Now:

Then:

Anyway, I’ve been rewatching the new series, and saw that episode just today. I did not know about all those attempts on Her Majesty’s person, but by the way the fact was written into the script in DWS2E2, I suspected it was for real. So I looked it up. And, I cam across a book on it that was marked down to two bucks in Kindle form!

Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy

During Queen Victoria’s sixty-four years on the British throne, no fewer than eight attempts were made on her life. Seven teenage boys and one man attempted to kill her. Far from letting it inhibit her reign over the empire, Victoria used the notoriety of the attacks to her advantage. Regardless of the traitorous motives—delusions of grandeur, revenge, paranoia, petty grievances, or a preference of prison to the streets—they were a golden opportunity for the queen to revitalize the British crown, strengthen the monarchy, push through favored acts of legislation, and prove her pluck in the face of newfound public support. “It is worth being shot at,” she said, “to see how much one is loved.”

Recounting what Elizabeth Barrett marveled at as “this strange mania of queen-shooting,” and the punishments, unprecedented trials, and fate of these malcontents who were more pitiable than dangerous, Paul Thomas Murphy explores the realities of life in nineteenth-century England—for both the privileged and the impoverished. From these cloak-and-dagger plots of “regicide” to Victoria’s steadfast courage, Shooting Victoria is thrilling, insightful, and, at times, completely mad historical narrative.

For two bucks, we also have Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence–and Where It’s Taking Us Next by Luke Dormehl.

When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways, the future people dreamed of at the World’s Fair in the 1960s is already here. We’re teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they’re learning at an incredible rate.

In Thinking Machines, technology journalist Luke Dormehl takes you through the history of AI and how it makes up the foundations of the machines that think for us today. Furthermore, Dormehl speculates on the incredible–and possibly terrifying–future that’s much closer than many would imagine. This remarkable book will invite you to marvel at what now seems commonplace and to dream about a future in which the scope of humanity may need to broaden itself to include intelligent machines.

I am not an expert on the old Dr Who’s by any means, but it has come to my attention that a lot of people are unaware of the recent addition of Dr. Who shows on Netflix, even though I did post something about this on my facebook page. Try to keep up, people.

Here is the specially designed Netflix page which provides many of the important details.

And here is a cool blog post I found that covers the larger issue of access to all/many of the Dr. Who episodes.

So there you go.

When this research was first disseminated, Shakespeare scholars by and large rejected the findings as impossible, absurd, highly unlikely and so on and so forth. Why? Because they did not already know it to be true. Well, maybe not, but that’s my assessment. By the early 21st century, there was not much about Shakespeare that could be known that was not known. Gallons of ink spilled, a hurricane’s worth of breath expelled, tons of gray matter expended; Science could not tell Shakespeare scholars something new, and nothing so unexpected or odd could possibly be newly discovered.

I have a sense that this is similar to the reaction Van Gogh scholars are having to the recent assertion by two Pulitzer Prize winning authors that the painter did not in fact commit suicide, but rather, was shot accidentally by a young man with an obsession for American Western Cowboy Culture and a rusty old six shooter. I’m not going to argue one way or another for this alternative theory of Van Gogh’s death, other than to note that it is rather interesting that a physician at the time stated that the bullet wound was not made from very close range and was at a strange angle to have been self inflicted. I’m not sure that Van Gogh scholars are snubbing this new idea because it “can’t be true.” I’m not saying anything. I’m just sayin’

Getting back to Shakespeare’s pot; The requirement that landowners of the day grow a certain number of pot plants on their property seems to provide opportunity. However, those not interested in entertaining the idea that Midsummer Night’s Dream was a trip in more ways than one like to point out that this would have been hemp, the non-narcotic variety of cannabis, the variety used for making rope, and thus would not have been smoked.

But this is not true. In those days, pot was pot. The range of varieties we see today, with ultra strong narcotic varieties on one end of the spectrum and essentially useless¹ hemp on the other, did not exist then. There probably was variation in product, as a result of different strains being grown in a variety of ways, but there was almost certainly not a hemp that you would not smoke.

And now, new research helps us to understand the difference between cannabis that gets you stoned and hemp that gets you rope.

A team of researchers led by Drs Jon Page and Tim Hughes from Canada sequenced DNA from the potent Purple Kush (PK) marijuana strain … The PK genome and transcriptome … were then compared to those of ‘Finola’ hemp, and scanned for differences which might explain why marijuana produces tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), the active ingredient of cannabis, while hemp strains lack THCA but contain the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, cannabidiolic acid (CBDA).

The transcriptome held the clues to solving this genomic puzzle. Dr Page explained, “The transcriptome analysis showed that the THCA synthase gene, an essential enzyme in THCA production, is turned on in marijuana, but switched off in hemp.” Dr Hughes continued, “Detailed analysis of the two genomes suggests that domestication, cultivation, and breeding of marijuana strains has caused the loss of the enzyme (CBDA synthase) which would otherwise compete for the metabolites used as starting material in THCA production.”

Ah. So that’s how it works.

The fact that both Van Gogh and Shakespeare figure prominently in the Dr. Who mythos would certainly be a coincidence. If we believed in coincidence.

¹Well, useless except for making rope, paper, for cooking, and dozens of other purposes.

Harm van Bakel, Jake M Stout, Atina G Cote, Carling M Tallon, Andrew G Sharpe, Timothy R Hughes, & Jonathan E Page (2011). The draft genome and transcriptome of Cannabis sativa Genome Biology, 12 (R102)

When I was a kid, I read a lot of science fiction. There wasn’t much fantasy back then (Lord of the Rings?). Then I left fiction behind entirely for a very long time, unless you count Archaeology as fiction which it sometimes is. When I did re-embrace fiction in literature it was mostly classic feminist stuff (Marge Piercy, Rita Mae Brown, etc.) which I read for the humor and humanity, trash adventure fiction (yes, including Tom Clancy) which I read because that was the best way to understand a world that I had interest in (for reasons I may discuss another time) and be entertained at the same time, or whatever was local (William Kennedy for Albany, Melville, Kidder, Thoreau, and various historical fiction). But not much of any of it.

But a few years ago, it occurred to me while talking to my friend Emily, who was a voracious reader of juvenile fantasy fiction, that a way to maintain cultural connection and overlap with my daughter, Julia was to read her stuff, at least to some extent. So now, I read (or re-read) much of what she is assigned in school, but also, all that great literature that was not available to me when I was a kid, like Harry Potter.

And this has extended to TV. So, pursuant to this, I’ve watched the first couple of seasons of Merlin and a whole Tardis full of the neo Dr. Who (way, way, better than the original, though the original is quaint) and a few other bits and pieces.

One of the things I like about British TV, including Merlin, Dr. Who, as well as a few other recently produced series (MI-5, for instance), is that they do something American TV has either not discovered or does poorly (most of the time, though there are exceptions): That is to be mostly “color blind” in a rather intriguing way, while still (and this part might not be important) occasionally dealing with race. This includes actually having dark skinned characters in significant roles other than in “black shows” as well as having people act culturally/ethnicaly mostly independently of their stereotypes.

So, in Merlin, Guinevere is black. I’m pretty sure that brown people were hanging around in non-significant numbers in Europe at various times in the past and with varying degrees of identity separation or status vis-a-vis people of other colors, but in Arthurian proto-Britain, I’d be surprised to find Africans at all, though I have no opinion as to how people from the southern continent would be regarded or how they would regard their pinkish compatriots. But I could be wrong about that. I don’t have expertise in that time period and geography. But in the TV series, she seems to be just a person who happens to be “black” and there is not a mention of her ethnicity of which I’m aware. She is a servant, which is kind of a black thing to do in white society, but I’m not sure what that means in this case. (Please feel free to educate me on what I’m missing here, i.e., is Guinevere African in the original myths? I have no idea).

Dr. Who is even more interesting. For instance, the pairing in couples of people of contrasting completions is almost routine, yet never mentioned. Do Americans notice “interracial marriages” or other relationships while Brits don’t? Or does everyone notice it but not say much about it? Regardless, I’m glad that Dr. Who is watched widely by kids in the US because the nonchalant interaction of people who look rather different (not even counting aliens) is good, basic, progressive modeling.

