It’s been all over the interwebs as of late and I finally took a moment to listen/watch it…and I have something to say:At this point I don’t really care if the LHC blows up the world, because this video is the coolest video package of scientific geekdom since Bill Nye the Science Guy was rocking after school television. Launch away LHC folks. Launch away. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
What is it?Michael Komarck is an artist you probably know, just not necessarily by name (he’s done the covers for books like The Summoner by Gail Z. Martin, Bitterwood by James Maxey, and more) and today’s website is his website (just click his name). Not much to say other than this is where you can find out about the artist. Why is it cool?Aside from the News section, you can also see a portfolio on his work, which includes cover art, interior art, and other art that he’s done, such as art for collectible card games and what. You can also buy prints (signed or unsigned) and contact the author directly. Beautiful artwork from a fantastic artist. Check it out! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
I saw this interesting meme here and thought I should do it just for he heck of it. Here are the rules: Look up your birthday in Wikipedia. Pick 4 events, 3 births, 2 deaths, and 1 holiday. The resuls (for October 6th): Events 1600–Jacopi Peri’s Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premieres in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period. 1889–Thomas Eddison shows his first motion picture. 1987–Fiji becomes a republic. 1995–51 Pegasi was discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it. Births 1289–King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia 1773–King Louis-Phillipe of France 1950–David Brin (yay!) Deaths 1542–Thomas Wyatt, English Poet 1989–Bette Davis, American Actress Holidays U.S. – German-American Day observed since 1987 I got somewhat screwed on the holidays, but there were some interesting Births and Deaths and what not. So, anyone who wants to do this is more than welcome to. I’m sure someone has a better birthday than I do. Anywho!
I’ve been watching the first and third Terminator films the last couple of days and something occurred to me as to why the robots–from the future, of course–always lose: they’re not very smart robots.Let’s face it, the robots of the future didn’t exactly choose the “calm” approach to getting things done. The first Terminator was a large, muscular Austrian with a trigger finger. Go figure. He can’t talk all that well–no offense Arnold, but sweet-talking isn’t really your forte–and he has a tremendous social deficiency. You’d think that robots who eventually take control of the Internet, the military, and everything else attached to some sort of digital component would have learned a little about what makes us tick. They’d have known that people don’t generally respond well to being shot at, chased, followed by creepy guys in leather jackets who have a constant look of anger and speak like the Grim Reaper if he were born in Eastern Europe or hit over the head with a large hammer. But they didn’t do this research or decided it didn’t matter for some reason.You see, the robots could have easily killed off Sarah Connor the first time around by taking a little time to program “fake” emotions into their robots. I know, they’re robots and are supposed to be emotionless. That’s sort of the point of the movies. But we’re talking about this in a different light, so get over it. They could have programmed their Terminators to be a little more, well, human, even just a smidge. By doing so they would have ended up with a robot that could at least blend, somewhat, into the human world and might actually weasel its way into Sarah Connor’s good graces. And then, with her back turned, all trusting and what not, it could have just snapped her neck and been done with it.But that didn’t happen.And then came Terminator 2, where the Austrian version gets reprogrammed by humans who don’t have the time to deal with implanting human qualities into it, considering their desperate situation and all, and the evil version is a suped up model that can turn to liquid and runs really fast–oh and has the handy ability to turn his hands into toothpicks and golf clubs. The robots were almost there this time around. Sure, the T-1000 has a trigger finger, almost no emotions, etc., but it does manage to express a little humanity at times, albeit in an attempt to get what it wants. But, it’s not nearly enough and in the end the T-1000 is just another monstrous robot bent on killing one of the Connors (this time John) and causing as much explosion-happy mayhem as humanly, I mean robotically possible. And, just like with the first Terminator (T-101 or some such), this approach draws far too much attention, and really, if you’re going to jump into the past to hunt down a kid, you probably should do it quietly so that not every cop within three-hundred miles knows what’s going on. Subtlety is the wave of the future. Wait…no it’s not.Finally came Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I’m intentionally ignoring the Sarah Connor Chronicles, mostly because I haven’t watched them and because the few episodes I have seen really didn’t do much for me at all (sorry, I think they suffer from “stuck in the middle” syndrome like the new Clone Wars movie does). T3 was, more or less, an attempt to expand upon the Terminator story without doing anything too outlandish and ridiculous in comparison to the first two films. It succeeded on that front, giving us lots of explosions, chase scenes, fights, and what not without overloading it with the big movie killer in Hollywood today: excessive CG. Sure, there was a lot of CG in T3, but they seemed to avoid designing scenes that would rely entirely upon CG in exchange for a bit of realism (George Lucas, you should be paying attention here). In T3 we have Austrian Terminator being reprogrammed yet again by humans–human qualities missing, obviously–and sent back in time to protect John Connor and Kate Brewster–who apparently is Connor’s future wife. The robots, however, send back the T-X, and I’m going to use John Connor’s words to describe her: “She’s an anti-terminator…terminator.” She’s supposed to be an extremely advanced Terminator model, but she does come with limitations–she can’t turn into liquid like the T-1000, though she can change her appearance, and she can’t turn her arms into golf clubs. Sure, she’s superior to the T-101, or whatever model you want to call Arnold’s Terminator, but she’s not nearly as terrifying as the T-1000–mostly cause she’s a pretty woman and the T-1000 was that slightly creepy guy who later worked on X-Files. Having said all this, though, we find that despite T-X’s ability to control digital networks–such as the computer systems in our newfangled cars and what not–and her seemingly limitless physical capabilities–like punching through a car seat and a man’s chest all at once or simply walking away after being bitch-slapped by a rocket propelled grenade–she falls prey to exactly what made the first and second Terminators failures: she has absolutely no concept of what it is to be human. Well, I should say “it”, but because it’s a woman most of the time I’ll just say she. In the end, it is the original Terminator’s ability to have some semblance of humanity that leads to the success of humanity (which is sort of a strange type of success, since the robots succeed in starting the war anyway, but don’t worry, cause John Connor and Kate Brewster live, and Connor turns into a scarred badass that eats Terminators for breakfast and probably has his face on a Wheaties box at some point, or the future equivalent–Termies perhaps?).You see, after three attempts (more if you want to include the Sarah Connor stuff), you’d think they would have learned that creating robots that are incapable of blending into human
