Linkspam might have to rewatch Farscape soon...
Yet the bill that Dean so casually dismisses would spend, according to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly $200 billion annually once it is fully phased in to help subsidize insurance coverage for over 30 million Americans now without it. That's real money--the most ambitious and generous expansion of the public safety net since the Great Society under Lyndon Johnson. And that money, based on the Census results, would flow most into minority and working-class white communities. Ronald Brownstein on progressive opposition to the health care bill. After all, the perfect is the enemy of the good, isn't it? (Link by way of TNC)
EFF has an E-Book buyer's guide to privacy, tracking how much information the various venders keep on you.
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In honor of the season: Baby penguin! Awwwww.
Black Christmas trees belong to Satan. Who knew?
Phil Nugent on the five sexiest apocalypse movies.
Also from Nugent: the biggest disappointments of the decade (among which find Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel) and the happiest surprises of the decade (NPH! Yay!).
Apparently Cory Doctorow is self-effacing. Who knew? (Certainly not anyone who actually reads BoingBoing.)
Jonquil also has a discussion today about the class issues associated with various crafts.
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I recently left a comment for sartorias, who just started watching Farscape. So here's my cheater's guide to Farscape for someone who mostly wants the good arc-driven stuff:
Episode guide for reference. Okay, I'm going to give you a really streamlined/stripped down series. Most of the ones I say "skip" actually have some value, either story or characterization-wise, except for the ones that are bolded, and those are terrible.
Of the remainder of Season 1, feel free to skip: "Rhapsody in Blue", "Jeremiah Crichton", and "Bone to Be Wild". "Till the Blood Runs Clear" and "The Flax" appear to be one-offs, but TTBRC does set up some stuff that pays off down the line, and addresses John & D'Argo's relationship, while "The Flax" really kicks the John/Aeryn relationship forward. The rest of them up to "Durka Returns" are solid; "A Human Reaction" is where the greater arc really kicks into gear. Except for BtBW, which isn't particularly good or meaningful. [The thing about Season 1 is that until they got halfway in, the producers didn't realize they had a cast who could do far more than anyone expected. Which is why the show transitions shortly from a relatively fluffy renegades-on-the-run story into an arc-driven novel about love, death, community, redemption, and weapons of mass destruction.]
Season 2, skip: "Dream a Little Dream/Re: Union" (yes I know it's the premiere but it's really not), "Vitas Mortis", "Taking the Stone" (unless you really love Chiana), "Picture If You Will" (the return of Maldis, bah), "Home on the Remains" (Chiana backstory, but not compelling), "The Locket" (the shippers love it, but it's not really meaningful for the overall arc IIRC), "The Ugly Truth" (Farscape version of Rashomon). Even the lesser episodes of season 2 have a lot of characterization arc going on, particularly with respect to Crichton. The Look at the Princess trilogy is a bit boggy (they made three episodes out of what should have been two), but there's some important arc stuff in it. Oh, and disregard the production numbers: Look at the Princess Part II should be watched after LATP I and before LATP III.
Season 3 is harder to have you skip stuff because it's almost all arc, and most of it's pretty good. Anyway, you could probably skip "Suns and Lovers", "Losing Time", "Meltdown", "Scratch N Sniff", & "I-Yensch, You-Yensch". "...Different Destinations" is a one-off but it's brilliant so you should watch it.
Season 4 is a lot shakier, with several lousy episodes but also some brilliant ones. Skip "Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing" (unless you like vomit jokes), "I Shrink Therefore I Am", "A Prefect Murder", "Coup by Clam", and "Mental As Anything".
Watch the mini-series but understand that they squashed 22 hours of story into 4.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
EFF has an E-Book buyer's guide to privacy, tracking how much information the various venders keep on you.
*
In honor of the season: Baby penguin! Awwwww.
Black Christmas trees belong to Satan. Who knew?
Phil Nugent on the five sexiest apocalypse movies.
Also from Nugent: the biggest disappointments of the decade (among which find Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel) and the happiest surprises of the decade (NPH! Yay!).
Apparently Cory Doctorow is self-effacing. Who knew? (Certainly not anyone who actually reads BoingBoing.)
Jonquil also has a discussion today about the class issues associated with various crafts.
*
I recently left a comment for sartorias, who just started watching Farscape. So here's my cheater's guide to Farscape for someone who mostly wants the good arc-driven stuff:
Episode guide for reference. Okay, I'm going to give you a really streamlined/stripped down series. Most of the ones I say "skip" actually have some value, either story or characterization-wise, except for the ones that are bolded, and those are terrible.
Of the remainder of Season 1, feel free to skip: "Rhapsody in Blue", "Jeremiah Crichton", and "Bone to Be Wild". "Till the Blood Runs Clear" and "The Flax" appear to be one-offs, but TTBRC does set up some stuff that pays off down the line, and addresses John & D'Argo's relationship, while "The Flax" really kicks the John/Aeryn relationship forward. The rest of them up to "Durka Returns" are solid; "A Human Reaction" is where the greater arc really kicks into gear. Except for BtBW, which isn't particularly good or meaningful. [The thing about Season 1 is that until they got halfway in, the producers didn't realize they had a cast who could do far more than anyone expected. Which is why the show transitions shortly from a relatively fluffy renegades-on-the-run story into an arc-driven novel about love, death, community, redemption, and weapons of mass destruction.]
Season 2, skip: "Dream a Little Dream/Re: Union" (yes I know it's the premiere but it's really not), "Vitas Mortis", "Taking the Stone" (unless you really love Chiana), "Picture If You Will" (the return of Maldis, bah), "Home on the Remains" (Chiana backstory, but not compelling), "The Locket" (the shippers love it, but it's not really meaningful for the overall arc IIRC), "The Ugly Truth" (Farscape version of Rashomon). Even the lesser episodes of season 2 have a lot of characterization arc going on, particularly with respect to Crichton. The Look at the Princess trilogy is a bit boggy (they made three episodes out of what should have been two), but there's some important arc stuff in it. Oh, and disregard the production numbers: Look at the Princess Part II should be watched after LATP I and before LATP III.
Season 3 is harder to have you skip stuff because it's almost all arc, and most of it's pretty good. Anyway, you could probably skip "Suns and Lovers", "Losing Time", "Meltdown", "Scratch N Sniff", & "I-Yensch, You-Yensch". "...Different Destinations" is a one-off but it's brilliant so you should watch it.
Season 4 is a lot shakier, with several lousy episodes but also some brilliant ones. Skip "Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing" (unless you like vomit jokes), "I Shrink Therefore I Am", "A Prefect Murder", "Coup by Clam", and "Mental As Anything".
Watch the mini-series but understand that they squashed 22 hours of story into 4.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.