#HE MADE THAT SHIP AND ITS SOME FUTURISTIC ADVANCED THING?? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bamfdaddio · 3 years

Text

X-Men Abridged: 1978

The X-Men, those take-me-to-the-ballgame mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 109 - 116) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Tony Dezuniga

Yes, the plan here is to toss Kurt at Magneto and yes, it’s objectively the best panel of 1978. (X-Men 113)

If the X-Men were a tv-show, the Phoenix mending the M’Kraan Crystal would probably have been the finale of season 1 of X-Men: the New Generation. Now that we’ve had this big finish, Claremont takes his time to sow new plot seeds and navigate his team of merry mutants in new directions. Compared to 1977, 1978 is a lot more laid back, with smaller arcs and more character moments.

Take the first two issues of the year, for example. The victorious X-Men come home from their space capers and for a moment, all is well. Ororo is a plant mommy, Kurt is a grade-A cutey and Jean comes out to her parents as the Phoenix. (Intrigued? Read more here.) And, because Moira going back home to Scotland, the X-Men say goodbye to her through… a baseball game! (Which, I guess if you’re comic book character bound by the comic book code, is the next best thing to just getting drunk together.)

It’s all very straight-edge wholesome.

Lilandra is very absent: I’m assuming she is sleeping off the space jetlag somewhere. idk

Sure, there’s still a few action-packed B-plots: a fight scene is mandatory in a comic book, after all. Weapon Alpha tries to claim Wolverine in the name of the Canadian government and some nobody named Warhawk sneaks into the mansion as a phone repairman to rig the Danger Room into a Death Trap.

(Look, you have a danger room. Why are you calling phone repairmen? During breakfast, did Charles go around the table, asking anyone if they wanted to fix the phone and everyone was like “nnnnnno, I am le tired”.)

Anyway, how would you unwind after a baseball game? Scott has an awesome idea! (I'm betting Scott would have embraced the Comics Code.)

This is the one issue not drawn by John Byrne this year. Dezuniga does a fine enough job, but Jean using her powers looks like she’s barfing psy-energy all over the place. (X-Men 110)

Warhawk traps the rest of the X-Men in the Danger Room. Wolverine gets a moment to shine as the team’s rogue, finally getting a win after getting knocked on his ass lately. Also, Kurt calls Warhawk Krieghabicht. (Hee.) Jean, meanwhile, is startled because despite her phenomenal powers, she was taken out so easily. She makes the formal choice to rejoin the X-Men.

And the next time we see them… THE X-MEN HAVE VANISHED? (yes, i know this sentence contradicts itself, shut up)

We find Beast at a circus in Texas, investigating their disappearance while on a sabbatical from the Avengers. See, Lorna called him because Havok was kidnapped in Scotland and the X-Men did not pick up, so she called good ole Hank McCoy. We know Charles is honeymooning with Lilandra, so where are the X-Men?

Cerebro leads Hank to a circus and, dude, for someone who’s supposed to be a genius, you draw the conclusion that these are the brainwashed X-Men way too slowly.

I by no means wish to belittle Storm’s situation, but Wolverine is in equally skimpy clothing while chained the fuck up, Beast. Can’t spare a little sympathy for him? (X-Men 111)

Beast continues being the worst detective mutantkind has ever known: even Jean, who’s currently a cigarette smoking trapeze artist named Miz Destiny, barely convinces him that these are the X-Men. When Beast finally confronts the Ring Leader, it turns out to be… Mesmero!

This pose: appropriate for a super villain or suitable for a Harlequin novel cover? Especially with all this talk about enthralling? (X-Men 112)

Apparently Mesmero doesn’t give a fuck that half these X-Men aren’t the same X-Men that fought him before. Revenge is a dish best served cold and to the wrong table, apparently. Beast fighting ole Messy causes Wolverine to spring free from his hypnotic influence. Wolvie proceeds to slap Jean out of it (literally) and they free the rest of the X-Men. But when they come and confront Mesmero in his little circus wagon, their villain is knocked out…

By Magneto.

dun dun DUN

Magneto proceeds to kidnap them, like this:

Magneto, who has no patience for narrative baggage, also yeets out Mesmero over the Andes, no big deal (X-Men 112)

Just like Mesmero, Magneto wants misplaced revenge. Instead of exacting vengeance on Charles, Moira and the Defenders involved in (literally) infantilizing him - no, seriously, he was a baby - Magneto comes for these All-New X-Men. (Look, logic has never been one of Magneto’s super powers.)

He takes the X-Men to his secret base below the South Pole, tucked away under a literal volcano. (He really should be on the tourist board for Amazing Antarctica, this is his third base there.) The X-Men, after they have safely landed, attack him, but they are tossed around like rag dolls, falling one by one - even the Phoenix.

Jean does have the right idea, though: it’s my theory that the key to defeating Magneto is being equally dramatic and hammy. (X-Men 112)

Somewhere on a cruise ship, Charles loses contact with the X-Men and proceeds to do absolutely nothing about it. Damn, but Elizabeth Taylor Lilandra must have some pretty choice moves in bed.

YOU COULD TRY FINDING OUT, CHARLES. (X-Men 113)

When the X-Men wake up, they're bound by Nanny, a robotic… uh, nanny! And Magneto unveils his revenge: he has scrambled the X-Men’s brains: they are fully conscious, but are trapped, powerlessly in their bodies, which won’t follow the instructions of their brains. It’s as if they’re the minds of adults, trapped in the bodies of infants - just like Magneto was. (He does not succumb to an evil laughter, but he’s definitely drifting into Evil Overlord territory.)

Look, a lot of this is very silly. Magneto hasn’t really been codified by Claremont yet: he’s still very much the sixties super villain and he doesn’t have his Holocaust-past yet. His motivations don’t make much sense: it’s never made clear why he needs the base, for example, or why he doesn’t just kill the X-Men. And yet, he seems more menacing than he used to be. Might be because these X-Men actually have a hard time beating him.

A lot of this era works like that. There’s the occasionally very silly trappings of a superhero comic, but there’s also glimmers of exceptional writing. Take the following scene, for example, which I’ll just include in its entirety, because fuck it. Storm is trying to break free, on the flimsy premise that she was a highly advanced baby who had the motor skills of a toddler. (I’ve met babies. They basically eat, sleep and poop. They can’t really do this.) And yet? This scene kind of works.

Like, the fact that this scene works despite the fact that Magneto thought to give his Nanny-robot a sixties copper bob-cut and a aluminium French maid headpiece is a testament to effective writing. (Also to Magneto’s attention to detail.) (X-Men 113)

No worries, Storm succeeds the second time she attempts this.

Together, the now free team manages to almost defeat Magneto, but Phoenix grows a little too zealous, destroying precious machinery. It proves to be their undoing: the roof to the base cracks open, letting lava in. Things grow dire and Magneto gets the nope out of there.

The lava turns on the heat and the team gets split up. Phoenix escapes together with Beast, and they both collapse into the freezing snow in the Arctic. A helicopter saves them, but what about the rest of the team? Are they dead?!

They’re dead enough for Professor X, and I really have questions about the effectiveness of Cerebro. After a brief mourning period, Beast rejoins the Avengers. But what really happened to the X-Men? Well, they fled into the Savage Land!

So, are we getting a sexy costume change with every new locale and/or story arc? What is this, Charmed? (X-Men 114)

The Savage Land plot is… kind of messy and confusing? First, Storm is attacked by Sauron (yay!) and he even hypnotizes Wolverine and uses his love for Jean against him (ew!), but as soon as Karl Lykos gains control again (boo!), he explains how he

Did not fall to his death;

Is suppressing his pterodactyl side (ain’t we all);

allied himself with the Savage Landers.

Then Ka-Zar, Marvel´s discount!Tarzan, explains how someone named Zaladane transformed a hapless innocent into Garruk, the Petrified Man, who is some sort of… living god? Who stopped some sort of interdimensional invasion by mending some sort of… portal rift? And then he set up shop in the swamp and built some sort of futuristic city? And he wants to enslave all of the natives of the Savage Land? And he built his city on the geothermal fissure that heats the Savage Land, so now the jungle is being choked out by snowy tundra?

Such a mess. And I know Zaladane gets important later, but, ugh, the socio-political tensions in the Savage Land is generally not what I’m here for.

One of the few Savage Land scenes I do like is also messy, but the emotional kind of messy. See, the X-Men on their part believe Jean and Hank are dead, and Scott takes it rather… lightly? When Storm confronts him about it, he confesses he does not mourn Jean as much as he thought he would, as if she were a different woman ever since they crash-landed the shuttle. Storm rejects this confession, always solidly in Jean’s camp, and basically tells Scott to man up. Scott has a point: Jean has changed and it’s not like people have fallen out of love for less, but there’s something to be said for Storm’s firm “for better or for worse”-argument. The scene ends unresolved, and I like that.

Anyway, there’s some X-Men fighting dinos and flying lizards, so there’s at least that. Oh, and Colossus develops a suddenly intense bond with a Savage Lander with a mohawk, which is a detail that becomes important later. Another significant detail?

There’s a lot of weight to that snikt, bub. (X-Men 116)

The implication is that Wolverine simply kills the guy in cold-blood. It’s a little weird that both Storm and Kurt are so okay with this, especially because Storm tries to save Garruk later. This, however, also marks an important direction in which they’re taking Wolverine, becoming the most ruthless of the X-Men.

In the end, Cyclops blasts the foundations of the citadel to smithereens, solving everyone’s problems and putting a neat bow on this tangled plotline. Also, all of a sudden? The X-Men are monthly again! (yay!) And they’ve upgraded from All-New, All-Different to Uncanny on the cover, though the name of the comic won’t officially change until issue 142.

Best new character: Like Hell I’m giving this to Weapon Alpha! So instead, it’s going to the two stylish, mohawked ladies who “show the island” to Piotr. (Again. They’ll be relevant later. Sort of.)

What to read: X-Men 109, for the denouement of the Phoenix Saga (or the first part thereof). The rest is rather inconsequential.

26 notes · View notes

introvertguide · 3 years

Text

Star Wars (1977); AFI #13

In honor of May 4th and the original movie that started it all, the group reviewed Star Wars (1977). Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winning 6 with one extra special achievement award for Sound, this is perhaps the most highly decorated science fiction movie of all time. The special effects and the music were especially moving making the Star Wars experience something amazing to behold. I was lucky enough to see one of the re-releases in the theatre back in the mid 80s. In fact, I might well have seen the film 100 times over my life. The music might be the most well known soundtrack globally. With inflation, this is the 4th highest grossing film of all time. It is truly a fantastic work and I would like to now spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Let me start with the usual:

SPOILER WARNING!!! I DON'T THINK THERE ARE MANY WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM, BUT FOR THOSE FEW THAT DON'T KNOW, I AM GOING TO RUIN THE PLOT!!! STOP NOW AND GO WATCH IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amid a galactic civil war, Rebel Alliance spies have stolen plans to the Galactic Empire's Death Star, a massive space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Imperial Senator Princess Leia of Alderaan (Carrie Fisher), secretly one of the Rebellion's leaders, has obtained its schematics (this entire effort was originally a throwaway concept but was completely fleshed out in Rogue One almost 40 years later) , but her starship is intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer under the command of the ruthless Darth Vader (acted by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones). The movie is just starting and the odds against the rebels are shown by the scale of the two ships. Before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid called R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), who flees in an escape pod to the desert planet Tatooine accompanied by protocol droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels).

The droids are captured by Jawa traders (little shiny eyed beings who are now meme legends), who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, part of a holographic recording of Leia starts playing a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi where she requests his help ("Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"). Later, after Luke finds R2-D2 missing, he is attacked by scavenging Sand People while searching for him, but is rescued by elderly hermit "Old Ben" Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness), an acquaintance of Luke's, who reveals that "Obi-Wan" is his true name. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his days as one of the Jedi Knights, the former peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who drew mystical abilities from a metaphysical energy field known as "the Force", but were ultimately hunted to near-extinction by the Empire. Luke learns that his father fought alongside Obi-Wan as a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars (another throwaway concept that was eventually fleshed out) until Vader, Obi-Wan's former pupil, turned to the dark side of the Force and murdered him. Obi-Wan presents Luke with his father's old lightsaber, the signature weapon of Jedi Knights. The connection between Darth Vader and Luke's father is explored in depth during the next eight films.

R2-D2 plays Leia's full message, in which she begs Obi-Wan to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father, a fellow veteran, for analysis. Although Luke initially declines Obi-Wan's offer to accompany him to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Force, he is left with no choice after discovering that Imperial stormtroopers have killed his aunt and uncle and destroyed their farm in their search for the droids (cue the Academy and Grammy Award winning theme music composed by John Williams). Traveling to a cantina in Mos Eisley to search for transport, Luke and Obi-Wan hire Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a smuggler with a price on his head due to his debt to local mobster Jabba the Hutt. Pursued by stormtroopers, Obi-Wan, Luke, R2-D2 and C-3PO flee Tatooine with Han and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) on their ship the Millennium Falcon. As they reach the planet's orbit, two Star Destroyers try to intercept them, but Han is able to jump to hyperspace by reaching lightspeed.

Before the Falcon can reach Alderaan, Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) interrogates Leia about the location of the Rebels's secret base, with the threat of destroying her home planet, and, when she answers that the base is on Dantooine, he orders Alderaan destroyed simply as a show of force. As the group arrives in the asteroid field that now stands in place of Alderaan, Han spots an Imperial TIE fighter and is taunted into chasing it and shooting it down, allowing the Falcon to be captured by the space station's tractor beam. Inside the Death Star, Obi-Wan attempts to disable the tractor beam, and Luke persuades Han and Chewbacca to help him rescue Leia after discovering that she is scheduled to be executed. After disabling the tractor beam, Obi-Wan sacrifices his life in an epic lightsaber duel with Vader, allowing the rest of the group to escape the Death Star with Leia. Using a tracking device, the Empire tracks the Falcon to the hidden Rebel base.

Leia's schematics reveal a hidden weakness in the Death Star's thermal exhaust port, which could allow the Rebels to trigger a chain reaction in its main reactor with a precise torpedo strike. While Han abandons the Rebels after collecting his reward for rescuing Leia, Luke joins their starfighter squadron in a desperate attack against the approaching Death Star. In the ensuing battle, the Rebels suffer heavy losses as Vader leads a squadron of TIE fighters against them, but Han unexpectedly returns to aid them in the Falcon, narrowly managing to save Luke before Vader can shoot him down. Guided by the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke turns off his targeting computer and uses the Force to aim his torpedoes into the exhaust port, destroying the Death Star moments before it fires on the Rebel base. In a triumphant ceremony at the base, Leia awards Luke and Han medals for their heroism.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to explain the connection between this movie and the Joseph Campbell version of the hero's journey that so many people have pointed out. This journey starts out with a call to adventure that is refused and then forced (Luke is given an opportunity to leave, he declines, the death of his family pushes him forward, he leaves with his team). Campbell then predicts an initiation that involves meeting a woman and gaining weapons, a meeting with an incredible power, and an achievement of the hero's power (goes to star destroyer, meets Vader and loses Obi-Wan, gains power over force). The story ends with a refusal, a magic flight, a rescue from without, and a hero's return (Luke goes to attack the Death Star, Han refuses and then eventually saves him, and the day is saved so the heroes are rewarded). It is a story that is called the Monomyth and has been recognized in Greek myths that are thousands of years old. It is a good story that has been proven to work and it makes for one of the most enjoyable movies of all time.

