... but still kind of awesome. I especially like the verse by Stephen Hawking.
My philosophy of science teacher in college absolutely detested Carl Sagan. According to him, Sagan's oversimplification and folk-philosophizing completely ruined a whole generation in terms of critical scientific thought. I tend to agree, but attempting to popularize the scientific method was probably not an altogether bad thing.
...Plus it's not like we can autotune Copernicus.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Planetary 27
Finally. The epilogue we've been waiting for for 2+ years. We finally learn the fate of Ambrose Chase and I can finally buy the last paperback.
Check out the images below to get a glimpse of what I liked so much about this series. The images are all from the last issue, but previous issues have included things like giant dinosaur monsters, a critique on the nihilistic comic heroes of the 1990's, The ghost of a Hong Kong police officer who strongly resembles Chow Yon-Fat in Hard Boiled, and a criminal conspiracy involving both Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula.
Fitting with the rest of the series, the ending is strangely optimistic. Since the series is basically a pastiche of action adventure stories ranging from those of H.G. Welles to those of Jack Kirby it makes sense that it would end with the implication that there is still a huge universe (or 10,000 universes) to explore and a lifetime of adventure to be had.
Check out the images below to get a glimpse of what I liked so much about this series. The images are all from the last issue, but previous issues have included things like giant dinosaur monsters, a critique on the nihilistic comic heroes of the 1990's, The ghost of a Hong Kong police officer who strongly resembles Chow Yon-Fat in Hard Boiled, and a criminal conspiracy involving both Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula.
Fitting with the rest of the series, the ending is strangely optimistic. Since the series is basically a pastiche of action adventure stories ranging from those of H.G. Welles to those of Jack Kirby it makes sense that it would end with the implication that there is still a huge universe (or 10,000 universes) to explore and a lifetime of adventure to be had.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Heading to Chicago
...In a couple of weeks. I'll be there for a few days to attend the Society for Neuroscience conference. I'll also be spending some time of the University of Chicago campus, which will be fun as they neglected to tell me they weren't accepting graduate students when I applied there a couple of years ago.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Stony Brook Library...
...has nearly every film released by Criterion Collection. How did I not know this before now?
Watch as my productivity drops and my pretentiousness increases exponentially.
Watch as my productivity drops and my pretentiousness increases exponentially.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Dark Knight of the Soul
The story behind this thing is completely fascinating to me. Legal disputes have prevented a proper release for the album, so instead a blank CD-R is being sold with all kinds of weird packaging including an undoubtedly disturbing booklet of photographs by David Lynch. All the songs that were supposed to be on the album are available online through.... alternative channels. The idea is that people will download these pirated songs and burn them onto the blank CD.
Complicating matters is that that the songs can be streamed legally through NPR's website. I have no idea what kind of legal disputes allow for songs to be streamed free of charge but not sold in a physical medium. Furthermore, I can't for the life of me figure out how the artists are getting away with selling blank CD-Rs and implying that people should commit internet piracy.
All I know is that the album is pretty great overall and has caused me to listen to a heckava lot of Vic Chesnutt over the last few days. Also, I really enjoy the fact that David Lynch is contributing (absurdly creepy) lead vocals to a rock album in 2009.
Complicating matters is that that the songs can be streamed legally through NPR's website. I have no idea what kind of legal disputes allow for songs to be streamed free of charge but not sold in a physical medium. Furthermore, I can't for the life of me figure out how the artists are getting away with selling blank CD-Rs and implying that people should commit internet piracy.
All I know is that the album is pretty great overall and has caused me to listen to a heckava lot of Vic Chesnutt over the last few days. Also, I really enjoy the fact that David Lynch is contributing (absurdly creepy) lead vocals to a rock album in 2009.
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