REALLY Do Not Reply

You know those automated emails we all get from banks, insurance companies, utilities et al;? Many of them use a "donotereply.com" return address because a lazy IT department doesn't want to 1) deal with replies and 2) doesn't want to deal with bouncebacks.

Now here's the scary thing... someone owns that "donotreply.com" domain, and gets all those replies/bouncebacks. Why is that scary? Go and read his blog.

If Summer Glau was any hotter, would she explode?

Title and photo courtesy of i09, which is reporting that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will, ahem, be back. We pause for a moment...

YAY!

... TTSCC isn't perfect by any means, but it ain't no Bionic Woman either. Like the little girl with the little curl when it's good, it's very, very good. It deserves a chance to find an audience now that the Writer's Guild strike is over and, if nothing else, at least we're not going to be left (this season at least) with a cliffhanger never to be answered.

One recommendation for Season 2, O TTSCC writers:

1. More Glaubot!

The Last Giant Falls

Arthur C. Clarke, the last of the "Big 3" classic science fiction writers, died early Wednesday morning in Sri Lanka. Clarke was 90.

Like his peer, Isaac Asimov (but unlike his other peer, Robert Heinlein), Clarke wasn't all that good a writer in my opinion. His characterization was terrible, with protagonists so wooden that you'd risk splinters if you had brushed against them. And many of his plots were simply there for Clarke to hang scientific speculations on. But it's that last where Arthur C. Clarke outperformed nearly every other science fiction writer.

"A radar pioneer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Clarke wrote a 1945 article in Wireless World magazine in which he outlined a worldwide communications network based on fixed satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 22,300 miles -- an orbital area now often referred to as the Clarke Orbit.

Clarke's seminal article, for which he received $40, was published two decades before Syncom II became the world's first communications satellite put into geosynchronous orbit in 1963." LA Times Obituary

Besides the communications satellite, a strong argument can be made that Clarke also predicted space stations, moon landings using a mother ship and a landing pod, cellular phones and the Internet.

Thanks to a bout of the flu last week, I've been feeling a bit too mortal and of my age of late. It hasn't been helped by the fact that Dave Stevens - younger than I - passed away, or that a co-worker's cousin - younger than either of us - had a massive stroke over the weekend and passed away a few days ago. Nor that one of my literary heroes, Harlan Ellison, who I knew fairly well when I was a teenager and he he was in his mid-30s has somehow turned 73 - reminding me that I'm in my mid-50s.

Clarke's passing marks another milestone. So many of the giants that shaped my sense of wonder - Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein most of all, Alfie Bester, C.M. Kornbluth, others - have fallen.

The Rocketeer Falls

Not the best of news to greet you when you're not feeling all that hot yourself. via Mark Evanier:

"...Illustrator Dave Stevens, best known for his "good girl" art and The Rocketeer, died [Monday, March 10] following a long, wrenching battle with Leukemia...The Rocketeer made Dave's reputation and also spawned a resurgence of interest in fifties' figure model Bettie Page, whose likeness Dave used for the strip's heroine."

The Rocketeer was one of the books that that got me back to reading comics in the `80s, and was, I think, the first independent - published by Pacific as I remember - comic book I ever bought. Stevens, as Mark and I'm sure all other obituaries will note, was not prolific by any stretch of the imagination, but he was one of the best illustrators ever to work comics in my opinion. Sadly, from Mark's report, producing The Rocketeer wasn't particularly rewarding for him... at least financially. I had heard he had moved from comic books to the more remunerative movie storyboarding, including, I believe, the storyboards for one of the Indiana Jones movies. Mark notes that he also did private commissions. Would that I had had the money to commission a Dave Stevens work.

Stevens was also directly responsible for the resurgence of interest in `50s pin-up gal Bettie Page and would later, as Evanier reports, become friends with Page.

"Bettie Page who, though once thought deceased, turned out to be alive and living not all that far from Dave. They met and Dave became her friend and, though he was not wealthy, benefactor. Deciding that too many others had callously exploited her likeness, Dave voluntarily aided Ms. Page financially and even took to helping her in neighborly ways. One time, he told me — and without the slightest hint of resentment — "It's amazing. After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks."

Stevens was 52.

World's Oldest Animation?

