Who The Frak Is The Final Cylon?

As Battlestar Galactica reaches its final season, eleven of the twelve Cylon models have been revealed. So who is number twelve? Here's a quick (and highly speculative) rundown of who is most likely to be humming 'All Along The Watchtower' this year.

Bill Adama

He's certainly a big enough fish to be the final Cylon, being the Admiral of the fleet. Suspicions were raised about him back in season one, with Leoben claiming that 'Adama's a Cylon'. On the other hand, the fact that Adama has managed to reproduce would seem to count him out, since Cylons have apparently only recently gained that ability. That is, if Lee Adama really is his son, which leads us to...

Odds: 6-1

Lee Adama

Perhaps the Adama that Leoben was referring to as being a Cylon was the younger one. Otherwise there is not much reason to suspect the new President relative to the other characters.

Odds: 12-1

Gaius Baltar

Baltar has been wrestling with the question of whether he is a Cylon or not ever since his beloved Six revealed that she experiences similar hallucinations. But apart from being too obvious, Baltar would probably be relieved to be a Cylon, and he doesn't tend to get what he wants. Also he is far more interesting as a human traitor than a Cylon conspirator.

Odds: 8-1

Laura Roslin

Hallucinations? Check. Big enough fish? Check. No children? None that I can remember. Religious zeal? Check. Add to that the fact that, due to her cancer, she is teetering on the brink of life and death - an important theme in Cylon lore - and you have a strong candidate for the Toaster Supreme.

Odds: 3-1

Kara Thrace

She is the child of destiny, and that destiny may be to lead the Cylons rather than the fleet. Kara being a Cylon would help to explain her reappearance after it looked like she had died in an explosion. But it would also be guaranteed to annoy a sizable portion of the fanbase (myself included) if the cigar-chomping Starbuck was a machine all along. Some chance, but not the most likely candidate.

Odds: 10-1

Gaeta/Dualla/Agathon/Zarek

All of these fleet members are a possibility. And most of them would fit with the theory going around the net that the final Cylon is not in the above picture. Still, for dramatic effect, it seems more likely that the final Cylon will come from the Big Five.

Odds: 20-1

God

Well, it would give new meaning to the phrase 'deus ex machina', wouldn't it?

Odds: 50-1

My Top Fifty Highlights From Our Trip Through Europe and Egypt - Part Four

20. More proof that history works in funny ways: Tutankhamen was a relatively insignificant pharoah, but he is probably the most famous one today thanks to the discovery of his tomb early last century - the only one found so far that was nearly intact. The treasures of display at the Egyptian Museum include his golden death mask, his inner sarcophagus, his outer sarcophagus, the thing his outer sarcophagus was in, the thing the thing his outer sarcophagus was in was in, the thing the thing the thing ... The death mask and inner sarcophagi in particular look very spiffy, as if they were just constructed yesterday.

19. On one side of Sacre Couer, the side on which we were staying, the area around Montmarte is relatively poor and crowded and full of Afro wig shops. On the other side however, we found a peaceful little hill that overlooks the city. We arrived at Sacre Couer in the midst of the evensong, which was pretty enough to almost make my other half turn Catholic. But just in case the scene seemed too idyllic, there were the street sellers there chanting: 'I must be crazy to be normal...,'

18. Amongst the shops and restaurants of Rome, the Fontana di Trevi seems like a relic from another age. Which it is: who in the age of reduced urban space and global warming would build a multi-level decorative fountain that churns over enough water to irrigate a small farm? The fountain is so grand that you hardly notice the tourists lined along the front, endlessly flipping coins over their shoulders.



17. It is hard to pick a favourite ride at Paris Disneyland, since my favourites all belonged to the 'rollick-along-in-the-dark' genre. Space Mountain 2 was another version of my favourite ride at the LA Disneyland, eschewing the height of its precursor for curves and loops. Rock 'N' Roll Coaster avec Aerosmith was similar, with its highlight being the rapid take-off and loop and a half that immediately follows it, although you do have to listen to Aerosmith. Crush's Coaster is a bit different in that the tortoise-shell carriage fits only four people and spins around on the track, so that you spend a good proportion of the ride travelling backwards. This would be higher on the list but I don't want to reveal what a big kid I am.

16. Italian pizza is a bit different to the pizza we get back home, and is better for it: it is less tomato-based and the cheese is runnier and juicier. By the time we left Rome I was consuming a pizza a day, along with the requisite half litre of beer.

15. A gondola ride in Venice is more enjoyable if you can share the not inconsiderable expense. With four people it came to twenty euros each for a half an hour ride. We spent most of our ride in the smaller, narrower canals, with our gondolier dodging bridges and telling us how best to distribute our weight. Unlike our last gondola ride on the Yarra River, there was no champagne and chocolates to accompany us.



