Yeah, I was expecting to facepalm or cringe. Instead, this looks like it has a better basic plot than 50% of the actual Star Trek movies.

What gives, did an ex-TNG writer decide this was the only way to get his script to see the light of day?
>> ^Sarzy:

That looks like they're actually trying to tell a semi-credible Star Trek story. Not nearly as hilariously terrible as I thought it was going to be.

>> ^rychan:

But... But... that plot actually sounds interesting! WTF! Can I get a PG-13 version of this?


There's an R version of that Pirates porn...so yeah I'm sure they'll make one.

I agree with both of you.

What always baffled me was that he had an opportunity to be the Mister Rogers of this next generation and he didn't want that. Why wouldn't you want that?

>> ^Abel_Prisc:
Like spoco2 said, he comes off like he's trying wayyyy too hard to be edgy, and he seems like a dick.

>> ^bobknight33:
We created this mess we need to fix this mess which means great sacrifice today so our children and grand children wont get shafted.

Have a think about whether that's actually true.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258

Federally, non-defense discretionary makes up 19% of your federal government expenditures. It comprises things like spending on education, science/technology, and infrastructure. All of these are highly relevant to the skills, innovativeness and capacity for the country's economy to support the next generations. Collectively these 3 aspects make up 8% of expenditure. Education is 3% of the pie. How finely do you have to slice this pie to extract any meaningful budget benefits? Meanwhile Social Security is about 20%, Medicare/aid is 21%, other safety net programs are 14%.

Now yes, we're talking about state spending where the proportion is generally much more substantial (around a quarter), but the point is simple. Politically, it's not about leaving a better quality of life for latter generations. It's about preventing meltdown while riling the least amount of constituent groups. And guess what? Future generations don't have a vote yet and teachers are a manageable target. Making modest reductions to Social Security, Medicare/aid and pensions would not be onerous when shared around and in making the current generation pay back for the excesses of the past few decades, would be the most fair. It's a vote killer though.

The fact is, gutting discretionary spending is the very definition of shafting the problem down the line. When the US economy several decades on is low tax, full of wealthy corporations but with a workforce significantly made up of overseas workers while the domestic workforce struggles in the doldrums of low dead-end service jobs, let me know what you think.

Also, how is government unionisation wrong? Why is it that a group of people can't come together to collectively negotiate, especially where their wages are generally standardised?

Don't get me wrong, from what I've heard there's a multitude of things wrong with the teacher's unions. Resistant to any change, particularly to differentiate talent, endemic bad teachers that are impossible to remove. Exorbitant costs at certain levels with average/below average results. Gutting collective bargaining with the obvious intention of gutting their pay while not addressing any of these issues is not the way to go about it. The focus needs to be on a shift to merit pay, more inter school competition, standardised tests which are actually standardised and not set at the whim of local officials.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Fact is that the federal government doesn't need 4+ TRILLION dollars to perform its constitutionally mandated functions. It takes that money to do a lot of unnecessary crap that buys votes (particularly union votes). The government could easily be trimmed back to a lean 1 trillion dollars by divesting itself of foolish entanglements in social experimentation and other welfare entitlements.
The states that are facing fiscal collapse (New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Illinois, California, et al) are almost UNIVERSALLY states that been controlled by decades of left-wing liberal "tax & spend" nanny state philosophy. The Chris Christies and Walkers of the nation were voted in to clean up the mess. To put it plainly, people got tired of dealing with children-liars who promise the world while brooming problems onto the next generation - and so they hired some grown-ups.
The kid in this vid doesn't come off as 'destroying' anything except his own credibility. It's an open display of a person who is not a critical thinker, and who has little or no understanding of economics, or civics.


Those states also have much higher income per capita than the red states. They're doing fine economically, just not quite balancing the budget.

It's a bit paradoxical that the states with the highest income per capita, which contribute much more to the Federal Government's income than they recieve in spending, are blue states, while the states with the lowest income per capita, which contribute much less to the federal government's income than they recieve in spending, are red states.

