Manifesto Multilinko

Star Blazers and Battlestar Galactica

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:39:00 +0000

some weird table bug makes the table appear with a ton of blank space in front of it

what's with the Gamilons being human-appearing and fat in the first few episodes, and then becoming blue and skinny?

In case you don't want to scroll down, these are the uncanny similarities between Star Blazers ("Space Battleship Yamato") and Battlestar Galactica (both versions, for the most part, but particularly the reimagining). Both SB and the original BSG were from 1978.

* home planet attacked with radiation bombs
* last remaining battleship seeking a distant planet
* last remaining battleship is only hope for humanity
* captain of the ship has lost a son who was also in the military
* main male fighter pilot lost a brother who was also a pilot in the fleet
* leader is dying and may not make it all the way
* enemies have oddly organic shaped ships and technology
* enemy carrier ship has multiple arms out of which attack fighters emerge in waves
* battleship uses a "wall" of nearby explosions to stop incoming missiles
* enemy leader insufferably smug, cruel and likes the ladies

Star Blazers	Battlestar Galactica
home planet attacked with radiation bombs	home planet attacked with radiation bombs
last remaining battleship seeking a distant planet	last remaining battleship seeking a distant planet
last remaining battleship is only hope for humanity	last remaining battleship is only hope for humanity
captain of the ship has lost a son who was also in the military	captain of the ship has lost a son who was also in the military
main male fighter pilot lost a brother who was also a pilot in the fleet	main male fighter pilot lost a brother who was also a pilot in the fleet
leader is dying and may not make it all the way	leader is dying and may not make it all the way
enemies have oddly organic shaped ships and technology	enemies have oddly organic shaped ships and technology
enemy carrier ship has multiple arms out of which attack fighters emerge in waves	enemy carrier ship has multiple arms out of which attack fighters emerge in waves
battleship uses a "wall" of nearby explosions to stop incoming missiles	battleship uses a "wall" of nearby explosions to stop incoming missiles
enemy leader insufferably smug, cruel and likes the ladies (Leader Desslock)	enemy leader insufferably smug, cruel and likes the ladies (Cavil)

Also (ROT13 spoilers)

Star Blazers: Qrerx Jvyqfgne'f oebgure Nyrk vf gubhtug gb unir qvrq va gur penfu bs uvf fuvc, ohg ur gheaf bhg gb or nyvir
Battlestar Galactica: Mnx Nqnzn vf n Plyba naq vf erfheerpgrq (va zl nygreangr havirefr)

1950 Plan for the National Capital

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Ok, I can't claim to have read this yet, but the diagrams and images are awesome.

The root is

http://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/gordond/planningcanadascapital/greber1950/index.htm

Images and Diagrams I liked:
* Residence Distribution of Civil Servants, 1947
* Existing Railway System (can't make out the date)
* Distribution of Street Cars and Buses, 1948
* Daily Volume and Distribution of Street Car and Bus Passengers, 1948
* Existing Open Space, 1946
* Scale Model of the Centre of Ottawa, 1938

In particular, check out
* 204. A half-century of progress in the development of the centre of Ottawa-1900
* 205. A half-century of progress in the development of the centre of Ottawa- 1940
(which looks beautiful to the modern eye, but looked unspeakably backward to them - and also this view explains a lot about the features of the landscape, like the War Memorial, that don't read well any more but made perfect sense then)
* 206. A half-century of progress in the development of the centre of Ottawa-1950
(a vision of the future, part of which they built, as evidenced by the giant f-up that is the area around the old Union Station now, and which looked fantastically modern to them, while looking heart-stoppingly chilling to us today)

why Canada doesn't matter

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

World CO2 emissions in 2007 (from energy), megatonnes = 29914
USA = 6006
China = 6283
Canada = 590

Canada is in the noise level.
Do we suck per-capita? Oh my yes.
Do we have enough people that that makes any difference? Not really.

(India, in case you're wondering, is an order of magnitude "better" per capita, but has so many people its emissions are still 1400 megatonnes.)

The US and China are so big in this (to a large extent because of coal), that even the top 5 tells the tale of how this is basically a bilateral problem.

1 China = 6283
2 USA = 6006
3 Russia = 1672
4 India = 1400
5 Japan = 1262

(Canada is 7th, in case you're wondering.)

Note that I am not saying we shouldn't consume less and live in harmony with nature. I'm just saying even if all of Canada went pre-industrial, the US and China alone can take us over the climate tipping point.

When I tried to make this point to Tim Flannery at Writers Fest, he said something to the effect of we all have to pull together and do our part and such. Which probably makes for good politics, but it doesn't seem to reflect the fact that even if the entire world outside the top two emitters gets together and holds hands, our climate fate will still be set by US and Chinese decisions on energy policy.

