[…] the fact that science-fiction film, and indeed much — if not most — contemporary film, has become a technology on the way to somewhere else, whether that goal turns out to be immersive, interactive, or some holodeck-style fusion of the two.

On the one hand, the NIC states: we must urgently end short-termist thinking ….

Here the genius of agriculture seems to have rose above its dawn.

Kashgar is the largest city of the Tarim basin, situated also near the Soviet border. Its Chinese official name is K'o-shih, an abbreviated form of K'o-shih-k'a-erh, the phonetic rendering of Kashgar. Prior to 1950, Kashgar was known as Shufu. The city has a population of about 75,000, predominantly Uigur in ethnic composition. It is a center for trade in cotton, silk and sheepskins.