Incredible dunes on Mars, via The Bit Picture

I’ve selected two out of a dozen splendid images from Mars. Head on over to The Big Picture to see more! Some of them look like cells, but they were actually taken from space.

Frost forms on Southern Mars

At Unplggd, we’re always trying to go wireless. It’s not easy, but more and more systems are appearing on the market to cater to wireless fanatics like us. Let’s be honest, unless you’re willing to drill holes through your walls, you won’t be able to setup multi-room speakers without creating a mess.

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A secret knock can get you into a lot of places. This is the first time that we have seen a knock which could actually open a lock automatically. Steve Hoefer came up with this ingenious way of unlocking his front door to anyone who knows the right code.

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There’s just something magical about having suspended ceiling lights arranged like constellations. We just love how these lights look. Hopefully, by looking at these, you’ll find some new ways of arranging your own lights.

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If you thought that HDTVs were meant for just watching stuff, you’d be surprised to learn that soon, you’ll be able to access a gamut of online apps via your HDTV set.

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When we first saw this “limited” edition Sony VAIO laptop, we were a bit dumbfounded. The back is simply gorgeous to look at since it blends fashion and astronomy quite well. This product update makes the FW series VAIO quite desirable in our opinion.

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It’s hard to describe what you feel when you look at this. Would you believe that it’s actually a radiator? Carlo Martino totally changed what we’d expect from a radiator, by making it incredibly beautiful and functional at the same time.

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I found this article pretty interesting, since each child makes up different names for the LEGO bricks. The nomenclature differs from family to family.

V log via Wikipedia

I really enjoyed the original series. It was something quite astounding to watch. I didn’t really get much at the time nor did I watch it really, I just knew of it. I watched it a few times when I was older, when I got the DVD sets. The episodes were a standard science-fiction affair, but the concept was really good.

V tells the story of visitors from outer space coming to Earth to trade with humans. Strangely enough, they look human. In the original series, it took a while to find this out, as they were always wearing helmets for a while. It also took a while to discover that the Visitors aren’t really human. We discover this in the first episode of the new series. The Visitors have got a plan to take over Earth, only the people are too dumbfounded to react. They are in awe of the technology and the trades that the Visitors promise

Warning: spoilers ahead

* * * * *

I was pleasantly surprised by this show. I wasn’t expecting much, as the concept of the V show would have been easy to miss. For now, it’s nowhere near as good as Battlestar Galactica, but I’m expecting that the next few episodes will help flesh out the story.

The actors are good, so expect something better than Stargate Universe. The fact that they are using an ensemble cast makes parts of the story difficult to follow. For one thing, the skip in time is confusing. Well, not that much, but it would make a lot more sense if you watch more than one episode at a time.

We will see 4 episodes of V in November. The rest will be broadcasted in the spring. The 1st season has 13 episodes. All in all, I liked the pilot. I’m looking forward to more episodes.

* * * * *

Our story starts on a Tuesday at 6:30AM. An FBI agent gets woken up by a rumbling. She notices that her teenage son is missing. He’s at a clinic. He got into a fight. Everyone notices the shaking. The spaceships are arriving. The shaking gets even worse. Gigantic spaceships loom over all over the world

Churches are filled. Father Jack is making a controversial speech. The Church wants the Visitors to be considered as a godsend. Erica talks with her son Tyler. He’s tagging Vs all over the city. He was caught by the school. They sent her an online video link. It looks like some time has passed. The Visitors send a rep to a reporter. They want him to interview Anna.

Erica is at work. They are investigating some missing terrorists. Some guy named Owen went to a meeting for a sleeper cell.

Ryan is refusing to join up with some resistance fighters, at least, in their embryonic form. They look like soldiers. An injured man gives Father Jack a message to pass onto a sleeper cell. Hannah tells the reporter Decker that he can’t ask any questions that would paint them in a negative light.

Erica decides to go to the meeting, with her partner waiting outside for backup. At the meeting, the guy who tried to recruit Ryan is cutting into the back of their ears. They cut out a V in order to confirm that there is skull bone. He says that the Visitors have been on the planet for years. They have integrated cloned human flesh into their reptilian bodies. She is convinced when she sees photos that Father Jack brought. One of her terror suspects is pictured there. They haven’t been able to find him. He’s part of a Visitor sleeper cell. Erica discovers that the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments and businesses, and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the planet.

Meanwhile, Anna is spouting BS and propaganda on TV. Tyler is going to join the Visitor’s Peace Ambassador program. He fakes Erica’s signature and leaves.

An assassination drone arrives and starts its work. The Visitors attack. The resistance fighters have to fight. Erica’s partner is part of this. Brian is there and helps out. She is able to incapacitate him and sees his insides. We see green reptilian skin. She kills him.

Ryan shows George that he is a Visitor. Decker is told that he has been chosen by Anna to be her go-to interviewer.

We go back to when the Visitors arrived. Erica finds Tyler. Something is happening to the spaceships. The bottom surface of the spaceships turns into a screen. Anna talks with the people of Earth. It’s Wednesday 9AM.

Erica says that one of the cells that they were watching went into overdrive activity after the Vs arrived. All of the other cells went quiet.

The press is pretty hard on the Vs, saying that it’s impossible for them to look like humans. Decker is able to diffuse the situation. Anna decides that she wants him as a rep.

3 weeks later, the Visitors have opened healing centers. Erica traced the explosives that the sleeper cell is trying to get. They find an underground HQ and their explosives. They also find a body and fake passports. They cleared out like they new that the feds were coming.

Ty and his buddy go up to the mothership. They meet a hottie Visitor named Lisa. The inside is like a city. Lisa tells them about the peace ambassador program. She has been assigned to the NY chapter.

* * * * *

Relevant Links and Posts

• V 2009 Wikipedia page
• Stargate Universe
• Sanctuary
• Battlestar Galactica

Battery-based USB chargers are pretty cheap, but it’s always cheaper and more fun to make your own. The basic concept is a battery that powers a USB port so that you can juice up your gadgets.

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Everyone knows that using a programmable thermostat is a must if you heat during winters. The trouble is that most people don’t know how to program them or they just don’t do it. Most of the costs of these thermostats is offset within a year, making them ideal to save some money this winter.

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I came across this term while catching up on my 3QD posts. Klepto capitalism makes a lot of sense and it describes corporate America very well. How can a company pay its workers $50,000 per annum and give its top execs millions, if not billions, of dollars each year? I think that the worst culprits are in the financial sector, especially in merchant banks and investment banks, with their bloated end-of-year bonuses often going into millions. Even with the economic downturn, these ultra-rich are getting richer.

Klepto Capitalism (n.) — an economic system where publicly traded corporations are run not to produce value for shareholders but to provide obscene amounts of wealth for CEOs and top executives.

What we have in the United States is no longer capitalism but klepto-capitalism: a system where publicly traded corporations are run not to produce value for shareholders but to provide loot for a new class of corporate mega-thieves.

★

After getting the term trollumnist out there, I came upon this article over at 3QD which clearly points out a few examples of trollumnists. Unlike the original article which coined the term trollunist, these aren’t Australian examples, but really good American ones.

The first example of a trollumnist is is none other than Betsy McCaughey, who’s infamous for coining death panels and being the architect behind the idea.

Betsy McCaughey – architect of the widely rumored “death panels” idea – that Obama’s health care proposals would create government sponsored draconian consultations imposing conditions upon both patients in end-of-life circumstances and doctors treating said patients to decide which patients were worthy of living.

Here is where the trolluminsm comes in:

James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly described her role in the healthcare debate as: “She has brought more misinformation, more often, more destructively into America’s consideration of health-policy issues than any other individual. She has no concept of “truth” or “accuracy” in the normal senses of those terms, as demonstrated when she went on The Daily Show¹. Betsy resigned from the board of directors of Cantel Medical Corporation the next day.

Bill Kristol is another fine example of a trollumnist.

But Jon manages to rise past the agendas of his guests – conservatives and liberals alike – in the most ingratiating manner. When he peppered Bill Kristol – editor of Weekly Standard, a right-wing opponent of health care reform that includes a public insurance option – he even managed to steer him into complimenting government run health-care².

