news:
Europe's biggest spaceship is going down in a ball of flames
Ratings troubles for SCC
Masters of SciFi
Kenneth Branaugh to direct Thor?
Mark R Kelly reviews the Fly Opera
SciFi / Apocalyptic play "Boom"
and the first 20 pages here
Metal Disorders that sound like scifi
Amanda Tapping has her own charcters' fanfic on her official site
Good news for Ghostbusters 3
So this is why Eureka was a little weird last week
Interactive zombie movies!
Five ways to save Heroes
Non-governmental rocketry for SpaceX
New future distopias! Americatown
We might live in an anomalous chunk of the universe
The coolest deaths in scifi
Snow on Mars!
A lovely discussion of demented family relationships in scifi; read the comments for more!
The future of ESA space exploration to be determined in Glasgow
What if everyone in Scifi really was related?
Nerdbots!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Games: Betryal at House on the Hill!
New game last night! Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of those ever-changing games that's never the same twice. It starts out with up to six players in the foyer of a big creepy house. From there, it's a classic dungeon-crawl type with opening doors and seeing what's in the room, and you're building the house as you see what's there. And it's a big house-- three floors and dozens of rooms that are in different places each time because you draw them at random from a shuffled deck, somewhat like in Settlers of Catan, except you don't set it all up ahead of time. Periodically, there's a roll to see if the haunting starts, and if it does, whoever rolled is now the traitor, and based on which card asked for the roll and which room you were in, there's one of fifty different stories that could be the goal of the game. Here's where it gets really fun. The traitor leaves the room to see what crime / haunting / monster infestation is going on, and to see what he can do now. The rest take the time to learn what they can do to defend, and what their new goal is. Neither side knows what the other's side does. It's a great combo of collaborative and selfish gaming, and you can choose how mean you make it based on how the other players react. We played it twice-- each game took about an hour, which is stupid-fast for the games we usually play (Arkham Horror, I'm looking at you!)-- and once we had to find a person burried in one of the rooms, while the other time, there was a witch turning people into frogs. A keeper, this one. Like Arkham Lite, and another collaborative game, which really is my favorite sort.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Side Project Week 3: Classic Who
This week's Classic Who was Frontier in Space. In my head, it's all in diagonal font like the old b-movies. Frontier - In - SPAAAACCCEEEE!
Anyway, it's not a fav. The Doctor and Jo (still wearing her inexplicable knee-boots and capris ensemble) land on a ship that is about to be attacked by another. It's a freighter carrying tons of flour (?) and it's the latest victim of what people think are Draconian attacks. There's much running about in hallways that look mostly the same; there's much being in jail, escaping, and being back in jail; there were parts that looked very clearly as if they should have been the cliffhangers, and then weren't. We're of the opinion that the serial had to be expanded and it threw off the pacing.
Good points: Jo gets to talk more than ever before, and takes her hand at making escape plans. The Draconians are a really neat design, and the prosthetics were only a little awkward. Madam president had the neatest little space-seventies tertiary-color dresses, and new hair to coordinate with each. There were parts that looked like they were filmed in the Barbican, and I've been there.
Bad points: The Doctor is back to being condescending to Jo. The Master a-freaking-gain. Weird pacing. I felt bad for the Ogrons-- they're just sort of dull and scared and the Master keeps yelling at them and the Draconians keep killing them. The Master never has motivation for wanting to start wars or take over universes. Daleks? Huh? And there's no conclusion because it goes right into the Planet of the Daleks, which is the end of the season.
Anyway, it's not a fav. The Doctor and Jo (still wearing her inexplicable knee-boots and capris ensemble) land on a ship that is about to be attacked by another. It's a freighter carrying tons of flour (?) and it's the latest victim of what people think are Draconian attacks. There's much running about in hallways that look mostly the same; there's much being in jail, escaping, and being back in jail; there were parts that looked very clearly as if they should have been the cliffhangers, and then weren't. We're of the opinion that the serial had to be expanded and it threw off the pacing.
Good points: Jo gets to talk more than ever before, and takes her hand at making escape plans. The Draconians are a really neat design, and the prosthetics were only a little awkward. Madam president had the neatest little space-seventies tertiary-color dresses, and new hair to coordinate with each. There were parts that looked like they were filmed in the Barbican, and I've been there.
Bad points: The Doctor is back to being condescending to Jo. The Master a-freaking-gain. Weird pacing. I felt bad for the Ogrons-- they're just sort of dull and scared and the Master keeps yelling at them and the Draconians keep killing them. The Master never has motivation for wanting to start wars or take over universes. Daleks? Huh? And there's no conclusion because it goes right into the Planet of the Daleks, which is the end of the season.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Weekly Roundup 3 Sept 22 - 28
sun: true blood
The plot thickens! Sookie's having libido issues she's never had to deal with before, including naughty dreams and wandering hands; Jason's feeling like his life's being undone by vamps, and being an idiot, he's making even more of all the wrong choices; Tara finally walked out on her drunk and abusive mom, but now she's living with her drug dealer cousin who's into everything unsavory available in that town. We find that Sookie's grandfather also knew things, and that Bill and his so-called friends are on opposite sides of the integration debate. There's a new anti-vamp preacher on the televangelist shows. Sam isn't a pretty pretty dog, unless he's also crazy-- a shape shifter with dissociative disorder so he thinks he's talking to the dog he is?-- but he does bark in his sleep. I like him, he seems sweet, which probably means he has some horrible secret so deeply repressed that even a mindreader can't get at it.
There were less boobies this time, but somehow more sex, and definitely more thinking about sex. How old is Sookie supposed to be? She's feeling a bit like a fifteen year old, and I think it's a delayed puberty because of reading everyone's thoughts and being perpetually turned off. Hey, if she met another mind reader, and they were reading eachother's thoughts, would it set up a feedback loop? That'd be sweet, and if it causes screaming and blood squirting from their ears, there's no reason it can't work in the show...
