Just got pointed towards this really cool chart on all the types of planets our telescopes are finding outside of the solar system by I fucking love science.
Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
Today’s sketch debuts my new Canon Pixma MG5420 multipurpose scanner and printer with the “The Exchange of Produce” (yes… really… while it is supposed to be allegorical I’m pretty certain the name looses something in the translation) by Francois Boucher in 1768 from the Seattle Art Museum’s Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough exhibit. It’s a nice example of the pastoral subject matter that was all the rage in the Rococo style.
As I mentioned last week the last time I was there and did this picture, the place was packed and I really couldn’t 
get into my zone so the sketch has some major mistakes with the placement and size of the figures… Though in hindsight and looking at the original again I must say it’s not quite as bad as I remembered.
But only one translator.
Just finished one of my latest distractions of fanart featuring an extremely silly crossover with Song of Ice and Fire and MLP: Friendship is magic.
Well, after being inundated with ads for it on YouTube all day I gave into temptation and checked out SyFy‘s latest show Defiance. SyFy hasn’t really had anything that’s impressed me since Farscape but as I’m always on the lookout for good Science Fiction on television I always dare hope.
Regrettably Defiance will not be the one for me. The pilot was inoffensive enough that I’ll be willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and see how it is once it gets it pace going having gotten the baggage of exposition over with in the pilot, but I have my doubts.
What they promised was an epic story of a community recovering from the ravages of an alien “invasion” and the integration of the seven alien races into human civilization. What we got felt like a cross between Eureka and Deadwood with just about every cliche you can think of… New Lawman with a past… An idealistic but naive and extremely green Mayor.. a cantankerous town Doctor… a hooker with a heart of gold… and oh yeah there’s a conspiracy in the back ground driving the story… the list goes on.
The look of the show is all over the place. Half the time it’s inspired suggesting an interesting future society the rest of the time they’re going for a recycled Mad Max feel. It’s like they trying to have the best of both worlds and end contradicting themselves constantly.
Another little thing, perhaps I am being overly PC, but this had to be the most noticeably vanilla show I’ve seen in a long time. Seriously besides Graham Greene and one of the deputies there were more aliens than non whites.
Anyway here’s hoping what could be an interesting premise rise from this mediocre start and become something good.
During my free time this weekend I was playing with a bit of fan art involving a comical Game of Thrones/MLP: Friendship is Magic crossover. (Yes I know please don’t judge me) which involved the “buzzard” that has appeared in the background in several cartoons. This got me to thinking the representation of vultures in cartoons.
Vultures are usually convenient shorthand for looming disaster and death and this symbolism and humor in American cartoons has continued in figures like Beaky Buzzard in early Warner Brothers cartoons to Sarcophagus MacAbre in Pogo and onward (the one from MLP: Friendship is Magic is a bit of a subversion as while it looks extremely sinister it is clearly one of Fluttershy’s animal friends.) But one thing that always interests me is despite most of these vultures are generally cartoon versions of an old world vulture as opposed to a “buzzard” (a nickname for new world vultures, specifically the Turkey Vulture) for example that ruff most of them probably comes from a Griffon Vulture (though to be fair some Condors have them too. ) The MLP “buzzard” looks a lot more like a Turkey Vulture then most of it’s cartoon predecessors but again they kept the ruff.
The other thing I was thinking about was the use of the word buzzard as a word for an American Vulture. The original meaning (and the meaning that is still in use in Europe) is a Hawk of the genus Buteo or more generally a hawk with with broad wings and a broad tail. Because of this I find myself wondering how “Buzzard”, meaning Vulture, caught on when settlers and taxonomists in the new world would be fully aware of “real buzzards”, like the Red-Tail Hawk, flying around.
Update: After throwing this question around for most of the morning I was pointed towards the Vulture Society Page. Which speculated that since there are no vultures in the British isles (and thus no English word for vulture) the word Buzzard was used by settlers as a catch all term for any large soaring bird.
