Re: Plot Holes: War of the worlds - SPOILERS
SPoilers - . . . . . Now that I have seen the movie I looked at this thread. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . While there was speculation that the machines were buried hundreds or even millions of years ago it is uninformed speculation in the movie. For a number of reasons I doubt this. After the movie a group of us was thinking that the machines were likely built by nanomachines and that could have been as recently as a few hours. The book version had the Martians fired from large cannon on Mars. The Pal movie version I believe had rockets from Mars. In that movie version the shapes of the machines was just a much larger form of the eye apparatus at the end of the metal tentacle that searches the house. There were several homages in the film. I always thought that the Pal alien war machines were powered by anti-gravity and were not tripods but someone else in the group said the lights under the craft gave the impression of three legs. Who knew --- That a large EMP would knock out all electrical equipment except for video cameras? That lightning type discharges could be used as transporter devices? That creatures far in advance of us that can launch a massive worldwide invasion utterly defeating our military and are evidently using human and mammalian blood for unknown evil purposes and can even start establishing an alien ecosystem in a matter of days would give no thought to Earth microorganisms? That the best actor in the movie would be about 9? I dislike Tom Cruise but his character was not likeable particularly in the beginning of the movie so that was OK. On 7/2/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Spoilers...you get the idea... -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 24-26 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Batman [was:] Fare thee well my beautiful Vulcan, was RE: Star Trek signs off tonight....
On 7/2/05, Martin Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 7/2/05, Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Notice how we get a different Batman for every decade, and the current one is said to be the best yet. Christian Bale? Who says? I for one do. Me and all. Not only is he a very good bat, he is the best Bruce Wayne by a mile. In our group there was some support for the idea he was the best Batman but not the best Bruce Wayne. I was not altogether fond of this movie - it suffers from the Wagnerian elitism Brin has written about that exists in some genre films. Still worth the $3 I paid. Best comic book movie - Spiderman 2. -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 24-26 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Spielberg's Next Movie
On 7/2/05, Robert G. Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/movies/01spie.html?oref=login snip In the statement, Mr. Spielberg called the Munich attack - which was carried out by Black September, an arm of the P.L.O.'s Fatah organization - and the Israeli response a defining moment in the modern history of the Middle East. Mr. Spielberg's interest in the question of a civilized nation's proper response to terrorism deepened, aides said, after the 9/11 attacks, as Americans were grappling for the first time with similar issues - for instance, in each new lethal strike on a suspected terrorist leader by a C.I.A. Predator drone aircraft. In Mr. Kushner's script, people who have read it say, the Israeli assassins find themselves struggling to understand how their targets were chosen, whether they belonged on the hit list and, eventually, what, if anything, their killing would accomplish. What comes through here is the human dimension, said Mr. Ross, formerly the Middle East envoy for Mr. Clinton, who has advised the filmmakers on the screenplay and helped Mr. Spielberg reach out to officials in the region. You're contending with an enormously difficult set of challenges when you have to respond to a horrific act of terror. Not to respond sends a signal that actions are rewarded and the perpetrators can get away with it. But you have to take into account that your response may not achieve what you wish to achieve, and that it may have consequences for people in the mission. I would be interested in seeing this. Tonight at dinner I was talking to two people who both said they could not watch *Schindler's List*. One said it was too much a documentary of a horror she didn't want to see. The other said much the same thing in a more personal way - his grandparents met when his grandfather escaped a Franco concentration camp. the remaining inmates were transported away the next day and never seen again. Strange how much topics that begin with *War of the Worlds* and *Batman Begins* can veer, we ended by talking about how to stop a street project by harassing the government with temporary injunctions and how much you could do it without a lawyer. -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 24-26 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Glyph and Glyphability. Need Python reference.
