Sleepy Hollow: The Politics of Presenting the Present to the Past onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Sleepy Hollow: The Politics of Presenting the Present to the Past

I absolutely apologize for the alliterative awkwardness. So sorry, stopping soon. Ok, now. Anyway, does no one else view SH as (among other things) a satire of (mostly rightwing) American politics? No? Just me? Because I think it's a rather fun one, too.

(Yes, this is overthinking. No, I doubt very much the show has any kind of deliberate political platform. Why write this? because it's fun and just how my brain ticks when it sees things. If you can make it stop, I'm sure my future therapists would like to know how. Moving on.)

So I'm not American and have no personal stake or involvement in the political process in the US, but I am kind of...well, fannish about it. (Such characters! Such narratives! Such awesome sex scandals!) I also know very little about the American revolution as an actual historical series of events, but I am somewhat familiar with it as a great tangled blob of images and names and ideas that is used and abused in current political and ideological debates. Sometimes with great sincerity, sometimes with great cynicism, and sometimes with what appears to be a bizarre political Schroedinger's cat of both. So with that as context, Sleepy Hollow immediately looked like it was set up for political subtext.

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(Would you believe I could find no GIFs of Glenn Beck? Internet, you sadden me today.)

Sleepy Hollow seems to go out of it's way to trample all over that Revolutionary-mythmaking. The American Revolution here has been turned to brazenly puply nonsense. Demons, witches, portals, headless Hessians with sub-machine guns, lost colonies that speak Middle English, Masonic conspiracy theories, zombie George Washington. Dude. Zombie George Washington.

Presenting the past to the present is a constant thing and it's almost impossible for it to not have an ideological slant. Emphasizing or eliding the history of women, or of slaves, or of Native Americans, or of working class people, is political. Focusing on this side or that side of a conflict is political, etc. That's pretty standard stuff and we run into it all the time, from tv shows to textbooks. What the Sleepy Hollow does that's a little weirder is that it has put itself in the position of presenting the present to the past.

Ichabod Crane isn't just some random time traveler from the 18th century - he's a revolutionary, a fighter, a radical. He's a political traitor. He isn't just lost, he's exiled. He knew half of those iconic names in the great American Revolution imagery-blob personally and might have ended up one of them himself. He was fighting for a cause, one he joined on ideological grounds, and the show has him in the very odd position of seeing, in a way, how what he fought for "turned out".

Abbie has to make certain choices when she's telling him about the world of 2013 - when she tells him in a deadpan tone in the pilot that, yes, she's a Black, female police officer, that might read as neutral to Crane - but that's because he's missing 200+ years of context. Abbie knows it's not a neutral statement in 2013, not quite, and the audience knows it too - but there's something empowering in seeing her do it anyway. Ichabod is a literal straight, white, dead guy, and she's in a position to simply inform him as a matter of fact that the reality of the world is that it naturally includes Black, female police officers.

But that's just the characters. The show itself isn't reality. It has worldbuilding and it's making choices in the image of the world it's choosing to present, and keep presenting, Ichabod and the audience with. The Revolution is still terribly important, after all - good and evil, save the world, etc, and Ichabod is a fairly political person who's opinions get aired a lot - abolitionist, ur-feminist, environmentalist, anti-consumer, etc. He is the dead, white guy, but he's not a bad guy.

The show likes him and likes his politics...and I think it's kind of trying to please him. Or, well, please us - the audience. It wants to keep giving us those moments of empowerment that "we" - 2013 - can use to prove to Ichabod that we're both living up to him and maybe doing better than he might have expected.

So, if that made any sense, I think it's kind of neat to look at the world of Sleepy Hollow in that context - for example, at the unusual diversity of the cast, which is still (deplorably) pretty rare on tv. At the prominence and capability of the female characters. The show has put itself in a position where it's much harder for it to have a white-washed cast or token-female characters, because at some point it was always going to have to explain to Ichabod about what women can do in 2013, and about what people of color can do in 2013. And having that explained to the white guy by a bunch of other white guys, without a woman or a person of color anywhere to be seen, would have been very, very awkward indeed.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Sleepy Hollow: The Politics of Presenting the Present to the Past

The Greatest Rocket Scientist Who Ever Lived onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Greatest Rocket Scientist Who Ever Lived

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A fringe thinker is someone who thinks outside the box. Sometimes they even invent their own box and then think outside of that.

Astronomy and astronautics have certainly had more than their share of these people, who range from the usual UFO nuts and hollow earth enthusiasts to mathematical geniuses who have proved that everything Einstein said was wrong and have the numbers to prove it. In fairness, it might be better to call these people "Independent Thinkers". For the most part, they are absolutely sincere, however wrong-headed they may be. Some are poorly educated, but others are trained scientists — so one sometimes hesitates to dismiss a weird idea out of hand.

Astronomer Patrick Moore described the Independent Thinker as a "genuine, well-meaning person, who is not hidebound by convention, and who is always ready to strike out on a line of his own — frequently, though not always, in the face of all the evidence."

One of the greatest of all the Independent Thinkers associated with space flight was Constantin Paul van Lent, who was never hidebound by convention. Born in Greece in 1905 as Constantin Tselentis, he came to the US where he became a naturalized citizen. He changed his name to the more pronounceable (and more Anglo- sounding) Lent, and eventually the even more impressive-sounding "Dr. Constantin Paul van Lent".

He was a trained mechanical engineer and skilled draftsman who made his living largely by providing the detailed drawings inventors required for their patent applications. Lent had scores of patents of his own to his credit, from toys to atomic-powered rocket automobiles. These included the fabulous "Monocycle", a one-wheeled motorcycle that was actually built and made national news. It's one of the scariest-looking vehicles you'll have ever seen.

