Stuff I've read lately

Jarhead (Anthony Swofford)(audio) - I wouldn't normally talk about an audio book, since I don't really count them. Going in, I was thinking, "How serious was the first Gulf War, really?" (for Americans) But, I forget, that at the time, it was deadly serious. In the end, it wasn't very serious (Swofford was in all of two "battles", and never fired his weapon), but it still affected the men involved. It was, of course, deadly serious to the Iraqis killed.


The Vor Game (Lois Bujold) - Another quality Vorkosigan book.


The Faded Sun: Kesrith (C. J. Cherryh) - Ahh, Cherryh. This book is classic Cherryh. 'The People' start the book with having been decimated from millions to maybe thousands. By the end, there are two...


Stanger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein) - Coming from a UNIX background, I already knew 'grok'. So I wasn't sure what effect it was supposed to have on me. Otherwise, this book is supposed to be one of Heinlein's best. But I didn't see anything special.

Infinite Improbability

Hello all! Not sure how many readers I have left (after chasing off most in the comments section...)

The Way of the Master radio is particularly vocal on proving the existence of God. I've dealt enough with atheists that I am skeptical.

Let me try to do their argument, and you can counter in the comments.

Thanks!

God is infinite. (definition)

The universe had a beginning (entropy, background radiation, expansion, etc.)

The creation event requires an infinite - one or more of:
infinite regression (turtles all the way)
multi-verse (infinite probabilistic universes)
infinite, uncreated, creator God

Thanks again!

Fixing Star Wars - Episode 6

So, a co-worker and I got to talking, and we decided to fix Star Wars. I mean, everyone likes Star Wars, but with just a little fixing, it could be great!

We started with Episode 6 (Return of the Jedi). An episode with a lot of good stuff, but showing the beginnings of Lucas' mad ego trip. A trip ending in the horror that is the prequel trilogy...

Ok, what problem(s) are we solving?

1. Two death stars (episodes 4 and 6) are just silly and irritating


2. The whole Luke-Leia brother-sister thing is kinda icky


3. How dangerous is this whole rebellion thing, if no major characters die?


4. Ewoks should of been wookies

The solution set is like this:
For #1, Episode 4 should probably keep its climactic ending. So, something big needs to blow up. Might as well leave it the Death Star, as originally filmed. The Empire should realize one, big capital ship is less useful than many (the whole "systems slipping through the fingers" statement). The project in Episode 6 should be a fleet of super star destroyers (probably best to remove the SSD from Ep 5). Or you could keep the Death Star in 6, and have Luke help to knock out a Star Destroyer using the force.

For #2, simply remove it. There are ways of resolving a love triangle beside declaring one leg illegal. More in point 3.

#3, kill Han. Probably at some point in the shield generator mission. This doesn't mean that Luke and Leia have to be together. It's ok for Leia to feel some grief and not be with anyone...

#4, 'nuff said.


That is on top of a lot of minor fixes. All the characters need de-cardboarding. The construction site makes no sense (a no-tech world in the middle of nowhere - should be a ship yard some where). We are not concerned with fixing, or remaining consistent with the books (most of which were terrible). You can keep Leia's encounter with the cute ewok as a young wookie.