Graham Masterton’s The 5th Witch

Posted on July 23, 2008 by skullsinthestars

I finally got a chance to read one of Graham Masterton’s most recent novels, The 5th Witch, and I thought I’d share some thoughts about it!  (In fact, there’s an even more recent novel, House of Bones, which I’m going to get ASAP.)

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Posted in Horror | 25 Comments

It’s just a flesh wound! My knight-liness is confirmed…

Posted on July 23, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Via The Greenbelt, I learned about and took another one of those silly but oddly compelling internet quizzes: this one asks, “Which Chess Piece are You?”  In my case, I scored as The King’s Knight, which makes me sound like quite the ass-kicker!  Of course, even if the quiz is accurately translating your answers into a meaningful assessment of your personality, it may simply be assessing who you want to be rather than who you are.  However, at least in my own mind, the description sounds true to me…

Your result for Which Chess Piece are You Test?…

The King’s Knight

The King’s Knight is spontaneous and active. They get great satisfaction from acting on impulse. This usually means thrill and risk can be quite exciting. If they are stifled by rules, they may end up feeling ‘dead’ inside. They look for the ‘tick’ behind the clock without the need for verbal cues. Oddly enough, this Knight deeply respects and admires anyone who can best them.

The King’s Knight is a ‘do-er’, naturally impatient with discussion. They seek to live in the moment and are great improvisers. Because of this they are quite capable at bringing ideas or concepts to fruition. They often prefer practical organizational issues. Because they seek to make things happen, they may act too quickly with the appearance of not thinking things through.

They are the best at manipulating others. This usually means that they can convince others to a like-minded position and thus the King would love to have this Knight by their side. They are concrete with their form and speech and are seen as smooth operators. They could be seen as self-promoters and great salesmen of ideas. They are gifted at earning trust. But they are also gifted at applying common sense to any issue. They will maintain acute awareness of factual information during discussions and will guide tangents back on course. The King’s Knight is outgoing, charming and fun. They know the ‘who’s who’ and where the socially sophisticated reside and play. They are action oriented and deplore unnecessary diplomacy. They want life to be simple, but realize it isn’t.

Take Which Chess Piece are You Test? at HelloQuizzy

Posted in Silliness | 3 Comments

Updates to blogroll!

Posted on July 22, 2008 by skullsinthestars

No doubt feeling chastised by reading Greg Laden’s post on blogrolling, I’ve added a few extra links to mine: Optical Futures, Podblack Cat, and Laelaps. I’m sure more will appear in the future, and I’ll have to figure out how to display them better…

P.S. I also added The Greenbelt!

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Camera-free Radiohead video! (updated)

Posted on July 22, 2008 by skullsinthestars

(Update: I fixed the discussion on LIDAR speed detection, thanks to edweird’s observations in the comments.)

This is pretty neat. Via Crooks & Liars, we have Radiohead’s new music video (embedded below the fold), for House of Cards, which uses no cameras at all. From the YouTube description,

In Radiohead’s new video for “House of Cards”, no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.

There’s more information on the making of the video at Radiohead’s Google page, where we learn,

No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

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Posted in Entertainment, Optics | 7 Comments

Avatar: The Last Airbender concludes!

Posted on July 20, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Wow.

I just finished watching the 2-hour series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender.  After a three-year run, the animated series ended on Saturday night.

Simply amazing.  This is definitely, in my opinion, one of the best television series I’ve ever seen.  It’s been consistently good, even getting better, throughout its run, and the series finale had a perfect ending.  The final conflict was on par, in my estimation, with the climactic battle scene in Return of the Jedi.

One of the ways that Avatar kept getting better was its rock-solid storyline.  Almost every character in the series underwent major, nontrivial development.  Even incidental characters who seemed of little import early on would often reappear in roles of major importance.  The world of Avatar is one of the most charmingly detailed I’ve ever experienced.

I’m still in mild awe of the finale.  I’m sorry to see the series go, but I’m delighted it ended with the power and dignity it deserved.  It will stay with me for a long time.

Posted in Entertainment | 7 Comments

Skydiver takes out marching band

Posted on July 18, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Ouch. On Thursday, a parachutist went off course during a jump at Fort Riley, Kansas, and crashed feet first into the 1st Infantry Division’s marching band. Three band members were significantly injured during the landing; video of the crash can be seen on CNN here.

