Friday, July 26, 2013

Slow time

Sorry to all my readers for not updating anything beside the Flight of Links, but we are currently moving and preparing our new home which takes up all available time. Since I also have to change internet providers, this may take a while, so please stay patient. Nothing has been forgotten, least of all the Theory Day, but I simply can't do it at the moment. Hope I meet you all again when I'm back.

Monday, July 15, 2013

A Flight of Links

- Why Pacific Rim doesn't look like a summer blockbuster. 
- How America could have ruled the world 1898. This is so crazy it's funny. 
- Chris Roberts explains Star Citizen.
- MovieBob explains which movies we should see.
- 10 movie flops that totally deserved it.
- WoW gets micro-transactions. 
- Extra Credits talk about touchscreen design.
- Idris Elba and his "cancelling the apocalypse" line in Pacific Rim.
- Sean T. Collin's brillant list for a Sansa-Small-Council.
- So true.
- The songs in the soundtrack of GOT. 
- There's a trailer for the new remake of Oldboy, and when you're not afraid of spoilers, you get them. I'm interested in that, having seen and liked the original (and read and not much liked the manga).
- This trailer looks so astonishingly bad, I'm reminded of Dungeons&Dragons and Dungeon Siege.
- Wertzone reviews Company of Heroes 2, and I can wholeheartedly agree.
- If you somehow missed what all the "Hitler reacts..." is about, Memecenter explains it. 
- Does Animal Crossing promote Otaku citizenship? (Yeah, I didn't know what this was about in the beginning either)
- Yahtzee reviews Deadpool.
- Miracle of Sound - The Best of Us
- Pretty much. 
- Newsroom sucked, can't wait for the second season.  
- We get a pop-up guide for Westeros. 
- Two reviews for Pacific Rim.
- Why we better not contact alien races.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Podcast about counter-factual history

Together with my colleague in the field of academic historical research, Steven Attewell, the author behind the brillant blog "Race for the Iron Trone", I talk about counterfactual history and its impacts on our culture. We discuss the tripping wires that surround this field and why it is so attractive to Science Fiction authors as well as some examples of where counterfactual history is applied with a real gain and where it simply delivers nonsense. You can download the podcast here as an MP3. If you speak German, make also sure to check out my blog about history.

 Be sure to uncheck the "Sendspace Accelerator" box to avoid downloading useless software.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 37

Thursday is theory day.
This is the thirty-seventh article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.
Prepare for part 37. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

Friday, July 5, 2013

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 36

Thursday is theory day. But this week, I fucked up. Again. Sooooo, friday.
This is the thirty-sixth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.
Prepare for part 36. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

An analysis of Sansa Stark

A guest essay by Mitchel Tweedie

Sansa, like Catelyn, who I have already analysed here, is probably one of the characters people are most partisan about, and it is understandable why this is. For starters, first impressions die hard, but perhaps more importantly is Arya (and the rest of the Starks + Jon I suppose, but Arya mostly).