Maybe, maybe not. As the X-Files has it, I want to believe, because it's so cool.

The story of the animation on the piece of 5,200 year-old pottery has been around for at least four years. It's recently been getting a bit of press again because of a new 11-minute documentary the bowl, which was discovered in a grave in Iran by an Italian archaeological team in the late 1970s.

So, did a potter watch images swirl on a wheel in front of him and realize that he could create an animation? Or did s/he just create a set of sequential images which coincidentally happen to animate well?

When is a fake not a fake?

Damn it, we like Robert Irvine!

No graduation from the University of Leeds.

No 360 lb wedding cake for Princess Di

Never cooked for Bush (or any U.S. President)

No knighthood.

No castle in Scotland.

sigh. And the sad thing is that Dinner Impossible is a great show.

Link to BBC story.

Today's Productivity Buster

and new internet meme, via Brainiac...

"... A couple of weeks ago, a Los Angeles-based Flickr user who calls herself Karakrio (Occupation: Live Concert Production) started a Flickr group photo pool titled "CD Cover Meme." She challenged other Flickr users to "make your own CD cover" using the following formula:

1. Generate a name for your band by using WikiPedia's random page selector tool, and using the first article title on whichever page pops up. No matter how weird or lame that band name sounds.

2. Generate an album title by cutting and pasting the last four words of the final quote on whichever page appears when you click on the quotationspage's random quote selector tool. No matter what those four words turn out to be.

3. Finally, visit Flickr's Most Interesting page -- a random selection of some of the interesting things discovered on Flickr within the last 7 days -- and download the third picture on that page. (Even better: Click on this link to get a Flickr photo that's licensed under Creative Commons.) Again -- no cheating! You must use the photo, no matter how you feel about it.

4. Using Photoshop (or whatever method you prefer), put all of these elements together and create your very own CD cover, then upload it to the CD Cover Meme photo pool.

As of this writing, over 1,000 CD covers have been generated by 650 Flickr users."

The weird thing, as the Brainiac columnist, Joshua Glenn, notes is how much these random, made-up elements resemble real CD/record covers. The French theorist Baudrillard called this the "precession of simulcra" problem, where the original seems like a copy.

Expendable

So, imagine my surprise yesterday when the lil man from the Post Awful drives up with a big package, which I just assume is something that Peggy ordered until I look at the label. "Think Geek?" I think to myself. "Where do I know that name from?"

And then I see that it's addressed c/o me to "Jack Bals" at "the fhb blog" and I start laughing.

"Yeah, crewman. Just go back behind that rock there while Bones, Spock and I go in the other direction, okay?"

"Y---eeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"He's dead, Jim."

THANK YOU, MIMI!

.

For the Inner Geek

In the Star Trek universe, the Red Shirt is the phase-cannon fodder obliterated on screen to alert the audience to the danger of the situation. It's Roddenberry proclaiming, "We could have just killed one of the characters you cared about!" The Red Shirt is a sci-fi idiom for the anonymous, the expendable, the smoking boots behind a boulder. We've printed that word, "Expendable," in a Trekish font on a red 50% polyester/50% cotton jersey ringer with black rib-knit collar and cuffs.

Just don't stand next to us when you wear that thing.

via ThinkGeek: from $12.99. I think this one will be on the "Buy" list once I start think about wearing "Ts" again.

Staying Cool

A great idea from Kevin Kelley over at Cool Tools:

When it came to music, I was an old fogie. I had a shelf full of Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers, Brian Eno, and more Bob Dylan. You know, old guy's music. I actually liked a lot of the new popular music I overheard, I was just not up on it. Didn't know what was what. Recently I've found two tools to keep me current with great contemporary music that wasn't just top 40. My iPod is now full of some pretty hip music, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Here's what works for me. At my birthday or Christmas, I request as my only present that my kids, nieces and nephews burn me a disc of their favorite music in the last year, or so. It is an easy gift for them to make, and a great learning experience for me. The few tracks I can't stand, I just delete. The stuff I love I seek out on iTunes to purchase more of. From this I get the fashionable tunes.

