I dunno, not to side with the woo woo crowd, but it doesn't really read as a parable or political lesson unless something gets lost in the translation. It's more like a straightforward history. Are you sure you're not thinking of Bacon's "New Atlantis"?
Plato's work describes a rather agressive and widespread empire. Hindu legends of the Deva Nahusha also tell of a similar, widespread empire around the same time. Atlantis is not mentioned by that name anywhere outside of Plato's work, but strikingly similar entities are told of in other place under different names.
There's lots of other myths and legends in other cultures around the world that seem to point to some sort of largish civilization at the time Atlantis was supposed to have peaks. No UFOs, no advanced technology, no silliness... just *something* that is, for the most part, still undiscovered. It's not a big deal, really. So the dawn of civilization gets pushed back a bit. So what? It'd be interesting. Look at Caral in Peru. That discovery pushed back the birth of city life and organized farming in the "New World" a full 1000 years in one shot.
As for the features being spotted by an Atlantis enthusiast, well, use scientific method here: who else is looking for it?;-)
I perused some porn sites a year ago when I had a source for free username/passwords.
I can't see actually paying for any of it. It's the same stuff over and over. None of it is particularly compelling. Even when you travelled down the pr0n foodchain to the fetish/bondage/whatnot sites, you find content by people who wouldn't know erotic if it, well, bit them in the ass.
And the amateur porn... wassup with that? Dubious looking people in poor lit situations rehashing the six or seven basic porno poses. Somewhere there's a Porno For Dummies book these people are reading.
And then there's the crossdresser sites. Honestly, do I share the same planet with these guys? Some of them aren't even trying! I mean, what the fuck is this?. He's not even trying!!! What's the point?? Aaaa! Aaaa!
1. Declare something deadly at concentrations no consumer would ever encounter without making a determined effort to do so.
2. Everyone gets scared as reporters slaver over another Deadly Threat To Children, Motherhood And Leper Washing Nuns.
3. Grant money!
Not to say research like this is not valuable. It is. I'm just damned effing sick and tired of the scare tactics. You know, kids, you were actually supposed to learn valuable life lessons from stories like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" fable and the "dihydrogen monoxide" satire.
The Day After Tomorrow is a prime example. For the gullible and weak of mind, it's a documentary, but for most folks it's a special effects movie, so why do people want to see the effects in Drunk-O-Vision? If I want grainy, I can go play a Silent Hill game. If I want a jiggle-headache, I can watch old Home Movies episodes.
Instead, I just shut off the power to their video game/DVD player when they start yelling at each other.
Even better, install an airtight parition so you can cut off the oxygen when they act up. They'll either start to behave in exchange for a precious breath of life, or anoixa will eventually shut them up anyway.
"I... I don't know exactly how to put this, sir, but are you aware of what a serious breach of security that would be? I mean, he'll see everything, he'll... he'll see the Big Board!"
and they are subsequently sucked up against the hole in the wall and have the flesh torn from their bones.
Someone's been watching too many bad sci-fi moovies *cough*alienresurrection*cough*. No to mention too many doom and gloom political manifestoes.
An astronaut against the hole would plug the hole. Vacuum does not suck. Air expands into vacuum. Higher pressure expands into lower pressure. On Earth we call this "weather fronts.
The scene in the movie where the alien is pulled through a tiny hole is utter bullshit.
And the "we have problems here!" argument is tired, old and fallacious.
1. It's not an either/or proposition. We can solve problems on Earth AND do things in space.
2. Many of our problems on Earth are rooted in human nature, and will most likely NEVER be solved, so we might as well advance where we can while we can.
Well, one nice thing is that the breeders could probably operate on the wastes of the less efficient thermal based nuke plants, so there's an option to have both kinds.
The only problem I have heard with breeders is that they tended to have leaks, but that's just an engineering issue. It's a *solvable* problem, as opposed to "how do we create more oil out of thin air."
If we were to shift over to nuclear, we'd run out of *it* in less than 50 years.
Absolute 100% malarkey. Using efficient reactors we could power the world for *thousands* of years using only known supplies. Plenty of time to develop, say, some sort of hyperefficient photovoltaics or whatever the alternative energy wonks dream about.
Can be built now. Done corrrectly, they produce very little waste, and what residue remains has a half life measured in decades. We could start decoupling our power grid from Mideast oil tomorrow, but there's too many people who got all their knowledge of nuclear power from The Simpsons.
