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Me too. In my late teens and early twenties I was dabbling in magic. I once raised a cemetery and a bunch of us saw things I'm sure could only be described as ghosts (that was a night), I've turned tables, I once saw lights in the Pennsylvanian sky that hung for three quarters of an hour then...

I get that. After probably four decades of interest in the unexplained, I can't say I care any longer. I've been thinking lately I'm not actually a fortean anymore. I even considered starting a thread about it. I wondered how many others have had that realisation. Even in terms of being...

Well it's on Poolewe's doorstep. I stayed in Poolewe and walked to the gardens.

Whereabouts on the west coast? I spent a glorious couple of weeks in the Gairloch/Ullapool areas one summer. I especially enjoyed the Inverewe Garden. It might have been the only pleasant two weeks in the area that year for all I know, but it was great.

I loved the time-travel shenanigans of the last episode of Star Trek: Discovery, but once again its cloying soppiness is still annoying. But I thought this episode had some great moments, particularly Burnham of the 'present' meeting Burnham of the 'past'. I think this is shaping up to be the...

We're waiting for a software update? Can't wait. I wonder what won't work after we get the new version.

I'm not convinced we habitually really care about what other humans are doing to each other unless it threatens to affect us. One thought I've been having recently is that curiosity seems fairly common in the animal kingdom, including among intelligent animals. If intelligences as alien to us...

Especially if she's the one who didn't want to go to whatever it is they're at in the first place because she had to study. Either way, everybody gets offed after the jock and his ditzy, complaining girlfriend.

Yeah, I'm aware of that ritual, but I specifically have the memory of someone in an espionage situation doing it to their own shirt. Probably in a movie I've seen only once.

I've only seen those Bond movies once, yet I have a distinct memory of seeing someone in an espionage setting yanking epaulettes from a shirt. I'm going to suggest it's from a different movie, perhaps even another Bond movie, and you remember it in that scene because it seems to fit.

I've just started it. Very pleased to see the first episode is titled 'The End', a characteristic shared with Red Dwarf. I never played the game, but remember my nephew playing it. It made an impression as one of the most unique of his games stylistically, so I'm looking forward to watching the...

Not by nature being a particularly sentimental person, I was surprised how hard those special days in the year were. I expected mum's birthday to be tough, but ultimately I started to feel out of sorts that whole week. Our first Christmas without mum was difficult, and as that's around the time...

I'm so sorry to hear your sad news, Venkmans. I lost my mother last June, and it was undoubtedly the worst time of my life, especially the last days of her illness. I'm still struggling with regrets, having dreams about her, feeling lost a lot of the time; but it's getting better, as we've got...

They do use a lot of AI images, but I think it's forgivable when they also use genuine, relevant images. Unlike the 'documentary' I watched the other day which used entirely AI images even when talking about movies, TV shows and architecture.

I'm a fan. The Why Files is always fun. Hecklefish is funny just at the edge of being annoying. And I always leave it to play to the end of its theme song.

So, once again, people are not accepting the advice of scientists about an event they accept will happen based on that same science. I'm starting to think humanity just gets the fate it chooses and that's inevitable and fine.

I really enjoyed the first two episodes of Discovery. It's still a bit sappy. An old cynic like me just gets distracted by characters stopping in the middle of their urgent duties to offload their feelings onto each other. But, old cynics aside, times feel a bit dark these days, and perhaps...

I'll watch with interest. Gutsick Gibbon's explorations of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter were fascinating, hilarious (to someone with a genuine interest in natural history) and terrifying (to someone with a genuine interest in humans not being wack jobs). EDIT to change 'Crestion' to...

Well I just sat through an hour and a quarter (plus ads) of a documentary called Immortal Obsession: A History of Vampires. It's currently on Fawesome, a backwater streaming app a notch or two below Plex. So, this thing's pretty much entirely AI made, so quite an achievement. Mostly, it achieves...

I've never read Josephus, but I wouldn't read too much into his descriptions of Jesus without doing some research. I know much of what has been passed down to us is suspected of having been changed by Christian copyists. Obviously, we don't have original documents from Josephus. We have later...

Well, yes, all true, but it also depends on what concerns you. If you're a Christian trying to get to know Christ more by analysing his earliest depictions, then perhaps, focus more on his message. Maybe even more than the question of his literal existence, focus on his message. Probably. A...

I think if you don't want to delve into the philosophy, physics, biology or theology of what free will is, and you just want to live your life as you feel is going to produce the results you want, you don't need to look beyond that. And if the results you want are to maximise the happiness and...

That's certainly true. If someone is arguing about the colour of the messiah's skin, they're certainly not likely very focused on his message. I might steal your e-card.