Anyway, it's still pretty interesting, and I'm still willing to keep watching.
mon:sarah connor, heroes
Another Monday, another SCC. Tense, but not much having to do with the story, though Penny Widmore is out (so I assume she'll be back on Lost this season), leaving Charley angry, disillusioned and blaming himself. Reily continues to make John do stupid things without really trying, and Cameron's still acting weird. Dereck goes against his better judgement to help Sarah, and Cromarty messes with their heads. T-1000 tired to hire Ellis.
The main points of interest are the questions I keep getting: how much longer before things cave in? What's wrong with Cameron, and is it a tech problem, or is she turning human on us? How long until Reily has to be informed of what she's waltzing through the middle of? Why is their landlady pregnant-- unless there's something important there? Why was John buying a massive computer? Everything in this show is chosen, carefully planned-- at least up until now-- and I want to know how things fit together.
Not a bad episode, but feels a little like wheel-spinning...
Hijinks Ensue says it thusly: "Heroes season 3 premiered this week. I don’t even know where to begin. Season 1 showed so much promise. Season 2 swerved directly into oncoming traffic, collided with a bus full of legless orphaned nuns, each holding a kitten and exploded into a fireball of fail that could be seen from space. Despite that I was hopeful. I blamed the mediocrity on the writer’s strike. Now I’m convinced the writers were striking to PREVENT future episodes of Heroes." (http://hijinksensue.com/2008/09/24/all-we-wanna-do-is-eat-your-brains/)
I don't think it's as dire as that. I think I'm one of the minority who like this show because it's cheesy rather than hating it because of the same. So what does the season 3 premier bring us? Let's see: Peter is replaced by future!Peter and... what? Locked in Weevil's head? Something like that. Mrs Petrelli's powers are dreaming. Lame. Nathan's gone all televangelist on the world, and apparently that messes it up worse than anything else. Hiro managed to lose the thing his father and grandfather defended for decades in, like, half a minute. Future!Ando is both a mutant and a traitor, and only Hiro knows about it. Maya's crying. Suresh makes himself into Collossus-- in a boatyard? Why? WTF? That's not scientific at all! PsychoSlut's still around and Parkman's still not useful. Molly's conveniently away. Syler's now invincible and aparently doesn't actually eat brains so much as... poke and them and absorb their specialness? And Claire can't die at all. What about if the world ends?
The whole episode was weirdly dark... things get a little doomy and all the lightbulbs in the world get replaced by 13-watt blue-tinged ones or something. And the future needs to be saved yet again. "Save ourselves, save the world."
Part two continues the confusion, with Nathan going all John Crighton with the Linderman neural clone, PsychoSlut not realizing / not knowing / not admitting that she's PsychoSlut, MamaPet saying she's Syler's mom, Hiro punishing Ando for things he hasn't done yet, Mohinder getting all horny-- then all scaly, Elle-who-is-not-VM getting fired after almost getting brain-poked, Peter still in Weevil's head... it goes on. There's a baddie who is not at all like Mageneto, no matter that he's German and controlls metal. Elle's daddy was Midas, apparently, and is now dead. Future!Peter is messing up EVERYTHING, no matter what he tries. Claire is convinced she isn't human anymore. Oh the drama!
I'm enjoying it, though, even when it makes no sense. It's kind of... sansationalistic. Like watching tabloid TV about the X-Men.
tues: fringe
This week's Fringe dealt with something called a Ghost Network, which was really not all that well explained, and, of course, it was linked to something Walter had studied before. I hope all the stories aren't something he's done before-- one, because it would get old really quickly, and two because I'm supposed to believe this guy who founded Massive Dynamics didn't accomplish anything on his own, but let the guy who's brain produced it all sit alone in a loony bin for seventeen years?
Plots continue to thicken, however, with Peter being involved in something shadyier than usual, Astrid being revealed as a Linguist, Walter being more cogent than usual, and the last two minutes showing us that Roboarm and Bossman are in a power struggle for our Agent Dunham, and the supposedly dead and burried Agent Scott is still not what he seems. If they bring him back as an assassin, I'm totally calling plagaism for a story I wrote eight years ago but never published.
The editing and pacing still seems off to me; the plot points aren't cohesive-- it's all about the gel... only it's really not at all. So why does it even matter? I'm okay with choppiness if they bring it back later to explain things. Lets keep track of all those plot points, shall we? And if they do keep them going, won't it be fun if Roy is now kind of a psychic and can pick up on things for them?
This week's Eureka found things coming to a head-- Eva had plans to destroy the bunker thing and Zoe got infected with an aging illness, while Jo and Zane bickered. Don't care so much about that as you'd think. Maybe cuz Zane's kind of a tweeb. Anyway, Carter went to get some of the purple goop to make a cure for Zoe and wound up trapped in the bunker as it was sealed off by this TV psychic looking guy, where we found out that Eva doesn't age and one of the scientists was her brother-- and that they'd sealed themselves up to keep the illness from spreading, and while they were dying of it, they devised a sort of antiradiation bomb that would fix it.
