Sci Fi Jungle

Heroes Season Finale - Season 4, Episode 19

Why did Heroes have to have the best episode in months and have it be the season finale?  No fair!  I've been frustrated with the "Claire and Dad not getting along" and "Claire wants to join the Circus" plotline - but the one that really really stunk was Samuel and the infernal carnival.

As HRG says "I always did hate Carnivals."  I am very glad to see Samuel and his overacting Irish self get into the CIA car.  Hopefully to be never seen or heard from again. Anilox cleaning for that whole plotline.

I do like the idea of Sylar going good.  They went in that direction last year but he relapsed.  I would like to see him really reform, but always retain just a little bit of an edge.  We'll see.  If the series comes back (PLEASE PLEASE NBC) it will be great to see if Sylar's new found hero personality will stick.  At any rate Zachary Quinto is always good to watch.

And as always, if the writers are reading please let me request that Parkman stop acting like a jerk.  He's my favorite Hero and I like it when he is the good guy.   Talk to your wife and please don't mess with the water delivery guys mind just because you are jealous.

If you want to watch the episod online here is the url:

http://www.nbc.com/heroes/video/episodes/#vid=1199942

Hair

Let's face it, I have a lot of hair.  Other people have bad hair days - I have had a bad hair lifetime.  Millennium.  Eon.

I have a major Jew-Fro.  When were were growing up we called it the Jafro.   When Facebook did the doppleganger week meme this past week I made my profile picture Roseanna Roseanadanna.

Well, the good news is I never will need hair supplements.  I have about 3 people's worth of hair so it can thin all it wants and I don't care.  And I get to spend bonding time with my hairdresser while she straightens the rats nest with Keratin straightener.  Woo wee.

What Color are Your Dinosaur Feathers?

A. huxleyi had black and gray body plumage, the team’s investigations suggest. And while the long feathers on the front and side of the creature’s crest were gray, those sprouting from the top and back of its head were reddish-brown. Along with reddish-brown spots on its head and neck, A. huxleyi sported white racing stripes on its legs and its winglike forelimbs.

via www.wired.com

Scientists have mapped out the color scheme of the feathers on dinosaur Anchiornis huxleyi. From the picture it looks a bit like Woody Woodpecker crossed with your worst scary nightmare. Cool!  I wonder if this is what the myth of the dragon came from?  Add some smoke from an electronic cigarette to the model and imagine its a dragon.

Hubble Space Telescope Shows Pluto Changing Color, Ice Sheets Shifting

Newly released Hubble Space Telescope photos show the distant one-time planet — demoted to "dwarf planet" status in 2006 — is changing color and its ice sheets are shifting.

via news.yahoo.com

 

photo - NASA

Whether or not Pluto is considered a planet, it's still interesting. Why is it changing color? Why are the ice sheets shifting?  Apparently it has something to do with changing levels of methane which get blown around by solar winds.  And the ice sheets changing may have to do with the fact that Pluto's journey around the sun takes so long.  Pluto takes 248 years to make it all the way around the sun.  So we haven't had the equipment before to see it at this place in it's orbit. 

Or maybe Pluto is blushing because it got demoted to a planetoid.

Hubble Sights Strange Spaceship-Shaped Object

At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Closer inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail center, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail. Knowing that the object orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a preliminary hypothesis that appears to explain all of the known clues is that P/2010 A2 is the debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids.

via www.dailygalaxy.com

Are the visitors coming?  P/2010 A2 looks like an alien spaccraft to me.  But the government is telling us it seems to be "debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids."  Air quotes.  :-) 

Anyway, it sounds like a good conspiracy theory, and you all know I love me some good conspiracy theories.  Keeps your Wednesday interesting.  And since no strange dead rotted pit bulls have washed up on the shore anywhere this week, this is the best I can do.  Now where is that tin foil hat.  I know I left it somewhere around here.

Here's a picture: 

Download 29 Screenplays From This Year’s Top Awards Contenders

Download 29 Screenplays From This Year’s Top Awards Contenders

Here's a cool list of screenplays from some of the top movies this year. Included are Avatar, Coraline, and the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.

Question though, instead of the screenplay for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, why not just read the actual book? Just saying...

Amazon Vs. Macmillan Scuffle over eBook Prices

My take on the Amazon vs. Macmillan ebook price scuffle is that Amazon is making a PR mistake.  If you want the background roadside assistance on the controversy, Macmillan author John Scalzi has a great commentary on it here:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/01/30/a-quick-note-on-ebook-pricing/

I think that right now Amazon is pulling it's weight around, but should be careful.  After the DRM issue where they pulled copies of 1984 off of people's Kindles they should know better than to piss off the reading public. 

One of the biggest reasons I bought a Kindle rather than another ereader (Sony or Nook) was that Amazon has the largest inventory of new books available in electronic format.  If they start picking a choosing which publishers to carry that is a limiting factor.

Now I have no idea about what kind of eye strain you would get reading a book on an iPad, but I do know that its is going to be really nice for magazines, video, and non-flash web browsing.  All of which are not so hot on the Kindle's black and white e-ink screen.  The e-ink black and white screen is what I as a voracious reader, want.   I also love the instant availability of lots and lots of books.  Newly published books.  Amazon should not screw with that.