MTV News has exclusively learned from Emmerich himself that “Foundation” will be a 3-D epic using technology similar to the CG motion-capture techniques used in “Avatar.” (MTV Movies Blog)
Why God why do these stories have to be special-effects extravaganzas? I mean, there are some parts that would be more demanding of special-effects than, say, an episode of Lost, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why a series that consists mostly of dialogue and exposition needs to be done in complete CGI? I think it’s a safe bet to say that these movies (there will be three of them) will probably diverge from their source material into some SFX-encrusted action-fest, like I, Robot. I’m sure the momentum of Dr. Asimov spinning in his grave right now is enough to power the entire Eastern Seaboard. (Roland Emmerich Fights Global Warming?)
If someone had asked me, I could probably have done it as a proper mini-series at about the same price per episode as an episode of Battlestar Galactica. But no-one ever fucking does ask me, do they? And now it’s ruined forever.
Ruined FOREVER.
Also, a faux text-trailor I found particularly amusing. (Courtesty of the Straight Dope.)
About a week ago, Paul Krugman had this to say about the necessity of the public option:
“Remember, to make reform work we have to have an individual mandate. And everything I see says that there will be a major backlash against the idea of forcing people to buy insurance from the existing companies. That backlash was part of what got Obama the nomination! Having the public option offers a defense against that backlash.
What worries me is not so much that the backlash would stop reform from passing, as that it would store up trouble for the not-too-distant future. Imagine that reform passes, but that premiums shoot up (or even keep rising at the rates of the past decade.) Then you could all too easily have many people blaming Obama et al for forcing them into this increasingly unaffordable system.”
—-Why the Public Option Matters
He’s absolutly right. With the idea of an individual mandate the most likely part of the reform package to pass, the public option is the only thing seperating a sensible attempt at healthcare reform from a massive handout to insurance companies. If there is no public option, there is no incentive for insurance companies to become more competitive price-wise, and yet they will still recive an influx of 50,000,000 customers.
If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I’m lazy. Dead lazy. I’ll start things and let them hang in the wind until they aren’t relavent anymore. I have 5 saved drafts of articles that I started in April and May that are so out of date that, even if I still felt strongly enough about the topic to actually write them, would be of absolutely zero interest to anyone (as if anyone was interested in anything I had to say to begin with). So, this post is a dump of all the links from those various dead articles, arranged topicaly. (Plus a few other misc links I had lying around).
…and today it’s even more right. TV Tropes and Cracked are great ways to not get done what you mean to get done.
I was reading Pharyngula today when I came accross a link to these letters. The astounding amount of craziness oozing out of these missives really took me off balance. I’m 19 years old, and have essentially never lived without the internet, so I’m used to all of the crackpot wing-nuttery I’ve seen on it, and more-or-less associated the crazies with the internet. After all, the internet allows them to contact each other and feed each others’ wackiness. The 911 Truth movement and the right-wing screamers who claim that Obama is a secret Kenyan Crypto-Muslim all seemingly grew out of the internet and couldn’t survive in the world goverened by the laws of reason.
But it’s easy to forget that the internet isn’t just the collected thoughts of some Anonymous being. These are people’s thoughts, and there has always been a certain part of the human population that’s been out of touch with reality in some way or another. The JFK assassination, alien abductions, etc have had their conspiracy theorists for decades. Strange cults and even major religions all started with someone who wasn’t fully grounded in reality. And there’s always someone out to get you. These were ubiquitous in culture even before the advent of the internet, it’s just that the web has made it cheaper for those voices to speak: what was once limited to the scribblings of a schizophrenic are now available on the web as the typings of the schizophrenic.
(Further Reading)
Recent Comments