Priceless! A new introduction for Firefly as a 80's show:
And here, Simon has his own 80's show:
It's all in the music and the graphics!
Oh, and here's an awesome video of Summer Glau training for the fight sequences in Serenty:
Some FormSpring Questions and Answers on personal preferences in art:
What is your favourite classic novel, outside of Rand?
It's hard to name one, so here's a few, in some rough order:
One of my favorite television miniseries is the HBO production, "From The Earth To the Moon". This series details the saga of the Apollo space program, with the goal (in President Kennedy's words) of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth".
Although I'm not a supporter of government-funded science for the same reasons Ayn Rand laid out in her essay "Apollo 11", like Rand I still marvel at this tremendous achievement which was a triumph of man's reason and courage.
Of the various episodes in the series my favorite is probably episode 5, "Spider".
"Spider" depicted the development of the Lunar Module (LEM) by Grumman Aircraft, led by engineer Tom Kelly. Kelly and his team solved engineering challenge after challenge through a combination of reason, ingenuity, creativity, intellectual integrity, and above all an utmost respect for the facts of reality. The episode is upbeat and nicely captures the joy of engineering.
The whole episode is superb and worth watching. But I was especially glad to find this short excerpt of the final 5 minutes on YouTube:
Kelly's musings about how each LEM has a "soul", consisting of the souls of all the men who built her, designed her, and dreamed about her was very reminiscent of Dagny Taggart's musings in Atlas Shrugged during the first run of the John Galt Line when she thought that the motors running her engines were alive -- operated by remote control by the souls and minds of the thinking men who designed them.
This excerpt also contains one of my favorite short pieces of television music, the "Eagle" theme by composer Mason Daring.
Daring's piece captures a uplifting combination of hope, yearning, solemnity, and pride in wanting to meet great challenges and overcome them.
The musical theme to the series (at the beginning and end of each episode) by Michael Kamen is also very nice:
(The video track just above is from a different television show, but the audio track is from the HBO series.)
I've always thought of these as wonderful musical concretizations of the optimistic American sense of life that was so widespread and normal just a few years ago.
So if you find yourself getting depressed over current events, just remember that many Americans still retain that marvelous implicit sense that life is good, happiness is desirable and attainable, and great achievements are possible to men. And as long as we still have that, this country still has a chance.
I haven't watched The Simpsons in years, but this Sunday's episode promises to be of interest, according to the description in TV Guide:
Sunday, May 10: The Simpsons (8pm): Oscar winner Jodie Foster lends her voice as Maggie, who portrays the girl-power protagonist from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.(Via Randex.) Read more...
Joss Whedon really got my attention with his wonderful but sadly shortlived TV series Firefly and its related movie Serenity. So when I found the premiere episode of his Dollhouse series on Hulu last night, I was eager to check it out.
Quick review: I'm intrigued. Excellent production, solid acting, short skirts. And most important, a sci-fi premise that will make you think about the nature of personal identity. What if you could copy aspects of people from a library of personas to create an amalgam in a host, tailored for some particular application? Need someone who flies helicopters and has a doctorate in neurobiology? Coming right up -- but you'd better hope that the amalgam is stable and that none of the donors' psychological quirks mess things up before the mission is completed and the host is wiped clean again.
Which brings us to the hosts, the agents used in these missions. What would be their motivation for undertaking such a lifestyle? Who would volunteer to become a vessel forever filled and emptied by someone else? Sure, whatever horrible memories they've accumulated in life would be erased, which sounds appealing. And they would get to be and do an amazing variety of things -- presumably bringing about happiness and justice and so on. That's pretty cool, too.
But who are you, if not the sum of your choices and actions and experiences? And what is any of it worth to you if you have no knowledge of what "you" did?
If you've ever watched Law and Order, you absolutely must watch this two minute spoof. It's so damn perfect -- even in its plot!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
For those of you who've missed Joss Whedon television of late, you can satisfy yourself by watching the first two of three acts of his Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Nathan Fillion enters toward the end, but Neil Patrick Harris is just brilliant. The third act will be posted on Saturday.
According to this fascinating USA Today story, the musical miniseries has exceeded all expectations. As a result, "Whedon is now considering further webisodes, as well as Broadway and film." Hooray!
(Via Brian Smith)
Paul recently pointed me to this trailer for Joss Whedon's upcoming show, Dollhouse:
Anyway, embedded in that is the "bad" news that Dollhouse won't be around until midseason -- in fact, it's slotted to replace (when its season's run is over) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in a Monday evening timeslot.I can only hope that Fox treats this show better than the fabulous-but-abused Firefly. Read more...
I'm Diana Hsieh, a philosopher specializing in practical ethics. I received my Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009.
Paul Hsieh is a physician specializing in orthopedic and emergency radiology. He blogs about science, technology, and random humorous items at GeekPress. He's a co-founder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) and regularly writes for its blog, We Stand FIRM. He has published a slew of op-eds and essays on health care policy. You can e-mail Paul at paul@paulhsieh.com, and follow him on Twitter @PaulHsieh.
Greg Perkins is a software architect working in the R&D labs at Hewlett-Packard, Boise. His degree is in mathematics and computer science. Greg hosts The Objectivism Seminar. Aside from work and philosophy, he plays jazz saxophone professionally with groups such as The Sidemen and Onomatopoeia. You can e-mail Greg at greg@eCosmos.com, and follow him on Twitter @gregperk.
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