Ranting and raving, wisdom and whimsy,
from the mind of a Madman,

...with links.

About 2003

I have had worse years. I mean me personally.
Speaking as a species however, this year was a real low point.
Time has a good article called "The Year of living Erroneously" here.

A bit short, but it gets the point across.
It seems like the more we learn the stupider we get.
I know a lot of people are just happy as hell to bash America for everything and let it go at that. I don't think that's completely "fair and accurate" though. I mean do you really think it would be better if some other country were the current number one superpower on our little blue sphere? Would the world be a better place today if the Soviet Union had won the cold war? Would most of us be happier if China suddenly took over the running of the planet? Don't misunderstand me here; I'm not looking to make excuses for the cluster fuck that the current administration has made of things on the global front. What I'm saying is that our problems don't merely stem from the fact that most American's are stupid, thoughtless, brutes. Our problems mostly stem from the fact that most humans are stupid, thoughtless, brutes.
I mean you know how stupid the average person is? Well doesn't that mean that mathematically speaking a high percentage of us are even stupider than that? I mean, even if we take the really stupid folks out of the equation, (Let's say all the people we see on daytime talk shows, and anyone who's ever been on the TV show Cops, and everyone under the age of, oh let's say, twenty, to pick a round number) just to try and you know protect the bell curve, the numbers are still pretty dismal. The sad fact of the matter is that, on average, most of us are just barely smart enough to drive, smoke, eat, talk on a cell phone, and get ourselves into too much debt.
(As an aside, those of you who think you can do the first four at the same time are fucking wrong and should get out of the goddamn fast lane already. Idiots!)

Of course, it's unfair to talk about humanity strictly in terms of our intelligence. I mean what about the quality of our collective character? Well speaking collectively, talking about most of us, again taking the average, uh, wait, I'm not sure about this. Can you have a negative imaginary number?
"-i10x10totheumpteenthpower"
Most of us, when we hear the word "character" think of the performing arts. Traits like trust, honesty and integrity, are routinely punished, mercilessly taken advantage of, and openly ridiculed. This is true almost everywhere. People who try to live by any kind of personal code of honor are mostly seen as naïve at best, and as just plain suckers the rest of the time. Most of our kind would rather lie, cheat, steal, or even kill, than do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. (Of course that presupposes you can find someone willing to pay an honest day's wage for honest effort given and a day's work done.) On average most of us would rather hike naked through the Himalayas than take any responsibility for our actions, our lives, or ourselves. Not only that, but when we lie, cheat, steal or kill, we actually have the unmitigated audacity to resent our victims.
"If only the clerk behind the counter hadn't tried to protect himself, I wouldn't have had to shoot him, to get at the money I hadn't earned."
What about our courage, our desire for justice, our patience, or our tolerance with other people who are different from us?
Look, you don't really want to know.

At the very least you probably don't want to discuss any of this with me.

We are in the midst of a dark age, an age of technology without understanding, of industry without responsibility, of government without accountability, of science without understanding, of raw naked power without a hint of wisdom or a whisper of restraint.
We try to solve global problems with local laws while we cling to willfully blind nationalism, mindless rituals, outdated dogma, and superstitious belief systems that have no power to influence, let alone stop, the driverless bulldozer of reality that bears down on us.
The future is not patiently waiting for us in some distant century, or sometime in the next few decades, but is in fact rushing at us right now, just around the next blind curve, a like freight train that is about to jump the tracks of a very high overpass and the speed of which, thanks to gravity, will soon be accelerating right off the scale. We are on a collision course with fate, and ready or not, here it comes.
This year has highlighted the truth of this like no year before it.
On the other hand, not all of us are average or below. There is always a slender ray of hope that reason will prevail. Perhaps some of us could jump onto and take control of the 'reality' bulldozer and use it keep the 'future' train on its rails.
(Hmmmm . . . okay that's enough metaphor for now lads.)

Let us not give in to all this doom and gloom. Let us at least lift our eyes from the depths of our collective gutter and look to the stars.
(Stop it, stop it, stop it!)

Anyway speaking of stars
or in this case planets
let's talk about Mars.
(Oh No! Now I'm speaking in Rhyme. . . . the horror, the horror . . )

So let me get this straight? Europe spends all this money, time, and effort, to send Beagle-2 all the way to Mars, braving solar flares, ion storms, a Klingon armada, and who knows whatnot, and the goddamn thing gets there, only to fall into a crater?

