quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: That's the first time I've seen an episode of Doctor Who singled out for praise because it used a racist insult.
lol. I didn't mean it that way. It made things more believable. Well, slightly more believable.
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quote:Originally posted by Benny the Ball: It looks cheap, is badly acted and terrible terrible scripts
It's exactly because it's stuck to the original spirit so closely that it's worked so well. My 5-year-old hides behind the sofa. My 10-year-old checks out the next episode on the web and watches all the Dr Who Confidential stuff religiously. They all recreate this week's episode all week long till the next one comes along. They spent a week making their own flying camper vans out of Lego after that New New York episode.
It is terrible, no doubt about it, but that's all part of its attraction. I'm not even sure it would be possible to do that scenario in a serious or professional looking way. It would almost certainly become very dull very quickly if you tried to keep things remotely believable. You need permanent access to deus ex machina and silly puns and forehead slapping realisations to keep the momentum going.
Once an episode is finished, I tend to never want to see it again, but I thoroughly enjoy the nonsense while it's on, and the involvement of the children. They had the right hump last week when Dalek Sec turned nice. They were so disillusioned that I had to explain that he'd been contaminated by human DNA and I'm sure he was still really horrible underneath it all.
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I'm doing the same as Mask re. The Invisibles, and I'm somewhere in the middle of Volume 2. I'd read maybe four of the books before, and not really "got it" - not really seen why anyone would be fanatical about it. Even though the art is often criminally bad, and I think Barbelith man Haus is right to describe it as essentially a Boys Own Adventure story, I can see how it might have changed people's worlds, which is what Morrison apparently intended with this "hypersigil" aspect.
I'm holding off from reading the return of Quimper because it put the shits up me so badly last time (over a year ago) that Quimper, whispering backwards "once I was a little light" (and his origin story in the book, and the true origin story that apparently he was based on the foetus Morrison and his partner terminated) is still the image that comes to mind when I'm alone in the dark and not sure if I'm really alone.
So, I'll have to read Kissing Mr Quimper on a crowded train or something, I think.
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UK Living is about the only channel worth watching at the moment. America's Next Top Model is on every single night of the week and the other day I caught the ghoulishly compelling finale of The Greatest Loser an aspirational weight loss programme presented by the sexy aunt from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
It was strange comparing the contestants of TGL with those on the British equivalent, Fat/Fit Club - Stateside the contestants all look like fucking models once they lose the weight, whereas in the UK version someone can lose 17 stone and still look like a sack of shit.
Attention scientists! Did anyone else watch Horizon last night about those crazy particle-crashing motherfuckers at CERN? One thing - among many - that vexed me about the programme was that they never accounted for the effect of the expansion of the universe on how far away a star was and, therefore, how old the light reaching earth actually is - if you're looking at a galaxy 14 billion light years away, isn't it the case that because that galaxy has been accelerating away from us since the beginning of the universe it's going to skew its relative position to our world and, therefore, the age of the light now reaching us?
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Yeah I've always thought that. If you're seeing something that's 50 light years away, for instance, you're actually seeing soemthing as it was 50 years ago.
Interestingly, if you were to head towards that object at half the speed of light, you'd actually end up seeing things on that planet (for instance) at around 1.5x the speed they actually happen. Like watchig a video on fast forward. If you looked behind you, things would appear to be happening at half their usual speed. This is part of the whole 'theory of relativity' thing, where it's impossible to accurately state your place in 'time' because time is relative to where you are, and how fast you are travelling. It's pretty simple stuff once you start to think about it.
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quote:Originally posted by wonderstarr: the art is often criminally bad,
It is isn't it? It's atrocious at times. But you're on the ride for the stories, really, aren't you? It's thick with ideas, as thick as Promethea, even. But, I'm actually enjoying it more because of its Boys Own-ness. King Mob feels a bit laboured in his counter-culture signifiers, but really... crap art and a lousy central hero are minor quibbles in a work that pulls together such brilliant ideas so coherently and entertainingly. And that's quite an achievement in the genre of superhero comics where cool art and cool superheroes are all most books have to offer.
quote:Originally posted by ben: Attention scientists! Did anyone else watch Horizon last night about those crazy particle-crashing motherfuckers at CERN? One thing - among many - that vexed me about the programme was that they never accounted for the effect of the expansion of the universe on how far away a star was and, therefore, how old the light reaching earth actually is - if you're looking at a galaxy 14 billion light years away, isn't it the case that because that galaxy has been accelerating away from us since the beginning of the universe it's going to skew its relative position to our world and, therefore, the age of the light now reaching us?
I really wanted to see this - was it good? I've missed some great stuff lately thanks to a really flakey EPG on my freeview recorder - that travel's with my camera, diary of a nobody? you want them taped you say? Nope, not gonna do it...
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You can watch it here Benny. It's a pretty good programme for the general viewer, though I do find it irritating that they don't flag which animated sequences are actual images created/captured by scientists and which are jazzed-up cartoons by the BBC's cgi people.
Most frightening bit was when the genial Indian scientist at CERN was asked about the possibility of a black hole being created when the LHC is switched on at the end of November this year. He says something along the lines of, "Yeah, of course if there was a black hole it might suck in gravity, light, CERN, the Alps and probably the rest of the planet and solar system, but we don't think that's very likely. *Nervous LOL* Any black holes that are created are likely to decay very quickly. *Nervouser LOL*"
Newsflash bitch: if you're talking even about the possibility of creating a black hole for shits and giggles, I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty thant nothing bad will happen, ta.
