First track from the Game of Thrones rap album is actually pretty good onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com First track from the Game of Thrones rap album is actually pretty good

Yesterday, we told you that HBO was releasing an album of rap songs inspired by Game of Thrones, and we had a nice chuckle at the incongruity of it all. But now HBO has released the first song from said album — "King Slayer" by Wale — and damn if it isn't kind of awesome. Listen to it here!

Not bad, right? Anyways, here's Catch the Throne's full track list:

1. Big Boi – "Mother of Dragons"

2. Magazeen – "Iron Throne"

3. Bodega Bamz – "Win or Die"

4. Kilo Kish – "Magical Reality"

5. Daddy Yankee – "Born to Rule"

6. Dominik Omega – "Arya's Prayer"

7. Snow – "Fire"

8. Dee Goodz – "The Parallel"

9. Common – "Interlude/The Ladder"

10. Wale – "King Slayer"

I was really hoping that Robert Baratheon might do a cover of "Big Poppa," but these sound pretty good too. Remember, the album comes out for free on Friday the 7th!

[Via Winter Is Coming]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com First track from the Game of Thrones rap album is actually pretty good

All The "Cry Scenes" That Prove Animated Films Have Become Anguish Porn onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com All The "Cry Scenes" That Prove Animated Films Have Become Anguish Porn

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I've been crying a lot lately. Frozen, The Lego Movie — even the Mr. Peabody & Sherman screening had weeping into my purse. And then it became clear: all of these animated movies for kids contain at least one hard-hitting "cry scene." Because it's a cartoon, and they can kill all the animated animals they want, without getting in (too) much trouble. Here's our roundup of the obligatory "cry scenes" from recent movies — rated according to just how much they made us bawl.

The Land Before Time - Little Foot's Mom Dies

Dinosaurs are awesome! But you know what's not awesome? Killing a dinosaur in front of its dinosaur child. This scene is like giving a child an awesome dinosaur toy, letting them play with it, make volcanoes with it, have bath time with the toy, sleep with the toy and then yank it from their arms, light it on fire while forcibly pointing the kid's face at the burning toy and screaming "SEE! SEE, GOD IS DEAD, LITTLE ONE. GOD IS DEAD."

Rating: 10 Bambi's Moms. To give a child a dinosaur, and then take it away with murder, is cruel.

Charlotte's Web - Charlotte Dies

After spending all of her existence saving the lives of others, Charlotte dies. No one saves her. Charlotte explains that by helping others she lifts up her own life, but she doesn't because she is a spider. And no one mourns for a dead spider. Extra points for Charlotte literally saying "in a little while I'll be dead," super sweetly. Also horribly sad when Charlotte's babies abandon Wilbur because LIFE IS PAIN KIDDOS.

Rating: 2 Bambi's Moms. It's a spider, get over it.

Iron Giant - World's Cutest Robot Kills Himself For Ungrateful Humans

The Iron Giant suicides himself because he, being a giant metal beast, understands humanity more than both humans.

Rating: 10 Bambi's Moms. This scene can make a grown man cry.

Toy Story 3 - "We've Had A Good Run, Let's Welcome Death"

Speaking of willfully giving up your life — Pixar raised the stakes to ENTIRE CAST JOINT SUICIDE. Nothing says "fun kids movie" like a pack of toys embracing their own demise by incinerator. WOOF.

Rating: 15 Bambi's Moms.

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Wall-E - Wall-E's Soul Dies

How do you top a group death scene like the one from Toy Story 3? Simple, just kill the main character's soul.

Rating: 5 Bambi's Moms — he comes back pretty quickly.

Monsters Inc. - "KITTY HAS TO GO NOW"

True not all Pixar movies go for the proverbial cry scene dick punch. Some just want to remind you that your children are young and precious, but one day you will abandon them. Because inside, we are all rotten.

Rating: 5 Bambi's Moms — she comes back.

Finding Nemo - You're Forgotten, Dory

The least painful of all the Pixar "cry scenes." When Dory tells Marlin she remembers things better when he's around, and he abandons her. Perhaps this is because Marlin only knows death and sadness and fear, due to the previous terror scene when his wife and all of his children (but one) are slaughtered.

Rating: 2 Bambi's Moms, it works out OK.

Frozen - Sister Love

Anna gives up her life for her sister. Giving up not only life, but the love of a hot Norwegian blond. This scene really kicks you hard when her "last breath" of life leaves her icy body.

Rating: 3 Bambi's Moms, probably because this was the one I've seen most recently.

Wreck-It-Ralph - "You really are a bad guy"

A new kind of cry scene. A betrayal! Which makes this horror twice as sharp is the fact that it isn't just waving around the carcass of a giant dead cat. Ralph smashes up Penelope's dreams, and her reaction is heartbreaking. Great voice acting, great animation, and most importantly great writing.

