Ursula L-
You're probably right, even though it's a depressing comment on the current world. I shall go and be gloomy and despair over the state of the world for a minute. (Actually, I won't, because I just saw a deer trip over a rabbit whilst running away from a calf. And that's comedy gold. - No one was hurt.)
David Manheim @ 71
Don't start a campaign to ban it! Even if it would get more people reading it. It would skew the results of my planned experiment to test how close we've got to the world depicted in "Little Brother" by charting the number and extent of the authorities and organisations that try to ban the book. If people who like it start pitching in, I may begin to believe the world is even worse than it actually is.
Ursula L @ 88
I absolutely agree that what her Big Bosses might think wrong is not the same as what most readers would think wrong. But I guess what I was groping towards was that where they may have thought she went wrong was not so much in being found out, as in acting in such a way as to be found out: that she was wrong in not going far enough. After all, if she'd never released Marcus, she wouldn't have been found out. And if their problem with her was that she wasn't ruthless enough, the question becomes whether people even more ruthless are in good enough supply that they can afford to waste someone who is nearly there. Or rather, whether she is a valuable enough resource to be redeployed or reinvented. (But this assumes that the Big Bosses are pretty much consciously evil rather than just very stupid indeed.)
But I am now probably over-thinking this all, and should cry "fiction!" to myself.
I really enjoyed it. Yes, I felt like it was preachy, in parts, but I also felt that the preachiness came at least as much from Marcus as from Cory Doctorow, and that he (Marcus) had earned the right to preach. It was scary, and almost nightmarish in places. (Wierdly, as well as "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the atmosphere strongly reminded me of "The Man Who Was Thursday", perhaps because of the 'who to trust' issues.) It was swift, and clever and I didn't know how it was going to end. I value that in a book.
And I love cocky main characters, especially if they're teens or children, because I think that one of the slowest parts of growing up is recognising your own limitations. And the more intelligent and pro-active a person is, compared to their local norm, the longer that takes. I also loved Marcus because he began to recognise his personal limitations, the fact that he wasn't the cleverest person in the whole wide world, without falling it to the trap of thinking that therefore his views and actions were irrelevant. That's a powerful, heady and explosive sort of mindset to reach whilst still a teen.
I read it yesterday, all the way through, and will seriously consider investing in a copy (for lending-out purposes) once its out in the UK. Which is high praise, considering that I'm poor. There were plenty of things I didn't like (I'm not a fan of sex scenes generally, and I felt like I needed to know more about WHY the DHS would end up with a policy that meant keeping certain people locked up indefinitely purely out of embarrassment), but it was a book well worth reading, even just as a story.
(BTW, I'm under 25, but not far under.)
PS- It hadn't occurred to me that the posting to Iraq could be a punishment of sorts, what you guys have said about that is really interesting. I guess whether or not you think it IS a punishment depends on whether you think she ever did anything her Big Bosses would think was wrong, or ill-advised, and if so, how rare and valuable her talents seem to them. I'm not sure.
Xopher @52- Oh, I completely agree that the baby-killing was an act of mercy (at least from Caprica Six's perspective). But after all, she was saving the baby from the chaos and destruction which she had orchestrated. I just love that the baby-killing, world-destroying robot is the one I think deserves a better true love/mind-to-mess-with/boyfriend. (Although Baltar is so far from being a paragon of virtue that it isn't saying much to affirm that Six deserves better, she really, really does.) I like Six. I care about her. I think that her decisions, over time, are becoming (overall) better attempts at moral decisions, whilst the decisions of a lot of the Galactica crew are, overall, becoming worse attempts. It surprises me.
As does the fact that throughout the show, I have been truly astonished by the amount of maternal instinct that all known female Cylons have been ?programmed? with, and the way that this was all signalled by Six's actions in the mini-series. Again, it's just not what you might expect from evil robots out to destroy humanity. And that's good.
Tony@38- WRT Babylon 5 and moral ambiguity, I'll certainly give you Mr Garibaldi. And several other characters, now I come to think about it. But I rarely felt truly shocked by the actions of B5 characters: there was a sort of innocence about it, even when things were dangerous or ambiguous. In a slightly Lord of the Rings way, I think. Most of the characters (although not Mr Garibaldi, and possibly not Londo) felt like they would have played nicely with others in Tolkien's world. Which isn't a criticism, I liked that show a lot. (And the Lord of the Rings, for that matter.)
That talk of not telling "the heroes from the heavies" is absolutely reminding me why I like Battlestar Galactica so much.
