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Category: Firefly / Serenity

This might even make me vote for Santorum if he supported it

Well, no, it wouldn't. And the chances of Santorum supporting "Firefly" are passingly small.

Gingrich, on the other hand … #ddtb

Reshared post from +Helena Bertinelli

Lol (:

Keep flying

The chances of this ever coming true seem passingly small … but I'd buy a Netflix Ultrapremium Platinum-Crusted Lifetime House-Mortgaging Service Plan to see it. #ddtb

Reshared post from +Helena Bertinelli

There's a petition to get Netflix to help fund Firefly…Go sign it. Right now. Seriously. DOOO EEETT!

Embedded Link

Joss Whedon Seems Ready To Do More Firefly If Someone Calls Him | Giant Freakin Robot
We've been talking a lot this week about cancelled sci-fi TV shows which deserve to be brought back. Judging from the results of our poll there's one show which clearly, above all others, you&…

Google+: Reshared 1 times

SHINY!

Or, actually, scary, because it's kinda all Reaverfied. But … DO WANT! #ddtb

Embedded Link

The Ultimate Serenity: Recently discovered in Universal's archive, the 12' Serenity filming miniature: http://yfrog.com/nyhoukwnj
Click on the photo to comment, share or view other great photos

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 30-Sep-11 1132)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Mayor Bloomberg Claims ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Are Targeting Bankers Who ‘Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet’ | ThinkProgress
  2. UW-Stout Chancellor Doubles Down on Censorship of ‘Firefly’ and Anti-Fascism Posters – FIRE – Dolt.
  3. Clarence Thomas Should Be Investigated For Nondisclosure, Democratic Lawmakers Say – Yup.
  4. GOP Primary Contest May Start In Early January After Florida Calendar Shakeup – Ah, Primary Schedule Zaniness.
  5. House GOP Unveils Plan To Cut NPR, Job Training And Education Programs – Crikey. Does it also mandate kicking puppies? Because that seems to be all that’s left out here.
  6. Palin Worries Presidency Might ‘Shackle’ Her – Don’t worry, Sarah — if it turns out to be too shackley, you can always quit after a year or two.
  7. US: military chaplains may perform same-sex unions | www.wftv.com – Note that it’s “may,” not “must.” But still expect grinding of teeth from the usual suspects.
  8. The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality – Glenn Greenwald – What part of the Constitution will not be eventually violated on behalf of the War on Terror?

Unblogged Bits (Mon. 26-Sep-11 1730)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. State political giving by private prison companies – This is why we can’t have nice things.
  2. ‘Firefly’ and Anti-Fascism Posters Get Professor Threatened with Criminal Charges on University of Wisconsin Campus – (Rolls eyes.)
  3. Inequalistan: Chris Hayes debunks “top 10% pay 70% of all income taxes” baloney – Boing Boing – The top 10% own about 80% of the financial wealth in the country, make about 50% of the adjusted gross income in the US, and have an effective income tax rate of about 19%. We’re not really hurting.
  4. Fox’s Roger Ailes Produces New Series To Attack Regulators Who ‘Sit In The Basement’ And ‘Try To Ruin Your Life’ | ThinkProgress – Of course he does. Because, of course, bureaucrats really do hate Americans so much (themselves included, it seems) that they have nothing better to do than hire Ph.D.s to “sit in the basement and draw up regulations to try and ruin your life.” Really! It’s true! I saw it on Fox News!
  5. DNA clears Virginia man of rape, but court balks at full exoneration – Well, we wouldn’t want to throw the judicial system into disrepute by actually reversing a decision due to, y’know, EVIDENCE!
  6. More than 11,000 CA kindergarteners skipped a vaccine in 2010 because of parents’ anti-vax fears – That’s … just … ducky. Yeesh.
  7. Why Christians Need PA Systems to Pray – Because, of course Jesus was sooooooo into public praying (Matt. 6:5-6).
  8. Smithsonian: Top 10 Books Lost To Time – Fun article.
  9. FEMA disaster – Fine. For every natural disaster that attacks our country, we fund additional relief by cutting a defense program. I’ll bet we could easily do that without threatening the actual security of the nation.
  10. Obama slams GOP for booing gay soldier. A lesson in how fighting back works. – Inconceivable!
  11. Obama slams GOP for booing gay soldier. A lesson in how fighting back works. – Inconceivable!
  12. The Conservative Base Isn’t Gonna Like This – “And if Fox News reports this, Perry’s supporters might actually find out about it.”
  13. The 5 Best & Worst U.S. Cities For ATM Fees – Huh. Well, I don’t frequent ATMs that much. And when I do, I find ATMs that are tied in with my credit union for no fee withdrawals.
  14. A SHOC-king Disregard for the Constitution – You’d think all those sorts who are so paranoid about The Government would be more paranoid about the schools preaching a government-sanctioned and -promoted Christianity.
  15. Movement for Marriage: Chuck Colson’s War on Homosexuality – “It’s not about the sex, it’s about honoring the relationship that they have with these people … the same way we would for heterosexual couples.”
  16. The draining of color in modern movies – An interesting observation. Of course, I think the Big Technicolor era was charting a course as intentionally far from black and white as possible. This, though, too shall pass.
  17. Three Senators condemn OnStar for tracking former customers – Wow. Sounds like a great reason to physically disconnect your OnStar system after you unsubscribe.
  18. Shortpacked! by David Willis – Math – Yes. This. (Thanks, Stan.)