There was some negative opinions of the film because it is such a simple old story that became extremely popular and film goers would no longer be interested in intelligent thinking movies. It is kind of the truth because blockbuster summer films are full of explosions. The highest grossing films since then have tended to be highly explosive action films. Films like Star Wars, Jaws, and Indiana Jones are a lot of fun, but they are not super deep. They are easy to understand at surface level, but they can also be interpreted to mean much more significant things. The choice of the viewer about whether the story has deep inner meaning or is just the Odyssey in space is personal and likely colors opinions about how good it is. Some people think it is stupid fun while others have actually formed religions around the idea of the force.

One thing is for certain, the formula worked amazingly well for a large group of people and this made movie producers want to copy it. This is what is generally called a watershed moment because the look of movies changed significantly. There were so many more space operas and they all had that worn post-apocalyptic look to them. Star Wars and Mad Max combined to give a different look of what futuristic was. There was advanced tech in some cases, but there was a scorched Earth that had run out of resources and people suffered. Think about how many movies and television shows there are that have come out since the 80s and combine industrial tech for space and distressed almost Western appearances for the planets. The movie changed the way many people see the future.

One thing that is inarguably great was the score. I am not going to try and describe it with words, I am just going to put links to the different themes here so you can hear for yourself:

Star Wars Main Theme (Full) - YouTube

Star Wars- The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) - YouTube

Princess Leia's Theme - YouTube

Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope (1977) Soundtrack 11 Cantina Band - YouTube

This is somewhat strange for the AFI so I went back and checked, but I believe that this is the only film with a ranked villain (Darth Vader), hero (Han Solo), and theme song (Main Theme). Even if it is somewhat simplistic from some perspectives, the story and the songs and the sounds and the characters speak to those who watch it. Seeing the movie is an incredible experience and I envy those who get to see it for the first time.

I am a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and I could completely nerd out going over all of the little things throughout the movie, but this is not a deep dive but instead an overall review. So does it belong on the AFI top 100? Maybe more than any other movie. It is an epic tale that changed the way movies were made across multiple genres. We could probably look at all science fiction films and put them as before or after this one. It is an important piece of American film and (no matter what anyone thinks of the other Star Wars films or George Lucas) it is a masterpiece. Would I recommend it? I cannot say yes enough. It is part of my culture as a California movie nerd and understanding this film is understanding some of the basic knowledge I grew up with. All sticks are swung around like light sabers. If I say "Princess Leia hair," everyone around here knows exactly what I mean. If something is impossible but still needs to be done, we tell people to use the force. I have lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and I can still reference a location by how close it is to Skywalker Ranch were George Lucas worked on movies. Please check out this film and you will know why I am such a fan of movies.

#star wars #a new hope #use the force #john williams #film score #introvert #introverts #movie review #award winning films #special effects

14 notes · View notes

andromeda-sapphire · 4 years

Text

Saturn in Aquarius: 2020-2023

Beginning later this month, on March 21, Saturn enters the revolutionary sign of Aquarius for a brief month and a half preview before it retrogrades back into Capricorn until the end of September. Then at the end of the year, on December 17, it will re-enter Aquarius for the long-haul until March of 2023. Saturn is known as the planet of limitations, boundaries, responsibilities and hard lessons, and up until now has been making its way through the restrictive and authoritarian sign of Capricorn since the beginning of 2018. Though Saturn is the ruler of earthy Capricorn and identifies well with that controlling energy, it doesn't always do it's best work in this sign. Traditionally, Saturn also rules the airy free-flowing sign of Aquarius, and tends to be very comfortable in this sign, despite how different they may seem. When Saturn enters this humanitarian sign, it evolves into a higher version of itself, capable of bringing much needed equality and change into the world. How do we know this? Well, let's take a look at the last few Saturn transits through Aquarius - from 1991 to 1994, and before that, from 1962 to 1964.

Let's begin with Saturn's transit through futuristic Aquarius back in 1962. Right off the bat, as Saturn entered the sign, the first automated (unmanned) subway train in New York City began running. Aquarius rules technology and automation, so this stood out to me as a very modern Aquarian development already. Also in 1962, Spacewar! was developed and released as the first computer game, featuring two spaceships fighting it out. Each spaceship was controlled by a player, meaning it was not only the first computer game, but also the first multi-player game for computers. Fitting, as Aquarius rules groups as well as spaceships and technology.

In the early 1990s, there were also some major technological advancements, specifically related to the internet and computers. In 1991, at the beginning of Saturn's transit through Aquarius, Apple released the PowerBook, the first modern laptop computer, which was a huge development in the computer world and has influenced our modern computers significantly in their portability and design. The WorldWide Web was technically invented in 1989, while Saturn was transiting Capricorn, and it was exclusively meant for information-sharing between scientists in institutions around the world at that time. However, in April of 1993, after Saturn had entered Aquarius, CERN made the "www" software public, accessible to anyone with a computer. This is significant because Aquarius represents freedom and equality, and though it was still mainly the upper class that could afford computers at the time, this movement away from intellectual elitism essentially opened the internet up for free public use like we have today. In 1992, ViolaWWW was released, and was the first web browser to become popularized by users. It was also the recommended browser by CERN until it was replaced by Mosaic, the first web browser to display images in line with text rather than in a new window, in 1993.

In the upcoming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see even more advanced technology developments. Many people are expecting Artificial Intelligence to really take off in the coming years, as well as 5G technology and space travel on a grander scale. The Internet of things is also on the rise, with smart devices and appliances becoming more readily available and more advanced.

The future of technology was on the minds of many in the early 1960s, reflected in ABC's first color animated TV series, The Jetsons, premiering in September of 1962. Not only does Aquarius rule color television and cartoons, but the futuristic utopian vision held by The Jetsons is also very Aquarian in nature. Television also welcomed the eccentric and beloved Addams family in 1964 with ABC's premiere of The Addams Family. This television classic questioned social norms of the time, specifically the values of the traditional mid-century American family, which were quite conservative at the time. This series became a symbol of the counterculture in television, a typically Aquarian concept. Another incredibly popular futuristic TV show that technically started during Saturn's transit through Aquarius, Star Trek began filming in November of 1964, during the last couple months of Saturn's journey through this sign. Star Trek is also notable for this transit due to the fact that it was one of the first television shows to give women, especially black women, prominent and respected roles. The character Lt. Uhura, the ship's communications officer, was played by Nichelle Nichols, a black actress. At that time, black women typically only appeared in television as servants and maids, so this was a revolutionary change not only in television but in the civil rights movement as well. In fact, when Nichelle Nichols considered quitting the show to pursue a career on Broadway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with Nichelle, convincing her to stay on the show as a part of history.

Television in the early 1990s during Saturn's next transit through Aquarius was just as influential on culture as the television of the early 1960s. One of the first TV shows that comes to mind when I think of the 90s in television is the classic sitcom Friends. Though this show technically didn't air until Saturn had moved into Pisces in 1994, the concept of the show resonates very closely with Aquarian themes. For one, the name "Friends"is representative of Aquarius, the sign of friendship and camaraderie. David Crane and Marta Kauffman, the show's creators, began developing Friends in late 1993 under the early title of Insomnia Cafe, as Saturn made its way through the last 10 degrees of Aquarius. Though it initially had mixed reviews, Friends grew to become one of the most popular and beloved television shows of its time. Another well-loved show of the early 90s, though aimed more towards a younger audience, Bill Nye the Science Guy first aired in 1993, and embraced the forward-thinking Aquarian scientist archetype. Science in general is ruled by Aquarius, sign of innovation and discovery, and this show was designed to teach children about the realities of science and observation. One TV show I thought I should mention here as well is The Real World, which first aired on MTV in 1992, and is credited as being the birth of the "reality TV" genre of television, though it was edited quite often in favor of certain situations and reactions that didn't quite reflect reality. It received a lot of criticism as well for not ever casting an Asian man in nearly 30 years on television. Reality TV is also very much a Saturn in Aquarius concept, as Saturn rules realism, and Aquarius rules television in general.

Aquarius is also the ruler of cartoons, as I touched on earlier, so it's only fitting that I discuss a few cartoons of the early 90s. The trend of "cartoons for adults" was beginning to take off around this time, after The Simpsons paved the way in 1989 with its adult humor and hidden messages about adult life. One of the more "mature" cartoons that comes to mind when thinking of Saturn's transit through Aquarius in the early 1990s is The Ren & Stimpy Show. This show first aired in 1991, and was quite grotesque in its animation style, featuring detailed animated close-ups with which other shows later followed suit. It quickly became a cult classic, especially among college students, who adored its bizarre animation style and dark yet quirky humor. Another cult classic "adult cartoon" that began while Saturn was making its way through Aquarius is Beavis and Butt-Head, which first aired in 1993. This cartoon had mixed reviews and stirred up a lot of controversy with its seemingly idiotic social criticism, but became a staple of early 90s adult television nonetheless. The social criticism in this show is representative of Saturn in Aquarius as well, as Saturn portrays a harsh, critical nature, and Aquarius is a sign of society and social groups. Rocko's Modern Life was yet another cartoon series that was aimed for young adults rather than children, and achieved moderate success after its initial release in 1993. This show was known for highlighting adult situations through cartoon animation - combining the adult responsibilities and themes of Saturn with the off-beat cartoony Aquarian personality. One last cartoon I'd like to mention in this segment of adult cartoons is Animaniacs, which first aired in 1993, and quickly became a hit with both children under age 11 and adults over 25. The large following among adults even led to one of the earliest Internet fandom cultures, another Aquarian concept.

Television in the coming years will likely circle around again to some of these rebellious Aquarian ideas, and it's likely that TV will become even more entwined with the internet over the next few years, as online streaming is more common these days than watching cable TV.

Saturn's movement through Aquarius was a big part of the civil rights movement of the early 60s as well. The sign of Aquarius is a sign of freedom, equal human rights, and disrupting the status quo, which essentially were a few of the main goals of the movement. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a 10th house Aquarius Mercury, which is why we remember him best for his "I have a dream" speech, which he delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. for the 200,000+ people who gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. During the time he was writing and revising this speech, Saturn was transiting his Mercury in Aquarius as well. Later in 1963, on October 22, roughly 200,000 students stayed out of school in Chicago to protest segregation of African-American students in schools. This was a major peak of an ongoing battle to desegregate schools across America, again acting out the Aquarian values of equality and social justice.

In the early 1990s this theme re-emerged through the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. A video went public in 1991 of five white Los Angeles police officers severely beating Mr. Rodney King, who was black, after pulling him over for speeding. The riots began on April 29, 1992 after a trial jury acquitted four of the officers, enraging thousands of Southern California residents who took to the streets in anger. By the end of the riots, in early May, 63 people had been killed and thousands more were injured or had been arrested. The 1992 Rodney King riots went on to inspire the folk song "Like a King" from Ben Harper's debut 1994 album Welcome to the Cruel World, which was released just after Saturn transited into Pisces, therefore the songs were written and recorded while Saturn was in Aquarius.

In the coming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see another revolutionary movement for POC, particularly watching the Black Lives Matter movement, because the hashtag was born while Saturn was in Scorpio, meaning Saturn in Aquarius will be coming up on a Saturn square for the birth chart of the movement.

Furthermore in music, there were a few major developments in the early 1960s while Saturn was in Aquarius that stood out to me. First, in the early to mid 60s, Joan Baez was beginning to make a name for herself in folk music during the American folk revival. Then in 1962, Peter, Paul & Mary released their debut album, which reached #1 on the US album charts. During the same year, Bob Dylan released his self-titled debut album of cover songs, and later went on to release his first original album The Times They Are a-Changin' in 1964, towards the end of Saturn's journey through Aquarius. These politically charged folk artists all peaked with the folk revival during Saturn's transit through Aquarius, which makes sense, as folk music is Aquarian in its nature, typically discussing issues of politics, inequality and other "radical" ideas of change. In fact, these artists also all performed "We Shall Overcome" at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963.

Another emerging group that stood out to me from this Aquarian transit was The Beatles. This incredibly successful rock group released their first couple of songs - "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why" - in January of 1963. By the next month, their single "Please Please Me" was topping the British rock charts. The Beatles released their debut studio album, Please Please Me, in March 1963, and by May had landed on the top of the UK album charts, staying there for 30 weeks, only to be replaced by their second studio album, With The Beatles. By October of 1963, the media began using the term "Beatlemania" to describe the frenzied behavior exhibited by Beatles fans across the globe. Many of their live performances were accompanied by the sounds of screaming fans and general hysteria. Fanatics, by the way, are also ruled by Aquarius. In February of 1964, The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, drawing a record 73.7 million viewers. The crazed audience clearly depicts the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in full swing. But how do The Beatles relate to Saturn's transit through Aquarius? First off, The Beatles were one of the first mainstream groups to market to the younger generation of teenagers rather than to their parents. This was a big shift in the music industry, as typically it was the older audience with all the spending power, whereas now, young teenage girls were a powerful force in the music market. Though their earlier songs avoided heavier social topics, it became obvious later in their career that The Beatles were a huge part of the birth of counterculture and anti-establishment ideas. In 1964, when the band was informed that a venue they were scheduled to perform at in Florida in the US was segregated, they refused to play unless the audience was integrated. Many more conservative countries refused to allow The Beatles to perform at all, in fear that their progressive counterculture ideas would "infect" their younger population. Even the USA attempted to ban all British acts in 1965, as they saw their emerging rock 'n' roll culture as "dangerous" to the youth of the nation. The Beatles were also highly progressive in their music style, and incorporated many new and unusual recording techniques into their albums. This ongoing theme of progressive thinking and "peace and love" apparent in the music of The Beatles is very in line with the nature of Aquarius.

Later, in the early 1990s, grunge bands were the new emerging music trend. A number of grunge rock bands all released major hit albums around the same time - right around Saturn's transit through rebellious Aquarius. In 1991, Pearl Jam released their debut album Ten, followed by Nirvana releasing their second album Nevermind, and then Soundgarden with Badmotorfinger - all within a span of two months! All three albums were incredibly successful, and resonated strongly with the Aquarian counterculture and anti-establishment ideas brought out by the earlier generation in the early 1960s. Then in 1992, Alice in Chains released their second studio album, Dirt, which is considered by many to be their best work. Also released in 1992, Stone Temple Pilots debuted with their first studio album, Core, which received mixed reviews, though it went on to win a Grammy in 1994 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Nirvana received a lot of attention and success in the early 90s as well, and Kurt Cobain was dubbed "the voice of a generation" by many. Similar to The Beatles influence on counterculture, Kurt Cobain's darker lyrical content touched many listeners hearts on a deeper level than the earlier hair metal had been able to.

In the next few years in music, we're likely to see younger emerging artists, similar to Billie Eilish, who has an Aquarius Moon, taking over the scene with some revolutionary new ideas and social commentary in their lyrics.