I've always thought one of the main differences between shows that muddy the line between heroes and villains and those that... don't, is that the latter are usually "return to factory settings" shows. What I mean is, they are often shows where, during the course of an episode or story arc, the characters have adventures and experiences, and maybe learn a few lessons along the way, but get reset into their original moulds as soon as the episode or arc is over. You start with the same hero (or villain) fresh from the factory with each new story, and any muddying that went on before that is more or less wiped clean, so your hero is always essentially a hero.
Shows like Flash Gordon are always going to be more prone to this than Doctor Who (where Doctors and companions changed regularly enough that you at least had new characters from the factory on a regular basis, as well as some growth in the ones that stick around.)
But a show like Battlestar Galactica actually allows you to switch allegiances, over and over, to constantly evaluate what YOU think is right and wrong and interesting and clever and wise, rather than assuming that you'll accept whatever your favourite characters do as being The Right Thing. And even very likeable (and favourably portrayed characters) do terrible things. (A good example of this is President Roslin, who both outlaws abortion and then comes incredibly close to ordering a forced abortion on Athena- and is only stopped by selfish motives. There can't be many audience members who would approve of both decisions, and there probably are many who disapprove of both. But Roslin has a consistant motive: species survival at all costs.)
So the characters don't come out of the box with a "good" or "bad" tag permanantly attached: they evolve, and "good" and "bad" is very much what they're doing, more than what they are. I do love that. Even Baltar has his good points, although he doesn't deserve Caprica Six. (Whose first major action in the show was a baby killing. But that was a long time ago...)
(But I love Doctor Who too.)
Very, very exciting indeed. I just signed up. (At first, I
was worried I wouldn't be able to, as I am a British person with a
postcode rather than a zip code, but I entered that and it didn't seem
to mind. Which is good.) And I gave it my good email address- the one I actually use. Because I'm excited.
Scraps @ 1. Even if both Obama and Edwards are just going for reactions that they think will work out best for their own images, I'll admit to feeling more positively about someone aiming for the image "decent" than about someone aiming for "tough, not like that snivelling crybaby WOMAN", if only because it suggests a less cynical view of the electorate.
What gets me about the ABC news story is that the only three ways suggested to interpret Cliton's "composure" are "emotional, cold or just plain tough". Because all three, especially when applyed to women (who aren't supposed to be tough, but musn't ever act emotional), can be negative. No possibility for "self-assured" composure? For "authoritative" composure, and tears that, in the context of the question, express humility about power? No?
I'm not at all sure I'd vote for Clinton, but that sort of reporting might make me want to, out of contrariness.
But as I'm not American, my opinion is largely irrelevant.
Stefan Jones@ 776.
Yeah, the effects are... not shiny.
But the rest is good. A thousand-year-old Punch and Judy man who know's what the hero is going to get fed for tea... in advance. For some reason, that may be the spookiest thing of all, because it's never really explained.
The attitudes to the police and the reporting of crime which develop are also... interesting.
Syd@770, and others on hangover-prevention. As well as drinking plenty of water and having something to eat before going to bed, it is also a good idea to thoroughly wash face/hands/any skin likely to hold on to any potentially disturbing odours. Which odours may include stale perfume/aftershave, spilt drinks etc. Nothing like a chemical scent to make it all a bit worse in the morning.
Stefan Jones@584
I don't know where you are, but in the UK the Box of Delights is readily available on BBC DVD (with a couple of extra features).
I grew up watching it on taped-off-the-telly VHS (almost literally- I was born in the same year it first aired). About six years ago, that tape was snaffled by my cousins, so we bought it on video. Just about a week ago, we bought the DVD. I've just finished watching the third episode. It is awesome. Completely Christmas-y, totally surreal, oddly disturbing and generally just made out of midwinter.
I don't really know what Christmas movies I'd like to see aired. Too much sweet sentimentality, I think. I don't mind nostalgia, but I've never got along with sweet. Sad sentimental, I'm fine with. (Um, is "the Snowman" on this year? I'm a sucker for that.)
The funny thing with these is that I've never done any Old English, only Middle, but most of these seem readable. I'm even learning words from it. Forma = svefg, right? (Sorry for not ROT-13ing before.)
I definately find the older carols easier, perhaps because I know them better? I can't work out 1.1, though.
Fun game!
The second year seems less tricky than the first.
Of the first, 8 is "We three kings of Orient are" and 9 is "While shepherds watched their flocks by night", I think. (Do those have names other than their first words?)
Both firm childhood favourites if only because of the Many Variations on the words to be sung.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Curls Driver attended the prestigious Burden-beast-Crossing-river Academy and came into contact with beings entirely different from himself. The first was Bastion the Glyde: rich, lazy, charming, and another species. The whimsical Glydes had been an important power in the old Republic, and were still far from being without influence.
