OT- Battlestar: Galactica
Von Bruno
doesn't air here in the states until January on the Sci Fi Channel but I've
read very good things about it. I wasn't a "fan" or the original series back in
the late 1970s, but loved the new mini-series that aired a few months ago. I am
very optimistic and enthusiastic regarding this reimagining and hope others
here can lend support for my faith in this production.
I must confess that I was surprised that an American production would air in
England first and the United States second or thirdly. Anyone know the reason
for this?
Ron D. Moore, in a recent interview at the Sky-One website, stated how the show
was more along the lines of ER and NYPD blue and stated that the season finale
would be a cliffhanger because he is that confident that it will get picked up
for a second season. For those that have seen the new episodes, is his
confidance justified?
Aloha,
Von Bruno
vonb...@aol.com
Iain Clark
wrote:
>Anyone here catch Ron Moore's "Battlestar: Galactica" series on Sky-One? It
>doesn't air here in the states until January on the Sci Fi Channel but I've
>read very good things about it. I wasn't a "fan" or the original series back in
>the late 1970s, but loved the new mini-series that aired a few months ago. I am
>very optimistic and enthusiastic regarding this reimagining and hope others
>here can lend support for my faith in this production.
>
>I must confess that I was surprised that an American production would air in
>England first and the United States second or thirdly. Anyone know the reason
>for this?
>
Someone told me that Sky One co-financed it, and that the UK
first-airing was part of the deal.
>Ron D. Moore, in a recent interview at the Sky-One website, stated how the show
>was more along the lines of ER and NYPD blue and stated that the season finale
>would be a cliffhanger because he is that confident that it will get picked up
>for a second season. For those that have seen the new episodes, is his
>confidance justified?
>
If you liked the mini-series then you should also like the ongoing
series, as it maintains very much the same low-key, mature tone, and
the same gritty feel. It's rare these days to find an SF show that
treats itself like a serious drama, regardless of genre.
The show has considerable strengths in most departments, and there
have been several excellent episodes IMO. In terms of ongoing story,
characters and execution it's very good - great scenes, subtle
characters, impressive production values, and intriguing concepts.
My only real criticism is that some of the plot-of-the-week material
is a bit ordinary and hackneyed, but the rest of the show is good
enough to hope that it will settle down over time.
Iain
Von Bruno
>The show has considerable strengths in most departments, and there
>have been several excellent episodes IMO. In terms of ongoing story,
>characters and execution it's very good - great scenes, subtle
>characters, impressive production values, and intriguing concepts.
>
>My only real criticism is that some of the plot-of-the-week material
>is a bit ordinary and hackneyed, but the rest of the show is good
>enough to hope that it will settle down over time.
Iain, thanks. Your review has stoked the flames of my anticipation for the
series. I'm way past the point of expecting perfection with any TV program.
For me, this is where I would use "Babylon 5" as a standard of excellence. I
believe JMS used season 1 very well in laying down a solid foundation for the
seasons that would follow. He got viewers familair with the main characters and
the reality of the world in which they lived.
Now if "Battlestar: Galactica" can achieve something in the neighborhood of
what "B5" did in S1 then I will be extremely happy.
Aloha,
Von Bruno
vonb...@aol.com
Matt Ion
I managed to download the first episode. It doesn't suck at all.
Thunder v.2.0.0.4
please. I want to be surprised (I very much enjoyed the mini and am
looking forward to the series). None of this "oh yeah, I'm surprised
Number Six got onto the Galactica and had sex with Apollo. And then
killed Boxey" type of thing casually--it's annoying. :)
t.k.
Thunder v.2.0.0.4
! TERMINATING BENEFITS OF PEOPLE THE COMPUTER THOUGHT WERE NOT FINGERPRINTED.
----
Prior to the fingerprint "final solution" of control over us, there were
other attempts---which would have required a vote---which tried to roll
out a National ID Card.
* "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5
*
* Since total and absolute control can be obtained only by a Police State
* bureaucracy, efforts have escalated in recent years to require a National
* ID Card.
*
* Upon Bill Clinton's election as President, Secretary of Health and Human
* Services Donna Shalala and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy jointly
* developed a $100 million plan to require all children and babies to have
* a dossier established in a national computer registry to insure "universal
* mandatory vaccinations."
*
* When patriotic Americans rose up to protest, the U.S. Senate quietly
* shelved the deceptive Shalala-Kennedy proposal.
*
* The Clinton administration next surfaced with its mandatory health care
* plan. A key component of this plot to socialize medical care was the
* requirement of a computer
Matt Ion
*
* During his security clearance polygraph test, Mitchell told his
* interrogator about certain "sexual experimentation" with dogs
* and chickens he had done when he was between the ages of thirteen
* and nineteen.
*
* The Agency's Office of Security thought about it for a week, then issued
* him his security clearance to work at the National Security Agency.
Parting shot #2
!!! Congressional testimony of FBI informer Frank Varelli:
!!!
