- Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean. Of course, it’ll be in a million years or so, but still. [via]
- I’ve been impressed with Geist ever since Heather got me a subscription to the magazine — to the point that I didn’t think twice about renewing my subscription, even as I let my New Yorker subscription lapse again. I like the magazine not least as physical object, so I was a little dubious about the idea of a digital edition. But I think this has a certain goofy charm; it certainly replicates the turning of magazine pages better than the typical e-reader. Check it out — and maybe even consider subscribing!
- I’ll admit, when I DVR a television show, I usually fast-forward through the commercials. Isn’t that the purpose for which the technology was first marketed? Apparently, I’m in a very small majority: nearly half of all DVR users don’t skip the ads. [via]
- Now that he’s been elected New Jersey’s governor, I think Monty Python definitely should sue Chris Christie. [via]
- And finally, though you’ve probably seen this all over the place, Joss Whedon’s open letter to The Terminator owners. That’s four zeroes after the one!
sci-fi
Wednesday various
- Well, so much for the snows of Kilimanjaro. [via]
- I’ve got to say, while I too understand the feelings behind it, I have to agree with Charles Tan: International Science Fiction Reshelving Day really is kind of a dick move.
- Father uses son’s ashes in tattoo. Too morbid? [via]
- This may be the creepiest Halloween costume I’ve ever seen. [via Whereas this may very well be the most amazing. [via]
- And finally, David Sims of the AV Club pretty much sums up my feelings on last night’s pilot of V:
On a regular domestic drama, this would be slow going – and V is a show where goddamn alien motherships are floating over every major city!
Thursday various
With the schedule set, King plans to go on vacation until the end of the season. “There won’t be any changes, since CreSyFy has a rule against things evolving,” King explained.
Evolution of The Martian Chronicles cover. I think the 1950 (original?) cover is my favorite, although a battered copy of the 1984 version is what I own. Though I’d love a copy of the new one. [via]
Wednesday various
- The most controversial magazine covers of all time [via]
- Meanwhile, and incidentally NSFW, Sean Lennon recreates his parents’ famous Rolling Stone cover. Personally, I find the new photo to be exceptionally boring and actually a weird reversal of John and Yoko’s original. There’s also maybe something a little creepy about their son recreating that photo, especially if the naked woman holding on to him here is some kind of stand-in for, or commentary on, Yoko Ono. But in general, I just find it pretty uninspired.
- The Origin of Glenn Beck. The more things change…
- Hot on the heels of charges of sexism in certain science fiction anthologies comes word that it might also be a problem in the horror genre as well.
- And finally, hey! My sister is going to Mars — I mean Sydney, Australia — for her honeymoon!
Monday various
- Michael Chabon’s essay on the Wilderness of Childhood got a lot of attention when it was first posted, back in July. (It’s been sitting in my saved links since then.) I think Chabon made some interesting points, but I also think Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky’s response is worth repeating [via]:
I’m not really arguing with Chabon here: he may be right that all children are instinctively adventurers, and he’s certainly right that limiting their exploration of the world in the name of safety threatens their creative imagination. But let’s be clear: the maps we draw for our children are not the maps that guide their lives. They draw their own maps, but it’s a mistake to confuse them with the nostalgic – or anguished — images produced by adult memory. Childhood is a foreign country to us. We once knew its landmarks, but they’ve grown wild in our imaginations, so that the “adventures†we remember are now just stories we tell. Adventure is what we call it when we show the slides. The natives just call it life.
- Leaving aside the silliness of a religion based on Star Wars, or the questions that are maybe raised about established religions when you ask why this one is silly and they’re not — or even Tesco’s valid point that plenty of Jedi(s?) in the movies don’t walk around in public in their hoods — why can’t you wear a hood in their store? [via]
- Well, at least he wasn’t wearing this flip-top zombie shirt… [via]
- Permanent Bedtime, which plays a complete recording from BBC Radio’s late-night Shipping Forecast. Warren Ellis describes it as such:
- And finally, I’ve only watched a couple of episodes, but I quite like NASA’s IRrelevant Astronomy video podcast, particularly the Robot Astronomy Talk Show. [via]
The latenight edition of the Shipping Forecast has long been praised by the British as a gentle aid to restful sleep. And dream-filled sleep, too, because the Forecast is famous for listing “places†that are entirely notional, a virtual geography inhabited only by ships and the wondering minds of people drifting off into sleep. Sleep districts of the British imagination: Fastnet, Rockall, Dogger, Cromarty, Viking…
It’s quite interesting to take an afternoon nap with that playing in the background.
I quite liked the most recent episode with Linda Hamilton and Dean Stockwell, super genius: