I think that some of this is very naive thinking. It seems you live in a microcosm where you have absolute faith that science will always prevail, the truth is apparent, etc, etc.
No, we just don't beleive NASA is covering up evidence of life on Mars. Period. End of story. No microcosms here. In fact, I'm the sort who usually chides my fellow tech-head for forgetting that scientists are human and can also fall prey to agendas and ideologies. In fact, they seem to fall prey to them about as often as the general population. A PhD is not an innoculation against foolishness.
I was a HUGE fan of the idea that the Face and other things were artifacts when all we had was the Viking data, but I always kept as a hypothesis, never a definite fact. The data was too unclear.
When the better images came back from the newer probes, I was like, "Oh well..." That's how science works. One "experiment" (the Viking images) suggested something unusual, so the experiment was repeated with greater care (better resolution), and showed the original conclusion was in error. End of story. Time to move on.
Do you ever read his site? I visit Hoagland's site regularly because it's entertaining, and when he was just looking for patterns in rocks, it was pretty harmless.
However, seeing artifacts in images and what he's doing these days are two different things. He's either off the deep end, or it's just a was to sell books and get paid for speaking appearances.
Hoagland has NASA timing launches based on astrology. He saw secret coded messages in the year display when the ball dropped on Times Square for the year 2000. He has end of the world scenarios involving (OK, all together now) the MASONS.
Fossil: I don't understand why people see a nefarious plot in the grinding of the "fossil". It isn't like they need to destroy the evidence. Hoagland or one of his followers aren't about to pop up to Mars and grab it. And, actually, grinding it down to look at the cross section is a good idea, and the "after" picutre shows no structure, or even anything to differentiate it from the rest of the rock.
Water: The probes were sent to find evidence that Mars had ABUNDANT water in the PAST, as in lakes and even seas. This has benn clearly stated from day one, so your complaint is deliberate obfuscation.
I don't think it would have any effect on the population at all. I'm not trying to be a troll here, but I think, in general, people these days are so far gone into theological and/or ideological and/or psychological mental smogs of their own devising, news of alien life would cause a minor ripple, but then they'd all be back to their raping and killing and stealing and other picture postcards.
It also seems that most people accept the possibility, so mere confirmation would be no big deal.
People for whom alien life confirmation is in direct conflict to the little fantasy worlds in their mind would simply stretch and warp them to integrate the new information. People don't ignore facts that opposed their POV; they distort them until they fit like a round peg into a square hole.
This is why I stopped reading most of the mainstream financial magazines- article after article where the author's bias was so blatant it made you wonder if it was meant to be satire. Now when it comes to investing style, that's fairly subjective, and articles like that are basically editorials advocating one style or another. But when the "factual" reporting becomes biased, it's useless. Unfortunately, pretty much all news media is just as useless.
My dodctor told me to stop that lest I go blind. And when I say doctor, I mean the leather-clad woman I pay money to for various services.
Movies fall into two catagories. Good and entertaining.
You forgot the categories of "boring", "insipid", "dreck", "what the Hell were they thinking", "I wish death upon all those who stole 2 hours on my life" and "Affleckted".
If you lucky you get a movie that is both.
Obligatory Hollywood Level Humor: And I may crap a gold turd. [laughtrack]
If you, you, or you did Jurassic Park ( for example) it would have been completely different than the way I would have done it. Everyone has thier own idea of how something should be done. Not everyone has the same taste.
Can't disagree here. My Jurassic Park would have had more flying monkeys, biker lesbians, fractal math and Reese's breakfast cereal. Just like the book... if I'm thinking of the right book. It's the one with the thing, right? You know, the big green thing with the little bits along the side that went all "woop woop" if you rubbed them.
And just think.
No! It hurts!
Some kid who goes and sees the remake of War Of The Worlds could be inspired to make movies when they get older that you WILL want to watch.
The difference between Heinlein's Starship Troopers and the movie 'adaptation' will probably be the same in this instance.
So... the Martians will park their ships in orbit really close together so one Earth missle takes out 50, send ground troops against our tanks and airplanes and be made to look like Nazis in a complete and retarded misunderstanding of the source's POV? Great.:-\
Or at least a cartoon adaptation -- oh wait what's that 10 minute thing on the cartoon network?
