Sell Stargate Universe to another channel?

I recently posted this to GateWorld, but getting it here in my blog is just faster. I slightly edited the text for less ambiguity and better grammar.

On causes and effects

1. I read some of the possible factors for cancellation by SyFy and one of them was timing, where a four-month delay throughout the winter is bad for an arc-based show, because new and casual viewers could quickly lose interest, which is why ABC kept airing "Lost" without much interruption. I belive that the choice to move the series to Tuesdays was a bad move (schoolkids are busy doing homework, other people working inside a week, while Fridays are freer).

2. The other problem is in marketing the show: First-viewing rights went to Anglo-Saxon countries (U.S., then Canada, then UK and Australia) and then some other country's channel got the episodes later or that channel wasn't quite interested: people in that country already had the episodes online (by any means): iTunes does not extend to enough useful territories, Hulu is only U.S.-based and did anyone consider having the episodes up on VEVO (an ad-supported YouTube project)?

The trick is in timing: Some very successful movies (The Matrix series came to mind) are screened near-simultaneously worldwide to avoid losses in second and third countries, because by the time a movie screens there, people in those might have already seen the material outside the movie theatre and may thus stay away from there.

Crazy idea #1: is for MGM to produce a quality SGU episode and launch it as a movie, worldwide (with nearly the same production budget). And many episodes back-to-back that way. I know it hasn't been done before.

Crazy idea #2: In trying to continue SGU on another channel, a collection of interested TV networks from around the world (I first thought Europe, where Atlantis was very popular, but then there's Australia, NZ, Japan, and maybe some friendly Latin-American countries) could create a collective financing pool to help produce SGU with the current producers keeping the creative freedom and all those channels could then near-simultaneously air the episodes. This would off-set the need to get individual episodes by ambiguous means. Now, how to get the channels interested in product and project, is another matter.

In addition, good DVD marketing could also help.

Farscape had the Library project and the Military/Navy project — donate VHS's (at the time) and DVD's to libraries and military/navy outposts. We could do the same and even more.

(This was my first post on GateWorld)

Reaktsioonina E24 artikli
"Arrak: vaesus on iseloomuomadus" kommentaaridele
Ei õnnestunud miskipärast postitada, seega kirjutan siin

Mahatma Gandhi elas meie mõistes väga tagasihoidlikult, aga kas keegi vingujatest-kommenteerijatest julgeks teda vaeseks nimetada? Barack Obama vanaema pidi kasutama toidutalonge, et tema lapselaps saaks kvaliteetse hariduse. Kas Obama oli vaene, kui ta õppis väga mainekas ülikoolis? Või oli seda tema vanaema?

Seepärast ongi olemas terminid suhteline (tunnetatud) vaesus ja absoluutne vaesus — see, kui tõesti ei ole puhtust, süüa-juua, riideid ja ulualust.

See vaesus, mida mina tolle artikli enamikest kommentaaridest lugesin, on põhjustatud puhtast kadedusest: "Näe, mul on see ja see puudu ja ma olen nii vaene, aga vaata seda rikkurit seal uhkes autos ja üldse saan ma vähe raha ja puha..."

Ning kadedus on säherduse vaimuvaesuse üks arvestatav osa.

Mis puutub vaesusesse kui iseloomuomadusse, siis on Arraku mõte õige: inimesed mõtlevad end vaesemaks ja väetimaks kui nad tegelikult on ja panevad sellega nii kiunu, et vähe pole. — Just nagu polekski võimalik oma aega millegi muuga sisustada. Võimalik, et Arrak pidas silmas hoopis vaesust kui meelelaadi, millest ülalpool ka näide.

Iseasi muidugi, kas niisugust mõtet saabki väga ääri-veeri välja öelda. Või on probleem selles, kuidas lugeja suhestub Arrakusse: kui näiteks vaimulik oleks väljendanud sisuliselt sama mõtte (ja seda nad muuseas ka teevad), siis oleksid kõik eriti vasakpoolselt (ehk "sotsiaalselt hoolivalt") meelestatud inimesed temaga nõustunud (mõeldes samal ajal tegelikult rahakatest inimestest, keda peetakse vaimuvaesteks, aga enda kohta ei saa mitte niimoodi mõelda). Õnneks on heal vaimulikul oskus edastada seesugune mõte ka nendele ühtlasi vaestele ja vaimuvaestele, kes tegelikult nii väga vaesed polegi ja kes suudavad netiavarustes rämedate kirja-, grammatika- ja trükivigadega näidata, et pööbel ja matslus pole veel kuhugi kadunud :P

Taskurahast, raha teenimisest ja hooplemisest

“16aastaselt hakkasin teenima rohkem kui vanemad kokku” - Delfi "Noorte hääl"

Töökus (inglise keeles ka "hard work") on selline väga inetu sõna järjepidevuse kohta ning on järjepidevaid ja eesmärgile pühendunud noori ning ka selliseid, kes seda ei ole.