Though Aquarius is a masculine sign, I've also noticed a pattern with emerging feminist movements during these transits, due to the focus on equal human rights. The second wave of feminism began picking up speed around 1963, when two major works of feminist writing were published - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Both works were largely critical of the typical role of a female in 1960s society - that of the domestic housekeeper/mother figure. These works encouraged women to pursue careers they felt passionately about for the first time. Also in 1963, journalist Gloria Steinem became a prominent figure in feminist culture after going undercover as a Playboy Bunny and revealing the poor treatment and underpayment of the waitresses at the Playboy Club.

In the early 1990s, during Saturn's next transit through Aquarius, the third wave of feminism began to emerge. While second-wave feminism dealt primarily with issues surrounding equal opportunities for [predominantly white] women in the workplace, this third wave of feminism dealt with issues regarding intersectional feminism, violence against women and reproductive/sexual freedom. A trend of reclaiming "derogatory" female terms (for example - bitch, slut, whore) began largely with the Riot grrrl movement in punk music, popularized by female-constructed bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, as a way of expressing feminine identity on their own terms.

Feminine power is already on the rise again, with Uranus having moved into feminine Taurus a couple years ago and still having several more years to go on that transit. Women in power will do great things with that power, and more women will come to be in power over the next few years with Saturn in this sign. Whether it be individual political power, or power in numbers, women around the world will come together and rise to power from now until 2023. Another trend I expect to see play out while Saturn transits Aquarius these next few years as well is that of gender revolution. With the gender roles of the past melting away, a revolution is roaring around the corner, and gender queer/LGBTQ+ identifying people will likely score a few big victories in the upcoming Aquarian transit.

Another theme I noticed through Saturn's transit of Aquarius in the early 1960s was a theme of national independence and freedom. In August of 1962, the colony of Jamaica became independent, freeing Jamaicans from the United Kingdom after 300 years of British rule. In October that same year, Uganda also became independent from the UK. Then in 1963, Kenya declared independence from the UK as well. Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic and Zanzibar both experienced major revolutions during this time frame, in search of freedom. This trend continued in the early 90s, with many countries, including Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia, all declaring their independence from the USSR in 1991.

It's likely that we will see many more uprisings and movements towards independence, including the USA's Pluto return in 2022/2023, which is expected to be a revolutionary moment for the history of the country, over the course of the next few years.

These are the kinds of themes we are likely to see re-emerging until March 2023, while Saturn roams through free-spirited Aquarius. Technological innovations are going to be increasingly involved with our lives, as the internet of things develops further. Television will trend towards witty humor and social criticism, as it did the previous few times Saturn was in Aquarius. Civil rights movements will be center stage, writing more groundbreaking history into our textbooks, while the future leans towards gender queer/female figures of color, rather than in favor of the cis-gender/heterosexual white male. Music will take on its own social commentary within the industry, perhaps birthing a new genre of sorts. Independence of the individual as well as the nation will be stressed in the coming years. Saturn feels confident in this sign, and we should too, moving forward into Saturn's "Age of Aquarius" with hope for a better future.

If you enjoyed reading this post, feel free to buy me a coffee here!

https://ko-fi.com/andromeda_sapphire

#saturn #aquarius #2020 #blog #astrology blog #astrology #astrology readings #astrologer #me #mine #witchblr #astro witch #astro #saturn in aquarius

107 notes · View notes

wolfs-crescent · 3 years

Text

Traveler

Assassin's Creed Slash

Alpha/Omega/Beta Dynamics (just because)

Fluff

Crack Ship: Male! Eivor x Arno (I need this out of my head)

---------------------------------------------------

Arno sits on top of the horse as he listens to Eivor talks to a group of arguing Saxons. The time he spent with Eivor and clan he learned that Eivor likes to help people.

Which is probably why he isnt alone in a time hes never been in. It was last year when he was sent there for some reason. Right after the whole ordeal in France and now he's stuck in England or Britain or something like that.

Now he is in Raven clan clothing because hes original clothing was a bit futuristic. They had to hide his things because it would cause an up rise. Arno was just glad to keep his double blades on his forearms.

The clan was werid, in Arno's opinion because they welcomed him in open arms. They didnt hesitate and he favors Randvi because she made most sense, Eivor because he committed to helping him, and Hytham because he was an assassin. He was wry of Valka. Maybe it was because she was curious as he came from another time and tried to get him to drink her elixirs. Arno would make up excuses because he didn't feel like dying. Her favorite nickname for Arno is Traveler.

Arno's attention goes back on Eivor as one of the Saxons points over to him. Arno's hood is up so they could hardly see his face besides his hair pooling out of the side of his head.

"Oh come on, you have a a fine Omega sitting on that horse like it's nothing," yelled the upset male Saxon.

Arno glares at man which the man obviously cant see but Eivor clearlys sees it. It looks like the man is having an argument with an older man and younger woman. Probably a father and daughter and based on that sentence is the female is Omega.

Eivor on the other hand looks like he's ready to laugh and punch the man's face in. Eivor places both hands on his hips amd talk some more. Than Arno flinches up as Eivor takes his right hand and punches him in the jaw.

This amuses the Omega on top of the horse. The man apologizes or begs and runs off somewhere. Eivor waves the couple off and walks towards Arno who is starting to get uncomfortable on the horse.

"So what was that about," Arno eyes him form under the hood when Eivor reaches him.

"Some Alpha wanted to try an Omega as if shes an object. The father was trying to stop him, it's a good thing I intervene," Eivor explains.

"What a good smaratian you are," he watches Eivor pet the horse.

"I just like to help people out,"Eivor smiles at Arno, which causes him to have a werid feeling in his gut. "So, would you like me to sit from behind and you take the reins or the other way around."

"I believe the last time I tired to ride a horse, i fell and ate merde," Arno says with light amusement.

"Okay then, I'll show you," Eivor says with excitement in his voice and gets behind Arno.

"Now. But what if- Don't we have to go somewhere- ," Arno gets cut off when tha Alpha's chest is now on his back. His face heating up.

"It will be fine, trust me," Eivor guides Arno's hands to the reins, "Besides we'll make it to Sciropescire in no time."

"We could've taken the boat- the long ship and we tak-," Arno pauses, "This was your plan along." He looks behind him to stare at Eivor.

"No," Evior hesitates and Arno raises a brow, "I can't seem to lie to you can I 'Traveler'," Arno rolls his eyes and look forward again and back at his hands.

Eivor's hands were underneath his and he could feel Eivor's head on his shoulder. "Well it is part of it. I needed to talk to you, alone."

The Omega's face feels like it's on fire, "and what would that be."

The horse begins to move which causes Arno to jump and Eivor to chuckle, "We're going to meet a few allies of mine, friends. Ivarr and Ceolbert."

"I've heard you mention them a few times and I think I've heard Ceo-," Arno pauses because he wasn't sure if he could pronounce his name right.

"Ceolbert."

"Yes, Ceolbert at the settlement but I haven't spoken to him. I was to busy with Hytham and Valka drugging me," Arno says with a low tone at the end. Evior guides his hands to the side and he follows as the horse moves the direction they wanted to.

Eivor laughs, "Valka has your best interest when she gives you her elixirs. She's the best at what she does. She is a seer after all."

"Its just werid," Arno says, "So about Ceolbert and Ivarr."

"Ceolbert is a good man. Kind, wise, and he wants peace. Ivarr on the other hand is-," Eivor disappears into no speech.

"I have the feeling he might be a wild card," Arno gusses the sentence to Eivor's.

"I guess you could say that. He does have a bit of a biased view on Alphas and Omegas and believes that we can't achieve peace through talks but violence," Arno realizes his tone was wry.

"And is Ceolbert an Alpha," Arno asks.

"No hes a Beta but Ivarr has some good in him," the Alpha sounds unsure in his statement.

"Sounds like your unsure."

"I mean he can be rude, just-," Eivor cuts himself off.

"Just what," Arno's amusement catches in his voice.

"What makes you think I'll get in fight with him," Arno asks innocently making Eivor laugh.

"You have a short temper and the first time you arrived, you almost stabbed me with your double blades," Eivor says in a matter-of-a-fact tone.

"There suppose to be hidden," Arno shoots back, "And it's a good thing you spoke English."

"I don't feel like losing a finger and yours is more advanced," Eivor says.

Soon Arno heard a thick Dane accent cursing a storm about being bored. Then the reins were pulling the horse to a stop. The Omega turns to the Alpha and raises a brow.

"What now," Arno asks the Eivor.

"Dont do anything irrational," Eivor asks.

"I wont," the heat was going back to Arno's face as he felt Eivor's breath on his face.

The Omega watches the Alpha look at Arno's eyes and down to his lips. The Alpha places a rough hand the Omega's face. The space closes between them.

It was soft and Eivor notices that Arno's lips are soft but slightly rough. The Alpha slowly licks the Omega's bottom lip and Arno let's him in. Their tongues dance together and Arno's closes arm clutches to his shirt. As Eivor's hands makes a spot for themselves on his hips.

They pull apart when they heard a loud swear ring in the air. Arno slowly smiles, "We should probably go before your friend goes mad."

Eivor's hand start to make small circles, "Maybe."

"But we definitely aren't finish," Arno says before kissing under ear. Eivor stares dumbfounded as he watches Arno gets off the horse with a sly smile.

"Indeed we are not," Eivor smiles.

---------------------------------------------------

This is up to you if you want a secound part or other parts, otherwise this is a one shot.

#assassin's creed valhalla #assassin's creed unity #assassin's creed #arno dorian #arno #eivor wolf kissed #eivor #eivor wolfsmal #arno victor dorian #eivor x arno #crack ship

2 notes · View notes

hewittao7-blog · 4 years

Text

While you have the opportunity

My eldest brother went to live there for a few years and none of us ever made the trip to visit him. To us, Jersey was a place not to visit but to disappear into, as though the island's government offered an open licence to people with an aptitude for self invention. I didn't think much about it until this week, but Jersey was a place of secrets..

wholesale nfl jerseys "I am glad I trusted my gut feeling," he said. Blair had picked this tree out earlier in the day, Cheap Jerseys from china but he had to hike for about 15 minutes in the dark to get there. He shot a two second exposure for the moon and a 20 second exposure of the tree, and then combined the images in Photoshop.. wholesale nfl jerseys

Cheap Jerseys free shipping We all do it. At times, we all feel like hamsters on the wheel with our responsibilities whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, having our to lists become part of our lives. However, Cheap Jerseys free shipping with those lists comes baggage. SubscriptionsGo to the Subscriptions Centre to manage your:My ProfileA futuristic space suit decorated with glowing geometric designs is NASA's latest prototype in series that its astronauts ultimately expect to wear on Mars.The new Z 2 was the winning suit in a public vote among three designs, NASA announced Wednesday. Sixty two per cent of voters picked the design emphasizing "technology" in its look, helping it beat the nature inspired "biomimicry" option and the "trends in society" option intended to look more like "everyday clothes" of the future.Chris Hadfield on building a better space suitThe glowing designs on the suit may help crew members identify each other during spacewalks. (NASA)The Z 2 is the second in a series of space suits designed with the goal of developing technology that "one day will be used in a suit worn by the first humans to step foot on the Red Planet." Such a suit needs to be able to protect astronauts both during spacewalks and other excursions in space en route to Mars, nfl jerseys and on the planet's surface, as they explore its rocky terrain.The Z 2 builds on the technology of its predecessor the Z 1, unveiled in 2012, but has:A more durable hard upper torso with abrasion resistant panels on the lower half, instead of the soft torso of the Z 1.More advanced shoulder and hip joints to improve mobility, including exposed rotating bearings and collapsing pleats.Electroluminescent wiring and patches on the torso that make it glow and may help crew members identify each other during spacewalks.Boots more similar to those found on a "suit ready for space."Materials that can survive the full vacuum of space."Because the Z series is still in the prototype, or non flight, phase, the design won't be making a trip to space," NASA said in a news release.The suit lacks some features that space ready suits have, such as the materials and design elements needed to protect spacewalking astronauts from extreme temperatures, www.cheapjerseyschinatrade.com harmful radiation and micrometeorite strikes in space. Cheap Jerseys free shipping

Cheap Jerseys from china "That's not a lot of attempts, not a lot of times dropping into the pocket, scanning over a defense and making a decision," said St. Louis cornerback Aeneas Williams. "But once he gets more times doing that, reading the field, www.cheapjerseyschina8.com look out. Having settled that they were all poisoned, and prescription oakley lenses having even found out (thanks to those two intelligent amateur nike air jordan 4 retro chemists, Madame Duparc and Monsieur Fergant) the very nature of fitness coach the deadly drug that had been used to destroy them, ray ban 8301 the next thing the company naturally thought of was the oakleys for kids necessity of summoning medical help. Young Monsieur Beauguillot obligingly ran coach online store off (it was apparently a very mild case of poisoning, oakley sports sunglasses so far as he was concerned) to the apothecary s shop, coach travel bag and fetched, not the apprentice this time, but the master. Coach outlet coach factory The master, Monsieur Thierry, arrived in great haste, and found ray bans girls the dinner eaters all complaining of nausea and pains in the ray ban sunglasses new wayfarer rb2132 stomach. Cheap Jerseys from china

wholesale jerseys He died Oct 6, 1918. Making a connection with the letters and the documentary I looked on the internet and found the transcripts to the documentary, "Influenza 1918". I came to the part that stated the flu originated at Fort Riley, www.cheapjerseysfromchinasale.com March 9, 1918. Tell them they are trapped in a high tech security facility and the only way out is to bypass each ring of security by answering a riddle. Give them the brainteasers one at a time and let them work together to solve it. If you have access to bodies of water and canoes or rowboats, along with life vests and lifeguards, your kids can hold boat races. wholesale jerseys

wholesale nfl jerseys from china Lifestyle isn going to last forever. While you have the opportunity, you have to take advantage of it, Burns said. Job can be pretty tough some nights. Nicknamed as Premiership, the English Premier League or EPL is the pride of soccer in England. At the top tier of the English soccer league system, it is the premier soccer competition in the country. Contested by a total of 20 clubs, the league operates on a system of relegation and promotion as per league rules wholesale nfl jerseys from china.

1 note · View note

sciencespies · 5 years

Text

9 ways today's society is like the one that filled Earth with garbage in WALL-E

https://sciencespies.com/humans/9-ways-todays-society-is-like-the-one-that-filled-earth-with-garbage-in-wall-e/

9 ways today's society is like the one that filled Earth with garbage in WALL-E

More than 10 years after it was released, watching Pixar’s film WALL-E today is a chilling experience.

The backdrop of WALL-E and EVE’s robot love story is a dystopian society where humans have abandoned Earth to their trash and left robots to clean up while they cruise space.

When the much-loved animation came out in 2008, it was a bittersweet warning to use less, move more, and stop staring at the damn screen.

But we obviously didn’t heed it too well, because as of 2019, we already have an uncomfortable amount in common with the futuristic humans aboard the Axiom spaceship.

The one thing the film’s creators were way off on? The timeline. WALL-E is set in 2805 (humans left Earth in 2105), but according to some key measures, we might not be that far off in reality.

Here are nine signs we’re going down the same path as the humans in WALL-E.

