Disqus - Latest Comments for Robotech_Master

Re: Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 9 Easter Eggs & References

Robotech_Master — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 23:39:22 -0000

Ryan, much as I love this article, you overlooked one of the very best references of all.

Though that long shuttlecraft approach to the Cerritos was straight out of TMP, the background music took on characteristics of the drydock music from the next Star Trek movie—borrowing all sorts of riffs and flourishes from the James Horner score, particularly "The Enterprise Clears Moorings," but using the Lower Decks theme as the motif. It was a note (so to speak) of sheer brilliance, and one of the few times the music (which is normally played just as straight as in a serious Star Trek show) is able to get in on the joke.

Re: New MLB rule allows players with positive COVID-19 tests to return

Robotech_Master — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:45:49 -0000

I'm sorry, how exactly does contagiousness "dissipate"? What does that even mean? How, exactly, is it a "positive" sign that players can be allowed to return to play even if they continue to test COVID positive?

Re: The researchers who once studied WoW's Corrupted Blood plague are now fighting the coronavirus

Robotech_Master — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 01:13:56 -0000

There are also news stories about white supremacists talking about ways to use the disease as a biological weapon. More griefing.

Re: Distillery turns their booze’s waste into free hand sanitizer (9 Photos) : theCHIVE

Robotech_Master — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 14:51:06 -0000

At least one other local distillery has had the same idea—this one in Indianapolis.

https://www.theindychannel....

Re: The Uncomfortable Question of Bernie Sanders’s Life Expectancy

Robotech_Master — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 12:43:14 -0000

The just-as-uncomfortable reality is that Bernie has enough appeal to his followers, who have demonstrated a willingness to sit out the election in droves if they think the Democratic party did him dirty, that if he doesn't get the nomination, whoever does won't win the general either, and we're in for a repeat of the 2016 election and four more years of Trump.

Re: Paramount Conset Decrees to Be Overturned, Altering Moviegoing – /Film

Robotech_Master — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:34:56 -0000

And this could also pave the way for streaming services like Netflix to open or buy their own chains of theaters, where they could screen the Netflix Original movies that they've been having such a hard time placing with corporate-owned movie theater chains.

Re: Paramount Conset Decrees to Be Overturned, Altering Moviegoing – /Film

Robotech_Master — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:31:07 -0000

Funny thing: the 1970s, when the Supreme Court acknowledged VCRs' legality, paving the way for the home video industry, was also when the Justice Department changed the way it looked at anti-trust to favor making consumers happy. Might these things be related?

Re: Paramount Conset Decrees to Be Overturned, Altering Moviegoing – /Film

Robotech_Master — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:29:05 -0000

As I said in a comment that is still pending approval, probably because it has links in it, this isn't exactly a new development. This has been coming since the Justice Department switched to the "consumer welfare" yardstick of anti-trust enforcement in the 1970s, when it started favoring things that made consumers happy rather than things that made competitors happy. This is also how come we have huge mega-conglomerate corporations now, like Amazon, Google, or any of the major motion picture studios that have gobbled up dozens upon dozens of other studios and publishers.

Over the last few years, streaming services had already started making their own content, and major conglomerate studios have started making their own streaming services—both of them combining content production and distribution in ways that would never have passed muster for movie studios and theaters under the Paramount decision. I suppose I should have known the writing was on the wall for tossing out Paramount sooner or later so that they could do the same thing with theaters that they'd been doing with streaming.

Re: Review: The Simpsons “Marge the Lumberjill”

Robotech_Master — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 08:22:19 -0000

Asia Kate Dillon isn't a "she," they're a they.

Re: Is it just me, or is James Bond just awful in Casino Royale?

Robotech_Master — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:20:34 -0000

The literary James Bond WAS a nasty, brutish misogynist. Timothy Dalton represented the first attempt to approach this "original" Bond in a movie...but audiences just weren't ready yet.

But by the time of Casino Royale, audiences were more receptive.

Re: Is it just me, or is James Bond just awful in Casino Royale?

Robotech_Master — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:14:48 -0000

No, Fleming was actually rather upset at Connery's casting, originally. But he was so won over by Connery's performance upon seeing the movie that he elected to give Bond Scottish ancestry in his next book, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Re: Will ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Apologize for These Songs?

Robotech_Master — Thu, 02 May 2019 17:20:30 -0000

Surprised they didn't bring up "Buy Me a Condo" spoofing a Jamaican immigrant coming to America.

Or the problematic Asian character in UHF, for which Al has already expressed regret himself.

(Not that I think Al should get flak for these, but I'm surprised the author of the article didn't.)

Re: Alabama lawmakers unanimously voted to stop issuing marriage licenses so gay couples can’t get one

Robotech_Master — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 11:57:38 -0000

Doesn't seem to me like the point is to STOP GLBT couples from getting married. Seems like the point is to make it so conservative state officials with agendas CAN'T stop GLBT couples from getting married. And of that, I heartily approve.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asks: ‘What Good Are Your Thoughts And Prayers?’

