Those of you that have heard the Dark Tower episodes of the podcast, know that I really enjoy the theoretical science that goes into it. One day, whilst pondering another MIND = BLOWN episode of StarTalk Radio, I got to thinking about the Tower, and how a scientist would view these various things. On a whim, I decided to shoot an email off to, none other than, the Director of the Hayden Planetarium and world renowned astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. To my surprise, he did a short email interview with me regarding the topic! I am so excited to bring you this interview! Dr. Tyson is a man that I look up to greatly, even as a lowly hobbyist of astronomy and physics. What follows is that interview, and I will say it again, MIND = BLOWN! Is there anything this guy doesn’t know?

Matt Jacobs: In the novels, human kind manages to perfect time travel to the point of allowing corporations to build “doors” to other times and offer trips to different times as, what amounts to, vacations packages. If the human species is ever capable of time travel, is this something that you could see happening? Will Google, one day, be sending people to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001 or Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, as it is suggested in the book?

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson: It’s been morbidly rumored that the Titanic sank because when the first time machine was invented, everyone wanted to go back to the Titanic and watch it sink, which overloaded the ship – creating the real reason why it sank.

Provided you could not interact with the past that you witness, there’s no reason why these could not become quite the vacation package.  Historical Voyeurism.  If you interacted with the past you could inadvertently change the future, possibly preventing two of your ancestors from meeting one another, setting a series of chain-linked events leading to your non-birth, preventing you from being born and going back in time to interfere with your birth.  That’s why a policy of non-interaction would be best.

MJ: The two previous examples are popular answers when it comes to the “if you had a time machine…” question. I highly doubt that, should time travel ever be an actual possibility, it would be applied in such a way. Could you give some practical examples of what time travel would be used for, by the scientific community, or is Killing Hitler it? Not that I am saying that wouldn’t be a valuable use of time travel.

NDT: An historian friend of mine told me that the British had a sure-fire plot to kill Hitler, but chose not to because they realized that his Field Marshals were far more competent as military commanders than Hitler was.  Combine this with Hitler’s interest in pseudoscience and the occult, and the Nazi regime was sure to implode on its own. So it’s not always obvious that killing someone, or saving someone in the past is the “right” thing to do at any one time.

In science, we keep such good records of our work through journals and other publications that we don’t need to travel back in time to clarify one point or another.  What would be interesting is if there were no Dark Ages, and science, as we now practice it, began in the year 900 rather than 1600. Then, today, we’d be 700 years farther into our technological future.  That would be an interesting, but possibly dangerous experiment to conduct.  With great scientific advances requires enlightened governance.

MJ: Keeping with the story line, and considering that time and space are connected, would time travel be governed by the “Outer Space Treaty” of 1967, therefor making it illegal (according to US Law) for any “private business interests” to be applied? Since space is considered “global commons”, would that also apply to time?

NDT: No laws prevents private business from being conducted in space.  What modern treaties prevent is ownership.  Time travel is a kind of space travel.  You have never been at a place except for at a time.  And you have never been at a time except at a place.  So treaties of conduct are always in reference to space and time simultaneously.

MJ: In the Dark Tower novels, the protagonist, Roland Deschain, is able to cross over into other “dimensions” and time streams to collect his band of travelers that will accompany him on his journey to the Dark Tower, which is the nexus of not only all space, but also of all time. Again, in the event that time travel is ever created/perfected, do you think it would ever get to a point where people could have a portable unit for personal use? Is there an app I can get for my iPhone?

NDT: Portable Space-Time portals, would indeed be cool, if there were one in every home and merchant and attraction in the land.  But I’m reminded of some comments made upon demonstration of the telephone in 1876.  In particular:  ”I foresee a day when there’ll be one of these in every city.”

It’s not clear whether the space and time to which you transport will require a device like the one you used to get there for you to be received and for you to return.  Airplanes, for example, require airports and runways on both ends to complete the trip.

