Behold the very strange and bizarre "Dimensions in Time" DOCTOR WHO special from 1993!

During the first afternoon of Mysticon in Roanoke this past weekend, following the opening panel with Peter Davison there was a special treat(?) presented by the good folks at Gallifrey Pirate Radio.  This was the last time that all of the then-surviving Doctors were brought together for a story.  Although as you can see the canonicity of this is debatable (okay, pretty much null and void) and you'll no doubt notice how William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton are resurrected with all the glorious CGI capability that the early Nineties had to offer, it's still a fun lil' vignette for Doctor Who fans...

Fourth Doctor: "Mayday! Mayday! This is an urgent message for all the Doctors. It's vitally important that you listen carefully to me for once. Our whole existence is being threatened by a renegade Time Lord known only as the Rani! She hates me. She even hates children! Two of my earlier selves have already been snared in her vicious trap. The grumpy one and the flautist, do you remember? She wants to put us out of action, lock us away in a dreary backwater of London's East End, trapped in a time-loop in perpetuity. Her evil is all around us! I can hear the heart beat of a killer. She's out there somewhere. We must be on our guard and we must stop her before she destroys all of my other selves! Oh... Good luck, my dears!"

So from 1993 here are Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and a whole gaggle of Doctor's companions, classic enemies and whatnot fighting The Rani (Kate O'Mara) in a crossover with the BBC's EastEnders.  In the very first Doctor Who special for Children in Need, here is... "Dimensions in Time"!


If you thought that was something, you should try to sit through The Airzone Solution as Kristen and I did on Sunday afternoon.  I've got just one thing to say: "Colin Baker in the shower".

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This is Obama's Mariel Boatlift

In 1981, Cuban president Fidel Castro released over a hundred thousand Cubans - many from jails and mental health facilities - who made their way to Florida in what became known as the Mariel Boatlift.

Photo credit: State Archives of Florida

In 2013, United States president Barack Obama this week has directed Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano to release "thousands" of undocumented immigrants - many of which are being held for criminal offenses - from facilities in Florida.  And Texas.  And Arizona.  And Louisiana. And Georgia.  And California.  And probably other states.

This is allegedly because there is no money in the government coffers to pay the ICE agents and the automatic budget cuts (the "sequester") goes into effect this Friday.

The response from the White House today is that we could expect an increase in terrorism and massive illegal immigration.  Yeah that's right: reduce the number of illegal aliens in the country by increasing the number of illegal aliens in the country...

 ...and we'd better do it "or else".

Call it what you will, but I can't see how it's anything but blackmail on a national scale.

In a different time and a better reality, what Obama and Napolitano are doing would be an impeachable offense.  But that was when there was the rule of law in America and not the rule of men.

Nothing good will come of this.  It is an obscene dereliction of duty and forsaking of oaths of office.  And there will be hell to pay.  For the entire country.

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Middle-school students threatened by faculty over "offensive" t-shirts

Genoa-Kingston Middle School student Michael McIntyre is a young supporter of the men and women serving in the armed forces.  So much so that he has taken to show his enthusiasm for the United States Marine Corps by wearing this t-shirt (left).

But in spite of wearing it many times to school, Michael has now been threatened with suspension by his school's faculty and administration unless he removed or "covered up" his Marines shirt.  It was deemed inappropriate and against school policy to have an image of a gun.

It's the sort of story that we're hearing too much of lately: public school students either threatened with suspension or suspended outright because they draw pictures of guns, or point their fingers like guns on the playground, or even go "bang bang!" at each other.

Now it's a t-shirt that says "Marines" and features two military rifles crossed.  As if Marines have any other tool of their trade...

"What the hell are we supposed to use man? Harsh language?"

Pull the trigger here for the full story at usofarn.com.

Meanwhile in Florida, student Summer Schreiner was told she'd be suspended from school if she refused to doff her t-shirt bearing a pro-abstinence message.  From the story at the Christian Post:

A school in Florida asked an 8th-grader to change her t-shirt carrying a message of sexual abstinence that she received at a Christian conference, saying it is "inappropriate." The t-shirt the 15-year-old girl was made to change into said, "Tomorrow I will dress for success."

