Maybe you like slapstick comedies in which the humor results from the bumbling antics of silly characters or comedies of manners in which the humor derives from the peculiarities of human character and behavior, but to me nothing is funnier than satire, in which the humor comes from revealing the underlying absurdities of powerful or respected figures or institutions. All of the above are present in Dr. Strangelove.

Peter Sellers gives an incredible performance in three hilariously different roles, a British RAF officer serving as adjutant to the Strategic Air Command general who looses armageddon in an attempt to preserve our “precious bodily fluids” from corruption by the Ruskies, Merkin Muffley the soft spoken president of the United States, and the eponymous ex-nazi German scientist, Dr. Strangelove. George C. Scott supplies a healthy dose of the aforementioned slapstick in the role of the wildly gesticulating and over-eager General Buck Turgidson.  To top it all off, Slim Pickens gives an hilarious performance in his role as the devoted Texan bomber commander Major “King” Kong culminating in the iconic scene riding the bomb to oblivion.

No one should fail to see this movie. And lest you think any relevance it might have is long past its expiration, bear this in mind. At the time Dr. Strangelove was released, the total worldwide nuclear stockpile amounted to about 36,000 weapons (NRDC). The peak total was reached in 1986 with over 65,000. The current stockpile, more than twenty years after the end of the Cold War, is still more than half the number at the time of the film: 19,000 weapons (Ploughshares Fund). – Aaron Brumley, IT

It has now been some 34 years since The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first produced as a radio program on the BBC, something like 17 years since I first read the book series as a teenager, and over 11 since the death of its illustrious author, Douglas Noel Adams. It seemed high time to read these books again. So, as I slowly worked my way through Gaiman’s companion book I have reread each volume in the series. Most of the books seem hardly to have aged and hold up very well. The parallel destruction Arthur Dent’s house and of the earth kicks off the madcap sequence of adventures through space and time no less hilariously today than ever. Slartibartfast is still an awfully funny name for a fjord obsessed planet architect. The peaceful pastoral Krikkiters still make delightfully incongruous xenocidal madmen. Fenchurch and Arthur’s love affair comes a bit out of left field, but serves to relieve the monotony of his permanent perplexity and finally gets him out of that damned dressing gown. As for Mostly Harmless, I haven’t yet savored it for a second time. Beginning to read it seems likely to make me a little sad, given that it is the last of Adam’s Hitchhiker’s series.

Maybe Eoin Colfer’s sixth Hitchhiker’s book, And Another Thing, can somewhat assuage that sense. After all, it was produced with the full consent of the Adams estate and as I am learning from Mr. Gaiman, Hitchhiker’s has always been a somewhat motley beast. Adams has always been the creative force driving it, but many others have had a hand, from the casts of radio, stage, and television productions to the producers, writers, musicians, and directors involved with these projects. Stll, Adams’ five books will always be the Hitchhiker’s cannon for me.

Fortunately, Hitchhiker’s does not represent the sum total of Adams’ work. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and it’s sequel The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul beckon for a re-reading. And there are still several of Adams’ books I have yet to read for the first time, among them, The Meaning of Liff, Last Chance to See, and the posthumously published The Salmon of Doubt. For the true fanatic there remain contributions to Doctor Who, The Original Radio Scripts, archived contributions to websites, and even YouTube videos of public appearances. Douglas Adams may be somewhat dead, but as he continues to fascinate us and to make us laugh he must yet be also still alive. If only like the death of Ford Prefect’s friend Hotblack Desiato of Disaster Area, it could turn out to be a highly sophisticated tax dodge. – Aaron Brumley, IT.

Twenty years have passed since the original publication of Snow Crash. I recently read it again and although its cyberpunk vision of the metaverse bears little similarity to the internet we know and love, it’s still a fantastic adventure. Long after the bursting of the dot com bubble, techno-utopian visions seem a bit quaint. Fortunately for the longevity of Mr. Stephenson’s book, Snow Crash is neither utopian, nor purely dystopian. The details may not have aged well, but the story has withstood the changing context of time.

Earlier this summer a collection of Stephenson essays and other writing was released under the title Some Remarks. For fans of the author it is not to be missed. Others may be a little perplexed how a one sentence fragment of a short story about CSI: The Shire can occupy the same volume as a 118 page exploration of the history of intercontinental telecommunications and undersea cable projects. This is a perfect example of the remarkable breadth of Stephenson’s craft.

In other Neal Stephenson related news, today marks the release of the second volume of The Mongoliad, a seven author collaboration project including among its contributors, Mr. Stephenson. I’m eager to find what it holds in store, but as frequent readers of this blog may remember from my earlier post about the first volume, it may be best to wait until the third and final volume is released on February 26.

