Well, SyFy has been playing Lost World a few times recently, and I've also been watching some of the other movies in that series. Aside from the preachiness of some of the dialogue, it's a pretty good series of action movies.

However, it's the preachiness of Jurassic Park that have the most trouble with.

Throughout all three of the movies, the main characters make the outright claim that Jurassic Park fundamental purpose was doomed to failure because the idea of cloning prehistoric creatures is inherently foolish and uncontrolable. The show attacks the idea rather than the execution. The few people that do attack the execution are portrayed as blind, arrogant and/or delusional and that their version of what went wrong is just another excuse.

Jurassic Park was not doomed on any idealistic level, but on one of practicalities.

The idea of cloning prehistoric animals in and of itself is not human arrogance. It is actually a rather laudable idea. It would advance the field of palentology and the study of past time periods a great deal.

However, Ingen wasn't just cloning dinosaurs. They were cloning dinosaurs in job lots. They skipped right past study, straight into mass production and exploitation. They were producing, in large numbers, animals about which they had only theories to guide their choices.

On top of that, they were already designing rides, facilities and tours. Which added an extra layor of complexity.

All in all, the concept of Jurassic park really is no more complex than having a zoo mixed with an amusement/theme park. Though a safari park might be closer to the actual truth. The problem is that the zoos and theme parks are backed up by hundreds of years of first-hand study on the behavior of animals and human beings.

Jurassic Park was backed up by, maybe, 5-10 years of first hand study and a hundred years or so of theories and unprovable hypotheses.

The complexity of the system that the Ian Malcolm character raved about so much came out of the failure of Ingen to properly study the animals, not the existence of said animals themselves.

Furthermore, there is a lot of discussion about how there's a difference between the way dinosaurs went extinct and, to use the same example the original movie did, condors. The assumption is that because their were no humans around when the dinosaurs went extinct, that their extinction is more natural than that of the condors.

This is a fallacy brought on by a level of humanistic arrogance that can generally only be found in the most reckless of exploiters and environmentalists.

Yes, I accused environmentalists of human-centric arrogance.

Environmentalists have this tendency to accuse humanity of "acting against nature".

The problem with that comment is that in order to act against nature one first has to be seperate from nature.

Humanity is not seperate from nature.

All the changes we cause in the environment are a natural result of our presence and actions.

Condors failed to adapt and died. They were not the fittest of animals for the changing environment. The fact that the change in environment was precipitated by the actions of another species does not change the fact that they failed to adapt.

Numerous species have been driven to extinction by the actions of other, more successful species. And this includes many dinosaurs, most of which evolved and went extinct long before the mysterious mass extinction. The fact that our particular species is sentient does not make the extinctions we cause less natural.

By comparison pigeons, falcons, rats, mice, various insects, racoons, oppossum, coyotes and assorted other urban wildlife thrive in the presence of humanity.

Especially rats and coyotes.

This attitude shows up over and over again in Jurassic Park, especially with the commentary of "you have no right" that shows up over and over again.

To an environmentalist perspective, the idea of humanity creating new life is inherently arrogant and "playing god".

Ingen should have started with one or two animals to study at a time and slowly build up a working understanding of the creatures. They should have started with the most extreme of defensive and security measures and scaled down, rather than assuming slow, cold-blooded animals and arming accordingly.

They should have stepped from individual animals into mass-populations. Then, from there, they should have started giving limited tours with their own people before opening to the public. And only started adding in the theme-park aspects (a la Sea World, I assume) slowly afterwards.

They should have continued to study new species on a seperate island and avoided just dropping new species into access to the public.

These steps would have removed the complexity that eventually caused the park to fail before it started.

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I've got polls up asking about my original characters to see which are people's favorites.

Fighters of a New Day/Chi and Chakra - [link]

Divine Blood - [link]

Unnamed Trilogy - [link]

Kiyone Muyo - [link]

Reflections - [link]

Other Fanfics - [link]

Greenwater Novels - [link]

Unpublished Original Work - [link]


And another poll asking about favorite fight scenes.

[link]


Comments about WHY they're your favorite characters/scenes would also be appreciated.


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I currently have two arcs published on City of Heroes new Mission Architech feature.

Arc Name: Hunter of Beasts: It begins with a riot...
Arc ID: 110465
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: Lycanus
Difficulty Level: Average
Synopsis: Mystery-horror style story arc. Tracking a villainous gang or mastermind who leads hordes of minions is easy next to seeking one lunatic.
Estimated Time to Play: 2 hrs (solo, level 8)

Meant to be self-contained but also link to an extended storyline.

Name: The Aegis Affair
ID: 16736
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Lycanus
Difficulty Level: Average, last mission difficult
Level 20-29 (last mission will not be limited by level)

Karia Blade (mission contact): Greetings, Hero, you may be wondering why I am calling upon you. Be comforted that it is not to end your life. I have my obligations, and they are to the Goddess rather than financial gain like many of my sisters. We have received an oracle from Artemis that a danger is fast approaching. I cannot act without sparking a war in the Knives that would take in many innocents. You must be my hand in this. The Warriors are raiding a museum nearby. This appears to be just a normal Warrior raid, but even if that were so, we would still be obligated to stop it. You will need to investigate this situation.

A Rose's Thorns
Arc ID: 113224
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: Lycanus
Difficulty Level: Average
Synopsis: Crey got its hands on a DNA sample of Blood Rose and attempted to clone it. This was...ill-advised.

Arcs:

Hunter of Beasts Storyline:
Hunter of Beasts: It begins with a riot... - currently published
Hunter of Beasts: Witch Hunt - to be written
Hunter of Beasts: more to be titled....

Blood Rose Story Arcs/Missions:
A Rose's Thorns: - Currently Published

Medusae Storyline:
The Aegis Affair - currently published

Comedy:
Animal Girl Crackers - to be finished

Oakhurst Storyline:
To be replanned.