Yes, but the obvious samauri theme of Star Wars is the point. It isn't about people fighting with blasters and space ships. It's about samauri with their mythically powerful swords.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. When the real master finally opens up on the evil woman at the end, it's not even a contest. Those five seconds were worth the whole movie, kinda like waiting for Kira Sedgewick and Helen Mirren to finally kiss...
Total Recall was a bit on the B movie side for my taste. The upcoming Tom Cruise movie (name escapes me, too) definitely looks like it could be a fantastic movie, more along Bladerunner quality than Total Recall. That plus SW plus SM + MIB2 + Matrix 2, what a huge, huge summer after several years of drought.
Some good stuff from Total Recall did get through the clumsy hack of the movie, though. "In the end, you'll save the world and get the girl." So did that really happen or was it Memorex? You can't tell...
Now Akira was highly entertaining, but it would not do well on the plausibility rating. In a sense, it's like an episode of Dragon Ball on steroids, where all the superpowered peeps sit around grunting for twenty minutes at a crack, then discharging their power.
Oh man, I am completely slobbering. Return to the golden age!
(1) Within 8 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to the L 1 and L 2 Earth-Sun libration points and back for the purposes of assembling large-scale space structures such as would be required for scientific observatories, to the Earth-Moon libration points and back, and to lunar orbit and back.
(2) Within 10 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to and from an Earth-orbit crossing asteroid and rendezvousing with it.
(3) Within 15 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back, as well as the development and deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the lunar surface.
(4) Within 20 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to and from Martian orbit, the development and deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the surface of one of the moons of Mars, and the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from Martian orbit to the surface of Mars and back.
> The world has moved on folks, this isn't 1776, it's > 2002.
For more recent examples where gun ownership of the people would have made the difference a little less theoretically useless, see 1914, 1939, and various years thereafter where communists took power.
The computer does not trigger a robot arm to come down and punch a pin through the person's skull.
With this system, you only need one person at each airport screening area, not 25, and that person will be presented with other shots of the suspect, and can go from there.
Actually, the government makes decisions for us like this every day, placing the importance of a handful of deaths today, jammed in front of a camera, well above the importance of hundreds, thousands, or millions of deaths due that would otherwise normally occur. There are, for example, plenty of speed-like weight loss drugs that are safe and effective, but you can't get them in the US because some addict might get ahold of them illegally.
So a million people a year continue to die an early death from heart disease lest a few thousand addicts have problems.
Exactly. All this does is alert real, breathing humans about a possible match, and they take it from there. These stories make it sound like some automated Wile E. Coyote trap door springs open and they are mechanically slid right into jail or an electric chair.
Yes, showing children how adults make each other feel better than any other possible feeling is a much worse, disgusging, and depraved thing than showing them blowing each other to bloody pieces.
> In the uk we had increasingly dangerous and violent > problems with the National Front in the late 70s > and early 80s. A group of people decided enough was > enough and countered every move they made
Hillary Clinton, leading the charge against the evil Jewish, sorry, generic businessman, in the early 90's, had a bus tour to garner support for complete nationalization of the US's medical system, 1/7th of the entire economy. A group of people decided enough was enough and countered every move she made by showing up when the bus pulled in, with masses of protesters. So, they stopped publishing where they'd show up next. A week later it was cancelled.
Neitzsche had disdain for Jews (partly because they spawned the Christians) because their philosophy was one that developed its principles under servitude, which, to him, wasn't very "supermannish". Christianity, of course, was spawned under the heel of Judaism, which made it doubly a suck ass religion.
The only braindead major that must take calculus are economics majors, and that's only so that, ever so briefly and theoretically, they were exposed to the derivation of the continously compounded interest formula.
> carrying large signs saying I supported the > Taliban...I'd imagine I'd be arrested rather > quickly, and probably branded as one who "supports > terrorism."
And who supports the destruction of ancient monuments for silly religious reasons and the support of keeping women uneducated lest they challenge men.
This year for the first time the US Federal Government is paying more money to subsidize farmers than they are paying welfare to chronically poor people.
> Sure, He could figure out what's gonna happen next, > but it's not as much fun that wa
Let's assume for the sake of argument that it is in the nature of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent being to create lesser beings and throw them into a world where it was possible to harm each other, and that such a god refused to predict the outcome, though they could if they wanted to.
Ok, so after the first few thousand murders and tortures (not to mention natural diseases and accidents and birth defects) you'd think this perfectly belevolent creature would slam on the brakes and rethink things.
That is why we may conclude and judge that God, if it exists, is not deserving of worship. One might worship it out of fear God as terrorist or out of hopes of eternal life God as sugar daddy but neither of those reasons are the same as worship because it is the morally correct thing to do, which is what modern religion is based on (having evolved from the terrorist and sugar daddy models.)
I haven't used my (emergency) Hotmail account in weeks. Assuming the change was recent, could they sell off my info (not that I filled in any) even if I haven't "clicked thru" the new disclaimer?
Slashdot Mirror
Let's also not forget Ray Bradbury, whose stuff like The Illustrated Man is standard reading in gradeschool.
Andromeda Strain does have some great lines though.
Female Doctor: Ugh, a red light.
Male Doctor: Why don't you like red lights.
Female Doctor: (without missing a beat) It reminds me of my days in a bordello.
...and Contact was better than that, and The Day the Earth Stood Still was better than that.
Yes, but the obvious samauri theme of Star Wars is the point. It isn't about people fighting with blasters and space ships. It's about samauri with their mythically powerful swords.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. When the real master finally opens up on the evil woman at the end, it's not even a contest. Those five seconds were worth the whole movie, kinda like waiting for Kira Sedgewick and Helen Mirren to finally kiss...
Total Recall was a bit on the B movie side for my taste. The upcoming Tom Cruise movie (name escapes me, too) definitely looks like it could be a fantastic movie, more along Bladerunner quality than Total Recall. That plus SW plus SM + MIB2 + Matrix 2, what a huge, huge summer after several years of drought.
Some good stuff from Total Recall did get through the clumsy hack of the movie, though. "In the end, you'll save the world and get the girl." So did that really happen or was it Memorex? You can't tell...
Now Akira was highly entertaining, but it would not do well on the plausibility rating. In a sense, it's like an episode of Dragon Ball on steroids, where all the superpowered peeps sit around grunting for twenty minutes at a crack, then discharging their power.
And of course "Gattaca" is suggestive of Attica prison and uprising.
> "The Day the Earth Stood Still" made the list.
It's strange, but in Caulder's list, Contact and Close Encounters got a near-top 8 in plausibility, while this one only got a 2 (!)
If any movie treated first contact better than Contact, it was The Day the Earth Stood Still.
(One other interesting thing: It may not have been intended, but Klaatu's speech at the end is a libertarian's dream.)
Oh man, I am completely slobbering. Return to the golden age!
(1) Within 8 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to the L 1 and L 2 Earth-Sun libration points and back for the purposes of assembling large-scale space structures such as would be required for scientific observatories, to the Earth-Moon libration points and back, and to lunar orbit and back.
(2) Within 10 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to and from an Earth-orbit crossing asteroid and rendezvousing with it.
(3) Within 15 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back, as well as the development and deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the lunar surface.
(4) Within 20 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to and from Martian orbit, the development and deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the surface of one of the moons of Mars, and the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from Martian orbit to the surface of Mars and back.
> The world has moved on folks, this isn't 1776, it's
> 2002.
For more recent examples where gun ownership of the people would have made the difference a little less theoretically useless, see 1914, 1939, and various years thereafter where communists took power.
The computer does not trigger a robot arm to come down and punch a pin through the person's skull.
With this system, you only need one person at each airport screening area, not 25, and that person will be presented with other shots of the suspect, and can go from there.
Actually, the government makes decisions for us like this every day, placing the importance of a handful of deaths today, jammed in front of a camera, well above the importance of hundreds, thousands, or millions of deaths due that would otherwise normally occur. There are, for example, plenty of speed-like weight loss drugs that are safe and effective, but you can't get them in the US because some addict might get ahold of them illegally.
So a million people a year continue to die an early death from heart disease lest a few thousand addicts have problems.
Thanks for the help, government!
1. Missing someone you were going to miss anyway is not a strike against this. That it finds some is the point. 47% is much better than 0%.
2. Very few will be "detained" incorrectly. 99% will probably be cleared with a minute or two of questioning.
> The greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing
> the world he didn't exist
God's done the same thing. Weird.
Exactly. All this does is alert real, breathing humans about a possible match, and they take it from there. These stories make it sound like some automated Wile E. Coyote trap door springs open and they are mechanically slid right into jail or an electric chair.
Yes, showing children how adults make each other feel better than any other possible feeling is a much worse, disgusging, and depraved thing than showing them blowing each other to bloody pieces.
> In the uk we had increasingly dangerous and violent
> problems with the National Front in the late 70s
> and early 80s. A group of people decided enough was
> enough and countered every move they made
Hillary Clinton, leading the charge against the evil Jewish, sorry, generic businessman, in the early 90's, had a bus tour to garner support for complete nationalization of the US's medical system, 1/7th of the entire economy. A group of people decided enough was enough and countered every move she made by showing up when the bus pulled in, with masses of protesters. So, they stopped publishing where they'd show up next. A week later it was cancelled.
> Like what, the swastika, an ancient symbol, or the
> SS logo, also an ancient symbol.
"Runes", from a real and untranslated (IIRC) language. Quake CTF "runes" were real runic letters, including the SS "S" for speed.
Neitzsche had disdain for Jews (partly because they spawned the Christians) because their philosophy was one that developed its principles under servitude, which, to him, wasn't very "supermannish". Christianity, of course, was spawned under the heel of Judaism, which made it doubly a suck ass religion.
> and poets have to take calculus
Actually, remedial pre-algebra is more like it.
The only braindead major that must take calculus are economics majors, and that's only so that, ever so briefly and theoretically, they were exposed to the derivation of the continously compounded interest formula.
> carrying large signs saying I supported the
> Taliban...I'd imagine I'd be arrested rather
> quickly, and probably branded as one who "supports
> terrorism."
And who supports the destruction of ancient monuments for silly religious reasons and the support of keeping women uneducated lest they challenge men.
> how they think they're soooooo free trade
This year for the first time the US Federal Government is paying more money to subsidize farmers than they are paying welfare to chronically poor people.
> You could easily equip an expedition to Mordor in
> the streets of Geneva.
A good 6 foot long stainless steel 2-hander and a kevlar vest surrounded by titanium plates would be vastly preferrable over +5 mithril crap.
> Sure, He could figure out what's gonna happen next,
> but it's not as much fun that wa
Let's assume for the sake of argument that it is in the nature of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent being to create lesser beings and throw them into a world where it was possible to harm each other, and that such a god refused to predict the outcome, though they could if they wanted to.
Ok, so after the first few thousand murders and tortures (not to mention natural diseases and accidents and birth defects) you'd think this perfectly belevolent creature would slam on the brakes and rethink things.
That is why we may conclude and judge that God, if it exists, is not deserving of worship. One might worship it out of fear God as terrorist or out of hopes of eternal life God as sugar daddy but neither of those reasons are the same as worship because it is the morally correct thing to do, which is what modern religion is based on (having evolved from the terrorist and sugar daddy models.)
I haven't used my (emergency) Hotmail account in weeks. Assuming the change was recent, could they sell off my info (not that I filled in any) even if I haven't "clicked thru" the new disclaimer?
Might be an interesting court case.