CONTORTED PASTA

Hey! That's EXTRA cool!

I saw a bus shelter poster once that looked like it was written in Esperanto ... but it might have been part of a movie set so I don't know if that counts.

I must admit I only saw about 3/4 of the movie when it was on TV once, but what I saw was really really good. I ought to check it out now that it's on my mind...

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bananabasket.livejournal.com

"The name "Gattaca" is composed entirely of the letters used to label the nucleotide bases of DNA. The four nucleotode bases of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine."

From the IMDB. :D

Email me, you!

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Duh, of course it would be on IMDb. Now I feel dumb. |: '

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AND I AM EMAILING YOU RIGHT NOW!!! WATCH OUT!

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Excellent! This may be a bit vulgar, but if you watch the Lion King carefully, you'll see at some point that when Simba slumps down in the grass/sand (I can't remember which) the dust he makes floats up into the air and spells 'sex'.

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bananabasket.livejournal.com

It's 'SFX' for special effects department.

Apparently.

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Oh, is it. Well, that just spoilt my day. *pouts*

Apparently, you say?

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It looks like it could be either one. There's a little blob at the bottom of the stalk of the alleged 'F' that might be the bottom stroke of an 'E' or might just be a blob – the trouble with making letters out of blowing dust is that it's hard to have good penmanship.

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Fair enough. :D

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Alright, I admit I have reason to be a little sensitive, biased, and defensive about these sorts of stories, but the official word from the producer (whom I know personally and believe) is that the dust wasn't intended to spell ANYTHING - there are several different layers of pollen and dust swirling on top of eachother, and the SFX animators probably didn't know exactly what they would look like, all together, in any particular frame. I'm not saying that it might not LOOK like the word "SEX", or "SFX",or that it couldn't sound like a character said something dirty to someone (if you watch or listen to something enough times, having been told what to look for, all sorts of things magically appear!), but after getting to know the people who made these movies myself, I seriously doubt it was ever intentional. There are SO many filters to catch anything mildly offensive, and Disney has been so paranoid about offending ANYONE for the last 15 years (i.e., ruining "Pirates of the Carribean", taking guns and the plane out of "Lilo and Stitch", etc., etc., etc.), so determined to play it safe, go "the middle of the road" that we coworkers rarely accuse our leadership of being too risky and edgy anymore.
At least one of these stories (the Aladdin one) was started by a couple of drunken frat boys with nothing better to do than watch videos over and over again and try to find weird stuff, and somehow the e-mail was passed to a friend's mom, and to a pastor, and got in the news, and most of the people who passed this along as gospel didn' even bother to look at the video themselves, or find out where the info' originated from. It's an interesting story in itself, but really makes you question the reliability of these stories. OK, OK - it'safe to come out now - I'm off my soapbox, mopped the spittle up, and promise to stay off without any further provocation...(grrr):)

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I see... I seeee....

[gasp]

Why, it's THOUSANDS of screaming fangirls in a rage that anyone could suggest Pirates was 'ruined'! The thread of incensed replies is a mile long! There is sobbing and wailing and – and – excessive use of weird Johnny Department icons and indecipherable smileys! Oh the humanity!

Good to get the inside scoop...

From: (Anonymous)

I believe Disney Boy was talking about the ride where the pirates now chase wenches with plates of food rather than the wenches sans food.

Johnny Department? I was there at Home Depot just last week!

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It's 'Johnny Department' all the way for me, now.

Those pirates love their tarts. (a ha ha.)