Ottawahagen - where is our urban plan?

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Ottawa council is well-aware of the issues covered in this great article about urban planning lessons from Copenhagen, but I have yet to see them take the necessary steps to transform the downtown.

On your bike: What the world can learn about cycling [and urban planning] from Copenhagen - The Independent - 18 October 2009

everything you need to know about capitalism

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:39:00 +0000

It's hard to have a conversation about forestry practices in the redwoods without hearing the name of Charles Hurwitz, CEO of Houston-based Maxxam, Inc. In 1985 Hurwitz orchestrated the hostile takeover—underwritten by junk bonds provided by the financier Michael Milken—of Pacific Lumber, which had been run conservatively by the Murphy family since 1905. By leaving some of their old growth standing, the Murphys, men who learned the lumber business from the chain saw up, had planned to sustain their timber harvest and jobs well into the 21st century. "When the Murphys owned PL, they cared for their employees," Hall says.

With Pacific Lumber, Hurwitz inherited roughly 70 percent of the remaining old redwoods in private hands. In his first meeting with the employees, the dark-suited businessman told them—in a now famous quote—that he believed in the golden rule: "He who has the gold, rules." Hurwitz then proceeded to break up the company and sell its assets. He sold Pacific Lumber's office building in downtown San Francisco and a profitable welding division, and he cashed out the workers' pension fund, replacing it with an annuity from a poorly rated insurance carrier.

Most important for the redwoods, Hurwitz adopted a business model of clear-cutting, doubling—and some years even tripling—the annual amount of timber harvested from the company's holdings, which eventually reached 210,000 acres.

National Geographic - Redwoods: The Super Trees - October 2009
(quote from page 6 of the online article)

stuff happening in Ottawa - Fall 2009

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:09:00 +0000

A selection of stuff that I think is interesting.

Sunday September 13 - Feast of Fields Ottawa - on Twitter @feastoffieldsO
September 14-20 - Preston Street - La Vendemmia - "Ottawa's celebration of Italian wine and food" - Ottawa Citizen story "Grape expectations: Preston Street merchants hope food and wine festival lures customers past the roadwork"
Monday September 14 - Third Tuesday Ottawa - Shel Isreal talks about Twitterville *
Tuesday September 15 - IABC Ottawa - Mark Schumann - "No Turning Back: How Social Media Changes How People Connect"
Tuesday September 15 - Geek Girl Dinner Ottawa - Tara Hunt
Wednesday September 16 - Social Media Breakfast Ottawa - Tara Hunt - The Whuffie Factor *
September 17 - 7th Annual Elizabeth Killam Rodgers & Constance Killam Distinguished Public Lecture at LAC - Cory Doctorow - free~~, but I don't know any ticketing details~~ - UPDATE: Contact Nesreen Elonsi at nelonsi (at) fulbright.ca for more info
September 22-26 - Choosing Our Future: Building a Sustainable National Capital Region
September 23 - The Wealth of Nature: how fixing the economy can save the planet - uOttawa President's Lecture Series
Thursday September 24 - The Radiance of Mozart - NAC *
Friday September 25 - Lynn Harrell & a Haydn Classic - NAC *
September 26 - Futures Forum (part of Choosing Our Future)
September 28 - Writers Festival - Doctorow - about Little Brother *
October 2, 2009 to January 4, 2010 - Wheels, Wings and Waves — A LEGO History of Transportation - Canada Science & Technology Museum **

October 3-12 - Carleton Biology Department annual Butterfly Show - Nesbitt Biology Building, Carleton University

October 14-21 - The Drowsy Chaperone - NAC *

October 14 - Social Media Breakfast - Hype versus Reality: Where Canada Really Stands on Social Media Adoption - Krista Napier, Senior Analyst at IDC *

October 14 - Writers Festival - Karen Armstrong - The Case for God *
October 14 - Writers Festival - Tim Flannery - Jay Ingram one on one with Tim Flannery *

October 16 - National Science and Technology Week - The Universe and Our Place in It - Canada Science and Technology Museum

October 17 - Chamber Music Festival - Arion Baroque Orchestra *
October 21 - Writers Festival - Colin Ellard - Where Am I? *

October 23 - 7:30 AM - Third Tuesday Ottawa - Katie Paine removes the mystery from measurement and ROI *

October 23 - Writers Festival - David Byrne - "Cycling and the Livable City" *
October 24 - Writers Festival - Craig Keilburger - "Raising children who care and contribute"

November 3 - Thirteen Strings - Celebration **

* = events I am attending

UPDATE 2009-09-14: Added Chamber Music Festival. ENDUPDATE
UPDATE 2009-09-19: Yarr, added Thirteen Strings, mateys. ENDUPDATE
UPDATE 2009-10-03: Added Carleton Butterfly Show. ENDUPDATE
UPDATE 2009-10-15: Ottawa International Animation Festival October 14-18, 2009. National Science and Technology Week October 16-25, 2009. One World Film Festival October 15th, 23rd, 29th and 30th, 2009. Also added recent Social Media Breakfast and upcoming Third Tuesday. ENDUPDATE
UPDATE 2009-10-17 Ottawa Baroque Consort ENDUPDATE

The Aga Khan building - you can visit this spectacular building

The Visitor Program will be held every other Wednesday between the hours of 5:00pm and 7:00pm, and every other Saturday between the hours of 2:00pm and 4:00pm.

