wtf_man wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 14:11:
Disagree about Assange. Publishing classified military information is not journalism, nor was it done as whistle-blowing. Manning should have been shot. Assange deserves prison (which he practically has been in one forma or another since 2012).

Totally different situation than Snowden whistle-blowing unconstitutional domestic surveillance.

Assange isn't even a US citizen and his work was purely journalistic in nature, a source gave him the info, he published it like he published all the other info packets that appeared on wikileaks, that's it. The burden of proof to the contrary is on the shoulders of the people accusing him of something else than journalism, not the other way around.

That the US can take an Australian journalist and do whatever they want with him would set a very stifling precedent for free press all over the world for any information related to US interests. That's authoritarianism on a worldwide imperialistic scale, completely egregious, ethically dubious and morally objectionable.

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Just turn it around to see how it feels. China trying to extradite and convict a US citizen for doing journalistic work? Would you defend China's actions? Of course your wouldn't.
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The Flying Penguin wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 14:02:
No opinion on Assange, but here's what I think about Snowden:

While I think what he did was necessary and heroic, that does not give him a pass. He still violated the oath he took, as a contractor for the NSA.

He took an oath to uphold the constitution. What he found was deeply unconstitutional, he was thus duty bound, by oath, to oppose and expose those crimes against the constitution.

The way the US has been acting lately with its whistleblowers, treating them like foreign spies on US soil and attacking them with laws related to spying is simply disgusting.

Both cases are troubling, seems like pointing out US gov crimes is a crime. Only in dystopian authoritarian regimes do you usually see that practice.

Vaguely reminds me of the practices of the USSR pre-Gorbachev and that's saying something...

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Turn it around again, say Venezuela or Cuba, etc, tried to do something similar, the US would be the first pushing for regime change.
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The DOUBLE STANDARDS of the US Empire are sickening. HYPOCRISY is dripping from every pores of the US Gov apparatus like pus from a festering wound and it's patently obvious to most people living outside the US. The fact that US citizens can't see it for what it is and haven't arrived at the same consensus is a sign that you have SERIOUS INTERNAL ISSUES to resolve.

Assange acted like a journalist should every step of the way and his conviction would be a crippling blow to free journalism.

Snowden acted for the greater good of US citizens with everything to lose and nothing to personally gain.

Both are heroes in my book.

Greentiger wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 09:00:

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 08:40:
Yeah, I guess I should have left that out, my important comment was me thinking it was "okay". Unless I missed something The Orville is not in this category, it is a comedy.

It started off that way, but it's cut way down in season 2. I've enjoyed all the episodes so far. B-story humor is the best, like when Dan was hounding Mercer to put musak in the lifts.

Brilliant move by Seth, he had to sell it to FOX as a comedy at 1st, otherwise they probably wouldn't have approved. Once approved he had more latitude to direct it where he wanted to go all along. It's clear what the soul of the project was all along even despite this. It's classic Trek.

I suspect season 3, free of FOX, to be even better than the 2nd, and that's saying something, season 2 ( and a lot of season 1 ) saw a whole bunch of good, classic trek episodes.

This comment was edited on Dec 4, 2020, 18:44.

The reviews on GOG are pretty bad...

Seems like this game came out of the oven half-baked, even a year after release.

Too bad.

Razumen wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 01:46:
Loved the Orville, it did a much better job capturing what I liked about the previous Star Trek series than Discovery or Picard could ever hope to get close to.

This^^ The STD infection and Poocard are just downright horrible.

The only good Trek remaining if you watched all the shows up to Enterprise are in novel form nowadays ( and there are ~200 ). And avoid the novels based on STD and Poocard, they're just as bad as the shows, written for an ADHD audience and stripped of all the soul that makes The Orville and the older series the jewels that they are.

IMHO, the last best hope for Babylon 5 ( pun intended ) rests with fanmade AI upscaling. Same with DS9.

BTW, there are also novels based on Babylon 5... And a lot of them are pretty damn good. I especially loved the Technomage serie and a few revolving around Bester and Lyta.

Cutter wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 17:18:
Really? What about 'The Drumhead' or 'Where Silence Has Lease' or 'Justice'? And of course the best of them all, 'The Measure of a Man', is Data a person or property.

All very good episodes indeed.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 17:07:
Yeah, major moment in Trek history. I'd have to see if Ronald Moore was the writer of that episode. You can see that episode as the seed for the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which he was the major writer on.

And if some of you haven't seen it, watch Babylon 5, because that series was all about morality conflicts, long before the official 'dark' era of television sci fi. If you can get past the sometimes painfully cheesy Amiga CGI, that show was a very deep dive into the flawed morals of it's protagonists, and analysis of honorable, and sometimes ultimately heroic, antagonists.

Not according to wikipedia, story by "Peter Allan Fields" for "In The Pale Moonlight" DS9 episode.

And yes, Babylon 5 is in my top three best TV series ever, INCREDIBLE acting by Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik, their characters were epic, easily eclipsing the main protagonists ( Sheridan and Delenn ).

