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Saturday, 30 September 2006
ATW Comics War: Round One, Fight Five
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.OK, this battle is ATW Comic War, family-style. Calvin's dad versus Foxtrot's Jason Fox. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Calvin's dad (3 votes)
Jason Fox (1 votes)
Friday, 29 September 2006
Banned Book Week Update
You know, if you're serious about this whole banned book week thing, forget trying to help out books that are already bestsellers or classics.Instead, show your support by picking up truly marginalized literature. What if you had the chance to buy a book of which only a handful of copies exist in the United States, that no library in the nation has acquired, and that even every library it's been offered to for free has refused to shelve it!?
Now you can!
Fight for your First Amendment rights! Strike a blow for free speech!
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Five
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.No soldiers or warriors this time. Just a normal guy. And a cat. The fourth fight pits Dagwood Bumstead against Garfield. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Dagwood (2 votes)
Garfield (3 votes)
iState
To be honest, I'm old enough now that I really don't remember enough about watching The State on MTV 13 years to recall why I liked it so much, but I did. Regardless, the first few episodes are available on iTS now.
STS-116 Update
The countdown clock on the left just dropped by a week.Launch is now scheduled for Dec. 7, 9:38 p.m. EST.
SpaceShipTwo Revealed
OK, this is fascinating to me.I'd read that the design for SpaceShipTwo was going to be unveiled yesterday, but had to read through five space news sites this morning before I found one that had anything about it. Apparently the Rutan lovefest may be waning.
Anyway: SpaceShipTwo.
I Am ... Iron Man!
So, Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark.Oh, man, that's inspired casting.
We could not think of another actor better suited to bring one of Marvel's crown jewels to the big screen," said Kevin Feige, President of Production, Marvel Studios.The quote doesn't go on to say, "It'll take great actor to play the likeable, intellegent and sophisticated guy dealing with alcohol abuse issues, but for some reason, we think Downey's up to the task."
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.
Bwah-ha-ha-ha.
Space MySpace
I'm not entirely happy about it, but, because of someone here who shall remain nameless, I have a MySpace page.I don't plan to post any actual content there -- I have plenty of better places to do that -- but if you've got a MySpace page, feel free to friend me. And, hey, you can learn about my zodiac sign and favorite books and stuff.
So, like, totally... whatever. (ZOMG!)
Thursday, 28 September 2006
Profreading Errors
This week's new Hatbag kicks it totally old-school, in more ways than one, with a special touch that long-time As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Three
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.The third fight doesn't feature a U.S. soldier like the first two, but it does feature a battle-hardened warrior -- Hagar, the Horrible! In the other corner is Cathy! Ack! Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Hagar (4 votes)
Cathy (2 votes)
Here I Am Now, Entertain Me
Folks, the ATW blogosphere is really letting me down lately.The time since posting of various blogs linked to from ATW:
Spatula Forum -- Uh, one day. I was ready to blast him for not posting since the 15th, but it turns out he posted yesterday.
This is my brain... -- One week.
Does anybody read this -- Nine days.
Abnormal Aspirations -- 18 days.
Right Space -- One month, 8 days.
Random Declarations -- One month, two weeks.
The Not-So-Secret Life of Enzo -- six months, two days.
Taking A Nap -- Seven months, 18 days.
And, while it never had enough posts to make the blog list, "Idle Ramblings" is just shy of two months since its last (and fourth) post.
I demand to be amused!
Zune Gets Cheaper
A month ago, all indications, including some fairly good evidence, was that Microsoft was planning a price point of around $300 for Zune.Now Microsoft has announced Zune will sell for $249.99, 99 cents more than the iPod with the same hard drive capacity.
But for that extra buck, you get limited-potential WiFi. (Which gives you greater compatability, with other Zunes at least, if not the thousands of accessories available for iPod.)
And, of course, that buck also gets you the option of buying your mp3 player in brown.
Reports have indicated that Zune was going to lose money at $300. I've seen no official confirmation of that, but Microsoft, in this article, does confirm the following:
Erickson wouldn't provide financial specifics but said the operation won't make money immediately.
"In total we won't be making a profit this year, but we will of course work toward becoming a profitable business in the future," he said.
I would be so, so tempted to gloat -- if my memory were a bit worse.
On The Books
I love books. I know people who have more (to wit, Richie), but I have my share. And perhaps a couple of other people's.And, I love libraries. I don't frequent them as often as I could (see above), but I like them in theory, and have had several good librarian friends.
I get all that out of the way to provide context when I say this -- the American Library Association's Banned Books Week is a pretty high pinnacle of intellectual pretention.
It's nothing but straw-man argument that people use so they can pat themselves on the back for their own open-mindedness.
