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NeverarGreat

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Join date
11-Sep-2012
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5-Jul-2025
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Post
#1054896
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

It would have been cool if they had been overseeing construction of the Imperial Fleet, consisting of thousands of Star Destroyers and support craft. Something like this:
Planetary Shipyard except that the planet would clearly be a non-Coruscant world such as Corellia.

JEDIT: Looks like Bingowings beat me to it by about 8 years: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Prequel-Radical-Redux-Ideas-Thread/id/9911/page/15

Post
#1054635
Topic
<strong>STAR WARS: REBELS</strong> (animated tv series) - a general discussion thread
Time

dahmage said:

hm. interesting thoughts. so Jedi are like the nerds of the galaxy. they think they are smart and great and all that. meanwhile everyone else just ignores them and gets shit done without any need of the Jedi. hm. 😃

I figured that they were just too absentminded/incompetent to actually show up on time to a rendezvous, and every time they participate in a covert operation they inevitably blow their cover by drawing the attention of a Sith lord. Seriously, this happens in 3/3 of the original movies. Jedi are not worth the hassle in a secret Rebellion.

Post
#1054510
Topic
4K restoration on Star Wars
Time

lovelikewinter said:

I did a quick check of sold listings on Ebay. The GOUT Trilogy goes for about $75 on average, oftentimes more. There is demand, and you can’t pretend that its just hardcore fans. Each round of changes alienated and pissed off more and more people. Almost makes me wish Lucas had gotten to another revision- almost.

I got the trilogy for about $45 total from 2 different used video stores a few years back. I can only imagine that they’ve gotten harder to come by as time has gone on.

Post
#1054508
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

SilverWook said:

People are actually buying this?
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/us/book-best-seller-trnd/index.html

I thought about saying something derogatory about it, but then I realized it made a fair point. But then I read this book and it convinced me that I should actually vote for a Democrat, since there are plenty of reasons to vote against a certain Republican.

Post
#1054177
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

DominicCobb said:

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Alderaan said:

You should probably look up the definition of the world “or”.

Again, I don’t even quite get what this is supposed to mean. I know what “or” means.

Computer scientists and electronic engineers are aware that there are two definitions of “or”… inclusive-or and exclusive-or. “OR” by itself is ambiguous, except in digital logic, wherein inclusive-or is assumed. To wit:

“you can have cake OR you can have candy” (exclusive or, both not an option)
“applicants must have a PhD OR equivalent experience” (inclusive or, both an option)

The interpretation of your earlier post depends on which “or” you intended, which presumably is why you were asked if “both” was an option.

Maybe we just need to start using “and/or” and/or “nor” more.

Sensemakenot

Post
#1054155
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

There is an aspect to this Obamacare/repeal/replace effort that I haven’t seen discussed, so here goes:

Every time I talk to someone that is angry about Obamacare, their reason is simple: “my premiums went up”. Well, of course they went up. Requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, and expanding health care for the previously uninsured was certain to raise premiums for those who previously were insured. How could it not?

Right now, a lot of reports seem to assume that if Obamacare is repealed, then the sudden loss of insurance for 20 million people will backfire on Trump and the Republicans. Hogwash! There are over 300 million people in the U.S., so by that math less than 10% of people would lose their insurance. Heck, if 100 million people lost their insurance, that would only be 33% of the people. And then what would happen?.. a huge majority of people will see their premiums go back down. All those people who complained that Obamacare caused their premiums to go up - surely the vast majority of Americans - will rejoice that Trump saved the day and their premiums went back down, “correcting” the wrong done by Obama.

All that is required to stay in power is to make the majority happy. How did slavery manage to last so long? Because most people vote their pocketbook. The republicans are going to be heros.

One factor to take into consideration: the cost of health insurance has continued to rise for decades, so I doubt that it would decrease with the repeal of the ACA. Perhaps it wouldn’t rise as fast, but there are factors other than the ACA to take into account.

Post
#1054059
Topic
Episode VIII : The Last Jedi - Discussion * <strong><em>SPOILER THREAD</em></strong> *
Time

We know that Kylo is obsessed with the Sith of the past, primarily his grandfather. However, since Snoke appears more interested in Rey than Kylo at the end of TFA, perhaps Kylo will eventually find himself cast aside by Snoke or himself become disillusioned when he discovers that Snoke isn’t a Sith. If this is the case, he could devote his energy to uncovering the secrets of the first Sith, and his journey would be a dark parallel to Luke’s in wanting to find the first Jedi temple. They, along with Rey, would meet at the place where the Jedi and Sith broke into two factions, and the three would have an explosive confrontation, eventually culminating in an apotheosis where they reconcile their differences and turn to confront Snoke.

