He commited the acts of terrorism knowing that the end result would be his death. In the final act, he allows himself to be shot, wants to be shot, because it is the completion of his work. Although the final explosion is triggered shortly after his death, he dies for it. In that sense, I'd say suicide bomber.
The film apparently ends with the storming of the parilament buildings however. So presumably the ending has been mangled substantially, however.
I think we expect a movie coming from these two guys to be as original and amazing as the Matrix all over again, and that's not easy.
I thought the Matrix was dreadful (soundtrack was good though) and I didn't even rent II and III. The thought of these people getting their hands of V is not pleasant. The trailer actually looks good, but I'm still wary. I believe they've cut out the drugs episode (major event in the book), and re-written the ending just for a start.
It's not a case of them not living up to the Matrix. It's a case of them living down to it, I'm worried about.
Not to get to deep, but what hatred doesn't stem from fear? What psychological purpose is there in burning all that energy in hate on something that isn't a threat to you and yours? If you think of anything that you hate, I'd be surprised if you can honestly not trace the routes of it back to fear of some kind.
Right now the Internet is an incivillised place, a sort of new colony, but settled by people who have the benefit of hindsight from the modern societies they have come from. I say let us fight it out for ourselves, establish our own rules, enforecements and bounds of behaviour, not have them imposed from the founding states (physical world).
Worth reminding that in the book, there are strong hints that the US is now a nuclear wasteland. I don't know if that will be kept in. It would be interesting for American audiences to face a story in which they were not merely irrelevent, but history.
Couldn't play it on my Linux box, but I think it was a codec problem. Are there codecs available for this format, yet? I couldn't find any on the mplayer site.
I can't stand watching movies/reading books where the villain is the hero (and being someone who murders innocent people makes him a villain).
If I wanted to immerse myself in a world where the evil and malicious win time after time, I'd just walk out the front door.
If the film is true to the book, then I would recommend you try it. I doubt that it will be though, so I would just recommend you read the book. For context, this is from someone who finds comic books to be something pretty dull and unsophisticated. I like real literature, but V for Vendetta is very compelling. The main character is insane and does kill people, but I can reassure you that the book is not a simple computer game sort of wish-fulfilment for adolescents. It is complex, dark and cathartic. The biggest crime of the sort of movies / books you're talking about is to make someone's death meaningless and without consequence. This is the one thing that V for Vendetta doesn't do. There is a price paid for every death in the end.
Anyway, the trailer has almost finished downloading and I get to see what horrible mangling has been done to it. Maybe it will have been turned into the sort of thing that you hate, but the original was not.
I wouldn't put it past them to screw this up. From someone who doesn't bother with comic books, V for Vendetta was the shining exception for me due to the strong characters, deep ideas and frightening moral of the story.
If the film is true to the book, then you have a story in which the hero is an anarchist who terrorises the UK with a bombing campaign and is also, ultimately SPOILER!!!!! a suicide bomber. He is responsible for many deaths. The books also condemns "security" measures such as CCTV and glorifies drug use. I had quite an urge to try LSD after finishing the book.:)
The dialogue is also many layered and, based on the Matrix trilogy, I sincerely doubt that the Wachowski's have (a) the subtlety to pull it off and (b) the humility not to think they can improve it.
The sole thing I'm looking forward to in this movie is hearing the songs actually performed (that's if they're included). Everything else fills me with a feeling of dread.
I mean that in a riot there's usually some kind of media coverage as well...
What effect does a 95GHz microwave have on film and recording equipment? I'm just thinking that the media who will show your side are the ones who are amongst you; and the ones who are not in the crowd are the embedded ones who work for friends of the powers that be.
Maybe what we really need is a cannabis aresolization weapon, not to disperse rioters, but dope them into peaceful harmony?
Have you seen how many American children are prescribed drugs to calm them down (dope them)? Any kid that shows signs of not being easily controlled, gets stuffed on ritalin or something else.
Inside of a generation there wont be a need for cannabis grenades - the whole population will be self-medicating.
They are just working on a more effective, less lethal one.
I.e. One more acceptable for use against ordinary people.
If you are police or army and someone is posing harm to you, you strike back with sufficient force to injure / kill them. It is plainly self-defence and is plainly effective both in terms of capability and deterant.
