tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post8765684510180773043..comments2024-03-28T22:45:34.599-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: A Potpourri of Science, technology and Whiz-Bang StuffDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74639971837608344382008-07-20T12:24:00.000-07:002008-07-20T12:24:00.000-07:00quick comments:Does anybody ever have insect bites...quick comments:<BR/><BR/>Does anybody ever have insect bites that come in perfectly symmetrical pairs, on the same exact spot on both legs... then a different spot on both, the next time? I’ve done a cursory google search and found a few people report it, but not a single theory.<BR/><BR/>Z, Frank Gehry is a brilliant “exterior decorator” of buildings. But is buildings break every wisdom contained in Stewart Brand’s great book: HOW BUILDINGS LEARN. I also hate Mies and Bauhaus and those fools who gave “modernism” a bad name. Modernism should be about practicality -- with a touch of vividness and flair ADDED on top of the practicality. Because good design should start out elegant and beautiful, not forced. If you want the truth about any Gehry building, ask the tenants.<BR/><BR/>Movies? I have long preached “Go to films with your dials properly tuned, and you can enjoy half of them just fine.” I went to see JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH , with my kids & their friends, expecting a dumb but fun 3D kid flick that sort of betrays Verne, but WTF?<BR/><BR/>Man! It was a kid flick, so low “depth” expectations were a good idea. But dang was it good! The 3D was truly awesome. And Jules Verne was, like, totally happy with this one, wherever he happens to be. Absolute way-fun and do NOT wait for the DVD.<BR/><BR/>OTOH, SCANNER DARKLY stank NOT because of the drug aspect, but because it was murky, stupid and the exact opposite of entertaining or thought provoking.<BR/><BR/>Eek! Ralph Bakshi is the artist GOH at the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal. Urgh....<BR/><BR/>Z if you want real energy wisdom, dowload any of a dozen recent youTubes showing my ex Caltech classmate Steven Koonin lecturing about the big picture... from the POV of the “good guy oil companies” BP & Arco. Yes, “peak oil” is a myth in one way... there’s plenty of fossil fuel, though we’ll all be Saudi servants.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88262973533240633992008-07-20T11:14:00.000-07:002008-07-20T11:14:00.000-07:00As well as William Burroughs, Hunter Thompson, Joh...<I>As well as William Burroughs, Hunter Thompson, John Lennon, Bob Marley, and hundreds of others whose work you may not like, but can't deny their artistic importance.</I><BR/><BR/>To my chagrin I don't know the first two names you mentioned. I have heard some John Lennon and Bob Marley stuff I liked. The pieces I liked were those that weren't actually about drugs. I disliked [i]Scanners[/i] because it was about stoners, not because it was written by one.<BR/><BR/><I>Do you really truly not care how much your children suffer or how early they die? Do you really truly rejoice if your brother or your sister dies screaming and convulsing in a gutter from an overdose?</I><BR/>My Aunt died of an overdose (prescription drugs, I think). I was sad because that left her young sons without a mother, but the act itself was her free will in action, and I won't regret that she had free will. I also won't regret the consequences of free will.<BR/><BR/><I>Before long, whole swaths of society become "non-persons," and we wind up with this.</I><BR/>I don't pity the natural consequences of doing drugs. I do pity addicts whose civil rights are violated. There's a difference.<BR/><BR/><I>But I don't delude myself that the fact that I happened to get lucky and win the genetic lottery so that I have absolutely no interest in alcohol or any kind of drug makes me somehow more moral or worthy of being considered a human being, just as alcoholism doesn't someone else immoral or unworthy of being treated as a human being.</I><BR/>I'm not sure about myself in this regard. I may have won the genetic lottery, I may have not. Even if a man is predisposed to alcoholism, he won't become one if he never tries sip one. With four generations of Mormons behind me, I have no idea if my heretage would leave me vulnerable.<BR/><BR/>Irrelevant.<BR/><BR/>Everybody knows that addiction is a risk. They kind of cover that along with the ABCs these days. Even a person who is very vulnerable to addiction can save themselves from that fate by choosing well. (The few who can't, like crack babies and some painkiller patients, are by far an exception to the rule.