GODDAMN IT!
First the Polar Lander, then Nozomi, and now this!
All right, that's it.
I'm so angry - here's a poem.
(No, I'm sorry there's nothing for it. Regular prose won't do anymore.)

Space 2003

Hail and farewell Columbia
'Hope' is not lost, merely off course
If our 'Spirit' is true, the limit's the sky
So pick up your eyes, and give up remorse
And 'Opportunity' may not merely pass by
A safe touchdown this New Year
That's a shooting star to wish for
And let the whole home team cheer
As a pair red rovers help even the score
Success and two stars to China
As they look to the moon
Why haven't we gone back there?
Can we go again soon?
Is the space station worth it?
Or are more robots the way?
Further out 'Stardust' chases a wild comet
Some veiled, ancient clues set to collect
The building blocks of our Solar System
Perhaps some traces of life for us to inspect
Why all this rhyming about matters scientific?
What folly, what madness, such disrespect
Don't you see what makes all of this terrific?
Through disaster and solar flares and foul stellar weather
At least we were trying and what's more than that
Space is the one place where we were trying together


That's it for this year.
More madness will ensue after the holidays.

December 26, 2003

Beagle 2 MIA

It's not as bad as it sounds just yet. They're going to try to make contact again in just a few hours, but the original plans for the probe make it possible for it to hibernate for long periods of time between communications. I hope the delay in contact is not serious or due to the destruction of the unit as the loss of this probe would be a serious set back after the recent loss of the Nozomi probe from the overall set of current Mars missions.

December 18, 2003

At the Dawn of Robots

Sony has a press release and website about their QRIO robot project. Usually this stuff comes off as pretty basic but this is worth taking a look at. There's no true AI yet, no positronic brain or anything like that. What they do have are some flash movies of the gizmo walking, running and jumping. It looks pretty damn cool though.
With the advent of the Internet, and soon to be ubiquitous WiFi access, I've come to wonder how long before we stop looking to make robots that can think for themselves and just focus on humanoid robots that we can manipulate remotely? I mean as long as I can cut the grass, rake the lawn, hang Christmas lights in sub zero temperatures, or vacuum the pool and do it all from my keyboard via my personal humanoid robot, I don't care if it can think independently and carry on a conversation with me or not. I'll bet the development of such a system would even be fairly simple at this point with the right partners. Also think of the applications for dangerous jobs like toxic spill clean up and so on.

Hmmmm . . . any venture capitalist with lots of money and close ties to Sony out there?

Here are the links:
Main site: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/
Press Release: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200312/03-060E/

December 16, 2003

All Hail The KING!

I'm talking of course about "The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King".
Now this post is going to be a long one, I have a lot to say and I want to say it. There won't be any spoilers in this review, just opinion and critique. However if you just want a short review, if you can't be bothered to read the entire post, if the length and depth of my insight seems too detailed, and my felicity of language seems too arduous to read or does not impress you, then let me sum it up for you thus: When the movie ended, I looked around into the teary eyes of my wife and daughter, and simply said, "Well that's the finest thing on film I've ever seen."
They were too choked up to speak but nodded their general agreement.

Now at more than three hours long, this installment, like all the movies in the trilogy is a formidable film. If you like movies that are short and to the point, if you want the director to keep it under ninety minutes because you really can't afford to invest that kind of time and energy in a movie, if you like movies that are cut like MTV videos, and play like a blipvert from Max Headroom, then I suggest you skip this film altogether. (If you don't know what a blipvert is then you don't deserve to know, doesn't matter, move along.)
This is not a simple movie and to cut it down any more than they did would have been an injustice. For my part I can't wait for the extended edition with even more footage. Of course this is me talking, and I'm well known as an obsessive madman who will watch an entire season of Next Gen episodes or all nine hours of Shogun straight through, right in a row, without even so much as blinking, so keep that in mind.
My opinion is that Peter Jackson is a genius and I can't get enough. In fact, I was talking to a friend recently and I made the point that "anyone who could deliver a project like this, on this scale, and with this much depth, and do it for the published budget, was almost certainly wasting their talents and should probably not be making movies but should, in fact, be running a country somewhere."
To which my friend replied, "He does run a country, it's called 'New Zealand'!"

