Star Wars, Star Trek and other Sci-Fi

[Dilandu]

Tell me how realistic this scenario is: a powder-eating bug is spliced together...with soldiers' rounds 'immunized' with toxins that make their rounds even more lethal. Would it work at all? Or backfire with us all back to crossbows?

Not exactly realistic, because powder... well, it's just not very nutritious. It is probably possible to construct some fungi or something capable of digesting powder, but problem is, that it would not be able to live on powder alone. And gun ammunition aren't exactly the environment rich with nutrients. Not to mention, that its quite dry, and microorganisms did not like dry environment at all.

So, basically you could create bug, that would be able to eat a powder spilled into puddle. Hardly more.

And no, cancelling the powder just would led to search in alternative ballistic explosives. There are quite a lot of solutions that could be used instead of powder; they just aren't, because they are more costly or less efficient.

 

[Graham1973]

Caitlin R. Kiernan, an author who happens to be transgendered on 'The Matrix Ressurections'

And last night we watched The Matrix Resurrections, and, honestly, I don't have a lot to say that's good. Or even not bad. One of the best things I can say about this film is that it was entirely unnecessary and adds nothing whatsoever to the story told in the trilogy. The farther I get from it, the less I like it. There's a startling sort of shoddiness about it, from the point of view of the complex art of cinema, and it's a far cry from the stylish (if often meandering) originals. The action sequences are flat. The casting is wonky. At least Neil Patrick Harris seems to be having fun, but his campy performance only adds to the confusion. People do things. Stuff happens. Guns. Explosions. Long-winded pop-philosophy speeches. Only, without the grace, the beauty, the audacity, the grimness, the intelligence, and the charisma of the films that made the Wachowskis a big fucking deal. I'd have been pissed if I'd paid to see this in a theatre. Honestly, this feels more like a Saturday Night Live skit lampooning The Matrix than it feels like a new Matrix film.

https://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/1636576.html

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I got rid of a load of stuff that was more or less off topic. Apologies if you disagree.

 

[Archibald]

I never watched Star Trek but I can understand the feelings about the last two series since 2000 - Enterprise and Discovery.

They are, to the earlier Star Trek what Dragon Ball GT & Dragon Ball Super, are to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

Let me borrow from Apocalypse now: "the horror, the horror" (Vegeta with a moustache in DBGT was... an offense).

Dragon Ball was TOS

DBZ was TNG and DS9

 

[publiusr]

Tell me how realistic this scenario is: a powder-eating bug is spliced together...

Very unrealistic.

I was thinking about writing a short story with a powder eat bug as a McGuffin as a counter to “Into the Badlands.”

My thinking is that there would be a vast increase in crime…youth gangs wrecking civilization…followed by new explosives/arms developed by a government, that would turn oppressive until the new bullets were smuggled and a new revolution occurs…or something…

 

[Justo Miranda]

A good summary of what went wrong with "Matrix Resurrections." It's looking more and more like the movie was goign to be made with or without the Wachowskis, so Lana made it intentionally awful to stick it to Warner Brothers.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fUnHXF1sEA

The cheapest option to make a film is to use unattractive actors, dressed in black, doing or saying unpleasant things in night scenes or in dimly lit interiors. So it is not necessary to use decorations or expert lighting technicians. If actors scream and overact, they also don't need to be good actors and it's possible to use underpaid people. This is easily achieved by turning up the volume of helicopter noise or by throwing light flashes intermittently against the camera lens from out of focus. It can still be made cheaper by using "modern" versions of old Hollywood hits "adapted" to new social norms, basically adding all the elements that censorship did not allow in the twentieth century.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Tell me how realistic this scenario is: a powder-eating bug is spliced together...with soldiers' rounds 'immunized' with toxins that make their rounds even more lethal. Would it work at all? Or backfire with us all back to crossbows?

Very unrealistic.
1) A microbe that eats gunpowder would have to either be so powerful that it eats its way through a metallic cartridge to get at the powder (and thus will eat its way through modern industrialized society), or so universally present that there is no place on the planet where someone can set up a gunpowder + ammo factory that isn't tainted with the bug so badly that the powder is installed in the cartridge with the bug already gnawing on the powder.
2) Such a microbe would have to not only eat Kirk vs Gorn brand black powder (sulfur, carbon and potassium nitrate) but also smokeless powder (nitrocellulose), as well as the *numerous* alternate propellants that have been cooked up over the years. Such a microbe would hardly be likely to stick to just those, however. We'd probably find that it also eats, say, cellulose, meaning that not only do all wooden structures collapse, but paper dissolves and trees and plants turn to mush. Loss of gunpowder would be a small concern in such a situation.

Plants have evolved for millions of years without being destroyed by microbes, that does not mean that microbes specialized in eating cellulose do not exist, there are simply safety mechanisms in nature that prevent their indiscriminate spread. In my opinion a more credible biological weapon could be some kind of fungus that thrives in electronic circuits, in the eighties one was discovered that spread its hyphae on the motherboard generating numerous short circuits. Theoretically you can create something smaller adapted to nanotechnology, it would be enough a form of life that generates heat where there should not be. The spores could be dispersed from small bomber drones the size of an insect.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Plants have evolved for millions of years without being destroyed by microbes, that does not mean that microbes specialized in eating cellulose do not exist,

The idea was for a microbe that would eat gunpowder sufficiently voraciously as to make guns essentially impossible. That would be an almost magical level of biological nastiness, for reasons previously described.

