new camera angle I felt like I teleported.
Then again, I'm a somewhat hedonistic yogic. I convinced my brain to perceive it as real.
This is James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who has been awarded more honours for science than almost anyone else I can think of... and produced this report when very few scientists were even looking at climatology.
I'm by no means an expert on climate science but I do know enough to know that the denialists are full of it. In fact, the US seems to be the only place in the world denialism is an accepted position.
And even on a basic level, the greenhouse effect is as proven as any science. It really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that if we pump CO2 into the atmosphere the planet will get warmer.
Lord of the Rings is also inspired by the Third Reich from an English perspective.
Now imagine that the North Sea was actually landmass. So starting from the Shire, Sauron is pretty much where Hitler was from England, you've got this big sea off to the West, the Elves and Dwarves correspond with Scandinavia and Aragorn is exiled in France.
Also, as others said, the West Country English accent is much like the medieval English accent whereas modern American accents didn't exist.
American is more associated with futuristic sci-fi.
Agreed./.'s mod system, whilst far from perfect is so vital for dealing with the millions of opinions on the internet, I'm just baffled it's not been copied.
I like to come to/. to read articles on science and technology. Usually someone's put it into understandable terms, someone else has pointed out the flaws and you can always find both sides of the debate. Sometimes you can get that on Wikipedia but usually not straight away and you can't ask questions there.
No, not the ones on the plane, but what I remember from the programme.
Heston is unbelievably awesome and the ONLY chef worth watching so if that doesn't convince you...
Yes, Heston found that the air in aeroplanes kills our sense of smell and somewhat interferes with our sense of taste too. He found that the one tastebud type which still works is umami (savoury). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
He also found the food was perfectly prepared on the ground. However, the ovens on the BA flight had two settings: keep warm and incinerate. Furthermore, the food was sealed for freshness/safety without air vents for steam produced while cooking to escape -- so any 'crusty' food would turn soggy.
Also, the 'kitchen' was only about 3x the size of the toilet with no dedicated chef. All of this seriously limits what you can do when you have to feed 300+ people in under an hour.
Everyone forgets that Android apps are interpreted code, running half the speed of native code. Two companies already claim to have Dalvik running on operating systems like Meego.
The N9 is a wonderful phone, seemingly outselling Lumias in spite of Elop's attempt to kill the former.
All they had to do was keep updating the hardware and adding Android compatibility.
Either Elop is a trojan horse or he panicked. There is plenty of room for 5+ operating systems in the market. Apps are not everything. Yes he needed to cut costs. But he also needed to capitalise on Nokia's strengths: advanced, reliable hardware and Linux expertise.
He did the opposite. He alienated his Maemo/Meego developers and bet the farm on the one operating system which couldn't use Nokia's advanced hardware.
Once you get over how low res & repetitive the graphics are, it's a very well designed game.
Along with playing Dune, I realised that these games have as good or better design than modern games. However, going back to those old graphics can be harsh and what's worse, user interfaces have improved tremendously.
Regarding Dune, you cannot find a Windows RTS that doesn't have right click for move/attack.
The problems with Dungeon Master are the same as from 1985. Each arrow you fire has to be manually picked up and manually put in the right place in your archer's inventory screen. This takes 4 clicks each. Potions are similarly time consuming. The main problem I'm having is the lack of an ingame map. Since the walls look identical for the most part and I'm not going to manually map things, some of the levels are ridiculous.
Anyone wanting to create a classic game could do a lot worse than recreating something like this but with updated graphics and modern UI standards.
It's based on core D&D 3.5, although lacks prestige classes and a few things are broken.
There was a discussion somewhere about why TOEE and Jagged Alliance are better than Dragon Age/2/Origins. One of the games' designers said that it's all about turns -- without them there's no proper rhythm.
The graphics are decent in TOEE too.
The new Jagged Alliance might get fixed up yet. The new XCOM might have awesome turn-based combat.
Slashdot Mirror
I've only seen 2 films in 3D: Avatar and Prometheus. Luckily.
My immersion in Avatar was so significant that I felt like I was moving and teleporting with every panning shot and switch.
About the time the crew of the Prometheus were charging towards the dome, I thought to myself: "I haven't seen much that is this entertaining." The overt storyline was a little linear and many characters not fleshed out but, for me, proper 3D more than doubles the entertainment factor of even decent films.
In both films I thought 3D has a long way to go. Avatar started off brilliantly, the first shot from a cockpit flying over the jungle demonstrated 3D perfectly. My jaw literally dropped. I was there until I started getting motion sickness from the factors I mentioned earlier.
In Prometheus, 3D wasn't apparent for the first minute or so of the film until the crucial-but-forgotten scene of the alien dosing himself. I started wondering about whether the film was set up for someone with a shorter distance between their eyes. [I don't have weird bug-out eyes but am male and do have a large head].