14. The paintings in the Uffizi gallery in Florence can be categorized as thus: Madonna and Childs, Coronations of the Virgin, Annunciations, and everything else. One of the paintings in the last category was Botticelli's excellent La Primevera, which defies both categorisation and interpretation. Overall, it had probably the best collection of art in Italy, with one notable omission...

13. On one level, Avenue Q, which we saw at the West End in London, is an adult version of Sesame Street, with Bert and Ernie-like roommates dealing with homosexuality, a monster that is addicted to porn, and cute little bears that encourage all-night drinking games. However, on another level, it shows how much young, post-college adults have to learn about the way the world workers. And with numbers like 'Everybody's A Little Bit Racist', it's much funnier than ol' Les Mis.

12. I bought 'The White Tiger' from an English language bookshop in Rome, and ploughed through it in a few days, even amongst the sightseeing. Why is India not yet a superpower? Aravind Adiga's satirical novel appears to provide some of the answers.

11. As a wedding present we had high tea at the Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner. The menu was a glass of Kir Royale, a pot of tea (Cinnamon Star in my case), quiche, sandwiches, cakes and scones. A piano player provided the ambience. A most agreeable change from pub food and Beyonce.

My Top Fifty Highlights From Our Trip Through Europe and Egypt - Part Three

30. There is not much to do on the Eiffel Tower, but it does give you a view of the whole of Paris in all its cream-coloured, seven-storied glory. What made it even better was having to wait less than two minutes to buy the entrance tickets (travel in winter, folks!) But Hollywood has lied to us... we couldn't see the Tower from any of our hotel windows.



29. On a cold night in Venice, the warm taste of grappa in our throats was a toasty way to end the evening. Our mischevious waiter followed that up with a complimentary shot of limoncello. You can see why Venice is considered to be so romantic.

28. Provided that you are not claustrophobic, the Cabinet War Rooms of Winston Churchill are worth a look. Many of the rooms are still set up as they were left at the end of the Second World War, giving you a good idea of what life was like at the heart of the British resistance (minus the bombs of course).

27. At the Prime Meridian in Greenwich you can stand with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and the other foot in the Western hemisphere. This would be higher on the list but I don't want to reveal how much of a dork I am.

26. The Doge's Palace in Venice has the grand rooms and pretty ceilings and all the trimmings you would associate with the seat of sovereign rule. But it also has a dark underbelly - the cold stone prisons cells which used to house the wretched souls pf the condemned. The officers' rooms were not much larger or warmer, although at least they would have been high enough to avoid the floods.



25. On the ceiling of the Dome in Florence is a painting of the Last Judgment, with images of Hell occupying the lower circles and images of Paradise splashed across the top. This could be an allegory for ascending the dome itself, as you climb over 400 steps through narrow stone passageways, finally emerging into the blue sky surrounding the roof of the dome, from which you can gaze down on the city below. Fortunately, although the climb was tiring, it didn't take us long to get to the top (travel in winter, folks!) - one can imagine that in summer the hot, airless corridors are filled with the bodies of the damned.

24. There are two thoughts that we had when we saw the head of the colossal statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine:

I) How freakin' big must the statue have been?! (10 metres tall apparently)
II) Big heads are cool!



23. On the subject of all things old and big, Constantine had nothing on the Egyptian pharoah Rameses II, who erected four giant statues of himself outside the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. The mountainous temple is fascinating for two other reasons: first, the carvings inside, and second, the fact that it was moved from its original site to avoid being swallowed up by the nearby lake. On the downside, it's a hassle to actually go out and see the thing - it's three hours drive through the desert from Aswan, and you have to join the tourist convoy by 4am in the morning.



22. Having seen the colossal David in Florence, we were prepared to be similarly overwhelmed by Michelangelo's other ultra-famous work, The Creation of Adam, which lines the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Instead, our immediate reaction was 'where the hell are we? are we in the right place?' - turns out it is just one of a number of panels that run across the length of the ceiling. Once we got over that surprise, however, the paintings were quite beautiful to look at. Also in the Vatican Museum was Raphael's 'The School of Athens', which shows various famous Greek philosophers - it must have been the ultimate in nerddom during the Renaissance.

21. Seeing the Roman baths in Bath inspired us to have a thermal spa of our own. We were lucky enough to get the room to ourselves, which put a crimp on my business dealings, but gave us free rein to whack each other with the foam 'noodles'.

My Top Fifty Highlights From Our Trip Through Europe and Egypt - Part Two

40. You know you are on holiday when you are sitting by the port of a Greek island (in our case, Aegina) sucking down cheap beer. For us, this had the added bonus of avoiding the riots that were going on in Athens that day a few blocks from our hotel.

