Iron Sam

Discussing Snakes on a Plane in an MTV "Movie File" Story, Samuel L. Jackson offhandedly remarks he'd like to play Tony Stark in the upcoming Iron Man -- but he doesn't think he'll get it. Instead, he suggests he might have a shot at Nick Fury.

I wouldn't mind seeing the latter, but I don't think Mr. Jackson should count himself out of the IM race too quickly. As far as I know, Jon Favreau hasn't definitively cast the part, yet. Sam's body of work proves that he can play Stark's complexities as well as the iron Avenger's larger-than-life bravado. Some contributors to Favreau's IM group seem to think an unknown should play the part. That worked fine for characters like Punisher, but Iron Man wants to be an Armageddon-sized, summer movie. That sounds like a Sam Jackson vehicle, to me.

And as for Nick Fury? Tommy Lee Jones.

Love that Crazy SoB

Sure, Richard Branson redefines "eccentric millionaire." He transcends it. He's cartoon character, or at least, he's about the craziest SoB with the money to be dangerous. But if you believe in the adventurous spirit of the human race -- or if you've ever daydreamed about being Han Solo -- you've gotta love Virgin Galactic. And if you love this beautiful green planet, you've gotta love the idea of flying jet liners on biomass:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10066397/

HAL-9000's Grandmother

Apparently oblivious to the lessons of Clarke & Kubrick's 2001, NASA is working with Xerox to develop a voice-recognition / speech-browsing application called Clarrisa. They say the want her to be able to discern commands from background chatter and conversation, so astronaut's needn't get her attention by saying "Computer," a la Star Trek. Thing is, if I recall correctly, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry never sent Captain Kirk outside the ship to fix an antenna.

Passing the Buck

In the wake (?) of the Erie County budget crisis, we find out County Comptroller Nancy Naples has been consistently late in paying her county property taxes — as much as a year-and-a-half late, going back to 1998.

According to the Buffalo News, Naples says she didn't know her taxes were past due because paying the bills is her husband's job. "I just think it was carelessness, on his part," the News quotes her as saying (emphasis mine).

Let's forget, for a moment, that Naples reviews and oversees fiscal matters professionally. Forget that she was elected to make sure that monetary obligations are met. That it's her whole job.

What truly troubles me, is that her path of political expediency runs right over her matrimonial vows. Passing the buck is bad enough; passing the buck to one's spouse is unconscionable.

Fifty Large for the Fountains of Paradise

Encouraged, one supposes, by the success of the Ansari X Prize, NASA and the not-for-profit Spaceward Foundation have established a $50K-per-year, Space Elevator Tether competition. The project, Elevator.2010, promises to unequivocally determine the technical feasibility of a Fountains-of-Paradise-style space elevator in the next five years.

Obviously, this is some cool news for Arthur C. Clarke fans -- particularly on the 60th anniversary of "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," the Wireless World article in which Clarke predicted geostationary communication satellites. Could the premise of his 1978 novel, replacing rocket launches with a 36,000-kilometer elevator, come true, too?!

I like the Foundation's tone in answering that question: we'll definitely know, whether yea or nay, in five years. I have to wonder about their approach, though. Sure, encouraging private exploration with a cash prize is a fine idea, as Burt Rutan will attest; but remember, the $10M X Prize only covered a fraction of the cost of SpaceShipOne. Had Virgin Galactic not licensed the technology for its rich-kids' thrill ride, there would have been no real ROI.

So, will there be a Richard Branson for Elevator.2010? Is there a commercial application for the Fountains of Paradise project?