Pinned toot
Pat

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Why would anyone in their right mind support a country that just killed more than a million of its own citizens?

The US just killed more than a million Americans, which is why I no longer support the US.

After a very long life of loving my country, I'll likely support the next viable non-violent revolution that comes along in the US...

Read more as to why I've made this decision...

qoto.org/@Pat/1096902644306466

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Pinned toot
Pat

Index of Pat’s pinned toots:


qoto.org/@Pat/1093064572536971

Guide to Content Warnings
qoto.org/@Pat/1093215339289551


y=${x##*pid=}; echo ${y%%,*}
qoto.org/@Pat/1078178931515951
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A properly worn respirator stops all variants of the COVID-19 virus -- past, present and future...
qoto.org/@Pat/1073640495460189
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A pseudorandomly selected list of ten films to critique regarding how they treat black actors/characters
qoto.org/@Pat/1071404103036091
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A list of
qoto.org/@Pat/1076429679575921
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What's wrong with this picture?
qoto.org/@Pat/1071115454963739

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Pinned toot
Pat

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Index of Pat’s Energy-Saving Tips
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Energy-saving tip number 1
Drive an electric car…
qoto.org/web/statuses/11020955

Energy-saving tip number 2
Replace your oil or gas-powered furnace with a heat pump…
qoto.org/@Pat/1079416180398932
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Energy-saving tip number 3
Fill containers with water and keep them in your living space for thermal mass...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079211405068347
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Energy-saving tip number 4
Avoid driving...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079278529192650
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Energy-saving tip number 5
Insulate...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079619626419974
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Energy-saving tip number 6
Use a clothesline...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079308773038742
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Energy-saving tip number 7
Install solar panels…
qoto.org/@Pat/1079714437000199
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Energy-saving tip number 8
Choose a zero-energy home…
qoto.org/@Pat/1080117365673276
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Energy-saving tip number 9
Slow down...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079133415526170
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Energy-saving tip number 10
Invent the next breakthrough in energy…
qoto.org/@Pat/1079887479015600
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Energy-saving tip number 11
Save on hot water heating…
qoto.org/@Pat/1079487997212634
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Energy-saving tip number 12...
Cover windows with thick window coverings and mylar sheets to keep the heat in...
qoto.org/@Pat/1079009226100436
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Energy-saving tip number 13
Eat plants…
qoto.org/@Pat/1080478999950227

Extra…

How to set your hot water heater to the most efficient temperature...
qoto.org/@Pat/1086858997535704

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Pinned toot
Pat

Index of Retro SciFi Films of the Week (long) 

Index for Retro Scifi’s of the Week

Dec 2021

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
qoto.org/@Pat/1075273931619741

Jan 2022

Cat-Women of the Moon (1953)
qoto.org/@Pat/1076242260652910

Forbidden Planet (1956)
qoto.org/@Pat/1076561505464321

Silent Running (1972)
qoto.org/@Pat/1076958946235230

Feb 2022

Andromeda Strain (1971)
qoto.org/@Pat/1077378629921935

Soylent Green (1973)
qoto.org/@Pat/1077779583942588

A Trip to the Moon (1902)
qoto.org/@Pat/1078181258197280

A Taste of Armageddon (1967)
qoto.org/@Pat/1078557503736798

Mar 2022

The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
qoto.org/@Pat/1078948353353098

The Bicentennial Man (1999)
qoto.org/@Pat/1079397907845509

War of the Satellites (1958)
qoto.org/@Pat/1079740021449656

I, Robot (2004)
qoto.org/@Pat/1080137836364019

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe: Doom of the Dictator (1940)
qoto.org/@Pat/1080507294987768

Apr 2022

Tron (1982)
qoto.org/@Pat/1080902592485591

Starship Troopers (1997)
qoto.org/@Pat/1081323696798403

Godzilla (1954)
qoto.org/@Pat/1081680581571365

12 to the Moon (1960)
qoto.org/@Pat/1082123885158828

May 2022

The Time Machine (1960)
qoto.org/@Pat/1082536793837480

Contact (1997)
qoto.org/@Pat/1082908923812273

The Atomic Submarine (1954)
qoto.org/@Pat/1083298600702670

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
qoto.org/@Pat/1083710815444792

June 2022

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
qoto.org/@Pat/1084091612304515

