>> ^jwray:
Maybe the reason we haven't noticed any alien radio signals yet is because civilizations take billions of years to evolve and the time between the discovery of radio and nuclear annihilation is typically less than 0.00000025% of that because idiots eventually get the nuclear codes.


<irne>Maybe they're all asexual and have bi-curious relationships that are not tied to propagation of their species. Thus, god hates fags! (Brimstone, spacefrogs, killing of first brood, making the rivers flow blue, etc)</irne>

So the French are capable of comedy now? I thought all their films were about love affairs and depressed brooding with a hint of pretentiousness!

Ah, yeah I get your point. Well, who knows, it's coming out soon and we can always hope to be pleasantly surprised with what they did to him.

In reply to this comment by Kreegath:
I'm not saying either Joker hasn't done bad things, that's really what they do for a living, being comic book badguys and all. However, that a villain has done bad things doesn't necessarily make their persona characteristics dark, emo goth with a sad undertone.
That's where my problem with this trailer lies, just like with most of these hero movies as of late. They don't bother to enhance or subdue the established characteristics and/or personality traits of the villains/heroes, they simply change them altogether to fit in the darker, brooding mold that seems to be so popular nowadays.
What I am saying is that based on that preview, the Joker they portray seems no different from any other villain depicted in major film releases the last couple of years. Basically, and this is again only based on what's seen in that trailer, the two things noticable that sets aside him as the Joker from Mr. Generic is the trademark face paint (although a butchered paint job in this case, as I speculated they were probably forced to add it to make it clearer that it in fact is the Joker) aswell as his name. That in no way means I'm advocating they make the Joker exactly the same in every movie, but if they're going to use the Joker the least they could do is use the Joker and not some (un)original character extremely loosely based on the Joker.

In reply to this comment by Shepppard:
..the dark emo side of the joker? You DO know the joker is a complete homocidal maniac, he blew up one of the Robins AND his mother, and crippled barbara gordon (Batgirl) by showing up to her house, knocking on the door, waiting til she answered and shot her point blank, with a smile on his face the entire time.

There really isn't a villian that GETS more dark then the joker..

You'll have to settle for my sister's brood of Toy Poodles:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2611998170_84db08665c_o.jpg

From left to right: Frannie, Gracie (Frannie's daughter), Ginger Rose (Frannie's daughter) and Gracie (Frannie's older sister, same parents different litter)

And I almost forgot about one that comes to visit. My sister called her Pepper (also Frannie's daughter) until her new owner called her Cocoa. But then she ended up with a second owner who called her Sweet Pea. Here she is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moart/2611998824/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Love it. Finally we must purge The Sift of all the old, broken-willed, burned-out members. The Sift has the next brood of cocks and hen, the young and energetic, who will rule the roost.

(But then they'll have to go back to school...:)

Here is a funny review of the film.

Also the following from VicSarjoo at Amazon.com...

Extremely reminiscent of cold war sleepers like "Gorky Park" and "Reds", Gymkata is one of the most carefully scripted and brooding commentaries on American foreign policy during the Reagan years. The film is more like a documentary than a work of fiction in its deep attention to historical accuracies and avoidance of hyperbole.

Robert Clouse's directorial adaption of Dan Tyler Moore's Pulitzer-shortlisted novel manages to capture timbre of the times and the voice of the decade in a script of intricate complexity. Kurt Thomas's portrayal of the hero across from Tetchie Agbayani's heroine is one of the most dynamic and surprising chemistries since Bogart and Bergman's 43 years before.

However, where "Casablanca" fell far short of documenting the spirit (and fears) of the times on a granular level, Gymkata and its cast is unafraid to take this plunge.

In characterizations deeply respectful, and yet photo-accurate, regarding world cultures and global motifs, Gymkata manages spell the poly-sided views of complex conflicts that occurred during the final grey gasps of the Cold War.

Amazingly Gymkata manages a foreshadowing the rise of the Neo-Cons some 20 years later in its depictions of the United States use of aggression in strategically important hotspot regions -- and as well -- the film is able to show that the nationalistic concerns of the competing sovreignties (both ally & foe) remain unchanged despite which decade these events play themselves out in.

A timeless film, Gymkata should be a core film study in every graduate level political science class.

wtf?? why is my toaster bumming around watering gardens and picking up litter? better go brood in some dark corner for 40 years and then come back with a blast, all skinny and sexy and blonde.

Hmm, I'm not sure this is the one on Brood War, but you may be right. I remember that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--v3YHmiUHk was on the Starcraft CD. And yeah, blizzard is very adept at cutscenes and trailers.

I think this came on the brood wars CD, which was where I first saw it. For whatever else you say about blizzard they know how to make teaser trailers and cutscenes.

As someone who raised chickens when I was a lad, I find most of Pam's arguments don't exactly go along with what we see. The living by thousands, eh that's a decent argument and something that's fundamentally difficult to get away with as you can clearly see it. Now we never raised more than say ~ 30 chickens at a time. I doubt that the lameness is due to weighing too much but rather due to being trampled by the other 9,999 chickens in your roost. We probably had one or two chickens in a batch that may receive some type of injury due to trampling by the others. Incidentally, the birds are debeaked to keep them from attacking one another. I cant speak to the degree that the birds are debeaked in the video but if left to their own devices, you would have a far greater number of birds injured from the rest of the flock if they were not debeaked. Like in most large group of animals, the smaller, weaker animals are often brutalized by the rest of the brood. Debeaking for us was similar to clipping your nails, I've never seen blood on the beaks of birds we've done.
As far as the treatment of the birds by the slaughterhouse and when gathering them, I can sympathize. I feel more, however, for the end user of the meat than I do for the birds. When we slaughtered chickens, we never stunned them before cutting their throats, BTW. I also doubt that the chickens see boiling water before they're dead. Part of cutting their throat is to remove the blood which will only turn to a nasty goo once boiled and who wants that in their chicken?
The real problem here is that demand for the chicken (KFC or otherwise) is driving the sheer numbers of chickens raised and slaughtered. The cost of making the changes that PITA is asking for is very high compared to the profits these guys might be making and the timeliness with which they can deliver their product. A lot of the same arguments could be made for beef, pork or any other meat.
If everyone could make a living doing bad TV shows, Pam, we would (er, or might).

Eastern Promises (2007)
A History of Violence (2005)
Spider (2002)
Camera (2000/III)
eXistenZ (1999)
Crash (1996/I)
M. Butterfly (1993)
Naked Lunch (1991)
"Scales of Justice" (1 episode)
Dead Ringers (1988)
"Friday the 13th" (1 episode, 1988)
The Fly (1986)
The Dead Zone (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
Scanners (1981)
The Brood (1979)
Fast Company (1979)
Rabid (1977)
"Teleplay" (1976) TV Series (episode "The Italian Machine")
Shivers (1975)
"Peep Show" (2 episodes, 1975)
Lakeshore (1972) (TV)
Fort York (1972) (TV)
In the Dirt (1972) (TV)
Don Valley (1972) (TV)
Scarborough Bluffs (1972) (TV)
Winter Garden (1972) (TV)
Jim Ritchie Sculptor (1971) (TV)
Tourettes (1971) (TV)
Letter from Michelangelo (1971) (TV)
"Programme X" (1970) TV Series (episode "Secret Weapons")
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Stereo (1969)
From the Drain (1967)
Transfer (1966)

Watch out for the brooding brunette, blondie!

So true, coupland. But I couldn't think of another "p" word that was clean. And there simply has never been a "plague of cicadas."

As grspec and firefly can confirm, the 17 year brood reaches end-of-days Biblical plague proportions in about three weeks. And that buzzing shrieking noise! So they will always be locusts to me.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

For these kind of human traits - I always try to imagine what would be *natural* without any cultural or societal influence for humans. If there was no stigma or shame attached, would humans breastfeed to a much later age? I think the answer is yes.

In primal societies - a woman would be almost constantly lactating, providing nutrition for whoever needed it in her brood - an artificial age limit would just not be in the picture. If a 12 year old kid was sick, going back on the breast might be the only medicine available.

It's amazing - woman carry containers of repenlenishing high-energy food on their chest! What an incredible adaption.

I know for a fact that in New Guinea a woman may breastfeed a runt piglet if the sow does not have enough nipples.

What I'm saying is - try to step out of your Victorian influenced Western mindset of "what's right" and view breastfeeding as feeding, not sexual peversion - no matter what the age or situation.

The original joke (or at least one version of it):


There were three engineers in a bar having a couple of drinks and brooding about what kind of engineer God is.
"Of course God is a Mechanical Engineer," said the Mechanical Engineer, " look at the human skeleton, it's a marvel of joints, linkages, support and it gives such free movement to the body."
" No way, God's an Electrical Engineer", piped up the Electrical Engineer," just think about the brain and the nervous system, it's an incredibly vast and complex electrical masterpiece!"
"You're both wrong," said the Civil Engineer, "God's a Civil Engineer!”
“No way,” The others chorused, “how could God be a Civil Engineer?”
“Well, think about it,” the civil engineer replied, “what other engineer would run a waste water line through a recreational area?"