A fall line-up of Sci-Fi TV shows is displayed at SciFiChick.com (props to SFSignal for the link).
Some of these shows read like a truly terrible idea. Others seem ok. For really bad, make sure you read the description of “Me & Lee” near the bottom.
My question for today is: “What did the show descriptions for Firefly or Heroes or Battlestar sound like? We’re they as wretched-appearing as these?”
I’m looking forward to seeing Bionic Woman and New Amsterdam. The rest seem a bit dodgy.
This morning, I was alerted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (reg. req’d) that a Georgia State University astronomy program on Mt. Wilson, in California, had imaged the surface of Altair, a sun-sized star that is one of the brightest in the northern sky. This is cool because it’s the first time a star this size has been seen this way.
However, accompanying this article was this image. It was very early when I read the news, so it didn’t ping my bullshit detectors, although the sheer amount of detail really should have been a tip-off. It wasn’t until I ended up at the National Science Foundation website that I noticed the caption that should have accompanied the image.
An artist’s rendition of Altair
What’s a little detail like that, between friends?
Regardless, this is excellent astronomy and great science. I could not find the actual image that goes along with the press releases. Hopefully that will pop up into the public domain soon.
Saturday before Memorial Day had us out at an acquintances place to grill and drink and watch the stars. See my flickr set for more images.
In Kahului, HI, citizens who are protesting the new Hawaii Superferry plan to simulate the effects that the offloading of this ferry will have on the local road network. They’re not simulating this using software, though; they’re gathering an equivalent amount of vehicles and pedestrians to do an actual offload, to demonstrate the effects the ferry will bring. This is citizenry in action! Awesome.
News about a potential new commuter rail tunnel. Secretary Mary Peters has been slinging around a lot of money in the last few weeks. She announced here in Atlanta some big amount of money to help study Atlanta Harstfield Jackson Airport in order to determine if further expansion is possible, and to consider a potential second airport.
This man has a point about safe roads being not necessarily “comfortable” roads.
Before anyone gets up in arms about be bashing our faithful brethren in the ITS industry, I must say that I have personal experience to what this man is complaining about. On several occasions here in Atlanta, I’ve checked the traffic status (acceptable) on Georgia Navigator, only to have the inaccuracy forcefully pointed out to me by my stuck-in-traffic wife. There is apparently some lag in the reporting of average speeds around here.
More news about the traffic wardens in England who now have head-cameras.
When you look at this image, what do you see?
I see a spaghetti-tangle of aircraft travel corridors. These are the airports within 30 miles of Atlanta that have instrument landing systems. Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (the southernmost red blob) is, of course, the world’s busiest in terms of takeoff and landings as well as numbers of travelers. The second from the top-left red blob is Dobbins Air Reserve Base, home to a fighter wing, a maintenance facility, a training facility, and Lockheed. The other blobs are airports without commerical airlines, but still plenty of traffic. The skies over Atlanta are rarely free of aircraft.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters was here last month and announced some federal funds to help study ways to keep Hartsfield-Jackson operating effectively into the future with all the expected growth. One of the options to be considered is a second large commerical airport for the region.
Wow. That is the sort of project to make engineers’ mouths water. Build a large new transportation facility from scratch.
Controversy immediately kicked off. Delta and AirTran, Hartsfield-Jackson’s largest tenants are against any second airport for their own reasons, some of which might make sense, but others of which sound like “don’t make us compete with other carriers.” The City of Atlanta seems to be against it because it would be outside the city (there’s no space large enough inside) therefore no tax base. The various surrounding counties seem to be against it because their large tracts of relatively undeveloped land would make the ideal location for a new airport and its attendant noise, development, etc. In fact, I’m not sure anyone is actually for the project, except for every single airline passenger I’ve spoken with around here, me included.
Most people seem to think that the logical place to put a new airport would be somewhere on the northern side of the city. I agree, if only because it would cut my time to get to an airport by 75% or so. Of course, there’s no telling what airlines would fly into a hypothetical ATL2, but you can bet that the citizens north of I-285 would flock there.
Whatever comes out of this bruhaha, you can bet that we’re still years away from any sort of construction.
Warning: The following post can be likened to blaming global warming for the hot weather we had in March. It should be taken with all due amusement…
Today I read a story:
SEATTLE — A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s top spammers was arrested Wednesday, a development that federal authorities said could lead to an immediate, perceptible decrease in the amount of junk e-mail winging its way across the Web.
(emphasis added)
Interestingly enough, I dealt with about 10 times more spam blog comments than in the past 6 months.
Coincidence? Not unless you think Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole gunman is a coincidence… [sinister laugh]
Insane Harry Potter fans now have a theme park to look forward to.
I wil admit to being a huge Harry Potter fan, but not an insane one. Insane ones love ALL the movies and go to ALL of the HP-themed Dragon*Con sessions. And, of course, they’ll travel to California Florida to see a theme park.
Blog Like It’s The End Of The World
My Elves are Different is calling for a worldwide blog-o-bonanaza on June 13th, 2007. Blog Like it’s the End of the World asks that you blog about the Zombie invasion going on in your town, or around the world, that day, from your own perspective.
I’m doing it. Are you?
A lot of my four readers are left-wing pinko commies. Thusly, they’ll probably get a kick out of John Scalzi’s1 What My Jesus Would Do post.
I confess that I did not read the whole thing, because I didn’t think there would be many insights for me (because I agree with the premise), but I read, and was amused by, the bumper stickers.
1(see last Evil Eyebrow post). No, I’m totally not trolling Scalzi’s blog this morning
I’ve had Star Wars on my mind because yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the debut of Epidode IV: A New Hope (a.k.a. STAR WARS).
John Scalzi, the author of Old Man’s War1, which you may have seen knocking around the bookshelves, has an opinion regarding the Star Wars movies and their value as entertainment. He feels that the Star Wars sexology were not designed by Lucas to be entertaining, more as a vehicle for his politics and mythology. Go read it for more detail, it’s long.
Toward the end of the post, he recommends a movie:
Look, here’s a test for you. I want you to go out and find this movie: Battle Beyond the Stars. It’s a piece of crap 1980 B-movie, produced by Roger Corman, that’s clearly cashing in on the Star Wars phenomenon. Hell, it’s even a pastiche of the same things Star Wars is a pastiche of (it even has a planet Akir, named for Akira Kurosawa), and it was made for $2 million, which is nothing money, even back in 1980. Thing is, its screenplay was written by John Sayles (later twice nominated for the Best Screenplay Academy Award), and it’s funny and smart, and the whole movie, rather incredibly, keeps pace. Watch it and then tell me, honestly, that it’s not more entertaining than Star Wars Episodes I, II, III and VI.
I haven’t seen this move, but I may have to add it to my list of SF Movies To Watch this summer.
1 Old Man’s War is a very good novel. If you liked Starship Troopers (the Book!, not the “movie” with the same title and a few of the same character names) you’ll like Old Man’s War.
There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow
Twenty Twenty-Five
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