1. We can’t stop buying stuff

Thanks to technological and social advances, every day more people are moving out of poverty and into the consumer class. We’re also living in a more peaceful time than ever before. What do we do with all that extra time, energy, and money?

We consume.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

The average US household now owns 300,000 things; 10-year-olds in the UK have 238 toys – but only play with around 12 of them. We shop so much, we increasingly have to rent off-site storage units. And then every few seasons we throw it all out and start again.

With the internet opening up new avenues for consumption – shopping on Instagram, influencer-inspired buying, and now even publishers telling us what to buy – it’s not hard to imagine how our desire to buy new things is overwhelming the planet.

The Buy n Large tagline “Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space!” playing on loop in WALL-E could easily apply.

We never see the humans of the film before they leave Earth for the Axiom, but based on the waste and omnipresent advertising they leave behind, it’s safe to say they liked to shop, too.

youtube

So is there a way to keep shopping and avoid that fate? Probably not – in the United Nations’ (UN) draft Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, researchers argue that this consumerist system isn’t compatible with protecting the planet.

“Economies have used up the capacity of planetary ecosystems to handle the waste generated by energy and material use,” the report explains.

2. We’re drowning in our own waste

The major plot line of WALL-E is that Earth has been overrun with garbage, making it unsuitable for plant or animal life. The WALL-E robots were tasked with cleaning it up, while humans enjoyed a five-year off-planet cruise (which, spoiler alert, ended up lasting centuries).

While we may not have city-sized trash mounds today, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem with the waste we’re spewing out into the environment.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Pollution is already one of the leading causes of death worldwide, killing 9 million people each year and predicted to get worse. A World Health Organisation study last year found that 93 percent of children on the planet are now breathing in polluted air.

With plastic waste and rubbish choking our plants and animals, and human-induced climate change increasing ocean acidification and forest fires, the planet is becoming a less friendly place for life – even our own fertility rates are dropping.

And it’s only going to get worse, with China soon refusing to take in any of the nearly 4,000 shipping containers of waste the US sends each day for recycling.

3. We’re dominated by mega companies

In WALL-E, society has become dominated by a mega conglomerate punfully called Buy n Large, or BnL. By the time Earth is abandoned, BnL has become so omnipresent, it not only covers cities with its advertisements and discarded products, but also owns the spacecraft humans leave on. It also has the power to declare global emergencies.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Today, there are just a handful of megacompanies that have huge power of the rest of us and our futures, capable of driving fake news, opioid crises, and covering up climate change.

In fact, just 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

And while the whole space thing might sound futuristic, don’t forget retail giant Amazon not only sells billions of products to consumers all around the world, its founder Jeff Bezos also owns Blue Origin – an aerospace company that aims to help facilitate ‘private human access to space’.

(Blue Origin)

4. We’re lonely, despite being more connected

Humans are more connected than ever before thanks to technology, and yet we also report feeling more isolated than ever. In many parts of the world, we’re having less sex and birth rates are dropping. Twenty-two percent of millennials say they have “no friends”.

This type of empty connection is mirrored in WALL-E, where the robots are more human than the humans are.

On the Axiom, humans have digital screens perpetually beamed in front of their faces that allow them to video chat, but we don’t see any intimate family groups. No one touches (until WALL-E and EVE come along), and we don’t see couples together, or parents with children – toddlers are raised by AI in classrooms.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

5. Obesity is on the rise

Okay, this one’s obvious – one of the most striking things about the humans in WALL-E is that they’re all fat. Just look at how the Axiom’s captains have changed since the mission launched.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

To be fair, space reduces muscle mass and makes you puffy.

But we’re not on a dissimilar path of weight gain. Obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975 and are still increasing.

In the film, it probably has something to do with the fact that people no longer walk. Even as babies, they use self-driving hoverchairs to get them around.

That isn’t so far fetched – with self-driving car technology moving out of the lab, and people more sedentary than ever before, it’s not hard to imagine us all sitting back and letting technology drive us around.

And then there’s this photo, taken in Walmart in 2015:

(mlevid/Imgur)

In fact, BMW has already made something that looks suspiciously like the WALL-E chair, their ‘personal mobility concept’ vehicle i-REAL.

youtube

6. We can’t stop staring at screens

I’m not just talking about social media here, but also Netflix, YouTube, Hulu… While we do use technology to connect with friends and family across the globe in ways we couldn’t in the past, the average adult today consumes five times more information daily than a counterpart in 1986.

We’re also watching close to eight hours of TV a day. Our binge-watching has even become an environmental issue.

The humans in WALL-E are just a small step up from this, with their screens now projected in front of them all the time – giving them 24/7 access to ads, entertainment, and shopping.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

In one telling scene, two friends are chatting to each other online but never realise they’re actually right next to each other. Another woman only realises there’s a gigantic pool on the cruise ship after her screen is interrupted by WALL-E getting in her way.

Sound familiar?

7. We feel useless

In a crucial line in the film, the Axiom’s Captain B. McCrea tells the autopilot “I don’t want to survive, I want to live.” Up until that point, the only thing he’s done himself is read out the morning announcements.

The rest of the humans on board don’t seem to work at all. They’re purposeless – their roles replaced by technology and their home planet destroyed. Even back on Earth, WALL-E was left behind just cubing up waste and moving it from one place to the next.

(Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

Many of us don’t feel much more productive. A 2015 poll in the UK revealed that 37 percent of Brits think their job is meaningless. And scientists have predicted that roughly half of all jobs will be replaced by technology – not centuries from now, but in the next 20 years.

On top of that, we often feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis, with our best attempts at action dwarfed by the negative impacts from industry and government.

8. Going to space might be our only chance of survival… if you can afford it

The Axiom wasn’t taking people offshore as a humanitarian act – it was a ticketed, luxury cruise. There’s no mention of other evacuation missions from Earth, so if we assume the Axiom is all that’s left, what happened to the humans who couldn’t afford a ticket?

Probably the same thing that will happen, and is already happening, to those of us who aren’t rich enough to be protected from the worst effects of climate change.

Going to space is one option for human survival if our planet becomes so hot that it’s no longer habitable. But even with reusable rockets, space is expensive, and there won’t be room for everyone.

9. There’s still hope

As depressing as the film may be, there’s still hope for humanity. Life starts to bloom again on Earth. The antics of WALL-E and EVE wake up the passengers from their mindless scrolling. Captain B. McCrea fights back.

(WALL-E, Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar)

And there’s hope for us, too.

Yes, the outlook is bleak, but the science is clear – we can turn this ship around. Every degree of warming we can avoid will save lives, will protect ecosystems.

Perhaps the biggest difference between us and the humans in WALL-E is that we’re not useless – yet. We might feel it, but we still have a role to play in stopping the coming climate crisis.

In turning around our mindless consumption. In remembering that we vote governments in to serve our interests, not to protect the status quo. And we shouldn’t be scared to vote them out.

This is why we’re striking today. There is no news worth covering that could possibly be more important than reminding society that we still have a voice, and we still have power.

This article is part of ScienceAlert’s special climate edition, published in support of the global #ClimateStrike on 20 September 2019.

#Humans

1 note · View note

lessereus-blog · 5 years

Text

Medieval stasis and how to gun it down.

TV tropes defines ‘medieval stasis’ as when ‘time advances, (while) history doesn’t’. This can be technically present in almost every genre if the work of fiction allows, but is primarily present in fantasy and science fiction. Think of the series Futurama, a show about a man (Phillip J Fry), who gets frozen and sent one thousand years into the future. The show deals with his (often hilarious) reactions to the futuristic setting and characters. But now imagine that instead of waking up to a world of hovercars and robots, he woke up to a fairly normal New York setting. Maybe his family are dead, maybe the political situation has changed completely, but Bender is your average alcoholic human, and Zoidberg is just a man with multiple birth defects. This change in time can still be played for drama and comedy of course, but not in the same way.

This is medieval stasis.

Of course, in some fiction, this can be done well. In certain fantasy world, magic might cause technology to stagnate. After all, who needs steam ships when you have apparition? Who needs guns when you can make motherfucking fireblasts at the flick of a wrist? Another example could be in certain science fiction dystopias, such as 1984, where ‘even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty.’ Sometimes a lack of technology and science can show where something has gone disastrously wrong in the past.

Medieval stasis isn’t a trope that can really ruin a work of fiction, since most stories don’t focus on the march of technology. You wouldn’t expect Danarys Targaryian to roll up to Westeros in a dragon-powered spaceship, because it isn’t necessary to the story, and would change the tone of the series in its entirety. In fact, you could argue that the series has a sort of inversion, where technology has been lost to time, resulting in a regression of technology. This, of course, is the fall of Valyria, and the loss of Valyrian steel. But I digress. The point I’m making, is that medieval stasis can be a subtle little trope, something hard to pin down in fiction, something that isn’t even necessary to fight most of the time.

But when it’s removed from a story, it can result in more drama, and some absolutely brilliant moments. Naturally, one of the best works of fiction to display this is Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has several parallels to real-world history in terms of how technology progresses, even within the short span of the series. To the unaware viewer, the series might at first appear to be set in a medieval style oriental world with basic fantasy technology such as swords, canoes, and stone walls. However, evidence to the contrary becomes clear almost immediately, with the introduction of the banished prince Zuko’s ironclad, steam-powered ship. This immediately sets the series in a parallel to the 1800s industrial revolution, as shown by the first real world ironclad ship, which was born in 1859. The first steam-powered ships also came about in the 1800s, and Zuko’s ship even uses a slightly less primitive design with a propeller presumably at the back instead of the front (think steamboat willie). However, this doesn’t inherently move the series out of medieval stasis. If nothing new was invented at all throughout the show, then there’d be no way to tell how long things have been this way. Perhaps steam-power has been around for millennia. Perhaps it was invented around the same time as fire, spears, and picking the fleas from your ass.

No, the definitive moment when the show moves away from medieval stasis is in the episode ‘The Northern Air Temple’, where we first meet the Mechanist, the inventor who first invents the hot-air balloon in order to aid the Fire Nation’s war effort against the Earth Kingdom. At first this seems like a one-off gimmick for the single episode, never to be brought up again. But then the episode ends with one of my favourite lines from the show, as a Fire Nation war minister stands by the wreckage of a war balloon, and says:

“This defeat is the gateway to many victories.”

And that it does.

Well, one at least.

Later, in the brilliant two-parter ‘The Day Of Black Sun’, not only do the Fire Nation bring out the War Balloons once again, about two seasons later, but they’ve updated them and improved them. Now they have full-fledged zeppelins, capable of conducting their own version of the Blitz. This was a completely unforeseen development, which led to a major defeat for The Avatar, destroying one of the last remaining hopes for the world.

This is a brilliant example of how escaping medieval stasis can create drama for your story. One moment, your characters are fighting with their standard weaponry, and then suddenly their opponents pull out a weapon so unexpected that it creates a whole new obstacle to face. Something that could be realistically invented, but still couldn’t be easily predicted by our heroes. This could come in the form of new armaments for infantry, such as a new type of metal, or the creation of a gigantic superweapon, like the Death Star. This is a nice way to create drama and drive the plot, but is also a good way to make the world feel lived in, changing, evolving along with the characters.

The Avatar example goes even further when you look at its sequel series The Legend Of Korra, where we see how the same technology has changed even further over time. Airships, which were a purely military technology back in the first series, are now used for commercial reasons (such as freight). This, along with other technological changed to the settings, shows how a lack of mediaeval stasis can distinguish two different stages of a world’s history. You put both series side-by-side and you could easily see them s completely unrelated, save perhaps for the fight scenes and character designs.

So just by following the development of a single machine we’ve brought in a number of dramatic moments, made the setting feel lived in and changing, and divided the world’s history into two distinct eras. Without these changing machines, the series would still be pretty amazing, since it still has a great plot and brilliant characters (Zuko Zuko Zuko) to back them up. But while it would still be good, the little things in a story can do wonders for the world it occupies. And just like the real world, technology can often be the driving force for something incredible.

2 notes · View notes

sending-the-message · 6 years

Text

My friend has been living in an alternate reality - (Part 11) by Mr_Outlaw_

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

ENTRY 34:

It’s been really quiet around here after the drone incident. Everybody seemed a bit confused at first. Although Smoker tried explaining the nature of Neo-Civitus to them, they didn’t seem to want to believe him. It took a few other people with knowledge of the place to finally convince everybody that this was not good news. Smoker also went on to explain that the drones meant they could be coming in weeks… or years. In other words, we could never anticipate their arrival. I asked him why they’d even be interested in this place at all.

“Resources. Colonization” He told me. “Most likely resources, though.”

He seemed incredibly worried as he told me this, but I couldn’t understand why. I mean, if the only thing that they were after were some resources, then we’d just let them take it, right? No problems there.

“No.” He said sternly. “They don’t work like that. You see, nobody likes giving up their shit to an invading force, right? But nobody would ever even bother fighting back if they knew what kind of power Neo-Civitus has. Problem is… most people just don’t. That’s why they always retaliate at first. The battle never lasts very long.

He sighed, pausing for a bit before continuing. “Here’s the thing with Neo-Civitus… there’s never any paperwork with them. No deals, no negotiations, nothing. Wherever they go, they eliminate the native population, no questions asked. It’s just simpler that way. Besides… most islands that they land on are incredibly hostile, anyways. There’s no risks being taken with them.”

However, even as everybody started to prepare for the oncoming assault, Smoker just scoffed at them. “There’s no point.” He explained. “Once they land, we’re all dead. It's hopeless.”

“So what are you going to do? Just give up, let ‘em kill you?” I asked him.

He furrowed his brow. “Nah… I’ll be long gone before they arrive. There’s a lot of dignified ways to die. But fighting a pointless battle… that just ain’t one of them. I’ll have a better chance out there as opposed to staying here.”

Carrying nothing but a small sack of rations, one rifle and a few knives, he left just a few days later. He didn’t tell us where he was going. But... I'm pretty sure that he wasn't sure himself. Before his departure, he asked me if I wanted to join him. Despite the grim reality that seemed to be waiting for me, I declined his offer. I suppose that there was just a small part of me that thought he was bullshitting about this whole thing. But in retrospect, that didn’t make any sense. I guess I just didn’t want to deal with the horrors out there on this island. I guess I’m just taking my chances.

But… Kunz did eventually recover yesterday. So I guess that’s good news.

ENTRY 35:

A few more months have passed. At this point, we’ve prepared to the best of our abilities. However… Smoker’s words still linger for me.

“There’s no point”.

What if he’s right? Hell, why would he be lying? He left for fuck’s sake.

What’s worse is that nobody’s really explained it to Jolan yet. She’s confused as to why everybody’s so tense these days. She knows that we might have to fight some people sooner or later, but she has no idea what the scale of it just might be. I should break the news to her but… I really don’t want to.

ENTRY 36:

A few more months have passed, but we’ve finally come up with something. Smoker said that they’re most likely coming here for resources, right? Well this place is filled to the brim with zombies and other shit. That’ll pose a nuisance for sure. Not the ideal area to harvest/mine. You see, the creatures here are mostly attracted to sound. The more we make, the more congested the ground below us seems to be. So here’s the plan:

We’ve stockpiled plenty of food already, enough to last us months. We’ll start creating a lot of noise and draw a massive crowd of them over. The idea here is that once Neo-Civitus sees this, they’ll deem the effort to not be worth it and just leave us alone. It might work… actually I have no idea. It’s worth a shot, at least.

