Monte Carlo

Hitler and Mussolini won 'elections.' So did Hugo Chavez. I love lefties - Right Wing dictators are beyond the pale, Left-Wing ones are 'popular' (like, er, Hitler in 1933). Chavez is muzzling the free press and abrogating property rights. It'll be the secret police next, and 'The disappeared.' Ask me? A dictator is a dictator is a dictator. Left, Right, whatever. Cheers MC

Seriously, it would be like Grenada. Take out the TV station, airport and presidential palace simultaneously at Zero Hour and the locals will be throwing bouquets at the LAVs.

Hey, I don't have a problem with intelligent drama, SF is a solid vehicle for that. Jericho was good, for example. What I don't get is the apparent necessity of US TV companies suddenly using ageing, cheesy IP like Galactica and 'V' to do it. Cheers MC

Can someone please tell me of a socialist government where this didn't happen? Chavez is obviously in his dictatorship of the proletariat phase and loving it. Unlike Eye-Wrack, this is a problem that could be solved with a couple of Marine expeditionary forces. Shame the new US Prez has Chavez on his Christmas card list. Cheers MC

The use of the capital 'D' in Democrat was intentional, but I think you missed the gag. Not to worry, it wasn't very good anyway I think we are due a slice of space opera, that's all, in these otherwise depressing times. 'V' was campy fun, but the remake looks like it's going to be portentous and dull. It's like setting South Pacfic in Hlemand Province with B-52's raining 500 pounders down on the chorus line. The heroine (feisty 21st century single mother / FBI agent) says something about devotion being the most potent weapon... yawn. Cheers MC

What did Lenin do? He lined the ball up. Stalin simply kicked it in the back of the net. Why did the Germans smuggle him back into Russia via the Finland Station? Altruism, or because they knew he was the political equivalent of Ebola?

So, basically, the Visitors are Democrats, right?

Ho-hum, watched the trailer. It has high-production values and an air of ponderous self-importance, as if it's trying to say something profound. 'V' is about lizard-aliens wearing prosthetics in an attempt to harvest humans for lunch. Of course, on the Internet, this is actually touted as a realistic scenario to explain world politics, but to me that trailer just looked too serious. Cheers MC

Diana eating a hamster was a seminal moment in TV sci-fi mini-series history. Even my mother, who utterly hates sci-fi, loved 'V'. However, I am bored of re-makes, although de-cheezing Battlestar Galactica was fine. But 'V'? T'would be refreshing if the folks making it had a production meeting where they decided to make 'V' even cheesier than the original. They should make it camper than Liberace's dressing gown. BTW, anybody else heard about the Magnum P.I. movie? Seems to have dropped off the radar. Cheers MC

You really should watch it. It's full of DArk HERoiC FanTASy for starters, plus there is the Love Scene Honestly, it's like watching a formula one car careering of the track and exploding into a fiery ball of hi-grade petrol and burning, bloodied limbs. Cheers MC

Have sold ipod ban to office as interesting social experiment for a week to see what happens, a bit like the person in the opening post to this topic. Cheers MC

Have you tried to ban anything in the 21st century workplace? The sky would fall in. Life's too short to be an ass with people at work, I just have to try harder to get the job done without annoying people. I grew up with Walkman. We loved them and spent hours making up Our Favourite Tapes. Yet, for some reason, we never sat listening to them at work. Mainly because we'd be sacked. Therefore I am just wondering what happened, and at what point this social atrophy actually became acceptable. When I was 23 we talked amongst our peers at work. It was fun, we learnt stuff and hopefully became better people. The ipod addicts might want to ponder that. Cheers MC

