From: pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu   
      
   J. Clarke  writes:   
      
   > On Sat, 19 Sep 2020 19:32:59 -0700, Dimensional Traveler   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >>On 9/19/2020 1:12 PM, Jack Bohn wrote:   
   >>> Wolffan wrote:   
   >>>> On 18 Sep 2020, Jack Bohn wrote   
   >>>> (in article<859729c5-c099-445a...@googlegroups.com>):   
   >>>>> TCM is showing two James Caan sf movies, "Rollerball" and "Countdown". (I   
   >>>>> suppose "Alien Nation" is too new to be a Classic Movie, or, more likely,   
   >>>>> they didn't buy the rights from Fox.)   
   >>>> Alien Nation has some pretty bad biology, even for Holyweird.   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>> I tend to think of them as comedy elements.  Particularly the   
   >>> dissolving in salt water -- is it possible for a planet to have a   
   >>> water cycle without large bodies eventually becoming salt?  The old   
   >>> joke line about if we get in a fight I will bleed all over you   
   >>> could be seen as a threat by Newcomers.   
   >>>   
   >>> Might as well slag "Rollerball," whille I'm off the subject.   
   >>> Criticizing violence in entertainment, or exploiting it? I could go   
   >>> either way, but there is also this scene where the jaded rich   
   >>> destroy trees to show how evil they are.  Many shots of this,   
   >>> which... don't look like special effects.  I'm guessing the   
   >>> director sees these as cases where it's alright for HIM to do it,   
   >>> but not others.   
   >>>   
   >>I don't think that scene was there to show the rich as "evil" per se,   
   >>just jaded and bored.  Getting drunk/stoned and blowing stuff up is   
   >>exciting for them.   
   >   
   > I had never heard of "Countdown" before.  I'm definitely going to give   
   > it a try.  I understand it shows a lunar landing with a modified   
   > Gemini.  That was a real plan at one time--Gemini-Agena flew, but NASA   
   > killed Gemini-Centaur--they saw it as a threat to Apollo.   
      
   There were a lot of proposals along the way that were floated more so   
   they could say they'd considered everything than because there was any   
   chance of it actually happening.  "Gemini to the moon" was one of them --   
   the only goals for the Gemni program were to investigate spacewalks and   
   docking at less cost than using Apollo capsules for the purpose.  It   
   wasn't killed off because it was a threat, it was killed off because   
   (like Mercury before it) it had accomplished its goals.   
      
   > NASA had a real problem with Centaur for some reason.  The Shuttle was   
   > designed to carry it in the payload bay, but never did, instead they   
   > used the vastly less capable "Interim upper stage" that later became   
   > the "Inertial Upper Stage" and further crippled an already crippled   
   > system.   
      
   You do know it's used as the upper stage in Atlas V some versions of the   
   Titan, right?  If I can believe Wikipedia, Shuttle-Centaur was cancelled   
   right after Challenger due to the risk of carrying it. I suspect the big   
   difference that led them to thinking the IUS wasn't as risky is that it   
   was solid fueled.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)