Well, it's nice to see that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences have taken a page from the SyFy Genre Awards books and released an expanded list of nominees for some of its top categories.

Not that we originated such an idea, mind you ... but at least it helps some of us not to be too disappointed that we were up at 5 a.m. one day to hear nominations that our favorite show never had a chance to be a part of anyway.

The Emmy short list for outstanding drama and outstanding comedy was released Thursday, and there were some nice genre inclusions like "Lost," "Dexter" and "Pushing Daises." Missing, however, was "Battlestar Galactica," which even though it was expected they wouldn't be a part of the list, they should've been there.

The people over at the Academy are working hard to try and keep up with changing times in television, and this blue ribbon panel to decide nominees and winners of top categories is just one small step in that direction. That's because I think the Academy needs to do far more than this ... they need to recognize that the current system they use was designed when only a few dozen shows were on television, and there's possible 10 times that on now.

The SyFy Genre Awards began voting on June 25 (on time for like the first time in nine years), and there were thousands upon thousands of eligible shows, actors, movies, episodes and so forth to choose from. And we only cover science-fiction, fantasy and horror, which makes up less than 5 percent of the total television schedule out there. Just imagine what Emmy has to go through with the other 95 percent on top of that. That's a lot of nominees to go through, and far too many programs that can't even come close to making the short list.

Some might argue that having such an elite list helps raise the bar. What it really does, however, is turn people off from the awards, making them ready to put the Emmys in the history books and move on.

With so many choices in our own genre, I have been seriously thinking about expanding the SyFy Genre Awards to six nominees, instead of five. We did do six nominees a few years back, but it was just a one-year experiment, and we scaled it back the next year. But it was a very tough choice for our nominating committee in different categories, and I think many of us, if not all of us, wish we could pick at least one more for every category.

So as we consider six nominees for each category, I think it's time for Emmy to consider seven in each of the major categories. Yeah, that's a lot of nominees, but there are a lot of choices out there. Otherwise, I feel that Emmys will do nothing more than nominate the same-old, same-old every year. And yeah, sadly even "Lost" is considered one of the same-old nominees that just burn people out for such pomp.

I know my idea will never get anywhere. Despite changes in recent years, the Academy is one of the most stubborn groups I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in action. They've been doing whatever way they've been doing it far longer than most of us were alive, so just because television and entertainment is changing rapidly, apparently that doesn't really affect the Emmys.

But wouldn't it be nice to at least have a real shot at a nomination for shows like "Battlestar Galactica"? I think so.

SyFy Genre Awards

Voting has begun for the 2008 SyFy Genre Awards! You can vote now by clicking here.

Remember that you will have to put in an e-mail address every time you vote (which you can do once a day until July 25). You should get a confirmation e-mail the first time only. After that, you will need to put in your e-mail address, but you won't keep getting a confirmation e-mail.

Unfortunately, we had nearly 4,000 votes in our first day, and the system bogged down trying to send out 4,000 confirmation e-mails. So if you have yet to receive a confirmation e-mail (only once), please e-mail our site programmer Nick Chase at nchase@syfyportal.

SyFy Radio

We had a great time with Daniel Malen from The TV Addict Wednesday night. SyFy Radio that night was a far more informal show than we've been doing, and mostly because I needed to take a break from all the seriousness and just have some fun, so why not do it with my friend Daniel.

If you missed the show live, you can download it or stream it from the Web site. Just visit BlogTalkRadio.com/SyFyRadio to get all the details.

Upcoming guests include Anthony Pascale from TrekMovie on July 2, Tony Tellado from SciFi Talk on July 9, "The House Between " developer John Kenneth Muir on July 16, and "Star Trek" and "Heroes" legend George Takei on July 23. We'll do a "greatest hits" show featuring highlights of the last few months of SyFy Radio on July 30.

All of our Wednesday shows begin at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and you can always subscribe to us for free at the iTunes Store so that you never miss a show, and can download it to your iPod. Just go to iTunes and type in "SyFy" in the search window, and you'll be directly connected to the world of SyFy Radio.

We'll also have some weekend shows coming in July. We have one planned for July 19 at a time yet to be determined live from Vulkon in Orlando. Among the headliners at the convention include Jonathan Frakes from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Nana Visitor from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." We'll try to have some good interviews to share.

We're also planning on trying to do a show possibly on Saturday or Sunday from Comic-Con International in San Diego the weekend of July 25. I'll be attending this year's convention along with our popular columnist Ed Left.

So don't miss a minute of SyFy Radio!

SyBits

Send your letters to mhinman@airlockalpha.com, and maybe you'll hear them on SyFy Radio, complete with my arcane responses.

Do you like to chat about the SciFriday columns you see here? Then join our message board discussions by clicking here.

Don't forget to listen to me host SyFy Radio, every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET (and available to download for free at your leisure after the fact) by visiting www.blogtalkradio.com/syfyradio. You also can subscribe to us for free at the iTunes Store. Simply log in to iTunes, type in "syfy" in the search engine, and ou'll be connected directly to the show's archive.

If you're not yet a member of our free breaking news/headlines mailing list, then it's not too late to sign up. Simply send a blank e-mail to syfyportal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and enjoy the latest in science-fiction and fantasy entertainment straight to your e-mail box with breaking news and headlines. I promise you you won't regret it!

Rabid Doll is now online! Visit it at www.RabidDoll.com. We also have a mailing list going for that, which you can join by simply sending a blank e-mail to rabiddoll-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Have a great week, and don't be a stranger!

Michael Hinman, a cult leader twice awarded "Best Kool-Aid Drinker," is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at mhinman@airlockalpha.com