Nov242006

The Top 10 Movie Spaceships

Another Turkey Day is past, the trytophan slept off with nary a trace of hangover, and I’ve just had a slice of apple pie for breakfast. Yummy. I’m now ready to set off on our next blogging adventure, a journey that will take us deep, deep into the very heart of blackest geekdom. Don’t be afraid, though. I’ve got a flashlight, and a good blaster at my side. And it’s definitely not set for stun.

(Hm. Here’s a random thought: do all blaster-type weapons in the Star Wars universe have a stun setting? Or do Imperial troops have some kind of special crowd-control blasters? Inquiring minds want to know, Uncle George!)

Anyway, I saw earlier this week that a web site called FilmCritic.com had posted a list of the Top 10 Movie Spaceships as determined by the site’s editorial staff. The criteria used to determine “topness” were vague, consisting mostly of which examples struck the editors as “awesome.” However, awesomeness is in the eye of the beholder, so naturally I have a few quibbles with their selections. To begin, here is their list:

Continue Reading…

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Nov222006

Happy Thanksgiving 2006

The old brick-pile, as I like to think of my office building, is growing very, very quiet as, one by one, my co-workers sneak off for an early start on their four-day weekends. I’m about ready to call it a week myself. I hope and intend to do some major blogging this weekend — there are a number of subjects I’ve been wanting to write about and putting off — but for now I’ll just leave you with the following holiday-themed amusement:

Give in to the Dark Side.

If I don’t see you, Happy Gluttony!

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Nov222006

SF&F Book Meme

Man, it seems like forever since I’ve run across a good meme — I suspect that they were probably just another Internet fad that’s now largely run its course. Still, that doesn’t mean we won’t run across one from time to time, right? Courtesy of Lou Anders, here’s one based on the the Science Fiction Book Club’s list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002.

Like other book-related memes I’ve done before, the idea here is to indicate which ones you’ve read and what you thought of them, to demonstrate your erudition and good taste, no doubt. Or your lack thereof. Or to at least give you something to do on the boring work-day before a long holiday weekend. Here we go:

Continue Reading…

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Nov212006

Update on Mars Global Surveyor

It doesn’t look good. Scientists are still analyzing the images sent back by the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter as it tried to find its companion, the Mars Global Surveyor, but there doesn’t seem to have been any “definitive sighting.” Emily at The Planetary Society isn’t willing to write off the MGS just yet — there is still an effort underway to relay a signal from the MGS through the Opportunity rover down on the planet’s surface. However, a number of space-related blogs and websites are already writing eulogies for the missing probe. This one includes a cool photo taken by the MGS in its salad days, as well as a good list of the mission’s highlights.

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Nov212006

It’s That Time of Year Again

Just in time for Annual Mass Consumption Day, the maniacs at the Jones Soda Company have unveiled their limited-edition holiday flavors for 2006: Turkey and Gravy (a perennial favorite), Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Pea, and the one that’s sure be the big hit of the set, Antacid Flavored Soda. A note on the web page notes that the 2006 Holiday Pack also includes a “medicinal cup for accurate servings.” I imagine that’s especially important for the Antacid soda.

And just in case you have any room left after downing your Thanksgiving meal in soda form, why don’t you pick up the special Dessert Pack, too? It contains a bottle each of Cherry Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, Apple Pie, and Blueberry Pie-flavored soda.

Mouth-watering, isn’t it?

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Nov212006

Food for Thought

Here’s an idea that jumped out at me from my morning-commute reading matter:

The Right doesn’t like to acknowledge that the power and authority of a government can be a good thing, up to a point, in the hands of a genius. The Left doesn’t like to acknowledge that geniuses are few and far between.

–David Gelernter, 1939: The Lost World of the Fair

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Nov202006

Presidential Dollar Coins

Have you heard the news that the U.S. Mint is planning a series of one-dollar coins depicting each and every one of our deceased presidents?

The mint hopes the presidents will succeed where Susan B. Anthony and then Sacagawea failed. Each year starting in 2007, it will release four presidential coins, beginning next year with George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The mint intends that the first coin should be available by next President’s Day.

I dabble a little at coin collecting — like a good trend-follower, I jumped on that state quarter bandwagon a few years back — and I personally like the idea of replacing the one-dollar bill with more durable coins. However, if the suits running the Mint really think this idea is going to be the one “to wean Americans off the dollar bill and onto dollar coins,” I’ve got a whole jar full of Sacagaweas they can have as a gift. People are set in their ways. The only way we’re ever going to get folks to make the switch to coins is if the government just stops issuing the bills. I read somewhere that the one-dollar bill has lifespan of only about eighteen months, so within two years, more or less, of a hypothetical discontinuation of dollar bills, all that will be available will be the coins. Voila, we’re weaned.

Of course, there is the problem of every vending machine in the country needing to be reconfigured. And then there’s the matter of a whole lot of presidents not really deserving their own coin. While I’m sure the Reagan fans will be thrilled that their boy finally gets his due, does anyone really want a Richard Nixon dollar? Or a Woodrow Wilson or Ulysses S. Grant, neither of whom is exactly held in high esteem by history? No, I think this particular scheme could’ve used some more work…

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Nov202006

An Announcement from Peter Jackson

Bad news for Tolkien fans: Peter Jackson won’t be making a live-action film version of The Hobbit after all. Following the stunning financial and artistic success of his Lord of the Rings films, I think everyone just assumed that any further cinematic adventures in Middle-Earth would naturally be Jackson’s babies as well. Now, however, New Line Cinema has decided to look for another director to do the Hobbit film and possibly a second LOTR prequel as well (whatever that may be). The breaking point, not surprisingly, was over money, specifically a lawsuit Jackson’s company brought against New Line concerning the profits from The Fellowship of the Ring. (Basically, Jackson feels he didn’t get what he was owed due to some dicey and/or shady accounting practices on the part of New Line.) New Line apparently hoped it could bluff him into dropping the suit, using The Hobbit as its bet. Jackson called the studio’s hand, the film deal is off, and the lawsuit continues. You can read Jackson’s complete statement on this matter here.

I’m not exactly a Peter Jackson partisan and I know this sort of thing happens all the time in Hollywood, but it would have been lovely, if a Hobbit film was inevitable, to have it blend seamlessly with the existing LOTR films. That’s still a possibility, but I think the odds of it happening have just gotten much, much longer. More likely we’re going to have a version of The Hobbit that complements Jackon’s trilogy about as well as that bombastic MTV schlock-o-rama version of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned fits with Neil Jordan’s elegant adapation of Interview with the Vampire. C’est la vie, I suppose…

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Nov202006

What Kind of Reader Am I?

Haven’t done an Internet quiz in a while, so here we go:

What Kind of Reader Are You?

Your Result: Fad Reader

You always read the latest bestseller so you can be up to date on what other people are talking about, and to pass the time on your commute, but you have other leisure pursuits in your free time.
Literate Good Citizen
Dedicated Reader
Non-Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Create Your Own Quiz

 

Hmm… a “fad reader?” I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. It’s not an inaccurate description, I suppose, but there is something sort of… shameful… about it. At least I’m not a non-reader (he says, rather defensively).

[Ed. note: the table is screwy, incidentally — those black lines are supposed to be red, but I don’t know what’s wrong. I copied and pasted the code exactly…]

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