Civilization has to be built on the backs of the unwilling, if you let the majority have a say they'd merely allow civilization to degenerate into Jerry Springer Deathmatches, pork-rinds, cheese-whiz, cheap beer, lap dances, and selfishness. Forget museums, culture, libraries, and yes knowledge of space that the relevant minority that holds civilization together enjoys. They do not have the resources to support these institutions by themselves, it can only be done through taxing those that do not give a damn about these things.
Yes. Thank you. Finally, someone with the intestinal fortitude to speak the truth. The fact is, though I happen to agree with the traditional Libertarian viewpoint on a lot of issues, there are some things that only a government can do and that need to be done in order to ensure the long term life and liberty of the Nation and it's people. The exploration and colonization of space is one of them. One need only to look at history, at the Empires built by Spain, Portugal, France and England during the first Age Of Exploration, see the wealth and power they brought back to their respective homelands, to get a glimpse of the benefits that await the first nation with the guts to commit to an all-out long term effort to colonize the moon and Mars. For starters: Solar Power sats to beam inexhaustible energy back to the earth, eliminating the need once and for all for wasteful and dangerous nuclear and coal power plants; mining Luna and later the asteroid belt for their rich mineral resources instead of Terra; moving heavy industry off of earth and into orbit where it won't befoul the atmosphere with it's pollution. And this isn't even mentioning the long term good that will come from moving much of the population off-planet and into L-5's, though at an est. 6 billion people only massive, world-wide birth control in conjunction with the colonization effort can have a prayer of saving us now.
I am conviced, and have been for some time, that while one day humanity will move out to the stars, it won't be the United States that leads the way. We've pretty much gone down the road to late-stage Roman Empire at this point, though it is by no means too late to change. No, it will likely be China, once they fully industrialize and really get their space program rolling (they've already got most of our technology, after all;-)), or perhaps a united Europe or even Japan. *Shrug.* Oh, well. We had our chance. The race goes to the swift and steadfast; history always forgets the complacent. _____________________________________
. ..for no apparent reason. Weird. Anyway, though I love the Who--especially the albums "The Who Sell Out" and "Quadrophenia," and I have very ecclectic (sp?) musical tastes that range from rock to electronica to classical to Rap and beyond, I'm afraid my heart will always belong to The Beatles. Especially the Sgt. Pepper album; every time I hear the opening bars of "A Day In The Life" I get chills, an effect only "Teenage Wasteland" can equal. Anyway, good luck to them on this new one. ..god knows the world can always use more good music! __________________________________________
Is this a new trend among movie makers?
on
Quickie Fu
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· Score: 1
A few weeks ago director Barry Sonnenfield was blaming the internet because of the negative reaction his film "Wild Wild West" was getting, so I guess I shouldn't really be surprised at Lucas' outburst. After all, if the net can be blamed for everything from school shootings to the decline of Western Civilization then Hollywood directors can line up to cane it when people think their film blows goats. Btw, I *liked* Phantom Menace--it had a few problems but those + Jar Jar didn't wreck the movie for me. And I don't find Jar-Jar racist at all--annoying, perhaps, with a wee too much bad Jerry Lewis in him, but tolerable. As for Wild Wild Waste, forget it. Ah, well-just give Jar-Jar better lines and put Leo DiCaprio in the Anakin role and Ep. II will make me happy camper. ______________________________
I play Quake a lot during my lunch ^_~ but yeah, I too am quite happy with the PII 450 I've got at home. There's nothing it won't run (except for friggin' Quake III test!! Grrrr), and there are certain aspects of the PIII I don't like anyway. I just hope that AMD stays around long enough to *produce* a 1+Ghz chip--if they buy the farm, well, Intel's got no reason to keep their prices low, and I'm on a budget (and since you work where I work, then you can get an idea of just how MUCH of a budget. ..). _________________________________________
