Hyperlinks: They're like the Hyperloop, but, you know, practical

A collection of links to interesting articles.

• Because Australia has to be the Florida for the rest of the world, drivers can soon get emojis on their license plates in Queensland.
• Meanwhile in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration had to issue a warning because people (presumably the rich and stupid) are buying the blood of young people for infusions as part of some dumbass 21st century Elizabeth Bathory scheme to stay youthful. I honestly have no real comment other than what the actual fuck?
• Tor.com has a article listing six SF and fantasy book series that could have been as big on television as Game of Thrones.
• Trekcore has the names for the next five episodes of Star Trek: Discovery if you're curious about that sort of thing. Have I ever mentioned that I really, really, REALLY hate that CBS put this show on their streaming service and not on TV where I could and would watch it? I'm a tiny bit salty about it, yeah.
• This is a three-fer: Tim Knight, proprietor of the most excellent HeroPress blog and world's leading expert on spotted dick, has three posts up today that are worth a perusal: Weird Wednesday (that'll haunt my dreams tonight...), Hump Day Dreams, and Wonder Woman Wednesday.

When you're rich, you can afford to be the "weird" actor

The Daily Beast has an interview with Daniel Radcliffe titled "Daniel Radcliffe Somehow Became Hollywood’s Weirdest Actor—and Its Most Normal Celebrity" and my immediate thought was "Of course the dude can be "weird"; he made so much money from the Harry Potter movies that he doesn't need to mainstream appeal or oeuvre." and it's true. At this point, Radcliffe could star in an anal gangbang movie and it wouldn't matter to his career because he doesn't need the cash.

What I did find surprising is that he's starring in a show on TBS. It's not that he's doing TV that's surprising (though the fact that it's American television and not British telly is), it's that he's doing one on TBS which isn't exactly a big network compared to like NBC, CBS, and the others. I think in terms of that, they're probably below AMC, but equal to TNT and maybe the History Channel. Basically, they're not small or insignificant, but TBS doesn't immediately pop to mind the same way that AMC and FX or CW would. But again, Daniel Radcliffe is rich as hell and if he wants to do a TV show on a middle sized network, then he certainly can.

The article itself is a pretty good read but the title isn't terribly accurate. The only role Radcliffe has played that can be considered "weird" is in the movie Swiss Army Man where he plays a corpse. A flatulent corpse. Otherwise, the other roles listed in the article are pretty normal for an actor who wants to do non-standard, "safe" movies (e.g. big budget blockbusters) and I applaud him for it.

The new TV show he's starring in, Miracle Workers, sounds interesting and I might check it out when it premieres tonight. From the description, the show is similar to The Good Place, but a little more bleak. Radcliffe plays a low level angel working in the department that handles answering prayers in a version of Heaven that's run more like a corporation. Then God, immature and incompetent and played by Steve Buscemi, decides that he wants to destroy the Earth because he's bored with it and wants to move on to something else. To prevent this, Craig (Radcliffe) and another character named Eliza (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) have to help two people fall in love. My interest in piqued.

Someone drew a Super Mario Bros. cartoon by hand and it's pretty amazing

And that someone is Kisaragi Huae 6 (Twitter/YouTube).



Just astounding!

I rather like this picture of Spider-Gwen by Miguel Mercado

Credit: Miguel Mercado.

TAKE THESE BROKEN WINGS / AND LEARN TO FLY AGAIN / AND LEARN TO LIVE SO FREE

Worst.announcement.ever: My dad died this morning

And as fucked up as it sounds, it was probably for the best. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and while he gave it a good fight and actually looked close to beating it, things didn't turn out that way. Given his age (he was 70) and the back to back bouts of pneumonia, he just didn't have to strength to keep going. I'm just glad that he's not suffering anymore and can finally lay down his burdens and rest.

I love you, dad, and I'll see you again one day.

In the Heat of the Night had a nice theme song

In the Heat of the Night was a show I used to watch growing up and that's just recently returned to syndication on MeTV. Based on the popular 1960s movie starring Sidney Poitier and the book the movie was itself based on, the show was a bit softer and friendlier than the movie, which focused on racism in the Deep South. Racism is still addressed on the show, but it's much more toned down than what it was in the movie. Not a terrible TV show.

Picture montage

Credit: Iván García.

Friendly reminder that 22nd century transporters weren't that great

Still some bugs to work out. And sticks...and a few rocks too.
Image: Memory Alpha.

I think I'll stick with the shuttles, thanks.

For context, this is from an episode of Enterprise called "Strange New World" where the crew explores an Earth-like planet, get caught up in a storm, and go super paranoid and whacked out on each other. This unfortunate crewman, Ethan Novakovich, ends up in such a state that Archer orders him beamed up and well, that happens.

Transporters were still a new technology back in Enterprise's era and evidently the computer couldn't tell the difference between him and the debris swirling around him. The transporters themselves weren't used all that much on the show, if I remember correctly, which I thought was a nice touch to the whole "this is all new to us" vibe that Enterprise was going for.

Oh and Novakovich? He lived, thanks to Scott Bakula.

This character was originally to have died in "Strange New World" and, as such, would have been the first member of the crew to die aboard the NX-class Enterprise. During filming of the episode, Scott Bakula (who played Captain Archer) was concerned that it didn't seem right to kill off Novakovich without dealing with the loss (as originally written, Novakovich's death was not dissimilar to that of the many security guards who died in the original Star Trek series). The producers agreed and revised the episode's script so that Novakovich lived (although the character was never seen again).

 His disappearance can easily be explained as him being shipped off to a hospital for recovery/rehab or being traumatized by his ordeal, he put in for a transfer. Of course, he was a Crewman Second Class, so he could have stayed and faded back in with all of the other low ranked crewmen.

The day we've all dreaded has arrived: Stan Lee has died, age 95

There are no words to adequately describe that man's impact on pop culture, so I'll just say thanks Stan Lee for giving us so many superheroes.

Excelsior.