Let's remember the fiction in science fiction

I can't help but be amused at seeing Doctor Who fans get together and complain about a temporal paradox in the show as if it were a violation of Newton's laws. Which, incidentally, are looking a bit wibbly-wobbly themselves these days to those who are paying attention. Seriously folks, you're essentially treating a fictional trope* as if it were scientific fact. Because the scientific rules of time travel have been so clearly established.

The truth is that real science contains numerous concepts to make your head hurt all on its own. Aristotle probably would have thought resonance was a romantic fiction and that's not even an advanced concept. That's one of the fabulous things about science: the more we learn about the universe the more interesting it becomes. Not less. I think it's entirely possible that a universe that can allow for the existence of a Möbius strip can deal with a little logical burp in the time stream. Assuming it even remotely resembles a stream at all.

*This is not to say that philosophers and even physicists haven't seriously discussed the issue, just that discussion can only cover the logical aspects. We really haven't even begun to plumb the scientific rules for time itself. The idea that a temporal paradox absolutely can't happen is a concept we've absorbed from fiction.

The earworm has it in for me

Right now I hate Richard Evans with the white-hot ferocity of the heart of the TARDIS. "Who is Richard Evans?" you're probably asking - I know I had to look his name up so that I could curse him personally. Richard Evans wrote that one-hit wonder "In the Year 2525" (sung by the duo of Zager&Evan to complete your useless triva education). The last two days I happened to have been processing a purchase order numbered 2525 and I can not get that song out of my head. At one point yesterday I actually started to sing - quietly, mind you, but still out loud.

This is not as bad as several years ago when I read the novel Scaramouche. Due to other things going on in my life at that time it took me weeks to finish that book and yes, the entire time, several times a day, I had "Bohemian Rhapsody" running through my head. Remember how often it was played after Wayne's World came out? That's nothing compared to what I went through.

Tell me about some of your more memorable earworms.

Just my usual Friday night geek-out, nothing to see here

OMG CAPSLOCK IS NOT ENOUGH TO PORTRAY THE MAGNITUDE OF MY SQUEE!!!

Uh, I mean, yes, I thought "Utopia" was quite pleasant indeed. But it's not as if I wanted to lick the TV screen or anything. And those strange noises I kept making were because I had a, I was being poked. By mischievous invisible brownies. Busy, busy, industrious bastards, those brownies.

What do you mean you don't believe me?