Month: December 2009
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Why Phantom Menace was not a complete failure By Robert Nagle
Here’s a humorous 70 minute video review analyzing why Star Wars: The Phantom Menace didn’t work as film-making. (Don’t worry; it’s broken down into 10 minute chunks). The review is sarcastic/silly/vulgar, but the critiques are valid: the film has no protagonist; the plot is too complicated, the Jedi’s powers are too unclear and arbitrary, there’s…
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Homage to Luanne Platter
While America grapples with the death of actress Brittany Murphy, I am grappling with the death of the cartoon character she played in King of the Hill: Luanne Platter. The wikipedia description of her character is a laugh riot. Just the mention of the idiotic “Manger Babies” makes me laugh. Initially the character annoyed me,…
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Should I blog about this? (Part 17)
Every so often I come across a risque and/or ribald article which I am afraid to share on my blog. Here is another one. The Puppetry of the Penis is an Australian comic live show where male comedians do tricks with their genitals. Becca Costello wrote a profile of this comedy act a few years…
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Scary Information – Should I be posting this?
Some psychologists have figured out that women have more orgasms with wealthier men. For female readers of this blog, my net worth at the moment is $1.4 billion. I wonder: does sexual excitability result from the perception that a male partner is wealthy or from the prolonged enjoyment of an affluent lifestyle? An affluent person…
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Copenhagen climate change conference: 14 days to seal history’s judgment on this generation
I don’t usually reprint things in entirety on my blog (especially when it is available elsewhere), but I’m reprinting to show my solidarity. More commentary here. Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless…
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Should we care about Sarah Palin’s autobiography?
Literary critic Stanley Fish finds Sarah Palin’s autobiography to be authentic in its own way: Do I believe any of this? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she does, and that her readers feel they are hearing an authentic voice. I find the voice undeniably authentic (yes, I know the book was written “with…
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Brilliant Schoolhouse Rock & Schoolhouse Rock Parodies
Here are some schoolhouse rock music videos. These were short educational songs that they showed on American TV in the 1970s. Most person over the age of 30 knows almost all of these songs by heart. These are great songs, and they reveal a lot about the style from the 1970s. There are countless examples,…
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Charleston Town Center Mall abuses private citizens!
A few days ago an internationally known award-winning photographer was arrested for innocuous taking of photos (and allegedly resisting arrest). Gary Harki writes a great story of the incident. As it happens, this photographer was arrested once before – for taking photos of Bill Gates wedding from a public place. The photographer sued the major…
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Why the Phoenix Police Department Sucks
A month ago I came across an outrageous story about a police officer who rifled through a defense attorney’s personal papers in search of incriminating evidence. This was happening while the trial was taking place and it was captured on video. The judge ordered Adam Stoddard (the police officer) to apologize or to go to…
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What’s bugging me about Firefox
Oops. Firefox seems to have deleted my Bookmarks Toolbar folder but not my bookmarks. (See the exciting details here). I suspect there’s no easy way to fix it, and I’m trying to avoid creating a new Firefox profile. Hopefully some developer will read my problem and come up with a brilliant solution. While stumbling through…
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Boom in Texas Windpower
Jennifer Bogo writes about whether Texas should join the national energy grid or maintain its own grid: Since roughly 1935, the majority of Texas utilities have opted to isolate themselves from interstate connection and thus from federal regulation over rates, terms and conditions of electrical transmission. Managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT),…
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The Latest in Climate Change Research
Several notable climatologists prepare a 50 page report summarizing the latest research. I am 3/4 finished with this. Two points are definitely worth highlighting: The Arctic ice sheet is melting more than predicted. This report’s recommendations is for average per anum per capita carbon emissions to be about 1 metric ton per person. Here’s a…
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Entertaining Climate Change Videos
Here’s a series of 6 entertaining videos about the science and controversy of climate change. Here’s Part 1 (the rest of the links are on the right side). As best as I can tell, the producer is an Australian science journalist who has been reporting on climate change for a long time and has a…
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Interview with Ibrahim al-Koni: Desert is a Soul, not a Body
While researching African writers, I came across the name of Ibrahim al-Koni, whom I’d never come across before. Unfortunately, most of his translations were coming out of American University of Cairo Press which meant that they rarely traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. I am quickly reaching the conclusion that Google is absolutely useless for learning…
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Copenhagen Prep Guide
Bryony Worthington explains what the public announcements of China and US mean: China’s impressive-sounding target to reduce its carbon intensity refers to cutting the CO2 that is emitted per yuan of economic activity. But because economic forecasts already predict that China’s economy will become less carbon intensive in the next decade, the country’s pledge actually…