Last thing you Watched/Read.

[Lewis]

Goodbye Mr. Chips, amazing program.

[Lewis]

The X Factor

[Skul]

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

What can I say?

[Earl]

another MST3K show (available at youtube)! "The Creeping Terror," which is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made -- something with which we can all agree.

This cinematic masterpiece features one of the dopiest movie monsters you'll ever see, the notorious "carpet monster," whose victims have forgotten how to run and have to crawl inside its mouth in order to be eaten.

Tom Servo: Will the monster marry Susan? And what about their baby? Tune in tomorrow and find out.

[Lewis]

The Last King of Scotland.

[Lewis]

Waiting For Godot

[Polite24]

currently watching the World Series!!!

[Fat Man]

currently watching the World Series!!!

YEAH YEAH YEAH! WE KNOW! WE KNOW!

Little things please little minds.

[Polite24]

the World Series is actually a pretty big event.

[abitagirl]

the World Series is actually a pretty big event.

Yeah, a big bore.

Yes, we know you watch sports. Yes, you like sports. Blah blah blah. Don't care.

[Fat Man]

the World Series is actually a pretty big event.

Like we give a fuck!

Now, don't go crying boo hoo because we don't like to watch the garbage that you like so much.

So, before you start crying boo hoo . . . . .



Here is my world's smallest violin and it's playing just for you.

[Sergey]

Hmm... I believe he does this on purpose oh anyway, will this work?

[Polite24]

the World Series is actually a pretty big event.

Yeah, a big bore.

Yes, we know you watch sports. Yes, you like sports. Blah blah blah. Don't care.

Just participating in the thread. I don't put down what you guys watch. And athletes/sports fans are the immature ones?

[Fat Man]

This evening I just finished reading a science fiction paperback titled NOAH II by Roger Dixon.

I read it once before back in 1983 and I decided to read it again, so I bought my own copy from:
http://www.biblio.com/

There you can order rare or out-of-print books.

This one has a 1970 copyright date on it. I only paid a dollar for it because it's a used book but it's in good condition. It only has a small fold on the upper right-hand corner of the front cover, and the pages are slightly yellow with age. This book is 39 years old but in excellent condition.

Anyway . . . . .

NOAH II

Machines, and, above all, humans had ruined the earth.
But mankind was given a second chance - from a source
beyond their understanding.

No wooden ships this time, no animals two-by-two. The
fleet was 20 space-ships strong, built to endure for an
eternity.

The puny remnants of the human race pulled away from
Earth forever, searching the unfathomable infinity of the
universe for a new world, a new hope, a new home . . .

Also from the book . . .

He looked around in wonder. Everything was the same, but
different; he felt for the first time the presence of someone
waiting patiently for his understanding. Hardly knowing what
he as doing, Preston raised both his arms high above his head
and put his head back to shout at the sky.

"Father!"

The clouds seem to race toward him even faster, and Preston
followed them to the horizon. Then he saw, out on the plain,
standing almost at the focus of the wind, the tall figure of a
man.

The stranger stood waiting while the boy walked toward him.
When he was less than twenty yards away, the other looked
directly into his eyes and smiled.

Preston froze, his heart almost stopped with awe, for there
was something about the other which was both human - yet
more so: a quality of goodness he felt he could almost reach
out and touch. Power was there too, beyond his understanding,
and a sense of authority he knew instinctively to be without
human arrogance.

"Preston" The stranger held out a hand to him. "Do not be
afraid. my name is Vicro."

The novel is divided into two books.

NOAH II

Book I Genesis (13 chapters)
Book II Exodus (7 chapters)

The story takes place in the far future, at least a thousand years from now.

Society had become more and more decadent. People didn't bother to read and study anymore, or do any exploring, because they had an advanced machine technology that did everything for them. It provided for all of their physical needs, their comfort, and pleasures, and their advanced computers even did their thinking for them.

Children were separated from their mothers at birth and were placed in villages with other children their age and taken care of by the machines. As they got older, they never married, and had multiple sex partners and the machines would take care of their children so they would have all the time they wanted to pursue their own selfish pleasures.

But young Preston was different. He wanted to learn how to read, so he asked the machines to bring him books, which they did, because the machines were programed to provide for his every need and wish, and every pleasure, and since Preston found pleasure in reading the ancient books the machines provided for that pleasure.

Then one day, some kids were teasing him because he was different, and one kid grabbed his book and threw it into a swimming pool. Preston got angry and attacked the other kid, and the machines took him away for his violent behavior for reprocessing.