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 30-Aug-11 1131)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Arctic sea ice will be below average again this year | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine – But it’s all a cycle! Or a hoax! Or sun spots! Certainly not anything that humans have caused, or contributed to, or have to do something inconvenient or even painful about!
  2. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir by Dick Cheney – The Washington Post – It sounds like a book more designed for current audiences than for any historic perspective from the future.
  3. Amazon’s tablet will be Android’s White Knight – It’s certainly something I’d take a look at …
  4. Massive Diet Coke – Nice redesign (though I’m not a Diet Coke fan, if I have a choice in the matter).
  5. Flash: 99% Bad – Yup. Yup, yup, yup. (And I kept thinking of all those awful, awful restaurant sites out there, which are particularly egregious at abusing Flash.)
  6. Monsanto GM corn is losing its pest-resistance – Well, there’s a huge surprise.
  7. 83 Died in U.S.-Guatemala Syphilis Experiments: “We’re talking about intentional deception.” – Disgusting. And particularly so, given that, over in Nuremberg, Germany, we were trying Nazi scientists for doing the same sort of criminal research.
  8. Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients? Why Stop There? – Sauce for the goose …
  9. Stuart Varney on the Poor: What They Lack is the Richness of Spirit – Remember when we used to be proud that even the poorest in our country could afford a refrigerator (or afford an apartment that had a fridge in it)? Now it’s being used as a club by the Right to prove that poor aren’t really all that poor.
  10. 18 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Firefly [Infographic] – Some of this isn’t new, and I knew a lot of it already, so I’ll just quietly note that it is INSANE that it has been 9 years since Firefly first aired.
  11. The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight « You Are Not So Smart – The bane of the blogosphere (if not the world). “In a political debate you feel like the other side just doesn’t get your point of view, and if they could only see things with your clarity, they would understand and fall naturally in line with what you believe. They must not understand, because if they did they wouldn’t think the things they think. By contrast, you believe you totally get their point of view and you reject it. You see it in all its detail and understand it for what it is – stupid. You don’t need to hear them elaborate. So, each side believes they understand the other side better than the other side understands both their opponents and themselves.”

Gorram shiny!

Okay, I love Mucha and the art nouveau movement.  And I love Firefly/Serenity.  So …

Four posters, available through Quantum Mechanix for $30. Loverly.

Unfortunately, there’s a fifth poster that’s only available for sale at the San Diego Comic-Con. And while I’ve made a last-second Con trip for Fireflying reasons, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen this year …

