Time Travel Mechanisms and Logic in Film

A brief comparison of various time travel mechanisms and logic in film. Happy Friday and Happy First Post to me.

Adding video link since video does not appear in email.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zTfXvYZ9s

Artisanal Coffee Flavor Profiles Brought to You By Metallica

Meaning, of course, Artisanal Coffee Flavor Profiles Brought to You By Metallica.

Damn you, Tolkien, you're no James Hutton.

Tor.com has a couple of great, super-nerdy articles on the faulty geology of Tolkien's map of Middle-earth. The money quote in my opinion:

"Tolkien’s novels have had a massive influence on epic fantasy as a genre, his map is the bad fantasy map that launched a thousand bad fantasy maps..."

So, with that introduction, here's the links.

Tolkien's Map and the Messed Up Mountains of Middle-Earth

Tolkien's Map and the Perplexing River Systems of Middle-earth

As a bonus, the author, apparently a geologist by training and a fantasy buff by avocation, has given us an article on the geology of desert planets. Yee-haw!

Arrakis, Tatooine, and the Science of Desert Planets

-- Everett

Post-script: Oh my, the comments are a wonder to behold.

Tru-bacca

Perhaps we should invite the gentleman on the left to visit our book club.

September Book Club?

When is it, where is it? The book itself is super duper awesome which, as all you readers unversed in the terms of art bandied about by us lawyer types, means that I enjoyed it immensely. If the weather is nice, I volunteer my back patio for our meeting. We finally have a space that's worth meeting in...

The Political Message of the Star Wars Holiday Special

Okay, I finally wrote up my thoughts on the Star Wars Holiday Special and its message about the fragility of democracy. Hope you enjoy!

Responsible Band Names

This McSweeney's list made me laugh. But I need help with some of the names.

Beers and axe-throwing apparently mix

We've done the escape room. Now we can try this the next time someone has a birthday to celebrate.

(Also, I feel that whoever came up with "Canadian backyard shenanigans" for the sub-headline should get a Pulitzer.)

The Ballad of Porkins

This short essay on the life of Porkins contains so much beauty. Excerpt:

Porkins’s life will be a lonely one. He will work. He will paint his Warhammer miniatures. He will chat about fandom with his few weird friends. And in time, he will die more or less unmourned. 

Then everything changes. The world falls apart. Actually, all the worlds fall apart. Suddenly the Empire is at war. There is a Rebellion. And Porkins meets his moment. 

Porkins could never make it in a real military. But the Rebel Alliance is not a real military. The Rebel Alliance is a scrap-heap outfit that needs anything and anyone it can get. It needs awkward fat autodidacts who have spent their entire adult lives as involuntary celibates, poring over the proper employment of the Incom fighter series in exactly the sort of engagements the Alliance now encounters on world after world.

Politics of Star Wars at the Museum of Contemporary Art

Self-promotion time: I will be giving a talk on the Politics of Star Wars as part of the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art's "Any Three Things" lecture series. They're pairing me up with someone who does electric guitar loops and someone who makes giant pom poms. I don't know how this works.

Thursday, June 15th, 7-8:30PM. Tickets available here.

Every star map ever

This is not exactly wrong.

Spicer goes all in

This may have been the best response to Sean Spicer's Hitler commentary on Tuesday.

Pepsi: That was the biggest PR blunder of the week, year maybe.

United: Hold my beer.

Sean Spicer: LEEEEEEEEEERROOOOOOOY JEEEENNNNNNKINS!

— Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) April 11, 2017

Qam-Chee on the Potomac

The title isn't canonically accurate, but whatevs.

"The dragon saves the town."

Even if you have only a dim idea of what Dungeons & Dragons is or how a D&D game works, the #GOPDnD Twitter stream is comedy gold, imagining how Trump and his party might be inserted into a game. A couple of articles summarizing it are at Gizmodo and Distractify.

Suggestions for 2018

I'm dropping these here so I don't forget them.

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World by Tim Marshall

Yacht Rock

All twelve episodes of Yacht Rock collected in one spot. I think this is one of the underappreciated gems of online comedy. It's worth watching them sequentially (and contemporaneously). Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Yacht Rock. And here's the series on YouTube:

Yacht Rock 1

Yacht Rock 2

Yacht Rock 3

Yacht Rock 4

Yacht Rock 5

Yacht Rock 6

Yacht Rock 7

Yacht Rock 8

Yacht Rock 9

Yacht Rock 10

Yacht Rock 11

Yacht Rock 12

Syrians play Risk too.

Who knew we were so cutting edge?

Coates on Obama

A bit more from Ta-Nehisi Coates to round out this week's book club meeting. If you haven't read it, Coates' piece in The Atlantic assessing the Obama presidency is profound, especially in his efforts to reconcile Obama's innate optimism with the outcome of the 2016 election. For more on this same topic, listen to Coates' interview with Ezra Klein.

Punching Nazis

And I'm not referring to Nazis who engage in punching, but rather to the activity of hitting Nazis with fists. The question du jour is whether Captain America should punch Nazis and what would Jack Kirby think of a Cap who did not. Steven Attewell has some thoughts.

Prince Jones

Prince Jones plays a not insignificant part in Between the World and Me, this month's book club book. I was living and working in DC back in 2000 when he was shot and killed by PG County police. The killing dominated news in DC for quite a while, so I thought I'd go back and dig up some of the stories for context. The one I recall best is this article from the Washington City Paper, the DC alternative weekly. That article is contemporaneous with the shooting. A year later, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote this article for the Washington Monthly, in which he takes a deeper look at policing in PG County. Finally, two years after the incident, the City Paper published an additional article with significant new facts gleaned from depositions given by the police officers involved in the shooting. Read together, it's a deeply depressing catalog of race and policing that underscores what I take to be Coates' pessimism about whether America will ever accord black men equal respect, both culturally and legally.

"Almost everyone has been wrong forever about the Death Star"

Did everyone else already know this? I know I didn't.

More Bosch

The O.G. Hieronymous, that is. Check out the figurines.

The Obama Era

Following up on our conversation last night, here is a link to the Atlantic series on The Obama Era. It contains both Ta-Nehisi Coates interviews with President Obama, his article on Obama's blackness, and the response I mentioned (authored by Tressie McMillam Cottom). There's also some additional articles. The whole series is both excellent and heartbreaking.

Cthulu/Special Forces

As I mentioned last night, here is a link to my pal's military/Lovecraftian books on Amazon.  They're cheap, and the $ goes to a good cause.  Also, if you do read, feel free to leave a review.  He also has a few books on a conspiracy to start World War I, if you're interested in that.  Be careful googling "Sean Michael O'Dea" however, as there is another writer by the same name who writes bondage fiction. You know, NSFW.

Phoenix Jones, eat your heart out

Portland has a superhero, and it's the most Portlandish superhero you could imagine. It's...the Unipiper.

Just watch the video, all right?


[Update: did some research and apparently this guy's been around for a while.]