ewilen

Yup. Liking or hating M7 isn't a measure of your intelligence. Liking or hating M7 isn't a measure of your social conscience. Etcetera. Personally, I found the first 8 or 9 episodes to be somewhat repetitious and unfocused, but the storyline did become more interesting after that. Some of the characters are annoying or goofy, but you don't necessarily have to like them or idolize them to enjoy the show. In fact, I'd say that being annoyed by Basara is a perfectly normal reaction shared by many of the other characters, yet after a while his quirks grew on me or at least became more tolerable. As for the way the plot is handled, I agree that there are a lot of elements which would be offensive to grim & gritty hard SF sensibilities. However, if you enjoy lighter anime such as Lupin III or Ranma 1/2, it's not too difficult to suspend disbelief and "get into" the fictional version of reality in M7. Overall, if I were to rank various anime for grittiness/seriousness/hard SF-ness, I'd have something like this: Grave of the Fireflies Wings of Honneamise Ghost in the Shell Macross Plus DYRL Akira/Macross Zero Nausicaa/SDF Macross/Kiki's Delivery Service Lupin III (TV) Macross 7/My Neighbor Totoro/Kimagure Orange Road Ranma 1/2 Sailor Moon Urusei Yatsura Seeing as I'm a fan of the bottom three titles on that list, M7 is well within my tolerance. (Actually, it should be a 2-dimensional graph with grittiness/maturity on one axis and believability/realism on the other, but I've collapsed it for the sake of simplicity.) I'd put Star Wars (taken as a whole) somewhere in the middle of the scale, near SDF Macross. Star Trek would be a notch or two higher, although I think the esthetic quality of Star Trek has degraded even more than Star Wars over the years, if that's possible.

Wait.. wait.. human responibility with something with that much destructive potential? ....growing past war? Haha..... HahahHAh.. Ahah. AHaHAHahaHAHAHAH!!! ....sorry, the cynic in me never sees THAT happening. So many ways to go on this... If antimatter bombs were small enough to fit in your pocket, maybe we'd see an end to war, on the theory that "an armed society is a polite society". Personally, I doubt it, but you never know. We certainly haven't seen a direct war between nuclear powers. Or consider that, with limitless energy at our disposal, the superpowers will have little reason to get caught up in tribal and religious conflicts in resource-rich parts of the world. On the other hand, there's always some bottleneck in the means of production, so competition might simply move on to other areas.

In a word, no. The reasons people have offered for not liking M7 make perfect sense to me, and the list put up by bsu legato does do a pretty good job of pointing out some of the sillier rationales that M7 fans have used to put down M7-dislikers. But I can't agree with your post at all.

Only if they drive them the same amount as they would drive a regular car. And there are some SUVs (generally the car-based ones) that get decent mileage. I'm not personally a fan of SUVs (or the rules that favor the gas-guzzlers among them), but those are caveats worth mentioning, IMO.

I used this: http://www.nifty.com/globalgate/?top4

Technology is speeding up. And the issue facing us in the future isn't fuel, but energy sources and energy efficiency. Fuel-cell powered vehicles, for example, still have to get their energy from the same sources we use to light our homes--it's just that they use it very efficiently (and cleanly). As I wrote above, antimatter is so hard to produce that (barring a really far-out breakthrough) it's going to be a net energy sink, not a producer. But it might provide a way to store energy in very small packages, which would make space travel easier even if we never manage to turn antimatter into an energy source.

The only Macross PS2 game is the one that was released in Japan. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=6546

I agree that Macross (SDF and DYRL) did the best job of avoiding the GFRF. M+ avoids it as well to an extent, since it does show Isamu fighting Zentradi (at least in the OAV). As for M7, yes, the basic idea of transforming valks requires some more suspension of disbelief. It can be explained, I think, by a couple points. First, the colonization fleets had no idea what they might be facing. At least in DYRL, it is stated that the galaxy is dotted with Zentradi and Meltrandi battlefleets. In the SDF Macross continuity, regardless of whether the bulk of Zentradi forces were wiped out in SW1, it's known that the Supervision Army is still out there, and it consists at least partly of Zentran-sized giants. Second, as we've discussed a couple times in the past, there may be tactical benefits of variable fighters which were only discovered after they were developed. This may be a bit of a stretch, but it's not much worse than the notion that you would really need a giant robot to fight a giant humanoid. (Essentially the same point applies to M0, which has as one of its premises the notion that the VF's are fundamentally superior to normal fighters.) Second, about the customization, I think you've made the point quite well--the boobs and faces and crazy paint jobs are just what you get when you hand a hot jet to a teenage rock 'n roller. Not sure about the speakers/sound in space issue--at least up to the point I've watched, Basara always shoots speaker pods into the enemy ships and transmits his music through them, except when he's inside City Seven.