Post
#1054034
Topic
General Star Wars <strong>Random Thoughts</strong> Thread
Time

In Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, he lists as #5:

“…require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.”

During the reading of this rule my mind went directly to Attack of the Clones.

Post
#1053980
Topic
Empire Strikes back 35mm restoration feedback thread (POUT) (a WIP)
Time

There are a lot of compression artifacts in the video, so much so that I can’t comment with certainty on the dirt and grain in all shots, but overall it looks quite good. Some shots are very crisp and clean, others are grainy as I expect they would have been in the theater. The highlights seem clipped on Hoth, but perhaps that’s just because of the colorspace. All in all, I wouldn’t mind this being my go-to version 😉

Post
#1053914
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

It’s not exactly easy for most people to burn a blu-ray disc, heck I still just watch Despecialized on my computer. Also, it’s not obvious where to get the how-to guide on burning Despecialized to disc. For example, on the first page there are several broken links:

The ISO image can be burned to a DVD-DL and should work in most Blu-Ray players.

To burn, you can use image burn following thse instructions: http://onlineitpro.com/?p=181

and

More information can be found here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD/topic/12713/

Also, you must first go to the Ultimate Introductory Guide (an excellent source btw) then another site to get to the disc burning instructions.

I expect that this is too much for many people who aren’t expecting so many technical steps. I think it could be more streamlined from the first post, perhaps listing the resources needed before detailing the steps kind of like the ingredients in a recipe.

Post
#1053868
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

TV’s Frink said:

NeverarGreat said:

TV’s Frink said:

NeverarGreat said:

TV’s Frink said:

The Trump Administration can’t shake this Russia thing…I guess because they keep lying about it and at some point lies do actually matter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-08/trump-met-russian-ambassador-during-campaign-at-speech-reception

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/carter-page-russia-trip-trump-corey-lewandowski-235784

The first event seems exceedingly benign, and reads as a form of ‘gotcha’ politics.

Granted…in isolation. However, there’s this disturbing pattern of Trump and his pals lying or misleading about Russia.

Yeah, and that’s just the problem. For people who have the mental model that Trump is a serial liar (most of the Democratic party), this is just one more data point to buttress the argument. However, for those with the mental model that Trump has been the unfair target of a smear campaign by the mainstream media (which is most of the Republican party), this is further proof that the MSM has it out for him. After all, would you be able to remember everyone you shook hands with at every event if you were running for president? So continually reporting on this may have the opposite of the intended effect for the people they most want to convince.

I might not be able to remember everyone’s hand I shook, but if I was asked over and over if I shook anyone’s hand who also had a hat on, I’d probably either remember or say I couldn’t remember. I wouldn’t keep insisting I hadn’t if I had or if I wasn’t sure.

I think anyone in Trump’s position would be more cautious with their words, but then again, this is Trump. He’s not a reasonable, cautious, or political person, and got elected because of it, so he thinks that he doesn’t need to police his own statements. He’s largely right. To the extent that his lies and exaggerations damage the dignity, intelligence, and decorum of the presidency, they are seen as features of his presidency by many of those who elected him. I think that is an incredibly short-sighted line of thinking, since the government is now seen as an asylum for the incompetent and the delusional. If his lies become prosecutable, he should be removed from power before he does something genuinely destructive to the country.

Post
#1053855
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

TV’s Frink said:

NeverarGreat said:

TV’s Frink said:

The Trump Administration can’t shake this Russia thing…I guess because they keep lying about it and at some point lies do actually matter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-08/trump-met-russian-ambassador-during-campaign-at-speech-reception

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/carter-page-russia-trip-trump-corey-lewandowski-235784

The first event seems exceedingly benign, and reads as a form of ‘gotcha’ politics.

Granted…in isolation. However, there’s this disturbing pattern of Trump and his pals lying or misleading about Russia.

Yeah, and that’s just the problem. For people who have the mental model that Trump is a serial liar (most of the Democratic party), this is just one more data point to buttress the argument. However, for those with the mental model that Trump has been the unfair target of a smear campaign by the mainstream media (which is most of the Republican party), this is further proof that the MSM has it out for him. After all, would you be able to remember everyone you shook hands with at every event if you were running for president? So continually reporting on this may have the opposite of the intended effect for the people they most want to convince.

Post
#1053829
Topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Time

TV’s Frink said:

The Trump Administration can’t shake this Russia thing…I guess because they keep lying about it and at some point lies do actually matter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-08/trump-met-russian-ambassador-during-campaign-at-speech-reception

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/carter-page-russia-trip-trump-corey-lewandowski-235784

The first event seems exceedingly benign, and reads as a form of ‘gotcha’ politics.

