Matt Ruff's Blog, page 56

Life on Mars (circa the amazing year One Billion!)

Via jaylake  , science-fiction writer David D. Levine has just begun a two-week stint at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, which simulates life in a first-generation Mars habitat.

Inspired, I have decided to conduct my own two-week life-on-Mars simulation. Being an impatient guy, however, I have opted for a far-future, post-colonial Mars with a fully terraformed atmosphere, hot running water, weekly garbage pickup, and Netflix.

Wish me Godspeed!

[image error]

(Olympus Mons, as seen from the habitat)

"A vast biological folly"

Via james_nicoll  , BLDGBLOG showcases photographer Noah Sheldon's pictures of Biosphere 2 as it looks today. Among the many descriptors for what Biosphere 2 is, I love the term "biological folly."

N.B., if you're in the Tucson area, the folly is open to tourists now.

Tim Burton, Wes Craven, what's the difference?

Today's New York Times editing oversight, from an article about the new Addams Family Broadway musical:

[Addams':] influence is reflected not only in the work of generations of cartoonists but also in movies like “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” by Tim Burton

Avatar, once more with feeling

Lisa and I went to see it again over the weekend with a friend, in 2D this time. We both enjoyed it more this time, Lisa because she didn't have to fight with her glasses and me because I knew what was coming and could just go with it rather than fighting the story and characters with my own expectations. I'm still not in love, but I am more impressed by what Cameron accomplished, and I definitely think it says something that I still wasn't bored. The friend we saw the picture with was unrese...

A question for the mad scientists out there

I just ran across this story about the world's first transgenic dog, a beagle puppy with sea anemone DNA that causes it to fluoresce red under ultraviolet light. If memory serves, this same trick was done previously with rabbits (although I think the bunnies glowed green rather than red).

What I haven't heard of yet is somebody creating a mammal that can glow without the UV light. Does anyone know if that would be technically possible, and if so, how much more difficult it would be?

The gravity well of Uranus jokes pretty much write themselves

...but even if you're not a giggling thirteen-year-old boy, this is a pretty cool graphic. (Via james_nicoll  ).

Also via james_nicoll  , the premise of Roland Emmerich's next disaster flick.

Sherlock Holmes

Another split decision: I loved it, Lisa didn't.

I went in with low expectations. I don't think of Sherlock Holmes as an action hero, and all the trailers made it seem like it was going to be a loud, dumb action movie with more explosions and fistfights than logical deductions. Which it is, but in a way I found endearing. I even liked the running "Holmes has killed the dog again" gag, because, hey, bulldogs are hilarious.

If I were going for a capsule description I'd call it House meets Batman ...

Someone cue The Vapors

Just in time for Christmas, the Japanese translation of Bad Monkeys:


[image error]

Big in Japan

Just in time for Christmas, the Japanese translation of Bad Monkeys:


[image error]

Avatar

I didn't love it. It's very, very pretty, and I wasn't bored, but the story and characters never engaged me the way, say, Titanic's did. Instead I stayed in author-head pretty much the whole time, observing the storytelling decisions Cameron made and thinking about what I might have done differently. For me this still qualifies as entertainment and I do feel I got my money's worth, but I am disappointed that I didn't experience the emotional highs and lows I was clearly intended to.

Lisa did ...