Maybe the reason the people in the red states think the government doesn't do jack shit for them is because they're in a state with both a poor population AND low taxes so as a consequence the government doesn't have the budget to do jack shit.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Fact is that the federal government doesn't need 4+ TRILLION dollars to perform its constitutionally mandated functions. It takes that money to do a lot of unnecessary crap that buys votes (particularly union votes). The government could easily be trimmed back to a lean 1 trillion dollars by divesting itself of foolish entanglements in social experimentation and other welfare entitlements.
The states that are facing fiscal collapse (New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Illinois, California, et al) are almost UNIVERSALLY states that been controlled by decades of left-wing liberal "tax & spend" nanny state philosophy. The Chris Christies and Walkers of the nation were voted in to clean up the mess. To put it plainly, people got tired of dealing with children-liars who promise the world while brooming problems onto the next generation - and so they hired some grown-ups.
The kid in this vid doesn't come off as 'destroying' anything except his own credibility. It's an open display of a person who is not a critical thinker, and who has little or no understanding of economics, or civics.


Oh please, red and blue states are hurting across the board. Speaking for my own state (very red) we're hurting financially too and it's the same nonsense, give tax breaks away like candy to the people and companies who don't need them while at the same time, punishing the needy. We've gone through this shit before and it just doesn't work!

By your same logic, your top earners don't NEED all that extra money their tax breaks and bonuses net them. If you've got such moral outrage for the public sector "supposedly" having too much money, then where is the moral outrage for the private for having way more than they need when you're a top earner. Double standard much?

I totally agree that cuts need to happen, but they need to start at the top where it's fattest, not the bottom where it's already lean.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Fact is that the federal government doesn't need 4+ TRILLION dollars to perform its constitutionally mandated functions. It takes that money to do a lot of unnecessary crap that buys votes (particularly union votes). The government could easily be trimmed back to a lean 1 trillion dollars by divesting itself of foolish entanglements in social experimentation and other welfare entitlements.
The states that are facing fiscal collapse (New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Illinois, California, et al) are almost UNIVERSALLY states that been controlled by decades of left-wing liberal "tax & spend" nanny state philosophy. The Chris Christies and Walkers of the nation were voted in to clean up the mess. To put it plainly, people got tired of dealing with children-liars who promise the world while brooming problems onto the next generation - and so they hired some grown-ups.
The kid in this vid doesn't come off as 'destroying' anything except his own credibility. It's an open display of a person who is not a critical thinker, and who has little or no understanding of economics, or civics.


On that note, Texas is sitting on a budget surplus last I checked, but then again we are the best country on this continent

Fact is that the federal government doesn't need 4+ TRILLION dollars to perform its constitutionally mandated functions. It takes that money to do a lot of unnecessary crap that buys votes (particularly union votes). The government could easily be trimmed back to a lean 1 trillion dollars by divesting itself of foolish entanglements in social experimentation and other welfare entitlements.

The states that are facing fiscal collapse (New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Illinois, California, et al) are almost UNIVERSALLY states that been controlled by decades of left-wing liberal "tax & spend" nanny state philosophy. The Chris Christies and Walkers of the nation were voted in to clean up the mess. To put it plainly, people got tired of dealing with children-liars who promise the world while brooming problems onto the next generation - and so they hired some grown-ups.

The kid in this vid doesn't come off as 'destroying' anything except his own credibility. It's an open display of a person who is not a critical thinker, and who has little or no understanding of economics, or civics.

And here's the list of the scenes;

Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Hide and Q" - 1987)
Jeff Daniels (Gettysburg - 1993)
Iain Glen (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - 1990)
Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French (Coraline - 2009)
Frank Grimes (Britannia Hospital - 1982)
Robin Atkin Downes (Babylon 5 - "The Paragon of Animals" - 1998)
Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I - 1986)
Mitchell Ryan (Grosse Pointe Blank)

I believe he covered this... we're pinheads, desperately attacking him, ipso facto the conversation is over.