The second event, that of Carter Page’s trip to Russia, is less benign, though it may appear so on the surface. Page did indeed give a commencement speech at the New Economic School in Russia, but this article raises some troubling questions. From the article:

'Page said he’s visiting Russia in a private capacity, and has no meetings planned with the Russian government. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Page won’t see any Kremlin officials. He isn’t representing the Trump campaign on his trip to Russia, campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said by e-mail.

Even so, Page may make informal contact with the Russian establishment, according to Sergei Markov, a political consultant to Putin’s staff. The Kremlin is looking for ways to reach out to the Trump camp, he said.

“Trump is promising an end to constant pressure against Russia and we’re interested in finding out if this is just a populist promise or something more serious,” Markov said by phone.’

So to summarize: the Russian government admitted that it would probably contact Page during his trip in order to reach out to Trump, even after Page claimed that he was going as a private citizen. Moving on:

‘Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, is viewed warily in Russia. Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign-affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said she probably will provoke worsening tensions with Russia if she becomes president. At the same time, while Trump offers the tantalizing prospect of better relations, he’s also scarily unpredictable, Kosyachov said in an interview.’

This suggests that the Kremlin was looking for some way to control Trump’s ‘unpredictable’ nature at the time. Back to Page’s commencement speech:

‘During his speech, in which he appeared to defend the authoritarian model in former Soviet Central Asian republics, Page cited a 2012 decree by Putin and a speech by a Chinese leader. China and Russia, he said, have policies based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. That has worked to the advantage of all parties in their relationships, he said.’

Hmm. So this was Trump’s foreign relations expert during the campaign, a man who doesn’t care for American values of democracy and anti-corruption rhetoric, and who values policies of ‘mutual benefit’ between (preferably authoritarian) states. Anyone who knows anything about Chinese government knows that it is dependent on personal favors to grease the wheels of power.

This article was written in July of last year, and I hadn’t heard of it until now. This is what is so frustrating about the mainstream media narrative and the Democratic establishment: they focus on gotcha politics and bare speculation while failing to provide an in-depth and nuanced reporting of the philosophies underlying political figures, philosophies which are based on the words and actions of these people and as such cannot be spun into spurious claims. In the case of Carter Page, his philosophy is much more troubling than the Russia Dossier because it is plain to see.

Post
#1053717
Topic
Blu-Ray and other HD box size STAR WARS covers
Time

Nebula
I think this Ohrai poster for ROTJ is a cut above most of the posters, but I’ve never seen it used for a DVD or Blu-ray case. It would be really grand to have a full set of Ohrai Blu-ray cases. Perhaps this more impressionistic take on the well-known poster could be for Empire:
Falcon
And this classic could be Star Wars:
Death Star

Heck, there’s even a cool one for TPM: Against all Odds

Anyway, just an idea. Now that I have posted it, someone will undoubtedly show me that this set has been done.

Post
#1053664
Topic
Episode VIII : The Last Jedi - Discussion * <strong><em>SPOILER THREAD</em></strong> *
Time

TV’s Frink said:

Ryan-SWI said:

Mocata said:

I guess it’s possible, it would be interesting even if he just got to flesh out an existing plan for the narrative. But I’m just suspicious that this is all a Lucasfilm board room creation after the 2-3 named writers on TFA. It’s probably all just done with a committee.
“I am not a committee” - Rian Johnson, probably.

Hey come on, TFA wasn’t made in a boardroom, it was clearly made with time, love and care. That’s why a messy script was rushed through production with “A New Hope” scribbled out on the front.

Yeah, you listen to JJ talk about the film for two hours and it’s clear how little he cares about it.

I don’t question his love for the originals.

But after watching the Making Of feature for TFA, I came away with less appreciation for JJ, not more. He comes across as an entertainer, a guy who works well with others and plays to the crowd. This is all well and good, and is a vital element of any movie, but there has to be some underlying purpose for a moment other than ‘Isn’t it great to see Han and Chewie again?’. I feel like some of the deeper themes of the movie, such as the meta-commentary on Star Wars fandom, may not have even been intentional. To be fair, there is some question as to how much of the meaning of ANH was intentional vs manufactured by audiences in the decades since, but Lucas’s film didn’t lack for ideas.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that TFA is fun. If it isn’t any more than that, that’s fine. I look forward to what Rian brings to the story.

Post
#1053543
Topic
4K restoration on Star Wars
Time

With the quality of fan restorations becoming available for Star Wars, I don’t much care what official product they release - no matter what, Star Wars won’t be a ‘lost film’.

There are a great many less-well-known films needing preservation or restoration, and there are probably a lot where a fan restoration is necessary. I hope that in the near future they get the attention they deserve.