Not too bad, but it felt rushed. All the plot crammed into one episode when it could have been a really well-scripted two-parter. And Zoe's boyfriend wasn't at her bedside as she went blind and got old or anything. But the end! Eva moves on to a new life! Allison's pregnant and wants Carter to be her coach! Carter's fired! What's next?
thurs: supernatural, knight rider
After the longest 'previously on...' i've ever lived through, this week's Supernatural goes right into the action with Hunters being taken out all over the area. Blood, guts and ribcages all over the place, and salt isn't holding them back. It's ghosts, forced to rise and made of pure anger, and they're after Dean and Sam. There's witchcraft, there's really angry ghosts, there's lots of shooting, there's salt everywhere. They win, of course, but only to find out that it doesn't matter, because the ghosts were a sign of the Apocalypse. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've got the End Times here on Supernatural. I mean, it's not like no other show in this genre has ever faced the end of the world-- Buffy and Angel handled it every season-- but it's not usually the Biblical Apocalypse, and though I haven't read a Bible in a long long time, this seems pretty close to what I remember. Neat. And creepy. Man, is this show creepy. Not the scariest thing I've ever seen, by any means, nor even the freakiest thing I've read-- and I'm a horror editor, so I read alot of creepy shit-- but it's creepy enough to make me glad I'm watching it during the day and not at night, though it also makes me sad I don't have comercials to break up the creepy. I'm kind of amazed CW allows this sort of thing.
And I can hardly wait to see where this season goes, which is pretty amazing.
So this Knight Rider redux. Not as bad as I was led to believe, though I almost wanted it to be because I wanted something to rain against. Oh well, there's always Heroes.
This one has the feel of all those silly-scifi shows I love so well, with the camara angles and plot tricks and general feel of something like Andromeda or SeaQuest, both of which were not so great, but had a certain charm that made me like them. Everyone kind of sucks at the acting thing, but that's also par for the course in these shows, and doesn't really break the deal. Also, the plot points are not terribly original-- main character can't remember his past, love interest is wary but somewhat teasingly inviting, sidekicks are the full range of secondaries that are to be expected, boss can't be trusted-- but it seems to come off as fun rather than sucky. At least for now. I liked the remix of the theme song, and it was a night touchstone with a show that's not really the old version. Kitt kind of kicks ass. He's soooo shiny... And he transforms, so there's like seven cars fitted with that cylon light thing, and he's an autonomous AI, which I always find fun. How long before he finds another AI and tries falling in love? How long before they request to build a baby? How long before there's an evil Kitt? How totally awesome would it be if the evil Kitt was the love interest and the baby was pirated software? Blindingly awesome, that's how.
I like Zoe. She's irreverent and flirty and smart and one of the only ones who actively realized how totally cool this weird little world is. Senator Kelly is shifty as is expected. The FBI is untrustworthy. And apparently people don't ever bleed.
So not so bad. Let's see if they can stay cool. And if it only lasts a few years, maybe it can be good enough to fit in with 7Days and First Wave in the flash-in-the-pan scifi that's close to my heart category.
fri: history hacker, project earth, atlantis
This new show History Hacker is pretty damn cool. Makes me want to build things-- and brings out the latent engineer in me that I never got a chance to nurture / didn't join the army to nurture, even when the ASVAB said I'd make a great engineer. The premier episode was on Electricity, focusing mostly on Nicola Tesla's weird and wonderful not-yet-followed-up-on theories and home-made tech. I love me some Tesla. The man was a scifi prop room unto himself-- I mean, wireless electricity? Using the air as the inside of a lightbulb? Inventing the neon light? Deathrays? Teleportation?? The guy was a hero for those who turn scifi into reality.
So we followed in his footsteps and found that it's easy to turn your already-cool hipster bike into a home-grown power generator, and that lightbulbs can glow without wires (though you may need to be in a Faraday Cage if you're doing it that way...), that things can move themselves around in orbit while generating their own electricity cleanly and nevigating using only em force. Gods, I love science. I wonder if there are any electronics courses I can take without having to find a way into MIT?
A really fascinating first episode.
Project Earth wasn't on this week, and I missed Atlantis, so that review will be in next week's-- or, more likely, I'll just put it up on it's own when I see it. And I think I'm going to start posting NonFic shows on their own, or in a separate roundup if there's enough of them.
Upcoming side projects:
Catching up on Middleman, which I entirely missed
All of the ill-fated New Amsterdam, which I just realized I have
Comics!
The plot thickens! Sookie's having libido issues she's never had to deal with before, including naughty dreams and wandering hands; Jason's feeling like his life's being undone by vamps, and being an idiot, he's making even more of all the wrong choices; Tara finally walked out on her drunk and abusive mom, but now she's living with her drug dealer cousin who's into everything unsavory available in that town. We find that Sookie's grandfather also knew things, and that Bill and his so-called friends are on opposite sides of the integration debate. There's a new anti-vamp preacher on the televangelist shows. Sam isn't a pretty pretty dog, unless he's also crazy-- a shape shifter with dissociative disorder so he thinks he's talking to the dog he is?-- but he does bark in his sleep. I like him, he seems sweet, which probably means he has some horrible secret so deeply repressed that even a mindreader can't get at it.
There were less boobies this time, but somehow more sex, and definitely more thinking about sex. How old is Sookie supposed to be? She's feeling a bit like a fifteen year old, and I think it's a delayed puberty because of reading everyone's thoughts and being perpetually turned off. Hey, if she met another mind reader, and they were reading eachother's thoughts, would it set up a feedback loop? That'd be sweet, and if it causes screaming and blood squirting from their ears, there's no reason it can't work in the show...
Anyway, it's still pretty interesting, and I'm still willing to keep watching.
mon:sarah connor, heroes
Another Monday, another SCC. Tense, but not much having to do with the story, though Penny Widmore is out (so I assume she'll be back on Lost this season), leaving Charley angry, disillusioned and blaming himself. Reily continues to make John do stupid things without really trying, and Cameron's still acting weird. Dereck goes against his better judgement to help Sarah, and Cromarty messes with their heads. T-1000 tired to hire Ellis.
The main points of interest are the questions I keep getting: how much longer before things cave in? What's wrong with Cameron, and is it a tech problem, or is she turning human on us? How long until Reily has to be informed of what she's waltzing through the middle of? Why is their landlady pregnant-- unless there's something important there? Why was John buying a massive computer? Everything in this show is chosen, carefully planned-- at least up until now-- and I want to know how things fit together.
