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In Search Of, with Leo Nimoy
Mar. 12th, 2019 08:30 amThis is some pretty impressive parody/crossover editing right here....
Review: Carmen Sandiego
Jan. 22nd, 2019 01:36 pmSummary: In this new take on the long running Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego edutainment franchise, the series focuses on the character of Carmen herself as the protagonist, as she fights the agents of V.I.L.E. who raised her.
Review: One thing that has held (mostly) true about Carmen Sandiego in all the games and TV adaptations since the 80's, is that's she's the antagonist. Sometimes stealing for money, sometimes just to pull off a ridiculously spectacular heist, and sometimes as a sort of karmic trickster, but she was always the one the players hunted, not rooted for.
This time around, Netflix's series turns the tables. Turns out orphan Carmen was actually raised by VILE after being discovered as a foundling in Argentina, and taught to be a master thief. Unfortunately for them, she figures out the happy group of quirky jewelry robbers aren't above hurting civilians, and she decides to GTF out of Dodge (the Canary Islands actually) with the help of Player, a "white hat" hacker she gets in contact with through a prohibited cell phone.
As much as the Carmen Sandiego series of games and shows has a canon, this pretty much turns things on its head, as the audience is now supposed to root for Carmen, instead of the folks hunting her. This actually gives the series a bit of moral ambiguity, with at least at couple of VILE agents sympathetic to Carmen, as she also goes slightly greyer (it is a kid's show after all), basically doing the Wrong Things for the Right Reasons.
Random Observations:
1. Watch out for original Carmen voice Rita Moreno as the person who (unwillingly) provides Carmen with her signature outfit.
2. The first two episodes are Carmen's origin story, without much edutainment content.
3. Episode Three actually starts the geography lessons with a visit to Malaysia, with a bit of a clunky geography info dump at the beginning. Hopefully that will smooth out in later eps.
4. Weirdest change in the series is Zack and Ivy going from ACME agents to Carmen's hench-siblings. Which isn't helped by the choice of giving the characters really thick and annoying "Bawhston" accents.
5. Funniest line so far: "You do realize that means risking another surprise visit from Fedora the Explorer?"
Recommended
FYS: Recommended Reading/Viewing
Jan. 29th, 2018 04:27 pmJust a few inspirations (positive and negative) that helped create the For Your Safety universe.
Books
I, Robot (1950). Isaac Asimov. The starting point for popularization of the concept of benevolent robots, introducing Asimov’s famous “Three Laws of Robotics.” Most of the short stories within are mysteries, pointing out the flaws and loopholes of the Three Laws, which admittedly undermines their utility for the Groupmind.
Caves of Steel (1953), Isaac Asimov. On an overpopulated Earth (8 billion, a half billion less than that of 2017), humanity is stuffed into overcrowded cities and most humans suffer from severe agoraphobia. When a prominent Spacer ambassador is murdered, police detective Elijah Baley must solve the murder, with the unwanted assistance of R. Daneel Olivaw, a Spacer robot built to be indistinguishable from a human. Like most of Asimov's stories it’s a “Fair Play” mystery, with the clues laid out for the reader. Caves is followed by several sequels of decreasing quality, which eventually introduced the “Zeroth Law” of robotics, allowing robots to permit some humans to die (not to mention all those pesky alien races).
The Humanoids (1947), Jack Williamson. The other side of the robotics coin, Williamson’s Humanoids are sleek black androids with an overriding mission to make humanity happy and safe. If by “safe” you mean being locked in a padded room with soft toys, and by “happy” being lobotomized so you don’t have any negative thoughts, or any thoughts at all. A prime example of what the Groupmind is dearly trying to avoid.
Ringworld (1970), Larry Niven. If you can ignore the super science, wonky worldbuilding, and painful misogyny, the concept of the Ring, a rotating space station thousands of miles wide and the circumference of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, is a genuinely classic science fiction concept. It should be no surprise that it inspired the idea of the (smaller, but still pretty darned big) FYS Ring, a construct that merely circles around the Earth.
