Tag: Entertainment

  • 2020: A Year in Review

    2020: A Year in Review

    A Year of Disasters

    Montage of Australian Bushfires
    Montage created by Patrickgom0, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    The year was dominated by a global pandemic, but that was not the only disaster that faced us. The year opened with the ongoing wildfires that engulfed Australia, known as the “Black Summer.” More than half a billion animals were killed, and species were driven nearly to extinction as much of the continent burned, forcing mass evacuations. The COVID-19 pandemic began with the first reports of the disease emerging from Wuhan, China, on January 9th. By the 30th, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, only the sixth time they had issued such a declaration in the past twenty years.

    Image of a virus
    Image Credit: NIAID

    The virus spread rapidly around the planet, with the WHO officially declaring it a pandemic on March 11th; by the 26th, confirmed cases reached five hundred thousand, and twenty-three thousand had died. The confirmed cases expanded to one million on April 2nd, doubled to two million less than two weeks later on the 15th, then to three million on the 27th, while the death toll ballooned to one hundred thousand on the tenth, and two hundred thousand on the 25th. It continued its exponential spread into the spring, reaching four million cases on May 10th, then six million on May 31st, with the death toll hitting three hundred thousand on May 14th.

    Image of an Asian giant hornet
    Ken Ishigaki, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Meanwhile, the Asian giant hornets, nicknamed “murder hornets” in the media due to their propensity for attacking and killing the much smaller honeybees and their exceptionally painful stings, were found to have survived the winter in the Pacific Northwest after having been transplanted into North America, when Asian giant hornet queens were found in Custer, Washington, on May 29th, then in Bellingham, Washington, on June 6th. The first Asian giant hornet was later discovered in Canada when one was found in Langley, British Columbia on June 15th.

    June saw COVID-19 cases continue to rise, reaching ten million by the end of the month, with the death toll climbing to five hundred thousand. The spread continued to fifteen million by the end of July, and the death toll rose to six hundred thousand. The port of Beirut, Lebanon, was devastated on August 4th when unsafe storage of ammonium nitrate caused a series of catastrophic explosions that killed 220 people and left thousands injured, three hundred thousand homeless, and caused an estimated $10-15 billion in damage.

    Another ten million people were diagnosed with COVID-19 by the end of August, and the death toll rose to eight hundred thousand by the end of the month. In September, cases climbed to thirty million, then forty-five million in October, and sixty million by the end of November, with the death toll reaching one million in September, and passing 1.5 million in early December.

    The year ended on a hopeful note, with the first successful Phase III trial of a COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech, showing a 90% success rate on November 8th. Another vaccine from Moderna proved to be 94.5% effective on the 16th.

    Deaths

    A number of famous people passed away in 2020:

    January

    7: Neal Peart
    9: Mike Resnick
    21: Terry Jones
    26: Kobe Bryant

    February

    5: Kirk Douglas
    24: Clive Cussler
    28: Freeman Dyson

    March

    8: Max von Sydow
    20: Kenny Rogers

    April

    29: Irrfan Khan

    May

    9: Little Richard

    June

    19: Ian Holm
    29: Carl Reiner

    July

    13: Grant Imahara

    August

    1: Wilford Brimley
    18: Ben Cross
    28: Chadwick Boseman

    September

    17: Terry Goodkind
    18: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

    October

    6: Eddie Van Halen
    31: Sean Connery

    November

    8: Alex Trebek
    28: David Prowse

    December

    5: David L. Lander
    7: Chuck Yeager

    A Year of Political Crises

    House of Representatives Votes to Adopt the Articles of Impeachment Against Donald Trump.
    Credit: Public Domain

    The year’s political crises began with the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the Senate from January 16th through February 5th. Even before the trial began, Republican Senators made it clear that they had no intention of convicting him of the charges levied in December by the House of Representatives, so the lack of a conviction surprised no one. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom formally withdrew from the European Union on January 31st.

    Stock market charts
    Katrina.Tuliao, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    On February 24th, Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault, and a month later was sentenced to twenty-three years in prison. On February 27th, the first of several stock market crashes occurred, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 1190.95 points. Less than two weeks later, on March 9th, the DJIA dropped more than two thousand points. The global markets crashed as well on March 12th, the day after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and the DJIA dropped 2300 points. Four days later, it dropped again, this time by 2997.10 points, a larger drop even than 1929’s Black Tuesday, which sparked the Great Depression.