Metropolis (1927)
qoto.org/@Pat/1084494550472156

Supercar (1965)
qoto.org/@Pat/1084870840959889

Cloud Atlas (2012)
qoto.org/@Pat/1085234470913944

AI: Artificial Intelligence (2000)
qoto.org/@Pat/1085685651320926

July 2022

Virtuosity (1995)
qoto.org/@Pat/1086078964539658

Battlefield Earth (2000)
qoto.org/@Pat/1086573600491480

Brainstorm (1983)
qoto.org/@Pat/1086799861138926

Timebomb (1991)
qoto.org/@Pat/1087387448408608

August 2022

Radar Men from the Moon (1952)
qoto.org/@Pat/1088072885017000

Electric Dreams (1984)
qoto.org/@Pat/1088406278302125

September 2022

American Warships (2012)
qoto.org/@Pat/1089365161868916

Epoch (2001)
qoto.org/@Pat/1089770563796808

Splash (1984)
qoto.org/@Pat/1090199350798861

Loss of Sensation (1935)
qoto.org/@Pat/1090555110560373

Waterworld (1995)
qoto.org/@Pat/1090832014155361

October 2022

The Island (2005)
qoto.org/@Pat/1091405372020411

In Time (2011)
qoto.org/@Pat/1091803393076948

Justin Time (2010)
qoto.org/@Pat/1092445002243936

November 2022

WarGames (1983)
qoto.org/@Pat/1092820087237854

Mission to Mars (2000)
qoto.org/@Pat/1093288762602122

Stepford Wives (1975)
qoto.org/@Pat/1093722655753780

Avatar (2009)
qoto.org/@Pat/1093949858963876

December 2022

The China Syndrome (1979)
qoto.org/@Pat/1094402214385328

Inception (2010)
qoto.org/@Pat/1094809966555583

Altered States (1980)
qoto.org/@Pat/1095208973248035

Things To Come (1936)
qoto.org/@Pat/1095602737686037

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
qoto.org/@Pat/1095998952555394

January 2023

Dancing on the Moon (1935)
qoto.org/@Pat/1096435140252956

Woman in the Moon (1929)
qoto.org/@Pat/1096839626204061

Abre Los Ojos (1997)
qoto.org/@Pat/1097182731215120

Short Circuit (1986)
qoto.org/@Pat/1097635328099917

February 2023

Snowpiercer (2013)
qoto.org/@Pat/1098039294211348

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
qoto.org/@Pat/1098543857365565

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
qoto.org/@Pat/1098875849099710

The Village (2004)
qoto.org/@Pat/1099280209227479

March 2023

After Earth (2013)
qoto.org/@Pat/1099562868513063

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Pat

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

The title of this film is very misleading. It makes it sound like a low-budget 50s scifi, but this is actually a very well made movie. I think it's on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1952), except this film had a lot more special effects. They used a combination of stop action and other practical effects as well as post processing techniques.

The guy who did the special effects on this film, Ray Harryhauser, invented a technique called Dynamation, a special type of stop action effect. He went on to work on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1956) which is probably one of the most well-known stop action/live action films of the era. But this film uses a wide variety of techniques as well as stop action.

The writing and acting are also top-notch. The actors weren't big stars but they were accomplished character actors. It has a fully developed plot and the dialogue was well written. Also, they got a lot of the science facts right on this one, at least more than usual for a Hollywood scifi. They even tried to explain special relativity, incorrectly of course, but they tried.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes old science fiction movies.

It’s just unfortunate that they gave this film such a cheap-sounding name. They even released it as a double-feature with The Werewolf. (I guess film marketing has improved since then as well as special effects. 😆 )
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accessible image description:

an ugly movie poster with orange and white headlines, muted colors, with images of flying saucers that are shooting rays to the ground and robot creatures walking around, the large headlines say flying saucers attack! warning! take cover! earth vs the flying saucers, small headlines say flying saucers invade our planet: washington, london, paris, moscow, take cover!, a smaller inset image of a man and woman looking scared and holding each other.

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Pat

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Congress and Biden just came to an agreement on the budget. They had to make cuts in order to come to an agreement.

If you were in charge, which would you cut?

6 people · Jun 06, 2023, 01:08
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Pat

In a previous Retro SciFi of the Week for the movie Her (qoto.org/@Pat/1103178061704529) I mentioned a technique that pro-racist Hollywood uses to marginalize black people. That technique is to only show black people at the beginning (or end) of a film, which is what that film did.

Well in this film, On The Beach, they did it too. There is only one black actor in the movie, an extra, who appears in the beginning of the film on the submarine, but he is not shown in the movie again (even though he is a member of the submarine crew!) This situation is quite different, however, from the movie Her because in the 1950s black people were almost always excluded from mainstream Hollywood movies. Intentionally excluding black people in movies in the 21st century is not acceptable.

In that other review for Her I guessed that that technique of only putting black people at the beginning of a movie was used at least since the 1980s, but here is evidence that it started much earlier -- at least since 1959.

Show thread
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Pat

The release of this film was widely covered by the media at the time.

