The Mo-Hole Project

Science The original Mo-Hole project, an attempt at sea to bore down to and collect samples from the Earth's core, was conducted in the early 60s by a team of scientists and engineers, accompanied by the novelist John Steinbeck who was covering the event for LIFE Magazine.  His diary of the trip is now lodged at Google Books, a piece which includes atmospheric images from LIFE's great photographer Fitz Goro.

Steinbeck, himself an amateur oceanographer, doesn't seem to get much sleep, but he (predictably) captures the tension of humanity glancing briefly at one of its few mysterious frontiers.  It's the incidental elements which are key.  March 30th was presumably filled with incident, but the final six words tell you everything you need to know about the mood on board ship that that day.  Overall, it's a testament to how sometimes science is about great adventures, something which seems to have been forgotten recently.

Marc Platt’s Night of the Stormcrow.

Audio One of the curiously underdeveloped sub-genres in Doctor Who is in the area of interstellar xenobiology. Whereas the Starship Enterprise couldn’t warp through a parsec without bumping into a pregnant object shaped like a brazil nut, Who has tended to shy away from such extraordinary evolution, preferring instead to concentrate on humanoid human-sized varieties of alien, presumably because they were easier to plausibly execute with some fibre glass and bubble wrap. Even in recent years, with CGI capable of creating all kinds of wonders, the television version has only really had that space whale and what’s now forever being called the “Cash Cow” in Torchwood’s Meat because no one in the episode bothered to call it anything else.

As ever spin-off media with its voracious appetite for stories has tended to be more flexible, and Marc Platt’s Night of the Stormcrow is a prime-cut example, the curious creature of the title, as the cover illustrates, a massive avian treating the earth-like a feeding table in its celestial back garden, an observatory full of scientists its fat filled treat. Aided by Vashta Nerada-like “pilot fish” (in The Christmas Invasion sense), from above it devours people and parts of the landscape in a way which even modern CGI would seem incapable of rendering convincingly and in the period when the Fourth Doctor and Leela were in the TARDIS would probably have amounted to FX man Ian Scoones nervously wrangling some ravens against a blue screen.

But like the space whale and cash cow, this isn’t just about the Doctor trying to persuade a genetic marvel to fight against its natural instincts; as soon as he and the savage arrive, he’s dealing with its potential exploitation by humans, on this occasion with reputations and research grants on the line. The unforgettably named Professor Gesima Cazalet has tracking the bird for over a decade and aided by a team headed by erasable American Peggy, desperate to take credit for her “discovery”. This parochial reaction to the remarkable is the kind of thing which Who always does very well, and the highlights are undoubtedly when the Time Lord and the warrior of the Savateem are refereeing their clashes.

As the accompanying interviews indicate, part of that has to do with contrasting acting experiences. As Gesima, Ann Bell brings her very British heritage across the BBC and stage, even starring with Louise Jameson in Tenko. Chase Masterson, who as she says enjoys playing against type as Peggy is best known as she also charmingly reminds us as Leeta the Dabo Girl in Deep Space Nine (and one of my teenage crushes I’m not embarrassed to say) (honestly). Dropped into that maelstrom are Tom and Louise, both on form, the former pointedly given a grumpier Doctor to play than usual but who does at least convince Leela to hilariously utilise her knife for something other than killing. That’s all I’ll say.

But for all its chaotic casting juxtapositions, this is comfort Who, through and through. It’s an isolated base under siege (cf, Horror of Fang Rock for a start), massive, earth shattering tragedies occurring even before they’ve arrived (cf, The Girl Who Waited, I suppose) and suspicion towards these two strangers who’ve wandered in seemingly from nowhere (cf, well, everything). Yet Platt’s script is much stronger than usual, even allowing time for Leela to consider her unique place in the Whoniverse, telling us more about the character in a few sentences than the whole season and a half that she was on television, not that as she promises to keep hunting tirelessly for a home, it explains why she unexpectedly finds it with a Gallifreyan guard.

Doctor Who: Night of the Stormcrow by Marc Platt is available to Big Finish customers who buy a 6 or 12-release subscription to the Doctor Who Monthly Range and will be available to buy from December 2013.  Review Copy Supplied.

Eastchester.