'Don't let your community raise more Bill O'Reilly's; volunteer your time to encouraging curiosity in the next generation!'

>> ^grinter:

how did the deity get there?

These things can be VERY intimidating... Science, Math, Physics, Chemistry...

Some people refuse to admit that these things are intimidating, often because they were taught to go the easy route of pushing their curiosity down.

BUT, I bet that a 9-year-old Bill O'Reilly was asking 'how do the tides work?', 'where did the moon come from?', etc., ... and if somebody had just barely pulled back the curtain and shown 9-year-old Bill that it is GOOD to be curious, and can be rewarding (and often easy) to find answers about how stuff works ... well, he might be a different person.


Hmm, this kind-of turned into a PSA about volunteering to help the next generation... 'Don't let your community raise more Bill O'Reilly's; volunteer your time to encouraging curiosity in the next generation!'

>> ^blankfist:

Let me try my top 21 predictions for the next decade! A lot of this will be US centric.
1. HDTV dimensions will increased from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160.
2. Screens will be increased to print pixel depths. 300dpi is only the beginning.
3. An affordable, flexible LCD material will change the tech and advertising world. Maybe the material can be cut to fit any size?
4. The war in Iraq will be over. But the occupation will last for decades. Other wars in the Middle East will continue.
5. Sarah Palin will never be President.
6. The US Deficit will grow to a historical high. As the Dollar and the Renminbi compete for world currency a new Cold War will be declared.
7. Top 40 music will suck.
8. The browser will be integrated as part of the OS and no longer treated as just software. Your work software (IDEs, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.) will be treated as online plug-ins, savable (with versioning) in the cloud.
9. Electricity will be wireless.
10. Reality Shows will be the new sitcom. Again.
11. China's working class will stage small worker union revolts, but the scale and number will be dramatically inflated by the media.
12. Tommy Lee Jones, Adam Ant, Joel Coen, Matt Groening, Bill Clinton, Lorne Michaels, Sam Elliot, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Steve Jobs and Roy Scheider. One of them will probably pass away.
13. Google will acquire Facebook.
14. Apple's stock will drop if Jobs passes away. They'll try to embody the innovate spirit of Jobs, but they'll miss the mark and stick to just updating the current products like iPod, iPhone, Macbooks, etc.
15. There will be an assassination attempt on a Congressman. Congress will pass into law the Vigilant Act that declares DC to "be at war". As a result no civilians except current residents are permitted to enter. Under the Act any type of search and seizure in DC is legal. To counteract the bad press, the America Museum is opened in Virginia.
16. GM will file for bankruptcy.
17. Like the huge increase in gas prices as become part of day for the US, the people will grow accustomed to the high rate of unemployment. Politicians will no longer talk about gas prices or unemployment.
18. Marijuana is legalized in three states. It's legalized for medicinal use in seventeen states.
19. Autism is linked to the artificial sweetener, Aspartame.
20. Most internet enabled TVs and projectors become equipped with a'la carte system of channel ordering. So you only buy what channels you want streamed to your tv.
21. A new phone technology is developed that works a lot like bit torrent. The phone's signal piggy backs off other phones in the area, and the more phones in an area the better the signal. Most people, however, turn this feature off because it's rumored to be a security weakness.


To answer a select few points:

1. I thought 4k displays would be up next? (4096×3072; as a coder I hate widescreens. I need horizontal screen real estate).
3. This will happen sooner than we'd like
7. When did it not?
9. See 3.
Addendum to 21: We will see a surge of private networks, linked by VPNs and shared by friends; mostly done by people trying to run away from all the crass advertisements and data gathering schemes in the net today.

