3) I didn't view the fluid as fuel. Note that the starship stays hovering for 20+ years with no problem. It has plenty of power. Rather, I think the answer to this lies in the weaponry and 2). It is apparent that the aliens have a caste system promulgated not only through culture but through genetics. The lower worker castes are less intelligent (can't understand English), less motivated, and can't operate the machinery (the ship breaks down -- they can't use the weapons and trade them away, etc). The ship may only accept commands from the highest caste of leadership, of which there are no members remaining. So, the few remaining members of the technician or scientist caste work to mutate the system to either accept their DNA as command DNA, or alter their DNA to what the ship requires. The poor human is exposed and the substance does its job.
This is probably not exactly what the writer/director had in mind, but I'm pretty sure the general gist is right: it's the biological nature of the weaponry and their control systems.
There was some subtext explaining these things that was very easy to mix given the pacing and the
The biggest thing to remember here is that this movie is set OVER TWO DECADES after the aliens arrived. In that time, they've spent some time integrated with humans and human culture before being segregated out again. It's also apparent that District 9 was established slowly -- not in a single fell swoop (like the design of District 10 as seen). In that situation it is easy to imagine certain members of the underground gaining some influence and establishing themselves in D-9 as the aliens were moved there before the eventual legal status of the area was determined.
Re: weapons. It seems that there are several "castes" of the aliens -- a worker caste (the majority found) and a higher technical caste. The worker cast may not have had the correct DNA or the correct training the use the weapons and the weapons may have been designed to not accept them as users -- therefore they are worthless to the aliens and good only for trading.
Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some tropes in there toward the end, but I feel like in many ways it remains beyond most Hollywood fair. The main character never has a full moment of realization or sympathy. Everything he does right up to the end is for self-preservation and selfish reasons. Only when he realizes he will probably die before reaching the ship does he decide to act at all for selfless reasons, and even then he cautions that he may change his mind at any moment.
The director, Verhoeven, was disgusted with the book. As a dutch liberal he probably felt that the the world view propagated in the book was too totalitarian. The movie is a counter-argument to the book. It tries to be a movie (or art in more general) produced by such a society described in the book. And very well in my opinion. If you don't believe me, watch it again. All the "would you like to know more" -stuff indicates that you are in fact watching a movie from that era what the movie is about.
The fact that the movie even tries to take part in a serious debate about the society in general is a plus. That it does it well, is a double plus. That it goes on and don't try to re-do the book but to continue the theme of the book is a such a fashion is double-double plus.
Please have some knowledge of the movie you're talking about before you go spouting about what "dutch liberals probably feel." The movie had a plot and script and was in preproduction before the rights to the book were secured -- they changed some character names and a few plot points in order to make it Starship Troopers but most of the production team hadn't even read the book before shooting the film.
My anal-ness for accuracy being satisfied, the rest of your point is good and well-taken:-)
Think about logistics here. How expensive is it to launch a new comm or earth imaging satellite? Then, how expensive is it to launch HUMANS to the same altitude with repair tools and all of the consumables they require to get up and down safely.
When you add the fact that the tech up there is still advancing very rapidly, I don't think there's very much benefit in trying to create these super multi-purpose birds.
And when there is (like Hubble, whose time IS portioned out as you mentioned and a replacement costs ridiculous sums of money), repairs can and do happen.
IANAC (chemist), but it sounds like what they are doing is take a reagent for the electrical reaction from the surrounding environment so they don't have to store it on board the battery -- thus freeing up additional weight/volume for the "charge" itself.
This might imply a problem with scale since you would need the infrastructure within the battery for safely extracting the reagent and, upon a recharge cycle, releasing it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see something like "DO NOT RECHARGE NEAR AN OPEN FLAME" written in huge letters all over the final product.
Heck, even BSG was able to weave some aspect of current events into the psychology and philosophy of the show.
To be handed this great plot tool ("hey, we're going to take the premise of Terminator but not comply with the timelines") and not use its capable writing to explore present-day dilemmas was, in my mind, a travesty.
Of course, maybe they did and Skynet (by which I mean FOX) made them change the scripts.
This is a huge difference -- I read the summary and thought "wow, so they're going to turn a 90 mph steerable vehicle into an 85 mph missile."
I'm not against the idea as long as there is some built in leeway -- due to imperfections in GPS real time data (from the sky) and the stored map data.
If you liked this, you might like the polls that DailyKos has been running -- they hired a neutral firm (Research 2000) to run polls on the presidential race and individual senate and house races.