Later in life, Lent grew... I won't say bitter, but genuinely saddened by what he felt was a lack of credit given to him and his fellow rocketry pioneers and spent countless hours writing letters to the White House and the National Air & Space Museum in a futile effort to gain the recognition he felt he deserved. He died in 1977, struck by a car as he was crossing a street in New York.

Lent was also fascinated by rockets and the idea of space travel. In the early 1930s he became a member of the American Rocket Society, which had only recently been founded by half a dozen enthusiastic young men (the ARS eventually became the prestigious American Astronautical Society, which is still going strong). He was eventually elected vice-president of the society. In his capacity as an engineer, he fabricated some of the first liquid-fuel rocket motors ever constructed in this country.

In 1944, to help raise money for the ARS, he wrote and self-published one of the first books on rocket propulsion to appear in the US. He went on to publish many more books as well as a long-running journal called "Rocket-Jet Flying". The latter is a gold mine of Lent's extraordinary vision and breadth of interests.

Indeed, there is material for a dozen articles in his books and amazing magazine... and I hope to bring more to io9 readers in the future. His scores of original ideas ran the gamut, from flying saucers to transcontinental rocket mail. He developed innumerable ideas for space travel, including the "landing spike," perhaps the most terrifying method of landing on the moon ever devised. (Although he should be given credit for anticipating a method of crashing needle-shaped probes into the crust of comets that has been seriously considered.)

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One of his greatest dreams was the creation of the American Space Foundation, where he hoped to gather all the foremost thinkers of the day. It would have included the world's first space university — which eventually did come to pass in the form of the present-day International Space University, based in Strasbourg, France, though this institution has no direct connection with Lent.

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Lent was a prolific author and his books covered subjects ranging from rocketry to economics, from psychology to the art of manhole covers. One of the subjects that most fascinated Lent was the problem of boosting heavy spacecraft into orbit. And he came up with a couple of astonishing solutions.

In one of these, he solved the problem of a rocket having to carry tons of fuel when lifting from the surface of the earth. Lent wrote in 1958:

"To launch a liquid fuel rocket to a given altitude, its tanks must carry that many gallons of fuel. Additional fuel must be taken along to lift the fuel load...This is a vicious cycle which may be resolved launching the rocket not from a zero position but from a rocket launcher... The only real disadvantage in such a system is the fact that such launcher platform must too carry its own fuel... To overcome this apparent disadvantage, the author suggests the utilization of a self-fueling rocket launcher sled. The sled will not carry the fuel but will scoop it up from a trough as it speeds over the sled tracks."

The idea, in short was to have a rocket-powered sled shooting down a track as it scooped up thousands of gallons of rocket fuel from an open trough beneath. If there's any flaw in this idea I certainly fail to see it.

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Lent also put a great deal of thought into using giant guns to launch spacecraft. In 1957, he came up with an idea inspired by Jules Verne. A 500-foot vertical shaft would be dug out of solid rock. The bottom 1/4 of the shaft would be filled with "combustible fuel." A concrete cap would plug this and on top of the cap would be the 21 thousand-pound spaceship. The fuel would be ignited by a large detonator made of dynamite. Perfectly aware that the acceleration created would instantly kill his astronauts, Lent suggested they be frozen first.

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But this cannon was small potatoes, compared to what he'd proposed a couple of years earlier. He again had a giant cannon bored into the top of a mountain, but instead of using a high explosive to launch his spaceship he planned to use an atomic bomb. At the bottom of a 200-foot shaft 23 feet wide would be a spherical chamber. Suspended from a 50-foot tower in the center of the hollow chamber was an atomic bomb. The remainder of the chamber was filled with powdered steel and aluminum. The spaceship sat on an enormous concrete plug above all this.

When the bomb is detonated "the powdered material turns into metallic vapor; the high speed gases thus produced launching the satellite body or rocket into space." Aware of the problem of friction, Lent planned to overcome this by detonating a second atomic bomb at the top of the mountain. This explosion "will create a vacuum over the cannon's open muzzle and help cut air resistance." Don't laugh, Lent cautioned. "This plan is not as fantastic as it seems. First of all, it is a natural." After all, he explained, the planets themselves are little more than projectiles "launched from the mother sun by means of atom explosions".

Never one to think small, Lent even suggest launching entire space stations into orbit this way.

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I don't know what really would have happened when the switch was thrown, but I'll bet anything it would have made a Space Shuttle launch look like a bottle rocket.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Greatest Rocket Scientist Who Ever Lived

Listen to the Lego Movie song that will dominate your life onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Listen to the Lego Movie song that will dominate your life

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Take a listen to The Lego Movie original song "Everything Is Awesome" by Tegan & Sara and The Lonely Island, and get ready to have your brain assimilate toin the Lego lifestyle.

This song is a pivotal part of The Lego Movie, and by the end of the film this song will be in your head for the rest of your life, so just get it over with now and start loving it. Also we very much expect this to be a massive part of the Comic-Con convention "free hugs" scene. So just get with the team.

[Via Just Jared]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Listen to the Lego Movie song that will dominate your life

The world's oldest cancer is 11,000 years old, and still around today onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The world's oldest cancer is 11,000 years old, and still around today

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Scientists have finally unlocked the sequence of the world's oldest surviving cancer — an 11,000-year-old, sexually-transmitted genital cancer that still affects dogs today.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, led by Elizabeth Murchison, published the new research in Science. The cancer first arose in a single dog over 11,000 years ago, and has been passing around among dogs ever since, although scientists didn't know that when they first started out. They simply knew that it was a very old cancer. To get their first hints of its age, they pored through old veterinary literature, and were able to find records of it existing all the way back in 1810.