I have a question for you all. Do you know anything about the Spectra Pulse Magazine? I was recently at Borderlands and discovered this free issue (the premiere issue for 2008 apparently) and decided to pick it up because it sounded interesting…and it was. In fact, I want to get more of it. It’s really good, beautifully made, and I’m quite impressed. I’ve never heard of it before (I know it’s in connection with the SF/F publishing imprint), but if this is a new regular print or something I’d like to be subscribed. It was that good. Anyone know anything about it? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
This is a long list, but a cool one. These are the 1001 books you must read before you die, or at least that’s what the title of the list said. So, let’s turn this into a meme. It’ll take a while, but so be it. The RulesBold all the titles you have read and italicize only the titles that you really want to read (don’t italicize titles you only kind of want to read, otherwise you’ll spend three weeks doing this list). That’s it. You can change the rules as you see fit, though. I’m tagging anyone who wants to do this. Here goes: Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro Saturday – Ian McEwan On Beauty – Zadie Smith Slow Man – J.M. Coetzee Adjunct: An Undigest – Peter Manson The Sea – John Banville The Red Queen – Margaret Drabble The Plot Against America – Philip Roth The Master – Colm Tóibín Vanishing Point – David Markson The Lambs of London – Peter Ackroyd Dining on Stones – Iain Sinclair Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell Drop City – T. Coraghessan Boyle The Colour – Rose Tremain Thursbitch – Alan Garner The Light of Day – Graham Swift What I Loved – Siri Hustvedt The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon Islands – Dan Sleigh Elizabeth Costello – J.M. Coetzee London Orbital – Iain Sinclair Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry Fingersmith – Sarah Waters The Double – José Saramago Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer Unless – Carol Shields Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami The Story of Lucy Gault – William Trevor That They May Face the Rising Sun – John McGahern In the Forest – Edna O’Brien Shroud – John Banville Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides Youth – J.M. Coetzee Dead Air – Iain Banks Nowhere Man – Aleksandar Hemon The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster Gabriel’s Gift – Hanif Kureishi Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald Platform – Michael Houellebecq Schooling – Heather McGowan Atonement – Ian McEwan The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen Don’t Move – Margaret Mazzantini The Body Artist – Don DeLillo Fury – Salman Rushdie At Swim, Two Boys – Jamie O’Neill Choke – Chuck Palahniuk Life of Pi – Yann Martel The Feast of the Goat – Mario Vargos Llosa An Obedient Father – Akhil Sharma The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho Spring Flowers, Spring Frost – Ismail Kadare White Teeth – Zadie Smith The Heart of Redness – Zakes Mda Under the Skin – Michel Faber Ignorance – Milan Kundera Nineteen Seventy Seven – David Peace Celestial Harmonies – Péter Esterházy City of God – E.L. Doctorow How the Dead Live – Will Self The Human Stain – Philip Roth The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood After the Quake – Haruki Murakami Small Remedies – Shashi Deshpande Super-Cannes – J.G. Ballard House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski Blonde – Joyce Carol Oates Pastoralia – George Saunders Timbuktu – Paul Auster The Romantics – Pankaj Mishra Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson As If I Am Not There – Slavenka Drakuli? Everything You Need – A.L. Kennedy Fear and Trembling – Amélie Nothomb The Ground Beneath Her Feet – Salman Rushdie Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi Amsterdam – Ian McEwan Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks All Souls Day – Cees Nooteboom The Talk of the Town – Ardal O’Hanlon Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis Another World – Pat Barker The Hours – Michael Cunningham Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden Great Apes – Will Self Enduring Love – Ian McEwan Underworld – Don DeLillo Jack Maggs – Peter Carey The Life of Insects – Victor Pelevin American Pastoral – Philip Roth The Untouchable – John Banville Silk – Alessandro Baricco Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Duncker Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels The Ghost Road – Pat Barker Forever a Stranger – Hella Haasse Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace The Clay Machine-Gun – Victor Pelevin Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro Morvern Callar – Alan Warner The Information – Martin Amis The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie Sabbath’s Theater – Philip Roth The Rings of Saturn – W.G. Sebald The Reader – Bernhard Schlink A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry Love’s Work – Gillian Rose The End of the Story – Lydia Davis Mr. Vertigo – Paul Auster The Folding Star – Alan Hollinghurst Whatever – Michel Houellebecq Land – Park Kyong-ni The Master of Petersburg – J.M. Coetzee The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami Pereira Declares: A Testimony – Antonio Tabucchi City Sister Silver – Jàchym Topol How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor Disappearance – David Dabydeen The Invention of Curried Sausage – Uwe Timm The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks Looking for the Possible Dance – A.L. Kennedy Operation Shylock – Philip Roth Complicity – Iain Banks On Love – Alain de Botton What a Carve Up! – Jonathan Coe A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides The House of Doctor Dee – Peter Ackroyd The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood The Emigrants – W.G. Sebald The Secret History – Donna Tartt Life is a Caravanserai – Emine Özdamar The Discovery of Heaven – Harry Mulisch A Heart So White – Javier Marias Possessing the Secret of Joy – Alice Walker Indigo – Marina Warner The Crow Road – Iain Banks Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson Jazz – Toni Morrison The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje Smilla’s Sense