Inimesed on erinevad ja kodune kasvatus on seejuures mitmel puhul määrav.

Omapärane on see, et edule orienteerunud sisuloojad soovivad tõenäoliselt head soovides niisugust edumõtlemist ehk taasluua, kuid see tuleb neil niisuguste ja sarnaste artiklitega viletsasti välja.

Seda seepärast, et nii pealkirja ja kogu jutu raskuskese põhineb tõdemustel, et kui palju keegi raha saab (olgu siis teenimisega või teisiti) ja mitte sellel, et millega noor inimene tegeleb, kuidas ta end teostab ja kas eneseteostusvõimalused on piisavad ja/või rahuldavad.

Võimalik, et iseäranis hooplevalt paistev pealkiri ei peegeldanud õigesti artikli sisu, mille eesmärk tegelikult oligi näidata ära see, et milline on koolinoorte sissetulek.

"Raadioteatri" kuuldemängudest

Hakkas nagu huvitama nende kuulamine, seega tekkis vajadus leida ka mingid relevantsed Wikipedia artiklid
Kuuldemängude pealkirjade lingid viivad heliarhiivile ning nendele järgneb aasta, mil lugu Raadioteatris esimest korda kõlas.

• Walentin Chorell — "Kolm valget särki" (Raadioteatris 1971)
• Paavo Rintala — "Lõikuskuu hääli" (Raadioteatris 1967)
  Nagu võlutult, mängis see raadios umbes siis, kui Eestis käis uus Soome film soome meeste hingeelu avamisest saunas.
• Veera Vrubljovskaja (Врублевская, Валерия Васильевна) — "Kateedri koosolek" (Raadioteatris 1983)
• Albert Uustulnd — "Täispurjedega" (Raadioteatris 1962)

Kõiki heliarhiivis väljatoodud kuuldemänge pole ma kuulanud, sest kuulasin neid raadiost ja enam-vähem nii, kuidas peale sattusin.

Naljakas valimisreklaam

Hiljuti potsatas mulle vahelduseks sisse midagi, mis mulle ehk alguses vaid naeratuse suule tõi, aga siis hiljem laginal naerma ajas.

Väljavõte Urmas Reinsalu valimisreklaamis veerust, kus on tema "algatused, mis on teoksil:"

“Kodutoetus paljulapselistele peredele

2008. aastal rakendatud kodutoetus ehk riiklik programm paljulapseliste perede elamistingimuste parandamiseks aitab igal aastal sadu peresid. Selle kaudu on juba uue kodu saanud või remonti teinud pered, kus kasvab üle 4000 lapse.

”

Muahahahahah :D

Idee ise on sisuliselt muidugi väga armas, ainult et mitte ükski pere ei ole puht bioloogiliselt võimeline endale nii palju lapsi sigitama. Nii palju ei lastaks ka adopteerida.

Võib-olla peeti silmas sipelgaid ja mesilasi?

Red Matter

In reply to a post in IMDb forums on Star Trek XI.

My theory on this is that the Red Matter black hole that Spock Prime created gained in size by way of consuming the sheer energy of the supernova, thus enabling both Narada and the Jellyfish to pass through. Also note that both ships were very state of the art for their time, so they were within their means to traverse the black hole reasonably safely.

The black hole that Nero had his crew create within Vulcan's core did not gain much in energy compared to the supernova, and therefore remained the size of a very powerful peanut (equal to the size of the amount of red matter separated from its larger whole at the Jellyfish), which then sucked the planet's very unfortunate contents into it, maybe letting the contents in their basic and compressed form be ejected at whichever other side, as if passing though a one-hole meat grinder.

Tanel Tein on ka inimene

Noh ja las siis olla kui magas (Kaarsillal).

See-eest on ikkagi väga hea tunne selle üle, et Emajõkke ei kukkunud ega uppunud. Ainult et selle üle rõõmustavad miskipärast vaid väga vähesed (nagu kommentaaridest välja paistis).

Ning küünilised lõualõksutajad on muidugi liiga kadedad -- kui inimene (kasvõi Tein) on elus juba midagi saavutanud, siis oodatakse temalt paremat käitumist ainult selle pärast, et siis tavainimene saaks oma samalaadset või mistahes muud ebaadekvaatset käitumist oma tavainimene-olemisega õigustada, justkui oleks tavainimesel sarnases olukorras rohkem õigust kui avaliku elu tegelastel.