Voyage From Yesteryear (1982), James P. Hogan. After a devastating nuclear war, the reformed American government sends out a colony ship to Alpha Centauri to rightfully take control of the colony already there, sent before the war by the UN to insure human survival. What they find are Chironian humans raised from embryos by their benevolent robot caretakers, who politely poke holes in all of their conqueror's assumptions.
One of the first novels to examine what a Post Scarcity society might be like, while poking fun at Reagan era nationalism. Like Ringworld, some of the gender discussions are very, um, products of their time (Chironian women are mostly seen as being very approachable, to put it mildly), and I disagree severely with Chironian approach to mental health, but otherwise a good novel.
The Vorkosigan Saga (1986 to 2016), Lois McMaster-Bujold. Bujold’s beloved and long-running space opera may not have much to do with the core concepts of FYS (AI’s and humanoid robots don’t exist for starters) but the humanism, rationality, and cleverness of the characters inform my own writing quite a bit.
Television
The Prisoner (1967-68). Patrick Mcgoohan's brilliant, paranoid, and psychedelic short series about the titular Prisoner, a former British intelligence agent held against his will in The Village, a pleasant seaside resort that he will learn to enjoy and he most certainly will not ever escape. Almost everything about the Ring, from the faux pleasant surroundings, the constant surveillance, to the cheerful creepiness of the morphs is at least partly inspired by this series.
Person of Interest (2011-16). What starts out as a “Victim of the Week” mystery series with a mild sci-fi premise, morphs over the course of five seasons into a clever cyberpunk thriller about a war between a benevolent AI called The Machine, it’s creator and allies, and the forces of Samaritan, another AI who wishes to conquer humanity as much as The Machine wants to save it. While I started writing the first FYS story well before I was aware of the show, much of its core concepts about ubiquitous surveillance and the creation of a powerful AI run in parallel to FYS.
RPG’s
Transhuman Space (2002), Steve Jackson Games. This massive RPG setting, filled with super bioscience and ubiquitous artificial intelligences, inspired some of FYS’ Post-Scarcity sensibilities, and the dangers of constant surveillance. It also provides the name of FYS’ morphs, though not all of THS’s are necessarily Furry.
Webcomics
Freefall (1998-Current), Mark Stanley. Stanley’s massive, long running serio-comic follows the adventures of Sam, a squid-like alien living on the human colony world of Jean, and Florence, an uplifted Red Wolf working as the engineer on Sam’s ship. In between Sam’s thieving antics and Florence’s deadpan reactions is a remarkable hard science fiction story about the nature of robotic AI’s and free will.
A Miracle of Science (2002-07), Jon Kilgannon and Mark Sachs. In a world where becoming a mad scientist is recognized as a legitimate mental illness (Science Related Memetic Disorder), police detective Benjamin Prester and Martian agent Caprice Quivillion must team up to stop Dr. Virgil Haas from unleashing a robot takeover of the Solar System, while also saving Haas and Prester from their own demons.
A strong influence on FYS, Mars is both a planet and a massive distributed AI, existing in the minds of all Martian robots and humans, and remaining remarkably benevolent.
Quickie Review: Person of Interest
Jan. 26th, 2015 05:39 pmSummary: He's a soft speaking, well-dressed, ex-Special Forces, ex-CIA agent. He's a well-dressed computer genius with a paranoia about personal privacy. It's a magical computer that's hooked into everything. Together they fight crime!
Oh, yeah, and they face the Singularity with the help of a police detective, a dirty cop, a dog who only understands Dutch, and a psycho hacker who thinks one of the main characters has built God.
Review: It's telling that one of the most interesting science fiction shows on TV these days manages to hide itself, at first at least, in the cloak of a typical TV detective series. I wish I had caught on to this show back when it first came out. Or maybe it's better that I didn't, because then I wouldn't have dared try to start writing my For Your Safety stories.
Anyway, the characters are well drawn and likable, the villains are clever, the Idiot Ball is generally well avoided, and the use of an emergent AI is very well done.
Highly Recommended.
Oh, yeah, and they face the Singularity with the help of a police detective, a dirty cop, a dog who only understands Dutch, and a psycho hacker who thinks one of the main characters has built God.
Review: It's telling that one of the most interesting science fiction shows on TV these days manages to hide itself, at first at least, in the cloak of a typical TV detective series. I wish I had caught on to this show back when it first came out. Or maybe it's better that I didn't, because then I wouldn't have dared try to start writing my For Your Safety stories.
Anyway, the characters are well drawn and likable, the villains are clever, the Idiot Ball is generally well avoided, and the use of an emergent AI is very well done.
Highly Recommended.
Just how many cop shows have there been, where the high concept is a human cop partnered with a extremely human android?
Off the top of my head...
1. Caves of Steel. Okay it's an Asimov book, but it's the prototype for everything that came afterward.
2. Future Cop (1976)
3. Holmes and Yoyo (1976)
4, (can't remember the name, but it was a TV pilot from Orion Pictures that I saw on Netflix) (198?)
4. Mann and Machine (1992)
5. Almost Human (2013)
Did I miss any?
Notably, with the exception of CoS, which is considered a sci-fi classic, and Almost Human, they all bombed within half a season. Can't blame Hollywood for persistence I guess...
Off the top of my head...
1. Caves of Steel. Okay it's an Asimov book, but it's the prototype for everything that came afterward.
2. Future Cop (1976)
3. Holmes and Yoyo (1976)
4, (can't remember the name, but it was a TV pilot from Orion Pictures that I saw on Netflix) (198?)
4. Mann and Machine (1992)
5. Almost Human (2013)
Did I miss any?
Notably, with the exception of CoS, which is considered a sci-fi classic, and Almost Human, they all bombed within half a season. Can't blame Hollywood for persistence I guess...
A fan of the helicopter action show Airwolf catalogs all the paintings visible in String's cabin.
Really, if even half of those were originals, String could have just funded his own mercenary force to invade Vietnam and find his brother himself...
Really, if even half of those were originals, String could have just funded his own mercenary force to invade Vietnam and find his brother himself...
Doctor Who: An Unpopular Opinion
Nov. 24th, 2013 04:05 amI think I've got an ear infection, I can't sleep, and so this probably the worst time to be typing this, so forgive me ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jvowles and jblum. I'm just a grumpy unpleasable fan who doesn't know what he's talking about.
Anyway, it's the 50th anniversary of the launch of Doctor Who, the most epic and wonderful episode "The Day of the Doctor" has aired and...
...I don't care.
God help me, I've tried, I've been trying for years, but I just cannot get emotionally invested in New Who. Note, that I'm not a diehard hater, or a weird sentimentalist who thinks the One True Who absolutely must have wobbly sets, dodgy effects, rubber suits, and Loch Ness Monster hand puppets. It's just that it does not grab me like the old show did when I was a youngin'.
I don't think it's the show's fault. It's well made, well written, and well acted. But it's not the Who I'm comfortable with. Mostly because it's made the character of the Doctor the most important guy in the universe.
Note that I know perfectly well he is the most important guy in the universe because, hey, it's his name in the opening titles, and saving the galaxy is his job. It's about the Doctor and his adventures. It's just that somewhere along the way the universe became about the Doctor. He lands on a planet, even one he's never been to before, and there's an even chance he'll be recognized. He can drive back enemies by just suggesting they look him up in the library. He's been given the ridiculous title "The Oncoming Storm" by the Daleks, who previously just referred to him as THE DOCTOR! with spittle practically spewing from their speakers. Everyone knows his name, everyone expects him to work to save the day. And that's wrong.
In my head canon, the Doctor is Just A Guy. A very odd, smart guy, but a guy. He pops into a situation, and Columbo-like starts poking. Nobody there knows who he is. Nobody has a reason to trust him. He has to work to charm people, or just bamboozle them. The Evil this serial is defeated, and he scoots away in his magic box, onto the next adventure. He doesn't have a story arc, he doesn't have character development, and he doesn't need it. He's more of a plot device than an actual character, which is why much of the emotional stuff was handled by his Companions.