Upcoming dates for September and October include:

* Saturday, September 19
* Wednesday, September 23
* Saturday, October 3
* Wednesday, October 7
* Saturday, October 10 **Additional Visitor Program date for Thanksgiving Weekend
* Wednesday, October 14
* Saturday, October 24
* Wednesday, October 28

The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat Visitor Program

Marge Atwood talks a lot of nonsense

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Writers know that words mean things.
Atwood's denial that her work is science fiction can only be one of three things

1. She's being deliberately disingenuous
2. She doesn't actually know what science fiction is
3. She is hiding in the "literary", invented non-genre of "speculative fiction", lest she be put on shelves with--shudder--books by men! for boys! about space! ewww

I suspect #3.

Look at this total nonsense:

What the book absolutely is not, she insists, is science fiction – a statement she has made repeatedly since the 2003 publication of Oryx and Crake, a novel that shares the same future as Flood and some of the same characters.

Science fiction takes place “somewhere in space, far, far away in a distant galaxy,” she explains. “That's where hell and heaven went after Milton, escaping literarily.”

On Planet X, you can still have voices speaking out of burning bushes and “strange creatures with bat wings and horns on their heads flying through the air – dragons, of which I'm very fond.” But “speculative fiction” of the sort she writes deals strictly with things people can experience on Earth “without being stoned,” she says. “It has to be based on real technology, real science, real possibility.”

Atwood: ‘Have I ever eaten maggots? Perhaps …' - Globe and Mail - September 12, 2009

Ok first of all, "somewhere in space" is the definition of space opera, a 1950s era sub-genre of SF that, while still the popular image of much SF in clueless media circles, hasn't actually been written SF since the Golden Age of Heinlein and such.

Second of all, she then conflates space opera with fantasy, which is a completely different genre.

Third of all "based on real technology, real science, real possibility" is the DEFINITION of hard science fiction.

meta: tech in progress

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:43:00 +0000

I'm going to be using my blog more for tech-in-progress notes, it's something I used to do but I got out of the habit.

Detailed reviews will still be in my reviews blog, not here.

Windows 7 here I come?

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Got a new PC, mostly to try out Windows 7. HP e9180f from Radio Shack (which I'm supposed to call "The Source" these days). It's... well it's ok, lots of fancy stuff hardware-wise, I'm blogging this on it right now, but seems a bit flaky around the edges. Have had one blue screen, one instance where it wouldn't sleep/wake properly (was stuck on a black screen, I had to shut it down), problems with Windows Update (maybe due to the bluescreen) meant I had to use System Restore to rollback, then weirdness with NIC card update meant I went to HP and got their recommended driver rather than the one MS offers. Oh and also one time Firefox seemed to get stuck in virus scan for downloaded Irfanview installer... wouldn't work until I rebooted.

Hmm, when I list them all seems quite a lot of problems really.

It is fast, Intel i7 920 with 4 cores hyperthreaded, makes it look like 8 CPUs to the OS.

Did a PhotoSynth test versus the AMD 3-core HP a6530f and the new machine was twice as fast (2.5 minutes vs. 5 minutes).

I also did a bit of an endurance test, downloaded all 6.5GB of the World of Warcraft current edition (yes, gigabytes), then the 1.2GB of updates, then played the game for a while - although this is more of a video card stress test than a CPU test, it did keep the network, disk and RAM busy for hours, and there weren't any problems.

SIDEBAR:
In general I wouldn't recommend buying towards the high end of the range, you're much safer and will get more bang for buck in the midrange. I don't think it's worth it for most users to have a machine that is pushing the limits of storage/RAM/CPU. My HP a6530f may not have three balanced RAM channels of 3GB each or whatever the heck the e9180f does, but the a6530f has been pretty solid for almost a year now. I did have to upgrade the power supply in the a6530f in order to be able to drive a reasonable video card for WoW, but the whole thing came in under $1k including the power upgrade and video upgrade.
END SIDEBAR

Submitting the Windows 7 request was fairly painless, HP has a whole system set up (Internet Explorer only though). If you run it on the target machine, it scans for the serial number and does everything, all you have to do is upload a pic/scan of your receipt. Then you have to wait for "approval" of your submission. Win 7 won't be out until October 22, 2009 so it will be a while yet before I have anything to report.

