What could happen if the cosmos throws a rock at us...
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
A minor outrage
Tip to Ross Douthat at The Atlantic for this story highlighting changes over time to the Oxford Junior Dictionary.
Usually, I feel progressive but this is one of those times that I feel downright reactionary. OK, so they have a limited number of pages (and therefore words) and need to make some choices about what to include. Fine.
But it's a sad day indeed when words like 'newt' and 'clover' are put to pasture in order to make way for 'voicemail' and 'committee.'
'MP3 player' had best not get too comfortable. They've already removed 'diesel' (diesel!) which has carried its meaning for less than 120 years.
Sigh...
Original Telegraph article here.
Usually, I feel progressive but this is one of those times that I feel downright reactionary. OK, so they have a limited number of pages (and therefore words) and need to make some choices about what to include. Fine.
But it's a sad day indeed when words like 'newt' and 'clover' are put to pasture in order to make way for 'voicemail' and 'committee.'
'MP3 player' had best not get too comfortable. They've already removed 'diesel' (diesel!) which has carried its meaning for less than 120 years.
Sigh...
Original Telegraph article here.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Fall to earth
This is my favorite footage of the meteor that landed in western Canada:
I can hardly imagine the fear and wonder in seeing something like that in person.
Did they find the impact zone yet?
I can hardly imagine the fear and wonder in seeing something like that in person.
Did they find the impact zone yet?
Friday, November 14, 2008
Shaken, not stirred
A couple weeks ago at work, someone asked, "Who was the best suited for playing the James Bond?"
a. Roger Moore
b. George Lazenby
c. Sean Connery
d. Timothy Dalton
e. Pierce Brosnan
f. Daniel Craig
An interesting and important question! If you need someone to accomplish a diversity of tasks including (but not limited to):
Then I place my trust in Daniel Craig. Notice that each contender has their own strengths.
Sean Connery would be best at high-stakes bacarrat but would get winded running around the block.
Roger Moore could handle the dangerous animals without breaking a sweat, but nobody wants to see him on a beach.
Pierce Brosnan could get any secretary to show him the “secret files”, but would have trouble overpowering a Per Mar security guard at Kinnick Stadium much less killing anybody.
If you need to defuse a doomsday device, then you want… Well, actually, you want MacGyver in that case, but the point is that Daniel Craig can credibly handle the full range of secret agent duties in a way that the others cannot.
I’ll have to disqualify Dalton and Lazenby just because they never fully settled into the role.
Oddly, I’d have to say that my “favorite” James Bond was Roger Moore. He played the role with an effective sense of humor but, most crucially, he was in the role during the era where the movies were most meaningful to me. He wasn’t the best James Bond, but he was MY James Bond.
Roger Moore made the news recently when he expressed his displeasure with the amount of violence in more recent Bond films. He's got a point. I always thought what made Bond Bond was the cheeky humor that went along with the madcap stunts and action.
So I'll adjust my opinion just slightly and say that Daniel Craig has the ready potential to be the greatest Bond ever. Let's just give him the chance to play for some laughs in amongst all the butt kicking.
a. Roger Moore
b. George Lazenby
c. Sean Connery
d. Timothy Dalton
e. Pierce Brosnan
f. Daniel Craig
An interesting and important question! If you need someone to accomplish a diversity of tasks including (but not limited to):
- Killing people
- Driving at unsafe speeds
- Winning a hand of bacarrat with the fate of the free world at stake
- Making women’s hearts flutter simply by appearing on a beach wearing small swim trunks
- Irritating M
- Defusing a doomsday device under severe time constraints
- Looking cool while smoking even AFTER everyone knows it’s bad for you
- Defeating, befriending, or otherwise thwarting dangerous animals, e.g., tarantulas, Bengal tigers, black mambas, Doberman pinchers, poisonous jellyfish, etc…
- Sweet talking a secretary
- Distinguishing the age and rough percentages of malt vs. grain (if blended) from the aroma and mouth feel of 4 oz of Scotch
- Bedding a femme fatale
- Perform feats of jaw-dropping athleticism (normally only associated with Olympic decathletes and Cirque du Soleil acrobats) while wearing a tuxedo
Then I place my trust in Daniel Craig. Notice that each contender has their own strengths.
Sean Connery would be best at high-stakes bacarrat but would get winded running around the block.
Roger Moore could handle the dangerous animals without breaking a sweat, but nobody wants to see him on a beach.
Pierce Brosnan could get any secretary to show him the “secret files”, but would have trouble overpowering a Per Mar security guard at Kinnick Stadium much less killing anybody.
If you need to defuse a doomsday device, then you want… Well, actually, you want MacGyver in that case, but the point is that Daniel Craig can credibly handle the full range of secret agent duties in a way that the others cannot.
I’ll have to disqualify Dalton and Lazenby just because they never fully settled into the role.
Oddly, I’d have to say that my “favorite” James Bond was Roger Moore. He played the role with an effective sense of humor but, most crucially, he was in the role during the era where the movies were most meaningful to me. He wasn’t the best James Bond, but he was MY James Bond.
Roger Moore made the news recently when he expressed his displeasure with the amount of violence in more recent Bond films. He's got a point. I always thought what made Bond Bond was the cheeky humor that went along with the madcap stunts and action.
So I'll adjust my opinion just slightly and say that Daniel Craig has the ready potential to be the greatest Bond ever. Let's just give him the chance to play for some laughs in amongst all the butt kicking.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Change you can SEE
I recall my Mom, fairly early in the primary campaigns, saying that she hoped Obama would be president for the sheer juxtoposition of "Barack Hussein Obama" with the WASPy blueblood names of Presidents past.
Along the same lines... (Click for a larger image.)
This was taken from http://www.patrickmoberg.com/ .
Along the same lines... (Click for a larger image.)
This was taken from http://www.patrickmoberg.com/ .
Friday, November 7, 2008
Rahmbo
Here are links to a couple articles about Obama's new Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel from Newsweek and Rolling Stone.
There are many stories about Rahm and many of them are even true. Here's one from Politico that I hadn't heard before. From the time of the Lewinsky scandal in the Clinton White House:
And it seems this pick flies in the face of the Obama-is-a-Muslim-Manchurian-Candidate rumours since Emanuel is allegedly a member of the Mossad.
The incoming President's middle name = Hussein.
The incoming Chief-of-Staff's middle name = Israel.
Only in America?
There are many stories about Rahm and many of them are even true. Here's one from Politico that I hadn't heard before. From the time of the Lewinsky scandal in the Clinton White House:
"You got it backwards," Emanuel, who is Jewish, reportedly told Clinton at the time. "You messed around with a Jewish girl, and now you're paying a goyish lawyer. You should have messed around with a goyishe girl, and gotten a Jewish lawyer."
And it seems this pick flies in the face of the Obama-is-a-Muslim-Manchurian-Candidate rumours since Emanuel is allegedly a member of the Mossad.
The incoming President's middle name = Hussein.
The incoming Chief-of-Staff's middle name = Israel.
Only in America?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