No, it's bloody rude when people keep interrupting you every five minutes while you are trying to get some freakin' work done. There is a time and a place to socialize with coworkers and that is not at my desk when I'm in the middle of something else. You miss my point. I am in a position to ask these people to do things for me. Being an inordinately nice person I always ask politely, usually pointing out what I need done and asking their advice as and when necessary. Without putting too fine a point on it, these guys are effectively subordinate to me and in twenty years time will be in the same boat I am currently sat in. The brighter ones understand this and, ergo, do not sit there listening to Evanesence, very loudly, whilst I ask for certain tasks to be performed. So, is it too much to ask that I don't have to perform human semaphore / nudge them / etc to get their attention? These people are commonly known in management circles as 'Generation Y.' I am aware of their mores. I am not an ass. In fact, I understand the cultural memes and ironic T-shirts they enjoy more than any other Old Guy in the joint. This is why I EXPECT THEM NOT TO PLUG INTO AN ALTERNATIVE FRICKI' REALITY when I'm working with them. That is all. MC

Maybe the trailer is aimed as a shot across the bows of nay-sayers like us, the previously faithful hardcore who have fallen by the wayside. "Look at us!" it says, "we get it! We're with the cognoscenti* We're ironic and like Marilyn Manson! We can rip our own game a new one BECAUSE IT'S THAT COOL." Alternatively, they could just be really, really sad. Hey, LET'S MAKE THIS A NIGHT TO REMEMBER DHF fans! * I was one of the cognoscenti, circa 1987.

^ Nope, it's just bloody rude. I don't ignore them and do my Times crossword just because I'm twenty years older.

DA:O will be a commercial success, no doubt about it. Then again, The Sims is a commercial success. A commercial success is a laudable achievement, no matter how crass and brain-dead the product. OTOH, a critical commercial success is better. Hey-ho. I'm expecting DA:O to be campy, pretentious fun with a half-decent combat engine. Nothing more and nothing less. I fear, however, for the delicate souls of the Bioware fan forums though. They were hoping for a Jane Austen of CRPGs but are getting a penny dreadful. As somebody else might say, Ha! Good fun! Cheers MC

I'm itching to watch it again. It's so bad it's good. "Let's make this last night one to remember!" Go Dave, Go!

[grumble mode] These same (early - mid) twentysomethings can't drive more than half a mile without a Sat Nav swtiched on. They saw me the other day with a map book. From their stunned expressions I presume they thought I was going to get on a horse too. Alternatively, it could have been the facial piercings, but what do I know? [/grumble mode]

Where I work there are some twentysomethings. They have strange haircuts and turn up late for work, but apart from that are perfectly nice. However, they have one habit that I simply cannot abide and that is wearing MP3 players whilst sitting at their desks. They don't talk, they don't engage, they just sit at their screens listening to music and it's not even as if their jobs are boring. Why do they do it? when do they talk to their friends and colleagues? Cheers MC

Hey, there's nothing wrong with optimism, it's almost refreshing. I'm sure all Bio are trying to do is introduce new people to DaRK HeROic FAntAsY!!!

^ It looked like real footage to me, but I'd be quite happy if that lurve scene was a wind-up. It was excruciating.

Monty is clearly a shortened version of Montgomery and Carlo is latino / Italian for Charles. As for John / Jack.... think of President John F Kennedy, known to his friends, family and ten million girlfriends as Jack.

Who fancies a small wager that the console and PC titles will be released simultaneously?

Wow, that Geek-fuelled lurve scene just made me go blind. As someone else used to say, WHY, BIO, WHY?

I'm a bit of a Danny Finklestein fan, he runs a comment blog for the UK Times newspaper. Here he hat-tips Freakonomics on the subject of names... LINK Personally, although I find the new crop of kids' names amusing, what really REALLY annoys me is the adoption of shortened names on birth certificates. For example: Harry. Harry is enormously popular (due to, I suspect, JK Rowling as opposed to Shakespeare) but everyone under 40 forgets that it is a derivative of Henry. Do people christen or register their kid as Henry? No. Result? A real name with enormous cultural significance dies out. And I think that's sad. Ditto John (people christen their kids 'Jack' never realising that it's a derivative of John). And loads of other names. Anyway, what names are fashionable at the moment where you live? Cheers MC