Update: I came across this book review by Freeman Dyson which you may find interesting.  It reviews two “global warming” books and points out some things they’re ignoring.

It seems politicians are abandoning the phrase “global warming” in favor of the more ambiguous “climate change”.  Here’s a two-minute clip of a White House press conference, and a transcript of it:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Reporter 1:  Climate change.  Why is it a good idea for the President to arrive near the beginning of the climate talk negotiations, as opposed to the end, when the ultimate deal is going to be struck?  And secondarily…

Gibbs: Well… (more…)

Enough said.  Edit: Here’s another.  And another.

Someday I’ll write a longer post about this.

In pen-and-paper-based RPGs, the players often know things their characters do not; for example, as a player, I can obviously hear when the GM tells another player (whose character may be separated from mine) what he can see.  So I know this information, but my character does not.

However, it is often difficult to make decisions without making use of this information; my character might decide to head north instead of south, merely because as a player I happen to know what the GM said about the north (or south) to another player.

It’s called “meta-game thinking”, and before you start saying “who cares”, it’s applicable to more than just Dungeons and Dragons.

Let’s take Law & Order, for example.  Each episode is generally self-contained; they find a suspect or three, investigate them, and take one of them to court.  Recently I watched an episode guest-starring Bob Saget.  He wasn’t the initial suspect; he wasn’t even the second or third suspect.  But the instant I saw him, I knew he would be the ending suspect – I used information outside of the show’s universe to extrapolate the outcome of the show.

Specifically, more famous guest-stars are always the final suspect.  Now, a viewer who was unfamiliar with Bob Saget would never have been able to determine the outcome so early; it was only my knowledge of the actor’s fame that allowed me to make that determination.

Similarly, even when actors aren’t as famous, you can guess things based on meta-world information.  For example, in V, Alan Tudyk plays a V who is undercover as an FBI agent; he dies in the third episode.  But a friend of mine was able to guess that fact, before it was revealed, because Alan Tudyk was credited as a “guest star”.  Guest stars are not main characters; using that meta-knowledge reveals things about the show that you would otherwise not know.

This is the biggest problem with TV shows.  Merely knowing who the actors are can be enough to reveal “secret” pieces of the plot.  I don’t know what to do about it, but it does sometimes ruin the immersion into a show’s plot.

The third episode of V actually did better in terms of plot pacing – much, much better.

The problem is, a lot of it was a little unrealistic.  For example, the V surveillance room with all the video feeds; she sneaks in without being seen.  This is a restricted area of the V compound; why, exactly, are they letting her roam freely, unsupervised?  Why would a sensitive room like that be empty?

Sure, you might say it’s because it was a coded door.  Surely the Vs have better tech than a four-character PIN?  Surely the Vs are capable of having tech that automagically verifies that the person who enters the PIN is actually authorized to use it?

Entry guarded by a number pad was outdated a long time ago.  We have far better tech than that nowadays; an RFID badge, for example, is far more secure.

Furthermore, she’s on video herself in the room; surely she assumes it’s being recorded somewhere?  Yet she makes no attempt to hide or delete the video of her in the room.

Blah.  Stuff like that.

I’m told that after episode four, they’re delaying the show until March.  I don’t really think it deserves to come back.

(Turns out I don’t get the SyFy channel anymore, so Hulu is my only option…)

I’m getting more and more irritated with this show.  Not only did they put in two completely unnecessary sex scenes, but they had to make one of the characters a lesbian, too, so they could have some girl-on-girl kissing.

This is less and less like Stargate, and more and more like… I don’t know… something else.

This episode didn’t further the plot at all (other than establishing contact with the ships seeding planets with Stargates).  It did little more than increase the already ridiculously high level of tension among the crew members, and (yet again) expose Rush as a liar.

The more I watch this show, the more I want it to get canceled, if only to keep it from doing any lasting harm to the Stargate franchise.