Books, Movies, Games and Links
I just saw this video on youtube and just had to post it here – an amazing video / remix called “The Golden Age Of Video” by Ricardo Autobahn:
Try and see how many classic movies and TV shows you can spot!
This deserves extra kudos for the way the Audio syncs with the Videos with a thumping beat to drive the whole thing along. It even rhymes!
Alltogether now: We came, we saw, we kicked his ass!
The best remote control ever… I just spotted this on the Firebox site!
The Wand
Basically this remote allows you to control almost anything, with nifty Harry Potter style wand waving!
Left and Right to select tracks, for example, and circular swishing movements to adjust volume. It can learn up to 13 infra red commands. It even comes in a nifty magical presentation box.
If you want to control your MP3s from your iPod Dock or your TV channels or your Sky + there’s no better way than this!
See the video and get it from Firebox.Com (The example video shows you how it can even learn to control your Macbook).
Gadgets don’t get better than this! Is it the ultimate geeky Christmas present?
From the amazing site “Information Is Beautiful” comes this visualisation of how billions of dollars are spent around the world, in relative terms.
You can instantly see, for example, that at first glance the cost of the Iraq War seems to dwarf all others, until you look further down and see the “worst case” total cost of the world financial meltdown.
$000,000,000 costs in relative terms
(The US 9-zero for billion costs seems to have become the norm, whereas in the UK it makes more sense to me be a “thousand million” with a million million being a billion, i.e. 12 zeros. Guess the US won out on that one!)
Other interesting info-graphics from Information Is Beautiful include:
There are other websites on the net with some very thought provoking visualisations and info-graphics including Mark Easton’s blog at BBC News, Infosthetics, The Guardian Datablog’s Flickr Group, Wall Stats, Cool Infographics and there’s more listed in this article at Smashing Magazine.
You could even make your own using widgets from the Google Visulisation project!
My new favourite radio station is Nation FM, of South Wales.
I was a big fan of Absolute Radio, formerly Virgin Radio, but unfortunately it only broadcasts on the AM band unless you have DAB Digital Radio or live in London.
Absolute is by far the more professional of the two, with more programs and top DJ’s such as Christian O’Connell and Geoff Lloyd (hilarious!). Absolute frequently runs promotions, sponsors live festivals and gigs, and has a professional community-based website. Nation on the other hand is a much more low key affair – but if you listen to the radio for the music it could suit your needs.
The music across both stations varies. Absolute focuses on classic Rock with some modern songs thrown in. Nation’s remit is “Rock, Metal and Alternative” which means lots of guitar-heavy bands – both new and old. I love it!
My musical tastes tend to vary between the two – such as David Bowie and other classic Rock artists (Absolute is best for this) and The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys for my indie/alternative fix (Nation wins here). So if you a fan of the likes of Green Day, White Stripes, Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Lost Prophets, Franz Ferdinand etc – with a nod to the classics from groups such as Blondie, Kiss, Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Motley Crue, Fun Loving Criminals, Manic Street Preachers and Oasis then Nation is your destination.
If, as is likely, you don’t live in South Wales you’ll find the mainly local ads bemusing but fun if you like to hear from around the world. Both these stations are commercial but Absolute is nationwide and Nation is not.
You can hear the streaming radio feed from Nation here.
Absolute Radio has an extremely comprehensive selection of formats including Windows Media Player. Ogg Vorbis, Realplayer and iTunes – as well as a webpage based player and a “Miniamp” you can see below (doesn’t seem to work in Firefox). Absolute Radio also broadcast on DAB, AM, FM (in London) and on Sky and Virgin Media Cable. They also have sister stations including Absolute Classic Rock and Absolute Extreme. You can see all the formats here
PS. We have a fine musical tradition in Wales. From the classic singers such as the Male Voice Choirs, Charlotte Church and Aled Jones through to legends such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Badfinger, MAN, The Alarm, and Bonnie Tyler. Then it’s onto the modern chart toppers such as The Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, The Automatic, Super Furry Animals, Duffy and Lostprophets. Throw in some others such as Catatonia, Bullet For My Valentine, Feeder, Funeral For A Friend, and of course the biggest selling artist of the 80’s… one Shakin’ Stevens! Yes – Welsh Music is alive and well.