Currently, our best understanding of backwards time travel comes from the control of a (currently inaccessible) staggering amount of mass-energy to curve the fabric of space and time in such a way that certain planned trajectories allow you backwards through time.  That amount of energy rivals the sum of all energy produced by all hundred-billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy.  Meanwhile, currently, the best we can do is dig fossil fuels from the ground to power our civilizations.

MJ: This question also applies to the last bit of story line. Considering the universe is ever expanding, and everything in the universe is moving away from each other, that implies, not only a time of origin (the big bang), but also a PLACE of origin. Is there currently research being conducted to find such a location within the universe as we know it? If so, are their plans to build a large, black tower in that spot where one could travel to other “dimensions” and/or time streams?

NDT: The center of expansion in space exists in a dimension higher than our own, and is therefore not accessible to us. That’s like asking a balloon-person, who lives on the 2D curved surface of an expanding balloon,  ”Where is the center of your expansion?”  It’s not on the balloon at all.  It’s in a third dimension away from the 2D balloon surface.  So if we up everything by a dimension, then we would just need to travel perpendicular away from our three spatial dimensions, back toward the expansions beginning.  But this coordinate is not accessible to any of us since we are prisoners of three dimensions.  We can locate the beginning of expansion in time, however. That was 13.7 billion years ago.  The time of the Big Bang.

MJ: I’m going to take a leap here and assume that time travel and dimension jumping is still a little out of reach, at this point. In your opinion, considering all the technology that has been inspired by science fiction in the past, are there any sci-fi gadgets out there that you would like to see someone get to work on developing? If I’m wrong about time travel and dimension jumping being out of reach, feel free to correct me and let me know where I can order a teleportation device or Portal gun.

NDT: I loved the technologies showed in the recent film Prometheus.  The flying spherical laser surveyors, the automated medial operation pod, the holographic map on the ship’s deck.  That story takes place about 70 years in our future, so all these things should be within reach.  And yes, you should probably give up on the portals for now, and possibly forever.

I want to send a BIG thank you out to Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson for doing this interview with me. This was an amazing interview for me! I have included links below, should you be interested in finding out more about Dr. Tyson and the things he does. Check out his books and the StarTalk Radio Podcast!

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson:  Hayden Planetarium | StarTalk Radio | Twitter

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson Books:  Amazon |  Audible | iBooks

Posted by: Matt Jacobs

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Stitcher Code: STEPHENKINGFAN

Check in to the Stephen King Fancast on GetGlue!

On this episode of the Stephen King Fancast, Shaun Collins and I discuss “Eyes of the Dragon.” Shaun is one of the hosts of a Doctor Who Podcast that I am a big fan of called Travelling the Vortex. He and his cronies, Glenn & Keith, also host a blast of a time, in which Wholigans (my made up word for fans of Doctor Who) all sit down at the same time on Friday nights and watch a set episode(s) of Doctor Who and share the experience with each other via Twitter. I’ve joined in for #FridayNightWho on a couple of occasions and think it’s really a great way to chat with other Who fans that I otherwise would not have met! Should you be a Doctor Who fan, or interested in getting started, then check out the Traveling the Vortex podcast!

Traveling the Vortex: Site | Facebook | iTunes | Podcast RSS | Twitter

Music for this episode of the Stephen King Fancast Provided by

Intro/Outro: Aiming for Aurora – “The Waystation”   Site | Facebook | iTunes | Twitter

Song Break: Paul and Storm – “Write Like the Wind”   Site | iTunes |Twitter

Purchase “Eyes of the Dragon”: Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo

You know her as the blossoming braided sweatheart, Beverly Marsh, but guess what else she’s been doing??

To be perfectly honest, she’s changed so much since IT that I didn’t recognize her in any of the rolls that are listed on her filmography when I watched the movies.  Once I knew it was her, though, I wasn’t at all surprised.

In 2006, she stole the show (for me anyway) in She’s The Man, also starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Bynes, a modern take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  Her geektastic lines and overt love of cheese leave the impression of slightly creepy virgin loner geek who watches WAY too much porn.  Wait, is there such a thing??  Don’t worry though, she gets her guy in the end.

