We took some time off from corrupting classic(ish) films with science, but we came back strong this past Friday with #casLABlanca – a noble effort to science-fy the 1942 classic Casablanca. Despite the risk this posed, I was pleased with the results (measured by my lack of productivity on Friday), but I amuse easily.
You can read the Storify of #casLABlanca, or even add your own “scinematic” efforts to the hashtag.
The Scinema Veritas ouevre includes:
#ConanthePostDoc (Conan the Barbarian)
H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898)
During the new wave of future fiction of the last decades of the 19th century, stories of catastrophic future wars were especially popular. The trend began in 1871 with George Chesney’s “The Battle of Dorking”, a story about a surprise invasion of England by something that sounds like the Prussian military. Writers continued to present increasingly elaborate visions of ever more destructive weaponry right up through the outbreak of World War I. And then there was H.G. Wells, who in 1898 took this popular and overworked late-Victorian genre and completely transformed it into modern science fiction with the classic story of alien invasion.
Swapping Martians with Germans isn’t the only feature that makes The War of the Worlds so different from what came before. Most writers were largely interested with the military and geopolitical aspects of future war, but Wells was interested in the civilians. In fact, War of the Worlds isn’t really about the Martians or their advanced technology; it’s about our cosmic insignificance, and how we react when the security of civilization is demolished. Continue reading “Apocalypse 1898: The Victorian Alien Invasion”
Ocean conservationists (and fish) got some rare good news from Washington this week: President Obama created the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve in the central Pacific Ocean.
The presidential proclamation – which does not require congressional approval – will expand the Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument from almost 87,000 square miles to more than 490,000 square miles, placing the area off-limits to commercial fishing and many other activities that can damage the environment.
And what’s good news for fish is good news for kitties, right? You can read more about the expansion of the marine reserve in this article from National Geographic with a follow-up about how the new rules for the area will be enforced.
I know it is boring, but it is my policy to publicly post any correspondence I receive from one of my elected representatives, especially the form letters. This one is from Representative Tom Rice, who represents those of us living in South Carolina’s House District 7, on the topic of NSA domestic spying.
In addition to voting the way I wanted him to on HR4870 to stop funding for certain NSA surveillance programs, Representative Rice called me “Dr. Witten”. No one ever calls me “Dr. Witten”, including most of my students. Continue reading “In which, Rep. Rice plays to my vanity”
This week, they’re looking at the environmental impacts of foods we eat, and others that we should. They’ll speak to Daniella Martin, host of the insect cooking/travel show “Girl Meets Bug,” about her book “Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet.” And they’ll talk about the environmental effects of salmon farming with Peter Bridson, Aquaculture Research Manager for the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which has appeared in Eva Amsen’s Have Science Will Travel series).
The Finch and Pea 