Well, one of the worst defenses in the country stepped up today. Ohio State only scored two touchdowns against it.
Unfortunately, Michigan’s offense lost the game for them instead, with multiple turnovers, and three interceptions in the fourth quarter when they still had a chance to pull it out. No bowls, and an unprecedented sixth straight loss to the Buckeyes. The question is, will Rodriguez keep his job after two straight losing seasons?
…make better Star Trek? John Scalzi thinks not.
How low can the resolution go?
…but in Hollywood, they don’t know Joe.
Plus, a bonus fight with a purple dinosaur.
Clark Lindsey has done us all the favor of reviewing The Space Review today. Like him, I was struck by Tayylor Dinerman’s completely ignoring ULA in his discussion of the “burgeoning” commercial space industry. But even more, I agree that Dwayne Day’s broad conclusion about public interest in space and space settlement from a single stupid network program is absurd:
The paradigm that near-term space can only involve a small number of people in a small habitat doing technical and scientific tasks does not lend itself to great story telling. Conflicts are required for compelling stories and lots of different types of conflicts are needed to generate enough stories for a compelling TV series. I think the “nearest” near future space scenario that could generate an interesting diversity of plots with a diversity of characters would involve a couple of thousand people populating multiple LEO space stations and habitats at a Lagrange point and bases on the Moon. Commercial, government, and international activities of various kinds would inevitably lead to all sorts of conflicts.
Let’s ignore the fact that most television shows (and particularly Big (though becoming smaller) Three Network television programs) fail, often epically. Big media, like (apparently) Dwayne, remain stuck in the Apollo paradigm of space being about a few civil servants doing science and exploration, at great government expense. Here’s an idea. Try a show about real space pioneers and see how popular it is. IIRC, “Lost In Space” actually did pretty well back in the sixties, or at least a lot better than the schlock that Dwayne reviewed. It’s not the sixties any more, but let’s give it a try anyway. It’s not like LIS was based on the NASA paradigm, so that wouldn’t explain its sixties success, right?
Leonard David has the story of the budding lunar environmental movement.
Is this stupid? Why, yes, as a matter of fact. Yes, it is.
A non-humorous post from (Hawkeye fan) Iowahawk, heavy on the numbers.
Tomorrow is pretty much do or die for Michigan. Considering that they still have to play Ohio State and Wisconsin, Purdue is probably their best if not only chance to win that sixth game and get bowl eligible. The season that started out so promising, with a 4-0 record, has fallen apart, their having won only one game since that start. They simply have no defense, to first order, and the games they’ve won against serious opponents have only happened because they managed to get more points on the board. In addition, their turnover percentage has been horrendous. They came close to pulling it out against both Michigan State and Iowa, but the last two games, against Penn State and Illinois, turned into blowouts. They can beat Purdue tomorrow, but only with a little help from the Boilermakers. Fortunately for the Wolverines, Purdue’s performance last week offers hope that they’ll give them a lot. It could be a very ugly game from both teams.
The frightening thing is, there are probably some suits in Hollywood who would actually greenlight some of these.
Bad news from Lileks:
Over the fire I chatted with a neighbor who’s working on the “Red Dawn” remake. Get this: in the new version, China and Russia invade the US – to put a stop to our greed. There are times you wish you had a mouthful of kerosene so you could do a flaming spit take. If this is how the film turns out, it’ll be hilarious; it’s as if the filmmakers were a bit ambivalent about all the horrible jingoism that such a film might unleash, so they had to temper it with a bit of theoretical altruism that could be true, you know, in a sense. I almost expect the Russians and Chinese to invade to enforce Copenhagen protocols, and the brave Americans fight back for a modified rollout of carbon emission standards that will allow domestic industry to perfect the new HydroWind Energy System, which the Chinese don’t want because they just signed a UN agreement to respect patents of other countries.
Jeebus weeps.
[Afternoon update]
I have a confession to make. Despite accusations by leftist trolls in the past that I’ve worn out the video from watching it so much, I’ve never actually seen Red Dawn.
Lileks finishes out Frankenstein movie review week in grand style:
This one has Boris Karloff, but he doesn’t play the Monster; he’s a Mad Scientist who’s escaped from jail with his assistant, who naturally has a hunchback. It was the law in those days. (If you weren’t Mad, but merely Peeved or perhaps an Irritable Scientist, you could get someone who stood erect but tended to slouch.)
Enjoy.