Search found 10038 matches

by Coyote
2014-06-04 08:29am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Favorite Sci-fi Moments
Replies: 105
Views: 16093

Re: Favorite Sci-fi Moments

The Trench Run of Star Wars (of course!) The battle of the Mutara Nebula when the Enterprise finally gets the Reliant dead to rights and they manually fire right at it. Aeryn's extreme depression after clone-Crichton's death, when she languishes in that city of mystics. Almost final scene of Jurassi...
by Coyote
2014-06-04 12:27am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Neo-Galactica RAR
Replies: 24
Views: 4497

Re: Neo-Galactica RAR

I was imagining a situation where the mining ships would be able to scour the asteroids for rare-earth metals, thus preserving computers for awhile (even if they temporarily devolve to "early Pentium" ability level for awhile)-- and the Raptors could search for minerals in the Earth's crus...
by Coyote
2014-06-03 08:08pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Neo-Galactica RAR
Replies: 24
Views: 4497

Re: Neo-Galactica RAR

I seem to recall them trying to build a home on New Caprica or whatever they called it and that place was a shithole even before the whole Cylon occupation thing. I don't see the Galactica and their crew of refugees taking over the planet, maybe their grandkids. Good point, but the New Caprica sett...
by Coyote
2014-06-03 12:31am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Neo-Galactica RAR
Replies: 24
Views: 4497

Neo-Galactica RAR

I recently re-watched my box set of neo-Battlestar Galactica, the 2004-08 reboot version. Baltar is a weaselly horndog, Cylons look like us, Cylon civil war, Boomer is an Asian chick, Starbuck's a girl, etc etc etc. In this RAR, everything happens exactly as it did in the series, right up to the ver...
by Coyote
2013-01-23 06:46pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Good Military Science Fiction.
Replies: 61
Views: 9606

Re: Good Military Science Fiction.

Drake's well known as a veteran of the Vietnam War. It shows, even though he saw very little combat.
by Coyote
2013-01-23 08:31am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Good Military Science Fiction.
Replies: 61
Views: 9606

Re: Good Military Science Fiction.

I never saw Hammer's Slammers as "neocon" or pro-war; if anything I think it reflected Drake's own thoughts about how the war scared the hell out of him. The thing is, the Slammers themselves seem all sure of themselves, but it is obvious that in many ways they are living in a sort of unre...
by Coyote
2013-01-16 08:22am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Good Military Science Fiction.
Replies: 61
Views: 9606

Re: Good Military Science Fiction.

Hammer's Slammers series is always a favorite.
by Coyote
2013-01-15 12:21am
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: GUNS GUNS GERNS
Replies: 474
Views: 280723

Re: GUNS GUNS GERNS

Damn, that's, um... crazy. So they're going with the same old thing-- if it "looks scary" then it is bad and has evil spirits; if it has a hunting-style stock then it is acceptable. For now. And I remember when the thumbhole stock was kosher . That's something about American liberals I can...
by Coyote
2013-01-14 08:50am
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: GUNS GUNS GERNS
Replies: 474
Views: 280723

Re: GUNS GUNS GERNS

Wait, button-based magazine ejectors? Damn that's stupid. Huh; so the lever-based mag eject on my AK would be fine? These people do not think things through. Hey, if they want to make another stupid, foolish, and pointless AWB then it's no skin off my nose. Hell, IIRC when they banned "flash h...
by Coyote
2012-11-07 08:30am
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm
Replies: 512
Views: 94102

Re: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

Plus we have to remember not to commit the sin of minimalism ourselves. A Galaxy is big; we can have a major, balls-out vicious war going on that spans three or four sectors while the rest of the Galaxy is peaceful and content. A regional conflict that people don't pay attention to but has serious l...
by Coyote
2012-11-04 06:54pm
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality
Replies: 88
Views: 15007

Re: Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality

We're probably more in agreement than not; I'm also a nuclear fan and I feel dismayed at how Fukushima caused Germany to panic and shut down reactors willy-nilly across Bavaria (a place so known for its 9.0+ earthquakes and tsunamis, snark). Renewables are not a panacea but they do solve a lot of fa...
by Coyote
2012-11-03 12:36am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: SDN Weight Watchers, Thread the Second
Replies: 554
Views: 193796

