Search results

  1. Yee-Ming

    Apple TV+ For All Mankind (2019) - Season 4

    Heh, should've read Wikipedia before posting: iridium is used in OLEDs, something we on HTF can fully appreciate ;) But seriously, super-hard, corrosion resistant, although brittle and hard to work. I suppose I can see how that could be quite useful.
  2. Yee-Ming

    Apple TV+ For All Mankind (2019) - Season 4

    Call me a dumdum, but is iridium that supremely useful, such as to change the world economy that radically? It's probably relatively expensive today because of its relatively scarcity, but if it becomes plentiful then its cost will fall; in turn, the question then is are there uses for it, that...
  3. Yee-Ming

    Apple TV+ For All Mankind (2019) - Season 4

    My assumption was simply that the USSR would not let a traitorous defector live. Up till then, Sergei had quietly lived as a schoolteacher in Iowa, and probably escaped KGB detection. But once he started 'hanging around' Houston, he was probably spotted, and orders would have come down to...
  4. Yee-Ming

    Foundation (2021) - Season 2

    Absolutely agree. I enjoyed the books, but can see why some/much deviation is required, and some innovations for the TV show have been incredibly interesting, not least the Genetic Dynasty. Goyer had also explained in the pod that while the books simply had a Second Foundation fully formed and...
  5. Yee-Ming

    Apple TV+ Ted Lasso (2020) - Season 3

    Zava is almost certainly a caricature of Zlatan Ibrahimovic -- even looks a bit like Zlatan. When he was still a teenager in his native Sweden, he was invited for a trial at a Premier League club -- he (in)famously said "Zlatan doesn't do trials..." Not that that impeded him, he won league...
  6. Yee-Ming

    Netflix Netflix Series - Stranger Things 4

    IIRC, in the original 90210, Gabrielle Carteris was already 30 at the time she portrayed a high schooler... Luke Perry was also in his mid or late 20s.
  7. Yee-Ming

    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) - Season 1

    Haha! Shout-out to South East Asia's "King of Fruit", infamously so noxious even Andrew Zimmer couldn't eat it. Although Anthony Bourdain loved it...
  8. Yee-Ming

    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) - Season 1

    Perhaps one simple reason the Majalans don't consider leaving: it's their home. And as long as there's a way to preserve it, and they can live with the price, they stay put. As an aside, I wonder if the name "Majalis" had anything to do with Majel Barrett Roddenberry...
  9. Yee-Ming

    HBO Max Raised by Wolves (HBO Max / CTV Space / Crave)

    Netflix, or somebody, please pick this up!
  10. Yee-Ming

    Foundation (2021) - Season 1

    If I'm not mistaken, that's because when the original Trilogy was written, Asimov considered Foundation a standalone series. It was only when he wrote the 4th book 30 years later that he decided to tie everything together; hence the (later written) prequel books incorporate Demerzel, a.k.a...
  11. Yee-Ming

    “As themselves”…Actors Portraying Themselves On The Big And Small Screen

    Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, was also in the movie, playing the captain of the carrier that recovered the Apollo 13 command module when they safely returned; the filmmakers had suggested he play an admiral, but he declined, on the basis that he'd retired as a captain and shouldn't play a...
  12. Yee-Ming

    Top AV Receivers for 2021

    My SR8002 is my second AVR: I still own my first, which was an SR8200 -- built like a tank and heavy as anything. I loaned it to a friend, who has since given up on HT himself and he's put the AVR in his storage unit for now. Thing is, just as an amp, the SR8200 was simply amazing, so as...
  13. Yee-Ming

    Foundation (2021) - Season 1

    Getting overrun by Anacreon, in short. But over and above that, they've now forged an alliance between Foundation, Anacreon, and Thespis, making the beginnings I suppose of a breakaway 'empire' in the Outer Reaches. (Spoiler: not exactly what happened the book.)
  14. Yee-Ming

    Foundation (2021) - Season 1

    I too first read the Foundation books around college time. But I re-read them all recently, ahead of this TV series. As previously noted, this is very much an "inspired by" take of the Foundation books; indeed so far this season is about halfway (or less) through the first book only, in so...
  15. Yee-Ming

