Freak Nation

Featured Content

• posted 06/01/2007New Opinion/Editorial Piece
  Atheists “Versus” Believers?
  The atheists, the rationalists, and the Brights are pissed off, and they’re fighting back against the forces of “Intelligent Design”, public prayer, and superstition. But they’re in real danger of going too far, and the freak community itself could easily become fragmented over issues of faith and belief. Skeptics and mystics can easily remain allies, if they realize that the important thing isn’t what you believe, but what you think should happen to people who disagree with you. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.
• posted 05/05/2007New Video Review
  Spider-Man 3
  Sam Raimi and the Spider-Crew couldn't keep up the high level of the first two movies forever, but the third installment is still entertaining and enjoyable. The action, effects, and storyline are all solid, but the emotional interactions that form the core of the Spider-Man mythos are off-kilter, and it shows. A movie review by Aldyth Beltane.
• posted 04/29/2007New Video Review
  Hot Fuzz
  Since 2004's Shaun of the Dead breathed new life into the zombie genre, we’ve been waiting for a redux by its creators. Now they’ve returned, with a satirical take on Hollywood-style cop/action/buddy movies. While Hot Fuzz isn’t quite up to the high bar set by Shaun, it's still eminently enjoyable. Part homage, part parody, and thoroughly entertaining, it blends action and humor seamlessly.

Freak News

Here’s the most recent news off our “All the News That Interests Freaks” ticker. If you want stuff from further back, check out our full news section.

• posted 07/08/2008General News
  Hans Reiser Abandons Innocence Claims, Leads Police To Grave
  Abandoning his claims of innocence, computer scientist Hans Reiser led police to a shallow grave containing the remains of his wife, Nina. Throughout his trial, Reiser had maintained that he was innocent, using a “misunderstood geek” tactic that sometimes strained credulity. Reiser’s attorney says he now wants “to put some resolution to the whole thing and improve his posture with the case and bring closure to the family”. Reiser is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow. He was previously best known as the creator of the ReiserFS file system, one of many file systems for Linux.
• posted 07/06/2008General News
  “Bisexual” Dating Site Ejects Transgender Customer
  Prominent bisexual dating and personals site BiDatingNow.com recently deleted the account of an openly transgender site member,stating “as a transgender, our site would not meet your needs. I am afraid we have to remove your profile”. The site is owned by TangoWire, a general dating-site operator whose sites range from gay and lesbian sites to motorcycle riders and ethnic affinity groups. TangoWire personnel reiterate that “transgender is not one of the options we provide, and we don’t provide that as such”, but would not give a reason for the exclusion.
• posted 07/04/2008Science News
  Punk Robots Pogo For Science
  A group of scientists and artists working together have built a trio of robots that recognize punk music and respond to it by pogoing. According to one of the project’s scientists, each robot’s brain (consisting of a neural net) “was played lots of punk, reggae, disco and classical and over a period of time the robot has learned to recognise and appreciate the patterns of sound in punk music”. The robots, adorned with spike-laden leather straps, anarchy signs, Union Jacks, and punk band logos, stay in one place on the dance floor, simply pogoing up and down. The linked BBC story includes video of the robots in action at a series of punk gigs at the Institute for Contemporary Arts — a situation one scientist describes as: “real-time signal processing and robotic control in a fairly hostile environment — in a mosh pit with lots of sweaty punks.”
• posted 06/30/2008General News
  Don S. Davis Dead At Age 65
  Actor Don S. Davis, best known as Stargate SG-1’s General Hammond, has died of a heart attack following a prolonged illness. Davis, a native of Aurora, Missouri, was 65 years old. Having served in the United States Army during the 1960s, he was no stranger to military roles, including Twin Peaks’ Major Garland Briggs. Davis also had a second career as an artist.
• posted 06/28/2008TV/Movie/DVD News
  Dark Knight Tickets Selling Out Already
  Wired and Fandango warn that action, comic, and Heath Ledger fans are already snapping up tickets to early showings of The Dark Knight, the second movie in the new, rebooted Batman franchise. Directed by Christopher (“Memento”, “The Prestige”) Nolan, the movie is Heath (“Brokeback Mountain”) Ledger’s last film before his recent death from a drug overdose. In addition, one box office analyst points out that “This movie comes in riding a wave of hype [Batman Begins] didn’t”. The movie is scheduled to premiere on July 17th.
• posted 06/01/2007Editorial
  Atheists “Versus” Believers?
  The atheists, the rationalists, and the Brights are pissed off, and they’re fighting back against the forces of “Intelligent Design”, public prayer, and superstition. But they’re in real danger of going too far, and the freak community itself could easily become fragmented over issues of faith and belief. Skeptics and mystics can easily remain allies, if they realize that the important thing isn’t what you believe, but what you think should happen to people who disagree with you. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.
• posted 12/14/2006Editorial
  “FUD” Has Become Meaningless
  Once, the term “FUD” actually meant “disinformation used as a competitive weapon.” But legions of open-source partisans and programming-language fanboys have mangled the term out of all recognition, until it’s become a completely meaningless snarl word. It’s time we let this word die a merciful death, and instead use language that actually means something. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.