Free Republic

The controversy over Orson Scott Card's opposition to gay marriage appears to have simmered down. Maybe it'll kick up again as the Ender's Game premiere closes in, but it shouldn't—Card's religious objection to gay marriage is shared by a substantial minority of Americans, and holding it against him is a little pat. The actual outrage over what's happening to gay Russians appears to have captured all the anger being directed Card's way. That's good! The gay marriage foofarah was a distraction from Card's much more fascinating political paranoia. His last column on politics is a sort of masterpiece of that...

The Star Trek episode Mirror Mirror illustrates the problem with cultures that solve their problems with violence... perfectly.

The Outer Limits debuted on Monday, September 16, 1963 on ABC. Although this imaginative science fiction anthology series was cancelled midway through its second season, it gained a good cult following and proved to be highly influential. The show had several truly fine episodes. The Wikipedia article is very informative. Many of the episodes are available online.

For those who are into this sort of thing...what sfnal or fantasy literature are currently reading or have just finished? I'm working my way through the series, "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher, having read the first 10 novels of the 15 published so far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by Jim Butcher. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the...

Today we celebrate the 47th anniversary of Star Trek, as the series’ first episode, “The Man Trap” aired on September 8, 1966. Gene Roddenberry’s “wagon train to the stars” made virtually unknown actors at the time, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig, into household names across the United States and around the world.

One of the leading lights of the science fiction world, editor and author Frederik Pohl, passed away this weekend after a career that defined the genre for decades... Pohl was known for his mind-bending, often satirical novels (many co-authored with longtime collaborator C.M. Kornbluth), his editing acumen, his science fiction criticism, and his witty, fascinating blog, which he was updating right up until his death...

As a child in the 1970s, I always enjoyed watching “Land of the Lost” on Saturday morning. As an adult, I like the show even more. This is an intelligent science fiction program that makes you think, and is never dumbed down (except for season 3, which is so horrible that it never should have been made). Here is my favorite episode – “Elsewhen” from season 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDocflFRcSk

The new movie Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, is more loaded with liberal politics than an Organizing For America fundraising pitch. It’s more loaded with liberalism than an Ivy League gender studies department. More loaded, even, than an MSNBC roundtable discussion.   Still, it’s a pretty cool movie, featuring an intelligent, if scary, take on the future. And so it merits our attention, because even if one doesn’t agree with its liberal slant, one must realize that liberals have half, at least, of the marbles in American politics--that is, the White House, the Senate, and, of course, the...

ENDER'S GAME is an epic adventure starring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin. Based on the best-selling, award winning novel. Only in theaters November 1, 2013.

Real Doomsday: Earth Dead in 2.8 Billion Years The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jaggar crooned “Time Is On My Side” in the 1964 classic rock hit of the same title. Sadly, that’s not the case for habitable planets orbiting sun-like stars according to a recent computer simulation by astrobiologist Jack O’Malley-James of the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. “A combination of slow and rapid environmental changes will result in the extinction of all species on Earth, with the last inhabitants disappearing within 2.8 billion years from now,” O’Malley-James predicts. He says that we’ve got about 2 billion years...

Published on Sep 28, 2012 A selection of some of the best science fiction film themes from the 50's, with audio enhanced using stereo reverb & imaging. Check with the IMDB (www.imdb.com) for composer info for the films THE THING Dimitri TiomkinDAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Bernard herrmannWAR OF THE WORLDS Leith StevensINVADERS FROM MARS Raoul Kraushaar/Mort GlickmanFLIGHT TO MARS Marlin SkilesFORBIDDEN PLANET Louis and Bebe BarronTHIS ISLAND EARTH Herman SteinINVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Carmen DragonTHE BLACK SCORPION Paul SawtellKRONOS Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterIT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterINVISIBLE INVADERS Paul DunlapDAY THE WORLD ENDED Ronald SteinWORLD...

Official site Wikipedia IMDb Man Of Steel - Official Teaser Trailer Man of Steel - Official Trailer #2 Man of Steel - Official Trailer #3The movie opened today. Here are some reviews: Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic E Online: Man of Steel Reviews Are In-Superman Flies High With Critics Yahoo: First Reviews Are In: Is 'Man of Steel' Too Dark, Too Big, Too Much? The Independent (UK): Man of Steel: Reviews round-up - S is for Serious not Superman as Henry Cavill dons the tights CBS News: "Man of Steel" critics' reviews: Film wallows in sorrow more than soars New York Post:...

The new Ethan Hawke thriller The Purge was number one at the box office during its opening weekend, but critics are slamming the film for its thinly veiled commentary against the National Rifle Association and Tea Party groups. The plot brings moviegoers to the near future where in 2022 a new regime has come to America. The "New Founders" have taken over the country and practically eliminated unemployment crime, and want. One of the ways this new political movement has brought on such an idyllic society is to allow one night a year when any and all violence, even murder,...

Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said. Banks, who was born in Dunfermline, Fife, revealed in April he had gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year. He was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.

As NSA data collection from Verizon Wireless is defended this morning by no less than the office of the President of the United States, actor Wil Wheaton and top Android hacker/developer Koushik Dutta have announced their departure from the carrier. The order in question was revealed yesterday, having originated from the FBI and passed down to the public media by an anonymous source. The order shows how the National Security Agency uses Verizon specifically to mine records of phone calls, numbers, and everything in-between for data. Data such as “unique identifiers”—unspecified beyond that, call length, number of individuals on each...

The legendary SF writer has died.

The Earth is a pretty bleak place for humans in the new science fiction movie, "After Earth." Set 1,000 years in the future, "After Earth" depicts a future in which humanity is forced to abandon Earth in search of a new home. The remnants of the human race travel to and resettle on Nova Prime — a fictional planet located light-years away from Earth.

Director J.J. Abrams' 2009 prequel to the dusty Star Trek property got the space saga out of mothballs and back on the pop culture radar. Star Trek Into Darkness resumes the franchise's penchant for futuristic allegories to modern times. Well, if you consider the Bush years the state of today's foreign policy debates.The '60s series never bludgeoned viewers with its mission statements, and the Star Trek sequel similarly embraces razzle dazzle over speechifying. Abrams is too keenly focused on ambitious action sequences, those maddening lens flares and the bond between the ship's crew that made those prior voyages such a...

Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe Tonight, May 15, 10/9c, History Channel

I hope this helps: Previous threads STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Opens Strong Internationally 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is lost in space 'Star Trek Into Darkness' review: Energized Star Trek Into Darkness – review ‘Star Trek Into Darkness' movie review Review: Star Trek Into Darkness 'Star Trek Into Darkness' review: Fast and fun IMDb user reviews IMDb external reviews Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic