This is the worst hiding place for an Xmas present ever. My wife left my “secret†present on our bed. On MY SIDE of the bed. And I was not supposed to notice this how?
Why do I have a sinking feeling this is not a 20“ wide screen monitor?
Blog
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Hello Kitty Nightmares
For decades Japan’s love hotels have provided a place for couples to enjoy anonymous, uninterrupted sex. Politician and secretary, teacher and student, husband and hooker — all are welcome, as long as they pay in cash and leave when the time limit is up. But 2006 spawned a new type of love hotel. Decorated with theme park interiors and equipped with game consoles, karaoke boxes and sex machines — these establishments provide kinky fun for all types, from fetishists and sadomasochists to the ordinary couple seeking sexual adventure.
I can’t help wondering what sort of alien probes come standard in the “Alien Abduction Play Area†pictured above. You have to go see the other “themed†rooms. I think the Hello Kitty one may give me nightmares for years to come.
These pictures are all by Misty Keasler and are part of her book Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan
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Not all heartwarming stories have a good ending…
The Daily Mail => How one leopard changed its spots … and saved a baby baboon
Great story, lousy ending.
“She had killed the mother primate, but then found this live new-born on the ground. The little baboon called out, and we thought we were going to hear a major crunch and the leopard smacking its lips, but instead the baby baboon put its paws out and walked towards the young leopard.
â€Legadema paused for a moment, apparently not knowing what to do. Then she gently picked it up in her mouth, holding it by the scruff of its neck and carrying the infant up a tree to keep it safe.“
Technorati Tags: Blog, Natural Sciences
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When I Don’t Feel Like Writing…
When I don’t feel like writing, I just cross-post other people’s blog entries I like, so that way they might get 3 extra hits.
Like all modern organizations, everybody gets an annual review. How does that work at Torchwood?
On Jack Harkness:
…His unquestionably unique management style, based largely around groping or threatening members of his team and going off to stand on tall buildings, is of dubious efficacy. His team are dysfunctional and disorganised, and he is quite unpopular. One team member describes him as a monster, whilst another shot him in the head….
See the rest at Little Storping-in-the-Swuff => Torchwood Appraisals
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We’ll Never Get My Mother-In-Law on This Walkway
National Geographic => Grand Canyon’s Glass Walkway to Open Next March
A see-through walkway with a 4,000 ft drop under it? They’ll be cleaning the puke off it daily.
The 1,500-member Hualapai tribe announced last week that the Skywalk—a giant, 30-million-dollar steel-and-glass walkway—will open to the public in March 2007.
The Skywalk will jut out 70 feet (21 meters) from the canyon rim, allowing tourists to go for a stroll with nothing between their feet and the Colorado River—4,000 feet (1,220 meters) below—except for four inches (ten centimeters) of glass
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The Corbomite Maneuver
Four of my favorite Star Trek episodes are set entirely in space, Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Doomsday Machine and The Immunity Syndrome.
Of those three, Balance of Terror probably has the least amount of exterior shots. Since it was based on a submarine warfare story, it lends itself well to interior, claustrophobic narrative. To the best of my knowledge, so far, this was the only one of the four that has been re-done with the new digital FX. The new effects on Balance of Terror were clean and understated. The most significant differences were that the Romulan ship actually maneuvered and the comet was considerably better looking than the original.
The Corbomite Maneuver has the next fewest FX shots, and I just saw the newly re-done version. I’m very impressed. The artists didn’t quite keep the exact same shots when they recreated the originals, and this may not set well with purists. On the other hand, I’m a purist, and I liked them.
The First Federation vessels looked just like the originals; however the Fasarius has considerably more detail and it looks great.
The exterior shots that were changed maintained the spirit of the originals, but took the shots to new camera angles, making each scene look fresh rather than repeating the same shot over and over. In one nice shot where the space bouy hangs in front of the Enterprise the colors of the glowing cube are appropriately reflecting off the hull of the ship. Nice.