Not a bad episode, but feels a little like wheel-spinning...
Hijinks Ensue says it thusly: "Heroes season 3 premiered this week. I don’t even know where to begin. Season 1 showed so much promise. Season 2 swerved directly into oncoming traffic, collided with a bus full of legless orphaned nuns, each holding a kitten and exploded into a fireball of fail that could be seen from space. Despite that I was hopeful. I blamed the mediocrity on the writer’s strike. Now I’m convinced the writers were striking to PREVENT future episodes of Heroes." (http://hijinksensue.com/2008/09/24/all-we-wanna-do-is-eat-your-brains/)
I don't think it's as dire as that. I think I'm one of the minority who like this show because it's cheesy rather than hating it because of the same. So what does the season 3 premier bring us? Let's see: Peter is replaced by future!Peter and... what? Locked in Weevil's head? Something like that. Mrs Petrelli's powers are dreaming. Lame. Nathan's gone all televangelist on the world, and apparently that messes it up worse than anything else. Hiro managed to lose the thing his father and grandfather defended for decades in, like, half a minute. Future!Ando is both a mutant and a traitor, and only Hiro knows about it. Maya's crying. Suresh makes himself into Collossus-- in a boatyard? Why? WTF? That's not scientific at all! PsychoSlut's still around and Parkman's still not useful. Molly's conveniently away. Syler's now invincible and aparently doesn't actually eat brains so much as... poke and them and absorb their specialness? And Claire can't die at all. What about if the world ends?
The whole episode was weirdly dark... things get a little doomy and all the lightbulbs in the world get replaced by 13-watt blue-tinged ones or something. And the future needs to be saved yet again. "Save ourselves, save the world."
Part two continues the confusion, with Nathan going all John Crighton with the Linderman neural clone, PsychoSlut not realizing / not knowing / not admitting that she's PsychoSlut, MamaPet saying she's Syler's mom, Hiro punishing Ando for things he hasn't done yet, Mohinder getting all horny-- then all scaly, Elle-who-is-not-VM getting fired after almost getting brain-poked, Peter still in Weevil's head... it goes on. There's a baddie who is not at all like Mageneto, no matter that he's German and controlls metal. Elle's daddy was Midas, apparently, and is now dead. Future!Peter is messing up EVERYTHING, no matter what he tries. Claire is convinced she isn't human anymore. Oh the drama!
I'm enjoying it, though, even when it makes no sense. It's kind of... sansationalistic. Like watching tabloid TV about the X-Men.
tues: fringe
This week's Fringe dealt with something called a Ghost Network, which was really not all that well explained, and, of course, it was linked to something Walter had studied before. I hope all the stories aren't something he's done before-- one, because it would get old really quickly, and two because I'm supposed to believe this guy who founded Massive Dynamics didn't accomplish anything on his own, but let the guy who's brain produced it all sit alone in a loony bin for seventeen years?
Plots continue to thicken, however, with Peter being involved in something shadyier than usual, Astrid being revealed as a Linguist, Walter being more cogent than usual, and the last two minutes showing us that Roboarm and Bossman are in a power struggle for our Agent Dunham, and the supposedly dead and burried Agent Scott is still not what he seems. If they bring him back as an assassin, I'm totally calling plagaism for a story I wrote eight years ago but never published.
The editing and pacing still seems off to me; the plot points aren't cohesive-- it's all about the gel... only it's really not at all. So why does it even matter? I'm okay with choppiness if they bring it back later to explain things. Lets keep track of all those plot points, shall we? And if they do keep them going, won't it be fun if Roy is now kind of a psychic and can pick up on things for them?
This week's Eureka found things coming to a head-- Eva had plans to destroy the bunker thing and Zoe got infected with an aging illness, while Jo and Zane bickered. Don't care so much about that as you'd think. Maybe cuz Zane's kind of a tweeb. Anyway, Carter went to get some of the purple goop to make a cure for Zoe and wound up trapped in the bunker as it was sealed off by this TV psychic looking guy, where we found out that Eva doesn't age and one of the scientists was her brother-- and that they'd sealed themselves up to keep the illness from spreading, and while they were dying of it, they devised a sort of antiradiation bomb that would fix it.
Not too bad, but it felt rushed. All the plot crammed into one episode when it could have been a really well-scripted two-parter. And Zoe's boyfriend wasn't at her bedside as she went blind and got old or anything. But the end! Eva moves on to a new life! Allison's pregnant and wants Carter to be her coach! Carter's fired! What's next?
thurs: supernatural, knight rider
After the longest 'previously on...' i've ever lived through, this week's Supernatural goes right into the action with Hunters being taken out all over the area. Blood, guts and ribcages all over the place, and salt isn't holding them back. It's ghosts, forced to rise and made of pure anger, and they're after Dean and Sam. There's witchcraft, there's really angry ghosts, there's lots of shooting, there's salt everywhere. They win, of course, but only to find out that it doesn't matter, because the ghosts were a sign of the Apocalypse. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've got the End Times here on Supernatural. I mean, it's not like no other show in this genre has ever faced the end of the world-- Buffy and Angel handled it every season-- but it's not usually the Biblical Apocalypse, and though I haven't read a Bible in a long long time, this seems pretty close to what I remember. Neat. And creepy. Man, is this show creepy. Not the scariest thing I've ever seen, by any means, nor even the freakiest thing I've read-- and I'm a horror editor, so I read alot of creepy shit-- but it's creepy enough to make me glad I'm watching it during the day and not at night, though it also makes me sad I don't have comercials to break up the creepy. I'm kind of amazed CW allows this sort of thing.
And I can hardly wait to see where this season goes, which is pretty amazing.
So this Knight Rider redux. Not as bad as I was led to believe, though I almost wanted it to be because I wanted something to rain against. Oh well, there's always Heroes.
This one has the feel of all those silly-scifi shows I love so well, with the camara angles and plot tricks and general feel of something like Andromeda or SeaQuest, both of which were not so great, but had a certain charm that made me like them. Everyone kind of sucks at the acting thing, but that's also par for the course in these shows, and doesn't really break the deal. Also, the plot points are not terribly original-- main character can't remember his past, love interest is wary but somewhat teasingly inviting, sidekicks are the full range of secondaries that are to be expected, boss can't be trusted-- but it seems to come off as fun rather than sucky. At least for now. I liked the remix of the theme song, and it was a night touchstone with a show that's not really the old version. Kitt kind of kicks ass. He's soooo shiny... And he transforms, so there's like seven cars fitted with that cylon light thing, and he's an autonomous AI, which I always find fun. How long before he finds another AI and tries falling in love? How long before they request to build a baby? How long before there's an evil Kitt? How totally awesome would it be if the evil Kitt was the love interest and the baby was pirated software? Blindingly awesome, that's how.
I like Zoe. She's irreverent and flirty and smart and one of the only ones who actively realized how totally cool this weird little world is. Senator Kelly is shifty as is expected. The FBI is untrustworthy. And apparently people don't ever bleed.
So not so bad. Let's see if they can stay cool. And if it only lasts a few years, maybe it can be good enough to fit in with 7Days and First Wave in the flash-in-the-pan scifi that's close to my heart category.
fri: history hacker, project earth, atlantis
This new show History Hacker is pretty damn cool. Makes me want to build things-- and brings out the latent engineer in me that I never got a chance to nurture / didn't join the army to nurture, even when the ASVAB said I'd make a great engineer. The premier episode was on Electricity, focusing mostly on Nicola Tesla's weird and wonderful not-yet-followed-up-on theories and home-made tech. I love me some Tesla. The man was a scifi prop room unto himself-- I mean, wireless electricity? Using the air as the inside of a lightbulb? Inventing the neon light? Deathrays? Teleportation?? The guy was a hero for those who turn scifi into reality.
So we followed in his footsteps and found that it's easy to turn your already-cool hipster bike into a home-grown power generator, and that lightbulbs can glow without wires (though you may need to be in a Faraday Cage if you're doing it that way...), that things can move themselves around in orbit while generating their own electricity cleanly and nevigating using only em force. Gods, I love science. I wonder if there are any electronics courses I can take without having to find a way into MIT?
A really fascinating first episode.
Project Earth wasn't on this week, and I missed Atlantis, so that review will be in next week's-- or, more likely, I'll just put it up on it's own when I see it. And I think I'm going to start posting NonFic shows on their own, or in a separate roundup if there's enough of them.
Upcoming side projects:
Catching up on Middleman, which I entirely missed
All of the ill-fated New Amsterdam, which I just realized I have
Comics!
Week 3 News
The World's Strangest Clock: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7625815.stm
The most distant gamma ray burst we've ever seen: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626532.stm
A discussion of the usefulness of mechanical things to remember for us-- and some that already exist: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7625260.stm
Scientists want to study out-of-body experiences with postcards on high shelves: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/09/21/scientists-to-prove-out-of-body-experiences-with-postcards/
Fish had fingerbones before coming on land: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24381533-5016574,00.html
An engineering student wants to save earth from asteroids using mylar and solar power: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24224477-5016574,00.html
Plans to go back to the Moon to stay: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24050515-5016574,00.html
Virtual dating as a networking site in Japan: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/20/webkare-a-girls-only-combination-of-social-network-and-dating-game-from-japan/
Full individual genome sequencing for the price of an ipod!: http://io9.com/5052840/10-amusing-things-to-do-with-your-genome
DNA-based jewelry: http://www.perpetua.us/life_jewel_dna_pendant.htm
Nearly-instant DNA scanners: http://io9.com/5049979/instant-dna-scan-is-smrt-i-mean-s+m+a+r+t
The top SciFi shows not on (region 1) DVD: http://io9.com/5052896/science-fiction-tv-classics-youre-not-allowed-to-own-on-dvd
Farscape continues in comic form (much like Buffy): http://io9.com/5053363/farscape-comes-to-comics-with-a-boom
RTD turned down writing the live-action Starwars. That might have been really fun. :http://io9.com/5053360/doctor-whos-davies-says-no-to-george-lucas
This is about the coolest real scientific discovery I've seen in ages: http://io9.com/5054000/astronomers-find-dark-flow-sucking-matter-out-of-the-universe And also: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080923-dark-flows.html
a really thought provoking take on faeminism-- thought zombies: http://io9.com/5053881/zombie-feminism
China starts work on a new em-drive for space: http://io9.com/5054441/chinese-create-first-warp-drive
conservative dystopias: http://io9.com/5053970/future-dystopias-where-conservatives-have-won
Doctor Who pumpkin carving templates!: http://www.pinkraygun.com/2008/09/23/free-pumpkin-carving-template-doctor-who-and-tardis/
A new History Channel Show I may need to add to the lineup: http://io9.com/5054877/cool-new-science-show-recreates-teslas-high-voltage-inventions
New scifi books for October: http://io9.com/5054889/zombies-posthumans-voids-and-monsters-for-your-october-bookshelf
Hyposprays are real!: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080925-needle-video-ap.html?source=rss
Watery Mars has lasted longer than thought!: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080926-mars-water.html?source=rss
A space cold war?: http://io9.com/5055455/will-the-chinese-spacewalk-lead-to-a-space-cold-war
The most distant gamma ray burst we've ever seen: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626532.stm
