Give Remy the prize.
Category Archives: Popular Culture
Joss Whedon
The definitive interview.
The Wolverines
They may pull this out, and remain undefeated, but they’re not looking like a ranked football team. They’re being outplayed by UConn.
[Update in the last couple minutes of the game]
OK, Michigan managed to pull out a squeaker again against a low-ranked team.
This does not bode well for either the Big Ten season, or the season in general. They’re going to have to step it up.
Captain Video
Lileks has a review:
Now. Let’s think. The escape portion is the rear. It has no controls or power, according to Captain Video. Yet that’s where the engine was. So the escape pod is powerless and rudderless even though it has the engine, and that’s what you get into to escape. From onrushing asteroids. How? By disengaging from the front half, which cuts off the engines, which makes the escape capsule fall.
Captain Video and the Ranger landed on the planet when the gravity of Atoma took their escape capsule and laid it down gently about 14 feet from the front door of the evil bad guy’s lair. What a stroke of luck! They dress up as natives. Aliens always dress like 19th century Arabs with big futuristic guns.
It was amazingly bad, almost Plan-9-like.
Fiction Imitates Life
A brief, but amusing review from Instapundit:
Set in an America that has become a corrupt state, run by an inbred political class drawn from just a few select universities and overseeing a populace of “cogs” who have no real legal protection against the state, while the civil government is sharply divided from the military, these science fiction books provide an excellent source of escapism from the unpleasant realities of today.
We laugh, so we don’t cry.
Fred Pohl
Rest in peace.
He wrote great fiction, but his economics was short sighted.
In general, SF writers aren’t that great at economics — (too) many of them are, after all, leftists, particularly the New Wave types. Heinlein was one of the few who generally got it right.
Camille
She takes on the Hillary worshippers, and the Baby Boomers. #TalkinBoutMyGeneration
Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun
A review of an old SF movie. From Lileks. With a bonus Avengers theme and Benny Goodman.
The Pima Air (And Space) Museum
OK, since I have to check out of my room, and I have a few hours to kill before my flight, I’m going to check it out, since I’ve never actually been there. Like Aviation Week (and space technology) I expect the “Space” part to be an afterthought.
[Update, waiting at the airport]
As I expected, the emphasis was on the “Air,” but there were a lot of pretty neat aircraft there. It was 104 degrees, but didn’t seem that bad to me (as it generally doesn’t in the desert, particularly in the shade). I was more put off from wandering far out in the field by the sun for which I had no sunblock than the heat itself. I pointed out to a docent that Gene Kranz never said “Failure is not an option,” at least while he was a NASA mission controller. He said he’d talk to the curator.
I also showed the book to the space docents, and they all wanted a copy. The gift-shop manager was out for the day, but I’ll email her. But it would look pretty lonely amidst the other books. Almost nothing about space –mostly aviation. But I did put it up on the shelf to see how it stood out. It did, a lot. I think we’ll be glad we spent extra time on the cover design.
[Update a while later, before boarding]
I forgot to mention that it happened to be Orville Wright’s birthday. There were remnants of a cake (I had a small piece). I got a picture of it, but not on my phone — on my good camera, and I don’t have a card reader with me, so I’ll have to post it later.
[Bumped]
The Eloi
Are we raising a generation of them?