★

There is just something about simple and efficient solutions to problems. For example, it’s really hard to go without a USB card reader. These small devices are used to read the cards from your cameras and other devices. Luckily, some of the newer computers and laptops have them built-in, but for those of us who don’t, this card reader is nifty.

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It’s really easy to amass clutter underneath your desk. Even if you’ve got some cable management, if you aren’t vigilant, the dreaded cable squid will make its appearance. Once it’s here, it’s here to stay, unless you are ready to really get a clean sweep.

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I’ve never come across the term trollumnist, but it’s pretty self-evident that there are quite a few trollumnists out there. So what is a trollumnist?

{Note, the word has been added to the Urban Dictionary}

Trollumnist (n.) — A writer or blogger who “trolls” in a multichannel, multimedia environment, trying to bait readers into a reaction that editors want to generate. Comes from the term trolling or the noun trolls.

Here is what trolling is all about:

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

★

Here is where the term first came to my attention:

As the newspaper business model heads south, though, we’ve been subjected to the rise of what we might christen the “trollumnist” — the writer who simply “trolls” in a multichannel, multimedia environment. And the erstwhile self-identification of papers like the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian as quality outlets matters little in the attention economy: on the internet, no one knows you’re a broadsheet. Whereas a true columnist might make controversial arguments or challenge common sense, trollumnists merely provoke outrage in order to sell papers, draw links and capture increasingly scarce reader attention. The beauty of it all is that it doesn’t take much training to do it, and as media content goes, it’s cheap as chips. Any fool can offend people given a reasonably prominent platform.

★

{via david reid}

Aerial view of NSA HQ at Fort Meade, via NSA

The NSA is building two new storage facilities to house yottabytes of data. One in Utah and one in Texas. The scale is staggering. There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. A yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000 GB¹.

This data is mostly pocket litter: trillions of phone calls, email messages, web searches, parking receipts, bookstore visits, and other data trails.

The issue is critical because at the NSA, electrical power is political power. In its top-secret world, the coin of the realm is the kilowatt. More electrical power ensures bigger data centers.

Does this scare you? As for myself, no. As a mathematician, I’ve often fantasized working at the NSA. From the article, it seems like they don’t have enough supercomputing power to deal with the vasts amounts of data that they are harnessing and storing.

I like the term infoweapons used in this article. Infoweapons are supercomputers running complex algorithmic programs.

On a remote edge of Utah’s dry and arid high desert, where temperatures often zoom past 100 degrees, hard-hatted construction workers with top-secret clearances are preparing to build what may become America’s equivalent of Jorge Luis Borges’s “Library of Babel,” a place where the collection of information is both infinite and at the same time monstrous, where the entire world’s knowledge is stored, but not a single word is understood. At a million square feet, the mammoth $2 billion structure will be one-third larger than the US Capitol and will use the same amount of energy as every house in Salt Lake City combined.

Unlike Borges’s “labyrinth of letters,” this library expects few visitors. It’s being built by the ultra-secret National Security Agency—which is primarily responsible for “signals intelligence,” the collection and analysis of various forms of communication—to house trillions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and data trails: Web searches, parking receipts, bookstore visits, and other digital “pocket litter.” Lacking adequate space and power at its city-sized Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is also completing work on another data archive, this one in San Antonio, Texas, which will be nearly the size of the Alamodome.

Just how much information will be stored in these windowless cybertemples? A clue comes from a recent report prepared by the MITRE Corporation, a Pentagon think tank. “As the sensors associated with the various surveillance missions improve,” says the report, referring to a variety of technical collection methods, “the data volumes are increasing with a projection that sensor data volume could potentially increase to the level of Yottabytes (10²⁴ Bytes) by 2015.”^[1] Roughly equal to about a septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text, numbers beyond Yottabytes haven’t yet been named. Once vacuumed up and stored in these near-infinite “libraries,” the data are then analyzed by powerful infoweapons, supercomputers running complex algorithmic programs, to determine who among us may be—or may one day become—a terrorist. In the NSA’s world of automated surveillance on steroids, every bit has a history and every keystroke tells a story.

★

Toroid, via Wikivisual

I

It’s strange that I was actually researching paracompact topological spaces on Sunday and that we are seeing those types of spaces in my complex analysis class. We just started the Berenstein & Gay Complex Variables¹ book and things are pretty interesting. I actually deduced that we were heading there because of some of the concepts that we are seeing.

A paracompact space is a topological space in which every open cover admits an open locally finite refinement.

★

II

I spent some time this weekend working on Riemann surfaces, meromorphic functions, as well as étale spaces and sheaf cohomology. I’m getting the basics down. I’m still really interested in category theory, differentiable manifolds, as well as complex and conformal manifolds. Germs, sheaves, presheaves and stalks are really quite interesting. I need to work more at my classes and at my own research. For now, the research is just about learning new concepts. Strangely enough, a lot of what I’m researching ties into my complex analysis class¹.

This week, I want to formalize two research assistanships. They will most likely be in PDEs and Optimization. Although these subjects interest me less, I’m keen to get my name in academic papers. This would be the way to go. There is a chance that one might be in differential geometry, which would really be cool.

I’ll also have to start preparing my candidacy for more prestigious research assistanships, one which is due for January ‘10. I want to nail that one. I guess that this is the way that research starts, by being curious about certain topics, investigating them yourself and finding out what has been published about them.

I only spent about 4 hours on research today. I need to make more of an effort during the week. It’s easy to see that when I’m most relaxed, that’s when my curiosity and interest really starts up. Anyway, I need to finish my real analysis exercises. I’ve still got 35 to finish. I’ve also got 15 modern algebra problems to complete. Since Friday, I’m more relaxed, so I have no doubt that I’ll be ready in time. I also need to start reviewing theorems and definitions for the real analysis midterm next week. In modern algebra, we will be doing a take-home exam. I think we’ll have a week to finish it.

My basic tool for now is my academic journal. It’s a A91 Blueline 200p hardcover notebook²
that does the job pretty well. It’s lined, compared to the Moleskines I use for class notes, and the notes follow the same pattern I’ve established with my other ones. I rely on a color-coded system for definitions, theorems, and properties.While I’m researching topics, I get very focused. So it’s a good idea to review what has been done and to take some extra notes on what to study next.

III

I need to do some needed maintenance on my computer. Some of the HDs that broke down over the last few years must still be on warranty. I should send them back. Most of my HDs are from Western Digital, because of their reliability and their exemplar customer service. Warranties on HDs last 3 years.

The other thing that I need to do is to format my main drive so that I can install Win 7. I’ve been wanting to do that for a few months now. The thing is that I need to buy another HD to migrate the data to. My main data drive broke down in June, about a week before I came back to Taiwan.

As I mentioned before, I’ll get the equivalent of a 2011 iMac as well as a MBP before I leave. I plan on toughing things out with my desktop and ASUS WFM laptop for now. One thing is for sure, I want to boost the laptop to max specs. It also needs to be serviced. It runs very hot and I noticed that it shuts down after about 10 minutes on the highest screen brightness. I have to keep it on a lower setting, which is annoying.

I’m hoping by that time that there will be a 30″ or 35″ iMac. This is a perfect all-in-one solution. I don’t do games so I don’t need a PC all that much. The price of the iMac is about the same as a big monitor. The Apple Cinema display, which is 30″, costs about $1,800. For almost the same price, you get a 27″ screen, with an integrated computer. It makes a lot of sense and it’s somewhat portable, so I’ll be able to bring it back to North America. Sure, 1TB isn’t enough storage, but I’ll probably get myself an external USB drive array, something around 4-8TB should to the job. Something like a Drobo filled with 2TB WD drives should do the job.  The good thing about Drobo is that you can start with say 2×2TB, which wouldn’t cost that much. Probably $300 in HDs plus another $300 for the Drobo. It would probably be smart and start this ASAP, as I need more HDs, but don’t want to install them into my computer.

* * * * *

[¹]: Berenstein & Gay, Complex Variables, 1991, Springer Verlag, GTM Vol 125.
[²]: I’ve decided to use this instead of getting another notebook. Only three pages were used, and this dates back to January ‘08.

