 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Voyage of the Chimera movie team is in the middle of crowdfunding a second movie, Ashes of the Chimera, and they have a trilogy planned out. https://seedandspark.com/fund/ashes-of-the-chimeraWhat? You have no idea who I am talking about? Not a surprise. This is a small indie group we found by accident. I watched their initial movie with Liana - while the acting was rough, it was surprisingly Travelleresque. Like, woah. (In case you do not know, Traveller's an oldschool tabletop role playing game (TTRPG), in which the rules were minimal and the world development was basically amazing. It's been through many iterations.) Liana never played any Traveller variant and still found it extremely engaging despite the "hey we made a movie" actor/director feel. They managed to create a hard SF story that had depth. Watch it (it's a good distraction, and free!) and then maybe contribute to the sequel. Time is short. While seemingly taking pains to avoid copying any Traveller TTRPG series IP (or perhaps just riffing off the same roots as Traveller, maybe especially the CoDominium series from Pournelle, and the Mote offshoot with Niven), the storyline is as much or more Traveller as a Gregory P. Lee, Swycaffer, or Chadwick "not Traveller, wink" story. Production is interesting - the first movie had a $20K budget and was almost entirely filmed on greenscreen - they did a remarkable job with the look and feel given that. Actors and director are early days in their careers, and it shows, but the story, hard SF setting, and internal storyline consistencies make the setting come across as real. A lot goes (thankfully) unexplained, where you can tell whatever is being mentioned has meaning to the characters, probably from a world-building doc for the people involved (much like in Firefly's immersive setting). Honestly, based on all their posts/content, I do not think these folks realize they are doing a classic Traveller adventure. The effort to make an official Traveller movie has had... travails. It's never happened. Several (Traveller and scifi) storylines and tropes are here. The young noble whose family bought him his commission (obligatory Traveller, "at least he survived character generation"); a starship that's not in great shape; a privateer-like mission; a fading pocket empire; complex planetary societies; competing factions; experimental systems that got stuck onto a rustbucket patrol ship because it's expendable; the submarine-like feel of ship operations; political overtones coming from well above the characters' league; a computer that most certainly is not an AI and probably-wouldn't-be-allowed-to-be-one; the possibility of a mis-jump and what happens if you do; even a little hint of Virus (a Traveller New Era thing), maybe; and the plot-line mission to look for mysterious ships-reported-in-the-void-between-stars. I'm not associated with these guys at all (found the movie on a random AMZ prime search for hard SF movies). I have pledged to this new campaign of theirs because there just are not enough Traveller-like scifi movies out there. It doesn't have the budget of a Firefly obvs, but with your help it could still get done. The tech to produce movies is advancing SO FAST. They already re-released the original (still free) with improved audio. Anyhow, go watch it and then maybe contribute to the sequel. Time is short.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/unlock-public-access-research-software-safety-through-dmca-and-cfaa-reform/DHzwhzLDUnlock public access to research on software safety through DMCA and CFAA reform
"Software now runs consumer products and critical systems that we trust with our safety and security. For example, cars, medical devices, voting machines, power grids, weapons systems, and stock markets all rely on code. While responsible companies cooperate with the technical community and the public to improve the safety of code, others do not. They instead try to prevent researchers and others from sharing safety research, threatening criminal and civil actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Chilling research puts us all at risk. Protect the public from unsafe code and help us to protect ourselves. Reform the DMCA and CFAA to unlock and encourage research about potentially dangerous safety and security weaknesses in software."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today, the US Supreme Court held, in an 8-1 decision, that the construction, wording, and passage of the 14th Amendment had nothing to do with protecting freed slaves from legal and extra-legal oppression by reactionary whites in the post bellum South. In particular, the eight majority Justices shrugged off any notion that the phrase, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States" has, or was intended to have, any referent contained in the Bill of Rights. The only Justice supporting the argument that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States" was intended as a bullwark against states curtailing rights that even the federal government could not abridge, is the sole member of the Court descended from the very freed African-American slaves such a principle would have been intended to protect.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A lot of constitutional (state and federal) discourse is carried out on the question of government over-reaching the powers granted to it. But powers are not the only things in there. The powers have purposes. There are also functions that are spelled-out requirements of the chartered government. What happens when government abdicates adequate performance of those functions explicitly spelled out as its duty? Worse, what happens when it abdicates adequate performance of those duties to better spend its money on ancillary functions many consider essential to those dependent on them? Such a question is on the front burner in NH right now. http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100415/OPINION/4150318Lawmakers who want to see why the courts can't sustain further cuts should walk the courthouse halls. They will see angry, anxious, tearful and frightened people hoping to have their problem addressed so they can get on with their life. They will find families in crisis. People who can afford a lawyer huddle in an alcove or at a table and confer in whispers. In divorce cases, at least one party will not have a lawyer 70 percent of the time, even though custody of a child or ownership of a home is at stake. I think you can guess my position on this - but I will spell it out: I think impeachment would not be too much of a stretch. Thank goodness we still vote on governor and legislators every 2 years (which this same set of slobs is looking to change, by the by). Some services may be "essential" to the recipients of same, but such things must be spelled out in that giant piece of paper under which we charter and regularly recharter the government. (Indeed, in NH, it is vastly easier to amend the state constitution than it is for the USA to do so, and it has been done on a regular basis.) Some, spelled-out-since-inception functions are there as requirements because they are essential to the very fabric of society. That the law have teeth (and not "oh, they can use 'mediation as an alternative,'" which is like saying anyone is allowed to steal, but only half) is the backbone of a "society of laws and not men." I'll also just go ahead and cut off the strawman argument that the lawyers don't need more money: This is about those who need access to justice. The more efficient the court system, the better funded it is, the less money the lawyers make, the less cases cost, the more that cases get won by the just and not settled to avoid the cost of legal representation, and ultimately the better society gets. Nuisance suits and SLAPPs are based on the cost of access to justice. The adequacy of the court system has been an essential item in western law since at least the Magna Carta. (No really, look it up - people talked about overthrowing the King over stunts like this.) Ultimately, it is all that backs anyone's access to justice - and to the rest of the functions and services of the government. If the idea is that we can trust government to do its job without the courts, or that people can just get along or mediate, or that the courts should be ranked no higher than one or another of those other services and functions of government, it shows a terrible disregard for the rule of law and not men. Current Mood:  infuriated
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
silly
disappointed