75 Iconic Spacecraft
Over at Den Of Geek Martin Anderson has written this great article.
Although Den Of Geek is a fanboys paradise, posting on everything and anything to do with Games, Comics, TV and Movies, especially if its SciFi and Fantasy, this article has raised the bar in the quality of the content.
You see, Martin hasn’t just posted pictures and quick reviews of these iconic starships. He’s included a lot of background material: from many interviews with the FX people, modellers, directors and designers to links to more resources, histories, and even models and CGI renderings of each ship.
This is the kind of content the web was made for. In many ways, it’s a waste to hide it at Den of Geek. It could easily be a standalone site in it’s own right or even a coffee table book. The writing and in depth details are that good. Quality like this deserves at least to bring in new readers to Den of Geek.
Go visit this collection now. You might not agree with the rankings, and you might spot a few omissions, but if you have even a cursory affinity with Science Fiction you’ll find it very interesting. Just be warned – it can be a marathon reading the whole lot in one go!
The Top 75 Spaceships in TV and Movies.
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Warning: There may be spoilers ahead.
Torchwood, what happened to you?
Moved from the obscurity of BBC3 to BBC1. Shown at primetime, and on consecutive nights no less. This has turned from it’s “sexy scifi” origins into a real TV event.
And, boy – did it deliver!
I, and many other Dr. Who / Torchwood fans, did not expect much from this. Of course the previous two series had it’s surprises and stand-out episodes but in the main it was a fun, silly blast. Russell T. Davies, the head writer and the man responsible for bringing Who back from the dead, said it was his attempt at a US-style show, something along the lines of Buffy. You can see what he meant.
Torchwood: Children Of Earth is a different matter entirely.
This is a moral story, painfully so. It’s unrelentlessly bleak and depressing. It’s brave, moreso because of the peak time and channel it’s shown on. You might be forgiven for thinking it would be to Torchwood as the Who Christmas specials are to it’s parent show – light, entertaining fluff. You’d be seriously wrong.
The plot concerns an alien visitor coming to London and demanding that we turn over 10% of the worlds children – or our entire race will die. It soon turns out that a similar event happened in 1965, where we gave it 12 children in exchange for an antidote to a virulent form of influenza it used to threaten us.
John Frobisher, brilliantly played by Peter Capaldi, is a government paper-pusher tasked with dealing with the menace, mainly to keep the Prime Minister’s hands clean. The alien, called the 456 because of the frequency it used to communicate, sends instructions for a special room and airtight tank to be built so it can visit and hold court. But before this is done Frobisher has to ensure all details of the 1965 meeting are kept secret. He signs the assassination order for all those involved, including one Jack Harkness.
Jack is the leader of Torchwood, an organisation formed by Queen Victoria to protect Britain from alien threats. He has a long and convoluted story. Jack is “outside of time”, and is therefore immortal. And his assassins are aware of this. Lured into a meeting with Dr. Rupesh Patanjali he is shot and a bomb is implanted in his body. Upon resurrecting Jack returns to Torchwood, discovers the bomb, and all hell breaks loose.
The plot is brilliantly paced across the five days. What begins as the children of earth simply stopping in their tracks quickly escalates to them chanting in unison “We Are Coming”.
Although this is a science fiction story, it isn’t in your face. We have an alien visitor, but it’s not the true evil here. That is reserved for the higher echelons of government. This is character-driven. A weak Prime Minister excellently played by Nicholas Farrell is more concerned with keeping his job and his reputation. The Americans and Who favourites UNIT also become involved.
There are many stand out moments. The cabinet committee, coolly discussing which children we should hand over and deciding that we should give the 456 the children from the sink estates, from the lowest-performing schools. And deciding to keep their own children safe in the meantime.
There’s the character Clement McDonald, sole survivor of the 1965 abduction. He is, as are all the portrayals in this series, excellently plaid by Paul Copley. The moment he sees Jack is a stand out moment, as are all the scenes where he appears as much more than simply a token “crazy”.
Then there’s Frobisher himself, who starts out as a mere pawn of the Prime Minister and who is eventually moved to shoot his entire family and commit suicide in order to protect his two daughters from the alien. This is a scene reminiscent of the dark ending in “The Mist”.
