various

Thursday various

Wednesday various

  • Presenting The Human Centipede Video Game. Warning: will spoil the movie (which in turn may spoil your appetite) and possibly your enjoyment of the original Centipede game.
  • Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes really do have great chemistry together. It’s almost enough to forgive their shared bathtub scene in Insurrection. They’re refreshingly candid and engaged.
  • Meanwhile, I am not immune to the cuteness of the sloth.
  • Juliette Wade on teeth in science fiction [via]
  • And finally, ever wonder what happens in Disneyland after dark? (And no, it’s not that Cory Doctorow scales the fence and performs his technomagic in the forgotten recesses of Tomorrowland…although, can you prove that he doesn’t?) [via]

Tuesday various

  • Well this is disheartening:

    “Legitimacy has shifted to the side of the climate skeptics, and that is a big, big problem,” Ben Stewart, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said at the meeting of environmentalists here. “This is happening in the context of overwhelming scientific agreement that climate change is real and a threat. But the poll figures are going through the floor.”

  • Know what’s not going through the floor? Vegetables grown upside-down, that’s what. (And how’s that for segues?)
  • Two words: zombie astronauts. The auction has ended, but the dream lives on forever.
  • Though I think maybe too much of the Internet is devoted to Super Mario Bros. — I know, heresy! — this study of in-game camera movement was surprisingly interesting and something I had never once considered before. [via]
  • And finally, I have to say, ItsJustSomeRandomGuy has really outdone himself with his 100th video:

Monday various

  • It probably should come as no surprise, but I’m pretty much in complete agreement with Noel Murray about last night’s Lost finale. “These are the new myths. Now it’s up to us to misinterpret them.” I liked the episode a whole lot.

  • Meanwhile, Terry Pratchett is maybe a little harsher than I would be about Doctor Who and the title character’s deus ex machinations. I’m not entirely convinced there’s real value in rigidly defining science fiction and fantasy this way. (And, unlike him, “Small Worlds” is one of my least favorite Torchwood episodes.) But he makes some good points, while still happy to enjoy the show for what it is. [via]

  • Speaking of Doctor Who, here’s an interesting take on The Comparative Lives of the Doctor.

  • Here’s a scary thought from the New York Times:

    Ask a first grader to identify Bugs Bunny and the response more likely than not will be a blank stare.

  • And finally, Neil Gaiman on Ray Bradbury [via]:

    So when the wind blows the fallen autumn leaves across the road in a riot of flame and gold, or when I see a green field in summer carpeted by yellow dandelions, or when, in winter, I close myself off from the cold and write in a room with a TV screen as big as a wall, I think of Ray Bradbury . . .

Tuesday various