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New original posts coming, we promise. This past week has been a blur of coding and rocking. (To whet your appetite, how do you feel about more Firefly reviews, a video game review, and an editorial in defense of hipsters?) To hold you over, here's an incredibly relaxing time lapse video of a different sort of radiation.


The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

The Tyler Cowen

Nuclear Power!

1. We should stop using nuclear power!
2. We should continue using nuclear power!
3. Disney and co. have some not-exactly-reassuring support of atomic power!
4. Some original writing from the first nuclear sub test in 1959!

Infographics!

1. Phenomenal infographic of 2011 in the Middle East. 
2. Hair infographic.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Couldn't have said it better myself. When will the world's policy-makers realize that nothing is done in a vacuum. Strategies must be crafted with an eye not only for the immediate impact but also the message it sends the other players. 
2. Excellent interview regarding the status of women in North Korea. 
3. Finally, an overview of the tangled mess of politics and diplomacy on the Korean peninsula. 
4. And, turning to the Middle East, a series of essays supporting and condemning the international intervention in Libya. 

Feel-Good Friday

The songs a growing human needs to get ready for the weekend. Special thanks to Brewhar the Pinko for coming through huge with a choice Clash suggestion (which was then replaced by an even better Clash tune). Organized to get more poppy as the day wears on.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Subcultures of sexism. (Don't read the comments...they will make you very angry.)
2. Making a democracy. Read our older posts on the same topic. 

Addendum to the previous post...

The opening credits to 2007's The Kingdom are some of the best in the business.

The Kingdom - Opening Credits
Tags: The Kingdom - Opening Credits

The Tyler Cowen

1. Time machines! Almost serious science!
2. Funny comedian making fun of the iPad. Making fun of the iPad never gets old, particularly when delivered with a funny accent.
   
3. Incredible video detailing the evolution of movie title design.
   
4. Funny remix of a pretty brutal video of bullying makes it almost palatable. 

Firefly: Ariel Review

Simon Tam (better known in some circles as the old Zac Efron) and his sister River have been among Firefly's most intriguing characters. Not necessarily due to the chops of the actors that portray them but rather the recurring impact their histories have on the overarching plot of the show. While the back-stories for Firefly's supporting characters range from mysterious allusions (Shepard Book, for example) to entire episodes (Jaynestown, for example), the recurring impact of the Tams' suggests that theirs was meant to be one of the core drivers for the series.

In Ariel, the mystery behind what happened to River is deepened slightly as Simon employs the crew to help him sneak her into a state-of-the-art hospital on Ariel, a core planet in Alliance space. While there, Simon discovers that River has undergone multiple surgeries on her brain which, combined with the increasingly super-natural abilities of the young lady, is making this side story downright Fringe-ian. Where this will take us by the season's (and series') end is certainly addicting but I don't hold out hope for a satisfying conclusion given the premature nature of the show's demise.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Secret video from inside North Korea. Lots of haircut footage included. Via Gizmodo.
   Pyongyang Style - North Korean Haircut from Steve Gong on Vimeo.
2. A series of interesting articles on Japan, ranging from the culture of disaster to the culture of practicality to the government's attempts to downplay the current radiation problem. 
3. New article from 38 North regarding economic engagement with North Korea. 

Homefront is a Joke

IGN recently published an interview with some of the advisors for THQ's upcoming video game Homefront. The game, set roughly fifteen years in the future, envisions a United States occupied by North Korean forces. In the interview, the advisors detail some of their theoretical assumptions which pave the way for such a situation. While both the advisors and the author dutifully pepper their ideas with caveats and reminders that this is all for the sake of entertainment and shouldn't be taken seriously, the article's title ("Is Homefront Possible?") irks me enough to deconstruct their theories in order.

The article relies on two basic fear-mongering facts: 1) historical precedent and 2) economic decline. The first basically follows the logic that no one predicted the inflation-ravaged Germany would sweep through Europe in the late 1930's, so it might happen again. The second falls back on the current cries of American economic and military decline thanks to a volatile Middle East and our reliance on oil. In unpacking each step of North Korea's hypothetical expansion, we will attack each of these parts as they crop up.