Freyburg

The new episode of Radio Free Skaro will be up soon, but I just wanted to warn everyone this one might take a little longer than most. For one, it’s probably going to be our longest one yet, since I’m mixing in some tunes from the Children in Need concert (amazing, btw…get thee to the interwebs and download the whole thing, pronto!), and Steven and I wax nostalgic about Classic Who and our introductions and formative experiences with the show. Ah, good stuff. But it’ll take a while to piece it all together. Hopefully I can have it out the door by tomorrow, the 43rd anniversary of our favorite show.

…but that won’t stop Bush, Cheney and Co. from throwing out perfectly good intel from the CIA and going on….uh, moonbeams and unicorn wishes? Seymour Hersh knocks another one out of the park in the current New Yorker.

Sound far-fetched? Not according to the New Scientist. There’s a new drug called modafinil that is part stimulant and part sleep-banisher. The American military has been working on ways to keep their pilots in the air and combat-ready for 3 day stretches (with some unpleasant results) and it’s only a matter of time before business demands the same of the workforce.

Personally, I’m a pretty light sleeper but I don’t have any real desire to be up and active 24/7. I don’t buy that the human body can handle it minus any consequences. I also used to work midnight shifts, and I can tell you there’s nothing worse than seeing the clock hit 4:00 am and realize you still have half your workday to slog through.

If there’s one thing the Internet is good for (other than the twin pleasures of pornography and piracy) it’s snarky lists cutting down the rich and famous. The always-excellent Film Threat smacks around Hollywood’s predilection for nonsense with their 2006 Frigid 50 list, an antidote to all the “Power” lists most entertainment magazines rely on for a quick page-filler.

Countries like Angola, which America and others have written off as unreformable, are finding a new patron in China, a country with few qualms about human rights and an insatiable need for African oil. China is pouring money into development and infrastructure across the continent, and establishing a foothold where the West doesn’t bother or doesn’t think to.

I personally don’t get the consumer frenzy that is the release of the PS3. It’s an overpriced, ugly, hulking beast of a console released by a company staffed entirely by madmen. Though, to be fair, I own multiple Apple products, so I guess I’m just as guilty on the crazy owner/overpriced front.

At any rate, people have been going nuts over the Playstation 3, with altercations in line-ups, rapists on the lam and even a woman trying not to give birth before the console gets released. That’s…well, it’s crazy is what it is. Particularly since your PC is a way better game machine than any of these supposed “next gen” consoles.

New Scientist polled many an egghead to cobble together a forecast of the next 50 years of science. Check it out here.

Almost a decade ago, I went to work for Movie Central (known at the time as Superchannel) as a master control operator. For the next five years i toiled in the salt mines of television, hating almost every aspect of my job. Everything, that is, except my co-workers, who for the most part were one of the finest bunches of people I’ve ever worked with.

And tonight was their last night. Almost five years after I left to pursue writing as a career, the plug got pulled, with the service coming out of Toronto from now on.

Just want to tip my hat to the operators, past and present, who made working there bearable, and who remain friends (and co-hosts of podcasts) of mine to this day. Gentlemen (and ladies), it’s been a pleasure to serve with you.

Now that Bush 43 has made a complete hash of, well, the world, it looks like Bush 41 and his team of not-so-crazy-conservatives might be back to bail the prodigal son out of the mess he’s gotten himself into. Newsweek’s cover story lays out the shift from unilateralism to maybe, possibly, hopefully listening to some voices of reason.

After a couple of false starts and some flaky VOIP, Radio Free Skaro #12 is out in the wild. We discuss “Small Worlds,” easily the best Torchwood yet, introduce our news theme (the Torchwood theme, heh…) and….wander off-topic as usual. (feed, web, download)