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"When the members of the Frontiers of Science discussed physics, they often used the abbreviation "SF." They didn’t mean "science fiction," but the two words "shooter" and "farmer." This was a reference to two hypotheses, both involving the fundamental nature of the laws of the universe.
In the shooter hypothesis, a good marksman shoots at a target, creating a hole every ten centimeters. Now suppose the surface of the target is inhabited by intelligent, two-dimensional creatures. Their scientists, after observing the universe, discover a great law: "There exists a hole in the universe every ten centimeters." They have mistaken the result of the marksman’s momentary whim for an unalterable law of the universe.
The farmer hypothesis, on the other hand, has the flavor of a horror story: Every morning on a turkey farm, the farmer comes to feed the turkeys. A scientist turkey, having observed this pattern to hold without change for almost a year, makes the following discovery: "Every morning at eleven, food arrives." On the morning of Thanksgiving, the scientist announces this law to the other turkeys. But that morning at eleven, food doesn’t arrive; instead, the farmer comes and kills the entire flock Liu, Cixin | The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past) [^], also see: [^]
Bill the Obscure's version: A drunken wild turkey stumbled into a farmer's barn on the day sacred to the four-headed god, Mashup, when the rite of "Happy Meal" was being observed. The farmer ... prohibited from killing anything other than one, or more, of his wives on this holy day ... poured out his best corn, and the turkey ate until he could barely waddle away back into the forest.
The turkey went back to his flock ... who all marveled at this obvious miracle: only in their dreams had they ever seen a fat turkey ! When this overstuffed turkey described the farmer, the barn, the scrumptious repast of corn: all the turkeys fell flat on their bellies, wings outstretched in supplication ...
Thus began the religion of the farmer, and the next day all the turkeys followed the (now hungover) prophet of their new religion into the farmer's barn.
The farmer locked them in the barn, quickly built a large pen outside for them, then herded them from the barn into the pen ... he seized the turkey-prophet by his neck, and called out: "Wives two, and three ... bring a knife; we'll eat this one today, praise be to Mashup."
The other turkeys congratulated their newfound prophet on his glorious fate ... if they began to feel cramped in their crowded pen, began to feel famished because only a handful of old corn that reeked of mildew had been thrown in their pen ... well, some explained that as a test of their faith; some said that the acts of a god never make sense in terms of turkey weltanschauung; others said they were receiving deserved punishment for what they had done wrong ... although not one turkey could define what "wrong" was.
One turkey loudly proclaimed that after they had been killed and eaten by the farmer and his wives they would become gods, and live in a land of corn with no need for feathers to fly. This turkey was proclaimed the new prophet by acclimation.
The rest of the story ? You already know it.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
modified 29-Dec-17 3:34am.
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Or, to make it short, people start inventing explanations when they have nothing better.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Unfortunately, the two dimensional creature builds their "science" using what's now called "deep learning" technologies by the three dimensional one (the farmer) first, they didn't found the "truth" along the way ...
modified 30-Dec-17 2:43am.
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So, my wife came home from running errands yesterday, and handed me a 4k UHD dvd ("Passengers"), and says, "Let's watch it on our new TV!"
I informed her that we don't have the necessary hardware to watch a 4k (or even normal) Blu-Ray DVD, so guess what I had to order today. 
A new home theater receiver and a 4k DVD player.
It looks like I'll be neck-deep in electronics stuff in four-six days...
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Congratz, don't forget to suggest a new home theater sound system to maximize your home viewing pleasure. It's totally worth it.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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I had to order one of those anyway because one of my existing satellite speakers has developed an irritating crackle on strong base sounds. The new speakers can handle 1000 watts.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I don’t often go to the cinema, but on a recent trip to London and having nothing better to do of an evening, and being an avid sci-fi fan, I decided to go and see Passengers on the big screen……oh dear me… I came >this< close to walking out halfway through. It was beyond dreadful. Hard to believe a film like that can be made in this day and age.
I hope you can enjoy the SFX on your nice new screen, because the script is truly awful.
*** spoilers ahead ***
So our hero finds himself on a dead spaceship, facing a lifetime alone just waiting to die….. but there are a few hundred (thousand?) others in deep-sleep. SO what does he do? Does he scour the passenger manifest to maybe find someone who might be able to help repair the ship? No – he spots a girl he fancies, and spends months perving on her instead, and in the end just has to wake her up to --- to what? To share his long and lonely life waiting for death.
Gee, what a guy. I mean, seriously, what the effing eff?
Of course, all he then has to do is tell her how beautiful she is for her to (literally) crawl over the dinner table to ravage him. (Don’t know why he didn’t just grab her by the pussy, really.)