This sort of accident is highly unusual and, from watching the video, seems darn near inexcusable. Modern parachutes provide a significant ability to maneuver and pick a proper landing spot (note the forward speed on the parachute in the video). The marching band was standing still and should have been easy to see from the air and avoid; furthermore, the landing field is large enough that the parachutist should have been able to avoid the crowd and land safely with only a slight change in course. Even with a risk of hitting the crowd, he should have shouted a warning to those below, but “they didn’t hear anything except a brief rustling of the jumper’s parachute.”

The only explanation I can imagine for this is that the jumper had relatively little experience and froze when he realized he was off course. The Yahoo News article states:

Two parachutists jumped from a single-engine plane at about 6,000 feet. Keating said the second jumper’s parachute lines apparently became tangled, pulling him off course.

The parachute looks to be flying properly in the video, so I suspect the jumper simply didn’t know what to do when faced with an unfamiliar landing area. This is a risk that all jumpers should prepare for: know your ‘outs’! When jumping, always be familiar with other possible landing areas in the region and possible obstacles on the ground.

I actually landed off the DZ during a jump this past weekend. Once my canopy was open, I knew I wouldn’t make the main landing area, so I carefully weighed my choices: I could land at the very edge of the airport runway or take a more conservative landing in a field across the street. I ended up having enough time to make the edge of the runway, but I was very carefully watching my altitude and my ground speed to see if that choice was feasible.

Anyway, thankfully nobody suffered any life-threatening injuries, and I hope they make a speedy recovery.

(Note: I forgot to say h/t Karen for the newslink!)

Posted in ... the Hell?, Sports | Leave a comment

Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter in the Dark

Posted on July 18, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Jeff Lindsay stole my idea!  Well, he didn’t, really, but I’m amused that the central plot of his most recent book, Dexter in the Dark, is stunningly similar to a short story that’s been sitting on my computer half finished for years.  I’ve really got to start finishing my stories, though I’m not sure I could do it with quite the charm that Lindsay does.  Okay, enough personal musing:

Dexter in the Dark is the latest book in the highly successful series chronicling the exploits of Dexter Morgan, Miami crime scene investigator and serial killer.  The book series has inspired the Showtime television series Dexter, which has drawn rave reviews.  I first started reading the series the same way many people did: by picking up the book at the airport.  After that, I was hooked.  I gobbled up Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter and eagerly awaited more.

Curiously, though, Dexter in the Dark takes a bit of a departure from the previous books: it introduces what can only be called a supernatural element to the storyline, as is clear from the very first chapter.

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Posted in Horror | 1 Comment

Vet pulls hook from shark’s stomach, by hand

Posted on July 17, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Though a lot of people wouldn’t find this heart-warming, I did: an Australian veterinarian, David Blyde, ended up putting his arm into the jaws of a grey nurse shark to remove a steel fishing hook, saving the animal’s life.   The three-meter shark was spotted off the coast with the hook protruding:

Seaworld diver Trevor Lond lassoed the shark, which was brought in for a team to work on.  Blyde had the seemingly scary task of actually reaching in and removing the hook (though he was protected by a pvc tube which had been first inserted).  Video of the process can be seen on CNN here.  The shark was released to continue a life of eating various things that it shouldn’t.

The grey nurse shark is a lovely creature which, despite its appearance, isn’t particularly hazardous to humans (though some attacks have been reported).  It is, however, one of the most endangered species of sharks (with possibly as few as 500 in Eastern Australia), which makes this rescue of a female an especially happy success story.

Posted in Animals | Leave a comment

E. and H. Heron’s Ghost Stories

Posted on July 16, 2008 by skullsinthestars

A few months back, I did a post on ‘psychic detectives’ in fiction, discussing the classic detectives such as John Silence and Thomas Carnacki as well as some lesser-known and more modern detectives.

My list was not complete, however, and I’m still running across ‘ghost hunter’ compilations!  I just finished reading Ghost Stories, by E. and H. Heron, and I thought I’d add their ghost hunter Flaxman Low to my list!

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Posted in Horror | 13 Comments

The Giant’s Shoulders #1 is up!

Posted on July 16, 2008 by skullsinthestars

The first edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is now up at A Blog Around The Clock. Being the first, there’s a huge number of entries to the carnival, so check it out!

The next edition will happen at The Lay Scientist, with entries due August 15th. Let’s keep it going!

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