Tear down the wall (or build more of them)

Conditions: Overcast, rain, gloom. Basically, the worst parts of the bible.


Taking a play from the Israelis, the Americans recently decided to construct a wall around a neighborhood in Baghdad. Unsurprisingly, it didn't go down too well with the Iraqis, who actually don't want their country converted into a prison any more than they want it converted into a smoking hole in the desert.

“We denounce the building of the wall, which will increase the sectarian rift,” said Um Muhammad, a teacher in Adhamiya. “We demand that occupation forces should remove it, and not to build any similar wall in other areas.”

On Sunday, the spokesman for the American military in Iraq sought to allay criticism of the project and explain its intent by saying that it was meant to be only a temporary barrier to improve security.

The military does not have a new strategy of building walls or creating “gated communities,” the spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said in a written statement. He described it as a tactic being used in only a handful of neighborhoods and not an effort to divide the city, much less the country.

However, American military officials said last week in a statement that the Adhamiya wall was “one of the centerpieces of a new strategy.” They also said that the wall was aimed at separating Sunni Arabs in Adhamiya from Shiites to the east.

Try again, America. Article here.



Anti-intellectualism entertainment

This may surprise you, but a lot of films recently have been, well, not of the too goodness, let's say. Film critics, real ones, are starting to rattle their cages. Jeremy Smith of Chud writes a pretty good overview here.

This is why real film critics, even the ones who haven't seen a Mrinel Sen movie, matter more than ever. In an age when it's in no one's interest to make quality motion pictures so long as the numbers check out prior to pre-production, somebody who still gives a shit about this medium has got to, er, stand athwart film history and yell "Stop!", because the progress currently driving the industry is lowering the mainstream's standards for entertainment to a depressing level.

Riffing on movies

Ever felt like watching a bad movie, but you couldn't be bothered to think up lame insults as you watched? Yeah me neither. But proving yet agian that there is not one itch someone on the internet can't scratch, a site exists that lets you download audio files that will insult away at your film, while it plays! Wow, truly we are as gods.

Rifftrax.com




Alien Planet! (!)

On Tuesday, a team of European astronomers announced that they had not only found a new planet circling a comparatively nearby star in the constellation Libra, but that that planet is unexpectedly Earth-like. Like Earth, it orbits a comfortable distance from its sun; like Earth, it maintains a surface temperature somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Most importantly, like Earth, it could easily harbor surface water. In the biological arithmetic we know best, warmth and water often equal life.

(from Time.com)

Well isn't this exciting? Okay, not really. I think it's important to note that this planet (I shall call it "Bob") is 20 light years away. I.e: it might as well be fictional as far as we getting to it is concerned. Some are saying that because the star it orbits is older than our own, a civilisation on the planet may be more advanced that us. Surely we would have picked up their CNN by now if that were the case? I just don't want everyone getting their hopes up again, like with that whole 'Canals on mars' thing a while back. All it is is a rock in space so far, people. Let us not go building spaceships just yet.

Even if we could visit 581c, there would be reasons to wait a bit before we light the rockets. For one thing, just because the planet could have liquid water doesn't mean it does. The body was detected like all extrasolar planets initially are, not by direct observation, but by measuring the infinitesimal gravitational wobble it causes in its home star. We won't get a clearer sense of its makeup until its orbit carries it in front of the star and the brief interference in the wavelength and intensity of the incoming light allows us to make some inferences about its composition. This will also tell us if the planet has an atmosphere and if it is thin and wispy like Mars's or suffocatingly dense like Venus's — neither of which promises good things for the kind of life we're most familiar with.

Related: Bookies lower odds on ET.

utvlive.com

Bookies have slashed ET's odds after scientists announced the discovery of a new Earth-like planet that may harbour life.

William Hill said it had shortened the odds on proving the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence from 1,000/1 to 100/1.

Spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "We would face a possible eight figure payout if it were to be confirmed that intelligent life of extra-terrestrial origin currently exists.
[...]

Scientists at the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life) Institute in the US plan to listen for intelligent signals from the star system.
"The older the star is, maybe the greater the chance that it has produced something that`s clever," said SETI spokesman Dr Seth Shostak.

Holy crap! That means a $1 bet would bring in..... er..... 100 bucks! Time to empty out all the loose change in the car. Screw the stock market, This is how I'll make my fortune.