ENTRY 37:

It’s going to happen soon. A few hours ago, about three more drones flew over. Two seemed to be mapping out the forests and surrounding areas while the 3rd hovered around where we were. We didn’t bother shooting it down this time. We wanted it to see the hordes of undead piled at the base of our towers. We wanted to convince them to call everything off right there. They left about five minutes after they came, so that’s probably good news. Now we just wait and see.

ENTRY 38:

I don’t know how long it’s been since that last entry. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know where I am. Fuck…

It was about a week since we sighted those three drones when they finally came. Now… I don’t know what I was expecting. What the hell anybody was expecting, for that matter. We were prepared to come face to face with the fucking cavalry. An army, if you will. But no. It was a single goddamn aircraft. I could barely comprehend what it even looked like. It was futuristic, but not in the traditional sense of the word. It was alien. Otherworldly. Not big, but beyond functional. It nearly resembled some kind of pod and moved with such smoothness you’d think that it was being controlled remotely.

As the shiny vehicle descended onto the shore about a quarter mile away from us, it started getting swarmed. It just sat there for maybe about five minutes. At that point, it had become buried underneath a pile of undead flesh. We were optimistic for a second. We couldn’t fathom how they were getting out of that. But then we witnessed the solution.

The sound was sharp at first, gradually devolving into a low hum. The pod emitted a light so bright that we all had to avert our eyes for a few seconds. When we returned our perception to the shore, we all went into a collective shock. The zombies had been cleared out. But that’s an understatement. They were eviscerated. No limbs, no bones, nothing. Just a red mist lingering in the air around it. We didn’t even know how to react. The undead that had been surrounding our towers started trudging their way over to the shore, attracted by the noise.

The doors to the space-age machine opened up. Out stepped three figures. Just three. That was it. They looked to be wearing some kind of armor. But they weren’t the massive, clunky kind that the guards at the prison had. Like the ship that they came in, it was advanced beyond our comprehension. They were sleek, black suits that seemed to bend and twist perfectly with every subtle movement they made. Their helmets resembled futuristic gas-masks, with two large circular eye holes that glowed with a menacing shade of red. The rifles they were carrying looked compact and deadly. They were also a very strange color – a dark bluish-green that seemed reflect every source of light that bounced off of it.

They walked for about five seconds before ascending into the air. It looked so seamless. Their boots didn’t even seem to have any thrusters, so it was unclear how this was possible. As they floated towards us, they dropped tiny blue orbs onto the ground below. As soon as they landed, every zombie within our perceivable vicinity appeared to start being electrocuted. Albeit, not for long. They dropped in seconds. As the stench of burning rotten flesh filled the air, the super-soldiers descended onto our towers. One landed just a few feet away from me. I saw what I assumed to be his name and position etched onto the barrel of his weapon – CPT. RIZZER. I caught of a glimpse of his suit up close. It was more intricate than I initially thought. It looked more like an EXO-skeleton than anything. It was outfitted with pistols and Tasers, amongst other things. There was writing on his chest. In big white letters, it read:

“NEO-CIVITUS: RECON DIV. 34”

He was also larger than any human I’d ever seen before. Larger than the Warden, even. He must have been around 9 feet tall.

They didn’t move at first, seemingly just observing us. At this point, I was holding onto Jolan tight. I also exchanged glances with Kunz, Lauren and Kagenori. It was almost a silent acknowledgement. We’d been through so much together. If these were our last moments alive, we wanted to make sure that we recognized this. I wasn't even prepared for what happened next.

Before I even had time to react, I looked in front of me to see the barrel of Rizzer’s weapon aimed directly at me. Or so I thought it was. I closed my eyes, bracing for bullets that were surely about to penetrate my skin. I heard the harsh automatic buzz of the rifle, but I felt no pain. Instead, I only heard screaming from all around me. And warm liquid soaking into the side of my shirt. I knew what it was. I looked down at Jolan’s limp upper body. Apparently, the rounds were so strong that they had cut her in half. Without being given even a second of time to grief, I felt a sharp, numbing sensation in my thigh. It eventually started to make its way up through my hips and then into my shoulder. I fell to the floor, hitting my head hard as I did. While I could still feel everything above my neck, everything below that seemed to be out of commission. I couldn’t even turn away from the horrific sights in front of me. They were killing en masse - women, the elderly, even children, without remorse.

A few minutes later, they picked up the ones they deemed fit enough to survive and tossed us onto a single tower. Everybody else seemed to be affected by the paralyzing agent as well. I could see Kunz and Kagenori out of the corners of my eyes… but no Lauren. We watched as the three soldiers walked around on the ground, planting what looked like small charges into the dirt. By this time, more zombies had wandered their way into the settlement area, but the soldiers didn’t even seem to acknowledge them. The creatures would bite and scratch against their armor, but it would do less than nothing. Eventually, the soldiers stepped back and one of them projected a hologram out of his wrist. I couldn’t tell what exactly he was looking at, but I had an idea. He pressed some virtual buttons before holding up five fingers. Once they were all down, a mind-jolting explosion echoed through the air. Bits of dirt and zombie entrails flew everywhere, pelting us in the face.

When the smoke cleared, we looked back down to see an enormous black pit in place of what was once solid ground. However, as I looked at it even closer, I realized that it wasn’t empty space. It was bubbling. It was liquid. The first thought that popped into my head was oil. That was a good a guess as any, after all. Soon after, one of the soldiers flew back up to the tower we were involuntarily sitting in. It was Rizzer again. He took out a large syringe-looking device filled with dark-red liquid.

“Don’t squirm. This’ll hurt a lot.”

He injected it into a few guys sitting around me before I finally felt the needle plunge into my forearm. What followed was an intense burning sensation that seemed to last forever. However, I seemed to be gaining the feeling back into my limbs as well. A few of us tried escaping, but were shot down without hesitation. The rest of us just sat tight. After he had finished up with everybody, he addressed us directly.

“You have two options here. Die… or do manual labor. Seems pretty obvious to me. You guys might be pissed right now… but let me tell you that I do not give a fuck. These things happen.”

As it turns out, we were forced to pump the dark liquid through tubes connected to this elaborate looking machine and then transfer them into metal barrels and then finally load them onto a larger aircraft that would come around once a week. However, the liquid itself was a lot less viscous than oil. It also seemed to be bubbling indefinitely. Safe to say, I had no idea what it was. I still don’t.

The only good thing that came out of this was that the soldiers had set up a moderate sized electric barrier around our settlement as to stop any additional creatures from interfering with our work. However, we also weren’t getting out. They also provided us with food. Unsurprisingly, they were just more energy bars. However... these at least tasted decent. Other than that though… it was absolute hell. It was prison all over again. By the time the first month had expired, almost half of us had committed suicide. In an apparent attempt to combat this, one of the soldiers announced that once we’d finished up, we would be given a place to stay in Neo-Civitus. Most of us seemed to buy it, because worker morale skyrocketed right after he’d said that. However… I didn’t. I’d always been good at reading people. And they were full of shit. They weren’t planning on taking us back with them. They were going to waste us as soon as they’d gotten enough of that damn liquid. That was the only outcome that could have been waiting for us.

I don’t know why I didn’t just end it myself. Blind hope, I suppose. But it was also something else. By all odds, I should’ve been dead at that point. Everybody around me seemed to be biting the dust, but I was still alive somehow. I shouldn’t have been. I still shouldn’t be. Something must have been working in my favor. Whether it was some kind of divine intervention or just dumb luck was irrelevant. It was doing the job for me. This train of thought kept me going. Somehow, I was getting out of this alive.

Turns out… I was right.

I don’t know how much time had gone by when it happened. Must have months, at the very least. Or a year. I don’t really know.

One day, we were working away when we started to feel the ground rumbling beneath our feet. We looked at the crater of liquid. At that point, we’d depleted a considerable amount of it. It must have been at least a few meters lower than when we started. The rumbling only got more severe. The Soldiers themselves didn’t seem to know what was going on. Eventually, it got to the point where we could barely stand up. The soldiers lifted into the sky, trying to make sense of it. The ground finally settled a few minutes later. All was still again. Without knowing what else to do, they just instructed us to go back to pumping. However, as soon as we flipped on the machine again, the ground beneath us started cracking.

We all stepped away on instinct. Suddenly, an enormous black creature burst of out the ground. I stumbled back, but got a better look at it in the process. It was a massive worm-like thing with slimy black flesh and sharp appendages sticking out at various angles. It burst into the air, lunging up at one of the surprised soldiers. At that point, all hell broke loose. The worm was followed by another. And then another. During the chaos, I remembered something. I had hidden the last few shards from the prison in a hidden compartment on one of the towers.

I rushed up there to look for it. I found it just as soon as the tower started collapsing. I cut myself mere moments before hitting the ground again. I looked up, witnessing the surreal scene in front of me. My fellow prisoners were mostly dead, being swallowed up by the worms at a torrid pace. I saw Kunz trying to hop over the now-broken electrical barrier before being cut open by one of their appendages. The three soldiers were throwing everything that they had at the creatures, shooting them down one-by-one. But they just kept coming up. As I was taking all of this in, something hit me from behind and flung me into a tree. As I lifted myself back up, I saw one of the soldiers being overwhelmed. The two others seemed to shout something to each other before one of them took a rectangular device off of his belt. He pressed one of the buttons on it before tossing it down onto the ground. As soon as he did this, they flew out of there, leaving their fellow soldier behind.

At first, I thought the device was going to be an explosive of sorts. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I watched as it opened up and a dark-purple light began emanating out of it. It started growing and growing, engulfing the surrounding area. I started running when I realized that it wasn’t stopping. However, as soon as I got up, I felt myself being tugged backwards. I turned around, expecting to see one of the soldiers, but there was nothing there. Just the purple void getting ever so bigger. I fell to the ground, clawing at the soil as I was sucked into an unknown fate. As the light consumed me, I felt weightless for a second. However, I couldn’t breathe. I looked around, only to see dark, vague shapes floating around me in a sea of purple nothingness. After about maybe twenty seconds, I blacked out.

I awoke an unknown amount of time later, face down in what I assumed to be sand. I groggily got up and looked around… but I could barely see in front of me. I was surrounded by what appeared to be a heavy, orange fog. It was pretty evident that I was in some sort of desert, but every other detail was obscured. I only realized that my hearing was gone when it started to come back. That’s when I heard the sounds of distant screams all around me.

Suddenly, I could make out a shape in the distance. It was hard to tell what it was, but it seemed to be getting closer to me. Getting too close. It was one of those worms that had burst out of the ground. I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid it as it lunged towards me. I scrambled backwards, as it buried into the sand. It slithered around, trying to regain its bearings before it seemed to locate me. As it tried to lunge at me again, it looked as if it was being held back by something. It tried a few more times before a heavy, guttural roar emanated from somewhere just behind it. Suddenly, the worm was dragged backwards and out of my sight. I didn’t catch a glimpse of what did it.

I got up and started running away, but I really had no idea where I was going. Hell, I didn’t know what the fuck this place even was. About every step I’d take, I’d hear these ungodly sounds coming from every angle around me. Every time I’d see a moving shape in the distance, I’d change directions. It took a while, but I finally stumbled upon a ramshackle cabin – it was the first indication that humans must exist somewhere in this place. It was old and rotting, but I was tired as hell, so I decided to go in and take refuge for a while. To my surprise, there was a bed in there, along with a pail of water in the corner. Although it was warm from the boiling temperature outside, it tasted like heaven to me.

That’s where I am right now. After writing this down, I’m going to need to pass out. I’m so tired. I don’t know how the fuck I got here. Maybe that device the soldier threw down was a teleportation mechanism of sorts? Fucking hell… then where did it take me to?

#reddit #nosleep #scary #story

7 notes · View notes

architectnews · 3 years

Text

"Hospitals in drastic, drastic need of innovation" says Reinier de Graaf

Dutch architecture studio OMA has produced a film exploring hospital design as part of its research into its first hospital buildings. Partner at the studio Reinier de Graaf tells Dezeen how he envisions the hospital of the future.

OMA has been commissioned to build hospitals in France and Qatar, despite having no experience in designing medical buildings. This demonstrates that hospital design needs to be rethought, according to De Graaf.

"We were selected precisely because we had never done a hospital," De Graaf told Dezeen. "Therefore, we were unburdened by a lot of baggage."

"They're apparently willing to take the risk to take on a firm that is inexperienced in the sector, I think this is an indication of how much the sector itself feels that it's stuck," he continued.

"The thinking about hospitals is in drastic, drastic need of innovation."

Coronavirus "hasn't changed healthcare"

As part of its design process for the hospital projects, both of which are currently strictly confidential, OMA created a short film on the Hospital of the Future to outline its thinking on hospital design.

Although OMA began designing the projects before the current pandemic, De Graaf believes that the coronavirus has exposed issues with current healthcare provision and architecture.

Top: an image from OMA's Hospital of the Future film. Above: Reinier de Graaf

"In many ways, the whole Covid crisis has accelerated a number of notions that we had about the hospital from the get-go, in a way and it's made them more pertinent," he said.

"Clearly Covid has changed a lot of things, but it hasn't changed healthcare, ironically. I think what it has done is expose a number of flaws, which were latent in healthcare and simply bought into the forefront."

Hospitals obsolete as soon as they are complete

One of the main findings from the studio's research into health facilities is that hospital buildings are lasting less and less time before they become obsolete. According to OMA, this means that hospitals have to be designed to be constantly evolving.

"The more recently a hospital is constructed, the quicker it gets demolished," said De Graaf.

"So one of the things we thought about early on was taking the trend to the extreme. And say the most extreme consequence of this trend is that essentially they are obsolete when they're finished."

"The moment the building is complete, at that very moment, it's obsolete, so it can only ever be obsolete, it's practically obsolete while you're drawing it," he continued.

"This means that we probably need to think about the hospital, not in terms of a finite product, but in terms of a process. And not of a building, but in terms of an organism."

In the future "hospitals will be everywhere"

According to the architect, developments in technology may eventually result in the hospital ceasing to exist as a building, with healthcare being integrated into the city instead.

"Many ideal city concepts are based on disease and based on hygiene to the point that you can see a lot of the utopian urban concepts as giant hospitals, you know, where the hospital is, everywhere," De Graaf explained.

"I think we are encountering a situation, particularly in cities, where the hospital will be everywhere, once again."

Speaking about its current project in Qatar, however, De Graaf explained that its upcoming hospital will still exist in a physical form.

"All I can say is that the appearance will be an extremely interesting mix between tradition and future, between the primordial and the futuristic," he said.

"It almost aims to be a fully autonomous complex. It will look like it could be built on Mars. Nevertheless, it will look remarkably familiar in Islamic culture."

De Graaf also points to 3D printing and mass robotisation as two areas that the studio is looking to incorporate into its hospital designs.

"I think what the healthcare crisis will do is make what until recently was long term future-gazing become a lot more pertinent and imminent," he said.

