Sundown

Its not as hardcore as flanker but think of it more as 1/2 flanker with a lot more planes.

I'm not sure how this works, as Lock-On is based off Flanker 2.0, the planes existing in Flanker 2.0 work nearly the exact same way they in Lock-On, and the American additions have even more complicated avionics and modelling than the jets of the previous game. No realism feature has been dropped in Lock-On that existed in Flanker 2.0.

It can be simple. Or extremely difficult.

If you go off on the wrong track, you're hosed for a good while. My first inkling turned out to be right, except I didn't go far enough in that direction or think specific enough about it before I tried something else, to the tune of 20 minutes of frustration and feeling neither creative or very smart.

-Al

Sundown:

here's a big THANK YOU!

i forgot if the actual term for it but i'm glad someone knows what i'm talking about.

I'm not passing up a chance to quote or reference one of my favorite movies.

And another.

"What's a nubian?"

-Al

Where did you get that from?! Use of such words to "reclaim" your identity makes about much sense as putting on a straw hat or picking cottons in chains to "reclaim" one's identity.

It's called "empowerment disempowerment". It's the use of hurtful words by minority groups in order to take the sting out of it, and in order to take the power of the word away from other groups. I guess it hurts a little less when the terms are no longer used excusively by those outside of the group in a derogatory manner. That's what you have African Americans throwing "nigger" around, and the homosexual community ribbing each other with "fag". According to "Chasing Amy" anyway.

-Al

Eh... Western culture NEVER, ever, ever makes sexual objects out of young women.  I've never seen any barely dressed teens on Euro & US magazines or seen them on TV... or in music videos... or in movies... or, well, everywhere.

Yeah... right.  Most models are waaaay under legal age.  Any usually very underdressed.  Same goes for most our TV, movie, and pop stars.

Western culture only seems to get really offended when young women are sexualized in an animated context.

Seems a weird point to get stuck on, but that's the beauty of America.  It doesn't have to make any sense.

Too damn true. And that's why sexualized borderline youngsters in other cultures remains alarming and disturbing... because their draw is entirely the same as the draw they have in our own. And that's partly why I'm personally a little bit dubious of the "it's okay in their culture" argument on the issue. I venture that the appeal and excitement of "underage" girls has the same resonance within other cultures as it does with us. Or those of us who like that sort of thing.

We just happen to have a sexually legal line that's higher and better defined than most other nations, and other cultures are more permissive of the subject in other forms of media. But anyone who's ever had even a brief glimpse of vaguely purient material that deals with young subjects-- from most any culture-- knows that the emphasis isn't always on the subject's sexual, mental, and emotional maturity. It's often focusing on the still-semi-child aspect.

-Al

You bring up sexual situations with barely teens as the primary focus of your idea of "kiddie porn". At the risk of giving a spoiler, there are no sexual situations in Macross Zero episode 4.

I doubt there's any of the sort in M0 either. My point was only that fixation on barely teens as sexual objects (evidenced elsewhere in anime) remains a fixation on youth and sex, disturbing from where I see things. It actually has little to do with whether sex is appropriate for the actual individuals of that age.

And a bit of counterpoint. Just because some cultures abhor multiple wives, women experiencing any sort of pleasure during the act of sex, sex with those they consider 'minors' despite physical and mental maturity, sex with a partner of another race, or sex with a partner of the same gender, or sex using birth control, does not does not automatically make it unhealthy or unnacceptable to other cultures.

Of course. At least a few of those I'd wholeheartedly agree with-- and at least a few of those are ideas now firmly ingrained into Western culture. The point was that just because it's possible to isolate an idea or standard of behavior as being "Western" or "recent" doesn't mean it doesn't still hold some sort of objective validity, and doesn't mean that it doesn't have value when applied to other cultures. Same goes the other way around, which was why I'd posed that there are likely just as many things "wrong" with our society as seen from another vantage point.

As for whether or not such believes make one ethnocentric, I would argue that you're wrong and saying such things would make one ethnocentric if they were speaking of another culture.

Welp, one can only hold to this unconditionally if they believe that there is indeed no absolute truth, and that all morality and beliefs are purely cultural and purely relativistic. I'm not much of a moral relavist, so this argument doesn't hold much sway over me. Some truths are truths, and some fall into the grey. But for one to say "I believe that this particular issue is abhorrent-- but because you practice this outside of our culture, it's thus perfectly acceptable, and I therefore have no right to speak about this issue as it applies to you-- so go right on ahead, with my hearty applause," one speaks with a intellectual disintegrity that cripples claims on any truths he holds to.

