Category: Uncategorized

A rare opportunity missed by Apple:

Bill Atkinson is the programming genius behind HyperCard, MacPaint and much of the original Macintosh operating system, but these days he’s wistful about what could have been. Like, for example, the first Internet browser.

I’ve long felt that Hypercard was essentially the same thing as HTML, mostly because when I first heard about HTML, I was vaguely under the impression that it was running Hypercard across different machines. This makes me feel a little better about my two biggest failures, as if things had gone just slightly differently, I’d have been the primary player in what turned out to be Media Vision and NVidea.

I’ll get it right this time. Speaking of tech blunders, I actually had one of these. It was almost totally pointless, and no, I didn’t buy it, they sent me one. Ours had yellow highlights and I used it as part of a Halloween costume one year.

So, I finally got around to watching the first episode of Firefly. Or, if I understand the history correctly, what should have been the first episode of Firefly but wasn’t. I have not one, but two DVD series, and while I’m a casual Whedonista, I simply never got around to firing them up.

While I like the concept of the space western and found the first episode to be generally entertaining, I didn’t find it terribly hard to understand why the show got cancelled. Here’s the reasons, which will likely be modified as I work my way through the series:

1. It struck me as a bit slow-paced for a modern television show. The directing and camera angles seemed to be a bit odd as well. This is just a general impression, not a criticism per se.

2. The guy playing the captain is almost spectacularly miscast, which is fatal for a show structured around him. The guy’s not a bad actor, his lines are fine and you can very clearly see the role that he’s supposed to be playing, but he simply cannot carry it off. For all that he’s supposed to be a hardass ex-sergeant and ruthless bastard with a heart, he looks and comes off more like a popular middle manager at a large corporation. If nothing else, he should not have been permitted to have that horribly out-of-place. prep school haircut. I almost laughed out loud when he was shown finishing up in the bathroom… I was waiting for him to pull out a blowdryer or a hairbrush.

3. Whedon would have done a lot better to acquire an existing fictional space universe and written the show within that, or else spent a lot more time on world-building. Firefly in the Traveller universe would have been very cool, for example, but as it is, the generic background and the general lack of effort shows. The spaceship flying over the stampeding horses bit is clever, though.

4. Forced characterization. Women make horrible soldiers and generally don’t enjoy technical jobs. This has been true for millenia and it will likely be true for millenia to come. TV shows can insist on jamming the square pegs into the round holes all they like, but they can’t make it work. Throwing in an ironic “Mr. Mom” element really doesn’t enhance the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy SF/F. And television producers don’t seem to be aware of how these “reverse-stereotypes” have become cliches; I can’t remember the last time I saw a strapping male athlete beat a soft, spaghetti-armed woman in any fictional physical competition. The female engineer and Number Two are fine as actresses – the engineer is, anyhow, Number Two strikes me as another miscasting to the extent that she makes an impression at all – but they don’t fit their nominal roles well.

All that being said, I generally liked the show and can see why other SF fans did too. I’ll revisit my initial thoughts after I watch the remaining 13 episodes. At this point, however, I find myself more inclined to mourn the disappearance of The Dresden Files, especially after reading the most recent book in the series.

Here is the quiz for the fourth section covering 3.1 to 3.116, which marks the end of Book Four. If you wish to take the previous quizzes again, you can do so at the following links:

The History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1 to 1.115.

The History of the Peloponnesian War 1.116 to 2.46.

The History of the Peloponnesian War 2.47 to 2.103.

I notice that this study appears to have become something of a Bataan-style march, with people dropping out at an increasing rate as we slog forward into Book Four. (Which, by the way, is the reading for next week.) And yet, we will persist and we will finish, even if the only ones left standing at the end are me, Wendy and Wheeler. By the way, lest you think that the resident Spartan-lover is the only admirer of that city, consider this anecdote apparently comes from Xenophon:

An elderly man was trying to find a place to sit and observe the Olympic Games, as he went to each section. All the other Greeks laughed as he tried to make his way through. Some ignored him. Upon entering the Spartan section all the Spartans stood and offered the elderly man their seats. Suddenly the entire stadium applauded. All the Greeks knew what was the right thing to do, but the Spartans were the only ones who did it.

Occam’s Razor suggests that the Spartans were widely admired for the very simple reason that they were admirable, their brutal society’s shortcomings notwithstanding. The wordsmiths of Athens ensured that their city would be remembered; the fact that we remember the Spartans despite their historical silence is testimony to their intrinsic noteworthiness.

That is the sound of a scary blue face laughing….

The daughters reject the sins of the mothers:

Feminism has much to answer for denigrating men and encouraging women to seek independence whatever the cost to their families…. Feminism has betrayed an entire generation of women into childlessness. It is devastating. But far from taking responsibility for any of this, the leaders of the women’s movement close ranks against anyone who dares to question them – as I have learned to my cost. I don’t want to hurt my mother, but I cannot stay silent. I believe feminism is an experiment, and all experiments need to be assessed on their results. Then, when you see huge mistakes have been paid, you need to make alterations.