And it was actually better than Episodes 1 and 2 combined.
Yeah, the old "how about something new" rant
on
War of the Worlds Remake
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I have a fairly complete collection of the Asimov/Greenburg edited books where they picked the best stories from a particular year. The first one is for 1939, and they go all the way through, oh, some year or other. There's a lot of them.
Many are short stories but many are also the novellas which translate best to movies. So many of them would make really smashing films, and would keep the sci-fi portion of the movie industry humming for decades, and that's just one collection.
Ah, what's the use...
Someone really needs to do Zelazny's "Creatures Of Light And Darkness".
If we hadn't wasted billions of dollars on the Space Shuttle we might have the technology now to travel out to that asteroid, and park it in earth orbit.
At which point the liability insurance would eat up all the money and mothball the mission, assuming you could get it. I'm not sure even Lloyd's of London would touch that one.
You know, I often hear people holler "invasion of privacy" everytime the government suggests that they may monitor communications. Does anyone stop to think that while they are monitoring your phone sex calls, they're also monitoring Abdul "bomber-of-buildings" Akmed?
Geez, with a nickname like that, you hardly have to tap his phone, eh? Bwah ha ha haaaa! Heee! I crack me up! I think I'll be Harvey "Destroyer Of Worlds" Birdman. Woo hoo!
I need to know one thing. Will all of this lead to me having phone sex with hot FBI babes? If so, then I support this product and/or service.
Yeah. Hot federal agentette on federal agentette action. Want me summa dat stuff. kupo.
Lots people are idiots. In fact, 99% of humanity doesn't have the sense of a turnip.
many are scientists,many are a thousand times more clued up on this than you.
So you're one of those who think scientists are devoid of agendas and ideology? Dumbass.
Yet still you believe them all to be 'dogs'.
No, I said caring what ideologues think is like caring what dogs think. Try again after your reading and comprehension skills advance from the first grade.
Do you really think you are so intellectually superior to everyone around you?
No, I *know* that I'm intellectually superior to most people. Most people these days are ideologues who'd whore themselves for pennies, and have world views constructed entirely of myth, lies and fantasy.
It's so wonderful when people share and allow those less fortunate to benefit from their own hard work and experience. This must one of the thousand points of light of which the President's dad spoke.
This must be a direct result of Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ". This holy movie has inspired a new culture of charity that is reaching down even to the virus writers, who so selflessly test the security of the world's computers so that we may all sleep more soundly, or... something.
*sniff* It gets me right here.
No, here. A little to the left. A little more.
Now scratch.
Aahhh....
Re:Polluting other planets
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
Its a sign of incredible arrogance that you believ that i must be ill informed because i take a different attitude to yourself.
No, I think you are ill informed because you are ill informed, most likely due to an ideological haze. Your post demonstrated ignormance, and you subsequent response to mine did nothing to counter that judgement. Your wife matters naught. I don't care if you slept with every biologist in the Western world, you can still be befuddled by the mental filtration caused by ideothink. The saddest thing is people like you are niot even aware of the intellectual quagmire in whcih you are trapped.
I suppsoe you trust nuclear power enough to have a power station next door to you?
Typical ideological response. Start tossing in non sequiturs to befuddle the issue.
Why does Africa routinely refuse offers of GM grain, if its so obviously the answer to all their problems.
Politics. Ideology. Leaders that actually *want* poluation die-offs. So you're naive in addition to ignorant? Not suprising, really. Those two usually go hand in hand.
Overall, I find your post insulting and arrogant,
I don't give a damn what some ideologue thinks. It's like caring what a dog thinks.
you seem incapapble of accepting the fact that someone may be just as clued up on the science as yourself,
I can accept it fine. You, however, do not meet that standard.
and yet take an opposing view. how very american.
So, ignorant, naive AND a bigot! Wonderful!
Re:Polluting other planets
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
Guess what... the concept of ownership is completely human. In reality, we can't lay claim to anything we can't hold on to.
