Glen and I found Good Goods over the weekend and thought it was wonderful. We spent the evening in Saugatuck, West Michigan's artsy/gay/alternative community and between rain showers we hit the galleries. Karen, Good Goods features one of the artists who did a room in that hotel in Iowa we stopped at. At which we stopped. Anyway....
p.s. Loved the Bruce Baughman Gallery too....
Can't figure out how to solve real problems? Take a tip from the Governator: make up your own problem and solve it as a little pick-me-up.
Sigh.
I have a new favorite thing to think about: chimerism. The Discovery Health Channel ran this documentary last week:
I Am My Own Twin - Thursday, May 19, 10-11m e/p In this riveting documentary, cameras follow the stories of individuals who were born with an extraordinarily rare condition. Sometimes in early pregnancy, two embryos fuse together creating one fetus in the womb resulting in a baby with two distinct sets of DNA. In the most severe cases, this can result in a person who is half black and half white, has different colored eyes, and has split male and female genitals. These babies are called Chimeras, after the Greek mythological being who is a hybrid of three different life forms.
What I want to know is how do people who believe human life begins at conception deal with two fertilized eggs becoming one person?
The twentieth century is 'nothing but a theory'
A county in Georgia is following a court order to remove evolution 'disclaimers' from science textbooks . I'm glad to hear that, because it indicates that someone, somewhere is being a bit more reasonable about this.
For those looking for more science ammo in this fight, Scientific American has an excellent list of answers to creationist nonsense. It answers the most common creationist (or "Intelligent Design") misconceptions in a clear, decisive fashion. Yay, science!
UPDATE: Scientific American seems to have moved the article behind their Wall of Subscription, so here are a couple alternate links if you're still interested in reading the whole thing.
Not dead, just getting back from a visit to our nation's capital. Will post a few tidbits soon. This gives you time to read Deb's post below or catch up on your Fafblog.
Obviously we are still living in the dark ages where AIDS is concerned. I mean, the FDA is all about statistics, right? So maybe they should check the current trends on AIDS infection? Here are just a few websites, some newer some older, that belie the FDA's blatant prejudice: world overview/statistics, infection doubles in black population, women's mortality from HIV.
Rant Warning!
I mean, this sends me into apoplectic fits. Where the hell did this come from? What is wrong with current screening processes? Are they having a problem with AIDS infection from AI (artificial insemination)? But no, this is not a rational decision, obviously. This is more from fear and homophobia and based on the current climate in this country. It is part of the backlash -- and intended to create such headlines as "AIDS virus rate higher in gay men." Um, no, people. This is a pandemic and this kind of misinformation and bad press is not helping . . . not by a long shot.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has a fantastic explanation of the Bush administration's 'solution' to the Social Security 'crisis'. In short, both the 'crisis' (reduced benefits starting in 2041) and the 'solution' (reduced benefits starting in 2012) are the same.
The CBPP has kindly provided the numbers to back that up, showing that the President's plans don't even solve the solvency problem they claim to solve. Instead, they create trillions of dollars in new debt for no reason at all.
And you thought nothing odd ever happened in my home town. Apparently there was a rain of shrimp recently, which is the La Jolla version of a rain of fish.
Note to self: don't move to Kansas.
The first [proposal] recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations.
"Part of our overall goal is to remove the bias against religion that is in our schools," said William Harris, a chemist who was the first witness to speak yesterday on behalf of changing the state's curriculum.
I'm personally in favor of teaching the "supernatural theory" that magical pixies inhabit my television and whisper messages to me while they put on fanciful light shows to lull me into a stupor. Perhaps I should write a textbook.
If you're getting tired of this debate (I am), you might like the Fafblog version instead. Ah, humor... eases the pain...
From the Guardian:
Brazil yesterday became the first country to take a public stand against the Bush administration's massive Aids programme which is seen by many as seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence sexual agenda on poorer countries.
