random bits

[cellio]

In the last two weeks we lost both merle_ and pedropadrao. I will miss them both. :-(

And there's no good transition from that to, well, miscellany, so this paragraph will have to serve.

I suppose, technically, if you're not sure if a TV show has jumped the shark, then it hasn't. But, that said, I doubt I'll be back for the next season of "Once Upon a Time", a show that got off to a good start in season one, carried it through part of season two, and then started going farther and farther afield of its original context. In addition to links to "the enchanted forest", the land of fairy tales, they mixed in an Arthurian knight (short-lived), Captain Hook, I think a couple other odd ones, and now, in the season finale, it's clear that Never-Never Land is going to be a major factor. If they were doing the work to tell a Gaiman-style story about all these realms being intertwined or some such I'd be on board for that, but it sure feels like they're just making things up as they go along now. Oh well.

Links:

Full moon silhouettes, a really gorgeous video of the full moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, NZ. (Link from Dani.)

Best court sanctions... ever! from osewalrus. As Ose says, best use of the term "Red Shirt" in a legal decision. And you thought court decisions had to be dull...

This is great (given that such idiots exist, which is not great). Bill Walsh was riding his bike and happened to be running a helmet-cam when a cab made an illegal U-turn across the bike lane, after being warned that it was illegal, and promptly got pulled over by an oncoming police officer. The video is short and cuts out before we get to see the expression on the cabbie's face, alas.

Feast of the ravens, a photo with an interesting story behind it. What do you expect to find when a large group of ravens congregates? Not this. From shewhomust.

siderea posted an excerpt from (and link to) an essay about libraries, mandatory internet use, and the very poor that is well worth a read. As more and more stuff moves to "online only", whom are we leaving out in the cold? The ones who can least cope, it seems.

I hadn't realized that 3D printing was advanced enough to make medical implants... a year and a half ago. Ok, this was an airpipe splint, but are plastic organs in our future?

Sad cat diary, a video in the general style of Henri (but not just one cat), from Talvin over at DW.

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

I'm going to give the next season of OUAT a chance. The Neverland gambit has some promise to bring back more focus in the ensembles, as opposed to this season where that got lost at times. And they've claimed they will do two unbroken strings of episodes with a single mid-season hiatus, rather than the deadly on-again off-again scheduling they used this year.

Are you at all interested in the Once Upon a Time: Wonderland spinoff they have planned?

Bad news, good news about Feast of the Ravens

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Bad news: The picture isn't showing, just an announcement that it isn't available, in English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Italian, and Portuguese.

Good news: The link on the name of the photo is linked to its actual Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/styrheim/8832248886/).

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

*sympathy* on your first note, and thanks for sharing the rest. The moon view is wonderful, and the legal bit was informational and entertaining.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs you warmly*

Thank you for these wonderful links. :)

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I felt that Once Upon a Time hit the "making it up as we go along" point about midway through season one or earlier. I've been particularly critical of the magic, which seemed slapdash.

Lori can confirm that I've been occasionally ranting at her with my ideas about how things could be better.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear of your friends who passed on. I don't think I knew either of them, but I always worry I did if it's an SCA person.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I admit, I've been annoyed at Once Upon a Time since the middle of the first season, when they tossed in Midas. He's from Greek myth, not fairy tales! And then an Arthurian knight. Oh, and some other fictional niches too, because we assume people know about them (Mulan!), that are not the same fairy tales.

Now if it had been a Jasper Fforde book, where they take all of fiction as a possibility, then I'd be happier with it all, but that's not the premise they set up.

/rant

[rectangularcat]

The only reason I watch OUAT is that it is filmed locally. It is not very compelling anymore :(