Then when she finds out the truth about her “awakening”, she gets somewhat pissed at him – but, hey-ho, he’s such a great guy that she forgives him in the end – to the extent that when a solution si found that would enable her (alone) to survive, she turns it down in order to spend the rest of her life with (just) him on the dead ship in deep space….. (and he, of course, was happy to let her – I mean, why die alone when you can take the supposed love of your life with you?)
Yeah. Right. Give me a break.
And I won’t even begin with the science…. Hollywood is all but dead. They should bulldoze the whole freaking place and just forget it. European and Asian cinema is far superior - and even TV/Netflix et al make better films these days.
(PS bedtime here in the UK. I've got all mad just thinking about this blasted film. Hopefully I'll have cheered up by the morning!)
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Thankfully I downloaded it so the expense was minimal. I enjoyed the SFX and really that is all you can expect from SF films these days. Some of the big franchises are still putting out some reasonable stuff but the days of DS9, FireFly, Babylon 5 and Farscape are gone.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I guess I’m not that sophisticated. I liked it. The most implausible part for me was the end where the promenade had been turned into a park, with birds. Where the heck did they get birds?
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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It's a colony ship: if they are transporting plant seeds, then presumably they are bringing the pollinators for them as well: a complete micro ecology would be expected.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Per that explanation, I'd expect an array of insects, starting with bees. Birds would be later.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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They probably did. They were alone for what, 50 or 70 years? (I forget how long exactly)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I enjoyed it: it was well acted, and good take-your-brain-out-and-relax stuff.
Herself shouted obscenities at it four or five times, which gains it several stars in my book.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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hmm... depends on your definition of "well-acted"... not saying it was badly acted per se, but the job was a phone-in for anyone that calls themselves an actor. Anyone that can keep a straight face in front of a camera could have done it, the roles were that 2-dimensional.
I don't mind taking my brain out to relax, but I don't want it eaten in the meantime - I want it back afterwards!
Here's some psychedelic blues-rock to cheer me up and knock this stupid film out my head! Billy Carter - You Ate My Brain[^]
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If that's how you felt about Passengers, wait until you see Valerian. They invented this huge, thriving, well-thought-out universe (complete with a interesting history) only to ruin it by writing a espionage/action movie with an unnecessary focus on the romance between the leading characters.  I found the setting of the movie far more interesting than the movie itself.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Foothill wrote: They invented this huge,...
You mean the comic did? The movie is based on a comic.
Far as I can tell the comic was entirely based on espionage/action. Unclear to me if there were any romantic connection between the two leads but in the comic the female lead definitely used her sexuality. And given that the comic is french I would expect that there was a romantic connection.
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I didn't know that it was based on a French comic series. That explains a lot. I just found it unusual that they made a movie with a well thought out setting and didn't take any real advantage of it. Now that I know that it was based off of a French comic, I can see that Hollywood took someone else's work and butchered it...again . Thanks. On a side note, has the comic been translated to English? I might have to give it a read if so.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Don't forget to order yourself a new TV recliner, as well!. 
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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And possibly a new house to put all this in? 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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And a new car for the porch
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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JSOP's already got a Mustang in the garage, he doesn't need a Camaro to sit on cinder blocks on his front lawn as an ornament (where all Camaros belong).
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dandy72 wrote: he doesn't need a Camaro to sit on cinder blocks on his front lawn as an ornament (where all Camaros belong).
Between the broken down washing machine and refrigerator that were converted into lawn fountains...
I'd also have to grow a mullet to qualify as a Camaro owner.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Don't quote of me this, but it may be that if the Camaro stays on cinder blocks as a permanent fixture and you're not actually driving it, the mullet rule gets relaxed somewhat. I don't know, I misplaced my Redneck's Guide to Modern Living.
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So we got called to attend a "training" meeting on something I consider totally useless because I will never use it -- it's some internal technology I've already gleaned enough information about to know how it works, I certainly don't need "training."
Go to training room because we're not supposed to be distracted. Can't log in to computer. Nobody can log in on the computers in front of them. Finally someone tries rebooting. That works. Log in. These machines are so underpowered and so overburdened with corporate security crap that the login process alone takes close 5 minutes.
We're now 20 minutes into the so called "training" and all I've learned in that the company really knows how to burn money.
So I ask where I'm supposed to go to get at the training video. Of course that wasn't supplied in the email requiring my attendance. Someone says, quite seriously it seems, "just go to SO and ask it about something so you learn something."
I left with the comment "This is a f.... waste of time."
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Quote: These machines are so underpowered and so overburdened with corporate security crap that the login process alone takes close 5 minutes
And I will bet your they don't have a proper strategy in position to cover them in case of a Ransom attack. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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