Sci Fi Addict

Track the Monterey Bay Aquarium Great White Shark

2008-03-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Monterey Bay Aquarium released a juvenile white shark in early February. If you are an ocean sports guy like me, that's bad news, but the good news is, you can track where the shark is! So just don't go swimming near the Baja, Mexico border. You can track the daily movements of the white shark on the Monterey Bay Aquarium White Shark Page.

Season Finale - Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles

2008-03-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

So I just watched the season finale of Terminator: the Sara Connor Chronicles. If the nerdy title turned you off, give it a try. It's a good series. The lines can be cheezy, the acting can be a little too melodramatic, but the story lines, and dare I say, the directing and cinematography are good, especially for tv. Give the show a chance, they really outdid themselves, especially in the last episode, some of the last scenes are brilliant. If you love action, sci fi, doomsday scenarios, and finding-peace-with-yourself themes, I highly recommend this one. I think this tv show will be coming back for another season for sure.

Sci Fi Book Club and Blog - The Sword and Laser

2008-03-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this Sci Fi Book Club and Blog by Veronica Belmont of CNET Buzz Out Loud and Mahalo Daily fame: The Sword and Laser. That title can only mean one thing... totally sweet!

Invisibility, Force Fields, Light Sabers, Lasers, Sci Fi Tech Becoming Real

2008-03-14T01:50:00.001-07:00

from the NY Times' blogosphere "Why Don't We Invent It Tomorrow.". A story about 3 science fiction technologies that may become real in the near future.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth, really just one long Stargate episode

2008-03-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Stargate movie "Stargate: The Ark of Truth is coming out, straight to DVD on April 14th, or straight from bittorrent, if you want to download it illegally.

In my opinion, it'll be more like a encore extra-long season finale, as opposed to a real feature film. And to follow the plot, you'll have to have followed the show and know who the Ori are and why they're bad. But for Stargate fans like me, it's my last Stargate SG-1 fix.

New Battlestar Galactica... Counting Down...

2008-03-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

The season premier of Battlestar Galactica is coming up on Friday, April 4th. Stick it in your calendar. It's the last season, the show was written and planned that way. So this will be the season where all the questions are answered, where humans and cylons find some way to live with each other. I have no idea how it will end. I never watched the original series. Well, actually, I tried to watch an episode, but had to stop. I couldn't get past the terrible props and set design. I've seen better on Sesame Street.

I am totally psyched for the premier. I think it will be brilliant. I wonder if the show will stay on that Friday spot. 28 days left! There's a short recap on scifi.com/battlestar.

The Universe is 13.73 +/- .12 billion years old!

2008-03-09T03:29:00.002-07:00

How old is the universe? Well the bad astronomy blog summarized some newly published data from NASA and tells us that it's 13.73 +/- .12 billion years old. But does that even make sense?

How does relativity fit into all of this and time dilation and contraction? All the different parts of the universe are moving toward or away from each other at different speeds, and so have different time frame references. So time moves at different paces in different neighborhoods, at least according to Einstein.

So how does measuring the age of the universe even make sense? Is that measured in Earth Standard Time? What even is Earth Standard Time relative to the universe?

What?!? Orson Scott Card is a Homophobe?

2008-03-09T03:29:00.001-07:00

I've been reading some Orson Scott Card books lately. I just finished Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I loved them both! Deep, full of politics, technology, Nostradamal predictions, and character. And I just started on Xenocide, which has started off a little slow for me.

So I find out today (totally randomly on one of Leo Laporte's gaxillion podcasts), that Orson Scott Card is an outspoken homophobe. I had no idea! Apparently this was old news back in 2000, as you can see in this article by Salon.com. You've got to ask, how can someone genius enough to write Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead be homophobic?

Well, part of me wants to stop reading Card's Ender series, but I'll probably finish Xenocide anyway, since I bought it. I definitely am disappointed and disillusioned, and probably won't enjoy the book as much. And I don't know if I'll buy any more of his books. Damn, I just loved the series. Hopefully, Card will educate himself and change his views. What a contrast to a writer like Joe Haldeman, who wrote The Forever War. Writers, especially writers who write about an imagined future, have a responsibility to include homosexual people and tolerance in their vision of the future.

Have to Watch New Amsterdam

2008-03-09T03:27:00.001-07:00

Damn, I missed the premier of New Amsterdam last night, and the show's not on Fox On Demand yet, so if you missed it like me, you'll have to bittorrent it or grab it off of iTunes.

The premise for the show sounds a lot like Highlander. There is an immortal living among us today, someone who is over 400 years old.

"NEW AMSTERDAM centers on a brilliant and enigmatic New York homicide detective unlike any other. And he has a profound secret -- he is immortal.

In 1642, JOHN AMSTERDAM (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), then a Dutch solider in the colony of New Amsterdam – later to become New York City -- stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her indigenous tribe. The girl in turn rescued Amsterdam, weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him. Amsterdam will not age, she told him, until he finds his one true love. Only then will he become whole and ready for mortality.

Amsterdam has found this to be a mixed blessing... "

from Fox's Official New Amsterdam Website

It's the old Highlander concept with a new cast, and a police-investigator/crime-drama twist. It sounds very cool, and the critics seem to like it. I've been going through about 10 years of Highlander withdrawal, although I don't miss the Baywatch-style slow motion love scenes of shirtless and ripped Adrian Paul. The HLer movies were utterly disappointing, although I admit, I bought a few DVD's of the most recent flicks. I did not buy the official MacLeod Highlander Sword, although I've probably been sent about a tree of Highlander memorabilia catalogues (who buys that stuff, seriously).

Although New Amsterdam seems to have ripped some ideas Highlander, I am still very excited for the show. Let's face it, the whole immortality concept is so compelling, a la Ponce de Leon. Let's just hope the cast and writers do a good job to create interesting and engaging characters, so that the show sticks around.

The best things is, New Amsterdam was totally off of my radar. I hadn't heard of it until last week. My wife who told me about it. She hates sci-fi stuff. It must be the dreamy looking leading man and the crime/cop show twist to an old sci-fi classic.