And there's many new design concepts on drawing boards around the world. All it takes, as Col. Kurtz said, is the will to do it.
I dunno... If we're going to pick on Star Wars and Star Trek for their errors, we should not play favorites, and takes even the old masters to task when they fumbled.;-)
To me, the original story was a great short. The ending was perfect and there was a great timing to everything.
Really? Even Bradbury admits he fumbled it. The written language changes, but all that happens to an election is that a different person wins? Huh?
Someone ought to do a good Martian Chronicles. I think you could still pull it off with current knowledge if you just move the Martians underground, and use an effed up Earth as the impudence for the colonization.
Wasn't the original story rather unsound in its time travel mechanics?
It's the one where they go hunting the dinosaur, right? And one guy crushes a butterfly and changes history. They get back to the future and the written language is completely changed, but the result of an election merely flips, as if the written language could changed, and there'd even BE an election, much less with the same two candidates.
I even recall an interview with Bradbury where he admitted the ending was not very well thought out.
There's a much better short story (I forget who wrote it) where they send a spherical probe back in time, and a project scientists is talking to reporters. The probe bounces back and forth in history, and each time we go back to the press conference, the people slowly change from humans to weird alien creatures. At the end of the experiement, the speaker declares, "See? Nothing is chnaged!"
But the "just a guy" persona is just that- a persona. Moore is actually a very wealthy man who moves in fairly elitist circles and has a very hateful view of the "common man" which he really make no secret of. This is just a game to him. Underneath he's a businessman who has found a niche. I admire him for that at the same time I lothe him for muddying the waters. His tripe will probably do more to get Bush BACK INTO office then getting him out.
I'm sorry, but I'm just more interested in reality, and I don't need the likes of Moore or other propagandists (of ANY political stripe) to make me ask questions. And anyone who DOES need them, well, we're not dealing with useful intellects there anyway.
Where are the new Woodwards and Bernsteins? What this world needs is real investigative journalism with iron balls, not this parade of sideshow freaks calling themselves filmakers or journalists or whatever they fancy themselves this week.
As for Bush and Kerry, they both make me want to projectile vomit. I'm stunned that people in this country put so much sound and fury into supporting either one. If anyone really cared, we'd be marching en masse on both conventions in July demanding they put forth better candidates, or at least change the primary system so that it doesn't so invariably produce utter dickheads.
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Really!
Plato's work describes a rather agressive and widespread empire. Hindu legends of the Deva Nahusha also tell of a similar, widespread empire around the same time. Atlantis is not mentioned by that name anywhere outside of Plato's work, but strikingly similar entities are told of in other place under different names.
There's lots of other myths and legends in other cultures around the world that seem to point to some sort of largish civilization at the time Atlantis was supposed to have peaks. No UFOs, no advanced technology, no silliness... just *something* that is, for the most part, still undiscovered. It's not a big deal, really. So the dawn of civilization gets pushed back a bit. So what? It'd be interesting. Look at Caral in Peru. That discovery pushed back the birth of city life and organized farming in the "New World" a full 1000 years in one shot.
As for the features being spotted by an Atlantis enthusiast, well, use scientific method here: who else is looking for it? ;-)
I can't see actually paying for any of it. It's the same stuff over and over. None of it is particularly compelling. Even when you travelled down the pr0n foodchain to the fetish/bondage/whatnot sites, you find content by people who wouldn't know erotic if it, well, bit them in the ass.
And the amateur porn... wassup with that? Dubious looking people in poor lit situations rehashing the six or seven basic porno poses. Somewhere there's a Porno For Dummies book these people are reading.
And then there's the crossdresser sites. Honestly, do I share the same planet with these guys? Some of them aren't even trying! I mean, what the fuck is this?. He's not even trying!!! What's the point?? Aaaa! Aaaa!
2. Everyone gets scared as reporters slaver over another Deadly Threat To Children, Motherhood And Leper Washing Nuns.
3. Grant money!
Not to say research like this is not valuable. It is. I'm just damned effing sick and tired of the scare tactics. You know, kids, you were actually supposed to learn valuable life lessons from stories like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" fable and the "dihydrogen monoxide" satire.
Didn't Lex Luthor already try this?
I think I'll get an account and start up "Otisburg".
Oh, all right. I'll do it.
We'll need to work out a really long term payment plan, though.
