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Saturday, February 06, 2010
Caprica sucks
While I'm in a TV mode. Tried the Caprica pilot. meh. The inevitable issues list: * Greco-Roman polytheistic religions don't have the concept of personal redemption through good acts. You can make sacrifices to the gods, but it's basically up to their whims whether they listen or not. Thus the head of the Athenian girls-and-one-boy school would never have said "love your enemies", the Romans had no such concept and it would have been alien for anyone to articulate it, it would have been a huge red flag for the inspector guy. Athena is a fricking huntress. "Slay your prey" would be a more accurate belief statement. * I don't like ANY of these nearly-almost setups: ** the "Christian girls school" that is the Athenian academy thing ** the "Sicilian crime mob" that is the Halaa from Tauren ** the "discrimination against black people" that is the discrimination against the Tauren ** the one god monotheism that is way too soon and too obvious ** the "look it's Baltar without the sleeping around" of Greystone and his house on the water and his genius inventing of everything ** the "sort of FBI guy" that is the investigating terrorism guy * I don't like it's all teens. Who cares about teens? Teens have a single North American narrative: weak confused rebel s3x drinking angry clueless blah blah blah. - That TV show has been made a bazillion times. - "birth control!" - this is her big finish in insulting her parents? seriously? in a Greco-Roman society? Greco-Romans could give a f*ck about t33ns using birth control. proper (that is, socially appropriate that brings status advancement) marriage is important to G-R society. What you do with your hoo-hah, not so much. * I don't like that their tech is more advanced than we see on the Pegasus * I don't like that Joseph Adama is a crook It's also pretty clear how the whole retcon goes. *** SPOILER OILER OILER SPOILER **** Angry teen robot girl turns all her dad's killer robots into monotheistic terrorists and gets her revenge on the adults for... well, being adults. Adama something redemption something discrimination something opposing Greystone and loses. The end. That's the entire plot arc. Labels: caprica, review, television
TNG key
Andy Kaplan-Myrth asked about key ST:TNG episodes, ones that move the plotlines along, introduce new characters etc. I didn't exactly answer his question, this is a blend of important episodes and ones that are just good. It was a bit of a challenge since I don't particularly like TNG (in order, I like TOS, DS9, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, with a pretty big gap between DS9 and TNG). I have nevertheless seen all of the episodes multiple times. There were other good ones, in general any ones where it was mostly Picard or Data had a better chance of succeeding. The sun and moon one where Data was a bunch of characters was cool. The Moriarty ones were not bad too, as much as I hate the holodeck, particularly the ?second? one where he came back very angry and made holodecks within holodecks. But those don't particularly move the story forward. It also revealed an unexpected trend: a lot of strong episodes from the 5th season. Perhaps that's when they finally hit their stride. UPDATE 2010-02-07: After some quick playing around with search terms, I found that Memory Alpha has a list of Story Arcs across all of Star Trek. ENDUPDATE Chronological / Stardatical: Q and the introduction of the Borg - Q-Who (2x16) http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Q_Who_%28episode%29 Alternate universe with Enterprise-C - Yesterday's Enterprise (3x15) http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Yesterday%27s_Enterprise_%28episode%29 Picard used by the Borg to attack the Federation - formative episode for his attitude towards the Borg and also formative for DS9 as Capt. Sisko's wife is killed in the Borg attack (3x26, 4x01) http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Best_of_Both_Worlds_%28episode%29 First Contact (4x15) - a good first contact episode http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/First_Contact_%28episode%29 SEASON 5 Darmok - interesting idea of aliens who communicate only in metaphor (5x02) - also first episode with Ashley Judd http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29 Ensign Ro (5x03) - I think this is the introduction of the Bajorans and Cardassians, it's definitely the introduction of Ro Laren http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ensign_Ro_%28episode%29 The Game (5x06) - second episode with Ashley Judd - a rare episode in which Will Wheaton actually has something to do http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Game_%28episode%29 Spock strives to bring the Romulans back onto the path of peace and eventual reunification with Vulcan - Unification I & II (5x07, 5x08) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_%28TNG_episode%29 http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Unification I, Borg (5x23) - humanisation of the Borg to some extent, moral dilemma for Picard, introduces character of Hugh http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/I_Borg_%28episode%29 Picard lives an entire alternate lifetime on an alien planet in a matter of minutes - The Inner Light (5x25) - generally the TNG episode with the highest rating from fans in various surveys and rankings http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Inner_Light_%28episode%29 END SEASON 5 Picard tortured by Cardassian (Gul Madred) - Chain of Command Part II (6x11) http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Chain_of_Command,_Part_II_%28episode%29 Tapestry (6x15) - an unexpected backstory / alternative history of Picard's life http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tapestry_%28episode%29 Series Finale - All Good Things (7x25, 7x26) http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/All_Good_Things..._%28episode%29 There are lots of lists of top episodes, e.g. Entertainment Weekly - Top 10 TNG Episodes http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20057754,00.html Labels: st:tng, Star Trek, television Sunday, January 17, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
review of Innate MC2 storage container