And there’s the moment when we discover why the 456 want our children. It’s because of the chemicals they produce, says the alien chillingly. It makes us feel good.
Then there’s the scene where Ianto, Jack’s lover and Torchwood stalwart dies. We almost cannot believe this, expecting some miracle cure to be discovered or some magical remedy to surface but no – he remains dead. Of course Torchwood is not afraid to kill off major characters, right from the pilot episode.
And, finally, we get to the end where Jack is forced to sacrifice his own Grandson in order to transmit some killer sound wave back to the alien, and thus save the earth. This kind of moral argument is prevalent in the series. The needs of the many over the needs of the few. Kill one, to save millions. Again, we expect the poor defenceless boy to resurrect, since he’s Jack’s grandson, but no. He dies.
We do eventually defeat the alien. I’d like to say that was a given, but because of the bleakness so far I wouldn’t have put it as a certainty. Even the prime minister gets his comeuppance as he pathetically states how “lucky” he is that the Americans took charge and that it’s their vault. We, as the viewer, can afford a smug grin as we realise that everything was recorded.
So Torchwood: Children of Earth is a must-see. It’s intelligent Science Fiction, unafraid to take risks, and it makes the most of it’s five-day story arc. Will there be more? I’m not sure, but I think there will. CoE was a ratings hit. It had nearly 6m viewers for the first day, but more importantly it kept most of the viewers right through to the final day, even increasing that count as it went. It’s debatable whether the BBC should be in the ratings game at all, but there’s no doubt this was a success. Doctor Who proved that SciFi can be mainstream, and with CoE Torchwood has shown it can reach those heights too.
The danger is, of course, we won’t get a full series again. It may be another five day story, because of the success of this. In many ways Torchwood benefited greatly from this. It has been done before, notably in the beebs historical adaptations or in two-parters of shows like Waking The Dead, but a five dayer is a rarity. However I’d like there to be a full 13 or so episode series, even though I know it would mostly be single stories. We don’t make shows like 24 or Lost in this country, with 20+ episodes and continuing story lines, but surely something like Torchwood would be ripe for that kind of treatment.
Russell T. Davies has shown us how great a scriptwriter he can be. He personally wrote days 1 and 5, and plotted the whole arc. Sometimes in the past he has faced criticism from fans for various Who episodes he has helmed, but with CoE and given free reign by the BBC he has shot those critics down.
If Torchwood continues it will be a new crew. Already in this series we lacked Toshiko and Owen. Then we lost Ianto. Gwen is pregnant, so maybe she’ll return and maybe she won’t. But John Barrowman, a star sometimes accused of overacting and who is maybe in danger of overexposure, is likely to want to continue. There are options we have seen already: Johnson the government fixer would be a great addition to the crew, as would Lois Habiba (who acted as Torchwood’s government insider) and even Jack’s daughter, Alice.
If you didn’t catch Torchwood and – even though you’ve read this far and now know most of the plot – you can see it at Iplayer. If you’re in the US it will be shown on BBC America later this month. Everyone else will have to grab the DVD, use a proxy to access iPlayer, or (ahem) use the usual sources.
Torchwood: Children of Earth gets a 10 / 10 from me.
For more information visit the official BBC mini-site or check out the always dependable IMDB and Wikipedia.
Little Wheel is a flash based “casual” game you can play in your browser. It features a great swing/jazz soundrack and some impressive graphics in a silhouette style.
Gameplay is similar to most of these adventure games, where you simply use the mouse to click on on-screen features. Puzzles are simple, but some may get you scratching your head until you hit that “aha!” moment. Unlike other puzzle/adventure games Little Wheel marks the clickable parts of the level, helping you out greatly.
I hope to showcase more games in this blog, but for now check out Kongregate, Newgrounds and Armor Games for more than you could ever want!
Little Wheel
Ender Series Boxset
Xenocide is the fourth novel in the Ender series, and the penultimate of the series overall – even though it is succeeded by the “Shadow” series. I know this review is going to be messy. It’s hard to summarise the ideas and thoughts in this series here, but I’ll try.