But they suspected that it might actually be much older than 200 years old, so they turned to the genetic code for answers. While most cancers top out at around 5,000 mutations in their genome, this one had an incredible 1.9 million. Among those mutations was one that is known to mutate at a steady rate over time, so scientists were able to use it as a "molecular clock" to find the cancer's real age, dating back 11,000 years.

Since the genome of the cancer also contained the genome of the dog with which it had originated, they were also able to cull some facts about the dog as well. Scientists say it would have been similar to a Husky today, and likely lived in an isolated area, as the cancer only began to become common around the globe in the last 500 years or so. The research team made this sketch of what they think their patient zero may have looked like, equally suitable for publishing in scientific journals or just hanging up on the fridge:

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So what's the story behind the cancer's amazing longevity? Scientists have pinned it down to two factors. The first factor is that the cancer is transmittable, which is extremely rare among cancers, and gives this one the ability to spread rapidly through a population. But the feature that really has the scientists interested is how impervious the cancer seems to have been to dogs' immune systems throughout the years, which they think may have something to do with one of the almost two million mutations throughout its genome. The next step, they say, is to try and learn more about them.

Check out this video of the researchers explaining their process, or read the full paper here.

Images and video: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The world's oldest cancer is 11,000 years old, and still around today

Loving Vincent, the First Ever Feature-Length Painted Animation onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Loving Vincent, the First Ever Feature-Length Painted Animation

Imagine, if you will, a feature-length animation about the life and death of post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. Now imagine that the animation is made entirely from paintings created in Van Gogh's iconic style, and you're beginning to understand why we're so excited about Loving Vincent.

The movie is currently in production at Oscar-winning studio BreakThru Films, and will be the first feature-length film animated entirely through hand-painted canvases. Remember the 35-minute version of Blade Runner that was created in 12,597 watercolor paintings? Loving Vincent is a little like that, but more labor intensive. BreakThru describes the project on its Kickstarter page, where the studio is raising money to bring the project to fruition:

Every film you see is actually a collection of still images, played back at a speed that makes it appear to be moving. In our film about Vincent Van Gogh, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE individual images will be a painting in the style of Van Gogh. That means our 40 painters (which we will be able to train thanks to YOUR support) will create 56,800 PAINTINGS to make this film!! To make this possible OUR WONDERFUL TEAM created PAWS (Painted Animation Work Stations) that allows us to make the demanding process of stop-motion painting as efficient as possible, by allowing our artists to focus on the painting as opposed to the animation. In fact, over the past 18 months of R&D we've managed to halve the painting time of each frame, while maintaining the individuality of the painters.

And here's what the PAWS look like in person:

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Pretty incredible, no? We hesitate to call Loving Vincent a more daunting undertaking than this 35-minute version of Blade Runner, which was animated with 12,597 watercolor paintings, seeing as it will ultimately represent the work of significantly more people (although Loving Vincent will also involve more paintings, of arguably greater detail); but we think you'll agree it looks impressive. We can't wait to see where this project goes.

[Loving Vincent via COLOSSAL]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Loving Vincent, the First Ever Feature-Length Painted Animation

The Day of the Triffids remake actually sounds kind of great onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Day of the Triffids remake actually sounds kind of great

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The 1962 "so bad it's great" The Day of the Triffids movie is getting a remake that kind of sounds rather awesome. Mainly due to the people the studio just hired to remake the gigantic, deadly plant movie.

Deadline is reporting that Mike Newell of Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be replacing Sam Raimi as director for Day of the Triffids, which is kind of amazing. He'll be working with a script from Mama writer Neil Cross, another great score.

The movie is centered around a mysterious comet that blinds most of the population on Earth. Those who remain are forced to battle the deadly plant monsters with poison whips and the ability to walk around on their roots.

Not sure if Raimi will remain involved in the project, but we hope he does. Wither way getting Newell is a score for wacky movie nerds everywhere. This might actually be good!

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Day of the Triffids remake actually sounds kind of great

It's Friday! Let's GIF this party started onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com It's Friday! Let's GIF this party started

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We're wrapping this week up with a party! No need to crash, GIFs. You're all invited.

How did the week go for you? What did you see and do? Tell us about the high points, the low points, and everything in between through our chosen language of GIF.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com It's Friday! Let's GIF this party started

People Really Want That Other Scary-Cool Virtual Reality Headset, Huh? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com People Really Want That Other Scary-Cool Virtual Reality Headset, Huh?

Small screens inches away from your eyes. Light beamed directly at your retinas. At this rate, the next war for cutting-edge display supremacy will be happening on your face. Sometime in the near future, the headgear showdown is going to be the Oculus Rift vs. the just-funded-twice-over Avengant Glyph. Ophthalmologists of the world, prepare!

We last saw this tech back in October, when it was dubbed as the Virtual Retinal Display. A new, sleeker prototype was shown off when a Kickstarter campaign launched two days ago and, faster than you can Double Fine Adventure, the hybrid headphone/display device blew past its funding goal. They asked for $250,000 and are currently at $552,207.

Avegant's promising that the Glyph will have built-in head tracking, which atches a feature added to the newest Crystal Cove iteration of the Oculus Rift that Valve's getting behind in a big way. The built-in audio solution, though, makes the Glyph more of an all-in-one device than the Rift.

Of course, consumer versions of both of these devices are still a ways off and who knows if they'll deliver on all of their promises. Still, it's my prediction that the coming Glyph vs. Rift Wars—which sounds like something Kilgore Trout would write—will leave a small but fervent subset of early adopters with bruised wallets and dangerously exhausted eyeballs. Then, decades later, people will stop talking to each other entirely.

Where do I sign up?

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com People Really Want That Other Scary-Cool Virtual Reality Headset, Huh?

The closest supernova observed in 25 years is getting brighter onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The closest supernova observed in 25 years is getting brighter

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Three days ago, a white dwarf went supernova in nearby Galaxy M82. A starburst galaxy, M82 is a popular target for telescopes on account of its brightness. But its newly formed supernova, which astronomers have named SN 2014J, just became the brightest object in all the galaxy – and it's only going to get brighter.

This photograph, which was captured by astrophotographer and astronomy educator Adam Block, was taken on January 23rd. A flourishing star-factory just 12-million light years away, M82 is positively brimming with celestial light, and roughly five times more luminous than our own Milky Way. But SN 2014J blazes boldly, clearly visible amidst the starry milieu. And here's the awesome part: By some estimates, this Type Ia supernova is still TWO WEEKS away from achieving peak brightness.

This thing is already visible in the night sky through a small telescope. We can't wait to see what it looks like come February.

We've written about Block's astrophotography previously here and here. For more of his work, check out his galleries on his website and at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter.

[Adam Block via NASA APOD]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The closest supernova observed in 25 years is getting brighter

Marvel's bringing two more super-characters to Agents of SHIELD onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Marvel's bringing two more super-characters to Agents of SHIELD

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Now this is more like it. After announcing that Lady Sif would make an appearance on Agents of SHIELD, Marvel's Jephn Loeb announced that two more comics characters were also appearing on the show — the cyborg Deathlok and the Asgardian sorceress Lorelei. And the kicker is that we've already met Deathlok.

Here's what Loeb had to say (via Deadline):

The Marvel Comics character Deathlok will appear on ABC's Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. beginning next month, Marvel TV chief Jeph Loeb said today during the show's TCA set visit presentation. The character Mike Peterson, played by J August Richards on the series, will become the cyborg. "We've been leaving breadcrumbs along the way," Loeb said. "This is a major Marvel character appearing on TV, on film for the first time."

"Major" is debatable, but turning the previously established character into Marvel's undead cyborg assassin is a great idea. I can easily see Centipede turning Peterson into Deathlok, then Coulson and crew freeing him from his programming to join the good guys again. My only question is whether the character's human portion will look as corpse-like as he is in the comics.

As for Lorelei, she's the little sister of the more major Thor villainess the Enchantress, and one of many goddesses who desperately wants to be having sex with Thor; she'll be stopping by the episode in which Sif is slated to appear. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Lorelei enchants Agent Ward — if not all the male agents on the bus. Any takers?

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Marvel's bringing two more super-characters to Agents of SHIELD

Does a new Walking Dead photo spell disaster for one major character? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Does a new Walking Dead photo spell disaster for one major character?

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The Day of the Triffids and Assassin's Creed movies both get directors. Simon Kinberg explains how Star Wars: Rebels will show the evils of the Empire on a children's show. And Pan gets a Hook! Carrie Fisher wants to resurrect part of Princess Leia's classic look. Check out a new poster for Hunger Games: Mockingjay and a trailer for the witch show Salem. Spoilers now!

Top image: Walking Dead

The Day of the Triffids

The film adaptation of everyone's favorite carnivorous plant invasion book has a director: Mike Newell. This could be good, since Newell also directed Four Weddings And A Funeral, Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. On the other hand, he also directed Prince of Persia. [Deadline]

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Pan

Garrett Hedlund has been cast as Hook in this Peter Pan origin story. In this story, a younger Hook will be an ally of Peter, fighting against a different pirate: Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). [Deadline via First Showing]

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Star Wars: Episode VII

In case there was still any doubt, Carrie Fisher confirmed again that she's going to be back as Princess Leia in the new movie. She told TVGuide that she, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford are expected to start shooting in March or April. She added: "I'd like to wear my old [cinnamon buns] hairstyle again — but with white hair. I think that would be funny." [TV Guide]

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I, Frankenstein

In this interview, Aaron Eckhardt talks about training to fight with sticks, working with director Stuart Beattie, and the good vs. evil/gargoyles vs. demons epicness of I, Frankenstein. Watch below!

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Assassin's Creed

Rumor has it that the producers are hoping to get director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) for the video game-based film. If that happens, Espinosa won't have a lot of time, since the release date is set for August 7, 2015. Michael Fassbender is co-producing and starring. [Twitch via Coming Soon]

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Transformers 4: Age of Extinction

Transfomers 4 has returned to China's Wulong Karst National Park to get some additional footage. According to Michael Bay, the original scene shot in that location was a big "heroic" scene for Optimus Prime. This time around, the crew used helicopters to get aerial footage of the area's tiankengs (giant dolines) and naturally formed bridges. [Transformers World]

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

Here's a brand new poster. [Slashfilm]

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Ant-Man

The release date has been moved to July 17, 2015, which is the date vacated by the recently pushed up Batman Vs. Superman. [Coming Soon]

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The Walking Dead

There's a new photo from episode 4.09, which Robert Kirkman says will hew very closely to the comic it's based on. In Issue 49, Rick and Carl go to a store for supplies, leaving the prison. There, Rick tries to put an axe in the head of a walker. And Rick lures a walker outside to be shot by Carl. Next, the two hide in the house, where Rick takes a bunch of antibiotics. While the antibiotics knock Rick out, some walkers show up and Carl leads them away from the house. It looks like that last sentence is being teased in the new photo. [Wet Paint]

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Speaking of episode 4.09, here's a short description of it:

As Rick deals with old wounds, members of the prison have to come to terms with their new environment and ask themselves if survival alone is enough.

[SpoilerTV]

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Star Wars Rebels

Executive producer Simon Kinberg says that, while it's on Disney XD, the show's universe forces it to sometimes take a darker tone:

But the world we're creating is an Imperial world. You're seeing the impact of the Empire, of stormtroopers around the galaxy, abusing and oppressing people. Thematically and politically, it goes to some dark places. But for the tone of the show we took our cues from the original movies, which had fun and adventure and swashbuckling with emotion and grounded human characters. We took all our cues from the original films. Obviously there are slight tonal differences between New Hope, Empire and Jedi. But I think the closest intended voice of the show is A New Hope. So there are places where we get into darker backstories, there are places we see how cruel and malevolent the Empire can be, but for the most part it's a fun and character-driven story. Again taking our cues from the original films, it's less maybe political than the prequels and more personal. It starts with a few character introductions that will precede the show. I wrote the first two episodes, they're like a one-hour story across two episodes where we introduce the main characters in the show.

He also talked about how much they worked on the new villain, "the Inquisitor," and hinted that he has some special connection to the Jedi:

We wanted somebody terrifying, a nightmare character for a kid but not somebody too foreign, too creature-ly. We didn't want him to have a helmet for obvious reasons — the comparison [to Darth Vader]. We talked about a character who was cold and calculating and could tap into people's emotional weaknesses as much as their physical weaknesses, and had a specific relationship to Jedi and the ways of the force. He would be somebody that the remaining Jedi would be especially scared of.

More at the link. [Entertainment Weekly]

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The Originals

Even though Davina was killed, executive producer Julie Plec explained that there's still a chance for her to come back and that the ritual to resurrect Davina can still be completed:

Look, the mythology of the Harvest is that these four witches pass into limbo, waiting for their magic to spread back to the Earth. After their magic is spread back to the Earth, then they would be resurrected. What we saw at the end of the episode is that their magic was, basically, hijacked. If you follow the logic of the mythology to its magical conclusion, then it's possible that we haven't seen the last of these girls. But we've got to get rid of these nasty hijackers first.

. . . There is absolutely still a chance within the window of when it needs to be completed. But these new witches who have come back from the dead are very determined, very angry, and each of them, individually, have an axe to grind on behalf of the witches [against] the Original family. The next few episodes are not going to be a lot of fun for Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah. They start to realize these witches were not arbitrarily chosen.

Plec also said that we will eventually see Celeste explain what she's doing and Klaus will know why she's zeroed in on that family. [TV Line]

Go here for more photos from 1.12, "Dance Back from the Grave." Looks like it's going to be flashback heavy. [SpoilerTV]

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Helix

We already know that the show's focus is going to widen a little, in order to introduce new characters, like the one played by Jeri Ryan. But the world itself will widen when Alan and his infected ex-wife go to an off-base "listening station." Actor Billy Campbell says that this set, which will be in an upcoming episode, is "dreadfully, dreadfully creepy."

Campbell and Jordan Hayes also agree that their characters, Alan Farragut and Sarah Jordan, have a "mentor/student" kind of relationship and not a romantic one. Hayes elaborated on how her character views Alan, saying:

I think that Sarah has a lot of admiration for Alan. And she really holds his opinion in high esteem. And she really wants to make him proud and improve her worth and impress him

[TV Equals]

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Grimm

Here's a photo of Monroe's parents, from tonight's episode. Video of them at the link. [Entertainment Weekly]

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Salem

The newest trailer for WGN America's witch-hint show is not afraid of blood. Although, honestly, Seth Gabel's Cotton Mather's scarier. He's going to be the lead witch hunter, with Janet Montgomery as a sorceress and Ashley Madekwe as her minion. [TV Line]

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Arrow

Below, see the original promo and an extender trailer for episode 2.12, "Tremors." It looks like it's going to be Roy-riffic. [via SpoilerTV, SpoilerTV]

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Supernatural

Episode 9.18 will be called "Meta Fiction." [SpoilerTV]

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Tomorrow People

Here's the promo for episode 1.12, "Sitting Ducks." [via SpoilerTV]

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Almost Human

Go here for more photos from episode 1.1o, "Perception." [SpoilerTV]

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Revolution

Below's the promo for episode 2.13, "Happy Endings." [via SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Charlie Jane Anders and Emily Stamm

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Does a new Walking Dead photo spell disaster for one major character?

This image reveals the extreme power of a single black hole onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com This image reveals the extreme power of a single black hole

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You're looking at a black hole so massive and powerful that it destroys the stars around it before they can even form.

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford/J.Hlavacek-Larrondo et al, Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/M.Postman & CLASH team

According to a release from the Chandra Observatory:

The black hole is in a galaxy cluster named RX J1532.9+3021 (RX J1532 for short), located about 3.9 billion light years from Earth. The image here is a composite of X-ray data from Chandra revealing hot gas in the cluster in purple and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope showing galaxies in yellow. The cluster is very bright in X-rays implying that it is extremely massive, with a mass about a quadrillion - a thousand trillion - times that of the sun. At the center of the cluster is a large elliptical galaxy containing the supermassive black hole.

The large amount of hot gas near the center of the cluster presents a puzzle. Hot gas glowing with X-rays should cool, and the dense gas in the center of the cluster should cool the fastest. The pressure in this cool central gas is then expected to drop, causing gas further out to sink in towards the galaxy, forming trillions of stars along the way. However, astronomers have found no such evidence for this burst of stars forming at the center of this cluster . . .

The X-ray image shows two large cavities in the hot gas on either side of the central galaxy. The Chandra image has been specially processed to emphasize the cavities. Both cavities are aligned with jets seen in radio images from the VLA. The location of the supermassive black hole between the cavities is strong evidence that the supersonic jets generated by the black hole have drilled into the hot gas and pushed it aside, forming the cavities.

Shock fronts - akin to sonic booms - caused by the expanding cavities and the release of energy by sound waves reverberating through the hot gas provide a source of heat that prevents most of the gas from cooling and forming new stars.

The cavities are each about 100,000 light years across, roughly equal to the width of the Milky Way galaxy. The power needed to generate them is among the largest known in galaxy clusters. For example, the power is almost 10 times greater than required to create the well-known cavities in Perseus.