A discussion of the usefulness of mechanical things to remember for us-- and some that already exist: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7625260.stm
Scientists want to study out-of-body experiences with postcards on high shelves: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/09/21/scientists-to-prove-out-of-body-experiences-with-postcards/
Fish had fingerbones before coming on land: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24381533-5016574,00.html
An engineering student wants to save earth from asteroids using mylar and solar power: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24224477-5016574,00.html
Plans to go back to the Moon to stay: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24050515-5016574,00.html
Virtual dating as a networking site in Japan: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/20/webkare-a-girls-only-combination-of-social-network-and-dating-game-from-japan/
Full individual genome sequencing for the price of an ipod!: http://io9.com/5052840/10-amusing-things-to-do-with-your-genome
DNA-based jewelry: http://www.perpetua.us/life_jewel_dna_pendant.htm
Nearly-instant DNA scanners: http://io9.com/5049979/instant-dna-scan-is-smrt-i-mean-s+m+a+r+t
The top SciFi shows not on (region 1) DVD: http://io9.com/5052896/science-fiction-tv-classics-youre-not-allowed-to-own-on-dvd
Farscape continues in comic form (much like Buffy): http://io9.com/5053363/farscape-comes-to-comics-with-a-boom
RTD turned down writing the live-action Starwars. That might have been really fun. :http://io9.com/5053360/doctor-whos-davies-says-no-to-george-lucas
This is about the coolest real scientific discovery I've seen in ages: http://io9.com/5054000/astronomers-find-dark-flow-sucking-matter-out-of-the-universe And also: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080923-dark-flows.html
a really thought provoking take on faeminism-- thought zombies: http://io9.com/5053881/zombie-feminism
China starts work on a new em-drive for space: http://io9.com/5054441/chinese-create-first-warp-drive
conservative dystopias: http://io9.com/5053970/future-dystopias-where-conservatives-have-won
Doctor Who pumpkin carving templates!: http://www.pinkraygun.com/2008/09/23/free-pumpkin-carving-template-doctor-who-and-tardis/
A new History Channel Show I may need to add to the lineup: http://io9.com/5054877/cool-new-science-show-recreates-teslas-high-voltage-inventions
New scifi books for October: http://io9.com/5054889/zombies-posthumans-voids-and-monsters-for-your-october-bookshelf
Hyposprays are real!: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080925-needle-video-ap.html?source=rss
Watery Mars has lasted longer than thought!: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080926-mars-water.html?source=rss
A space cold war?: http://io9.com/5055455/will-the-chinese-spacewalk-lead-to-a-space-cold-war
Friday, September 26, 2008
Imports: Merlin s01e01
I've decided to separate out the imported TV I watch, as most of it isn't in the US, or will be later, and maybe you don't want to spoil yourself. To start off: Merlin.
Sunday seems to be the day for mysticism, what with True Blood also being this day. Merlin began tonight with a fun episode that managed to get young!Merlin not only into a place in court, but also into a lot of trouble. He's a natural magician in a land where magic is banned, and that's only going to cause problems. This time around, it helped him save his mentor, fight Arthur and defeat an evil witch played really well by the lovely Eve Myles (was that her singing? I'll have to find out, but I heard somewhere that Welsh people are naturally musical...). Uther "Giles" Pendragon is kind of a hardass; he battled magic twenty years ago and brought order-- at the cost of getting rid of everything the least bit magical and killing anyone who uses it. And that's why the witch wanted to kill him: one of those executed was her son. He rewards Merlin for saving everyone by making him Arthur's manservant, but they already don't like each other, and I'm sure that'll be a lot of the plot points to follow. Gwenevere is a maidservant, not a princess, to Morgana, who is not a half sister but a ward, so it'll be interesting to see how the standard interactions work out.
All in all, alot of fun and worth the watch, and I'll definitely tune in next time!
Sunday seems to be the day for mysticism, what with True Blood also being this day. Merlin began tonight with a fun episode that managed to get young!Merlin not only into a place in court, but also into a lot of trouble. He's a natural magician in a land where magic is banned, and that's only going to cause problems. This time around, it helped him save his mentor, fight Arthur and defeat an evil witch played really well by the lovely Eve Myles (was that her singing? I'll have to find out, but I heard somewhere that Welsh people are naturally musical...). Uther "Giles" Pendragon is kind of a hardass; he battled magic twenty years ago and brought order-- at the cost of getting rid of everything the least bit magical and killing anyone who uses it. And that's why the witch wanted to kill him: one of those executed was her son. He rewards Merlin for saving everyone by making him Arthur's manservant, but they already don't like each other, and I'm sure that'll be a lot of the plot points to follow. Gwenevere is a maidservant, not a princess, to Morgana, who is not a half sister but a ward, so it'll be interesting to see how the standard interactions work out.
All in all, alot of fun and worth the watch, and I'll definitely tune in next time!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Side Project Week 3
We didn't watch Classic Who last night, but we did watch Pushing Daisies in an attempt to catch up since the show is coming back so very soon after so very long a hiatus (stupid writers' strike!). I've seen all the episodes before, of course, but it was almost like watching them for the first time. I'd forgotten just how charming the show was, how vivid the world was-- entirely stylized and colorful and strange, nothing boring and normal in it at all. I want to live in Lilly and Vivian's house. I want to work at the Pie Hole. I want to look out my window and see endless miles of yellow daisies.
I hope the show stays as it is-- long breaks can break the flow, and I think it would just be a tragedy in this case. There was such a cohesive feel to these nine little episodes, such a unified idea of what was happening. I have trepedations about the new episodes more than I usually do at the start of a new series...
I hope the show stays as it is-- long breaks can break the flow, and I think it would just be a tragedy in this case. There was such a cohesive feel to these nine little episodes, such a unified idea of what was happening. I have trepedations about the new episodes more than I usually do at the start of a new series...