Bruno Dayan's photography, NSFW

{via designyoutrust}

SG°U title card, via Wikipedia

I’ve never been a Stargate fan. I’ve tried watching SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, but never really found them compelling enough. I actually like the original movie with Kurt Russell, but the series never really interested me that much. One of my friends recently bought all of the seasons cheaply. I thought about watching them, but ran out of time. Scalzi is a creative consultant on this series and it looks pretty interesting, so I’ve decided to give it a go.

Now, before any bitching and hating starts― too late, it’s already started, I haven’t bothered to read, review, or watch any of the Stargate series, and I’m not going to. I’ve watched a couple of episodes and didn’t continue. I tried Stargate Atlantis, but didn’t like it. My friend told me that starting season 4, SG-1 was really good. I can’t really comment on that as I stopped watching the series after a few episodes.

Basically, I’m a new viewer of Stargate, but I’m not a science-fiction novice. It puts me in an interesting spot about reviewing this show. My point of view is from someone who hasn’t watched any of the SG shows, so this review and recap should be interesting to those of you who haven’t watched SG before. For the others, leave some comments and start a discussion.

Is the show good or bad? Read on to find out more.

Warning: spoilers ahead

* * * * *

Compared to the two-episode premiere, Air Part 3 was definitely better. Eli is becoming a leader, a role that he seems to be taking quite seriously. There were some beautiful desert scenes and beautiful helicopter shots. I liked how the crew is starting to bond. Scott, Greer and Eli have developed a good partnership, as well as intrinsic trust.

Could have done without the “oh my daddy/husband is dead” part. I hope this isn’t a recurring theme in this show. Otherwise, it was good.

Once again, there is an annoying part in the 6th episode. I’m getting a bit annoyed at the overall theme of these episodes, which is going nowhere quickly. Instead of discovering things about the Destiny or learning stuff about other galaxies, as the Destiny is currently flying through one of countless other galaxies it has visited, the crew seem like beggars. They don’t have any power, they don’t have any food, they don’t have any air.

The Destiny been flying around for hundreds of thousands of years. You’d expect that a ship that still had propulsion would have a lot more systems operational, but no. The crew is having a rough time. I understand that these themes should have been addressed in a few episodes, but we’re already in episode 6 and nothing has really happened.

Once again, I could have done without the “Scott falling in a crevasse” part of the show. It was extremely annoying. We knew that he wouldn’t die. Also Scott kept asking the Colonel how many times he had done the things that he was doing. It wasn’t funny. Eli was getting on my nerves in this episode. As much as he was appearing to be a leader in the other episodes, he was just being an annoying git.

Anyway, I hope that the next episodes are better than this one. Now that they have almost 40% power, they still haven’t explained why they can’t dial Earth. I mean, they should be able to, right? Rush and Young have an argument about this. Rush says that they don’t have enough power. It’s a bit of a lame argument. A Stargate fanboy (deleted your comment!) says that 40% power isn’t enough to dial Earth, but we all know that Rush just doesn’t want to dial Earth. Seriously, 40% not enough? That doesn’t make much sense. How much is enough?

The argument is moot and that is unexplained. Maybe they should just mention that the last chevron can’t be dialed for some reason or the other instead of just leaving it like this.

* * * * *

The Colonel wants to dial Earth, but Rush tells him that it isn’t possible. There are apparently 40,000 liters missing. The Colonel wants Eli to spy for him on the crew. There is a dust creature on board, kind of like the ones that helped them out on that desert planet. The Destiny comes out of FTL and they are in range of a planet. It’s an ice planet, but that doesn’t matter. Ice is water.

The Colonel tries gets Scott, but he’s got his radio off. He’s making out with Chloe again. The Colonel and Scott will go to the planet. That’s stupid. They’ve got 8 hours of air. They also only have two spacesuits. Eli has got an idea. The ice near the gate is poisoned by ammonia and other toxins.

There is a strange tremor on the planet. Eli has used a bunch of Kinos to make a flying plank to transport ice.

The water levels are still dropping. No one has been in there. They still haven’t found any salvageable ice. TJ sees swirling dust behind her. The swirling dust makes a face. Greer calls her. Greer found that Spencer has been smuggling food. They lock him up.

Young has found a frozen waterfall. It contains pure water. TJ tells Rush and Eli about what she saw. Eli makes fun of her. TJ thinks that it might be the same ones that Scott saw on the desert planet. It seems like they were trying to communicate with them. Gorman comes across the swirling dust and starts shooting at it. It retaliates by slicing him open.

Eli decides to inform the Colonel about the aliens, against Rush’s wishes. Rush manages to calm him down. Rush is pissed at him and wants him to stop acting like a child.

The aliens are consuming the water and multiplying exponentially. Greer is sent out to find them. He’s got a home made flamethrower. Scott falls down a crevasse. There are more tremors. Scott’s suit is losing pressure. He’s got about an hour. Another tremor shakes Scott loose. The Colonel is able to get him out.

Greer captures some of the swarm. They stop the vents and the swarm is getting pissed off. A few of them got out. TJ goes down to deal with the situation herself. She has Greer withdraw. She’s going to give them some water to calm them down. She wants a clear path to the gate. They capture the aliens. They throw them through the gate. The aliens see that Scott is unconscious and make another face at him. They get through in time. He’s alive and breathing.

The Destiny winks back into FTL. Gorman is dead.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts

• Stargate Universe S01E01-E02
• Stargate Universe S01E03
• Stargate Universe S01E04
• Stargate Universe S01E05

Sanctuary title card, via Wikipedia

I have to say that the season premiere of Sanctuary impressed me quite a bit. From on online show, Sanctuary has developed a lot. The show has a lot more money poured into it. Plus, the story is just getting interesting, with Magnus and her acolytes fighting the Cabal.

The premiere impressed me enough to want to write something up for it. I watched all of last season while it was being aired, and I really enjoyed where the end of the season was heading. The Sanctuary is a place where all abnormals can go to seek Sanctuary from the modern world. Abnormals come in all different types, from vampires to Yeti. I know that it sounds a bit stupid, but the show matured well into its new TV format, especially towards the end of last season.

This season is no different. Well, actually it is, but things just keep getting better. We’ve got a dark conspiracy, a kidnapped daughter that’s been brainwashed, and the Sanctuary team trying to right wrongs.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

* * * * *

This was one of the best Sanctuary episodes yet. I liked how Kate becomes part of the Sanctuary team. It’s also interesting to see a few more soldiers to help out with missions. The story itself was also pretty good. Sanctuary is becoming a really great show.

* * * * *

A superhero is in town and he defends some guy from guys on motorcycles. Will and another guy are pursuing someone and the superhero interfered. The guy they were chasing is an empathy trying to set himself free from the mob. The other guy with Will is the new addition to the team.

Will and Magnus go to a construction site. Someone found the remains of a hatched egg. The foreman says that the 1^st guy on scene isn’t here. He left. They find him and Will and Deckland go check it out. They find evidence of him chowing down on cats.

Henry is showing Kate around the abnormals. She gets a call from a friend who wants to see her. Henry has uncovered more evidence of the superhero. They get to him using a police scanner. When the Adjustor gets antsy, Will sedates him with a shot.

The hero is human and has no abnormal DNA. Will talks with Walter.

Kate is meeting her brother. He needs a favor. He owes a lot of money to Constantine. Kate delivers something to Constantine. It’s the steno tusks. He doesn’t want her money. He wants her to supply him with abnormals. She refuses and walks away.

Magnus has traced the type of abnormal that they are facing. It’s got a high-pitched shriek. They could use that to trace it. They tap into the city’s net.

The superhero is free. He broke through the Sanctuary.

Deckland and his team have found Joe’s remains. They also found the creature. It’s pretty big and insect-like. It escapes. Will comes to the scene to help out. Will’s intuition is correct. The creature is cocooning to change into its next shape.

Walter corrupted the data of the scan. They find out that Walter’s suit is made out of bugs, a sort of collective. They are the abnormals. He falls to the ground after trying to fly off. He gets back to the Sanctuary. They tell him that the suit is a parasite feeding on him. He says that he can’t take the suit off. It’s stuck. He fell in a hole on a company retreat 8 days ago. Something slipped on him. He hasn’t been able to take off the suit since. They try to take it off and fail. Magnus comes up with a way of killing the suit, but she doesn’t like it. Walter doesn’t want to kill the suit.