Summer Schreiner of Cocoa, Fla., wore a t-shirt with the words "Don't drink and park... accidents cause kids" to class at Clearlake Middle. She says she was told by the assistant principal to change it because it was "inappropriate."

"I got through lunch, and on my way back, the assistant principal tells me I need to go to the office and change my shirt," she told Fox 35.

Summer received the shirt the night before at a conference organized by The Silver Ring Thing conference, which seeks to "create a culture shift in America where abstinence becomes the norm again rather than the exception." After teenagers make the pledge of abstinence, they receive a silver ring.

"I was pretty upset. I thought it was silly," Summer said. "It's not like I was wearing a curse word or something that was promoting violence. It's the shirt I got at a conference that is something that is very important to me."

Is it just me, or do too many school systems seem to have a requisite that teachers must lose their common sense before being employed?  If she were a few years older Summer could probably go to the nurse at her high school and get free condoms, no questions asked.

No, I won't put my children through a public school system.  Not if the public schools keep up with this ludicrous behavior.  My children aren't here yet but I already love them too damned much than to subject them to this kind of insanity.

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DIABLO III on consoles WON'T require online?! What the...

This past summer I wrote about being a newcomer to the Diablo computer games and how much now I wanted to play Diablo III.  The thing is, I'm not happy one bit about the latest entry in the series requiring a constant Internet connection to play, especially being the kind who favors the single-player experience over the multiplayer (true MMOs being the exception).  Ever since Diablo III rolled out last May the game has been plagued with hordes of problems involving the "always online" obligation.  It has made no sense whatsoever and it has been the one major obstacle toward my choosing to invest any money toward this game, and that's no doubt what's kept many others from buying it as well.

Now comes word that software studio Blizzard Games and its parent company Activision might - gasp! - have heard the complaints and taken them to heart!  Sorta.  The upcoming port of Diablo III to the PlayStation 3 and new PlayStation 4 consoles will NOT require a persistent Internet connection.  In the greater scheme of things it means that the PlayStation 4 itself won't need to be always-online to function (Microsoft, take note!) but for PC and Mac players of Diablo III it comes across as an insult.  The only real purpose of the constant Internet for this game was its Real Money Auction House, which players can buy and sell in-game loot and gold (and which Blizzard takes 15% of the profit).  Many have suggested that the Auction House was the true goal of Diablo III and that everything else about the game was just decoration... which might make Diablo III the most expensively beautiful Internet sweepstakes client in the history of anything.

Blizzard and Activision are taking a step in the right direction, but they need to go much further.  As I wrote back in July about how to fix Diablo III, the always-online requirement for Windows and Mac players needs to be halted (which would let the Linux users enjoy it without worry) and players should be given the choice to opt-out of the Real Money Auction House.  If it's fraud that Blizzard is concerned about, I can think of a dozen ways how that can be addressed without the cost of convenience (and good sense) to the players.

I don't own a PlayStation 3 and I doubt that I'll get a PlayStation 4 (no offense meant to Sony's faithful gamers).  But I will eagerly give Diablo III the benefit of the doubt and my money... and many others would certainly do likewise... if Blizzard could give PC gamers the same respect as our console-playing friends.

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Getting SHERLOCK-ed

I will admit: last month when my girlfriend started swooning and gushing over the BBC series Sherlock, telling me that "you have to watch this!" my internalized reaction was something akin to "oh geeeeez... NOT another Sherlock Holmes adaptation."

No disrespect intended but seriously: how many times can one go to 221 B. Baker Street and not know what to expect?  I've probably watched all the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone, along with 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes (does John Lasseter's computer-animated stained-glass knight still astound, or what?) and everything in between.  Even The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.  Be it straight adaptation or screwball comedy, when it comes to Holmes I've seen it all.

But Kristen wanted to share that weekend together watching the six episodes comprising Seasons 1 and 2 of Sherlock.  Quietly resigned to anticipating nothing to write home about, I settled onto the futon with her and the cats as the Roku began streaming away.

