"I Have Been, and Always Shall Be, Your Fan."

Today is a loss... if I don't do this (and I really don't want to, but I need to work toward closure), I won't get anything else done. It was announced earlier that Leonard Nimoy has passed away.

I really appreciated that Barack took a moment to respond to this sad news, and even more pleased by how perfectly he hit the notes I'd like to hit:

To which I responded (from this post nearly six years ago), "Obama's statement on Spock is, of course, logical."

Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) started airing in fall of 1966, at a point in time when our family did not have a television. But I saw it occasionally at friends' houses, and of course, heard about it at school. At Christmas of 1967, when I was in 3rd grade, our family did get a small, black and white TV. Star Trek became the show I tried to never miss. The show only rarely achieved "greatness," in terms of what older me would come to require of "great" science fiction, but for 8-year-old me, it was perfect.

And as a kid who was inclined toward science from my earliest memories, Spock was the character I gravitated toward. Level-headed and knowledgeable, he was what I aspired to be.

Flash forward to the seventies, syndication and high school. Reruns reran every weekday at 5 PM... and I rarely missed them. In fact, I audio-recorded the entire series. I basically had the series memorized. And Spock became even more the center of my attention. Dealing with the emotional BS of puberty, I saw in him a model I could emulate. I could experience these intense emotions, but not let them harm me or those around me. It wasn't exactly healthy, for a human person, but it was a strategy for coping with what felt like insanity. It was one that allowed me to empathize with others, but (hopefully) spared others the pain I experienced. From "City on the Edge of Forever:"

McCoy: "You deliberately stopped me, Jim! I could have saved her! Do you know what you just did?"


Spock: "He knows, Doctor...He knows."

In that scene, you can see that Spock is intensely aware of, and is pained himself, by the grief Kirk is experiencing from witnessing the death of the woman he loved, yet remains committed to the reality of what had to happen. That was what I aspired to.

Another episode (the above is generally argued to be the "best," and I tend to agree) that was my personal favorite, was "The Devil in the Dark." Miners are being killed by some kind of ferocious beast, so the Enterprise arrives to try to protect them. It turns out, the miners are unwittingly committing xenocide against a race of intelligent, peaceful, and logical rock-burrowing creatures called "hortas." Spock mind melds with the last surviving horta, and explains the situation to the crew and the miners- which leads to a fruitful partnership for all. I have no doubt this episode played a major role in creating a positive attitude toward geology for me. Did it "inspire" me to be a geologist? Almost certainly not. Did it make geology something I was more eager to investigate when I had the opportunity? Almost certainly. I can't draw the line in there, but it was a big influence.

And once again, Spock was what I aspired to.

So...

(source)

(source)

There is so much more to say about Leonard Nimoy as a genuine, caring, concerned, and humane human being, and all I've really talked about is his role as Spock. But that's where I'm going to stop, because that's what I knew, and that's the loss I have to cope with. Attempting to go further into the depths of his basic decency would only make it hurt more. I'll leave it with,

Kirk: "We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human"

50 Science Fiction-Fantasy Novels

Meme Time! Here's the list, from this post, where they thoughtfully discuss their criteria and limits (No more than one book or series per author, for example). Despite the waste of virtual paper, the blank list is appended below my annotated list, so you don't have to extract my added text. (I've learned that if you drop formatted text directly into HTML compose mode, it wipes the formatting clean, to plain text.)

Standard rules: bold the ones you've read, * the ones you found particularly outstanding, / the novels or series you've only read a fraction of, that is, not finished. ? if you're not sure. (I haven't read much new SF in 20 years, so I have a number in that category; memories are not forever. Add notes as desired. Make a suggestion or two for ones they missed. Or, you know, make up your own rules.

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien*
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood ?
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake Excellent, but too depressing for a *
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler- I know I've read a couple novels by her, but not this one.
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin It's been a LONG time, but I think*
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling / First book only and movies, but in process of acquiring the whole series. When complete, I'll read the whole thing.
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle / 1st book only (Wrinkle in Time)
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis Loved this as a youngster, hated it as adult. Like I need to be beaten about the head with Christian symbolism.
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *for the first three, then it gets too dark.
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert*
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell Like Gormenghast, excellent, but too depressing for a *
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman Only thing I've read by him, and not terribly impressed. Need to try others.
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett / Only 2 or 3 of series, damned if I know which ones.
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll** My all-time, life long, favorite book. By the end of elementary school, I darned near had the whole thing memorized.
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley / Bored me to death. Didn't finish
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ?
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton ?
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Movie only. Despite comments at the source site, I quite liked it.
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey / A few, but again, they got dull
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

One nice thing about this list is that it gives me some clues about which more recent authors I should be catching up with. Two authors I think should be included are Connie Willis, who's almost always excellent, but I'll go with her Doomsday Book and Sherri Tepper. For her, I'll go with The Family Tree, as that one is not as grim and brutal as many of her novels can be. Looks like my bolded count is 31, but quite a number of those are only partials.