As long as there will be real moralists, there will be those who apply their beliefs onto mankind as a whole. Because real moral truths can never say "This is right. And this is wrong. But only for us. Because it's not really true."

Not to mention that culturally relativistic thinking applies it's own morality steadfastly onto every culture and people-- that of "thou shalt not judge, especially if they are not your own." This is just as much a forcing of one's own belief and morality about judgement upon others as any other form of forced morality.

To see any of this as "right" or "wrong" is an ethnocentric stand, your own cultural beliefs leading you to a moral decision about another culture.

To see any of this is "right" or "wrong" simply means you have an opinion, not that you're necessarily ethnocentric. People do have ideas that tend to be their own, and sometimes is contradictory to what their culture states as acceptable.

And asserting that ethnocentricity, and applying one's values onto other cultures is somehow bad and a thing to be avoided, is itself a somewhat ethnocentric view. It's one held strongly by modern, educated cultures that give emphasis to cultural freedom and allowances for conflicting views. It's actually not one observed or respected by many, many cultures. And it's just as ethnocentric to suggest that one's naughty for measuring another culture with one's own measuring stick, as it is to do the measuring in the first place. At least if one really believes that all moral stands are cultural, societal, and ethnic in nature.

At any rate I think in most societies, however much they diverge, sex with children is considered something to be frowned upon. The issues you bring merely point out at what age one is considered a child. But the fact that there seems to be a line at all in most cultures, and that it varies and people have a hard time agreeing on where it lies (or caring to define it in the first place), points to the fact that sex with children goes a little bit beyond ethnocentricity.

18 is an arbitrary number of course. It's just one that our culture deems a healthy cutoff. That line can move from culture to culture, but the fact that the line exists and does move says that there's something that makes many cultures uneasy about children having sex, especially with decidedly not-children.

To not make a "moral judgement" at all would be the only way to not be ethnocentric. To simply know there's cultural differences that vary from your own, and accept that.

Of course, we're only human.

Precisely. Although making moral judgements is what makes us human. And I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing or a thing to be done away with.

And of course, suggesting that not making moral judgements and not being ethnocentric would be a good thing, would itself be a very moral and very ethnocentric sentiment.

On a side note, when I was in elementary school, they still taught us that the Brontosaurus was a real dinosaur.

It ain't? O_o

-Al

You do realize that the current western ideas of how old someone must be to be an adult are actually very recent in the scheme of things. Take a step back to Civil War era America and people were still getting married and having kids at 14.

The idea of an age when people magically become adults is entirely in our heads.

And please, don't even try to justify it by saying "people live longer now than they did back then!" Living longer has not retarded our ability to mature mentally or physically. Society, on the other hand, is determined to do just that.

Also, not all cultures are like minded with our ideals of what constitutes an adult, or at what age people should be engaged in such and such activities. It is very ethnocentric to believe otherwise.

That's a nice argument. But the reality is that it wouldn't stand very long in court, here or in Japan (I'd think) in cases involving sex with minors. And that argument doesn't begin to make barely-teens-as-sexual-objects resound as acceptable or justifiable in most modern folks' minds. Not that I think M0 Ep 4 is kiddie porn, as I haven't seen it yet.

Just because it's possible to label something most of society sees as divergent as being "a relatively new, modern, and western idea" doesn't justify it or excuse it under the brush of moral and cultural relativity.

The age of sexual and emotional maturity is entirely in our heads. Sure. So's anything else that has to do with "morality", standards, and acceptable behavior, really. And at the risk of sounding like a bigot or some ig'nant Westerner-- just because some other culture that allows for sex with small children, multiple partners and wives, and condones what we would consider incest-- doesn't make it automatically healthy and acceptable if only we were open minded enough to cast off our "Western" inhibitions and if we were only able to see things from their perspective. And it doesn't make one ethnocentric saying so.

I imagine there's plenty things wrong with Western culture from the eyes of other civilizations. And you know what? They'd probably be right on plenty counts.