Relative

According to people in the know, the star Antares in the constellation Scorpius is roughly 3.8 astronomical units in size. But what does this really mean. Well the folks at rense.com have put together a few images to put it in perspective. Try not to go insane.

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm





Vader balloon



There are no words.



Film Review: Flyboys

Welcome to the hoary old days of World War 1. We are in France, near the front lines with the first fighter pilots, so naturally we focus on a bunch of Americans who are Here To Save The Day.

This film irritated the piss out of me. Think of any possible cliche concerning young American fliers in WW1 and you've got this film. Nothing is left to chance, every possible bit of sentimentality is hammered home with the subtlety of a bus, crashing into another bus, then exploding. Twice. This was a great opportunity to tell a terrific story about what it was like in the skies of WW1, but it's wasted by a weak, cliched script, poor acting and stereotyped characters, including the Germans who are all identical unshaven teeth-gnashing bastards. It simply doesn't pay enough of a tribute to the skills these pilots developed, their bravery and their sacrifice. The only highlights are the C.G sequences featuring vintage machinery in action. One and a half crosses out of five.



Film Review: Sunshine

Here's something really different. The trailer looked good, and the film delivers. Danny Boyle has created a sci-fi space-travel movie that focuses on the humans, and uses the technology only as a background to the story. On paper, it doesn't look good: The sun is dying. and a team is put together to fly a 'stellar bomb' to the sun in the hopes of restarting it. Truckers in space, again, some more. But don't worry, it's actually a crackingly good story about a bunch of people stuck in a confined space with a mission to carry out. The sets are gritty, the characters are well-rounded, and the tension gets cranked up nicely. In the end, it's a satisfyingly emotional, and even spiritual film, that hits all the senses. Four stars out of five.




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Busy, Busy, Busy.

Conditions: Hot and sunny.

In amongst the general chaos of work this week, it occurs to me that, even though it's obvious, I should point out that while the Virginia Tech shooting is a tragedy, it is easily trumped by the tragedies happening in Iraq every single day. So while the news networks continue to investigate the lone gunman, and memorials are conducted over the victims, and we await the inevitable magazine articles, tv interviews and feature documentaries on the subject, let's keep a little perspective. Is this a tragedy because a lot of people died, or is it a tragedy because it happened in a part of the world that "it's not meant to"?

"In the worst of the bombings Wednesday, a car packed with explosives exploded at an intersection in the Sadriya neighborhood that serves as a hub for buses traveling to the Shiite district of Sadr City. The blast killed at least 140 people and wounded 150; incinerated scores of vehicles, including several minibuses full of passengers; and charred nearby shops, witnesses and the police said.

Mr. Maliki said in a statement late Wednesday that he had ordered the arrest of an Iraqi Army officer who had security oversight in the Sadriya neighborhood. As rescuers thronged the site, a sniper opened fire on the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding two others."

Posing no threat

The American military, in all their glorious and far-reaching wisdom, wish to expand their (flawed) missile shield so as to protect themselves from the Iranians. In order to do this, they have to set up missile sites in Poland. In order to do that they have to convince NATO that the shield poses no threat to them, and in order to do that, they have to calm Russia.

Russia's permanent representative to NATO said Thursday U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe will change the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

"Of course, Russia believes this is a change in the strategic balance of forces in our common region," Konstantin Totsky told journalists in Brussels.
[...]

He said he hoped American experts would prove to Russia the necessity of deploying missile defense elements in Europe.

Apparently, the Americans are going to prove that a missile system placed in Eurpoe could pose no concieveable harm to a European nation. And how are they going to do that, you ask?

Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said Tuesday that in order to ease Kremlin's concerns, Washington was ready to allow Russian experts to inspect the likely missile site in Poland to show that it posed no threat to Moscow.

Oh, an inspection! Yes, because viewing the missiles in their launch tubes should prove once and for all that said missiles can't hit anything the computers don't tell them to hit. And malfunctions aside, these things are programmed to do what they do, so ipso facto the programs could be changed in the blink of a transistor. Frankly if I was Russia I'd have a vodka or two, and not trust the Americans either.

Link



Robot carnage

Hey, what would it have looked like if the Nazis had sent a giant mechanical man to attack the Americans during WW2? Don't bother firing up your imagination circuits, Marco Spitoni has made a short CG movie that brings the awesomeness. Link here

Peace out, bitches.

