In what would go down as the earliest Comic-Con publicity stunt in support of 2012’s new film Amazing Spider-man, a venomous lizard was captured in San Diego.
The 2-foot-long lizard, native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, is being kept at a county animal shelter in Carlsbad until officials with the state Department of Fish and Game can devise a relocation plan.
“It’s very dangerous and illegal to possess without a permit,” said Lt. Dan DeSousa of the animal services department.
Although we cannot prove this an organic way to get Southern California nerds terrified of lizards, just like Peter Parker will be on July 3rd in 3D and IMAX, we do hope that Rhys Ifans finds it funny.
Although we are pretty sure he’s been talking about this concept for far longer than a year, Jack Horner’s idea to create dinosaurs from chickens is listed among the most “wacky but serious” ideas of 2011 by Live Science. We’d like to think of it as more “awesome but deadly” or “foreboding but the coolest thing ever” but to each their own.
One point of correction however, the Live Science story makes mention that Horner served as a technical advisor to the Jurassic Park film. While that is true it’s also way understating the point. The legendarily curious, adventurous paleontologist was the partial inspiration for our curious, adventurous paleontologist hero Dr. Alan Grant in Michael Crichton’s source material.
Either way, Horner is awesome and we are closer to dinosaurs today than we were yesterday thanks to him. And as always… hold on to your butts.
And all she wants you to do is open your heart and experience love an joy instead of letting word police clip your wings. Also, she wouldn’t mind if you purchased her book, which is now repurposed for Kindle.
Here is a snippet…
“Before I came to the Earth plane, when I was at home on Venus, I had a vision of all of you. I felt that the Earth would welcome – if not me – then the truths I would discover to help them find the peace and inner contentment, independent of what happens on the outside. But now I know my vision was a mirage. The Earth seems satisfied to resign itself to depression, despair, and dead ends. Does this planet Earth need me from Venus? Did it ever need me? I still don’t know.”
As many of us reconstitute ourselves after surviving the Christmas weekend, everyone can count ourselves lucky that we didn’t get a visit from the Krampus. This Germanic folklore creature is the raging, punitive ying to the sobering, genial, jelly bellied yang of Santa Claus.
See, the Krampus doesn’t cop to this namby pamby you’ve-been-bad-so-you-get-coal-in-your-stocking nonsense. No. He needs to see the wicked punished. And he aims to do it his darn self. Getting all up in your face… one naughty house at a time, kidnapping awful children and eating them.
Krampus is a mythical creature recognized in Alpine countries. According to legend, Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. When the Krampus finds a particularly naughty child, it stuffs the child in its sack and carries the frightened child away to its lair, presumably to devour for its Christmas dinner.
So, just in case you were wondering where your sister went. Much more Krampus action, including a few videos of Krampus cosplay over at Cryptomundo.
The breakout Science Fiction author of 2011 is waiting to invade that brand spanking new eReader of your choice. If you found yourself a Kindle Fire or iPad 2 under the Christmas tree this year you need to snag entire Andrew Mayne catalogue, all for under $4.
Since they all cost .99¢ each, you can have hours and hours of critically acclaimed, groundbreaking SciFi writing for less than the price of lunch.
Here is what people are saying about the works of Andrew Mayne:
“What I found was a gem of a book for only .99 cents. A fast paced thriller that I literally couldn’t put down. I will definitely be checking out the other Andrew Mayne titles on Kindle.”
– Robert Gemienhardt about Public Enemy Zero
“Mayne’s books just keep better! The Chronological Man: The Monster in the Mist was excellent! It had well written characters, good dialog and a great story to be told!”
– Simone Allyne about The Chronological Man: The Monster in the Mist
“This book reminds me of all of the best elements of old school science fiction, combined with modern sensibilities.”
– Dennis Owens Jr. about The Chronological Man: The Emperor of Mars
Find all of Andrew’s books here or download them directly from your eReader or smart phone using the Kindle, iBooks or Nook store apps.
SPONSORED POST
Posted in Andrew Mayne, Sponsored Post | |
Comments Off on Unwrap an iPad or Kindle Yesterday? Fill it with 2011’s Breakout Science Fiction Author Andrew Mayne
Chatting trees, mother knows best and things get dusty for the Doctor. The Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who written by current series mastermind Stephen Moffat gave us something we got frightfully little of this season: a competent episode.