Rating: 15 Bambi's Moms. Great Storytelling.

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Tangled - More Death

A handsome rogue falls for a secret princess, and gives his life to save her. And because this is the most tropiest of classic fairy telling, he is revived by her tears. It doesn't matter, I cried sappy final words "you were my new dream" and all.

Rating: 2 Bambi's Moms, no way was he staying dead.

The Princess and the Frog - A Bug's Funeral

Not only do you get to hear the exoskeleton of this character shatter when Ray the firefly bug was stomped out by the villain — but then the audience is forced to participate in a 3 MINUTE long funeral scene. For a bug. A bug.

Rating: 1 Bambi's Mom.

Up - "I hid under the porch because I love you"

Most people would cite the opening montage of Up as the "cry scene" from Up. They would be wrong. While it is very nice and sad what with the balloon at the funeral and all, the actual best cry scene in this movie is when Doug the Dog comes out of hiding. In fairness this is more of a happy cry. So Up still gets to be on the list for Anguish Porn but at least there was sweet, sweet tear-filled relief.

Rating: 14 Bambi's Moms.

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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Daddy Issues

Flynn's father, who isn't very good at telling people how he feels, speaks straight from his brain. And basically says everything anyone has ever wanted their parent to say to them. It cuts, it cuts so deep.

Rating: 7 Bambi's Moms

Lion King - Simba Watches His Dad Die

Another dead parent. You know the drill.

Rating: 7 Bambi's Moms

All Dogs Go To Heaven - Sometimes Right In Front Of Your Kids

The main character, a cartoon dog, dies. Not just once, but twice. The second time he dies and leaves a little girl that he was responsible for and basically raised for most of this movie. Not saying dogs should be raising children, but this was sad. Taking a beloved pet/parent away from a girl this sweet? Mean. And look at her angelic eye reflection thingy, SOB.

Rating: 6 Bambi's Moms

An American Tale - "Somewhere Out There"

Any movie about an impoverished immigrant family, separated from their child (because they assume he is dead) would be a sad, sad movie. Now make all those people cartoon mice. That's a bingo.

Rating: 10 Bambi's Moms, the singing is atrocious but it works. It works so hard.

Fox and the Hound - The Goodbye Song

This cry scene swings for the fences. Not only does The Fox and the Hound trot out old-time pictures of Todd with a birthday cake, they then pipe in the most pathetic tune ever, that literally sings the emotions the owner is feeling. The icing on the cake? When Todd sees that his master is upset and places his fox paw on her arm. Monstrous.

Rating: 15 Bambi's Mom. So many tears.

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Lilo and Stitch - Broken Family

With the "our family is small and broken" speech

Rating: 2 Bambi's Moms. The sadness was out-played by the wacky aliens. Also I would have been fine if Stitch was never granted the gift of speech.

Bambi - Dead Mother

The first in a long lesson of Disney lessons that "one day your parents will die and leave you all alone. So best make peace with that now."

Rating: It is the basis of which we rated all our other cry scenes. And therefore wins all the dead Bambi's Moms.

S

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com All The "Cry Scenes" That Prove Animated Films Have Become Anguish Porn

This awesome intersection design is a dream come true for cyclists onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com This awesome intersection design is a dream come true for cyclists

A number of North American and European cities are introducing protected bike lanes, but they do little to help cyclists navigate through dangerous intersections. A proposal for a "protected intersection" could change that.

No doubt, protected bike lanes are great. But their buffers disappear at intersections, significantly reducing the comfort and safety of cyclists. To overcome this, researchers at George Mason University have proposed a system in which intersections would be equipped with four main elements:

• A corner refuge island: This island would bring the protective barrier from the bike lane far into the intersection. It's like a curb extension for bicyclists. The island physically separates bicyclists as they make right turns, and provide a secure refuge for those waiting at a red signal protected from moving cars.


• A forward stop bar for bicyclists: This would be paired with the corner refuge island. While people driving must stop back behind the crosswalk, people on bikes may yield to pedestrians, and stop at a bicycle waiting area farther ahead in the intersection. Bicyclists turning left also use this space to wait when making a left turn. Advantages include increased the visibility of cyclists to cars waiting at a red light, a physical head start for cyclists when the light turns green, and a shorter distance to cross the street.


• A set back bike and pedestrian crossing: This intersection would have a bike lane that bends away from the intersection creating in a setback bicycle and pedestrian crossing. It would provide the space and time for everyone to react to potential conflicts. The critical dimension is one car-length of space between the traffic lane and the bicycle crossing. With this design, drivers turn 90 degrees to face the bike lane before they even cross it, making people on bikes highly visible and out of the driver's blind spot. To allow for adequate reaction time for all users, a small effective corner radius would be used to encourage a slow driver turning speed of 5-10 mph.


