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Messages - Professor Bear

#2131
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
30 September, 2016, 02:40:04 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 30 September, 2016, 12:49:10 PMMind you, plenty of Corbynites I know also think that, because, apparently, all polling is some kind of anti-left conspiracy.

When Yougov did a survey whose findings suggested Corbyn was more popular than previously believed, they wrote lengthy qualifications to their own polling data explaining how and why the results were probably wrong, while the Guardian ran three separate articles by academics explaining why the polling was misleading - two of whom were Yougov employees - and all of this was within months of the disastrous 2015 polling fiasco, so you can't really blame lefties for the current distrust of polling.  Polling companies got themselves into that mess.
#2132
Books & Comics / Re: Robert Kirkman tropes
29 September, 2016, 08:27:42 PM
No, that's it.  Occasionally, he throws in some OTT gore and violence to shock you, and Kirkman does circle the odd good idea, but the framework to explore those ideas just isn't there and sooner or later it all reverts back to superhero dynasty soap opera and "what if the bad guy is right?" musings.
#2133
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
29 September, 2016, 08:11:56 PM
Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 29 September, 2016, 01:52:22 PM
Quote from: Theblazeuk on 28 September, 2016, 02:22:16 PM
Read the book first or watch the film?

Either or mate!  Both equally worth a read/watch!

I gather you could also watch someone play The Last Of Us.
#2134
Film & TV / Re: Ghost in the Shell (2017)
29 September, 2016, 01:47:15 PM
Quote from: Spaceghost on 27 September, 2016, 08:34:06 AMThey were never going to cast an East Asian actor as the lead because there are no East Asian actors with the requisite "star power" to sell a big budget science fiction film like this.

She's done well in ensembles like the Marvel movies, but is Johanson actually that much of a draw as a lead actor?  This is a big-budget sci-fi action movie of the type that even Tom Cruise managed to tank at the box-office in recent times, so the studio has to be looking at this as a huge gamble all on its own - to the point that Johanson is arguably one of the lest important elements in play.
#2135
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
28 September, 2016, 11:11:38 PM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 28 September, 2016, 06:20:45 PMtrite, silly and a tad over whimsical

And it's anime, you say?
#2136
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
27 September, 2016, 11:32:46 AM
The LibDems could have put their money where their mouths were and attempted a broad coalition of parties of the center and left, but the coalition happened because of them and they have to take full responsibility for that coalition's failures - which Tim Farron hasn't.
Clegg - even though I don't believe for a moment that he's learned anything - at least knows to fake it now he's got a book coming out.  He seems relatively on-point about Brexit, too, which is quite disheartening seeing as he's not actually in any position to do anything about it - though his time as deputy PM suggests it wouldn't much matter if he was.

Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 27 September, 2016, 03:17:04 AM
Are you talking about the tuition fees, as that was explained by the party after they got crushed. As soon as they knew what it was like to be in government, they should've explained the reasoning behind it.


I see - you contest that when people do something at odds with what they previously stated, there might be a reason for it.  I understand.

QuoteThe liberals for their tiny size did quite well during their time in government. There are a few articles out there that confirm this but I'll pick something from the Guardian.

Much as I trust the Guardian to report objectively on the Liberal Democrats despite one of their editors once standing as one, I'll take your word for it that article is great.
#2137
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
26 September, 2016, 11:28:04 PM
I'm asking why, if you detest those who abandon their principles, you vote for a party that was wiped out in the last election for doing just that in coalition.
#2138
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
26 September, 2016, 09:26:11 PM
If you detest such things why are you a Liberal voter?
#2139
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
26 September, 2016, 09:08:31 PM
I would have thought a Liberal voter would appreciate someone selling out their principles.
#2140
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
25 September, 2016, 07:55:04 PM
I think Eagle was supposed to be an interim leader, that the more recognizable names knew that being the one who deposed Corbyn after the party's shift to the left would do them more harm than it would favors.  They were more than likely waiting for the next leadership contest - in their minds, they had four years to line up their ducks.
#2141
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
25 September, 2016, 05:29:06 PM
Quote from: GordonR on 25 September, 2016, 01:20:07 PM
I don't think anyone - even Owen Smith himself - seriously expected him to win.  I think he was essentially a stalking horse, standing and taking  a bullet for the party (as he would see it) in order to see how much support there was out there for a Not Corbyn candidate.  And now he and the people behind him have their answer - 38%.

A minimum of 200k Corbyn supporters (though the NEC's own numbers say 100k more than that is more likely) were prevented from voting and the true percentage of support for the Labour right is likely lower than 38%.
Smith also sniped the original candidate against Corbyn, Angela Eagle, and made it clear via homophobic comments that he was willing to go on the attack against rival candidates, while staunch Corbyn critics like John Mann openly attacked Smith for putting his name forward.  Smith wasn't a stalking horse candidate - he genuinely thought he could win, though admittedly this was likely because the initial plan was to exclude Corbyn from the ballot and make the actual contest a formality. 
#2142
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
25 September, 2016, 02:49:11 PM
Both film versions of James Hilton's Lost Horizon, the novel which brought to cultural significance the concept of Shangri-La, a hidden paradise high in the Asian mountain ranges.
Both suffer from being overlong, meandering, and never really showing us the transitions of characters from warmongering capitalist dogs to lentil-munching communists, but while the 1937 Frank Capra version establishes much of the iconic imagery that the 1973 version replicates, the latter version does at least add musical numbers to the mix.  I think there was a conscious effort -ala the Wizard of Oz - to create a contrast between the dour outside world of vast deserts, desolate snowy mountains and gathering stormclouds of world war and the bright, joyful green hills of Shangri-La, but even once the characters get to Shangri-La they just fart about for twenty minutes before a song shows up, and even then it's part of a performance within the film rather than an actual musical number.
Burt Bacharach does the songs and John Gielgud stars in the pivotal role of "Chang", so you can guess as to the movie's objective quality, though despite this I really enjoyed it, even though, as I have already mentioned, it is a terrible film.

Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 22 September, 2016, 12:25:43 PMunless you include Robotech. Which I don't.

I agree.  Robotech made Macross silly.
#2143
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
24 September, 2016, 07:50:13 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 24 September, 2016, 06:13:33 PMOn the other hand I'm not convinced that he is the man for it.

Nor was Owen Smith, but the PLP put him forward as their great white hope anyway, and said he'd be PM one day.  DISCUSS.

Despite all their protestations to the contrary, perceptions of electability are clearly not something they are concerned with, nor is serving their party, their constituents, or even the wider electorate, as evidenced by their basing their voting on welfare or military action on how it can allow them to inconvenience their leader.  At some point this became less about how bad Corbyn might be for Labour down the line and how bad the PLP demonstrably are for both Labour and the country right now.
#2144
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
24 September, 2016, 05:50:12 PM
Britain's most unelectable politician has won another election - much as one might be said to have won the contents of a Christmas cracker.  Many ex-Labour members have rejoined the party so they can quit in disgust at this turn of events.
#2145
Books & Comics / Re: Transformers: partworks in disguise
23 September, 2016, 02:44:20 PM
This will probably do okay as long as they make people aware of it, as Transformers is an evergreen property - though God knows why.  At the time Dreamwave folded, it was an industry joke that the proof they were such a shitty company was that they couldn't turn a profit on Transformers comics.