Read the full interview with De Graaf on the Hospital of the Future below:

Tom Ravenscroft: How did the film come about?

Reinier de Graaf: It is a product of a long interest in healthcare as an architectural subject. In spring 2019 we were asked to develop a number of hospitals – one in France and we got involved in a very large healthcare project in Qatar.

We asked our clients why us, as we've never done a hospital. And we know that hospitals in particular, like prisons, are the domain of architects who specialise in them.

But apparently, we got the reply that we were selected precisely because we had never done a hospital. And that therefore, we were unburdened by a lot of baggage. Apparently, the hospital concept as it was routinely being done was running into certain problems.

We, particularly in the context of Qatar, got a very long research phase before we actually had to enter a design phase. And what we did, I think, in the summer of 2020, we made an initial video, which we put on our website, where we mainly asked questions about the hospital of the future.

That was a very, very short video. We thought more, I started to think about the subject, we have a team of people in the office who work across the different projects that we have on the topic. I wrote a number of articles.

So we've been very active, the project was continuing, then Matadero, the arts Spanish organisation asked us to participate in an exhibition about the hospital of the future, which basically got a lot of traction.

We are working on hospitals as we speak, they're confidential projects, but mainly our thinking about it. And whatever we broadcast about, it gets a lot of traction, a lot of people ask us about it. And that organisation asked us about it, the Venice Biennale asked us to do something on the subject, but clearly, for Covid reasons to be postponed, postponed and postponed.

Then with Matadero, we had the first idea that we would do something virtual. And we would make a film, which is very much of this time, you know, you can go anywhere, you don't need to breathe and other people's faces, you don't need to inhale you, you just make a video. So that's, that's what we did.

Tom Ravenscroft: How have recent events impacted your thinking?

Reinier de Graaf: I think in many ways, the whole Covid crisis has accelerated a number of notions that we had about the hospital from the get-go, in a way and it's made them more pertinent.

In our view, it's not that Covid has changed everything. Well, clearly, it has changed a lot of things, but it hasn't changed healthcare. Ironically, I think what it has done, it has exposed a number of flaws, which were latent in healthcare and simply bought into the forefront.

Tom Ravenscroft: Like what?

Reinier de Graaf: One of the things we found in our research is that the more recently a hospital is constructed, the quicker it gets demolished.

So the evolution of the technology and the evolution of medical science seems to result in an ever-quicker expiry date of the topology and of the design. Up to the point that you have some recent hospitals, which, you know, didn't even live for a quarter of a century. And were then demolished.

Tom Ravenscroft: Did you compare that timeline to other building topologies? Isn't this broadly true for all buildings?

Reinier de Graaf: It's part of a general trend. I mean, it's also part of clearly of a housing trend, but it is a more radical example of the trend. It's almost an extreme example, you have, essentially of hospitals and you have airports.

Airports are too big to demolish, so they're in a permanent state of conversion. And in a permanent state of expansion.

So one of the things we thought about early on was taking the trend to the extreme. And say the most extreme consequence of this trend is that essentially they are obsolete when they're finished.

The moment the completion date of the building at that very moment, it's obsolete, so it can only ever be obsolete, it's practically obsolete while you're drawing it, which means that we probably need to think about the hospital, not in terms of a finite product, but in terms of a process. And not of a building, but in terms of an organism.

So we began to look at that we began in Qatar, we're really very advanced in looking at 3D printing prefabrication and 3D printing. As you may know, also in surgery, 3D printing is a very prominent thing. Organs are 3D printed. So there's an interesting overlap between medical technology and construction technology there.

So we're taking that very far to the point that you would have factories on site. You have industrial, complex enough to produce offspring, you practically eliminate the contractor from the equation.

I mean, that is an interesting thing. And, of course, another thing you see that in the course of the 20th century, we saw the trend that generally acute diseases became chronic diseases, we got to live a lot longer, not necessarily healthier, but acute diseases became chronic diseases.

And with that, you essentially have the whole evolution of the healthcare sector go privatised, it entered a kind of comfort zone where there was ever fewer staff, ever greater efficiency possible, etc.

Because I mean, it's been 100 years since the Spanish flu. And Covid, of course, what it does, is that it makes a lot of chronic diseases, all of a sudden, acute again.

Many people are basically alright, with Covid, but as soon as there's already something wrong with you, it can become acute, in an instance when you contract that virus.

And that means that we are in a way thrown back in time, with a certain amount of urgency. Hospitals sort of pop up in an instant, we saw the Chinese hospital that got there in 10 days. We see stadiums be converted, we see ships converted into hospitals.

It also highlights a problem in architecture anyway, that as a discipline with an ethos of permanence, it is facing a condition of life, which is ever less pertinent.

So the friction between architectural ambitions and that of your ability plays out in the extreme in healthcare. So that's also why we were so enthusiastic to dive into it, because healthcare is a sector where we're certain crisis of architecture becomes very manifest.

Tom Ravenscroft: So as you say in your video healthcare as we know it is dead?

Reinier de Graaf: Of course, that is an attention-grabbing statement in the video. But I guess we mean it of sorts. I mean, at least the way we have thought about the hospital so far is running into a dead end.

I mean, the thinking about hospitals is in drastic, drastic need of innovation. I guess it's the sentence in the film as a short way of saying that.

Tom Ravenscroft: So back to first principles, kind of redefining what the hospital is and how it operates within a current?

Reinier de Graaf: Another thing that's very prominent in the video is that of course, you can rewrite the history of architecture and urbanism completely along medical terms.

I mean, many ideal city concepts are also based on disease. And based on hygiene to the point that you can see a lot of the utopian urban concepts as giant hospitals, you know, where the hospital is, everywhere.

I think we are encountering a situation that particularly in cities where the hospital will be everywhere, once again.

What is modern technology? And that's the latter part of the film that tries to speculate on how that could happen in a number of ways.

Tom Ravenscroft: So the buildings disappear, as the technology enables it to be basically everywhere?

Reinier de Graaf: Yeah, in the most extreme form. But of course, like with any prediction it will never fully come through. So I'm sure there will always be hospitals. But they'll be different.

Tom Ravenscroft: So how does this long-term future-gazing impact on your actual designs?

Reinier de Graaf: I'm not sure if it's long term, future-gazing. I think 3D printing, for instance, has been on the cards for a while. And architects have flirted with it, but always in quite a tentative way. It's been applied in small-scale buildings.

I think what the healthcare crisis will do is that what until recently was long term future-gazing may become a lot more pertinent and imminent.

I mean, if our plans work out we would be building such a thing in the near future.

I think the other thing that you also see happening is mass robotisation. In the course of the hospital. It's also an interesting flight forward, we're incredibly scared of mechanical labour, we are incredibly scared of robotisation.

Nevertheless, it's long been a fact of life in many sectors. And it will also be a fact of life in the healthcare sector. And maybe the benefit of that is that there's more people suffering and burnout in the medical field than almost any other field. And maybe the mass robotisation of certain tasks will allow the hospital staff, again to focus on the things that matter.

I think there you will see another acceleration, clearly, robots cannot become sick.

Tom Ravenscroft: That being said, when you build your hospital in Qatar will it broadly look like a hospital?

Reinier de Graaf: I can't say too much of it, but all I can say is that the appearance will be an extremely interesting mix between tradition and future, between the primordial and the futuristic. It almost aims to be a fully autonomous complex, that also reduces the dependency of the whole hospital system on the supply chains, on external factors, etc.

It will look like it could be built on Mars. Nevertheless, it will look remarkably familiar in the Islamic culture.

Tom Ravenscroft: But this is more than just a mental exercise?

Reinier de Graaf: Something like the video emerges in tandem with us being confronted with all of those things. I mean, it's not like we withdraw in a room and then we come up with a kind of visionary strategy; in a way the video is a form of communicating insights that we gain when we're actually doing this and progressive insights where we're actually doing this.

Tom Ravenscroft: Do you think that hospitals in particular, and healthcare has been stuck in a bit of a kind of rut of continuing down the same path?

Reinier de Graaf: I think the fact that people ask us because of our ignorance is very much a symptom of that.

I mean, they're apparently willing to take the risk to take on a firm that is inexperienced in the sector, I think is an indication of how much the sector itself feels that it's stuck.

Tom Ravenscroft: It's kind of amazing that OMA is being asked to design hospitals because it is such a complex building.

Reinier de Graaf: It really puts architecture to the test because the stakes are so high, you know, people die. And in that sense, any architectural frivolity or any kind of frivolous argument very quickly runs into a very hard test.

The nice thing is when you design a hospital as an architect, you have to be incredibly hard on yourself and also have to really scrutinise your own preoccupations and your own idiosyncrasies in a way because things need to happen a certain way. It's really a functional machine.

Tom Ravenscroft: You've got to take the arrogance of the architect out of it?

Reinier de Graaf: Yes. Which is very good therapy for us.

The post "Hospitals in drastic, drastic need of innovation" says Reinier de Graaf appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

0 notes

tastydregs · 3 years

Text

Strap on a HoloLens and Step Into the AR Conference Room

When Microsoft’s Alex Kipman logged on to our meeting last week, he showed up as a cartoon avatar standing somewhere between my cluttered desk and a kitchen filled with outdated appliances. This holographic version of Kipman somehow didn’t stun me—maybe I’ve had too many augmented reality demos at this point—but his appearance in my apartment, when he was physically in Redmond, Washington, is what Microsoft thinks the future of AR will be.

But first, I had to ask: Is Microsoft working on consumer-friendly AR glasses? Because the thing we were both wearing on our heads, HoloLens 2, well … it’s pretty extra. It is technically sophisticated, a full-fledged computer for the face, with 2K displays in each eye and built-in spatial audio and 6DoF positional tracking. But the headset is large, expensive, and brutally futuristic-looking. The first version of HoloLens was designed for developers, who were supposed to make compelling apps for it. The second version is sold to enterprise customers—entities ranging from Airbus to automakers to the US Army (which has been a source of some controversy).

If mixed-reality headsets are ever going to be used more widely, a couple of things are going to have to happen: They’ll need killer apps, and the hardware needs to be something that people will actually want to wear on their faces. Hence my question to Kipman, the man who invented HoloLens, about when these things would evolve beyond the enterprise niche.

Kipman didn’t really answer. He was more inclined to talk about Microsoft Mesh—the new mixed-reality platform Microsoft announced today during its annual Ignite conference, which is being held virtually. Mesh is powered by Azure, the company’s cloud computing service. The software will enable people in different physical locations to join each other in mixed reality to meet or to hang out. That’s the big news today, and Kipman wants to stay on topic.

“We’re not going to talk about hardware today, and there’s nothing to disclose,” Kipman replied. As he spoke, a mini holographic Alex Kipman was wedged upside down in a holographic convertible car, the result of us resizing and turning a series of virtual objects in this bizarre space. “But we are leading mixed reality today, and the objective is to continue leading it.”

“But it would be foolish, at this point, if you weren’t experimenting with AR glasses,” I counter.

“I think you would be correct,” he replied.

Later I would talk to John Hanke, the chief executive of Niantic, maker of the popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go, about the company’s new partnership with Microsoft and how it plans to use this new Mesh software.

“[HoloLens] is not a device that you’re going to wear on the streets. We’re using the HoloLens 2 as an experimental platform to start working with this stuff before future AR glasses that are consumer-friendly are ready,” Hanke said. Got it: AR glasses are the future. And this new mixed reality software from Microsoft is somehow going to get us there.

There may have been no better—or worse—case made for AR glasses than the experience I had trying to take meetings in large headsets in the days leading up to Microsoft Ignite. In order to give journalists (myself included) advance access to some of the features Microsoft planned to showcase Tuesday morning, Redmond shipped out a large, hard-shelled flight case filled with computer equipment. This included a HoloLens 2 ($3,500), which is “untethered” and doesn’t require a separate PC; an HP Reverb G2 VR headset ($600); and a 15-inch HP Omen laptop ($1,200 and up), which is what the Reverb headset plugs into. The gear overwhelmed my desk, and I had to move some into the kitchen.

0 notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

Best Cyberpunk Movies to Watch Before You Play Cyberpunk 2077

https://ift.tt/3lIgZEP

We’ve warned you of the dangers of overhyping yourself for Cyberpunk 2077 ahead of the game’s December 10 release date, but I understand if it’s hard to contain your excitement for 2020’s most anticipated game. However, that still leaves you with the question of what to do while you’re waiting to finally play CD Projekt Red’s potential masterpiece.

I can think of few better ways to pass the time than to curate a marathon of the best cyberpunk movies. While the definition of the cyberpunk genre (especially on film) has traditionally been somewhat debatable, these are movies that showcase a vision of the future where technology seems to have towered above the humans who designed it just as a new breed of revolutionists prepare to counter this growing culture.

So whether you want to celebrate the genre or just understand it a little better, these are the cyberpunk movies you need to watch ahead of Cyberpunk 2077‘s release.

Akira

Along with being arguably the most important anime film of all-time (at least in terms of the global growth of the genre), Akira is considered by many to be the definitive on-screen portrayal of cyberpunk style and the genre’s social commentary.

As the story of bikers in Neo-Tokyo who find themselves at the target of a manhunt after an incident grants one of them telekinetic powers that could destroy society, Akira checks nearly every cyberpunk box in its elevator pitch alone. Yet, the true joy of this movie will always come from basking in the beauty of its animation and the ways that it highlights a vision of the future where technological advancements were built on the crumbling foundation of forgotten souls.

There’s no world in which Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t heavily inspired by Akira. We wouldn’t be shocked if the game even featured a few Akira Easter eggs.

Blade Runner

While this list is simply arranged in alphabetical order, it’s certainly amusing that arguably the two most important cyberpunk movies ever find themselves at the top of the list.

Blade Runner’s story is an admirable attempt at an ambitious tale of identity and humanity in a rapidly evolving world, but this film’s greatest gift will always be its world design and practical effects. Blade Runner finds its “punk” in a noir-like atmosphere while the movie’s “cyber” elements shine in a largely unromantic futuristic city clearly dependent on often cold forms of technology.

Everyone should see Blade Runner at least once, and we can’t think of a better time to view it for the first time than before you play Cyberpunk 2077.

Burst City

If you’ve got the stomach for something totally weird and very raw, then I highly recommend this 1982 cyberpunk musical oddity.

Burst City leans heavily into the “punk” part of the cyberpunk equation with its story of various bands who battle the police and each other in a dystopian version of Tokyo. While the plot itself is admittedly barebones, it proves to be the perfect set-up for what amounts to a unique look at the underground Japanese punk scene of this era.

Cyberpunk 2077’s pop culture is clearly built around music, so it will be interesting to see whether the game borrows many ideas from this sometimes overlooked gem.

Cypher

Corporate espionage is a big part of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, which makes it that much easier to recommend this 2002 film that’s all about the dangerous pursuits of corporate spies.

To be fair, that’s really the simplest summary of a labyrinthe of a plot that begins with a man taking a job in the lucrative field of corporate espionage. What follows is a series of mind blowing revelations that show us the lengths these corporations will go to and how dispensable everyone is in their pursuit of power.

If you need to be sold on Cypher‘s cyberpunk credentials, just know that its director once described it as “James Bond meets Kafka.”

