Posts by Steve Parks
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... that second paragraph actually does describe a lot of what is going on in the New Atheism (especially Hitchins and Dawkins, [along with Harris and Dennett] who are amongst the loudest atheists).
This article by Julian Baggini from last year is apropos of this discussion.
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@Tom, you need to meet more potheads :) My friends who still use regularly *never* rant on about legalisation.
I took Tom to be referring to the tendency of some potheads to talk about it a lot in general, not necessarily just about legalisation.
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... though perhaps someone could explain to me how this is our first FIFA points - what happened in 1982?).
It's their first points in the World Cup tournament tables - as in: 3 pts for a win, 1 for a draw. In '82 we didn't win or draw a single game, and so earned no points.
(ETA, after getting to the finals tournament, that is. We earned points to get there in our region.)
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... high scoring games can be over in the first half, or earlier.
Also, games that are generally high scoring, such as basketball and netball, can be pretty boring. Being easy to score doesn't make the game more interesting.
A moment of Smeltz brilliance on the break? It's the only way I can see us getting something,
Close, PD. Smeltz sure made an important contribution to the goal.
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You should have watched the Germany v Australia game. The scoreline flattered the Australians, frankly.
There's a joke in that somewhere - how do you flatter an Australian?
Or even just: "and don't call me Frankly".
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Nope
No, I really do have work in six hours.
...until they can get beyond low-scoring draws...
You should have watched the Germany v Australia game. The scoreline flattered the Australians, frankly.
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Yippy!
I won't get to sleep for an hour at least.
I've got work in 6 hours!
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err...'gripe', I meant.
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Hence the engineering, as opposed to merely training. What would have been the point of experimenting on them, if they only needed to be trained?
If your concern in such a series is over tightly realistic explanations, then it's a fair enough grip, I guess.* For me, I don't particularly care why the Dharma Initiative experimented on bears as opposed to whatever other odd animal. The problem is that the Dharma stuff itself wasn't satisfactorily resolved, despite being a huge part of three or four seasons.
(*In hindsight, I can't believe I'm arguing with someone over whether it makes more sense for genetically modified polar bears, reindeer or horses with coats on to turn a wheal on a magic Island.)
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Because when training an animal to perform a task that involves pulling a heavy weight on command, the polar bear is the natural choice.
They weren’t merely training them, were they? I thought they were “experimenting” with them – i.e. engineering them in some way. What animal would have been “natural”, given the situation described to you?
Indeed. It was like "all that stuff you thought was cool and relevant? It wasn't. We were just filling space with it."
I wouldn't quite go that far. It was, basically a Grail Quest story, where the what could be seen as random encounters on the way draw out and refine the characters of the questers until one is fit to take the Grail (or two in this case). I'm surprised more people do not seem to have made this comparison.
Nice way of putting it. That’s more or less my take, although I must say I’m still disappointed with the last season overall, and the final in particular. But even there some aspects, such as the final shot, were excellent.
On the debate over ‘character story’ verses ‘moving plot forward’ I disagree with the view of most here that Lost should principally be seen as about the latter. One of the strengths of the series was that it integrated the character arc and ‘soap’ aspects and the plot/intrigue perfectly with the themes and philosophical aspects. Character interactions and thematic development were two sides of the same coin. Looked at that way, it is easy to see how it could be a very impressive tv saga with a disappointing denouement. If you watched it purely in ‘whodunnit’ terms, then yeah, it was rubbish.