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, what I'm saying is that I can appreciate people who do drugs as people, but I'm not going to feel sorry for them if they hurt themselves doing something they knew was stupid. It's like how I can not care if the guys on Jackass hurt themselves.<BR/><BR/>Example: I respect Barack Obama and I'll vote for him. If his earlier experiments with cocaine had given him a heart attack or reduced him to giving Senator Craig BJs for drug money, I wouldn't have cared.sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37520773870316194642008-07-20T07:17:00.000-07:002008-07-20T07:17:00.000-07:00Amid the depressing signs of civilization's declin...Amid the depressing signs of <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102954.html" REL="nofollow">civilization's decline</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.nbc4.com/news/16919904/detail.html" REL="nofollow">rise</A> of <A HREF="http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/157609-news-wheelchair-bound-woman-dies-after.html" REL="nofollow">barbarism</A>, both <A HREF="http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/man_arrested_for_unlawful_photography/11576/" REL="nofollow">at home</A> and <A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/20/ireland.internationalcrime?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews" REL="nofollow">abroad</A>, more good news:<BR/><BR/>Breathtakingly beautiful modern building made from a Weaire-Phelan foam cell structure: one of the many postmodern architectural masterpieces like those created by <BR/><A HREF="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=santiago%20calatrava%20architecture&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi" REL="nofollow">Santiago Calatrava</A> and <A HREF="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Frank+gehry+architecture&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title" REL="nofollow">Frank Gehry</A> that have broken through the ugly drabness of the <A HREF="http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/seagram/index.htm" REL="nofollow">Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Bauhaus box stereotype that suffocated architecture</A> from WW II well into the 80s. Now, for the first time, <A HREF="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article2049329.ece" REL="nofollow">futuristic new buildings</A> are <A HREF="http://www.skyscraperlife.com/skyscraper-news-proposed-projects/4486-futuristic-architecture.html" REL="nofollow">finally starting to look</A> like they were built in the 21st century.<BR/><A HREF="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/34283/title/A_building_of_bubbles" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>Webcrawling program scouts the net in quest of reports of isolated illness and assembles 'em to give advance warning of an epidemic in time to stop it cold.<BR/><A HREF="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/07/18/disease-map-web.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>A new technique for growing single-crystal nanorods and controlling their shape using biomolecules could enable the development of smaller, more powerful heat pumps and devices that harvest electricity from heat. <BR/><A HREF="http://www.sciencenewsdaily.org/story-135525281.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>A novel super-resolution X-ray microscope developed by a team of researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) and EPFL in Switzerland combines the high penetration power of x-rays with high spatial resolution, making it possible for the first time to shed light on the detailed interior composition of semiconductor devices and cellular structures.<BR/><A HREF="http://www.sciencenewsdaily.org/story-135523216.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>New type of cement would remove CO2 from the air, potentially removing up to 5 billions tons of CO2 per year from the earth's atmosphere.<BR/><A HREF="http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/07/carbon-sequestering-in-cities-calera.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>New machine "prints" building, reducing costs by 80% and speeding up construction by a factor of 5.<BR/><A HREF="http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/06/built-for-speed-printing-buildings.