Then, in 2007, she surprised me yet again by taking the small but incredibly memorable role of the Punk Receptionist in Juno.  I laughed so hard at her one line that I nearly choked and I’ll definitely never look at pie the same way again.

Most recently, she’s been on a few episodes of Supernatural, a show I’m sad to say, I don’t watch, so I cannot comment.  At least she’s keeping busy.

Posted By: Luanne

*Editor’s Note* While grabbing these videos off YouTube, I discovered that Emily has a LOT of fan generated videos that just show pictures of her set to emo music… #LilCreepy

I’m pretty sure everyone is familiar with Seth Green, even if they don’t know it. He is the voice of Chris Griffin in Family guy,

He is the creator of Robot Chicken,

here’s a collection of scenes from the Austin Powers movies in which he played Dr. Evil’s son, Scott

The above video is, of course, a scene from “IT” in which Seth Green plays Richie Tozier! All together now… “WOAH! That was THAT dude?” Yes it was. I also want to throw out there, since there is talks about “IT” being remade, I think Seth Green should play the part of “all growed up” Richie Tozier this time around. What do you think?

Related Posts: WOAH! That was THAT Dude? – Wil Wheaton

Posted By: Matt

“Survivor Type” was originally released in the 1982 horror anthology “Terrors,” but was re-released in King’s 1985 short story collection “Skeleton Crew.”  The story follows the diary of surgeon Richard Pine, a.k.a. Richard Penzetti, that has fallen from grace. Dr. Pine becomes marooned on an island in the Pacific while trying to smuggle a bunch of heroin into the U.S. from Thailand… is anyone else thinking about Damon Lindeloff or Eddie Dean? Just me?

The story is written from the perspective of this survivor’s diary. I really enjoy this writing style which also makes me think of the end of “Carrie” and the “Jerusalem’s Lot” short story (the precursor to “Salem’s Lot”) from “Night Shift.” The diary acts as a chronicle of a man’s descent into insanity as he begins to cannibalize himself to stay alive, using the heroin he was smuggling as an anesthesia for his self mutilations.

As I said, there is currently a short film adaptation in the works, and you can see the trailer for it at the top of this article. The production team is using IndieGoGo to try to raise funds for this project, so please contribute to this project, if you can. They are only trying to raise $1500.00, and they are already over half way there!

“Survivor Type” IndieGoGo Page

Purchase “Skeleton Crew” on:  Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | eBooks.com | iBooks | Kobo

Click the picture to see the full size

Luanne Sent me the link to this and suggested I post it. So here it is.

All credit given to Gillian James at Tessie Design. Well done!

Original post on their blog

Check-In on GetGlue

The podcast is back! It’s been a long time coming since Mevio shut this podcast down (read more about that here) but it’s finally back! I am still bitter about the shutdown, however, so feel free to Tweet your hate to them on my behalf. >:)

On this episode, I am joined by  the Director of  the “Willa” adaptation, Christopher Birk. We discuss the “Willa” short story from “Just After Sunset,” and the making of Chris’ film adaptation of “Willa.” Should you be interested in finding out more info on the film, you can watch the trailer below and visit the Official Website, at Alphatree Productions.

Also, I did an interview with Christopher on this blog a few months back, so feel free to give that a read, if you like, by CLICKING HERE.

You may have heard me talking about current Facebook woes on the podcast, and here is the link to that article.

Thanx to Aiming for Aurora for providing the intro/outro music for this podcast. Thanx to The Doubleclicks for providing their song “The Internet National Anthem” for use as break music on this podcast! You really should go show both of those amazing bands your support by clicking over to their sites and buying some songs and/or saying awesome things to them! You can shoot me an email if you want to submit music for me to use on the podcast. Please include links to your preferred sites.

With everything that happened at Mevio, you will have to resubscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Zune. Those links are available below.