Slashdot Mirror
No, we just don't beleive NASA is covering up evidence of life on Mars. Period. End of story. No microcosms here. In fact, I'm the sort who usually chides my fellow tech-head for forgetting that scientists are human and can also fall prey to agendas and ideologies. In fact, they seem to fall prey to them about as often as the general population. A PhD is not an innoculation against foolishness.
When the better images came back from the newer probes, I was like, "Oh well..." That's how science works. One "experiment" (the Viking images) suggested something unusual, so the experiment was repeated with greater care (better resolution), and showed the original conclusion was in error. End of story. Time to move on.
Do you ever read his site? I visit Hoagland's site regularly because it's entertaining, and when he was just looking for patterns in rocks, it was pretty harmless.
However, seeing artifacts in images and what he's doing these days are two different things. He's either off the deep end, or it's just a was to sell books and get paid for speaking appearances.
Hoagland has NASA timing launches based on astrology. He saw secret coded messages in the year display when the ball dropped on Times Square for the year 2000. He has end of the world scenarios involving (OK, all together now) the MASONS.
Fossil: I don't understand why people see a nefarious plot in the grinding of the "fossil". It isn't like they need to destroy the evidence. Hoagland or one of his followers aren't about to pop up to Mars and grab it. And, actually, grinding it down to look at the cross section is a good idea, and the "after" picutre shows no structure, or even anything to differentiate it from the rest of the rock.
Water: The probes were sent to find evidence that Mars had ABUNDANT water in the PAST, as in lakes and even seas. This has benn clearly stated from day one, so your complaint is deliberate obfuscation.
It also seems that most people accept the possibility, so mere confirmation would be no big deal.
People for whom alien life confirmation is in direct conflict to the little fantasy worlds in their mind would simply stretch and warp them to integrate the new information. People don't ignore facts that opposed their POV; they distort them until they fit like a round peg into a square hole.
This is why I stopped reading most of the mainstream financial magazines- article after article where the author's bias was so blatant it made you wonder if it was meant to be satire. Now when it comes to investing style, that's fairly subjective, and articles like that are basically editorials advocating one style or another. But when the "factual" reporting becomes biased, it's useless. Unfortunately, pretty much all news media is just as useless.
My dodctor told me to stop that lest I go blind. And when I say doctor, I mean the leather-clad woman I pay money to for various services.
Movies fall into two catagories. Good and entertaining.
You forgot the categories of "boring", "insipid", "dreck", "what the Hell were they thinking", "I wish death upon all those who stole 2 hours on my life" and "Affleckted".
If you lucky you get a movie that is both.
Obligatory Hollywood Level Humor: And I may crap a gold turd. [laughtrack]
If you, you, or you did Jurassic Park ( for example) it would have been completely different than the way I would have done it. Everyone has thier own idea of how something should be done. Not everyone has the same taste.
Can't disagree here. My Jurassic Park would have had more flying monkeys, biker lesbians, fractal math and Reese's breakfast cereal. Just like the book... if I'm thinking of the right book. It's the one with the thing, right? You know, the big green thing with the little bits along the side that went all "woop woop" if you rubbed them.
And just think.
No! It hurts!
Some kid who goes and sees the remake of War Of The Worlds could be inspired to make movies when they get older that you WILL want to watch.
Or they may make Brown Bunny 2040.
So... the Martians will park their ships in orbit really close together so one Earth missle takes out 50, send ground troops against our tanks and airplanes and be made to look like Nazis in a complete and retarded misunderstanding of the source's POV? Great. :-\
And it was actually better than Episodes 1 and 2 combined.
Many are short stories but many are also the novellas which translate best to movies. So many of them would make really smashing films, and would keep the sci-fi portion of the movie industry humming for decades, and that's just one collection.
Ah, what's the use...
Someone really needs to do Zelazny's "Creatures Of Light And Darkness".
A failed Moon mission would not have the potential to take out a major population center.
At which point the liability insurance would eat up all the money and mothball the mission, assuming you could get it. I'm not sure even Lloyd's of London would touch that one.
Ssshhhh! We go public next week!
Y'all need to be less touchy.