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 14-Jul-11 1130)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Art Nouveau Firefly Prints: Beautiful Damn Heroes! – DO WANT!!
  2. A single clip shows Falling Skies at its best — and its worst – With the exception that I didn’t see the potential being talked about, this runs down a lot of what I didn’t care for about FS (i.e., the people).
  3. Why astronauts can’t whistle in space – That’s … really, really interesting. Both about the whistling and about the pressure inside of space suits.
  4. Oversight Chairman Issa ‘Very Concerned’ Elizabeth Warren And Consumer Bureau Will ‘Bully Banks’ – Oh, no! Those mean banks might get bullied! Eek!
  5. Summer TV’s Top Target: Boys – WSJ.com – I'm glad Disney has a hit for boys in "Phineas & Ferb" — but I hope they don't focus all their marketing of it toward boys, because my daughter (and wife, and self) loves that show.
  6. Hail, torrential rain strikes DIA stranding about 1,000 travelers – The Denver Post – Sorry, Wisconsin — we did everything we could to stall him.
  7. Tony Perkins On Polygamy Lawsuit: We Warned You This Was Coming – Yes you did, Tony. So? And what does it mean that seeking marriage rights are “a devastating strategy meant to destroy innocence, religious freedom, and ultimately, the family”? I mean, what does that even mean?
  8. Rick Perry Ally Bickle Says Marriage Equality Is “Rooted In The Depths Of Hell” – So Teh Gayz want to have marriage rights … so they can make it illegal? What?
  9. 14 months before miners destroy Afghan monasteries – Gee, remember when we were so upset that the Taliban were destroying Buddhas as part of their crazy religious purification of Afghanistan? Is this all that different?
  10. Palin To Announce White House Intentions In Late Summer – “Palin says she’s thinking about offering herself up ‘in the name of service'” … or another good book deal.
  11. The fruits of immigration – “In short, we have turned good workers into criminals and turned criminals into bad workers, losing on both ends of the deal.”
  12. Your childhood heroes – Well, some are childhood (voice artist) heroes; several are more adulthood heroes. For me, at least.
  13. Power Shovel Skills – Clever.

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 8-Jun-11 0530)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Americans For Prosperity Places Fake Eviction Notices On Detroit Homeowners’ Doors To Scare Up Support | ThinkProgress – Stay classy, “Americans” for Prosperity!
  2. The 6 Most WTF Moments From Shakespeare Plays | Cracked.com – For all those folks who mourn the violence of modern media …
  3. San Joaquin authorizes blessing of sacred unions
  4. Spiders Evolved Spare Legs
  5. Firefrog – Muppets As The Cast Of Firefly | UrlyBits – Lovely.
  6. Settlers of Catan: How a German Board Game Went Mainstream – Scott Keyes – Entertainment – The Atlantic
  7. Facebook changes privacy settings for millions of users – facial recognition is enabled | Naked Security – Lovely.
  8. Two Women Ticketed For Eating Doughnuts In A Brooklyn Playground: Gothamist – Sometimes I think the world is going mad.
  9. Media Matters Exposes TV News Bias Against Climate Action: “76% Of Total Guests Were Opponents Of GHG Regulation” – If it’s greed, it leads.
  10. 8 Examples Of How The Alliance Defense Fund Lies About Same-Sex Marriage While Ignoring The Law – A fairly nice discussion of the claims made by folks opposing marriage equality (and the facts that counter them).
  11. Sarah Palin’s Midnight Ride on the Failbus – “She has become the Charlie Sheen of American politics.” And she should be given just as little attention in the future.
  12. Margaret Thatcher Shall Not Hold Court for Sarah Palin – Gawker – We are much amused.
  13. Periodic table gains two elements – “These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard / There may be many others but they have not been discovered.”
  14. Scott Walker Replaces Painting Of Low-Income Children With Bald Eagle – Stay classy, Gov. Walker!
  15. Christians are the bad guys? This retired minister gets it. – “If more Christians followed the actual teachings of Christ they’d have a much better image.” Yup.
  16. USDA changes guidelines for cooking pork – chicagotribune.com – Mmmm … pork …
  17. Catholic Charities sue Illinois over foster rules – chicagotribune.com – If religious-based charities choose to discriminate based on their religious beliefs, that is their prerogative … UNLESS they are accepting government funds (which Catholic Charities does in Illinois), in which case, no, they don’t get that option. If they don’t like the policy for receiving taxpayer money, then what they should do is stop receiving taxpayer money, not sue for an exception.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 21-Apr-11 2330)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Beck Calls Huck “Progressive,” Huck Calls Beck An Idiot – See, it’s moments like these when I say, “Hey, Huckabee is actually a pretty rational, all-right king of guy.” Then he turns around and pals up with (also-Beck-friend) David Barton.
  2. David Barton Refuses To Debate His Bogus History – Ah, how wonderful it must be to be so certain of your truth that you refuse to discuss it with anyone who might disagree …
  3. Have a happy Zombie Weekend – Heh. Yeah, I noticed that passage whilst doing the Passion reading on Palm Sunday. That particular aspect of the Crucifixion doesn’t usually make it into the movies.
  4. Gruber: iOS location storing is a bug, getting fixed in future iOS update – That’s certainly possible (I’ve seen crazier bugs), but Apple’s silence on the matter is not doing it any favors.
  5. Raising The Sunken Swifboats – Anyone who’d pay any attention to something coming out of WorldNutDaily is beyond cognitive redemption anyway. Yeesh.
  6. GIF: Platypus on the Prowl – Oh, there you are, Perry …
  7. Why Are Tech Founders Such Assholes? [Startups] – “What is it about computers and money that instills villainy?” Computers have nothing to do with it. Power (and money) corrupt … and, really, the folks most likely to strive to achieve either are most likely to be corrupted by them (or by their pursuit). I mean, really, is Gates any worse than Carnegie, or Zuckerberg than Rockefeller?
  8. Hubble Comes of Age With Dramatic New Image [Space Porn] – Oh, come on –that’s gotta be fake. It’s too gorgeous. (Plus, the Hubble is 21 years old! Eek!)
  9. The thing I don’t understand is why so often one hears discussion of the fruits of human labor as if it’s all the creation of some alien race – Lovely. Islamic art, usually eschewing depictions of objects and people, makes up for it with remarkable patterns.
  10. Maundy Thursday – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – There are times that it is so cool to belong to an Anglican denomination.
  11. Super Google Reader Converts All Partial RSS Feeds into Full Feeds [Downloads] – Sweet. Now if only GReader on Chrome weren’t having a Note in Reader problem with YouTube, it would be perfect.
  12. Small Screw Encyclopedia
  13. Senator questions Apple over iPhone tracking – Good questions all. Thanks, Sen Franken.
  14. Wonkette Thinks It’s Okay To Mock Trig Palin. Bulletin: It’s Not – Making an ass of yourself in the name of snark knows no political boundaries, unfortunately. This kind of humor (even its marginally weaker form that Wonkette is so infamous for) is one reason why I don’t read her.
  15. Paul Ryan Collected Social Security Entitlements Until Age 18 – I’m sure Ayn Rand would approve — take what you can get away with, then make sure nobody else can take more.
  16. Astoundingly Detailed LEGO Serenity – Shiny!
  17. The Post Office Railway (Mail Rail) | Silent UK – Urban & Underground Photography – Awesome. A modern-day dungeon-crawl.

