Author notes

095 - Carrot and Stick

El Cid

on Aug. 2, 2016

I spent fifteen minutes last night researching whether squids really do have two anuses, and what that's all about. Thank you, Adult Swim!

BBC.com - Evolution: The Origin of the Anus



As part of my continued development as a sci fi writer slash artist slash creator, I've been slowly going through a pile of science fiction DVDs I've accumulated through Amazon. One of those DVDs is the complete run of the bizarre sci fi epic series Lexx, which I've been enjoying in small doses over the last few weeks. I just thought it was a neat random coincidence that both that show and this comic have a character named Kai, and that both Kais slice n' dice their enemies with some kind of tethered weapon they shoot out of an arm bracelet.

Nothing else constructive to share; I just thought that was interesting. No, not going to do a “who would win in a fight” thing, because we all know Lexx's undead Kai Last of the Brunnen-G would eliminate my Kai almost as easily as blinking, and nearly as fast. Great show by the way, that Lexx. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you have a very twisted sense of humor. There was a big dropoff with the third season, though. It felt like one bad episode that got dragged out over an entire season. And season four was sort of a disaster too, but at least it was a fun disaster!

And, for what it's worth, the Brunnen-G Fight Song is a glorious anthem!

Oh, and I've also been gradually plodding through 'The Expanse,' though I've only watched the first two episodes so far. I was excited by the fact that, like this comic, it's a hard sci fi set in our own solar system and it at least makes some attempt to accurately portray space travel and physics. I won't do a full science audit of the show, but for the most part it does a great job with the science. A few things have gnawed at me, though. I'm highly skeptical that it will ever be feasible to build spaceships – especially really big ones – that can accelerate at a constant one-third of a G for days and weeks on end. That's beyond the reach of even the most advanced fusion propulsion systems we can dream up. And this whole water shortage on Ceres backstory doesn't make any sense to me. Isn't Ceres made up of 25 percent water? Really, Ceres likely has several times over more fresh water than the entire planet Earth, but they can't provide for a measly few thousand colonists? Maybe it gets explained better in the book, but to me that just seems ridiculous. It's a really good show, btw. So far, at least.

And here's an animation of Ceres, from NASA's ongoing Dawn mission. Just because. See ya later, alligators! (and also crocodiles; don't want the crocodiles to feel left out!)