If you consume podcasts, you’ve probably discovered the joy of podcatchers — applications which automatically keep track of the latest podcasts, download them, and transfer them painlessly to your favorite portable devices. Used correctly, they’ll make your life MUCH easier and dramatically increase your podcast enjoyment. But to take full advantage of podcatchers — especially the uber-popular iTunes — you need to know a little bit about how they work. Read on for four tips every podcast lover should see.
I’m a huge fan of NASA, which is why I love the recent shift away from NASA-as-shuttle-service to NASA-as-science. Assuming that this isn’t just a smokescreen to hide ditched funding, it makes perfect sense to me. Let commercial entities handle shipping things. They do a great job of it here on Earth, and there’s no reason they can’t do it in space, too. If the end of the Shuttle program pissed you off, I’m guessing it’s not because you just love the Shuttle and see it as the end-all of space vehicles, but rather because we don’t have a suitable replacement. I mean, if Rutan can get us (suborbitally, at least) into space on a shoestring sub-$10 million budget, what can a company like Boeing do with real cash? Answer: The CST-100.
The Operator tipped me to the above video this week — for obvious reasons. Here’s my take: Forget which side of the aisle your politics lean toward. Forget who you voted for in 2008, and forget who you’re going to vote for in 2012. I don’t care, and I don’t really want to hear about it. (I’m sure John Jackson is super awesome and so much better Jack Johnson. I believe you. You don’t have to tell me. Really!) Here’s something we can all get down on.
We need to dream. We need to continue learning about our universe, to keep learning about what makes the world go, and to keep exploring. Things down here are bad. But guess what? Things down here have always been bad. There’s never existed a single point in our short history in which we faced no socioeconomic issues. Yet exploration (both scientific and geographic) has always proven core to the process of growing society and improving our collective lot in life. Always.
The human mind can recognize patterns that remain invisible to even the most powerful computers. But we’re stuck with some nasty limitations. We can only see relatively small amount of “raw” data at a given moment. That’s where visualization comes in. By laying out data visually, we encode data into additional channels. When we look at a visualization, we see dramatically more information than when we look at a page full of numbers. And we can see new patterns.
Take, for example, the graph above. (Or better yet, take a look at the large version in its native home, VerySmallArray.com.) What do you see?
The Operator sent over an interesting article this morning from Slashfilm pointing out that we’ll get a Cowboys and Aliens screening at San Diego Comic Con this year (woot!) and noting that some studios are planning to “skip” the ‘con of ‘cons this year. Specifically, “Warner Bros., Disney, and DreamWorks aren’t bringing films to the show this year” and “Marvel is trying to decide whether to do a big panel in 2011.”
Of course, the headline is bait. Read on into the article and Slashfilm points out what I’m sure some of you are already thinking, specifically:
- Dark Knight didn’t get a lot of SDCC attention in the past, so the Warner Bros. participation level isn’t changing significantly.
- Tron Legacy was kind of an exception to the rule for Disney which probably drew their massive participation last year, but without said release this year you can’t expect the same.
- Marvel is “between release schedules” right now. They plugged Avengers and Thor last year, but Iron Man 3 is the only thing on the list behind that, and it’s still pretty early for a full-on IM3 SDCC blitz.
In short, last year was an uber-year for SDCC when it came to studio participation, but this had less to do with changes in the ‘con than with the fact that the stars aligned for an Emperial (think Vader) crapload of releases. This year, not so much.
I’m usually one to be completely engrossed in watching a movie at home. In fact, to make sure I hear the dialogue correctly, I usually turn on the closed captioning. But with a movie or franchise I’m really interested in, I know I’ll be watching the movie over and over again, like the obsessed geek I am. I’ll watch the movie, the commentaries if they’re available, and the included special features on the DVD or Blu-ray — then I’ll listen to podcasts that discuss the movie. This week I discovered a new way to geek out over a movie with more in-depth material than I’ve seen before: Disney’s Second Screen.
One of the frequent gripes in the SciFi community is the lack of quality programming for our genre. The shows that do come along don’t seem to get the network and/or fan support they deserve and often end up cancelled before they hit their stride. We all whine, wail, and barbarically yelp about this subject all the time.
So imagine my pleasant surprise when I picked up the April 11-17 issue of TV Guide and saw their SciFi Review. Not only did they spotlight upcoming new shows like Falling Skies (TNT’s alien invasion drama) and FOX’s Terra Nova (now set to premiere in the fall), but they reminded viewers of existing standbys set to begin new episodes or seasons this spring, like Chuck, Torchwood, Sanctuary, and Dr. Who. This list didn’t even include other renewed favorites like Eureka, Warehouse 13, and SyFy’s very successful American version of Being Human.
With all these shows (including all the ones I didn’t name), paranormal fare like Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, as well as the Wonder Woman reboot, I’m left wondering, What exactly are we complaining about?