The concept of self-limiting propagation of Britney Spears music is highly alluring. I now support this copy protection scheme wholeheartedly.
The Day After Tomorrow is a prime example. For the gullible and weak of mind, it's a documentary, but for most folks it's a special effects movie, so why do people want to see the effects in Drunk-O-Vision? If I want grainy, I can go play a Silent Hill game. If I want a jiggle-headache, I can watch old Home Movies episodes.
I've seen a couple of videocammed movies. Wow. A grainy, jiggly, low quality image with bad sound. Is there really a demand for this?
Even better, install an airtight parition so you can cut off the oxygen when they act up. They'll either start to behave in exchange for a precious breath of life, or anoixa will eventually shut them up anyway.
"I... I don't know exactly how to put this, sir, but are you aware of what a serious breach of security that would be? I mean, he'll see everything, he'll... he'll see the Big Board!"
Someone's been watching too many bad sci-fi moovies *cough*alienresurrection*cough*. No to mention too many doom and gloom political manifestoes.
An astronaut against the hole would plug the hole. Vacuum does not suck. Air expands into vacuum. Higher pressure expands into lower pressure. On Earth we call this "weather fronts.
The scene in the movie where the alien is pulled through a tiny hole is utter bullshit.
And the "we have problems here!" argument is tired, old and fallacious.
1. It's not an either/or proposition. We can solve problems on Earth AND do things in space.
2. Many of our problems on Earth are rooted in human nature, and will most likely NEVER be solved, so we might as well advance where we can while we can.
Enterprise go boom! :-)
80 patents doesn't sound very frustrated to me...
And the giant buildings may still come to pass. That would be "arcologies" to you SimCity fans.
However, I think you're turning Japanese, I think you're turning Japanese, I really think so.
Hey, think The Vapors will sue me for this?
Hindenburg, anyone?
No oxygen to burn?
Helium, not hydrogen?
In the Hindenburg it was the blimp material and not the hydrogen that caused the flames?
Ignorant Comment Of The Week, anyone?
I've made some dire predictions in my life, but I never went so low as to predict motor vehicles based on the Sony AIBO platform.
All I want is sexbots and a virtual replacement for my shitty life. Is this too much to ask?
The only problem I have heard with breeders is that they tended to have leaks, but that's just an engineering issue. It's a *solvable* problem, as opposed to "how do we create more oil out of thin air."
Absolute 100% malarkey. Using efficient reactors we could power the world for *thousands* of years using only known supplies. Plenty of time to develop, say, some sort of hyperefficient photovoltaics or whatever the alternative energy wonks dream about.
And there's many new design concepts on drawing boards around the world. All it takes, as Col. Kurtz said, is the will to do it.
I dunno... If we're going to pick on Star Wars and Star Trek for their errors, we should not play favorites, and takes even the old masters to task when they fumbled. ;-)
Really? Even Bradbury admits he fumbled it. The written language changes, but all that happens to an election is that a different person wins? Huh?
Someone ought to do a good Martian Chronicles. I think you could still pull it off with current knowledge if you just move the Martians underground, and use an effed up Earth as the impudence for the colonization.
It's the one where they go hunting the dinosaur, right? And one guy crushes a butterfly and changes history. They get back to the future and the written language is completely changed, but the result of an election merely flips, as if the written language could changed, and there'd even BE an election, much less with the same two candidates.
I even recall an interview with Bradbury where he admitted the ending was not very well thought out.
There's a much better short story (I forget who wrote it) where they send a spherical probe back in time, and a project scientists is talking to reporters. The probe bounces back and forth in history, and each time we go back to the press conference, the people slowly change from humans to weird alien creatures. At the end of the experiement, the speaker declares, "See? Nothing is chnaged!"
I'm sorry, but I'm just more interested in reality, and I don't need the likes of Moore or other propagandists (of ANY political stripe) to make me ask questions. And anyone who DOES need them, well, we're not dealing with useful intellects there anyway.
Where are the new Woodwards and Bernsteins? What this world needs is real investigative journalism with iron balls, not this parade of sideshow freaks calling themselves filmakers or journalists or whatever they fancy themselves this week.
As for Bush and Kerry, they both make me want to projectile vomit. I'm stunned that people in this country put so much sound and fury into supporting either one. If anyone really cared, we'd be marching en masse on both conventions in July demanding they put forth better candidates, or at least change the primary system so that it doesn't so invariably produce utter dickheads.