Jeff's Super Happy Funtime Blog

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Internet Fails to Answer Sci-Fi Trivia Question

Count this one as a news story. After being asked to settle a bet, I spent a good hour one-on-one with Google, only to be left unsatisfied.

The Question: Did Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the human-dirigible antagonist of Frank Herbert's Dune, have a heart plug? Only the most devoted sci fi fans of the venerable Dune franchise will have even the remotest clue of what I speak. But this was the question I was asked to settle. It's not that I am a devoted fan of Herbert -- I must confess to having read only the first book of the saga. I do, however, possess an almost-religious belief in the ability of the Internet to answer any question. Certainly one such as this, which was both a) trivial and b) sci-fi related. Could I, with out resort to alt.fan.dune (that is, without actually asking the experts) find my answer?

After wrangling with search terms, scanning fan sites, and perusing multiple drafts of the film script online, I was left with a few facts. According the the script for David Lynch 1984 film adaptation, Alia stabs the Baron with the Atreides gom jabbar, then pulls out the plugs of his suspension suit. No mention in the script of a heart plug, although the Baron earlier says, of the Harkonnen court, "we all have them here." Not, apparently, Feyd (played in the movie by Sting) who is shown bare-chested sans plug, and whom the Baron describes as "perfect." Now, fan speculation seems to suggest that, since heart plugs are essentially a means by which the Baron and his ilk exert control over their subjects, surely a Harkonnen noble would not be so encumbered.

The only authoratative answer, of course, would come from the novel. How many people keep one at work, though? We did have my recollection of the SciFi Channel miniseries (2000), which is generally accepted to truer to the book than Lynch's film. In that version, Alia pulls no heart plug, and the cause of death is indisputably the gom jabbar. On returning home, I searched for my copy of the book, only to remember it being put in storage with a load of other paperbacks. The answer will come in time, no doubt, but that's not the point. I have become accustomed to immediate answers. I have become used to being the modern incarnation of the Renaissance man: I at least know where to look for any scrap of knowledge I could possibly desire. If I don't know where to look, I don't know enough to want to look. The glorious thing about technology and the Internet n particular is that tomorrow is another day, and my faith will no doubt be renewed.

8:59:23 PM

By Way of an Introduction...

This blog exists mainly as a matter of convenience -- as a place to post links for the internet content I am likely to reference in conversation during a given day. Dennis Miller comes with a reading list; I come with a set of links -- if only because I assume you've already read everything on the reading list. Otherwise, why would I be talking to you?

Anyway, it became a bit cumbersome to send out individual emails to all the people I had spoken to in a day, each with its customized list of links. Thus, the inevitable blog. Consider it the Cliffs Notes, Syllabus, Endnotes, and Cheat Sheet all rolled into one.

Here are the basics: the things we should all be reading on a daily basis:

There are other references we'll need to share, and I will post them as they come to mind or work their way into my comments here. Any of these will be a far better source of knowledgeable, insightful commentary on technology, gadgets, software, and other stuff than this blog. Plus, you wouldn't have to put up with my political rants, observations about fatherhood, and other life stories.

Of course, if you are interested primarily in the personal stuff, you'll want our family blog at www.familyliss.org. If you, like my lovely wife Zina, have an uncanny memory for pop-culture gossip (who's dating who and what movie they're making together) and want to keep your mental database up-to-date, you should be reading defamer.com.

With all that being said, and a hearty warning about taking anything I say too seriously, here we go:

6:14:22 PM