Ha ha! I didn't know this. The Bible doesn't tell us much except that someone with Jesus's heritage and place of birth is unlikely to have been pale, blue-eyed and blond. Unfortunately people not only create their gods in their own image, they do so in such obviously incorrect ways and then...

Then he should have said so - and there's plenty of that kind of thing in the Bible, too - but he also says explicitly the faithful who ask for anything in his name will get it. And my quotes were only from John. He says the same in the other gospels, but I'm not digging them out. I'm not sure...

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John14:13) And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my...

He was allegedly short and bald.

Scholarly consensus seems to place the earliest Pauline epistles around 50CE, and the Gospel of Mark, widely accepted the earliest gospel, around 70CE. The reasons for these dates are complicated, and from what I recall, I wouldn't consider them conclusive. However, for the most part, I think...

I really don't think it's worth going down the mythicist rabbit hole too far. If the claim is that Jesus is mythical because accounts of his life and nature are inconsistent and not contemporaneous, and some elements certainly would have been familiar from mythology to the graeco-roman world, it...

I've only ever seen the theatrical version on TV, the one where the xenomorph is a dog-burster. In the alternative version it's an ox-burster.

I enjoy the theatrical version of Alien 3 but it's not a well structured movie (which isn't surprising given its production problems). I find the alternative version far more coherent.

I new this woman once who had 'NEVER FORGET YOU DON'T OWE SWIFTY A NEW CAR, YOU PAID IT IN KIND' tattooed on her left thigh. She now has 'DON'T BOTHER WITH PETE AGAIN, HE WAS RUBBISH' tattooed on her right thigh.

Well, it's quite the rabbit hole, and I haven't had the chance to put together all the pieces yet. As far as I can tell, three main projects are in various stages, and there are others. Someone called Harmy ( Petr Harmáček) has created 'despecialised' versions of the films, apparently using...

Humans are a species, or if you like the genus Homo, which has been around a couple of million years. Dinosauria is a vast, diverse clade which (incidentally) is still around today. (Aye, I know we're all getting sick of being reminded birds are dinosaurs. I am too. Yet they still are.) No...

Darnit! Bard is now Gemini? I've been writing a gamebook, a pretty standard fantasy thing, but I'm also planning details of future gamebooks. The third I was planning is a sci-fi with an AI in it called Gemini. Guess I'll have to change that.

The zombie movies were right. We're all just undead automatons.

I don't know enough about genetics to form any particular opinion on this, but for what it's worth... The fact the Wiki differentiates between an animal resembling or being identical to an extinct animal should give us a clue as to why it might matter. An individual animal has a genetic history...

I don't know how far back it goes, but there was a tradition in my father's family for giving the father's Christian name to the son as a middle name. My grandfather had his father's Christian name as a middle name. My father had his father's Christian name as a middle name. My older brother...

Y'know, I'm sure folk have often caught me watching behind the scenes documentaries and YouTube videos about special effects both practical and visual, and I've said, 'I could watch this stuff all day.' I've never actually put that to the test. I'm almost more interested in how movies are made...

Excellent find! That channel's going to use up a lot of my time.

I can't find a thread specifically about VFX, so here's one. Personally, I'm not a CGI hater, and, after many a documentary, I've realised there's a lot more of it about than we realise. Which means it must have been good. Anyway, this guy's apparently decided to be the whistle-blower who's...

Beautiful!

And when I write, about 80% of my spelling is done by spellchecker.

Aren't these the ones that shapeshift into beautiful women? We don't want that. When it comes to the Nephila and Trichonephila genera, I'm torn by how beautiful some species are and how utterly terrified of most spiders I am.

Cheers, Swifty. I'll peruse later.

Amazing! Imagine what it could do with electronic music. Listening to that track, though, something did occur. After a year or two of worrying about AI getting too realistic and that we might not be able to tell the difference, have we reached a point at which a musician could create something...

I'd like to see this sort of respectful treatment given the the original, un-Lucasified Star Wars trilogy, but I can't imagine many people still have access to them. There seems too little appreciation these days for the achievements of the old filmmakers, even from those old filmmakers.

A longer video with a bunch of prompts. Towards the end it highlights some of the oddities that emerge. Still far ahead of what we were getting a year ago. As with most new technologies, how it is now is probably the worse it will be going forward.

The rat thing was a poor use of AI. Writing scientific papers is a poor use of AI. To be fair, text to image is a pretty poor use, although it's something if it's the only available option. Actually helping scientists is a good use of AI. I don't doubt it will improve in lots of areas, and how...

Good old Ranty! I do hope he's well.