Dr. James Hansen, one of the world’s most prominent and influential climate scientists, is in New Zealand to deliver his lecture “Climate Change: a scientific, moral and legal issue”. Tonight – in Wgtn.
Mon 16th May: Wellington
5.45pm public lecture Rutherford House, welcomed by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown
Worth seeing. No question. More info.
Willa rolls on to her front. Then she gets stuck. It is like a metaphor for all of human endeavour.
Also, man oh man this week has been busy. Tired now. But linky shall happen:
Trailer for the newWgtn webseries Urban Numina, which releases its first ep this weekend:
Inevitable Star Wars link: overthinking it on the economics of the Death Star. (Alternatively, this.)
Inevitable Doctor Who link: amazingly obsessive/devoted site tracking the fates of the individual Dalek props used in Doctor Who.
Just when I think I know all the geeky stuff about the Alien movies, something comes along that expands the horizons further than I could have imagined. The Alien theme music, disco remix.
Via John Fouhy: “my favourite varieties of ant” (so interesting!)
Via Steve Hickey: Ten things screenwriters can learn from Aliens. Even though it gets some stuff massively wrong (e.g. Ripley’s motivation to go back to the planet), this is a nice reminder of how amazingly well-crafted this film is.
Amazing stunts and tricks and stuff (via Matt B):
Can we date? (via d3vo)
Last year in his new TV show, Scooby-Doo fought Cthulhu and met Harlan Ellison. Well then.
Oh yeah this: nerdcorey tribute to D&D: 20-sided rhymes (thanks Hamish!)
Music preferences by gender using Last.fm data
Guy embarks on 3-year project to read the great works of Western literature, blogging as he goes.
Some great photos of cosplay. No, really, these are worth a look.
Gay girl in Damascus writes of how her father stood up to the internal police. Wow. I hope everyone I met over there is doing okay.
Many many illustrators deliver versions of the Eowyn vs Witch King moment in Lord of the Rings. So good!
Understanding science is about ideas, not definitions!
And finally… authors are insulting
What about Dads? Can we have it all too?
Saturday’s newspaper had a magazine section with a big article heavily featuring our little fambly – Cal, Willa and myself. It’s up online here. It is actually quite a good piece, I reckon.
One message in there is how much we are relying on family for support, and on employers being flexible. We are blessed with much support in all those ways, plus plus a babby who is happy and not much trouble as babbies go. We are lucky people.
I am feeling the lucky today. Today (and the whole week actually but especially today) has been manic to the extreme. But I am getting by and well-fed (good healthy home-made tucker) and wee Willa has been adored by many people today and has lots of cuddles and food and poor hardworking Cal was super supportive tonight as I raced to get a piece of work done…
This blog is gonna stay low-frequency low-thinking posts for a while I guess. Capacity is low right now. But I want to record this here so I can’t argue with myself later: for all the challenges fitting everything in? I’m having an amazing time.
Anyway, enough ramble. Go read the article. You know you want to.
Hey 15-year-old self in 1991! It’s 2011 calling. Guess what! They made a movie out of Thor! THOR! With the big dots on his chest and the big red cape and the hammer! Yes, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. No-one here saw that one coming either! And here’s the kicker: the director is Kenneth Branagh! I KNOW! No, I’m not kidding around! Truly. Yeah, you see, all those genre things that mainstream media despises? Turns out they win. Doctor Who is back and is incredibly popular. The Lord of the Rings gets made into films, too, and you’ll never believe who –
– what’s that? Star Wars? Um… we don’t talk about Star Wars.
From the Alligator, a recap of the last five years of Spider-Man comics continuity in the form of a Calvin & Hobbes strip. (Oh, comics, keep on being you!)
Amazing image of the night sky
Fantastic post at Kiwipolitico about the Treaty of Waitangi and its relevance to contemporary NZ. Highly recommended to Kiwi readers, overseas folk might find it a bit impenetrable!
Understanding cities – did Jane Jacobs have it wrong? These books say she did.
Gender bias in children’s books (via Emma B)
The six stages of movie geek evolution – via Andrew (Bartok)
Have fruit and veg become less nutritious? (Scientific American) – via John Fouhy
Harry Potter novels retold as one-page comic strips (see also: Salon coverage of real-life Quidditch, which bemuses me because Quidditch is a terriblly designed sport. Isn’t it?)
8 creepy video game urban legends that turn out to be true
Amazing beatbox vid:
My age-match Nathan Rabin from the AV Club describes ’94 in music, his favourite music year. Some overlap with my own preferences may be assumed.
And finally… Ridiculous pictures of Celine Dion
Did Lucas ever invent a word with a more pleasing sound than “Wampa”?
For a competition now in progress, my buddies Jon and Jarratt chose to recreate the Wampa cave sequence from Empire Strikes Back. It is grooovy! Check it:
Give them some likes and stuff over at the YouTube page.