He manage to escape and to leave the village, and he met a girl named Sarah. They became close friends and as they wondered about out in the country, they made a home in an old abandoned house, and learned how to grow their own food and how to hunt. Sarah had Preston's baby and they had to learn how to raise a child. It was an alien concept to them, the idea of a male and female raising a child, because the machines did that.

They were still just kids, and yet, they were raising a child. They named him Jem.

Then it was one day when Preston was walking out alone when he met Vicro, who turned out to be from an advanced civilization on another planet far away. He was a messenger from God.

Now thirty years later, Preston and Sarah are grown up, and they had three sons, Jem, Ham, and Jacy. Preston has another encounter with Vicro, who told him that God was going to destroy the planet with a world wide drought, and that he was to gather 10,000 people from around the planet and to build a great stockade, a fortress as a sanctuary for those who would heed the warning about the coming drought. It was a very large structure covering a few square miles. There would be plenty of fields inside for raising farm animals and growing crops.

Eventually, about 10,000 people came to the stockade, and the big gate was closed and sealed and nobody was to ever leave the stockade, and after the gates were closed, the drought would began, and the rest of the population of the earth was doomed.

Within the stockade they grew crops and raised farm animals. They had generators to provided electricity and pumps to provide well water. The people within the stockade would survive the drought. The sky became dark and cloudy, but there was no more rain. The entire planet became a desert and people around the world were dying off. Many were fighting and killing for diminishing resources.

Preston had promised the people in the stockade that Vicro was coming again, and he would bring advanced tools and materials to build 20 ships to leave the earth. Some people were becoming doubtful because nobody had ever seen Vicro, except Preston. Vicro only appeared to Preston.

One night, while everybody else were sleeping in their cabins, Preston was walking about outside, and he saw a bright light in the sky and a ship landed. A being stepped out, it was Vicro, and he told Preston it's now time to begin the construction of the 20 ships. Both Vicro and the ship disappeared and the following morning, out in an open field within the stockade as everybody woke up, they could see great stacks of building materials and a couple of strange looking crates. One crate contained a special cutting tool for the materials and the other crate contained the navigational computer for the command ship which would control all the other ships as they flew together in formation.

Within the stockade, Jem was placed in charged of their military to protect the stockade when people from the outside might launch an attack, and Ham was in charge of education, teaching the children science and math and many other skills they would need from the ancient text books.

Jem was worried about a possible attack from outside, so he disobeyed Preston, and left the stockade and headed for the ancient city of New York to spy on them and to find out if anybody was planning an attack. He was captured and taken prisoner, beaten and tortured.

Preston was greatly distressed by his son, Jem's disobedience and he sent a couple of men out to search for Jem. They eventually found Jem, rescued him from his captors and before they made it back to the stockade, they sabotaged their wagons that were carrying their supply of water, then they returned to the stockade with information that there was going to be an attack on the fortress. Since the machines had quit working during the drought, the enemy troops resorted to primitive wagons to carry their supplies, and now, those were sabotaged.

So, the stockade came under attack and many men were stationed along the catwalk of the fortress. The only weapons, ironically enough, were spears, swords or daggers, because weapons were no longer made in this future society since the machines had provided for everybody's comfort and decadent pleasures, so there was no crime and no more wars. That is, until now! Since they didn't know how to make guns anymore, they fought with primitive weapons that were crudely improvised under the circumstances.

Their enemy was defeated and driven away and most of them would die in the desert before they retreated back to the cities because their wagons that had carried their supplies of water had been sabotaged.

Eventually, the 20 ships were completed, and during the night when everybody was asleep, Preston was out walking about and Vicro appeared to him again, with a program tape for the navigational computer in the command ship. It was a paper tape with holes punched in it.

The following morning everybody was entering their assigned ships, and the animals were placed aboard one of the ships built just for that purpose. The 20 ships rose slowly and majestically into the sky and went into orbit around the earth. They began making preparations for the jump into Hyper-space seeing to it that everything was functioning properly. There had been no test flights. There wasn't time for that luxury. Everything had to work perfectly the very first time. There could be no mistakes.

When traveling through normal space, the ships could communicate with one another, and there was a shuttle-pod system that was so easy to use that a child could travel from one ship to another. You just simply sit down in the pod, close the cockpit canopy, and there was 20 buttons, you just simply pushed the button for the ship number you wish to visit. The indicator light on the airlock would go from green to red, the inner door closed and the outer door opened, then the pod is launched and it makes it's way automatically to the ship who's number you had selected, and the outer door of the receiving airlock would open, the pod would enter, and the outer door closed, the light above the inner door went from red to green before it opened, and you climb out of the pod and you're there. It was as simple to use as an elevator in a high-rise building. A child could do it.