Here's the "blank." Wanna play?

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

Happy Towel Day!

Wisdom from Douglas Adams:

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” 

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

“You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.” 

“If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat.”

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing."

“This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”

“Don't you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.”

Happy Towel Day!

Know What I Did Last October? (Or "Halloween: The Ambushing.")

Interzone Nickelle sewed me up a pretty floral bonnet for Halloween, and I went around all day swearing by it. The shirt was a little tight, but it's the most cowboyish thing I own.

Interzone Bill took some photos with my camera, but I only today figured out how to get them onto this computer with out a whole lot of fuss. Take the memory card out and stick it into the appropriate slot. I don't like handling the memory card, but apparently, it's not that big a deal.

Mining Science Fiction Films

A recent post in the G+ Geoscience Community posed the question, "What are some science fiction films that involve mining?" The three that came immediately to mind were Outland, Arnie Goes to Mars, er, Total Recall, and Avatar. The post also commented that the colony in Aliens is also described as a mining operation, which I'd forgotten.

I concluded "Can't think of any, off the top of my head, where mining is central to the plot though- it's just a reason for people to be where they are." I've since thought of two more where mining, defined broadly, is central to the story: Moon and Dune. In Moon, we see Sam Bell doing maintenance and trouble-shooting as the singular occupant of a Lunar He3 mining operation, and in Dune, spice mining is at the center of the whole plot- again, mining broadly speaking. Spice is a biological material found in an aeolian setting, but in a way, it's no different from coal/peat/lignite.

Let's see... going through lists...

• There's the famous line "We must not allow a mine gap!" by George C. Scott in Dr Strangelove, but again, mining is peripheral to the story.
• The Abyss is centered around a deep-sea drill rig, nominally designed for oil exploration. While many of the techniques and gizmos in this setting are interesting from a geologic perspective, once again the real focus is on other things.
• I'll simply mention Armageddon so you know I didn't forget it, but purposely ignored it.

Having now gone through four lists of "Top Sci-Fi Films," I'm not seeing any others that jump out at me. I doubt I got every example, but likely most of the bigger, better-known ones.

Of the above, Moon is probably the top example for those with a geologic bent. Dune is a horrible film that looks very good, and as such is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. Outland, which I saw when it came out (not impressed), was much better for older me last year; it's a sci-fi remake of the classic High Noon. Dr. Strangelove is absolutely top-notch science-fictiony satire, and a true classic in its own right- and I've found many younger people have never watched it. Avatar and Aliens were both enjoyable box-office blow outs, and if you like sci fi, you've likely already seen them more than once. Total Recall, meh. Cartoonish violence, way dumbing down of PK Dick's original story idea, and an almost total loss of the ambiguity inherent in much of his work. Fun, in an Arnie sort of way. I haven't seen the remake, and it was widely panned, so I may not ever. And rounding it out, I quite liked the Abyss, though the geology is best expressed in the earthiness of its characters.

Any others I missed?

Followup- oh yes, the absolutely awful remake of The Andromeda Strain has as its "hero" in the climax a bacterium derived from ocean ridge mining. Part one was over the top, but I would have given it a mildly positive rating. Part two, though, was horrid. Don't waste your time.

Followup 2: Cowboys and Aliens. Dumb, goofy and fun movie. I won't say highly recommended, but it's not ashamed to be what it is, and I enjoyed it.

Followup 3, 2/22/13: In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Kirk spends part of the film incarcerated in Rura Penthe, a penal mining colony run by the Klingons. Being an even-numbered film in the Star Trek franchise, this one is pretty good. And while not a "film" per se, The Devil in the Dark is likely most geologists' favorite episode in the original series. I was also reminded by a G+ commenter that The Chronicles of Riddick* takes place in a mining colony. I disliked that film quite a bit, and had forgotten the setting entirely. *Correction: I don't think I've seen The Chronicles of Riddick. It was Pitch Black that I found uninteresting and unmemorable. I felt no need to watch a sequel.