TV New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services reports that crime rates in Eastchester are at a give year low reports the Eastchester Voice:

"In Eastchester, there were 170 crimes reported in 2011, down from 211 in 2010 and 234 in 2009. Crime is down approximately 14 percent since 2008, when 242 crimes were reported. [...] There were four violent crimes reported in Eastchester in 2011, two robberies and two aggravated assaults. The other 166 were property crimes: 15 burglaries, 147 larcenies and four motor vehicle thefts."

The only offence keeping steady is larceny, due to the increasing use of electronic devices.

Parallel Universes.

Physics Hidden in the dustier corners of the BBC's website is a transcript of Horizon's 2002 episode on Parallel Universes, which includes clear explanations for the concept or at least why it's become so important within physics for explaining the unexplainable:

"This idea was so uncomfortable that for decades scientists dismissed it, but in time parallel universes would make a spectacular comeback. This time they'd be different, they'd be even stranger than Elvis being alive. There's an old proverb that says: be careful what you wish for in case your wish comes true. The most fervent wish of physics has long been that it could find a single elegant theory which would sum up everything in our Universe. It was this dream which would lead unwittingly to the rediscovery of parallel universes. It's a dream which has driven the work of almost every physicist."

RIP, HMV.

Music  Bye then, HMV.  Ish.  The administrators haven't officially been called in yet, they're "preparing".  But all signs, at least journalistic signs, point to the closure of the chain with four thousand employees out of jobs, and quickly.  Back in 2011, when shop closures were happening I wrote that I thought that the chain would eventually be going.  I hadn't thought it would be this quickly, I genuinely had a hope that their store consolidation would be enough to keep them going for a few more years.  But finally, the internet's won.

Back then, I wondered if their best strategy might have been to keep the smaller stores, like the old Gas show room site on Bold Street (which is now a discount shop as per the current financial climate), return the business focus to a more localised, specialist, "independent" approach to weather the storm, keep the name on the high street, whilst letting go of the larger sites with more expensive rents.  Would that have worked?  No, of course it wouldn't.  What was I thinking?

Having watched Jessops fall, now I'm guessing customers would have followed the routine which did for them of visiting the shop for the relevant advice then shopping online instead.  I expect that was one of the causes of the chain's downfall anyway, as in a lot of cases, people browsed the physical media in store then ordered it through their smart phones, the approach that's killing most of the high street that isn't about clothes, betting or cheap candles and rugs.  Assuming they haven't just downloaded or streamed it instead.

I've been trying to remember the last purchase I made at HMV.  On reflection, it was probably at one of their Fopp shops instead, in Manchester, the small chain they bought out and oddly ran as a separate mainly discount entity.  I think it was a dvd if Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love starring Tilda Swinton, along with a boxset of footage from the Apollo 11 mission, collectively for about four pounds.  Fopp will be gone too now, which is a shame because I much preferred their faux-hipster atmosphere and in-store cafes.

Where does this leave entertainment retail in Liverpool?  The indies, Vinyl Emporium at the top of Bold Street and Probe near the Blue Coat are here.  A CEX or two.  That's Entertainment also on Bold Street will have a bump in sales (I bought three Pink albums there last week for a fiver - not even Amazon can compete with that).  But apart from that there's only the two Tesco Metros.  The WH Smith kiosk at Liverpool One doesn't have music/dvds any more and none of the other supermarkets are large enough to bother.  Hmm ...

Dido's new single.

Music  Never mind Bowie ...



Nice of Adam Curtis to edit the video. Possibly.

Bit repetitive, but sounds like she's back on form after the dirgy Safe Trip Home.

It's still rubbish.

Film  Today's Guardian has an interview with Laura Linney which includes a list of the characters she's played in the past.

""The ball-breaker in Love, Actually who ditched a new hunk in order to care for her learning-disabled brother."

Which is an interesting interpretation of that storyline by journalist Catherine Shoard.  "Ball breaker"?  Really?  Also it leaves out the reason why she leaves the "hunk".  The Cifer's underneath are suitably outraged.

Meanwhile, Wired Magazine recently published 6 Reasons Love Actually Is the New Christmas Classic, Even for Geeks, which says more about Wired Magazine in 2012 than the film itself.

Luckily someone at Salon's called it "demoralizing, misogynistic holiday twaddle" keeping the world karmically balanced.

Love Actually's on ITV2 again tonight.  Go, away.

"Every night I've been hugging my pillow..."

Film  Here is the cover for the dvd of the final Twilight film:

Is this way to Amarillo?