• Bicycle friendly signal phasing: The system would utilize smart and intuitive signals to control how and when different vehicles and pedestrians can proceed.

The system, which was put together by planner Nick Falbo, is modeled after Dutch intersection design. "With this design," he says, "riders will never feel stranded, exposed, or unsure of where to go and how to get there."

More here and here.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com This awesome intersection design is a dream come true for cyclists

Should California be divided into six separate states? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Should California be divided into six separate states?

California is the most populous state in the US, with more than 38 million people spread across its 163,696 square miles. A new initiative wants to split California into six states, deeming the current California "ungovernable."

Venture capitalist Tim Draper filed a ballot initiative in December to get a measure on the California ballot in 2014 to divide up the state, and he has just received a greenlight from California Secretary of State Debra Bowen to begin collecting signatures for his ballot petition. He proposes creating six states: Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California.

Six Californias Map Proposal

In an email with TechCrunch, Draper said that he has put forth the proposal so that Californians would receive greater proportional representation in the US Senate, to encourage greater competition, to allow states to "start fresh" with "a more relevant constitution," and to make governing "decisions more relevant to the population." Of course, it would also likely change the party make-up of the US Senate (Edit: and, as commenter monsieurxander notes, the distribution of California's electoral college votes); although Draper contributed to Barack Obama's presidential election campaign in 2008, he is a Republican.

Draper has set up a website for his Six Californias plan, and hopes to have a measure on the ballot as early as this November. Even if Californians were to approve the measure, the US Constitution states that the federal Congress must vote on whether to welcome new states into the Union.

You can read Draper's proposal at the following link:

Six Californias Proposal

Petition to Split California Into Six States Gets Green Light [ABC News via Neatorama]

Edit: Our sister blog, Valleywag, points to an analysis that says that, under Draper's plan, the proposed state of Jefferson would have the lowest per capita personal income in the country.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Should California be divided into six separate states?

When fossil fuels are illegal, biker gangs become the ultimate outlaws onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com When fossil fuels are illegal, biker gangs become the ultimate outlaws

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In an energy-starved future, the authorities of America's mega-cities strictly regulate transit, allowing only solar cars to roam the roads and mandating intercity travel by rail. But that hasn't stopped warring motorcycle gangs from tearing through the streets—and stealing anything they can get their grease-stained hands on.

The Outrunners, written by Jonathan Gelatt and drawn by Andrew Krahnke is a retrofuturistic webcomic that wears its affection for stories like Akira and The Warriors on its sleeve. The eponymous Outrunners are an underdog crew of thieves who spend their nights heisting technology to sell and to keep their bikes running. They have to steer clear of the Metropolitan Police—who have failed to keep the city's massive population of youth offenders in check—but when a rival gang raids their headquarters, the Outrunners are eager for war.

Krahnke's artwork gives the declining city a science fiction vibe, but what makes The Outrunners stand out is a careful attention to language and character. These kids are the throwaways, the leftovers of a damaged civilization that thinks it can save itself through strict authoritarian control. But they're no heroes; they're violent, amoral, and just as likely to boost tech from a poor mom and pop shop as from a wealthy outfit. Still, they're kids, and they're trying to navigate the tribal landscape of their city, a place where you better be a great engineer, a great warrior, or both.

To help set the mood, the creators have collected an electronic soundtrack, the perfect accompaniment to the comics' action scenes with their bikes, bats, and guns.

[The Outrunners]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com When fossil fuels are illegal, biker gangs become the ultimate outlaws

An albino alligator gets a CT scan onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com An albino alligator gets a CT scan

Mr. Bones, a rare albino alligator at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, recently needed to get a CT Scan to investigate a problem with his jaw. This made for a pretty unique photo opportunity.

Via the park's Facebook page:

He is in the excellent hands of University of Florida Zoomed staff. He is NOT sedated hence the extra straps holding him down. Sedation in crocodilians is risky and unpredictable and he needs to remain completely still for the CT. Flipping him over would eventually sedate him, but only because blood flow to his brain becomes limited. This is currently the best method of restraint.

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Here's hoping Mr. Bones' treatment is as low-stress as his caretakers can provide!

ht Olivia!

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com An albino alligator gets a CT scan

The real reason that women in fantasy art wear such skimpy armor onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The real reason that women in fantasy art wear such skimpy armor

It's horribly impractical for ladies to wear bikini armor while leaving their midsections imposed...or is it? Artist Stjepan Sejic reveals the "truth" behind half-naked women warriors.

Sejic says that this has been a long-simmering joke between him and his wife about fantasy illustration. Sejic draws plenty of lady armor himself, as an artist for the comics Witchblade and Artifacts, among others.