Here's a video of how WABC-TV covered the story...

youtube.com/watch?v=aG-e52yAxf

Show thread
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Pat

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Day After (1983)

Last week the Retro SciFi Film of the Week was On the Beach (1959), a film about nuclear war. This is another film about nuclear war, but this one is much more realistic. Whereas On the Beach showed no dead bodies, injuries, or destruction at all, this film shows in graphic detail just how horrific nuclear war is.

Each of the films are propaganda films, designed to influence public opinion, but with On The Beach the purpose appears to have been to keep the arms race going, and is told from the perspective of the military. The Day After appears to want to eliminate nuclear weapons, and explicitly says it wants to avert nuclear war.

The special effects and the overall quality are astonishing considering that it's a made-for-TV movie created in the early 80s. It was a really big deal when this movie was released. Some sources say it's the most watched TV movie ever. It was highly promoted and it had a huge impact on society.

It follows the same basic formula as any other disaster movie -- the first half of the film is character development and shows people doing ordinary things and then in the second half of the movie all hell breaks loose.

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(fair use video clips)

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accessible video description:

content warning - graphic descriptions of death and injury

A male TV announcer announcing political events as a gray-haired man and a woman watch; then another man and a woman arguing in their home, the man is wearing an Air Force uniform; then men in a barber shop discuss the situation; then cut to a crow in a wheat field flying away; then cut to a scene inside a silo bunker where Air Force personnel are going through a sequence to launch nuclear missiles, pushing buttons and turning keys; then missiles blasting off as ordinary people watch; then on a highway a nuclear bomb detonates in the distance, the gray haired man is in his car and lies down to shield himself from the thermal radiation and blast; an orange mushroom cloud raises into the air; scenes of fire; people frantically running; then another detonation with two mushroom clouds in the distance; then people are being vaporized by thermal radiation with their skeletons briefly appearing as they are vaporized; then fade to a quiet scene with the gray-haired man slowly walking down the street with destruction everywhere and flakes of fallout beginning to fall; then a Geiger counter and a man talking about the fallout coming; then two people dressed in scrubs, one holding a flashlight the other tending to a serious facial burn on a patient; then a farmer walks out into his field and sees his horse dead on the ground; then a night scene and a man is talking about his radiation injuries; then a boy with radiation injuries talks to a doctor, and a nurse gestures with her head that the boy likely will not survive; then back to the man talking about his radiation injuries and asks what can be done; then people gathering dead bodies from a field using horse-drawn carts; then people listen to the president talking on the radio as the screen shows scenes of despair; then cut to a scene of people burying bodies in a mass grave; then the gray-haired man looking exhausted, now with facial burns and patches of hair missing from his head talks to another doctor, then they hug. Fade Out.

1+
Pat

The Agronomic Revolution happened about 538 million years ago.

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= A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)

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Pat

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FYI...

This is a SOCIAL media platform. If you toot stuff here, expect to have people respond to what to toot and want to engage in discussion...

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Pat

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Just muted @gricka for failing to respond to multiple inquires.

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Pat

Spoilers: On the Beach 

*****Spoilers: On the Beach*****

What I don't understand about this movie is why everyone was acting like nothing happened. I understand that some people might be in denial about the end of the world, but I think at least some of them would be expressing dread.

If they had five months before the radiation got there, wouldn’t they at least maybe dig a shelter or something? Maybe start storing up food?

Instead they put all of their effort into manufacturing and distributing those pills. I don't think people would act that way.

Show thread
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Pat

Spoilers: On the Beach, Twilight Zone, Patsplaining 

***** Spoilers *****

On the Beach and Twilight Zone...

The acting in this film, On the Beach (1959), was superb. Everyone gave great performances, with this dialogue that was very difficult. Fred Astaire, whom I didn't include in the trailer, was known for his dancing but in this film confirmed his acting talent. He was one of the greatest dancers on the big screen, perhaps second only to Ginger Rogers, who could dance as well as Fred Astaire, except backwards and in high heels.

Ironically, all of the actors in the film have died except for Donna Anderson, who played Mary Holmes (the one who got hit with the towel on the beach). She's the sole survivor.

In the film, which takes place after World War III, it's presumed that everybody is dead from radiation poisoning except for the people who live in Australia, and that there's intense radiation fallout in the upper atmosphere that is circling the globe and slowly making its way to the southern hemisphere to eventually wipe out all of humanity.

In actuality, fallout in the upper atmosphere from thermonuclear weapons would have a short half-life and within five months would not likely be producing enough radiation to cause acute radiation poisoning, although it would increase the cancer rate. However, a salted thermonuclear weapon could be produced with fallout that has a longer half-life. In this story I think it was a cobalt bomb, but such weapons have not ever been produced.