Underground Instants of Steam.

Transport  IanVisits reports on the commemorative return of a steam train to the London Underground, which was covered by the mainstream media, but there's was about justifying the event which lacked details such as ...

"Onward through the stations to King’s Cross where train geeks were scarce in this modern edifice, and people recently departed from overground trains were given the shock of steam as they waited to complete their trips home. Out came the camera phones, and their more recent replacements — the huge tablet devices — as people tried to capture the unexpected moment.

"Along the entire line, hundreds of people watched a steam train pass, by watching it on a tiny screen on their phone or camera. The vicarious vision of steam was fortunately enlivened by the smell, the clouds of steam and comradeship."

Exactly. As I've said before, major events will always be recorded and by better photographers than us.  Our job should simply be to enjoy the moment, because it's our own experience of it which is unique.

Meanwhile, Annie Mole reports on ticketing hijinks and the train which didn't run.

Woody Allen doesn't have hypochondria.

Health Woody Allen writes for the NYT about his non-hypochondria:

"WHEN The New York Times called, inquiring if I might pen a few words “from the horse’s mouth” about hypochondria, I confess I was taken aback. What light could I possibly shed on this type of crackpot behaviour since, contrary to popular belief, I am not a hypochondriac but a totally different genus of crackpot?

"What I am is an alarmist, which is in the same ballpark as the hypochondriac or, should I say, the same emergency room. Still there is a fundamental difference. I don’t experience imaginary maladies — my maladies are real."

Inevitably.

"Oh no. Oh no. Please, don’t say it."

Audio  Doctor Who author/writer/person has been filling his blog with deleted scenes from his work.  I'm yet to listen to the full thing, but the other day he posted a non-spoilery snatch of unused dialogue from his Big Finish audio The Cannabalists which featured the Eighth Doctor & Lucie.

To an extent it's a tribute to the somewhat unacknowledged masters of Doctor Who.  While the mainstream media inevitably focus on the television version of the franchise, it's still somewhat the audios, books and comics which are the thick connecting tissue of the mythology, giving us something to listen to, read and read between the televised scraps.

This brief section says everything you'd need to know about this Doctor/companion relationship, him tolerant and weary, her oblivious but clever.  We've witnessed other combinations have this same conversation played for different effects, but I think this is one of the funniest.  Smart, smart.

Eyepatch.

Do you like me? Do you really like me?

Life I always thought it would be quite ostentatious to have business cards with my email address, twitter details and the URL of this blog on them. Then I saw the small Moo minicards being handed out here and there and after weeks and weeks of mental itching I decided to order a box full. Each of the cards had one of the hundred things about me printed on the reverse side (with a few contemporary modifications) so they were all unique, and I dare say, conversation pieces.

That was in 2009.  As you can see from the photograph they're all gone.

Rather than repeating myself during the inevitable re-order, I thought this time I'd include some tiny URLs with links to posts on the actual blog and although I've a few ideas of what I should include, I want to make things a bit interactive.  Which is where you come in.

What I'd like, if you have a moment, is some guidance as to which posts I should link to on my cards. With over ten years of this stuff and readers of different vintages, I'm hoping you'll suggest your favourite posts and I'll add them to the list.

There are a hundred cards in a box so I'd like to have a hundred different ones.  I think it unlikely I'll have a hundred suggestions, especially since people rarely leave comments below (yes that means you) but any ideas would be excellent.

If you can't find the link, just "that one you did about..." would be fine.  The longer pieces.  I expect I could do links to a hundred Doctor Who reviews but that seems a bit pointless.  But feel free to pick out the ones you think are any good.  Assuming there are any.

I'll post of a list of nominations too.

I expect the wiser decision would be to simply have a link to my rolling CV on all one hundred, but when have I ever made a wise decision?

Thanks.

the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa

History  In 1888, the Royal Society set up a committee to investigate the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and the aftermath.  The resulting report is inevitably available at the internet archive and makes for disturbing reading (from what I've seen of its six hundred odd pages), perhaps the most interesting aspect being the language utilised which almost seems to criticise those at the heart of the disaster for their observational skills:

"As IS usual in such cases, the first reports of this tremendous outburst of the volcanic forces appear to have been quite misleading and altogether unworthy of credence. Nor is this to be wondered at. The towns and villages along the shores of the Sunda Strait were, during the crisis of the eruption, enveloped in a terrible darkness, which lasted for many hours, and, while thus obscured, were overwhelmed by a succession of great sea- waves ; those who succeeded in saving their lives amid these appalling incidents were, it need scarcely be added, not in a position to make trustworthy observations upon the wonderful succession of phenomena occurring around them."

