How Hard is This Really?

I mean, just talk to your kids. They're kind of important. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as them. And they make funny noises when you blow raspberries on them.

Here's the article that prompted this thought, although I just read the first part before mentally throwing up my hands in dismay:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/health/29brod.html?em

Call of the Year

This is too funny. Usually I find Mariners' announcer Mike Blowers annoying but apparently on Sunday he turned clairvoyant. You need to listen to both audio clips in order to understand what's going on. Oh ... and make sure your volume's turned down for the second clip ...

http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=374&sid=218287

TV Review: The Lost Room

The Lost Room is a 6-part miniseries that showed on SciFi (now SyFy) network, and its real title should be Lost for People Who Don't Have Time for Lost. It's got a similarly interesting premise and of course isn't nearly so convoluted or referential as Lost but in the wait till January for the final season, this miniseries fills in the "weird TV show" slot nicely. And it's only 4-5 hours of watching to commit to. The first hour is actually a bit weak but it really picks up steam with the second hour, when the "rules" by which the several "objects" operate begin to be combined in really interesting ways. The show was like a good comic book, very plot-driven and if anything a little thin on the characters but if it took more time on characters it'd be more than 6 hours long, now, wouldn't it?

Some have complained that it's great till the very end and I can't figure out quite why. The end is a little bit stock, but there's some things about it that are different that I liked. The ultimate "reason" for the strange happenings isn't explained, but it's an open universe. The character arcs are all nicely tidied up, which is really all you should expect.

So -- it takes about as much time as watching 2 long movies, and it's more inventive than most. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Empire of Illusion

All through this book I was trying to think of where I had heard of its author before. Then in the final chapter he admits, "As I was writing my book American Fascists on the Christian Right ... " and everything fell into place. This screed, at times spot on but just as often over the top and vague, was written by the same fellow who used to be a foreign correspondent and now likens conservative Christians to fascists. I'm glad it took me that long to figure out why his views were so extreme, because I'm well aware of his previous work and I may have listened a bit less if I knew he was the type not to really listen to conservative Christians. I'm not all that conservative myself but I am tired of those on the left who will not really listen to them/us. And Hedges is one of those.

So this book is a mixture of easy targets, good honest jeremiads, and old liberal tropes dressed up in the latest news of Spring 2009 when the book apparently went to press. In the past few months things have turned around enough -- while they are still shaky -- that the apocalyptic pronouncements in the last chapter about the coming systemic collapse ring hollow, although, he's right, you never know. I just find the book format to be too unresponsive, and the last chapter itself colors the rest of the book as not taking the long view.

An outline of the criticized institutions:
1.) Wrestling/television/celebrity culture: I thought the comparison of celebrity worship to ancient gods is actually useful and helpful, and there were some things I didn't know about wrestling, but you know, I really don't think the "uncensored" episodes of Jerry Springer are anything but the most extreme edge of TV ...
2.) Pornography: The thrown-away too-old actresses are the angle here, and the absolute abuse that is endemic to the industry. Probably the most-agreed with chapter on my part, although the repetition does get absolutely sickening. I think a stronger theology of sin and the body would strengthen this chapter.
3.) College: Even Berkeley's too hung up on football. Well, there is a reorganization of priorities going on right now, and if it's not a real re-org, colleges will go the way of the newspapers. But I have hope that there's lots of things we do better than anyone else in this area.
4.) Positive thinking: Now that Dan Brown has revealed he is on the side of the "positive thinkers" I am absolutely sure I'm against it. Some useful observations in Hedges chapter but also an easy target.
5.) Politics: By the time he started quoting Nader extensively I started reaching for my David Brooks as an antidote. The good-to-not ratio was way down in this chapter and the citations of Spring 2009 data way up.

So Jeremiads are always readable, but not always right. I really wish this had more about where to go with all this beyond three pages about love tacked on the end. Too many times it doesn't offer an alternative after trashing what rightfully should be trashed and the end is downright alarmist. Hedges, you had me for the first half but then you lost me. Too bad, because I think if you'd stop calling them fascists that the church would agree with you on quite a bit. Up until you get to decrying elites while at the same time deploring pretty much everyone else in politics. Isn't that a bit elitist?

St. Elmo's Fire 30K Feet Up

Patrick Smith in his airplane column on Salon.com posted a link to this picture of what St. Elmo's Fire looks like to an airplane pilot. Check it out!

(He reiterates that, yes, it does actually look like that.)

The Lost Symbol Spoiler of All Spoilers

So I haven't read Dan Brown's new one, The Lost Symbol, but I've read several reviews and can tell you it's probably a valiant effort but will not match The Da Vinci Code in societal impact. Which, um, I also have not read. But in my field you trust others to run experiments and report the results. I've read the reviews of three different reviewers and also the Wikipedia plot summary and that's amusing enough for me.

By the way, Laura Miller's review in Salon.com is by far the best review as in most informative and most appropriately skeptical of Brown's entire philosophy.

Since I think any readers of this blog have better things to do than to read 500 pages of Dan Brown's writing, I just have to pass on the cornerstone of Brown's theory this time, the secret Word of Power that characters are pursuing through Washington DC. So don't read if you don't wanna know. Straight from Wikipedia, here is the Word:

With the night's events over, Peter decides to show Langdon the true Word. He shows Langdon that it is hidden in the cornerstorne of the Washington Monument, and that the Word is actually the Bible. Peter reveals that the true Ancient Mystery is in fact the realization that people are not God's subjects, but in fact possess the capability to be gods themselves. Once they realize this fact, they will open the gateway to a magnficent future.

So Dan Brown reveals his Gnostic roots again. "Go ahead, eat that fruit, you surely won't die, you will know good and evil and will be like him!" This is just as wrong as the Da Vinci Code, but it appears to be hidden so deep this time that hopefully most people will just skate on by it. Still ... sigh ...

Living in a Lego House

Would it be a Bungal(EG)ow?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210206/James-May-set-live-Lego-house.html