Kate gives her brother a punch in the stomach and 50 Canadian dollars. Constantine kidnaps him so that Kate complies. She agrees to get a lizard for Constantine in exchange for her brother and the Steno tusks.

Magnus and her team have found the creature. It’s gotten even bigger and the stunners aren’t working. She notifies Henry, who’s with Walter. Walter jumps at the opportunity to go after the creature and save lives. He arrives and starts battling it out with the creature.

Kate takes her brother and Constantine into the Sanctuary. Kate has no plans of helping them out. She drops Constantine in a tank. She lets his goon go to spread the word that Kate isn’t for sale.

With Walter’s help, they are able to capture it. Back at the Sanctuary, they are about to inject him with the toxin. The suit flows off him. Walter says that he wished it off.

Magnus has a talk with Kate. She says that she is having Kate’s stuff moved into more permanent quarters. Kate is surprised. She knows that Magnus knows. It’s a great scene and a good move.

A few months later, Walter has written a comic book about his experience with the suit.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts

• Sanctuary S02E01
• Sanctuary S02E02
• Sanctuary S02E03

The New Yorker's Halloween themed cover

Chris Ware created this great cover for The New Yorker. It is thought-provoking. It’s part of a comic strip, but like others mentioned, I think that the impact is more significant by itself, though the comic is really interesting as well.

Castle title card via Wikipedia

I’ve been a Nathan Fillion fan for quite a while. Ever since Firefly, I was really impressed by his acting. Since he is starring in a new series which premiered last Monday, I took it upon myself to watch it weekly.

Anyway, what do I like about Castle? Well it stars an obnoxious, womanizing novelist. Detective Kate Beckett is a closet hottie, played by Stana Katic. Her hotness is kind of hard to explain. The actress is quite hot, but in Castle, she toned it down. She doesn’t wear much makeup and favours a natural look, kind of like “Oh I’m hot, but I could be the girl next door, BTW, FYI, I’m still smoking hot.” That’s how I described her in my mind. She’s kind of got the ex-catwalk model look going for her, which is quite good.

So that’s a good point. Plus she’s Canadian and a good actress. That’s always a good combination. Molly C. Quinn plays Alexis, Rick Castle’s 15-year old daughter. I don’t really know how old she is, but she’s a striking looking young lady. She reminds me of my wife, who’s a redhead as well. So I have a bit of a weakness for them.

Warning: spoilers ahead

The show centers around a novelist who is brought in to help deal with a string of murders which seem to be taken from the pages of his novels. At the same time, Castle has hit massive writer’s block after killing off the hero of his mystery book franchise, Derek Storm. Through Beckett, he is able to write once again.

Halfway between a drama and a romantic comedy, Castle is a fun show to watch. The characters play around a lot, making the viewer wonder when or if they will ever get together. It didn’t take Castle long to find out what makes Beckett tick. He uses clues and his imagination deftly.

ABC has started to release chapters of Richard Castle’s new book Heat Wave on its website. They are up to chapter 8 and I haven’t started yet, but it’s a pretty cool tie-in to the show.

* * * * *

It’s Halloween and things are going to get crazy. A vampire gets staked. The vampire, Crow, was haunted by the image of a woman. This leads them to investigate an old murder, which is tied to the new one.

* * * * *

Nathan Fillion is dressing up as a space cowboy. There is some nice inside jokes for those of us who like Firefly. He gets a call. Beckett says that Halloween is the worst time for cops. The vic was staked. He also has fangs. He’s got bite marks on his thighs. The fangs are ceramic veneers.

The doc at Phantasmagoria knows the vic. Castle knows the shop. He buys his costumes there. The vic’s name is Crow. They go to Matthew Freeman’s apartment. He was quite and shy. His landlady thought the vampire thing was weird, but not that much. He had a blowout with a girl. They find her. Her name is Mistress Vixen. She’s got a coven. They go to the coven’s next meeting. Vixen says that Matthew was one of her lovers. They were fighting because he was seeing someone else. He was seeing Damon. She says that the graphic novel killed them. They based the graphic novel on someone who is convinced that he’s a vampire. His name is Morgan Lockerby.

They find Matthew’s dad. They need to find Crow’s friend Damon. Beckett doesn’t like making death notices, but she calls him. They go meet his parents. They hadn’t seen him in months. He dropped out of his design school. He called a couple of days ago. He sounded upset.

The prints on the stake match Lockerby’s. The use Crow’s graphic novel to find Lockerby. He’s totally off grid. They find him when he attacks Castle. Lockerby’s skin starts burning in the sunlight. Laney says that he’s got porphyria, an extreme sensitivity to sunlight. They find India ink on the stake. This leads them to Damon once again. India ink is used to letter comics.

Alexis wants to go to a party with seniors. Castle lets her go. Doc Halloway says that the drawings that Crow made are more focused on the woman than Lockerby. Damon was shot. His place was tossed. He was a werewolf. It’s a Halloween costume. He was a graduate student in forensic anthropology. He was killed a couple of hours before Crow. Laney says that it couldn’t have been Morlock, because Damon was killed during the day. The woman in Crow’s drawings are from a body that was murdered a while ago. The research that Damon had in his hidden file had a reconstructed image of that woman. The trouble is that the research dates from 2 years ago. The sketches date from 4 years ago. Crow’s family says that her name was Adora. His sister says that she was his own personal ghost.

Alexis calls Castle. Page’s drink was spiked. Castle comes running. He has to call her parents. She’s drunk.

Esposito says that Damon called the state troopers for info on that dead woman. The forensics say that she was killed 18 years ago with a 9mm. The bullets are a match to the ones that killed Damon. One of the drawings in his portfolio are a match to the tree near the murder site. Beckett runs backgrounds checks on the Freemans. Alan’s original name was McGenty. His 1^st wife went missing 18 years ago. The woman was Crow’s real mother. Crow was killed in the cemetery where his mom was buried. Elizabeth Dryden. Crow brought his father here to confront him about the murder.

They question him. He married his nanny. It’s obvious that it’s not the father. It’s the nanny, or his current wife. Castle makes the leap and brings Mrs. Freeman to Morlock. He ID her. Beckett says that the nanny killed his wife to get the husband. She then killed Damon and Crow to cover up the evidence that they found.

Castle tells Beckett where his fascination with murders came from. He found a dead boy in the Hampton’s. He was his housekeeper’s son. He just punked her.

Page is angry with Alexis. She sabotaged their science project.

Becket punks Castle back at his Halloween party.

* * * * *

Relevant posts

• Castle S01E01
• Castle S01E02
• Castle S01E03
• Castle S01E04
• Castle S01E05
• Castle S02E01
• Castle S02E02
• Castle S02E03
• Castle S02E04
• Castle S02E05

Apparently, Mika will face her fear of heights. Teams are leaving with a locked briefcase to the marina. They face a roadblock. They must row their way to a yacht to meet the Sheik who will give them a watch. The time of the watch is the combination of the briefcase which holds their next clue. Teams must make their way to the Abra Station. Cheyne/Meghan are already gone when Brian/Ericka arrive. Sam/Dan want the BB players out. Brian is having trouble rowing. Ericka thinks that he’s so cute.

The BB players arrive at the wrong place. They also leave before the next team arrives. Teams face a Detour. In Gold, they must find a jewelry store to weigh out $500K in gold. In Glass, teams have to assemble a smoking pipe. Gary/Matt complete their Roadblock before the BB players arrive.

Meghan/Cheyne start assembling their pipe. Brian/Ericka arrive at the Detour. They do Gold. Dan/Sam arrive and also start paddling with their hands, imitating the BB players. Meghan gets flustered during their task. The BB players and Sam/Dan finish their roadblock. They have trouble with the combination. Sam/Dan open theirs pretty quickly. Tiffany rows to the yacht. Mika/Canaan arrive. Tiffany and Canaan complete the rowing part. The poker players leave.

Brian/Ericka have trouble with the weight of the gold.