I mentioned that this was the first major film about nuclear armageddon but there was a Twilight Zone episode about a nuclear apocalypse that came out just one month before this film was released. That Twilight Zone episode was titled “Time Enough at Last”. It’s a very well-known episode about a bookworm who works at a bank and ends up accidentally surviving World War III while seeking solitude during his lunch break in the bank vault. That Twilight Zone episode starred Burgess Meredith.

Several other TZ episodes had themes about nuclear annihilation.

Show thread
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Pat

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

On the Beach (1959)

Just a happy-go-lucky nuclear Armageddon film…

Three years before the Cuban Missile Crisis and about a decade and a half after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this film presented its story about the aftermath of global nuclear war. There were a couple of other movies made earlier in the 50s about nuclear war, and of course all those goofy scifi’s about giant insects, but this was the first major film. It starred Gregory Peck, Eva Gardner, Anthony Hopkins, and Fred Astaire, who were all big movie stars at the time. It was kind of a big deal when it came out.

News coverage of the bombings of Japan were highly censored as to the most gruesome parts of the bombings. Film and photographs produced immediately after the bombings by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey were classified until the late 60s, so although people had heard about radiation burns and radiation sickness, most people had not seen any graphic images.

The US didn't want people to understand just how horrible those bombings were, but they wanted to inform people about the possibility of all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union, which, with certain types of thermonuclear weapons, had the potential to kill most or all of the world’s population.

The result was this film, On the Beach (1959) which showed no dead bodies at all, it showed no destruction, no burned and leveled buildings, nothing. There's only one guy in the film who was shown to be sick in the entire movie and he was smiling or flirting with the nurse throughout the 45 seconds that he was on the screen. Everyone was almost always shown with smiling faces and having fun and the score was upbeat or silly most of time.

I think if you changed about a half dozen lines in the film, removed five minutes of the guy walking around in a hazmat suit, and adjusted a minute or two of score, people would think it was a romantic drama.

Contrast this with the TV movie The Day After (1983), which was released 24 years later, which showed shocking graphic images of just how horrible nuclear war could be.

The clips from the film that I’ve attached to this toot show just a few of the many upbeat scenes from the film. All the characters in the film knew from the beginning that a nuclear war had happened and that the deadly radiation was heading to where they were in Australia, but they just acted happy and didn’t appear to care at all. Very weird.

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(fair use video clips)
Sorry, I messed up the aspect ratio on this video and cut off a little bit on the bottom.
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accessible video description:

Video opens with a submarine in the ocean with a number on the side that says 623, then a man in a lighthouse makes a phone call as a radio announcer talks about the nuclear war, then it shows a man and a woman on a bed talking, then it shows two military guys talking about a country club, then people on a beach where a man flicks a woman in the butt with a towel, then it shows Peck and Gardner talking and smiling, then sailors ogling at a pretty woman (Gardner) as she walks near their ship, then people dancing, then Peck and Gardner walking as she talks, then a bucolic scene of a horse in a field as the horse does a trick for a sugar cube, then a guy pretending to be sick lying in bed smiling and flirting with the male nurse with Peck and Dr. King giving him false hope, finally the closing title over an image of the same submarine moving on the surface of the ocean.

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Pat

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Did you know that a respirator helps with allergies?

If you wear your respirator when you are around pollen or pet dander, you most likely won't get your allergy symptoms.

Also, a properly worn respirator, like a N95 mask, prevents infection and spread of disease from all variants of the flu, as well as COVID-19.

Take care out there.

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Pat

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Sorry @TruthSandwich, I had to delete/re-edit my toot and it left your toot hanging...

Show thread
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Pat

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Why would anyone in their right mind support a country that just killed more than a million of its own citizens?

The US just killed more than a million Americans, which is why I no longer support the US.

After a very long life of loving my country, I'll likely support the next viable non-violent revolution that comes along in the US...

Read more as to why I've made this decision...

qoto.org/@Pat/1096902644306466

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Pat

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responding to:
qoto.org/web/statuses/11036976

This is not about one man.

It's about the power dynamics of an entire country -- the government, the president, Congress, the CDC, the pharma companies, mainstream media -- all of them. They're all responsible for killing a million Americans.

When was the last time you heard somebody talk about this on mainstream media? Answer: never.

They're all responsible.

1+
Pat

=======================
populist: n. - a believer in the rights, wisdom, and virtues of the people.
=======================

0
Pat

I thought about sardonically using the hashtag on this one but decided not to.

Show thread
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Pat

The Pilgrims were illegal immigrants, but the Americans still used them as farm workers to pick corn.

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= A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)

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Pat

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Dog whistling lets people "claim that anyone says anything because you can easily hear the alleged dogwhistles that aren't in the actual literal contents of what the person says".

-- Steve Pinker, Reason Magazine, Jul 10, 2020

Show thread
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Pat

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Fun Fact

Did you know that when someone uses the word "dog whistle", they may not be talking about an actual dog whistle?

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