Leave it to series creators Steven Moffat (Doctor Who's current showrunner) and Mark Gatiss to shatter my expectations more than I have experienced from any television series in at least ten years.  Sherlock is arresting television of the highest caliber.  And with production beginning next month for Season 3, I find myself going positively bonkers with giddy waiting for the new episodes.

Sherlock takes everything about Holmes and his world and throws it wholesale into the gamut of the Twenty-First Century. I know what some of y'all are thinking: "oh crap you mean it's 'Sherlock Holmes is a fish out of water' again?!"  Be of good cheer: Holmes is not cryogenically frozen and thawed-out in modern-day London (yeah I even saw The Return of Sherlock Holmes).  THIS Holmes is a character so firmly planted in the Twenty-oughts yet wildly faithful to the original stories that one envisions Arthur Conan Doyle composing his Sherlock Holmes tales on a laptop at Starbucks.

I'm going to first remark that Martin Freeman as John Watson is one of the many things that make Sherlock such brilliant drama.  Freeman's Watson is a considerably traumatized British army doctor who served in Afghanistan (an update to Doyle having Watson in the second Anglo-Afghan war).  Coming to have Holmes as a flatmate at 221 B. Baker Street (owned by Mrs. Hudson, delightfully played by Una Stubbs) and the growing friendship between him and this strange "consulting detective" gives us an average person's perspective on Holmes, but it is also compelling to watch Watson's recovery unfold for its own sake.  Part and parcel to that is the blog that Watson maintains about Sherlock's various cases: another slick upgrade for the new millennium.  I first got to behold Freeman in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and quickly became a fan.  It's even more a joy to watch him as Watson.

Sherlock is not your standard television fare.  With two seasons there have been only six episodes.  But you'll be hard-pressed to notice.  Each runs an hour and a half and they are packed tight with a florid spectrum of drama and humor.  Indeed, I felt like I was watching a series of high-budget motion pictures rather than a series produced by the BBC.  The episode titles alone hint at the direction of the show: "A Study in Pink" and "The Hounds of Baskerville" will elicit a smile from even the casual Holmes fan.  Many will spot the many sly nods and winks at the original Holmes stories (incidentally, the episodes themselves are credited as being based on Doyles' works).

But what has captivated me most about Sherlock is Holmes himself, portrayed with power and precision by Benedict Cumberbatch.  And I'll tell you why: Sherlock's Sherlock is already the character who, more than any other that I can remember from television, I find myself identifying and empathizing with the most.  For all of those who ever wanted to have Sherlock Holmes' deductive abilities: forget about it.  Because here Sherlock is revealed as a man whose observational prowess is as much curse as blessing... perhaps more so.  Cumberbatch's Sherlock is a surly and antisocial man divorced from many facets of the human condition by what can only be described as enhanced mental acuity at best and highly functional mental illness at worst.  There are certainly indications that Sherlock has Asperger's syndrome and that his deductive skills are a thing that can not be turned off.  Distracted from, yes (sometimes by firing pistols at the walls) but a complete escape from?  Never.  Whatever falls into Sherlock's line of sight, his mind falls upon with the focus of a laser and analyzes with brutal calculation.

It is something that Sherlock cannot control.  Exactly like a mental illness such as bipolar disorder.  And if ever there was a character on television who most reflects what individuals such as myself and many others have to endure, Sherlock's Holmes is that character.  A hero (or anti-hero) for the rest of us.  And a much-needed reminder that whatever it might be that prevents us from most fully engaging in the society around us, we can turn it into a tool for good.  Maybe even a tool that will be much appreciated by others in due time...

The writing, the acting, the cinematography, the gorgeous London scenery... all of those and more make Sherlock hopelessly entrancing.  The show's score by David Arnold and Michael Price is as hypnotic as it is elegant, particularly the theme music (which I often find playing away in my head... and I don't mind that one bit).  It's also available on iTunes.

