Day: August 24, 2006

People are, for some reason, under the impression that the recent downgrading of Pluto to “dwarf planet” status changes…well, anything. It’s not as if it undoes all that book learnin’ you already did in grade school. Pluto hasn’t gone anywhere. The decision by the IAU is an attempt to clarify, to offer a better and clearer definition of what a planet is. The solar system is not fundamentally different because of it.

People also seem to be forgetting (or were never aware) that Pluto itself was only discovered in 1930.

Science, and our understanding of it, changes.

Oh yeah, this won’t offend anybody:

The 20 “castaways” in the 13th season of US reality show Survivor will be divided according to their ethnicity.

Via Warren Ellis.

The BBC article goes on to say, “Organisers said they were addressing complaints that previous series had not been sufficiently ethnically diverse.”

So instead of just making the show more ethnically diverse, they decide to pit those ethnicities against one another? Geez.

Oh, and in other news…thirteen frelling seasons?

This isn’t your father’s Megatron, that’s for sure.

These new designs don’t fill me with great hope for the upcoming Transformers movie. But, then again, the involvement of Michael Bay already crushed most of the hope I might have had going into it.

Incidentally, the first issue of Kaleidotrope features a really neat article about the Transformers by Jim Cleaveland. It’s an interesting look at their history, from toy to cartoon to comic, the storytelling possibilities inherent in the brand, and a personal look back at some favorite moments. It’s a lot of fun…

…and a single issue will only set you back $4…