!!! "I was told that the Bureau wanted to get an apartment.
!!!
!!! So I could seduce the head of the CISPES group.
!!!
!!! Her name is Linda Hay and is one of the most outspoken
!!! persons that I've known.
!!!
!!! FBI Agent Dan Flannigan wanted her filmed in a very
!!! compromising position, or as he put it, `Once we do it,
!!! we have her in our hand.'"
!!!
!!! Q: They wanted you to seduce a nun?
!!! -----------------------------------
!!!
!!! "Yes. Yeah. The Bureau was going to provide an apartment
!!! with cameras and you know...With sound equipment and
!!! everything. So we could film the nun while I seduced her."
Done done.
*****************************************************
Von Bruno
After entering their security passwords, the analysts reach a directory that
lists the different categories of intercept available, each with a four digit
code; 4066, for instance, might be Russian fishing trawlers, 5535 Japanese
diplomatic traffic in the South Pacific, 4959 communications from South
Pacific countries and so on.
They type in the code for the category they want to use first that day.
As soon as they make a selection, a 'search result' appears, stating the
number of documents which have been found fitting that category.
The day's work begins, reading through screen after screen of intercepted
messages.
If a message appears worth reporting on, the analyst can select it from the
rest and work on it out of the Dictionary system.
He or she then translates the message - either in its entirety or as a
summary called a 'gist' - and writes it into the standard format of all
intelligence reports produced anywhere within the UKUSA network.
This is the 'front end' of the Dictionary system, using a commercially
available program (called BRS Search). It extracts the different categories
of intercepted messages (known just as 'intercept') from the large GCSB
computer database of intercept from the New Zealand stations and overseas
agencies.
[ I interrupt this book excerpt to bring you retrieval results for
"BRS Search" from the www.altavista.digital.com search engine:
BRS/Search is designed to manage large collections
of unstructured information, allowing multiple
users to quickly and efficiently search, retrieve
and analyze stored documents simply by entering a
word, concept, phrase, or combination of phrases,
in any length. The product offers the most
powerful indexing structure available today, with
users able to pinpoint critical information in
seconds, even across millions of documents in
numerous databases.
Hmmm. Sound
Iain Clark
covert operations. [The facility was relocated closer to Fort Meade in
the early 1990s]
The first time I was driven there in 1978, I entered through a strip mall
and then through a door in the back of a restaurant; the second time, via
a dry cleaners.
These dinky businesses in a fake shopping center were all owned, operated,
and staffed by US espionage agencies. From the street, the installation's
high-tech capacity, its antennae and satellite receptors, were camouflaged
and it is unlikely that neighbors suspected anything out of the ordinary.
But the inside was anything but ordinary. There were scores of rooms crammed
with administrative functions, equipment, wires, jury-rigged gizmos, a
currency bank, and computers.
Every electronic intercept capability NSA denied having was right there.
In a small black box, not much bigger than a briefcase, was "Oratory."
This portable key-word selection computer could be taken almost anywhere
and set to pick out pre-selected words and automatically monitor and
record fax, voice, or teletype messages that contained them.
Developed by NSA, "Oratory" was "tempest-proof" (i.e. shielded to
prevent emmisions that could lead to detection), small, virtually
indestructible, and easy to repair: all you had to do was open the
lid and replace the self-diagnosed defective component.
[snip]
In pursuit of plausible deniability, CSE, GCHQ, and NSA have used each
others' personnel and resources to evade laws against domestic spying.
[ an example given in which the NSA wanted to spy on someone within
the US, even though they had no authorizatio
Von Bruno
>Just a reminder to everyone on this thread--don't give away any spoilers
>please. I want to be surprised (I very much enjoyed the mini and am
>looking forward to the series).
As am I, however, I do not believe anyone has posted any spoilers. Iain did an
excellent job in giving me a general appraisal minus any spoilers.
I agree though if anyone does include spoilers in their post to please mark it
as such and to do all those other things (like putting in *spoiler space* and
what not).
Aloha,
Von Bruno
vonb...@aol.com
Von Bruno
* secure, fraud-resistant motor vehicle operator card system. Sandia's
* state-of-the-art printers and technology for drivers' licenses and
* identification cards are proving to be the system of choice."
*
* Alabama expects to issue about one million new drivers' licenses during
* the first year of the program, with a projected growth of 10 percent a
* year, Sandia said. The process will take a four-year cycle to supply all
* Alabama drivers with the new license as they renew. The Sandia system
* is replacing an 11 year-old system. Alabama is switching to the new
* license production system to improve the quality and timeliness of
* drivers' license issuance, and to reduce counterfeit procurement and
* fraudulent alteration.
*
* The state's system, operated by the Alabama Department of Public Safety
* (DPS), will consist of more than 100 issue sites and a central
* production facility housing Sandia's in-line, one-pass production
* printers. The new system, scheduled to be in operation next year, is
* expected to enhance the quality of support services for law enforcement
* agencies.
