Jericho’s audience drop-off after its winter break proved to be too much for CBS, and they’ve cancelled the show. I imagine that being up against American Idol didn’t help, either.

Battlestar Galactica and Lost have also seen significant drop-off after taking a hiatus. While Battlestar Galactica had some of the best shows of its season before its haitus, both Lost and Jericho (more…)

I ended last summer with high hopes for Jericho. A TV series about a nuclear apocalypse? No way! It seemed too good to be true… and as the season progressed, it apparently was, as we were treated to a town of people who seemed to be in denial, spending their time drinking and eating their way through the apocalypse as if nothing had happened.

The show took a break through December and January, and when it returned it had lost quite a few viewers. To be fair, Jericho isn’t the only show with this problem. Many serialized shows, including Lost and Battlestar Galactica, have suffered similar problems. Out of sight, out of mind. And once you lose viewers, it’s hard to get them back.

Thankfully, Jericho improved with time. Yeah, the music was still out of place and kinda crappy - like a Toto soundtrack to a film version of the classic SF novel “Dune” - and it was as much soap opera as SF. But it seemed to be becoming more realistic, as well, and grim. One of the major characters died, the town was living without power, dealing more with the neighboring towns and generally having a rough time making it through the winter.

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Lo, and the Lord said:
When is born the two-nosed calf
The forces of the adversary shall oversmell the earth and air.

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I haven’t done any bird flu coverage for a bit; there haven’t been any notable outbreaks reported for a while and there’s not been much to say. News shows up in dribs and drabs, though, so here’s catching up on it. Links are at the bottom of the article.

• The nation’s leading alarmists are excited about bird flu
• The US government has approved the first bird flu vaccine for humans. The FDA approved a vaccine which requires two shots and which seems to protect about 45% of adults who are vaccinated.
• Not to be outdone, the bird flu vaccine peramivir from BioCyst Pharmaceuticals is going to be tested in Asia next month.
• … but no one is sure how much vaccine you need to protect yourself.

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Love the film, hate the audience.

Recently zombie films have had a resurgence like never before… over the next few months we’re seeing several high profile zombie films released, from “28 Weeks Later” to “Fido” and “Diary of the Dead”. CBS will be airing a zombie-themed TV series next fall, “Babylon Fields”. There are zombie comics all over comics shop bookshelves. Boston is having a zombie walk the day after “28 Weeks Later” premieres. And the 800 pound zombie gorilla in the room, the film adaptation of “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” written by JMS and filmed by Brad Pitt’s production company, is still around the corner.

I don’t want to spoil the film for you. I’ll say that it begins with a betrayal, and that the consequences of that betrayal are devastating. The trailers make it clear that the film involves the repopulation of London, and you know that things are going to go south… you just don’t know when and you don’t know how far south.
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28 Weeks Later finally opens today. Ain’t It Cool News has another positive, spoiler-filled review at the link given below. I’ll report back after seeing the film tonight.

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Recently in climate change:

• Scientific American talks about fixing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and what it will cost
• And apparently stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would cost between 0.2% and 3.0% of the GDP. I say go for it and then we can stop arguing about whether that’s the cause of warming.
• Summer temperatures in the US may rise by 10 degrees by 2080. Looking on the bright side, if rosemary becomes a perennial for my zone I’ll be happy.

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You’re looking for an older man with some flavor of British accent to play a crazy villain in a post-apocalyptic drama? The accent leaves out Dennis Hopper, but Malcolm McDowell is available after his stint on NBC’s “Heroes” and apparently he hasn’t played his share of crazies yet.

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If you’ve been here before, you may notice a new layout for the blog. I’ve been tweaking it for a while; it’s consistent with the theme I’m using on my other blogs (Shiny Things, a gadget blog, and Blue Forest Blog, a software development blog).

There are a few features it has which I think are improvements over the old slightly-modified-Wordpress-default layout, including better use of tags and a couple of monetization features which I hope won’t be too obtrusive (the Amazon box on the right sidebar and the memory selector on the top).

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Comics are getting a little more love these days than they did during the past couple of decades as high profile comics adaptations are more or less successful (Spiderman, X-Men, Superman, with more on the way) and TV shows and movies continue in comics (Buffy Season 8, as one example).

With “28 Weeks Later” opening in a week, there’s a roughly 23 week gap left between it and “28 Days Later”. This gap is addressed in the comic book “28 Days Later: The Aftermath”, available as a trade paperback written by Steve Niles (also of “The Complete 30 Days of Night”).
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