Rollerman has created a 31-wheeled suit of roller-blades, which he uses to go very, very fast. Click the play button to watch three minutes of insanity.
When a giant airship descends on New York City in 1892 and threatens destruction if the world doesn’t submit to the Martian flag, it’s up to the mysterious Smith, inventor and adventurer to find out what forces are at work.
From the dangerous basement fan-tan parlors of Chinatown to the top of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, Smith and his brilliant assistant, April Malone, will have to unravel the clues and avoid danger lurking behind every corner. To stop the menace they’ll need they enlist the help of Theodore Roosevelt and other early twentieth-century heroes.
The second book in The Chronological Man series, The Martian Emperor combines mystery, airship battles and back room Tammany Hall politics against the backdrop of a world on the verge of war.
53,000 words – approximately 160 pages.
Available for all Kindle platforms including iPhones, iPods, Android and Windows 7.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL MAN ADVENTURE: A MONSTER IN THE MIST
“Mayne’s books just keep better! The Chronological Man: The Monster in the Mist was excellent! It had well written characters, good dialog and a great story to be told!” – Simone Allyne
“In many ways I enjoyed it better than the canonical Doctor Who books.” – Joseph Rochetto
SPONSORED POST
Posted in Sponsored Post | |
Comments Off on Smith is Back! Andrew Mayne’s Chronological Man Adventure: The Martian Emperor Available Now
Oft-maligned as disease stuffed flying rats, pigeons tend to get a bad rap. But it looks like the city birds could be much smarter than we initially thought, or at the very least able to keep track of all the people calling them disease stuffed flying rats.
Pigeons may not be so bird-brained after all, as scientists have found the birds’ ability to understand numbers is on par with that of primates.
Previous studies have shown that various animals, from honeybees to chimpanzees, can learn to count when trained with food rewards. In 1998, researchers discovered that rhesus monkeys can not only learn to count to four, but can also pick up on numerical rules and apply them to numbers they haven’t seen before, allowing them to count up to nine without further training.
In what is surely not the seemingly harmless opening salvo for an intergalactic invasion, a mysterious metal ball has fallen to Earth outside of an African village.
The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.
Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said.
With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of “two halves welded together”.
This is apparently a trend, with identical metal balls hitting elsewhere in Africa, Australia and Latin America over the last 20 years.
Can someone please dispatch an, at first, wary Jeff Goldblum to investigate this as he will surely soon stumble upon a terrifying pattern that the president must be warned of?
Thanks to our pal Chad Johnson for forwarding this along. Also, please excuse us posting the theme to the Mel Brooks’ classic Space Balls immediately below.
So some mouth-breather on this site decided to pour cold water on the idea of Helen Mirren playing Doctor Who. We’ll forget that this person up until recently called the Doctor “Dr. Who” and stick to the facts.
“It’s a gimmick”
Yes? And the problem is? If anything, this series needs, besides, actual better writing, is some fresh ideas and a new approach. Writing for Mirren could provide just that.
“It’s an unnecessary complication for an already too complicated premise”
What’s complicated about a Time Lord changing into a woman? This is nowhere near as big of a complication as time travel. Partly because it’s, you know, real. People switching genders is so old hat, it hardly counts as science fiction.
“It’s a young role”
Let’s get past the ageist and sexist comment and look at exhibit A .
Not a “sidekick” but a proper Doctor, what with a screwdriver and everything. Everyonethinks this is a great idea. So what’s the harm at letting such an accomplished actress spend a regeneration zipping across time and space as the first Timelady in this venerable franchise?
Well, the following for starters:
• It’s a gimmick An aged science fiction franchise will never be the permanent home for Helen. Although a one season run as the last child of Gallifrey isn’t the worst thing in the world, the greatest heights reached by the current incarnation of the series has come on the backs of two actors for whom the Doctor was the biggest stage they’ve reached. Both Matt Smith and David Tennant saw the massive opportunity of a beloved character became the Doctor.
This will simply be the next in a line of great roles for Mirren.