Though DailyKos is a left-wing site, they publish all of the internals of the polls so you can see what's going on.
I would agree with you in a general sense -- except that there is such a moral hazard problem with golden parachuting and other moral hazards (see Fannie and Freddie) that any observation of CEO responses is rampant with game theoretic problems.
Simply put, academics are paid to know about the economy. For doctorate level academics, it's not about their own personal stake -- their stake is in being as accurate as possible and knowing as much as they can.
Is it perhaps possible that instead of someone's political leanings influencing their career choices, their career choices and accumulated knowledge have influenced their political leanings?
Re:Shuts down for the winter?
on
LHC Success!
·
· Score: 0
IANAPP (particle physicist) but I have a feeling that if the ground freezes and changes elasticity it might screw up some of the assumptions made in terms of the dimensions of the tunnel or tolerances for vibration.
Re:Will you ever learn?
on
LHC Success!
·
· Score: 5, Funny
It's probably not a problem, probably, but I'm showing some variations in...
No, it's well within acceptable limits. Sustaining sequence.
Shutting down... Attempting shutdown... it's not, it's not shutting AGGGGHHHHH!...yeah.
I should specify that I was watching it with some buddies of mine and had (up until this point) been quite raucous throughout the football game. But this commercial confused the hell out of us.
The problem is that this is an instantaneous teleportation. The portal is more like you take the destination room and paste it into the starting room. Objects can go halfway through the portal, sit at rest, and collide with things on both sides of the portal *at the same time*.
According to the commentary, what they do is create a sort of hybrid collision zone when objects that are subject to dynamic physics calculations (i.e. the player, blocks and balls) near a portal.
Slashdot Mirror
It's really quite excellent -- and vaguely linked to his Cryptonomicon universe...
http://www.vanemden.com/books/neals/jipi.html
This. I've been recently playing FFX with a friend and can't stand the voices.
3) I didn't view the fluid as fuel. Note that the starship stays hovering for 20+ years with no problem. It has plenty of power. Rather, I think the answer to this lies in the weaponry and 2). It is apparent that the aliens have a caste system promulgated not only through culture but through genetics. The lower worker castes are less intelligent (can't understand English), less motivated, and can't operate the machinery (the ship breaks down -- they can't use the weapons and trade them away, etc). The ship may only accept commands from the highest caste of leadership, of which there are no members remaining. So, the few remaining members of the technician or scientist caste work to mutate the system to either accept their DNA as command DNA, or alter their DNA to what the ship requires. The poor human is exposed and the substance does its job.
This is probably not exactly what the writer/director had in mind, but I'm pretty sure the general gist is right: it's the biological nature of the weaponry and their control systems.
There was some subtext explaining these things that was very easy to mix given the pacing and the
The biggest thing to remember here is that this movie is set OVER TWO DECADES after the aliens arrived. In that time, they've spent some time integrated with humans and human culture before being segregated out again. It's also apparent that District 9 was established slowly -- not in a single fell swoop (like the design of District 10 as seen). In that situation it is easy to imagine certain members of the underground gaining some influence and establishing themselves in D-9 as the aliens were moved there before the eventual legal status of the area was determined.
Re: weapons. It seems that there are several "castes" of the aliens -- a worker caste (the majority found) and a higher technical caste. The worker cast may not have had the correct DNA or the correct training the use the weapons and the weapons may have been designed to not accept them as users -- therefore they are worthless to the aliens and good only for trading.
Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some tropes in there toward the end, but I feel like in many ways it remains beyond most Hollywood fair. The main character never has a full moment of realization or sympathy. Everything he does right up to the end is for self-preservation and selfish reasons. Only when he realizes he will probably die before reaching the ship does he decide to act at all for selfless reasons, and even then he cautions that he may change his mind at any moment.
Where else could the movie go?
The director, Verhoeven, was disgusted with the book. As a dutch liberal he probably felt that the the world view propagated in the book was too totalitarian. The movie is a counter-argument to the book. It tries to be a movie (or art in more general) produced by such a society described in the book. And very well in my opinion. If you don't believe me, watch it again. All the "would you like to know more" -stuff indicates that you are in fact watching a movie from that era what the movie is about.
The fact that the movie even tries to take part in a serious debate about the society in general is a plus. That it does it well, is a double plus. That it goes on and don't try to re-do the book but to continue the theme of the book is a such a fashion is double-double plus.
