I don’t know if Clifford D. Simak is lesser known, but his work is pretty foundational for a lot of more modern sci-fi. Before there was “I, Robot”, there was “City”. Before there were Ewoks, there was “Little Fuzzy”. Before there were living ships like in Farscape, Lexx, or Xenogenesis, there was “The Visitors”.
A good environmental philosophy class would cover these same topics and more. My syllabus included works by E. O. Wilson (The Diversity of Life), Lynn Margulis (Microcosmos), and Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), and others. There’s probably and entire Dewey decimal section of you ask a librarian. Stewardship vs leaving nature to itself was a pretty hot topic with lots of debate. But generally anything we can do to support biodiversity is a net good specifically because species go extinct. There’s lots of explanations out there, but like LeVar Burton said, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”
Dracula was published in 1897 and put the vampire count’s origin in Transylvania, Romania. Bela Lugosi was born and raised in what is now Lugoj, Romania, and would go on to play Dracula on Broadway in 1927, then the the Dracula movie began production in 1930.
Bela certainly made his mark on the character, but the accent was just typecasting not an artistic choice.
The absolute best are rainy days without lightning in a place with some nature and privacy. I feel like dancing naked in the rain and being able to come back in to a dry house, a towel to dry yourself, a good book, and a hot tea, is a very rare experience these days. Thunderstorms are great too when you have safe shelter. But dancing naked in a thunderstorm feels a bit like tempting fate too much, which is thrilling too in a way but also I’ve got creatures inside depending on me staying safe.
There is a whole podcast series about Lugosi and other movies of this era, You Must Remember This. I’m not sure if this specific detail is covered explicitly. But my impression (and very hazy memory) leads me to believe that it may be a situation where Lugosi was cast because he looked like the expectation of a vampire from the other movie, but then Lugosi performed better and caught the public’s attention better. Kind of like Hydrox vs. Oreos. Hydrox was first to market, but ultimately lost to the copycat. To be fair to Lugosi, he still added several other elements of style we now consider essential to the quintessential vampire character. He just happened to naturally have a widows peak and authentic “old world exotic accent” (he barely spoke English when he got his start in Hollywood), which gave him an advantage.
EDIT: I should clarify that Karina Longworth’s podcast, You Must Remember This, is about WAY more than Bela. That was just a short series within that podcast. It’s a great listen is you have any interest in film history or long form non-fiction podcasts in general.
A relevant xkcd bot is really the only AI I want in my life.
We’re stealing memes from Disney nostalgia cash-in sequels now?
It’s definitely more than a horror project. But, it’s also definitely still horror.
Common names of animals often describe phenotype not genotype. If it looks like a ducks, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s common name is duck. There are lots of animals with common names grouping them by physical characteristics and ecological niche rather than genetic relationship, especially animals named longed before we had any real scientific study of their genetics.
This is America. Cars, tactical gear, and military vehicles are cheaper than an employee with benefits like healthcare, workers comp insurance, etc. way way way cheaper.
Did you have to send an actual physical photo through the post?
I ask because that was a unique time of tech transformation. I might have had a digital camera then, but being able to email a photo wasn’t yet common enough to be assumed to be possible or convenient for everyone. Just the fact that it was an 800 number and not an email for customer service says a lot. I’m reminded of watching the first Scream movie recently, where cell phones existed, but were rare enough that having one fall out of character’s pocket made them immediately suspicious. A detail that would be totally inconsequential today.
I too liked it better than I thought I would. It felt like a classic Ray Bradbury story.
Late guerilla marketing for The End of Oak Street?
“In a Sept. 15 article in Military Times, Hoover discussed possible reasons why younger veterans could have higher PFAS exposures. He noted that previous research has shown that firefighting foams used on bases, munitions, treated uniforms, and burn pits used to dispose of industrial waste may be involved.”
Orchard Manager sounds fucking awesome. Please let me play with autonomous drones, GIS, and data crunching so that I can be a modern day Lorax. I’ll even grow that massive mustache if it helps. I feel like I might get caught between the environment and the corporate interests in the end.
His family name was actually Drumpf. His immigrant grandfather Americanized it on or shortly after arriving in America.
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s all about tense (past, present, future) and the idioms which leave out those implied verbs that indicate tense. You can still wish someone a good night as a form of greeting, but you’ll need to use those “extra” words to avoid the idiomatic expression. Saying good evening is just the common shortened idiomatic form.
You say something like this despite the mounting evidence that these state sponsored murder programs have not found competent people willing to be a party to murder.