|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 10:38:51 GMT -5
carmelites
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 10:00:41 GMT -5
Seven
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 10:00:07 GMT -5
Nuclear War -a scenario by Annie Jacobsen Talk about contrast; the previous book I read was "Not the End of the World". In this one, it definitely is. The general idea here is the same as with John Hackett's The Third World War: the Untold Story; a heavily researched description of what WWIII might look like. Although the scenario is hypothetical, it's written as a non-fiction book... and it has been many, many years since I read such a page turner. It's as captivating as it is thoroughly chilling. Horribly so, even, when we realize how close we are to obliteration. It's fascinating to hear about the nuts and bolts of military communication and emergency political decision making, especially when the people interviewed for the book happen to have been members of the chain of command. This is no idle speculation; this terrifying scenario is based on what the real actors say on the subject. I could fully believe in people screaming at each other because the Strategic Air Command needs the president's order to launch, but the man can't come to the phone right now because the Security Service is currently evacuating him from Washington (the likely target of an incoming North Korean nuke). When you only have minutes to act, such mundane coordination problems take very scary proportions. So many frightening concepts in there, from the fact that it's almost impossible to detect a submarine (even an old diesel-powered one) moving slowly over the continental shelf (because sonar echoes are too numerous) to the unreliability and paucity of anti-ICBM missiles (there are only 44 in the US, apparently, and they fail most of the time even in tests heavily skewed in their favour). The Aegis defence system has a better rate of success, but they are currently all deployed overseas. Write your congressperson! A nuclear war cannot be won and should never be waged, an old American president once said... And as long as the countries possessing them understand that, nukes remain a powerful deterrent. However, should someone flip for some reason and push the button, we'd be in for a civilization-ending conflict. People who grew up in the '70s and '80s are well aware of that; we sort of expected that WWIII was around the corner. I admit that I personally grew a little complacent over the following decades, assuming nobody would be crazy to start it. Now I'm not so sure. One point made in the book is one I've shared since I was a kid (so it's obviously true! ): no treaty is worth the paper it's printed on if someone doesn't have the means to enforce it. I didn't know that nuclear power stations could not be used as legitimate targets, even if they were considered a valid military objective; but as Hitler is quoted as saying: "if you win, you won't have to explain anything". Very much recommended if you don't tend to have nightmares.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 9:09:26 GMT -5
The Liefeld's Just Feet shoe store is a nice touch!
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 8:09:39 GMT -5
I really enjoyed the world building in Andor. Simple things like that dude striking an anvil/bell in a steeple go a long way to draw me into a make-believe world. I also thought the popular uprising was very relatable; episode after episode, you could feel how discontent was growing and how the pressure cooker was about to blow. That earthy aspect of the rebellion felt more real than Mon Mothma's more academic stance in Kenobi.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 5:48:46 GMT -5
I love Russ Manning, and he caught the likenesses of characters and ships much better than Carmine Infantino, so the comic strip is way up there for me... but I only ever got to read it in the past decade, so it didn't have as much of an impact as the original Marvel run.
That was the original extended universe, the one we had in between the movies. It developed the characters, set things up for upcoming films, and felt completely integrated with what Lucasfilm was doing. As such, it was the "real" thing for me.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 22, 2024 5:39:43 GMT -5
Stars
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 21, 2024 19:00:45 GMT -5
Dog
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 21, 2024 14:19:25 GMT -5
Atherosclerosis
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 21:34:09 GMT -5
I am amazed by what these people do with the help of A.I... It's like we're witnessing the birth of a new art form.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 21:24:42 GMT -5
Game of Thrones, of course. After five brilliant and complex seasons, the show turned into a confused one-dimensional mess. Plot holes you can ride a dragon through, plot-imandated stupidity galore, characters who might as well be different people and a downer of a conclusion. Funny how that happened at the exact spot where they moved beyond the source material. Coincidence? I think not! However, I'm a bit worried that the general outline was based on George R.R. Martin's own, and the mess that was made of it forced him to reconsider his own planned ending, adding even more years to the writing of the final two books.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 14:20:50 GMT -5
Whoever made this video shares my opinion on RotS!
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 12:03:56 GMT -5
Rome had a good ending. (...) Many of Romans of the time would have begged to differ, methinks. Republicans!
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 12:03:28 GMT -5
Why are Bruce Wayne's knobby bits such a controversy in Batman Damned? All this time I thought the name "Batman" referred to the winged mammal!!!
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 20, 2024 11:54:00 GMT -5
Rome had a good ending. We had followed the fall of the republic and the civil war mainly through the eyes of Vorenus and Pullo, whose personal lives were so tied up with the shenanigans of powerful people, and we conclude the series with the resolution of their respective familial crises just as Augustus assumes sole power. There's a nod to real world politics in there: ordinary people struggle and die, and terrible people in positions of power end up on top.
|
|