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Feb 25, 2019 22:40:40 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Feb 25, 2019 22:40:40 GMT -5
Just watched the Chinese sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth”. It’s a huge success in the box office where its been compared the “The Black Panther” and “The Avengers: Infinity War”. Premise of the story is that the Sun is about to destroy the Earth and the world government decided to move the Earth to a different location 4.2 light years away by installing over ten thousand thruster engines to move the plant and a few thousands torque engines to stop the Earth from rotating. As the Earth approaches Jupiter thousands of engines shut down due to the gravitational pull and the cast has 30 hrs to find a way to restart the engines before the Earth plunges into Jupiter. Interesting concept, and unless my understanding of astrophysics is outdated or outright wrong, movie is terribly inaccurate. I think it raked in a lot of money because it’s the first sci-fi of its kind by China, and was released during Chinese New Year where people can go watch it. I wouldn’t watch it again, that’s for sure. Funny thing is there was a scene where the crew of the International Space Station was congratulating the main character, a Chinese colonel, and not one wore the American flag. Had the Russians, Brits, French...Americans played a small part in saving the planet. Did I mention Netflix bought the rights for this film? Wondered if they watched it or was it a knee jerk reaction to ticket sales figures. Some other stories I know of involving flying whole planets around: ====== There is an Alan Dean Foster short story called "With Friends Like These..." (also the title of a collection of stories including that one). In this story, aliens have restricted the solar system because they were afraid of humans, somehow preventing anything from ever leaving it. But one group of aliens is losing a war, so they decide to unlock the solar system and see if the humans have survived and if they can help in the war. Humans have just been waiting for this chance.... At the end of the story, the entire Earth (plus moon) is revealed to have been turned into a self-propelled planet. Humans taking no chances that they will ever have their planet locked away again.... ====== In Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, a species called the Puppeteers (because their brains are in their body, so their two heads are like puppets) has decided to flee the galaxy. But they don't like spaceships or traveling FTL, so they took five planets and set them into a pentagonal pattern and are flying them in formation through space toward the Magellanic Cloud. ====== James Blish's classic SF series "cities in flight" involves a propulsion technology called the "spindizzy" that is more efficient the more mass it moves. Human cities have used this technology to leave Earth and become large city-sized spaceships. Eventually at the end of the third book, one group takes this technology to the extreme and uses enough spindizzies to turn an entire planet into essentially a massive spaceship.
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Feb 25, 2019 22:49:07 GMT -5
Post by XAsstCoach on Feb 25, 2019 22:49:07 GMT -5
There is an Alan Dean Foster short story called "With Friends Like These..." (also the title of a collection of stories including that one). In this story, aliens have restricted the solar system because they were afraid of humans, somehow preventing anything from ever leaving it. But one group of aliens is losing a war, so they decide to unlock the solar system and see if the humans have survived and if they can help in the war. Humans have just been waiting for this chance.... At the end of the story, the entire Earth (plus moon) is revealed to have been turned into a self-propelled planet. Humans taking no chances that they will ever have their planet locked away again.... ====== In Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, a species called the Puppeteers (because their brains are in their body, so their two heads are like puppets) has decided to flee the galaxy. But they don't like spaceships or traveling FTL, so they took five planets and set them into a pentagonal pattern and are flying them in formation through space toward the Magellanic Cloud. You know, I forgot about the moon. Think it was left behind as it was not being dragged along throughout the movie. Poor moon!
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Post by mikegarrison on Feb 25, 2019 23:03:11 GMT -5
There is an Alan Dean Foster short story called "With Friends Like These..." (also the title of a collection of stories including that one). In this story, aliens have restricted the solar system because they were afraid of humans, somehow preventing anything from ever leaving it. But one group of aliens is losing a war, so they decide to unlock the solar system and see if the humans have survived and if they can help in the war. Humans have just been waiting for this chance.... At the end of the story, the entire Earth (plus moon) is revealed to have been turned into a self-propelled planet. Humans taking no chances that they will ever have their planet locked away again.... ====== In Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, a species called the Puppeteers (because their brains are in their body, so their two heads are like puppets) has decided to flee the galaxy. But they don't like spaceships or traveling FTL, so they took five planets and set them into a pentagonal pattern and are flying them in formation through space toward the Magellanic Cloud. You know, I forgot about the moon. Think it was left behind as it was not being dragged along throughout the movie. Poor moon! Yes, that's kind of the punchline of the Foster story. The aliens have seen no signs of advanced technology on the Earth, but the humans insist that if the aliens lead the way, they will follow. So they drop the shield and start to fly away, and the whole Earth follows. One alien says to the other, "They are even taking their moon." The other one says, "I guess you get used to something like a moon." The first alien then wonders what the humans will be like as rulers of the galaxy once the war is over.
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Deleted
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Mar 1, 2019 20:47:32 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2019 20:47:32 GMT -5
First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, directed by Paul Schrader, of Taxi Driver fame. Good film. Hawke's character was fascinating to view his transformation and turn to darkness. The ending was one of the weirdest I have ever seen. Went to a blank screen all the sudden. Reminded me of The Sopranos. You know you're in trouble when the director says the ending was deliberately ambiguous and asks his viewers "Did he die or live?" It was a good movie. Hawke should have been nominated. Seyfried is always good, imo.
