This week: We wrap up our Futurama arc with death by snoo-snoo in Amazon Women In The Mood. We wind down our Stargate time travel arc with O’Neill and Teal’c’s personal groundhog day in Window of Opportunity. We close out Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0: Black Ops with a death match for the ages. And we run down the week in geek, including the (seemingly) final fate of the Star Wars live-action TV series, a change in status for the venerable triceratops, and the mind-bending Inception’s Chinese release.
JUAN!!
that is all…
Juan, You Rawk!
Wrap up the Stargate arc? I thought you were doing Before I Sleep from SGA too?
Chuck’s story about getting knocked over with a soccer ball reminded me of myself when I was a wee lass - I was actually knocked unconscious when I was small. By a guy on my team who was at least twice my size at the time. It took me a few years to get back to playing any organized sport…
I also think that something that didn’t come up in the sports discussion has to do with what we’ve been conditioned to expect from certain kinds of sports. Men’s basketball has been generally the standard, so when women’s basketball follows a different pace or plays to different strengths, it is more “boring” because it doesn’t meet your expectations of what basketball should be. That is not to say that everyone has to enjoy every sport, of course (I’ll be the first to admit that the only sport that I enjoy following or playing is soccer! Mens or womens, I love them both)
[b]Juandrew
Mankind’s greatest hope
Skynet’s greatest fear
Thanks for all your hard work
…and
late night Flight of the Conchords concerts.
You sir, Rock.
[/b]
[b]There can be
only
JUAN! [/b]
You’ve been Juan’d!!
giggle
Juan Sings and it’s cool for all
Juan Sings to squee them
Juan Sings to bring them all
and with his awesomeness free them
I love all the Juan-ness of #231. 
New words!
Juan-ness
Jaunification
Juanmazement
Juantastic
Juanified
Juanamanjaro
Juantacular
Juanarific
I’d add Juanalicious to that list!
May the Juan be with you!
Listening to the part in the podcast about the male vs. female discussion --inspired by Futurama episode basketball line.
Here’s just a couple points from sci fi:
In the book Star Ship troopers there’s a big point made that women have ON AVERAGE have faster reaction times them man. Therefore women on average are way better suited to be pilots than men.
Now let’s talk about muscle strength and then I’ll relate that the Dune universe.
Men on average have more upper body strength than women.
Women on average have more lower body strength than men.
Leg muscles are stronger than arm muscles.
So, if you think about, woman are stronger better fighters than men.
Now, in our culture, and probably must of Earth’s cultures today men tend to gravitate more toward sports, jobs etc. that are combat oriented: being a soldier, a boxer, a wrestler, mixed martial arts, etc.
Now lets talk Dune. In Dune, set tens of thousands of years in the future, women have …or at least select organizations of women…have intentionally chosen to develop “whole body” skills for combat ((the Bene Gesserit), and they are hands down more deadly than any male could be.
The book “God Emperor of Dune” gets into an interesting area where Emperor Leto chooses for his soldier/guards (The Fish Speakers) to be all female.
And part of his reason is this: Because in a combat organization (Army etc.) man tend to be loyal to one another … the brotherhood…the organization itself…whereas a woman (according to the book) tend to be more loyal to a leader and the political body they serve.
Now I don’t know if I think that’s true or not, but it’s all a very interesting idea and fun to debate and think about.
Women have more lower body strength proportionately. It’s still going to take a pretty big girl to beat average-sized me at Indian Leg Wrestling.
How that bears on captaining a starship (post-TOS, of course) I’m not sure.
Just as a point of clarification in today’s world (i.e. not Dune or Starship Troopers), piloting is not only about reaction times. If you are a pilot in a combat aircraft or spacecraft, you must be able to deal with the G-forces induced by the maneuvers. There are limits as to what any human can tolerate with both positive or negative G-forces before blacking out or having your head explode. In today’s fighter aircraft, pilots are suited with special devices that force the blood out of the lower extremities to help combat positive G-forces. Also, there are special exercises a pilot can perform to help combat blood pooling in the lower extremities. These exercises are usually best performed in an individual with a lot of toned muscle mass (in other words, brut strength). Because of this, men still dominate the fighter aircraft world today.
However, if you remove the changing in cockfit forces, a woman would inherintly have the advantage due to quicker reaction times and an ability to process more information simultaneously. Say, in an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) like the fun little number our Brit friends have operational today (Referring to Sean’s announcement in the cast a few weeks ago).
Due to the inherit unknowns in today’s combat environment as well as electromagnetic communications such as a jammed environment or line of sight transmission issues due to a craft rapidly performing maneuvers, remotely piloting a vehicle might not always be possible, thus an on-board AI would be a fall better pilot for a UCAV than a human on the ground.
So, as fall as a woman being a better pilot than a man, or a machine, I’d have to say that “it depends” on the circumstances.
Exactly. Men still have MORE total lower body strength. So it is still better for men to use exercises to resist positive g forces.
Well, I think this will require some experimentation. I’ll put out the call to find a girl of your same body mass engage you in Indian Leg Wrestling.
The movie Star Trek: Generations has taught us one thing: Do NOT let a female Betazed counselor drive the ship!! 
Well said. For my part, I was only referring to what they said in Starship Troopers.
Interesting though how technology tends to become more and more of gender equalizer. As firearms become more powerful per pound, it matters less and less how strong your upper body is.
Well, at some point in every battle the warp engines go down due to something or other with the containment field or a wrench Scotty’s half cousin left in the Jeffries Tube, and you’re reduced to impulse power. Then that takes a hit in a very dramatic scene where (insert technobabble here) fries the impulse circuits.
At that point small panels open at the feet of each bridge station, and bicycle pedals extend and lock.
And then it’s all about the thigh muscles.
You are such a GEEK
I don’t feel guilty for sq-Juan-dering my time time on such a Jaun-derful podcast!
As to Fembots, whenever I hear that term I always immediately think of the reoccurring villains from The Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man. Of course that is probably because I am old… (Get off my lawn, there are bodies under it!:mad:)
And as to the FSFL if there are any writers still itching to write more solutions, we could always revive the old GWC Fantasy Sci-fi Roundup Thread. Anyone? Anyone?
OK! Let’s plan a meet-up!
And it shall be named: Pike’s Death By Indian Leg Wrestling…and snoo snoo