Category: Not-politics

‘The Rapture of the Nerds.’

That’s what Charlie Stross called the Singularity in this interview, and damned if I can’t see his point. Privately, I’ve always thought that a lot of believers in the concept are effectively treating it as Magic For People Who Thought That ‘Psionics’ Was Too Much A Science-Fiction Cop-Out For Magic: but then, I’m a gamer geek.  Read the whole thing; it’s pretty interesting.

See also here, here, and here for the Singularity Backlash. Which would be one heck of a band name.

Duelling “Blood: The Last Vampire” trailers.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Blood – The Last Vampire translates to live-action, but there’s a bit of a problem.

Here’s the Japanese teaser trailer:

…and here’s the American actual trailer.

I suspect that I’m going to want to see this one in subtitles.

Hey, there’s going to be a Green Lantern movie!

Via Nodwick:

Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of “Green Lantern,” getting the starring role in Warner Bros.’ live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working on the picture’s budget, but production is expected to begin in January.

If ever there was a superhero that required above-and-beyond efforts in the field of CGI, it’s Green Lantern. Not just in terms of being able to handle the power ring; making it look not-cheesy.  I look forward to seeing it.

Moe Lane

PS: And I will carefully not ask, which Green Lantern? – those conversations rarely end well.

“You *will* recognize the Genetically-Engineered Super Battle Dog as a registrable breed!”

Quote of the day, from the webcomic Skin Horse. Because being able to rant things like that to the American Kennel Club is what being a Mad Scientist is all about.

Moe Lane

PS: Theo Gray’s Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home – But Probably Shouldn’t.  For no other reason besides it having a slightly better cover than Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices.

Scene from a comic book convention.

twilight_fans-thumb-585xauto-2588

Well, a potential one. Apparently, it looks like there’s going to be a heavy presence at this year’s Comic-Con of a hitherto-unknown, Twilight-focused demographic – FlickFilsopher calls them ‘girls and women’ – and there’s some concern over the inevitable disruptions.  Personally, I’ve never had any trouble as an adult in finding women to date (and one to marry) who shared geek interests; the fact that somebody’s swearing at the screen in response to that brag right now suggests that maybe more people should be focusing on the positive elements of this story.

Because I’m pretty sure that my teen-aged self would have considered a comic-book convention that had a lot of girls my age there too to be Shangri-La.

Via @Rhetorican.

Moe Lane

Cricket has rules? (Plus: Tom Clancy should do a zombie book)

Who knew?

Yes, I stole that from Patriot Games. And may I note in passing that if Tom Clancy is looking for something to spark the creative juices again, he could hardly do worse than combining the technothriller and zombie apocalypse genres?  Don’t tell me that people wouldn’t read that: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is still #34 on Amazon, and #6 on the NYT Paperback Trade Fiction list.  Clancy doing a zombie book would be instant money.

Moe Lane: Barely Literate!

…At least, that’s what I’m interpreting from Liber Ex Machina‘s sidebar, which has this icon:

moe-lane-ad

…which is, by the way, better art than I can manage myself on my own. Anyway, feel free to hit the tip jar to commemorate my apotheosis*:

Although, honestly? At the moment, it’d probably go towards a movie ticket to go see UP while I still can. Or maybe grabbing The Color of Magic when it comes out in two weeks on DVD.

Moe Lane

PS: As LeM wrote, speaking of zombies… if reports are true, the author of President Evil loses more points for the Bush thing than he gains for the Palin thing, which is frankly a shame.