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Week 2 News
10 dumbest deaths in scifi: http://io9.com/5049753/12-weakest-deaths-in-science-fiction-
history
first picture of an exoplanet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7617031.stm
lhc hacked: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7616622.stm
weird bright obkect: http://io9.com/5050127/hubble-finds-an-ultra+bright-mystery-object-outside-any-detectable-galaxy
planning for the apocalypse: http://io9.com/5050070/live-in-a-yuppie-missile-silo-in-upstate-ny
top ten geeky movie characters: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/our-10-favorite.html
more on the exoplanet: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=5347
top ten sexy geeks: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/09/15/top-ten-sexiest-fictional-
geeks-part-1/
AND http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/09/16/top-ten-sexiest-fictional-geeks-part-2/
nasa has ideas about how to stop astronaut bone loss: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/16/nasa.bone.loss/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
the oldest roots of scifi: http://io9.com/5050642/the-roots-of-todays-science-fiction-go-back-centuries
this is atlantis's last season! http://blog.scifi.com/stargate/
they're cancelling atlantis, for 'kids in the gate'? http://io9.com/5051841/the-stargate-
universe-team-assembles
the 20 best worst scfi movies of all time: http://io9.com/5052003/the-20-best-worst-science-fiction-movies-of-all-time
mccain and ufos: http://io9.com/5052098/mccain-acknowledges-the-lights-over-arizona-were-ufos
Sulu got hisself hitched!: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=5646
Flash Forward has a fun idea but is made by questionable talent: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080919/tv_nm/flash_dc
New SciFi Channel show stars Sully and looks fun! http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992463.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
Sickest Transporter Accidents in SciFi: http://io9.com/5048821/the-sickest-teleportation-accidents-in-the-universe
New Red Dwarf coming:http://io9.com/5052663/details-about-red-dwarfs-revival-finally-emerge
Why Fringe is TVs most reassuring show: http://io9.com/5052384/why-fringe-is-sf-tvs-most-reassuring-show
Weekly Roundup 2 - Sept 14 to 20
sun: true blood
You know that cliffhanger at the end of last episode? Yeah, now that that's cleared away, let's get back to the softcore ****. I can tell this show's going to be one of those 'leave them in abject fear and then fix it easily next week' shows; I mean, it already is. Sookie? Not dead by kicking. Jason? Not a murderer. Moving on. Bill went to talk to the Grandma, Sookie yelled at alot more people, Sam tried to calm her down at work again, Tara almost got some alone time with her idiot love, and Jason went back to his slutty ex. Sookie totally made out with the gash in Bill's arm and drank up all his v-juice, which means now they're connected and she's got super-senses. On top of being a telepath. That dog that follows Sookie showed up again and Bill popped a fang when he and Sook started to make out-- after that thing that vampires do these days where they smell along your jugular. I mean, it's hot and all, but it's also silly and kind of weird, but I guess it reinforces the idea that you're basically food, however else they choose to treat you.
Not much happened this ep, really, but at the end, some vamp-hater dies mysteriously and the crazy bald vamp is at Bill's house, so who knows what's going to happen next, and I guess that's what keeps me coming back: I really don't know. It's like a soap opera that happens to have people-eaters in it.
You know what would be really interesting? If they keep with the books, eventually Sookie's going to have a steady boyfriend who's a weretiger and she'll meet her great grandfather who's a faerie. Even if they don't keep with the books, it'll be fun to know that vamps aren't the only mystical beings around, you know?
My review: Still waiting for the point, but keep it coming!
mon: sarah connor
So! John's finally acting something like a normal teenager, and, unfortunately, it's entirely the wrong thing to do in a life like his. Riley is fun, pretty, quirky, kind of a damaged kid but still really normal outside of the terminator-knowledge, she's exactly what John thinks he needs, and my bet is that she'll die. Barring that, she's the enemy in some way we haven't figured out. Meanwhile, Sarah's scared for her life from something she can't shoot and has developed a fobia of radiation. I think it's her control-freak issues. And maybe when she was in the loony bin, she actually was crazy; I mean, just because the robots were real, doesn't mean she wasn't driven off the edge by them. Meanwhile meanwhile, Cameron's acting off... something's come loose in her robobrain or something, and she's having trouble making decisions for herself, possibly getting stuck in data loops until someone knocks her out of it, she's lost in her own lack of knowing... Outside the big three, Charley's wife Penny Widmore knows what's up now, and I think they'll continue to be a fun dynamic as they get more invovled in his ex-fiancee's fight to save the world, and Agent Ellis is still gathering info and talking things through with people, and that'll be fun, too.
Season two is off to an interesting start. This episode wasn't as rip-roaring as the first one, but it's setting up the plot for the season better, and as they've got a whole season to work with this time, I think they're doing it carefully. So far, it looks like there's a plan, and I'm sold. Now it's time to wait and see what happens. Season one got better and better as it neared climax, let's hope season two can top it.
My review: Pretty neat. Keep it up! And I'm kinda glad John made Sarah stop petting on him. That was getting a little too Oedipal for me. She should pet on Dereck; he's hot and seems to be concerned about her.
tues: fringe, eureka
Fringe continues to be weird as all get out. And a little gross, though this week was only magic-oldman-babies and eyeballs and discriptions, instead of all crisco-skin and visible muscles. Not as crazy as the first episode, but there's progress with the interactions between characters-- Pacey-Peter continues to be concerned about Olivia, Charley-the-Fed is getting just the tinsiest bit annoyed at not knowing what's going on, roboarm seems to be working both sides of the Committee, Walter is still a total nut bar, but is figuring out how the world works a little and is starting to remember things from before he was locked up. I'm still not so sure of Anna Torv's acting-- most of the time, I'm not sure if she's supposed to look like she doesn't know what's going on, but for now, it's okay. The science... well, I knew going in to this that it wasn't really going to have much with reality, and it's kind of freeing that it's like that. Anything is possible.