Does a Muslim clock work different?
Clueless Mika

Mika says that she’s afraid of water too. What isn’t she afraid of? The BB players are still stuck. They are in last and open up the briefcase. Both Meghan/Cheyne and Brian/Ericka have trouble with their Detour. Brian/Ericka decide to change tasks. Meghan/Cheyne complete their Detour. They have to make their way to the Atlantis on the Palm Islands. They have to plunge down a gigantic water slide to get their next clue.

Brian/Ericka arrive. Sam/Dan arrive at their Roadblock. They decide to do Gold. The poker players do Gold. Mika/Canaan do Glass. Gary/Matt arrive at the Detour. Sam/Dan arrive at the jewelry shop. The poker players arrive. Maria borrow Sam/Dan’s calculator. They combine their forces. Sam/Dan and the poker players finish their Detour. They leave for the Palm Islands.

Meghan/Cheyne arrive at Atlantis. They have to slide. Meghan is scared of the sharks that are in a separated aquarium. The slide goes through the shark aquarium. Teams must search for Dolphin Bay beach. This is the pit stop for this leg of the race.

Meghan/Cheyne finish 1^st. They win a Sea Doo each. The BB players arrive at the Glass detour. Ericka is frustrated. They can’t assemble their hookahs. Matt’s about to pass out. He’s dehydrated. Mika isn’t feeling too well either.

I wish I were naked right now.
Mika

Brian finally figures it out and they leave for the Atlantis resort. The BB players decide to do Gold instead. The poker players go down the slide. Sam/Dan are behind them. The poker players finish 2^nd. Sam/Dan finish 3^rd.

The BB players ask to use the jewelers calculator and he happily obliges. Gary/Matt finish their Detour. Brian says that he is scared of heights and Ericka is scared of water. Brian makes Ericka go first. They finish 4^th. Mika/Canaan finish their Detour. They leave for Atlantis. Mika is scared of water and heights. It’s not looking good.

Gary/Matt finish 5^th. Canaan tries to make her get into the slide, but she’s freaking out like a 5 year old. He tries to throw her into the slide, but she won’t. She resists too much. After Canaan backs down, she finally gets into the position. Canaan says that he hates her. They have two minutes to go down the slide. The BB players finish their Detour. They arrive at Atlantis and start smack talking to Mika. She’s a train wreck and they BB players go down the slide. Canaan goes down the slide. The BB players try to find the pit stop. Mika doesn’t go down the slide and they finish last.

The BB players finish 6^th. Mika/Canaan are eliminated from the race.

* * * * *

Relevant Links

The Amazing Race S14 @ Wiki

* * * * *

Relevant Posts

• The Amazing Race S12E01
• The Amazing Race S12E11
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Zev/Justin arrived first and lost their passports. They were eliminated. The teams are still in Cambodia. They are leaving for the Persian Gulf. They must find the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai. The clue will be on the top of the building.

Ericka knows that it’s Dubai. The BB players figured it out from an internet café. All of the teams are at the same spot. Lance/Keri are still in an internet café. He’s got a strange notion of flights disappearing.

All teams are flying through Bangkok to Dubai. The poker players and Ericka/Brian are 1^st. Sam/Dan are also in the 1^st group. Mika/Canaan are getting frustrated. Cheyne/Meghan are in the 1^st group. The others are in team #2, fifteen minutes later.

Mika is freaking out. She’s afraid of heights. Teams must make their way to a parking garage and rive themselves into the desert. This is the only FF in the race. To complete it, they must find the Dubai autodrome. They will drive a racecar and complete a lap in 45 seconds or less. The second group of teams don’t think that they can get the FF.

Lance/Keri are lost again because of Lance. Lance is an ass. He doesn’t want Keri asking questions. Meghan/Cheyne arrive at the autodrome. All of the other teams are going into the desert. Sam/Dan, Ericka/Brian and the poker players are in the desert. They face a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, they have to Find Water. The water is stored in urns buried in the sand.

The BB players and Matt/Gary arrive. Tiffany finds an urn first. It’s empty. Brian also finds one. It’s empty. Brian finds some water.

Meghan is freaking out because she’s got no control over the situation. Cheyne is driving the racecar. She’s pathetic. Or just a control freak. Cheyne gets it in 40 seconds. They are in 1^st place. They get a ride in a Maserati to the pit stop.

Brian tells Tiffany and Sam/Dan where the water is. They leave for the city, to the Ski Dubai, a huge indoor ski resort. Matt/Gary caught up with the 1^st group. Brian tells Mika/Canaan where to go. He’s been strategically nice. Maria ran over something. She broke the radiator. That’s bad news. They have to wait a long time for another car. For some reason, Sam/Dan wait with them. That’s idiotic. This is a race. The BB players leave. Gary/Matt are gone.

Meghan/Cheyne arrive at the pit stop. They are 1^st. They win a trip for 2 to Jamaica. Lance/Keri arrive to do the roadblock. Mika/Canaan are still there. Gary/Matt arrive 1^st at Ski Dubai. Teams face a Detour. They have to either build a snowman or find a snowman. In build a snowman, they need to make a snowman outside. In find the snowman, they have to sled down a slope and find a tiny snowman hidden in mound of snow.

Canaan finishes first. They leave for Ski Dubai. Brian/Ericka arrive at the same time as the poker players and Sam/Dan. They all decide to do the find the snowman task. Lance is still trying to find water. Lance is very disrespectful. He breaks the urns and throws water all over the desert. They leave for Ski Dubai. Ericka/Brian find it first. They leave for the pit stop. The poker players and Matt/Gary build a snowman instead. The BB players arrive.

Lance is trying to blame Keri for his mistakes. Ericka/Brian finish 2^nd. Sam/Dan start building. The BB players immediately find a snowman. They tell Mika/Canaan to get their coats as they head into Ski Dubai.

Gary/Matt finish and leave for the pit stop. The BB players finish 3^rd. The poker players finish and leave for the pit stop and so do Sam/Dan. Gary/Matt finish 4^th. Mika/Canaan finish. Lance/Keri arrive. They build the snowman. Sam/Dan are 5^th. The poker players finish 6^th. Mika/Canaan finish 7^th.

Lance/Keri finish last. They are eliminated.

* * * * *

Relevant Links

The Amazing Race S14 @ Wiki

* * * * *

Relevant Posts

• The Amazing Race S12E01
• The Amazing Race S12E11
• The Amazing Race S13E11
• The Amazing Race S14E01
• The Amazing Race S14E02
• The Amazing Race S14E12
• The Amazing Race S15E01
• The Amazing Race S15E02
• The Amazing Race S15E03

Castle title card via Wikipedia

I’ve been a Nathan Fillion fan for quite a while. Ever since Firefly, I was really impressed by his acting. Since he is starring in a new series which premiered last Monday, I took it upon myself to watch it weekly.

Anyway, what do I like about Castle? Well it stars an obnoxious, womanizing novelist. Detective Kate Beckett is a closet hottie, played by Stana Katic. Her hotness is kind of hard to explain. The actress is quite hot, but in Castle, she toned it down. She doesn’t wear much makeup and favours a natural look, kind of like “Oh I’m hot, but I could be the girl next door, BTW, FYI, I’m still smoking hot.” That’s how I described her in my mind. She’s kind of got the ex-catwalk model look going for her, which is quite good.

So that’s a good point. Plus she’s Canadian and a good actress. That’s always a good combination. Molly C. Quinn plays Alexis, Rick Castle’s 15-year old daughter. I don’t really know how old she is, but she’s a striking looking young lady. She reminds me of my wife, who’s a redhead as well. So I have a bit of a weakness for them.

Warning: spoilers ahead

The show centers around a novelist who is brought in to help deal with a string of murders which seem to be taken from the pages of his novels. At the same time, Castle has hit massive writer’s block after killing off the hero of his mystery book franchise, Derek Storm. Through Beckett, he is able to write once again.

Halfway between a drama and a romantic comedy, Castle is a fun show to watch. The characters play around a lot, making the viewer wonder when or if they will ever get together. It didn’t take Castle long to find out what makes Beckett tick. He uses clues and his imagination deftly.

ABC has started to release chapters of Richard Castle’s new book Heat Wave on its website. They are up to chapter 8 and I haven’t started yet, but it’s a pretty cool tie-in to the show.

