All posts by ntbadmin

Television

Good Place 44

Leave a comment

Season 4 Episode 4 Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy

Someone’s not who they say they are and the lying might be coming from inside the house.

When Janet brings the results of a Pictionary game to life, Chidi’s poorly drawn horse is terrifying. Eleanor later finds Chidi practicing drawing to avoid causing further harm.

Glenn the demon, arrives and claims Michael is really a disguised Vicky. Janet’s “demon lie detector” causes Glenn to explode; he will take months to reconstitute.

Michael is unwilling to let his friends see his true form, a monstrous fire squid; with no other way to prove his identity, Michael prepares to blow himself up to protect the experiment.

Jason realizes Janet is an impostor and restrains her; she is a Bad Janet who marbleized Janet and sent her to the Bad Place on Chris’s train. So it’s off the the bad place to rescue (good) Janet.

Dean of Geek

 

Television

Disenchantment

Leave a comment

Disenchantment is a satirical fantasy sitcom created by Matt Groening. The series is Groening’s only production to appear exclusively on Netflix. He previously created The Simpsons and Futurama for 20th Century Fox Television.

Set in the medieval fantasy kingdom of Dreamland, the series follows the story of Bean, a rebellious and alcoholic princess, her elf companion Elfo, and her destructive “personal demon” Luci.

Disenchantment stars the voices of Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, Nat Faxon, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Matt Berry, David Herman, Maurice LaMarche, Lucy Montgomery, and Billy West.

Disenchantment was renewed for a twenty-episode second season, to be released between 2020 and 2021.

 

Books

Kaiju Storm

Leave a comment

Kaiju Storm
(Kaiju Winter #2)
by Jake Bible (2014)

The Yellowstone supervolcano has erupted and out of the massive chasm of its smoldering caldera came the kaiju- giant monsters bent on destroying everything in sight! Federal Marshal Lu Morgan and her ragtag group of survivors and government agents fought hard to stay alive and defeat the massive monsters, but now a second eruption has sent things even more deadly flying up into the ash cloud that covers the land.

The US government, the survivors of the eruption, and a team of scientists must fight a new evil that falls from the sky and turns animals, and people, into grotesque creatures bent on killing every living thing in their path. It is a race against time, and a race for survival, as all involved struggle to find answers as to where the monsters came from and how to stop them.
If stopping them is even possible!

Books

Kaiju Winter

Leave a comment

Kaiju Winter
(Kaiju Winter #1)
by Jake Bible (2014)

The Yellowstone super volcano has begun to erupt, sending North America into chaos and the rest of the world into panic. People are dangerous and desperate to escape the oncoming mega-eruption, knowing it will plunge the continent, and the world, into a perpetual ashen winter. But no matter how ready humanity is, nothing can prepare them for what comes out of the ash: Kaiju!

Hurrah…

Found….

Another author in the Jeremy Robinson mode…

A bit of Science fiction mixed horror, adventure and lots of action.

It’s big monsters vs humanity. No single protagonist here, but a mix of scientists and law officers. There are a few nasty people, notably an FBI agent with a control problem who has been tracking down his son. And a criminal who gets out  and teams up with civilians. Plus rednecks and an insane (who could guess) president.

It’s all lots of exciting mayhem and fun.

 

 

Computing

Fortran

Leave a comment

In 1956 FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, was first shared with the coding community.

The Fortran Automatic Coding System for the IBM 704 (15 October 1956), the first programmer’s reference manual for Fortran

This was the first computer programming language I used (circa 1977). We didn’t have computers at school, programs were written out in longhand and transcribed to punch cards.

These were collected and sent to a mainframe that ran the program and printed out the results in wide,  punched paper.

The IBM 704 mainframe, which used FORTRAN language

Most of our work was returned where a single punching error, had terminated the program. Just to get a list of the first few prime numbers was an achievement.

 

Television

Good Place 43

Leave a comment
Brandon Scott Jones as John and Jameela Jamil as Tahani

Titled “Chillaxing”, which  is a portmanteau of “Chidi” and “relaxing”.

Eleanor and Michael are feeling smug about the state of their new experiment. Chidi is teaching moral philosophy, so three new humans will have enough points to convince the Judge to change the rules for the afterlife.

Instead, they’re startled to discover a laid-back, fun-loving Chidi.

He’s not crippled by indecisiveness, nor does he particularly want to spend an eternity teaching Brent how to be a better person.

Eleanor and Michael realize that they left a key ingredient out of this reboot: Chidi isn’t being tortured, even a little, so he feels no urgency to do anything.

So Jason is sent in to stir things up. He does a great job. Now Chidi is anxious and worried. It seems that the strategy is working and things are back on track.

But wait, who’s that coming down the railway line, dressed in a dark cape ???

 

Event

War & Peace

Leave a comment

On this day in 1066 The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings.

Then, in 1322 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence.

Robert the Bruce
Robert the Bruce

Finally, peace at last – Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of future Palestinian self-government.

Books

Thrawn: Alliances

Leave a comment

Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances
(Star Wars: Thrawn #2)
by Timothy Zahn (2018)

“I have sensed a disturbance in the Force.”

Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine. On Batuu, at the edges of the Unknown Regions, a threat to the Empire is taking root.

This is enough to send is most powerful agents: ruthless enforcer Lord Darth Vader and brilliant strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic, and Commander Mitth’raw’nuruodo, officer of the Chiss Ascendancy, crossed paths for the first time.

It took a while to work out that this novel is told in two timelines; one with Anakin Skywalker (before he became Vader) and another as Vader.

This spit diminished the narrative arc of both stories. And in the end there is little to join the two. Still, Zahn’s prose is up to the usual standard that keeps the two stories going.

But in the end this is not a memorable Star Wars story. There have been a lot better ones (most written by Zahn).