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Pat

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Contact (1997)

Why can’t more science fiction be like this? There are no goofy monsters or extra-terrestrials that evolved to look like English-speaking humans. No space battles modeled after 20th century warfare. No space aliens that want to colonized Earth.

Contact is a realistic portrayal of what a first contact might look like. It’s very well written and produced, and the acting is world class. The film took a hit from some reviewers when it debuted because of who the filmmakers were (the writer, Carl Sagan was an atheist (or agnostic) and the lead actor, Jodie Foster is lesbian), so keep that in mind if you look up ratings/reviews of the film.

One of the questions asked by this film is whether an extra-terrestrial species could provide us with information that would cause us to destroy ourselves. You don’t want miss this one.

(image commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_Observatory_Aerial_View.jpg, CC-BY-4.0)

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Pat

Lexa Doig played the titular role in the TV series Andromeda (2000-2005).

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Pat

.gov


- - -
The truth is…

In the US in March 2022, there were 2450 people who had died from COVID-19 and came back to life again.
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Cumulative deaths from COVID-19:
2022/3/12 11:15 p.m. - 967,552
2022/3/14 11:35 p.m. - 965,102
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Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center; coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
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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)

(Image CC-by-nc-nd-3.0; by Sylvenne, www.deviantart.com)

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Pat

Retro SciFi of the Week…

The Time Machine (1960)

This is the first film adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel. Although the story isn’t the first time-travel story ever written, it’s the first one to include a device that allows one to travel forward or backward to arbitrarily selected points in time.

After six decades, the film has held up well and is still entertaining in it’s own right. The special effects are pretty good even by today’s standards. They won an Academy Award when the film debuted.

Other film adaptations were made in 1978 and 2002, but they deviated more substantially from the book.

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Pat

We began using fire about 1.7 million years ago…
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Some people still use fire to power their putt-putt cars.
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Everybody else drives an electric car.
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(Actually, Fred Flintstone’s car used the flywheel effect to run his car. The energy came from brontosaurus burgers. Primitive.)
Fair use image.

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Pat



Everyone remember to wear your respirator…

Clip from Andromeda: Dance of the Mayflies (2001)
(Content Warning: strobe effects)

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Pat

Retro SciFi of the Month…

12 to the Moon (1960)

This film is one of the very few 20th century science fiction films to include a black character. And it’s one of the few of any genre to include a black character before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also includes an Asian character. As the title suggests, it’s an ensemble cast of twelve who fly to the moon.

The film was produced shortly after the founders of Columbia Pictures had died and a bean-counter had taken over the studio. The company was in flux, as was its produciton quality. So although it was from a major studio, it suffered from a reduced budget. It’s only slightly better in quality than the typical giant-insect scifi films of the era, but it’s kind of quirky and much different in feel from the usual 50’s science fiction films.

It looks like the filmmakers were trying to make a serious and technically accurate film, but of course there were many blunders. It’s a stupid film but fun to watch nonetheless.

Here's a clip from the film showing the astronuats first entering the rocket ship before liftoff.

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Pat

provocative comment on mass graves, war 

Why do they bury war victims in mass graves?

So that in a million years from now when another species has taken over for humans, who by then are long extinct, all those people who were buried a million years ago during the war will have turned into oil and then the new species can pump out that oil and they’ll have something to fight about and start wars over.

The cycle of life.

(Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil, by Sanjay Acharya, CC-BY-SA-3.0)

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Pat

Kamala Harris has tested positive for COVID-19.

Who could have seen that coming?

qoto.org/@Pat/1077413148863402

qoto.org/@Pat/1076704476506666

qoto.org/@Pat/1080622174884341

qoto.org/@Pat/1073899541892304

qoto.org/@Pat/1080923981166191

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Pat

Hi all.

Due to the technical issues here on qoto, I've created another account at:
mastodon.social/@PatPat/with_r
and an additional backup at:
mastodon.online/@Pat/with_repl

So you may see me posting from there for now...

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Pat

Happy birthday, Earth.

4,540,000,052 years old today.

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Pat

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Godzilla (1954)

This is the original Japanese version. Shortly after it’s release, a highly censored American version was released in the US and other countries which totally hacked up the film, replacing character- and plot-developing dialogue with bland exposition voiceover.

The American version replaced one of the protagonists with a white guy, cutting in scenes which were produced with lousy sets, poor cinematography and hasty acting which trampled on the carefully crafted pace of the original film. This gave most people an impression that the film was just a B-movie, instead of the well-produced masterpiece which was the original.

If you’ve never seen the original Japanese version, you haven’t seen Godzilla.

(Note: Of course, as with all earlier films, the cinematic techniques of the time were no match to today’s state of the art, so you need to watch it with a different level of suspension of disbelief.)

Here’s a clip from the film that was cut from the American version. (See the rest of this thread for more discussion.)

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Pat


The truth is…

The Russians have developed an armored tricycle because they are running out of older soldiers.

= 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)

(Image CC BY 3.0 by Fastboy, Mediawiki Commons.)

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Pat

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Starship Troopers (1997)

This is a satire about how governments use wars to control their populations. The satire is probably lost on many viewers and this propaganda film is probably effective even for those who understand that it’s satirical.

Not much different from what’s coming out of the Star Trek franchise lately.

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Pat

Bad Company (2002)

The description for this film reads, “...a streetwise punk is recruited by a CIA agent to stop an arms deal from going bad.”

Anyone want to guess which one is the CIA agent and which one is the “streetwise punk”?

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Pat

.gov

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Here’s Nancy Pelosi speaking on the crowded floor of the House of Representatives without wearing an N95 respirator.

She is in the line of succession to the presidency, yet she carelessly takes an unnecessary risk by exposing herself to COVID-19 without wearing a respirator.

Ironically, she was talking about how the US is falling behind other countries in science. Duh!

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Pat

Retro SciFi Film of the week…

Tron (1982)

This was the first major motion picture to extensively use CGI. The film was targeted at the small, niche market of computer users, as well as others who were interested in the new fad.

This dream/fantasy world narrative was influenced by early literature such as The Odyssey and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Tron had considerable influence on subsequent science fiction films such as The Martix, Vanilla Sky (Abre los ojos) and Inception.

(movie poster image owned by Buena Vista Pictures; low res fair use)

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Pat
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Pat

Congratulations to Jessica Chastain and Will Smith for being awarded Best Actress/Actor at the 2022 Academy Awards.

(Images: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil, CC-BY-SA-2.0; commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil, CC-BY-2.0)

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Pat

.gov

The truth is…

Press Secretary Jen Psaki became infected with COVID-19 because she didn’t wear an N95 respirator.

Psaki doesn’t wear a respirator when she gives her press briefings to the White House correspondents.

According to the CDC, none of the White House correspondents who were infected by Psaki are considered close contacts.

(In epidemiology, a “close contact” is anyone who was close enough to an infected person to possibly become infected themselves. It’s used for contact tracing to locate people who may have become infected to help prevent further spread of disease, among other things.)

= 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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