UPDATE: Oh and if you're getting an HP, you may have to get a replacement keyboard and mouse - the HP keyboards are heavy on multimedia buttons (which I never use) but have very shallow flat keys, which I find to be unsatisfying for either typing or gaming. I use the chunky keyboard (that I think came with my old Dell) on the a6530f. Be aware that the e9180f has no traditional PS2 keyboard or mouse port (the "purple and green" ports), only USB (I don't actually know what you can get in terms of PS2 to USB adapters; I know there are ones to go the other way.

blood money

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Can you get moral failing, government stupidity, and private greed all rolled up into one? Yes:

2 U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11’s Wake

Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were military retirees and psychologists, on the lookout for business opportunities. They found an excellent customer in the Central Intelligence Agency, where in 2002 they became the architects of the most important interrogation program in the history of American counterterrorism.

They had never carried out a real interrogation, only mock sessions in the military training they had overseen. They had no relevant scholarship; their Ph.D. dissertations were on high blood pressure and family therapy. They had no language skills and no expertise on Al Qaeda.

But they had psychology credentials and an intimate knowledge of a brutal treatment regimen used decades ago by Chinese Communists.

...

The company’s C.I.A. contracts are classified, but their total was well into the millions of dollars.

an anti-appreciation of the BSG ending

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:33:00 +0000

I thought Brad Templeton had already had his final word on this topic, but he did a wrap-up post last month:

Battlestar's "Daybreak:" The worst ending in the history of on-screen science fiction

As you know if you've been reading this blog, I agree with most of what he says, although I would have been more willing to accept a past scenario (even though that creates some problems) whereas he really wanted it to be a future scenario.

tracking

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:16:00 +0000

just testing a extreme tracking update

What Star Trek could do

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Star Trek can play the following roles:

1. Real information about science
2. Sense of wonder about space exploration
3. Envision future technology
4. Envision future society

The original series gave us 2, 3, 4. Some good science but it was never a focus.

Next Gen was ok with sense of wonder (although a bit muted since they were on a cruise ship) and was amazing with its vision of technology. It also had a very ambitious vision of society, unfortunately one so utopian (no money, everyone is nice, everyone is understanding, all is done by consensus, blah blah blah) that it made for terrible drama and would be a bloody boring future to live in. They pretty much dodged anything remotely controversial, unlike the original series.

The terrible particle-babble ("tetrions") of the Next Gen was a tragic lost opportunity, considering this is as close as millions upon millions of people will get to science.

There is also a major flaw in the "envision future society" bit - Roddenberry had a very progressive vision in the 60s with equality of women and races - the obvious modern equivalent would be with sexuality, but there are no gay people in the future in Star Trek. That's pretty lame. Why not make Sulu gay? After all, he is.

Plus which, for the straight guys like me, could we have some more interesting women characters? Seriously 7 of 9 and T'Pol? Hey, look at our b00b1es! You can have way way more interesting characters like BSG Starbuck and Boomer, who are complex and not in the barbie doll mold but still super hot.

The new Trek movie is FAIL:
1. terrible science
2. you barely know you're in space and no one is excited about it
3. no technology vision
4. a society that appears to be basically identical to our current one in every way

Wow, that's quite the science fiction adventure you've put together there, except without the science, and the science fiction, and the vision, and the future.

Star Trek: the problem of Delta Vega

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:25:00 +0000

(I'm pretty sure in the movie they said Delta Vega 4, but whatever.)

SPOILEROILEROILER

This is VERY BAD SCIENCE.

So this place looks to be like 100,000 km from Vulcan - in other words, it has to be a moon, or the spectacularly unlikely case of a planet sharing the EXACT SAME ORBIT.

But Vulcan is basically a desert, while with Class M breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, while Delta Vega is all ice, also with Class M atmosphere.

But they should be receiving the same amount of insolation.
So ok let's assume we have only seen the equatorial regions of Vulcan and we just happen to be seeing one of the poles of Delta Vega.

So we're obviously in the Vulcan star system, but there's only a Federation base there?
Don't you think the Vulcans would have a nearby moon covered with science bases?
What's the Federation doing with a base in the Vulcan solar system?

Makes no sense.

The unofficial info in Memory Alpha is very disheartening

Although the Delta Vega depicted in Star Trek is located in the Vulcan system, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman named it after the planet in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". In an interview with TrekMovie.com, Orci said, "We moved the planet to suit our purposes. The familiarity of the name seemed more important as an Easter egg, than a new name with no importance." [1]

According to writer Roberto Orci, the part of the mind meld sequence in which Prime Spock sees the destruction of Vulcan was meant to be "as impressionistic for a general audience." The idea was that Spock saw the planet's destruction through "a telescope or some other type of measuring device," but showing it that way on-screen "isn't very cinematic." However, Orci himself prefers to think of Delta Vega as being in close orbit of Vulcan. [2]

This is one of the fundamental problems of modern science fiction, which is you have these TV and movie writers who know nothing about science or about the genre, and think it's just an excuse to make stuff up. This was particularly prevalent in the Next Generation, where it was clear they had writers from like random network TV shows writing stories for a completely different genre.