EDIT EDIT: here’s the right way to vote for them:
“I posted on Facebook, I got the process for voting for the people’s choice award wrong. You need to:
1) Go to the Facebook V Energy NZ site,
2) Click on the 48 Second link/application from the menu on the left hand side
3) Find our video
4) Click on the “thumbs up” icon. “
The royal wedding happens Friday evening NZ time. I think 90% of the nation is having semi-ironic viewing parties. It will be on in all the pubs. What is this I don’t even
In honour of the creation of a new fairytale princess: the 10 Best or Worst Comic Book Princesses
From the Flatlander and many other places – Amazon’s book with an asking price of $23-million.
1950s pin-up girls: reference photos and final versions
Some smart people been writing ’bout passwords recently. Hamish Ritchie linked to a logical argument that “this is fun” is a much safer password than “3rfff89tk”. And James Wallis reveals a password method that doesn’t require you to remember very much at all.
Sartre Wars: (via Dangerous Minds)
5 ways Obama “Birthers” are like climate change deniers
My fellow moose Jonathan Todd gave a talk at Nerdnite Welly about interesting stuff. (I haven’t watched it yet but why wait to share!)
NNW5 – Consciousness and Reality, Story, and Bad SF movies from nerdnite wellington on Vimeo.
From Mr 2trees, the Doctor Who Redesign Project. Love this stuff!
You’ll want to read this chat with Wendell Pierce for what he says about being Bunk on The Wire, but the best bit is him talking about making Get On The Bus and working with Ossie Davis.
And finally, a sequel to E.T. that brings the scares!
(Worth noting: E.T. started out as a horror film called Night Skies)
For ANZAC day – here is ANZAC day from 1918, in my great-grandfather Felix Rooney’s war diaries. He was in Somme, in France.
Tuesday 23
Got up about 9.A.M. Started bagging rations. Left at 3 P.M. with stores and hot stew for the line. When near Courcelles we ran into some heavy shelling and we had to move some across the paddock. Fritz was shelling all around. I got some of our Coy when we got up, to unload the limbers and get the stew dished out. I went up to H’qrs and delivered the rum. All going all right but this is going to be a warm show. Our transport moved out of the wood we were in, down behind Louvencourt. There are plenty of troops around here, both British and French. Turned in 9.P.M.Wednesday 24
Cold morning inclined to be drizzly. Just heard that after I left the boys last night, Fritz got on to them with some of his heavy shells. Young Sgt Higginbottom of Ch.Ch. got killed. He was only a boy and a good soldier. 12th Coy had four killed and a good few have been wounded. It is hard luck coming out of the front line and getting knocked about in the reserve trenches.Thursday 25
Anzac Day. Got everything fixed up for the line. Very close and thundery. Heavy rain in afternoon. My storeman went up the line to-day with the rations.
Boys celebrating the anniversary of the ‘landing‘ to-night.
The soldier Felix reports as killed was Bruce Hickinbottom. His record in the NZ role of honour is here. He was 20 years old.
Spare a thought for Elisabeth Sladen, who died yesterday aged 63.
She played the best-loved of the friends of Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Smith, in the mid-70s. The character had such longevity it not only returned recently, but became the anchor for an entire new spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures.
I genuinely felt upset by this news, which doesn’t happen often. But even if you don’t have my affection for her performance and her character (the embodiment of Vonnegut’s injunction that you’ve got to be kind), you should still recognize what is lost with her. There are few television series that provide worthwhile entertainment for pre-teens, and fewer still that give centre stage to a woman over 60 years of age.
This is a sad loss.
Read the thoughts of her young fans here.
You’ve seen this, right? Peter Jackson’s update from the Hobbit set?
It’s quite lovely. And somewhat bemusing, because to us Wellington folk this is “local chaps talk about what they’re up to around the corner”.
Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand – the fascinating story. There’s a movie to be made about Ayn Rand, but the upcoming adaptation of Atlas Shrugged is not it…
Warren Ellis describes a phone call with Alan Moore:
Hand-stitched covers for Vogue
She don’t like Firefly:
A chart showing comparative death tolls for various atrocities in the 20th century.
(via Svend)
You have seen this newspaper before
As Japanese game show pranks go, this is at the less crazy end, and I love it:
How many Cormac McCarthies does it take to change a light bulb?
And finally… two sets of freaky eyes:
Chicks With Steve Buscemi Eyes – you only need to see this once, and your fate is sealed for all time. (Via half the internet.) (Actually called “Buscemeyes”.)
And then: Muppets with people eyes.
I am angry.
Last night under urgency Parliament got a new law about internet and copyright almost all the way through. Three things about this make me angry:
(1) The law specifies that if you are accused of downloading illegally, you are presumed guilty (more info)
(2) The law gives government the power to punish a person by removing access to the internet entirely
(3) A controversial law such as this should not be put through under Parliamentary urgency.
More info about the bill is here.
This is a shameful episode in NZ politics. Bad law, and indefensible process. You cannot legislate morality, and you cannot legislate to fix technological failure.
Both major parties voted for this law. Only the Greens opposed (with two independent MPs). Remember that at election time.
