Logan's Run Re-Created in Lego

By Don Quixote 2x4

Seeing this from multiple sources, and it needs to go up here. The model is impressive, of course, but I think the photography is really great, too. Wondering if Galspanic, our resident badass LEGO builder and photographer has anything to say on this subject.

Via @tamarakong and Kamapuaa in the Shoutbox. You two know each other, I believe. Cue tearful reunion!

IM HERE

What do we think about this?

John Hodgman vs Patton Oswalt

LOBOT!

Science Fiction Trivia Challenge: John Hodgman vs Patton Oswalt

From WFMU's Beware of the Blog

myouterspace.com

"MyOuterSpace.com is a Sci Fi Social Network for those with a passion for the arts. Whether you are a fan of Sci Fi, Horror or Fantasy or seeking a career in the Science fiction industry MyOuterSpace.com has much to offer. Register on the planet that host your talent, fill out a profile and connect with others in your field. Submit your resume for a Starship project that needs your talents. Whether you are an actor, writer, animator or gamer MyOuterSpace.com has a home for you."

Free energy harvesting

I've mentioned Vernor Vinge before, and I'm going to do it again (seriously, if you want to read one of the best authors of speculative fiction and technological forecasting, this is the dude). Anyway. In his book, A Deepness in the Sky, he writes about machines that resonate at the right frequencies of background radiation (sort of) to harvest free energy.

At the CES this year, it appears that RCA of all companies may get there first:

Star Crack II

Just FYI for StarCrack fans. Don't know if anyone heard yet but they're making a live action.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037854/fullcredits#cast

Terminator 2 Rap

Not quite as awesome as the original, but every bit as thorough.

SyFy

Regarding our recent time-travel discussion and our less recent Sci-Fi discussion:

Just watched part of A Sound of Thunder, a straight-to-SyFy movie based on the Ray Bradbury short story about people who go back in time and hunt dinosaurs that are about to die anyway using ice bullets. (I don't remember if the ice bullets are in the book. They totally use ice bullets in the movie, though.)

In the movie, the hunters step on a bug or something and go back to the present, which is okay at first but then starts changing in big, visible, effectsy "time-waves". Only one thing changes at a time, and it's very confusing for people. Like, after one time-wave all the trees grew bigger. Everything else stayed the same. People screamed and screamed. In the short story, I think the hunters return to the present to find that everything had changed, all at once, and they were the only ones who were the wiser (which despite being scientifically improbable, made a good deal of goddamned sense). Here, however, the movie's "scientist" knows somehow that the organisms to evolve first will change first. So any changes they made in the past will happen in distinct ripples changing more and more until--dan dan daaaaaaaan--people themselves change! Or maybe they don't exist at all! Or won't! Or will not ever have! You have to wait about seven to ten time-waves, though, and see what happens to life forms that evolved before people, though; because that's how time works. God, whatever!

Way to stretch out a 10 page story into a feature-length movie, guys! Time-waves! Yay! Not only does time organize itself around the perceptions of human beings, but the perceptions of stupid writers! I was really trying to watch the whole thing, but it was such tremendous horseshit that I think I'll just get back to work. I have a lot of email that needs answering.

(Why is this making me so angry? It's not like there are really Wookies, but I like Chewbacca just fine. It's not Sci-Fi that makes me angry, it's this other stuff, this pseudo-sciencey crap that somehow feels more like a lie than warp drive or magic wands. Why are so many movies like this even made? Is Hollywood really that broken? Why are movies that are written by people who know what they are talking about (or have at least thought about it) the exception instead of the rule? Can the newly-christened SyFy channel not find enough infomercials to run? Anyway, my point is this--Shit like this; committee-written senseless pseudo-science fiction, I'm going to refer to from now on, not as "Sci-Fi", but as "SyFy". Congratulations, dummies; you earned it!)

EDIT: I immediately regret posting this uncharitable rant. The Science Fiction Channel has brought us a great many wonderful things, such as Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, and extremely occasional marathons of The Invaders. Still, nothing more shocking than sitting on the edge of my seat watching BSG, only to be slammed at commercial with a face-full of "Mansquito" promo. Nevertheless, poop with diamonds in it is still worth keeping.

Leviathan

Heisted from io9
This book preview features the artwork of one of my favorite fantasy/sci fi illustrators, Keith Thompson. Interesting sell.

Researchers Create Portals to Other Universes

Science Daily: In which Those Who Wonder About the Universe bring us ever closer to science-fiction and fantasy!

In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a "a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves but that allows the passage of other entities" like a "'hidden portal' as mentioned in fictions."

The fact that this comes out of a scientific article and not some video game manual freaks me out to no end (in a titillatingly good way):

The gateway, which is now much closer to reality, uses transformation optics and an amplified scattering effect from an arrangement of ferrite materials called single-crystal yttrium-iron-garnet that force light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in complicated directions to create a hidden portal.

WUT??? They stole that line straight from Star Trek. We're going to be attacked by species 8472, aren't we.

Graph of fantasy book cover art

In which unicorns and fuck-me pumps sadly lag far behind swords, glowy magic, and completely dark covers of meaninglessness.

I wonder if [this chart] will prove that glowy magic, while prevalent, might not guarantee glowy sales? Or if unicorn-lovers represent a vast untapped market? It wouldn't surprise me. More research is clearly needed, but this is an important starting point and I'd be prepared to devote literally minutes to the task if that's what it takes.

Essay: Why the end of BSG was fracking horrible.

