Ellison at Eighty

 

You read that correctly!  Harlan Ellison, as of May 27th, is eighty years old!  Talk about something making you feel ancient!

Ellison really defined my appreciation of the science fiction genre, in the late 60s and early 70s, with works like the Dangerous Visions that he edited, "Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", I have No Mouth and I Must Scream, "A Boy and His Dog" oh and one of my all time favorites the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".  (I am not alone on this one.  Many people consider this episode of Star Trek, the best one of the 79 episodes produced. 

Oh you have got to read the Wikipedia article on Ellison HERE

Ellison sues Paramount

"It ain't about the principals man, it's about the money! Pay me!" Those words are from Harlan Ellison who is again back in court suing Paramount over unpaid merchandising royalties.

This all stems from Ellison's long standing feud concerning his Star Trek story, considered by most to be one of the best Star Trek episodes, "City on the Edge of Forever". Harlan is quoted as saying "“If they play ... acknowledge where the material came from and pay me a trailer-truck full of cash, I will not sue them in Federal District Court…”

Ellison has been at odds with the Star Trek franchise since his original script was rewritten by then executive producer Gene Roddenberry before it aired in 1967.

Airlock Alpha article and Trekmovie.com story

Dreams With Sharp Teeth

In Andrew O'Hehir's blog Beyond The Multiplex there is a really fascinating interview with writer Harlan Ellison. The main topic of which is Eric Nelson's new film Dreams With Sharp Teeth, a film about Ellison that just premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Andrew sat down with Ellison in Austin the day after the film's premiere. He described him "as unfailingly gracious and polite, answering the awkward questions about his relative obscurity and his relationship to posterity alongside the softballs." However O'Hehir mentions that Ellison often managed to twist the interview around to such a degree that Andrew was often finding himself answering personal questions about himself.

The post transcribes much of the interview but also links to an audio of the interview itself.

Harlan Ellison interview in Beyond the Multiplex


Dream with Sharp Teeth trailer

Thanks to Nelson Cole for the post

Control through Chaos

Armor(Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes) is a Homeland Security-sponsored research project at University of Southern California that is already helping to tighten security at LAX airport in Los Angeles. It could soon be used across the country to "predict and minimize risk".

From the article:
"Here’s how it works: Computer software records the locations of routine, random vehicle checkpoints and canine searches at the airport. Police then provide data on possible terrorist targets and their relative importance. These data may change from one day to the next, or if there have been any security breaches or suspicious activity."

"The computer runs, and—voilà—police get a model of where to go, and when. The software comes up with random decisions that are based on calculated probabilities of a terrorist attack at those locations, using mathematical algorithms."

"The result: Security with airtight unpredictability. With the software, it’s extremely difficult to predict police operations."

“What the airport was doing before was not truly statistically random; it was simply mixing things up,” said computer science professor Milind Tambe. “What they have now is systematized, true randomization.”

But, wait: What if terrorists get hold of ARMOR and use the same information" Couldn’t they solve the predictability puzzle" Not really, Tambe said. “Even if they got the software and all the inputs, it’d be like rolling 50 different dice and expecting to correctly roll one combination of all 50 pairs.” Read the complete news release

ARMOR is reminiscent of Harlan Ellison's creation, the cyber overlord AM, isn't it?

image by Gary Larsen