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 20-Apr-11 2331)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Can You Recognize the 10 Greatest Swords Of All Time? [Daily 10] – I’m pleased to say that I recognized all the ones I’ve actually been exposed to (a few game-specific ones I’d not seen before).
  2. Vivian’s Blog-o-rama: Firefly Cupcakes – A happy birthday indeed!
  3. Why we can’t have a full-size AT-AT from Star Wars, or an app that makes your iPhone look like a PADD from Star Trek – This is why we can’t have fun things.
  4. The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow • The Register – This is the also-ran list, and there are some books here I’d dearly love to see turned into movies: “Agent to the Stars,” “Caves of Steel,” “Citizen of the Galaxy,” “Glory Road,” “Inferno,” “Mutineers’ Moon” … but I’d sacrifice them all to avoid having to deal with the prospect of a “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” movie …
  5. Philosophical Referee Signs – This one’s for Dave N.
  6. Fischer: Muslims Don’t Have To Convert, Just Renounce Islam – Stay classy, Bryan! (Dolt.)
  7. David Barton on Thomas Jefferson – In the Year of Our Lord Christ – David Barton attributes to Thomas Jefferson boilerplate text on a form Jefferson signed in order to make it seem that Jefferson was a particularly devout Christian? Inconceivable!
  8. Climate Pollution Is Killing Pikas, The Mountain Bunnies Of The Rockies – Awwwwwwww … I love pikas (and the sounds they make).
  9. Multitasking Differences: WP7, Android, and iOS – Kind of interesting.
  10. 10 Charts About Sex « OkTrends – Comparisons, correlations, and quirky trends about sex. Always fun.
  11. Chutzpah: Indianapolis Observer
  12. Kyl Throws Fake Fact Down Memory Hole [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – Stay classy, Jon! And don’t forget … THE INTERNET NEVER FORGETS.
  13. Organize & Create Your Short Stories & Novels With StoryBook – This sounds very cool — but also a great way to distract one from actually writing.
  14. Tom The Dancing Bug – News of the Times: Library System Terrorizes Publishing Industry – Funny, because it’s true. And … hey, look, the GOP is trying to shut down libraries. Nice!

