Wednesday, December 4, 2019

574 - Ground Trip Flight, Only The Heroes Can Save Us But F- Them, and "Gattica 2: Genetic Boogaloo"

[11:58 AM]  Mr. Blue: 
I find it hard to believe this sucker flew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus
[12:10 PM] 
Plummetus Icarus
"Most fossil examples are found in shattered collections of bones at the bottom of cliffs."
[12:11 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
heh
So they think it leaped off cliffs and soared in updrafts or whatever, but how'd it get to the top of cliffs?
Walked?
Was there a ski lift?
I don't know how something that is possibly 400+ pounds gets off the ground without propulsion of some kind
[12:15 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 
Looks like it could walk or climb
[12:15 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
Yeah it could walk on all 4s
But... walk through woods or jungle and up a mountain or cliff just to jump off?
[12:20 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 
Jump and flap
[12:22 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
it'd have to get a really fast running start from the ground, like an airplane taking off to get lift, or it just did not fly
That's just my absolutely unfounded and uneducated opinion
[12:23 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 
That would mean it was in a middle evolutionary stage
like it did fly, but then grew bigger. Still has the wings but walked around, maybe swam
[12:23 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
Like an ostrich
[12:24 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 
Yeah
[12:25 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
i don't think peacocks fly very well either
[12:27 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
maybe it was just like a crane or heron and just kept getting bigger and bigger
and there is a bias for larger specimens in terms of archaeology since smaller ones aren't as likely to last.. doesn't mean they were big all the time, maybe just for a brief period but those are the specimens that were more likely to survive so that's what we're finding now
That's why people think dinosaurs were all huge but most were small
[12:28 PM] 
We'll find out it was aquatic and moved around like a Manta ray
[12:28 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
heh
[12:28 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 
I was thinking aquatic
diving bird
[12:29 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
it's just hard to believe.. 400 lbs.?
ostriches weigh 250 and can't fly for shit
emus are 80 lbs. and can't fly
they used to be able to.. but lost that ability the larger they got
although there are also flightless birds that are tiny
Like the kiwi
That reminds me that Australia fought a war against emu.. and *lost* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War



[1:13 PM] 
Chinese movie - Last night's feature was either "A Chinese Tall Story" or "A Journey to the West" depending on if you are looking at the box, the menu or the credits.
[1:13 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
heh
[1:16 PM] 
Probably the most bonkers film I own that I really enjoy.
Saw the trailer play about 300 times during a gaming convention across the aisle and had to have it.
Hadn't gotten it off the shelf in ages.  neither Mrs. Silver nor Silver Junior had seen it. 
"Its weird.  It's so weird that I have included this sheet of notes I wrote for Ed Burkert to explain some of what the heck is happening...which I'll now read."
It has theology.
It has philosophy.
it has fantasy.
It has sci-fi
It has action, magic, monsters, spoofs, anachronisms, joy, pain, comedy, tragedy...
It can be completely realistic and outrageously over the top
So...if either of you wanna borrow it.
I was going to bring the DVD in but was too distracted over lunch.
[1:51 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
Sounds interesting
do you remember what that older sci fi movie was you lent to me once?
it was *like* Flash Gordon but worse
[1:52 PM] 
Yes.  Need it? 
[1:53 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
No i just couldn't remember the title
[1:54 PM] 
Chiefly a fave for the Earth really wanting the ragtag heroes to save the world yet refusing to help them do it. 
[1:57 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
ahh
[1:57 PM] 
"We're going to need this."  
"No!  Save us all without it!  Screw you!"
"Well, we have to have this."  
"You're our only hope but to Hell with you!"