I’ve been in a GWC fantasy football league for the past two seasons. Fantasy football is a fun way to spend time with the GWC community as well as learn more about players, teams, and football in general than you’ll ever want to learn. The GWC Fantasy Sci-fi League is like that except better. You get to read and learn about characters you may have never heard of otherwise. Certain characters that others chose can pique your interest enough to lead you to picking up a book, comic, film, or series. If you don’t feel like completely diving into a character’s story, then a quick Google or Wikipedia search are great for filling in gaps. I cannot guess how many times I’ve had to use those tools. Plus, the GWC community is indescribably awesome with their creativity and entertainment.
To start off, I don’t have plans to kick off another GWC Fantasy Sci-fi League, sorry. Still it’s been several months, and I’ve had a character on my mind for my next team for what seems like ages. Then, others came to mind. I didn’t have an outlet, so I’m making one.
The Andromeda Galaxy as seen by Terry Hancock from Michigan (with permission)
Andromeda. Few words immediately bring forth imagery of science fiction, fantasy and real-life astronomy to me like Andromeda does. Andromeda is our heavens, Andromeda is in our history, Andromeda is in our music and literature, Andromeda is in our oceans and Andromeda is in our science fiction and fantasy. I’ll admit I am less knowledgeable about Andromedas than I am about Enterprises (see my 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprises post), but several Andromedas are also at the root of my geekdom. Recently I decided to take some time and run through the Andromedas that I’m aware of. I’m confident that there are additional Andromedas of relevance out there. If you know of one, please let me know in the comments section below because I would greatly appreciate and enjoy learning about it. In the meantime, please sit back and allow me to take you through my tour of the Andromedas.
Part of what I love about our GWC community is that it is a place to share and learn about things you may have never heard of or would never have given a chance unless someone you knew recommended it. In that spirit I want to share with you something that I find outrageously awesome: Music Mashups.
The highest compliment I can give is to say it is clever. To be clever is to find and explore a nuance in such a way that one creates something new and unexpected. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is an incredibly clever telling of the story behind the story of Hamlet. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is clever for its effortless weaving together of history, myth and literature. Joss Whedon’s Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog turns the concept of a musical on its head and creates a brand new genre.
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Image from SyFy Mobile Website
In the past two minutes I turned off the final episode of Caprica, hit save on the DVR and turned on my laptop. Almost three weeks after SyFy aired the final five Caprica episodes I was able to complete the January 4th, 2011 marathon. Somehow I had managed to stay Caprica spoiler-free until today and it payed off in spades. My feelings are somewhat like watching the last episode of Firefly: pleased with the show and totally enraged at its network cancellation. The final five Caprica episodes were phenomenal and the final five minutes were even more amazing to me. I will be looking to pick up the DVD of season 1.5 shortly. It was that good. And to those that have not seen the series or the final five episodes you are missing out, especially those of you that were Battlestar Galactica fans. Well Done, Caprica. Well Done!
A Depiction of Star Trek's Original U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Special thanks to Jeff Quan at http://www.jcquan.com for the use of the cool art!)
A few months ago GWCers The Operator, ThotFullGuy, and DawnAZ flooded my Twitter stream with references to the Starship Enterprise. While it was clearly evident The Operator and ThotFullGuy were discussing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie, DawnAZ wasn’t nearly as specific. In fact, I listed off 10 different Enterprises off the top of my head in a reply requesting her to specify. It turned out that the exact ship wasn’t relevant to her Enterprise reference, but the conversation reminded me how fondly I regard the many ships called Enterprise. For those that have served on board an Enterprise or watched the various Enterprise versions on the movie or television screens over the years the name Enterprise has a special reverence in our hearts. If you search the internet you will find many web pages devoted to these fine ships. By no means am I attempting to duplicate the many long hours of work it took to assemble those fine resources. Rather, what follows is simply a list of my favorite Enterprises and where I’ve run into them over the years. I think even the most die-hard Enterprise enthusiast might find a surprise or two. So enjoy the tour and as always, drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what you have to say on the subject.
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Recent Blog Comments
on Not Enough SciFi On TV For You? Really? { Unfortunately, the best time for Sci-Fi fans was probably late '80's to early 2000's. Now, SyFy isn't as good anymore. There are not many Sci-fi... } – Feb 06, 6:18 PM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { I didn't skip ahead, but when the scene came up, I filled in what they failed to include.
} – Jan 27, 5:06 PMon 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprise { I recently visited an exhibition here in Melbourne, Australia and on show was a three foot replica of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from the original... } – Jan 27, 1:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Oddball, it took all my willpower not to. } – Jan 26, 11:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Anyone else skip ahead to see if Han shoots first or if there is a "Look a Penny!" reference? } – Jan 26, 10:22 AM