Ah, but that's the *beauty* of it! Most of the hypefest came from the licensing agreements with Taco Hell, etc. I imagine that the ad camgaign would have been somewhat more restrained if Lucas had had to pay for it all out of his own pocket. _________________________
Saw TBWP about two months ago at a sneak preview in my city. Loved it; finally a horror film that actually tries to scare your ass instead of just going for the hackneyed gross-out. Still, when I first read that they're doing bogus astroturf fan sites to drum up support, my estimation of the film's creators was lowered somewhat. "Call me naive," I fumed, "but true quality shouldn't have to resort to such shite in order to gain attention." But on further reflection I can understand why they did it given their lack of marketing cash. Heh. ..after all, not everyone can afford the sort of glorious UltraHype'99(tm) campaign that, say, a LucasFilms can efford. ________________________________________________
. ..from several years back. I believe it first appeared in one of the tabs! The Weekly World News or The Star, I can't remember which one, but that's where *I* first saw it. It struck me then and still does as Grade A Phonus Bolonus, but you never know. . . --------------------------------------------------
I have problems with not just the Star Wars but also the Star Trek universes as well. Both are fascinating, inspiring works of (quasi) Science Fiction that have inspired me in various ways in my youth, but I have always been willing to recognize the inherent flaws in each. With Star Wars, many of it's problems stem from bad writing on Lucas' part as well as the franchise's kiddiefication, i.e., whoring it out to sell toys, action figures and fast food. Plus, aiming it at kids has had a noticable downward effect on the level of writing (the fart and poop jokes, etc.). In Star Trek's case many of *it's* problems come from, again, bad writing and also continuity problems--the movies don't agree with the T.V. shows which don't agree with each other with don't agree with the books. ..this is part of the reason why I so love Japanese anime (Macross Plus, Ghost In The Shell, Akira, Ranma 1/2, Shogo kakume Utena, et al) and the Babylon 5 universe--they understand the concept of the story arc and don't have that "everything must return to status quo ante" reset button that so much of American television suffers under. That said, I would very much like to know--what would you Slashdotters out there recommend in the way of Science Fiction aimed at the adult mentality? I loved "Snow Crash," H.G. Well's "War Of The Worlds" and the more recent companion piece "Global Dispatches;" and I plan to start on the (Red, Green and Blue) Mars series as soon as I finish off "Lord Of The Rings"--anything else anyone out there can recommend? _________________________________________
Slashdot Mirror
M$ Whiskey? Screw that! For me it's Old Fortran or nothin'!
Yes. Thank you. Finally, someone with the intestinal fortitude to speak the truth. The fact is, though I happen to agree with the traditional Libertarian viewpoint on a lot of issues, there are some things that only a government can do and that need to be done in order to ensure the long term life and liberty of the Nation and it's people. The exploration and colonization of space is one of them. One need only to look at history, at the Empires built by Spain, Portugal, France and England during the first Age Of Exploration, see the wealth and power they brought back to their respective homelands, to get a glimpse of the benefits that await the first nation with the guts to commit to an all-out long term effort to colonize the moon and Mars. For starters: Solar Power sats to beam inexhaustible energy back to the earth, eliminating the need once and for all for wasteful and dangerous nuclear and coal power plants; mining Luna and later the asteroid belt for their rich mineral resources instead of Terra; moving heavy industry off of earth and into orbit where it won't befoul the atmosphere with it's pollution. And this isn't even mentioning the long term good that will come from moving much of the population off-planet and into L-5's, though at an est. 6 billion people only massive, world-wide birth control in conjunction with the colonization effort can have a prayer of saving us now.
