"Gourmet meals from out of the trash and sniffing crotches would probably also become popular conversation topics."
Not to mention kvetching about being neutered. "Yeah, you wanna try it boss? Better not let me catch you comin' out of the shower, ya know what I mean?"
I don't buy the assumption that big projects are somehow mutually exclusive; that launching a space probe somehow directly steals food from the mouth of an orphan.
It suggests, firstly, that the government is responsible for every facet of human existence. Perhaps this might be the case in a fairy-tale centrally planned economy where there's some giant spreadsheet with line items for every penny spent.
It also suggests that the great problems could be fought simply by ponying up a bit more cash. The reason poverty, strife, and AIDS are so tough to fight--particularly in a ethnically divisive, caste-ridden society like India--is that they are problems rooted in human nature; in ignorance, wishful thinking, prejudice, greed and so on. The logistical problems involved in, say, producing and distributing a billion condom, is nothing compared to the challenge of getting guys to use them. Or getting a mom to bring in her kid for a free vaccination when damn he sure cried like the dickens last time he got a shot.
Symbolic achievements like moon shots might concievably help by giving people something to feel proud about and a standard to live up to.
Maybe the reason that Borg members so much time standing around comatose was that the Collective spent 90% of its processing cycles dealing with a flood of subspace messages offering Viagra, Hot Barnyard Action, and Schlong Lengtheners.
Evolution isn't flawless, or biased toward intelligence. Big brains have worked well for us, so far, but it's not a given that it is the ultimate survival solution.
It could be that evolution DID "create" brainy mice at one point, but that the metabolic cost outweighed the advantages.
Or: The brains might have given an advantage, but the mice didn't live long enough for it to make a difference.
I'm amazed at the amount of Metropolis footage that turns up in commercials, videos, and TV shows.
No, I take the back. It's mostly three scenes that are used, over and over: The creation of the robot Maria, the workers' descent into their dreary city, and the workers' revolt.
There are a lot more great scenes, of course. There's a amazing, simple, evocative shot in which the hero runs around a corner.
"Eh? So what?"
Because it's a HUGE corner, a giant, windowless, monolithic heap. Seeing Federsohn cruise around it gives you a great sense of scale.
I can understand why some folks my object to the 80's pop, but I liked both the music and the reconstructions. Until Moroder did the work, the only version of Metropolis widely available was short, badly hacked up, and accompanied by an embarassing Moog Synthesizer track.
I would love to get the Moroder version on DVD. My videotape, dubbed from the laserdisk, disappeared years ago.
I certainly look forward to the new release, however.
The Pledge of Allegiance is not the "foundation and tradition of our country." Objecting to the addition of a couple of words added during the Cold War is not an attack on the Constitution.
It is a gross oversimplification, bordering on wishful thinking, to imagine that Christian beliefs were the unique founding principles of this country. The Founding Fathers were Enlightment-era intellectuals -- many of them deists and Freemasons -- who knew exactly what they were doing when they set up strict barriers between church and state.
Seriously, hang on to it. Auction it on eBay. Might be worth a house payment, someday.
Jarring and well done
on
Minority Report
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I enjoyed almost everything about the movie except the closing narration, which could have better been done through a sound-collage of media voices.
I thought the conception and excution of the film's near future was actually very well done. It is important not to change TOO many things, or you end up with a future that isn't "relatable."
Put another way: I think a mall which is largely recognizable, but has just a few odd tweaks, is a more effective way of delivering future shock than a totally unrecognizable one.
And, realistically, the near future WILL still have lots in common culturally with the current-day and even the past. I don't find the notion of The Gap logo not changing a stretch (however, I might expect it to be a place where geezers go to shop . . . comforting fashions for elderly Gen-Xers).
I'm a rocketry hobbyist. I fly up to H power models. Not very ambitious, but I'm part of the rocket nerd community.
Ky is a real guy. A competent fellow who, while sometimes a bit of a self-promoter, is very competent and not a nut-job dreamer. Ky and his wife are regulars at HP and experimental rocketry launches. They sell a line of heavy-duty parachutes and other recovery gear.
I have full confidence in Ky and his team.
As for those other guys:
The Oregon RocketGuy strikes me as an earnest, overconfident not-quite-a-nut. I think he's backed off from his "first flight will have me in it, tests cost too much!", which is a good thing for all involved. I hope he can pull it off.
