Pat @Pat@qoto.org

#people #puppies #kittens #revolution #populism #DogsOfMastodon

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The Senior Center is having a square dance to raise awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(public domain image per wikimedia commons, Mtmusicfestsqdance.png)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #drugs #addiction #WilliamHurt #limbo #Chayefsky #HumanPotential #LSD #dream #psychedelic #SensoryDeprivation #mushrooms #MindControl

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Altered States (1980)

You’ll immediately recognize Chayefsky’s style in this dialogue-heavy story. The characters and dialogue feel very much like Network (1976) or The Hospital (1971). The target audience was well-educated baby-boomers from the 60’s counter culture, sometimes referred to as “yuppies” (young urban professionals, formerly hippies). However, it has a lot of special effects and enough action to appeal to a wider audience.

This period in American popular history marked the transition from the drug culture of the 1960s and the fascination with ESP in the 1970s, to the human potential movement of the 80s and 90s. Drug dealers were looking for more affluent customers for their products and clandestine operators were looking for paths to apply chemical-based mind control and recruitment tactics to more influential targets. This film provided a more intellectual rational for taking drugs, which would attract those who would normally be smart enough to avoid them.

Although there was fierce conflict on the set between Chayefsky and the director, Ken Russell, about the script, Chayefsky maintained creative control (although he pulled his name from the screenplay credit because he was not satisfied with the final product). Despite the script conflicts and Russell’s direction, I think the film turned out great. It has brilliant performances from William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban and Charles Haid, all of whom delivered Chayefsky’s difficult dialogue in a convincing manner.

There are no CG effects in this film because they weren’t yet available; everything is done with practical FX and film techniques, reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also, you’ll notice the use of deep brass horns in the score, borrowed from Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977) and used ever since in scifi projects such as Epoch (2001), Inception (2010), Arrival (2016) and many others.

London, dob 1984 - American actress, TV and film
Jimmy Durante, dob 1893 - American comedian, singer, vaudevillian
Bohr, dob 1885 - developed a model of the atom under the old quantum theory
Arthur, dob 1829 - 21st president of the US

(images: London CC-BY-SA-3.0, Travis Hudgons; Durante, Bohr, Arthur public domain)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #drugs #addiction #race #racism #limbo #subversion #IHaveADream #dream #gravity #regrets

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Inception (2010)

What if M. C. Escher, Timothy Leary and David Duke got together and made a Hollywood tent pole?

This one has amazing computer graphics along with great acting performances, especially by Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. Unfortunately, there was extreme racial bias in the composition of the cast with no black characters in this large cast besides bit parts.

In this film everyone had a dream except black people.

There were just two bit parts with black characters. One was a man interfering with the main protagonist and yelling at him in a foreign language, the other one was a stuntman who fought against a protagonist and was killed in an unusual manner, followed by another protagonist who laughed and said, “Did you see that?” (And the producers chose to have an actor of Indian ethnicity, Dileep Rao, deliver that offensive line.) Other than background, those were the only black people I saw in this two and half hour long movie.

Another huge issue I have with the film is the promotion and glorification of drug use. The film was produced right after Obama took office, when there was a massive, subversive campaign to encourage drug use in the US, along with a huge increase in racism, among many other efforts to undermine society during his administration.

Because of the racism in this 21st-century film, I don’t recommend watching it.

(short, fair use clip from the film, no spoiler)

#covid19 #flu #influenza #respirator #N95

In the US, there are currently 8 times as many deaths due to COVID-19 as there are to the flu.

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

ALOI

This one takes us lightyears away
to a new land, for a bit of a stay.
They say it has a presence of mind,
signs of intelligence, the artificial kind.

Retro rockets, down to the Pale Blue Dot,
search throughout, but intelligence it has not.
Lots of product of artifice we sense
but just artificial lack of intelligence.

So the answer we send back home,
nothing here, no matter how much we comb.
Alrighty then, on to the next shore.
Sounds interesting, let’s hear more...

#MastoPrompt #smallPoems #retro #poem #poetry #artificial #PaleBlueDot

(fair use image, Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy 3)

#TruthBeTold #microscope #hair #animals #SizeMatters #Words #relativity

The truth is...

The Bubblebee bat is the smallest mammal, smaller than the length of a human hair.

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#TruthBeTold = 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-SA-3.0, Momotarou2012, mediawiki commons, modified)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #nuclear #reactor #energy #TMI #military #spies #meltdown #China #core #premonition

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The China Syndrome (1979)

I’m not sure if this one is technically a science fiction film or not. It’s about high-technology and it predicted something in the future, so perhaps it is. It came out in the years during the roll-out of the first nuclear power plants. The oil industry and other incumbents were and still are strongly opposed to nuclear energy because it competes with their industries. Some of them were able to trick environmental groups into protesting against nuclear energy. Also entities that opposed the development of nuclear weapons (which usually rely on reactors for plutonium fuel), including peace groups and foreign adversaries also fought the development of nuclear power.

