W_L

Gene Roddenberry was a drama writer with a science fiction genre basis, I have been viewing some of my favorite TV shows created by the legendary film creator. Most people remember Star Trek as his greatest work, I freely admit that I was influenced by its exploration of mankind and social commentary. There was another show, which was also just as good as Star Trek with marvelous stories and human introspective issues. Earth Final Conflict was originally conceived as the predecessor series to "V", which according to science fiction lore was actually ripped off by Gene Roddenberry's original pilot. In the late 90's-00's, this TV show ran for five seasons. The first season will always be my favorite pilot season of any TV show (You can find it on Youtube now, be my guess and see the story for yourself). After the 1st season, quality declined, until it went into hell during the 5th season. However, despite the worst episodes of the fifth seasons, there was one gem that I just found again on youtube. The episode was called "Subversions". A special thanks to Zombie for getting me to remember this episode due to our debate in the Soapbox about disunity.. (If you are reading my blog, watch part 5 and hear the quote of William Pitt mentioned at the end). At the root of science fiction is humanity, my favorite TV shows revolve around the debate about what is right and wrong and the problem facing mankind: (Can't connect all the videos) Link Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGBT3wlrgHo I will repeat the entire line from William Pitt, the younger: Power is dangerous in a democratic society, no matter whether what they do contains popular support or not. At issue is our humanity, whether popular tyranny should reign over reason. This TV show had great ideas, but very flawed execution without its original creator.

That's like saying paint drying is cool If Baseball is paint drying, Lacrosse would be paintball and I wished they could turn it into an Olympic sport., too bad Europeans don't enjoy it Matt, we got to get you into a more active sport with more hot sweaty guys. As for Olympics, I'll watch the gymnastic, wrestling, swimming, fencing, shooting, archery, and field hockey competitions. Matt, try out the field hockey competition, it might not have the jaw breaking of ice hockey, but it's not bad.

I think they meant philosophical and political corruption as in Socrates idea for people to reason out the actions of leaders and challenge ideas. They were screwing teenage boys several different ways during those days, so it's not that type of "corruption" Actually, I don't know, but for some reason I always imagined Socrates being the first modern gay man, sure he probably did have flings with boys like the others, but I think he might be the first in Greek society to push the envelope and develop long term relationships. However, it's just a feeling and it can't be proven as Socrates never wrote anything down. It was from Greek historians and Plato, who made references to his old master that we even know of his existence. If Plato was gay, it wouldn't surprise me as he never did like girls and he believed in the concept of same sex relationships as in modern contexts. If those ideals were imparted by Socrates, then it makes sense.

So that means Alexander was a bottom ! I wonder why no one mentioned Plato or Socrates? I think the charges of "corrupting youths" was trumped up if anything against Socrates and impiety charge was just false. He was a man of reason and a believer in wisdom through virtue, which politics and wealth corrupts in so many forms.

Is he really legal now!

Happy Bday J!

Just an FYI, in case no one knew this was going on: http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/08/technology/google-legalize-love/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2 Basically what they are going for is:

Ah, I was thinking of Jamie Murray, who won in the mixed Doubles of 2007 Wimbledon: Poor andy though, he needs a cheering up party.

One of the things I have been able to enjoy in the last few weeks was going to a underground Chinese website to watch a very well received, but now "banned Chinese Drama". It's English name is "Scarlet Heart". The story revolves around a modern girl transported back in time via soul migration to the past, Qing Dynasty China. She eventually falls in love with half the princes in the Imperial Palace as they all fought for the coveted role of Emperor, while knowing the final outcome of their struggle. She warned one of her lovers to help him prevent his own execution, but it turns out that her warning was the catalyst for what starts the entire feud for succession. In the end, she dies and revives incredibly regretful for interceding in the past, but her actions were implied to be a predestination paradox, basically it brings the entire plot down to the fact that "love is surrounded by consequence and fatal choice" Yes, I know at this point half of you will probably think, it's Game of Thrones and doesn't have the nuances of other time travel story, or it's just not something your interested in. I actually like the story line as it is probably the best incorporation of a conceptual belief that Chinese people hold: Universal causality. Basically, the girl goes back in time into an era, when women were playthings and servants were treated like crap (The Chinese practiced a form of servitude for the Royals, nobles, and the wealthy equivalent to indentured servitude, but with less legal rights). Her past life self was born from a noble family and she was sent into the royal court to become one of the waiting-girls for the Emperor. Waiting girls are the first step to becoming an imperial consort, i.e. the Emperor or one of his son's wives. The girl gets involved in a lot of court intrigued, including the infamous Chinese historical incident of the Yongzheng Emperor Succession, infamous as Chinese Historians have debated for over 100 years, whether the Yongzheng had in fact falsified the edict to assume to throne after his father's death, then systematically exiled or killed his other brothers. There were a lot of formal and informal executions in the series as a result of the bloody purges. The Chinese had several hundred ways of capital punishment and execution, which are different for different classes of people. Poison is the preferred way of noble death. "Slowing Cooking" is the way of treason against the state, it is what it sounds like, a giant iron pot filled with boiling water and a person stripped naked and placed in it to be cooked alive until they became nothing except bleached bone and a stew for the dogs.