Curls was drawn to their glamour, poise and unearthly beauty, and fascinated by the way in which they clung to the old, unpopular Jedi religion despite their bizarre and unjedi-like behaviour.
Curls began to modify himself physically to become more attractive to a young Glyde female named Jouleia, but ultimately her religious devotion divided them. On the way, he witnessed with profound feelings the death-bed conversion of Jouleia's father, who had previously fallen away from Jedi practice, but nevertheless ended his life at one with the Force.
Years later, whilst training as part of the rebel alliance, he finds himself back on the planet Bridgetslimb, home of the Glydes, thinking of the old times. He finds himself finally turning towards the Force, and finally begining to understand the various Glydes he loved so well...
Actually, I think people here can probably do better than that with these two. After all, Skywalker means a person who flies, and Darth Vader most certainly had a death-bed conversion...
And Naomi Libicki @ 128, that was hilarious...
My immediate response to the question was "I remember the Gulf War". I've just checked, and that started a month before I was six. Interestingly, though, I'm pretty sure all of my memories of it are from AFTER I was six, in the September, because what I remember is DISCUSSING it with the other kids who sat round my table in school. I have a very clear memory of what we all felt about it- a very wierd mix of extremely grown-up ethical concerns and a very childish grasp of practicalities. (IIRC, we decided wars were bad because good people could be hurt, and that just assasinating Saddam Hussein would be better. But we also thought that might be... rude, I suppose, so we decided that capturing him would be better. So far, so moral. But then we thought the best way forward would be to fly out to Iraq, and snot him solid. Yeah, um. We were very young.)
But having spent some time thinking, I also seem to have a phantom memory of the Berlin Wall coming down, which was earlier. But I didn't really understand the context of that, and I don't think I was especially interested. So the memory is very hazy, and might even be a memory of a memory, or based on things family have told me. But the Gulf War, and Thatcher stepping down later are CLEAR memories.
And now I really REALLY wish there was a way to cure colour-blindness, even if only temporarily. Because I want to know whether the above-mentioned colour-blind synesthete is really "seeing" the colours he normally misses from the spectrum that other people perceive. In which case, is the range of possible colours hard-wired into the brain, even without being experienced? Which would seem odd, given that it doesn't seem as though blind-from-birth people are able to adequately envision colour. Or is it that, once certain colours HAVE been experienced (those in this guy's visual spectrum), the fuller range of colours can be deduced?
Or is this something else all together- is he "seeing" colours which, for most people, don't even exist? Is it only this staid practice of using our eyes for seeing that is preventing us from accessing the much wider spectrum with which our brain is able to cope?
All very interesting, leaving aside Mary's Room. (Which I agree seems flawed as a thought-experiment.)
For completeness, I will note that "frog" also means the pad on the underside of a horse's hoof. (Not that it is an especially unusual usage.)
Hmmn. I've just checked, and it can also mean ANY raised or swollen area on a surface.
This is before we even get into "having a frog in [one's] throat".
Useful word, as joann said.
Re: the dancer- she doesn't actually switch, does she?
Because whilst I absolutely cannot deliberately change her direction, she always seems to start off going clockwise, but if I close my eyes or look away for just a little longer than a normal "blink" moment, half of the time she's going anti-clockwise. And it seems to take more blinks to get her to shift back.
I cannot parse what this means for my brain, if anything. But she's cool.
(As are the numerous baking tips. I may have to try the dough recipe Debbie gave above. I like sticky buns.)
Heresiach-
The thing about building death rays is that first of all you need to work out exactly how dead you want things to be.
If you just want stuff kinda-sorta dead, you may well have all the materials and expertise on hand already.
If you want things REALLY dead, you have to ask yourself why. Has this person/animal/hybrid/miscellaneous-currently-alive-thing already annoyed you/mocked your sparkiness/built a death ray and destroyed your finely-crafted army of mutants? Because in that case, what you need is a time-machine with a death-ray attachment. Trickier.
But I'm sure Miss Hetrodyne will show the way eventually, if you pay VERY close attention.
/Failure to help with addiction.
joann@373
Re: seasonal disappointment- this is why you guys need something like Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes' Night. Halloween can be a bit spooky, but this time of year you really need to fight off the darkness by making, um, light.
(Of course, Brits need it especially because we don't, obviously, celebrate 4th of July. And everyone needs fireworks-safely operated!- some time!)
Greg London@337- the recipe you're using doesn't seem to have any sugar except for what might be in the flour. Maybe a little extra sugar might help the yeast to work better. (I usually halve the salt quantity for the sugar amount.)
I'm certainly with you on preferring a fluffier loaf.
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