unforum

[cassandra]

[UPDATE] New Sentinel Article - June 7 - Agriculture

[misteraitch]

There is also a new News in Brief article

Too-Trendy Conundra Too Vexing

Forget the amazing food, you go to Conundra to watch the beautiful people and hone your mind -- right? But long table waits, rampant favouritism by the staff, and ever upward-spiralling prices have taken the trendiest dining experience in town and made it nothing but vexsome, and not in the fun, competitive way. Three stars.

I can't find anything on the site Whipsmart site yet....

[oliverkeers13]

Is there more to the fact that VIolet mentioned that the Recons have their own farm on the same day that the floods are reported than meets the eye?

[BrianEnigma]

Re: [UPDATE] New Sentinel Article - June 7 - Agriculture

[toongoon]

It took me a minute to figure out what was being said about this as well.

There is a headline teaser to the right stating that Whipsmart has debuted a new game.

[BrianEnigma]

[Violet]

Re: [UPDATE] New Sentinel Article - June 7 - Agriculture

[misteraitch]

yeah, I noticed all the *.swf were the same - the only thing I found was that there are now two sites....

http://www.whipsmarticecream.com/

and

http://www.whipsmartice.com/

I seem to remember a post where someone couldn't log on with one of these addresses - I'm sure it didn't work before [although I have been known to be wrong - can anyone correct me on this?]

I'm busy comparing the *.swf's from the two, and the only thing I've found is that one of the trees becomes a button after visiting the shop, [but I've a feeling that it's just a browser issue

more to follow....

[tanner]

sorry wrong place

[SalmonOfDoubt]

Underbelly

[Leeravitz]

Actually, I'm fed up with waiting for a Sentinel reply that may never be forthcoming...Here, for your reading pleasure(?!) is the prolix diatribe (TM) that I elected to post to the 'View From Earth' column:

It seems apposite to bring it up here:

What Price Utopia?

How could any inhabitant of Earth fail to find the culture of Perplex City inspiring? It is a question that I have found myself raising often in recent days. When I was first introduced into the charmed circle of those privileged to be witness to the city's existence, I was of the immediate opinion that here was a paradise indeed! A society devoted pre –eminently to the life of the mind and the intellect, a culture fascinated by theatre, music, linguistics, archaeology, art; where even the 'sporting' contests are part and parcel of a wider commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and the raising of standards of individual excellence.

I couldn't help but be awed by the astonishing attainments of local architecture, the picturesque beauty of the city itself, and the vast range of remarkable technological developments, such as the driverless vehicle – technological achievements that leave those of earth in the shade. When the call went out from the Academy's Special Projects Team, that in order to aid in the locating of the Receda Cube, we, the people of Earth, were to be considered honorary citizens of this remarkable place, I cheered inwardly along with countless others.

And yet, in recent weeks, I am saddened to say, my opinion has changed. As ever more news about City life has reached Earth via the Sentinel, I have been forced to reconsider my earlier assumptions. And I don't particularly like what I'm concluding.

Because it seems ever more evident to me that a City devoted entirely to the cult of the intellect may have grown to spawn social problems quite as severe as those that afflict contemporary culture here on Earth. Perplexian society has emerged out of a long – term fascination for the application of rationality to problems; perhaps the earliest traces of the commitment can be found in the nomadic era c. 3000 BC, when hunter – gatherers were already incising geometric patterns onto bones, telling oral riddles and inventing the rudiments of a written language. Whilst Earth culture has not infrequently espoused the propriety of rational thinking, in Classical Greece, for instance, or Enlightenment – era France, there have also been noticeable bouts of anti – rational reaction on this planet, and these periods have tended to set back our pursuit of purely rational goals. The Earth cult of intuition has led to such exciting cultural developments as the emergence of the Romantic Movement and such terrible developments as the birth of Nazism.

What is certain is that Perplexian society has pursued the cult of the rational more determinedly than we have, over the generations. What is more, the setbacks to this pursuit appear to have been few – no Dark Age retrenchment, no First and Second World Wars. At the approximate time that we on Earth were still learning how to mould glass and beat out iron ploughshares, the Perplexians were already studying alchemy and devising improvements based upon the inductive method. It is no wonder that Perplex City appears to those of Earth to be the dream city of the future beloved of our science – fiction magazines!

But what, beneath this ostensibly peaceable and beautiful façade, has been produced by a culture so obligated to the perfecting of the mind? A society within which one's social standing is dictated by the level of one's intelligence and access to information? A community within which corporate conglomerates charge extortionate prices for next season's 'must have' cognitive enhancement, whilst a black market in illegal, impure neuro-stimulants actively flourishes? A civilization so committed to the rational that fanatical sectarian religions emerge in reaction to the perceived limitations placed upon mystical thought? If this is so, then the wonders of Perplex City have been built upon a base of exploitation and dissension, and I believe that we of Earth must begin to ask ourselves: What price Utopia?

Put that in yer pipe and smoke it...

[Kirjava]

Well-written article Leeravitz- I really hope they print it in the Sentinel because it certainly gives a much more balanced perspective of Perplex City's advanced but still imperfect society. But then it would only back up your point if they refused to publish it! However, I do have to take issue with Salmon of Doubt's opinion that these flaws should stop us from looking for the Cube. I don't think they are hiding, I believe the reason why they are being so cryptic is that they want to keep us interested in the search for the Cube by only gradually releasing information to us. In fact, I for one can barely keep up with the constant flow of wide-ranging information about the city! We may not know enough about them yet to decide whether we should give them the Cube or not, but I think it's unnecessary to hold the search hostage and issue demands for explanations. Let's just enjoy the ride- we can decide about the Cube when we find it

[Leeravitz]

Well, thanks for that vote of support. I am assuming that I did what was needed to get an article off to the Sentinel - I posted them an e - mail with attachment and fowarding letter (in character, no less) to one of the links given on the Sentinel web page. Admittedly, I didn't send a photo, as I was waiting to see what sort of reply might wing back my way. Interestingly, I haven't even banked an auto - reply yet...which made me wonder if I'd done something wrong in the posting/got the piece lost in E - traffic etc. So, if anyone thinks I got mixed up, it'd be good to be set straight! (It would also be very silly to come up with a conspiracy theory that the Sentinel won't print such critical pieces, if, in fact, they've simply got lost in the post!!).

I don't really have that great a problem with whether it ever gets printed formally or not, as there will no doubt be many more subjects to write about in the months to come. One problem I do think, however, is that sometimes the game moves fast enough that opinions become outdated...so, in a month's time, say, printing such an article would no longer have the impact that it had when it was written, which is a bit of a pity...

Hey ho. Let's wait and see

[SteveC]

[BrianEnigma]