I am conviced, and have been for some time, that while one day humanity will move out to the stars, it won't be the United States that leads the way. We've pretty much gone down the road to late-stage Roman Empire at this point, though it is by no means too late to change. No, it will likely be China, once they fully industrialize and really get their space program rolling (they've already got most of our technology, after all ;-)), or perhaps a united Europe or even Japan. *Shrug.* Oh, well. We had our chance. The race goes to the swift and steadfast; history always forgets the complacent. _____________________________________
. . .for no apparent reason. Weird. Anyway, though I love the Who--especially the albums "The Who Sell Out" and "Quadrophenia," and I have very ecclectic (sp?) musical tastes that range from rock to electronica to classical to Rap and beyond, I'm afraid my heart will always belong to The Beatles. Especially the Sgt. Pepper album; every time I hear the opening bars of "A Day In The Life" I get chills, an effect only "Teenage Wasteland" can equal. Anyway, good luck to them on this new one. . .god knows the world can always use more good music! __________________________________________
A few weeks ago director Barry Sonnenfield was blaming the internet because of the negative reaction his film "Wild Wild West" was getting, so I guess I shouldn't really be surprised at Lucas' outburst. After all, if the net can be blamed for everything from school shootings to the decline of Western Civilization then Hollywood directors can line up to cane it when people think their film blows goats. Btw, I *liked* Phantom Menace--it had a few problems but those + Jar Jar didn't wreck the movie for me. And I don't find Jar-Jar racist at all--annoying, perhaps, with a wee too much bad Jerry Lewis in him, but tolerable. As for Wild Wild Waste, forget it. Ah, well-just give Jar-Jar better lines and put Leo DiCaprio in the Anakin role and Ep. II will make me happy camper. ______________________________
I play Quake a lot during my lunch ^_~ but yeah, I too am quite happy with the PII 450 I've got at home. There's nothing it won't run (except for friggin' Quake III test!! Grrrr), and there are certain aspects of the PIII I don't like anyway. I just hope that AMD stays around long enough to *produce* a 1+Ghz chip--if they buy the farm, well, Intel's got no reason to keep their prices low, and I'm on a budget (and since you work where I work, then you can get an idea of just how MUCH of a budget. . .). _________________________________________
Ah, but that's the *beauty* of it! Most of the hypefest came from the licensing agreements with Taco Hell, etc. I imagine that the ad camgaign would have been somewhat more restrained if Lucas had had to pay for it all out of his own pocket. _________________________
Saw TBWP about two months ago at a sneak preview in my city. Loved it; finally a horror film that actually tries to scare your ass instead of just going for the hackneyed gross-out. Still, when I first read that they're doing bogus astroturf fan sites to drum up support, my estimation of the film's creators was lowered somewhat. "Call me naive," I fumed, "but true quality shouldn't have to resort to such shite in order to gain attention." But on further reflection I can understand why they did it given their lack of marketing cash. Heh. . .after all, not everyone can afford the sort of glorious UltraHype'99(tm) campaign that, say, a LucasFilms can efford. ________________________________________________
. . .from several years back. I believe it first appeared in one of the tabs! The Weekly World News or The Star, I can't remember which one, but that's where *I* first saw it. It struck me then and still does as Grade A Phonus Bolonus, but you never know. . . --------------------------------------------------
I have problems with not just the Star Wars but also the Star Trek universes as well. Both are fascinating, inspiring works of (quasi) Science Fiction that have inspired me in various ways in my youth, but I have always been willing to recognize the inherent flaws in each. With Star Wars, many of it's problems stem from bad writing on Lucas' part as well as the franchise's kiddiefication, i.e., whoring it out to sell toys, action figures and fast food. Plus, aiming it at kids has had a noticable downward effect on the level of writing (the fart and poop jokes, etc.). In Star Trek's case many of *it's* problems come from, again, bad writing and also continuity problems--the movies don't agree with the T.V. shows which don't agree with each other with don't agree with the books. . .this is part of the reason why I so love Japanese anime (Macross Plus, Ghost In The Shell, Akira, Ranma 1/2, Shogo kakume Utena, et al) and the Babylon 5 universe--they understand the concept of the story arc and don't have that "everything must return to status quo ante" reset button that so much of American television suffers under. That said, I would very much like to know--what would you Slashdotters out there recommend in the way of Science Fiction aimed at the adult mentality? I loved "Snow Crash," H.G. Well's "War Of The Worlds" and the more recent companion piece "Global Dispatches;" and I plan to start on the (Red, Green and Blue) Mars series as soon as I finish off "Lord Of The Rings"--anything else anyone out there can recommend? _________________________________________