(On the subject of Greece, one might wonder why, when this list is done, the Acropolis did not crack the top 50. While we did see the Acropolis, it being on a hill and all, when we got to the entrance we were greeted with a sign saying that, due to a strike, the archaeological site would not be open today. Lousy Greek labour...)

39. Best restaurant we went to: Inn The Park in St James Park, London. More expensive than we are generally used to, but well worth it.

38. Only once did we hail a London cab, but it was a revelation in what late-night transport could be. Although we didn't need the room we could have fit a small drinking party in the back, and the driver actually knew where he was going. And the cabs, with their sleek black beetle-like design, look far more elegant than the yellow people-pushers we see back home. They are almost an excuse to go out drinking in themselves.

37. I don't know what Sally Lunn puts in her buns but they sure go down well, particularly with a chicken, bacon, cheese, and mayo filling (and potato crisps on the side). Surely someone should be making a fortune off that recipe if nobody is already. Bath isn't that remote.



36. The Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice is an interesting building in itself, with its multi-dome roof and detailed ornamentation. However, its real highlight is the balcony upstairs, from which you can look down at the square on one side and out at the sea on the other.

35. The Arc de Triomphe stands as a monument to the battles fought by the Frenchmen of yore. More fascinating though are the modern-day battles being staged on the roundabout that surrounds it - several cars wide, no lane markings, cars on the right turning left, cars on the left turning right - it's an interesting study in how order emerges from apparent chaos. (Of course, in Cairo every intersection is like that, however, you enjoy the sight less when you have to walk across it.)



34. In Luxor I finally got to suck on a sheesha pipe. What makes it so relaxing? Is it the tobacco? Is it the minty flavour? Nope, apparently it's simply the act of breathing deeply in and out. Typical Egypt - charging you for something you should be able to do for free.

33. While wandering around Paris, trying to find St. Germain Boulevard, we stumbled upon what appeared to be the Latin quarter. Whatever it was, it was the trendiest part of Paris that we saw - a collection of narrow streets filled with various cuisines, jazz clubs and bars with lengthy 'happy hours'. If I go back to Paris, I intend to seek out the Latin quarter and spend a bit more time there. That is, if that was the Latin quarter.

32. The Roman Forum is less notable for what is there than what is not there; over the centuries the Romans have dismantled the ancient city, leaving only shards of what was once the hub of the Empire. On a cold, rainy day the scene seems even more desolate - shattered, lifeless buildings left to the elements. As I looked down upon it from the Musei Capitolini I was reminded that most things, no matter how great, disappear eventually.



31. The Basilica of Saint Peter, and the plaza that lies before it, were much larger than we imagined, dwarfing even the major churches that we had seen. Its high ceilings seemed like they were designed to make you feel small in comparison to the might of the Catholic church. In contrast, the tomb of the last Pope, John Paul II, was relatively modest.

My Top Fifty Highlights From Our Trip Through Europe and Egypt - Part One

50. I picked up a pack of Fluxx cards at the markets in Greenwich. What is Fluxx, you ask? It's a game in which the rules and goal of the game change depending on which cards are played. With five or six players, it becomes a convoluted frenzy. With just the two of us for most of the trip, it served to pass the time.

49. The dodos haven't been wiped off the face of the earth - there are a couple on display at the Natural History Museum in London. And they look every bit as dumb as you have been led to believe.

48. The two sweetest words in the Italian language and 'quattro formaggi' (four cheeses). Probably the only thing stopping me from ordering it wherever I went was a concern about my long-term health.

47. The Chateau de Versailles was the house of the royals at the time of the French Revolution. While the place itself is imposing enough, what makes it really memorable is the enormous estate on which it is situated. In an effort to escape the grandeur, Marie-Antoinette had a house erected on the estate that was aimed to return her to the simple life. She failed.



46. Walking through the streets of Paris and London re-inspired me to absorb the entire canon of European literature... but I only ended up reading 'Tristram Shandy' instead. The back of the Penguin edition of 'Shandy' (not the one I bought) describes author Laurence Sterne as being 250 years ahead of his time. The postmodern tropes are there - the meshing of disparate texts, the problems of language and narration, the frequent reflexivity - but it can be tiring to read, with Shandy the narrator taking his sweet time to get anywhere. An entertaining book, but one for which I found it best to skip chapters judiciously.

45. Rough Trade West in Notting Hill, London, is a cool little record store, albeit one that completely baffled me with its layout. A vinyl collector would have a great time in there, given its eclectic catalogue. As it was, I picked up a New Order disc, a compilation of early US punk tunes, and the new Bon Iver album (Rough Trade's #1 record of 2008).

44. The highlight of the Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt, is the Great Hypostyle Hall, which contains a forest of large stone columns, each with its own particular carvings. (As you may already be able to tell, 'large' is a major advantage when it comes to cracking my highlights list.)



