Come Halloween night, we all want something fun or interesting to watch. Going online offers various options. So it's time to update the list from last year.
It takes the 18th century novella and moves it to a college setting. When I first covered it, only the first series was done. It currently has three series.
A group of young women find themselves suddenly with great power, and a whole set of issues to deal with. They currently have 1 series. Great new series,
It follows a group of amateur paranormal investigators seeking out evidence of a world beyond, for a number of reason. It has a nice cast, some of whom you may remember from other series. So far we just have the one series.
The story of Frankenstein. Victoria Frankenstein. The series works a lot like Carmilla, with the characters creating vlogs that help continue the tale. It takes Frankenstein into the modern age. Live the classic tale once again.
Well there is another choice for a fun web series to enjoy this Halloween night.
Monster Management
Coming from Cracked.com, it's another fun short series. This one tells of the efforts to manage and rebrand classic monsters by a pair of marketing specialist.
These days it seems we have one source for our new Star Trek needs. J.J. Abrams. (And now I guess we're relying on his conspiracy minded minion, who will be directing.)
But is that true?
Welcome to the world of fan films. And fan films are a vast world, with serious efforts to tell tales of beloved characters and worlds and films that are just for laughs, or love of the franchise.
In that gulf of fan films are many very amateur efforts. Labor of loves that end up put up on places like YouTube for everyone to enjoy. But there are also films that are a serious and skilled effort. These have a lot of blood, sweat, and tears invested in them. They also get cash (and need it) and professionals.
So let's delve into Trekdom and see a couple of the amazing, exciting, and very Trekkie works going on.
After posting on Frankenstein MD, I was a Tumblr post showing this:
Carmilla? There's a Carmilla web series?! Tell me more!
Or, show me.
Well, here's a trailer for the web series.
So it looks like they are playing some with story. In the past I have looked at this tale. So I understand the impulse to tweak it. A lot of the story is static (useful for a web series budget), but it's setting could use updating from the old castle where the young woman is living with her father.
A new roommate is an amusing way to introduce Carmilla. But it is clear they will be playing loosely with much of the story. Still it is fun to see how they call back to the original tale, and to other works of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. And it is clear they are approaching the story with a sense of humor.
Here's the YouTube playlist for the series. And the first four episodes.
Among web series that can make some fun and interesting watching this October, I have to suggest this. Frankenstein, MD.
It comes from the PBS Digital Studios. What it enacts is a modern telling of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. But the title makes that obvious.
It deviates by making the focus Victoria Frankenstein (played by Anna Lore). She likes to talk like she is a full and proper doctor, but she isn't...yet. Just a little more work and the honor will go to her.
As she finishes her studies she delves into various areas of scientific interest, eager show her merit as a brilliant researchers. Along the way she is assisted by a fellow student, Iggy DeLacey (played by Steve Zaragoza).
The structure of the show is that she's making a web show, where she can showcase the wonders of science, and her research. Her experiments help shape where the show goes. This breaks the story of Frankenstein into episodes. The result is the tale of an eager almost doctor, her research, and how it starts to go out of control. Woe to Frankenstein, MD.
This may sound familiar to another book that was remade as an episodic take. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This project comes from the same group, Pemberley Digital.
Net Neutrality has been an issue of great concern to people who work online. The end of it may likely mean an end to those smaller operations, or new ideas looking for a place to blossom. It has also been of great concern to corporate interests and the Telecomms, who all look to cement their control on what we see and use. It all comes down to how neutral we will see information and services online treated.
But the FCC (Federal Trade Commission) is eyeing an end to neutrality. Not surprising from a collective largely made up of former and future executives of the Telecomm Industry. And the head of the FCC thinks it makes perfect sense to end neutrality, but make a caveat that all access must be kept at least at the levels they currently are at.
That would be great if time and technology stood still. But that's the point of the statement from the FCC. Sound good, mean nothing. Throw out a platitude while handing the power, wealth making potential, and speed to their corporate friends.
After that, we are all left to the whims of Internet Service Providers, and to the select online services that have paid up large sums to run suitably. And for many in power, that is how the world should work. You shouldn't have things if you can't pay up a nice size fee for it. Schooling. Water. Knowledge.
Well, that is garbage. The Internet is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas, amusement, and disappointment.
Among those trying to advocate for no neutrality think that not all sites deserve to be treated equal. Money should buy access. The Internet should operate like many other areas of business where the barriers to entry should be high. For many of them, Net Neutrality is a regulation. And that means taxes. And, "The government will control the Internet!!!".