I think the plot of this episode was a little choppy; things seemed a little too convenient sometimes, but it held together easy enough by the end, and it seems to be introducing the idea that there's something wrong with PaceyPeter, and that maybe he doesn't know about it. And, knowing how weird his dad is and how freaky the show wants to be, I'm sure it's something really weird.
My review: I'm still with ya. Keep it coming!
This week's Eureka was my first in a long time. I mean, I watched all of the first season with rapt attention, and cried like a very sad baby at the end, but I lost track of it in the second season, and this... well, this is the third, and I'm doing my best to get back.
Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what's going on in the overall season arc, but this episode was about the town elections-- Eureka needs a mayor, even though I'm pretty sure it never had one before. Vincent of the coffee shop was running, with Fargo as his campaign manager, Zoe's boyfriend Lucas was running, though it seemed it was all a front for Zoe to be all Lady Macbeth behind the scenes and I'm not sure why she didn't just run herself, and some guy named Hererra who farms clouds was running. There was much techno-fictioning, with clouds shaped into campaign signs and gel that keeps you cool under pressure and so on. Meanwhile, there's some bunker recently discovered, and Allison and Carter investigate and find out that Eva, who I'm assuming is this season's big bad, removed several fourty-year-old bodies from it, and she's not sharing any info on them and is acting like she knew them personally. Oh, and there's a science project that creates as second sun.
Carter and Jo's superbrain boyfriend Zack manage to save the day, and Henry is voted in, even though he didn't run. It's still silly and quirky and fun, and I have no idea what's going on between the characters, but I'm okay with that. Though I do want to know what happened with Allison and Carter-- that's not there at all anymore, and that makes me sad.
My Review: Fun standard Eureka.
thurs: supernatural
Smallville premiered, and I will not be adding that to the rotation. I watched it a little at the beginning, but Superman just isn't that interesting to me, and the show is not good. I just can't bring myself to come back after five and a half years.
Better, was that Supernatural premiered. Season four finds Dean dragging himself from the grave after four months, and having to reunite the gang so he can find out why. Sam has a girl whose name he can't remember in a room with mirrored ceilings, Billy almost kills him thinking he's a revenant or something, a psychic is blinded and several demons are killed and blinded, too. Sam's working on his psychic powers with the help of Ruby and a bunch of lies to preserve the secret, and, it turns out, Dean is chosen of God. Neat. It was really only a matter of time, I think, before a show full of demons had to get around to the fact that demons are warped angels, and therefore, there are angels. And it's always fun to watch a rock-hard skeptic get a mission from a god he doesn't believe in. Not to mention watching an angel be really freaky and creepy. This is so much better then whitelighters and darklighters on Charmed.
fri:atlantis, discovery project earth
Atlantis brings us Keller tied up in the woods again! Really, this is getting to be a habit. This time, she's kidnapped by a Runner like Ronon, and that means he's the only one who can track them; meanwhile, Rodney's been practicing talking to her intelligently about medical matters, and has gone with her on his day off juse to near her, so he insists on helping her too. So there's woods, and Wraith, none of which are Standard Wraith Baddie or Hot Toddy The Wraith, so they manage to kill them all and the rest is sunning around and avoiding further capture while Keller helps a sick girl and disables the Runner's transmitter. He draws the rest of the Wraith off, but isn't killed, so I think he'll probably come back later-- or would have if the show wasn't canceled. ::tear:: The best parts were when Keller actually got to do things like speak her mind and even fight off an attacking Wraith who was, like, twice her size-- and when Rodney confronted Ronon back on the base to ask him "his intentions". Seems both Ronon and our Rodney like the same girl! This'll be fun, what with them being entirely different people with entirely different skill sets and personalities and life-views. I'm voting for Rodney, though, if only because I like the little possible sparks between Ronon and Teyla.
My Review: Standard low-budget Atlantis, okay, but not as neat as last week. An excuse to move the plot along.
Discovery Project Earth was about getting rid of Co2 in the air. There was the idea to drop it into the oceans, and they built a torpedo that could slam dry-ice into the sea floor, and they built a massive air-scrubber something like they use to get the co2 from shuttle air and something like they use for getting the sulfur out of factory air that was more than twice as effective as they thought it should be. There was talks with Norwegian natural gas miners who separate the co2 on site and pump it back underground, and the mention that the rest of the world could use the same plan to sequester millions of tons. There was mention that cleaning the air might make peole think it's okay to continue spoiling it.
But it wasn't as interesting to me as it usually is. I don't know; the tech was not as neat, the plan was not as ambitious, things went too smoothly, something wasn't as sparky as it usually is. A worthy episode-- they all are-- but not my favorite.
test-running:
The Wrong Door is a BBC3 sketch comedy show with a weird scfi-esque twist and a penchant for running gags and potty humor. Not hilarious, no, but silly enough to be entertaining, and scifi enough to be somewhat unexpected. Let's see what the next few eps are like before I decide whether to make this a regular part of thelineup or not.
excited about:
Merlin on BBC has Anthony Stewart Head and Eve Myles, both of whom I already adore, and is already getting some good press. RTD says it's something worthy of showing against the Doctor.
Warehouse 13 is one of SciFi Channel's new shows-- Sully from Bones and his partner have to protect a warehouse full of paranormal artifacts. (anyone notice how secret semi-governmental programs are the thing for scifi this season?)
Flash Forward-- from the guy who wrote the Blade movies, a show about everyone on the planet getting a 2 minute vision of the future and how it changes everything.
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