Jonathan Sanderson’s weblog, since 2001.
Congrats to the Galaxy Zoo team for Galaxy Zoo 2, new today. Alongside the Twitter stream for the Mars Phoenix lander, this is up there amongst my favourite online science engagement projects. More, they’re doing real science with it rather than ‘just’ communication.
There’s an excellent summary of what’s happened so far, from which you’ll find links to papers current and future.
While I’m on the subject of crappy-but-oh-so-polished American sci-fi shows:
Heroes. Really, does anyone care any more? At this point, the best possible outcome would be for the whole thing to be some grandiose arthouse piece that’s deliberately going to loop back on itself, so at the end we’re not merely apparently back where we started, but actually back where we started, to the very last detail.
Or maybe that already happened. Twice. I lose track.
Battlestar Galactica, meanwhile: aw, sheesh. The show’s always lurched from ‘astonishingly bold and fabulous’ to ‘oh, for heaven’s sake, this is awful’. Often within the same scene. By the end of last week’s episode I was almost willing to give up on it; this week I’m glad I didn’t, because the cylons are back. I’ve said it before, but like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park the cylons are much more rounded, believable, and internally-consistent characters than the humans.
When they have a mutiny they really go for it. They don’t play it out in barely 60 minutes then pick up next week as if nothing had happened. Ahem.
It’s that inconsistency of pacing that really bugs me. Somewhere, in all the B-roll and discarded scenes and rough cuts, there’s an outstanding, epic, triumphant series. Filtering through the 48-minute/four ad-break structure, however, the producers have only ever managed to coax glimpses of that show. What we get, then, is a tantalising impression of what might have been, but tragically isn’t.
Five episodes to go, and I’m sticking with it. I’ve come too far not to, now. And at least I know it finishes, unlike that dross Heroes, which could already be recycling plot elements for montage-show repeats, for all the sense it makes.
Actually, that would explain a lot.
For what it’s worth, I find myself tending towards the opinions expressed at the yellow/red end of the reviews gathered by Metacritic. Opening episodes are never straightforward – too many characters, too much exposition – so maybe I’ll dip back in around show five and see if it makes any more sense.
Positives? Dushku is surprisingly good. Also: this was the second stab at an opening episode. I’m hoping the execs meddled more here than in the rest of the series, and left Whedon to get on with the rest of it.
I should know, by now, that when an old TV chum calls and begins, all a-fluster, “I need your help…”, I should:
a. Run away. Or, failing that:
b. Insist on a contract before saying anything even vaguely helpful.
Having not learned this lesson, a show on which I did a bit of ad-hoc (also: mostly unpaid and entirely uncredited, ahem) consulting is on BBC2 tonight, Richard Hammond’s Engineering Connections. 2030. It’s also on at 1900 tomorrow, oddly. Or you might have seen it last year on National Geographic.
It’s not half bad, actually. Certainly, compared to where they were a couple of weeks before shooting, it’s ruddy amazing. Props to director Kenny Scott, firstly for calling foul on the turgid script he inherited, and secondly for pulling off what was more-or-less a completely different concept, in a month.
I may be miffed with the production company, but in their defence they did let Kenny go ahead with his piano-and-bike-pump concept that became the show’s centrepiece. Eighteen months on from my involvement, what really smarts is that somebody else thought of that before I did.
Watch the show. They need the ratings, and who knows, they might get the format right if there’s a second series.
Oooh, hello. This thing’s still working, then? That’s good.
Busy times. SciCast continues apace. Yes, I know it’s a few days since I uploaded any more films, I’ve been working on the site for our judging panels. It’s a separate/hidden site, so don’t bother going looking for it. Heck, there are passwords, secret handshakes, and quite likely monsters, too.
Last Monday saw the first Scottish Science Communicators’ Conference, organised by Glasgow Science Centre. The penny-dropping moment as people who’ve previously been isolated realise they’re part of a broad community never gets old. I did a workshop in the morning, took photos in the afternoon – coming soon to my Flickr stream – and chatted to a bunch of folks in the evening, including the very entertaining Richard Wiseman.
Wednesday I was at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh running a video skills workshop for their public engagement staff and a couple of interested researchers. It was a somewhat intense day, but a heap of fun – they’re a capable and enthusiastic bunch. We bashed around a few ideas for a new project they’re running, and I think found a workable way of doing it. In fact, I rather got the feeling that I earned my keep for summarising everything into eight words. I like days like that.
Thursday and Friday I spent in part trying to double my media drive space. As of today, I have an external chassis, four terabyte drives, and an eSATA ExpressCard that’s 48 hours late. But that’s another story, for another time.
Via the Guardian’s Jemima Kiss on Twitter: Morris: A Life With Bells On
Fantastic.
The French Navy have retired their former flagship, aircraft carrier Clemenceau. It’s heading to Teesside to be broken up, and the steel will be… recycled. Yes, they’re recycling an aircraft carrier.
Not clear what they’re going to do with the 700 tonnes of asbestos, though.
Oh, wait – this is a blog, not Twitter. I can embed things rather than merely link to them. I remember now.
Not my picture, I hasten to add. Wish it was, though.
I should probably retweet this, but until I integrate the Action Streams stuff with the main page, not so many of you will see it. Oh, actually – more people follow me on Twitter than read this blog, come to think. Ah, well, too late to back out now.
genius http://www.flickr.com/photos/hano1/3246320809/ (via @danhon)
Brilliant real-time snow report mashup. Gosh. Here’s mine.
Incidentally, they’re saying that South-East England has had the heaviest snow it’s seen in 18 years. Funnily enough, I was working in London, the winter of 1991. We had a couple of inches, and all the transport packed in. So I shoved my walking boots and woolly hat on, and walked in to the lab: Kilburn to Piccadilly. Central London was almost completely shut down. Oxford and Regent Streets were empty, barely anyone bothered.
The lab was shut, so I spent the day hopping between the few shops that were open, looking for a dinner suit in the January sales. I’m still caught out by how badly London copes with a little snow; I’ve never thought of a couple of inches as being anything much. Ah, well.
Alom’s Why is Science Important? project continues apace, with new postings most days and the film in full production. This contribution, however, is worthy of particular mention:
She’s 12. Her article is brilliant. Spread this one far and wide, folks, it deserves to be read.