This film is critical of nuclear power, specifically about the possibility of accidents. It was released just a couple weeks before the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in 1979, which drew much scrutiny because the remarkable similarity between the events depicted in the film and the TMI incident.

Stars in the film include Michael Douglas, who is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, and Jane Fonda who has been a lifelong peace activist. Fonda plays a TV reporter while Douglas is her cameraman. Jack Lemon plays a plant worker who is a whistle-blower.

(fair use image from the film)

spoiler: see the first toot in this thread before looking here

#NSFW

Dick pic...

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #blue #ResourceCurse #colonialism #military #spies #robots #pandora #unobtainium #McMovie

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Avatar (2009)

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a decade since Avatar was released. Chances are you’ve probably already seen this one because it was the highest-grossing film of all time when it came out.

Avatar was able to achieve two things that few other films before it did:

1. It featured an interracial romantic relationship without anyone noticing.

2. It showed topless women in a PG-13 rated film.

Even with all of the hype and the obvious preplanned blockbuster feel, it’s still a nice film and worth watching. The film is about American colonialism and serves as a surrogate for commentary about oil wars.

Depending on your perspective, the film delivers one of either two messages:

1. The US is wrong to use its military might to subjugate other less powerful countries.

- - or - -

2. We’re Americans, we’re coming to take your stuff, so bend over.

Yeah, they’re doing another one of these – it releases next month.

(fair use image from the film)

#covid19 #mask #elastomeric #respirator #vax #vaccine #masks #respirators #covid #pandemic #prep

A properly worn respirator is the most effective way to prevent infection and spread of COVID-19 disease.

The most effective respirator at a reasonable price is an elastomeric respirator with detachable filters. The best filter is N100 or P100. These filters are at least 99.97% efficient at filtering out the tiny particles that carry the virus.

Respirators are effective against all variants of the virus. They are also effective against other respiratory viruses and pollen.

The respirator should be NIOSH-approved.

Make sure you do a seal check each time you wear the respirator so that no air leaks around the mask.

Make sure the filter material doesn’t get wet because it won't work as well when it is wet.

Don't ever remove the respirator when you are around other people or are where other people have been recently. Don't even remove it to eat. Find a safe place to eat away from other people who might be infected.

(Image: A cop wearing an elastomeric respirator, lic. CC-BY-AT-2.5. Attribution: Ryssby at en.wikipedia)

#StarTrek #TNG #data #android #human #thoughts #consciousness

This is what androids think about (according to the screen-writers for TNG)

(fair use clip from Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), episode 'In Theory')

#oil #money #world #crime #accountability #corruption #inflation #Jamal #Khashoggi #JamalKhashoggi #binSalman #Saudi #Arabia #OperationJustCause

A couple of days ago, the Biden Administration announced that the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman is immune from a court proceeding to hold him accountable for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi because he is a head of state.

In 1989, the US invaded Panama in order to arrest their president, Manuel Noriega, on charges of drug smuggling.

What a difference a few years make. I guess money can actually buy more today than it did back then.

#climate #ICSEngine #oil #EV

So when did we learn that putt-putt cars cause environmental damage?

At least this long ago...

(fair use clip from the Jack Benny Program, 1955)

#horoscope #JackBenny #USPol #joke

#retrocausality

(fair use clip, Jack Benny Program 1956, and maybe in the public domain due to lack of copyright notice)

#nasa #artemis #moon #apollo #spaceflight #BackToTheMoon

"Orion completed the outbound powered flyby at 6:44 a.m., passing about 81 miles above the surface at 6:57 a.m. The spacecraft speed increased from 2,128 mph before the burn to 5,102 mph after the burn. Shortly after the outbound flyby burn, the space craft passed about 1,400 miles above the Apollo 11 landing site at Tranquility Base at 7:37 a.m. Orion later flew over the Apollo 14 site at about 6,000 miles in altitude and then over the Apollo 12 site at an altitude of about 7,700 miles "
- NASA blog, 2022/11/21, 8:19pm

(image from nasa.gov, Artemis I, on the far side of the moon)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #snowflake #tranquilizer #populux #MaidenformBonefire #Fred #alien #Disneyland #FX #KatharineRoss #PaulaPrentiss #TinaLouise #suburbia

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Stepford Wives (1975)

Something is not right in Stepford.

This film draws on two major cultural happenings during the early 1970s, the women's liberation movement and another development which I’ll explain under a CW (content warning) later in this thread because it’s a spoiler. The protagonist, played by Katharine Ross (The Graduate, The Final Countdown) and her new friend played by Paula Prentiss (Catch 22) notice how seemingly idyllic the town of Stepford is, but how backward and subservient all the women are.

During the late 60s and early 70s the women's liberation movement was at its height, with women burning their bras to protest their subjugation and demonstrate their liberation. The Stepford Wives is full of contemporary references and really gives you a feel for what was going on regarding changing roles between men and women at the time.

The film also features Tina Louise, who played “Ginger” on Gilligan’s Island.

A very well-made film, highly recommended.

(fair use image from the film)

#caturday #qm #uncertainty #probability #density #matrix

This is the cat on my profile page. I named him Schroedinger.