Sherlock is television the way it could be and ideally should always be.  There has been darned few series of this quality from America studios.  With Sherlock, our Brittish brethren have set a high bar and one that us Yanks would do well to be inspired and encouraged from.  Whether you watch it on streaming video from the Internet or BBC America or on Blu-ray (which I shall endeavor to purchase soon), Sherlock gets this blogger's highest possible recommendation.  It is television of the finest kind and it is not something you want to miss!

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I just downloaded a functional .22 pistol

In two months' time DEFCAD has garnered more than three thousand visits an hour and nearly a quarter-million downloads.  What makes up the bulk of that traffic?

Guns, guns, guns.  Parts for guns.  Accessories like suppressors.  Ammo casings for NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms and rifles.  Even combat munitions like hand grenades.

And they all work too.

Provided you've a 3D printer, the right materials and a few other items that can be bought at most any hardware store, you or anybody else can spend a nice relaxing evening or weekend putting together a small arsenal in your home office.

Sorta brings whole new meaning to desktop publishing a magazine, huh?

I just downloaded a .22 single-shot pistol from DEFCAD, designed by a user named "caboose".  The entire ZIPped-up file was over half a megabyte.  I don't possess a 3D printing setup but in the future, that will probably be a standard appliance in many homes.  I may take a stab at it then, if not sooner.

There's an intriguing article at Venture Beat about DEFCAD, including an interview with site founder Cody Wilson.  Among other things he notes that DEFCAD is getting lots of visits from foreign countries.  Might we speculate that at least some of that is from places with stringent gun control?

Why smuggle in weapons for your revolution when you can just get it off the Internet?

'Course, this will probably mean that 3D printers are soon to become a restricted technology.  But hey, "when 3D prototyping is outlawed..."

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When worlds collide? Comet C/2013 A1 may hit Mars next year

2013 is promising (or threatening, depending on the stock one puts in omens) to be an incredible year for comets in our sky.  Depending on where you live there are two and maybe even three of those cosmic iceballs that may give us quite a show.  In a few short weeks Comet PANSTARRS will become visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere: perhaps more brilliant than any in more than a decade.  Comet Lemmon, found late last year, could turn into a moderately bright beauty for our friends south of the Equator (and certain gases in its tail are giving it a green color).

The big, big show is still to come.  This fall brings Comet ISON... and it could be one massive honker of a spectacle, folks!  If you remember Comet Hyakutake in the spring of 1996 and how enormous it was (I'll never forget how it looked during spring break at Elon College), ISON could possibly eclipse that.

And now there is Comet C/2013 A1 waiting in the wings: a visitor from the far-flung reaches of the Solar System that might... emphasis on might... have repercussions for places close to home.  Namely, Mars.

Comet C/2013 A1 (credit: Carl Hergenrother)

C/2013 A1 was first spotted by Robert McNaught in Australia early last month and since then astronomers have been scrambling to figure out where it came from and where it's going (the comet, not Australia).  More observational data is needed to crunch the numbers but as things stand now, C/2013 A1 (can't we just call it "Comet McNaught" like we would have in the old days?) harbors a possibility of colliding with Mars on or around October 19th, 2014.

Hit here for more about C/2013 A1 at Discovery.com's article.

Ever see those photos of Shoemaker-Levy 9 when it smashed into Jupiter in 1994?  It wasn't one complete body: it was a big chain of teenier fragments of the parent comet after it was broken apart by Jupiter's gravity.  The smaller chunks flew into Jupiter like pearls loose from a necklace and you could see the impacts from Earth with even a medium-sized telescope.

Now envision one solid mass of rock, dirt and ice the size of three or four big-a$$ mountains smooshed together, and that mass rushing toward Mars at about 126,000 miles per hour.  Toward the planet next door.

Depending on where you live and the sky conditions, if C/2013 A1 hits Mars, it might well be visible with the unaided eye.

Assuming that it hits Mars at all.  Or that Marvin doesn't get to it with his Illudium Q36 Exploding Space Modulator first...

"Where's the 'KA-BOOM!'? There's supposed to be a C/2013 A1-shattering KA-BOOM!"

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