Things have names for a reason.
Scientists don't go hmm... ok that's alpha Centauri and right next to let's put Gamma Tarkania.

And you couldn't have Spock looking through a telescope? He's f&#king SCIENTIST for Christ's sake. He's SUPPOSED to look through telescopes.

Sigh.

Star Trek: the problem of time travel and Spock

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:49:00 +0000

* SPOILERS *

The Problem of Time Travel

Time travel, like any deus ex machina, always leads to major plot problems.
Most plots just avoid the issues entirely, and hope that the entertainment outweighs the flaws.
Sometimes they have the characters explicitly state: "um yeah if you think about this you'll get all tangled in temporal paradoxes so don't bother".
Others try to constrain the time travel in such a way as to make it possible only under circumstances that serve the plot.

There is lots of time travel in Trek (particularly Voyager), including in Voyage Home (ST 4) and First Contact (ST 8), both of which are movies I like.

The problem with unconstrained time travel is it breaks the rules of drama. In time travel stories, people are always rushing against time, while you're thinking... um, what's the rush? Just travel to yesterday sometime and fix it.

Now add to this the problem of Old Spock ("Spock Prime"). One of the ways you can get around time travel issues is by having the characters not know how it works, or how it happened. But Spock is a Science Genius. He has perfect recall. He knows 150 years of Federation history and galactic science. He's already travelled back in time in Voyage Home and knows about the Guardian of Forever, and he almost certainly knows about the Bajoran time-travel orb, just for three examples, plus he has this ship full of handy black-hole-making red matter AND he has Scotty, Super Engineer/Scientist. You're telling me out of all the thousands upon thousands of planets, devices, civilizations and scientific advances he knows about, there isn't one that would let HIM travel back in time AGAIN?

Particularly considering HIS ENTIRE PLANET INCLUDING HIS MOTHER ARE NOW STONE DEAD?

All Spock Prime has to say is "hi, sorry for the inconvenience, I'm just going to fly backwards around the sun in a certain way and un-f*ck this timeline, nice meeting you".

The Problem of Spock

Spock Prime loves peace. He has 150 years of deaths and wars in his head. You're telling me the most important thing for him is to help the Vulcan Colony? He's not going to try to stop the war with the Klingons? Make peace with the Romulans? Stop the advance of the Borg? Go to the Delta Quadrant and mind-meld the Dominion into pacifism? Or provide advice and information about the galaxy so that in a thousand thousand ways large and small, death and disaster is prevented?

Makes no sense.

Star Trek review

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:02:00 +0000

* SPOILERAMA *

For those of you keeping track, this is Star Trek 11.

The Plot

The fundamental core of the plot makes no sense whatsoever.

What is the problem exactly

So first off, it's not clear what the underlying problem is. A sun is... going supernova? The Romulan sun? Err, you might want to all leave then, not much you can do about that. But a sun going supernova doesn't expand, it just goes boom. You're going to what, "absorb the energy" with red matter?

So why don't all the Romulans use their fleet and get everyone the hell out of there?
Why is Ambassador Spock flying the "fastest ship in the Federation"?

In this universe, are there still Romulus and Remus?

Not Enough Time?

Ok so this guy is sitting around in his giant mining ship near his home planet, for some reason, not helping anyone, and bam! Spock appears and bam! the planet is destroyed and bam! they travel through time and...

and then he IMMEDIATELY attacks a Federation ship?
So your planet is destroyed and you're somewhere else and your first thought is - hey, let's attack the nearest thing.

And your mining ship has tons of missiles that can lock on ships, ready to fire?

And he knows Spock was on the ship? And he expected Spock to do what exactly? Fly faster? Shoot the red matter better? What?

So your planet has JUST been destroyed, you destroy a Federation ship for no clear reason, and then, having travelled back in time (which means your entire beloved planet IS STILL INTACT AND YOU HAVE THE MOST ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IN THE QUADRANT) you... sit in space and wait for 25 years for Spock's ship? Err, what?

So everyone on the entire mining ship is like, hey, our planet was destroyed but now we have it back, but we're so ?angry? that we are going to SIT FOR 25 YEARS IN SPACE and wait for a ship to appear.