William Taylor wrote: For Wazoon Two-step, the story set in Washington DC the year the Thennanin come to Earth, (two years before Streaker gets back) the Tytlal will be putting on a comedy review at the Uplift Center. (Can't use a historic theater as the Thennanin wouldn't fit in the seats.) Let me suggest a character for you: a Thennanin ambassador who tells jokes and practices humorous things. But he does it not by instinct or a natural drive: he does it professionally, by hiring a staff of humorists to train him to react in precise ways to events that would otherwise not cause any reaction. His staff would carefully write jokes [with Galactic races as comedy sidekicks] that he would loose whenever the situation comes, but he would absolutely miss anything that is not expected. He would also overact the humourless Thennanin stereotype, but he would it do it clumsily, without a precise timing. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Plot Holes: War of the worlds - SPOILERS
William T Goodall wrote: On 1 Jul 2005, at 12:01 pm, Max Battcher wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 6/30/2005 9:31:19 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 3jane.net) writes: Ok, I could buy that, but why didn't they just stay the first time instead of burying ships and leaving? That, I could not tell you. :) Julia Because... I believe it is in the book. Its been awhile since I've read it, but I think the same concerns existed about the book. It's been a while since I read it too (although more recently than its 1898 publication!) and as I recall the Martians arrive for the first time, all at once, in huge artillery shell type things and proceed to invade straight away. And then all die from catching a sniffle. Yep, I have such a poor memory. It's funny, but I did a failed project involving War of the Worlds, so you would think it would be one of the stickier works in my mind. -- --Max Battcher-- http://www.worldmaker.net/ Support Open/Free Mythoi: Read the manifesto @ mythoi.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
E-mail to Mrs. Graner
We get a lot of e-mail to Gold Star Families for Peace. There's a lot of support, a fair bit of hate mail and the occasional reasonable disagreement. Here's something I wrote in response to the latter. Mrs. Graner, I generally don't respond to people who send to Gold Star Families for Peace messages that insist that we are dishonoring our troops, aiding our enemies or otherwise are unpatriotic. However, you seem to be one of the most calm and reasonable folks to send us such a note, so here's my response. Like you, I pray that God is guiding our president and blessing our country, especially for us to open our eyes to the truth that frees us from our habits of seeking wealth and power, freedom from self-deception. The stakes are never higher than in the decision to make war. The president is responsible to ensure that his leadership is based on accurate, complete information. If he didn't know that his justifications for the war were falsehoods, he was still responsible to know. We deserve to give ourselves better leaders. Even though this war removed a terrible dictator and may have given the Iraqi people greater hope, we deserve to give ourselves better leaders. I am not God, so all I have are opinions, but I believe that it would a great blessing for our nation to acknowledge that we allowed ourselves to be led to war on false evidence and to act accordingly as stewards of freedom. It would a blessing to acknowledge that we are doing far more harm than good in Iraq, and that freedom, although it can be defended with arms, is is never a gift of bullets and bombs. It would be a blessing for our nation to agree that peace is not simply the absence of conflict, for then we might better resist the temptation to solve conflict by force. I believe that we can redeem the loss of my nephew Wes and the many others who gave their lives for their friends in Iraq by adopting their spirit of self- sacrifice -- in the cause of peace, not an unjust war. I also wish to respond to the poem for which you send a link in your last e- mail. I have received this poem a number of times lately: It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, Who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. The United States of America, from our very beginning, has deeply opposed the idea that freedom is given by any person, king, soldier, lawyer or writer. The words of our Declaration of Independence say this as clearly as anyone ever has: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Freedom, the Declaration says, is a gift of God, Mrs. Graner. Soldiers, reporters, poets, lawyers and activists at their best, are stewards of freedom, not its creator. I respect the spirit of self-sacrifice of our soldiers, their willingness to take orders, but I will not worship them. I will not confuse the power of the sword to defend freedom with the power of God who created it. Those who give their lives for their friends, with their minds, hearts and hands, give the greatest love of all. Soldiers walk among us every day, Mrs. Graner, in visible armor of steel or Kevlar, in invisible armor of ancient words or new prophecy. These are arms that can destroy or build up, but armor and weapons do not make a soldier of war or peace; it is the spirit of self-sacrifice and love that is the beacon in earthly darkness. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voicemail: 408-904-7198 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Glyph and Glyphability. Need Python reference.
In a message dated 7/3/2005 7:14:53 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Let me suggest a character for you: a Thennanin ambassador who tells jokes and practices humorous things. But he does it not by instinct or a natural drive: he does it professionally, by hiring a staff of humorists to train him to react in precise ways to events that would otherwise not cause any reaction. His staff would carefully write jokes [with Galactic races as comedy sidekicks] that he would loose whenever the situation comes, but he would absolutely miss anything that is not expected. He would also overact the humourless Thennanin stereotype, but he would it do it clumsily, without a precise timing. Alberto Monteiro Not HE but SHE. A Margaret Dumont to a bunch of Tytlal marxists. From what I know of future events, this would best be chronologically placed after Streaker gets to Earth, but before Gillian, I think, leaves to search for Tom. After the Krondesfire is placed in LaPaz. In Wazoon Two-step, it's the Synthian Ambassador who regularly buys jokes from the Tytlal, not always understanding what it all means. The Gubru, or at least _some_ Gubru, are going to understand humor before the Thenannin do. In the Tytlal play, Glyph and Glyphability, a sort of 'Me Tarzan, You Jane' ostentatious satire of Earclan's situation, holographic glyphs will be superimposed over the heads of the tytlal for those in the audience who have their heads stuck up their assumed reality. I still could use that Python reference. Vilyehm ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
O'Connor Retirement
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned anything about Sandra Day O'Connor's susprise announcement that she's retiring from the US Supreme Court. This is gonna get really ugly... - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
It is not violence that creates freedom It is belief It is not words that creates freedom It is belief It is not governing that creates freedom It is belief It is not a person that creates freedom It is that person's belief It is not the warrior who creates freedom It is the fighters belief It is not the polititian who creates freedom It is the statesman's belief It is not the storyteller who creates freedom It is the teller's belief For those who truely believe in freedom Will walk the way of freedom And will equally share it With comrades and opponents For the walk of freedom Is not found at the point of a gun But in the spark of imagination in a mind And in the willingness to act to make it real And in the walk The walk of ones belief xponent I Believe Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: O'Connor Retirement
At 01:31 PM Sunday 7/3/2005, Horn, John wrote: I'm surprised that no one has mentioned anything about Sandra Day O'Connor's susprise announcement that she's retiring from the US Supreme Court. We were all waiting for you to be the first . . . This is gonna get really ugly... How so? -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: O'Connor Retirement
In a message dated 7/3/2005 12:29:36 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: This is gonna get really ugly... How so? All applicants must appear in the nude for a simple giggle it up and down vote. Vilyehm ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
Is this original to you? I like it very much. While trying to Google similar words and beliefs I found a WIKI on Pashtunwali, the beliefs of some Sunni Muslims. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtunwali On 7/3/05, Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It is not violence that creates freedom It is belief It is not words that creates freedom It is belief It is not governing that creates freedom It is belief It is not a person that creates freedom It is that person's belief It is not the warrior who creates freedom It is the fighters belief It is not the polititian who creates freedom It is the statesman's belief It is not the storyteller who creates freedom It is the teller's belief For those who truely believe in freedom Will walk the way of freedom And will equally share it With comrades and opponents For the walk of freedom Is not found at the point of a gun But in the spark of imagination in a mind And in the willingness to act to make it real And in the walk The walk of ones belief xponent I Believe Maru rob -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 24-26 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
Gary Denton wrote: Is this original to you? I like it very much. Thank you! Yes, it is mine. I wrote it after reading Nick's post. I have a talent for writing things of dubious value, that only approximate what I am thinking and feeling. It isn't really very good, but it works well as a first approximation. Pass it around if you like (everyone). It would be interesting to see if it ever comes back around to one of us.G While trying to Google similar words and beliefs I found a WIKI on Pashtunwali, the beliefs of some Sunni Muslims. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtunwali Pretty good evidence of the commonality of thought between people of goodwill. xponent Average On Average Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 14:11:03 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote ... It is belief Goosebumps. You gave me goosebumps. May I share this with my friends? Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voicemail: 408-904-7198 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