If you’ve read Speaker For The Dead you’ll know more or less what to expect. It follows the same story to it’s almost conclusion. Be warned: This novel – and the proceeding one – is both scientific and philosophical in nature, and far removed from the action in “Ender’s Game”.
If you remember the end of Speaker For The Dead brought Ender to make a pact with the Pequeninos. He also married Novalhina, made this adopted family his own, and met up with Valentine – his sister. He also established the Hive Queen on Lusitania, representing the last remaining living Bugger colony, and learned a little more about the sinister-but-essential Descolada Virus which rules the planet.
Now, Ender and his family and friends face a few problems on Lusitania. For one, the Starways Congress has sent a fleet to destroy the planet with the Dr. Device, because the infitely adaptable Descolada Virus represents a threat to humanity – or indeed, all life.
To attempt to stall this Jane – the “ghost in the machine”, the entity that inhabits the Ansible network – has cut off communication to the fleet. But this has resulted in her influence being shown.
The person tasked to discover her is Han Qing-Jao, an inhabitant of Path – a Chinese world. On this world the most highly intelligent people are the “God Spoken”. They are highly intelligent, but exhibit all the mannerisms of Obsessive Compusive Disorder, then believe it to be a punishment from the Gods.
Finally the Pequeninos and Hive Queen both want to leave Lusitania and colonize other worlds, to preserve their species. Unfortunately they carry the Descolada, and thus could end up destroying worlds, or even the universe. This also presents a dilema to the humans, on whether to stop them or allow them to leave.
These ideas of life – which species should continue, if any? – pervade this novel.
It’s a race against time. The fleet is due to arrive soon. Han Qing-Jao eventually discovers the truth of Jane’s existence, and informs the Congress that all Ansibles must be replaced. This will take about 40 weeks.
Jane informs Han Qing and her highly respected father Han Fei-Tzu the truth about their Godspoken. It seems that the Congress deliberately genetically-modified Path’s inhabitants to both become hyper-intelligent but they were also crippled with the OCD in order to temper the frightening powers. While Han Fei-Tzu believes this, his daughter does not, thinking it to be a demonic plot to drive away the Gods. She is far too immersed in her religion, in part caused by her upbringing and tutoring by her father, to believe anything.
With some of the brightest minds on Lusitania and Path struggling to find answers about the Descolada, Faster Than Light travel (as a way to escape), and the truth about Jane the book enters it’s final part.
In part suggested by the Han’s secret-maid, Si Wang-Mu , it is thought the Descolada is a deliberate attempt at terraforming or planetry control instigated by some higher intelligence. The virus takes over entire planets and species, and genetically controls them in a “gaiacentric” way to keep the ecology stable. It is unkown whether the Pequeninos themselves are actually intelligent or only intelligent-by-proxy (via Descolada) but an experiment where one piggy has the virus removed yet remains intelligent up to his death disproves this.
There is some argument amongst the Ribeiras (Ender’s adopted family – who are also the scientists on Lusitania) whether or not the virus is sentient, and should be protected, but in the end they decide to create a crippled version – the Recolada – that will sustain life functions but give back free will and free them from genetic modification. This would allow all species to survive without being contagious or reliant on the virus to live. It’s duly designed by Quara and Ela.
Then the truth about Jane is discovered during a confusing meeting between Ender and the Hive Queen. Although the Hive Queen can only communicate mind-to-mind and thus is unable to to really comprehend human thought and vision, Ender discovers that Jane is in fact a part of him, or at least anchored in him, created long ago as a “pattern” that enabled the Hive Queen to communicate with Ender via his mind-game computer (in Enders Game). Jane, thus freed from believing she is only part of the universe-wide Ansible network, can survive the switch off in some form, albeit it crippled until she can rebuild her memories.
It’s the last part of the book that starts to throw you, as it rather heavily relies on science, or at least the science in this universe. It doesn’t cheat, and it’s not a “McGuffin” – because hints have been developed earlier in the novel and indeed in the series – but it does take some thinking about.
