We wrap up our time travel arc with a discussion of the morality of time travel, focusing specifically on Back to the Future. And we run down the week in geek, including the Space Shuttle Discovery’s final liftoff, a possible Blade Runner sequel, a possible RoboCop “reboot,” and lots more. If you haven’t yet RSVP’d for the 2011 GWC International Meetup in Texas, time’s running out! We’ve still got space, though, and would love to meet you. Check the forum for details.
Mornin’ Chuck. 0730 here in Germany. Did one final check on the podcast, and YAY! The new one posted! My morning drive is saved!
Trey
You guys want a movie that gets the mechanics of time travel all messed up? Watch Frequency. If I carve a message on my desk now, you can’t watch it forming 30 years in the future. It takes the whole “Marty’s fading hand” mistake and turns it up to 11.
Sean, I belive the battle you were thinking of is the Battle of Agincourt 
Montjoy: Give us leave, great king, to view the field in safety and dispose of their dead bodies.
King Henry V: I tell thee truly, herald, I know not if the day be ours or no.
Montjoy: The day is yours.
King Henry V: Praised be God and not our strength for it! What is this castle called that stands hard by?
Montjoy: They call it Agincourt.
King Henry V: Then call we this the field of Agincourt, fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
Welcome Scopehound. Butterfly Effect has a similar time glitch.
And in the friendliest possible way, I see your Frequency and raise you Time After Time: HG Wells, in hot pursuit of Jack the Ripper, puts an extra pair of eyeglasses in his desk in 1890-whatever… then finds them, intact, in the desk in a museum exhibit in 1979.
I forgot how silly that was. Firing arrows during a melee?
I’m totally with Audra in the whole BTTF discussion. In fact I don’t see how Chuck thinks Biff has been screwed at all. If I am not mistaken, in BTTF both Biff and George work together in crappy office jobs where Biff is bullying George constantly. At the end of 1 and 3 don’t we see that George is now confident, has passed that to his kids and Biff owns an Auto Detailing Business. In many ways he is also a better person but not completely changed, old habits die hard.
IMO - Biff ends out better off. Buford was an Evil POS (Biff/Old Biff/Griff = D-Bag , Alt. Biff = POS) in the films and got off light. Getting covered in manure is hardly getting screwed, especially when you do it to yourself. Buford was a cold blooded murderer and IMO, even if Marty shot him, he would not have been screwed over. The Timeline however would be. :eek:
Who Got Screwed:
Marvin got his hand sliced.
Lorraine didn’t get the boob job. :groucho:
Clara didn’t get the ravine named after her. :oops:
Secret time-travel origin of GWC:
[Phone rings]
“Hey, Chuck: This is your cousin, Marvin Cage. You know that sci-fi show you and you, Sean and Audra are talking about all the time?”
Yep that was it. Been getting tons of email about that, brain fart. But of course Bwana did indeed (as I predicted) email me as soon as he heard it… and to tell me to lay off religion until I get closer to dying.
Eh. Who cares if a few Pikemen get killed in the crossfire. As long as no nobles are hurt. …
…
Oh! Oh my gods, Pike. I’m so sorry. That was a terribly heartless thing to say about your people, Pike. Please forgive me! 
Ha! Yeah. When you started to say “Trafalgar” I was like “What?” Trafalgar is the famous ship battle where the heroic Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French and Spanish fleets of the coast of Spain…and (spoiler alert) all England wept and the death of their dear Nelson.
Have you read the Temeraire books yet? That spoiler is so much fun in the Temeraire-verse. Well, as much fun as nationwide mourning of a dead military hero in the midst of a physical and existential war can be.
“Well listen to this mp3!” [holds phone to the iPod]
Very nice, dxf 
The old adage goes, “Do not discuss religion or politics.” Why? Because folks have strong opinions? No. Folks can handle opinions, they can’t handle choices. When I was younger, I was ostracized and labeled a dork. It taught me at a very young age that people’s opinions, beliefs, and choices should not define me. They were entitled to their choices, etc. but their opinion of me and my choices was based in ignorance and prejudice.
Why say something, when someone has probably said it better.
[i]“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” --Mark Twain
“Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion - several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven.” --Mark Twain
“Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.” --Anonymous[/i]
Religion and Politics becomes a problem when your truth must be The Truth.
Oh. And I’m one of them folks that thinks atheism is a religion.
Well said (the first part). But I take issue with the notion that atheism is religion. I’m an atheist and it’s not a belief.
I even have a problem with overuse of the word “belief”.
I don’t THINK there’s a God. God’s existence doesn’t make make much sense.
Why can’t we instead use “think” for a question that’s so important?
Belief is a weak word—and it’s unworthy of our scientific modern age----in my opinion.
Hang out on reddit or mefi or similar aggregator sites and you’ll run into what I call ‘evangelical atheists.’ They’re indistinguishable from their theist counterparts in practice.
Yeah I’m with Thot on this one
Well said!
LOL. I’ll be sure NOT to check out those sites. That stuff interests me not.
I find that a lot of times those ‘evangelical atheists’ are people that used to be religious and got fed up and have an axe to grind against religion. Me, I was never religious.
I suspect that the ‘evangelical atheist’ concept is largely a perception phenomena from religious folks. Growing up surrounded by other people who are religious, some people don’t seem to know how to deal with a lack of belief when they encounter it.
It’s funny, I’m surrounded by prayer every day in various forms (from ‘bless you!’ as a response to a sneeze up to full on religious sermons), but if I mention “I’d like my kid to say the Pledge of Allegiance without the ‘under god’ part that was added in the 50s”, then I’m labeled a ‘militant atheist’. This has actually happened to me, btw.
It’s a pretty big double standard, but <shrug> what can I do? I’m in the minority.
To be fair, there’s a lot to recommend those sites, but you will run into those people.
I’m agnostic myself (really, atheist, but I like to leave some fudge room) and those guys annoy me.