(with spoilers, if you haven't seen it)

Let me start by saying that I loved the show. I was excited to see every episode from the mini series until Daybreak. I think the introduction of the Opera House combined with Bear McCreary's The Shape of Things to Come (below--damn I wish I could find video of it!) is in all honesty the best thing I have ever seen on television.




But the further away I am from the final episodes the more I'm with this guy, Brad: Battlestar's "Daybreak:" The worst ending in the history of on-screen science fiction.

It's a long essay. Here's my shorter version.

By "worst", he means disappointing. I definitely agree. Ron Moore had set the bar so much higher than anyone expected, and thus had such a very long way to fall. The ending for V may have been crap, for example, but the whole show was kind-of-crap, so no problem. But Moore set out with some very ambitious goals and succeeded in a glorious way--until the end--when he completely contradicts the basic principles and characters that he set out to create. (For those of you who've read Pullman's Dark Materials I'd say the same thing applies [but worse])

Evidently Moore started the show with a manifesto that included the following tenets:
1. Keep the science real.

2. Avoid SF cliches (time travel, god-like powers)
3. Focus on strong, real characters, no stereotypes.
4. Focus on realism.

He shat on all of those ideas and others, especially during the all-important, explain-it-all-ending.

1. The science was bad, and just plain silly. Mitochondrial eve is a theoretical woman who gave us our mitochondria (first calculated by Hawaii's Dr. Cann, who made me grind up a bird once). Plenty of other women were alive at the time and making babies, but the point is that all males who passed on their genes at some point made babies with Hera/Eve or one of Hera's female ancestors, thus spreading her mitochondria. She's hardly the saviors of the human race. More like a galactic slut. And if she had died someone else would have taken her place. Not a big deal except that sooo much of the story was focussed on Hera as being the key to everything... and this is what Moore meant?!? Great.

2. It's obvious who he wanted us to see as being behind the curtain & pulling the strings. Even if he just HAD to do it, there were so many ways he could have done it better! At the very least, change Baltar's last words from "he" to "it", or "she", or "they" or something! How hard is that?!?

3. Complicated characters became simple agents doing "God's plan". Everyone who's spacey is an angel. The leader of a whole separate cylon faction ends his reign by shooting himself in the head. Apollo just wants to go exploring. And Moore said this about the ending: "it's the characters, stupid." Really? Huh.

4. Realism? Right. The second half was phoned in and a brainless way to tie up major characters and loose plot lines with one big, unrealistic bow. I will punch anyone in the face who says that the decision to leave all technology behind makes any fracking sense whatsoever. It is ridiculous. It contradicts everything they were fighting for during the entire run of the show. It points the finger at technology as the cause of all our ills instead of the human condition. Moore did it was because he couldn't leave any technology behind for realism's sake. He thought that having a parallel universe wasn't real enough, and finding the Galactica in modern-day Earth would be too jarring. Wow. Thanks. A whole population of space-faring people agree with one man's stupid idea to hunt with sticks for the rest of their life. That's much more realistic.

Anyway, that's my (+/- Brad's) two cents. I don't think we've ever actually discussed the ending in any detail... I'd be curious as to what you guys think about it now that we've all had some time to let it simmer.

Hey, What the... Frak... I guess... I don't know! Frak!

Despite the amount of critical love that was displayed for the show during its run, I wouldn't call Moore's "Galactica" a phenomenon. It was more like a very enthusiastic and vocal cult audience. As a result, Universal seems to feel that there's more life in the property, and that there is room for another interpretation.

That's why they're nearing a deal with Bryan Singer to produce and possibly direct a brand-new "Battlestar Galactica" feature film.

Keep in mind that this apparent reboot is different from the Richard Hatch-helmed reboot. And not at all related to the Moore/Eick reboot that's occupied 35% of some of our brains for the past couple of years.

Is this reboot fever a disturbing trend? Mrs. Pony used to work on graphics for Broadway shows, and she's said that when economic times get tough, producers shy away from new shows and switch to revivals. Wonder if this is the same impulse.

via @mollywatanabe

Female flying spaceships

I'm not entirely sure what's happening here.



* This doll is really named "Rika-chan" or "Licca-chan" not Barbie. But she's kind of like the Japanese version of Barbie.

Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming

Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming was apparently a project helmed by Richard Hatch (the original Apollo), around 1999. Had not heard of this until now!

Dune: Behind the Scenes

DuneInfo.com is a pretty exhaustive archive of production stills, concept drawings, prop shots, and history focusing on the David Lynch movie, but really covering everything, from books to other artists' work to future projects. Some great stuff in here.

The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9

Homemade Green Lantern Trailer

Sorry, doesn't quite go with the flow here but just wanted to share. As a fan of both Nathan Fillion and GL...

NASA watches Trek in space

From the NYT:

Right about now in outer space, three men are crouched in a node of the International Space Station, watching J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek” on a laptop. They chose the node, said NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier, because it was “dark and quiet” and would be “a good spot” for three “Star Trek” fans to hunker down for the ultimate viewing experience.

Watching Star Trek, whilst in outer space...

Sure.

BTW: Pics of the Hubble repair!

Star Trek

* EDIT: HIGHLIGHT POST TO SEE SPOILERS *

GOOD!
*Swollen Kirk hands
*Excellent, realistic Shatner-esque writhing on ground grimacing thing by Kirk guy after being hit or falling over
*Young Bones

BAD!
*Alternate reality get-out
*Not enough Young Bones
*Pudgy Enterprise

Edit: (Warning contains fake spoiler):
*I was glad to see the Spock-Kirk romantic relationship finally fully explored outside of fan-fiction.

I liked it! Did you liked it?!