Then I will blog in the shade

Conditions: Sunny and windy.


Mayhem in Iraq

Which is about as odd as finding out water is wet. But a suicide bomber somehow got into the 'green zone' in Baghdad and blew up a cafeteria at the Iraqi parliament. On the BBC World Service, a reporter chased down local Iraqis for comment, and got answers along the lines of "well, the democracy was a load of crap anyway, and we've still got no electricity, so screw them." The fact that someone could get into the 'safe' green zone with a bomb is amazing. The response to it, fascinating. I guess it's akin to the survivors of a crashed airplane being asked if they care that the black box has a crack in it.

BBC news

NYTimes



Peekaboo on Mars

The enigmatic cydonian face on mars has been spotted again, this time by the HiRISE Orbiter camera.




Hmmm. With each level of detail the face is looking more and more battered. Interesting that they don't seem to take photos of the five sided pyramid, or the thing that looks like a village. Go here.


Film Review: 300

A long time ago, in a kingdom far away, Robert Rodriguez made Sin City, a noirish little epic based on, and looking like, a comic book. It made a bit of money, and it turns out the writer of that book also wrote a few other gritty epics, and here's the next. 300 doesn't pretend to be anything other than an excercise in style and volume, and in that sense it is a triumph. Colors and shapes are lovingly drawn across the screen, and everything is in service of a hyper-realistic style. As long as you understand that this is not a realistic depiction of a moment in history, you'll have a load of fun. The actors surely are, with the Spartans the very definition of the word, and the bad guys chewing the computer-drawn scenery every chance they get. Every now and then we're distracted with a scene set back at home, with the senate arguing over politics, but they're over quickly, and the good stuff, the spectacle, can continue.

Some might say, and many have, that a film that is all sizzle, with no steak is a failure. But I think the meat of this film lies in the simple ideas of strength and stubbornness, and not in the dramatic machinations of the characters found in other epics. King Leonidas is doomed from the start, as are all his brave men, and the film is a simple walk down a stylish last mile. The whys and the whens are left to history books, should anyone care to find out. A film is not meant to be a documentary, it's meant to be an emotional outlet, that's why it only lasts a few hours. Four arrows out of five.



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Mmmm. Sacrilicious....

Conditions: Hot

Oohhh, lordy. Outrage has erupted over the above sculpture of Jesus, the first superhero, set to be exhibited in Manhattan for Easter. It's easter already? And the religious' cup runneth over: not only can they be outraged over a statue of their lord being made out of chocolate, they also get to be outraged over him not wearing any clothes! Oh the foaming anger of indecency! Let the waves of rhetoric begin:

A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir (ed: heh!) of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.

The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, said Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director. Semler said he submitted his resignation after officials at the Roger Smith Hotel shut down the show.

The six-foot sculpture was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing," Semler said. "They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions."

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display." Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

Oh come on, Bill! What about the crusades? Or does that not count since it was against, you know, the 'darkies'? I guess it's only an assault if it's against you and not someone else.

The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.

"In this situation, the hotel couldn't continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety," Semler said.

Yes because nothing represents the Christian spirit quite like threatening to kill a guy for wanting to express himself in chocolate. This is the problem with the keepers of the moral flame in America: they're too busy getting worked up over the wrong damn thing. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.


Serendipitous.

All my life, I've wanted to have a moment where you walk into a large store and have the P.A system announce what the store is, just as you enter. Just like in the movies where, for eg, Wesley Snipes walks into the Museum of Natural History and the PA system says "Welcome to the Museum of Natural History." Well finally it happened. Just as I entered a store today, the PA system announced what the store was, and directed customers to feel free to ask for help from the staff. Yes!



Film Review: Ghost Rider

Mark Stephen Johnson's previous directing challenge was Daredevil, a film about a blind lawyer with sonar who took revenge on evildoers at night in the city of New York. That film had a certain grittiness to it that made it somewhat work. That grittiness is gone from his new film, Ghost Rider. A man becomes the unwilling bounty hunter for a demon, and tries to use his powers for good. It's kind of goofy, mostly thanks to Nicholas Cage, but with something this crazy, it really needs to take itself seriously in order to work. If you're looking for a lightweight flick about a guy with a flaming head who rides a burning chopper, finally it's here. Two flames out of five.



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