Testing Chat V: The Final Mysterious Island: Miami Beach

[Oxymoron]

it is out already ? Awh man, I'll have to give it a look if I can.

Edit : it isn't out in France yet. Shucks.

[Darksi4190]

You know I can't help but be a little disappointed with the last episode of Futurama. Into the Wild Green Yonder was a much better "finale" for the show.

[Bakustra]

i think a large part of that is backlash from the mainstreaming as well- see the recent intensification of "fake nerds" etc. but nerd "culture" was always relatively mainstream and it's just now that there is a Frankensteinian overall culture that these things can be articulated

Yeah, I can see how it is a backlash to nerd culture going mainstream. Since much of the nerd identity is based on ostracism, there would be a hostility towards newcomers who don't meet that criteria. If you fulfill the requirements of some social outcast quota, you are "one of us," but if you don't, you are one of the popular kids trying to steal their toys.

Nerd culture being mainstream is a relatively recent phenomenon, though. It's always had an unhealthy obsession with popularity, but most nerd staples didn't really become mainstream until the advent of the internet or later. They were mainstream in the sense that everyone realized they existed, but it's only been within the last couple decades or so that you could openly indulge in some of those pastimes without being viewed as a freak. A grown man reading a superhero comic was an embarrassment. Even interest in massive pop culture phenomena like Star Wars and Star Trek was viewed as unhealthy. The idea that the most popular movies of the past few years have been predominantly adaptations of Tolkien novels and superhero comics would have been unthinkable a mere 20-30 years ago. There were Tolkien adaptations and superhero movies made during that time, and even earlier, but Hollywood has only started viewing them as safe profit generators very recently.

Not really? Star Wars was pop, Star Trek wasn't popular in its first run but assimilated into the broader culture later and TNG was fairly popular, Tolkien took over college campuses after LOTR got a paperback release, etc. And nerds used to range younger- the Golden Age of sci-fi is 14 and all. So while it was less acceptable for adults to be reading lowbrow comics and pulp magazines in the postwar/post-CCA period (prewar was very different), the people reading them were younger. Things like baseball statistics were also fairly mainstream. Yeah, reenactment and wargames and so on were much more niche, but for the latter, that's largely a consequence of the small production and marketing capacity of Avalon Hill, along with terrible rules early on. Hell, D&D was a fad toy when the Red Box was released!

The recent development of superhero/nerd movies as massive profit generators is largely because Hollywood is much more conservative than in the past. Established brands are able to draw a definite crowd, as do continuations of a trend, so they're much safer than developing your own brand, as Pacific Rim proved this summer.

Meanwhile, in nerd news, lolol superheroes comics are dead: http://www.hadenblackman.com/archives/696

[Infinity Biscuit]

One thing that I felt kind of relates to this that I was reading was about how, as I mentioned in another thread, Mike from Penny Arcade honestly thought that by making fun of and deliberately trying to trigger rape victims who criticised one of his jokes, he was launching some sort of crusade against bullying.

The only way that makes sense that I can tell is if he considers that since he's the "nerd", he's being targeted by "non-nerds" (ie women who aren't part of The Club) and that makes them in the wrong, by default. That any conflict between the two is the non-nerd bullying the nerd. And that sort of persecution complex seems to come up a lot in nerd culture and it seems as if it would breed a corollary that would explain a lot.

After all, if you (as the nerd) are by default not the bully in any sort of conflict situation on an unconscious level, then that gives huge carte blanche to lash out whenever you feel threatened in any way. After all, it's just standing up for yourself, right?

[Bakustra]

One thing that I felt kind of relates to this that I was reading was about how, as I mentioned in another thread, Mike from Penny Arcade honestly thought that by making fun of and deliberately trying to trigger rape victims who criticised one of his jokes, he was launching some sort of crusade against bullying.

The only way that makes sense that I can tell is if he considers that since he's the "nerd", he's being targeted by "non-nerds" (ie women who aren't part of The Club) and that makes them in the wrong, by default. That any conflict between the two is the non-nerd bullying the nerd. And that sort of persecution complex seems to come up a lot in nerd culture and it seems as if it would breed a corollary that would explain a lot.

After all, if you (as the nerd) are by default not the bully in any sort of conflict situation on an unconscious level, then that gives huge carte blanche to lash out whenever you feel threatened in any way. After all, it's just standing up for yourself, right?

Yeah, I think that this is a pretty major psychological thing- the sense of nerd as being inherently opposed to the greater society, and not part of it. You can see this at work elsewhere too.

[Flagg]

Man I was pretty good Internet friends with those Penny Arcade guys and am honestly shocked at the behavior.

[Oxymoron]

You know what, I got the impression it's the same mechanism we've been able to observe with Mike Wong : if criticized, dig your heels in, take position, and start fighting.