So at no point did it occur to anyone... err hey, why don't we all go tell our families that their sun is going to explode, so they might want to relocate to a less killy planet. And oh by the way if we're feeling all vengeful (for some reason) we could use our future technology to make the Romulan Empire far more powerful than any other in the quadrant.

Ok so, they capture Spock and then drop him on... a moon I guess? Called Delta Vega 4 or something? Which has a very good view of Vulcan becoming a black hole? Like a VERY good view... so close you'd think it might be affected by the planet you know, imploding.

So the Vulcans who have lots of spaceships and technology, they just sit there while an alien ship drills a hole into their planet? Considering the amazing drilling platform was overwhelmed by TWO GUYS from Starfleet, the Vulcans couldn't have sent what, a flying scooter to crash into it? They have ZERO planetary defence? They have ZERO ships in orbit? They have ZERO ships on the surface? What?

Ok, so the Enterprise arrives into a sea of destroyed ships and no one is like, hmm, it's kind of a shame that ALL OF OUR FRIENDS FROM THE ACADEMY ARE DEAD. No one is like, hey maybe we should see if there are any escape pods?

And when Kirk finds out this is the guy who killed his father, he has no emotional response?

And when THE ENTIRE PLANET VULCAN implodes, everyone is like, oh my, what a great pity?

And then EARTH has no defences? STARFLEET ACADEMY doesn't have a single thing it can send against a mining platform in the sky RIGHT NEXT TO IT?

All is Darkness

So their awesome solution to destroying the Romulan ship is to turn it into a black hole? But wait a second, wasn't it JUST RIGHT NEXT TO EARTH? So now you've got a black hole, at a minimum, in the Sol system, and most likely, very near to Earth. Awesome. Brilliant plan.

No Sense of Wonder

One of the great things about the classic opening is the sense that, OMG, we're in space, isn't this cool and amazing. In this movie, these people could be anywhere. They're not excited to be in space. They're not excited to see the ship. Mostly the run or walk in corridors a lot, they could be in some building somewhere for all the difference it makes.

Very Bad Science Fiction

The whole thing is very very bad science fiction. Time travel, black holes, red matter, imploding planets - garbage.

Very Bad Drama

It is also very bad human drama and plotting. It makes no sense. Almost none of the human emotions map to any normal reactions.

Yes, they blew up Alderan in Star Wars, but that was decades ago. If you want to see what a modern reaction would be, even the crummy Enterprise series had a reasonable sense of what a reaction to an attack of this magnitude would be, and of course BSG had an actually thoughtful take on what this would mean for the survivors.

I know it's all part of the dramatic reboot: kaboom, look at me, I changed the timeline, kaboom, look at me, I blew up Vulcan. But it's going a bit far.

In particular, since the Vulcans were the core founding members of the federation, this will alter dramatically its evolution.

The Transfer of Command

So Spock has to relinquish command because he is emotionally compromised by the death of his mother (oh and incidentally the destruction of his entire planet), but Kirk is fine despite the exact same guy killed his father?

Plus which this "emotionally compromised" language is ridiculous. ALL Captains are emotionally compromised. There is perfectly good canon language and ship's practice to remove command: insanity or severe illness are the main ones. "No longer mentally fit" etc.

Plus which at a minimum Kirk and Spock should be under courtmartial for assaulting each other and other members of the crew.

The Role of Women

In a remarkably retro move, which I hope doesn't indicate the current state of our society, women have basically no active role to play in this version of Star Trek. Their permitted roles are to be a helpless mother giving birth, to be a basically non-present mother with at most a couple lines, and to be sex objects, green or black or otherwise.

Head of Vulcan council is man, head of Star Fleet review board is man, security guards are men, all men all the time.

Uhura's entire role consists of being an object of Kirk's attention, being Spock's lover, and one time saying "I know Romulan but they're not saying anything so that doesn't help". I don't think she so much as pushes a single button in the entire movie.

This is completely anti the Roddenberry ethos. He was operating within huge constraints in the 60s, but he still managed to have women as scientists, ship captains, ambassadors... women in many different roles.

If he was doing Trek today, not only would he have women in all different roles (which is so normal today as to not even merit mention normally), including many command and action roles, but he would have a lot more diversity (instead of the usual "mostly white men plus some token colour / aliens") and at least one gay character.

The characters themselves

For some reason, they're all genuises except Sulu and McCoy.
Uhura - language genius (a la Enterprise Hoshi)
Kirk - unspecified genius
Spock - always a genius
Chekov - some kinda gravitational something genius
Scotty - general engineering / science genius

The general scope of McCoy's character is done well - one of the points you never really see in the series is he is much older than Kirk. But he doesn't actually do anything in the entire movie other than make Kirk sick. And say "I'm a doctor, not a X" a lot.

The only characters that get much development or actually do much of anything are Kirk and Spock.