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now you know! [nebezial on deviantART via Geek Art Gallery]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The real reason that women in fantasy art wear such skimpy armor

I Just Saw the Original RoboCop for the First Time and It's AMAZING onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com I Just Saw the Original RoboCop for the First Time and It's AMAZING

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In advance of the big RoboCop reboot opening this week (starring Joel "You're My Ride, Linden" Kinnaman!), I thought it an opportune moment to take a look back at 1987's original robot-who-is-also-a-cop masterpiece that forever cemented the idea of a robot being a cop in the public consciousness. Like, it's not normal that you can just use "a RoboCop" as a noun and every nearby person will be like, "Oh, yes, that is a type of fictional cop with which I am familiar." Really, grandma!?!?!

I'm not sure why, but I'd never actually seen the original RoboCop. Or, if I did, all my memories of it have been utterly obliterated by 8,000 subsequent viewings of Clue and the video for Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory." Robots who were also cops were simply not on single-digit Lindy's to-do list. (Plus, 1987 was also the year of Dirty Dancing AND The Princess Bride AND Three Men and a Baby AND Spaceballs AND Lethal Weapon AND Evil Dead 2. We were all busy that year.)

But clearly this RoboCop shit captured hella hearts and minds, because they're making another one of it, and also STATUE. So, in the spirit of my previous forays into American nostalgia-cinema (see also: Titanic, Jurassic Park, Love Actually), I re-watched RoboCop so you don't have to—although you probably should, because it is fucking boss.

Spoilers, all the way through.

Okay. We open with Leeza Gibbons. LEEZA, QUEEN OF THE GIBBONS, YOU GUYS. IS IN THIS MOVIE. (BRB, pouring one out for Talk Soup.) Leeza is reporting the news, and the news is bad. Everyone in Detroit is in a fight, everyone in South Africa is in a fight, an evil corporation is doing something boneheaded as usual (BUSINESSMEN, AMIRITE), but—upside!!!—you can get a robot heart now. Foreshadowing!

Over at the police station, all the police officers are mega-grumpy because apparently these Einsteins just realized that they're not regular police officers—they're dystopian police officers, which has to be the world's shittiest aha moment. One second you're bopping along all, "Doodly-doo," and the next you're like, "Waitaminnit...how many garbage fires does one town need? Oh. Shit." Silver lining, though: In the dystopian future, man-cops and lady-cops all change in the same locker room because the future is just cool about boobs like that! Wooooo! Spring break!!! (Too bad Detroit abolished Spring.)

There's a new man-cop on the scene, and his name is Murphy (played by "actor, trumpet player, and Italian Renaissance art history lecturer" Peter Weller—have you read Peter Weller's Wikipedia page, by the way!? I'LL WAIT). The thing about Peter Weller is that Peter Weller's countenance is almost too on-the-nose for a movie called RoboCop. Like...you kind of wonder if the movie wasn't originally just called Cop, and they had to scramble for a plan B halfway through filming when they discovered that Peter Weller is literally a robot. He's robotic, is what I'm saying. It works, though. Robot movie.

Peter Weller gets assigned a sassy short-haired lady-partner named Lewis (Nancy Allen, a.k.a. the worst bitch from Carrie) and he is only a little bit sexist to her! Yay, the future! They head out to locate crime.

Meanwhile, in business town, some business men are talking business. Robot business. Detroit's criminals are so crimey, you see, and its police officers so grumpy, that the government has decided to outsource law enforcement to OmniCorp (which is some sort of corporation that manufactures nefariousness, robots, and Miguel-Ferrer-making-a-lemon-face). This business guy name Dick waltzes in all smug and is like, "You guys. I made the bitchingest crime robot ever. Its name is ED-209, it is my best friend, and it is seh gehd at blowing up crime. Also Miguel Ferrer can sniff my dong." [Miguel Ferrer puckers, angrily.]

Then Dick demonstrates ED-209's "urban pacification" skillz on some guy named Mr. Kenny, except instead of pacifying Mr. Kenny, ED-209 just shoots him until he explodes. (To be fair, Mr. Kenny was pretty garbage at being in demonstrations.) All the businessmen are hella exasperated at Dick for getting chunks of Mr. Kenny all over their future-suits, so Miguel Ferrer seizes the moment to pitch his own crime-fighting robot. RoboCop!!!

In order to make a RoboCop, you basically need two ingredients: some robo and a cop. So Miguel Ferrer & Co. send Murphy and Lewis out to chase after the dad from That '70s Show, who is the worst criminal in Detroit and possibly the best movie villain of 1987 (take that, Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher from the Sheldrake!). They corner the dad from That '70s Show and his United Henchmen of Benetton at some abandoned warehouse thingy, where Lewis just stands around until the most dodo henchman of them all punches her in the face and she falls down (seriously, she's like a less competent Mr. Kenny). Then the henchmen all stand around having a pun contest and shooting Murphy with a bunch of guns until he explodes. He dies.

OR DOES HE? (He doesn't. He becomes RoboCop. Please pay attention.)

When Murphy wakes up from his RoboComa, he discovers that every single part of him except for his face and brain has been replaced by robot parts and all he can eat is baby food, which I guess means that he still has human a stomach and also poops, but of course no one wants to answer the tough questions. Murphy is now half ro and half bocop!!! It's cool, though, because even though he's been transformed against his will into a horrific abomination with an enormous rubber face who's lost his family, his memories, and his ability to love, he also gets to NEVER STOP TOILING AS A LOW-LEVEL INNER-CITY BEAT COP. (I assume robots aren't entitled to any protections from the Department of Labor and Industries. Other than free baby food for life, apparently.)

RoboCop is pretty jazzed, though. He's programmed with four inalienable directives—1) Serve the public trust, 2) Protect the innocent, 3) Uphold the law, and 4) [CLASSIFIED]—and he can't wait to start carrying them out.

He hops in his Taurus (ROBOCOP DRIVES A TAURUS) and vrooms out into the streets where he shoots a rapist in the penis for attempting to steal a woman's hair. Then he tells the woman, "Madam, you have suffered an emotional shock. I will notify a rape crisis center." (Note to real police: How is it possible that some of you have less humanity when dealing with sexual assault victims than a 1980s fictional robot?)

All of Detroit is a-buzzing with the news: "There's a new guy in town. His name is RoboCop!" Listen up, ladies! He doesn't have very many friends, and he's not technically HWP (6'2", 9000 pounds), but he is single and he loves to laugh writhe in anguish while experiencing violent flashbacks of his horrific mutilation! Also, his family left him for dead, so there's no nag of a mother-in-law to critique your vol-au-vent.

RoboCop breaks out of the RoboLab to go find his family. (Dude, RoboCop monitors—you had one job.) A henchman named Emil is robbing a gas station nearby—for more bolo tie money, prolly—and he somehow manages to recognize Peter Weller's lips from 20 feet away in the dark while being yelled at by a crazed robot. (That is how you become a woman in my culture, actually.) So Emil is like, "We killed you!" and RoboCop is like, "Big mistake. Huge." Because Rule #1 of RoboCop, Emil! Never talk to RoboCop about how you killed RoboCop. (Rule #2 of Robocop...maybe just shoot RoboCop in his chin? Anyone? Hello? Giant brain-adjacent face-hole? Helloooooo?)

That Dick guy from earlier sends the dad from That '70s Show (whose name is Boddicker, by the way—this reference is getting unwieldy) to blow up Miguel Ferrer with a grenade at his cocaine party. Afterwards, Boddicker heads over to the cocaine factory for an important meeting. But then—BANG BANG BANG—what's that at the door? I think it might be a robot who's also a cop! Who also loves cocaine!

RoboCop beats up Boddicker, who reveals that he works for Dick. So RoboCop stomps over to OmniCorp to arrest Dick, but then he can't because he gets all constipated with Directive-4-itis! Turns out, RoboCop's "classified" 4th directive is "Any attempt to arrest a senior executive results in shutdown." It was Dick's idea. Dick thinks he's really fucking smart.

Dick brings in ED-209 to destroy RoboCop, but when the fight moves into the stairwell, ED-209 is immediately defeated by stairs like a baby labrador. Which...I guess answers the question of why it's better to have a robot that is part man. Stairs. It knows how to walk down stairs. Kind of anticlimactic, really.

After a big shoot-out with the human cops, RoboCop reunites with Lewis, who helps him repair his RoboWounds and also kind of maybe wants to get bizzay.

Dick is determined to destroy RoboCop once and for all, so he gives Boddicker a car and a bunch of really big guns. Because sure. Literally the entire police force couldn't kill RoboCop with one million guns, so a cool plan is probably to send five guys with slightly bigger guns and a SUX 3000. Iron-clad.

RoboCop rolls up on the scene and all the bad guys are like, "Shit! A Taurus!!!" Boddicker shoots Lewis and she falls in a puddle. Emil panics and drives a van into a toxic waste tank. After Emil's done melting, Laura Palmer's dad dumps a bunch of rebar on top of RoboCop, so Lewis shoots him. Then Boddicker stabs RoboCop in the shoulder, and RoboCop stabs Boddicker in the neck with his built-in flash drive. Now there is only one villain left. DICK.

RoboCop still can't wail on Dick because of Directive 4, but he tattles to OmniCorp's CEO about Dick's dickishness. So then the CEO is like, "Dick, you're fired!" And it's LOOPHOLE TIME! DIRECTIVE 4 OVERRIDE!!!!!!!!!! Now that Dick isn't RoboCop's boss anymore, RoboCop throws Dick out a window. The end.

IN CONCLUSION, ROBOCOP IS AMAZING.

Illuatration by Jim Cooke.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com I Just Saw the Original RoboCop for the First Time and It's AMAZING

The Most Unusual Alternate History Novels Ever Published onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Most Unusual Alternate History Novels Ever Published

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Tired of alternate history books where the Axis won World War II, or the South won the Civil War? Luckily for you, there are a ton of allohistories that pick more obscure and interesting points of divergence. Here are 15 alt-history books (or series) that break the mold.

Top image: Matthew Buchholz

Just this month, there's Allen Steele's V-S Day, in which the Nazis and the Allies both develop space rockets in 1941. And Three Princes by Ramona Wheeler takes place in a world where Egypt's empire still rules, in the 19th century. And here are 15 other books that forge new directions.

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Darwinia by Robert Charles

What would happen if a chunk of the Earth suddenly disappeared? And what if it was replaced with a new continent, that followed a completely different path of evolution? In Robert Charles' 1998 Prix Award novel, he explores what that new Earth would be like. The "Miracle" event in 1912 changed the course of history. Years later Guilford Law, an American photographer, joins an expedition to explore Darwinia. Along the way he begins dreaming of a "twin" who brings him the message that things aren't exactly as they seem. Art by Jim Burns.

1632 by Eric Flint

This isn't your run-of-the-mill alternate history book. Instead of picking a divergent point and speculating on its repercussions, Eric Flint drops a slice of 2000 into 17th Century Germany. A West Virginia town is transported to 1631 Germany. The modern-day Americans must deal with the effects of the 30 Years War, culture shock, and the vast differences in technology.

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The Peshawar Lancers, by S.M. Stirling

In 1878, a meteor shower caused a massive dust cloud to block out the sun, causing winter to last for years. The British Empire, and the rest of the world, were in crisis, and Queen Victoria evacuated the British Isles to the colonies. The islands were abandoned to cannibalistic savages. But all of that is in the past during The Peshawar Lancers. The book is set in 2025, when the Earth is finally starting to stabilize after years of ill effects from the meteors. The Peshawar Lancers guard the northern border of the Angrezi Raj (the new name for the British Empire). The book follows their adventures and escapes as it explores what this very different 21st century is like to experience.

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Alternate Histories of the World by Matthew Buchholz

Did you ever want more monsters in your history books? Artist Matthew Buchholz has the book for you. He's illustrated scenes from history if they had included sea monsters, zombies, aliens, and all manner of other strange creatures.

The Aquiliad by S.P. Somtow

Rome never fell, and the Romans rule most of the world. They've taken over the Americas (known to them as Terra Novo) and Caesar has set his sights on China. General Titus Papinianus and Senator Aquila set off on an expedition across Terra Novo to find the fabled land of China. Along the way they encounter all manner of problems including Bigfoot and a mysterious figure known as the Time Criminal.

Devil's Tower by Mark Sumner

There are lots of alternate history novels out there about the Civil War, but Mark Sumner's novel is different. In Devil's Tower, the mass deaths of the Civil War have brought about the return of magic to the world. The events of the book take place about ten years after the initial return of magic, when the characters are beginning to adjust to this amazing change in the world. Some people are gifted with "talents" such as conjuring or speaking in tongues. The magic changes America, and as the blurb says, "Nothing would ever be the same again."

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Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle

This is alternate history — in space! In Richard Garfinkle's book Aristotle was right. The Earth is the center of the universe, and everything is made up of four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Ptolemaic astronomy, Aristotelian physics, and Taoist alchemy are all true. The book follows Aias of Tyre, a scientist who travels on a spaceship carved from the moon to bring a piece of the sun back to Earth.

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Wild Cards by George R.R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass, et al.

Among George R.R. Martin's numerous non-ASOIAF projects is the Wild Cards series. Martin edits and contributes to the alternate history superhero anthology shared universe along with writers such as Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, John J. Miller and many others. In the series, an alien virus is set loose in New York City shortly after WWII. Those who survive the process become mutated creatures called Jokers, or superheroes called Aces. The short stories and novels in the series portray historical figures and events through the lens of wild carders. Mick Jagger is a lycanthropic ace, Fidel Castro becomes a baseball player in New York, and Buddy Holly doesn't die in a plane crash.

Down in the Bottomlands by Harry Turtledove

The land shapes history more than most people might think. In the novella Down in the Bottomlands Harry Turtledove explores a version of Earth where the Mediterranean basin never refilled. Instead of becoming a beautiful sea, the Mediterranean becomes a dangerous sunken desert. In this timeline, Neanderthals never died out, and they have their own nations and customs. After a tourist is murdered in the Bottomlands, investigators uncover a plot to set off a nuclear bomb on the Barrier Mountains, which would reflood the Mediterranean.

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Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear

Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World meets Jurassic Park, and we get dinosaur circuses. That's right, circuses. When that idea surprisingly backfires, Peter and Anthony Belzoni join an expedition to bring the dinosaurs back to their home, a large plateau in Venezuela. Fun times are had by all! Especially the reader.

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His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

The Napoleonic Wars were full of tales of heroism, adventure, intrigue — and in Naomi Novik's version, dragons. The intelligent creatures are used in aerial warfare throughout Europe and Asia. His Majesty's Dragon has all of your favorite Napoleonic battles, including The Battle of Trafalgar, with the added excitement of dragons. Let's hope this starts a trend.

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Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Kim Newman's 1992 novel takes the drama of the Jack the Ripper Murders and adds vampires into the mix. Conspiracy theories about Jack the Ripper can be a ton of fun, but add vampires and you've got great entertainment. The book includes historical figures and characters from all across popular fiction, from 'Salem's Lot to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Anno Dracula is only the beginning of the Anno Dracula series, which currently consists of three books and eleven shorter pieces of fiction.

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The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

In 1940, the United States voted to create a refugee settlement In Alaska for Jews being persecuted by the Nazis. And after the the State of Israel is founded and destroyed in only three months during 1948, Sitka Alaska becomes a vibrant home city that "moves to the music of Yiddish." The novel follows Detective Meyer Landsman as he investigates his neighbor's murder, all the while giving us hints at how their world is different from our own.

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Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes

In Steven Barnes' Lion's Blood, Islamic Africa is the dominant world power while Europe is considered tribal and backward. The novel, set in the 19th century, follows Aidan O'Dere, an Irish boy whose village is attacked by Vikings. Survivors, including his mother and twin sister, are sold to black slave merchants and shipped to North America. This alternate history of America explores different cultures and ideas while giving us a unique look at the horrors of slavery.

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Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Carey's fantasy epic takes place in a secondary world, but it's basically medieval Europe with one major change (besides magic). Instead of worshipping Jesus, people in her version of France worship Jesus' illegitimate son Elua, who teaches a gospel of love and pleasure. This leads to a world where sex workers are celebrated and BDSM is an accepted part of life. The book follows Phèdre nó Delaunay as she is trained as a courtesan and a spy. She uncovers conspiracies and betrayals that threaten to destroy Terre D'Ange.

What did we miss? Name your own unconventional alt-histories below!

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Most Unusual Alternate History Novels Ever Published

An unbelievably gruesome epidemic is ravaging starfish populations onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com An unbelievably gruesome epidemic is ravaging starfish populations

A mysterious illness has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of starfish on North America's west coast, and its symptoms are horrifying. Dubbed "sea star wasting syndrome," the arms of an infected individual will twist into knots, develop lesions, and finally crawl away in opposite directions until they tear away from its body, allowing its insides to spill out.

Researchers still aren't sure how the disease spreads, let alone where it comes from. What they do know is that sea stars occupy a pivotal niche in ocean ecosystems, and large-scale die outs are almost certainly a very bad sign. In a fascinating piece that's as sad as it is disturbing, PBS special correspondent Katie Campbell reports on how researchers and citizen scientists are teaming up to investigate the spread of the mysterious syndrome:

Want to help researchers figure out what's going on? Head here and here to learn how you can help scientists track the incidence and spread of the syndrome with photographs and the hashtag #sickstarfish.

[PBS]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com An unbelievably gruesome epidemic is ravaging starfish populations

Sorry, Intelligence, but your princess is in another castle. onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Sorry, Intelligence, but your princess is in another castle.

Last night's Intelligence had a bit of a video game plot going on: each time the characters thought they'd reached their goal, they were presented with a new challenge. And yet, the fact that it was light on the emotional drama and heavy on the mission made this episode the best yet.

Congratulations, Intelligence, you managed to have an actual mission this week! AND scenes that made Gabriel's chip seem useful. That's a lot of progress for a single episode.

"Secrets of the Secret Service" had Riley and Gabriel going undercover as Secret Service agents assigned to ex-President Finnegan. Finnegan's going to Syria to negotiate for the release of two American journalists being held there. Wait a minute. This sounds familiar.

Anyway, while Finnegan's negotiating with the Syrians, Riley, Gabriel, and that-guy-on-the-team-that-has-no-defining-features are going to the facility where the journalists are being held. Gabriel goes to rescue the journalists, and the chip's usefulness is actually shown! He's tapped into their security system. From there, Gabriel's got a floor plan and has tapped the security camera feeds. You know, the map in the corner of Gabriel's vision made this look even more like a video game.