    May saw the outbreak of protests across the United States, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police on May 26th, which was captured on video and posted online. The protests would continue throughout the remainder of the year, and would influence political campaigns, from local races all the way up to the presidential election.

    Official portrait of Vice President Joe Biden in his West Wing Office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013.
    Official White House Photo by David Lienemann

    On November 3rd, following a month of rhetoric concerning a marked increase in the use of absentee ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person voting occurred for the U.S. presidential election. While voting ended on the 3rd, counting of ballots would continue through the 7th, when Joe Biden was declared the winner, and the 46th president. Trump refused to concede, however, and continued to do so well into December, spreading a false narrative of fraud and filing dozens of lawsuits in six states, all of which would be thrown out.

    A Year of Scientific Exploration

    On April 27th, the U.S. Navy released three videos of encounters by its pilots with unidentified flying craft. Three days later, on April 30th, NASA selected SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to build a next-generation lunar lander, with a goal of landing on the Moon in 2024.

    The uncrewed SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is the first Commercial Crew vehicle to visit the International Space Station.
    Credit: NASA

    A fossil of the oldest known land animal was discovered in Scotland on May 15th: a 425-million-year-old, 2.5 centimeter long millipede from the Kampecaris genus. May 30th saw the first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2, and on July 30th, NASA launched the Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life, collect samples for return to Earth, and to demonstrate technology for future manned missions.

    Phosphene was detected in Venus’ atmosphere on September 14th, which was a strong indicator of the potential presence of microbial life. On October 20th, the NASA probe OSIRIS-REx touched down on the asteroid Bennu, the first time a NASA probe retrieved samples from an asteroid. Days later, on October 26th, NASA confirmed the presence of water molecules on the Moon, near Clavius crater.

    On November 15th, NASA and SpaceX launched the SpaceX Crew-1 to the International Space Station, the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon capsule. November 30th saw a penumbral lunar eclipse, the last of four total lunar eclipses in 2020.

    This aerial view shows the damage at the Arecibo Observatory after one of the main cables holding the receiver broke in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on December 1, 2020.
    Tedder, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed on December 1st, shortly after the decision was made to decommission the telescope due to failures in the cables that suspended the receiver array above the dish.  A total solar eclipse was visible from the southern hemisphere on December 14th, followed by a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which were separated by 0.1 degree, the closest they had been to one another, as seen from Earth, since 1623.

    A Year of Entertainment

    Ensigns D'Vana Tendi, Sam Rutherford, Beckett Mariner, and Brad Boimler from Star Trek: Lower Decks
    Credit: CBS Interactive

    Multiple Star Trek series aired in 2020, beginning with the premiere of Star Trek: Picard on January 22nd, then Star Trek: Lower Decks, the first animated Star Trek series since 1974, on August 5th, and the third season of Star Trek: Discovery on October 14th. September 8th marked the franchise’s 54th anniversary, which was celebrated by a virtual convention on the StarTrek.com web site.

    The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented shift in the release of movies from theaters to streaming services. Only a handful of films saw theatrical releases, while many were released to Amazon, Netflix, and the newly-launched Disney+. By the end of the year, Warner Bros. announced that, in addition to the simultaneous release of Wonder Woman in both theaters and on their HBO Max service on Christmas Day, all of their films for 2021 would also see the same simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases.

    A Year of Personal Change

    National Novel Writing Month logo
    Credit: NaNoWriMo.org

    Following a successful NaNoWriMo in 2019, I hoped to redouble my efforts to, at long last, launch a career as a writer. I purchased a domain name, GeekUnifiedTheory.com, which I hoped to launch into an entertainment blog, and began working on updates. At first weekly, I tried daily updates in June, but the pace, coupled with my own hectic work schedule, quickly burned me out. The blog was left abandoned for several months, as I re-evaluated my goals.

    Ultimately, I decided to consolidate all of my existing sites into a new domain, once I discovered that JeffreyHarlan.com was available. I would continue my “This Week in Geek” column as a weekly feature, as well as monthly posts on my writing progress, and occasional updates for holidays, plus any other posts that struck my fancy as the opportunities arose.

    One of the missteps with the Geek Unified Theory launch was a lack of pre-planning. I quickly found myself writing posts less than a day before they were due to post. This time around, I’m writing several months’ worth of “This Week in Geek” columns in advance, which I can update prior to publishing as needed. I’m also writing other posts well in advance, and have used a weekly planner to project posts through the end of 2021.

