Amentep

Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Pretty good. A bit more lively since they got the explanations out of the way. People upset about stuff being added or subtracted will find more here to dislike, but I can divorce myself from the books. The Curse of the Black Parrot (1941) - interesting who-dunnit (and a bit how'd they do it) involving an art forger and a fake (or is it?) cabinet, and some international intrigue. Good use of makeup to hide the villain and an interesting central mystery. A bit stage-bound feeling (which isn't surprising, given that its based on a stage play) Logan's Run (1976) - An interesting 70s sci-fi film that stuffs up the ending (the logic of it falls to pieces, alas) but is otherwise pretty darn good. Also made back in the day when non sexual nudity was still allowed in a PG film (although there was more shot in the "love shop" which got hacked to bits to keep the PG rating and it shows as the sequence doesn't make a lot of sense). Whispering Ghosts (1942) - Milton Berle is miscast as a radio star/mystery solver forced to go to the scene of an old crime to solve a long unsolved murder. And while often in watching old movies you have to be able to accept that there were some unpleasant/repugnant attitudes of the time, here Berle's acerbic delivery combined with the period's treatment of minorities leads to a pretty unfortunate and unwatchable relationship between Berle and his assistant, played by Willie Best. 47 Ronin (2013) - A weird mixed up story; part historical story and part utter fantasy version of the tale of the 47 Ronin. You can tell that Keanu Reeves (somewhat moronic) romance plot exists primarily to try and make the film appeal to western audiences where the tale of samurai remaining true to their duty to their master despite his death (and the likelihood of their own death). It wasn't a bad film - the villains are quite hiss-able, but I can't help but feel there was a better film in here. The Phantom of Crestwood (1932) - A woman who has been "friendly" with several business men decides its time to "retire" from the life of entertaining; to do so she decides to blackmail three men - including banker Priam Andes - at a gathering at a ritzy ranch home of the Andes family. Also there are Priam's sister, his son and his son's fiance - who happens to be the blackmailer's sister. Also there are the blackmailer's maid, the blackmailed men's wives and a mysterious guest who seems to have an interest in the blackmailer. Pretty good who dunnit that plays pretty fair with the clues and manages to be interesting throughout.

I think Tom Laughlin had a response you could have considered

We also lost Joan Fontaine and Tom Laughlin this weekend.

Tale is right - the Kickstarter was a free-to-play iOS / Android game and they wanted $450,000 for meeting their limit. I believe they were partnered on this with Jet Set Games. It was cancelled.

It wouldn't surprise me. I mean, I doubt any garage band that happens to cover a song in a bar has licensed said song. It might depend on if they record the song and look to sell it, compared to just covering a song during a live show. Technically, if you perform it you're supposed to pay the rights. How often ASCAP et al get out to the local dive to check if the performer is covering the Big Bopper is an unknown. The thing about publishing something, though, is it become a big stationary target. A local University library got into a big fair use lawsuit that lasted quite a few years over how much they could post for educational purposes to their website and still be within Fair Use.

I've actually seen Zardoz several times... ...doesn't seem to have hurt me beyond my penchant for dressing in a red diaper with black go-go boots on.

You have to admit, it is the most poignant and thought-provoking movie to ever feature Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, a giant floating stone head and a Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver.

Hmmm, the computer/console might be a better analogue to the guitar. The game is probably the song. Though bands certainly cover other songs a lot. If a cover band becomes big, do they owe anything to the original artist? I've always wondered that. If the music is in copyright, then they're supposed to be licensing the rights to the songs (this would cover cover bands and tribute bands and possibly Elvis impersonators who do song performances of Elvis' songs but not parody bands who are doing original parody songs, obviously).

Or if you take a random book off the shelf, tear out the pages and rearrange them into Finnegan's Wake you're not a writer. Each play through is still using the creations of other people - just as MST3k uses the same to create their RiffTrax and such. A guitar is an instrument. But if you use that guitar to cover "Stairway to Heaven", record and publish it I guarantee you'll be hearing from some lawyers.

"Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge. Wink wink. Say no more!"

