Network XXIII!
I am in love.
The only thing wackier than trying to explain Terminator timelines is trying to explain Stargate SG-1 timelines. Their ten seasons laugh at Terminator's puny four movies and two abbreviated seasons.
So very sad. He was an amazing actor, and imbued Lorne with a vast range of emotions (difficult under full face makeup!). I will miss him.
I saw the headline and thought you meant Helen Slater. And then I got odd Legend of Billie Jean crossover thoughts -- "Fair is fair! Even when it comes to alien invaders!"
Point of English usage: "takes the reins"
It comes from those times not so long ago when we rode horses with bit and bridle, and to take the reins was to steer the horse where you wanted it to go. And Shel Siverstein taught me all about "the king who reigned for 40 years" as ruler (instead of rivalling Noah as bringer of flood). Subtle, but they are different.
Topography definitely matters in predicting fallout. Mass consistency of particles means that they speed up to go around obstacles (think of urban canyon howling winds). The slightest change in elevation can shift wind direction -- a practical example is the utter inability of meteorologists to predict Washington DC weather more than 12 hours out because of the Blue Ridge and Potomac River.
This mashup doesn't seem to take local weather into consideration, and that's a big lack. The basic blast effects circles (heat, radiation, pressure) don't rely on wind transport but are a function of the amount of fissionable material involved in the explosion. Fallout clouds will travel miles and miles, and can cause significant death or sickness due to radiation. Additionally, the altitude where the explosion occurs can change how much contamination there is -- if the blast is at ground level, soil will become radioactive, sucked up into the mushroom cloud and then get transported over great distances. The land will be unsafe for whatever the half-life is. If the blast is high-altitude, you get worse EMP effects but less lasting ground contamination.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency devotes considerable resources to modelling nuclear explosions [[www.dtra.mil]]. And wiki has a good primer on nuclear effects [[en.wikipedia.org]].
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I loved it. Terminator is my favorite show on television right now (tied with Burn Notice on USA), and I was overjoyed to see it return. I liked the exploration of Sarah's fears, especially given how the episode prior delved into the changes since her waitress days. Having Kyle (Kyle! Ahhhhh!) there to be the voice of compassion linked it all back to the first movie, the place where she had to reach deep inside and learn how to survive. But now those adaptations aren't serving her well, because she's stripped away the ability to connect to other people in extremis.
And I love John Connor too, the ways that he's rebelling against authority and lashing out, just like a teenager does. I know people who don't like that, but how can he become the leader of the resistance if he's always following orders? He makes stupid decisions sometimes, but you need to make mistakes in order to learn.
Riley and Jesse's relationship fascinates me, because Jesse is revealed to be more and more cold every time we see her.
Weaver and John Henry and Ellison are all fantastic. I do kind of wince at Ellison's reliance on Judeo-Christian theology -- it seems to reminiscent of things Battlestar Galactica did, before I stopped watching. Also, now that John Henry has access to the 'net, he's going to find out there are other religions in the world, and also more about the contradictions in the Bible.
I always finish watching this show and feel like I've been through the wringer, even as I'm also wondering what the hell is going on sometimes. It's like a dream, in some ways, where much is left unexplained, but I adore the sense of mystery.
White hole spitting time life support dead advice please.
What. The. Hell?
I am baffled. Truly baffled. Alien bounty hunter? Invasion? In Witch Mountain?!
I thought the best part was the two to three thousand home computer owners in the Bay Area. I'm tempted to look for a 1981 population estimate so I can see what percentage were cutting edge technologists. Awesome.
Ahahahahaha. I cannot wait! I loved V back in the day.
I've had Altered Carbon on my bookshelf for months, unread. Now that I hear that there's hot sexxin' in it, I'll probably pick it up. Thank you for bringing me this very important information! (in other words, if Mr. Morgan is lurking, sexual content can attract readership as much as it can drive it away)
This is truly a masterpiece of geek analysis. io9, I salute you.
Shorpy is one of my favorite sites on the web. It's taught me more about real life in America than any history class ever did.
Anything but Minmei. *shudders* Or maybe she could die in the opening scenes? Just long enough to placate the old school fans, then WHAM. She's a smear on the road after a mecha comes through.
I decided midway through that this was my final Heroes episode. It's all so pointless that I no longer care about any of the characters. They've lost all integrity.
It's more than 25%, if you get into the vagaries of the way ratings were reported last year. NBC combined the Monday and Saturday repeats to tout how well Heroes was doing when it premiered in 2007, but now they're citing only the Monday rating to make the viewing figures look better. If you go by the combined number, the audience dropped 42%. See here: [www.washingtonpost.com]
I've pretty much stopped watching Sci Fi, and it used to be one of my favorite channels. The shows I watched are still there -- Stargate: Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka -- but the stories went in directions I didn't like, and the characters were robbed of their integrity and consistency. Plus, the treatment of female characters kept striving for new lows, and I couldn't take it any more.
Rebranding won't help bring me back.
I was prepared to go postal if Last Starfighter were dissed, but thankfully you agree with me that it was awesome. Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada... Who wouldn't love that?
The Soviets built massive boosters, while the US miniaturized components and made payloads smaller. Ah, rockets. How I love you.