??? I mean I thought they were hardcore dorks before, but they have a good sense of humor about it, so I don't think its as bad. I don't know what I thought about them before, but I agree with A1 here. Most of the people in the video seem to know that they're doing something goofy and they're just having a good time with it.

Try these, maybe... http://robotjapan.proboards12.com/ http://www.waist-joint.com/list.php?f=1 http://www.zincpanic.com/ (Not entirely sure about that last one.) Also the forums at toyboxdx.

An antimatter bomb is primarily useful as a terror weapon if it's used on Earth, due to the potentially small size and enormous but indiscriminate destructive power. It might have some limited military applications, which I'll get to later. I wonder how efficient it is to use antimatter either as a weapon or as a fuel. Antimatter isn't readily available in nature--it needs to be created. A perfectly efficient process would convert the mass-energy of one proton into one antiproton; this could then be used to annihilate a proton, yielding the energy of two protons. However, we are very, very, very far from that level of efficiency. For one thing, some of what I've read suggests that we do not have a way of converting energy directly into antiparticles. I.e., to create an antiproton, we use a process that actually creates a proton-antiproton pair. Such a process can't possibly yield more energy than is put into it. Because of the enormous inefficiencies of creating antimatter, the primary benefit it offers is energy density, or the yield of energy per unit mass that goes into the reaction. An antimatter bomb could theoretically be tiny. A spaceship which uses a matter-antimatter reaction for power could go farther/faster while carrying less fuel and reaction mass than a chemical rocket, or a fission or fusion-powered ship. It's a bit inaccurate to say that an antimatter bomb would produce less radiation than a nuke. It would produce an enormous amout of radiation in the form of gamma rays. But it would produce little or no long-lived radioactive isotopes. So it could be used to attack deeply-buried, hardened targets like missile silos and command bunkers, and while the blast might cause significant collateral damage and casualties, there wouldn't be much in the way of fallout. This has been an objection to the current plans for "burrowing nukes"--such nukes would almost certainly cause fallout. It is also possible that a fusion reaction could be triggered by a small amount of antimatter, resulting in a large explosion with little or no fallout. But aside from that very limited application, it's very hard to imagine a scenario where a antimatter bomb is significantly more useful than a nuke. Once you start frying cities and killing millions of people, if your opponent has "old-fashioned" nukes, he's not likely to be restrained by the fact he's going to cause fallout when he hits you back. Perhaps, if either a pure antimatter bomb or an antimatter/fusion bomb could be made cost-effective relative to an "old fashioned" nuke, it would be useful in space warfare. That's about it.

First I've heard that tidbit. Can anyone confirm this and/or provide a source?

Probably Czech, not Russian, but great stuff in any case. Neat find, Shin! Wondering...why is it, when practically the whole world is putting canards on their newest fighters, the US doesn't have them on the Super Hornet, Raptor, or JSF? Are canards completely incompatible with stealth, or is there some other reason?

Hey, it's great that the Macross DVD's are showing up at Blockbusters. Anyway, the reason a lot of mecha are the same in Macross and in Battletech is because FASA borrowed the designs. You can find info if you search around; one link is http://brianscache.com/unseen/

The full-length episodes were somewhat different. They fleshed out the setting and each episode was sort of like a cross between the X-files, The Naked Lunch, and a Johnny Depp movie. A vague continuity was suggested, but it was impossible (for me) to figure out which episode preceded and which followed. Cronenberg would have been a great choice to direct; hopefully this director won't screw it up. One of the worst things they could do in the movie would be to actually try to explain everything.

