Period

One of the frustrating things of the modern era is when sentence structure collides with the internet.

More than once I've sent out plain text e-mails to a website, like http://www.michaell.org/schedule.phtml, but since the sentence ends with the URL, my instinct is to end the sentence on a period.

Of course, the problem then is that e-mail readers assume that the trailing period is a part of the URL -- so you get e-mails about sending the wrong address, or the page isn't working.

It's sort of a strange problem -- but I can't be the only one that has had it happen...

The Russell T Davies Solution

I had figured that it would be Bryan Singer, actually, but seeing JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof up for a Star Trek film doesn't really surprise me once I think about it. It's obviously very early days -- and I've got the same view as I did a couple of years ago before Doctor Who returned -- I'll believe it for real once cameras roll...

But still, as a fan of Alias and Lost, I could be ok with them behind a new film. Though I'm not sure if a Kirk/Spock prequel is going to be the right way to go... but we'll see..

Geek Prom?

While I had known that MISFITS has done two Geek Proms, I was interested to see that another one is happening as well.

They've got a whole site about the one at the Science Museum of Minnesota. That's pretty cool. Well, in the geek sense of cool. And they link to the current master of geek chic, so they get the thumbs up from me...

CONvergence Panels

Another reminder that I'm hunting for participants for CONvergence Panels this year.

Sign up! Send me e-mail...

The Physics of Superheroes

SFX reviews The Physics of Superheroes, a book by CONvergence regular (and former guest of honor) Dr. James Kakalios.

So the book is getting over to the UK!

Too Soon For Nostalgia

For the MISFITS Book Club we read Spider Robinson's Callahan Touch. It definitely had it's moments, but one of the stranger parts about the book for me was that it, like Emma Bull's War for the Oaks (also a book club pick), were dated enough to be noticable, but not dated so much to be nostalgic.

It was interesting to see this in something like Callahan's Touch -- it was early enough that things like the Internet were getting into the books, but it was all before the World Wide Web, and when things like usenet ruled the world. I imagine that in fifteen years references to the particular way we use Google today, or references to podcasts, will seem just as much a part of the time, something that you can silicon date.

That is today's question -- when does something switch from dated to being worthy of nostalgia?