Romancing Rose? Wouldn't happen. Pandorica Boxes trapping him? Enemies would have know him enough to realize he's the source of their problems. The universe isn't about him. It has its own problems, it isn't expecting him to show up. One of the things, to me, that made him so intriguing is that he was normally able to stay emotionally outside the crisis of the week and take care of things, while everyone else is losing their biscuit. Which made episodes where he actually was deeply worried, like his fear in "Pyramids of Mars" and his conflicting emotions over destroying the Daleks in "Genesis of the Daleks" all the more of a punch. If that sort of thing happens every damned week, It Ain't Who to me.
Which is why I'm skipping getting excited over "The Day of the Doctor". I'll probably catch it with Jim eventually, and enjoy it because he enjoys it so much, but it isn't going to get me eagerly waiting to bittorrent the latest episodes. Instead I'll watch "Adventures in Time and Space" and try to remember what it was like to encounter the Doctor for the first time.
jvowles and jblum. I'm just a grumpy unpleasable fan who doesn't know what he's talking about.Anyway, it's the 50th anniversary of the launch of Doctor Who, the most epic and wonderful episode "The Day of the Doctor" has aired and...
...I don't care.
God help me, I've tried, I've been trying for years, but I just cannot get emotionally invested in New Who. Note, that I'm not a diehard hater, or a weird sentimentalist who thinks the One True Who absolutely must have wobbly sets, dodgy effects, rubber suits, and Loch Ness Monster hand puppets. It's just that it does not grab me like the old show did when I was a youngin'.
I don't think it's the show's fault. It's well made, well written, and well acted. But it's not the Who I'm comfortable with. Mostly because it's made the character of the Doctor the most important guy in the universe.
Note that I know perfectly well he is the most important guy in the universe because, hey, it's his name in the opening titles, and saving the galaxy is his job. It's about the Doctor and his adventures. It's just that somewhere along the way the universe became about the Doctor. He lands on a planet, even one he's never been to before, and there's an even chance he'll be recognized. He can drive back enemies by just suggesting they look him up in the library. He's been given the ridiculous title "The Oncoming Storm" by the Daleks, who previously just referred to him as THE DOCTOR! with spittle practically spewing from their speakers. Everyone knows his name, everyone expects him to work to save the day. And that's wrong.
In my head canon, the Doctor is Just A Guy. A very odd, smart guy, but a guy. He pops into a situation, and Columbo-like starts poking. Nobody there knows who he is. Nobody has a reason to trust him. He has to work to charm people, or just bamboozle them. The Evil this serial is defeated, and he scoots away in his magic box, onto the next adventure. He doesn't have a story arc, he doesn't have character development, and he doesn't need it. He's more of a plot device than an actual character, which is why much of the emotional stuff was handled by his Companions.
Romancing Rose? Wouldn't happen. Pandorica Boxes trapping him? Enemies would have know him enough to realize he's the source of their problems. The universe isn't about him. It has its own problems, it isn't expecting him to show up. One of the things, to me, that made him so intriguing is that he was normally able to stay emotionally outside the crisis of the week and take care of things, while everyone else is losing their biscuit. Which made episodes where he actually was deeply worried, like his fear in "Pyramids of Mars" and his conflicting emotions over destroying the Daleks in "Genesis of the Daleks" all the more of a punch. If that sort of thing happens every damned week, It Ain't Who to me.
Which is why I'm skipping getting excited over "The Day of the Doctor". I'll probably catch it with Jim eventually, and enjoy it because he enjoys it so much, but it isn't going to get me eagerly waiting to bittorrent the latest episodes. Instead I'll watch "Adventures in Time and Space" and try to remember what it was like to encounter the Doctor for the first time.