 

[Orionblamblam]

I was thinking about writing a short story with a powder eat bug as a McGuffin as a counter to “Into the Badlands.”

My thinking is that there would be a vast increase in crime…youth gangs wrecking civilization…

That would only seem to apply to places where the criminal element has been held in check with the threat of getting shot.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Ladies and gentlemen... this is *your* Disney Star Wars.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxKojvQqI0g

 

[edwest4]

It's not my Star Wars...

 

[Flyaway]

It’s bad enough big companies doing this kind of thing but when it’s one creative allegedly doing it to another it seems especially grievous. Especially as this is the second time Kirkman has been accused of doing something like this.

Comic creator Robert Kirkman is being sued by an artist who says he was tricked into abandoning his copyright in Invincible and lost out on profits from the superhero franchise, which is now an Amazon Studios animated series.

William Crabtree says he co-created Invincible (as its colorist for the first 50 issues) and Kirkman in 2005 convinced him to surrender his ownership stake in under the guise of making it easier to sell to studios, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday in California federal court. The Invincible series, which includes a voice cast of Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons and Sandra Oh, premiered in March and was renewed in August for two more seasons.

“Fraud and deceit has become a standard business practice for Kirkman and is apparently where his true creative aptitude lies,” claims attorney Devin McRae in the complaint, which is embedded below. McRae previously represented artist Tony Moore in a 2012 suit alleging Kirkman tricked him out of his interest in The Walking Dead, which amicably settled on undisclosed terms in less than two months.

Crabtree says he and Kirkman had an oral agreement that granted him 20 percent of single sale proceeds of Invincible and 10 percent of any revenue generated from “other film or television commercial exploitation of the Work together with any derivative projects based on the Work and any allied or ancillary rights in the Work.”

But, when it came to memorializing the deal in writing, Crabtree alleges a scheme by Kirkman and his agents to fraudulently induce him to assign his copyright interest over to Kirkman’s company. He says Kirkman approached him at the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con and presented him with a “Certificate of Authorship,” which purported to characterize all of his contributions as a “work-for-hire.” He said that he was in the final stages of licensing Invincible for television production and that having it represented by a single creator would increase its commercial viability.

“Kirkman falsely told Crabtree that Crabtree’s rights and financial interest in the Work would remain unchanged if he signed the Certificate of Authorship and that the document would simply allow Kirkman to market the licensure of the Work more easily, resulting in greater profits for both of them,” the lawsuit reads.

‘Invincible’ Animated Series Sparks Profits Suit Against Robert Kirkman

William Crabtree, an artist on the comic book series 'Invincible,' alleges Kirkman swindled him out of profits by duping him into abandoning his copyright.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[zen]

If you don't all settle down, I'll mention Blake's 7....

Confirm!

 

[Orionblamblam]

Ray Guns Collection-2

That is a *terrible* design for an outfit, Horrible ergonomics, tragically outdated, criminally problematic.

I will need to see it on a variety of actual women to judge if it has *any* merit whatsoever.

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Rhinocrates]

From The Expanse. Not enough information to be a spoiler, just a large clutch of Easter eggs.

 

[jeffb]

From The Expanse. Not enough information to be a spoiler, just a large clutch of Easter eggs.

View attachment 672189

LOL, everyone who's anyone is coming.

 

[jeffb]

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

Wow, wearing that takes some self-confidence! She's basically naked but with GT stripes.

As the old saying goes, if you've got it...

 

[Rhinocrates]

From The Expanse. Not enough information to be a spoiler, just a large clutch of Easter eggs.

View attachment 672189

LOL, everyone who's anyone is coming.

Wouldn't have minded seeing a Mandela, W with a Potter, M.

 

[Graham1973]

A 1940s pulp cover, where someone is about to get a nasty (electrical) shock....

 

[Flyaway]

Ray Guns Collection-2

That is a *terrible* design for an outfit, Horrible ergonomics, tragically outdated, criminally problematic.

I will need to see it on a variety of actual women to judge if it has *any* merit whatsoever.

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

You still get covers like on that comics, even the big two still do it to a degree. But they nearly are always variants of the main cover. I am guessing the logic is they cannot be accused of ‘forcing’ it onto customers as you actively have to opt into getting the cover if you see what I mean. Quite a few of these more risqué covers are fine by female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

 

[Orionblamblam]

... unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

Oh, you exaggerate. It was fine. It was all fine.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Not all of 90's sci-fi was garbage. Take, for example, the criminally under-rated "Dark City:"

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLOLnD6dLU

 

[Justo Miranda]

Where does this guy keep the keys?

 

[martinbayer]

Where does this guy keep the keys?

My eyes...

 

[edwest4]

... unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

Oh, you exaggerate. It was fine. It was all fine.

Along with micro-heads on over-muscled bodies.

 

[edwest4]

Ray Guns Collection-2

That is a *terrible* design for an outfit, Horrible ergonomics, tragically outdated, criminally problematic.

I will need to see it on a variety of actual women to judge if it has *any* merit whatsoever.

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

You still get covers like on that comics, even the big two still do it to a degree. But they nearly are always variants of the main cover. I am guessing the logic is they cannot be accused of ‘forcing’ it onto customers as you actively have to opt into getting the cover if you see what I mean. Quite a few of these more risqué covers are fine by female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

Oh please - only women can draw women? That's nonsense.

 

[Justo Miranda]

In my opinion, the murderous women of the future will prefer to wear more comfortable work clothes.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Quite a few of these more risqué covers are fine by female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

Oh please - only women can draw women? That's nonsense.

Where do you get "only" out of that? Flyaway ain't wrong... a number of male artists (I'm looking at Liefeld, most obviously) can't draw women (or indeed humans) to save their lives, and the 90's featured a ᛋᚻᛁᛏ-ton of "holy ᛣᚱᚪᛇ that's awful" depictions of women in comics. But the fact that one man can't doesn't mean another man can't. For instance... Frank Cho. Man can draw a woman with considerable talent.

 

[edwest4]

"... female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists..."

Liefeld 'invented' an anatomy to suit his tastes or those he worked for, I'm not sure. In any case, there are a number of comic book artists who knew how to draw human beings correctly, including those with heroic proportions.

 

[Orionblamblam]

"... female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists..."

"Certain" implies "some." Not "all."

 

[edwest4]

How does being a female artist confer any sort of advantage? I took Basic Drawing to Advanced Painting at University. Learning anatomy, especially when you are required to invent it, as in comic books, is very difficult. In several conversations I had with Jim Steranko, I praised his anatomy. He replied: "It's distorted." He went on to say that in order to distort it convincingly you had to know how it really works. What he meant was something comic book artists, and other illustrators had known for some time: Drawing heroic figures meant that the body was 8 heads tall on average. The legs and arms were longer to convey movement better. The average person does not have these proportions.

To any way suggest that this is a male versus female thing is wrong. And not the point. The women in my art classes were struggling along with the men. In both cases, steady practice and understanding anatomy, along with light, shadow and perspective drawing were required to get to a professional level.

 

[Orionblamblam]

How does being a female artist confer any sort of advantage?

I don't see anyone saying it does. What I *have* seen is someone pointing out that *some* male artists sucked donkey balls when it came to representing the human form. And only a crazy person would suggest otherwise; some guys well and truly stink. Hell, someone dumb enough to pay *me* to illustrate their comic book would get characters that bear no more similarity to humans than Gumby Dambit resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

[starviking]

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

Isn’t it obvious? I’d certainly volunteer to carry all that and more for her. Of course, she’d have to keep me close at hand any time she went out - and that’s fine by me

 

[Orionblamblam]

Well, I will be dipped. Seems someone actually took me up on this. Take a look at THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO for a sober analysis of just this sort of apparel. The question arises: where does she keep her keys? Her wallet? Her sidearm? Inquiring minds want to know.

Isn’t it obvious? I’d certainly volunteer to carry all that and more for her. Of course, she’d have to keep me close at hand any time she went out - and that’s fine by me

Bah. An unenlightened view. This is a strong independent woman don't need no man we're talking about here...

 

[Flyaway]

Quite a few of these more risqué covers are fine by female artists these days, they have the added advantage of actually being able to draw women, unlike certain well known male comics artists I can think of in the nineties. Some of whom ended up making both men and women characters look disturbingly freakish.

Oh please - only women can draw women? That's nonsense.

Where do you get "only" out of that? Flyaway ain't wrong... a number of male artists (I'm looking at Liefeld, most obviously) can't draw women (or indeed humans) to save their lives, and the 90's featured a ᛋᚻᛁᛏ-ton of "holy ᛣᚱᚪᛇ that's awful" depictions of women in comics. But the fact that one man can't doesn't mean another man can't. For instance... Frank Cho. Man can draw a woman with considerable talent.

Don’t mention that guy to me how he ever got a job as a comic’s artist is beyond me. Some of his art is more weird than Geiger’s. But in his case it’s unintentional.

 

[Flyaway]

View: https://youtu.be/WniyKMsbnms

 

[Rhinocrates]

This one's doing the rounds and I heartily agree.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

This one's doing the rounds and I heartily agree.

View attachment 672282

@Rhinocrates I removed the swear words from your original post.

Forum rules: Swearing and vulgarity is strongly discouraged.

 

[Rhinocrates]

This one's doing the rounds and I heartily agree.

View attachment 672282

@Rhinocrates I removed the swear words from your original post.

Forum rules: Swearing and vulgarity is strongly discouraged.

Fair enough, sorry about that. Is 'I never knew ------- and ---- were such common names' or similar acceptable?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Sure.

Its a cultural and age related thing, it doesn't bother me personally but it does offend others.