    Foundation (2021) - Season 1

    Hmmmm. The TV show is really diverging from the book now: not just in terms of plot, which has been patent from the outset, but even in theme. The whole premise of psychohistory was that a single individual cannot change the future path humanity is on -- provided he/she is not a...
  16. Yee-Ming

    Top AV Receivers for 2021

    Reading this thread makes me feel such a dinosaur... I'm still using a Marantz SR8002... No, that's not a typo... ;)
  17. Yee-Ming

    Dune (2021)

    As an aside, Yueh spoke Mandarin to Paul when checking him over before the test with Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Paul replied the same; i.e. everything they said was correct and matched the subtitles (not literally word for word, but in meaning, as you'd expect). Not entirely surprising, given...
  18. Yee-Ming

    Dune (2021)

    Yes, for Bene Gesserit: Jessica is admonished by Reverend Mother Mohiam for disobeying orders to bear Leto only daughters, just as she was in the movie. (As an aside, it appears the BG did the same to the Emperor, who only had daughters.) It isn't addressed, but gender-selection is presumably...
  19. Yee-Ming

    Dune (2021)

    Zendaya said on Colbert that she only shot for five days. FWIW, I absolutely loved this. This coming from someone who has bought about six different copies of the Lynch Dune, has the Sci-Fi series DVDs (and Children of Dune, of course), re-watched all these and re-read the book before this...
  20. Yee-Ming

    Apple TV+ Ted Lasso - Season 2

    As an aside, the "tension" of the final game was a bit contrived: it was said they needed the draw to confirm finishing second and to gain promotion. Which ignores the fact that 3rd to 6th go into the play-off for the final promotion spot, and unless Richmond had a relatively poor goal...
  21. Yee-Ming

    What sort of Board Games do you Play

    Mahjong "rules" can vary from country to country. I've read American books about mahjong, and the scoring outlined there bears no resemblance to the way it's played here in Singapore, which in turn I understand isn't exactly the same as how they play in Hong Kong either (although the underlying...
  22. Yee-Ming

    What sort of Board Games do you Play

    Heh. I have it, haven't played it. Haven't even opened it yet... :blush:
  23. Yee-Ming

    Paramount+ Star Trek: Discovery - Official Thread

    Yeah, I really don't get the lopsided collars, and the uneven hems on those uniforms at the end of S3.
  24. Yee-Ming

    What sort of Board Games do you Play

    Heh, I have that too. Great fun and quite thematic. I even got the expansions, but haven't got around to playing those.
  25. Yee-Ming

    What sort of Board Games do you Play

    Speaking of IP-licensed games, I recently got Dune: Imperium (not the same as Dune). It's a combo worker-placement and deckbuilder game. Quite intriguing, though perhaps that's because I've hardly ever played any deckbuilders so there's some novelty element in that for me. It seems almost...
  26. Yee-Ming

    Books You've Read 2020

    I re-read the entire Foundation series (in publication order), ahead of the TV series that is due in 2021. Think it made a lot more sense the second time around. For purists who say that one should only read the first three, the TV series obviously covers (and indeed will start with) the...
  27. Yee-Ming

    Rising blacks on 2020 LG OLEDs

    Whaddya know, that's exactly what the problem was. Once I changed it to "auto", I get 5.1. Many thanks!
  28. Yee-Ming

    Disney+ The Mandalorian

    I'd have to agree with the sentiment (several pages ago) that Luke should be used sparingly. Some of the best stories (IMHO) in the now-non-canon EU were in the X-Wing series of books, which didn't feature any of the Big 3, and only Wedge Antilles from the movies as Rogue Squadron Leader. It...
  29. Yee-Ming

    Paramount+ Star Trek: Discovery - Official Thread

    I must confess that despite being an alleged Trek-fan, I don't know/remember much about the Temporal Wars, and I realise this is because it seems most of it took place in Enterprise over seasons 3 and 4, which I've never watched... :blush: So aside from needing to watch that, anything else in...
  30. Yee-Ming

    UHD Review Top Gun UHD Steelbook Review

    "Kilmer was reported to have only appeared due to contractual obligations." Ironic, given the rumours that he was said to be quite miffed (disappointed?) not to have initially been asked to participate in the sequel, and then lobbied hard for a part. Then again, Top Gun was probably the biggest...
Top