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>Best general-interest article I've seen about Peak Oil. Debunks the "ZOMG we're all DOOMED civilization's going to end and we'll all turn into CANNIBALS!!!" crap <A HREF="http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/news/stories/2008/04/03/turner_0404.html" REL="nofollow">spouted by Ted Turner</A>, the crackpot website The Oil Drum, and to some extent by James Kunstler. However, this article does <B>not</B> minimize the problems and challenges posed by Peak Oil. As the author points out, all these whiz-bang technologies I've been posting sound promising, but any new technology typically requires from 20 to 30 years to make it from the lab into commercial production. That means that <I><B>even if we were deploying all this today (which we aren't -- yet), we'd still have at least 20 years of rough patch to go through before all these new technologies kick in and start solving our Peak Oil problems.</B></I><BR/><A HREF="http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/doomster/" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/>To that extent, <A HREF="http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2008/7/17/142724/157" REL="nofollow">Al Gore's recent call for 100% carbon-free electricity production in the U.S. by 2020</A> seems wildly unrealistic. Even if we starting building the roughly 800 nuclear reactors we'd need <B>tomorrow</B>, given the <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701324_pf.html" REL="nofollow">cost overruns and deadline blowouts typical in building nuclear reactors</A>, they certainly wouldn't come onstream by 2020.<BR/><BR/>The moral? Both bizarrely overoptimistic scenarios like Gore's 2020 deadline and <A HREF="http://dieoff.org/page224.htm" REL="nofollow">ridiculously overpessimistic doomsaying (like the Olduvai Cliff hysteria)</A> don't do any good in solving the Peak Oil problems. <BR/><BR/>We need sober sensible realistic plans, not chicken-little doomsday hysteria that encourages everyone to give up because we're all gonna die, or absurdly rosy scenarios like Gore's 2020 fantasy that can't possibly be accomplished within the next 12 years even if we dropped everythng else and started up a giant Manhattan program for alternative energy. <BR/><BR/>Peak Oil and global warming are tangible physical problems that can be solved, and the evidence for this is clear -- <A HREF="http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/transit.html" REL="nofollow">the human race has lived through more drastic episodes of climate change over the recent geologic past than those expected from global warming</A>. Moreover, we did it without current technology, and we did it without being able to predict or plan for the climate changes. <BR/><BR/>Nevertheless, Peak Oil and global warming won't be solved by fantasy or hysteria, but by clear-eyed imaginative pragmatic hands-on planning and sensible reorganization of our society and our technology. That's going to take time and it will cause economic dislocation and some financial pain for some people, but there's no scientific or technological reason why we can't do it. The <A HREF="http://firedoglake.com/2008/07/18/counting-down-on-americas-self-destruct-sequence/" REL="nofollow">primary problems (as with the lunacy that's erupted over the last 7 years)</A> are <A HREF="http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/idiots-fiddle-w.html" REL="nofollow">social</A>, not scientific or technological.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-11208278956620132522008-07-19T22:33:00.000-07:002008-07-19T22:33:00.000-07:00@Anonymous...I don't get the dislike of subtitles ...@Anonymous...<BR/>I don't get the dislike of subtitles so many people (at least Americans) seem to have. I read quite slowly, but subtitles very seldom pose any sort of problem 'keeping up'. More importantly, they are far far superior to a bad dub. This is especially true of anime, where the quality of voice acting is routinely superb in Japanese, but rarely even passable in English. After all, in rapid sequences (action especially), how things are said is often more important than actual words. In slower sequences, subtitles are not at all hard to follow.<BR/><BR/>Anyways, just spouting off.<BR/><BR/>BTW: Wall-E is Pixar, and Pixar is owned by Disney... However Pixar is quite independent from Disney creative content wise (I hope it stays that way). If you aren't familiar, every Pixar film so far is an excellent 'family' film... in the sense that adults can certainly watch and enjoy it along with kids. Wall-E had my SO crying in several places.<BR/><BR/>PS: I first heard new Dr Who being described as 'family' fare in this sense. I tend to agree, and particularly like the definition. 'family' != 'for kids'.. or stuff which doesn't offend the religious right, which seems to becoming a common usage unfortunately.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18514326728495925072008-07-19T20:05:00.000-07:002008-07-19T20:05:00.000-07:00Hey Zorgon, thumbs up for that last comment / tira...Hey Zorgon, thumbs up for that last comment / tirade! Some of the wisest words I've seen in months.<BR/><BR/>"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; <BR/>And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; <BR/>And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; <BR/>And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up." <BR/>-Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)<BR/><BR/>"First they put away the dealers, <BR/>keep our kids safe and off the street. <BR/>Then they put away the prostitutes, <BR/>keep married men cloistered at home. <BR/>Then they shooed away the bums, <BR/>then they beat and bashed the queers, <BR/>turned away asylum-seekers, <BR/>fed us suspicions and fears. <BR/>We didn't raise our voice, <BR/>we didn't make a fuss. <BR/>It's funny there was no one left to notice <BR/>when they came for us." <BR/>-NOFX "Re-gaining Unconsciousness" on the album War on Errorismmatthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-310787938064002682008-07-19T15:16:00.000-07:002008-07-19T15:16:00.000-07:00if somebody is searching for *good* sf to watch, I...if somebody is searching for *good* sf to watch, I want to reccomend a very good anime, <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes" REL="nofollow">Planetes</A>. Easily one of the most realistic depiction of space travel around. <BR/>It's a series, not a movie, so be patient with the slow character-building start, by the end there're plenty of payoff....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79172376546090543302008-07-19T11:53:00.000-07:002008-07-19T11:53:00.000-07:00Zorgon: not even Tylenol or aspirin?Zorgon: not even Tylenol or aspirin?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16030830795371065342008-07-18T23:51:00.000-07:002008-07-18T23:51:00.000-07:00Sociotard remarks:I DON'T CARE ABOUT STONERS. Exce...Sociotard remarks:<BR/><B>I DON'T CARE ABOUT STONERS. Except for the ways in which their escapades endanger and threaten the innocent, I couldn't care less how much they suffer or how early they die.</B><BR/><BR/>In these inhumane times, as barbarism rises around us and torture becomes commonplace, I urge you to remember that dehumanizing other people is exactly <I><B>the opposite</B></I> of what we need to do right now.<BR/><BR/>When we dismiss "dopers" or "terrists" or "faggots" or "libruls" or "reactionaries" as subhuman creatures about whom we have no concern, we diminish ourselves.<BR/><BR/>As soon as we point at another suffering fallible human being and proclaim <B>"except for the ways in which their escapades endanger and threaten the innocent, I couldn't care less how much they suffer or how early they die,"</B> we destroy our own humanity and start to create a living hell on earth...the hell of the gulags, the hell of the Guantanamo torture chambers, the hell of <A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/italy.g8" REL="nofollow">the Genoa police beating innocent protestors to death while laughing out loud.</A><BR/><BR/>In the last 7 years, too many unthinkable atrocities have become commonplace. Arrest without trial, torture, a national enemies list, warrantless surveillance, doctors consulting with interrogators on how to improve torture -- all in the name of the almighty state. As the twilight of common decency submerges us in the long shadows of fascsms, all I can say to you is that these suffering people you dismiss as "dopers" are potentially your brothers, your sisters, your father, your mother, your children, your best friend since kindergarten. Do you <I>really truly</I> not care how much your children suffer or how early they die? Do you <I>really truly</I> rejoice if your brother or your sister dies screaming and convulsing in a gutter from an overdose? <BR/><BR/>Once we dehumanize one group and discount their brutalization as unimportant, we narrow the circle of people we consider human. Soon, the circle narrows even tighter. First, we dismiss "dopers" as inhuman and unworthy of our compassion -- next, we disregard the suffering of alcoholics; then we dehumanize people addicted to prescription drugs, and then gambling addicts. Before long, whole swaths of society become "non-persons," and we wind up with <A HREF="http://www.americanlynching.com/pic6.htm" REL="nofollow">this.</A><BR/><BR/>In the words of Oliver Cromwell, <I><B>"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it not possible you be mistaken?"</B></I><BR/><BR/><B>NOTA BENE:</B> I'm the only person I know who has <B>never</B> used <B>any</B> kind of drug, including alcohol (hate the taste), cigarettes (hate the smell), or prescription mood agents like prozac or tranquilizers or even sleeping pills (the very idea of taking that crap gives me the willies). <BR/><BR/>But I don't delude myself that the fact that I happened to get lucky and win the genetic lottery so that I have absolutely no interest in alcohol or any kind of drug makes me somehow more moral or worthy of being considered a human being, just as alcoholism doesn't someone else immoral or unworthy of being treated as a human being. Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases, not moral failings, and all the available evidence shows that <A HREF="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs" REL="nofollow">the most effective way to deal with the drug crisis in this country is to treat drug addiction as a disease, not a moral failure or an indication that the addict is a subhuman mutant.</A>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3994034758371520152008-07-18T23:47:00.000-07:002008-07-18T23:47:00.000-07:00"I too am a bit mystified by the link problems. Of..."I too am a bit mystified by the link problems. Of course, I stubbornly refuse to use any sort of WYSIWIG editor for HTML (emacs vs vi flamewar anyone;)"<BR/><BR/>NoteTab Pro. Not WYSIWYG; edit the actual code directly. And it actually has a real, working user interface too. ;)<BR/><BR/>Re: the various movie suggestions -- most of these are overlooked for a reason, namely the absence of English dialogue. At least two that were mentioned, The Host and Pan's Labyrinth, are definitely subtitled, and I'm guessing the anime probably also is. (Worse would be no English dialogue OR subtitles.) Western adults are also prone not to take anything animated seriously (which is sometimes a mistake -- Titan A.E. was good as an action/adventure flick, though not for realistic science of course -- but that's currently how things are).<BR/><BR/>As for Wall-E, isn't that a kids' movie from Disney?<BR/><BR/>P.S. searches for that shape-of-the-universe article always seem to run into paywalls. Where the heck can I just go <I>read</I> the damn thing, without opening my wallet or submitting my email to be spammed first? It's not like it has a significantly-greater-than-zero marginal cost of reproduction or anything. My reading it won't cost anyone anything, in other words, particularly as I certainly will never pay just to read the one article, ever ever ever, so my reading it for free won't be anyone's "lost sale" either.<BR/><BR/>Sheesh!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45194905005242090272008-07-18T20:18:00.000-07:002008-07-18T20:18:00.000-07:00Re: David's question about movies that highlight c...Re: David's question about movies that highlight civic involvement by young folks<BR/><BR/>I recommend "Hoot" about a fight to preserve habitat for the burrowing owl. Fairly Disney-esque with the obigatory happy ending, it's still good fun after all. Music by Jimmy Buffett, BTW (who also ex-produced the film). Most reviews are pretty ho-hum and say that the book by Carl Hiaasen is far superior, but I enjoyed the movie for what it's worth.<BR/><BR/>For older films, how about "Sounder" or "How to Kill a Mockingbird?" Even "Mr Smith Goes to Washington?"matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74774008995569052362008-07-18T13:27:00.000-07:002008-07-18T13:27:00.000-07:00Sociotard: you realize that your dismissal of drug...Sociotard: you realize that your dismissal of drug users pretty much discounts not just A Scanner Darkly, but Philip Dick's entire body of work.<BR/><BR/>As well as William Burroughs, Hunter Thompson, John Lennon, Bob Marley, and hundreds of others whose work you may not like, but can't deny their artistic importance.Nyctotherionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02094904210772895432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24546369883425124512008-07-18T12:30:00.000-07:002008-07-18T12:30:00.000-07:00Can anyone recommend a good movie for kids that te...Can anyone recommend a good movie for kids that teaches involvement in local (community)civic affairs?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69596621128785734512008-07-18T04:19:00.000-07:002008-07-18T04:19:00.000-07:00Oh, one last thing. Role playing games (tabletop ...Oh, one last thing. Role playing games (tabletop at least) are really all about the setting. A good RPG is one where the setting makes creating a fun compelling story is easy. I don't think this would be missed by an author like Dr Brin ;)<BR/><BR/>Of course, RPGs are overwhelmingly dominated by fantasy and sci-fi, which says something about the generas.