Read more via NASA

Here's the full monte:

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onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com This image reveals the extreme power of a single black hole

Revolution gives good plague onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Revolution gives good plague

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It is with great relief that I would like to report that last night's Revolution was actually kind of awesome. With family drama at a minimum, we got a taste of creepy high-tech, post-tech fascist terrorism.

With Gramps and Charlie sucked into taking care of the typhus victims, we actually get a "solve that medical mystery" episode, which is kind of awesome in this half-Victorian, half-posthuman world. Rachel joins the gang, grudgingly admitting that they are on the same side as evil Patriot occupation force leader Truman when it comes to saving the town. It's fun to see Rachel being a mad scientist, concocting an impromptu lab and testing blood samples to figure out more about he pathogen.

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She quickly figures out that the typhus is actually an engineered strain, "which isn't even communicable." Things get extra creepy when Rachel realizes that the only people stricken with the "epidemic" are ill or disabled in some way. The Patriots are trying to "purify" the town, leaving only the strongest alive. The implication is clear, albeit slightly clunkily presented: the Patriots are eugenics-style fascists, with advanced biotech capabilities.

At that moment, Gramps is stricken with the plague, so Rachel calls in Miles, Monroe and Doughboy to kidnap Truman. They've got a handy syringe of sim-typhus microbes and jam it into his neck — and now, like magic, Truman is willing to get some antidote for everybody. Unfortunately, Doughboy is tasked with going to the antidote stash, and the Patriots catch them. There's a big standoff, and we can all hope that somehow Doughboy will die heroically delivering the antidote before he helps to found the New Charloe Republic.

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We've never really seen this side of the Patriots, and it does feel a bit left-field. At the same time, we know the Patriots are obsessed with the nano as well as other biomed tech from the Time Before. They are definitely authoritarians, too. So why not give them a master race fixation? Works for me.

Meanwhile, it was fun to see Julia and Neville's plan get borked when Chief figured out that they were brewing secret plans — you know, because he had a guy tailing Julia in the most basic form of security imaginable. All those brains they talked about having in their yucky backwoods rape/kill flashback sequences? Not so brainy, I guess. Now the entire Neville clan is being tortured by the Patriots.

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And in Google town, the nano are getting even more horrible, putting on the body of his dead girlfriend Cynthia and telling him to go to Lubbock, Texas. When Priscilla tries to back out of the whole walk to Texas thing, the nano turn into angry fireflies again and try to smash her by knocking over a huge tree. So the nano are basically competing with the Patriots to be the most powerful fascist regime on Earth.

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Please stop giving me that look, Google, or I really will spank you.

Luckily, the nano are also kind of insane and only a few years old. So many they'll grow out of the whole "We are everywhere and will light fire anytime we want" attitude. To return to the point I began with, this was an example of what this show can be when it's not mired in patriarchy melodrama. It was a great worldbuilding and character-developing episode, where we saw the Patriots' plan unfolding in an interesting way — and realized that the science in this future is getting weirder.

More of this, please — thanks!

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Revolution gives good plague

You can finally buy World War Z's ultimate zombie-killing weapon onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com You can finally buy World War Z's ultimate zombie-killing weapon

Or as near enough as makes no difference. ThinkGeek is now offering the new "Crovel Extreme II", a super-utility weapon that bears more than a passing similarity to the Lobo that helped our boys defeat the undead in the original World War Z novel.

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Obviously, the Lobo didn't make it into the World War Z movie — along with about a million other things — but the Shaolin spade-esque weapon has clearly inspired this new version ThinkGeek utility tool. The new Crovel "functions as shovel, hammer, crowbar, woodworking chisel, saw, and bottle opener," and the shovel can be folded down when you're not in the middle of fleeing a horde of zombies. While it lacks the super-sharp edge of the Lobo, you'll note the Crovel's shovel end has a serrated edge that should take care of most of your zombie decapitation needs. Also, it's not fictional, which is super helpful.

The Crovel Extreme II is $140, but an extra $30 gets you a reversible steel "super spike" that you can place on the end for improved skull puncturing as well.

[Via Unreality]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com You can finally buy World War Z's ultimate zombie-killing weapon

She's trapped in a barbaric past, and she just wants to help people onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com She's trapped in a barbaric past, and she just wants to help people

Jemima Brookwater comes from a distant future, where the superscience of metaphysics has solved a lot of our problems. But after she discovers a unique method of traveling through time, she finds herself trapped in the Gaven Empire, a horrible period on Earth's history that lasted for hundreds of years and included atrocities that would make your brain boil to contemplate. She keeps jumping through time trying to get back to the future she comes from, but somehow she always seems to arrive at another point during the Gaven Empire's long history.

How does she travel? Without giving away too much, let's just say she needs someone important and famous to die unexpectedly, creating lots of ripples in causality. She searches out deaths that were already "supposed" to happen according to her history books. Other time travelers, however, aren't so scrupulous.

Ythna came to the Beldame's household when she was barely old enough to walk. They took her from the nursery block in the middle of the night, with nothing but the simple koton robe she was wearing, and carried the tiny girl to a black shiny vehicle, a Monopod. Sitting in the back, wearing a neat gray uniform and matching black gloves and shoes, was an Officiator, who asked the young Ythna some questions. The next thing she knew, she was riding a white cage on a wire over the mountains, up to the gilded fortress where she would serve the Beldame for the rest of her days, if she was lucky.

Ythna forgot the Officiator's face, or whatever else he said to her, but she would always remember what he said as she stepped, barefoot, out of the cage as the sun rose over the golden house. He knelt before her and spoke gently: "You are but one of a thousand retainers to the Beldame. But each of you is a finger, or a toe. Your movements are her movements. Do not make her a disgrace."