The attitude is that they fear/hate the government, but tolerate/respect the old boy network of corporate elite making decision on this.
I don't, obviously, trust the people at the FCC. We need a better quality of regulator there. But if I have to choose between the power being in the FCC's and the Telecomms grasp, I pick the FCC. Whipping the FCC into shape is easier. And, once industry has it's way with the Internet, we'll have to wait a decade or more to right things.
We rely on regulation by government for a good reason. Industry rarely does a fair to decent job of watching over itself.
Is the language of the Internet killing society, language, literacy, and...stuff?
Probably not.
This may well just be part of language and social communication flexing, growing, and experimenting. Language needs to get taken out once in awhile and exercised. It's not the family silver.
So, yes, if you fret that language isn't used the way you like, you are a Margaret Dumont character.
Today is called by some Giving Tuesday, a counter to the consumerism, and just a reminder to invest in bettering the world around you. There are many places you can give money. Or time. Or moral support.
One such choice is the Salvation Army, a Christian organization. They spread out earlier and earlier each year. Ringing bells. Giving you expectant looks. And they do some good work. They can and do help people. And, people out there ringing away, are people that get hired for the season for a small wage.
But they are also not friendly to gay people. It's part of their religious tenets. Workers have been turned away for being gay. And there are stories of gay people being refused shelter. It isn't a representation of the whole group. But there are question marks in their policy. They say they are trying to do better, but how much is yet to be seen.
They have also run into other issues. Past treatment of union families. A large number of child abuse cases in Australia. And questions of mismanagement in some areas.
And, as it is, I would prefer to give to organizations that will not be funding religious efforts or antigay efforts. I like to find groups that are apart from that messiness.
So, as an alternative, let me suggest some of the numerous organizations out there that are more secularly focused, and not limiting where or how they aid.
Groups to support:
Amnesty International - They campaign for the human rights of people around the world.
Direct Relief - This organization works to improve health and lives of people affected by poverty, or emergency situations.
Doctors Without Borders - Made up primarily of health care facilitators, they operate in 60 countries, helping people dealing with disasters and violence.
Engineers Without Borders - Support local efforts to work on development projects.They work on projects including, drinking water access, sanitation, and roads.
Feed America - The organization works to help feed those in need of food. They do this with food banks. (And with the cuts to SNAP, they are in desperate need.)
Goodwill - This organization works to give job training, employment, and other services for the disabled.
Humanist Charities - Tied to the American Humanist Association, it offers aid in matters of health and welfare via a humanist approach.
Madre - An international women's human rights group that addresses the wide range of issues affecting women in local communities.
Planned Parenthood - Health care providers, educators, and advocates for health care access and knowledge. They work to guarantee a right to make one's own informed reproductive decisions. Also, to ensure those in poverty to have access to support. They also are at work on a global level.
Red Cross - A well known organization, it does good work on disaster relief, producing almost half of the United States' blood supply, and offering training on health.
UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund - They focus on children's interest around the globe. They work in many areas, including immunization, education, and emergency relief.
Not as direct, but important, the fighters for free speech and privacy.
Electronic Frontiers Foundation - An organization that works to preserve digital rights. Among it's focuses are privacy, free speech, and consumer rights.
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund - An organization focused on preserving First Amendment rights in the comic field, for artists to produce and readers to access.
It's Thanksgiving. And what better way to celebrate it than with bad movies? And thankfully people on the Internet have that handled. Movie marathons!!!
Google, as they like, has had some nerdy fun with one of their services. In this case, with Google Maps.
Going here, will place you in front of an old early 20th century London police box.
This is, if you know too much about Doctor Who, is a police box that has been placed outside of the Earl's Court tube station. Nice to get your picture in front of.
But, if you don't live there, or can't travel there, it is little use to you. But Google has come up with a way to experience it. First, it can be gone to on Street View. And, yes, I have gone places through Street View (novel, sad, you decide). But once you go to it, like via the link above, you can "enter" it. And you will be aboard the current manifestation of the TARDIS (from Doctor Who).
In considering CISPA in the last piece I mentioned SOPA, the last iteration of these efforts to broaden government access and control of personal information. It managed to scare and anger many. And with numerous powerful online and tech interest opposed, it was given a lot of unwanted attention that helped lead to its demise in Congress.
It was overly broad law. It was bad law. It was unpopular law, with the industrial deep pockets elected figures like to please.
So the lesson the lobbyist and Congressional supporters took away from that fight was to make it more palatable to industry. Nothing else really changed. Bad bill language stayed. Broad powers stayed. It just shows an interesting level of cluelessness.
Now, it was politician smart. They don't want to have to get yelled at by the businesses they rely on for fundraising. So it's a no lose fight to their reelection campaigns.
But this cluelessness does have impact. SOPA would have been bad law, like CISPA before it, and now. But other like law are already on the books. Like CFAA, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This law is outdated 80's law against computer hacking (Hey. Remember all those bad 80's hacking movies? It's that old a law.). But it is badly worded and outdated law. This is the law that was used all too recently to hound a rather young and brilliant civil liberties advocate (and vocal opponent of SOPA) Aaron Schwartz for relatively benign activity. But under this law the DA was trying to put him in prison for decades (Because it was the law...kinda.). (And those efforts sadly led to his suicide.) It was punitive action through bad law.
CFAA is exactly an example about why we do need legislation, new legislation, for cybersecurity. Things do need to change. And PIPA, SOPA, and CISPA are examples of why it has to be GOOD law, SOUND law, and INTELLIGENT law; all things these bills are not. We need change, but these laws based more on paranoia and control will not do the job. Our law crafters have to do better.
CISPA is just too vague in how it will be applied, much like CFAA. It will inevitably be used poorly and people will be made to unfairly suffer. And now before it is law is the time to act. Congress needs to do a better job. Looking at CFAA, even many changes suggested for it focus more on increasing punishments and making the violations of the act a more vague and unclear matter. The legislators making the decisions here are not doing a good. job. They have to do better. We have to make them do better, particularly as all the loud voices with the deep pockets are walking away from the fray. It is up to us.
Get informed. Get involved.
I also wanted to note that in passing CISPA through the House of Representatives, even some good Democratic representatives supported it (like Duckworth). The backers of CISPA are spending a lot and schmoozing a lot to ensure it gets supported. This includes overselling it's national security value. So, I think, it would be a good idea to reach out to your representative in Congress (and contact your senators to) and let them know what you think about CISPA and why you don't want it to pass. We to can make them informed voters (in Congress).
It is likely it won't pass the senate. And the president has said he would veto it. But, as I've pointed out, it will be back. And our representatives need to be ready and understand our concerns when it does. They may even, if informed, be able to amend it to be good law. But it starts with us.
CISPA, or Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is a bill that broadly expands the power government and business to share and use information, your information. It is an annoying bill, to say the least. Not in particular because it is one that refuses to stay down. A number of attempts have been made to pass it or similar bill in the last few years. Remember SOPA and PIPA? It's proving worse than a bad movie slasher. Not even a Son of CISPA. (But it is a curse.)
So. It is back, like a bad slasher movie remake (Don't worry. I'm killing these comparisons now.). And like before the idea is to sell it as a beneficent new law meant to help us, and keep us safe. Trouble comes in how it opens up the citizenry to new levels of privacy invasions. If the government says the words "national security", POP!, you're privacy rights and agreements online are no longer valid. (Lifehacker, Verge, and here look some more at the CISPA bill and it's troubles.)
What this means is that when the government sees a threat, or deems one is rising, it can request an online provider hand over certain persons data. The provider can then just hand over all of the persons information. And under the new law the provider is protected from any lawsuits for violating promises about protecting personal data. It is all a quick and legal transaction between business and government.
And that is the key to CISPA now. SOPA got industrial opposition (the major business interests) because they were stuck in the middle and open to being held accountable. But now they will be made immune, while the law will still be able to screw the users over. But Twitter, Facebook etc. will be fine (Phew!). The key thing is that this means these players aren't backing us now. For instance, AT&T and Verizon, along with the Telecom lobbyists, have come out in eager support now of CISPA.
And this is troubling. Troubling for peoples ability to speak freely. Troubling for privacy. Troubling for being able to feel confident in out constitutional rights.
CISPA is a very broadly defined law. It will make it extremely easy to bypass your legal rights. In my previous post I mentioned the Public Safety exemption to the Miranda rights. That currently just bends your constitutional rights. But it creates a future risk. With CISPA, as it is right now, it sets out a way to just disregard parts of the constitution, a constitutional bypass.
No warrants. No courts. No oversight. The American Library Association noted with the last attempt to pass this:
...
