“The Martian”

 art, awesomeness, blather, books, news, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Oct 042015
 

Quick review: a damn fine flick. Sticks remarkably close to the book; the changes aren’t the usual sort of dreck that changes the meaning of the story, or adds needless characters, or any of that. The visual effects are largely flawless (though the gravity centrifuge was apparently static, unlike the USS Discovery’s centrifuge, with the result that in some scenes it’s pretty obvious that actors are walking “down” the floor). The science is pretty good, the acting is good, the dialog works. There are no villains; the drama comes from the situation, not mustache-twirling badguys or steaming morons.

 

“The Martian”

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 Posted by at 8:48 pm

Adam Ruins Everything

 awesomeness, blather, Crazy, Hmm..., humor, news, politics, science, wisdom, youtube  2 Responses »
Oct 032015
 

Tonight I caught the premiere episode of a new TV series, “Adam Ruins Everything” on the Tru TV network. It is similar in concept to Penn & Tellers “BS!” in that the host (one Adam Conover, who clearly spends way too much time on his hair) takes some popular but flawed belief and tears it apart entertainingly. The first episode dealt with “giving:” how diamonds are a waste of money as a gift, how canned food drives are a waste of food, how shoes ruin Africa (something like that, anyway). It’s also funny as hell.

A few videos are available on YouTube. It seems the TV series is an outgrowth of some YouTubery.

A couple friends agreed that Adam is like me, but with a budget.

I approve of shows like this. While I doubt they have much real impact – how many True Believers in alien abductions or gun control or newage did BS! turn around? – it’s always important to counter the factually flawed. It’ll also be interesting to see the ideological ratio… some ideas tackled will undoubtedly be favored more by one side of the political spectrum than the other.

 Posted by at 10:32 pm

Yay, *this* again

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., I'm from the government, news, politics, weapons  40 Responses »
Oct 012015
 

So yet another nutburger goes and shoots up a joint. Any rational person would say This Is A Bad Thing. But for some people, This Is An Awesome Thing. It took approximately two seconds for *some* people to determine that todays mass shooting in Oregon is a fantastic opportunity to try pushing for their civilian disarmament programs. Yet again.

And elsewhere the mad scramble to find *anything* about the shooter that can be used to push a chosen political agenda. So far I’ve heard (note: any or all of these could be dead wrong):

  1. He was a conservative Republican
  2. He specifically targeted Christians
  3. He was “mixed race,” half white, half black. So… he was white, unlike Obama, who is half black and half white, thus black. Or something.
  4. He used a pistol, which means we need more controls on assault rifles
  5. He was a fan of the Nazis
  6. He was a fan of the IRA
  7. He was a Muslim convert
  8. He was a quiet loner
  9. He was born in England. Not sure how that’s relevant. Probably a sign that the Crown is finally starting it’s big move to recapture the Colonies.

Somebody wake me up when there’s an incident of a crazy person going buggo and politicians *don’t* promptly jump on it to push whatever their agenda is.

At least it should knock Clochmed out of the headlines.

 Posted by at 11:28 pm
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