Geo 365: Feb. 10, Day 41: Waiting for the Worm

Dana and I planted our thumper and waited. But the worm never came. Looking roughly south from the first dune south of the path's exit to open sand at Eel Creek Recreation Area.

Photo unmodified. March 8, 2012. FlashEarth Location- cross hairs on day-use parking area.

Geo 365: Feb. 5, Day 36: Overlooking the Oregon Dunes

View to the south as we descend from the Yachats Basalt headlands between Florence and Yachats, Oregon. This is the northern end of the longest stretch of coastal dunes in the US, extending from this point to Coos Bay, which is about 45-50 miles in the distance. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area covers the bulk of this extent, from the Siuslaw River, about 5-10 miles south of here at the town of Florence, to the Coos River at North Bend and Coos Bay. According to the Wikipedia article, Frank Herbert's classic science fiction Novel, Dune, was partly inspired by his research on this area. Certainly not the desert part, though.

Photo unmodified. March 8, 2012. FlashEarth Location.

This Should be Fun...

I'm not much of one for holidays... nothing agin' 'em, just passively ignore 'em. The last time I dressed up for Halloween, I was still working at Vet Med in Clinical Pathology, so that would've been 82 or 83. I enjoy seeing other people have fun with it, but I'm not particularly inclined to make any effort of my own.

However...

At some point in the past year or so, I watched Firefly. (All 14 episodes. Sheesh, FOX!) And loved it. Then this past summer, I watched it again, and loved it even more. I commented on Twitter a few days ago that I don't generally do anything for Halloween, but I really wished I had (or could find) a pretty floral bonnet to dress up as Captain Mal Reynolds. So a few minutes ago, I was outside for a smoke, and mentioned this to an IZ friend. She was delighted, and is now planning on sewing me a pretty floral bonnet for Wednesday.

I'm already practicing my line: "Now think real hard. You been bird-doggin' this township awhile now. They wouldn't mind a corpse of you. Now, you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you."

This should be fun.

And oh, yes, there WILL be photos!

Bachmann Vs Ripley

This was always my favorite part of the movie. I love how it ends, but I won't spoil it for you.

Don't Panic, It's Towel Day

Shoot, almost missed this. I looked it up earlier in the month, and somehow got it into my head it was on May 28th. Thankfully, someone else mentioned it was Towel Day, I double checked, and so it is! For better or for worse, I had been seriously considering draping a towel around my neck for the occasion, and I haven't. Maybe next year. For this year, though, no sheepish explanations that I am indeed a serious nerd.

Happy Star Wars Day!

(FilmCritic.com.au; click for full size) May the fourth be with you!

When Danger Reared Its Ugly Head, He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled

see more Comixed. I just saw the above, which made me wonder: What would Vader's side of the story be like?So now we know.

It's Full of Stars!

I tend to assume that many of the silly things that fly at me out of the innertubz are faked or photoshopped. Yesterday I posted an image of a "monolith action figure" about which I made that assumption... mistakenly. It's a real thing that's really for sale at ThinkGeek and Amazon.

• Properly proportioned to those in the movies 2001 and 2010 (1:4:9 - the squares of the first 3 integers)
• Made of semisynthetic, organic, amorphous, solid materials (AKA plastic)
• Zero (0) points of articulation
• May cause strange magnetic fields, action figure evolution, seeing things filled with stars, and/or more (or it might just sit on your desk doing nothing)

It's going for $12.99, which seems kind of spendy for what it is, but face it: it comes with that packaging, which is sort of priceless. (Hat tip to Rawley for letting me know this is an actual thing and where to find it.)

All I'm Going to Say About SOTU Today

(Clay Bennett) Didn't watch it, haven't read it, haven't read any commentary on it... yet. If it's important, it'll keep. If not, it doesn't matter what I think. Heading home later than normal, and looking forward to finishing Robert Charles Wilson's Blind Lake- nothing like some good character-based scifi (albeit with some good hard science and plausible non-science) to put a days worth of irritating news behind one's self.