I've been recording Venture Bros. but I haven't bothered to watch it yet. Thanks for the suggestion. Haterist--a DVR can be a blessing or a curse. Yes, if there's too much stuff you want to watch, you'll end up wasting your life. On the other hand, it can theoretically get you in the habit of treating TV like books or movie rentals--you can be more discriminating instead of just taking whatever the broadcasters shove at you. Since you're not forced to watch a show when it comes on, you can put it off, and then if you really weren't that committed to it, you might end up not watching it at all. If you're in the habit of filling dead time with TV (e.g., if you like to have the tube on during breakfast), you can watch something you're actually interested in, instead of Good Morning America or whatever. Plus you can skip commercials, pause, and move around in the show. (The latter may be a bit of a time waster--I tend to go back again and again trying to hear mumbled dialogue, then I turn on closed captions if that doesn't work. If I was watching live, I'd forget about it and move on.)

Loved the original Aeon Flux shorts, loved the longer Aeon Flux episodes, thoroughly enjoyed Reign. The only thing that disappointed me was Aeon Flux: The Herodotus File, a graphic novel which I think P. Chung wasn't directly involved in. I don't think I've seen any of Charlize Theron's movies but having seen her interviewed, as well as clips from Monster, I at least respect her (certainly more than Jolie). Compared with Tomb Raider--better source material + better actress = a slightly lower probability that it will be awful. Let's see what else it has going for it... Trevor will be played by Marton Csokas, who was Celeborn in LotR. I don't remember him in the role. The writing team was also responsible for The Tuxedo and some other movies. Didn't see any of them. The director's only previous directing credit at IMdB is Girlfight (writer/director), which was quite well received critically. Overall, I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'll keep an eye out for this one.

Shawn should put that on the front page for a few days.

It's too bad to hear they had a falling out. Maybe they've reconciled somewhat--while searching for more info, I found that Fox Movie Channel aired a retrospective in which both men participated. Though I can't tell if they actually were in the same room at any point. http://www.thefoxmoviechannel.com/month/beast/index.asp

ewilen. I can stream it to you via my Tivo. Check your PM. As for Sex and that City on TBS. Are you insane!?! It's mangled beyond recognition in order to conform to broadcast standards. H Late Edit: Oh, it's not really a Tivo. It's a custom built Tivo-like DVR. Thanks, I'll check it out...but I'll probably catch it in rerun eventually. Sex and the City...never saw it on HBO, so I don't know what I'm missing aside from the dirty words. I guess this is similar to my experience with "Dream On". Maybe I'll try renting SatC, if I can, just to see what the R version is like.

Ah, so the VAL is in the Summer '04 issue. Anyone know about the manga?

History of the World, Part I was funny. Very funny. I remembered the Producers as being funny, but when I rewatched it recently, I found it horribly dated. Are they thinking of taking the stage version and making a new movie?

I loved Homicide for the first few seasons, but the last season+ blew. I'm originally from Baltimore, BTW. (Well, just outside the city.) Don't get HBO so no Wire. What I watch regularly, at least during the regular season: Father of the Pride--pretty good so far. I'm impressed that Siegfried and Roy are okay with the parody. The Simpsons--still chugging along King of the Hill--remains enjoyable Malcolm in the Middle--ditto The Daily Show--always has fresh material Sex and the City--missed the original run, quickly became a favorite on TBS Smallville--missed the season premiere, dammit; cheesy but entertaining, and the Luthors are fun to watch Home Movies--many of the crew from Dr. Katz make this a great one IMO South Park--no signs of stopping Sealab 2021--hurray for late-nite creative freedom Aqua Teen Hunger Force (sometimes, probably less than I should)--ditto Iron Chef--not so much anymore--maybe I've seen all of them?) MXC--good times The McLaughlin Group--most entertaining political talking head show Things I Hate About You--if you have a mate, it's good because you can (a) look at each other knowingly (b) feel relieved that you're not as annoying as these couples (hopefully). Boy, that's a lot of TV. Luckily, I have a DVR, so I can watch when I feel like it and skip the commercials.

Yes, that's the point I've been struggling to articulate. What do blue, gold-trimmed books have to do with a cartoon about transforming robots and giant aliens? The books just look like somebody is trying to reproduce...oh, just had a lightbulb moment...the Masterpiece Theater opening, only it says "Robotech" instead of Vanity Fair on the spine of the leatherbound book. Bah. Goofy. I think the Banpresto boxes are a superior approach, if you want to "get creative" with a box. Not that it couldn't be done even better.

Thanks! It looks like somebody took the Character model drawings and inked them. I wonder where the text comes from, (or if it's just made up). http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/magazi...2004-page-5.jpg