Now, before making a scheduled jump into Hyper-space, the airlocks to the shuttle pods were shut down so they can't be used, because in Hyper-space, there would be no communications between the 20 ships, and anybody using a shuttle-pod would be left behind, lost forever. There was no way of knowing how long a scheduled Hyper-space jump would last. It could be for a day or two, or for a few months, so if you were visiting some friends in another ship, then during a Hyper-space jump you would not be able to return to your home ship, so your friends would have to put you up for the time being until the ships dropped out of hyper-space back into normal space. Then you can return to your home ship.

When in Hyper-space, you can not see the other ships when you look out of a window. You don't see any stars, just a strange incomprehensible realm. It's impossible to know what you're looking at. A lot of people feel sick and dizzy when they look out of a window into Hyper-space, and if you're in your own little room, it's probably best to draw your curtains shut on your window during the jump into Hyper-space. So, if you don't want to get sick during a Hyper-space jump, just don't look out any windows.

During the long voyage, they had made many jumps into Hyper-space, some jumps lasting a short time, and some jumps lasting several months, and every time they dropped back into normal space, they were in some other far-away galaxy and approaching another star system, and approaching another planet. The ships would make orbit, they would take measurements and collect data on the planet but then, another scheduled Hyper-space jump would occur. They had to stick with the programming on the computer tape. They had to follow very strict protocols. It's like their faith was being tested.

What was so frustrating, was that they had no idea where they were in their journey. The navigational computer would sometimes spit out only a few inches of the paper tape or sometimes several feet of tape. It made no difference if it was to be a long jump or a short jump into hyper-space, they could not judge how the program was working by how much of the paper tape the computer was spitting out.

When they were building the ships, they had been given detailed instructions to follow. Nobody understood what they were putting together. They had absolutely no idea how anything worked, no understanding of the principles, because the physics was way beyond their comprehension. It was obviously the product of a far superior intelligence, a divine intelligence, instructions from God himself related to Preston by God's messenger Vicro.

In the Genesis account of Noah's Ark, it was simple. Just build a great big wooden boat! No big deal!

But if God want's a latter day Noah to build spaceships that can jump into Hyper-space to exceed the speed of light, well, that's going to be a really big problem. A messenger form God would have to provide the schematics, the materials, and the tools, and make the instructions as simple as possible.

Putting TAB A into SLOT B, that's simple enough. A child can do it. They could do that. They just didn't know the complex physics of how the TAB A and the SLOT B worked, or what it was for. It was so far above and beyond their knowledge, so all they needed to know was what part connects where, and just let God worry about how it worked. God might as well had been instructing the Biblical Noah in Genesis on how to assemble a TV set. The only way the Biblical Noah could do that, is if a messenger from God provided Noah a picture of what a TV looks like, and the parts to assemble it, and the tools. I'm sure Noah might be smart enough to learn how to use a soldering iron and a screw driver. He doesn't have to know how a soldering iron works, but only how to use it, and how to turn a screw driver, and then, he could assemble a TV set, and when he's finished, he could say, "Hey Lord! Here's your what-ever-it-is!" and it might even work.

Well, that is how complex the 20 ships were. The physics was as far above and beyond their knowledge and comprehension as the principles of a TV set would be above any knowledge that the Biblical Noah had at his time. When he was done putting it together, he would probably say "Oh! It a magic box that makes moving pictures that speak!" and then he would get frightened by it, scream and run away into the night!

Basically, the structures of the ships was simple enough. No more complex than building a Navy battleship. The hull of the ship was a dark black material that didn't reflect any light. To look at a sheet of the material was like looking into a deep dark void. Each ships was the shape of an icosahedron, a geometric solid with 20 triangular faces, and if the ships and been spheres, each one would have been about 200 feet in diameter. But when you enter a ship, it is much larger on the inside than on the outside. The internal volume of each ship was about 10 times greater than what it would normally be for an icosahedron 200 feet across. It had something to do with the ships ability to jump into Hyper-space. So, building the skeletal structures of the ships, and placing the sheets of the dark material for the hull, that was easy.

Also, the special cutting tool resembled a jig-saw, but it was a beam of light that cut the materials. It didn't actually "cut" the material, but rather, it pushed the atoms of the material aside, and the same tool could be used to put the material back together again, so this special cutting tool could "cut" and "uncut" the material.