43. The introduction of the euro has made one of the hassles of travelling through Europe - changing currencies every several hundred kilometres - considerably more bearable. Now if only the UK could get with the program...

42. The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is a smorgasboard of pharoahs' tombs, although the standard entry ticket only allows you to pick three of them. Each of the tombs we saw was quite different in its layout and design. My favourite was the one in which the rooms are connected by narrow, slanting shafts, and the walls were decorated with what seemed to be the antecedent of the comic strip.



41. We went to the Musee d'Orsay on our first full day in Paris, so by this stage all that is left to me are only impressions. I do remember seeing the Renoir painting that is on my mother's coasters, as well as the green-skinned Van Gogh portrait and a bunch of Monets, Cezannes and Pisarros. Perhaps I will see a reproduction in a cafe or dining room somewhere and it will jog my memory. For now, it's mainly a blend of bright green trees, washed-out streets, and petal-faced Parisians.

My Favourite Paintings From Our Trip Through Europe

10. Michelangelo Buonarotti - Holy Family



Most of the paintings of the Madonna and child had the baby Jesus planted firmly on Mary's knee, often surrounded by adoring onlookers. Only Michelangelo's Virgin seemed to be saying 'Here, go and annoy someone else for a while.'

9. Joseph Wright - An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump



A chilling portrait of the conflict between reason and emotion, science and nature - the old man sagely explains to the two young girls why the cockatoo is about to have the life sucked out of it, while the expressions of the rest of the party are a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and horror.

8. Georges-Pierre Seurat - Bathers At Asnieres



If I was sitting on Seurat's beach, I'd be thinking, 'Yeah, that's the good stuff.'

7. Jacques-Louis David - The Coronation of Napoleon



David's painting is so huge and life-like that you almost feel as if you are there, witnessing Napoleon's ego in all its splendour. As Lauren pointed out, the pope looks mightily 'pissed off' that Napoleon has gone and crowned himself.

6. Raphael Sanzio - The School of Athens



In the days before fantasy sports, Raphael had to content himself with creating an all-star line-up of Greek intellectuals. And as a true fanboy, he even painted himself in the corner.

5. Eugene Delacroix - Liberty Leading the People



My favourite painting from possibly my favourite painter. After seeing it in the Louvre I wanted to smash the windows, spray-paint the ceiling, and start flogging masterpieces left and right.

4. Sandro Botticelli - La Primevera



'The Birth Of Venus' is simply pretty, 'La Primevera' is both pretty and utterly confounding. Why are those three chicks dancing? What is on the cheek of the girl that is being chased? What the hell is Mercury doing there? It's like the product of some sort of free-associating, partly deranged imagination.

3. Nicolai Abildgaard - The Wounded Philoctetes



This is one guy you do not want to mess with.

2. Roy Lichtenstein - Whaam!



Lichenstein took an otherwise innocuous comic book panel and made it a high-impact image of mid-air conflict. More paintings should have sound effects, don't you think?

1. Theodore Gericault - The Raft of the Medusa



Welcome to hell... The waves are crashing, the sky is burning, and the doomed sailors are reaching for salvation. I first saw this image on the cover of The Pogues' album, 'Rum, Sodomy & The Lash' - the original version, sans Pogues' faces, is awesome.

The Top 25 Most Played Songs On My iPod for 2008

Category 1: Old Songs That I've Been Waiting To Download Off iTunes

1. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Cockney Rebel & Steve Harley
2. Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
3. Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) - James
4. Rikki Don't Lose That Number - Steely Dan
5. Dani California - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
6. Summertime - The Sundays
7. In The Meantime - Spacehog
8. Umbrella - Rihanna
9. Wide Open Road - The Triffids (my most played song for 2008!)
10. Sister Surround - The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

Category 2: New Songs That I Downloaded Off iTunes

11. L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold

Category 3: CDs That I Bought/Had Copied For Me This Year

12. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
13. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) - The Arcade Fire
14. So Haunted - Cut Copy
15. Electric Feel - MGMT
16. Weekend Wars - MGMT
17. Lost! - Coldplay
18. Golden Skans - The Klaxons
19. Shark Fin Blues - The Drones
20. I'm Amazed - My Morning Jacket
21. Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Category 4: Songs On CDs That I Bought Long Ago That I Haven't Grown Sick Of Yet

22. Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
23. Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead

Category 5: I Like Rod Stewart's 'Every Picture Tells A Story' - Bite Me!

24. Maggie May - Rod Stewart
25. Mandolin Wind - Rod Stewart

The Finger Points Outwards - No.16

How did Barack Obama beat political heavyweights Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Well, maybe he should be thanking the writers of The West Wing.

Another view, also from the Telegraph.

And another view, from the Brooklyn Rail.