When there was a large distance between the foreground object and the background object, it really didn't look right, and I don't think it was a matter of the objects being in focus/blurred.
Agree the cesarean was extremely well done. The only thing lacking was the physical sensations (thank God). And the scene, although not properly set up by Ridley Scott (motivation and Shaw's immediate intention weren't properly apparent), was very powerful in a non-forced way.
When they start talking to the alien, Shaw's far more important questions get lost in the shouting -- and they miss referencing the first scene, which is the only way to answer them.
I stand corrected to some degree.
According to Wikipedia, fructose will be preferentially converted into glycogen in the liver, with only excess being converted into fat. So it depends how much you eat along with other carbs, recent exercise etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose#Metabolism_of_fructose_to_DHAP_and_glyceraldehyde
Sucrose and glucose cause insulin spikes which cause fat to be stored. If you've not eaten fat within 2 hours either side, they just make you hungry, but aren't a direct cause of becoming fat.
Caffeine seems to block fat storage to some degree as well as help you burn those calories.
Being inactive probably also causes fat to be stored. Those calories have to go somewhere.
Pretty sure there are no votes in the washup period.
Just a bit of horse-trading with the Tories.
You're probably talking about the earlier Second Reading though I didn't bother to check.
I *think* the LibDems are keen on scrapping bits of the DEA.
Good luck proving that. Even Big Pharma hasn't managed it so far.
This field is so screwed up that we don't even know if the drugs work for anyone. Long term studies are non-existent.
Clearly, the drugs work short-term for some and make others worse. We don't know what the curve looks like.
This guy's blog is excellent:
http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/do-antidepressants-make-some-people.html
This post should be modded +5 as it's one of the most accessible explanations of depression I've seen.
Not all depression is this simple but when it is, CBT helps a lot.
Anyway what you have and what I have are two very different diseases that happen to share a name, sometimes telling one from the other is difficult so everyone owes it to themselves to explore all the options for treatment. That being said don't call my drugs dangerous and ineffective and I won't call your therapy hippie bullcrap ok?
Actually, I think they're similar diseases that neither of you fully understand (which is fair enough, because nobody really understands them)... I am not a psychologist, but I have been through severe depression with suicidal tendencies. My psych at the time put it best... therapy on its own will work, some of the time. Meds on their own will work, some of the time. For best results, you need to combine them.
What I found from experience was that SSRI's took the edge off my feelings. They didn't make them disappear, but they made them bearable so that I could work on what the real problem was. There was a neurochemical imbalance: my brain was not producing enough seratonin. But blocking the reuptake of that neurotransmitter, which is how most anti-depressants work, didn't do anything to address the issue that was causing my problems in the first place. What it *did* do was make it so that I could see the exit, but I still had to work on getting there. What I found when I reached that goal was that I didn't need the medications any more, and was able to stop taking the SSRI medication. It's now been 5 years since I stopped taking anti-depressants, and 3 years since I stopped seeing a psychologist on a regular basis, and I have not had a single relapse.
Now, I'm not saying that you don't need it. I'm not saying you'll necessarily reach a point where you don't need it... there could be something weird with the way your brain is wired, such that going off the meds is not an option. But I'm also not saying that the person for whom pure therapy works is full of it. Mental health, and how the psyche and physical brain interact, is something we're only just beginning to understand. We've barely scratched the surface, and what we're realizing is that it's easily the most complicated field of medicine that exists. In my case, there was an elephant in the room that I was afraid to address, and it is what was causing my depression. There may be a similar issue going on for the both of you, and I don't think either of you should discount what's working for the other.
... for the chemical imbalance theory that created a $100bn industry.
Anyway, there are plenty of people who understand mental health decently. We're just outnumbered about 10 to 1 by people who don't have a clue.
It might be the most complicated field but the main problem is that it's almost impossible to test... so accurate models are chanced upon more than anything.
Depression is a bitch and if meds was the best help available to you, it's even more impressive to get past it. Respect.
How exactly do you do placebo counselling?
"The study found no significant differences between the therapies; however, the two psychotherapies were slightly less effective than imipramine but more effective than placebo. A meta-analysis of four studies, which included 169 patients with major depression, showed similar results for tricyclic antidepressants and CBT."
Now when they say placebo, they actually mean sugar pill. It's well known now that medication doesn't outperform placebo on most forms of depression so saying CBT is as good as that is a low bar indeed.
Having said that, I'm a psychotherapist and CBT can work well for some kinds of depression. Worth a try.
My jaw dropped on the first scene (you flyover the jungle) and my mind made the effect so realistic I had persistent motion sickness from about 15mins in. Every tracking shot, I felt like I was moving. Every new camera angle I felt like I teleported.
Then again, I'm a somewhat hedonistic yogic. I convinced my brain to perceive it as real.
This is James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who has been awarded more honours for science than almost anyone else I can think of... and produced this report when very few scientists were even looking at climatology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen#Honors_and_awards
I'm by no means an expert on climate science but I do know enough to know that the denialists are full of it. In fact, the US seems to be the only place in the world denialism is an accepted position.
