I don't really remember the scores to the Nu Trek movies; they certainly did not stick with me like the Star Wars scores, even with the prequels. I do remember nice scores to some of the original Trek movies, especially The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. I'd pay to see this for those.

I'm waiting for the inevitable posts from a man-made Global Warming opponent. "Newsweek said in the 70s we'll have an ice age! We're almost to a white planet now, because it's cold outside and snowing where I live!"

Well, not a Nazi, as in a member of the Nazi party. But yeah, he fought for the Axis. It took us a little while to figure that out.

In College I had an Astronomy prof, a Bulgarian WWII vet, who posted this question to our class. After several student answers about people not getting along and such, he answered himself: "Because war is awesome! You go marching around the countryside with your buddies and all sorts of really cool stuff to play with.…

Snuffaluffagus was much better in the early years, when only Big Bird could see him. Now he's just like every other Sesame Street character.

Like coal, Santa only gives Megabloks to bad children. Seriously, have you ever built with these things? Far inferior clutching power, and the color is all all over the place. It's like comparing Mozart to the sound of a farting sea lion.

Sacrilege, there is only one True Brick.

Interesting. The book has quite a few sequels, too, though I didn't find them quite as interesting as the original. Still, an extensively built world to explore, and plenty material for future seasons if it does well. And of course, mysteries layered within mysteries...

Brussels sprouts are the only food I've ever tasted that I don't like cooked in bacon. Or any other way. I will eat nearly anything, but the mere thought of brussels sprouts makes my stomach turn. I taste them that way every few years because it just looks so delicious, and I can't stand them every single time.

I also own The Fountainhead, which is at least passable, as long as one reads it as fiction and not as a philosophical work. Atlas Shrugged on the other hand...

I will cut you.

Yes - I think "small" is exactly the right word. The condensed timeline, the lack of lead up to the "epic" scenes, the scale of the universe (I guess they have FTL now?) just seemed condensed and under-explored.

Would have liked to see something like this:

As someone who DID see it, I can confirm that the viewing experience was also "meh." Just a half-baked movie all around. You could see the parts where they wanted you to get excited or feel something, but it just...didn't happen. It just felt rushed, thrown together, and thoroughly unremarkable.

Another interesting thing I've read is that quite a few of the involved probably had PTSD or similar; many townspeople were refugees from the Falmouth (now Portland) Maine area, which had been depopulated a few years earlier by French-backed Native American attacks. I don't have the documents in front of me, but I…

Exactly my first thought. Anyone checked for gold?

Don't forget the pigs!

I think many would argue that if the Spanish hadn't done it, the English, the Portuguese, the French, or some other European country would have done it. And also that this isn't a uniquely European impulse either - civilizations have been slaughtering each other since the beginning of time. It's not like the native…

But Diamond takes how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it into account heavily - it's basically the subject of "Collapse". IE the Norse in Greenland, Japanese, Haitian, and DR environmental policies, Easter Island, etc.

He says technologically more advanced, and he goes into great detail to define "advanced" as not being inherently better, just as tending to dominate when cultures meet. He also presents a very detailed case where the Inuit had better adapted culture, practices, and technology for a particular environment, unlike the…