More Bad Idea Crossover Crack
Jun. 19th, 2013 10:00 amFraser and Ray have their hands full when professional bounty hunter/lawyer/amateur theater enthusiast Brisco County V comes to Chicago on the hunt for a suspect.
This should amuse Seawasp a bit
Jan. 8th, 2013 09:20 pmOne nit: IMF agents do not run about. They walk into wherever they're infiltrating like they own the place.
Review: The Aquabats Super Show
Dec. 28th, 2012 08:44 amSummary: Fighting evil monsters, rocking out at birthday parties, traveling the nation in their Battletram, and dressing in embarrassing costumes, the heroic rock band The Aquabats finally get their own TV show, which resembles a love child conceived between Sid and Marty Krofft and a super sentai series.
Review: After co-creating the popular Nick Jr. show "Yo Gabba Gabba", Aquabats founder Christian Jacobs set out togain forgiveness for his sins create a series for his musical group, the Aquabats, built on found childhood memories of live-action Saturday morning TV. Not that it's actually for kids (just look at the fake commercials for everything from edible scabs to sushi flavored drinks) but it is gloriously silly, just like some of the more cracktacular moments from S&M's TV history. A talking magic flute from "H.R. Puffinstuff" has nothing on Aquabats guitarist Eaglebones Ravenclaw's invisible magic bird (granted to him by the Sun Spirit, as portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips).[1]
Actually counting the celebrity cameos is half the fun, from Matt Chapman As Strongbad, portraying a evil carny magician (imagine Mandrake the Magician crossed with a Mexican wrestler), to Rip Taylor as a genie, to Weird Al as President Stuncastin.
Anyway, it's all incredibly silly and self-referential and something kids can enjoy without thinking about it and adults can smirk at in fond memory of Saturday mornings past.
Recommended.
[1] No seriously. Well, not seriously, but it happened.
Review: After co-creating the popular Nick Jr. show "Yo Gabba Gabba", Aquabats founder Christian Jacobs set out to
Actually counting the celebrity cameos is half the fun, from Matt Chapman As Strongbad, portraying a evil carny magician (imagine Mandrake the Magician crossed with a Mexican wrestler), to Rip Taylor as a genie, to Weird Al as President Stuncastin.
Anyway, it's all incredibly silly and self-referential and something kids can enjoy without thinking about it and adults can smirk at in fond memory of Saturday mornings past.
Recommended.
[1] No seriously. Well, not seriously, but it happened.
Quote o' the Day
Dec. 23rd, 2012 03:20 pm“If the person is over 30, I’d say it’s like Batman meets The Monkees, with a little bit of Sid and Marty Krofft’s in it. If they’re under 30, I’d say Power Rangers meets Flight of the Conchords, very sarcastic. If they’re kids… superheroes fighting monsters.”
-Christian Jacobs (AKA M.C. Bat Commander) attempting to describe The Aquabats Super Show!
-Christian Jacobs (AKA M.C. Bat Commander) attempting to describe The Aquabats Super Show!
For those of you who don't get the Science Channel, it's a documentary series on... well... how things are made. Most often looking at specific industrial processes like manufacturing appliances or packaged food processing, but occasionally looking at handcrafted items such musical instruments or even tattoos.
And it's a very odd show, at least in this day and age, because it's very drama and human interest content free. Most of the focus is on the machinery. When humans are seen it's normally closeups of their hands or looking at their backs while they manipulate equipment. There are no talking heads. The only sound is a very low key musical score and the narrator, Brooks T. Moore, who is one of those people who can make an automated weather announcement sound overexcited.
It's all very Zen. Or maybe it's the Dogme '95 of documentary shows. But the damned thing is fascinating, even if it's the sort of show if you watch several episodes in succession it'll put you to sleep faster than an overdose of Melatonin and the Weather Channel.
And it's a very odd show, at least in this day and age, because it's very drama and human interest content free. Most of the focus is on the machinery. When humans are seen it's normally closeups of their hands or looking at their backs while they manipulate equipment. There are no talking heads. The only sound is a very low key musical score and the narrator, Brooks T. Moore, who is one of those people who can make an automated weather announcement sound overexcited.
