4-6-09

Jo Walton reviews Ventus by Karl Schroeder at Tor.com since he now has it as a free ebook on his website. I read this a few months ago and loved it. If you haven't read it, you should.

The UK is bringing out a mythological creatures stamp collection, with art by Dave McKean and a short short story by Neil Gaiman for each creature. Sources: Wired (best pics) and Neil Gaiman's blog.

Discovery.com lists the Top 10 Moments in Astronomy.

Space.com has an amazing photo of colliding galaxies taken by the Hubble telescope after it won a poll as the next target. They also have an article about plans to grow flowers on the moon.

According to John Scalzi, Audible is offering Metatropolis for free for a limited time because of the Hugo nomination.

The founder of Other Change of Hobbit (one of the best bookstores I've been to) talks about the early days.

Zap2It has a description of Fox's potential new comedy shows. Nothing here I have to see from what they say.

Richard Dean Anderson will guest star in a couple episodes of Stargate: Universe.

SciFi wire has interviews with James Marsters about 2 projects: Moonshot (about Apollo 11), and High Plains Invaders.

The final Pushing Daisies episodes finally have a timeslot (although a horrible one): Saturdays at 10pm starting May 30th.

Another sign that Reaper will be canceled - the creators are leaving the show for a new commitment with Fox.

Last week 6 volunteers sealed themselves into a capsule that will mimic the conditions of a trip to Mars. Sources: BBC, Telegraph

A new DNA test may replace the PAP smear since it was dramatically more effective at diagnosing cervical cancer in a recent 8-year study.

The BBC has an article on using stem cell injections to treat damaged bones.

DVRs for the week:
Mon 5pm Greek
Mon 8pm Chuck & House
Mon 9pm Heroes
Mon 10pm Medium
Tue 8pm Reaper
Tue 9pm Fringe
Tue 10pm Cupid (assuming I like the 1st one which is still on the dvr unseen)
Wed 8pm Scrubs
Wed 9pm Lost & Life
Wed 10pm CSI:NY
Thu 7pm Krod Mandoon & the Flaming Sword of Fire (COMEDY - see review at SF Signal)
Thu 8pm Bones
Thu 9pm CSI
Fri 8pm Ghost Whisperer & Sarah Connor Chronicles
Fri 9pm Dollhouse
Fri 10pm Numb3rs
Sat 6pm Ashes to Ashes
Sat 6 & 8pm Nora Roberts Tribute (LIFETIME)
Sun all day marathon of earlier Nora Roberts movies in case you missed them

Happy Halloween!

JMS will be writing an update/remake of Forbidden Planet. If anyone can write this in a way that would make it watchable to me, it would be him.

To promote their video service, Amazon is offering sales on TV series full season downloads. Heroes is $5 per season. Unfortunately, the other shows initially offered at $5 are now just 20% off. It may be worth watching to see if the sales change again.

SFWA responds to the Google vs. Author Guild settlement announced yesterday.

The Economist has an article about ray guns moving from science fiction to reality.

Pushing Daisies is in danger, but contrary to some rumors, it has NOT been canceled. The ratings for the most recent episode went up, and the network is waiting for post-election ratings to decide if they will order any more episodes.

DVR for tonight:
8pm Ghost Whisperer
10pm Numb3rs
-- for Saturday:
Primeval (season finale)
& possibly the pilot for Legend of the Seeker (syndicated)
-- for Sunday:
True Blood

9-22-08

Gateworld has the character descriptions for the new Stargate: Universe series as they were given to casting agents. Currently, this is at the level of rumor, and may change as they actually pick people, but it gives us a point of reference for where they are planning to go.

Pushing Daisies won the only Emmy by a sci-fi show not in the Creative Arts category (Best Director for the pilot). Creative Arts Emmys went to Pushing Daisies, Battlestar Galactica, Tin Man, Chuck, Lost, and Smallville.

Scientists now understand why the southern polar ice cap on Mars is off center.

CNet Crave has an image and article on a very strange new clock. The Corpus Clock (tribute to The Grasshopper Escapement) was designed by John Taylor and introduced by Stephen Hawking.

Outside.in has a new cool looking map tool for blogs. If I ever have a reason to include location information in my blog, I might try it.

DVRs for tonight:
8pm Big Bang Theory (CBS - season premiere)
8pm Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
8pm Heroes: Countdown to the premiere (NBC - catch up special)
8:30 How I Met Your Mother (CBS - season premiere)
9pm Heroes (NBC - 2 hour season premiere)
9pm 2.5 Men (CBS - season premiere)

10-23-07

DVRs for tonight:
8pm Bones
9pm House & Reaper

CBS has ordered 4 more scripts for Moonlight.

Pushing Daisies has received a full season pickup!! Quirky charm getting a full season pickup this early? I never would have expected this, but I'm glad.

Sean Patrick Flanery talks about making Young Indiana Jones (the dvd set is about to come out).

Honda has said that they have no interest in making a plug-in hybrid. If they can get the necessary battery power, they would go for a pure electric.

They have found a correlation between leaded gas use and crime rates. The lead from gas was getting into the water and air, and once it was phased out for about 20 years (so there weren't still people in their teens and twenties who were raised with high lead), the crime rates drop. If the lead was prevalent enough to be causing notably different crime levels, I wonder what other problems it was causing.

8-24-07

I mentioned the new Google Earth the other day, and today it featured on MyStanford's home page. Stanford was 1 of 7 winners (out of 300 schools competing) of a Google prize for 3D mapping of the campus.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/august22/google-082207.html

Subterranian Press has started putting their latest magazine online for free. I've never checked these out before, but they include stories by Charles deLint, John Scalzi, etc. and most issues have an audiobook.
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine

Paul Reubens will have a recurring role on Pushing Daisies.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43513

The report of JK Rowling writing a detective story was part of a joke reported as fact. Nobody knows what her next project will be yet.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=43515

A Torchwood producer talks about the origins for the idea of the show (US shows like Buffy, X-Files & BSG among others).
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43570

John Williams will be doing the music for the final Harry Potter movie and Indy 4.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=43552

Astronomers have found a huge empty hole in the universe.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070823_huge_hole.html

Fairly interesting article about all the fighting going on about setting up high speed rail from LA to SF (the argument being the route and the funding).
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6706923?source=rss

Great article on cord blood. If you've been paying attention, you know I think this is a medical marvel being thrown away far too often. This covers pretty much all the issues.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-08-22/news/a-cure-for-all-that-ails-you

Stargate full series box images are at TVShowsonDVD:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7927

Stanford Shopping Center is planning to expand.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6706360?source=rss

Sony has developed a bio-battery that runs on sugar. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have ecologically-friendly batteries?

Any DVD that comes packaged with a barf bag is clearly not trying to sell to my demographic. Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070824/film_nm/dirtysanchez_dc_1

Tor books is going to podcast from the Worldcon in Japan next week.
http://www.tor-forge.com/podcasts