That being said, as characters (physically and "presence" wise), they're all pretty good. Kirk and Spock are strong, McCoy and Chekov are the right ages, Sulu is fine. Uhura appears fine, kind of hard to tell since she had nothing to do. Scotty is much younger than he should be, but whatever.

The Academy

I thought the entire thing was going to be set at the Academy. Other than a few shots, what I thought would be the entire movie is skipped with "3 years later".

Captain Kirk

So the promotion path is: show up on a ship you're not allowed on, get arbitrarily immediately made First Officer, and then have your Captain in a wheelchair and become Captain. What is this, Klingon promotion? He's on ONE MISSION and he's Captain? Are you kidding me?

Galaxy Quest

Both the red matter and the ridiculous design of the mining ship were dangeously close to Galaxy Quest territory.

Star Wars and Banzai

Both the planet blowing up and the pointless alien companion for Scotty (Jar Jar Binkstar?) are rather close similarities to Star Wars.

The interrogation scene is oddly reminiscent of the interrogation in Buckaroo Banzai, right down to the unexplained water flooding the floor. (As a side note, their mining ship stocks mind-control bugs? How convenient.)

The Con

Basically the entire movie is just to set up Kirk in the Captain's chair, Spock as his first officer, Sulu and Chekov at the console, Uhura as the Space Secretary, Scotty as the engineer and McCoy as the gruff doctor. In an alternative trekverse.

They could have just started with that and done, you know, an actual movie.

The Alternative Universe

This is a rather convenient canon dodge. Why is X different? Oh yeah, Alternate Universe. In case you're keeping track, some highlights:

* Vulcan gone
* two Spocks
* Spock's mother dead
* Kirk's father dead (we never heard of in original series)
* Uhura Spock's lover
* Romulans look different
* They know way more about Romulans and Klingons than they did in original series

Faster Spacecat! Faster!

In keeping with our fast-paced modern times, it's much faster and more dynamic - the ships move faster, the people move faster. Which is entertaining for a blockbuster, but I don't know how sustainable it would be in a series.

Overall Ratings

3/10 as science fiction
6/10 as drama
8/10 as summer fluff

So basically what you would expect if you take a series that had some threads of science fiction, ideas, and character interaction, and make it a Summer Blockbuster.

In Conclusion

Abrams set out to make a dynamic movie about Kirk and Spock, and in that he succeeded. He also set out to re-cast the characters and put them all on the bridge, and he got there in the end. In any other aspect, the movie fails.

Reviews I Liked

* Roger Ebert
* IGN
* Huffington Post

The List

I think I have this in my blog already, but I couldn't find it quickly, so:

Star Trek 1: terrible. slowest. movie. ever. opening scene shows empty space for like 5 minutes. seriously.
Star Trek 2 (Khan): everyone likes this a lot. I think it's ok.
Star Trek 3 (Spock): also ok although I didn't like that they changed Saavik
Star Trek 4 (Earth): good
Star Trek 5 (god): terrible
Star Trek 6 (Klingons): not good. too many US references ("Nixon goes to China")
Star Trek 7 (Generations): I liked this a lot. almost perfect if they had just fixed up the themes a bit and given Kirk a better death
Star Trek 8 (Borg): also good except Data should have said "Resistance is NOT futile" and also Zephram Cochrane sucked
Star Trek 9 (umm, the one with the facepeeling guys): terrible
Star Trek 10 (Romulans and Picard clone who looks nothing like Picard): terrible
Star Trek 11 (reboot): acceptable as fluff but bad drama and terrible science fiction

Euro exchange rates in Ottawa

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:46:00 +0000

It should be possible to crowdsource this daily, but anyway, I single-sourced it.

to buy 1 Euro

TD Bank 1.6428
Calforex (3rd floor Rideau Centre) 1.6055 (2:26 PM)
Accu-Rate (World Exchange) 1.6221
Calforex (3rd floor Rideau Centre) 1.5988 (3:01 PM)

So in summary: Calforex has the best rate by far, but be aware that its rate really does change during the day.

Previously:
March 09, 2007 cheapest options for foreign currency for Canadians?

Torture is always only about power

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Everyone knows torture doesn't result in useful information. The leaders know it, the cadres know it, everyone.

The purpose of torture is not getting to the truth, it is controlling the truth. It is inventing and manipulating reality. Torture is about power and the ultimate power to bend someone's reality to your will.

King Canute famously could not command the tides. But if you torture someone, they will eventually say that you can command the tides, or that there are no tides, or that it is high tide when it is low tide. They will say anything.

Garry Wills wrote about lies in Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit, he said lies are an assault on the fabric of reality.

