'War for the Planet of the Apes'

Valerie and I went to the latest incarnation this afternoon. Not awful if you take it straight, not particularly good, either.

As anti-white, anti-American, anti-US military metaphor, though, it couldn't get much more heavy handed.

White American Special Forces troops herd all-black apes into Nazi-like concentration camp, play the Star Spangled Banner, beat the black folk mercilessly, starve them mercilessly, wave the American flag, suffer attack aka civil war from other American troops who come from the North, the American flag goes up in flames, avalanche kills all the white people, and the black apes hike off to the Promised Land, free at last from white people. Just what you should expect from a Woodie Harrelson movie.

Recreating the 1918 Flu: What Could Go Wrong?

In real life, maybe nothing. In apocalypse fiction: Oh, oh...

An international team of researchers led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist created a life-threatening virus in a high-containment lab in Madison nearly identical to the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic that killed a staggering 50 million people worldwide, according to an article published Wednesday in a major science journal.

The controversial research, intended to show that bird flu viruses currently circulating in nature have the same potential for pandemic, is drawing sharp criticism around the world as highly risky.

Some people in apparently responsible positions really don't sound sanguine:

"The work they are doing is absolutely crazy," Lord May, the United Kingdom's former chief science adviser, told the Guardian this week. "The whole thing is exceedingly dangerous. Yes, there is a danger, but it's not arising from the viruses out there in the animals, it's arising from the labs of grossly ambitious people."

A virologist at the renowned Pasteur Institute in Paris referred to it as "madness, folly."

"It shows profound lack of respect for the collective decision-making process we've always shown in fighting infections, Simon Wain-Hobson told the Guardian. "If society, the intelligent lay-person, understood what was going on, they would say, 'What the F are you doing?'"

Well, then. I guess I'm glad we have a small stock of N95 face masks.

Pentagon Has A Plan For The Zombie Apocalypse

As well they ought. Just look at DC.

Under "Zombie Threat Summary," the plan highlights the different kinds of zombie adversaries one might find in such an attack. They include not only vegetarian zombies ("zombie life forms originating from any cause but pose no direct threat to humans because they only eat plant life"); evil magic zombies ("EMZs are zombie life forms created via some form of occult experimentation in what might otherwise be referred to as 'evil magic'"); and also chicken zombies.

Well finally they are getting with the program.

I wonder if vegetarian zombies can be combatted with Salad Shooters...oh...wait...I guess that would be vegetable zombies. "Attack of the Undead Carrots"

More here.

Liberty Island Publishing

This sounds like an interesting new enterprise:

Our new venture, Liberty Island, will identify and publish the best of a new generation of politically independent and culturally contrarian writers. We’re recruiting writers in a wide range of genres, including thriller, crime, fantasy, mystery, adventure, science fiction, satire, historical and political fiction—even western and romance. Independent in all senses of the word, we are starting a cultural insurgency using the tools of digital technology to circumvent and challenge the mainstream publishing establishment. Liberty Island exists to identify, promote, and introduce these new writers to a likeminded audience that shares their tastes and values—specifically the values of liberty, individualism, and American exceptionalism.

Plus, they are crowdfunding.

Bad Luck

Every time President Obama or one of his apologists whines that the economy is in the doldrums because of "bad luck", I am reminded of this quote from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Plenty of that going around.

Science Fiction: More Conservative/Libertarian?

Discussion here.

Insurance: More important than ever

So remind me: Just what is wrong with glorifying or glamorizing the use of guns?

The trailer for Angelina Jolie's film "Wanted" has been banned from the British telly:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the advert gave the overall impression "that using guns was sexy and glamorous" and breached the code for television.

"We concluded the ad could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorising the use of guns," its adjudication said.

Mustn't let the wee tykes think it is OK for women to shoot criminals. That American virus must be stopped until it can be sent the way of small pox.

UPDATE: Ah: Possibly this explains in small part the blatant hoplophobia:

The film stars Jolie and British actor James McAvoy as a pair of assassins.

I guess I'll have to see it to find out if they are good guy assassins or bad guy assassins.

Aiko, the fem-bot

But not a sex-bot.

Orson Scott Card on Ender in Exile

John J. Miller of National Review Online interviews Orson Scott Card on his sequel to Ender's Game, Enders in Exile.