5-9-08 Couch Potato Corner

Sorry if this post is a bit long. I'm going to be trying to catch up with a week of news.

Private Practice will be changing showrunners. Marti Noxon is leaving for "other projects" and Jon Cowan and Robert Rovner (most recently from Bionic Woman) will be taking over. I hope it manages to keep the charm it had under Marti Noxon.

SciFi has announced casting for the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica and the 2-hour pilot Warehouse 13. Esai Morales (most recently from Jericho) will play Joseph Adama in Caprica, father of Admiral William Adama from BSG. Paula Malcomson will play the female lead on Caprica. Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly will star in Warehouse 13.

Although the US version of Life on Mars is likely to show up on the ABC lineup this fall, it may do it without David E. Kelley. After pushing the show for 2 years, he is considering dropping out (although he would still have some participation since he personally owns the rights).

Bruce Boxleitner will be joining Heroes next season as a recurring character.

Men in Trees has been canceled. This was not entirely unexpected by the producers, so they shot an alternate ending for the final episode airing this summer.

Darth Mojo, a visual effects artist on Babylon 5 for the first 3 seasons, is sharing photos from his archives on his blog. This first post shows the construction of the central corridor.

Fox has finally released the final 2 episodes of Drive for downloading ad-free.

DVRs for tonight:
5pm Sarah Jane Adventures
6pm Doctor Who
7pm Battlestar Galactica
8pm Ghost Whisperer
9pm Moonlight
10pm Numb3rs

Roundup for 9-13-07 part 1

Morgan Fairchild will play herself in an upcoming episode of Men in Trees.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Men-Trees/800022149?rssDate=12345678

Jon Stewart will host the Oscars again next year.
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20070912abc01

Google is co-sponsoring a $20 million grand prize (with $10 million in other prizes) for an unmanned moon landing by a private industry group.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070913/wr_nm/space_prize_dc_1
http://www.space.com/news/070913_google_xprize.html

By analyzing the orbit of Mars, they think it has had 40 ice ages in the past 50 million years (approx. every 120,000 years), with the wobble causing the sun to either dry out the soil or cause ice sheets to form right under it, alternating in location. Wow, makes life seem pretty much impossible anywhere remotely near the surface.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070912_mars_ice.html

Not all red giant stars act the same way. And some planets could survive the death of their suns. Could Earth? Doubtful, but it allows for some interesting speculation, and none of us will be around to know for sure.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070912_rgiant_planet.html

Vampire star found = article about a star that siphons gas from another star close by.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070912_neutron_object.html

For $1.3 million a year and the loan of their planes for research missions, Google founders will get to park their planes at Moffet Field. I think it sounds like a great deal for all involved (Moffet gets more funds to stay open and active in research, and Google gets airport access right next to their headquarters), but there is concern over just how many flights will be allowed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/technology/13google.html?em&ex=1189742400&en=d65a97aea29c0825&ei=5087%0A
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/BUDJS3IOT.DTL&feed=rss.technology

New water bottle filters anything under 15 nanometers (viruses are 25), so it can purify the grossest water imaginable without chemicals and can go at least 4,000 liters before changing the filter. Military agencies bought up his entire supply within 4 hours, but I'm sure he'll be making more soon (he designed it for disaster relief).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3R3S1NAZ1X2NVQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nwater112.xml

Solar aircraft sets records
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/10/1917254&from=rss

A stinky weed with an oily seed may be your next source of auto fuel. It is apparently really easy to turn into biodiesel.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/10/1734254&from=rss

Student film version of Rama. (I still need to check out.)
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005624.html