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.

Do you seriously mean Lenin and Blair in the same party ?

Tell me where Russia can stop german expansionism and i will tell you how great russian power really is. My opinion about the tendancy is russian influence can only grow as german leadership can only fade. That's how i interpret the erosion of french economy, it seems to me Germany is less efficient at sustaining us as the balance slowly goes to the East. Seriously, why to invade Poland when you can simply buy it ? In the grander scheme of things countries now are products and world is the market. May be one day Russia will be rich enough and then it will buy Poland back.

Sarkozy was Tom Cruise certified, plus now he's also Arnold approved. And never forget: Sarkozy promised the change. And he did. He changed wife.

Considering how conscious Dune novels are, i am suggesting the worm is the simplest, mindless life-form. Basically a worm is a straight line from the mouth to the anus. From a Bene Gesserit point of view, an "animal" is just a counter-productive wild being. On the contrary a "human" is a much-awaited being (especially by her mother). From a Space Guild point of view, the line from the mouth to the anus is oriented. Moreover a worm moves by folding the space between its rings. Thus the worm could be an allegory for the "voyage". Last but not least Fremen are free men, that is free from civilisation, they live in the wild. There are the exact opposite of the Bene Gesserit, they idealize nature as god rather than human as god. Finally Paul is both Bene Gesserit (by his mother) and Fremen (by his wife), the Kwisatz Haderach is both super-human and super-natural.

Same feeling this side, when thinking about 20th century one wonder why France is closer to Germany than to USA. I don't really think it's a language matter, perhaps something more related to geographic proximity, modern economics, and morale (especially a different relation to money). We europeans often depict americans as having a compulsive relation to money, in europe money-addiction is historically and religiously considered as a sin.

Sorry, i have mistakenly added a decimal, the figures are 20000 to 30000 volontary car torchings per year. The figures include cars torched by fire propagation. This civil violence is recurrent enough so that official statistics exists for many years now, i don't know how many however. What has been called "riots" by world medias is a peak, more precisely: more tan 10000 cars torched november 2005 (the "riots") 683 cars torched the 31 Dec 2005 night the total for year 2005 is 45588 (still the record year)

Even though snake games is a very old and populated game genre, it's pretty rare to find one that captures some Sha

Seems to me he is a funnel, that is constructive, but the final way rather than the usual initial and explosive way. Thus, being final, he ends the travel and yet he must end it in a shape that mirrors a new beginning. So his mood mirrors excitement. Actually i have never thought the worm as a beast thing, i have always thought it as homeomorphic to the intestine, that is a mouth to anus function, that makes producing a gem even harder. Leto II can't produce a gem but the most convoluted manner (here i think the worm rings mimic the brain foldings, also a worm moves by folding its body-space). As i understand it Paul made a great mistake by closing a whole space of possibilites, this error can be repaired if Leto II closes Paul's area and reopens the needed space. It didn't matter how Paul's reign ended. Everything was at the start. Symmetrically it does'nt matter how Leto II's reign started because everything is at the end. I don't think Leto II is really more than his father, just he can see the other end, the singularity that matters at his time. Paul fears he can see too far in the future, he fears breath. Leto II fears he can read too far in the past, he fears depth. Finally, just by the virtue of fearing depth, he enlarges the future. Paul is the story of a young man taking control of a giant worm. Leto II is the story of a giant worm taking control of a young man. Certainly there are multiple layers, when a question is without answer there is a reason why it is so, and the reason is often some other layer is insensitive to the question. It's a hall of mirrors, answer to the survival questions is in consciousness, answer to the consciousness questions is in survival, sometimes neither have the answer and you have to invent your own rock-paper-scissor game.

To clarify some points: in this context unrealistic is supposed to mean too short too be economically sustainable by the employers 35-hour is only a legal count, how hours are counted is sector-dependant, that means if you are a trucker and you sleep in your truck (that is your work-place) then you are not paid when sleeping, if you are cashier with only 10mins pause per day, then chances are your pause time is paid. but actually all that is meaningless, what is meaningfull is how painfull your work charge is and how high your salary is i know people officially being paid for a 35-hours per week job but actually working more than 40-hours per week with peaks higher than 50-hours, it seems in a practically way what is legal or not has become meaningless, the business regulates the working charge, not the law

Riots have been somewhat exagerated by foreign medias. Cars being torched count between 200000 and 300000 per year, so several thousands per night is a peak and that peak you call riot, such a peak of civil violence usually occurs when an ethnically Algerian/Moroccan is killed by a police agent. Mainly this population feels ethnically discrimated by police, lodgers and recruiters.