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14550512786207552982008-07-18T04:13:00.000-07:002008-07-18T04:13:00.000-07:00This is completely off whatever topic... so just i...This is completely off whatever topic... so just ignore if you wish.<BR/><BR/>@Doug s.<BR/>No, I meant Warhammer FRP, not 40K. The deep backstory is sci-fi. <BR/><BR/>Advanced (non-humanoid even) aliens use a random planet to construct hyperspace gates (located at the poles). They colonize the planet to some extent, very few aliens live there, but they create a few servant races (uplift of sorts I suppose). These races are the classic fantasy elves, dwarves, and humans... but an interesting twist is that humans benefit from being the latest created and most well suited to the planet, thus most able to thrive independently.)<BR/><BR/>Something bad happens (war with other aliens?) and the hyperspace gates are destroyed, at least in a functional sense. Lots of the fantasy ex-machina (demons, gods (which are explicitly just very powerful demons), corruption of endemic species (say hello to orcs ect) comes from uncontrolled interdimensional portals fixed on the plant's poles.<BR/><BR/>Time passes, all (or at least nearly all) the aliens die out or manage to leave. The servant races go native, with the humans rapidly multiplying while the others slowly die off.<BR/><BR/>One of many fun tidbits is halflings... The otherwise weak little buggers are explained by a last-ditch (possibly incomplete) effort to create a new servant race which is resistant to the weird corruptive stuff emanating (or at least left over) from the collapsed gates.<BR/><BR/>Another tidbit I liked is that demons and gods are just Lovecraftian aliens from other dimensions. The stuff of hyperspace is just called Chaos, and as such not every entity is evil per se. There is a god of 'law' for example, who's goal (at least that of followers) is to reduce the universe to a continuum of perfect order (aka, nothing in it).<BR/>--<BR/><BR/>Anyways, sci-fi or fantasy is just a setting, not a story. As a setting, sci-fi offers a lot of benefits, but can easily lead to very lazy (bad) storytelling just riding along atop trite narrative devices offered by the setting. <BR/><BR/>Personally, I don't like high fantasy. It's most often worse than the laziest sci-fi, since the cheap devices don't even need to make sense (it's magic). Though the challenges and stakes possible in a fantasy setting can make for compelling narrative. There are so many post-apocalyptic settings for the same basic reasons.<BR/><BR/>Which brings us back around to fantasy with a sci-fi backstory. Basically, just Clark's third law most often combined with very-post-apocalypse. Collapsed civilization with pervasive self-replicating and organizing nanotechnology is a pretty powerful setting which seems to be getting somewhat popular just now. There are a lot of things an author can do when most any object or organism can be manipulated by mostly inscrutable intelligences. <BR/><BR/>BTW: I still think the Stargate is one of the best TV series plot devices ever created ;)Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73246549514969091982008-07-18T00:28:00.000-07:002008-07-18T00:28:00.000-07:00PAPRIKA (Japanese animation, 2006) It was okay. ...<B>PAPRIKA (Japanese animation, 2006)</B> It was okay. The music and most of the imagery was good. Too much pointless cartoon nudity.<BR/><BR/><B>A SCANNER DARKLY (American, 2006)</B> No. This was crap. Again with the silly pointless nudity. Moreover, I DON'T CARE ABOUT STONERS. Except for the ways in which their escapades endanger and threaten the innocent, I couldn't care less how much they suffer or how early they die. Honestly, don't some of you wish Bush hadn't woken up from one of his binges? It's their own frickin fault. It's not like the problems associated with drug use are well hidden.<BR/><BR/>Sorry for the long rant, but if I can't care a little bit for the protagonists, I can't enjoy the movie. (and then they tried to make it look like it was all the corporations fault. Stupid and irritating.)sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82681341472106676892008-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:002008-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00The Planetary Society have certainly not given up ...The Planetary Society have certainly not given up on solar sailing.<BR/><BR/>A progress report on Cosmos 2 is <A HREF="http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/solar_sailing/" REL="nofollow">here</A>.<BR/><BR/>As is a request for funding.