This was the first second part of a two parter (Rise of the Cyberman/Age of Steel) that really lived up to the first part, in the new show so far (in my opinion). Definitely the best whole story of the two parters so far, and one that I literally watched from behind the sofa (due to seating issues in my living room with a dozen fans over to watch the show).

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #51.

Colleen Doran points out an interesting article on the idea that Jesus had kids.

Ah! A great deconstruction (with examples) of why so many people hate JK Rowling's prose in the Harry Potter books. Wonderful storytelling, wonderful imagination... crummy sentence construction.

The Bad Astronomy Blog links to one of the coolest sites on the internet: Real Time Satellite Tracking. Seriously, if you have highspeed internet, do what he says: switch to hybrid view, then zoom in to watch the satellite scream over the planet.

Ok, so the series is apparently dead, but they still made a cool trailer for it:


Direct Link, Movie File Link.

Many thanks to bwilk20 on The Comicbloc Forums for the links.

First: A picture of a pug so cute it'll shatter your teeth. This one is for the in-laws.

Second: Lost footage from Star Wars, the original movie, of Luke telling his buddies about the fight in the sky he saw, then his heart-to-heart with Biggs. It starts out very grainy, but gets a little better. I remember these scenes from the novelizations and picture books of the time, but they were cut from the movie long before I ever saw it. I always wished I could see them. Now I have.

Hubby-Eric is going to tryouts! He's passed the tryouts once before, but wasn't called up (since white male schoolteachers are apparently pretty common). He'll have to go down to Portland for the tryout, and we're gonna have to decide whether or not we'll make a weekend of it. The odds are still against him, since he's still a white male teacher, but at least we can have a little bit of fun.

Feel free to congratulate him in the comments, he'll read them all. I'll make him.

Cryptozoology A To Z by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark. Another excellent book about cryptozoology, but this one isn't a good read from the library. It's a great read, yes, but it's the kind of book you want on your shelf at home to use as a reference. Better yet, this book is the perfect kind of publication that ought to be on the web, using the clickable interface to link articles and the ability to update frequently to full advantage.

As a "for instance", there was an entry about Dan Scott Taylor in the book that referred to a project to take a submarine into Loch Ness. I went to the website indicated, and did a Google search for "Nessa Project", only to learn that Taylor died in 2005 and never made it back to the Loch. The book was published in 1999. Other recent discoveries in cryptozoology also aren't in the book, but I've been following the whole field closely enough that I think I'm up-to-date with most of the latest finds. But I digress... this book would work great as a website. At the very least, a website for updates would be wonderfully useful.

My other complaint, if you can call it that, is the lack of pictures for some of the entries. There were lots of pictures, yes, but what the heck does a zeuglodon look like? The description doesn't bring any clear image to my mind.

On the plus side, there are LOTS of entries of creatures I'd never heard of. The entries were generally clear and precise, and in addition to cryptids, there were entries on the main personalities in the field of Cryptozoology. I came away from the book feeling like I knew a lot more about the topic than I did when I started, and that's what you really want from something like this anyway. I may have to get a copy to add to my own personal library sometime, and I can recommend this book to anyone who is interested in hidden animals. I also recommend it highly to young folk, as this kind of book could easily spark a lifelong interest in discovery.

On the same topic, I feel like I've been slowly developing more of a sense of what I believe and don't believe about Fortean subjects over the last few years. I've always felt that the best stance is an open-minded skepticism... where you allow that such things are possible but insist on proof. This is the attitude the members of TAPS have with their Ghost Hunters show (well, most of the members). While they, personally, believe in ghosts due to their own personal experiences, they also recognize that without scientific evidence there is no reason to expect other people to believe. They also have said, many times, that 90% of the things that people think are ghosts can be easily explained by other things (bad wiring, faulty plumbing). It's that 10% that defies easy answers that makes you sit back and say "Hmmmm". There seems to be a whole class of phenomena that fits into this category of "might be real, but proof is hard, if not impossible, to obtain".

The incident with the mouse clarified some of my thoughts on cryptids, at least. I've been living in this house for years now. This is the first time I've ever seen a mouse. In fact, it's the first time I ever even suspected we might have mice. In the same vein, the only reason I ever saw the possum was because we accidently trapped it in the crawlspace. If we hadn't trapped it, I never would have seen it, although there was evidence it was there. Same with the raccoons. I'm certain we have raccoons. I've seen something that might have been a raccoon outside late one night. I'm not completely certain that's what it was, but I think so (it might have been a member of the neighborhood catwatch, but if that's so it was HUGE for a housecat). If this one plot of land can hold countless squirrels and birds, raccoons and possums, and even mice... what's to say those vast unexplored forests just a little east of here don't have some unknown primate? And with sightings going back generations, from the first nations that lived here on to the white settlers right up to today, there's a lot more evidence that they do exist than that they don't.


I think that's what being Fortean is about. Accepting that there are things outside science, that science can't prove or disprove, but are real.

We're having problems with our internet connection. The connection is spotty at best, going in and out randomly. For a little while we have connection, then suddenly most websites won't load but e-mail is fine. Then e-mail stops. Then a few websites start to load. Then nothing works. Then everything works.

I did the standard steps when we have an outage. I unplugged the router and modem, let everything rest for a few minutes, then plugged it all back in. Still having the same problems.

I haven't called Comcast. And this is why: I've called them when we've had issues like this before, and they say "We aren't having any outages in your area, have you rebooted your computer?" "Yes." "Have you turned your modem on and off?" "Yes." "Have you disconnected the modem then reconnected it?" "Yes." "Have you turned off any routers and connected your computer directly to the modem?" "Yes." "Have you jumped up and down and sung the National Anthem off-key for ten minutes?" "No." "Ok, try that and call us back if it doesn't work." After awhile, usually an hour or two, I'll call them back and report that the problems are still happening only to get a different tech support lackey who says, "Oh, we've been having outages in your area for the last few hours! They'll be fixed soon!"

There's absolutely no point in calling them. They've made that clear with their nonsensical instructions to do pointless stuff (I had one tech support lackey suggest turning off the power in my house to fix the problem!!!). If you haven't done every stupid step they suggest, they won't help you further. And it always turns out to be their fault in the end. Usually something that they refused to admit to while it was happening.

It wouldn't be so bad if the tech support lackey would just say, "I haven't got any reports of problems in your area, I'll report it," when someone says they've checked their end. I know, I know... there are folks who think they done the steps, but haven't. But at least they could ask you if you know what you are doing and take your word for it if you say you do, instead of taking you through the whole checklist then insisting, even after you've done everything on the list, that it's your problem, not theirs.

Bitter? What, is it that obvious?

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #50.

Tom Beland reports on moving to Image. If you don't get True Story, Swear to God, go try it now. Some of the bits of the article are disappointing, but to me the information about how the story is turning out makes the tale of how they got to that point all the more interesting.

Absolutely beautiful explanation of the breasts in comic books. I mean, it makes so much sense, especially when you look at the image that is being referenced.

Cute Overload has some fun. Go look. That's all you're getting from me today.