Pat @Pat@qoto.org

#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.

#fusion #breakthrough #ignition #LLNL #NIF #DOE #energy #nuclear #nuke

Here's the press conference by DOE and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories about the historic first fusion reaction to produce a positive gain factor.

https://video.qoto.org/videos/watch/d97ad047-49d1-45dc-9bfc-5b050bc80c4a

Just an old joke made into a poem.

Quantum Attitude

The neutron’s Milquetoast existence
never ever asserting insistence
never ever taking a side,
never picking a lane on its ride.

But wondering about those who polarize
what’s in their hearts, what’s in their eyes
So Mr. Neutral asks one day
to see what his neighbor would say.

Mr. Proton, what’s the attraction?
Why try to make a stand
Do you think it can create traction?
You’re not even the tiniest grain of sand.

“Although you go more places, Mr. N, see more things
I stir more and get stirred more, to see what it brings.”

Yes, the neutron says, that’s a different way to be
But please tell me, does it really make you happy?
Mr. P is deep and responsive.
The proton responds, “I’m positive.”

#SmallPoems #Poetry #MicroFiction #SmallStories #neurtal

#NASA #ArtemisI #moon #HumanSpaceFlight

Artemis I Orion capsule will splash down near Guadalupe Island in about two hours from now.

Live coverage:
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public

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)

#USPol #choice #ReproductiveRights
#abortion

Well, the Democrats have control of Congress for about three more weeks. Let's see if they pass legislation to make abortion legal for every American just like they promised.

#covid19 #vax #vaccine #CDC #Pfiser #sacrasm

Don't forget to get your booster vaccine before the holidays. And remember, it works better if you take it in the ass.

#climate #change #sarcasm #ClimateChange #BrainFuck

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"Climate change is here to stay. We need to get used to it. It's endemic. We need to live with it... Here's a vaccine that will make you feel better about our world falling apart. Make sure you take it every 6 months."

#invention #ideas
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Remote controlled gum.

Whoever voted yes, please let me know where you heard that. Thank you.

The closed captioning is small and hard to see, it says...

Right. So, what happens when we die?

We drop into limbo. Are you serious?

Limbo?! Unconstructed dream space.

(The last CC sentence was not spoken in this clip, it's for the next spoken line in the scene, which was cut off in this clip).

#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)

Did anyone get all four them?

#people #silos #culture #PeoplePoll

Can you describe who these people are and what they are famous for?

(click each one that you know)

#Covid19 #policy #US #China

In China when someone is infected with COVID-19, they lock them up in a quarantine center until they are free of virus.

In the US when someone is infected with COVID-19, they lock them up in coffin and bury them 6-feet underground.

#zeroCovid #China

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7544475

#MSM #media #OldMedia #COVID19 #censorship #accountability #USPol

Have you ever heard anyone from mainstream media ever say that it is wrong that a million Americans died because of what the CDC did (hording 100s of millions of respirators during the pandemic, and telling people to take their masks off), and that policymakers should be held accountable for what they have done to our country?

#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.

#USPol #journalism #words #ambiguity #NewRule

New Rule:

From now on, any politician, journalist or commentator who uses the word "fulsome" will be sentenced to serve five years at Folsom State Prison in California.