This is a post I never wanted to write, and which the rest of you are probably surprised I haven't written sooner. But I'm seriously thinking about shutting down this website later this month. This is obviously not a situation I'm happy about or something I want to do, but it's also just as obvious that for the past several years, I've lacked the energy and motivation to do much of anything with this site. And the fact is, it costs me a significant amount of money every year to keep it running. I wanted to give you all a heads up in case there is anything on the forum that you want to save. I will, of course, be keeping a backup of everything, and I hope to be able to restore at least some of it somewhere else, at some point in the future. I want to thank everyone who's contributed to the site ever since we first put it up. Special thanks are due to The Phiend for doing pretty much all of the coding and design work on everything, to Zanth for helping us run the forum, to Loki Kola for sharing his thoughts and ideas with us, and to Snowman1989 for a lot of vital and engrossing discussion, even when we got heated with each other. Your thoughts and comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated.
The FINAL election poll
by CWSNovember 2, 2020
Not that I'm under any illusions about it even being decided on time, anyway.
RIP Sean Connery
by CWSNovember 1, 2020
Legendary Scottish actor Sean Connery, who many fans will probably always consider to be the definitive James Bond, has died at the age of 90.Sean Connery, the ‘original’ James Bond, dies at 90 By Associated Press
LONDON >> Sean Connery, the charismatic Scottish actor who rose to international superstardom as the suave secret agent James Bond and then abandoned the role to carve out an Oscar-winning career in other rugged roles, has died. He was 90.
Connery’s wife and two sons said he “died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family” in the Bahamas, where he lived. Son Jason Connery said his father had been “unwell for some time.”
Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said they were “devastated” by the news. They said Connery’s “gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent” was largely responsible for the success of the film series.
“He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words — ‘The name’s Bond… James Bond,’” they said in a statement.
Daniel Craig, the current Bond, said Connery “defined an era and a style” and that the “wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in mega watts.”
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the country was mourning “one of her best loved sons.” Read more here.
NZ Election 2020
by snowman1989October 16, 2020
My country has been getting a lot of international attention recently over the last year and a half. There's been the terrorist attack, the eruption at Whakaari and our success in keeping COVID-19 at bay, despite the fuck-ups we've had along the way. Jacinda Ardern - the leader of the Labour Party and current Prime Minister as of this writing- has become something of a holy figure for international left-wing movements, and from reading news articles they seem to believe that New Zealand is Eden on Earth or something. And they're very surprised to hear that she has heated opposition at home. How can anyone be critical of Saint Jacinda? I don't fault them for thinking that. As of late we appear to be the last functional representative democracy left, with strongmen on the march and the leaders of the Western World appearing weak, feckless and incompetent. But as great a place as we are, we're not perfect. Jacinda's politics of "kindness" are all well and good, but apart from the immediate crises - which she has responded very well to - the last three years have not produced much in the way of results. Housing is still in shortage and chronically overpriced. Child poverty is still rising. Very little has been done to decarbonise our economy or restore our environment. And while her COVID package did ensure most Kiwis kept their jobs during the lockdown, it was all very business focused, rather than on bailing out the people. As a result, our rich/poor divide has grown further. But despite her glaring faults, she's currently on track to win re-election, by virtue of the fact that people want stability in a turbulent time, and she did successfully guide us through the pandemic where most other countries have failed spectacularly. Kiwis appear willing to give her one more chance to prove herself. The right-wing National Party is currently in a nadir of fortunes as they've had three leaders in the space of a year, with Judith Collins currently in charge. Despite her vicious nickname of "the Crusher" (her time as Police Minister had her threaten to crush the cars of boy racers), she's become less and less effective at putting a dent in Jacinda's popularity. Ever since Key left, the party has appeared to be rudderless. The neoliberal ACT Party, on the other hand, has never been more popular - to my surprise and utter disgust. The minor party is leeching support away from National and is increasingly popular with the Asian community. You'd think after the disasters that 2020 has given us, people would wake up to the fact that neoliberalism is a failure and needs to be replaced. The Greens and New Zealand First are the current coalition partners of Labour as of this writing, but if the polls are right (and I maintain scepticism there), NZ First may be on the way out while the Greens are set to take a dip in popularity. Despite NZ being an MMP system, people still appear to think in terms of winner-take-all, and the voters appear to be punishing the Greens - and especially NZ First - for the failures of the coalition government. For the first time in a quarter century, Labour may even gain enough votes to govern alone. If this happens, it'll be a possible game-changer, since the whole purpose of MMP was to make sure that one party couldn't gain a full monopoly of power. Labour would have an unprecedented mandate to push whatever it wants without obstruction or dealings with any smaller parties. If that happens, Kiwis will want a true transformation of the country - they'll look at the victory and say that Labour now has no excuses and has to implement real, tangible changes to get us through the pandemic and prepare for the challenges of this century. OH, almost forgot we have two referendums on top of the election. One to decide on legalising assisted dying, the other on legalising cannabis. At the moment, it looks like assisted dying will pass, but cannabis will remain illegal. We'll know for certain on 30 October when all the votes are counted, but these shouldn't have been put up for a referendum. They should have been decided in Wellington by our representatives and experts, where information on these subjects is more readily available. Leaving it to the public has only resulted in a deluge of misinformation and fear mongering, as you can expect with social media. To me, a referendum is just the government asking the public to do its job for them.
Denis Villeneuve's DUNE
by CWSSeptember 10, 2020
For the past several years, acclaimed French director Denis Villeneuve has been quietly working on a new, big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert's monumental science fiction opus, Dune. While information about the cast and crew have been known for some time, as well as the fact that this will be they will be splitting the adaptation of the novel into two movies, all we've gotten as far as concrete visuals from the production side has been a few scattered photos and screenshots. Until now. Now, we finally have the first long-awaited trailer. iframe Dune has been adapted for the big screen before, of course; by David Lynch in 1984, in a movie which starred Kyle MacLachlan, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell, Jose Ferrer, Max Von Sydow, Linda Hunt and Brad Dourif, among many others; and again in 2000, in a miniseries produced by the Sci-Fi Channel. Both efforts were, well, mixed. The Lynch movie was epic and grandiose, with a particularly memorable musical score and full of truly over-the-top acting, but it had the burden of trying to compress a 412-page novel into 2 hours and 17 minutes, and took some controversial liberties along the way. The miniseries, meanwhile, was longer and more true to the book, but had to make due with a much lower budget, and ultimately failed to impress. With all of that in mind, I'm quite eager for this movie. I was very impressed by Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, and I think the decision to split this adaptation into two movies is a very good one, because there is sooooo much background info that needs to be properly established and explained. And based on this trailer, it is looking damned impressive so far.
RIP Chadwick Boseman
by CWSAugust 30, 2020
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer on Friday. The following message was posted on the actor's Twitter feed: Chadwick Boseman Twitter statement.jpg This is truly shocking news. Apparently he had been battling cancer for years, but had never publicized his condition. I don't know very much about Boseman personally, but from what little I saw, he seemed a genuinely decent person, unlike so many of the pretentious fools that populate Hollywood. I remember being struck by an event a couple of years ago where he received some award, and gave it to a man who had been injured stopping a shooting at a restaurant.
The Batman
by CWSAugust 25, 2020
So DC just had their big FanDome event, and hell if it doesn't look like they may actually be trying to make a comeback of sorts. There were trailers for the long-awaited Snyder Cut of Justice League, Wonder Woman 1984, James Gunn's Suicide Squad reboot, and last but certainly not least...this. iframe Thoughts? I think it actually looks shockingly good, and at the same time, very different from all the previous Batman movies (with the possible exception of The Dark Knight), striking a very deliberately cerebral tone and promising an ominous new take on The Riddler. I've had my doubts about Robert Pattinson as (a very young) Batman, and I still think he'd be a more natural fit as Dick Grayson, but having said that, I also had a lot of doubts (to say the least) about Ben Affleck in the role, and he completely surprised me. So this looks like it could be very, very interesting. I'm also not familiar with director Matt Reeves' previous work on the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, but they were obviously pretty popular.
U.S. Election 2020: "It's all a joke."
by CWSAugust 6, 2020
So, you might not have heard about this, but there's another big presidential election here in the U.S. this November. Unfortunately, it looks like our choices will once again boil down to: - More Of The Same
-or- - Even Worse
This is a particularly raw deal because, as you may also not be aware, the country is currently in a bad way. (And that may be the single greatest understatement on this entire website.) First, an outbreak of a virus from China threw the country into a panic and prompted the government to destroy our economy, which caused more than forty-four million people to lose their jobs and decimated countless industries. Then the same government decided to spend several trillion dollars to try to compensate, because if there's one thing the country needs, it's more debt. Then, a video came out showing a police officer in Minneapolis kneeling on the neck of a man who subsequently died, and a bunch of people across the country decided that the best response to this was to burn down their cities, loot and destroy local businesses, and physically assault and/or murder a bunch of people who had nothing to do with the incident everyone was supposedly so enraged about. A lot of people also decided to tear down, vandalize or otherwise deface countless historic monuments to everyone from the nation's Founders, to President Abraham Lincoln, to Frederick Douglass, many of which had stood for decades or even centuries. People in several cities also decided to claim parts of those cities for themselves and set up so-called "autonomous zones", complete with armed checkpoints, which they declared to be their own sovereign nations. Most of those have finally been broken up, but several of them were allowed to stand for several weeks. This has all been allowed to go on, to a greater or lesser extent, for nearly two and a half months, and counting. One almost gets the impression that the country is suffering from a complete and utter lack of leadership. And to add insult to injury, come November, we will in all likelihood be asked to choose between President Donald Trump, who I am beginning to seriously think does not even want a second term in office, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who, depending on the time of day, may not even be aware that he's running for President. This is why I began this post by quoting The Comedian, from Watchmen: because it's all a joke.So, instead of putting up my usual serious election-year thread, I have decided this year to treat this as what it is. So here's what we're going to do. Rather than hold a limited debate and/or poll featuring the candidates who are actually running, I say we instead pitch our own. Everyone is invited to contribute to this, and be as serious about it as you wish, or go as nuts as you want to. Propose any candidate you want, and make a case for them. And I mean any candidate; historical figures, alive or dead, or even fictional characters are all fair game. Thomas Jefferson, Steve Rogers, Megatron, or Commander Shepard would all be valid and acceptable options. I'll add my own proposal in a subsequent reply.
