Once more, the team from the Annals of Improbable Research have handed out another year’s Ig Nobel Prizes. From the Gas Mask Bra to Tequila Diamonds, this years winners share a trait in common with each other and all previous winners. First they make you laugh… and then they make you think (mostly about how gullible some grant organizations may be, but every so often about the real-world problem that inspired the research in the first place). Some of the winners are just plain silly, and some, like the financial and mathematical winners, are very scary, but the fact that real scientists do this kind of thing gives me hope for the world. And then there is why people explore other worlds… one of my favorite SG1 moments starring Adam Baldwin, this video embed was inspired by SciFi Fangirl’s posting last night.
Season 2 of Dollhouse rolled out this past Friday on Fox, and they also moved Smallville on the CW to Friday. It’s a good thing the Friday episodes of Eureka on Syfy have ended their season, because starting next week Stargate Universe enters the lists of end-of-the-week SciFi. The week after that Sanctuary season 2 also kicks off, again both on Friday night. CBS has moved both The Ghost Whisperer and Medium to Friday nights (more fantasy than SciFi, but still genre), and just to be different ABC is running repeat episodes of Flash Forward and The Forgotten on Friday nights as well. VOD (Video on Demand) and iTunes may carry a few of them, and a few may be watchable from their network web sites, but the Tivo, the Freevo (Linux boot-from-cd DVR) and the cable DVRs are going to be busy this fall on Friday nights.
It started yesterday, and will be running through next Thursday, October first. Fantastic Fest is a collection of genre or unusual movies held at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas and includes such films as Zombieland, Gentlemen Broncos, and The Vampires Assistant, among many others. One of the co-founders, Tim League, put together a list of 10 must-see movies at the festival, and while I may not agree with him it does give you an idea of just how wide-ranging the Fest entries are.
Coming up this weekend is the New York Animation Festival. The Guest of Honor is Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam series and a songwriter who has worked with a range of folks from Yoko Kanno to Niel Sedaka. Musical guests include AKB48, Swinging Popsicle and a number of others. The Voice Talent guest list is HUGE, and full of some of my favorite voices from the world of anime; see the full list here. Events include the World Cyber Games National Final, Cosplay in the form of the Neo-Victorian Fashion Show (you can say it: Steampunk!), and Zombie Survival training from the Green Light Anti-Zombie Squad.
I can’t help it, sometimes I just wonder about things. One of my current questions is: Will Soar Thoat be doing some of the music for the new John Carter of Mars production? I know, the band’s name is a serious Martian pun, and the Civil War veteran did not arrive on Mars by way of Rocketship, but I still wonder. Continuing on the musical front, there were two versions of the almost-question (they each answered it themselves, so it doesn’t count as actual questions) If I Had A Rocket Launcher. One is a Hi-Q rock construction from musical genius and politically aware Bruce Cockburn, the other a fun little construct from Halo gamers creating their own Machinima. The question this time is, which music video do you prefer? Here are your samples to choose between…
It’s that time of year again; this week New Scientist has their Science Fiction Special on the newsstands. In honor of that they have posted Sci-Fi: The Fiction of Now. They have Flash Fiction from Steven Baxter, Nicola Griffith, Ken MacLeod, Ian McDonald, Paul McAuley, Ian Watson, and more. The also have book reviews on some favorite authors, as well as their usual collection of cutting-edge science news. And in honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day, there is now a Pirate Talk App that looks like silly fun.