This trick actually works even better with kids not your own. When I am traveling overseas I ask students who befriend me to burn me a CD of their favorite local tunes, and boy does this beckon forth some great unknown stuff. I landed some lovely Polish rock this way. I've learned to not be bashful asking because everyone loves to share their favorites. The main thing is to not ask your friends; they think too much like you. Instead you want the "other-ness" from fans in other lands and other generations. In my experience this method works better than following random play lists on iTunes, or random recommendations on Amazon. The winnowing process to burn to a CD is more selective, and perhaps because it is being made for a specific person -- me -- it is, well, more personalized.

Matt, Dan, Mimi, et al; you now know what I want the next time you want to give your ol' fogey relative something for his birthday or Christmas.

WATCHMEN Movie in Jeopardy?

The curse apparently continues:

20th Century Fox is seeking an injunction to stop production of "Watchmen" until its rights dispute with Warner Bros. is cleared up, the movie's March 2009 release date may be in jeopardy...

via Brainiac

Star Trek Meets Jefferson Airplane

For all the cat walking on the piano; let's blow up a mail box; chocolate rain crap on YouTube, you get the occasional moment of brilliance, like this. "Feed your head" indeed.

Are You Connected to Mountaintop Removal?

Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining where entire mountains are literally blown up. This new web tool at iLoveMountains.org allows you to see how your power company is connected to coal mined through mountaintop removal.

Zip code 03054: Merrimack, NH

You are connected to mountaintop removal. Your electricity provider, Public Service Co of NH, buys coal from companies engaged in mountaintop removal

The story of Kirk, West Virginia, is one of many that are connected to the power plants on your grid, which are marked on the map below.

The mountaintop removal mines shown in red are connected to the nearest coal power plant on your grid: Merrimack, operated by Public Service Co of NH.

Click on the mine symbols to get a closer look, or click here for a detailed explanation.

Poetry Hour with Your Host, The Hulk

Even here -- even in peaceful forest -- they will not leave Hulk alone!
Wherever Hulk goes, enemies follow him -- try to hurt him!
Why? Hulk does not know! All Hulk does know is --
When enemies attack, Hulk fights back -- and smashes -- HUH?
Is not enemy -- is tree! Hulk is attacked by -- tree??
Wha --? Now other trees attack Hulk -- and rocks -- flying rocks!
Hulk is confused -- doesn't understand!
Hulk LIKED trees. Hulk LIKED rocks.
Hulk thought they were his friends -- Hulk's ONLY friends --
But if peaceful forest attacks Hulk, too -- then Hulk has no friends --
and Hulk will crush anything that gets in Hulk's way!
Do you hear Hulk, rocks?
Do you hear Hulk, trees?
Leave Hulk ALONE -- or Hulk will make you REGRET it! - Len Wein DEFENDERS issue, #12, February 1973.

WGA Strike News

I still have the lil' " AMPTP walk out" banner at the top of the blog, but I'm hopeful I'll be taking it down soon. It some ways it's a false flag because, as you know if you've been following the news, the AMPTP and WGA negotiators have been in "informal" discussions since the past weekend, and rumors are rife that they're close to agreement on a new contract.

But rumors are just rumors, as Mark Evanier notes, and we'll have to wait and see. According to Mark, "The Writers Guild is convening an 'informational meeting' for Saturday evening at the Shrine Auditorium," which he opins is a message to the Evil Empite to the effect, "Hey, we're bringing the whole membership in...and on a Saturday evening, no less. It would be in your best interest for us to have a deal by then which we can enthusiastically recommend to the membership."

One can hope. I haven't felt the withdrawal pain as keenly as I had imagined, thanks to the intermittent but always welcome Medium, the start of new seasons of Torchwood and Dr. Who on BBC America, and the surprisingly good Sarah Connor Chronicles which is currently running on 24's Fox slot. I kind of miss 24, but last season was sooooo bad that giving it a year's rest might be the best thing for our long-term relationship. And I kind of miss Heroes, but not as much as I thought I would. Heroes seems to be like the nut dish of TV. You'll sample it until the bowl is empty when it's around, but you don't think about it when it's not there.

It's a good thing I'm not on the WGA negotiating team. I wouldn't come off strike until the AMPTP promised to put the full season of Day Break on DVD. I'm still pissed about that.

Patti Smith @ the Smithsonian Archives of American Art

"I felt I should be able to do something at the Smithsonian, being a Smith." - Patti Smith

Smith was at the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium at the Smithsonian's Archive's of American Art this past weekend, in promotion of a new book the Archives are publishing, With Love, a collection of letters between artists and their loved ones.

The letters, which ranged from funny to quirky to heartbreaking, discussed love by way of art, or art by way of love. The letters she read were all notable, but it was her asides and introductions that really made the evening. Like the way she described the artist Joan Mitchell, before reading her letter to lover Michael Goldberg. "Certain broads just know how to smoke a cigarette. I know we're not supposed to admire it." That particular letter was read with such personal, casual colloquialism that it sounded as if Smith herself had written it. "I'm drinkin' the beer you left me on the winah' sill. And I'm kissin you. I do this all the time." As you might expect, she discussed letters as a lost art — their beauty being in their "paper, the handwriting, the little drawings." The handwriting that conveys the sorrow or energy of the authors. She said, "I know they can be burned... but they can't be deleted."

Sounds like the perfect Valentine Day's gift for your literary sweetie.

Amanda Mattos' full article is well worth the read. As I said in my comments over at the DCist site, reading it made me wish I had been there.

The World of the Class of 2011

From Beloit College's annual "Mindset List":

Each August for the past decade, as faculty prepare for the academic year, Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Beloit College Mindset List. Its 70 items provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students, most of them born in 1989.

Some random samplings for the Class of 2011...

They've grown up with bottled water.

They've never "rolled down" a car window.

They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.

The World Wide Web has been here since they were born.

Flickr Users to M-soft: Eff Off!

You can't say that Microsoft doesn't inspire passion. Unfortunately, it's usually the wrong sort of passion.

via the "Microsoft: Keep your evil, grubby hands off of our Flickr" photo pool.

Dreamtime catchup

The blog/podcast that just keeps on going is at Episode 49 with a show on Blossom (Dearie) and Jack (Sheldon), two jazz artists with a mutual Schoolhouse Rock! connection.

I made several changes in late 2007, finally creating a dreamtimepodcast.com domain, cloaking the blog - which is still hosted by blogspot - under the aegis of that domain, and moving the then-45 podcasts away from my original host, Solidcasts, over to their new Dreamtime home. The transition went relatively smoothly, except for iTunes. Note to any burgeoning podcasters out there - do not let your RSS Feed out of your control.

WARNING - Heavy geek weather ahead: Unfortunately, when I originally signed Dreamtime up in the iTunes directory, I used the direct Solidcasts RSS Feed. While Solidcasts had the benefit of creating/updating the feed through a simple form entry system, they provide no way for you to manually update the feed. Thus, no way to redirect to a new feed location. Plus, when you kill the Solidcasts account, they simply delete the feed. As far as I could determine, I had about 150 listeners who were subscribed through the iTunes directory, so I had to create a special show giving them instructions on how to find episodes when I moved. Most seem to have made the transition. But the old Dreamtime listing - now pod-dead - still sits in the iTunes directory, the iTunes' team ears deaf to my pleas to redirect the listing to the new feed.

The solution to the problem - if you care at this point - is to 1) make sure that your original feed is under your control so you can create a feed redirect if necessary, and 2) Use Feedburner as the feed address for all podcast listings, including iTunes.

End Geek Storm.

Now Master of my own Domain, I'm getting better tracking of audience stats: Dreamtime the blog gets about 4-5,000 a month visitors a month, about 60 percent of those coming from a referring site, such as Expecting Rain, which is my #1 supplier of visitors. #2 is "Night Time in the Big City," more-or-less a TTRH mp3 download site, and #3 is usually the TTRH Wikipedia article.

About 30 percent of visitors come through some sort of search, and the remaining 10 percent hit Dreamtime directly. And that pretty much reflects my subscriber base. I seem to have about 500 subscribers to the podcast, a smaller - but I think, more accurate - figure than the numbers reflected by Solidcast's stats. And I have a slightly higher number of regular readers at the blog itself.

Evolution Explains Why Lolcats Control Your Mind

My rule about LOLcats is only to post the ones that make me, in fact, LOL. And this one did.

My new favorite place - i09 - has an article on why we find LOLcats fascinating, as well as a couple of other great images. I'm not sure I buy the argument, though. I think a commenter's theory, that we all just likez cheeseburgerz, is as likely.