Let us praise io9

Lest I appear, based on the entry below, to have given up on any hope for journalism's future, let me say a positive word for io9, which has impressed me not only with a good deal of its science and sci-fi coverage (and ability to straddle that line) but also with how it's largely avoided the sleaze and obnoxiousness that generally characterizes the rest of the Gawker empire. I'm impressed in particular right now by Annalee Newitz's apology and fix for running a one-sided piece about lab animals.

UPDATE: I should mention I came across above topic via Walter Olson.

Cylon gift idea

TV Guide:

This is officially the coolest frackin' sci-fi collectible ever — and it'll only set you back $7,900! Fans of Battlestar Galactica can now purchase their very own 7-foot-tall, museum-quality Cylon Centurion complete with stereo sound and a menacing red LED-scanning eye.

More here and here.

UPDATE: Some more material of interest to Battlestar aficionados. IO9 asks "When Did Battlestar Galactica Jump the Shark?" (they don't give "not yet" as an option). And if you like the picture of Katee Sackhoff, see "The Girls of Battlestar Galactica in Interview Magazine." And finally, here's a political ticket that might interest conservatives: Roslin-Airlock '08.

Advanced aliens, and beginners

"Indeed, turning a galaxy into a massive supercomputer may be the last thing an advanced civilization wants to do." Some diverting speculations about extraterrestrials and their categories as measured by the "Kardashev Scale" at io9. I used to write about this kind of thing more--see here and here--and maybe will do so again.

Mammoth pyramids

Caught the movie 10,000 BC last night. Here's an excerpt of the review at IO9:

In 10,000 BC, you've got Egyptian pyramids being built by guys using woolly mammoths. I mean, it's the goddamn ice age, and then our main character walks over a hill and suddenly he's in the Nile Valley of 2,000 BC? And these anachronistic bad guy Egyptians (from the ice age) have got ships, horseback riding, and freakin STEEL. Steel? C'mon, guys, you couldn't even consult Wikipedia? I mean, why not just call the movie 2,000 BC and make it about ancient Egypt? Or keep it in 10,000 BC and come up with some other kind of bad guys? Jeezus.

I enjoyed it.

We are all Cylons now

IO9 rounds up a bunch of fan theories as to who the final Cylon is. One line of thought, that I've contemplated in my own idle moments, takes the "all this has happened before" slogan to mean that real humans are long since gone, and everybody on the show is a Cylon, some just thinking they're human. At least it would be better than the ending of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

Recommended readings

Posting may be light,  as various weather-, work- and tax-related matters press on my time. A few recommendations for reading things on topics I found interesting:

--"Will more workers be artists in the future?" James Pethokoukis commenting on a post by Martin Hutchinson on robots and work. If I were the president of the United States, FWIW, I would appoint a commission to examine a range of societal dangers and opportunities arising from robotics and artificial intelligence, and would ask its members behind the scenes to produce something worthwhile, not BS.

--Walter Olson with a Cato post "About That Coke Ad." I didn't see the Superbowl, but now that I've read this and watched that commercial, I feel I am up-to-speed on the most important part.

--"A Beautiful Map of Global Ocean Currents." I'm increasingly impressed by how io9 covers real science and science fiction without making a hash of the distinction between them. On a similar note, I recommend Nature Futures, which runs science fiction under the auspices of the science journal Nature.

UPDATE 2:08 PM: Review copy received: Unleashing the Second American Century: Four Forces for Economic Dominance, by Joel Kurtzman. Looks interesting. UPDATE: My review.

Lighting fashion

Via Rand Simberg, here's IO9, a new scifi blog. (I never liked the SF moniker.) Currently on display there: illuminated dresses.

Nepal starry night

Our 2009 trip to Nepal, including the Annapurna region, included many wonderful sights (see here, for instance), but I don't recall seeing much of the night sky, as it was fairly rainy and overcast on nights we were camping. Bad Astronomy and io9, though, have a remarkable photo of the Milky Way as seen from Annapurna. Take a look.