The British X-prize hopeful, Bennet -- I forget his first name -- is a pretentious con-artist. The rockets he launches are nothing special. You can see dozens like it at a typical LDRS event. He claims that these are test flights, to test recovery gear etc., but they're really just large model rocket launches. Watching the videos of him at work is embarassing.
Example: A year or two back, one of the cable channels had a segment on one of his test launches. After setting up the rocket on the beach, he and a helper walked to their launch bunker (a hole in the sand), spooling out the launch leads as they went. It turned out that the leads were too short. They couldn't reach the foxhole. Duh?
When the time for launch came, we see Bennet instruct his helper on how to press the launch button on the second launch controller, and to be sure to do so at exactly the same time he pressed the button on his controller.
SECOND launch controller? Because the model had multiple motors, right? But model rocketeers with any experience know how to hook up multiple igniters in parallel, eliminating the nasty problem of buttons pushed out of synch.
Ah, good old Long Island Newsday. The final word in science reporting.
And The Washington Times. If they print something, it's GOT to be true. Never mind who wrote this editorial, or who he works for. Never mind that the Times is run by the Unification Church and is a mouthpiece for the right.
Gold's "Hot Deep Biosphere" theory is just a theory, and a highly dubious one.
This theory has become popular with folks on the right, because, well, they'll be damned if anyone is going to make them change the way they think about things.
Taking responsibility, facing facts, and planning ahead, well, damn, that's just plain bad for profits.
Slashdot Mirror
"How long before they try to put the human version of this gene in a chimp to test this out?"
Dude, that would be opening up a can of worms like you wouldn't believe.
Stefan
"Gourmet meals from out of the trash and sniffing crotches would probably also become popular conversation topics."
Not to mention kvetching about being neutered. "Yeah, you wanna try it boss? Better not let me catch you comin' out of the shower, ya know what I mean?"
I'm not a PC type, but it seems a real waste of attention space to post obvious, dumb, and unfair gags.
"Inviting major flames?" I'd mod you up, but I already posted on this topic.
I don't buy the assumption that big projects are somehow mutually exclusive; that launching a space probe somehow directly steals food from the mouth of an orphan.
It suggests, firstly, that the government is responsible for every facet of human existence. Perhaps this might be the case in a fairy-tale centrally planned economy where there's some giant spreadsheet with line items for every penny spent.
It also suggests that the great problems could be fought simply by ponying up a bit more cash. The reason poverty, strife, and AIDS are so tough to fight--particularly in a ethnically divisive, caste-ridden society like India--is that they are problems rooted in human nature; in ignorance, wishful thinking, prejudice, greed and so on. The logistical problems involved in, say, producing and distributing a billion condom, is nothing compared to the challenge of getting guys to use them. Or getting a mom to bring in her kid for a free vaccination when damn he sure cried like the dickens last time he got a shot.
Symbolic achievements like moon shots might concievably help by giving people something to feel proud about and a standard to live up to.
Or it could be a stunt to get some pol reelected.
Stefan "Neoliberal? Damn straight!" Jones
They had obviously been accused of pushing addictive substances before, and had rehearsed a come-back line.
Stefan
Also, the Thirteenth digit will [REDACTED BY HOMELAND SECURITY]
NO CONNECTION
The above was the response of the designers of Magic: The Gathering when I jokingly called them pushers.
They said it in unison; obviously a well-rehearsed line.
Stefan Jones
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Theater/6882/ Triffids.html
Maybe the reason that Borg members so much time standing around comatose was that the Collective spent 90% of its processing cycles dealing with a flood of subspace messages offering Viagra, Hot Barnyard Action, and Schlong Lengtheners.
Stefan
I agree with you on the potential impact. But I submitted it as a Science section story, and that's where they put it.
A dog smart enough to use a toilet would be a Good Thing.
Of course, it might then also be smart enough to be a real pain in the ass.
Evolution isn't flawless, or biased toward intelligence. Big brains have worked well for us, so far, but it's not a given that it is the ultimate survival solution.
It could be that evolution DID "create" brainy mice at one point, but that the metabolic cost outweighed the advantages.
Or: The brains might have given an advantage, but the mice didn't live long enough for it to make a difference.
[Redacted by Homeland Security Autofilter]
No, I take the back. It's mostly three scenes that are used, over and over: The creation of the robot Maria, the workers' descent into their dreary city, and the workers' revolt.
There are a lot more great scenes, of course. There's a amazing, simple, evocative shot in which the hero runs around a corner.
