Matt Ruff's Blog, page 59

Stargate: SVU

Or whatever it's called. Caught the first hour of the pilot last night and it wasn't bad. I got sucked in enough by the story that I was sorry when it came time to switch over to Dollhouse (and once I saw Dollhouse I was really sorry, but that's another post).

So when is the infamous lesbian body-swapping episode supposed to air? Sweeps week?

"Move over, Lucy. And kiss the missing link goodbye."

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.

[Via Research Maven]

Next time I'll take pictures

For now, you'll just have to make do with the recipe I used (adapted from Mark Bittman's Fish ):

INGREDIENTS

1 cleaned, fresh or thawed octopus (1-2 lbs.)
3 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
bay leaf
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons capers
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup red wine
1 (14 oz.) can of diced tomatoes
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (or 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning)

1. Put octopus, crushed garlic and bay leaf in a pot with water to cover (N.B., oc...

Dollhouse shocker: Joss Whedon says FOX execs were nervous about that whole "prostitute" thing

Probably my biggest complaint about first season Dollhouse was that the creators of the show seemed to be so uncomfortable with their own premise that they spent more time avoiding implications than exploring them -- leading me, as a viewer, to constantly say, "Joss, if you didn't want to go there, why did you go there?"

Turns out I was right about the discomfort but wrong about the source, which is an occupational hazard when you're a solo novelist judging the team sport that is TV production...

I wonder if it comes with a curse

Bernie Madoff's apartment is on the market. Call me jaded, but for $9.9 million I would expect more.

Nice terrace, though.

Animals with lightsabers

A few days back, ironymaiden posted a link to the new animals with casts blog, which is cute but also kind of sad. This inspired Lisa to seek out a more cheerful animal-themed site:

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I love the rabbit Jedi posse.

I'm 44 today

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Gertrude Baines still has me beat by seven decades.

Now might be an opportune time to reread David Baron's "The Beast in the Garden"

Responding to reports of cougar sightings in the city's Magnolia neighborhood, officials have shut down Discovery Park through Monday and have set up a trap for the roving cat.

UPDATE: They caught it. Photos here.

I'm sure Michael Crichton could have done something with this

Via Matt Yglesias, the Japanese national laboratory RIKEN is working on plush robot bears to help take care of old people:

Time to bust out the region-free DVD player?

Today's Times has an article about Tatort, a German TV police procedural that will soon celebrate its 40th year on the air:

“Tatort” is a little akin to what Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” was in America. It’s one of those modest pop-culture symbols and long-standing common experiences that can be hard for outsiders to translate but that speak to, and of, a nation. First broadcast in 1970, before video games or food processors and when Germany seemed permanently split in two, the show adopted the