Giant Freakin Robot

As Halloween approaches, the weather grows darker and gloomier, and The Walking Dead occupies televisions everywhere, you can be forgiven if your mind turns to thoughts of the undead. Those of you concerned with an impending zombie plague have probably given some serious amount of thought as to what to do when the dead rise from the grave. Perhaps you have a shopping mall, prison, or other secure location all picked out for when things go down.

Some of you, however, would likely prefer the comfort of home when fending off an army of brain-eating zombies. If you are of this school of thought, this handy-dandy infographic has some useful tips for home safety.

Not that these two men weren’t already legends in their day, but with the passage of time, the iconic statuses of both Ray Bradbury and Groucho Marx are now gargantuan. For the two to come together for a segment of You Bet Your Life, it almost feels like a squandered opportunity to create something larger. Damn you, passage of time, for not letting me appreciate things for what they are.

The year was 1955. The fresh-faced Bradbury was still a young man in the science fiction world, with only two novels and three short story collections out. But since those two novels were The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, it’s safe to say he was a success. The cigar-chomping Marx was no longer the movie star he once was, hosting a game show which, in his own words, was something only washed-up actors did. But You Bet Your Life allowed Marx to do what he did best: spend an ample amount of time ad-libbing corny, though always witty, asides with guests. (Just like Family Feud allowed Richard Dawson to utilize his talent of placing his lips on anything with a vagina.) Enjoy it for yourself.

A year-long trial came to an end yesterday for seven Italian scientists, engineers, and officials, all accused of not reacting strongly enough in the aftermath of a series of tremors that struck the L’Aquila region of Italy in early 2009, killing over 300 people. These men were arguably doing their jobs haphazardly by not creating a countrywide panic to alert citizens of any future deadly earthquakes in an area that is already frequented by seismic activity. But that’s because no one wants their country to be in a panic, and because no one can assuredly predict the chances of a future earthquake with smaller quakes as the only form of evidence. Facts like these did not stop Judge Marco Bill from reaching a guilty verdict in just four hours. The charge was “multiple manslaughter,” and the sentence was six years in prison.

These men, all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, did not force everyone in the area to stay in their homes and bury their heads.The men did not gain access to dire information regarding an impending earthquake, only to shield it all from becoming public knowledge, thus endangering the population. I’m not sure what kind of evidence was available that qualified a manslaughter charge in the first place, but without any proof of malicious intent, how does “guilt” even come into it?

This may be a glimpse into our future. A few days ago, NASA showcased two galaxies that were, through time, in danger of merging into each other to become one single galaxy. With the passing of eons, the two galaxies have “made the beast with two backs” and now share a name, “NGC 2623.”