Torture is a systematic effort to create untruth, a systematic assault on reality.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, of all things, showed this very clearly. In a two-part episode about torture echoing 1984, they are easily able to extract all the useful information from Picard using drugs. Yet they still torture him, not to get information, but to prove a point, about state power, and about the power of one individual over another. The goal of the torture is, in the end, to get Picard to say something that is self-evidently untrue, and ultimately, to BELIEVE that it is true, to change his very reality so that he literally no longer believes his own eyes.

THAT is what torture is about. Not some ticking clock fantasy.

Andrew Sullivan has recently written compellingly about this

The assertion of total power through unchecked violence - outside the Constitution, beyond the reach of the law (apart from legal memos from hired hacks instructed to retroactively redefine torture into 'legality') - will be seen in retrospect as the key defining theory of Bush conservatism. It ended with torture. Why? Because reality may differ from ideology; and when it does, it is vital to create reality to support ideology. And so torture creates reality by coercing "facts" from broken bodies and minds.

This is how torture is always a fantastic temptation for those in power, even if they first use it out of what they think is necessity or good intentions: it provides a way for them to coerce reality into the shape they desire. This is also why it is so uniquely dangerous. Because it creates a closed circle of untruth, which is then used to justify more torture, which generates more "truth." This is the Imaginationland some of us have been so concerned about.

The Western anathema on torture began as a way to ensure the survival of truth.

via Jay Rosen - Quote and Comment

I've said it before - I don't use this word lightly. Cheney is evil.

And to me, just as the fact that the citizens didn't march in the streets when it was announced that there were SECRET FUCKING PRISONS, but that it was ok, because they were really useful, just as that lack of action meant democracy is all but dead, the total inaction of citizens when faced with clear, detailed evidence of torture carried out by their government means basically game over. The government can do anything. Maybe it always could.

ChangeCamp Ottawa - May 16, 2009 - City Hall

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:59:00 +0000

For the tiny number of people who read this blog for Ottawa news, I should mention that our unconference, ChangeCamp Ottawa, is ready to go May 16. It's free (including lunch!), it will be an opportunity to discuss citizen engagement, open government, transforming government with technology, and hopefully some of the politicians will be there to participate directly with the citizens.

Registration is at

http://changecampottawa2009.eventbrite.com/

When you register, you will automatically be sent an invitation to our conference social network, hosted on Pathable.

If you want to participate in the organising, join us at

http://wiki.changecamp.ca/ChangeCamp_Ottawa

Ottawa demolition

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:31:00 +0000

I finally got a shot of the demolition of the Convention Centre demolition.

I hope the new building doesn't suck. I don't see how it could be worse than the POS concrete thing that was there though.

in which I ride the double-decker

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:20:00 +0000

It was a rather disheartening chilly day at the Blair stop watching one "out of service" bus after another whizz by, interspersed with Hurdman buses, but it was worth it, because The Double-Decker arrived.

Good:
* takes up less space
* cool view from up top

Not so good:
* garbled announcement from driver (he was saying "there's lots of room up top" but I heard "there's no room up top")
* narrow and (I think) single set of stairs up and down to the upper deck
* you are not allowed to stand on the upper deck until the bus has completely stopped (there was an OC Transpo guy up there forbidding everyone to stand) which means you're supposed to
1) Somehow ring your stop (I didn't see many places to ring on the upper level)
2) Wait until the bus has come to a full stop
3) Shove your way down the stairs as fast as you can in order to
4) Get out of the bus before the driver closes the doors and continues to the next stop

Also I suspect some people may find the unobstructed view through the front window

either terrifying or (in the case of the guy who was there today) so entrancing it's possible all they do is ride on the upper level front row all day.

Overall it's cool, but they need to resolve the issues of loading and unloading the top level (particularly if the bus is full) before it will actually be useful.

You can see the full photoset on Flickr: Ottawa Double-Decker Bus.

format

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:07:00 +0000

I think it's the long URL in the twitter stream that's made my format go all wonky.

Ottawa house next to park - Sandy Hill / Rideau-Vanier

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:55:00 +0000

According to Yahoo maps (which inexplicably provides no embedding option), this is in Rideau-Vanier, just north of Sandy Hill.

This isn't mine, just posting for a co-worker.

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8184911

View Larger Map

all hail zombie jebus

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:31:00 +0000

Yeah, I have to post this every year.
It's tradition!

UPDATE 2009-04-20: Image fixed; Dal finally shut down access to my blog folder (the blog itself migrated long ago, thanks to Blogger and BlogSpot).

Rogers iTunes fail

noreply@blogger.com (rakerman) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:50:00 +0000

iTunes television and movie downloads used to be fine, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, maybe an hour for a movie...

Not say, 4 hours, which makes it basically useless.
Yes, I rebooted everything in my entire home network, and I tested the connection speed.

UPDATE 2009-04-11: It's operating normally now - what was a 4 hour download estimate yesterday showed up today as a 25 minute download which is now nearing completion.