I suppose it’s easy enough to dismiss observations like mine, given my status as an obvious beneficiary of the White Male Patriarchy. It’s stupid to do so, since my observations are based on obvious historical and demographic facts, but it’s easy. It’s a little harder, however, when it happens to be the black daughter of a feminist icon pointing out exactly the same thing.

Either feminism dies or the West does. Take your pick. It’s not too late, not yet. But one day, it will be.

From the Daily Telegraph: “In a survey of 1231 societies, only 186 were wholly monogamous.”

Given this, it seems hard to argue that an expansion of the state concept regarding the nouns will not eventually encompass the adjectives.

It’s a pity Mr. Limbaugh didn’t see fit to talk like this back when it might have made a difference in the nominating process:

We have David Frum; we have Bill Kristol; we have David Brooks, and all of the learned conservative intelligentsia are all looking for ways to water down conservatism now. He just wrote this book slamming the left, but now we should unite with them, we should unite with the left. McCain, if elected, will be facing a heavily liberal Congress. Regardless what happens, we need a Democrat on our ticket. You know, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we quit tiptoeing through the tulips? Why don’t we just shut down the Republican Party and all become Democrats, if that’s the way to go. If McCain picking a Democrat, if unifying with Democrats, if walking across the aisle to do deals with Democrats, if that’s the way to go, then to hell with Republican Partyism. Let’s just all become Democrats, why put up a fight? Just become Democrats and end it. Because we have to end the partisan rancor. We have to end the partisan rancor and show that we have a big tent. Well, we have rancor in a democracy. Rancor is a good thing in a democracy. Maybe McCain should pick a female Hispanic lesbian Democrat running mate. That would unite us. That’s the way to go.”

It is somewhat amusing that after writing a book demonstrating that the concept of national political unity is a Fascist one, Jonah should float the idea of a unity ticket. But people should get off his back, the fact that he is speculating about how McCain is going to enrage the few remaining conservatives still thinking about voting for him doesn’t mean that Jonah wants him to do that. Has Jonah even said that he’ll vote for McCain in the first place?

People really do need to learn how to distinguish between strategic speculation and strategic advocacy.

Prediction: this police action will help turn the present generation of British into the least-law abiding ever:

New police powers to combat knife crime could cause increased antagonism amongst young people, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned. Police officers can now search people for knives and guns without reasonable suspicion they may be carrying a weapon.

The increased hatred for the police doesn’t stem from gangster rap or Hollywood, it comes from the certain knowledge that the police are the enemy. Younger people tend to be much more clear on this reality than their elders; one has only to be around a few policemen speaking frankly to know that the police regard every “civilian” as the enemy, or at least, a potential enemy. If you treat someone like an enemy, you shouldn’t be surprised when they begin to regard you as one in return.

It is, of course, predictably ironic that the total gun bans enacted in the last decade haven’t exactly reduced the amount of lethal violence being committed in Britain. Perhaps importing a few more folks from the Third World will help the situation….

Just in case you needed one more reason to vote third party instead of Republican this November:

In yet another sign of his pivoting toward the general election, Senator John McCain said at a roundtable with business leaders here today that comprehensive immigration reform should be a top priority for the next president. Mr. McCain’s willingness to address the issue was striking given how the topic became something of a third-rail for Republican presidential candidates during the primary….

The measure failed last spring after a firestorm of grassroots opposition. The issue became an important touchstone in the Republican primary, as the candidates scrambled to one-up each other in their tough talk on immigration as they sought to appeal to primary voters. Mr. McCain largely stopped talking about the issue and repeatedly invoked a mantra that he had gotten the message from voters that the borders needed to be secured first, before any solution for the illegal immigrants already here is addressed.

He got the message. And now, he’s ignoring it. How very shocking! Here’s my advice: don’t even THINK about voting for this lunatic. Even George W. Bush waited until after he got elected to start stabbing conservatives in the back. McCain is so eager to do the same, he simply can’t wait.

And yet, some eternal optimists will argue that McCain has a double-secret conservative plan to nominate conservative judges. Right. And meanwhile, Hillary gives Sen. Obama one last warning: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California….” Gee, I can’t imagine why she isn’t dropping out.

Rod Dreher reports that Tucker Carlson might run for the Libertarian nomination:

Will Tucker Carlson seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president? Well, that would be fun to watch, but honestly, can you think of a single pundit you’d be willing to vote for for president?

It’s interesting to see more Republicans beginning to show signs of leaving the Government’s Own Party. First Bob Barr, now Tucker Carlson. Now, if they’re genuinely disgusted by the big government Republicans, that’s great, but if this is simply talking-head attention-whoring, I don’t think it’s likely to be helpful.