Nick Arnett wrote: On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 14:11:03 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote ... It is belief Goosebumps. You gave me goosebumps. May I share this with my friends? Most certainly, no need to even ask! xponent Share Freedom Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 18:54:43 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote Nick Arnett wrote: On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 14:11:03 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote ... It is belief Goosebumps. You gave me goosebumps. May I share this with my friends? Most certainly, no need to even ask! I sent it on to GSFP... and to Mrs. Graner. Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: E-mail to Mrs. Graner
Nick Arnett wrote: On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 18:54:43 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote Nick Arnett wrote: On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 14:11:03 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote ... It is belief Goosebumps. You gave me goosebumps. May I share this with my friends? Most certainly, no need to even ask! I sent it on to GSFP... and to Mrs. Graner. Cool! IMO, it is the idea of freedom, and our belief that we deserve to live free, and our willingness to pursue that concept to actuality, that is the thing that makes us free. Anyone who finds fault with the way I express this idea is welcome to make a criticism. It can only help to evolve the idea. xponent Diminishing The Scary Monsters One Meme At A Time Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Baxter's Manifold: books
I just recently read Stephen Baxter's first two Manifold books (Manifold: Time and Manifold:Space). I'm wondering if anyone here read them and what they thought of them. For me, overall I was rather disappointed - enough so that I probably won't bother with Manifold: Origin. Fortunately, I can do that without missing how it ends, because these books seem to be alternate universe stories where some of the characters stay the same, but (very) different unrelated things happen. The book cover descriptions don't make that clear at all. I found the science and many of the ideas pretty compelling at times, particularly in the first book (Manifold: Time), making it hard to put down at points. But the first ending fell flat for me, and by the middle of the second book I was starting to get annoyed (and its ending also fell flat, IMHO). A few other comments: Potential spoilers warning! Potential spoilers warning! Potential spoilers warning! Potential spoilers warning! - The first book starts in 2010, but inexplicably features technology and governmental changes (ie: smart cars/highways, the sea floor stuff, uplifted squid, California with its borders (the inter-state ones!) closed to non-whites) that seem quite out of place for such a near future setting. (They book is copyright 2000, but even if he wrote it in, say 1996, a lot of this stuff seems more 2050-ish (at best) than 2010-ish.) Why set a hard-SF book in such a near future if you're going to posit things that belong much further out. - The whole uplifted squid descending for a single parent colonizing the asteroid and then the Jupiter ones with billions of population bugged the heck out of me in too many ways to bother going into. Feh. - The endless NASA-bashing started to bug me - I wonder if the NASA guy he thanks in Manifold:Time knew he was going to do that (and later go grief for it from his coworkers) or if he was disgruntled himself and that's where Baxter got it from. Not that I think NASA is perfect, but Baxter makes it seem like hugely ambitious, but near flawless space missions can be slapped together in months from spare parts. Baxter's books were written pre-Columbia but even so the world's space mission failure rate is high enough to put a lie to that. - The biggest thing that bothered me, though, was Baxter's totally apathetic and just plain pathetic depiction of humanity's reaction to the events in space: Alien artifact on a near-earth asteroid? Yawn. Aliens colonizing/exploiting the asteroid belt? Ho-hum. Aliens on earth performing mysterious genetic experiments? Who cares.WTF? In the first book some of this apathy is (weakly) explained by the (improbable) Carter-catastrophe hysteria and the inexplicably precise 200 year apocalypse forecast. In the second book, though, there's not even that - it's just that no one except the few main characters cares. - Bryon ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Baxter's Manifold: books
In a message dated 7/3/2005 8:09:21 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Alien artifact on a near-earth asteroid? Yawn. Part of the plot to The Reluctant Tytlal Expert, which I hope our good Dr. Brin finally gets to reading as he wends his way to Seattle in July. Spoilers... 6 day old milk left out in the sun The tytlal leak to a synthian though third parties that there might be a Progenitor artifact in the asteroid belt off of Calafia. All part of a jest to win Earth the contract for the planet. When found, the inscription on the artifact will eventually translate as: Be sure to always drink your Ovaltine. Hopefully not a yawn here. Now at 16K word length and still growing. William Taylor - Good words on page I do forbear Not pulled out from my derriere. Blest be the man who says, 'Writes well.' And cursed be he that makes me spell. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
