Seriously, really, I recognize the adhoc and chaotic nature of the filming but would it really have been that hard to take a step back and have a clear video? An epileptic kangaroo could've held the camera more steady.

There's almost nothing to see here unless you want to freeze frame at opportune moments.

My apologies to any epileptic kangaroo filmmakers out there I might have offended.

>> ^dag:

Shame about the bow tie.


Hey now ...... bow ties are cool.

In my fantasy universe Stephen Colbert will play the Medic in a real life TF2 movie. Make it happen.

I find it humorous that people are talking about the "waste" of medicare.

Medicare wastes a lot of money, sure. I wouldn't agree with the 25% ratio that is being parroted here. The point that is fundamentally missed is that if you compared Medicare "waste" to any other private insurance company's "waste" and incorporate in "overhead" (read as: any money that does not pay for a medical cost or service at an equitable rate) and you will easily see which service is more efficient. That is the fundamental point that Weiner has made.

There are no claims for perfection here. There is simply a claim that if you put PrivateInsuranceCo#27 and Medicare side by side and compared costs, Medicare would be better.

The important numbers are simply this: Money in to money out. How much money is actually going into an insurance company (including Medicare) vs. how much money is being used to pay for medical services? You bet your ass if you look at a private insurance company you're going to see a huge insulting ratio of costs that have nothing to do with helping me or you.

I did some armchair research and basically determined that most of the waste of Medicare are from doctors or services requesting overpayments on services where they used to entertain higher premiums from private insurance companies through what I can only consider nefarious purposes. Forgive my presumption (and I totally admit it) but there are a ton of services where you blindly accept the costs. For example, the medical industry has a huge stranglehold on people for patented medicines and cost-driven medication... that's not competitive at all, it's almost monopolistic practice.

Geekgasm...

Geekgasm!

There isn't any such thing as "The Scientific Method" maybe that's why people have problems knowing what it is.

Is that the new conservative tactic, to deny the existance of something? Kinda like "nyah nyah, I can't see you, so you can't see me!"

Pope John Paul -- the last catholic pope, in case you don't use the internet for historical truths either -- announced that evolution is not incompatible with religion. I recommend you use the internet to get the details. The announcement was in Oct 24, 1996.

It is a well established truth that most high ranking members of the church take their bibles as metaphorical truths rather than literal ones. It is only zealotry or insanity that drives people to believe that the earth is less than 10k years old, or that we're all descended from two people who ate an apple given to them by a talking snake.

Frankly, I don't care that anyone believes any of that nonsense. What I do care about is that religion, at least in the US, is becoming so dog-eat-dog that people are reliving history : hating other religions, enforcing literal interpretations, and simple closed-minded zealotry.

The theory of evolution is as much a "theory" as the theory of gravity is just a "theory", which is to say, you can test gravity and prove its existance pretty damn well every day. We don't understand a lot of gravity right now, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The theory of evolution is very similar in that respect -- we understand a lot of it, we know it to be a fact, we just don't understand all of it. Science is like that; we are always in pursuit of greater understanding.

Religion is anathema to that.

Some of the video is deliberately jittery. Some people around the internets are commenting about how when the wheelchair guy gets off of the transport, it looks "so fake". Well, that's because the framerate is deliberately choppy. Compare that with other scenes later in the preview where it is silky smooth.

I think people are being overly critical with a video. I've looked at this with 1080p and my limited screens and yes, I would go so far as to say it's "photorealistic". There is a very hard line between what you call "realistic" though -- the alien critters convey some very real emotions and that might be the disconnect for some people. To say this is jar jar binks is almost insulting. Jar jar only conveyed his emotions through physical actions (jumping, hanging his head, etc) where you can actually see easy emotions on these aliens.

This isn't star trek either. Star Trek had the forehead-putty-alien of the week. These aliens are disproportionate, big eyes, foreheads that move, etc. And according to JC, this was all done in real time so the actors could really shine through much like Andy Serkis and Gollum -- but even that performance, he couldn't see his work done live.

And lets talk about James Cameron. He doesn't write the best dialogue in the world sometimes, but his stories are really solid. After Terminator, T2, Aliens, True Lies, The Abyss (his cut)... those are practically geek anthems, often imitated, truly unique.