*
* "In addition to providing increased driver license security, the new
* license system will help insure more efficient and reliable customer
* service," said Col. L.N. Hagan, DPS director. The new system offers
* faster production of the license as applicants receive them within one
* week, rather than three to four weeks required by the current system.
*
* The new system also features simplicity of operation at work stations
* and enhanced on-line help for probate judge/license commissioner issuing
* clerks.
*
* The Sandia system produces fully digitized photos and signatures of the
* holder and combines them with demographic and graphic text, which is all
* printed in a single pass on the front and back of a composite polyester-
Thunder v.2.0.0.4
A constant state of war, for 'national security and national safety' reasons.
The novel '1984', about oppressive government, contains three key features:
o Massive surveillance mechanism
o Constant state of War
o Physical and psychological terror to
control targeted individuals and groups
The constant state of War is used by politicians to
control us little people. As it was in the book 1984.
Did you know the U.S. has been in a state of Drug War since the 1960s?
This section of the manifesto is about constantly beating the Drum of War...
* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not
* been at war...war had literally been continuous, though strictly speaking
* it had not always been the same war.
*
* The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil.
* "Taking Control - Politics in the Information Age"
* Authors Morely Winograd & Dudley Buffa, 1996, ISBN 0-8050-4489-2
*
* From Richard Nixon's law and order campaign in 1968 to George Bush's
* infamous Willie Horton ad in 1988, Republicans have attempted to define
* their differences with Democrats by a no-nonsense position on crime and
* criminals.
*
* It helped Republicans win the presidency, and it also gave them the
* tool by which to control the Democratic majorities in Congress that
* might allow their opponents to label them as soft on crime.
*
* No Democra
Iain Clark
* that is, not until an attempt was made in 1961 to revolutionize the idea
* of war. This was done by an industrialist named Robert McNamara, who had
* been president at Ford Motor Company.
Stafford Beer is a British cybernetician, and a 'research philosopher'.
In 1970, a Dr. Salvador Allende became president of Chile.
He was a democratically elected Marxist, with 37% of the vote.
Allende immediately embarked on a massive nationalization of
the banks and major companies/industries in Chile.
In 1971, Stafford Beer began a project for Allende
to put the Chilean economy under cybernetic control.
As far as I know, this is the only documented instance of someone
attempting this; deploying cybernetic controls nationwide.
* "Brain of the Firm", Stafford Beer, 1986, ISBN 0 471 27687 1
*
* All of this involved a massive and continuing exercise in (what I should
* call, in the original World War II sense) operational research. That is
* exactly what it was: research by highly qualified interdisciplinary teams,
* into operations, namely production companies, with the prospect of
* discovering models and sets of measures.
*
* We needed a group who understood the operational research techniques of
* data capture that were needed for project Cybersyn. As a Briton I knew
* whom I wanted --- they were a group of consultants within the London
* branch of the international firm of Arthur Anderson and Co.
*
* Project Cybercyn objective: To install a preliminary system of information
* and regulation for the industrial economy that will demonstrate the main
* features of cybernetic management and begin to help in the task of actual
* decision-making by March 1st 1972.
Under the circumstances of a nationalized economy, it was a positive thing.
Matt Ion
* American shows it violated departmental rules.
*
* Timmie Sinclair, 27, is a black Atlantan. Five officers surrounded him
* and one Sergeant "repeatedly bludgeoned with a baton" Mr. Sinclair while
* he was being handcuffed, and at least once while the other officers held
* him down on the ground.
*
* Mr. Sinclair was trying to fill a prescription for his sick child,
* became confused by all the roadblocks the Atlanta police setup for
* the annual "Black College Spring Break" weekend, and was attacked
* by the police for trying to get back on the Interstate highway.
*
* Mr Sinclair's wife and two children were in his car with him.
Think that would have happened to a white family during this annual Black
College Spring Break 'Freaknick' police coverage?
The police also illegally ordered the videotaper to stop taping.
----
Recently on ABC Primetime live, they wired for video and sound a nice car
owned by the father of the black son who drove it, with another black friend.
BTW, picture yourself being a black citizen to try and appreciate this.
Picture yourself as the monitored group.
Shortly after starting out, they were pulled over by police for a search.
Not one, but two squad cars came to do the search.
Because they crossed lanes while going through an intersection.
If you are white, when was the last time two squad cars searched your
vehicle inch-by-inch because you crossed lanes w
Thunder v.2.0.0.4
anyone to start posting a detailed play by play.
t.k.
Hank Arnold
--
Regards,
Hank Arnold
"Matt Ion" <sou...@moltenimage.com> wrote in message
news:TT3qd.363720$nl.305034@pd7tw3no...
Amy Guskin
(in article <hkahq01hjns5n3hk4...@4ax.com>):
Man, I'm envious! I can't believe you got it first. But I thought SciFi was
producing it...? Hadn't heard about the Sky One connection.
Amy
--
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