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Post by XAsstCoach on Mar 3, 2019 10:48:51 GMT -5
Watched RED and RED 2 and they’re both quite funny. Though Mary Louise Parker plays her role as an adventure seeking desk jockey perfect while Bruce Willis and John Malkovich paired up nicely as the ex-CIA agents trying to survive. Hellen Mirren and Brian Cox as the ex-MI6 and Soviet KGB lovebirds adds a lot of laughs to both movies.
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Mar 8, 2019 2:44:36 GMT -5
Post by XAsstCoach on Mar 8, 2019 2:44:36 GMT -5
Marshall - a movie based on the early years of Thurgood Marshall, played by Chadwick Boseman, years before being the first African American appointed to the US Supreme Court. In this movie he enlists the help of a local insurance lawyer Sam Friedman in Bridgeport, CT to sponsor him so that he can defend an African American driver accused of raping his White female employer. Was a fun movie to watch, but also begs to question whether Marshall was like this in real life.
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Mar 11, 2019 17:02:16 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgang on Mar 11, 2019 17:02:16 GMT -5
Eighth Grade (2018)
Good coming-of-age film about an eighth grader girl in upstate New York. Not the greatest film and it's certainly not the type of film I normally like. I watched it because of its universal acclaim. There are some really great scenes. The funniest was at the friend-date with Gabe. This dorky kid goes out of his way to prepare a good chicken meal for his "date." For the dipping sauce, he has all the packets out -- those commercial packets you find at fast food restaurants. LOL! And he left his achievement certificate on the dining table for his "date" to "accidentally" find. The certificate was for shooting 5 bullseyes in his archery summer camp. LOL! Some dorks don't realize how much of a dork they are!
Having said this, my 8th grade experience was NOT like the protagonist's in the film. Aside from being a guy, I didn't have the same anxieties as I went to a private Catholic School (I'm not Catholic, btw) and the social dynamics at my school were a lot different than, say, the social dynamic in the public school depicted in the film. Also, the things she cared about were not the same things I cared about.
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Mar 11, 2019 17:10:08 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2019 17:10:08 GMT -5
I liked 8th Grade a lot. The movie. The actual thing was the worst.
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Mar 11, 2019 17:16:05 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgang on Mar 11, 2019 17:16:05 GMT -5
I liked my school experiences a lot. I think movies and some novels always portray school as the worst frikkin' experience ever and that's not true for everyone, regardless of your popularity. I was not the "cool" kid or belonged to the "coolest" cliques, but I generally had a lot of fun, learned a lot, wasn't picked on by anyone, was treated with respect and kindness, and did extremely well. Also, I watched a lot of TV and skinned my knees a lot. Maybe writers don't find my kind of experience interesting so they tend to write about those kids filled with anxieties or those who suffered some horrific thing, e.g., rape, school shooting, domestic abuse. Who knows?
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Mar 11, 2019 17:26:53 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgang on Mar 11, 2019 17:26:53 GMT -5
Okay, some things that happened in the film Eighth Grade that did NOT happen to me:
- Sit in the backseat of a car with a member of the opposite sex (not including relatives) - friend "date" - school shooting drill - hanging out at the mall - hanging out with older kids - talk about sex with coeds - bury a time capsule - worry about impressing the "cool" classmate
Things that happened in the film that DID happen to me:
- pool party - parents drove me everywhere
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Mar 11, 2019 17:52:05 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 11, 2019 17:52:05 GMT -5
I don't remember eighth grade very much, except that I was excited to graduate and get the hell out of Dodge.
(Sort of. Many of the same students ended up in my high school, but the dynamics were different and I no longer felt like as much of an outcast as I did in grade school.)
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Mar 11, 2019 19:48:51 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2019 19:48:51 GMT -5
Junior high was so much worse than high school. It's the difference between Lord of the Flies and Lord of the Rings.
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Mar 11, 2019 19:50:36 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 11, 2019 19:50:36 GMT -5
Junior high was so much worse than high school. It's the difference between Lord of the Flies and Lord of the Rings. I had 1-8 and 9-12. No "junior high" specifically.
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Mar 11, 2019 20:33:41 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2019 20:33:41 GMT -5
They've gone to K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 now. Here anyhow.
If I had stayed in Ohio, it would have been the same, but Minnesota had junior high until about 5-6 years ago. "Middle school" is what they call 6-8.
Poor 6th graders. They are way too young to be thrown in with 7th and 8th graders, imo.
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Mar 11, 2019 20:49:45 GMT -5
Post by mikegarrison on Mar 11, 2019 20:49:45 GMT -5
They've gone to K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 now. Here anyhow. If I had stayed in Ohio, it would have been the same, but Minnesota had junior high until about 5-6 years ago. "Middle school" is what they call 6-8. Poor 6th graders. They are way too young to be thrown in with 7th and 8th graders, imo. My mom used to teach. She said that 9th graders were much better as the bottom of the pecking order in high school than as the top of it in junior high. We have some districts with "middle school", some with "junior high". I went to Catholic schools, which around here are all 1-8 based on the local parish, then 9-12 based more on school choice than location. But my sister and I both went to a 1-8 parish school far from our own home, because my mom taught at the high school near there. It was easier for her to take us to school and pick us up after than it would have been to go to a school closer to our house. So right away we stood out as not being from the same neighborhood as all the other kids. But in high school there were kids from all over the area, so it wasn't the same issue.
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