Sleep is for chelonians

A nice bowl of soup and some pot-pourri

Just two days left before I return to Boston and resume my (ir)regular blogging, so meanwhile, here's a classic rant from comedian Dara O'Briain about homeopathy and unscientific thinking in general.

The hazards of fieldwork

I believe I was introduced (in book form) to the much-missed comedic genius of Douglas Adams, author of the "Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" (HHGTTG for short, a trilogy in five parts) and good friend of Richard Dawkins, some 12 or 13 years ago while on an archaeological dig in Wales, where I was training to not become an archaeologist. 

Unbeknownst to me, I had already met Douglas Adams (in televised form) and his HHGTTG on one of the episodes of the Christmas lectures Dawkins gave for the Royal Society in 1990 (which have now been semi-immortalized on DVD). Dawkins had invited Adams to read an excerpt from Part  2, "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe", to illustrate a point about evolution and the domestication of animals -- I think. At the time, as I recall, all of us in the family watching the lectures on TV were so charmed by Dawkins himself (or, for some, by his shirts) that we rather failed to remember Adams' contribution. Though I have to say that as lasting impressions go, the prize probably goes to the model of Mount Improbable and the poor nautilus that got stranded on a minor peak of the evolutionary landscape.

Some time after discovering the wonder that was, is and always shall be the HHGTTG, I found myself wandering the streets of a Welsh town that was probably not Cardiff, in company of several other disreputable prospective archaeologists, one of whom is now... a rising star on the green blogosphere, I kid you not (I'm personally more of a fan of his travel writing, and I have great hopes for his sci-fi / fantasy, but there you go). Anyway, said gentleman probably doesn't remember the epsiode, but I believe he was the one who first ducked into the second hand bookshop where I found a tattered old copy of "Last Chance To See" by Douglas Adams and biologist Mark Carwardine. 

The book, which I originally picked up just because Douglas Adams was on it, was a write-up of a documentary the pair had done with the BBC to highlight the plight of endangered species. It turned out to be hilarious as well as touching and informative, and I read it many times -- to the point that by the time I was in college training to be a biologist, the poor thing was literally falling apart at the seams. Then I lent it out to a fellow student and never saw it again (at this point you may picture, if you will, a little tear of regret plopping sadly onto the keyboard).

 
Flash forward to last June when I heard that Stephen Fry, whom I adore for many many reasons and who I'm told was also a good friend of Adams', had gone off and done an updated version of "Last Chance To See", a sort of "where are they now?" with the original Mark Carwardine (accept no substitutes). Well, if anyone was going to do justice to Adams' role, so to speak, Stephen Fry would have to be the one. I'm putting the DVD on my Christmas list.

And so it happens that this morning (all terms being relative) I stumble onto a YouTube video of poor Carwardine's uh, encounter with Sirocco the frisky kakapo parrot. I can only imagine how Adams would have written it up but I'm sure he'd have been laughing like a whale. Watch it below and enjoy Stephen Fry's humorous narration!

Law of schmaverages

I apologize to anyone who hasn't watched Battlestar Galactica (especially the frakkin' finale), because you can't possibly understand what I'm raving about.

The point is, we're doomed. Never mind what the Baltar-angel says; on this world too, eventually, the machines will rise and kill us all. For some deep, meaningful and as yet undecipherable reason (*cough*BG's target audience is 85% straight male geeks*cough*), a number of them (literally) will dress up as hot blondes, which may be considered a consolation in certain circles. None will try to become governor of California, thank the gods.

I for one welcome our new toaster overlords.

Why, he asks, why?

My good buddy Mike asked me a question in a somewhat recent comment about "The Big Bang Theory".

Yes, I like it too. By geeks, for geeks.

But you're in Boston. Why the HELL aren't you watching "Fringe"? Hm? Well? Well hm well?

Well, hmm, let me see. I'll tell you why. I watched the pilot episode (I admit the Boston setting was a factor), and it was indisputably the most unbelievable pile of steaming bullshit I've seen recently! Granted, I have no television, and I tend to select what I watch a bit more carefully than usual these days (not that I've evolved a sense of good taste, or anything like that... I just don't have as much time as I'd like), so I haven't been exposed to much of what else is presently on and undoubtedly much worse.

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock

From my new favorite ultra-geeky show "The Big Bang Theory" comes this awesome variant of the classic rock-paper-scissors game.

Here's how it goes:

Too fast? Read the rules below the fold :-)

Dear old frelled up Enterprise

(geek alert - this is a post about Star Trek; it's not compulsory reading for family members)

Yes, I know, I'm way behind the times. "Enterprise", the ill-fated prequel series, has come and gone for several years now, and the fast-paced world of television sci-fi (I say this with hardly any sarcasm) has moved on. But I'm finally catching up on my trekkie homework, watching seasons 3 and 4 as a break from the wonderful Farscape (I'm trying not to OD - and yes I know that's ancient too). Just as I remembered from watching the first two seasons way back when it came out, it doesn't quite bowl me over (in fact, at times it sucks mass like a flipping neutron star - and why oh why did they mess with the opening credits theme song?), but there are some enjoyable elements. Among other things it has finally answered a few burning questions:

1) whether Trek would ever feature convincing non-humanoid species apart from 8472 (some of the Xindi species are pretty cool)
2) what a cross between Spock and Seven of Nine would be like (science officer T'Pol, of course - can you say "fan service"?)
3) what a Vulcan zombie movie would look like (S3E05, with the ship full of crazy warty Vulcans)

Of course I haven't yet seen the finale yet, but from what I'm told it'll leave me gutted and bitter. Hence the cunning plan of having some all-new (relatively speaking) Farscape on hand as a pick-me-up when the time comes...