I just sent this review to the mec.ca site
Links: * MEC: Innate MC2 Container 1.1L * Innate: MC2 Container Labels: review Sunday, January 03, 2010
torture
Andrew Sullivan is doing great blogging on torture. Torture is not only immoral and illegal, but also useless for getting at "truth". It is useful for getting people to say whatever you want, which is an essential element of an authoritarian society. I think Cheney likes it because of the power it gives you to force people to say whatever you want. I think other neocons like Buchanan like it out of some ridiculous self-concept of macho. The 2001-09-11 attack was one of the rare cases where Pat Buchanan and other coddled white male pontificators could imagine an actual existential threat to themselves. Foreign wars are comfortably abstract, American towers destroyed all too concrete. Weak old men that they are, they know they cannot overcome attackers with physical force. In their houses, they imagine that a handgun will let them be the hero if someone attacks. In the wider world, they imagine torture as a way to impose their will on others. If they weren't such weak little men, they would see that this is madness. Andrew Sullivan - How Cheney Made America A Torture Nation - January 1, 2010
Sullivan makes an important point, which is to get away from these insane parsing games. Torture is not some line, where 5 minutes of something is ok, but 6 minutes is torture, or unsupervised X is torture but if there are "experts" and doctors present it's fine. Torture is intent to force someone to give you information. The details are irrelevant. And it doesn't work. Once you are forcing, you will get anything. Truth, lies, a mix of whatever the target thinks you want to hear, in order to make it stop. It's morally repugnant AND useless. It's lose-lose-lose-lose. It destroys the tortured, it destroys the torturer, it ruins the national reputation, and it doesn't get you any intel. It is evil. Previously: April 23, 2009 Torture is always only about power
when in Roam
the cheapest solution to having a cellphone in Europe is (I think) to rent in-country that has two issues: hassle / language barrier, and you don't know your phone # before you start your trip There are lots of different options for getting SIM cards in advance of travel. I've tried eKit, which works ok but is a big pain because firstly, it's a dial-back system (you make a call, then it calls you back with the connection) and secondly, it's pre-paid, so you have to keep filling it up. I like RoamSimple better - it's post-paid directly to your credit card and their support was very patient with me when I couldn't get my SIM to work (it turned out that my unlocked phone had gotten locked somehow). Labels: travel Saturday, January 02, 2010
when in Rome
Review of Apartment Amore Di Ripetta booked through Rome-Accom: Had a great time staying in this apartment and plan to come back. It was hot in Rome when we were there at the end of May 2009, so we were glad that there was air conditioning, albeit a single unit in the master bedroom. The apartment is spacious and was spotlessly clean. It includes a covered patio, living room, dining area, two good-sized bedrooms each with its own bathroom, and a nice kitchen. There are steps to go up to get to it, or if you prefer you can take a traditional small slow European elevator. While notionally in the Spanish Steps area, it's actually closer to Piazza del Popolo, the Flaminio metro stop, and the Villa Borghese. Near the heart of the action in the Tridente, it's nevertheless on a quiet side street. There are restaurants and a cafe around the corner in a pedestrian alley, and all of Rome just steps beyond. The only thing that was missing is wifi (wireless Internet), but there is free wifi in the Villa Borghese park nearby (requires an Italian cellphone number to access). There were only two issues we encountered when we were there: 1) The air conditioner drips a lot, we had to put a bucket below it when it was running. 2) The automatic watering system for the plants on the balcony was turned off with no way to turn it back on, and we worried the plants might die; we watered them by hand. Sunday, December 13, 2009
revitalising Centretown - the food connection
European cities have a neighbourhood pattern: butcher, baker, cheese shop, fishmonger... These dedicated stores make for a great part of walkable urban life. Centretown has many great aspects: restaurants at all price points and for all tastes, a nice big grocery store in Hartman's, some smaller food stores, lots of good services, and a good bakery (I like Bread & Sons), but those other traditional anchors are still missing, and are something that Westboro and the Market have to offer that Centretown doesn't. I hope this may happen, err, organically, as storefronts close on Bank and reopen as specialty shops. But another opportunity would be the Central Phase II development, which has
Central Phase II - what do you think? - December 12, 2009 I'm not sure I know what "urban-format grocery store" means, Hartman's is a good grocery store and it's only four blocks from Central II, plus Shoppers Drug Mart in Central I will have routine food items. It doesn't make sense to me to have another regular grocery store with Hartman's that close. You've probably guessing where I'm going: Central Phase II with a ground floor of excellent baker, butcher, and cheese shop would be awesome. I would also think--hint, hint, Urban Capital Central developers--that being able to say you have a boutique butcher, bakery and cheeseshop would not only add to your urban cred, but would be a big help in marketing and might let you bump the price up a bit too. Why not Salslove's Centretown? Nicastros Central? Art-is-in McLeod? Would be a major boost to an area that I think is ready for it - and would probably help drive additional development down Gladstone, and encourage more foot traffic from the Glebe (recognizing the Queensway underpass is still a pretty discouraging barrier). Labels: ottawa, urban planning Thursday, December 10, 2009
slownet
My 10 Mbps down is only giving me 4 Mbps ![[speedtest]](http://www.speedtest.net/result/648991978.png) something is gumming up the works possibly RealPlayer SP I disabled it from startup and things seem to be going a bit faster. Labels: speedtest HOME - |