Lastly, while the case can be tenuously made that the decision to have sex lies largely with the individual, and different cultures allow for different ages where that decision is respected and considered valid--

Depictions of young individuals engaging in sexually related activity have nearly nothing to do with standards on at what ages humans should partake in certain behavior. It has almost everything to do with facination of and fixation on semi-children of that age as sexual objects, usually by individuals many years removed.

That's what creeps me out, but I'm just a ig'nant and ethnocentric Westerner.

-Al

As for F-15E--I was talking agility, not speed. F-15's top speed is so utterly inachievable 99% of the time it's just plain pointless. I think F-14's can go faster most of the time, as they can actually go fast under most conditions, and they have a stronger windscreen.

I think the E's bleed energy badly with high-alpha maneuvers, again, because of the conformals. You can point the noise pretty quickly, but you'll putzing along if you get too eager. The new engines likely help there though. At least that's what Janes F-15, and dissertations from Sean Long, Janes' Mudhen pilot consultant had drilled into me.

-Al

F-15E is said to suck, agility-wise, when carrying bombs. But I always wonder if thats exaggerated. Most people seem to talk like a 747 would out-turn it... However, if it jettisoned the weapons, it would probably do better than the F-15C, due to the much more powerful engines, despite weighing inherently more than the C. And it's got a 2nd guy onboard, always a plus. (Assuming it's a later F-15E with the better engines)

The E's likely have respectable maneuverability when empty, but I doubt it'd ever fare better than a C speedwise, due the conformal fuel tanks strapped to the side that really wreak havok with drag. E's don't hit the mach 2.5 that's regularly posted as the 15's top speed. Actually, C's don't either, for that matter.

-Al

it SEEMS to me, that calling the "asian" countrys like Japan, China, Korea and the like "oriental" is not any more derogitory than calling Asian countrys like Afghanisstan and Pakistan "middle eastern."

What's derogatory is decided more by the people one's referring to than it is by other parties. I'm not sure what innaccuracies are involved in referring to folks as "Oriental" other than the fact that it conjures up images of buck tooth Charlie Chan and such, while Asian just sounds technical. For what it's worth, many Asian Indians consider themselves Asian, and the term Asian Indian is often used refer to those groups, but the division between the two seems to lie in the fact that appearances and culture are at times more defining than the continent they actually do come from.

-Al

Same reason they killed the F-14---if there was the possibility of upgrading the F-14 for cheap, or heck an almost-new F-14 design, then the "more $/lb than platinum" Hornet had serious competition. New designs cost LOTS of money, and upgrading already-paid-for planes always looks way more attractive, money-wise. So of course they don't let that happen, so new more expensive planes can be built.

Hmm... so they opted for the worst of both worlds. Upgrading an existing and mediocre design-- and yet still managing to spend the huge gobs on it that could have been directed towards a completely new design and airframe, done right.

If they were going for a new and more 'spensive plane, they could have at least done it right. I dunno... say something cool like fresh design to fill the 14's role, akin to what the F-22 is to the F15. That would own. Instead we get the Super bug and JSF.

I thought the Navy demanded twin engines on their plane. Whatever happened to that requirement, or is there a Naval JSF that does have two engines?

-Al

I love the Tomcat to death, yes... but I've heard on good authority that one of the huge benefits of switching over to Super Hornets is the ungainly amounts of maintenance time involved in servicing F-14's compared to the other options. The time difference is something on the order of several magnitudes over, and this is actually one of the biggest reasons for dropping the Cats-- for something that can do the job, if not as effectively in areas, but would be much easier to maintain.

The guy I'd heard it from was CJ Martin, the designer involved in the Janes' sims series, who was a Naval tweak and had also been involved in the Hornet test programs.

-Al

Unsurprisingly, Warner's concrete benchmark is not sitting well with Bruno Bonnell, CEO and president of Atari. "[Enter the Matrix] sold $250 million worldwide," he told the Reporter, "That's what a big major motion picture makes. And Warner Bros. would penalize us because we didn't achieve 70 percent? Are they joking?"

READ: Silly. What does game quality have to do with anything?

That said, I actually enjoyed Enter The Matrix. First fighting game that actually felt like a kung-fu movie.

And although this royalty/review system has potential for abuse, it might actually not hurt publishers that badly in terms of them wanting to take unconvential risks and making non-mass marketed games-- since few if any titles based on licenses have ever ventured to provide gameplay that wasn't a re-hash of some existing mainstream forumla.

Wonder how this effects the Matrix MMORPG, or if their contract sidesteps this clause, since the project was started long before it. It'd be nice for that game to not suck.

-Al

and what the heck... no vote for the rich chick that tried to rape mylene??

O_o WTF, mate? That's a hentai anime plot device if ever I seen one.

-Al

But I'd really like to see a series or movie that explores the 70 odd years of history between Star Trek 6 and TNG. There's alot that could be covered there, but the style of that era is just fantastic, with the more militaristic uniforms, etc. Plus I'm a sucker for Excelsior class ships.

IT NEEDS TO BE DONE! Excelsior, the series! Sulu-Trek!! Before he shrivels and dies!

-Al

Whoa. Where'd you find that fan art Ali Sama? 

like it? I found it on a gallery site featurign th emnay enterprises.

O_o I ADORE that design! That would have been the perfect mix of retro and new, having elements from the old show, combined with slicker and more modern influences... without looking *way* too advanced compared with the original designs. And it having bits of Yamato thrown in is a good, good thing. *fawns*

-Al

She had years to have Hikaru all to herself but she screwed the pooch and didn't realize what was important in life...

To drive your enemies before you, and to hear the lamentation of the Meltran?

-Al

I've worked with a few Japanese guys in my line of work. When I say Japanese I mean 100%, work visas and all. None of them were shorter than me....I'm 5'8". In fact, one of them was probably about 5'10".

Worked for SNK when it was still around out here in Cali, and of the native/mostly-native Japanese men that worked there, 3 of the 6 were about 6 feet or taller. Then again, these were the CEO, the Producer, and the Engineering Lead, soo their height might've contributed in some way in their getting their positions.

I still loomed a few inches above most everyone during a trip to Japan a few years back (being 6' 2"), but it wasn't like they were midgets. Was actually surprised by the number of relatively tall women in Tokyo, but then again, tall, lanky, model types tend to gravitate to the cosmo-urban places.

-Al

PPS--Chicago has a *very* subtle accent, compared to most of Nebraska/Iowa/Illinois. It's one of those "you can only hear it if they're doing it on purpose to prove it exists". Unless it's the word "Chicago" itself, where it's rather obvious. But far most other words, very hard to pick up. Didn't hear it at all much until college, since we get a lot of people from there.

"Chicaahgo." "Baahx. (Box)" "Saahx. (Socks)"

We like giving our Chicago-grown friends a hard time about that. =D

-Al

Mostly I just smashed the stuff, but having been a rather odd child, I think that my Duke figure was lucky that I didn't have a Scarlet figure. Can you say "head transplant?"

That was not the first thing I'd thought of that Duke could do with Scarlet. Perhaps some childhoods are stranger than others.

-Al

Forget Ahnuld Valks. What we need are Schwarzentraedi. Grab a 1/6 Arnie T-800 figure and call him Ahnuldolza. The UN Spacy doesn't stand a chance.

-Al

Guys, it's not as though Arnie can ask his boss to take time off from work... he's a freakin' governor now.

Yes he can. I'm the boss of him and it's alright with me. He just needs to run it past his other several million bosses.

That official promo shot of the figure posed is incredible. Has to be one of the best proportioned large female figures, still capable of poses screaming character. Just wish she came with an unhelmeted head. Nazi helmet and mask wearing chicks just aren't my thing... but gals in armor are.

Seems like the figure's a worthy part of a kitbash... perhaps for an Appleseed ESWAT figure. Or they can just make some female ESWAT operative figures of that quality already.

-Al

Painted the Gakken Cycle "Scott Bernard" figure's eyes in, shoddily... then attempted to paint the visor blue like the TV show showed, using metallic blue paint that'd settled so the metal flakes were at the bottom of the jar and the transparent blue solution was at the top.

Except the paint didn't settle completely, so Scott was stuck with a visor that he couldn't see through very well, was sparkly, and marred with Zentradi sized paint brush streaks.

-Al

then may i suggest picking up the Danger Girl Trade Paperback. good stuff from J. Scott Campbell....

I thought Wonder Woman there looked particuarly Danger Girl-ly, too, actually. Duh me, since Campbell's worked on both titles... and guess it's the "in" style being emulated now.

-Al