PakledHostage

Another video attempting to remain objectively realistic about the topic was just released today by PBS Space Time:

This seems somewhat relevant:

I think that the trouble with Star Wars for people who grew up with the original trilogy is that it is like an old flame... Every few years it calls you up and pleads "baby I've changed", so you give it another chance only to be disappointed yet again. We keep falling for it because it was great once upon a time.

I saw it last night. I liked that it didn't seem to be written to sell video games and other merchandise, and that there were no "hi, I'm Godot, I understand that you've been waiting for me" moments.

Yes, mens rea and all that. But there must also be mens rea even to be convicted of something as simple as a traffic offence (like, for example, for running a yellow light). Convictions for the types of traffic offences that you get a ticket for are so certain that most people don't even bother trying to defend themselves in court and just plead guilty when they pay the fine. Proving mens rea is clearly not difficult.

Perhaps, but here in Canada you can be convicted of criminal negligence. My point was that people who are criminally negligent should be held criminally responsible, such as seems to have been the case for the guy in the blue car. (For what it is worth, I understood that the blue Peugeot pulled in front of the lorry/truck after passing him on the left because the lorry/truck was going slow in the fast lane).

I hope so. I wish more irresponsible drivers would get jail time... For some reason we seem to give drivers a free pass when their negligence leads to an injury or death, while the same lack of regard for other's safety and well-being with a weapon would certainly land a person in jail. Taking a run at a pedestrian or cyclist because he's in the way, driving at ludicrous speed, or stopping at random on the motorway in an effort to "teach another driver a lesson about driving slow in the fast lane" (among other things) should also be regarded as criminal behavior.

Like this [redacted]?

Seems I've been living in a cave... I'd never heard of machete order. But I can imagine how it would improve the series. I'll keep it in mind for when my kids are old enough to be interested.

I try to pretend that Episode I never happened. Beyond that, it is what it is. As far as my own chronology of Star Wars films goes: Return of the Jedi was the first one that I saw in the theaters. I didn't see the original Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back until after seeing Return of the Jedi. None of them will ever live up to Return of the Jedi for me, if only because I wasn't as old and jaded then as I am now.

I just heard via a NASA press release. I am very sad to hear that. He was a classy guy and an outstanding citizen, in the truest sense of the word. Edit: If any of you have read his autobiography, you'll feel deeply for his wife. The two of them knew each other literally from infancy.. He's just gone down the street to get some gum, Annie...

I respect that... Mine is NPR's close cousin, the CBC. Either that or (in a similar vein to Nuke's) the attention seeking behavior of a certain two legged critter.

Wow! How'd you guess?

I know that I've mentioned it before on these forums, but I named my daughter after a moon. There are also phenomena like Aurora that make good names.

I was disappointed with it too. Especially in light of all the glowing reviews by the professional critics. Maybe my expectations were too high but maybe it really was just a "chick flick wrapped in a sci-fi veil"?

But teaching the humans their language was the whole point of the plot...

While it is true that Concorde was profitable in its later years, that doesn't mean the concept was economically viable. A ticket for that small little seat on Concorde that you mentioned above cost about twice as much as a first class seat on a subsonic aircraft. And you only saved about 4 hours on a New York to London flight. Prestige and exclusivity was the motivating factor for people to pay that premium, not the time savings. There's no prestige or exclusivity if something is mainstream.

Has anyone else seen it yet? I just saw it. It reminds me in some ways of Contact. Edit: Thinking about it some more, I can see elements of Interstellar, Gravity and Contact in it. One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes described it as a "chic flick wrapped in Sci-fi"... Although that is an interesting observation, I am not sure I'd be that harsh. Even so, I wouldn't recommend it to those who expect their sci-fi to have action sequences and 'splosions!.

I've started playing a new Android game in the last week myself: The 2016 Vendee Globe race in Virtual Regatta (don't laugh). It is a virtual race in parallel with the current running of the Vendee Globe around the world solo sailing race. It is kind of neat if you like simulation games. Hundreds of thousands of players are all racing virtual sailboats around the world in real time and using real world weather data. It will take until March or so for most people to finish. A lot of the minutiae of sailing the boat is automated so the game is more about weather routing but that makes it a game you can pick up once or twice a day and still be in it.

I can't help but think of two things when I read the last few pages of this thread: The now deserted mining town of Nanisivik on Baffin Island in Canada's arctic (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanisivik) and the Penguins in the film Madagascar... Nanisivik is dozens of degrees warmer, year 'round than the warmest places on Mars and you can also breath the air there and go outside without a pressure suit, yet nobody wants to live there. I imagine that most settlers on Mars, hours after they get there, will be the same as Madagascar's penguins when they finally reach Antarctica.

All I know is that's what you call a deer with no eyes...

They may be streaming "live", but it isn't a live stream from the ISS. As of this writing, the ISS is well and truly on the Earth's night side yet the video still shows it in daylight.

I'll add my vote for Europa Report. Guardians of the Galaxy was fun and deserves its high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't understand the love for Gravity and Interstellar; I disliked them both. They both seemed to be less about the plot and more about the visuals. But Close Encounters is worth seeing, despite being a bit dated, weird and having plenty of holes in the plot. I even had the five tones from that film as my ringtone for a while, a few years back... And I am looking forward to seeing Arrival. This thread didn't exist yet when I started a thread about that film on Saturday, but I will repeat what I said there: That I hope it lives up to the reviews and that the trailers are misleading in the same way that the trailers for Europa Report were misleading - that it isn't just a cheezy thriller.

Yeah, that was what I was trying to get across with the comparison to the Europa Report trailers. Those had me believing that Europa Report was some cheesy thriller, when in reality it wasn't really that at all. The fact that at least one reputable reviewer (at least one that I regard as such) is saying that Arrival made them think suggests that it might be quite good. I am hoping that it will be along the lines of Ex Machina, in finding a balance between "thriller" and "sci-fi" , and thought provoking in its implications.

So I have heard a couple of film critics whom I respect speaking highly of "Arrival", after they had a chance to see it this week at the Toronto International Film Festival. I understand that it won't be released in theaters until November but I am intrigued. In the film, dare I say it, a cunning linguist attempts to learn to communicate with aliens that arrive on Earth with unknown intentions. Katherine Monk said that she found herself still thinking about the film hours later. I wonder if the trailer below is a good reflection of what to expect? I remember the trailers for Europa Report were such that I wasn't going to bother seeing it, but I was really impressed when I finally took a chance on it. Anyone here looking forward to seeing Arrival in November?