It's your job to know, and a billion other ITheads out there survive without cell phone alerts. One of them will be taking your job.
A few matter.
Japan for its animation and video games.
England for the accents and the comedy shows.
Italy for the food.
Australia because it started out as a penal colony.
And, oh, pfffft... Tibet, or something.
Some of us just have the knack.
Oh, I nearly forgot: dumbass. :-)
Damn. Everyone has a better job than me. :-(
Geez, with a nickname like that, you hardly have to tap his phone, eh? Bwah ha ha haaaa! Heee! I crack me up! I think I'll be Harvey "Destroyer Of Worlds" Birdman. Woo hoo!
I need to know one thing. Will all of this lead to me having phone sex with hot FBI babes? If so, then I support this product and/or service.
Yeah. Hot federal agentette on federal agentette action. Want me summa dat stuff. kupo.
AOLTIMEWARNER: We are AOLTIMEWARNER. Resistance is futile.
FBI: Exterminate! Exterminate!
AOLTIMEWARNER: Your unique markets will be added to our own until all media is an even gray mass of mediocrity.
FBI: Exterminate! Exterminate!
AOLTIMEWARNER: And, um, we, uh, you know. Customer privacy and, um.
FBI: The only interest we have in privacy is its total extermination!
AOLTIMEWARNER: Yeeeah. Um, look, we're going to go over there for a while and-
FBI: Obey all FBI commands! Obey instantly! Obey without question! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey!
AOLTIMEWARNER: Uh, OK.
FCC: Breasts are evil!
To quote the great Kurt Vonnegut, "...and so on."
I'll be waiting over here, sipping my caramel mocha latte.
Lots people are idiots. In fact, 99% of humanity doesn't have the sense of a turnip.
many are scientists,many are a thousand times more clued up on this than you.
So you're one of those who think scientists are devoid of agendas and ideology? Dumbass.
Yet still you believe them all to be 'dogs'.
No, I said caring what ideologues think is like caring what dogs think. Try again after your reading and comprehension skills advance from the first grade.
Do you really think you are so intellectually superior to everyone around you?
No, I *know* that I'm intellectually superior to most people. Most people these days are ideologues who'd whore themselves for pennies, and have world views constructed entirely of myth, lies and fantasy.
Pffft! Silly rabbit! You we're supposed to set it to puree.
>Since then I decided never to care about virus again and I've never seen any.
Must be some quantum thing.
>Any similar experiences among /.ers ?
My hard drive once crashed, and in the random noise I found a sequel to King Lear.
This must be a direct result of Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ". This holy movie has inspired a new culture of charity that is reaching down even to the virus writers, who so selflessly test the security of the world's computers so that we may all sleep more soundly, or... something.
*sniff* It gets me right here.
No, here. A little to the left. A little more.
Now scratch.
Aahhh....
Obviously not. We are in total agreement.
No, I think you are ill informed because you are ill informed, most likely due to an ideological haze. Your post demonstrated ignormance, and you subsequent response to mine did nothing to counter that judgement. Your wife matters naught. I don't care if you slept with every biologist in the Western world, you can still be befuddled by the mental filtration caused by ideothink. The saddest thing is people like you are niot even aware of the intellectual quagmire in whcih you are trapped.
I suppsoe you trust nuclear power enough to have a power station next door to you?
Typical ideological response. Start tossing in non sequiturs to befuddle the issue.
Why does Africa routinely refuse offers of GM grain, if its so obviously the answer to all their problems.
Politics. Ideology. Leaders that actually *want* poluation die-offs. So you're naive in addition to ignorant? Not suprising, really. Those two usually go hand in hand.
Overall, I find your post insulting and arrogant,
I don't give a damn what some ideologue thinks. It's like caring what a dog thinks.
you seem incapapble of accepting the fact that someone may be just as clued up on the science as yourself,
I can accept it fine. You, however, do not meet that standard.
and yet take an opposing view. how very american.
So, ignorant, naive AND a bigot! Wonderful!
Who's gonna take it away from us, punk?
Holy crap, do you know something we don't? :-o
Does Space have a Terrible Secret?