Week 40

Thanks "Gods": Galactica Prequel Caprica is Canceled

The critically acclaimed, but very, very low-rated, sci-fi drama series Caprica, co-created by Star Trek vet Ron Moore, has been canceled by Syfy, the network announced today. Five original episodes remain to be aired but they’ll be pulled from the schedule effective immediately.

Great joke from Jay Leno:"The Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to three economists. Should we have even given one out this year? [laughter]. If there's one thing we've learned over the past two years, it's that there's no such thing as an expert in economics."

From Airlock Alpha

As an avid science-fiction fan, shows like “Battlestar Galactica,” “Caprica” and “Lost” rank amongst my favorite shows. But somehow these shows -- in an effort to be edgy and contemporary -- got lost along the way trying to find ways to counter-balance their extreme science-fiction mythology.

[..]

“Lost” was thought to be one of the most pre-eminent science-fiction shows of the modern era and was heralded as the best example of successfully melding sci-fi with commercial dramatic television. Yet in the space of 15 minutes, “Lost” managed to alienate the very audience that faithfully tuned in for six years. Instead of delivering the expected epic showdown between good and evil and a climatic ending for the fans, it opted to wrap up its journey with an image of its cast sitting on church pews reverently awaiting the light to welcome them.

My short answer to this: Religion is not a problem in scifi; confused, baffled, stupid characters running around with their heads up their ass, is.

I didnt have a problem with the Lost ending. I had a problem with the entire show up to the end. I had a feeling they were making shit up as they went along, and I was proven right when I read a Wired article on Lost; Mid-way into the series, they actually hired someone to keep track of things they were constantly pulling off their ass (lots of people thought the show had a 'plan'). Battlestar Galactica sucked, and the conservative actor Dirk Benedict who played the previous Starbuck seems to agree with me.

Look, after 9/11, US show biz, art seemed to fall into a funk. Of course religion issue had to be "handled" somehow. On this front, non scifi shows, books did well; The Da Vinci Code slapped around the Catholic Church, as it duly deserved. Supernatural is fun to watch. House, Smallville, are all ok.

On pure scifi front Eureka is fine, with its Star Trek TNG feel and mindset.

So all hope is not lost (no pun intended).

Covering the Distance

You can understand a lot about US by taking her size into account. Especially after the Lousiana purchase during the Jefferson presidency which doubled the size of the country -- you have a few million people that are populating a vast landscape. Pay attention to American movies where people "throw" things to eachother, or cowboys "shooting" eachother with a empty, barren backdrop.. Bullet is a way of relating over a huge distance, fast.

The muscular tone adapted by US politicians starting with Lincoln can also be attributed to his countries' size. American leaders need to transmit ideas over a vast landscape to people with different backgrounds, different ethnicities. A muscular tone is a way to do this. The fact that this style starts with Lincoln who had to "unite" a country during a civil war is interesting to say the least.

Whether such a style is appropiate for a 21. century world remains to be seen.

Lamb #2: The US Republican Party leader Michael Steele. We've all seen the skits on The Daily Show; like the one with a Steele puppet saying things like "heey, what's up baby (trying to be cool and failing -miserably-)". So the Republican Party has, just like British Labor Party chosen someone not of highest caliber for an important office. Steele is pretty much cannon fodder for late night comedians.

And that was precisely RNC's intention from the start. A black man was elected as President, so they counter this "cool black" with an "uncool black". They are basically saying "see, not all blacks are like Obama", hence trying to remove an advantage, a bonus from the next race.

The tactic is disgusting.

That it is blatantly obvious and transparent makes it even more disgusting.

Mad Men Is Really About Women.. First time I heard about this show, my initial thought was "bunch of party boys, Gordon Gekko types in advertising world", but Mad Men is actually more focused on the social changes women go through, and men in relation to what happens to them.

The culture code for women's beauty in US is MEN'S SALVATION; In US finding the right woman is how a man "saves" himself, becomes his mission life. Said code is also the basis of countless of romance movies, novels, shows, that are in my view, more harmful to society than any violence, horror, or gangster movies put together.

Let's pay attention to how changes in society effect women in Mad Men. Housewife Betty does not tolerate her husband's affair, leaves him. Successful youngster Peggy struggles to define herself. Uber secretary in the office seems to be the only one with her head screwed-in straight, but is with an absentee husband -- the "system" took him away and placed him into a war that is soon to blow up in the world's face: Vietnam. In Mad Men, society is going through massive shifts (due to technology, since 1956, obviously) women are torn, and so are the men who pine after them in order to "save" themselves.

Don Draper is our witness throughout this ordeal -- he is crafted, placed to be precisely that: middle aged, old enough to have a family, be succesful enough at this career, and young enough to date any attractive women on the show: So through him we can see up and down the hierarchy in his workplace, and get to see the lives of women btw ages 20-40. Each shot seems to be planned to reveal something (right now, 60s), Draper walks by a telephone booth listening to a conversation where a young woman is visibly unhappy with her boyfriend -- she is unhappy, and demanding -- this is meant to reveal the attitudes of woman to relationships are changing.

50s stay-home mom is no more. Industrial-age nuclear family is starting to crack.

Encouraging/Discouraging words from President Obama

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Encouraging/Discouraging words from President Obama

My comments on Obama's comments to teacher's unions: "We want to work with you; we're not interested in imposing changes on you...you can't defend the status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out...when you've got 2,000 schools across the country that are drop-out factories"

Obama is redundant while describing the situation: schools are not "drop-out factories", they are simply "factories". They are organized to "process" kids as though they are on an assembly line, to be ready for a workforce that does not exist. Obama also talked about "standards" that are part of a backward industrial system. He proved he still doesn't get it.

We have the means to bring quality education to everyone; and it's called the Internet. We also need to stop trying to "teach" the kids, instead, let them try to figure things on their own.

Decentralized knowledge, centralized power

My answer to the statement: "Arnold Kling argues in his interview on EconTalk that knowledge is becoming more decentralized while power is becoming more centralized. Therefore more decisions will be made by people who don’t know what they’re doing."

There are three aspects of power: money, violence and knowledge. Knowledge is the most versatile of all three. People have more access to knowledge, therefore they have more power.

“The system” could be getting more centralized, but the system is doing this without any connection to reality of the world, to the power structure of the world. The system, then, in fact has no power.

It has no ability to fix problems, cause a positive change in the world, which is a result of having power.

Obama’s band-aid fix to health-care demonstrates this. The system needs to relinquish control, bringing institutional structure to the current power structure.