"Eh? So what?"
Because it's a HUGE corner, a giant, windowless, monolithic heap. Seeing Federsohn cruise around it gives you a great sense of scale.
I can understand why some folks my object to the 80's pop, but I liked both the music and the reconstructions. Until Moroder did the work, the only version of Metropolis widely available was short, badly hacked up, and accompanied by an embarassing Moog Synthesizer track.
I would love to get the Moroder version on DVD. My videotape, dubbed from the laserdisk, disappeared years ago.
I certainly look forward to the new release, however.
Adam Ant did "Cage of Freedom," as I recall. A great piece, especially the full version as heard in the film. It seems appropriate even today.
The piece I most identify with the worker's march and descent into the underworld was Cycle V's "Blood From a Stone."
The lyrics from which I could quote in its entirety here, but I don't want to get whacked by the Valenti Heat. #B^)
But a line or two couldn't hurt, right?
"Circles of the human chain/
Turning for wheels of gain/
A system with a power of its own/
To draw blood from a stone"
Stefan
It is a gross oversimplification, bordering on wishful thinking, to imagine that Christian beliefs were the unique founding principles of this country. The Founding Fathers were Enlightment-era intellectuals -- many of them deists and Freemasons -- who knew exactly what they were doing when they set up strict barriers between church and state.
http://www.moneyfactory.com/document.cfm/18/107
I imagine the legislations to add these were made in the same spirit as attempts to put the Ten Commandments in schools and courtrooms.
Seriously, hang on to it. Auction it on eBay. Might be worth a house payment, someday.
I thought the conception and excution of the film's near future was actually very well done. It is important not to change TOO many things, or you end up with a future that isn't "relatable."
Put another way: I think a mall which is largely recognizable, but has just a few odd tweaks, is a more effective way of delivering future shock than a totally unrecognizable one.
And, realistically, the near future WILL still have lots in common culturally with the current-day and even the past. I don't find the notion of The Gap logo not changing a stretch (however, I might expect it to be a place where geezers go to shop . . . comforting fashions for elderly Gen-Xers).
Stefan
I'm a rocketry hobbyist. I fly up to H power models. Not very ambitious, but I'm part of the rocket nerd community.
Ky is a real guy. A competent fellow who, while sometimes a bit of a self-promoter, is very competent and not a nut-job dreamer. Ky and his wife are regulars at HP and experimental rocketry launches. They sell a line of heavy-duty parachutes and other recovery gear.
I have full confidence in Ky and his team.
As for those other guys:
The Oregon RocketGuy strikes me as an earnest, overconfident not-quite-a-nut. I think he's backed off from his "first flight will have me in it, tests cost too much!", which is a good thing for all involved. I hope he can pull it off.
The British X-prize hopeful, Bennet -- I forget his first name -- is a pretentious con-artist. The rockets he launches are nothing special. You can see dozens like it at a typical LDRS event. He claims that these are test flights, to test recovery gear etc., but they're really just large model rocket launches. Watching the videos of him at work is embarassing.
Example: A year or two back, one of the cable channels had a segment on one of his test launches. After setting up the rocket on the beach, he and a helper walked to their launch bunker (a hole in the sand), spooling out the launch leads as they went. It turned out that the leads were too short. They couldn't reach the foxhole. Duh?
When the time for launch came, we see Bennet instruct his helper on how to press the launch button on the second launch controller, and to be sure to do so at exactly the same time he pressed the button on his controller.
SECOND launch controller? Because the model had multiple motors, right? But model rocketeers with any experience know how to hook up multiple igniters in parallel, eliminating the nasty problem of buttons pushed out of synch.
I don't know how often it is used, but the U.S. does have a four-stage solid-fuled rocket capable of launching small payloads to orbit.
Out of fairness and completeness, here's the Amazon.com listing for Gold's book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0387985468
And The Washington Times. If they print something, it's GOT to be true. Never mind who wrote this editorial, or who he works for. Never mind that the Times is run by the Unification Church and is a mouthpiece for the right.
Gold's "Hot Deep Biosphere" theory is just a theory, and a highly dubious one.
This theory has become popular with folks on the right, because, well, they'll be damned if anyone is going to make them change the way they think about things.
Taking responsibility, facing facts, and planning ahead, well, damn, that's just plain bad for profits.
. . . unless it's changed since this morning, doesn't the last frame invite viewers to find out what they can do?
The cartoon is motivating people to act.