Of course, that's not what they mean. What they mean is there were better things to be doing than standing around taking notes. But it's a useful example of how language and implication can develop over time.  The book is also filled with some extraordinary drawings of events.

"a Death Star isn't on the horizon"

Politics The White House's official response to the petition requesting the building a Death Star is poigniant, hilarious:

"The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

"The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?"

If I thought our government could be this funny, I'd start a pointless petition about building a TARDIS today.

toxic green slime

Science Last September, Grist reported on how a toxic green slime regularly covers the surfaces of the great lakes and it's man-made:

"Large corn and soy farms are mostly to blame, scientists and activists say, because they rely heavily on large quantities of phosphorous- and nitrogen-rich fertilizer that leach into the lakes, where they feed toxic blooms of cladophora and other nasty algae species. Manure from factory farms only adds to the nutrient load. [...] Farmers retort by pointing out that many households are also wasteful when it comes to the use of lawn fertilizers, which enter the lakes through storm-water drains."

Michigan Tech has a longer piece explaining some more of the science. Ugh.

WHO 50: 1970: Inferno.

TV The raised eye brow which greets me from people who know I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, or devotee, or whatever I am, when I tell them I’ve never been to a convention in my life is always amusing.

“You’re never been to convention?” They say, as though being a Doctor Who fan and sitting a large room listening to anecdotes from actors before becoming terribly drunk with some old friends are mutually exclusive.

“No.” I say.

“Why?”

My reasons are well rehearsed.

The cost. Conventions tend to be quite expensive, between the travel, the entrance price and the train travel and since I’m a perennially poor person I’ve never really been able to afford it between the other fan trappings (the merchandise).

Geography. Conventions tend to be held well away from Liverpool, often in a hotel on some inconvenient A-road inaccessible for those of us who use public transport.

Time. Conventions usually happen at the weekends and in Winter months and since 2007 I’ve been working Saturdays and Sundays.

But the other reason is, I’m not really interested in meeting people related to the making of Doctor Who.

I should qualify that by saying I’m not generally interested in meeting celebrities in general.

The reason’s pretty straightforward but let me phrase it as a question.

What if they’re arseholes?

Thought Catalog has done a pretty good job of listing the reasons you shouldn’t meet your heroes.

You’ll be in awe, they’ll never be as impressive as you expect, and forever after that you won’t be able to enjoy their work without it impacting.

As infamous recent examples have indicated, such encounters are fraught with difficulty.

Of course if it was my job, please god, and I didn’t have a choice, I’d probably get over it. And myself.

But yes, that if not the whole reason, a large part of it.

I simply love Doctor Who too much to have it ruined by personal experience.

Which isn’t to say I don’t mourn not having the opportunity to hear the one about the eyepatch joke live when I had the chance.

Krotons.

Food One of my favourite websites, even if only because of the coding efforts involved is the BBC's food website and its quick recipe finder.

 As each cookery related programme is broadcast, the mentioned recipe is added to the database and made searchable by the programme itself, chef/presenter, ingredients or dish.

It's literally an internet movie database food. It's an IFDB.

Here's the complete Great British Menu. The Delicious Miss Dahl. Masterchef.

All of Nigella's recipes. Some Delia. Here's Hugh.

Chicken and pineapple recipes. Lamb and cauliflower. Oranges and Lemons.

Spaghetti Bolognese. Nut roasts. Apple pies.

Oh and Krotons. Nearly.

Mist Over Sefton Park.

Mist Over Sefton Park., a photo by feelinglistless on Flickr.

The Wasteland.

Literature An anonymous source has produced a hyperlinked version of TS Eliot's The Waste Land, filled with definitions and links to other websites explaining allusions:

"The opening verses of 'The Hollow Men' use images of dryness very similarly to 'The Waste Land'. it does not represent simply death (which in Buddhist thought, is the supreme goal of Nirvana, only reached by the most enlightened beings), but a lack of real life, a dreadful, sterile limbo state devoid of redemption or spiritual meaning."

I know the feeling.