Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktHyper-politicized hiring at the Obama DOJ continues.–QB
Some within the bowels of News Corp are hatching yet another nefarious plot: A cable channel that shows only epsiodes of the Simpsons.
Some within News Corp. have floated the idea of a cable channel that shows only episodes of the “The Simpsons.” Such a concept however is several years off as “The Simpsons” is still on the air and there’s several syndication deals in place that would likely be invalidated.
The show has been running since 1989, and it’s approaching its 500th episode. With commercials, it’s estimated the series could be run back to back for almost eleven days without a repeat.
There’s a red-band trailer out there for The Thing. Which is a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 version, but it is also a beat-by-beat remake in many ways, according to sources. And it’s also called The Thing, just like the 1982 version. Which is confusing. And a red-band trailer, if you don’t know, means the trailer itself is rated R.
You could do worse than watch/listen to this interview of Ray Kurzweil on Leo Laporte’s Triangulation. Has anyone else here seen Transcendent Man?
Finally, there hasn’t been any Hobbit movie news in weeks. I’m suffering from withdrawal. Show me the Hobbit! — KW
Should anyone be surprised at law schools sexing up their applicant and student LSAT scores and GPAs? The market for new law grads has been crushed post-2008, yet law school applications rose, and law schools are scrambling for market position.–QB (wish I knew how to type a real hyphen!)
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All Things in Moderation 
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I want to go back later and comment on Scott's fair share post. There have been some interesting surveys that show that people tend to believe that the rich pay much less than they actually do, and should pay more but still less than they actually pay.I went over to PL, and I quickly started bogging down my computer and crashed my browser. Sigh.
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If the newest remake of The Thing is good, I'm good with it. I love both the 1982 and the original. There can't be too many good versions. But if some idiot makes it into another War of the Worlds or Day the Earth Stood Still remake … grrr.
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qb–do law schools really boost admissions if they advertise that they have higher LSAT and GPAs? It's been a long, long time since I was considering applying for grad school, but I don't remember taking MCAT or GRE scores and/or GPAs into account, just where the school was and average time to graduation (for PhD programs). And, really, what good does it do if their graduates can't find jobs? I would think that–as an applicant–that statistic would be more important to me than test scores and GPAs.
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I'll be brutally honest. I am very worried about The Thing "remake." The '82 version was so good, how could it be improved? It'd be like remaking Blade Runner, or Aliens.
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Congrats on the house closing michi. qb, I loved The Thing, especially the old one. I grew up with that stuff and the old space movies were hysterical. I thought we had a pretty good day here again and ashot showed up, thanks to sue.
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Michi, I don't know how many schools fiddle with the data, but the scores and GPAs of applicants and students certainly become part of the recruiting and marketing, because it is a "market" indicator if you will of the strength and prestige of the school. People want to go where the best people go. You may not have been infected with credentialism, but it's the way or the world at least today. Set aside the top schools; schools below the top tier are all trying to move up the rankings.
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So, qb, post-graduation employment isn't a statistic that's used to rank the schools? Credentialism was alive and well back then, it just didn't appeal to me all that much after I heard my third or fourth horror story from grad students at Harvard/Stanford/other top tier schools when they came back to visit the lab after getting into those fine institutions of higher education.And, BTW, I meant to ask you who your team is that shamed themselves on the gridiron this weekend. I thought it was hilarious that you posted from church–must've been a slow part of the sermon!
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McWing:I'm with you. I don't know how the '82 The Thing can possibly be improved upon. But I will watch the new one anyway, because if they manage to improve it, it will be awesome.
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Scott,Yeah, I'll watch it as well. Just like I watched the Coen's remake of True Grit. It was fine, but… what was the point in it? John Wayne's performance in the original was so sublime, that even if Bridges turned in a performance of a lifetime (and he was really good, not breathtaking, but good)it would still not equal the original. That's what i don't understand, ultimately. There are perfect movies out there, and I cannot recall a remake of any of them that exceeded the original.
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lms, you know the thing I like the most about the original The Thing? I love the scifi aspect of it (love all those oldies), of course, but I am always fascinated by the cultural/historical aspect I think I see in it — America, in the time of the Red Scare, yes, but the film reflects something of the post-war "can do" America, and especially its military.I see this, for example, when they find the space ship. What do that do? Call Washington? Radio for instructions? Form a committee? No. They get out the frigging thermite and blast it lose! Now, this turns out to be a bit of a mistake, but how could they have known?Perhaps a some of this is just film making, but this is something that I feel like I see in many old films. The characters have brash confidence. They don't doubt and wait around for someone to tell them what to do.