Of course, Gabriel immediately thinks he's tripped an alarm and freaks out, only for Phlox jr. to tell him that he's disabled the alarms. Seriously, they need to cut Gabriel off from home base on these missions. They keep undermining the show's attempts to make him cool.

When Gabriel gets to the cell, he discovers that the people they've been sent to rescue are not really journalists as they are "journalists." They're CIA, which really seems like something that their rescue team should have been told in advance. Anyway, one of the "journalists" pulls the "princess is another castle" card: She tells Gabriel that she refuses to be rescued unless her mission, which is apparently to get a missile systems scientist, is completed. So Gabriel and Riley have to find her before they can rescue the "journalists."

Once they figure out that the scientist they're looking for is an American woman married to a Syrian, they approach her in the market. But, too bad, there's another princess: the scientist wants her daughter rescued, too. Riley gets the daughter by posing as her aunt picking her up from school.

So now they have the daughter and the scientist, so they can get the "journalists." Except, oops, the CIA wasn't trying to rescue the scientist. They were there to assassinate her. And now everyone's on a plane together and the new princess is "save the scientist from the CIA agent threatening her with a knife." Riley takes out the CIA agent and the mission is success.

On any other show, this would feel like one (or more) too many plot twists. But since the last three episodes barely seemed to have plots, this was a welcome change. And this episode was completely devoid of any Gabriel-angst. Instead, we got a little background on Riley.

And that background shows up in the form of Michael Trucco, aka Battlestar Galactica's Anders. He's the guy in charge of Finnegan's Secret Service detail. And he's simultaneously an ex of Riley's and the dude who got a promotion off of her work in the Secret Service. So when he gets stabbed a little and is a bit of a wimp, it feels deserved.

Riley and Anders' history was only touched on in a few scenes, and she was refreshingly over any of the drama. Seriously, she was angry at him, but still capable of rationality and competence. In this episode, Riley is shown to be the anti-Gabriel. Plus, with the "emotional" part of this week's episode being carried by her, Gabriel mostly took a backseat. He was so much better there. So much. Leave him there, please.

Now some assorted notes:

• There was a weird thing early in the episode where they revealed that Finnegan had been the president who authorized the creation/utilization of the chip. Phlox jr makes a "Luke, I am your father" joke. Phlox instantly makes clear that, no, he's Gabriel's father. Get it? He is. Dude, don't be so quick to tell your actual son how important it is that you're credited as some other guy's father.


• Finnegan's Secret Service code name was "Tangent." Given that he and his Secret Service agent were absolutely tangents to the main plot, this is either a stroke of brilliant self-awareness or perfect coincidence.


• Speaking of Finnegan, early in the episode, he seems almost creepily into Gabriel and the chip. This goes nowhere, other than Finnegan inviting Gabriel to play golf with him later.


• The look Marg Helgenberger gave Phlox jr. when he bragged about taking out the alarm Gabriel set off was great.


• The CIA totally fucked up this whole thing, and yet CyberCom is the one punished by having to include the CIA in everything. Because the President's worried that Gabriel won't be controllable. I love that they salvaged the CIA's operation, and yet they end up punished.

This episode took all its cues from video games. Its plot was essentially based on a video game convention. Riley's back story was essentially a bunch of easily skippable cut scenes. Gabriel's chip essentially makes him see everything as a video game HUD. And HQ apparently has access to communication technology that cannot be cut, even when they're in DC and the team's in a secret prison in Syria. They act as the pop-up tips you get on a tutorial level. You know what? This show should seek a second life as a video game. It's not like it could do worse than it's doing as a TV show.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Sorry, Intelligence, but your princess is in another castle.

Pixar's Star Wars movie is the best rumor you'll hear all day onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pixar's Star Wars movie is the best rumor you'll hear all day

Grab that figurative grain of salt, and then throw it immediately away. Because while the rumor that Pixar has been assigned its own Star Wars movie is indeed only a rumor, it's frankly too perfect an idea to waste our time worrying whether or not it's true.

Latino Review reported the "news," although anyone who remembers that Disney owns Star Wars, Disney owns Pixar, and Pixar makes good movies, could probably put all the facts together and come out with the same hypothesis. So let's all pretend it is true, and maybe we'll force Disney to conform reality to our wishes.

So what would be your first choice for Pixar's first jaunt a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? That rumored Boba Fett solo movie? More Clone Wars? A feature-length version of the cartoon from the Star Wars Holiday Special? Let us know in the comments.

Amazing Pixar/Star Wars art by Phil Postma.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pixar's Star Wars movie is the best rumor you'll hear all day