The basic premise is that the matter can be broken down to it’s smallest component, the Philote, that is indeed all that really counts. There’s a parallel universe of sorts that is infinitely composed of Philotes – and it’s those that came into our universe that created the so-called Big Bang. The Hive Queen herself – or at least her mind/intelligence – is a Philote (or pattern of) from that universe. And Jane is also a similiar Philote, brought into being in the Hive Queen/Ender pattern. Philotic connections power the Ansible, to enable instantaneous communication*. And each and every person, or indeed thing, is Philote based.
These Philotes are existence itself. They are infinite, and essentially make the idea of “thought as reality” a truth. Everything is a pattern, anchored or formed from Philotes, and the Hive Queen and Ansibles rely on this even though they don’t understand how it works.
* The whole Ansible communication theory, of one Philote directly linked to others, smacks of “Quantum Entanglement”, but we won’t go there.
This Philote-theory of the universe neatly solves all the problems on Lusitania, and indeed Path. By building a “Faster Than Light” ship (just a Hive Queen manufactured shell) that can jump from here (the Inside) to the parallel-universe (the Outside, a kind of primordial soup of raw Philotic matter) Jane can – by holding the entire pattern of the ship and contents in her mind – go to anywhere in the universe instantly. She simply switches the Philote-pattern from here to there, but since “there” has no time or location she can come back “here” anywhere (and I guess anytime?). Also any pattern that can be conceived can also come into being thanks to the Philotes….
This means Eva manages to create the new Rotolada by simply holding it’s details in mind, and even create a anti-OCD solution for the inhabitants of Path based on the Descolada. It means Ender’s stepson Miro – crippled in the last novel – can re-create his old, perfect body, and it means Ender brings into existence his idealized versions of young-Valentine and young-Peter by accident.
To be honest the last part of the book is rather mind bending and I’m sure I’m at least partly wrong on the details, but still… it’s a blast! Orson Scott Card has a wonderful imagination and as long as you can suspend your disbelief you’ll find yourself going along with the plot whether you understand the “science” or not.
While you don’t have to read Ender’s Game both Speaker For The Dead and Xenocide really form one long novel. Heavy on Philosphy, Religion and Humanity this is not your traditional Science Fiction – strange new worlds and space travel aside.
Descolada cured, we finish with the new young- Peter and Valentine becoming the anchors for Jane in place of Ender – since they are both really subsets of his own mind – and taken off in FTL ships to explore the universe. Peter to deliver the genetic OCD remedy to Path, and then to take on the Starways Congress, and Val to deliver the Hive Queens and Pequelino Father-Trees to their new colonies.
The story continues, in Children Of The Mind. Whether that refers to Peter and Val being “Children” of Ender’s Mind or to the quasi-religious group set up in the series I don’t know, but I’ll find out soon!
Rated: 8.5 / 10 – Can get confusing, but ultimately a uniquely rewarding read.
David Eddings, one of the fathers of modern “door stopper” Fantasy, has passed away aged 77. His stories were some of the first fantasy series I really loved, published through the 80s and 90s such as the Belgariad, the Malloreon, the Elenium, etc.
Many of his novels were co-written with his wife Leigh, and she was credited directly as such on his latest books.
While Eddings books were unashamedly commercial Fantasy you couldn’t help but get caught up in his worlds while reading them. While some would sniff at his contributions to the genre they did give pleasure to his fans and top the bestseller lists – and who can argue with that?
Eddings joins other (relatively) recently departed icons such as Robert Jordan and David Gemmel. If there’s another world out there, I’d like to think they’re all sitting around a camp fire somewhere – still telling stories.
If you’ve never read Eddings work his fantasy output is in two main series. The first, comprising of the Belgariad and then the Malloreon are both 5 novel series about the sorceror Belgarath, his daughter Polgara and grandson Garian. The novels are heavy on magic and Gods, but it’s Eddings cast of characters that really bring the mythos to life.
Eddings other main series is the Elenium and the Tamuli – both trilogies. These detail the adventures of the exiled knight Sparhawk. Although distinctly Eddings, the feel of these books are a lot different, sometimes darker, but still exciting.
Eddings also wrote a few prequels to his first series and a four-novel series called The Dreamers which I am not familiar with.
There is a comprehensive guide to Eddings and summaries of all his works at Wikipedia.
And of course you can see all his books, read reviews, and discuss his work over at the Amazon David Eddings
