8-27-07

Reports are that Keanu Reeves will play Klaatu in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I actually usually like him, but I think this is really horrible casting.
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-reevesdaytheearthstoodstillcasting,0,2690006.story?track=rss

Early studies show that stem cell injections can help rebuild heart muscles after a heart attack. The same article says that stem cell use for spinal cord injury goes to clinical trial next year!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfce5cae-53f7-11dc-9a6e-0000779fd2ac.html

Article on lesser known SF movies & miniseries. Talk about a strange mix.
1 - Dark City - I like
2 - Robot Stories - I like
3 - The Lost Room - OK
4 - Pi - never saw
5 - Lathe of Heaven - saw ~25 years ago and don't really remember
6 - Ghost in the Shell - never saw
7 - Akira - never saw
8 - Donnie Dark - I like
9 - Cube - never saw - it looks too much like horror
10- A Scanner Darkly - never saw and not really interested
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/235773/lesser_known_scifi_films_and_miniseries.html

Kevin Smith will direct a 3rd TV show this coming season. We know about Reaper and Heroes: Origins, but now Battlestar Galactica has been added to the list.
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/battlestar-galactica/kevin-smith-to-direct-battlses-9870.aspx

The original lightsaber prop from Star Wars is going into space for the 30th anniversary. Chewbacca (or an actor dressed as him anyway) will pass it off to NASA. Then R2-D2, storm troopers and other characters not yet named will escort it along the way. This has got to be filmed for some sort of anniversary dvd release.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=43631

Eliza Dushku has signed a development deal with Fox. They killed Tru Calling and didn't even pick up her last pilot, so why does she want to let them keep her dangling? She and Tim Minear must have the same masochistic tendencies or the same agent.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43592

Interview with Sherilyn Kenyon about her Dark Hunter series. 2008 has been marked as the "Year of Acheron." Talk about teasing.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=43590

The Sarah Jane Adventures will be back for 10 30-minute episodes telling 5 2-part stories this fall in the UK.
http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/sarahjane.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sarah_Jane_Adventures

Infinity Plus, a free online SF magazine, celebrates 10 years and closes down. They will keep their archives online.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/theend.htm

Review of Heroes 1st season dvd set from someone who never watched the initial run. It's fun to see someone get addicted.
http://dvd.monstersandcritics.com/reviews/article_1347883.php/DVD_Review_Heroes_%96_Season_1

New evidence shows Beethoven died of lead poisoning brought on by treatments from his doctor.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6730028?source=rss

8-22-07

The upcoming HD-DVD release of Star Trek: TOS will have standard DVD on the flip side of each disk. This totally goes against the usual "make them buy it as many times in as many formats as possible" Star Trek marketing and makes it much more tempting to me.
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7914

From the "I can't believe I haven't heard everything yet" files: They are now making scratch-n-sniff "musty book smell" stickers for people to apply to e-book readers so they can have the smell of a book while reading electronic copies.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070822/wr_nm/internet_books1_dc_1

Another depressing article about how few people actually read books. It's based on the "Reading at Risk" study I linked to a few weeks ago, but they added quotes from people who do/don't read. Laurel: Sorry, I know you've seen this already.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/reading.ap/index.html

Documentary on the history of SF TV. It's 30 minutes, so I've only seen the very beginning. It looks good though, so I'll probably watch the rest later.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005510.html

I've never used Google Earth, just their online maps, but they just added some great features: a virtual telescope called Sky, which shows you the view from where you are and lets you zoom into Hubble photos and click popups with info, and a Book Layer, which tells you what has been printed about a location in public-domain books.
http://news.com.com/2300-1032_3-6203876-1.html?part=rss&tag=6203876&subj=news
http://www.space.com/news/070822_google_sky.html
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005514.html (about book layer)
http://earth.google.com/index.html

A new wine cafe has opened in Woodside for local wineries too small to have their own tasting rooms. Sounds nice.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6686781?source=rss

8-20-07

Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) is going to have an arc on Heroes this season!
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-kristenbelljoinsheroes,0,1160536.story?track=rss

The actress joining CSI has been named: Jessica Lucas. (I've only seen her in one small role, so I have no idea how she'll do.) They're still not actually saying if Jorja Fox is leaving.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/tv_nm/csi_dc_1

More detailed article/interview about the non-green-screen Iraq on the Daily Show (which I think starts tonight).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/tv_nm/dailyshow_dc_2

There's a lot more SF&F audio online than I thought. Here's a page that links to some.
http://www.sffaudio.com/OnlineAudio.html

It looks like JK Rowling's next book will be a detective novel.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=43390

Seth Green interview about Robot Chicken.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12600713

They just found 5000 year old chewing gum. Apparently the birch tar had antiseptic properties that would help with infections, but I don't want to chew on anything that will still be around in 5000 years.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/20/1534227&from=rss

Here's a truly horrifying article. An act signed in 2005 going into effect May 2008 will require us all to have Big Brother style "Real ID" Drivers Licenses that link to birth certificate, SSN, photo, and address (requiring a trip to DMV with all the paperwork to prove this for EVERYONE) or - for states that don't go along with this program - we will have to carry passports to fly a domestic plane or enter a federal building or national park.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id/index.html

8-6-07

Supernatural's creator talks about plans for season 3.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43074

161 stories, 63 pieces of art and 4 radio plays about Mars are on their way to be the first library on Mars about Mars. (They are on a special silicon glass CD velcroed to the lander.)
http://www.space.com/news/070804_phoenix_spacelibrary.html
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/messages/vom_contents.html

More about plug-in hybrids. I figure by the time they get the bugs smoothed out with this technology, it will be about time to replace my trusty Camry.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9755379-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

David Anders (Sark from Alias) has been upgraded from recurring (1 arc) to regular on Heroes. How is that going to work since he is playing Kensei (in ancient Japan)?
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Heroes-Promotes/800019944?rssDate=12345678

Truly weird - the Hello Kitty punishment: cops in Thailand who break rules will have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands for a day to shame them into behaving. Who thought up this one?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/06/international/i035724D81.DTL&feed=rss.news

Last week, ABC's new show Big Shots got the actor playing Harry Dresden as a recurring character. This week they get Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars) as consulting producer. With the cast this already had, I may have to change this from "not interested" to "watch the pilot to see if they can be better than their premise".
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Veronica-Mars/800019936?rssDate=12345678

OK. I admit I'm having a bad day, and I'm oversensitive, but this bugs me. Harris Polls has released a study that more people go online to research health concerns before visiting their doctors. They call these "cyberchondriacs" where I consider it to be common sense. I've had enough idiotic uninformed doctors that I think it is necessary to do some research myself, and I wouldn't go in the first place if I didn't think it were necessary. They say they don't mean anything negative, but I really don't like the hypochondriac comparison.
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;233083692