The ALA is concerned that all private electronic communications could be obtained by the government and used for many purposes–and not just for cybersecurity activities. H.R. 3523 would permit, and sometimes even require, Internet service providers and other entities to monitor all electronic communications and share personal information with the government without effective oversight by claiming the sharing is for “cybersecurity purposes.”
...
It isn't directly meant to be a new spy tool. But it is built so it can be instantly re-purposed as one. And when government is given a tool like this, it tends to find a reason to make use of it, like with the RICO law.
Now we should remember that laws need to be changed and updated. And cyber laws do need to move with the times. But their is a difference between what we need on the books to reasonably protect and serve society and what is just a means to easily control. When is it overreach? Miranda is an inconvenience to law enforcement. But it is a good one. It helps some people get the aid they need to not be abused. The need to get warrants before scouring your personal data is another important protection. This law leaves us vulnerable, while doing to little to actual protect us.
Right now. Many people are planning to use today as a CISPA blackout, where they will have no presence online, in protest to the effect this law could have on online activity. I am still deciding whether to do this to (Yes. Based on my clock, I am over the deadline a little already. But time is relative, and it's still Sunday in some of the US still.) I am tempted to. But I am also tempted to see if I can write anything of use tomorrow, focused o this. We'll see.
Still, whether blacked out or not, CISPA is back. And it's passed the House of Representatives. President Obama has indicated he'd VETO it's current form if it passed the Senate. But if he's pressured to do otherwise... Or, if enough support is bought in the Senate, how close would they be to being able to override a veto?
As EFF above asks. Contact your senator now. Be sure they know where you stand, and why you stand there.
Came across this. History Channel, remember when it was about history?
It is almost a cliche now to talk about it (When Chuck Grassley is on it, it must be old.). But it is an annoyance. It once was nice to have access to a channel where you could watch historic documentaries. Now it is day long marathons on scavenging, logging, and other things.
Sure you can see more docs, if you get History Channel 2 (which I don't), but that's like saying you can get music videos if you get MTV2 (Do they still have music videos?). So it's annoying, and makes me not want to get the channel on my cable.
But as this video notes. About as bad as the ridiculous reality shows, the channel spends a lot of time on pseudoscience and pseudohistory. Why are you offering up conspiracy, demons, bigfoots, and alien abductions? I shouldn't be surprised when you honestly critique conspiracies. Still, most of these have moved to other channels now. And History Channel has it's reality TV, mixed with some old ancient aliens and bible mystery docs.
Now, I do get the evolution of channels. (I going to make a long aside now.)
I remember getting SciFi Channel...when it was still called that. It was early days, and like every young channel, it was filling space. It would buy up cheap shows and show them in mass. So you would get day long runs of Star Trek, Knight Rider, Invisible Man, etc. And that could be repetitive But it was also scifi, and fun. (There was also the occasional UFO or mysterious sightings shows.) They also threw on shows that were made in their studio, like Sci-Fi Buzz and SF Vortex. These were shows that would promote and talk about what was going on in scifi TV, Movies, etc that week. So you'd get the channel's niche topic talked up, have interviews with actors and writers in the genre, clips from shows (it was how I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and even rants from Harlan Ellison. It was fun. It was the kind of thing you ought have on a channel specializing in Science Fiction entertainment. And eventually they got dumped as the channel evolved.
Here's some of those old shows:
SF Vortex:
Sci-Fi Buzz:
An Ellison Rant:
That is what we always see, channel execs see cheaper or more engaging ways to draw customers/viewers and they change. So more shows come and go, and the original in studio shows get dropped. That made me sad, as it would be nice to have at least one show talking up the genre. But the channel changed and started buying up new shows, like the Invisible Man, Chronicles, Farscape, Lexx, new MST3K episodes. So there is a trade off. And this seems like a nice place. Some old shows, some new shows. But...the channel evolves.
Execs look at ratings and want more, and they want to find ways to pay less. So shows get replaced, and fans aren't happy. And change keeps coming. Reality shows boom. Ghost Hunters. Horror makeup shows. Weird little games. And then wrestling is put on. And I missed the point they started buying more and more crappy bad movies off the shelves on studios to put on and original movies.
And SciFi come SyFy might want to look back at itself to see what it's become. (Makes me want to pull up the piece Charlie Brooker did showing how TV is where innovative ideas go to die...OKAY!)