* * * * *

A recent Eastern European immigrant was found dead. They are able to trace her ID and this leads them to a strange case that involves a doctor and a child. Castle’s new novel is doing extremely well. An initial offer to do some James Bond books lead to an even bigger one to do more Nikki Heat novels.

* * * * *

Castle’s book agent shows up at his house early in the morning. She’s got some big news. She says that they want him to write three new James Bond books. Beckett calls. Castle doesn’t answer in time. They found a body in side a manhole. She was killed by a BFT. Castle arrives. She’s a Jane Doe. She’s an Eastern European immigrant. They trace this through her dental work. A note was found on her body. It was covered in Polish letters and from a candy wrapper.

The owner recognized the photo. They trace her home. Her name is Aliska Sokol. The super shows them the apartment. The vic hated someone. They find a photo with a woman’s face scratched out.

Martha mentions that if he gets that Bond book deal, he’ll be out of Beckett’s hair since he’ll have to postpone writing another Nikki Heat novel. Martha says that Beckett probably did fine without him. This kind of disturbs Castle. When he arrives at the precinct, Beckett, Ryan and Esposito have already done all of the legwork from the photo they found. They found the park in which it was taken and they are trying to find the woman. Castle’s suggestions are irrelevant. He feels superfluous.

They trace the woman to a building. The building manager says that Aliska worked here in client services. Aliska was fired because of an incident with Mrs. Talbot. The Talbots say that Aliska gave Zane a lollipop. She seemed overly familiar with Zane. Mrs. Talbot mentioned this to the manager, and she didn’t know that she was fired until now.

I think that Zane might be Aliska’s child. Esposito used to be married to Hyek, an abusive ex-husband. He does a runner. They catch him. He ran because his visa expired years ago. They tell her that Aliska is dead. He doesn’t have an alibi. The domestic disturbance was because she wanted to leave him. He didn’t want him to go. He reminded her of their son. He died 3 years ago. He shows them a picture of his family.

The ex-husband’s alibi checks out. The neighbors say that they saw him go to bed. They go back to the building for another canvas. A neighbor saw her arguing with her. The sketch is of Talbot. He says that he was having an affair with Aliska. They met when she was working at a hospital. He tried breaking if off with her, but she wouldn’t. She started getting familiar with Zane, as if she was getting ready to become part of his family. It just got too much. It was a relief when she was fired. Zane and Mrs. Talbot arrive. He’s got an alibi. Someone filed a complaint against Aliska.

Ryan and Esposito go to Heat Wave’s launch. Beckett arrives. The captain is there as well. He says that Castle will be happy to see her. Debra tells him that he got an official offer from the Bond people. The dedication was to Kate Beckett and his friends at the 12^th precinct. They get into a little tiff over Nikki Heat and James Bond. Can someone say sexual tension? The next day, they are still at it. Aliska was seen hanging around a park and talking to a kid. Someone paid her rent after she was dead. A friend picks up her mail every day. It’s Melissa Talbot. They stake out the place and find her going for the mail. It’s not Talbot, it’s the nurse from Talbot’s medical practice. Talbot wanted her to get the checks that he sent Aliska. She recants Talbot’s alibi. He left at 6PM. This means that he could have killed her.

The woman that filed a complaint had a baby at the same time as Aliska. They get the Talbots to the precinct. Aliska swabbed Zane’s mouth. Aliska sent two swabs to a lab in New Jersey. Talbot says that he is sorry. He says that their baby was sick so he switched it for another. Talbot killed Aliska. Zane wasn’t Talbot’s child, he was Aliska’s.

Hayek meets Melissa. He wants to be a part of Zane’s life and Talbot is letting him. This is really messed up. Talbot wants to know about her son who died. He gives her the photo.

Beckett thanks him for his help. They shake hands. Their phones start ringing. Heat Wave is selling novels. He gets a big offer to do three more Nikki Heat novels. Debra already spoke to the mayor. This deal is going through.

* * * * *

Relevant posts

• Castle S01E01
• Castle S01E02
• Castle S01E03
• Castle S01E04
• Castle S01E05
• Castle S02E01
• Castle S02E02
• Castle S02E03
• Castle S02E04

Castle title card via Wikipedia

I’ve been a Nathan Fillion fan for quite a while. Ever since Firefly, I was really impressed by his acting. Since he is starring in a new series which premiered last Monday, I took it upon myself to watch it weekly.

Anyway, what do I like about Castle? Well it stars an obnoxious, womanizing novelist. Detective Kate Beckett is a closet hottie, played by Stana Katic. Her hotness is kind of hard to explain. The actress is quite hot, but in Castle, she toned it down. She doesn’t wear much makeup and favours a natural look, kind of like “Oh I’m hot, but I could be the girl next door, BTW, FYI, I’m still smoking hot.” That’s how I described her in my mind. She’s kind of got the ex-catwalk model look going for her, which is quite good.

So that’s a good point. Plus she’s Canadian and a good actress. That’s always a good combination. Molly C. Quinn plays Alexis, Rick Castle’s 15-year old daughter. I don’t really know how old she is, but she’s a striking looking young lady. She reminds me of my wife, who’s a redhead as well. So I have a bit of a weakness for them.

Warning: spoilers ahead

The show centers around a novelist who is brought in to help deal with a string of murders which seem to be taken from the pages of his novels. At the same time, Castle has hit massive writer’s block after killing off the hero of his mystery book franchise, Derek Storm. Through Beckett, he is able to write once again.

Halfway between a drama and a romantic comedy, Castle is a fun show to watch. The characters play around a lot, making the viewer wonder when or if they will ever get together. It didn’t take Castle long to find out what makes Beckett tick. He uses clues and his imagination deftly.

ABC has started to release chapters of Richard Castle’s new book Heat Wave on its website. They are up to chapter 8 and I haven’t started yet, but it’s a pretty cool tie-in to the show.

* * * * *

A con man was found dead in his apartment. Strangely enough, he’s been pretending to be an arctic explorer. This wasn’t the only con he was running. He was running more than on at a time. This was another good episode of Castle.

* * * * *

A grade school class is getting a weekly interview with a polar explorer. Someone is behind him. He gets shot. He was faking the whole thing.

Alexis is getting some private lessons from a hot young male model. Castle isn’t happy. Beckett calls him. The guy was in an apartment. In the background, they see something from the Upper West Side.

The teacher Mr. Wheeler tells them that Fletcher pitched the idea to the school board. The school funded the expedition. With the help of other schools, they raised $50K. They’ve ID the building. They find a few passports with different names. He must have been conning different people.

Beckett hasn’t read the book yet. Or at least this is what she tells Castle. Fletcher conned Patty Schultz out of her life savings a year ago. She was committed quite a few times. They get her to the station. She says that she killed with her mind. Steven made her feel safe, even though she is quite the paranoid. That’s quite a feat.

One of Fletcher’s aliases was engaged to Elise Finnegan. She’s worth 100 million. The Finnegans didn’t suspect anything. There is no match on Fletcher’s fingerprints. Fletcher was the overachieving con-man. Beckett leaves because she has got some plans. Beckett has a bottle of wine, gets into the tub for a soak, and reads Heat Wave.

At home, Castle’s paranoia about Dylan, Alexis’ new teacher, doesn’t go over well. This gives Castle an idea. He tells Beckett that Jerry Finnegan might have gone a bit nutty if he discovered that Elise was marrying a con-man. He’s also got a new gun that matches the caliber of the murder weapon. Jerry hired a PI two weeks ago. He learned that Steven was a fraud. He confronted him. He agreed to a pre-nup. They get the photos. It turns out that Wheeler was in on the scam. They have photos of Fletcher and Wheeler meeting 10 days ago, when Fletcher was supposed to be in the arctic. Wheeler says that Fletcher had a partner. It’s Elise Finnegan. Elise says that Fletcher was a CIA spook and Wheeler was his partner. He was killed for his intelligence work.

They meet Agent Grey. He says that Fletcher wasn’t a spook. Alexis drops by the station. She is lived because Castle checked up on Dylan. Beckett offers a wee bit of sympathy when Alexis leaves.