Subscribe to this podcast:  iTunes | RSS | Stitcher | Zune

Purchase “Just After Sunset”:  Amazon | Audible | iBooks

This is a screen grab from Facebook. I am an admin of this page, and Facebook wants businesses to now pay for the people who have already “Liked” that page to get updates in their news feeds. This new update has not yet been implemented across the board, but it is going to be. There is a bunch of more info on this topic over on AlwaysUpward, who have gone through the motions to figure out a work around. You can read that series of 2 articles by clicking here if you want to make sure you continue receiving updates via Facebook. It is a pretty convoluted series of steps, and it may be easier to set up a Twitter. Your call.

That being the case, I want to take a minute to let you know that the Facebook page will still be in existence, but I am going to use it a lot less. I will send the posts to Facebook still, but only about 10% of you will see the posts in your news feeds. If you want to see all of the posts that go up on this blog, then I suggest you subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for an account with Google+ or Twitter. Twitter is my preferred method of social networking, and probably the most accessible, so that is what I suggest. Links to our other social sites can be found at the top of this blog in the sidebar.

Understand that Facebook is backing all of its “Page” users into a corner with this move and it is out of our hands.  I apologize for any inconvenience, but if I wanted to pay Facebook for people to see my posts, I would run an ad. As I said before, this new functionality has not yet been implemented on all pages, so I’m trying to make you aware of it before I have to start paying to make sure you see it.

Thanks for your attention to this matter,

Matt Jacobs

Stephen King’s “The Colorado Kid” from Hard Case Crime

“Joyland” is going to be released by Hard Case Crime, the same imprint responsible for releasing “The Colorado Kid” in 2005. I really enjoyed The Kid, as I call it, and was looking forward to a new Hard Case Crime release from Stephen when I first heard the rumor that he would be releasing a new one.

According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor,

“Joyland” will follow a college student named Devin Jones who works at a carnival in North Carolina during the 1970′s and learns of a past crime and a child whose time may be running out.

Stephen King plans to release a new book in June of 2013,  as a paper book only. This surprises me as King was one of the first major authors to start releasing ebooks. Also, does this mean no audiobook? As a fan of audiobooks and as a person that does almost ALL of my reading on an iPad, this is a little upsetting. Here’s a quote from the press release:

I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favorites. I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book. -Stephen King

That’s all the info, for now. I will post links to pre-order as soon as they become available. Should you be interested in reading “The Colorado Kid”, here’s some links to grab a copy.

The Colorado Kid:  Amazon | Audible | iBooks | iTunes Audio | Kobo

Posted By: Matt Jacobs

This review has been a longtime coming, but not nearly as long as this book has been. As a fan of the Dark Tower series, any amount of time is too long to wait for another adventure with the Ka’ Tet. That being said, it should be pretty obvious that this is a good review.

First off, let me start by stating that this review is a review of the book in its audiobook format. Some would say that there’s no difference… I know some that would argue that point (looking at you Honk ). I KID! I KID!

*NOTE* IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THROUGH THE DARK TOWER SERIES, I SUGGEST YOU STOP READING THIS NOW. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS OF MOST OF THE BOOKS THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEW, AND I DON’T WANT TO RUIN IT FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT THIS FAR DOWN THE PATH YET, IF YA KENNIT.

*FURTHER NOTE* AFTER WRITING THIS REVIEW, I REALIZED THAT THERE ARE QUITE A FEW REFERENCES TO OTHER THINGS WITHIN POP CULTURE AND NERD CULTURE THAT ARE NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO THE BOOK. I USED THEM IN THE NAME OF HUMOR. SORRY IF THESE ARE LOST ON YOU, BUT I AM REFUSING TO OMIT THEM BECAUSE THE PEOPLE THAT GET THEM WILL LOVE IT.

When I heard that there was a Dark Tower 4.5 in the works, I was elated and frightened in the same moment. I was elated because I would be allowed  to “Follow the Path of the Beam” once again, I would get to hear that Towerese once again and I would get to pay a visit to 4 long-lost friends (and one that was only lost to himself) once again. I am 100% positive that I was not the only person that felt this way. I am just as confident that there were plenty of people who were concerned that the story would be too much. That it would mess with the perspective of the characters that we have all come to know and love. This book was meant to fill a gap that spanned, something to the effect, of a couple of weeks time, in story. What sort of new developments were we going to see our beloved Ka’ Tet go through? Would this ruin future aspects of the book? What effect would be had on the series, as a whole? All GREAT reasons to be concerned. That was what frightened me.