Ythna lived in a tiny yellow dormitory room with nine other small children, all of them sharing white-and-red uniforms and eating from the same dispensary. Ythna learned to read and write basic Gaven texts, and worked in the cavernous kitchen and boiler room of the golden fortress, which was called Parathall. At night, the other children teased Ythna and pinched her in places where the bruises wouldn't show on her golden-brown skin, under her retainer uniform. Two girls, the pale, blonde Maryn and the olive-toned Yuli, appointed themselves the rulers of Children's Wing, and if Ythna didn't please Maryn and Yuli she found herself sealed inside a small wooden linen box, suffocating, sometimes overnight.

Every moment people weren't looking, Ythna wept into her loose sleeve. Until one day when she brought some hot barley wine to the Beldame herself, doing the five-point turn as she'd been taught, ending up on one knee with the tray raised before the wrought iron chair.

Ythna was eight or nine years old, and she made sure not to look at the Beldame's white round face, as she knelt. But in Ythna's eagerness to avoid looking on her mistress, she found herself gazing, instead, at the papers the Beldame was studying. Ythna started reading them, until the Beldame noticed.

"You can read that?" the Beldame said.

Ythna nodded, terrified.

"And tell me, what do you think of it?" the Beldame asked.

Ythna stammered at first, but at last she shared a few thoughts about the document, which dealt with the rebellious offworld colonists, and the problems with maintaining order in the fringes of the Empire here on Earth. The Beldame asked more questions, and Ythna answered as best she could. After that, the Beldame sent her away—but then Ythna found herself chosen to bring food and drink to the Beldame often. And sometimes, the Beldame would invite her to sit for a moment at her feet, and talk to her.

Years passed. One day, word came that the Beldame was going to be elevated to the Emperor's Thousand, so she would be in the same direct relationship to the Emperor that the Beldame's thousand retainers were to her. There would be a massive ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Emperor, at which the Beldame would be given a steel thimble, symbolizing the fact that she was becoming one of the Emperor's own fingers. Ythna couldn't even imagine that she could be one-thousandth of the woman who was one-thousandth of the Emperor. She watched the sunrise between the mountain peaks below the Beldame's arched picture windows and laughed at the floor brush in her hand.

"A lot is going to change for all of us," said Maryn, who had grown into a striking young woman who still bossed around the other retainers. "Strange foods, new places. All the more reason to keep our behavior perfect. The Beldame is counting on us."

Ythna said nothing. She was still smaller than Maryn, barely noticeable except for her ribbons of long black hair, down to her waist, and the way she ran through the stone passages of the fortress, her bare feet as silent as snow melting, when nobody else was around.

The day came nearer, and they all traveled for a week by steam truck and Monopod to the Tomb of the Unknown Emperor. At last, they saw it in the distance, looming over the plains: a great structure, shaped like an old letter M, with two great pillars supporting the black canopy. The Unknown Emperor had lain in state for over a hundred years there, behind a faceless statue that raised one hand to the people who'd served him without knowing his name.

They all lined up in rows, the thousand of them, at the base of the Tomb, while the Beldame climbed to the very top. Some of the retainers were playing small bells, and sweet smoke was coming up out of brass pipes all around them. The Officiators were leading Ythna and the others in ceremonial chants. Ythna could see the tiny figure of the Beldame, emerging on top of the structure, as the Emperor himself bestowed the thimble on her. A voice, one of the Chief Officiators, spoke of the hundreds of years of tradition they honored today.

Ythna thought that she could not be any more deliriously proud than she was at this moment, watching her friend and mistress elevated. Her only wish was that she could see the Beldame Thakrra up close at this moment, to behold the look on Thakrra's face.

A second later, Ythna had her desire. The Beldame lay on the ground directly in front of her, lying on her back, her small body broken by the fall from the top of the structure. Her gentle, lined face was still recognizable, inside her brocaded robe and twelve-peaked silken hat, but she had no expression at all, and blood was leaking out all over the ground, until it lapped against Ythna's bare feet. She could not help but panic that maybe her selfish wish had caused this to happen.

Next to Ythna, Maryn saw the Beldame's corpse and began wailing in a loud, theatrical fashion. The other retainers heard Maryn and followed her lead, making a sound like a family of cats. Ythna, meanwhile, could barely choke out a single tear, and it hurt like a splinter coming out.

Frantic to avoid seeing the Beldame like this, Ythna looked up—just as a strange woman stepped out of the nearest pillar in the Tomb. The woman had long curly red hair under a pillbox hat shaped like one of the lacquered discs where the Beldame had kept her spare monocles. She had a sharp nose and chin, and quick gray eyes. And she wore a long black coat, with embroidered sleeves and shoulders, and shiny brass buttons with cords looping around them. She looked like a commanding general from an old-fashioned foreign army.

The red-haired woman stepped forward, looked around, and took in the scene. Then she said a curse word in a language that Ythna had never heard, and slipped away around the side of the Tomb, before anybody else noticed her.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com She's trapped in a barbaric past, and she just wants to help people

On The Tomorrow People, it's Cara's life with the Thrill Kill Kult onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com On The Tomorrow People, it's Cara's life with the Thrill Kill Kult

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For the second week in a row, Stephen didn't quite feel like the main character of The Tomorrow People — which is a very good thing, since the more we see of the other stars doing their thing, the more fun this show seems to become. And this week, it was all about a gang of mutie criminals. Where's Dredd when you need him?

Spoilers ahead...

Just like last week, this week's episode is all about the consequences of Cara becoming the leader of the Tomorrow People — will they follow her? Will they think she's weak? And she gets a brand new foil who's basically designed to highlight that conflict: Julian, the leader of a group of mutant gang who prey on the 1 percent.