Tweets from 2011-04-11

  • Initiating daughter into the ubermetageekdom of "Money Python & the Holy Grail" … very happy. #
  • We're the Knights of the Round Table, we dance whene'er we're able. We do routines and chorus scenes with footwork impeccable. #
  • Inara meets Patrick Jayne. Fun, even if Mal would bloody his nose, if not more. #mentalist #

Unblogged Bits (Sat. 26-Feb-11 2230)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Mike Burns: Beck And Barton Mock Supreme Court Decision They Don’t Understand – Yeah, there’s a shock.
  2. Mike Burns: Siding With Beck On Islamic Caliphate, WND Suggests Democracy Is Unattainable In Middle East – To the extent that to most Egyptians (or Muslims, or Arabs) the idea of a “caliphate” means “we’re in charge of the world!” it’s not surprising that it’s a popular idea among those groups — just as I suspect most Americans (or Brits, or Japanese, or Chinese) would feel similarly about their co-ethnics, co-religionists, or co-nationists being in charge.
  3. Cat bites off more than he can chew – I can definitely see our cat doing this.
  4. Rep. Broun Finally Condemns Question About Shooting Obama…Three Days Later – Crocodile condemnations.
  5. Rothfuss pledges to buy Firefly from Fox and give it away – Cool …
  6. How to Infuriate a Math Major – SMBC February 26, 2011 – This one’s for Margie.
  7. REPORT: Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About – Wow. Those are individually awful, and collectively appalling.
  8. Santorum Blunders: You Don’t Have to Hate Christendom to Hate the Crusades « Commentary Magazine – There’s a lot of goofiness in Tobin’s article, but he rightly hands Santorum his head.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 17-Feb-11 1630)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Men Who Lose Hair Young At Bigger Risk For Prostate Cancer – That’s comforting.
  2. CSPI Asks FDA To Ban Caramel Coloring Used In Coke, Pepsi And Other Stuff You Like – Swell.
  3. Go Bernie! – “So, I think what the American people understand is that, when we have such an unequal distribution of income right now, you don’t give more to the people who don’t need it and cut back on people who are hurting.” It’s nice to think that the American people understand that. It would be even nicer if our elected officials understood that, too.
  4. ‘Firefly’ returning to cable; Fillion says he’d play Mal again — EXCLUSIVE | Inside TV | EW.com – SIGH
  5. Whaleocalypse – Whaleocalypse 011
  6. Why not just cut $100bn in GOP districts? – Well that seems fair. (Not really, but it’s an entertaining thought exercise.)

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 12-Jan-11 1630)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Judson Phillips On Tucson Massacre: ‘The Left Benefits From This’ – They seem to be doing a great job of proving what they’re being accused of — intemperate, violent, and threatening speech.
  2. AZ Republicans Resign After Giffords Shooting, Citing Threats From Local Tea Partiers – “I love the Republican Party but I don’t want to take a bullet for anyone.” Sad. And scary. Not just for the individuals, but the country.
  3. Broken U.S. Senate Rules May Make It Impossible To Ever Confirm A Director Of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – Sounds like a great opportunity for a recess appointment.
  4. The Sunday Morning Come to Jesus Moment on Second Amendment Solutions – “Here’s the real question, what exactly do these people think ‘Second Amendment Solutions’ are?”
  5. NOAA: 2010 goes down as a tie for warmest year on record: jtimmer@arstechnica.com (John Timmer)
  6. Thunderbirds is back, but will it have puppets? – I loved this show with a burning passion as a kid — and have the DVDs as an adult to prove it.
  7. Blood Libel – Stay classy and/or sane, Sarah!
  8. Five Easy Places to Recycle Your Old Gadgets and Computers [Environment] – Making a note for future reference.
  9. Is Blu-Ray an Inferior Format to DVD? – I haven’t used my new one enough to tell whether it’s markedly slower (because of the networking stuff) than my old DVD player, but that’s not my first impression. And it is, in fact, gorgeous.
  10. Trivia: Han Solo Appears in ‘Firefly’ – Fun.
  11. Who Will End This Madness? – “Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side’s activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can’t stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous.”
  12. Defensive Palin finally responds to Tucson massacre, attacks media – Blood libel? BLOOD LIBEL? Seriously, Sarah? Do you even know how that terms is used? Crikey.
  13. James Bond Comes Back To Movie Theaters In 2012 [Movies] – Cool. MGM seems to be getting past its money woes (largely by getting financing from other studios and giving them all or most of the proceeds).
  14. Paul Krugmann on Economic Morality and the Ideal Society – I think that sounds like a fine ideal. Almost Golden Ruleian.