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I almost don't want to admit that I actually enjoyed...(trembling lip) a Jerry Bruckheimer film!!- oh, the SHAME! - and, yes, I was referencing the ride (I didn't think the movie was amazing, but I was heartily entertained, the effects were cool, liked the music, and Depp and ESPECIALLY Geoffrey Rush were very watchable) because I would be highly entertained if Twirlynoodle's prediction came true! Although...ALTHOUGH, in fact, it would seem that Johnny Depp and Co. may very WELL ruin the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride, at least for me, unless someone (Lasseter?) puts the brakes on: the ride is scheduled to be closed for several weeks and will reopen with Barbosa (Rush) captaining the pirate ship, and Depp popping out of barrels and from behind corners, and dialogue about the treasure map, etc. being inserted in certain scenes - I suppose this is not as grevious as gutting the whole ride, but in ten or fifteen years, who will remember the movie, and what these confusing references and additions are? It's not like the ride was lacking in attendance, and people loved the movie in large part because they loved the RIDE, not the other way around! The fans are already angry that they monkeyed with it as much as they have! Now, there was talk of having a whole separate track (used for maintenance) that would branch off from the ride early on, open only at night, which would include a ton of stuff from the movie (like the pirates turning into skeletons, etc.), which would be brilliant - everyone's happy, you feel like you're getting two rides for the price of one, you come back to try both (you could probably even keep both versions open at the same time: have two seperate lines, computer-track the boats)...but, naturally, They decided this would be too expensive. Bah.

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"Johnny Department" and the joke about the "tarts" - HA! - (STILL) very funny!

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leucocrystal

Heh, that was the first thing I noticed. But I've had my slow moments, too, so I'm not one to talk at all...

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wicked-warrior.livejournal.com

HUm, that's a great observation! Lets see, it's complementary DNA strand would be ctaatgt , or in the RNA case: cuaaugu. ( Just did this in hope to see if it was forming any strange word or something. AUG is a starting codon, that's the only clear thing I get clear. Maybe it's a piece of a human chromosome :P ) I still have to watch that movie, though :P

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dragonclaws.livejournal.com

I learned that in my Bio class sophomore year of high school. We watched it in class and our teacher told us. That was almost three years ago, now. XD But I'd seen it a few years earlier than that and I so didn't get it. I also hadn't taken genetics, yet, but even after I did, I was a little slow on the uptake. In other words, you are not alone!

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Well, I feel really dumb that I didn't figure that out myself! (we can all feel dumb together!) Oh well. What did you think of the movie itself? SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO SEE THE MOVIE STOP NOW...OK, I thought ther were some really cool ideas (the central one being that an "imperfect" person could still succeed because they'd have to work that much harder, and get stronger), and some effective scenes (like when he's running around with no glasses, or the swimming competition, or the very end when you think he's gonna be outed), and this is obviously a timely topic, but I found the movie, overall, to be rather bleak and it left me pretty cold, because even though Ethan Hawke wins, and you admire his guts and determination, he didn't come off as particularly "human" to me. Like he pretty much knows that the guy who's identity he's stolen is going to commit suicide, but he doesn't try to talk him out of it or anything. And he and everybody else talks about the guy at work who got killed, and he doesn't really care who did it, or that it happened at all...if this is the future, it's pretty dspressing. And maybe that was the whole point. Sci-fi is usually difficult to inject with much warmth or humanity - it tends to get so cerebral. Am I being unfair to this film? Aside from the clever title, what did you guys think?

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Perhaps a better question is: would you risk the scenario in the movie (boring people with bland, perfect, similar features and no challenges to build character from, discrimination on the genetic level, etc.) if it meant you could save a child from a debilitating mental or physical disease, or prevent a premature death, or horrible disfiguration? Are we supposed to leave these things up to God, or is it our God-given (assuming you believe in God) responsibility to do everything in our power to not only relieve, but AVOID pain and suffering? I'm not sure myself.

From: (Anonymous)

U for Uracil is subsituted for Thymine. So, does the letter U show up anywhere?

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Uh ... as far as I know, no viruses star in Gattaca, or even have bit parts.

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"GAUUACA"? It doesn't have quite the same ring to it. :) or how about "Gattucuh"?

From: (Anonymous)

My science teacher discussed that. For like 10 minutes.

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You have a good point. As in many cases, there is no (politically correct) answer.

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