Re: SDN Weight Watchers, Thread the Second

Hallelujah, brothers and sisters! Two months with the South Beach Diet and 8 miles of cardio (4 miles to and from work) a day, and I have gone from 205 lbs to 185. 20 lb. drop-- from turtle to snake in 60 days. Now I get to spend the money to buy a new wardrobe; I'm trading in my 36-waist pants for ...
by Coyote
2012-11-02 11:26am
Forum: Science, Logic, And Morality
Topic: Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality
Replies: 88
Views: 15007

Re: Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality

The article also seems to conveniently sidestep one other reality-- that current renewables, despite any short-term problems they may incur, do at least address one very pressing need right now: reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which no fossil fuel can claim to do. So we trade one pollution pr...
by Coyote
2012-11-01 06:01pm
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm
Replies: 512
Views: 94102

Re: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

That's funny, because the only Star Wars movie to ever be nominated for Oscars for writing or directing was A New Hope . But then, what do his peers know? Yeah-- nominated . But remember what won the actual Oscar for Best Picture that year? Annie Hall , my friend: a Woody Allen mope. Star Wars was ...
by Coyote
2012-11-01 10:46am
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm
Replies: 512
Views: 94102

Re: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

Preach it, brother Metallus; Amen! But seriously, Star Wars needs to get back to the more science-fiction aspects and step away from the fantasy superhero/wizard Jedi. It makes everyone else --every "mere mortal"-- pretty much superfluous, and what I've read of the Jedi in some EU novels, ...
by Coyote
2012-10-31 11:22pm
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm
Replies: 512
Views: 94102

Re: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

Sidestepping the minutiae of John Williams's contribution and worth (I thought Kevin Kiner's interpretation of the score was outstanding, but that's me), this acquisition by Disney will probably be great news for the franchise. I am in the pile with folks who feel that there is nothing that Disney c...
by Coyote
2012-07-16 09:22pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

The work of David Drake, who served in Vietnam, has several examples of this, though not necessarily both at the same time. In his Hammer's Slammers stories, while the Slammers themselves are aggressively competent, their local allies are often nepotistic and unprofessional, or at best inexperience...
by Coyote
2012-07-16 08:38am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

I got it. :wink: Anyhow, this is hard to quantify, since so much military science fiction depends on enemies and writing and production decisions. To that end, written sci-fi will always have the advantage, since it costs nothing to write different layers of command and tactical characters, or compe...
by Coyote
2012-07-13 11:50pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

A point could be made that the best military is one that ensures it will never be used, by virtue of it being so terrible a solution that any kind of negotiated settlement is preferrable to going to war. But that is a frame of mind that has ushered in many new advances in warfare --dynamite, the Ga...
by Coyote
2012-07-13 08:58am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

Deciding a military that is "best" will probably also mean determining how each setting treats conflict as well. One thing I liked about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was how Nog was affected by his combat experience and the loss of his leg, and his long arc dealing with depression and PTSD. ...
by Coyote
2012-07-11 08:22am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

OK, having read a bit more... Is is fair to denigrate the performance or procedures of a sci-fi military because of "real-world" decisions made by directors, writers, or producers behind the filming? Star Trek and Space: Above and Beyond both send bridge crew or fighter pilots into ground ...
by Coyote
2012-07-10 11:43pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction
Replies: 358
Views: 57217

Re: Best/Worst military forces in Science Fiction

As for Stargate SG-1, they could have at minimum gotten motorcycles and ATVs down there with little to no difficulty. Even the modest payload boost and mobility would have been a huge help...

Eh, sorry for the sudden break-in. :wink: :)
by Coyote
2012-07-10 11:12pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: StarDestroyer.Net will turn 10 years old on July 2, 2012
Replies: 93
Views: 16580

Re: StarDestroyer.Net will turn 10 years old on July 2, 2012

I joined a few weeks later; I'm one of the "FNGs". :mrgreen: I first heard about Mike Wong and his flagship SW/ST fanfic when I was in Israel. I read it in the computer library at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, so that would have been late '99 or 2000 or so. I never heard of ASvS. I ...
by Coyote
2011-11-21 08:16am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Do you have a Sci Fi universe?
Replies: 66
Views: 8959

Re: Do you have a Sci Fi universe?

Yes, I have a military science-fiction setting in which most governments are made up of single-species groups, but the two biggest governments, who are also rivals, are vast multi-species coalitions with various levels of internal harmony. The two big governments exist in tense cold-war style relati...
by Coyote
2011-11-14 10:51pm
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: Pony image dump thread (NO 56k, PIC HEAVY)
Replies: 1185
Views: 298263

Re: Pony dump thread

Does Red Shetland count?

Image