Building the hull of each ship was fairly simple. The more complex components, the physics of which were way beyond their compression, those components required no assembly, but simply had to be properly mounted and connected together.

Of course, during their long journey, there was plenty of time to speculate on how everything worked and they came up with their own theories and hypothesis, and I imagine that God was probably laughing at them the whole time.

You don't need to know how a car works to drive one. You just need to know how to use the steering wheel, the breaks and the turn signals, so even if they didn't know the principle of how their ships were propelled, they just needed to know how to work the controls, which buttons to push, what switches to turn off or on.

But during the journey, many of the people were becoming impatient. All they did was drop out of Hyper-space, take a quick look at some planet from orbit, then jump back into Hyper-space to head off to another planet somewhere else. A lot of people wanted to just land somewhere and start a new life, because they were getting sick and tired of just taking a grand tour with only brief stops.

So, Jem and some of his followers started a mutiny against his father, Preston. They had just made orbit around a beautiful Earth-like planet that was like a little moon in orbit around a giant planet about 17 times the size of Jupiter. It was a beautiful sight! Jem and his followers wanted to land on the planet and make it their home.

Preston convinced the mutineers to put down their weapons and he said that he would allow all those who wish to leave, to settle on the planet. Most of the 10,000 people chose to fallow Jem while only about 200 people chose to stay loyal to Preston, and so all the ships landed, and Jem and his followers got off the ships to settle on their new homeworld.

They divided the animals and the seeds for planting crops and left Jem and his followers enough to start a new life on the planet and left behind some of the ships.

The ones who remained loyal to Preston, they went back to their ship, the command ship with the navigational computer, and lifted off from the planet, and broke orbit. Because they had broken protocols by landing on the planet, Preston and his loyal followers were afraid they might have disobeyed God, so before their next scheduled jump into Hyper-space, they went through a purification ritual, stripping down naked and walking under high pressure showers, then they lead all their animals through the showers. The horses, cows, and goats, etc. etc. protested, but the ducks loved it!

Then they continued their journey, waiting for a sign from God where to finally land.

But in the meantime, on the planet where Jem and his followers and settled, their animals all died off. Then the people started getting sick and dying off. There was some kind of germ or virus in the atmosphere against which they had no immunity or natural defense.

Yes, it was a beautiful planet, about the size of the Earth, and when you looked up at the sky, you could see a giant planet 17 times the size of Jupiter filling the sky. The planet they had settled was a moon of that giant planet. The air was sweet and felt nice and cool, but there was a deadly toxin of some kind.

Jem was the only survivor. All who followed him and died, so he struggled to make his way back to one of the ships. He sat down and started turning on switches on the control panel, but the ship would not lift off. He stepped out of the ship to see what went wrong. The bottom half of the ship's hull had turned white and the ship remained motionless.

When he saw what was wrong with the ship his face became like a mask of fear "Don't leave me here alone!" he screamed and raised both arms above his head. looking up into the evening sky.

"FATHER!"

Meanwhile, Preston and his loyal followers continued on their journey, dropping out of Hyper-space, making orbit around each planet, only to break orbit again and jump back into Hyper-space and on to the next destination.

Along the journey, they saw many Earth-like planets that would be suitable for human life, and they saw dead planets with the ruins of ancient civilizations and living planets with thriving civilizations much further advanced, and planets with less developed civilizations. They were not to land on any of these planets. They can look, but not touch.

Eventually, after many years, Preston became an old man, his wife Sarah had died and most of the children were now young adults. They dropped out of hyper-space again and saw they were heading for another planet. After some time, the navigational computer did not spit out any more of the paper tape, and they feared it had finally broke down and quit. So, Ham removed a side panel to see what was wrong. There was nothing wrong. The paper tape was at the end. The journey was finished. This planet was to be their homeworld.

The long journey had started with 10,000 people in 20 black spaceships in the shape of icosahedrons each having 20 triangular faces. But only one ship with 200 people finished the journey to settle on the new homeworld. Only 200 survivors out of 10,000. The 10,000 were the ones who were followers of Jem, who had died long ago on the Earth-like moon of the giant planet.

Only 200, the faithful followers of Preston, the second Noah, finished the journey in a single ship, only 1 ship out of 20. How sad!

I'm going to stop right here, because I don't want to give away the ending.

You have to read the book for yourself.

[Skul]

And athletes/sports fans are the immature ones?

Yes.