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The Cloverfield Universe

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 232017
 

I got a kick out of the 2008 Giant Monster movie “Cloverfield.” I would have preferred – a lot – if it had been a standard movie format rather than “found footage” with shakeycam, but you get what you get, I suppose. But what was presented left the door open for prequels, sidequels and sequels, and I though that that was a concept that could actually do well with further exploration. But such films were not forthcoming.

In 2016, the movie “10 Cloverfield Lane” came out. The producers said that it was kinda-sorta a sequel to Cloverfield; but the relationship between the two movies is really not apparent. Sure, both feature aliens, but they are apparently fundamentally different and there’s no obvious link between the two.

But the thing is: the producers went buggo on producing *tiny* scraps of evidence and scattering them hither and yon to be found by people with *way* too much free time. One such intrepid soul has put together a YouTube video that goes through a lot of *excessively* detailed analysis of the hints that J.J. Abrams & Co. spread around. in the end, if the analysis is even halfway correct, then the movies really are linked. In short… the events of “Cloverfield” pissed off Mom.

This sort of thing – lots of tiny details dropped here and there that link two apparently separate stories into a single narrative universe – is not new. “Necronomicon,” anyone?

 

 Posted by at 2:52 am

Polaris

 drawings, history, nukes, Patreon, rockets  12 Responses »
Jan 232017
 

Here’s an interesting illustration of the Polaris sea launched ballistic missile, taken from a technical manual. I’ve uploaded the full-rez version to the APR Patreon Extras Dropbox folder for 2017-01, so if you are interested, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

POLARIS

 Posted by at 2:02 am

Cast A Deadly Spell

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, humor, science fiction, youtube  14 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

H.P. Lovecraft is one of the more important authors in the history of horror fiction, yet there have been relatively few attempts made to film his works with anything resembling a “big budget.”Still, there have been a few times where Lovecraftian ideas or themes have been incorporated into original movies; “Hellboy” is one of the more obvious examples. Another example, perhaps less well known, is the 1991 HBO TV-movie “Cast a Deadly Spell.” This is not based on a Lovecraft story, but instead is sort of an “homage” to Lovecraft. The main character, Harry Phillip Lovecraft (played by Fred Ward), is a private eye in 1948 Los Angeles… a Los Angeles where magic is an every day, commonly used tool. “Cast” is, in a word, damned entertaining, in much the same way that “Deep Rising” was. And it’s a friggen’ crime that HBO has never released this on DVD or Blu Ray.

“How long is that in dog years?” still gets me laughing a quarter century later.

 Posted by at 10:37 pm

Nuking London

 AARRRGH, blather, history, nukes, politics, youtube  2 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

Is your main problem that you are just too cheerful? Is an overwhelming sense of optimism ruining your worldview? Well, boy howdy do I have the cure for you!

Back when I was a kid in the 80’s, it seems to my dim and rusty memory that the airwaves were *filled* with doom-and-gloom. Initially we were all going to die in nuclear fire, but soon enough AIDS was also going to do us in (I have particularly strong vague memories of people freaking the hell out when rumors began to spread that skeeters could spread AIDS). And then there was the crack cocaine and crime in general. It’s kind of a wonder than *any* Gen X’er ever managed to intentionally reproduce.

All y’all too young to remember the 80’s can’t really grasp just how shocking it was when the wall came down and the Soviet Union fell away *without* the world going up in nuclear fire.

 

 

 Posted by at 5:11 pm

OK, folks… start digging

 aircraft, awesomeness, blather, books, history, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, science, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Jan 182017
 

Here’s your new productivity-buster:

From UFOs to its psychic Stargate tests, the CIA just dumped 13 million declassified pages online

They are available at the CIAs online reading room. Forget the rubbish about psychics and aliens… I’m’a be lookin’ up keywords such as “suntan” and “gusto” and “skunk works.” Find anything good, post a link in the comments.

 Posted by at 7:02 pm

Trump is already costing jobs

 Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics  11 Responses »
Jan 182017
 

Nobody could have seen this coming:

WARN Details

Reason Stated for Filing: Plant Layoff

Company:
The Clinton Foundation
1271 Avenue of the Americas, 42nd Floor
New York, NY  10020

Business Type: Social Advocacy Organization – Clinton Global Initiative

Number Affected: 22

Reason for Dislocation: Discontinutation of the Clinton Global Initative

Huh. I wonder why the Clintons might be shutting down their “Global Initiative?” It would of course be silly to suspect that since Hillary didn’t win the Presidency, her ability to influence foreign policy is diminished to approximately nothing, and thus donations from foreign governments have stopped. The Clinton Global Initiative was supposed to be a charitable organization working to help out the poor people of the world. Did all the po foke suddenly vanish like a fart in a hurricane after the election? Are the claimed goals of the CGI now met?

This does say something interesting about the future. As has been noted ad nauseum, Hillary won the popular vote, and by a substantial margin. Had her campaign been less insulting, she *should* have easily won. And given the likely wacky nature of th next four years, you’d think that she should be thinking that she could successfully run in 2020. But by shuttering her cash cow, it *seems* like she might be throwing in the towel on future ambitions.

 Posted by at 6:47 pm

4 To 1 Odds Given…

 Hmm..., news, politics  17 Responses »
Jan 172017
 

Hmmm…

Betting website gives Trump 4-1 odds of being impeached within six months

Note: it’s the Irish betting website “Paddy Power.”  They lost a bucket of money by assuming that Hillary was going to win, so they had to shell out winnings to those who bet on Trump.

I suspect that betting websites might be taking bets on what level of “disruption” will appear at the inauguration. People holding up signs and shouting? Virtual certainty. Beating the tar out of Trump supporters, starting riots, overturning cars, trashing storefronts, burning convenience stores? Not at all unlikely. Low-level terrorist acts, such as butyric acid attacks on the Deloraball? Less likely, but not improbable. Truly dangerous terrorist acts? Hard to say.

 Posted by at 2:10 pm
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