SciFi was an interesting channel to start. It needed improvement. It needed to grow. It needed to change. Some changes have been good, and many bad. And it is definitely not what it started out seeking to be.
But it's like what we see with History, Learning, Arts, Discovery, etc. The channels start shifting from who they are. Some more than others, but the marathons of silly shows and ridiculous choice of funding these silly shows...They've made online choices for thoughtful entertainment a desperate need. I think Travel Channel had some better luck. For awhile they became the Poker and Vegas Channel. But they seem to have shifted back some (And they are about travel, which is all about advertising.).
But then we have examples of where this can go like Tech TV. A niche channel, that gave some gaming talk, but also lots of talk about technology, computers, and Leo Laporte. Then they began the move that ended up with them becoming G4. As G4, they had a lot of crappy reality shows, Ninja Warriors, old movies, old TV, with a bit of guy focused gaming talk shoved in. And that channel is dead now (Gods, it's not around, right? I mean, we already have Spike. -- Another tale of an evolving and changing channel.).
Still, let's get back to the History Channel. Ice Road Truckers? Top Gear? Ancient Aliens? Pawn Stars? Swamp People? Chasing Tail (What is this even about?)? American Pickers? Ax Men? Cajun Pawn Stars (Cause one isn't enough.)? Counting Cars (Theirs a show called Counting Fucking Cars.)? Really? This is who you are, History Channel?
Sigh.
But, as noted in the video at the top, this was a long time in coming.
Look at this show Satan's Army (Interesting point. This is an example of what a lot of these channels do. You have a show. And you just plug it into whatever other show you have that is related and pretend it's new. I've seen most of this in another show on History, with different graphics. You know, I once saw a piece on the haunting of a WWII aircraft carry pop up on three different paranormal shows. What a way to save cash.)
But just watch the first minute or two, and think, "This is what the History Channel does."
Oh my gods. I forgot for a moment about The Nostradamus Effect...That was so dumb. Anyway, I want to sit down at a some point and talk about how bad this and some other shows were.
Shame on you History Channel. Shows like this make my brain hurt. So so dumb.
SFDebris (@sfdebris) regularly does humorous reviews, and the occasionaly literary analysis. But last week, he brought us Astromech Spy, the tale of a cunning little spy named R2-D2...He translates R2's beeps and whistles from the 1st Star Wars movie (A New Hope). And this reveals all (Spoilers: R2's kind of a dick.).
So enjoy the 6 part tale of R2's trip from Tantive IV to Yavin IV.
I have been tempted to talk about the, what to my surprise exists, War of Easter. But it is too silly (You can see it tore apart here and here.).
And I have talked about the similarly ridiculous War on Christmas here already. Just switch over to magic rabbits, baskets of eggs, chocolate, pastel colors, and baked ham. If your argument is that your religious celebration of Easter is in peril...
YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID.
Okay? It is all silly.
And to emphasize that, you can see that Google has a picture of Cesar Chavez up on it's main page.
Google often changes it's main page to acknowledge various people and events (from Star Trek to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to Christmas to famous artist). It's a fun little thing. Today is Cesar Chavez birthday. It's also Easter (this year -- What is with the rolling holiday? Was Jesus hedging his bets on how long he'd take to get out hell?). So Christians, again, are pissed about not getting special coverage...on a little picture on the front page of Google. I'm guessing these people missed church and didn't know their was a big deal there today.
Honestly! Their are devout Christians spending Easter online writing and complaining about people not celebrating Easter. Welcome to Conservative Christiandom.
So silly. As Jim Gaffigan has told us...
For his full bit on holidays:
I think I'll just have some turkey and MST3K. It is feeling like a Turkey Day.
Some people ask me, "Jack? What's this whole thing about?" And I tell them the truth. The hell if I know.
But sometimes you are on a sugar high. And you take some nerdiness. And you take some geekiness. And you grab some politics. And then you stuff some skepticism into it...and you crash.
When you make up you don't know what it is, but it's attached itself to your jugular, and you decide it's best not to fuss.
A curmudgeon and soft-heart. A pessimist and optimist. A loner and joiner. Even I get sick of me.
I'm...
A Neophyte Negotiator of all the Nonsense. An Ornate Opponent of…Oh, you know. A Lover of Levity and the Lectern. An Irreconcilably Irate Idyllist. The Eternal Enemy of Erratum. Just a Solitary Serrated Soul. I'm sorry, what was the question?
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