Farewell, Mr. Courtney

In the Future, Everyone Will Need a Fully Functioning Brain

I'm sticking with mono!

Free Speech!

In the interest of promoting freedom of speech, here is a link to Cartoon Brew's commentary on the youtube "Officer Bubbles" videos. Apparently, this police officer does not realize that you can make fun of people in America Canada.

More at Boing Boing.

Zombies vs. Kids

I am confident that kids will be able to take care of themselves when the zombie apocalypse comes. See evidence below:

Hungary Does the Right Thing

Dear American Government,

This is how you handle a horrifying ecological catastrophe brought about by corporate negligence.

Sincerely,
A Citizen

Wo(o)T!

Working out my thoughts on the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series...I began reading these books nearly 20 years ago (!) and have had a love/hate relationship with them ever since. I liked the first book, The Eye of the World, when I read it, but I didn't think it lived up to some of the other doorstop high fantasy quest novels out there at the time, such as Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair and The Stone of Farewell (Williams hadn't yet published the third volume in his trilogy, To Green Angel Tower, which I ultimately found unsatisfying). The second and third books in The Wheel of Time were better, but by the fourth and fifth I found myself wishing for a Wheel of Time: Good Parts Version. I thought Lord of Chaos was a return to form, with more of the dark elements and the same feeling of importance and dread Jordan had brought to the first few volumes. Since then, though, I've had to live with scraps of brilliance.

Moments in the series are what keep me coming back for more. While Jordan had his weaknesses as a writer, he was also capable of developing characters readers care about or hate or fear, and of occasionally writing a very moving or funny or terrifying scene. The opening of the Wheel of Time series, "Dragonmount," a brilliantly bleak seven pages from The Eye of the World, is genuinely great.

Trolloc drawing by Daniel Landerman

I just finished Knife of Dreams and found it generally more satisfying than some of the other late entries in the series. Despite the 100+ page prologue and long sections about minor characters, it had some very creepy scenes, a lot of Mat and Perrin, and a wonderful unsettling coda.

I have high hopes for Brandon Sanderson's conclusion to the series. I want to see how this all ends, and I'm sticking with it until it does.

The always engaging
OF Blog of the Fallen on Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time
For a smart fan's perspective on the enjoyment of reading fiction that is heavy on the worldbuilding, see
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

Wheel of Time news sites and discussion boards:
The Thirteenth Depository

Dragonmount

Pages of Prophecy

A free Wheel of Time MUD:
The Wheel of Time MUD

A great piece in The Believer about Jordan and Sanderson: The End of the Story

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World

I've seen this video of Arthur C. Clarke discussing today's technology yesterday on a few different sites recently, but will repost it here, primarily so I can also post a link to this song.




...and what the hell, while I'm at it, how about some of this:

Recent Changes and Hello Again!

I just imported a bunch of material from my other blogs, Sqwuigilum and Now I Am Wasting Your Time. Some of these may come down in the near future, I suppose.

I'm planning on using Inertial Observer for my blogging in the foreseeable future. Please check back regularly for posts on movies, books, weird stuff, etc. I will try to post more frequently than in the past, and hopefully I will have some interesting things to say, or at least interesting sites to recommend.

Grant Morrison's Mahabharata

I absolutely love mad labors of love like this: Grant Morrison's CGI retelling of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata looks fascinating, bizarre, and potentially very, very beautiful. Morrison has long been one of my favorite comics writers--though his work can sometimes come across as incomprehensible, it is always interesting.




(luscious concept art from 18 Days)









The Mahabharata is a wonderful story to begin with, and I loved Peter Brook's (more faithful) adaptation when I saw it on PBS years ago. Here's a bit of that:

The Naked Ape

I'm a big fan of the TED talks. Here's a particularly interesting one that just went up today: scientist Elaine Morgan makes an argument that humans evolved from aquatic apes. Her most persuasive points address the layer of fat under our skin, the evolution of other hairless mammals, and bipedalism. It's pretty fascinating, really.

Filming the Unfilmable?

io9 just put up a very thoughtful post about the idea of "unfilmable books." Especially intriguing is the argument about how the idea that some books shouldn't be filmed is actually harder to defend than the idea that certain books can't be filmed. It's definitely worth reading.

Turtleman!

This guy is awesome!

Bananas!

Best.Pantyhose.Commercial.Ever.

Crows Make Tools: BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR CROW OVERLORDS!!!

Acid Attack!!!

The Hope Chest is collecting some great old-timey newspaper stories about acid attacks by various people (including mothers, fathers, random strangers) on various others (including draftees, children, and horses).

Maybe This is the Best Thing Ever

From the TED talks: a pretty nifty new gadget.

Definitely the Best Thing Ever

Story at Monsters and Rockets about this lovable little owl.

"Everything I touch dies, so that's not much fun on a date."

A fine interview.

Adieu, Milton Cougar

The cougar they shot in Chicago was the same one seen in Wisconsin last month. Story here.