-Aaron K. Brumley

One could be forgiven for thinking that everything interesting in the history of space flight happened in the United States and Russia during the Cold War. While this is largely true, neither the US nor Russia can claim credit for launching the first man made object into space. On October 3, 1942 that honor was irrevocably bestowed upon Nazi Germany when the A-4 rocket (later to be designated V2) was launched to an altitude of nearly 56 miles. The technical director of the project which made this feat possible, as well as the later brutal bombing of London and Antwerp with the same device, was a brilliant young German rocket engineer by the name of Wernher von Braun.

Michael J. Neufeld’s even handed biography of Von Braun traces his history from his birth and early upbringing when he discovered his passion for rockets, through the Faustian bargain he struck with the Third Reich and illuminates the incredible story of how after the war he came to be instrumental to the US space program even rising to the position of director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center from 1960-1970. It is hard to overstate Von Braun’s significance to the history of 20th century space flight.

The present state of space flight is somewhat diminished from its peak in Von Braun’s heyday. Astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium of New York, Neil deGrasse Tyson, argues in Space Chronicles that it’s high time we did something about it. Tyson believes and convincingly argues that increasing NASA funding from one half of one percent of the federal budget to one percent, would stimulate science and technology development in the US to such a degree that the investment would be returned many times over. He believes that the inspirational power of human endeavors in space can drive our economy by motivating the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Space Chronicles is a collection of previously published essays and speeches with some new material and peppered throughout with extremely amusing excerpts from Dr. Tyson’s twitter feed. It is an invigorating read for the space enthusiast and anyone who believes American science and technology sectors need big inspiring goals to revitalize their potential.

-Aaron K. Brumley, IT

Thread A concerns gladiatorial combat between European and Mongol contestants. The games have been called by Ohghwe Khan, ostensibly to decide the fate of Europe, though few are fooled into believing the Khan would turn back should his champions be defeated. The Ordo Militum Vindicis Intactae, an order of Christian warrior monks, seeks to prolong the games as others from their order set out on a mad quest to kill the Khan of Khan’s.

Thread B follows this suicidal team of medieval commandos on their foray into Mongol territory. Action packed hijinks ensue.

Thread C, by far the most interesting, takes place at the court of Ogedei, the Khan of Khan’s. The Great Khan’s brother has sent an emissary to Ogedei’s court with the hope that this emissary, a young warrior by the name of Gansukh, will be able to pull him back from the brink of an alcohol fueled descent into insularity and self-destruction. Gansukh’s struggle to find his place at court and break through to the Khan, with the help of his beautiful Chinese tutor in courtly manners, Lian, is the heart and soul of the book.

Unfortunately, none of these threads are tied up, or even left at a suitable stopping point, by the end of the book. If you are bothered by this sort of thing, you might be better off waiting for the trilogy to conclude. Fortunately, we have a pretty good idea when that will be. The content of The Mongoliad is adapted from a serially released online project which has already concluded. Given that the first book was published April 24, 2012 and that the second book will be published September 25, 2012, we can expect the third book to conclude the trilogy on or before February 26, 2013. Mark your calendar.

-Aaron K. Brumley, IT

The first book was told from the perspective of eight major characters in about four or five locations at any given time. This was manageable on screen. The second book revolves around the seven surviving characters from the first, plus two new perspectives for a total of nine. This doesn’t sound too bad, except that fewer of those characters stories take place in overlapping locations. This bumps up the complexity fast. Instead of four or five plot threads to keep straight, as in the first book, we are faced with closer to seven! And it will only get worse. Take a look at the tables of contents for the next few books, if you doubt me. A Song of Swords, ten perspectives; A Feast for Crows, six major perspectives and one or two-off chapters from six more; A Dance with Dragons, fifteen!

None of this is to say that I didn’t love the second season and look forward enthusiastically to what will be on offer with the next. (I was blown away by our first good look at the white walkers and their undead minions and can’t wait to see more!) It’s just a warning: if you were disappointed by incongruities between season two and the book, get over it. If HBO insists on fitting each book into a mere ten episodes, then with each season that’s going to leave an increasing amount of story on the editing room floor. This tendency is going to get much worse in subsequent seasons, but that’s okay! In order for the show to keep up its dramatic intensity, cutting the story down to size is exactly what needs to happen. If you want the rest of the story, by all means read the books, or listen to the exceptional Roy Dotrice audiobook recordings! So long as the people at HBO do their work judiciously we have a lot to look forward to.

-Aaron K. Brumley, IT