This is a teaser, don't forget it. I see some true possibilities of continued greatness here. It is definitely not star trek or star wars .. no forehead alien or bland lifeless CGI.

I can't wait until December.

He wasn't ok...

Here is the news account of this wreck fron the Colfax,CA record.

Second victim pulled from Colfax big rig wreckage
By Jenna Nielsen, Journal Staff Writer

The body of a co-driver was extricated this morning by Cal Fire crews at the scene of Monday's big rig rollover crash near Colfax.
The body of a second man was found underneath debris Tuesday morning at the accident site of a big rig rollover near Colfax Monday, officials reported.
The man, whose name is not being released pending notification of his family, was reportedly a passenger in the big rig, which rolled into a guard rail spilling its load of recylced plastic down the embankment near the Magra Road exit on westbound Interstate 80, California Highway Patrol offi-cials reported.
The driver, who was trapped inside of the truck’s cab and was also killed in the accident, was re-portedly going 70 mph and passing another truck in the fast lane when he lost control and slid down an embankment, said CHP Officer Rich Ruiz.
“This morning, as the investigator was going over log books, (it was) determined there was possi-bly a co-driver involved,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said investigators also have video footage of the accident, recorded by a device on a Wal-Mart truck, which the driver of the big rig was passing at the time of the accident.
“The driver of the WalMart truck was doing 55 mph, so we estimate the driver (of the big rig) was going 70 mph when he approached a curve and lost control. You see in the video the trailer starts to fishtail. When the driver tries to correct, he is sent over the guardrail.”
Battalion Chief Jeff Brand of Cal Fire said crews located the co-driver under the debris and extri-cated him this morning.
Brand said when the truck was overturned, the cab was torn off and wedged beneath the contents of the trailer and the trailer itself.
All westbound lanes were closed as a result of the accident, which occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. All lanes were opened by approximately 7:45 p.m., California Highway Patrol officials said.
Ruiz said the driver of big rig had only had his license for nine days.

http://trkrjim.blogspot.com/2008/09/big-rig-rollover.html

Tim Russert, I miss you. But stuff like this makes me feel better. Thank goodness for hard questions. Chris Matthews ... go get em.

McCain say "America First" but this choice was purely political trying to get the woman vote. And shame on her for saying that it was demeaning to women. If a man were selected with only 20 months experience noone would be using the "demeaning to men" argument. Sometimes I really hate crutches like that.

It would've been demeaning to women if perhaps McCain said "I want her as VP because I'm getting a bit tired of my trophy wife." But noone has gone remotely near that talking point ... yet.

What MaxWilder said. If women truly want equality, then stop getting preferential treatment. Men can be objects and noone cares, but when it's a woman it's suddenly bad? Hypocrisy.

I was taught that women should be treated equally. What's funny is I'm left thinking -- what is this woman's feelings on the matter? You all, the readers here, are placing your own morals on the point. If this were a man OR woman, it changes your point of view. Well, in a truly neutral environment, the only thing that really matters is viewpoint of the "table" involved.

If you really want equality then take YOUR PERSONAL feelings out of the matter (stop trying to empathize with the woman in the video since you have no way to know what she's thinking) and consider that the "table" is a man. If you find you have the same "disgusted" and "objectification" feelings, then at least it's just a sexual deviation you don't like, and not a demeaning video, which in my opinion, is not.

Women have spent countless centures being objects to men. It's part of the primal nature, otherwise we basically would not exist on this planet. The funny thing is that if women truly want to be equals then you really need to take all the sexism in stride ........ you know, like men.

Anything with Colin Mochrie in it - automatic upvote. Amazing guy.

>> ^thepinky:
Cheap shot. Why make this movie? I'll tell you why. So that all of you "intellectuals" can feel fulfilled and pat yourselves on the back for being enlightened. No thanks.


Actually we intellectuals need this movie to offset the sad tragedy that was "Ben Stein's Expelled".

Out with the old, in with the new.

Religion plays a large part in this. But it really shouldn't from a government point of view. Religion sanctifies a union between a man and a woman. However, the government (which also performs marriages) should be impartial to religious beliefs and allow civil unions between singular partners regardless of any issue.

Once you take gender and religion out of the picture, there is absolutely no reason why this couldn't be done. Civil unions are critically important in order to allow the same rights between same-sex partners the same rights as others, such as insurance, etc.