It's all very Zen. Or maybe it's the Dogme '95 of documentary shows. But the damned thing is fascinating, even if it's the sort of show if you watch several episodes in succession it'll put you to sleep faster than an overdose of Melatonin and the Weather Channel.
...or rather "Postman Pat, Special Delivery Service", which I gather is like New Who vs. Old Who.[1] It's very British, and good natured, and did I mention British? It's also stop motion animated, and thankfully seems determined to stay that way, unlike Bob the builder, which descended into CGI Hell.
And while I do like it, my brain keeps switching the title to "Post-Apocalypse Pat" and wanting to write fic with Pat and his cat delivering packages across the devastated wasteland of Cumbria while dodging crazed mutant cows and sheep.
[1] Though if the new version is more "action packed" it makes me wonder how often the kiddies fell asleep watching the original.
And while I do like it, my brain keeps switching the title to "Post-Apocalypse Pat" and wanting to write fic with Pat and his cat delivering packages across the devastated wasteland of Cumbria while dodging crazed mutant cows and sheep.
[1] Though if the new version is more "action packed" it makes me wonder how often the kiddies fell asleep watching the original.
But this one would actually work.
Plot Bunny: Tony Stark, along with Pepper and Steve, are hosting a concert at the Disney auditorium for the reconstruction of NYC. Headlining the concert is Miley Stewart, AKA Hannah Montana. Unfortunately a bunch of hijacked SHIELD life model decoys infiltrate and take all the attendees hostage while they try to find Tony for a big fat ransom (cue Hannah being a little annoyed that they're after him and not her.)
This wouldn't be that big of a problem except Steve left his shield at Tony's place because he was attending in his civvies, and Tony's Mk. VIII suitcase armor is in the back of his limo. (Ordering it to launch into the concert hall isn't possible since everyone's electronic communications were shorted out by an EMP pulse just before the LMD's revealed themselves.)
Which means Hannah and her brother Stewart have to crawl through the concert hall's ventilation system to get outside and retrieve Tony's suit, provisioned with a body temperature sample of his DNA in case Happy has been incapacitated and they need to override his limo's security system. Which leads to the following conversation:
Miley: Jackson, quit yer whining. Didn't you always want to be a hero?
Jackson: That was before I was crawling around an air vent cuddlin' a cup full of Tony Stark's spit!
Later
Jackson: Why do you get to wear the armor?
Miley: Because we can't drag it all that way back through the vents, we're gonna have about a million terrorist robots shooting at us, and if there's one thing I know, it's how to run around wearing a stupid looking costume!
Plot Bunny: Tony Stark, along with Pepper and Steve, are hosting a concert at the Disney auditorium for the reconstruction of NYC. Headlining the concert is Miley Stewart, AKA Hannah Montana. Unfortunately a bunch of hijacked SHIELD life model decoys infiltrate and take all the attendees hostage while they try to find Tony for a big fat ransom (cue Hannah being a little annoyed that they're after him and not her.)
This wouldn't be that big of a problem except Steve left his shield at Tony's place because he was attending in his civvies, and Tony's Mk. VIII suitcase armor is in the back of his limo. (Ordering it to launch into the concert hall isn't possible since everyone's electronic communications were shorted out by an EMP pulse just before the LMD's revealed themselves.)
Which means Hannah and her brother Stewart have to crawl through the concert hall's ventilation system to get outside and retrieve Tony's suit, provisioned with a body temperature sample of his DNA in case Happy has been incapacitated and they need to override his limo's security system. Which leads to the following conversation:
Miley: Jackson, quit yer whining. Didn't you always want to be a hero?
Jackson: That was before I was crawling around an air vent cuddlin' a cup full of Tony Stark's spit!
Later
Jackson: Why do you get to wear the armor?
Miley: Because we can't drag it all that way back through the vents, we're gonna have about a million terrorist robots shooting at us, and if there's one thing I know, it's how to run around wearing a stupid looking costume!