And even on a basic level, the greenhouse effect is as proven as any science. It really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that if we pump CO2 into the atmosphere the planet will get warmer.
Look how long Linux took to get going -- and it's free.
Memory requirements was a problem but it was Windows 3.0, then Windows 95 and the per PC preloading that killed OS/2.
Jobs couldn't have made OS/2 a success. That Microsoft monopoly was unchallengeable.
Your story is awesome and somewhat plausible. However, do you have a source?
All I could find is that Megatron is banned because he can transform into a gun.
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-news-rumors/343668-tsa-bans-transformers-flights.html
Lord of the Rings is also inspired by the Third Reich from an English perspective.
Now imagine that the North Sea was actually landmass. So starting from the Shire, Sauron is pretty much where Hitler was from England, you've got this big sea off to the West, the Elves and Dwarves correspond with Scandinavia and Aragorn is exiled in France.
Also, as others said, the West Country English accent is much like the medieval English accent whereas modern American accents didn't exist.
American is more associated with futuristic sci-fi.
As does Diaspora and I have an Opera extension that turns them into links on Facebook.
Agreed. /.'s mod system, whilst far from perfect is so vital for dealing with the millions of opinions on the internet, I'm just baffled it's not been copied.
I like to come to /. to read articles on science and technology. Usually someone's put it into understandable terms, someone else has pointed out the flaws and you can always find both sides of the debate.
Sometimes you can get that on Wikipedia but usually not straight away and you can't ask questions there.
There's always the very significant possibility that death isn't the end.
Yes but then they couldn't keep track of your search habits.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."
No, not the ones on the plane, but what I remember from the programme.
Heston is unbelievably awesome and the ONLY chef worth watching so if that doesn't convince you...
Yes, Heston found that the air in aeroplanes kills our sense of smell and somewhat interferes with our sense of taste too. He found that the one tastebud type which still works is umami (savoury).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
He also found the food was perfectly prepared on the ground. However, the ovens on the BA flight had two settings: keep warm and incinerate. Furthermore, the food was sealed for freshness/safety without air vents for steam produced while cooking to escape -- so any 'crusty' food would turn soggy.
Also, the 'kitchen' was only about 3x the size of the toilet with no dedicated chef. All of this seriously limits what you can do when you have to feed 300+ people in under an hour.
He ended up cooking a savoury lasagne I think.
There was a much better option:
4. Get Dalvik running on Maemo6.
Everyone forgets that Android apps are interpreted code, running half the speed of native code.
Two companies already claim to have Dalvik running on operating systems like Meego.
The N9 is a wonderful phone, seemingly outselling Lumias in spite of Elop's attempt to kill the former.
All they had to do was keep updating the hardware and adding Android compatibility.
Either Elop is a trojan horse or he panicked. There is plenty of room for 5+ operating systems in the market. Apps are not everything.
Yes he needed to cut costs. But he also needed to capitalise on Nokia's strengths: advanced, reliable hardware and Linux expertise.
He did the opposite. He alienated his Maemo/Meego developers and bet the farm on the one operating system which couldn't use Nokia's advanced hardware.
Better than isometric is the upcoming XCOM from Firaxis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uHHmTSDCvA
You might also be interested in my short post on Temple of Elemental Evil the other day:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2719507&cid=39323731
I've been playing Dungeon Master on my N900.
Once you get over how low res & repetitive the graphics are, it's a very well designed game.
Along with playing Dune, I realised that these games have as good or better design than modern games.
However, going back to those old graphics can be harsh and what's worse, user interfaces have improved tremendously.
Regarding Dune, you cannot find a Windows RTS that doesn't have right click for move/attack.
The problems with Dungeon Master are the same as from 1985. Each arrow you fire has to be manually picked up and manually put in the right place in your archer's inventory screen. This takes 4 clicks each. Potions are similarly time consuming. The main problem I'm having is the lack of an ingame map. Since the walls look identical for the most part and I'm not going to manually map things, some of the levels are ridiculous.
Anyone wanting to create a classic game could do a lot worse than recreating something like this but with updated graphics and modern UI standards.
TOEE is still going strong. For a game that's still closed source, the amount of fixing and extending that has gone on is incredible.
http://www.co8.org/forum/index.php
It's based on core D&D 3.5, although lacks prestige classes and a few things are broken.
There was a discussion somewhere about why TOEE and Jagged Alliance are better than Dragon Age/2/Origins. One of the games' designers said that it's all about turns -- without them there's no proper rhythm.
The graphics are decent in TOEE too.
The new Jagged Alliance might get fixed up yet. The new XCOM might have awesome turn-based combat.
Pretty much every scene was rubbish apart from the action scenes. Lucas is clueless as a director.
I do like that last deleted scene though of Yoda landing. Thanks for the link.