    I began my most ambitious novel project yet with 2020’s NaNoWriMo: a trilogy of science fiction novels chronicling an interstellar war. While I didn’t quite make the fifty thousand word goal of NaNoWriMo, I came very close and completed the first half of the novel.

  • Origins of Black Superheroes

    Origins of Black Superheroes

    While superhero comics were born with Superman in 1938, it would be several years before black characters began to appear even in supporting roles, and more than three decades before a black superhero would headline a comic of his own. More and more black heroes would appear in the ensuing decades.

    (more…)

  • This Week in Geek (6/15-6/21)

    This Week in Geek (6/15-6/21)

    On June 19, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, first issued in January 1863, was read in Texas, the most remote of the U.S. states that had rebelled in the American Civil War. The date, which has come to be known as Juneteenth, Freedom Day, and other names, is celebrated as the end of slavery in the United States, and a day to honor the contributions of African Americans to the nation’s history.

    This week, Geek Unified Theory will be sharing several stories to do just that. On #TrekTuesday, we will post a story about Star Trek and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. For Comic Book Wednesday, we will discuss the history of black superheroes. Thursday Game Night will feature a story about African Americans in the game industry, and SFF Friday will showcase African American science fiction and fantasy writers. (more…)

  • Diseases in Science Fiction

    Diseases in Science Fiction

    Humanity has been fighting against disease throughout history, from the common cold to the Bubonic Plague, and most recently, the coronavirus, aka COVID-19. Humanity continues this fight in fiction, to varying degrees of success.

    (more…)

  • Superhero RPG Round-Up

    Superhero RPG Round-Up

    When it comes to superheroes, gamers are spoiled for choice in the realm of roleplaying games. Dozens of games provide unique variations on the theme.

    (more…)

  • Starfleet Uniforms: 2140s to 2160s

    Starfleet Uniforms: 2140s to 2160s

    Starfleet has fielded many uniforms over the course of its existence. In this series, we will take a look at each, from the beginning of the Earth Starfleet in the 2140s through those worn in 2399 and beyond.

    (more…)

  • The Bloody Road to Star Trek’s Future

    The Bloody Road to Star Trek’s Future

    The future of the human race in Star Trek is a bright one. Humanity had struggled with war, disease, and hunger, but had “pretty much wiped ‘em out,” by the mid-twenty-second century, as Charles “Trip” Tucker bragged in the first episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. But, as the theme song to the series made clear, “it’s been a long road, getting from there to here.” The path to the bright future of Star Trek’s Earth was a dark and bloody one.

    (more…)

  • This Week in Geek (6/1-6/7)

    This Week in Geek (6/1-6/7)

    Birthdays

    1: Morgan Freeman (1937); Rene Auberjonois (1940); Brian Cox (1946); Tom Holland (1996)
    2: Lester Del Rey (1915); Sally Kellerman (1937); Anthony Montgomery (1971); Wentworth Miller (1972); Zachary Quinto (1977); Nikki Cox (1978); Dominic Cooper (1978); Morena Baccarin (1979); Jewel Staite (1982)
    3: Maurice Evans (1901); Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930); Penelope Wilton (1946); John Dykstra (1947); Melissa Mathison (1950); Robert Z’Dar (1950); Suzie Plakson (1958); James Purefoy (1964)
    4: Bruce Dern (1936); Keith David (1956); Sean Pertwee (1964); Noah Wyle (1971); James Callis (1971); Angelina Jolie (1975); Jordan Hinson (1991);
    5: John Abbott (1905); Robert Lansing (1928); Kathleen Kennedy (1953); Karen Strassman (1966); Mark Wahlberg (1971)
    6: Joan Marshall (1931); Robert Englund (1947); Gary Graham (1950); Amanda Pays (1959); Jason Isaacs (1963); Kyra Zagorsky (1976); Daniel Logan (1987)
    7: Frank Bolle (1924); Liam Neeson (1952); Bobby Di Cicco (1954); Mark Ryan (1956); Dayton Ward (1967); Francis Magee (1969); Anthony Simcoe (1969); Karl Urban (1972); Dave Filoni (1974); Anna Torv (1979); Michael Cera (1988)

    Events

    3: First appearance of Kryptonite: The Adventures of Superman (Radio): “The Meteor from Krypton” Part 1 (1943)