Altho those episodes where Sheridan is captured by Earth's forces, tortured and then rescued were some of the finest involving the main protagonist and Delenn has a few episodes where she shines too. Come to think of it, pretty much all the main characters have their own amazing episode moments, but G'kar and Londo undoubtedly stand out.

I really wish they'd give that serie the HD/4K facelift treatment. It hasn't aged well visually, but the story and shades of grey plots... man that story, pure genius. Season 1 might be a tad painful to get through as it's basically setting up the stage for the other seasons unrelenting epic rollercoaster, but the pain of S01 is well worth it in the end.

This comment was edited on Dec 3, 2020, 17:41.

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 13:57:

Simon Says wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 13:55:
Episode "Chain of Command" Season 6 Episode 11, involving Cardassians and torture.

Ahh.. didn't catch it... ah well... (no need for the video)

Hint: Any sentences like this with a capitalized/shouted number that is lower than what is claimed = dead giveaway that it refers to that particular scene.

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 13:14:

Simon Says wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 12:56:
I see FIVE ethical quandaries.

The TNG fans will understand.

Out of those five, the DS9 one was by far the best episode, followed closely by the TNG episode.

I'd like think of myself as a fan of TNG, although admittedly I like DS9 more for the long arc story-lines. But I don't understand what you mean..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moX3z2RJAV8

"Chain of Command" S06 E11, involving Cardassians and torture.

I see FIVE ethical quandaries.

The TNG fans will understand.

Out of those five, the DS9 one was by far the best episode, followed closely by the TNG episode.

"Republican in favor of greater government oversight of speech on the internet, to the Federal Communications Commission"

Funny how the Trumpists accused the US's center right ( liberals, so called "left" in the US's deeply right skewed Overton Window ) of being anti-free speech in universities then a few years later, turn around and want to do much worse from a government level.

That bad joke price...

Cutter wrote on Nov 30, 2020, 21:12:
It'll be interesting to see if Biden picks another Wheeler or goes corporate whore on this one.

He went corporate whores / banksters / lobbyists with all his other picks so far...

Burrito of Peace wrote on Nov 30, 2020, 17:10:
Weird. Been computing for, oh, 40+ years now. Never had an infection.

Had tons, fixed tons on other computers. Usually depends on 2 things:

- You going to the seedier places of the internet? More risks.

- You know nothing about computing and click everywhere.

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 23:11:
So, any manipulation of supply and demand is "fucked up"? Context is important here. And jacking around the supply and demand of a game console is damn far down the list of "bad things" to do to others.

NOTE, I think people whining about not being able to get their hands on tech products reek of privilege ( hint: I'm not in the market for any tech product, haven't been for years ), but you asked me about supply and demand, so there you have it:

Supply and demand kills ~9 million people every year die of starvation, among them ~3.1 million kids, accounting for half the kids deaths under 5 years old ( those are the most conservative estimates btw ) despite enough calories ( 2000 calories/day recommended for healthy BMI ) distributed through supply and demand to feed 12 billions on a bit less than ~8 billions planet, because those ~9 millions don't generate enough money demand signals to the market for food.

Overall, structural violence deaths from supply and demand in overabundant supply situations kills around 18 millions/year according to the most conservative estimates ( the most pessimistic go as high as ~40 millions ).

Meanwhile, 800 million obeses and counting as well as 39% of the world's population is overweight ( ~3 billions ) because they generate too much money demand for food.

113 millions are chronically at risk of dying of hunger at less than 400 calories/day, ~500 millions are chronically starving at less 800 cals/day and around 822 millions are chronically underfed at less than 1600 cals/day. These numbers were dropping ( 1990: 1011 million, 2015: 784 million ), but the trend has reversed ( 2016: 804 million 2017: 821 million 2018: 822 million ).

Now, IF you can still tell me with a straight face this isn't fucked up... You might be a sociopath, or just way too deep into that CULT-ure's dogmas and taboos bullshit to think straight.

People who don't need the money for anything life critical acting like egotistical a-holes and someone defends him... Why am I not surprised?

Fucked up cult-ure we live in.

Dash wrote on Nov 27, 2020, 18:01:
...Is it wrong that I'd kinda want Sony to do the same to scalpers? Just soft-brick the system so they have to return it?

Some guy tried to scalp dozens of PS5s. He posted to Twitter "Fuck your feelings, Digital: 900$, Disc : 1100$ with a pic of the PS5 pile."

Same day, he got doxxed, less than 24 hours later, all the PS5s got robbed.

NOT CONDONING DOXXING AND THEFT HERE. But damn... "Fuck your feelings." He had it coming.

Also, check this out.

RedEye9 wrote on Nov 26, 2020, 16:56:
It's getting scary in that you almost can't tell when a good AI is reading to you.
Is there an uncanny valley term for that?

No idea... but it feels like it could be an actor pretending to be an AI. Uncanny indeed.

Why? Seeing how "well" we managed this pandemic across the world... ( except a few mentally sane countries exceptions )

COVIDIOT fits perfectly.

Look at all those GPUnobtainium... Kek