Isn't that his older brother? I can't wait. Also, Andy has such an amazing story of adversity with his trick knee be disjointed.

I am starting to get interested in Tennis: Point, match, and set!

The Kid will probably look fine, but Y_B, you're turning into a cradle robber Sadly, I never get carded, I just look older I buck the Asian trend on aging and shoe sizes (I'm a size 11.5 to 12, most Asian guys I know max out at 10)

My thought too ! It does look like lot tower Personally it looks interesting and i like the sticking out part, i will say the phallic shape gives the city a few more inches. Wonder if Dan brown will notice. Lol

True, but it is great joke material. The original name from the stories was "the goddamn particle" due how hard it was to find them. Now here's a question for scientists, if there are higgs bosons that make mass are there anti-higgs bosons that reduces mass. It would make dieting and gravity manipulation so much easier.

Aye, but it was Italian physicists, not Cern. Still i want someone to break the light barrier too! Besides if you want a flying car, it needs to be a delorean with a flux capacitor

Great, now he just needs to convert you all

The most elusive force in the universe might have been discovered by scientists in Europe. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/04/tech/physics-higgs-particle/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 With this discovery, we might be one step closer to understanding the creation of mass in the universe.

Yup, haven't you seen an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air I knew as it was in the New York Times and pretty public that he was gay, but he kept it low in terms of tone.

Post it up, please ! As for Tet, give me a few weeks after the Novella, I'll make sure you get your college story.

I want his arms, his torso, his legs, and hell just him!

Well Spain won, as expected. Oh well, I'll just eat my Fettuccine with homemade spicy Alfredo sauce in sadness.

Happy Birthday Canada, I love your forests, maple syrup, and hot guys Long live the Maple leaf!

After being to Europe and comparing the train systems between Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium with the US, I do wonder why the US train travel is so lackluster for travel beyond 2-3 hours. I mean, technologically speaking, it's not like the US can't do the same things and not all the European trains were running on the high speed rails that we all hear about. They were standard rail systems with electric or diesel engines. I also get that the US is more dependent on automobiles and buses for transport, but it becomes such a hassle to get from one place to another if you can't drive like me and biking is not an option. Buses are becoming overburdened with passengers due to the lack of auto access as well, probably due to the problem of auto financing and the general economic recovery issues. Even with the problems of passenger loads and congestion, we're still running a really inefficient internal infrastructure. Then, there's the airplane, it's gotten better in the last 4 years, but the mode of transportation is also getting more limited. I used to visit my cousins in Flint, Michigan with a major carrier, US Airways, but the route got discontinued. So I have to pay for a small passenger plane that looks like it was made in the 1950's to get to their airport. It's crowded and holds probably 30-40 people with no room for luggage. Carry-on options are limited already as you travel on long trips, it just forces you to sit down and have a 30 lb roller on your lap. Travel in the US is very inefficient and costly, but it doesn't need to be that way. It's not a political issue, nor economic one (Europe has state owned rail systems, running efficiently + huge profits like DB in Germany made 1.3 Billion Euros alone in net profits, and the US used to have better operational efficiency in the past). I am just unsatisfied with how the transportation system within the US is operating.

Forgot about wrestling, but why can't they do Greco-Roman Wrestling style without the singlets for authenticity

This is really sad, if I were in his place and lost the love of my life, then basically had my love non-existent by his parents, I wouldn't know what I'd do. In many ways, I am a conservative, but I am also a forward thinker, who sees the problems of tomorrow. I was researching this stuff almost a year ago for my anthology story about the "locked-in" syndrome gay guy and the issues involving the legal rights of partners. There's nothing fictional about the issues as even distant family members have more power over a person than their partner of many years. In death, the issues are even worse as the family may take half of the shared assets of the two, basically devastating the surviving partner in a legal coup. As there is no legal recognition of marriage, shared accounts and mortgages could be treated as joint business venture between two people. If you don't set up wills, then your family can perform a "succession of interest" in the estate depending on state law. Guys, if you and your partner have not set up wills or talked about death/end of life issues, I highly recommend you do it.