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quote:Originally posted by ben: Newsflash bitch: if you're talking even about the possibility of creating a black hole for shits and giggles, I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty thant nothing bad will happen, ta.
quote:Originally posted by ben: "Yeah, of course if there was a black hole it might suck in gravity, light, CERN, the Alps and probably the rest of the planet and solar system, but we don't think that's very likely. *Nervous LOL* Any black holes that are created are likely to decay very quickly. *Nervouser LOL*"
I read an article with similarly unsettling uncertainty in it. Sorry, can't remember the specifics, but the thrust was in a hollow mountain somewhere in central Europe there are scientists creating 'novel' elements by battering, bombarding ripping apart and reassembling quarks and quasars, one of the scientists came out with a line like, "We're pretty sure we won't create an element that causes time to become unstable or that crystalizes all the gas on the planet or something... heh... pretty sure... *coughs*"
quote:Originally posted by ben: I don't want nervous laughter I want iron-clad certainty that nothing bad will happen, ta.
I suppose that if a black hole suddenly appeared in the middle of Europe then we'd simply be dead and that would be the end of that. I say, let them have a go and see what happens. We're all going to die slow deaths anyway from world drowning and mysteriously disappearing bees. Maybe they'll create a special little black hole that will just suck in global warming and then close up again. Stranger things have happened.
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: Maybe they'll create a special little black hole that will just suck in global warming and then close up again. Stranger things have happened.
Not many stranger things, though, must be said.
Those dudes were crazy. I liked that they might discover new dimensions, that we hadn't noticed before because they're too small, or happen too quickly, or don't emit light. WHAT? On the plus side, the experiment is going to happen on my birthday, so if we all get sucked into a black hole it will frankly be a blessed release from having to worry about my age.
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quote: "We're pretty sure we won't create an element that causes time to become unstable or that crystalizes all the gas on the planet or something... heh... pretty sure... *coughs*"
Kurt Vonnegut had something like this happen in one of his books, where all the water on earth crystalised.
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It's all a little convieniant though, new earth discovered, old earth falling to bits - they're gonna whack us, aren't they? We no longer any use to them are we?
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These "scientists" are all actually reptiles who eat gerbils and guinea pigs, and wear sexy red 80s uniforms.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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When people talk about actually doing sciencey stuff that I read in old science fiction novels I think about triffids and it makes me anxious.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: Come on, surely there's nothing more terrifying in this world than walking trees?
Well, actually, I can think of quite a few things more terrifying than walking trees. Hundreds of thousands of evil bad guys running towards you with machine guns and spears and BO, for example. Being lowered into an industrial-sized mincer is another one. Having sex with Noel Edmonds. I could go on.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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None of those things strike as much fear into my heart as walking trees. Not even the sex with Noel Edmonds one. Walking trees inspire me with a visceral, twitching fear.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: Walking trees, though. Come on, surely there's nothing more terrifying in this world than walking trees?
Are there any gardening shops in Manchester called "The Triffid Centre"? They'd surely do a roaring trade with pun loving gardeners. Which is most gardeners from what I can tell.
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Dang have you got some sort of Iranian-style pun-enrichment centrifuge, because that's some weapons grade shit right there.
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I have an irresistable, orgasmic urge to get these puns out and then afterwards I just feel depressed and wish I hadn't done it. Especially when I read a post like Jonesy's on that there other thread. But I can never see how bad the puns are till they're rendered right there on the page. It's a terrible affliction. (Mainly for the other people on the forum.)
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I like your puns Dang. They're the wood that builds the furniture of the boards. Your puns stand tall and dependable, towering over the dark forest of TMO's filth, photosynthesising fresh air into an otherwise choking environment. They're a piece of ewe and you should never renounce them.
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Bless you, Jonesy. Encouragement like that really makes me want to redouble my efforts. Actually, I thought of one on the way home the other day and forgot to use it. Brace yourselves... (It's on another thread.)
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quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: Haha. Do you just ride around France on your bike thinking up puns and inventions, Dang?
That and murdering prostitutes.
I'm afraid the market's already flooded with machines for murdering prostitutes, BM. Don't think I haven't done the reasearch.
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Sorry. Rotting the thread. Yesterday I went to see The Painted Mask. I hadn't meant to see it really. I had a few hours to kill before meeting someone so I just went to see the first film that was available. I scanned through the little summaries, chose a film about a teacher with a drug problem, or something like that, bought the ticket and went in. I'd obviously got mixed up because the film about the drug teacher is actually Half Nelson. I was quite surprised, therefore, to see the period setting of my film was actually the 1920s. Strange, I thought, I can't imagine many sink school teachers with drug problems cropping up here. But what the heck. Anyway, the film was OK. An uptight Ed. Norton traveled to China with his unfaithful wife to try and tackle a cholera epidemic. You know the kind of thing: nice scenery, piano music, pissing in bags, puking, cute kids, fatal illness, I won't post up any spoilers, just in case anyone else accidentally goes to see this film. Suffice to say, it's a bit short on drug addiction. Nice acting by the Nortster and some other people, though. I'd give it three stars.
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: I'm afraid the market's already flooded with machines for murdering prostitutes, BM.
Really? I don't think I can think of a single one, off the top of my head. Perhaps, other technically-minded forites would like to bring me up to speed on some of the more popular models available on the market?
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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