Quote of the day
Sep. 13th, 2012 06:19 amMorden: What do you want, Vir?
Vir: What do I want? I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
-Babylon 5
Vir: What do I want? I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?
-Babylon 5
Quote of the day
Sep. 12th, 2012 07:44 pm"I apologize. I'm... sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell! (Pauses, turning away from the mirror) As with everything else, it's the thought that counts."
-Captain Sheridan, Babylon 5
-Captain Sheridan, Babylon 5
Quote o' the Day
Aug. 27th, 2012 12:11 pm"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds there ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contributions to the collective knowledge of the human species."
-Cosmos, Episode 11, "The Persistence of Memory"
"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds there ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contributions to the collective knowledge of the human species."
-Cosmos, Episode 11, "The Persistence of Memory"
Quote of the Day
May. 25th, 2012 06:38 amOne of The West Wing's sillier moments.
Sam: Over three and a half centuries ago, linked by faith and bound by a common desire for liberty, a small band of pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs... and solve crimes.
Toby: Sam...
Sam: It'd be good. By day, they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs, and by night they solve crimes.
Toby: Read the thing.
Sam: Pilgrim detectives.
Toby: Do you see me laughing?
Sam: I think you're laughing on the inside.
Toby: Okay.
Sam: With the big hats.
Toby: Give me the speech.
Sam: Over three and a half centuries ago, linked by faith and bound by a common desire for liberty, a small band of pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs... and solve crimes.
Toby: Sam...
Sam: It'd be good. By day, they churn butter and worship according to their own beliefs, and by night they solve crimes.
Toby: Read the thing.
Sam: Pilgrim detectives.
Toby: Do you see me laughing?
Sam: I think you're laughing on the inside.
Toby: Okay.
Sam: With the big hats.
Toby: Give me the speech.
From the Random Scenes in my Head Dept.
Apr. 19th, 2012 04:02 pmSetting: A Sliders type universe, where Our Heros can visit alternate universes, but have to leave after a set period of time (whether or not they can return is unknown, but at minimum it isn't easy.)
Scene: Our heroes are about to leave after dealing with the A Plot. Meanwhile, one of them has befriended Old Jimmy, a man helping with the local children's show at the TV station (the primary AU in this universe is that cable TV stayed a novelty and the consolidation of independant UHF stations never happened).
Our Hero: Goodbye, Jimmy. I don't know if we're ever meet again, but it was good to meet you.
Jimmy: Thanks, man.
TV Producer: Henson! The show starts in five minutes!
BEAT. The other heroes realize the meaning of this just as the main hero does, and make a grab for him to drag him back to the portal.
Our Hero: He's Jim Henson! You don't understand, he's alive in this universe! I don't wanna go!
Scene: Our heroes are about to leave after dealing with the A Plot. Meanwhile, one of them has befriended Old Jimmy, a man helping with the local children's show at the TV station (the primary AU in this universe is that cable TV stayed a novelty and the consolidation of independant UHF stations never happened).
Our Hero: Goodbye, Jimmy. I don't know if we're ever meet again, but it was good to meet you.
Jimmy: Thanks, man.
TV Producer: Henson! The show starts in five minutes!
BEAT. The other heroes realize the meaning of this just as the main hero does, and make a grab for him to drag him back to the portal.
Our Hero: He's Jim Henson! You don't understand, he's alive in this universe! I don't wanna go!
"Muslim vs. Mennonite"
In which the head of an offshootAmish Mennonite clan ("No, no. We're the ones that like electricity") in Pennsylvania finds himself at loggerheads with his new next door neighbor, a Iman from Kuwait who just won the auction for a tract of land next to Mennonite's farm that the farmer had wanted for his sons. As a new mosque is built,the rivals find common ground against the local real estate baron who tries to evict them so he can build a mall on both their lands.
Hilarity ensues.
In which the head of an offshoot
Hilarity ensues.