They drop by the Finnegans. They are acting strange. Elise tells them that Fletch is alive. She left him a voicemail recently. They can’t confirm that the body in the morgue is Fletcher. 5 of his cards were used to book tickets. Beckett thinks that Fletcher is going to run away with Elise. They find that Elise has already gone. They find out Elise’s engagement brochure. Each of the guests were going to get one. It looks like the one that he gave to Wheeler. It was designed by Sue. She was the inside woman. The con is still on. Fletch is dead. He really was in love with Elise, so Sue took matters into her own hands. Mrs. Finnegan gives them the address of their bank.

At the bank, Elise just took out 1 million. She hands over the money to Sue, who tries to do a runner. The case is empty. Sue has been had.

Beckett has spent the episode conning Castle. It’s kind of funny to see. Castle apologizes to Alexis and they make up.

* * * * *

Relevant posts

• Castle S01E01
• Castle S01E02
• Castle S01E03
• Castle S01E04
• Castle S01E05
• Castle S02E01
• Castle S02E02
• Castle S02E03

Russell from Foa Foa prospered while Russell from Galu got taken out of the game due to dehydration and exhaustion. With him gone, there is no gender advantage at Galu. The boys decide to bring Shambo over to their side. Foa Foa is upbeat because Russell is gone. Galu still has a 8-5 advantage. The boys of Galu want to make Shambo as their chief. That’s stupid. It’s a quick process. Monica thought that it was stupid. She thinks that if there would have been a vote last night, she might have gone. But they were supposed to vote out Shambo. Dave thinks that Shambo is so stupid that she might screw something up. Luckily, she doesn’t know anything and they can’t tell her anything.

It’s time for the next challenge. Shambo says that she wasn’t shocked to be elected leader. There are 13 pairs of survival items. They need to uncover them and match them. The leader can decide to take the items. However, this will forfeit their point. The winning tribe will go on a sailboat. The losing tribe gets spied on by a member of the opposing tribe.

Laura gets the 1^st pt for Galu. Galu wins the 1^st match, but forfeits the pt in order to take home the fire starting kit that’s wrapped up in a tarp. Brett gets the next pt and they keep it. John matches for Galu and gets a pt. Laura gets a pt for Laura. Russell gets a pt for Foa Foa. It’s 6-3 for Galu. There are only 3 items left. Galu needs to match up one more item and they will win the challenge. Nat gets a pt for Foa Foa. Galu wins reward thanks to Monica. Shambo sends Laura over to Foa Foa. Mick thinks that they are cursed.

Laura says that she knew that Sham would send her. Shambo doesn’t like her. Russell says that he is a preacher’s son. Laura says that she studied theology and believes that women should be pastors, not men. Russell makes his usual play for Laura. He wants to have an alliance with her after the merge. He keeps working her. He tells her that Ben found the immunity idol and didn’t play it.

Galu arrives at the sailboat. The smart play would have been to send Monica, since she doesn’t help much during physical challenges and that she was on the way out. The sailboat is pretty awesome. It’s a traditional sailboat, kind of like a pirate ship or a trireme. They got beef stew, bread, and scones.

Laura tells Foa Foa that she rides a Harley with her husband. Liz isn’t interested in hearing Nat and Laura talk about spiritual books. This is happening while Liz is trying to start a fire. Russell thinks that Liz is being stupid. Nat is schmoozing Laura well.

It’s time for the next immunity challenge. Both tribes will paddle out to gather fish-shaped puzzle pieces. They will bring them back and assemble them. Shambo selects John, Monica, and Laura to sit out. Foa Foa is ahead because they were pushing their boat. Nat grabs the first piece. Dave gets Galu’s. Liz has one for Foa Foa. And another. Nat has the next set. Dave gets another. Liz gets the 5^th set for Foa Foa. Dave gets the 3^rd. Kelly has the 4^th. Liz gets the last one for Foa Foa. Kelly has the 5^th set for Galu and Dave gets the last one. Galu gets into the boat to paddle. Foa Foa is still pushing. Jaison is out of breath. The tribes are almost even. Liz starts working on the puzzle. Liz keeps shushing Jaison. Jeff says that there maybe gaps in the puzzle. Liz says that the fins are the pattern. Galu has got a rhythm going. Galu wins immunity in a commanding fashion. Russell didn’t like how Jaison gave up on the puzzle.

Russell talks with Mick about Jaison. Liz tells Jaison that something has to change. Liz wonders how they always lose their lead. Jaison is embarrassed. Russell mentions to Liz that Jaison going to go. Liz is thrilled.

At tribal, Jeff reminds them that they have lost 8 out of 10 challenges. Their performance is one of the worst in Survivor history. Liz says that she trusts her tribe 100%. It’s time to vote. Liz gets evicted by a 4-1 vote.

* * * * *

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There is always a use for a hot plate. Hot plates are old technology. The new types of portable cooking plate are using induction. Caso has just released a portable induction plate.

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We know that biometric security, which involves scanning fingerprints or retinas, is quite common in banks and the like, but what if you could simply unlock your front door with your face? It’s not like someone can easily duplicate that.

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Name: Andrew Flynn Location: Chandler, Arizona Size: Home office Years lived in:

When we saw Andrew Flynn’s amazing home office, we knew that we had to do a tech tour of his place. The great DIY features really set this home office apart from all of the rest. A faux-wall to hide cables and wires, a Mission Control center console to hide and store peripherals, and three floating monitors are what makes this home office quite ingenious.

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If you have ever shopped at a thrift store for deals, you know that it’s a hit and miss operation. Some stores have great selection while others don’t. But what happens when Goodwill moves its inventory online?

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Nifty is giving away a few PSN notebooks. Head on over there for the review.

Great article I found thanks to Andrew. It’s by Danah Boyd on the importance of choosing the right grad school. I know about this and it’s important to choose the right school and the right adviser.

With Netflix coming to a PS3 near you, we were left wondering what would happen to the Xbox 360. Most Xbox 360 owners are already using their consoles to stream media from their computers, but how about getting some streaming TV?

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There is something really nice about having beautifully designed and functional small kitchen appliances. Let’s be honest, you use them a lot and it’s only fair that they look great. We’ve rarely seen such beautiful-looking appliances.

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Unplggd reader Jenya from New York City had the following question:

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Winter will soon be upon us and temperatures are starting to plunge for most of us. Unless you’re living in California or Florida, you’ll soon be getting ready to see some snow, if you haven’t already. With everyone trying to save money, there are a couple of cheap ways of keeping your place warm.

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It’s not surprising, but with the injuries I sustained last year while running 40-50km a week, it was apparent that something was going on. It’s obvious that many runners pound the pavement way too hard, relying on their shoes to absorb the impact. This is why flat soles have made a comeback. You could always run barefoot or use a Vibram Five-Fingers, Personally, I’d like to cut down the chances of cutting my feet, so I’ll try running at least one a week with Five-Fingers.

On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.

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My wife was laughing about these Bush quotes for about 6 hours. She told me that it was the gift that kept on giving. I’ve never liked him as a President and by God, does he look dumb in these quotes.

Favorites include [best ones are at the bottom!]:

I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah.

“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake.” –on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006

“Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” –in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as those present looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” –Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” –Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on –shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” –Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video clip)

“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” –Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video clip)

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” –Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video clip)

It’s a common fact that you need to recharge your iPhone or iPod, no matter what. Usually, this involves plugging it into a USB plug or a power plug. Well, there have been quite a number of alternative ways of providing power to your gadgets, just none that was this stylish.

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I wanted to go out on a bike ride yesterday, but was busy with work. So today, after coming home, I went out on a ride. It was about 5:30PM. I came back at around 7PM. It felt really good. I was a bit slower than a few weeks ago, but it was still a good time.

I tend to leave my front gears in the biggest one and just change around the back ones. It makes more sense. There was a mean head wind on some parts of my course. Also, I noticed quite a bit of changes. There is a nice lit section now in Yonghe. They were putting in the lamps a few weeks ago and now I guess that they are finished. It’s a lot less dark, but it could do with even more lights. There is a bit of construction not far from the FuHe bridge. It’s cool though because there is an on ramp that is a short little climb. There are some new anti-scooter poles, which means that you have to slow down. The new ones are located on the start of the Xindian riverside park bike path and on the top of the Sioulang Bridge, on the way down into Taipei.

I might have mentioned it before, but it’s pretty much official. I’m getting sponsored by Velocite, a small boutique brand. I’ll be getting two frames from them. One will be a carbon fiber frame and another will be a titanium frame called the Millennium. For the carbon fiber frame, it will either be the Magnus or the Helios. Magnus is for short races and Helios is for multi-stage bike races.

The Millennium is perfect for long rides. It will deliver top of the line performance day in and day out. Since it’s made out of titanium, it will last an extremely long time. It only weighs 1.2 kg in my size, so that’s pretty low. It also comes with a CF fork. I’ll most probably make the Millennium my training bike. One bike will be equipped with Dura Ace and the other with SRAM Red. Highlights of the DA bike will include a BB30 Fission crankset from Stronglight and 960 brakes from TRP. SRAM Red bike will have Negative Gravity brakes finished in red. What made me choose Velocite? They adhere to strict EU QA, which is pretty neat. Their factory is located in Taiwan so I’ll have the option of trying out the bikes before making a purchase.

25 km   – 36:23      – 41.67 kph
50 km   – 1:14:44  – 39.47 kph – average speed 40.54 kph

After the ride, I was feeling a bit groggy. I had trouble concentrating on more than one thing at a time and I felt quite a bit tired. Tomorrow is a big day and I need to work on some more homework. My legs are all wrapped up for the night.

Today marks the day that I’ll be starting up my training again, after taking it easy for a few weeks. I’m going to combine running with biking, something that I’ve always wanted to do, but never really implemented. I’m going to go for a run tomorrow, either in the morning or during my lunch break at school. I’m not going to go crazy, only 6-8km. However, I’ll be doing this 5 times a week, at least. As for bike rides, I’ll start up my training like it was during the summer, 4-5 times a week regular 50-70kms and one long ride on weekends for 100-200km.

* * * * *

Running

weekly km count: 0
monthly km count: 0
yearly km count: 27.2

Cycling

weekly km count: 50
monthly km count: 50
yearly km count: 1317 (started in June ‘09)

As some topological spaces can be metrizable, the same can be said of categories. Certain categories can be concretizable, if they are isomorphic to a concrete category. I must be making progress as I understood almost everything in that post from David Speyer.

Earlier this year, motivational blogger, writer and speaker decided to try polyamory. This led to his separation and upcoming divorce from his wife. I blogged about this development earlier this year. It turns out that I was totally right. His marriage did implode because he decided to seek other partners. Personally, I think that Pavlina is suffering from a mid-life crisis and wanted to see younger women and “great new partners” to experience new things. His situation, with young kids and a 15-year marriage, could only lead to disaster.

Hyperbolic triangle, via Wikipedia

I

I spent most of the day reading up on differentiable manifolds, Riemann surfaces, germs, and sheaves. Some of the concepts are extremely interesting since they tie into category theory. This led me to differential geometry. I supposed that differential geometry had more to do with Euclidean geometry, an undergrad class that I didn’t enjoy all that much³, but it’s got a lot more to do with the geometry and structure of differentiable manifolds, which interest me¹.

Since the late nineteenth century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds.

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The study of calculus on differentiable manifolds is known as differential geometry.

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The tangent bundle of a circle, via Wikipedia

II

There are a few professors at NTNU that study differential geometry. I’ll try to meet them sometime next week to find out more about their research and RA positions. There’s also a PDE prof that I need to contact.

I’ve started my research notebook². Right now, it’s concentrating on the topics mentioned in (I). Currently, I’m just working through a bunch of definitions. I haven’t started the Lebesgue outer measure and the analysis concepts that we’ve seen in class. I’ll use those notes in order to prepare for my real analysis exam in two weeks.

My mind is awash with sheaves, presheaves, stalks, and germs. I like the terminology and once again, when my wife read over my shoulder, she didn’t get a thing. She finds that funny. That being said, I could talk to a lot of people without them knowing what I was really talking about.

III

I worked into the night learning about topology, including paracompactness, mesocompactness, metacompactness and orthocompactness. Differentiable manifolds also led me to tangent and cotangent bundles.

I read up on filter, ultrafilters, and ideals again. This time, I noted stuff down. I think that, in total for today, I spent about 7 hours on research. That isn’t original research, just researching topics on my own. This is something that I really like doing. It also lets you find more interests. For example, before today, I wouldn’t have been able to say that I was interested in differential geometry. Now I am since it involved the study of differentiable manifolds and their geometric structures, or calculus upon differentiable manifolds.

IV

My friend Charlotte had her PhD exams last week. By her comments, it looks like she’s going to do pretty well. That’s cool. I’m a bit sad that she’s heading to France for a few months. Initially, she was going for about 6 months, but she had to shorten her visit. She told me that the Taiwan scholarship that she got, which is about $1,000/month for 4 years is quite a hassle. It looks like the one from private or semi-private institutions are a lot less of a hassle. Charlotte has got a lot of paperwork to do for that.

I’m hoping to get a similar scholarship next year. Coupled with two RA salaries⁸, as well as my writing revenue and another base scholarship, I should be doing well⁷. I’d barely have to teach ESL anymore. I will though, it’s just good to use that teaching salary to live with, and save the rest or pay off bills with the other salary⁴.

Other than bicycles, getting a MacBook Pro 17″, an FX frame camera⁶, I won’t be spending much on other things. I might get an iMac and send it over to the US, but that’s pretty much it⁵ . The camera and the Mac can wait until the last year that I’m in Taiwan, which would be 2011 or 2012.

When the MacBook Pro 17″ came out, the urge to get one was strong, but it abated. I still want one, but I won’t need it until much later, as my 13.3″ Asus WFM is fine for now. One thing that I’m looking forward to is maxing out the specs on that little laptop. Getting a 500GB HD instead of the 250GB one, and adding more RAM and naturally, having Win 7 installed.

V

I’m still trying to stop myself from getting a motorcycle to replace my scooter on my daily commuting. I’d be getting a gray area motorcycle⁹, with something like 400-900cc. I wouldn’t spend more than $1,800 and it would be fun and a lot safer, since everything is safer on a real motorcycle. However, it would be a bit of a waste, as I would be leaving shortly after. I wouldn’t have it for more than a year or two. I’ll think it over. Old Nancy is getting quite used. Her 125cc aren’t enough and I’d never get a new scooter, I’d get a used motorcycle instead. I’d keep Old Nancy though. Scooters are great to do the shopping or errands on.

* * * * *

[¹]: Actually, quite a lot.
[²]: I decided to use my Canadian Blueline A91 200p hardcover notebook. These notebooks are usually used for lab notes. I bought one about a year ago and used two pages for essentially the same thing. Only, since then, my interests have become more focused.
[³]: Actually, hated wouldn’t be far from it. Well, maybe not that extreme. Clearly disliked or left me ambivalent would be more appropriate. Geometry, as I saw it, wasn’t very interesting. Differential geometry is quite interesting. I don’ know why I didn’t come upon it before.
[⁴]: Or buy some bikes!
[⁵]: The new 27″ iMac is the one to get, as it’s significantly cheaper as the 30″ Apple Cinema display. It’s especially bright and beautiful, which is perfect. I’ve got a 22″ Viewsonic screen here that I probably will sell before leaving. The iMac can be used as an auxiliary screen for notebooks.
[⁶]: A Nikon, of course. We are a Nikon family. At that time, it will either be a D700 or a D3S, or their updated models. Personally, I prefer the D700, as it does almost everything that its bigger brother does. Kind of like the D200 and the D2X at the time that I bought my D200. The D700 hasn’t received an update yet, and I’m waiting what it will be like.
[⁷]: That would be around $2,400 a month, not including the freelance writing + ESL teaching. I find that it would be important to work mostly in math than in teaching.
[⁸]: Hopefully they won’t be mutually exclusive.
[⁹]: Before 2001, big engined motorcycles, over 500cc, weren’t sold here. They were imported in pieces and assembled. In 2006, a new law was passed. The legal motorcycles with 500cc and more could go on highways. They have a red license plate. Any motorcycle that has a red plate is very expensive. Gray area motorcycles are those that were imported and assembled. They don’t cost that much and have a regular white license plate. You can’t ride on highways with those.