[2:17 PM] 
So..."Bell"
Over lunch we got to "What do you want for dinner?" 
Silver Junior "I'd say but you'd say no." 
Mrs. Silver "Taco Bell?"
"No"
"Wendy's Bell?"
"What?  no."
Mrs. "McDonald's Bell?"
"No!"
"Long John's Bell?"
Mrs. "KFC Bell?"
What?!?"
This went on til I came back to work.
Sushi Bell sounded good to me though
[2:37 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
(Case #) Speaking of bells
Not that interesting but came in right when you started discussing bells
[3:04 PM] 
"Well we have A bell.  We picked up a surplus one from Notre Dame.  It's about 10' tall and weighs 1000 pounds.  How's Tuesday for that?"
[3:04 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
heh
"comes with an ugly guy to ring it for you"
[3:05 PM] 
heh
"Real conversation piece!"
"He's deaf...we just attach electrodes to him.  He loves abuse."
[3:06 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
reminds me.. the movie 1492 w/ Gerard Diepardieu as Columbus is underrated
That reminded me of the scene where they're hoisting the bell into the new church
[3:06 PM] 
Portrayed him as the ignorant violent bastard he was?
[3:06 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
Well many complained it sugar-coated it or made him seem more capable and more forgiving than he was
but i didn't see that
[3:07 PM] 
Guess that means he was much worse than you'd even imagined



[3:09 PM] 
Last topic!  Forgotten from yesterday...lunch walk stuff.  "So if I was to do a script for Gattica 2..."
"Would I make it about Jerome's genetic issues leading to the ruin and destruction of the space program?  Or them finding out almost immediately that he was defective the moment anything unprepared for went wrong, and the rest of the film is him trying to evade capture and his rendering in the bio-support vats?"
[3:16 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
I only vaguely remember the plot
[3:18 PM] 
Parents had a natural instead of genetically controlled child. 
[3:19 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
Ah yeah, he was 'flawed' by future standards and wanted in a space program, so he swapped profiles with a eugenic guy that was disabled in an accident
Progress of society, that makes you a second class citizen...liability.  Not permitted to do anything advanced.  Became a janitor despite his brilliant mind.
[3:20 PM] 
And he left genetic clues at work by mistake and the police were trying to figure out who it was...and he was right in the middle, using his dodges
And the hero of all us blobs of inferiority manages to beat The Man and got his ticket to space. 
The End
So
Gattica 2
It either goes one of two ways

1. They trust him completely because he got through, and one day he loses his last pair of contact lenses and can barely see and F's something up.
2. He couldn't bring enough (any?) supply of pee and blood with him and he fails a test and they recycle him because his genes are garbage.

I like option one because it'd be fun to see a quadrillion dollar program and thousands of lives lost so he could have his dream.
[3:29 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
One big flaw i recall was Ethan Hawke himself
He has not-perfect teeth. That'd be a dead give-away
[3:32 PM] 
"Jerome.  We did a facial structure analysis and realized no parent would make...that..."
If they went with the (Swedish?) imposed genetic evolution model, the giveaway would be that he was taller than 2'.
[3:40 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
heh
[3:40 PM] 
I still have that article somewhere
[3:40 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
If they did a Gattica 2 they'd need to cast Elizabeth Debicki
[3:41 PM] 
We're too successful biologically...we keep getting bigger
Meanwhile needing more resources. 
[3:41 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
I think if it were parent-designed eugenics and not like, government or society mandated, we'd just keep getting taller.
Nobody would want their kid to be even 'average' height - they'd just keep tacking on inches
[3:42 PM] 
But with a program to do it, humans could be bred down to about that size and retain full intelligence and potential for more.
And a standard roasting chicken could feed about 200 people
(Looks up Elizabeth...)
[3:43 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
She was in GotG 2
She was the gold lady
She's 6'3" too
[3:44 PM] 
She doesn't look real
Not Tilda Swinton not real
Not Linda Hunt not real
But not-a-native-of-this-earth not real
[3:44 PM]  Mr. Blue: 
She looks like one of those CGI composites like "this is what the average woman in Denmark looks like"
I think we decided that I have a thing for tall girls because it's my genes trying to auto-correct themselves
[3:45 PM] 
Taylor Swift was going with an uncannily smooth and symmetric thing for a while, but this is...more.
I think you have a thing for tall girls...and short girls...and elfin girls...and female lady woman girls...
Because you are male, and you don't have one.
Biology...bah

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