They Left Out a Step

That part where Mulder, with practically no information, and in the first five to ten minutes, comes up with the most ridiculous, implausible and unlikely explanation possible. Which, of course, turns out to be the right one. (Blastr; 10 steps that defined every X-Files episode)

Google Middle Earth

I'm sorely tempted to post this to Pathological Geomorphology, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about the technical details of this imaginary landscape. Have a gander at the most detailed map of Middle Earth I've ever seen. Use the "Zoom" control to move in or out, and drag the screen to move the map to desired positions. Below is a screen capture. (Note that despite the title, Google has nothing to do with this.)

This... Is Getting On My Nerves

Okay, on the face of it, it is kind of cool, but this set of imagery has been floating around for at least a few weeks now, and I haven't seen any discussion of it beyond "Wow, this is really cool." And just when I thought it had gone and died a nice, quiet, dignified death, as memes are supposed to do, it showed up in two of my feeds again today. Here's what I believe is the original source, and today's posters were Kottke.org and Geology Rocks.

I hate bursting bubbles (no I don't), but 1: this will never happen because it can't happen. 2: If it did happen, the distribution of water and land would be the least of our concerns. And 3: If we managed to survive, this would be extremely ephemeral from a geologic perspective, if not from a human perspective. So let's take a look at each of those points.

This will never happen because it can't happen. To stop the earth's rotation over less than eons would take an enormous impact- so enormous that it would probably generate enough heat to melt the solid part of the earth. No oceans, no life, end of story. There are possible ways to slow the earth's rotation, involving other bodies like the moon, but those would never make the earth "stand still."

If it did happen, the distribution of water and land would be the least of our concerns. Let's suppose some technology indistinguishable from magic (see Clarke's third law), wielded by prank-playing aliens, suddenly stopped the earth's rotation. My current velocity with respect to a non-rotating earth is 700 some miles per hour, better than 1000 km/h. Same with the Pacific Ocean, and everything else in my vicinity. All that stuff and me would suddenly be moving at that speed eastward with respect to the now-fixed earth. And in fact everything more than 10-20 km from the poles would likely be thrown into a fatal chaos.

However, let's suppose our mischievous aliens are at least thoughtful enough to place everything on the earth's surface in the same reference frame as their solid locality- a trickier proposition than it may sound like, at first take. We are now the lucky residents of a planet with one day a year: six months of sunshine, and six months of night. Furthermore, as the pictures show, the ocean is massively out of equilibrium with the new surface geoid. Contrary to the description at the Kottke link, the oceans would not "gradually migrate" toward the poles- there's a 13 mile (21 km) difference between the earth's radius at the equator and at the poles. There's going to be a lot of water moving poleward very quickly. Then there's the weather patterns. Consider that the entire equator would be a "mountain range," more than twice as high as the Himalayas. The two hemispheres would essentially be inaccessible from each other. Global atmospheric circulation would effectively be cut into two separate pieces. And on and on... essentially, this would be the worst extinction event in earth's history, and we would certainly be among those to go.

But finally, if we managed to survive, this would be extremely ephemeral from a geologic perspective, if not from a human perspective. The earth's interior is plastic, and the outer core is liquid. I haven't been able to find a number for the largest known post-glacial isostatic adjustment, but a post from an accretionary wedge entry about a year ago gives a figure of 300 m (1000 ft) in the last 10,000 years. The disequilibrium in this case is much greater, and the response rate would likewise be much higher. I don't know enough about the earth's rheology to make anything approaching a calculated estimate for how long it would take to return to isostatic equilibrium (or at least as close as the earth gets, on a year-to-year basis), but I would guesstimate the time range to be on the order of 100 thousand to a million years.

That last number, whatever it is in reality, is the one to keep in mind. There are natural processes that are slowing the earth's rotation rate- the big one being tidal interactions with the moon. The time it will take to tidally lock one face of the earth toward the (already) locked face of the moon is likely more than the time it will take for the sun to burn itself out. To the extent that the earth slows its rotation between now and then, the surface will adjust isostatically to centripetal changes to effective gravity at the poles versus the equator far faster than those changes will happen.

I guess my irritation with this is that I'm seeing it treated as a "science fiction" scenario, but it isn't. It's pure fantasy.

Another Avatar Parallel

Back in January, I posted a couple of funny items noting the uncanny parallels between Avatar and Pocahontas. Now, The Oatmeal has found another uncanny cinematic parallel: Aliens. Here's one frame of 12 weird similarities:

Stormtroopers And Redshirts

Best laugh I've had in a while...Shoebox

Terminatorsaurus

"It cannot be bargained with. It cannot be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear." See it at Not Exactly Rocket Science.