Unblogged Bits (Mon. 27-Dec-10 2230)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Infographic: Bad Science in Movies Chart – I’m not sure Serenity deserves one of the downchecks here (or maybe two).
  2. Major obstacles to cellulosic biofuel production overcome with new yeast strain – Cool! Hope it pans out economically (and politically).
  3. NYC sanitation workers destroy a Ford Explorer – “Tell your supervisor to come with a lawyer!” Yeesh.
  4. Compared to you, most people seem dumb – Something I need to remember sometimes: “People are not really stupid, it is just that you know a lot more. Don’t let knowledge blind you.”
  5. Conservatives mistake “Constitution” for “Articles of Confederation” – Why do Conservatives hate the Constitution?
  6. Vitter Blames Undocumented Immigrants For Loss Of Louisiana Congressional Seat – Um … read the Constitution lately, Dave?
  7. Rick Scott’s Economic Advisers Manipulate Research To Claim Unemployed Are Lazy And Don’t Try To Find Jobs – Dolt. Or Evil. Take your pick.
  8. YouTube – The Mean Kitty Song – This one’s from Katherine …

Unblogged Bits (Sun. 26-Dec-10 2230)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Gingerbread Serenity – Shiny! And sweet!

The Shepherd’s Tale

Due to the good graces of Stan (since I didn’t pre-order it at my comic shop and it sold out by noon), I got my copy of the latest Firefly/Serenity book, Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale, by Joss and Zack Whedon, illustrated by Chris Samnee.

Good stuff. No spoilers below.

Shepherd Book was one of my favorite characters in the Firefly universe. They’re all favorites, at different times, but Book was special. A man of faith, even when confronted by questions from his comrades and questions from his heart.  A man of peace who seemed awfully handy with a gun or his hands.  A man on a journey, but whose starting was shrouded in mystery, save for a few tantalizing clues.

It would have been interesting to see the tale of Derrial Book told out over a multi-season run of Firefly.  Alas, Fox TV is as much of [digress into rambling screed over Fox, Fox TV, Fox News, and the Problem of Evil]. So instead we get this book.

It’s good.

It’s also short, essentially a one-shot, a slender 48 pages of storytelling despite the hardcover binding.  Arguably overpriced.  Could it have been better served in a longer format, the three-issue mini-series once promised?  Perhaps.  Or maybe not.  The story is what it is, and adding more details at each step would have been entertaining but not necessarily more meaningful.  It does feel rushed at times, like Zack (who did the actual frame-to-frame writing) wanted to get it done, but it also plays a bit like an extended flash-back, a series of images and episodes peeling away Book’s past and what brought him to that mining planet in Serenity.

In short (literally), it sums up the life (and death) of Shepherd Book neatly and quietly, explains the mysteries, shows us where he came from and where he was going, and does so in a way that (a) makes sense, (b) doesn’t cop out to the most egregious fanboi imaginings, (c) lives up to what it needed to be (sort of like Book himself), and (d) brings it all to a nice end.

I’m glad Shepherd got his chance to tell his story, this way if none other.  Recommended.

