satoruvash

A few days ago, I became aware of a particularly perverse development. The blogger Nessa, whose blog I have been a frequent commenter on since my wordpress beginnings, was plagiarized. The degenerate culprit, stole at least 20 of her entries and posted them verbatim on his MSN Spaces blog.

It gets worse.

The overall theme, About information, and comments made on those stolen entries were swiped as well. Another blog was created to feed the delusion so that he could ‘converse’ with himself. That additional blog had entries made by individuals from Nessa’s blogroll. He then used that account to ‘respond’ to the plagiarized entries. Some of my comments from Nessa’s blog were stolen and posted once again, verbatim. This demented person, then proceeded to ‘reply’ to my comments by copying Nessa’s responses to me–with the twist of pretending he had been the author, of course.

This is the cyberspace equivalent of what you would expect an offline stalker to do: taking intimate photographs of his subject, using an exacto knife to cut out his head from self-portraits so that he may duct tape it over the bodies of anyone near his object of affection, and in so, relish in the illusion of seeming as it he had been there all along, with the grand finale of adding all of this to his wall/devoted shrine at home.

After carefully examining which entries were chosen along with which comments, I told Nessa this abomination was most likely the invention of someone she knew.

As it turns out . . . I was correct.

Note: To read a copy of the response I made on her blog, see the comments section of this entry.

Primeval was originally a six part British mini series that first aired February 10th, 2007. Due to popularity, it returns for a second season (7 episodes) and has already been approved for a third season. The series is high-budget, with impressive special effects–which explains the relatively low number of episodes. Most importantly, it features three of my main interests: an alternate universe, time travel, and dinosaurs.

The premise is as follows:

Professor Nick Cutter is an Evolutionary Zoologist. He researches and lectures at the fictional Central Metropolitan University. His wife Helen Cutter (also an Evolutionary Zoologist) whilst investigating claims of sightings of strange animals in the Forest of Dean, mysteriously disappears and has been missing now for eight years. Professor Cutter maintains hope that his wife is still alive and that they will one day be reunited.

Anomalies begin to appear at random locations. These ‘rifts in time’ make two-way travel through them possible. Dinosaurs can pass through anomalies into modern day and humans can cross millions of years into the past. It is also suggested that creatures from the future can also use the anomalies to visit our time.

With Professor Cutter as the leader, a colleague of his Stephen Hart, a zoologist Abby Maitland, one of his students Connor Temple, and Home Office liaison Claudia Brown, they search for an explanation for the cause of the anomalies as well as a means to permanently shut them down. In the meantime, they must locate and capture dinosaurs and ship them back to where they came from all before the particular anomaly that brought them here closes, and most importantly, without changing history.

At the end of the first season, the Professor finally locates his wife. Helen Cutter has spent all those years in the past. She knows more about the anomalies than anyone else but is resistant to sharing that information with the team. She sees beauty in natural selection and uses the anomalies for her own purposes. According to her, if accidental or purposeful tampering with the past leads to the emergence of another dominant species other than humans, it would be as it should–humanity’s inferiority would have made them rightfully unworthy of claiming dominance over all other species on the planet.

The first episode of season two picks up directly where the last episode of season one leaves off. Professor Cutter exits an anomaly and returns to present time only to discover that history has been altered. An important member of the team has been erased from history, and only the Professor remembers that they once existed.

Some critics state Primeval borrows from Doctor Who. Douglas Henshall, the actor who plays Professor Cutter, states the series is more reminiscent of Torchwood than Doctor Who, for it involves a team dealing with problems as they encounter them. I agree with the statement, but that is where the similarities end.

Torchwood is about a team of experts, all but one of which have worked together for years. The Primeval team is formed when the anomalies first appear. Only Stephen Hart possesses hunting skills. The student Connor Temple, is notorious for getting himself almost killed on numerous occasions and is therefore not allowed to carry a weapon. He is so incompetent that no one trusts him with one. In the season two premiere for instance, he accidentally fires a tranquilizing dart into another team member, only to proceed to leave her alone and unconscious in a mall that has been vacated because there are raptors on the loose. I keep wishing the dinosaurs will shred him once and for all.

Having said this, Connor Temple is the only character that is especially irritating. This series is a must see for the dinosaurs. It is interesting seeing the drastic changes in landscape whenever a character travels into the past. Helen Cutter returns for season two. She is played by Juliet Aubrey, who makes every scene she is in memorable.

Season two is airing in North America right now. It is available on the Sci-fi channel in the USA and the Space channel in Canada.

When the sun sets it is promise personified.

With the stars overhead, the sporadic placement of fluorescent lights and fewer humans, it seems post apocalyptic. A fresh start. There are so many humans on this planet it is like an out of control infestation.

But again, the stars overhead obscure this, inviting the notion that life can be different elsewhere/anywhere beyond this solar system.

There is a hill I climb during the spring, summer and fall that overlooks the city’s metropolitan areas with intertwining rivers and foliage and glass skyscrapers that blaze as the sun sets. The weather can quickly change from a mellow breeze to a ridiculously demented wind that assails and immobilizes you on the grass.

During times like that, when the wind uses your own clothes for the dual purpose of pelting and frisking you and your unrestrained hair to lash your face with . . . it is then that the concept of being truly and absolutely alive jolts past the extremities of your mind to be freakishly remodeled into one of the most exquisitely intense sensory experiences.