Er... I don't think we're disagreeing. Perhaps I wasn't clear. To clarify my two paragraphs I submit the following two: It makes no sense to protect an endangered species at the expense of stopping a solution to a problem that will, in the end, kill the endangered species just as surely as damaging their habitat and kill a whole lot more besides. While the best solution is one that would, ideally, allow the endangered species to survive AND build the viable energy alternatives, if that solution doesn't exist...well Spock was right, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

It might seems a short sited view in some respects to preserve an endangered species current habitat when radical climate shift would probably decimate its habitat just as much as a bulldozer (as ecologically fragile creatures wouldn't stand global warming if it is really "a thing"). On the other hand, the best solution would be one that preserves the habitats and reduces the carbon emissions I guess. I worry, though, that those best solutions are going to be at best limited and at worst impossible.

Robots will take care of old people But who will take care of the robots? WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE ROBOTS? Your also impose death and suffering on your children. And why should they care about your "wisdom"? "I had to face my fear...that was more important than just going on living...a tear, Sarah Jane? No, don't cry. While there's life, there's..." It would be more logical to clone yourself. If he can't clone his own memory and experience, then we're back at your first complaint that he's imposing death and suffering and wisdom (not sure how those all correlate together, but I'll roll with it) on a "blank slate" entity so not really a good answer under those parameters. His best option is to be immortal and thus be ever able and eternally available to have plonkers hit him up for wisdom whenever they want at his guru mountain or something...

The George Pal 1953 THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. I love the sound effects for the martial heat ray and atom splitting ray. Oh and the rest of the film is pretty good to (if you like 50s Sci-Fi).

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I was told (so it's likely to be wrong) the arguement is that LP's generally fall under Commentary, Satire and Review, which would be fair use. EDIT: It's a ridiculously bad idea to mess with Let's Plays anyway, since 90% of my game purchases are based on "I saw an LP of a game that looked fun" and I'm not the only one (for example, the only reason Amnesia was remotely successful is because there were a lot of videos of people getting their pants scared off on YouTube). Technically, fair use covers excerpting certain elements of a work in order to comment about it. The late Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel could use clips of movies in their review show to give context to their review, but they couldn't show you the movie on tv commenting on it the whole time without having arranged to broadcast the movie. Similarly shows that did provide commentary (MST3K, for example) did so on public domain movies or else with the rights holder permissions to broadcast the copyright work. I'm a bit curious if people who made "Let's play" videos would be okay with someone capturing them all off YouTube and putting them on their own website? Would it matter if the creator was credited? Would it matter if the "someone" was making money off people going to their website (off the videos others made)?

Arguably radio created a model for sampling music from an album before buying an album.

As someone related to a schizophrenic I have to say your post is extremely ill-educated. Instead of making a point with no substance maybe you can elaborate a little more? At a guess, I'd say he's objecting to the characterization of a schizophrenic as someone who is liable to flip out and attack people at a moments notice. While in my understanding of schizophrenia I would say it is true that there are paranoid type classifications in schizophrenia and that it is possible for people suffering from paranoid delusions of persecution or outside control to want to lash out at others, the data as I recall shows a schizophrenic is - in general - much more likely to kill themselves than attack others.

Things I did today: Got backers badge after navigating the backers portal. Huzzah!

So...the answer to a kid whose "family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences" is to...give him no consequences for his behavior?

Hopefully it'll hit later - I imagine they'll want to promote it a bit before launching. That said I have yet to dislike an Obsidian game so I'd probably support a new kickstarter unless it, you know, sounded terrible or something.

Since the developers said they were only developing PE for the computer...well I'd say they did consider it and rejected the idea. That doesn't mean that, if PE is a computer success they won't go back and try to find a way to expand out to other user-bases, but it doesn't seem to me that - based on their statements - they have any interest in doing it right now and with the money from the Kickstarter.

This is the issue I was having. Thanks. I've sent an email cancelling my help request (I hope). How embarrassing the answer was so simple!

Its a good one, IMO, with some effectively creepy moments.

Nice, there can't be a few things more frustrating than a long trip to and from work Particularly when the drive - excluding "traffic" should only take 40 minutes...

No repercussions other than having to live with a fetus in her womb for nine months, deliver the baby and incur any medical costs related to same, plus financially and emotionally support the child for 18+ years compared to the guy having - at minimum - financially supporting the child for 18-21 years. Seems an unusually broad (pun not intended) definition of "no repercussions". Both parties get screwed, in several respects, in this scenario. That said, you'd have a hard time proving intent in a case like this without the "condom buster" more or less admitting to it (or the busted-on-party creepily keeping each used condom 'just in case').