Now on display in the central hall of London’s justly famous Natural History Museum , a full-scale replica, knitted from recycled orange plastic bags, of their 8-metre giant squid, Archie.

Dedicated to The Intersection’s communicators par excellence. Feel free to make your own. Wear them proudly.

I should point out by way of clarification that I don’t believe that all accommodationists are dicks. Many just want to be polite. But The Intersection in particular has perfected the art of passive-aggressive obsequiousness. Calling them names is not just a guilty pleasure, it’s a public service. And just maybe they will learn one of the critical lessons of the Enlightenment: being offended from time to time is the price we pay for living in a liberal, pluralist society. Might as well get used to it.

I can’t begin to tell you how depressing it is that this book exists. That  625,000 copies were printed and 56 libraries stock it today is an indictment on humanity.

It should read “expatriates,” but as errors go, it does not entirely derange the intended meaning:

…[A] detailed travel-related risk assessment should be used to detect travellers at increased risk of acquiring cholera (e.g. highrisk ex-patriots, such as relief and aid workers or health professionals working in endemic countries)…

[From the Public Health Agency of Canada's statement on oral cholera vaccines, with bonus points for repeating the error.]

Addendum: It just occurred to me that “high-risk ex-patriots” are the plot pushers of every Tom Clancy novel ever.

Laundering Nazi gold: acceptable¹

Drugging and raping 13 year old girls: acceptable²

Building minarets: not acceptable³

Caveat…⁴

On Judgement Day, all the conspiracy theorists are resurrected, and after discussing matters among themselves they send a representative to talk to the Lord. The representative goes to the Lord and asks: “Lord, we’d really like to know: who killed JFK?”

And the Lord replies: “Oh, really. It was Lee Harvey Oswald. He was acting alone. There was no conspiracy.”

The representative goes back to the crowd and they ask: “Well, what did the Lord say?”

He looks around carefully, leans forward, and whispers: “This is bigger than we thought … ”

Credit to MrG, commenting at Panda’s Thumb

Talking Squid has no hesitation in telling others how to vote. In this spirit of generosity, we offer Grant Watson’s guide to the Hugo nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Was 2009 really this poor a year for SF television? It certainly seems to have been a strange one: the episodes most deserving of acclaimed failed to make the Hugo shortlist. I suppose Russell T. Davies’ masterful Torchwood: Children of Earth was, at five episodes, more a contender for Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form (in which case Avatar unfairly stole its place on the ballot), but there really was no excuse for fans to exclude the excellent Stargate Universe. As it stands we’re left with four nominees that arguably made the ballot on earlier, far superior works, and only one genuine contender – so with that in mind, I have to put my support behind Brannon Braga and David S. Goyer’s excellent FlashForward pilot “No More Good Days.”

“Epitaph 1″ is probably as good an episode as Dollhouse ever had, but it still doesn’t escape the problem that the entire series was structured around a faulty premise, and it’s hard to believe it didn’t make the ballot out of affection for Joss Whedon’s numerous awards-worthy TV scripts for older, better series.

The less said about the three nominated Doctor Who episodes the better – of the three it’s only “The Waters of Mars” that stood as anything exceptional, and even then it pales in comparison to previous Hugo-winning episodes.

Voting advisory service: “No More Good Days,” then “Epitaph 1,” then, at a stretch, “The Waters of Mars.”

Grant can be found ranting at the Bad Film Diaries, Eiga: Asian Cinema and on Livejournal.

Talking Squid has no hesitation in telling others how they should vote. In this spirit of generosity, we offer the following guide to the Hugo nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

Avatar: Technical brilliance, dramatic but absurd action, cartoon characters, sub-cartoon plotting, and all the originality of a Hong Kong Rolex. Dances with Wolves was a more honest attempt to grapple with the disenfranchisement of natives, Princess Mononoke was a more coherent plea for environmentalism, The Herculoids had more imaginative aliens, and How to Train Your Dragon had better action sequences.

District 9: Extraordinary visuals for its budget and reversal of stereotypes (except for the stereotypical villainous industrialist who is cleverly revealed to be a stereotypical villainous industrialist). District 9 falls apart when its last reel descends into blood-and-’splosions action.

Moon: An outstanding performance by Sam Rockwell and superb production design are wasted on this empty pastiche of 2001, Blade Runner, and The Island. Particularly irking is the number of reviewers who called this “smart.” It is not smart. A lot of effort has been expended to make it look smart, but an idiot in a sharp suit is still an idiot. Moon is the Dan Quayle of recent science fiction films.

Star Trek: Reboots the Star Trek franchise and attempts to change tone from worthy but wooden humanism to cocky action heroics. It succeeds in the task but in its desperation not to think too hard, Star Trek forgets to think much at all.

Up: Superb but very odd movie with a killer of an opening vignette that packs more tragic weight than one expects in a kid’s film. Up is undeniably a fantasy film, but its best qualities have little to do with its fantasy elements. Conundrum: should the Hugo go to the best film with fantasy elements or best use of fantasy in film?

Voting advisory service: Up, then District 9, with the remainder to be ranked according to the quality of the choc top devoured at the cinema.

I am signatory #3039 on the petition to convince the BBC to release The Goodies on DVD. It is no exaggeration to say that the Goodies are an essential part of the Western canon and if the BBC does not release the DVD set, then the terrorists will have won.

“…let’s just say that when it comes to what he told the police, there were lots of little indiscrepancies.”