These weapons are plainly not for use against people threatening injury against you. They are clearly for use against those who will not do what you tell them. They are for punishment and for putting people in their place. They cause great pain and distress. Where is the justification of doing this to people who are not threatening you with injury? (Remember - there are already more effective - and legally acceptable - weapons to deal with those who are.
You may make the case for using non-lethal weapons against an individual who is out of control, but these are designed for dealing with large crowds of people. If you do this, then surely you must be engaged in controlling your society through threats (as it's plainly not self-defence). And what else can that be, but trampling on people's rights?
These things will be used on protestors. If the police want it to be a riot, then they are able to turn it into a riot very simply.
Examples include: Restricting people's movement, e.g. setting up road-blocks and checkpoints and not letting people leave / letting people leave only after extensive searching, questioning and photographing as they did in Edinbrough last month; aggressive behaviour generally or specifically on individuals intended to provoke any reaction sufficient to trigger some resistance, which will then be the excuse for more aggression, culminating in full violence; arresting people for the purposes of trying to make people resist arrest / escape custody. An arrestable offence is not required, pointing a camera at a policeman as been sufficient, although no cause is really necessary. Initimidation with dogs, mounted police, a charge of helmeted, booted, riot-shieleded and baton wielding police is sufficient to rout a crowd which is then just a hair's breadth away from becoming a riot - especially when herded towards more police. You can see instances of this sort of behaviour during protests in the UK.
And police are able to carry out this sort of behaviour with relative impunity. Particularly in a country such as the US where there will be little media support for protestors to show the other side to what police spokesmen say about the violent "anarchists."
In short, if the powers that be want to use these weapons on a section of the population, then they will be able to so long as the comfortable people believe that the police are protecting them. An excuse is easily acquired.
What makes these weapons so horrible is that the case will be made that they do no harm, that they do not kill or injure and are therefore humane and acceptable. They are not. They're purpose is to put people back in their place and their is nothing acceptable about that.
If some people are threatening injury to the police or the army, then these forces are accustomed to striking back with dangerous force. Whilst these weapons are clearly for use against those who are not threatening injury. And if they're not threatening injury then there can be no justification for inducing pain (aka torture) to coerce them into behaving how you want.
That is beautiful. It makes me want to go back to studying physics again (been many years). Just looking at it hints at the underlying structures of modern physics, and makes you need to understand.
Hmmmm, Pymusique itself seems to have been drowned out by the news stories about itself. Due to the nature of the program, adding "download" to the google doesn't help much.;)
You can get hold of it from fuware.net but there's a handy mirror here.
Hope this helps. You can also find packages for Ubuntu in the Universe repositories. I expect rpm's exist for other distributions.
Hope this helps, It's not as beautiful as iTunes, that's for sure. But I can buy my music now and that's what I care about.
Seconded. NO interest in Natalie Portman, here. Can anyone recommend an IT news site that sticks to IT news (preferably with discussion board attached).
It's definitely a book to be read fast. I don't think I would have finished it if I let myself lose momentum and break for any length of time.
I didn't feel there was any padding though. Some of it may seem irrelevant. But, for example, I was so staggered by the musical number halfway through the first book, that whether or not it was relevant was a minor consideration. I've tried to describe Neal Stephenson's writing to others and the best I've been able to do is liken it to Tarantino with none of the immaturity and three times the I.Q.
It's fascinating that someone who wrote Snow Crash all those years ago, hasn't lost his edge. He's actually fixed his weaknesses and become much better with time. The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon were the low points in his writing for me. Right now, he's as good as it gets.
Disclaimer: I normally dislike Sci-Fi and fantasy (two/. staples) and read arty-farty stuff by Joyce Carol Oates.
If you want a narrative account that deals with Newton and the transition of alchemy to chemistry, you could do worse than Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's hardly authoratitive, but it is one of the most fantastic stories I've every read.
But where is/.'s coverage of the US announcement today that they're not going to relinquish control of the Internet DNS as promised. This is a major event, announced this morning and I can't find anything on it here at all, yet?
Slashdot Mirror
Suicide bomber!?!
You what?!?
He commited the acts of terrorism knowing that the end result would be his death. In the final act, he allows himself to be shot, wants to be shot, because it is the completion of his work. Although the final explosion is triggered shortly after his death, he dies for it. In that sense, I'd say suicide bomber.
The film apparently ends with the storming of the parilament buildings however. So presumably the ending has been mangled substantially, however.
I think we expect a movie coming from these two guys to be as original and amazing as the Matrix all over again, and that's not easy.
I thought the Matrix was dreadful (soundtrack was good though) and I didn't even rent II and III. The thought of these people getting their hands of V is not pleasant. The trailer actually looks good, but I'm still wary. I believe they've cut out the drugs episode (major event in the book), and re-written the ending just for a start.
It's not a case of them not living up to the Matrix. It's a case of them living down to it, I'm worried about.
Not to get to deep, but what hatred doesn't stem from fear? What psychological purpose is there in burning all that energy in hate on something that isn't a threat to you and yours? If you think of anything that you hate, I'd be surprised if you can honestly not trace the routes of it back to fear of some kind.
Right now the Internet is an incivillised place, a sort of new colony, but settled by people who have the benefit of hindsight from the modern societies they have come from. I say let us fight it out for ourselves, establish our own rules, enforecements and bounds of behaviour, not have them imposed from the founding states (physical world).
Worth reminding that in the book, there are strong hints that the US is now a nuclear wasteland. I don't know if that will be kept in. It would be interesting for American audiences to face a story in which they were not merely irrelevent, but history.
Couldn't play it on my Linux box, but I think it was a codec problem. Are there codecs available for this format, yet? I couldn't find any on the mplayer site.
I guess I won't be watching it then.
I can't stand watching movies/reading books where the villain is the hero (and being someone who murders innocent people makes him a villain).
If I wanted to immerse myself in a world where the evil and malicious win time after time, I'd just walk out the front door.
If the film is true to the book, then I would recommend you try it. I doubt that it will be though, so I would just recommend you read the book. For context, this is from someone who finds comic books to be something pretty dull and unsophisticated. I like real literature, but V for Vendetta is very compelling. The main character is insane and does kill people, but I can reassure you that the book is not a simple computer game sort of wish-fulfilment for adolescents. It is complex, dark and cathartic. The biggest crime of the sort of movies / books you're talking about is to make someone's death meaningless and without consequence. This is the one thing that V for Vendetta doesn't do. There is a price paid for every death in the end.
Anyway, the trailer has almost finished downloading and I get to see what horrible mangling has been done to it. Maybe it will have been turned into the sort of thing that you hate, but the original was not.
I wouldn't put it past them to screw this up. From someone who doesn't bother with comic books, V for Vendetta was the shining exception for me due to the strong characters, deep ideas and frightening moral of the story.
If the film is true to the book, then you have a story in which the hero is an anarchist who terrorises the UK with a bombing campaign and is also, ultimately SPOILER!!!!! a suicide bomber. He is responsible for many deaths. The books also condemns "security" measures such as CCTV and glorifies drug use. I had quite an urge to try LSD after finishing the book.
The dialogue is also many layered and, based on the Matrix trilogy, I sincerely doubt that the Wachowski's have (a) the subtlety to pull it off and (b) the humility not to think they can improve it.
The sole thing I'm looking forward to in this movie is hearing the songs actually performed (that's if they're included). Everything else fills me with a feeling of dread.
Then everyone goes door to door, canvassing a block or so, fanning out simultaneously to cover a whole town.
Mon Dieu! That is a truly brilliant idea. If you ever in your life follow up just one idea you have, let it be that one.
I'm going to think about that idea a great deal and see how I could go about organizing such an event and what I would use it for.
This is great!
I mean that in a riot there's usually some kind of media coverage as well...
What effect does a 95GHz microwave have on film and recording equipment? I'm just thinking that the media who will show your side are the ones who are amongst you; and the ones who are not in the crowd are the embedded ones who work for friends of the powers that be.
Maybe what we really need is a cannabis aresolization weapon, not to disperse rioters, but dope them into peaceful harmony?
Have you seen how many American children are prescribed drugs to calm them down (dope them)? Any kid that shows signs of not being easily controlled, gets stuffed on ritalin or something else.
Inside of a generation there wont be a need for cannabis grenades - the whole population will be self-medicating.
-[Unpeaceful H4rm0ny]
They are just working on a more effective, less lethal one.
I.e. One more acceptable for use against ordinary people.
If you are police or army and someone is posing harm to you, you strike back with sufficient force to injure / kill them. It is plainly self-defence and is plainly effective both in terms of capability and deterant.