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qb/McWing:Best scene in the movie. When that head sprouts legs and starts crawling away…"You've got to be f-ing kidding."
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Michi, I'm a Buckeye fan. I didn't go there, but I grew up dreaming of playing for Woody. (He never noticed me!) Needless to say, Saturday night was a fiasco of some of the dumbest coaching and inept play I've seen in decades of watching OSU. No, it wasn't a boring part; I am just not that good at sitting and paying attention. I love my pastor, but I always feel the urge to multitask in any environment.I forgot about the question you raised about employment and graduation rates versus scores. Yes, I think employment rates are important, but i think employment rates tend to flow from perceived prestige and "quality" that are in turn supported by incoming GPAs and LSATs, and even if that isn't true, students believe it is. At the top law schools it used to be (as in when I graduated) that you just had to choose among the high-paying jobs you were offered. That is no longer true today. Students want to attend the best school they can to increase their marketability. Schools want to attract as many applicants as they can, and the best ones they can, and they rightly perceive that an important way to attract the best is already to have the best. That's my take anyway.
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Scott, back in the 80s, I thought those scenes were pretty amazing special effects. It is surprising out poorly they have aged, but still a great movie, perfectly cast. There was a version or cut of it that I once saw in which a dog or wolf was seen running away from the base after or during the credits.
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I also am worried that another remake The Thing again it will be a travesty, as with the two remakes I mentioned above (and I won't even get into how horribly they descrated Starship Troopers the first time around! That deserved a horse whipping.It's sad that Hollywood is so bereft of originality.
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We used to go to the movies on the weekend with my cousins back in the late 50's and early 60's. I loved all the sci-fi stuff but can't remember the names of all of them. One time we got to their house and I didn't feel too well but didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to miss the outing. I remember sitting there chewing on a piece of taffy and thinking my jaw hurt. By the time we got home I had a really high fever and the mumps, that's how long ago that was. The movie was great, I keep wanting to say "Lost In Space" but that was a tv series. The Blob, The Thing, The Birds etc etc., were all great fun. I remember walking out of "The Pit and the Pendulum" it scared me so much.
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Regarding colleges and test scores, gpa's and prestige, I think it depends what you're studying also. In the sciences grad students generally, to my knowledge at least, look for the research and the person behind it, and also if you're lucky how much money they're going to give you to go there.
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Sorry to not be talking about movies. 08.dca.untd.com> I have an email address for BGinChi. Would people be interested ininviting him here? He and Tao used to have some pretty good booksconversations. I know he left Plum Line because the time commitmentseemed too great. It was before the major tech problems. I've been avoiding the hassle of upgrading from IE7 but this site isgoing to require me to, I can see. There's also the issue if you postfrom an iPad, which I sometimes do, that you can't see the whole post toedit it in preview. That may be unfixable.
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I don't know where that dca thing came from.
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ABC, I'd love to have BGinChi here. Would it be alright with everyone else? And we're trying to get Tao as well. Why don't you contact him and see if he's interested or let me know and I'll do it if you think that's better.For technical issue it's best to talk to Kevin but the post last night has some FAQ's that dealt with some of these, particularly the IE7 issue I think. Check the Bits & Pieces from last night if you haven't already.And we could use a good book discussion around here. I'm reading "Angle of Repose" right now and thoroughly enjoying it.
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The only movie I ever walked out on in my life was Stephen Spielberg's A.I. The movie was 2 hours and 25 minutes long, and I walked out after investing 2 hours and 10 minutes watching it. I just could not bear to take any more. Probably not the worst movie I've ever seen (and I have seen a lot), but pretty close.
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lms, yes, I agree that's true; in some fields, the right professor or researcher or lab or program is important. Music shares some of this, too. Law Schools try to differentiate themselves, but at the end of the day they all teach law and award the same degree, and it's mainly about rankings, prestige, etc. No one goes to Villanova to study with Professor X rather than to Harvard or another top school.
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BG is fine with me.
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By unanimous consent (sort of), let's invite BGinChi, not to be confused with BG51. Michi, I also loved anything that Alfred Hitchcock did and The Twilight Zone, but of course our options were limited in those days.
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I loved the historical part of Angle of Repose.
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lms, I have to take it back to some extent. I think I've seen every Hitchcock ever made, and The Twilight Zone was a huge favorite (that I hardly ever got to watch as my Mom disapproved of it for some reason. I've never known why and I should probably ask).
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I'll write BG. Should I give him Kevin's email address?
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Is anyone working on a post for tomorrow yet? Italy was downgraded today and Greece had a lot to say according to some reports I read, is that too boring to talk about? I wouldn't mind revisiting the tax issue some more but I don't feel qualified to post about it, I'll leave that to Mark and Scott for now. I might do a cooking post just for fun.
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I don't think that we've been able to give Scott's post a fair trial, so maybe he could re-post that in the morning to bring it back to the top? I'm willing to expose my ignorance all over it if you guys will be gentle in explaining what a knucklehead I am for my ideas!Other than that, I've seen a couple of things that would be good to drop into tomorrow evening's B&P, but nothing for me to write a whole post about. I think qb's on to something with creating drafts that he can go back and work on from time to time until they're ready to post.
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ABC, yes go ahead and give him Kevin's or mine, either one will do. And re "Angle", my roots on my father's side are all from CO, MT, ID, WY, UT, etc. so I'm finding it very interesting.
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Ill bring it to the top of the thread in the morning.
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ScottI'm going to go delete my comments so we can start fresh.
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Yes, BG. Email me address. I'll be out most of tomorrow but will send it.Qb: still love the original Thing. Still love the practical effects. I think it's aged excellently (and I'm not alone), but I alsomlove Starship Troopers. Is it Heinleins book? Nit quite. But I still love that movie. I enjoyed the new True Grit. I agree on War of the Worlds remake, and DtEST. Hated AI. Terrible movie. But I despised War of the Worlds, just on it's own. This is the same guy who made ET and Schindlers List? Can't be.Aliens prequel, tangentially, is on the way, called Prometheus. Blade Runner sequelish thing in the works, may apply the same theory of another story set in the same world. Balde Runner project not yet green lit.
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michi, funny you mentioned your mom's restrictions. I used to sneak into my mom and dad's room and "borrow" books to read. He used to hide them from me, but not very well. I think I read all of the James Bond books before I was 10 or 11. He was so mad when he caught me one night with the flashlight under the blankets reading, yikes.
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I sent lmsinca's address to him as that's what I had handy. I told him to write if he's interested in joining.
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Thanks ABC, I hope we hear from him.
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I'm done in, thanks for the movie memories all. Would someone please put up a morning thread, an open one is fine. I am not getting up that early.
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Kevin, I'm looking forward to the Alien prequel. Seems like Ridley Scott finally had enough money thrown at himScott, my second most favorite scene in The Thing is when Kurt Russel pours his glass of Cutty Sark into the floppy drive of the desktop computer after losing the chess game. I'm always expecting him pull out a brick phone or something but that was still over a decade away in '82!
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"Kevin, I'm looking forward to the Alien prequel. Seems like Ridley Scott finally had enough money thrown at him"But it's supposedly a "sidequel"–like the proposed Blade Runner movie might be. Something happening in the same universe, but not directly related (because, clearly, there would be more going on in the Alien universe than one interstellar transport going to pick up an Alien). In fact, the only way I'd be interested in a Bladerunner film is as a sidequel–taking place in the same world, but one where replicants and bladerunners were side issues, or tangential, to the overall stories. I mean, how many stories could their potentially be in the naked dystopian city.
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"michi, funny you mentioned your mom's restrictions. I used to sneak into my mom and dad's room and "borrow" books to read. He used to hide them from me, but not very well. I think I read all of the James Bond books before I was 10 or 11. He was so mad when he caught me one night with the flashlight under the blankets reading, yikes."Very different world. I'd be ecstatic if I found my oldest daughter up late reading a book. She's 13, and only reads if forced.
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I closed on a house and got a good return. We didn't get an extra $10k (indeed, though there was a tidy profit made, all that money went into the new house, and commissions, etc). But right now I'd worry about coming out with any money to put into a new house, if we sold this one. But, I'm more in favor of staying in one place than my wife, who always wants to move across the fence, where the grass is greener. I just keep thinking–five years from now, half of every house payment will be pure principal. Then the majority of it will be principle, and that number that never seems to shrink will start shrinking pretty fast . . . I'd love life without a house payment, more than I care about having a bigger bathroom, a bigger closet, or a kitchen island. But, that's me.
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