"What I can tell you is this... that device can either be used as a tool of creation or as a weapon of destruction. Depends on your point of view. And Peter Bishop is uniquely tuned to operate it. Whatever frequency Peter's vibrating at will determine how the machine reacts... depends on his state of mind, which, in…

Fringepedia has been constructing an ongoing compilation of Sam Weiss-related trivia.

Summer Glau is actually a cyborg sent from the future to get critical serial programming with strong anti-cybernetics themes canceled....

I can't claim to have a great deal of insight into the SG franchise; I watched the original movie when it was released, and I watched SGU, but nothing in between. I was kind of interested in SGU because it maintained a recent trend in having one character played by a major actor with serious chops, who is…

I particularly liked the fact that Manimal learned his transformation abilities in Tibet. Of course.

Thank you, that's very nice of you to say. I've never taken a single class in anthropology, so it's possible I would have felt the same way as you about it. I tend to enjoy reading books from the middle fifty years of the twentieth century. There seems to have been some good stuff during that time.

I don't think it's helpful to view this story within the context of religion, but instead in the context of myth and symbolic thinking in general. The contrast that is being drawn here is between the differing symbolic capacities of early human beings and Neanderthals: it refers to a prevailing anthropological theory…

I would definitely include Hofstadter's GEB, although I think there's some confusion regarding what to call him. At another time, one might also add Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics.

I commented, when the Bell-inhabiting-Olivia subplot began, that one of the primary immediate results was that Peter and Olivia's relationship was suddenly blocked. This last episode has shot the progress of that relationship forward far beyond where it would have been otherwise. Because there's that whole element…

I completely agree, except that Peter and Olivia still don't seem to remember that interaction. Still, it would have been great if they had worked that in. Or, maybe the writers are saving that incident for another time.

"Now that it's over, I'm still not sure what that storyline accomplished, other than to throw out a couple new random plot threads."

Interestingly, there's an article posted on Slashdot arguing that Google should just buy all four major record labels.

I don't see the girl-power movement implicit in the works of the Spice Girls as being completely inconsistent with Atlas Shrugged.

I think loving the book when one is fifteen is probably a sign of intelligence (as well as disaffection). I think loving the book when one is forty and trying to convince everyone one knows to read it is a sign of ... something else. Possibly irony.

I agree with you that the main problem RIM is facing comes from the fact that they've been riding on old investments in infrastructure. That and the fact that users who leave enterprise seem to be unusually tied to their BBs even afterward. RIM is really trying to hold on to their current user base; they are clearly…

My interpretation is that RIM feels compelled to maintain the security features of their server infrastructure, which is why RIM actually will continue to exist for a while. That's the reason that, to access email and calendar information, you need to synchronize it with a BB. The BB is always networked and…

It has more to do with the facts that 1) a tablet is always/instant-on; 2) a tablet draws almost no power while in sleep mode; 3) a lot of internet use is purely consumptive (e.g., checking email, reading or watching content) or requires limited input (e.g., typing a short message); and 4) people will play games on…

I agree with you about those similarities. To be honest, I'm not sure why studios keep trying to remake TIH as a movie, other than ongoing advancements in CGI. The main theme of the TV series was the loneliness of Banner on his never-ending quest to fix his transformation into the Hulk. IMO, there's no good way to…

I liked Norton as well, but I think they're shooting for a movie that capitalizes on the nostalgia associated with the TV series with Bill Bixby, and Ruffalo is a good choice for playing Bixby's version of the character. They're probably hoping that this variant will be more commercially successful - which it…

I tend to agree with you. The dimensions are even more of an issue with the weight of 1.69 lbs. That's heavier than the first iPad, which was itself a little unwieldy. The built-in HDMI port and microSD slot are nice though.