East Meets West – Podcast

Another great episode. I really enjoyed the Clerks talk. I relate to Clerks 2 more now, but I felt the same about the original Clerks when it came out. I'm the same age as the characters, so Clerks spoke to the 20 year old me and Clerks 2 to the 30 year old me.

Ok, so i've just seen the broadcast of the Doctor Who Special "The Waters of Mars"- and will include NO (Absolutely NONE) spoilers in my post.

I'll say it was a tad freaky, out of character for the show, and towards the end is rather unsettling in ways i wont describe.

Overall though- DEFINITELY worth watching.

"He Shall Knock 4 Times"...

Techpriest

How fitting was it that the episode showed on a week when Moon water was discovered. BBC marketing me thinks lol

On the point about government, this need to say it can't do anything properly I think is wrong for a lot of reasons. One of them is that every single major scientific advance was done through the either government run institutions or was directly or indirectly funded by the same. Major infrastructure is created either by directly constructed by the government or effectively funded by the government.

What does business get us? lots of good things but there is also lots of bad things too. In regards to stupid decisions business is not immune (Global financial crisis anyone?).

Government is as good or bad as the people who participate in it. The question is do we vote? or contact and speak to your elected officials, all of them? If we don't participate then we get the government we deserve.

I want to say 3 points.
1. I don't understand this need to rubbish government regulation as compared to enterprise as I would like to note that regulation is required as rampant 'enterprise' or free market leads to the Global Financial Crisis or a close facsimile in whatever industry it is applied. Regulation of the smart kind is required in every industry or we will get something like a "Lord of the Flies" scenario.

2. Flash Forward is great!

3. Vaccinations is something that should be required for everyone from a public health perspective. On a side point we have in place in almost every society a concept of quarantine or the use of coercive action been taken against the individual for public health reasons. What are your thoughts on this.

Here in Australia we have already gone through the swine flu and we are now just treating it the same as normal flu.

Clerks, vertical farming and Douglas Coupland all in one episode? Best. Episode. Ever.

Just so everyone knows, Douglas Coupland is on Twitter: @dougcoupland. It's like having Andy, Dag and Claire talk to you, 140 characters at a time.

I'd noticed this before in an ad-hoc kind of way, but Twitter almost seems like a service *made* for Douglas Coupland, or at least the people who read his books (especially Microserfs and JPod). You've got nerds with short attention spans sending and receiving bite-sized pieces of news and witty one-liners from all around the planet at a million miles a minute. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that sounded like something *straight* out of a Coupland novel.

Awesome show, as always.

I'm in my early twenties and 'Clerks' resonates with me big time.

It's not just 90s/Gen X kids that felt stuck. Being out of school, not sure what to do, living through a recession, working a dead end job and staying with parents too long pretty much describes several of friends and myself.

Tom and Roger, you hit a nerve but it actually makes me happy this whole thing is somewhat cyclical. Thanks.