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 5-Nov-10 1130)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. MOVE! The GREAT MIGRATIONS Facebook Game- National Geographic Channel – Yeah, it’s Facebook-enabled, but not really “on” Facebook (you can post messages to it if you sign-in). And it’s a National Geographic thing. So it’s … um … educational!
  2. Olbermann’s checkbook: Steve Benen
  3. Far-right talking points on India trip generate pushback – “There’s a reason so many Republican voters seem confused about current events — they’re lied to as a matter of course.”
  4. David Barton’s Incoherent Election Analysis: The Biggest Loser Was George Soros – Oh my God — GEORGE SOROS IS RUNNING THE UNIVERSE! And … maybe he’s a Muslim, too! And gay! And from Kenya! IT WOULD EXPLAIN EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD! (Note: David Barton is a dolt.)
  5. WordPress Database and Files Backup Solutions – Best of – I make occasional manual exports, and I have a fair amount of faith in my host and their backups. That said, I should look more into some of these.
  6. Geek Pronunciation Guide – 21 Tough Words | Geekosystem – I had most of these right, but it’s an interesting list.
  7. Color Changing Bandages – Wound Detection | Geekosystem – Clever!
  8. Cover of The Week – 11/4/10 « – Love the Superboy one. (The comic wasn’t bad, either.)
  9. You can absorb Bisphenol A by handling thermal receipt paper – Boing Boing – Oh, jolly. Ugh.
  10. 51 great pizza parlors – USATODAY.com – Mmmmm … pizza …
  11. Procrastination – I need to read (and reread) this article. Especially during NaNoWriMo season.
  12. Behind The Republican Money Web – Best Congress money can buy!
  13. Shauna Theel: FoxNews.com Top News: Student doesn’t do homework, receives a zero – Yes, but it makes it sound like EVIL MEXICANS and LIBERAL EDUCATORS are trying to MAKE EVERYONE SPEAK SPANISH, EVEN FOR THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. At least that’s the impression you’d get from the news blurb. Stay classyy, FoxNews.com!
  14. And then there were 53 – “Democrats have now won a Senate majority for three consecutive cycles, the first time that’s happened since 1992. Oddly enough, Mitch McConnell neglected to mention this yesterday when demanding that everyone respect his authority.”
  15. Topless Robot – Firefly’s 15 Best Chinese Curses (and How to Say Them) – My, I really need to make a note of these …
  16. Xmarks: Alive and Kicking – Huzzah!
  17. Opting Out of Full Body Image Scanning at the Airport – UCSF Faculty Concerned Over X-Rays – 100x Stronger Than Assumed? – I would not be at all surprised to discover that the safety testing was superficial, that it was done (and vouched for) by the manufacturer alone, and that the TSA will completely ignore any concerns.
  18. Greece hit by a wave of mail bombs; What if they were Muslim? – Haven’t heard anyone yet saying we need to step up security efforts in Greece, or start targeting these guys with Predator drones. Wonder why?

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 2-Nov-10 1130)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. This week, Firefly’s Shepherd Book finally gets an origin story! [Comicswecrave] – Very much looking forward to this. (Or maybe not — character secrets long hidden are rarely as cool when they come to light.)
  2. RLC for November / 02 / 2010 – This describes my relationship with professional sports.
  3. The Familiar Ring Of The K Street Project – Republicans trying to control the businesses that are trying to control the Republicans. Welcome to the next two years (at least).
  4. Follow-up: My Little Pony – I may be slightly ill. Actually, the most noteworthy thing in the new logo is the emphasis on “MY” — which resonates with web-savvy kids as well as adding some good old American possessiveness to the mix.
  5. Fork off: mass exodus from OOo as contributors join LibreOffice – Smooth move, Oracle.
  6. Here we go with the bogus spin about how Dems lost (if they lose) – “No one over-promised, and no one over-reached. The President and the Democrats in Congress lacked spine and an ability to message. They ticked off the base, left the economy in more shambles than it needed to be, and permitted the GOP to lie with impunity. And that’s the stuff of losing elections.”
  7. Roseanne Cash To John Boehner: “Stop Using My Dad’s Name, You Asshat” – Good for you, ma’am!
  8. Failure to pay due regard to the separateness of persons. Or: the most anti-feminist “feminism” I’ve ever seen. Or: never, never, NEVER have sex with this woman. Or: Let me repeat. For god’s sake, this is not what feminism is! This is crypto-fundamentalism. – McDonagh seems to advocate in favor of deception and ignorance. That is an immoral position to take, regardless of one’s politics.
  9. Why isn’t Jonah Goldberg unemployed? [Pharyngula] – Wow. Stay classy (and keep the moral high ground), Jonah! (Note: I have some problems with how WikiLeaks has handled this whole thing, but I have similar, even greater problems with information being classified more to cover political butts than because operational security demands it. When in doubt, go with the truth.)
  10. From the “Duh” Files: GOP will use 2010 infrastructure to steamroll 2012 – A lot of companies and wealthy will simply add this to the cost of doing business. If it provides the profits they expect it will, it’ll be cheap at twice the price.
  11. Rep. Bachus Makes Preemptive Strike: Obama May ‘Force’ GOP To Shutdown The Government – Hostage takers always claim they were forced into it … “If this government gets hurt, it’s your responsibility! Now back down!”