• It’s an unnecessary complication for an already too complicated premise There is already so much baked into the concept of DW. Each episode deals with time loops and collapsing realities and the rules of a ever shifting timeline that either can or cannot be changed depending on the whims of the writer’s room. So we really need to add a massive gender identity complication for our central character who doubles and the expert in every situation no matter how muddled?
• It’s a young role Can Helen, who turns 67 in 2012, shout “run!”, clasp the hand of a companion and hightail it out of danger whilst Dalek laser fire peppers the wall behind her? Yes. Would it be as visually dynamic as an actor a third of her age? No. DW as we know it today is an action series relying on a spry hero.
Hollywood folks like to classify young actors by asking if they “can hold the gun.” Meaning, if they were cast in a action movie would they be believable as the good cop who’s in too deep and has to shoot 14 drug dealers to escape an abandoned marina?
Although Hellen has played an action role as recently as last year’s Red, I simply don’t think it would hold up over the length of a season.
—
Let me wrap this up by saying that Mirren’s quote was an off handed comment and likely nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. However, with Matt Smith creeping up on Tennant’s episode number whispers about a new Doctor are only going to increase and we are going to find ourselves thinking about who “can hold the sonic screwdriver” more and more.
There seems to be a movement afoot, begun on Space.com’s Facebook page, to colloquially refer to the recently discovered Kepler planets Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f by the Star Trek-inspired nicknames Romulus and Remus. According to Gene Roddenberry’s lore, those planets were home to the nefarious Romulans whose names were in turn taken from the twin mythological founders of Rome.
Good reasons abound.
1) it’s easier to remember for researchers who admit that even they get the order and naming of the Kepler planets confused
2) it’s easier to remember for the general populace who would be more encouraged to talk about it if they could remember the name
3) Star Trek rules
In fact, the only downside is the very real possibility that a miner baring a striking resemblance to Eric Bana will one day be born there only to see the planet destroyed despite the too-late interventions of ambassador Spock. Red eyed with revenge, he’d eventually destroy Vulcan before attempting to destroy Earth.
Ever feel guilty about complaining? Sure the drive through clerk at Wendy’s forgot to remove the tomatoes from my Spicy Chicken sandwich, but do I really want to go back into the store?
And even worse, what if my friends call me cheap for requesting a new sandwich or even worse a refund? Is it worth the reputation as a skinflint to not pick off the tomato slice?
Well instead of complaining to a middle manager, why don’t you take your grievance to a higher authority: God. That’s what one fine citizen of the Roman city Antioch did when he cursed a random grocer in a 1,700 year old screed.
“O thunder-and-lightning-hurling Iao, strike, bind, bind together Babylas the greengrocer,” reads the beginning of one side of the curse tablet. “As you struck the chariot of Pharaoh, so strike his [Babylas’] offensiveness.”
Iao is an ol’ fashioned word for God.
So just remember, if you complain about service from a random food worker someone 1,700 years from now might find your complaint and then another person will make fun of you on a digital network inconceivable in your modern era.
Trails of Tarnation is a western serial shot on 16mm film in Upstate New York and using awesome model sets and green screen to tell an equal parts hilarious/effective frontier adventure story. In the newest installment, “Stargazin'”, they are joined by Perry Bible Fellowship mastermind Nicholas Gurewitch as a menacing sharp shooter with a high warbling voice and a very particular way of honoring his enemies.
The Kepler telescope has spotted two Earth-sized planets circling another star. Although they are too close to the star to be habitable, they are the smallest planets we’ve ever observed circling as close to their star, not unlike our sun.
This handy reference guide gives you a good look at how Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f stack up against Earth and Venus.
Also, we’d like to hereby suggest Tango and Cash as permanent names for the new kids on the block.
– Robert Gemienhardt about Public Enemy Zero
Who is the Martian Emperor? 
• It’s an unnecessary complication for an already too complicated premise There is already so much baked into the concept of DW. Each episode deals with time loops and collapsing realities and the rules of a ever shifting timeline that either can or cannot be changed depending on the whims of the writer’s room. So we really need to add a massive gender identity complication for our central character who doubles and the expert in every situation no matter how muddled?
