Comments on: Book review: Memories of the Future

By: Blurring the lines: Virtual human research promises real-world impacts | Lascher at Large

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:57:44 +0000

[...] just behind the glass wall of the tiny reception area. A gray replica of a transporter from the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series hangs from the room’s ceiling, making the wait for an appointment seem more [...]

By: ballookey

ballookey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:24:34 +0000

I bought this book based on this blog entry, and it IS hilarious, but I have to say I’m a bit disappointed that Wil doesn’t seem to have anything nice to say about his female co-workers except with regard to their primary sexual characteristics. The lone exception (so far – I’m not quite done with it) is to say he really like Majel Barrett and so he can’t objectively judge her acting.

He seems to fault Denise Crosby for her decision to quit – which frankly makes complete sense and anyone who had anything else going on or any self-respect ought to have at least seriously considered the same thing. I don’t know the story, but perhaps her quitting was needed to shine a light on how utterly blinkard the episodes were, and how shallow the characters were being written.

It’s especially ironic that on page 60 Wil objectifies women not just once, but twice in a single paragraph, while on page 61 he complains that most of the directors didn’t treat him as a human professional, just a bit of set decoration to move around.

Otherwise, the book IS hilarious and many of the comments that I’m complaining about are funny in and of themselves. Rowdy comments and boob jokes make the world go around. I only wish there was some professional respect shown. I really did enjoy the synopsises, especially where they called out how atrocious the plots and scenes were.

By: lagomorph

lagomorph — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:15:18 +0000

This is a great read. I do have a small pedantic nit to pick though Phil since I think this one’s probably your fault. It’s in your blog post and in Wil’s book, at least the PDF version. If you’re going to do the geeky ctrl^h^h^h^hbackspace thing at least get it right and show the correct number of ^hs.

By: Nes

Nes — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:35:26 +0000

ThePirateGuy@#21 is wondering if there’s a JREF Amazon link… I’m wondering if it’s on Amazon at all, as I can’t find it. (I did find Just a Geek.)

By: theinquisitor

theinquisitor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:32:58 +0000

Q was right, a dangerous savage child-race.

By: Jennifer B. Phillips

Jennifer B. Phillips — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:21:08 +0000

What do we say to mr Spinner? READ the FRAKING research, Brent!!! Quit listening to news pundits…

Unfortunately, Mr. Spiner seems parroting (or, I guess ‘tweeting’) the antivax equivalent of ‘teach the controversy’; to wit, he’s just encouraging people to ‘do the research’ and ‘educate themselves’. Just like ‘ttc’ sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do unless you know the intent behind all that openmindedness. Brent is (reportedly) turning to Dr. Jay Gordon for his vaccine ‘education’, which is a very bad sign indeed.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:46:05 +0000

Data was one of my fav. all time STNG characters. But it’s just a character. I expect Brent has the same problem as any other huumon, he’s really not Vulcan.

Do Pham. Corps sometimes try to cover their butts because, like all human endeavors, they’re susceptible to error? Well, DUH! That’s why the scientific method works as well as it does; to compensate for the very human propensity to lie, cheat, steal and cover our butts. It’s about transparency and the ability to replicate what someone else claims as fact(anyone remember the cold fusion debacle?).

OK! SO? What do we say to mr Spinner? READ the FRAKING research, Brent!!! Quit listening to news pundits(unless it’s Jon Stewart and/or Stephen Colbert).

As anyone should be able to figure out, pharmaceutical companies have a great deal more to gain by NOT producing/manufacturing vaccines than by just supplying the drugs to cure people after the fact, yet they keep trying to keep people healthy. Ya think they might be in cahoots with insurance companies(who also have a bottom line desire to keep people from getting sick)?

Arg! Paranoid folk are essential to keeping an eye on other people and their propensity to be merely human but they’re so darn illogical.

Oh well, back to the METHOD.

Gary 7