    Anniversaries

    1: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984); Orphan Black season 1 finale: “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” (2013)
    2: Space: Above and Beyond finale: “…Tell Our Moms We Done Our Best” (1996); Star Trek: Deep Space Nine finale: “What You Leave Behind” (1999); Stitchers premiere: “A Stitch in Time” (2015)
    3: Star Trek finale: “Turnabout Intruder” (1969); Babylon 5: “Darkness Ascending” (1998); Star Wars:Shatterpoint” by Matthew Stover (2003)
    4: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
    5: Gog (1954); Doomwatch season 3 premiere: “Fire and Brimstone” (1972); The 4400 season 2 premiere: “Wake-Up Call” (2005); Stitchers season 3 premiere: “Out of the Shadows” (2017); A Stitch in Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #27) by Andrew J. Robinson (2000)
    6: SpaceCamp (1986); Edge of Tomorrow (2014); Impulse debuts on YouTube Originals (2018)
    7: Perversions of Science premieres (1997); Farscape season 4 premieres (2002)


    [amazon asin=B01CJW334Q&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B00DB97LCM&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B01N47VPJG&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B073ZWK3B8&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B007CXRFCY&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B073ZTTNLQ&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B000FC0UXU&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B000FCKKUS&template=add to cart]
  • Minneapolis and the Bell Riots

    Minneapolis and the Bell Riots

    In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the unrest that has followed, many have taken to the Internet to compare recent events with the Bell Riots from Star Trek, and others have questioned whether the comparison is apt, or even appropriate.

    In the two-part episode “Past Tense” from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s third season, a transporter accident sent Commander Sisko, Lieutenant Dax, and Doctor Bashir back in time to San Francisco in the year 2024. Sisko and Bashir were immediately taken into custody and placed into a Sanctuary District, while Dax was taken in by a wealthy media executive. The fact that Sisko was a black man, and Bashir middle eastern, whereas Dax was an apparently white woman (her spots notwithstanding, which were quickly dismissed as tattoos), was not lost on most viewers when discussing their treatment.

    (more…)

  • This Week in Geek (5/25-5/31)

    This Week in Geek (5/25-5/31)

    Birthdays

    25: Ian McKellen (1939); Frank Oz (1944); Bob Gale (1951); Connie Sellecca (1955); Ray Stevenson (1964); Anne Heche (1969); Octavia Spencer (1970); Cillian Murphy (1976); Brec Bassinger (1999)
    26: Peter Cushing (1913); Roy Dotrice (1923); Pam Grier (1949); Helena Bonham Carter (1966); Alex Garland (1970); Benji Gregory (1978)
    27: Vincent Price (1911); Christopher Lee (1922); Harlan Ellison (1934); Lee Meriweather (1935); Louis Gossett Jr. (1936); Richard Schiff (1955); Eddie McClintock (1967); Joseph Fiennes (1970); Paul Bettany (1971)
    28: Shane Rimmer (1932); Glenn Quinn (1970); Laura Bailey (1981); Megalyn Echikunwoke (1983); Jacob Kogan (1995); Cameron Boyce (1999)
    29: Sebastian Shaw (1905); Kevin Conway (1942); Danny Elfman (1953); Adrian Paul (1959); Steve Cardenas (1974); Adam Brown (1980); Alessandra Torresani (1987); Pearl Mackie (1987); Erica Lindbeck (1992)
    30: Keir Dullea (1936); Michael Piller (1948); Colm Meaney (1953); Cynthia Gouw (1963); Mark Sheppard (1964); Minae Noji (1973); Jared Gilmore (2000)
    31: Lea Thompson (1961); Peter Clines (1969); Colin Farrell (1971); Robin Wasserman (1978); Sophia McDougall (1979)

    Anniversaries

    25: It Came From Outer Space (1953); Star Wars (1977); Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983); Back to the Future Part III (1990); Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
    26: Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970); Super Force finale: “A Hundred Years a Second” (1992); Johnny Mnemonic (1995); Star Trek: Voyager season 5 finale: “Equinox” (1999)
    27: Dominion Tank Police (1988); Doctor Who TV movie (1996)
    28: Tremors: The Series premieres (2003); Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
    29: Seven Days finale: “Live From Death Row” (2001)
    30: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: “Assimilation²” published (2012)
    31: The Last Starfighter (1985); Total Recall (1990); The Arrival (1996); Dark Skies finale: “Bloodlines”

    Genre Holidays

    25: Geek Pride Day
    25: Towel Day


    [amazon asin=B015AJOKFG&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B07TLPB887&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B011Q0FSC2&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B005FHWWXQ&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B004R0MF48&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B01NAJ4HMI&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=1613777825&template=add to cart]

    [amazon asin=B0025VLELQ&template=add to cart]