Excellent Movie!, Jun 26 2004

I can't believe there are those who are calling the movie full of unbelievable caricatures-- this is how things were! The Klan was not always the pathetic buffoons you see on Jerry Springer. A million Klansmen once marched in the 20 Century on DC as if it were just an Easter Parade. Politicians once proudly announced their Klan affiliation. Their numbers were large, their deeds hideous, their tendrils all throughout the government and so-called protectors. This is NOT ancient history; I remember white's only signs myself. They didn't all just disappear overnight.

These brave men armed themselves for their own protection as well as their children and the white men who worked with them to bring about the civil rights they deserved. Yes, that's right black men and children were flailed, hung, and beaten as well as denied civil rights. White men and women who helped them often faced similar consequences. Forrest Whittaker brings another good performance as his character breaks through the learned helplessness that comes from oppression.

The deeper story is the same as in such stories as the Warsaw Uprising and Escape from Sobibor. When a group is dehumanized on racial, class, or economic grounds, the "good" people in the majority will grind them as much as possible. That is, until the underclass finds the wherewithal for real strength by some means. Armed self-defense is one way.

They could have gone overboard; the movie showed that they had access to military weapons but they held themselves to a defense standard. This is the true American dream: that everyman should have the right and ability to defend themselves. If the idea that these black men were armed to defend themselves and their family offends you-then I say you better check your own heart. If my brother feels safe, then I am all the more safe. In the words of Barry Goldwater, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."

A true American story is dramatized in this movie.

This book is not making these things up, Jun 21 2004

Sommers is reporting the actual state of the art in education. If you have school age children, are a teacher rebelling against the system, or are just concerned about the future, you should carry this book as a source of information to fight the ivory towers. Because they will cite a tautological litany of researchers with straw men criticism. The Sommers book can be an intellectual shield against this form of what I find to be child abuse.

A worthy thesis, well presented, Jun 20 2004

There could have been a little more attention to using the already in place car infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles. But that doesn't take away from the basic idea behind the book.

Kindly necromancer gives relationship advice, Jun 19 2004

Kenneth Web, author of a play similar to this movie, sued the movie makers and lost. Movie was plagued by many other legal disputes which resulted in loss of original footage. Loss of original footage makes full restoration difficult. This DVD is probably the best attempt we will ever have.

Didn't like it... not a true strategy, Jun 10 2004

The game is more like an RPG, or actually like what the old timers used to call an adventure game with much better graphics. You have to do way too much walking around for this to be a strategy game. I like to build up my impregnable cities against the hordes in my strategy games.

You do not get to pick a species and work through the campaign, and build up better and better cities of your own design as in previous editions. Rather, you get pulled along in a linear fashion by the story line and SOMETIMES you get to build traditional cities. Other battles seem more tactical based than strategy. Mostly you don't even get to pick your side, you work through the plotlines using the species set for you and occassionally you get to switch. Now, don't get me wrong this is done well, but it is not the kind of game I wanted nor expected based on the previous editions.

Do an internet search for material on the game and you will find that they almost exclusively talk about the networked version of the game. This means to me that you have to go through your own game scenarios to get to the kind of game many people look for from this title. Again, nothing wrong with that if it is what you like to do, but I do not. Related to this is the "custom" game, but these are also geared more to networked or swapped scenarios.

I played Dune II, Warcraft I and II, and liked them very much, but did not like Warcraft III because of the above reasons. If you are NOT looking for a traditional strategy game like the previous editions you may like this game like the other reviewers. Another thing, the cinematics were pretty nice, but choppy on my computer-- which may be the computer's fault.

Great Quality reproduction, Jun 7 2004

This DVD, although burned on both sides, has fine quality and produces a good viewing experience.

There aren't a lot of extras, which is disappointing, but there are some trailers for other classics such as all four The Fly movies (that is the two with Vincent Price, the one with Gena Davis, and the other one ;)

The movies themselves are Irwin Allen classics. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea features Peter Lorre in one of his last movies, and a close up of young Barbara Eden's rear end doing some version of the twist. Global Warming, 60s style! This movie launched a TV series with the same name but with different actors. Good adventure yarn.

Fantastic Voyage is a little more substantial offering. I believe THE Issac Asimov was the technical advisor/script consultant. I remember when this came out the special effects were considered fantastic. They still hold up pretty well, although the computers and electronics are dated. It's sort of a proto-nanotechnology exploration. Raquel Welch is the babe in this one. They shrink some scientists and a submarine down to molecule size and inject them into a VIP's bloodstream to cure him from injuries he received from an assasin. In many ways it was ahead of its time conceptually.

Faults, Jun 6 2004

1) This publisher has chosen to include a non-transferable password for certain parts of their webpage to be used along with typical CD, etc. This is a crass attempt to lower the resale value of used versions of the book and drive up new sales-- and should be rejected by students, teachers, and administrators. (Or else they should adopt a constructivist view they love so much and let the student pick the book they want to use.)

2) The CD lessons had small fonts and/or a small frame that are hard to read. On many screens most of the page is taken up with the frames for the title of the book and useless links. Occasionaly there were text formatting problems. Also a handful of the questions had clearly wrong answers that need proofreading, eg. matching quiz #5 for chapter 1.

3) The textbook itself has a clearly Constructivist bias (which unfortunately totally dominates educational teaching these days.) The text effectively describes the various constructivist and post-constructivists positions in detail but gives very superficial treatment of their critics. A section on the articles published by Fox and other critics of exclusive collective learning, and relativism would have been better. Or better the work of Jan Adams-Byers which implies some problems with using constructivist approaches with non-traditional students.

4) Gratuitous male bashing. A whole section is devoted to seriously teaching little boys to be more like little girls. It teaches the material of those seriously advancing androgyny as the better state of being. I'm serious! "Of special concern are adolescent boys who adopt a strong masculine role," Santrock. Of course, it also suggests that little girls should be more like little boys, but does not say whether or not they would then be of special concern.

5) In dealing with moral teaching, all theories present the idea that morality comes from people and is subjective. Accepting this is the advanced state, rejecting or not seeing it is childlike or immature. There were a few critics of the main proponents, but I saw no alternative to this basic tenet whatsoever.

Down with the trite, hip, over use of group work at the expense of individual learning! Hegelian dialectics are as passe as Soviet Style communism no matter how you dress them up. That's my opinion. You can have a different opinion, but in a book that is designed to teach teachers there should be room for showing that this is not the ne plus ultra of understanding and show why opponents feel this way with more than straw men.

one song is excellent, Jun 3 2004

Other songs are a sort of disco/New Wave with themes from the movie such as Sexcrime and Room 101.

Also, I saw the movie 1984 in 1984 and have to differ with those who say the soundtrack was not used. I am pretty sure that one song was in the movie and that was Julia--- may have been in the closing credits, don't remember exactly. I don't know if the use of one song counts or not.

The film that inspired this record was very, very good by the way.

A DVD of these pilots would be great, May 31 2004

As far as I'm concerend a few of the pilots in this book sounded like good shows.

I think a second edition with more entries would be great.

Even better I'd like to see a DVD compilation with these pilots in it!