Dark City

John Murdoch has a problem. He’s just woken up in a bathtub in a seedy motel with no memory of who he is or what is happening. To make matters worse, he’s being pursued by a mysterious group of strangers who chase him through a city where it’s always night. His only hope is a vague series of clues and mysterious psychokinetic powers that he’s only now just beginning to understand.

Dark City is an impossibly bleak and literally dark film that confronts the burden and the power of the human mind. It’s a complicated and often ambiguous film that benefits from grand ideas and an absolutely lovely noir-focused sense of style.

What Dark City lacks in scenes of high-tech glory and traditional punk design elements it more than makes up for with its bleak, intelligent, and unflinching vision of a future that absolutely belongs in this genre.

Dredd

Few people expected much of Dredd given how hard the ‘90s adaptation of the character fell on its face, but this 2012 movie proved to be one of the most compelling pieces of wide-release cyberpunk entertainment in years.

Dredd’s fantastic action sequences and small scale story that invokes the core concept of The Raid: Redemption and Die Hard sometimes disguise the movie’s brilliant cyberpunk world-building. In every corner of every shot, there are these hints at just how bad things have gotten and what desperate measures have been enacted to keep even the visage of civilization alive.

It’s easy to imagine that Cyberpunk 2077’s weapons and comments will mine a few ideas from this modern classic.

eXistenZ

Nobody goes into a David Cronenberg film looking for a straightforward feel-good ride, but eXistenZ still manages to stand out as a uniquely weird entry into the director’s legendary filmography.

Considered by many to be a spiritual follow-up to Videodrome, eXistenZ follows a game designer who must dive into her latest virtual reality creation in order to repair potential damages. The journey through that virtual world will certainly not disappoint any Cronenberg fans looking for memorable moments of body horror wrapped around an introspective plot.

With its VR concepts and meditations on the inevitable intersection of technology and flesh, eXistenZ offers a glimpse into a cyberpunk void that may not be quite as memorable as Cronenberg’s best works but is worth a look.

Ghost in the Shell

With very little respect to the 2017 film of the same name, I want to make it clear that I’m absolutely talking about the 1995 animated classic.

Released at the cultural height of the “Hackersploitation” genre (more on that in just a bit) Ghost in the Shell envisions a world in which people are neurally connected to the internet and cyborgs have been integrated into society. Into this future comes a hacker known as The Puppet Master whose unique abilities present a clear threat even as they raise questions about what remains of humanity that’s worth saving.

Along with Akira, this is absolutely one of those cyberpunk movies everyone should see even if they don’t typically consider themselves to be fans of anime or even animated feature films.

Games

Cyberpunk 2077 Vehicles Trailer Includes Keanu Reeves Motorcycle

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed Again Due to Difficulties of Shipping on Current and Next-Gen Platforms

By John Saavedra

Hackers

Hackers is essentially the big-screen version of every regrettable high school yearbook photo ever taken. It’s a relentlessly corny slice of the ‘90s that will be particularly painful to anyone who ever thought it was truly the height of cool.

Yet, there is still something genuinely cool about Hackers. It treats hackers with the same bizarre cultural relevance as bouncers are afforded in Road House, but the idea of gangs of hackers and celebrity hackers taking over the digital age has always tapped into the heart of the cyberpunk genre.

We know that Cyberpunk 2077’s universe is highly inspired by ‘90s counterculture, so you should expect a few nods to this movie somewhere along the way.

Johnny Mnemonic

Wait, Johnny Mnemonic is a ‘90s sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves that’s all about a man who knows too much trying to escape from gangs and corporations? Are we sure this somehow wasn’t a soft adaptation of Cyberpunk 2020?

It’s not and, if I’m being very honest, this movie doesn’t always live up to its considerable potential. However, it’s a consistently entertaining piece of ‘90s technological absurdity bolstered by some genuinely fascinating world-building and the charisma of its leading man.

Don’t expect a masterpiece, but Johnny Mnemonic is the perfect movie for getting you in that Cyberpunk 2077 mood.

Robocop

Countless words have been written about Robocop’s status as both one of the best action movies ever made and one a biting piece of social commentary, but Robocop somehow never seems to get enough love as a brilliant slice of cyberpunk style.

With its roaming gangs and mega-corporations whose power has become fully integrated into and unchallenged in society, Robocop has the cyberpunk genre flowing through its veins. What’s truly remarkable, though, is the way that the movie so effectively balances the seemingly inevitable hopelessness of its world with a bleak sense of humor that speaks loudly even as it is delivered with tongue in cheek.

Since you probably don’t need an excuse to watch Robocop again, I’ll also take this chance to point out that Robocop 2 is a largely underrated sequel that somehow amplifies the original’s cyberpunk vibes.

Strange Days

Released in 1995 to divisive reviews and worse box office returns, Strange Days’ poor reception threatened to derail the career of legendary director Kathryn Bigelow.

Years later, though, it’s easier than ever to overlook Strange Days’ rough edges and bleak tones and appreciate its painfully accurate portrayal of racial inequality and sexual violence. Though it was only set four years in the future, Strange Days took the pulse of its time and imagined what would happen if society just reshaped itself around its problems rather than attempted to address them in a meaningful way.

Strange Days is a hard watch but a great example of the forward-thinking pessimism of the cyberpunk genre.

The Matrix

At the tail end of a decade obsessed with hackers but often lacking in truly great works of “Hackersploitation,” The Matrix came along and shattered all expectations by combining tech fears, underground style, high-flying action sequences, and jaw-dropping special effects that made it the most unlikely blockbuster of the ’90s.

Long after the special effects have become commonplace and the film’s most memorable sequences have been parodied to death, it’s The Matrix’s cyberpunk philosophy and setting that endure. The Matrix so seamlessly weaves its grander ideas and world-building into the movie’s legendary fights that it’s easy to forget how much weight they carry.

While you can safely skip your rewatch of the sequels unless you’re an apologist or sycophant, don’t forget that The Animatrix really got everyone excited about the grander implications of this movie’s promising universe.

Total Recall

Two Paul Verhoeven movies on the same list? Yes, but to be honest, Total Recall almost didn’t make the final cut.

While Total Recall lacks some of the philosophical depth and overwhelmingly bleak tones that so often help us identify the defining entries in this genre, it manages to tap into the cyberpunk genre’s sometimes overlooked elements of absurdity and uses them as the basis for a truly fun adventure.

If it’s been a little while since you’ve actually watched this movie, you might be surprised by how its complex and well-told plot expands a fascinating world where the false promise of anything being possible has been revived in a horrifying new form.

Upgrade

The final movie on our list is also the most recent cyberpunk film that I’d recommend you watch ahead of Cyberpunk 2077’s release.

Actually, one of the things that stand out about Upgrade is its video game sensibilities. As the story of a man who gradually begins to understand the extent of his newfound powers, Upgrade taps into that role-playing idea of building a character over time. While it showcases the potential horrors of body enhancements, it also gives us time to dream of having such abilities.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Cyberpunk 2077 is all about enhancing your character through implants similar to the one featured in this film, so check out Upgrade if you can’t wait to see what one of the game’s end game characters might look like.

The post Best Cyberpunk Movies to Watch Before You Play Cyberpunk 2077 appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ot35sb

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

its-ness-ness · 6 years

Text

Final Fantasy Games in One Timeline: Some Thoughts

Hi, my name’s Nessa, I have no social life, and I’ve been working on the above theory for going on two years now. I’ve seen some theories on some Final Fantasy games taking place in similar timelines, and a few even being on the same timeline. BUT if you’re interested in an attempt at squashing all of the mainstream games into just one (1) timeline, some handwritten folklore, and too many characters to keep track of, then come on in. These are the bare basics for now, because I haven’t gone in-depth with all of the games yet, and this is the first time I’ve put this theory out there. I openly welcome any critiques and comments you may throw my way!

If you’re interested, here’s what I’ve thrown together:

IN GENERAL:

Though this is one cohesive timeline, I don’t have any exact dates to put on things. Whether it’s one hundred or ten years between games, I believe, depends on how far you’re willing to suspend your disbelief. (I mean, look at our own advances from the 1920s to the 1950s - completely different fashion, atmospheres, and developments.) That being said, this timeline does rely on the fact that the games would be close enough together to have their stories, ideas, and lessons passed on to the next game. How long that takes, though, is up to you.

For everyone following along at home, we’re going to go in this order -

1 / 5 / 3 / 2 / 4 / 9 / 12 / 6 / 15 / 13 / 10 / 7 / 8

Let’s start, then, beginning with:

FINAL FANTASY I (1):

How could we start this timeline with anything else? Of course, this game exists in our timeline here as more of a legend and creation myth than anything real. This is the basis for our world, whether it really happened or not, and in some parts of this world, I like to believe that the unnamed Warriors of Light may have even been worshipped as god-like figures.

V (5)

5 is, at least for me, where this timeline really starts. From what I gathered, 5 has more open space, uninhabited, and quite a bit of monster and nature-made ruin. Only the barest civilization would allow for this. The clothing and atmosphere both stay strictly fantasy, and as a result there isn’t much actual technology in the world yet. The job class system reflects a world relying on people and their natural skills; a place just beginning. Thus, this is where our world starts out.

III (3)

Like 5 before it, 3 holds a lot of the same fantasy elements, but we start experimenting with great technology and use of magic. The world has become a touch less wild, so to speak, and those rural fantasy elements have grown into patches of true civilization here and there. These people have seen evil defeated once before, and they’re stronger because of it.

II (2)

Our fantasy world has developed corruption, folks, and these comfortable palace landscapes now foster a rebellion. We’re starting to armor up our characters with more than just a tunic and a dream, and Firion and his friends have past heroes to look up to and inspire hope from. We see more refined magic use and more airships and metal works in this game. The kingdoms established have had time to prosper, and those in the rebellion have had time to form a secret coalition together against the Emperor. (It should be noted that these first three games I know much less than those to follow, and may be swapped around in later drafts. For now, though, I feel like these fit nicely where they stand currently.)

IV (4)

We’ve hit advanced-fantasy in terms of aesthetic with this one. 4 holds much more tech than its predecessors, and we have boats, ships, and gliders. The crystals worshipped in past games’ lore still remain important to the story. Communication has advanced as well, and we see the first beginnings of other races - most notably, the Lunarians and the Gnomes underground. Those separate civilizations have had time to prosper over the past 3 games, and are now joining the narrative. This game uses advanced magic, and mages and summoners have been able to let their own cities prosper as well. We see more and more kingdoms and larger towns popping up than in previous games, and the world is doing well.

IX (9)

More steampunk technology is entering the picture now. While we remain high-fantasy, airship use has peaked, along with other daily mechanisms. The summoners from the last game are the same civilization that produced Garnet and Eiko, and the Lunarians from 4 are the ones who, upon going to sleep, built Garland to create their vessels - and, therefore, Kuja and Zidane. More animal species are developing in this game, as seen in most cities, and though the kingdoms are much, much larger than in 4, there are still parts of the world left untouched. Something about this fantasy still feels very rustic in comparison to the technology that will come later in this timeline, but most of what 9 presents feels very new in its own world. They have reached their peak development at their present state, and are still producing more and more. Magic use has disappeared from the public and become exclusive to summoners and the mages made by Kuja.

XII (12)

We’ve continued along the steampunk technology route, but we’ve gotten a little more urban now. Kingdoms are crowded enough to show the slums and underground cities that are a part of them now. We continue seeing different animal races in the present day, though they are less common and don’t receive the same rights and privileges as humans do, due to the royalty growing distinctly corrupt. Major magic use is no longer possible, though some simple spells are known exclusively on the battlefield. It’s not impossible to imagine that the royalty may in fact crack down on magicks sellers, in the way that witches were burned at the stake in our own time. Vayne, possibly loosely related to Alexandrian royalty, has the genetic potential to become a summoner, the power lost to most people in this time as the summoners are all but extinct. After the undoubtedly bad rep they gained by Kuja’s destructive magic use, they vanished into the separate world of the summons as a matter of safety. It’s this knowledge that he is so close to doing so and yet cannot that drives him near-mad with want in his drive for power.

VI (6)

High fantasy has now become cyberpunk, everyone. Technology went through the rough since the last game’s plot, and while we still feel very fantasy, we’re also starting to see more of that urban development in the kingdom areas. Magic is used only by the government and military (see: Celes and Terra both have good hands in magic versus the rest of the party), and summoners and their summons exist on the separate plane Terra comes from. Street rats and everyday people are the heroes of this installment, as in the last one, and the not-so-reformed royalty from last game have dipped more into forbidden science and forcibly enslaving soldiers. (That’ll come more into play later.) Vaan and Balthier partner up and initially form The Returners, which develops over time from sky pirate gang to resistance coalition. For one of the first times, we see a villain rise from a regular citizen who gained true god-like powers that the people of this world had never touched before. True destruction is tasted for the first time, but this is quickly remedied when things are set right.

XV (15)

Technology has developed and become more up-to-date here. Royalty still exists, but everything has become more smooth, refined, and modern. Upon Terra’s death, she sent a handful of summons to guard the world in her absence, thus creating the presence of the Six main summons in-game. She would go on to pass her secrets to one select person, an Oracle, who would hand that knowledge down over time and possess the secret to harnessing those summons, should the world ever need it. Hey, corrupt military government, good to see you’re still around, too. (That won’t go away for a while, trust me.) Magic use is still held only by royalty and the military here, and not in public life.

XIII (13)

After the death of the party from 15, Gareth Dysley enters the picture as a corrupt minister. The PSIICOM and Sanctum Guards are created, and the world develops from there. Technology gets more futuristic than ever before. We see government corruption taken to the highest degree. Fal’cie are mistaken for familiars of the original Six summons, and that’s why the public trusts them so much. (Here’s where things get a little strange, because I still have to revisit 13 and wrap my head around the events here. FOR NOW, the world we’ve been living on this entire timeline is Cocoon. Pulse is a separate planet in orbit that becomes victimized, rather than moving everyone from world one to another artificial planet. This may be subject to change.)

X (10)

That whole the-government-lies thing sticks around to this fantasy. Zanarkand is the first city created by Cocoon citizens on Pulse, but is quickly destroyed by the emergence of Sin, a bitter creation by the dying Fal’cie (the false, artificial summons, if you will) in an attempt to exact revenge, and still produce the death count desired in 13 to see their initial Maker. The true summons, those present from the beginning and granted to the Oracle by Terra, still exist in the other plane of summons, and wait to be called upon by summoners. These summoners are trained by the church of Yevon in order to seemingly destroy Sin, though they themselves do not know the answer to its defeat. Since this game consists of civilization starting anew, we see less of the destroyed technology, and instead a fresh, mystical fantasy story as we begin again on Pulse, rather than the timeline on Cocoon above. When the pillar breaks and Cocoon finally crashes into Pulse, the Calm Lands are created.

VII (7)

The world re-adopts technology after the fall of Yevon, and advances much more quickly than they had before. They already have the tools and power available, and refine that now that people are allowed to develop. We spring into a second urban fantasy, which flourishes after the Shinra corporation develops a way to tap into the Farplane (now called the Lifestream, as harnessing it has put it in motion versus its stagnant state before.) For protection, SOLDIER is created based on renewed ideals of the Magitek Knights in 6, though the recklessly-tapping-into-science thing comes back to bite them in the ass. This game’s small, sleepy cities are the first rustic results of villages coming back together after the events of 10.