We're back, with a new look.
by CWSJune 16, 2020
So you may or may not have noticed, but the forum was down for a couple months. But now it's back, and with a fairly dramatic new look, too. I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks about that. 
COVID-19 Pandemic
by snowman1989March 15, 2020
So... how is everyone?  I'm currently fine. My parents are a little stressed, but coping. New Zealand's currently going into a hardline lockdown over this pandemic, with large events being cancelled left and right, and anyone coming here having to go into mandatory self-isolation for 14 days, except for people coming from the Pacific Islands. A recession is pretty much inevitable. And we're already dealing with the worst drought in a century to boot. This is a major double-whammy. 
Castlevania anime: a missed opportunity
by CWSJanuary 19, 2020
So I recently watched the first two seasons of the recent Castlevania anime, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with it. I was expecting it to more or less follow the plot of Dracula's Curse, with Trevor setting out on his epic journey to the castle, meeting and teaming up with his new allies along the way to eventually confront Dracula and put a (temporary) end to his reign of terror. I was not expecting nearly the entire first season to center almost exclusively around how much Warren Ellis hates Christianity, which, even if that's your thing, has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot of any Castlevania game, ever. The second season was nearly as bad, with the majority of it getting wrapped up in vampire politics, Carmilla manipulating everyone, and ultimately making the main character of Curse of Darkness her personal bitch. Meanwhile, Dracula just sat and stared at his fireplace in a state of complete apathy, and Trevor, Sypha and Alucard literally spent half the season sitting in a library, with the show barely remembering to come back and check on them for a couple minutes per episode, before going back to the Transylvanian equivalent of some stupid reality show. Having said that, the (one) episode where the heroes finally stormed the castle and fought Dracula was flat out incredible. But that only served to underscore what the show should have been doing, all along. My bottom line: the animation was decent, and the voice cast was terrific. But as it is, I think most of the series has been a huge missed opportunity, spending far too much time on boring side characters who weren't even in the games, and not nearly enough time on the ones who were. If they'd followed the games more closely (which Ellis is on record as not having bothered to play or research any of them), the series could have been a lot better.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020
by CWSJanuary 1, 2020
Insert bad pun about hindsight here. Also, now Blade Runner is no longer in the future. 
Reintroduction
by JudeDecember 30, 2019
Must be midlife that's leading me back to past things. Been a while since I've been here. Hello to all. 
Merry Christmas!
by CWSDecember 25, 2019
Well, it's that time of year again. And while none of you will be surprised to learn that I spent the past hour or two hunting for some very specific topical images, apparently Goji doesn't do Christmas so here we are.this_is_the_xmas_way______by_14_bis_ddmy6m4.jpg I have spoken.
Whakaari Eruption
by snowman1989December 12, 2019
Whakaari (White Island) should be a goddamn case study on learning where to draw the line on casual visitors approaching an active volcano. The sad news is that a few days ago, the volcano erupted while tourists were visiting the island. So far we have 16 confirmed fatalities and many more suffering horrific burns. Some of them have virtually no skin left anywhere. iframe A few weeks before, GNS issued a bulletin putting the volcanic alert level at 2, indicating significant volcanic unrest. This is also 1 step away from alert level 3: a localised eruption. Despite that, tour operators chose to head to the island anyway. I suppose they rationalised that eruptions can happen at any alert level - which is true - and felt that the risk was worth it. All visitors to the island have to wear hard hats and gas masks, which in normal circumstances would have been enough to ensure their safety. After all, White Island is constantly active and churning out steam and poison gas, and that activity lulled us all into a false sense of security. We thought the volcano to be predictable. I've tried putting up a bird's eye view of White Island, but I've had no luck. Google Images has plenty of them, so if you want a visual aid, go there. I was going to try to visually demonstrate why any visitors would be absolutely fucked if there was an eruption - which there just was. And why it may be time for these tourist visits to STOP. Here's the gist: White Island is a stratovolcano that is about 70% underwater, with only the tip-top of the mountain above water, and the crater is only 30m above sea level. Part of the crater wall is collapsed, allowing easy access by jetty to the crater itself. But that means there's only one way in, one way out. You're hemmed in by high crater walls on all sides except the part open to the sea, the air is thick with toxic gas, there's no man-made shelters and the main crater is only 700m away. In an eruption - if you're on the island, you have nowhere to go. Whakaari often erupts with bursts of hot ash, steam and gas that certainly rises upwards, but just as often travels across the land via the path of least resistance. That is to say, it follows the same route to the sea as the tourists. And anyone caught in that shit gets steam broiled.
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