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81955630340535547062008-07-17T20:50:00.000-07:002008-07-17T20:50:00.000-07:00I second "A Scanner Darkly". Zorgon, you shouldn't...I second "A Scanner Darkly". Zorgon, you shouldn't have gotten up so soon: They DO run the names at the end.David McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16603857353437134459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83105575137984361472008-07-17T20:18:00.000-07:002008-07-17T20:18:00.000-07:00I keep hoping that The Planetary Society will try ...I keep hoping that The Planetary Society will try again to launch their solar sail. The failure of the launch vehicle on the first try was depressing.DEDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07266406676643270732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53000644593837570722008-07-17T16:50:00.000-07:002008-07-17T16:50:00.000-07:00I think he meant Warhammer 40,000... It's a horrib...I think he meant Warhammer 40,000... It's a horribly dystopian setting, though; lots of factions fighting each other, every single one evil (but some are more evil than others).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17270056216525489512008-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:002008-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:00There is an archive of 'Spiders' here:http://web.a...There is an archive of 'Spiders' here:<BR/><A HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/20070221233757rn_1/e-sheep.com/spiders/" REL="nofollow" TITLE="How did we function before Google?">http://web.archive.org/web/20070221233757rn_1/e-sheep.com/spiders/</A><BR/><BR/>(The first three parts: I don't think part IV was ever published)<BR/><BR/>Obtained via an <A HREF="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/29/british-to-supply-ro.html" REL="nofollow" TITLE="(In case Stefan failed to pass it on ;-)">interesting not-quite article</A>Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30990003265116079932008-07-17T14:37:00.000-07:002008-07-17T14:37:00.000-07:00Patrick Farley's old website is still no good.I re...Patrick Farley's old website is still no good.<BR/><BR/>I refer folks to "Spiders"...<BR/><BR/>Anybody know where it is accessible these days?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82338585349458990542008-07-17T12:48:00.000-07:002008-07-17T12:48:00.000-07:00I second "Paprika" and "A Scanner Darkly." Can't ...I second "Paprika" and "A Scanner Darkly." <BR/><BR/>Can't say I cared much for "The Host" - I think the Korean-ness of it rubbed me the wrong way.<BR/><BR/>And how does a game called "Fantasy Roleplay" have a sci-fi backstory?Cliffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04198405937534052637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22239718465017542082008-07-17T11:53:00.000-07:002008-07-17T11:53:00.000-07:00Children of Men (2006) doesn't meet the 'generally...Children of Men (2006) doesn't meet the 'generally underrated' criteria, but for good reason IMO. (BTW: Wall-e is pretty well rated too, again because it is very good.)<BR/><BR/>I haven't watched much anime for years... The strong form of Sturgeon's law applies, and I am no longer surrounded by friends who obsessively watch everything and filter out the rare good stuff for me. <BR/>"Scrapped Princess" seems like it may be quite good, it has a cool world concept at least (yes, it is sci-fi, not fantasy).<BR/><BR/>BTW: For a random note, anyone else remember Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay? That actually had a pretty good sci-fi backstory with a lot of potential.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65214567132727938502008-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:002008-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00@Zorg...Dem presidents are good for the stock mark...@Zorg...<BR/>Dem presidents are good for the stock market, but not necessarily as good for the broker or rich 'investor'. Dems often want them to actually pay taxes after all.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18211299987211174002008-07-17T08:25:00.000-07:002008-07-17T08:25:00.000-07:00I'd recommend the following movies if you haven't ...I'd recommend the following movies if you haven't seen them.<BR/><BR/>Pan's Labyrinth (2006)<BR/>Its ending can be interpreted in several ways.<BR/><BR/>Primer (2004)<BR/>It is rare to find a movie that throws me for a loop. This one still did so on the second watch through.<BR/><BR/>Stardust (2007)<BR/>A pleasant little story. Nothing special but worth watching.Boothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10681950101054813872noreply@blogger.com