SpiceGuid

Don't plan to see it either. Seems like a high-budget christmas family movie filled with top-notch 3D graphics and consensual ideas. People say Avatar is inspired by Pocahontas, althought some Dune influence is not to be excluded. Whatever mixed influences, Avatar is far from artistically ambitious, it's all about matured 3D technology. Rest assured David Lynch movie will remain cult far long after Avatar will be forgotten as the best 3D that big money can buy at the moment. I don't even expect the coming Dune adaptation to gain a comparable momemtum. Nevertheless i hope it will be creative, mystical and inspiring, because that's the core values. One can't do justice to Dune in one single movie, yet one can have priorities and concentrate on the core values. I don't care whether it's muscular or it's about natural ressources and ecology. I only want the core values. If it's too much actual then it's failed from the start. Don't make it actual. Make it timeless.

Of course faith is not about being smart or being ignorant. Moreover i doubt faith is about being a physicist rather than a biologist. May be when a physicist says God he actually doesn't mean some superior being who inspired the prophets but just some initial principle he has no better name for. God in the physicist words is much like the Legislator (or the Tax Payer) in the politician words, it does not suppose (yet does not exclude) some religious belief. Einstein famously said "God does not play dice". However his religious beliefs were clearly at a minimum: Not every unbounded admiration is religious faith.

Well, i do not mean that reunification was a bad or undesirable EU move. I just try to expose the reasons behind the Mitterand's reticence (although certainly part of it was irrational) and resignation. You said it' date=' no matter how unfair is the French influence Mitterand certainly didn't want it to fade. Indeed, a politically divided Germany would be a worse situation.

I don't know about the UK side' date=' however for the french side fear was that Germany become an unequal partner: [list'] [*]fear was that german industrial growth would belittle french political influence in EU [*]another fear was about money, a stronger DM means an even weaker franc, that fear has been adressed by the

House Ordos is a great addition by Westwood, without it Dune games would miss some weirdness. Also it helps the gamer to accept the alternate Dune setting and to forgive about deep SF novels turning into a not so elaborated video game plot. House Ordos is primarily a merchant race and misses mass military forces. Ordos is the coward side, gholas, mercenaries, cyber-mentats, spies, corruption, illegal warfare, any mean is good, provided it costs money rather than blood. Very little is known about House Ordos, mainly because Westwood did'nt need more than a third remote and mysterious side to spice the game up. Westwood has done an amazingly good job at building the Ordos mythology from scratch. At first you may be disappointed because the novels/movies don't feature your favorite baddies. Don't let that to hinder further exploration of the Duniverse, it has much to offer to everyone, especially as you already are a Dune fan.

You are quite right. The point however is you are right considering western standards. China simply has different standards. Different politic standards, different rights standards, demographic standards, working standards, different hygienic and security standards and so on... So what we consider crippling signs is not necessarily something that will severely affect the nation as a rising power. With so much human ressources at hand devious politics can always find a way to sustain the nation growth, even if that means even worse working conditions for millions of people. China has an unfair politic and demographic conjonction, they just leverage the number and exploit the people in a way that no western democracy would tolerate. My guess is, now that China has entered the world market, whatever happens, at any cost, it wants a growth that tops US growth by a wide margin.

Woow, a really interesting text indeed, it makes DUNE sound less about ecology and more about a self-centric hippie space trip. Anyway, if DUNE is an 'experience', it's certainly one i would recommend.

Adapting Dune novel is quite a serious challenge. Personnally i don't expect this or that to be included, i just expect something creative and twisted, may be even spiritually inspiring. I want to feel thirsty and i want to be replenished. Don't play it easy with a dumbed down ecological theme, it wouldn't come close to my expectations.

I love both the Frank Herbert novels and the Lynch movie. In my opinion a faithful adaptation of the books made into a commercial movie is simply unrealistic. Moreover i want each new movie adaptation to be a complete new world that still amaze me, even if i already know the storyline. The movie maker has to appropriate the Dune license and deliver his own vision to the new and old audience. David Lynch did it and he did in a so memorable way that doing something new that remotely compares in the creativity department would immediatly gain me as a supporter.

The difficult part is, a certain extreme fringe of the anti-discrimination movement adopts a "pay back" attitude. Thus, when advocating ignorance of past discriminations, you just seem to spoil them and continue racial/sexual injustice. Unfortunately, many are just too emotional about past and recent history, they can't embrace the fact only the future matters to them and their children.

Are Rednecks some middle-america people that don't vote Kerry because that bastard speaks french ? BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! (i keep some bullets so my new Redneck friends can play too :D)

@Edric O It's not really entirely fair to assert that human progress is horrendously inefficient. Consider food. Humans are ever more numerous and yet food problems remain concentrated in the same regions (mainly where war forces migration). So progress is actually quite efficient in the food department. More generally, I suppose no progress at all could be even worse than inefficient progress. However, you certainly have a point, progress is much a quantitative notion, qualitatively we still live a moody life than progress has largely failed to enlight. Even worse, what once was miracle at Edison times can now be lived as new forms of electronic slavery. The positive side is technology always promises new horizons that ever revive the Edison dream.

I can't agree more. The discrimination theme acts as a great divide & conquer strategy. People end up fighting for symbols that will never positively change their children lives. It's the economics that matters, not 'black & white' versus 'diverse & colorfull'.

In my opinion the DUNE franchise is a very strong one. I have no doubt it will survive the modern area, it will pass trends, it will resist the futility and utilitarian inclinations. The Lynch movie was great. Some DUNE games were really great too. Now i can understand how the Lynch movie seems old and tired for the young people. Miniseries have been a welcomed addition. No DUNE adaptation will ever do justice to Frank Herbert. Thus i can foresee each generation reappropriating and rediscovering DUNE trough the fresh look of new adaptations that will bring the DUNE tension and intervowen universe to the modernity. So, until i have seen it, any DUNE adaptation is good. Then, of course, once i have paid for it, i will discuss to death how bad it is ;) But i suppose that's another story, the story of "good old days". And, coincidently, "good old days" is actually a really DUNEsque theme.

I am not sure goodness really is a criterion for girls, let's face it: success is more trusted by girls than goodness. Of course success can be elusive and long-term speaking goodness is safer. Yet girls need this short-term excitement that shapes the illusion of a long-term relation.