Madalate väärtustega "tavainimene" leiaks sõltumata kuulsustelt oodatavast eeskujulikust käitumisest *omaenda* ebaadekvaatsele teguviisile nagunii õigustuse: kui keegi tuntud inimene käki keerab, siis leiaks "tavainimene", et näe, kuulsus teeb ka. Ning kui kuulsus ka ei tee, siis õigustaks "tavainimene" end sellega, et noh, mis teha, on tavainimene ja ei suuda parem olla. Ühe paljuliikmelise partei retoorika on samuti selline.

Tanel Tein on ka inimene, nagu meiegi oleme inimesed ning seejuures ei tasuks talle keelata olla tema ise, nii nagu meie ei keela iseendil olla meie ise, vaid lausa lubame ja nõuame seda ja peame seda üheks oma põhiõiguseks.

Mis siis, et Teini käitumist väga heaks kiita ei saa.

Et kõik hästi läks (jäi elu ja tervise juurde), tähendab seda, et talt ei ole kadunud võimalus teha paremaid valikuid tulevikus.

Ning kõik me teised võiksime olla vähem tavainimesed; võiksime, peaksime olema paremad, et siis olla üksteisele ja ka teistele eeskujudeks, selle asemel, et nõuda seda nendelt, kes meie meelest paremad on ja peaksid saama ja olema, sest "tavainimene" justkui ei saa ega suuda, sest on tavainimene. Saab küll. Kui Suure Prügikoristamisega said hakkama tavalised Eesti inimesed, siis suudavad tavalised inimesed ennast paremast küljest veelgi näidata.

Kuidas eesti keel kirillitsas välja näeb

Ehk et mida Eesti graffitil maailmale öelda on :-)

Sama pilt Picasawebis ja otsingu järgi kõige varasema kuupäevaga siin.

Ja muuseas, kes on autor??

Slashdot fun: Witty science

How we discover exoplanets

For more on Wikipedia, read on.

What the years do to people

Here's an edited and complemented posting, which I first wrote as a reply to a forum posting I originally made on an IMDb forum:

Only that he was about 25 while playing an 18-year-old (the film was released on 15.03.1991 and Grieco was born 23.03.1965), but this might have been a running gag about how much older actors play teens. The movie was funny, but not necessarily because of Richard Grieco.

To provide some context, then I am gay, too.

I should say that I kinda fail to see anything hot in him, despite his above-average looks at that time (I had to Google to see what he was like back then :-).

When watching the movie, I only passingly noticed him as the lead there, where the best-performing actor was actually Linda Hunt. Thereafter, I often confused Hunt with Mindy Sterling, who played Frau Fabrissina, a cohort of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers movies. Granted, Hunt's Ilsa Grunt and Sterling's Frau Fabrissina were both very similar characters and I think that Fabrissina may have in part been modelled after Ilsa Grunt: both characters are evil, diminutive, authoritarian and murderous women who are not in their first youth anymore and who have or have had an affair with the main antagonist.

In Estonia, "If Looks Could Kill" (will be referenced below as ILCK) was never seen in cinemas, with the reason being that the film was released in 1991, which was the year when Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union (the first widely seen and distributed Hollywood flicks were "Home Alone" and "Hot Shots" or "Hot Shots 2").

Instead, ILCK had a few airings on TV many-many years after 1991 (2000-ish and later), when I wasn't young enough anymore to see what was it in Grieco that charmed the generation before me.

When searching for pictures of Grieco in Google Images (using "Richard Grieco" with quotes for the exact phrase search), I stumbled upon a blog called "My New Plaid Pants" with a post ("The Hall of Hubba-Bubba", dated April 5, 2007) praising the various famous male physiques of the era (mostly 1980's and very-very early 1990's). There, one of the images near the top was the Diet Coke Guy, or Lucky Vanous (who I think was much hotter than Grieco). Since I had then just seen from my Google image search what Grieco looks nowadays, I was intrigued to see what Lucky Vanous looks now...

Despite both having had different fates (Grieco evidently continued acting; yet while Vanous (born 1961) became instantly famous, he struggled as an actor, so a few years back he opened a successful healthy fast food restaurant in L.A.), it is my judgment that Vanous now looks much-much cuter than Grieco:

• 1996 look
• Hottest Restaurant in LA
  The page links to a large large image with a long URL, so I only referred to a blog article: Find the image with this description next to it: "Gordon Naccarato, Lucky Vanous, Mariel Schneider", then click on it for a 1600x1200-res original.
  
• http://luckydevils-la.com/news
  The page features a more-or-less viewport-wide image of Vanous.


• Some images on flickr

Other Lucky Vanous information:
• People Magazine: Lucky Vanous
• Canyon News 11.2009 article
• Getting Lucky in the New Year - Lucky Vanous a pop culture icon
• Lucky Vanous: career pursuits and life lessons.
• Blogger posting (just one)

From then-and-now comparisons of Grieco, I thought that his face does not look as natural than it did in his youth or in 12-year-old basketball images on his IMDb profile's gallery page, when his face appeared more natural.