[Oxymoron]

Yo IB,

am I right in finding the following clip really funny :


http://youtube.com/watch?v=qWS2NVX6VP0

Or should I feel like a bad person ?

[Crazedwraith]

You know I can't help but be a little disappointed with the last episode of Futurama. Into the Wild Green Yonder was a much better "finale" for the show.

I think you're mistaken. The last episode was called 'The Devil's Hand are Idle Playthings' and it was perfect.

A pity they never made it to another channel after fox...

[adr]

guys i just saw this on the facebook:

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/w ... oking-eggs

incredible but it seems to be a true story

a skyscraper in london is so shaped that it is concentrating sunlight and producing extreme heat on the ground

you'd think one of the architects/engineers would have thought of that before they started construction! i guess burn and learn amirite?

[evilsoup]

if I was an architect and I notice that I was actually building a solar-powered death ray, I'm not sure that I would call it off

[Darksi4190]

So going back and browsing through that Sarkeesian thread on SB, and viewing some other threads, it looks like somebody has spiked a portion of that board's water supply with Grade A MRA anti-women kool-aid. There's shit going down in the non-SF discussion, in the gaming forum people are lining up to bash Sarkeesian, and the most prominent discussion in the Halo thread is about how everybody hates a female character to the extent where one poster expressed desire for her to be raped to death.

It looks like that rule against creeping just caused that subset of the population to find another outlet for their douchebaggery.

[Infinity Biscuit]

Yo IB,

am I right in finding the following clip really funny :


http://youtube.com/watch?v=qWS2NVX6VP0

Or should I feel like a bad person ?

I've always liked it, too (this is my first time seeing it in video rather than gifs though). None of the humor is based upon any sort of malice or making anyone into a punchline; it's all based around the guy on the left's total chillness with everything.

[RogueIce]

Was it on here that somebody said Tebow could do well in the NFL, just not as a QB at this point in time?

Because some other team apparently had that idea, but Tebow didn't go for it.

[adr]

aaaarrrgh i shouldn't have clicked a football link

i watched the first half of that ravens/broncos game last night but had to go to bed so was going to watch the second half tonight

totally spoiled now. i guess that's what happens when you lose ed reed lol


but yeah, tebow's set a goal and doesn't want to compromise apparently. well, i guess good for him, going for what he loves, i can't knock that.

[Darksi4190]

Well that was unusually quick. Typically they actually let a Sci-Fi franchise stay dead for a few years before rebooting it.

[RogueIce]

Personally I'm meh on it. I've seen the original movie of course, and it was good but nothing terribly special. I am far more a fan of SG-1, though to be fair to Emmerich having a decade to develop a universe and their characters will tilt things more in favor of a long running series than a single two hour movie.

Still I'll await the previews and see what he has in store. Could be good. Doesn't have to be a continuation of the SG-1verse for me to like it, though I'm sure plenty out there are nerdraging over just that.

[Bakustra]

why am i not surprised that roland emmerich cares about "canon"

[Darksi4190]

Personally I'm meh on it. I've seen the original movie of course, and it was good but nothing terribly special. I am far more a fan of SG-1, though to be fair to Emmerich having a decade to develop a universe and their characters will tilt things more in favor of a long running series than a single two hour movie.

Still I'll await the previews and see what he has in store. Could be good. Doesn't have to be a continuation of the SG-1verse for me to like it, though I'm sure plenty out there are nerdraging over just that.

I probably won't mind the actual movies themselves too much. The only part about this that I dislike is that it's essentially the final nail in the coffin of the SG-1 universe. I should have expected it after the T.V. movies were "indefinitely shelved," but the post season 5 Atlantis books and that new mobile game gave me some hope the franchise could continue through other medium like the original Star Trek universe did with books and STO, or Firefly did with comics

No way that will happen now though. If they've got big budget movies coming out, MGM will want any additional spin off material to be in that continuity. Hell, i'm surprised Paramount didn't kill STO when the reboot movies came out.

[evilsoup]

I'm sure Paramount want to keep their options open for the inevitable crossover
maybe Picard can save nuKirk and then get flattened by a bridge

[Stofsk]

I'm sure Paramount want to keep their options open for the inevitable crossover
maybe Picard can save nuKirk and then get flattened by a bridge

don't even joke about that

[evilsoup]

come on now
it would be hilarious

[adr]

mang sg-1

remember that one time teal'c said "perhaps a medical strike would be effective"

and then all the doctors refused to go to work

?

good episode

[evilsoup]

SG1 was good before all the farscape people started turning up
I'm still annoyed that Carter wasn't made leader of the team

[Stofsk]

Hell, i'm surprised Paramount didn't kill STO when the reboot movies came out.

That's because Paramount doesn't hold the rights to anything other than the reboot and any future movies. CBS owns the rights for all the shows, first ten movies and all the other licenced stuff.