Is Science Fiction Dying?

Some time last week I stumbled on a post somewhere about science fiction dieing out. I immediately wanted to post a response, but couldn't find the words. Today, I found a post on New Scientist entitled, "Is science fiction dying?" by Marcus Chown. I won't say that my response was the most eloquent I could have posted, but I think it pretty much expresses my opinion on the subject:

Science Fiction won't die because it's fiction. The reason it feels that way now is because of the speed at which science is advancing. Back in the 50s and 60s, what was seen as sci-fi (space ships, small computers, androids, etc) was so far out of reach that if kept it's allure for a long time. Nowadays, all that is quaint.

Another problem with sci-fi is that elements of sci-fi are creeping into a lot of non-sci-fi media and diluting the WOW factor. Sci-fi now has to go that extra mile to keep from seeming quaint.

Sci-Fi needs to move from the realm of cyberpunk to biopunk since bioengineering is more the area of where science is going to be making slower progress than computers and robots and space ships.

Well, maybe not the space ships...

I do think that sci-fi in a lot of respects is already moving into the realm of biopunk with speculation on cloning, genetically modified plants and animals, drugs, etc. Stories about people who have been genetically altered to have gills or wings, evolved anthropomorphic animals, epedermal computers, and bioroids are where Science Fiction will continue to keep it's edge.

Science fiction won't die. At least not until science does.

A Year on Ice

For more information:
http://holy-web.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-of-most-beautiful-and-amazing-time.html

I've often thought about trying to get a job in the Antarctic. Unfortunately, there is more interest in working there than there are available jobs. Add to that that most of the job openings are for scientific or support positions that I have little or no ability, and the chances of this drop substantially.

Still, it does look beautiful. In a frozen desert kinda way...

Look How Far We've Come

Back in the 80's - for those of you who weren't around - computers had to connect to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) or directly to each other by phone. I'm not talking about dial-up internet, they actually had to place a phone call (often times long-distance) to the other system.

It wasn't until the late 80s that ISPs came onto the scene and not until the late 90s that it grew in popularity where more and more people wanted to connect to it. Then in this decade where internet speeds at home allowed for the internet explosion we are experiencing today.

The down side of this is that media sources -- Newspaper, Radio, and TV -- are expected to make their product available online for free and we haven't yet been able to convince our advertisers of the value of our online content to help offset the cost of hosting all this content. we can all blame that on the Dot-Com Bubble of 1999-2000.

Still, the internet is still in it's infancy, or awkward teens, and there is plenty of room to mature in the coming decade. Let's just see what happens next.

Caution: Zombies Ahead

Traffic Sign Hacked

I am quite amused by the rising amount of Zombie related fads, memes, and themed media in our culture. Props to George Romero for inciting this with his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and the subsequent Dawn and Day of the Living Dead (1978 & 1985). It's taken almost three decades, but Zombies have now begun to spill over from the realm of cult movies to the mainstream. We haven't seen a Zombie television series yet, but I'm sure it will in time.

A few years ago, a fad started where people would meetup for semi-spontaneous parades referred to as Zombie Marches, Zombie Crawls, and Zombie Outbreaks. People were encouraged to dress up as zombies (fake blood, wounds, and torn clothing) and/or to film/record the event for posting on YouTube. As I recall some of didn't go down so well with local police; some called them terrorist acts because of the people shambling around in blood covered clothing and occasionally carrying pretend weapons, one kid was even arrested because of a short story he wrote because he referred to several teachers in the story.

Zombie themes have also been popping up online with Zombie Survivalist sites, Survival Videos and Zombie Web Comics. Thankfully, not all Zombie comics follow the same premise of a small group of people trying to survive a zombie outbreak. Last Blood, takes a new twist on the theme with Vampires coming to the aid of Humans to fight the zombie hoard. In The Zombie Hunters, people who are infected with the zombie virus will only turn into the walking dead when they die, and are thus immune to the zombie bite, the author has also created different zombie types (much like the video game, Left 4 Dead) to spice things up. And organized crime seems to behind the zombie outbreak in Dead Winter.

I'd be willing to bet that this resurgence in Zombie popularity is due to people feeling more mortal after the events September 11th, 2001. Zombie movies, at least the good ones, have always been looked on as metaphors for how we face life and death - the zombie representing our mortality creeping up on us. And with the looming threat of terrorist attacks (real or imagined), people are beginning to turn to one of the more light-hearted, yet terrifying, memes to cope with the idea that death might be right around the corner...

The image of the walking dead.

Gran Torino

What can I say about Gran Torino other than, WOW!

The movie trailers make it out to be a movie about Clint Eastwood's character protecting his car, the Gran Torino, from a bunch of gangs and thugs. Not even close.

Sure, there is a scene where the neighbor kid is caught trying to steal the car as part of a gang initiation, but that's it. The car is actually a minor character in the movie.

No Gran Torino is a movie about relations - family relations and race relations. Set in a Michigan (Detroit?) suburb/neighborhood, Walt Kowalski(Eastwood), a retired auto worker, has just lost his wife and must now adjust to life alone in a neighborhood that has been transformed into a predominantly Hmong community.

Walt to the rescue

The other side of the story (because the best stories tell two tales) is that of Walt's neighbors, Thao and Sue Lor. Sue is a bright and quick witted girl who watches over the family, and is the character who cracks Walt's bigoted shell and introduces him to the Hmong (and us) to Hmong traditions. Thao is a quiet and intelligent kid, without a father and no direction in life. His cousin (Spider) tries to recruit him into his gang, by stealing Walt's Gran Torino, but is able to stay out when Walt later comes, unintentionally, to the rescue after a scuffle spills onto his lawn.

Soon after Walt comes to Sue's rescue when she and her date have a run in with a couple thugs. As he drives Sue home, Walk takes a liking to her as she demonstrates that she is his bantering equal with her quick wit and willingness to overlook his racist slurs. She is later able to talk Walt into taking Thao under his wing to work off the dishonor he had brought the family by trying to steal the Gran Torino.

Walt is meanwhile having issues with his oldest son as he wants to sell the falimy house and move Walt into a retirement community. Needless to say, this doesn't put him in his fathers good graces, and is one of the funnier scenes in the movie.

Upset with his own son's, Walt starts treating Thao like a favored son and Thao starts looking up to Walt like the father he doesn't have.

The last act of the movie is about the gang and their retrobution agaisnt the Lor's and Walt. I'll not ruin it for you, but it's probably not what you would expect.

Over all, I'd give it 5 stars.

So Wrong It's Right

This is what you get when you combine Benny Hill, Eminem and Doctor Who...

Foggy & Frosty Morning

I think my favorite part of Winter is the hoarfrost that forms on the trees after a foggy morning.

Fifth Year LOST

Tonight was the night we got LOST again, and if feels like it has got its groove back.

This is the shows fifth and final season. The year that ties up the loose ends and answers all those nagging questions the show has been teasing us with for the past four.

The night began with an hour recap of all the main characters and main plot points. Good thing too since I missed a few episodes and never went online to catch up. Doesn't look like I missed too much, and what I did I picked up on in the following episodes.

When the recap show ended the fun began. No more of those annoying flash forwards, now it's flash backs to what happened, and/or is happening, to the survivors that were left behind -- three years ago. In the "current time" (aka, three years later) Jack and Ben are trying to get the Oceanic 6 back to the island. This, of course, is no easy task since not everyone wants to return despite the fact that their lives have gone to mud lately.

Meanwhile, those who were left behind have to deal with becoming unstuck in time. The up side of this is that the show get's to explore the island before the crash, before Dharma, maybe even before the Others... The down side is that this game of Chutes and Ladders isn't good for everyone's health. Apparently, you get nose bleeds and start loosing memories.

The fun side of this slip-and-slide story telling is that we get to guess how these events are going to retcon the events the survivors experienced over then past few years. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the two skeletons found in season 1 were those of Rose and Bernard, and those ghostly voices that were heard in the Jungle were those of the time travelers trying to change the past.

I'm hooked again and think I'll be stuck on ABC Wednesday night's for the remainder of the season.

Tweet

As you have probably noticed, I have joined the growing number of people who have a Twitter account.

 

Does this mean I'm going to abandon blogging (again)?  Nah, I think it may actually help.

 

I can use Twitter to remind me of the things I don't have the time to write-up in a full sized blog entry.  It's bad enough that I have a hard time posting more than a few sentences and a link to a picture of YouTube video.  Now I can post the little things with Twitter and then try to compile my thoughts at the end of the day in a more verbose blog posting.

 

Meh.  What the worst that can happen?

 

A couple more abandoned blogs.

Change

Hurray! Bush is out! Obama is in!



Can life go back to normal now?


Please!!!

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Freakin' Awsome!!!

Fire & Ice

FIRE Followup

Luckly the wind is blowing the smoke away from my block. I left work early so I could check my place out to make sure it was safe, and to take some pictures of the scene to post on the stations web site.

FIRE!!!

I had heard word around work that there was a fire downtown, but I just found out that it's in the El Tiara (sp?) restaurant which is on the block just east of my apartment. About a hundred yards...

I'm told that I don't have to worry, but I'll have to see what's up when I get out of work.

I hope my place doesn't smell like smoke tonight.

Sub-Zero

Temperatures have dropped into the sub-zero range this week, even without the windchill, and has been since early Monday morning. Tonight will be the coldest this week with windchills dropping to somewhere in the -30° range, even colder to the north.

The good news is that we are supposed to jump back up to around 20° Saturday and then into the 30s by next Tuesday.

The best thing about weather like this is that it will make the cold that follows so much better. :)

Ricardo Montalbán passes away at 88

Ricardo Montalbán passed away yesterday. Best know for his role as Mr. Rourke (Fantasy Island) and as Kahn (Star Trek), I also remember him for his role as Armando (Escape from & Conquest of the Planet of the Apes). Farewell Ricardo!

Fantasy Island

Fight!

Four Favorite Fight Scenes
They Live


Old Boy


Equilibrium


The Killer (or any John Woo/Chow Yun Fat Fight Scene)


Three Worst Fight Scenes
Undefeatable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxkr4wS7XqY

Star Trek: TOS (just about any fight scene will do, but this one was really bad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM

Code of the Dragon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccF50ssJKVA

Patrick McGoohan dies at 80

McGoohan died in Los Angeles yesterday after a short illness.

He was best known for his roles in the 1960s series Danger Man and The Prisoner, but I remember him best for his role in Ice Station Zebra. RIP Patrick McGoohan

Opening to "The Prisoner"


Ice Station Zebra Trailer

Stand By For Action!

Stingray


Thunderbirds


Fireball XL5

1960's Bicycle Safety Short

We really need to go back to these dark ways of reminding kids that life is dangerous.

In this short film, we meet a group of kids on their way to the park for a picnic. Only one makes it. I'm surprised it wasn't made by Hitchcock.

The Dial Up Kid

Ron Paul on Gaza Invasion

Repairs

The garage finally got the part in they needed to fix the car. Thankfully it was written up as a mechanical failure, and I didn't have to pay anything.

I ended up spending several hours at the Rochester office running diagnostics and performing some updates on the PCs. It's a good think I did since it turned out that several computers were in need of some attention and nobody had alerted me.

Geek Rock

The original embeded video was removed from YouTube, but I was able to find a replacement.

Insane Ronald McDonald (WTF!?)

WTF? I mean, WTF!?
I stuck out the entire video and lost a fair bit of sanity, just imagine what mental state the video editor must be in after putting this thing together... The person must be in a padded cell by now.

I hope...