I know a lot of my King Media counterparts released reviews of this book early, because they pre-ordered that special edition that shipped out early. I did not, simply because I should not be trusted with early release Dark Tower stuff. I know I would spoiler it for everybody. So I elected to wait. I have not read any of their reviews, as of yet, and I’m sure they understand why. I want a clean slate walking into the story. It has also taken me this long, because I may have gone about it differently. A couple of months before “Keyhole’s” release, I started the Tower series from the beginning, and let Keyhole fall right into its new spot in the universe. After I finished Keyhole, I continued on with the rest of the series and finished it out. I did this simply to see how well it fit into the overall story. I am not sure if Bob, Bryant, David or Joe (Kingcast, Honk Mahfah, Talk Stephen King and Discordia 19 podcast; respectively) did it the same way, but that is the angle that I wanted to have on this story as a fan. It just so happens to work out well as reviewer’s perspective.

I am going to come at this in a couple of ways:

1. What I think of the story, as a person that is familiar with the already existing Dark Tower story line
2. How well did it drop into the series?

The Review:

Amazing! This book allowed me to go back to mid-world and hunker around the campfire (in this case a fireplace) with characters that I consider VERY near and dear to my heart. I got a little signature something that I was expecting from each member, including a little bit of Detta’s language, that I hadn’t realized I’d missed.

This book is essentially a story, that tells a story, that tells a story. Once again, Roland guides us through a small portion of his past (immediately following the death of his mother that we heard in “Wizard & Glass”) with the tale of how he dealt with the skin-man, a shape-shifting creature that Tower fans will know of, but not know. He is telling his Ka’ Tet the story in the same fashion that he told them the story of Mejis, Susan Delgado and the pink ball in “Wizard & Glass,” which, as I imagine, is mostly told, but has telepathic slideshow qualities as well. Apple people might refer to it as “Mirroring”… No? OK then.

The setting is that there is a very specific storm, called a Starkblast, that is about to settle right on our Ka’ Tet’s shoulders. So Roland barricades the group into an abandoned stone building, so they can ride it out. To pass the time of the storm, Roland tells of the skin-man that he had to deal with. The fast forward version is that he and Jamie DeCurry, back before the world had moved on, are sent out to a mining town called Debaria (awkward…) to deal with the skin-man, who has been terrorizing the locals. The problem is that no one knows who the skin-man is. It could be anyone! Shortly after arriving in town, a gruesome series of murders happens out at one of the farms. They go to investigate, and find a single survivor, a young boy named Bill, who lost his father in the attack. He reveals to Roland under hypnosis that the perpetrator has a blue ring tattooed around his ankle. Roland decides to take Bill to town and put him in a jail cell. This is for his own safety, as Roland plans to parade every man in town with a similar tattoo right past Bill’s cell so he can identify the man. Bill tells Roland that this idea scares him, and Roland tells him to be brave like Tim Stoutheart. Well, Bill doesn’t know who that is (neither does the Ka’ Tet of Roland’s current when, and neither do we)  so Roland pauses the tale of the skin-man to tell the story of Tim Stoutheart.

Much like little Bill, (“Ka is a Wheel.” Do ya’ not kennit?) Tim is also a young boy that has lost his father, in this case, to a dragon. Tim’s father, obviously, was not a Dovahkiin… JOOR-ZAH-FRUL! #GamingReference On top of the loss of his father, the Covenant Man (tax collector) was due to come around soon. Tim’s mother decides to marry her former husband’s woodcutting partner, Bern Wells, so they can pay their taxes. Adding insult to injury, Bern turns out to be the type that enjoys a drink or two too many and then comes home to beat his wife. When the Covenant Man shows up to collect, he secretly gives Tim a magic key that will open any lock, but then becomes completely useless. Tim immediately think of his new step-dad’s trunk that Bern is so fond of. He waits until Bern is gone and opens the trunk and finds his father’s medallion, which should have been burnt up by the dragon’s breath. He then goes into the forest and finds the Covenant Man and tells him what he has found. The Covenant Man, more for sadistic pleasure rather than justice, allows little Timmy to discover his father’s body in a nearby river, confirming that his father wasn’t killed by a dragon at all. In all actuality, Bern had killed him to get at his wife. When he gets back to the Covenant Man’s campsite, the Covenant Man shows Tim a vision in a tub of water like he’s Dumbledore or something. The vision is of Bern discovering that his trunk had been tampered with, accusing his new wife of messing with his stuff and then beating her blind for it. After the Covenant Man relays a little info, Tim goes back home to check on his mom. The next morning he rounds up a posse to go after Bern, telling them of the murder of his father and beating of his mother. Tim, relying on some intel from the Covenant Man, goes off on a quest to find some magic that will restore his mother’s site. After he has his own run in with a dragon, Tim receives something like a GPS system, called Daria (LA LA LAA LAA LA) from a tribe of slow-mutant mud men. Daria guides him to a Dogan in which a caged tyger awaits him with the key to the Dogan looped around its neck. With a Starkblast fast on his heels, Tim befriends the tyger and lets him out of his cage. Tim and the tyger enter the Dogan and ride out the storm under a magical blanket. The next morning, Tim awakes to find the tyger has been replaced by the great wizard of legend, Maerlyn, who had been transformed to the tyger by black magic. To repay Tim, Maerlyn gives him a potion that will heal his mother’s eyes. He returns home and cures his mother’s blindness. Bern, who still hasn’t been captured by the posse, enters the house with the intention of killing them, but is slain by Tim’s mother first. That is the story of Tim Stoutheart as told by Roland to Bill.

It is found out that the blue ring tattoo is common amongst the miners, so Jaime goes and rounds them all up and, just as planned, parades them passed the cell that Bill is in. Bill identifies the skin-man, which transforms into a snake and kills two people before Roland can shoot and kill it. On their way out-of-town, Roland and Jamie take Bill out to Serenity, the same place where Roland’s mother had lived for a while after her affair with Marten, and the woman their adopt Bill. I wonder if they ever told him stories of a spaceship manned by a ragtag group of outlaws, running around the verse having all kinds of shiny adventures. Probably only a few before they were cut off horribly short, long before Bill was ready for the stories to end. #DAMNYOUFOX!

When we rejoin our Ka’ Tet, the storm has ended and so has story time. They pack up and head off along the Path of the Beam.

Part of the Series:

This actually fits pretty well into the series. I do have a couple of complaints, but I think they are solid complaints and deserve a voice.

1. Considering Roland’s character is that of a man of little words, doesn’t two entire books of, what comes to, Roland telling everyone stories seem a little strange? Those two books are back-to-back even!
2. Why didn’t the people of the Calla experience the Starkblast? I understand Wolves was written first, the point is that it seems like this book might have added some continuity errors to the full story arc, as well as, filling in the missing story of the skin-man.

On the positive side:

1. Oy becomes a much stronger character in this book because of the Bumbler’s ability to sense when these Starkblasts are coming.
2. When Odetta and Detta merged to become Susannah, that transformation happened pretty fast. Detta was almost squished out of existence completely with Odetta being the dominant personality there. I mention that because I think Susannah’s little tirade of swears for something as simple as getting dirty was amazing. It allowed the reader to see that transition period a little bit. Detta got the best of Odetta and over-reacted letting out an impressive string of curses.
3. The story of Tim Stoutheart also does a good job of showing that transitional period between “before the world had moved on” and “moving on” that happened in In-World. The Covenant Man was a sign of how the world was moving on, yet the appearance of Maerlyn was a sign of the magic that still existed in the world.

I really enjoyed the stories in this book! Stephen King took few short stories, which he has ALWAYS been good at, and managed to mash them up to make a novel that is compelling and moves the over all story along. Great book!

Purchase “The Wind through the Keyhole”: