Democracy...is, the majority decide what goes. Is this actually any different from "mob rule"?
It isn't, which is why no modern western country has a government that should technically be called a "democracy." That's why they're all "representative democracies" with constitutions and strong legal systems.
It's very easy to get the mob to do stupid things, like elect the Nazis. I'm against pure democracy.
3) I'll have to rent that one
The rushed-through story the screenwriter threw in as the first ten minutes of Fellowship of the Ring looked a lot more interesting than the movie we were forced to watch. Why didn't somebody make a movie off that instead?
Yes, I know this post was a joke, but I completely agree with point #3. I think the LOTR is among the worst of the stories in Tolkien's mythology. I'd pay double for a movie of Turin or of Beren & Luthien.
By the way - the worst? Ocean impact. Then you're not just talking an air blast and punching a hole into the surface with some ejecta spraying but doing all of that while vaporizing some megatons of water - much worse on a global scale.
Not to mention the huge tsunamis. The bulk of the
human race lives near the shore
probably right (about everything except Aragorn's story being the central tale in the trilogy).
For an example of this "the LOTR is about Aragorn," cf. the section of the Silmarillion with the summary of the LOTR, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age." If I remember correctly, it mentions "halfings" briefly, near the end.
Do you have any primary sources that indicate that Tolkien's purpose in LotR was to write some Christian instructive fable?
Sorry, I don't have his book of letters here. I'll try to look it up later.
I'm not making some kind of contraversal claim here. It's a pretty obvious Christian allegory; all the tenets of Catholicism are there (repentences & redemption; salvation only by the grace of God, not by good works; trust in the divine over the works of man; pride goeth before a fall)
It's perhaps more obvious if you read the background mythology in the Silmarillion and related books. There's a universal creator and a group of sub-dieties (or "Angels") the strongest of which rebells and tempts the Elves into sin. There's war in heaven, and Elves being cast out of Eden. They struggle for millenia, but only acheive redemption through Earendil, who pleads with the Gods to forgive them.
This isn't some kind of anti-LOTR statement, by the way. Catholic Mythology is a really good Mythology to use; I like it better than the Greeks.
Um, the central story in LotR is about a hobbit named Frodo.
Please. Those annoying hobbits are a storytelling technique. The only real point of Frodo is to as an instrument that God uses to let Aragorn trust fate.
And there is no mention of God in LotR
There are plenty of mentions of Elbereth, the patron Goddess of the Elves. The most dramatic is when she rescues Sam from Shelob through divine intervention. And then, of course, there's the Gods sending Gandalf back from the dead, because his job wasn't done.
You appear to have J.R.R. Tolkien confused with another fabulous fantasy writer, namely C.S. Lewis.
You appear to be unfamiliar with Tolkien's Catholicism, and how his entire world view is driven by it.
However, I take major issue with you over the suggestion that there are heavy theological issues in LOTR. The view of good and evil there is so simply black and white that even a Southern Baptist hellfire preacher might take pause. All the baddies start bad, proceed badly, and end bad. Everyone else plays a fixed part.
That's factual incorrect. Denethor, the guy in charge of Gondor, starts heroic and falls due to his pride. The same is true of his son, although he repents and redemns himself at the end. Sauriman, the Gandalf-foil, also begins heroic and
ends evil. Galadriel, supposedly one of the good guys, is living in that forest because she flipped off the Gods and ran off to follow Feanor.
I won't even bring up Gollum, and that whole good vs. evil thing inside him.
Tolkien's devote Catholicism is at the heart of all
this, and Catholicism's basic tenet is repentence, and giving yourself up to God.
Tolkien translates better to film because all his characters are so completely two-dimensional (Except bit parts like Aragorn who barely make one-dimensional).
Wow. "Bit Part"? Are you actually familiar with "The Lord of the Rings"? It's the story of this guy Aragorn, the heir to a royal family that has lost it's thrown, and how he manages to recover it and win the woman he loves, against all conceivable odds. While his herculean efforts contribute to his victory, the key to success is his ability both to realize that he can't win without the help of God, and to act on that realization, leaving important aspects in God's hands.
A chemist, a mechanical engineer and an economist are shipwrecked on a desert island with a ton of canned food, but no can opener.
The Chemist suggests building a fire. "We can heat the cans until the water boils and they explode."
But the engineer objects: "The food will be scattered everywhere. Let's build a catapult and hurl the cans at those rocks. They'll break open on impact."
Finally, the economist speaks up. "You guys are crazy! Let's just assume we have a can opener."
However, I can see Intentia International's point of
view. What's to stop someone from simply hitting their webserver with every alpha-numeric combination possible.
Anyone want to take odds on how many scripts like
that are being run right now? I'd love to see
the Intentia Apache logs this morning.:-)
I disagree...there may have been problems with Spiderman and X-men, but it didn't have anything to do with the special effects. The real question is whether they'll make the classic Hollywood error, and forget to hire a writer.:-)
Yeah, that's the ticket. We've been interviewing a lot lately, and what I've been doing is trying to get the candidate to help me solve the problem I was working on right before the interview. I don't really expect to get a solution (although if I do, bonus), but you get to see how the person works.
There's a downside here, in that you have to explain enough of the situation for them to get sufficient background. That can be time consuming...but if you come across a problem that works well for this, you can save it and re-use it later. That's not as good as a real, live problem, though, because you're not actually working with the candidate to solve it.
Jeez, my arithmetic is as bad as the news media's.:-) It's 3900 * 6 / 2 (assuming Cindy isn't
bisexual, which is in question according the tabloids)
Sorry 'bout that.
Slashdot Mirror
Check it out...I didn't know that. They only got about the same percentage as the last few US Presidents. :-) Sorry 'bout that.
But, although I picked a bad example, I still think it's easy to get the mob to support stupid things.
It isn't, which is why no modern western country has a government that should technically be called a "democracy." That's why they're all "representative democracies" with constitutions and strong legal systems.
It's very easy to get the mob to do stupid things, like elect the Nazis. I'm against pure democracy.
Yes, I know this post was a joke, but I completely agree with point #3. I think the LOTR is among the worst of the stories in Tolkien's mythology. I'd pay double for a movie of Turin or of Beren & Luthien.
It would if you buried the device on the asteroid...then you'd have the shock wave again, transmitted through the material of the asteroid itself.
Not to mention the huge tsunamis. The bulk of the human race lives near the shore
For an example of this "the LOTR is about Aragorn," cf. the section of the Silmarillion with the summary of the LOTR, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age." If I remember correctly, it mentions "halfings" briefly, near the end.
Sorry, I don't have his book of letters here. I'll try to look it up later.
I'm not making some kind of contraversal claim here. It's a pretty obvious Christian allegory; all the tenets of Catholicism are there (repentences & redemption; salvation only by the grace of God, not by good works; trust in the divine over the works of man; pride goeth before a fall)
It's perhaps more obvious if you read the background mythology in the Silmarillion and related books. There's a universal creator and a group of sub-dieties (or "Angels") the strongest of which rebells and tempts the Elves into sin. There's war in heaven, and Elves being cast out of Eden. They struggle for millenia, but only acheive redemption through Earendil, who pleads with the Gods to forgive them.
This isn't some kind of anti-LOTR statement, by the way. Catholic Mythology is a really good Mythology to use; I like it better than the Greeks.
Yeah, sorry about that. I've got this spelling disorder....
Please. Those annoying hobbits are a storytelling technique. The only real point of Frodo is to as an instrument that God uses to let Aragorn trust fate.
And there is no mention of God in LotR
There are plenty of mentions of Elbereth, the patron Goddess of the Elves. The most dramatic is when she rescues Sam from Shelob through divine intervention. And then, of course, there's the Gods sending Gandalf back from the dead, because his job wasn't done.
You appear to have J.R.R. Tolkien confused with another fabulous fantasy writer, namely C.S. Lewis.
You appear to be unfamiliar with Tolkien's Catholicism, and how his entire world view is driven by it.
That's factual incorrect. Denethor, the guy in charge of Gondor, starts heroic and falls due to his pride. The same is true of his son, although he repents and redemns himself at the end. Sauriman, the Gandalf-foil, also begins heroic and ends evil. Galadriel, supposedly one of the good guys, is living in that forest because she flipped off the Gods and ran off to follow Feanor.
I won't even bring up Gollum, and that whole good vs. evil thing inside him.
Tolkien's devote Catholicism is at the heart of all this, and Catholicism's basic tenet is repentence, and giving yourself up to God.
Wow. "Bit Part"? Are you actually familiar with "The Lord of the Rings"? It's the story of this guy Aragorn, the heir to a royal family that has lost it's thrown, and how he manages to recover it and win the woman he loves, against all conceivable odds. While his herculean efforts contribute to his victory, the key to success is his ability both to realize that he can't win without the help of God, and to act on that realization, leaving important aspects in God's hands.
The Chemist suggests building a fire. "We can heat the cans until the water boils and they explode."
But the engineer objects: "The food will be scattered everywhere. Let's build a catapult and hurl the cans at those rocks. They'll break open on impact."
Finally, the economist speaks up. "You guys are crazy! Let's just assume we have a can opener."
You've not kept up the demographics of my lovely home state. IROC's are out; Acura's with +3 wheels and trunk spoilers are in.
Anyone want to take odds on how many scripts like that are being run right now? I'd love to see the Intentia Apache logs this morning. :-)
I disagree...there may have been problems with Spiderman and X-men, but it didn't have anything to do with the special effects. The real question is whether they'll make the classic Hollywood error, and forget to hire a writer. :-)
There's a downside here, in that you have to explain enough of the situation for them to get sufficient background. That can be time consuming...but if you come across a problem that works well for this, you can save it and re-use it later. That's not as good as a real, live problem, though, because you're not actually working with the candidate to solve it.
Well, yeah, sure...GNU Emacs has shipped with vip-mode since the early 90's at least.
They mean "game" as in "game theory," not
as in in "game store."
This is the only legitimately defensable use
of goto, but even for this, I'd tend to prefer:
for {
for {
if (disaster()) cleanupAndExit();
}
}
About exceptions; somebody needs to write "Exceptions Considered Harmful"
Jeez, my arithmetic is as bad as the news media's. :-) It's 3900 * 6 / 2 (assuming Cindy isn't
bisexual, which is in question according the tabloids)
Sorry 'bout that.
If those were actually the odds of that, then, given 6 billion people on the planet, Cindy would be serving breakfast to, what, 3900 guys a day?