These weapons are plainly not for use against people threatening injury against you. They are clearly for use against those who will not do what you tell them. They are for punishment and for putting people in their place. They cause great pain and distress. Where is the justification of doing this to people who are not threatening you with injury? (Remember - there are already more effective - and legally acceptable - weapons to deal with those who are.
You may make the case for using non-lethal weapons against an individual who is out of control, but these are designed for dealing with large crowds of people. If you do this, then surely you must be engaged in controlling your society through threats (as it's plainly not self-defence). And what else can that be, but trampling on people's rights?
These things will be used on protestors. If the police want it to be a riot, then they are able to turn it into a riot very simply.
Examples include: Restricting people's movement, e.g. setting up road-blocks and checkpoints and not letting people leave / letting people leave only after extensive searching, questioning and photographing as they did in Edinbrough last month; aggressive behaviour generally or specifically on individuals intended to provoke any reaction sufficient to trigger some resistance, which will then be the excuse for more aggression, culminating in full violence; arresting people for the purposes of trying to make people resist arrest / escape custody. An arrestable offence is not required, pointing a camera at a policeman as been sufficient, although no cause is really necessary. Initimidation with dogs, mounted police, a charge of helmeted, booted, riot-shieleded and baton wielding police is sufficient to rout a crowd which is then just a hair's breadth away from becoming a riot - especially when herded towards more police. You can see instances of this sort of behaviour during protests in the UK.
And police are able to carry out this sort of behaviour with relative impunity. Particularly in a country such as the US where there will be little media support for protestors to show the other side to what police spokesmen say about the violent "anarchists."
In short, if the powers that be want to use these weapons on a section of the population, then they will be able to so long as the comfortable people believe that the police are protecting them. An excuse is easily acquired.
What makes these weapons so horrible is that the case will be made that they do no harm, that they do not kill or injure and are therefore humane and acceptable. They are not. They're purpose is to put people back in their place and their is nothing acceptable about that.
If some people are threatening injury to the police or the army, then these forces are accustomed to striking back with dangerous force. Whilst these weapons are clearly for use against those who are not threatening injury. And if they're not threatening injury then there can be no justification for inducing pain (aka torture) to coerce them into behaving how you want.
That is beautiful. It makes me want to go back to studying physics again (been many years). Just looking at it hints at the underlying structures of modern physics, and makes you need to understand.
Thanks. I'll be trying that.
-H.
I don't care if the majority break, I only use 1 script, and that is the one to get rid of the disgusting color scheme for it.slashdot.org.
SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmmmm, Pymusique itself seems to have been drowned out by the news stories about itself. Due to the nature of the program, adding "download" to the google doesn't help much.
You can get hold of it from fuware.net but there's a handy mirror here.
Hope this helps. You can also find packages for Ubuntu in the Universe repositories. I expect rpm's exist for other distributions.
Hope this helps, It's not as beautiful as iTunes, that's for sure. But I can buy my music now and that's what I care about.
Have a google for Pymusique. I'm using it successfully on my Linux box to purchase music from iTunes. I can play the files easily on my system too.
I'm not going to let a company refuse to sell me something because they don't like my choice of computer.
Seconded. NO interest in Natalie Portman, here. Can anyone recommend an IT news site that sticks to IT news (preferably with discussion board attached).
I googled for it as you suggested. And now I'm going to have nightmares for a month.
The link is here. It also contains a link to an article on the Fire Ants that attacked Australia.
It's definitely a book to be read fast. I don't think I would have finished it if I let myself lose momentum and break for any length of time.
I didn't feel there was any padding though. Some of it may seem irrelevant. But, for example, I was so staggered by the musical number halfway through the first book, that whether or not it was relevant was a minor consideration. I've tried to describe Neal Stephenson's writing to others and the best I've been able to do is liken it to Tarantino with none of the immaturity and three times the I.Q.
It's fascinating that someone who wrote Snow Crash all those years ago, hasn't lost his edge. He's actually fixed his weaknesses and become much better with time. The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon were the low points in his writing for me. Right now, he's as good as it gets.
Disclaimer: I normally dislike Sci-Fi and fantasy (two
If you want a narrative account that deals with Newton and the transition of alchemy to chemistry, you could do worse than Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's hardly authoratitive, but it is one of the most fantastic stories I've every read.
no negative consequence
Yep. I'm sure the next morning at work would have been just great for her. How would you feel?
Great - you've just fired the one employee you know will always and forever more, triple check everything she ever does.
But where is