In other words, they decided it wasn't worth $40 million to make bad public health decisions. Go, Brazil!
A group called vision42 has proposed making the entire length of 42nd Street in New York City car-free. The existing street would become a pedestrian area with a light rail line down the center.
As the New York Times points out, the idea is not new, but it seems like this time it may have a better chance of succeeding. The group is organized and thorough, and the city is hoping to improve its chances for the 2012 Olympics.
We saw the Hitchhiker's Guide movie over the weekend, as you might have guessed. I liked it a lot, and so did Karen. I can imagine we'll watch it again when it comes out on DVD.
Of course, we also watched and liked The Pirate Movie this weekend, so we're probably not the most stable reviewers around. Read on if you're also a silly sort.
...because a silly frame of mind is necessary to watch this film. If you're expecting a plot, character development, or an ending that makes any sense at all, this is not the film for you. This includes fans of the books, because the depth of a book forced all the silliness to coalesce into something resembling a plot with character development. A movie barely has the depth to do that in the best of circumstances, so a film like this never had a chance. I checked my cinematic standards at the door.
If you haven't read the books, listened to the radio series, watched the TV series, or played the computer game, all you need to know is that it's a silly space farce with a lot of interesting ideas and some seriously zany characters. Think of a cross between "The Muppet Show" and "Men in Black" and you'll have enough information to go on. You can safely skip the rest of this review.
Sam Rockwell is a wonderfully demented Zaphod. (I didn't mind the way they did his second head; I never really got a chance to miss it.) Mos Def is a surprisingly good Ford, injecting just enough weirdness to be alien without being, well, Zaphod. Alan Rickman is Marvin. Zooey Deschanel's Trillian doesn't quite come across as an astrophysicist, but she makes Arthur's love interest believable and the Trillian-Zaphod banter is fun to watch. Martin Freeman does Arthur justice, and I liked that he's less of a total prat than in the other incarnations. You can actually root for this guy without being constantly embarrassed.
The brightest spot in the film was Bill Nighy's Slartibartfast. He's exactly the kind of person you'd expect to be a planet builder: a bit wizardly, a bit geeky, and completely understated about the awesome powers he has at his disposal. If sequels are made (and I for one hope they are), they would do well to feature old Slarty.
The biggest disappointment was John Malkovich's Humma Kavula, a character Douglas Adams created specifically for the film. Unfortunately, it seems like he was created just to give the characters somewhere to go and something to do, because he certainly doesn't add anything else. There 's a running gag about the Great Green Arkleseizure, but it wasn't nearly funny enough to justify a whole section of the film.
The best eye candy is the ship itself. It goes mostly unexplained, from the odd eye motif to the dozens of identical white buttons and levers, but it's beautiful. The Improbability Drive effect is hilarious, and the interior looks like something straight out of Logan's Run. I can't wait to get a closer look at the details once it's out on DVD. The Guide itself is also well-realized, although it would have been useful to anchor it further by showing Arthur access it more than once.
One thing that was made obvious by the film is that there isn't nearly enough time to do justice to the material. Since there's no chance of getting the principal actors together for a TV series, it would at least be nice to see a trilogy completed, assuming they could get someone decent to write the scripts. I wouldn't necessarily want a rehash of the books or radio series, but it would be wonderful to follow these characters again and see them grow. As with the Harry Potter series, later movies could concentrate more on story and character because the main elements have already been introduced. The three together would then be much stronger than the one movie alone.
Anyhow, if I didn't scare you away from seeing the movie, post a comment once you've seen it and let me know what you thought.
In a depressingly unsuprising move, the State of Florida successfully sued to prevent a pregnant 13-year-old ward of the state from having an abortion on the grounds that she's too immature to make the decision. The irony of this would be hilarious if it wasn't so sickening. Fortunately Fafblog can be witty in ways that I can't. For further discussion, see Gibbon's Decline & Fall, once thought to be science fiction.