The next generation of Polar Bear cams: http://files.g4tv.com/ImageDb3/249862_S/Portal-2-Co-Op.jpg

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2007/12/07PARIS4723.html

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 004723

USTR FOR SUSAN SCHWAB
DEPARTMENT FOR E - REUBEN JEFFERY AND EB - DAN SULLIVAN
FROM AMBASSADOR STAPLETON

SUBJECT: FRANCE AND THE WTO AG BIOTECH CASE

¶1. (C) Summary: Mission Paris recommends that that the USG reinforce
our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by
publishing a retaliation list when the extend "Reasonable Time
Period" expires. In our view, Europe is moving backwards not
forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with
Austria, Italy and even the Commission. In France, the "Grenelle"
environment process is being implemented to circumvent science-based
decisions in favor of an assessment of the "common interest."
Combined with the precautionary principle, this is a precedent with
implications far beyond MON-810 BT corn cultivation. Moving to
retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to
EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.
In fact, the pro-biotech side in France -- including within the farm
union -- have told us retaliation is the only way to begin to begin
to turn this issue in France. End Summary.

¶2. (C) This is not just a bilateral concern. France will play a
leading role in renewed European consideration of the acceptance of
agricultural biotechnology and its approach toward environmental
regulation more generally. France expects to lead EU member states
on this issue during the Slovene presidency beginning in January and
through its own Presidency in the second half of the year. Our
contacts have made clear that they will seek to expand French
national policy to a EU-wide level and they believe that they are in
the vanguard of European public opinion in turning back GMO's. They
have noted that the member states have been unwilling to support the
Commission on sanctioning Austria's illegal national ban. The GOF
sees the ten year review of the Commission's authorization of MON 810
as a key opportunity and a review of the EFSA process to take into
account societal preferences as another (reftels).

¶3. (C) One of the key outcomes of the "Grenelle" was the decision to
suspend MON 810 cultivation in France. Just as damaging is the GOF's
apparent recommitment to the "precautionary principle." Sarkozy
publicly rejected a recommendation of the Attali Commission (to
review France's competitiveness) to move away from this principle,
which was added to the French constitution under Chirac.

¶4. (C) France's new "High Authority" on agricultural biotech is
designed to roll back established science-based decision making. The
recently formed authority is divided into two colleges, a scientific
college and a second group including civil society and social
scientists to assess the "common interest" of France. The
authority's first task is to review MON 810. In the meantime,
however, the draft biotech law submitted to the National Assembly and
the Senate for urgent consideration, could make any biotech planting
impossible in practical terms. The law would make farmers and seed
companies legally liable for pollen drift and sets the stage for
inordinately large cropping distances. The publication of a registry
identifying cultivation of GMOs at the parcel level may be the most
significant measure given the propensity for activists to destroy GMO
crops in the field.

¶5. (C) Both the GOF and the Commission have suggested that their
respective actions should not alarm us since they are only
cultivation rather than import bans. We see the cultivation ban as a
first step, at least by anti-GMO advocates, who will move next to ban
or further restrict imports. (The environment minister's top aide
told us that people have a right not to buy meat raised on biotech
feed, even though she acknowledged there was no possible scientific
basis for a feed based distinction.) Further, we should not be
prepared to cede on cultivation because of our considerable planting
seed business in Europe and because farmers, once they have had
experience with biotech, become its staunchest supporters.

¶6. Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target
retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a
collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the
worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and
must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an
early victory.

¶7. (C) President Sarkozy noted in his address in Washington to the
Joint Session of Congress that France and the United States are
"allies but not aligned." Our cooperation with France on a range of
issues should continue alongside our engagement with France and the
EU on ag biotech (and the next generation of environmental related
trade concerns.) We can manage both at the same time and should not
let one set of priorities detract from the other.

PARIS 00004723 002 OF 002



Stapleton

>> ^osama1234:

Personally, I find it amusing that the next generation of Steve Wozniaks are much harder to create given the crippling level of (some form or another of) proprietary/IP/DRM/hardware locks implemented by companies like Apple.


Bingo sir, bingo.