There is such a reverence, profundity, and awareness to it that is not at all easy to duplicate.

The times I have experienced such a sensation isolated from extreme weather, were at home, at night, lying on the floor, listening to music and deep in meditation.

One of those nights years ago, whilst in a meditative/exhilarated state, I discovered the song “Come Into My Room” by Clinic. Whenever I listen to that song now, my mind automatically converts my current mental state into resemblance of that type of night.

Nocturnal. That is what I am. And a thrill seeker with a developed obsession for extreme weather.

I come alive at night. I do my best thinking at night. I work out at night. The best conversations in my life have occurred at night.

Here is the video I speak of by Clinic:

For the unfamiliar, Stargate Atlantis is produced in Vancouver Canada and is a spin-off of the television series Stargate SG-1. The latter was announced in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the longest running science fiction series on television (10 seasons) surpassing even the X-Files (9 seasons).

Note the Stargate is depicted on the right side of the image above.

Humans, known to the rest of the Milky Way galaxy as the Tau’ri, explore other often habitable worlds using a technology of the Ancients (most advanced race in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies) called the Stargate. Its purpose is to allow both animate and inanimate objects to travel almost instantaneously from one Stargate to theoretically another one anywhere in the universe (provided enough energy is filtered into the technology) by generating an artificial wormhole that connects from the home gate to the gate of destination. The Ancients referred to their creation as the Astria Porta and as far as is known, scattered them only on planets in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. On their travels, the Stargate team make many friends and also several enemies.

Major differences between Stargate SG-1 (SG-1) and Stargate Atlantis (SGA):

a) SG-1 takes place on the Tau’ri homeworld (Earth), is a military run operation and the major enemies at the end of the series are the Ori–malicious ascended (energy based) Ancients.

b) SGA takes place in the abandoned Ancient city of Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy. It is an international civilian run operation of scientists with a small military presence and accountable to the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) which is an international oversight committee created after the existence of the Stargate program was disclosed to permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Enemies in the Pegasus galaxy are the Wraith who feed from life force of humans and the Asuran Replicators–sentient and artificial beings created and almost entirely destroyed by the Ancients thousands of years ago. Programmed to be far more aggressive than the Wraith, relentless, highly adaptive, and speedy self-replicators, they prove to be formidable adversaries.

The most dramatic change this fourth of Stargate Atlantis comes in the form of casting. The deaths last season of Doctor Carson Beckett (head M.D.) and Dr. Elizabeth Weir (on the left) the leader of the expedition led to many angry fans.

However, Stargate is known for its strong female characters. Beckett and Weir’s ‘replacements’ do not disappoint. The new head M.D. is female this time. The leader of the expedition is Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), scientific genius with a Ph.D in Astrophysics. With still one more year left in her Stargate contract, Amanda Tapping transfers over from the recently expired SG-1 and continues to prove her phenomenal actings skills. She joins actor David Hewlett who first appeared on SG-1 as minor character Rodney McKay (on the right).

Samantha Carter’s (on the left) transition from the military operation of SG-1 to the scientific expedition of Atlantis is very fluid. She offers a good balance of scientific and tactical input that is lacking from all other characters whose skills are either purely scientific or specifically military. The interaction between resident geniuses Rodney McKay (chief scientific advisor for the team) and Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter is highly enjoyable. His crush with Samantha and his erroneous assumption of romantic/sexual reciprocation is very amusing.

Atlantis returns this New Year with the fantastic episode Be All My Sins Remember’d. It is filled with humour, action, interesting tech gadgets and an alliance between Humans and the Wraith against their common enemy the Asuran Replicators.

Are the Replicators really fully destroyed?

Rodney McKay creates a replicator named FRAN (Friendly Replicator acronym). She is to be beamed into the Replicator planet surface and used as a weapon. Her function is to increase the cellular connection between the replicators (drawing them to herself) and essentially turning each nanyte cell into an incredibly powerful magnet. Every replicator on the planet and in orbit would fuse into a giant ‘blob’ with a large enough mass to sink into the planetary core and in so generate an enormous implosion.

Memorable/funny/awkward moment from the episode:

When Colonel Steven Caldwell and Colonel Abraham Ellis beam from their respective spaceships to Atlantis and greet Colonel John Sheppard and Colonel Samantha Carter. The result is a ridiculous repetitive exchange of the word ‘Colonel.’

One of the best parts of this episode however, is the surprise ending. Here is to an abundance of Stargate Atlantis episodes this year.

Trivia:
Part of the appeal of this series is its multiculturalism. The origin of Atlantis expedition personnel can be determined by the flag badges they wear on their sleeves and so a common past time by fans is to attempt to pinpoint which country a character is from through badge watching. Here is a comprehensive list:

1. Australia
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. People’s Republic of China
5. Croatia
6. Czech Republic
7. Finland
8. France
9. Germany
10. Italy
11. Jamaica
12. Japan
13. Netherlands
14. Philippines
15. Poland
16. Portugal
17. Russia
18. United Kingdom
19. Serbia
20. South Africa
21. South Korea
22. Spain
23. Sweden
24. United States
25. Zimbabwe