Turns out Cara used to be part of Julian's crew when he was just getting started, and she showed mercy on one of their targets — who then shot Julian's girlfriend. Ever since then, Julian has always hated her. And now he's back in New York and plans to act out the plot of Tower Heist, at least as far as anybody knows what the plot of that movie is.

The basic storyline here is that Cara has to show someone from her past, who used to bully her, that she's tough and she's a great leader. And she has to lead the Tomorrow People into action — even though as she herself points out, the smart thing might be just to sit this one out and let Ultra and the criminal gang wipe each other out.

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But what makes it a bit cooler is that: A) Julian has figured out a way to turn the Tomorrow People's weird inhibition against murder into a kind of drug, getting "high" off the headrush he gets when he almost kills someone. Love this. B) We get a contrast between Cara's nurturing of Charlotte, the young breakout that she rescued from Ultra's Citadel, and Julian's exploitation of vulnerable young people. And in the end, Cara wins because she helped Charlotte harness her screamy head-bursty potential. Yay.

Oh, and Garza from Continuum is part of Julian's gang — presumably infiltrating them on behalf of Liber8.

Anyway, the more awesome Cara gets, the more fun she is to watch. (Partly because her other mode appears to be lip-quivering martyrdom.) And the relationship between her and John is getting more fun, too, as John resolutely backs her leadership while making sure everybody remembers that he's still Mr. Awesome.

Also, Russell tails Julian, and doesn't screw up as badly as everyone expects — although he does manage to get his ass royally kicked.

The episode's "B" plot has to do with Jedikiah suddenly announcing a brand new rule — but for once, it's not a new rule of how the Tomorrow People's powers work. (Although as usual, this episode treats teleportation as something that's either super easy or impossible, depending on what the writers need.) Rather, the new rule is that trainee Ultra agents (like Stephen) get winnowed down, and the ones who don't make the cut have their powers removed. Because Ultra loves to waste valuable resources.

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Stephen is one of three candidates, along with the ultra-competitive Hillary, and some other dude, whose name is Other Dude. In the end, Stephen and Hillary work together to take down Julian's gang after Cara's done all the work for them. And the let Other Dude share the credit, too — it would be funny if Stephen and Julian just high-five each other while watching Other Dude lose his powers.

More importantly, thank goodness we had an Astrid sighting in this episode — and Ultra noticed that Stephen has a non-mutant friend who knows about his mutantitude. This is going to lead to Consequences — meaning that Astrid gets to be a damsel. Um... yay?

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com On The Tomorrow People, it's Cara's life with the Thrill Kill Kult

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Stormy Ride on the Back of a Cyborg Insect onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Concept Art Writing Prompt: Stormy Ride on the Back of a Cyborg Insect

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In a future where people can ride upon giant cyborg insects, do they race them like horses? Or are we watching an ordinary commute on an extraordinary vehicle? It's up to you to create a story inspired by this low-flying bug.

This digital painting by Abe Taraky is titled "Race," and these bugs are certainly speeding along. But tell us your interpretation of this particular image; come up with a short story about insect riders and post it in the comments.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Concept Art Writing Prompt: Stormy Ride on the Back of a Cyborg Insect

Did a Victorian-era penny dreadful inspire the creation of Batman? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Did a Victorian-era penny dreadful inspire the creation of Batman?

Batman is one of the most watched and portrayed fictional characters we have. Earlier today, we looked the tangled history of his creation in comics. But is it possible his origins are even older?

Commenter Michael Munro suggests that we should take a look at an old penny-dreadful as an inspiration to Batman:

IMHO Batman owes a great unacknowledged debt to Spring Heeled Jack, who transitioned from London urban myth (1830s) to melodrama anti-hero (1870s) to prototype superhero (1880s-early 1900s). As written by "penny dreadful" author Alfred Burrage, SHJ was a wealthy aristocrat who assumed the disguise of a devilish, bat-winged avenger of the night, maintained a secret underground lair and used his athletic and technological skills to battle evil-doers - sounds familiar? . . . Basically, the collection of story motifs centered around a wealthy protagonist who assumes a heroic, masked secret identity dates back to Spring Heeled Jack in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. By the time Batman was created, those motifs had already been elaborated in pulp novels - most famously by Johnston McCulley's Zorro character and by Russell Thorndike's "Scarecrow"stories - to the point that they were part of the zeitgeist. Batman was just the most influential comic book manifestation of those themes.

Of course, there are a lot of characters that claim inspiration for our modern takes on Batman, including Sherlock Holmes and, of course, Zorro (who may have also grabbed inspiration from penny dreadfuls himself, suggests Munro).

So, what do you think? Are there other characters that also share origins with Batman? Tell us about them in the comments now.

1st Image: cover of Burrage's novel; 2nd Image: Batman via Garhoul

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Did a Victorian-era penny dreadful inspire the creation of Batman?

The monstrous Sky Whale could be the future of air travel onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The monstrous Sky Whale could be the future of air travel

This concept plane is called the AWWA Sky Whale and it's the brainchild of Spanish designer Oscar Viñals. Should it ever leave the ground, the three-floor aircraft would hold 755 passengers and be powered by four large hybrid engines.

The concept plane was designed with current and future technologies in mind, including micro-solar panels that could charge the engines, self-healing skin with adaptable opacity, active wings to reduce turbulence, and advanced alloys, ceramic and fiber composite materials.

Its engines could rotate up to 45 degrees in a vertical position to assist during take-off and landing, thus reducing the distance of the runway.

Viñals has even designed the plane such that it would break apart on an emergency landing to limit damage.

It will seat about 755 passengers across three levels or floors; the first class on top with "sky views" and "all conceivable luxuries for a trip in an airplane like this," business class in the middle, and tourist class at the bottom "with all the comfort and space to have a pleasant flight."

More at Behance.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The monstrous Sky Whale could be the future of air travel