I can hardly wait for The Doomsday Machine and can only imagine how they’ll realize the giant space amoeba in The Immunity Syndrome.
Update: Here’s a more detailed review: TrekMovie.com => Review of The Corbomite Maneuver Remastered
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Robin Returns
BBC Press Office => Robin Hood returns for second series in 2007
More good news from the BBC Press Office, Robin Hood, the 13-part updating of the classic legend has been a big hit and has been renewed for a second 13-part series.
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New Server Coming
My site is going to be moved to a new server in the next few days.
At some point, I’m going to do a full backup and then disable comments and stop posting until the migration is complete. You might notice that the site will be down for a period of time. Please bear with us, hopefully it will only be a day at most.
Technorati Tags: Blog
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Torchwood – Random Shoes – Review and Spoilers
Random Shoes
by Jacquetta MayTorchwood meets Love & Monsters.
Synopsis
Eugene Jones is dead and for some unknown reason, Torchwood is investigating the scene of the accident. Meanwhile, Eugene Jones stands beside them. He is only just beginning to realize he is dead, and he cannot remember the last two weeks of his life.
Eugene had been a bit of a Torchwood groupie and so he’s thrilled when Gwen wants to investigate his death. (Despite the fact that there’s no evidence of alien involvement.) Eugene narrates his thoughts on life while he follows Gwen on her investigation.
It turns out Eugene had been in the possession of an alien artifact, and Gwen’s investigation leads her to realize that Eugene’s two friends committed eBay fraud to make him think his artifact was worth £15,005.50. Greed got the better of them when they realized someone else would pay £15,000 for it so they try to force him to hand it over. He swallows it and they chase Eugene into traffic and to his death.
Mystery solved, Eugene can now go to his grave a fully-informed corpse, but not before he temporarily physically manifests himself so that he can save Gwen’s life from a traffic accident.
Analysis
I can only assume that writer Jacquetta May was told they needed to do an episode on the cheap and then locked in a room with a videotape of Doctor Who’s Love & Monsters as an example of the official “How to cheap an episode guideâ€.
That said, this was vastly superior to Love & Monsters, primarily because, with a 5 person cast, they were able to draw in Gwen only (with the other cast having greatly reduced roles) and produce a story you could rightly call Torchwood.
I question the wisdom of placing two episodes about life after death back-to-back, especially when they directly contradict each other.
Eugene had swallowed the Dogon Eye just before he died, and conveniently because he couldn’t remember what happened, that’s not revealed until the very end of the episode. The notion that the Eye inside his body has caused this little stint of life-after-death isn’t well-realized and the explanation is haphazard at best.
(Why, by the way, did Toshiko’s alien artifact detection equipment not notice the Eye in Eugene’s corpse?)
In a show that can’t quite find its niche, this isn’t such an odd duck out like Love & Monsters was for Doctor Who. If you don’t look too closely, and you don’t mind a title that sounds like a joke working title that they forgot to change, it’s not a bad character piece.
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Mockery Required
BBC News => Creation museum pushes ‘true history’
I thought they convicted that crackpot Hovind (currently facing 288 years in prison) we’d be done with this sort of nonsense, but apparently not.
The museum’s aim is to bring Genesis – the first book of the Bible – to life for all ages, and promote the belief that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old.
Everybody who works at the museum has to sign on to the belief that the living Earth was created in six 24-hour days – rejecting the convention most scientists view as fact, that life evolved slowly over millions of years.
To hammer that point home, two smiling children clad in tasteful animal skins, work and play alongside a pair of baby Tyrannosaurus Rex
..and yet, staffer Georgia Purdom did say one of the smartest things I’ve ever seen in print:
“It’s foundational. If you can’t believe Genesis, then why believe any other part of the Bible?
â€You can’t pick and choose, you can’t say this part is right, and this part is wrong.“
That really does say it all. Dawkins couldn’t have said it better.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Loonies, Natural Sciences, Paleontology, Psuedo-science, Rant, Science, Skepticism, Toilet
