Friday, December 31, 2004

Tim Marion, New York New York USA

[It’s] a helluvalot easier to access your website than go digging thru several feet of papers looking for unopened mail. And it's a very easy-to-read format, too – you sure have come a long way from telling Ned Brooks "What the hell are you talking about?" when he suggested you PDF your finished fanzine pages. This computer screen friendly format is much superior to merely scanning your pages in as a picture.

More accolades for Patrice Green, the genius behind www.challzine.net.

As for Greg Benford's article, strip-mining asteroids (originally the Moon) is not a new idea -- it was first proposed at least 25 years ago by Professor Gerard O'Neill of Princeton University. At the time he wrote a book on the subject, which I read both for informative purposes and to see if it could help me in my job as Assistant Editor of the trade magazine Mining Equipment International, where we wrote an article on O'Neill's suggestions. Basically he posited mining robots on the moon who could then throw ore samples out into space but within the moon's orbit. These samples would then be picked up by a roving satellite which would then process them for use on Earth. I don't know why these ideas were never taken up – doubtless they were considered too expensive. It's much less expensive to destroy the Earth instead. Greg Benford suggests that after we have depleted the natural resources of the Earth we should move to outer asteroids. I'm suggesting we move to the outer asteroids now and keep what remains on Earth, both to preserve our world and to "have something in the bank," so to speak.

Responding to your readers who are discussing current times, I would like to comment to Richard Dengrove that Saddam Hussein was not a "Moslem Arab" – I believe he has identified himself as an atheist in the past. On his cabinet, he had ministers and advisers of different religions, including Christians. Saddam Hussein was fundamentally opposed by most Arabs in the Moslem world, and was viewed as a "heretic" by Osama bin Laden. All of this changed with our latest attack on that country. Now al Qaeda is helping Iraq and the Moslem world is united more than ever against us. Now more than ever they have reason to chant what I've heard many Americans saying (even one fan!), "It's either us or them!"


Prediction: war with Iran by 2006 – 25 years later than necessary.

Craig Hilton says it is futile to attempt to find blame for the hole in American security which allowed 9/11 to happen. Stanley Hilton (no relation, I presume, to Craig), who was once the lawyer for Bob Dole, is now representing the families of the victims of 9/11, and claims that he has proof that our president personally signed off on the order to have 9/11 happen. Rather than being piloted by suicidal terrorists, the planes were directed by remote control into the World Trade Center – technology we've had for years. What lends credence to his claim is the fact that we normally have F-16 fighter jets surround passenger (or other) planes that go off their pre-designated flight paths, but yet they were told to stand down on the morning of 9/11 – according to Hilton, they were told it was just another drill, which is why they weren't there.


Stanley Hilton also claimed that Kerry would "roll over" for Bush, which is exactly what he did – after what is probably the very most controversial presidential election in history – many mysterious ballots counted by "electronic means" which vary significantly with the exit polls for the same districts. Gee, Guy, it used to be only the third-world countries had the elections stolen from them – isn't progress wonderful?!

Taral Wayne was whistling right down my alley with his article on the Anderson's lamentable "Supermarionation" (a process they developed without me, despite the use of my name). I concede many of the weaknesses of Thunderbirds, but have to say, that once one puts oneself in the proper headspace for watching cartoons, it became quite fascinating watching those ships troll slowly across the runway before they took off. Usually my reaction was, "Wow, isn't that ship cool?" both before and after my adulthood. It's a pleasure to watch it slowly scroll/stroll across the screen as one thusly gets to see it better.

It's funny that Taral says "Thundersbirds Are No Go." When I saw a live-action movie advertised around the same theme, when what little charm the series had before resided with the puppets, all I could say was, "Thunderbirds Are Stop."

And I too fondly remember Stingray, including the episode Taral mentions where they end up in someone's aquarium. To the best of my memory, this aquarium was a fish tank owned by their underwater-dwelling enemies, who were now (in this episode) gigantic. Of course, it all turned out to be just a dream.

And a part of me still can't help but fall in love with the anthropomorphic mermaid with the big eyes, or appreciate the ending theme love song – "Mareena... Aqua-Maree-ee-eena... When will you say those words my heart is longing to hear?" She was mute, and the protagonist was in love with her. It was obvious she felt considerably for him too, as she risked her little puppet life more than once to save his.

Altho I can sympathize with Carol Resnick for not wanting to watch SF movies with her husband, Mike, I emphathize even more with Mike in his disappointment of several highly-rated movies. Surely no one would have been wanting to watch the last Star Trek movie with me, which was without a doubt one of the worst movies ever made. No muttering for me --- I was practically jumping up and down in my seat and screaming and shouting at the screen! Seldom have I been so outraged by a mere movie.

I can definitely understand Resnick's reaction to Star Wars – when I first saw it, with other fans, I found myself groaning throughout, mainly due to the childish and idiotic dialogue. I think there has seldom been a more over-rated movie. In order to keep my involvement with a movie, the characters have to act and speak in a fairly realistic fashion. Which doesn't mean that I have to agree or identify with them.

I do think he's a little too critical of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, however, which I regarded as more of a fantasy than SF. It was intentionally anachronistic; not through carelessness. Deliberate anachronisms are becoming a genréé unto themselves (such as "steam punk"). League was a sumptuous feast for the eyes and it was fun seeing the different interpretations of the popular characters. I'm not concerned with the inaccuracies of African geography, since most viewers may not be familiar with such. (Such errors should not occur, but do not detract from the story.)

Have to take issue with Mike about a couple of other movies – Blade Runner was a lot of fun and another visual feast, which Resnick acknowledges, but pokes fun of the title for not having a literal analog within the movie. Although I agree it's a melodramatic title, obviously it's use is a figurative one – that hunting down escaped felons (especially super-powered ones) is as dangerous as running on a blade.

Likewise I can't help but feel that Resnick missed a whole bunch of the first Matrix movie when he says, "The whole world runs on computers, which means the whole world is powered by electricity to a far greater extent than America is at this moment. So why is the underground city lit only by burning torches?" Did he miss the part where the human population is being kept asleep in pods so that the electrical currents from their brains can be harnessed for energy? The underground city was not exploiting humans in this way.

Not that I want to be a big defender of either of these movies, although I did enjoy them...

Your editorial is powerful and outraged, as well it should be. Surely no right-thinking American wants our nation to be known as a nation of torturers ... but as you point out, it's too late. Now with yet another stolen election, I feel that there is almost no one left to listen. I'm seriously thinking about moving to another country, if more of the same is all I have to look forward to.

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