All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
I think my friends are moving on the path that leads to Socialism. How far they are advanced on that path I will not say, but on that path I, at any rate, cannot follow them an inch. (Loud cheers.) Any form of protection is an evil, but Socialism is the end of all, the negation of faith, of family, of prosperity, of the monarchy, of Empire. (Loud cheers.)
Archibald Primrose
Feel free to comment with your own jokes.
This is by XKCD, aka Randal Monroe, a PHD physicist, who used it in a whimsical study on the practicality of using the recoil from an A-10 30mm rotary cannon as a method of propulsion.
One of my oldest friends has been advising me on the possibility of making a film treatment out of my book and sending it to Hollywood to become the next “Project Hail Mary.” What immediately came to my mind was Hollywood taking the story and making the evil president, Donald Trump and making Bogey a leftist trans-woman. Yikes!
But what was surprising is that there is actually an AI capable of taking my story and converting it directly into a film treatment. And it has an enormous capability to annotate the details necessary for actually filming the thing. There are notes on casting each of the characters (appearance, age, personality, voice), locations, special effects, visual effects, weapons, special personnel (e.g., armorer), special equipment, weapons, etc.
And then it used the dialog from the book and adapted it for the screen; shortened and elided from it to bring the screen time into a realistic movie length.
Now I haven’t finished going through this document but so far what I’ve seen seems very interesting. It’s basically my book. And that’s exciting. I was assuming the story would be too long for a movie without very serious pruning of scenes that I’m attached to. But we’ll see.
Now, I’m aware that Hollywood doesn’t make movies from books that don’t sell millions of copies. They’re looking for a built-in fan base for their product. So, no studio in their right minds would take a chance on spending potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on an unknown story. But it’s always fun to dream about these things.
And that brings me to Andy Weir’s story. He self-published “The Martian” on Amazon and only eventually got a book deal when he had already built up an audience for it on his own. And now he has two hit movies made from his books. Think about that. Someone who couldn’t get a publishing contract ends up with a smash hit movie that everyone in Hollywood probably hates because it has a white guy as its hero and he doesn’t have the usual diversity cast to allow the movie to be an Oscar contender. They broke all of Hollywood’s rules to make this movie by not having a girl-boss as the hero surrounded by the usual multi-cultural struggle session ensemble. It just brings tears to my eyes.
Chances are I won’t be duplicating Weir’s experience. My book is not an uplifting tale of human endeavor. Mine is a tale of revenge and destruction. I openly attack the Left and my heroes are identifiable people on the Right. So, no. I won’t be getting a Hollywood deal. Ever!
But despite all that I’m excited about what is now happening in Hollywood. The Ellisons bought Paramount and have now shut down the travesty that was Star Trek – Star Fleet Academy. They’re buying Warner Brothers and they’ll probably shut down the people making terrible stuff like “Supergirl” that’s coming out soon. And now we see Amazon/MGM making stuff like “Project Hail Mary (PHM).” That’s a pretty good chunk of Hollywood already. And with PHM looking like it’s going to break the $600 million mark and become a big moneymaker, even places like Netflix and Disney will say to themselves, “Hey, why can’t we get into some of that “normal film-making” that those other guys are doing and make money for a change? Let’s call that photog guy and get an option on, “The Sniper” before the Ellisons scoop it up.”
Or something like that!
I used to dislike the Whigs but in my years of loneliness I have come to the conclusion that they governed England better than anybody else. They thought out their measures carefully and adapted them to their times and generation. They were not heroic but they were wise. In modern days we see much heroism but little wisdom.
Archibald Primrose
Apologies! I was out and about and didn’t notice this didn’t post this morning.
photog
Colter has cancelled his concert schedule because of mental health concerns. I wish him a swift recovery. But maybe it’s just the nature of music touring that it messes with a man’s head. So I hope he does what’s right for him. And thanks for all the music.
There are two supreme pleasures in life. One is ideal, the other real. The ideal is when a man receives the seals of office from the hands of his Sovereign. The real pleasure comes when he hands them back.
Archibald Primrose
Both the mountain gorilla of Africa and the orangutan of Southeast Asia are critically endangered in their native areas. The gorilla in particular are down to about a thousand creatures. And the primary reason for this is that humans in their ranges are extremely poor and look on these creatures as “bush meat.” The conservation societies have done quite a bit to encourage eco-tourism to produce funds to increase the law enforcement to protect these primates from the locals. But there are many risk factors that end up adding to the cumulative mortality of these animals. The pet trade steals young apes for rich collectors and there are various markets for body parts (heads, hands and feet) of the great apes.
Now, these two species are far from unique in the conservation problems faced by rare animals. Rhinos, elephants and other megafauna are in danger of disappearing from Africa and Asia along with the mountain gorilla and orangutan. But I think there is an extenuating circumstance for making them a special case. Namely, they are remarkably close to the human family. Now the chimpanzee is actually closer. They really are a close cousin. But there are a lot more chimpanzees in the wild than either of these two species. Also, I dislike chimpanzees. They’re too much like humans. The level of aggression they demonstrate makes them far from an attractive target for my crusade. I think the personalities of the mountain gorilla and the orangutan make them a much more sympathetic and interesting subject for my project.
In a nutshell I propose that two small Hawaiian Islands be made into a permanent refuge for each of these species. Now I will confess I haven’t really worked out any of the logistics. Are there two islands big enough to support a large colony of each of these species? Does the US government have sole jurisdiction over any of these smaller islands? So right now, this idea is a pipe dream.
But I think if it can be organized, it would provide an enormous service for humanity. The extinction of either of these species would be a terrible waste of biological knowledge about species that are important relatives of humans. Even from the point of view of medicine and biological science they are priceless resources that shouldn’t be allowed to go extinct just because they currently live in third-world hellholes. Even from the point of view of neurological research, having two other primates so closely related to humans is something that in the future will provide enormous insights into the evolution of our brains.
And going along with the idea of eco-tourism, millions of people would pay good money to view these apes in an environment that doesn’t expose themselves to the dangers of entering the third world areas where these two species are native.
But from a non-utilitarian perspective, these are magnificent creatures that are fascinating for humans to observe and learn from. And I’ll bet if they were brought into a safe environment like Hawaii, I think they would start exhibiting behavior characterized by lower levels of stress. Aloha fellow Hominidae.
Feel free to comment with your own jokes.
I took this shot at the Pensacola Mardi Gras. Not sure what to think or say about it other than to note I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t do that unless possessed by demons and maybe not even then.