The whole idea shows just how much certain parties take our freedoms as an American for granted. The books on the list are not truly banned in the way they would be in other countries, where it would be difficult or illegal to get your hands on them.
What "banned" means to the American Library Association is that some particular organizations chose not to have that book. That's "banned"?! The fact is, no organization on Earth has every book ever. Every library, every bookstore, every person chooses to acquire and shelve the books they feel most appropriate for their needs. Finding that a book doesn't meet that standard is hardly banning it.
Also under the heading of "banned" for the ALA is "challenged," which means that someone said that a particular book might not be appropriate for a particular audience.
You know what? Some books aren't appropriate for some readers. There, I said it. Blasphemy, I know.
And there are some people who are going to go too far with more extreme applications of that idea. Putting that under the heading of "banned" just gives credence to crackpots.
With its Banned Book Week, the ALA makes a mockery of the true struggles faced around the world. While authors sit in jail in other nations and governments, even as progressive as Australia, keep certain books out of their borders, the ALA throws around the word "banned" to talk about parents who don't want their young kids reading sexually explicit books. It cheapens the the very idea.
The ALA does, at least, refer to its Banned Book Week "top" list as the "most challenged books" of the year, likely because it would have a hard time putting together a list that it could really apply even its very liberal standard of banned to.
Even so, here are the top books that people are trying to keep you from getting your hands on: It's Perfectly Normal, Forever and The Catcher In The Rye.
Now try to explain Cai Zhouhua, in prison for three years for distributing Bibles in China, how "Available for 1-Click Ordering" fits the idea of a "Banned Book" week.
The Dream Is Still Alive
I've blogged before about Dream Chaser, a spacecraft design proposed by SpaceDev based on an old NASA lifting body design. The spacecraft was the company's entry in NASA COTS commercial spaceflight bid contest, but was turned down in favor of two other companies.It turns out, though, Dream Chaser isn't dead. SpaceDev founder Jim Benson has started a new company that will pursue development and commercial operation of the spacecraft.
This makes me happy for two reasons. One, I just like the design. As NASA moves back to an Apollo-esque architecture, Dream Chaser keeps alive a sort of "son of space shuttle" motif, particularly in the pics where it's mounted on a booster package not onlike the STS SRB/ET combo. Second, as a SpaceDev shareholder (albeit a very very tiny one), it sounds like a good model -- the new company, it seems, will bear the risk, while paying SpaceDev for the hardware.
To be honest, I wouldn't take bets right now on whether the Dream becomes reality, but that's true of a lot of spacecraft on the books right now. But it's just such an exciting time, with so many new spacecraft being pursued, from Orion on down.
iPhone Video?
Supposedly someone has found code in iTunes 7.0.1 that indicates the iPhone will play TV shows. Which, I mean, gracious -- that means that either the hard drive and screen would have pretty big for a phone, or that it's going to be a pretty limited feature. To be honest, I don't know that I'd want it included; I'm afraid it would require too many compromises.Still, it's an interesting idea -- you're out somewhere, bored, so you pull out your cell phone and watch TV. What brave new world is this, that has such cell phones in it. Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat ... out.
That said, I want a job adding extraneous code to iTunes just to get the fanboys excited. "Are you sure you want to copy all PS3 games to your Blu-Ray iTablet? This operation would be cool beyond imagination!"
Return Of Sulu Update
With the release of the Chekov-gets-old episode of New Voyages theoretically less than a month away, details are starting to leak about the Sulu-gets-old episode of new Voyages, including a wacky, wacky picture.You know, I was excited about the news about Walter Koenig being on the show, but now the XXXX-gets-old episodes are, well, getting old. I understand why they'd be excited to have the original actors on the series, but, really, space things out a bit, guys.
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Two
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.Like the first fight, the second features a veteran soldier -- Doonesbury's B.D., who will be taking on a seriously old school opponent, The Yellow Kid. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
B.D. (2 votes)
The Yellow Kid (2 votes)
Door To The Moon
CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA quite literally opened the door Tuesday on a new era in space exploration at Kennedy Space Center.
For the first time since the end of the Apollo program in the mid-1970s, NASA raised an 80-foot-tall door on the west side of the KSC Operations & Checkout Building.
The high bay inside -- which once housed moon-bound Apollo spacecraft -- is being converted into a factory for the Crew Exploration Vehicles that will carry U.S. astronauts back to the lunar surface before the end of the next decade.
Tuesday, 26 September 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight One
It's that time again!Welcome to the latest All These Worlds War: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.
The very first fight features Lucy Van Pelt, who dominates her neighborhood in Peanuts with an iron fist. But will she be up to the challenge when faced with battle-trained U.S. Army officer "Sarge" Snorkel. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Lucy (3 votes)
Sarge (0 votes)
New Site
Welco