Robotech_Master — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 09:14:18 -0000

That someone feels like clicking a petition is nearly worthless as an actual indicator of strength of belief, though. It takes almost no effort. It takes considerably more effort for me to write this comment than it does to put my name on in online petition.

The people who really have an effect are the ones who take the time to scribble something with a pen on a sheet of paper, put a stamp on an envelope, and drop it in the mail. Not only does putting that degree of effort in demonstrate that they are serious, it also produces a physical artifact that makes their feelings tangible. Online petitions are just pixels on a screen.

Like the original comment said of prayer, online petitions are a way of making people feel good about themselves for having "done something" when they actually haven't done anything at all. That's what "slacktivism" means.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asks: ‘What Good Are Your Thoughts And Prayers?’

Robotech_Master — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 16:45:38 -0000

Not usually. They only indicate you felt strongly enough about it to click a link. That's all. They're a way of making people think they've done something when they actually haven't.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asks: ‘What Good Are Your Thoughts And Prayers?’

Robotech_Master — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:07:20 -0000

It's kind of like signing an online petition that way.

Re: Star Trek fandom may be approaching a crossroads

Robotech_Master — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 23:18:32 -0000

"To most people the coverage uniformly portrayed Star Wars fans on the whole as a pathetic, sad group that needed to get outside once in a while and enjoy some fresh air.

Why bring all this up? Because if folks aren’t careful, Star Trek fandom could be headed down a very similar path."

Yeah, if Star Trek fans aren't careful, William Shatner might tell them to get a life or something.

(I mean, seriously, Star Trek fans might be IN DANGER OF seeming sad and pathetic? Where has the author of this article been for the last thirty years? Star Trek fans are the POSTER CHILDREN for nerdy obsessives, to the point where it's basically a cliche. Being a Star Trek fan is commonly used as shorthand to suggest someone is a middle-aged virgin who still lives in his parents' basement. I'm not sure how a Discovery hatedom could possibly make things any worse.)

Let's not forget, there was much the same controversy when Next Generation first premiered. But we didn't have a widely available Internet to amplify things back then, so the hate largely faded away instead of building on itself in a feedback loop.

Re: How we can put an end to the "Irish Car Bomb"

Robotech_Master — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 13:54:49 -0000

I'd worry that might result in a glass of coffee creamer, though. :)

Re: How we can put an end to the "Irish Car Bomb"

Robotech_Master — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 14:32:29 -0000

I hope they never go to a bar that serves black and tans.

Re: Did You See That? RWBY Vol. 6 Ep. 2

Robotech_Master — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 21:00:51 -0000

Seriously, what part of "don't post anything from future episodes" don't people understand?

Re: Lime skips scooters in Seattle to reportedly test out small electric car rentals

Robotech_Master — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:39:29 -0000

Funny, that was a big complaint a lot of people had about the BlueIndy electric car sharing program here in Indianapolis. But it seems to be going strong.

Re: Lime skips scooters in Seattle to reportedly test out small electric car rentals

Robotech_Master — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:38:12 -0000

Interesting. If they did that in Indianapolis, it would put them in competition with the BlueIndy electric car sharing program that they have here.

Re: Voltron Showrunner Pens Open Apology Letter

Robotech_Master — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 19:41:25 -0000

They thought that telling a dramatic story, and making the death meaningful and not completely gratuitous, was enough to let them get away with it. They had good intentions, but they were apparently not fully aware of how badly the well has been poisoned by all the gratuitous uses that had come before. You just can't get away with the same things with gay characters that you can with straight ones.

If Shiro had been hetero and it had been his girlfriend who died--well, that's another problematic trope ("fridging"). But if Shiro had been a woman and Adam her boyfriend, no one would have batted an eye at his death. From the point of view of the story, it *was* good drama--Shiro has to deal with the fact that the last time he saw Adam, they parted with an argument, and now there can never be a reconciliation. It makes Shiro even more of a tragic character. But the delight that LBGT folks have in seeing Shiro as one of theirs is now tinged with the aggravation over seeing yet another LBGT character lose their lover--and whether or not the death was gratuitous doesn't change that.

Re: Lime applies to return to Indy with huge boost in scooters; Bird in wings, too

Robotech_Master — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 22:51:34 -0000

The 1,800 number is supposed to cover the entire city; the launch earlier this summer was mainly downtown north through Broad Ripple (with scooters in Irvington for one weekend, but no drop-off points there for scooters that had been charged). If they spread out those 1,800 across the whole city, from one side of the loop to the other, it could provide a decent density of them everywhere, not just downtown.

Re: The hot new trend in manga is elderly people

Robotech_Master — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 09:24:03 -0000

This isn't entirely a new trend. The question of what to do with/for the elderly has been in Japan's zeitgeist for a while now. Just look at Roujin Z, about a robotic elder-care medical bed that goes berserk.

Also, I am amused that the advertising on this post is all about retirement homes. 😝