Please have some knowledge of the movie you're talking about before you go spouting about what "dutch liberals probably feel." The movie had a plot and script and was in preproduction before the rights to the book were secured -- they changed some character names and a few plot points in order to make it Starship Troopers but most of the production team hadn't even read the book before shooting the film.
My anal-ness for accuracy being satisfied, the rest of your point is good and well-taken :-)
They have this already.
Step outside, and go play.
Think about logistics here. How expensive is it to launch a new comm or earth imaging satellite? Then, how expensive is it to launch HUMANS to the same altitude with repair tools and all of the consumables they require to get up and down safely.
When you add the fact that the tech up there is still advancing very rapidly, I don't think there's very much benefit in trying to create these super multi-purpose birds.
And when there is (like Hubble, whose time IS portioned out as you mentioned and a replacement costs ridiculous sums of money), repairs can and do happen.
Not necessarily -- the carbon could act as a catalyst or component that is cycled throughout the charge-discharge process.
IANAC (chemist), but it sounds like what they are doing is take a reagent for the electrical reaction from the surrounding environment so they don't have to store it on board the battery -- thus freeing up additional weight/volume for the "charge" itself.
This might imply a problem with scale since you would need the infrastructure within the battery for safely extracting the reagent and, upon a recharge cycle, releasing it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see something like "DO NOT RECHARGE NEAR AN OPEN FLAME" written in huge letters all over the final product.
This.
Heck, even BSG was able to weave some aspect of current events into the psychology and philosophy of the show.
To be handed this great plot tool ("hey, we're going to take the premise of Terminator but not comply with the timelines") and not use its capable writing to explore present-day dilemmas was, in my mind, a travesty.
Of course, maybe they did and Skynet (by which I mean FOX) made them change the scripts.
This is a huge difference -- I read the summary and thought "wow, so they're going to turn a 90 mph steerable vehicle into an 85 mph missile."
I'm not against the idea as long as there is some built in leeway -- due to imperfections in GPS real time data (from the sky) and the stored map data.
Not the chilling effects of IP law -- the chilling effects of not having good contracts for proven creative people.
Though IP law reform certainly wouldn't hurt.
I'm pretty sure those 5:00 episodes were on a LOT of Fox stations around the country...
That's a strawman -- eating way too much food != diet in excess of 2,000 calories.
I eat around 3,500 calories per day and my weight has been stable for quite a long time -- because I'm an active person.
His point -- that there are social costs that must be quantified -- is still valid.
I would think the exact OPPOSITE would happen -- cooler heads would get shot on impulses...
If you liked this, you might like the polls that DailyKos has been running -- they hired a neutral firm (Research 2000) to run polls on the presidential race and individual senate and house races.
Though DailyKos is a left-wing site, they publish all of the internals of the polls so you can see what's going on.
I would agree with you in a general sense -- except that there is such a moral hazard problem with golden parachuting and other moral hazards (see Fannie and Freddie) that any observation of CEO responses is rampant with game theoretic problems.
Simply put, academics are paid to know about the economy. For doctorate level academics, it's not about their own personal stake -- their stake is in being as accurate as possible and knowing as much as they can.
Is it perhaps possible that instead of someone's political leanings influencing their career choices, their career choices and accumulated knowledge have influenced their political leanings?
IANAPP (particle physicist) but I have a feeling that if the ground freezes and changes elasticity it might screw up some of the assumptions made in terms of the dimensions of the tunnel or tolerances for vibration.
It's probably not a problem, probably, but I'm showing some variations in...
No, it's well within acceptable limits. Sustaining sequence.
Shutting down... Attempting shutdown... it's not, it's not shutting AGGGGHHHHH! ...yeah.
I should specify that I was watching it with some buddies of mine and had (up until this point) been quite raucous throughout the football game. But this commercial confused the hell out of us.
"Is it for charity?"
"Is it for shoes?"
"Is it for some sort of policy initiative?"
Nope. Windows. ...delicious.
... that it was kind of hilarious in a post-modern "we're Microsoft, what the fuck are we gonna do?" sort of way.
Can you give this some backup? Not that I doubt you, I'd just be interested to know what the basis for that opinion is...
The problem is that this is an instantaneous teleportation. The portal is more like you take the destination room and paste it into the starting room. Objects can go halfway through the portal, sit at rest, and collide with things on both sides of the portal *at the same time*.
According to the commentary, what they do is create a sort of hybrid collision zone when objects that are subject to dynamic physics calculations (i.e. the player, blocks and balls) near a portal.