And, I have to tell you, although everyone loves and appreciates Rose, and Amy Pond really needs Rory in her life or there would definitely be funny business between her and The Doctor, three is no doubt in my mind that Martha is the best companion ever. I don’t know the whole mythos (does anyone?) but it seems to me that Martha has become the most Dr.-like, but in her own distinctive Martharian way, to the extent that I could easily imagine a spin-off based on her, but not for the other women.

And that’s about it. I have very little knowledge of pop fantasy beyond what I’ve just alluded to. And, most importantly, I know nothing about fandom. I don’t read fan sites, I don’t read fan literature (is there even a fan literature?). This is why a recent blog (re-)post by RVC Bard was enlightening to me. Bard discusses the treatment of Martha Jones, Tara Thornton, Guinevere and Mercedes Jones (and I have no clue who Thornton and Jones II are) … all “Black women on major network television shows,” in relation to fandom. Apparently they are not treated well (at least to some extent) in ways that match the pattern for not being treated well for racialistic reasons, rather than, say, being a secondary role reasons or being female reasons (though that too, but not to the same extent) or other reasons that fandom may treat one badly, whatever they may be.

Since, as I say, I have no exposure whatsoever to “fandom” I did not know this. And it makes me not want to bother with fandom even more so than I was already not bothering with it … a sort of negative-bothering, if you will. Also, I am not surprised. Had I thought about it, I would have predicted it.

So even when (and if, but I think when) producers or creators of pop culture bother to at least try to model racial indifference they get racialized behavior at least to some extent. Shame on fandom for that, assuming RVC Bard is correct.

You don’t have to take my word for it. You can read the post here.

Working for Kalb was a blast.

When the outside line would ring, there was a better than even chance that it was some guy who had, oh I don’t know, run for president, or been a Senator or ran a country or something. Visitors were similar. When the director of the most prestigious academic institute for journalistic studies who also happened to have hosted Meet the Press for several years and otherwise done so many high profile things entertains a guest speaker or visiting scholar, that person is someone notable too.

One of Mr. Kalb’s buddies from way back was Dan Rather. And, for some reason, as a joke, or a gift, or for who knows what purpose, someone linked to both Rather and Kalb had given the latter a full size stand-up cutout of Rather, much like the one depicted above of Justin Bieber but of Dan Rather instead of Justin Bieber. And Kalb placed the cutout in the room at the end of the hall such that if that room’s door was open, and you walked into the hall, you would see Dan Rather standing down there looking at you.

At that distance the only thing your brain could do was assume it was the real MacCoy.

I can’t tell you how many times that fooled my brain before my medium-term memory taught my limbic system to expect it. And even then, I’d still get re-fooled after a three day weekend.

Anyway, certain events and certain memories converged for me today (and I’ll admit one of those was a targeted ad on Facebook) that made me think that a fun Happy Holiday present to get Julia would be a life size cutout of one of the Dr. Who characters.

(Don’t tell her about this idea, I want it to be a surprise.)

Pursuant to this, I looked at the range of characters available and realize this might be too tough of a decision to make on my own. There are so many possibilities beyond Dan Rather.

And then, I realized that a full size cutout figure of something, or someone, would be even better than a cool Halloween costume. A life size cutout of Karen Gillan as Amy Pond in the bushes near the house, or of Justin Bieber looking out the window, or of Dumbledore standing on the stairs so someone sees it when they are getting their candy.

No, wait, I’m probably not going to get the Justin Bieber one because I don’t like him at all and don’t want anybody getting the wrong idea. And besides, a Harry Potter life size cutout character would be much more Halloween-like. (Well, I suppose a Michael Jackson figure would too, in a morbid sort of way.)

What worries me is that a Dr Who character would, I assume, mostly go unnoticed unless maybe it was a Dalek, and I also had some audio going with it.

Exterminate … Exterminate … EXTERMINATE!!!!

And then, it occurred to me, that I needed The Tardis cutout no matter what. For the blog cave. I wonder how big it is. Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter … as long as it is ….

All images from various Amazon.com ads