VIII (8)

Science has now gone through the roof. Esthar is the hub of futuristic science and technology, and the evidence of that is everywhere. Modern cars and trains are back, and magic use is allowed by SeeD students in a draw system (a more accessible update to the materia system used prior). Summons are technologically copied to allow all students access to their powers, though what happened to the origin of these powers is currently unknown. The cost of this copying system was that the summons (GFs) needed a way to root themselves to existence - thus tampering with student’s memories in an effort to plant themselves there. SeeD is a revamped SOLDIER program, and many towns in this game bear resemblances to towns in the last game. Time and space are now on the forefront of technology, and magic has taken a step back (in terms of relevance) in comparison. The heroes here pave the way for a brighter future, as this world advances, learns more, and betters itself.

And those are the basics!

I have plenty more revolving around the above timeline - how it’s connected, who goes where and does what, and the way that things develop. Should anyone be interested in more, I’d be more than happy to elaborate!

#final fantasy #final fantasy series #ff series #nessa says things #game theories #final fantasy theories #final fantasy headcanons #final fantasy discourse #ff theories #final fantasy timeline #ff timeline project

5 notes · View notes

almasexya · 4 years

Text

Can Godzilla Come Over? (Invasion of Astro Monster, 1965)

Well, it was bound to happen. As everyone knows, the longer a film series goes on, the likelihood of the protagonist ending up in outer space rises exponentially. Long before the likes of Jason Voorhees and Pinhead launched their franchises into the final frontier, Godzilla made his first trip into outer space in the most ridiculous entry in the series to date.

Like the last few Toho entries, this one was written by Shinichi Sekizawa, whose loopy scripts seem to have been slowly wearing director Ishiro Honda down. Invasion of Astro Monster, more than any Godzilla film before it, feels like a live action cartoon, though compared to what’s coming it feels positively restrained, though that’s likely due to Honda and composer Akira Ifukube still giving the film the gravitas they’re known for.

It’s hard to say, from a distance of 60 years and a dearth of behind the scenes information, why Toho went this direction, but money probably has something to do with it. Some of the city destruction here is stock footage (a sign of things to come) and it’s quite possible that Gamera’s success with the kids pushed Toho into a more kid-friendly direction, which also let them dispense with costly city sets. The films certainly had been losing steam financially over time, though Astro Monster still has quite a bit of effort to show for it, it comes off feeling far more breezy and inconsequential than its predecessor.

The plot itself is fairly simple to follow. A new planet, nicknamed Planet X, has been discovered in the outer solar system, and Fuji (Akira Takarada) and Glenn (Nick Adams) are a pair of astronauts sent to investigate. Meanwhile, Fuji’s sister Haruno (Keiko Sawai) is dating Tetsuo (Akira Kubo) who is trying to shop his latest invention around, an awful little disc that emits a horrible noise he has dubbed the “Lady Guard,” apparently believing women can use it to deter assailants, though he isn’t having much luck.

The astronauts land on Planet X and quickly meet the Xiliens, a race of aliens who live in underground complexes filled with advanced technology, and also look like this:

There’s something quaintly hilarious about these guys, and even a five year old could tell they’re up to no good, what with their stilted way of speaking and their penchant for evil laughter when the humans are out of the room. Nevertheless, the Xiliens ask the two earthlings if they can help deal with Monster Zero, a creature that apparently destroyed their civilization, and is quickly revealed to be none other than King Ghidorah. They ask to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to help beat up the monster, in exchange for the cure for cancer, which for some reason is stored on a giant golden disk.

The humans of course agree to this proposition (Ghidorah is a bad guy after all) and the aliens use their space ships to grab the monsters and bring them over to Planet X for a quick tussle with Ghidorah in what is definitely the highlight of the movie, culminating in Ghidorah flying off and Godzilla performing an unforgettable victory dance, which according to legend Honda absolutely hated but effects director Eiji Tsuburaya loved, so it stayed in. Why the Xiliens had to ask for permission to snag Godzilla and Rodan I don’t know, considering their considerable technological advancements and the fact that they screw humanity over immediately after the fight, but they play things out this way because the plot needs them to.

Of course the aliens were controlling Ghidorah the entire time (which kind of deflates him a bit, considering how much of a threat he was in the last film), and now they have Godzilla and Rodan as well. They demand Earth’s surrender, and sic the monster trio on Japan’s major cities to belabor their point. What they don’t count on is Tetsuo’s Lady Guard, which turns out to emit a frequency that causes them agonizing pain and allows the humans to break the Xilien’s mind control, causing Godzilla and Rodan to beat up Ghidorah (again) after which the Xilien spaceships get blown to hell too.

Having Ghidorah be the antagonist again so soon after his debut definitely lessened his impact, and Godzilla and Rodan keep their general designs from the previous film. At this point they’re hardly the worldwide menaces they began their careers as, content to send Ghidorah packing and then just kind of leave and have a nap until the plot needs them again. The evil aliens bit would continue to be beaten to death in the future, but Astro Monster represents its first (and best) inclusion in the Godzilla series in a way that doesn’t feel as cheesy as it would become.

This would also be Nick Adams’ last role with Toho, and he and Akira Takarada have solid chemistry that lends the plot a sort of buddy movie feel as the pair sneak around Planet X to try and figure out what the evil aliens are up to. Haruno and Tetsuo’s arc, by contrast, feels like the proverbial solution in search of a problem, and the usefulness of the notorious Lady Guard is just about as cheesy as it gets. Poor Ghidorah gets hit with some serious badass decay, considering it took Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan working together to drive him off last time. He at least looks as good as ever, even if the same can’t be said of Godzilla and Rodan, who have that smooth, more kid-friendly look to them that by this point has solidified them as the good guys.

The film is certainly competent, a solid entry in the series that is far superior to the pair of sequels that came after. Unfortunately it also follows Ghidorah’s debut and the excellent Mothra vs. Godzilla, which doesn’t do it many favors either. The space sets are definitely the most interesting parts of the film, with a cool, otherworldly look to them, and the interior scenes on Planet X look suitably futuristic, at least in a pop art 60s sort of way. If you can’t get enough of early Ghidorah action, then Astro Monster won’t disappoint, just don’t go in expecting much from the plot, which plays out more like a 90-minute episode of a Saturday morning cartoon than anything else. It’s worth a look, and its closeness to some of the best of the early Godzilla films is the main knock against it.

#monster monday #Invasion of Astro Monster #Godzilla

0 notes

mindthump · 6 years

Photo

The untold story of how the XPS 13 defied odds to become the world’s best laptop https://ift.tt/2vCoc4N

Dell.

What does that name make you think of? You’re answer is likely beige boxes, affordable laptops or – if you’re a child of the ‘90s – the infamous ‘Dude, you’re getting a Dell!’ guy. Despite his best efforts, Dell spent most of its life as the very definition of dull. The company’s computers were affordable, practical, reliable, but never exciting.

Not anymore. Dell’s XPS 13, our favorite laptop three years running, has redefined what people expect from a premium Windows-powered notebook – and its 2015 release was just the beginning. The company has since unleashed salvo after salvo of cutting-edge products across both its Dell and Alienware brands.

Change like that doesn’t happen overnight – but, as we found out, it can be spurred by just a few talented people with ambitious ideas.

The Birth of the Adamo

XPS (Xtreme Performance System) is not a new brand for Dell. It’s been around for over fifteen years, a carry-over from a simpler time in computers and technology. We all remember those days, right? Gateway controlled the market on high-end consumer PCs, Windows 95 reigned supreme, and Apple was known only as a desktop computer company.

In many ways, Dell’s feet are still firmly planted in that world. It’s a massive corporation that still makes a large chunk of its revenue selling computers to corporations in bulk. Yet something was in the water in the late 2000s. While the MacBook Air was developed in Cupertino, Dell was attempting to pioneer its own radical new direction for the future of computing.

Dell Adamo 13

It was called Adamo — a quiet, short-lived experiment within the walls of Dell that would pave the way to a very different future for the conservative computer manufacturer. It was built by a small team, created as if out of thin air, and disbanded within two years – but the groundwork it laid within the walls of Dell would change it forever.

“It was what we called a dark program,” says XPS Lead Marketer Donnie Oliphant. “It was a ‘need-to-know’ basis. It was literally like three guys in a room upstairs that had a lock on it. If we’d had more exposure to the rest of the business, it never would have made it out the door. We let the rest of the company in on it about six months before we shipped it.”

While the MacBook Air was in development in Cupertino, Dell was attempting to pioneer its own radical new direction for the future of computing.

Oliphant was moved over from the Latitude business at Dell, and he’s the longest-standing Dell employee in key roles on the current XPS team. He was joined by another key figure: Nicolas Denhez. You may not have heard the name before, but the French designer is responsible for some of the most celebrated modern technology concepts such as the Xbox One S and X, HoloLens, and the Microsoft Courier project. Before he moved over to Microsoft, he worked on multiple laptops in the Adamo line laptops, all of them futuristic, risk-taking, and doomed.

“The mechanical carcass cost on that was $570,” says Oliphant, pointing to the solid chunk of aluminum in an Adamo laptop’s chassis. “They were ridiculously expensive, and that wasn’t because of the material choices. It was because of our ineptitude with regards to design.”

The Adamo line produced two products its short life, the Adamo 13, and the Adamo XPS. They’re among the strangest PCs ever released commercially. Launching within six months of each other, they featured an all-aluminum body, and hefty pricetags to match. The Adamo 13 was $2,000 for the lower-priced model, and $2,700 for the higher-end model. But from a design aesthetic perspective, the Adamo 13 was far ahead of its time, even compared to something like the MacBook Air.

Dell Adamo XPS

“It was basically myself and [Denhez] that sat upstairs and built ID models on what we wanted it to look like. And then we took it to engineering and said, ‘put a computer in this.’ Typically, it’s the other way around. Typically, we do a design — architecture, features — and then we wrap a skin around it. This was done the opposite. If you think about it from today’s design philosophies, they were done ass-backwards.”

The Adamo XPS had a very different design story, though it was even more experimental in its conception. Dell completely out-sourced the design and development of the product, hoping to save a few bucks along the way.

“We used an outside design house — so, non-Dell employees. The idea was that we could offshore the development,” he says. “The thought process was that was going to be cheaper, but it just turned into a major headache — and we still had to finish it for them. There was a little bit of animosity toward that second system. But it was cool, because it was sub-10mm.”

Dell’s Adamo XPS is tiny even by today’s standards at just 0.4 inches thick.

In fact, the Adamo XPS was declared the thinnest laptop in the world when it was launched at CES of 2009. At just 0.4 inches thick, it’s tiny even by today’s standards. Oliphant would be the first to admit that ultra-thin designs come with its own flaws and compromises, but the desire to create bold, sleek products would live on in future XPS products.

“When I inherited XPS in 2010, and we took the products that were going to be the next-generation Adamo and we put those on the XPS roadmap,” said Oliphant. “The first XPS 13, codenamed Spider, launched in early 2012. That really should have been an Adamo product if we had kept [Adamo] alive.”

Going from Adamo to Dino

In 2006, Dell purchased Alienware, a popular gaming PC manufacturer based in Miami, Florida. The acquisition made great business sense, giving Dell access to a new market for high-end gaming rigs. Yet Alienware was a very different company than Dell. It was scrappy, down-to-earth, and completely consumer-focused. That ethos was about to get injected into the company in a big way.

Frank Azor Bryan Steffy/Stringer/Getty Images

The face of Alienware today is Frank Azor, who might be the most casual and earnest tech executive you’ll ever meet. He’s the kind of guy that’ll tease his employees for wearing a suit to a meeting and can just as easily talk about the internal components of a laptop or the latest gaming trends. While Azor and his team brought a casual attitude to Dell, for him, a corporate culture of risk-taking is what made the XPS 13 possible.

“You have to have a culture that is willing to innovate,” says Azor. “You can’t have ID with these crazy fucking ideas that are far out there, and then have a product planning team that say ‘I like some of them, but those are too expensive, or ‘my engineering team will never let us do that.’”

Azor started working at Alienware when he was just sixteen years ago, as one of just four other employees. Now, he’s the manager of both Alienware and XPS lines at Dell — and he’s determined to transform Dell’s stuffy culture from within.

“We’re an aircraft carrier,” he says. “To make a turn, it takes a long time. You need to start gaining momentum, and then you’ll start making the turn. I would say we’re in the momentum phase right now. This stuff is leading the company’s image — it’s leading the kind of culture we want to be. It’s all stemmed from the type of stuff we’ve done on XPS.”

Within just a few years of its launch, the influence of the XPS 13’s design has reached just about every screen we look at today.

Compared to the Adamo products, the XPS 13 might not look that strange, but it took significant risks. Starting the trend of thinning out bezels, the XPS 13 dared to move the webcam below the screen. The result when using the webcam was (and still is) odd, shooting right up your nose, and giving you a double chin. The team received its fair share of criticism for it, but the XPS team has stuck to its guns rather than caving in on the decision.

“When everybody’s like ‘we’re bought in, we’re going to be a culture of innovation, we’re gonna take risks, we’re gonna augment the engineering process to help solve for those defects and risks,’” he says. “But we’re going to go into this together with risk — a higher risk than we would if we built a “me-too” product — then you can make amazing things happen. If that hadn’t happened, we probably wouldn’t be where we are right now.”

During our tour of the Dell headquarters, we received an in-depth look at all the advanced engineering that powers the next generation of XPS laptops. (Photos: Luke Larsen/Digital Trends)

The legacy of XPS

Design trends come and go, but they always start with a trendsetter. The 2015 version of the XPS 13 was such a device. Manufacturers of televisions, monitors, smartphones, and laptops have all been on a mission to remove bezels — and that was set in motion by the XPS 13. On the smartphone front, you need only to look to the iPhone X or Galaxy S8 in your pocket. In laptops, look at the MateBook X Pro, which takes the bezel-less approach to the next level.

Dell’s XPS devices even make the MacBook Pro look a little outdated. According to Oliphant, that was always the goal, and the XPS 13 proved it was possible for PC manufacturers.

“Apple was very successful during that decade,” he said, speaking of the late 2000s. “Before 2015, most ultra-notebooks were just deemed MacBook Air-knockoffs or wannabes. What we saw shift with the introduction of Dino, our XPS 13 in 2015, was we started winning some of those head-to-head comparisons. We were actually delivering products with things that Apple didn’t have.”

Like any success, the XPS laptops didn’t spring out of nowhere. It was forged in a fire of bad experiments, lost profits, and finger-crossing moments. Yet Dell stuck with it, because the people behind the XPS 13 believed in the quality of what they’d built. Instead of retreating, they improved, tweaked, and revised. The result was a laptop that impressed critics and changed the company that built it.

“We’ve had to create a subculture for XPS. And from a consumer perspective, we’re trying to change the perception of customers or potential customers of Dell,” Azor said. “That’s what XPS is here for.”

#IFTTT #Feedly #hmmm #tech #good to know

1 note · View note