Okay so let's get down to it. First of all a note on the acting, when one or two actors are really good in a film, you give credit to them and move on. However when every single player seems to deliver a spot on, near perfect performance, then you look to must look to credit the director. That being said, all performances in this installment are really great with special nods to Viggo Mortensen, Sir Ian McKellen, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto and Elijah Wood. I'm not going to list the whole damn cast here but everyone was great, really. However the performance that nearly steals the show in this installment is that of Mr. Sean Astin. Mr. Astin's performance is nothing short of amazing and is all the more noteworthy as it stands out in a field of marvelous performances. With his portrayal of 'Sam' in this movie, Mr. Astin demonstrates a range and quality that I have never before seen in a movie of this genre and indeed, have rarely ever seen, anywhere, in any genre, movie, play, or parole hearing. He's that good! If he isn't at least nominated for an Oscar, then in my book the Oscars will have become completely irrelevant!
Also, while I'm on the subject, everyone who is involved in the performance of 'Gollum' should also and at long suffering last be given their due and nominated as a group. When five people write a screenplay together they all can be nominated. However when an actor, a team of CG artist, and a group special effects people come together to create a brilliant performance, they are somehow beneath notice. This is blatant, petty, small mindedness on the part of the nomination committee and this picture has the power to expose it as such. Andy Serkis and the whole 'Gollum/Smeagol' team also deserve a nomination for their theatrical contribution and in my opinion it will be long overdue. One might be able to make an argument about the limits of their contributions to the first installment but not with respect to "The Two Towers" and certainly not here.

Special nods from me to the costume and special effects folks for this movie as well. As with the first two films they've done awesome work all around, simply astounding in its range and detail. Also worthy of note is the score, which makes effective use of the themes used in the first two movies and yet maintains a fresh, original quality that this movie needs and deserves. The battle scenes strewn through out the movie are impressive not only in their scale but in the fact that they are character driven as well as grand. We know these people; we believe they are going into battle and that they are afraid. We see them falter or find their courage, as if we are seated on the horse right next to them. Again as with all the films the scenic overview and establishing shots are simply breathtaking.
If there is a complaint to be made about this particular movie it is that there is perhaps not enough time spent on characters like Gimli and Legolas. This is forgivable however, as the story moves from one familiar character to another and the true extent and complexity of the saga is revealed.
The movie ends in a series of short vignettes that unfold like bittersweet memories. Everything is resolved and the emotional impact is impressively moving. One is left with the sensation, not of having seen a movie, but of having lived a lifetime in some alternate universe. This is not a complaint about the length of the film, but rather a compliment to the thoroughness of the cast, the entire crew, and the director. The illusion they create is complete, seamless, and wonderful. If anything it is too short and I did miss a few of the scenes that I saw in the previews but which were not in this release. Which brings us back to why I can't wait to see the special extended DVD edition.
One last note to "Sir not appearing in this picture" the venerable Mr. Christopher Lee, please don't despair. You are not forgotten by us fans. While we missed you in the theatrical release, we're hopefully looking forward to seeing you in the extended edition.

Now I'd like to make a few comments on the trilogy as whole. If there is a criticism to be made about these movies, it is that Mr. Peter Jackson has delivered a product that is too big for the big screen. These aren't just movies, as noted above this is a complete alternate reality. Mr. Jackson takes a staggering literary work and brings it into the visual medium of movies giftedly. Where he edits, he does so with thoughtfulness and respect to the integrity of the story. Where he takes license, he likewise does so to make it work 'on the screen' and to keep the story moving, while at the same time preserving the intent and integrity of the original body of work. The result is a rich tapestry, an epic masterpiece of filmmaking that challenges our wildest expectations. I'll be watching these movies again and again for years to come.

Someday when we get around to developing a real Holodeck, someone must bring these movies into that medium and I hope they are able to do it half as well.
I can hear it now, "Where's the Captain?"
"He's on the Holodeck, running the old "Lord of the Rings" program."
"Again, that's the third time this month! Who does he play?"
"He always plays Aragorn."
"Figures."

December 15, 2003

Saddam in custody

Just a few thoughts on this. It's great that he's been captured! It's very important that he's been taken alive! However I can't help thinking about the whole picture here. All the people that have been killed, not just the Americans, all the people! I wonder about all the pain, and torture, and rape, and all the lives that have been destroyed or torn apart. Over the years we've heard a lot of talk about this man, about his resources, and the loyalty of his troops, his lavish underground bunkers, and all the other lies and exaggerations. The lies his own people told him out of fear. Lies we believed. Lies we let grow and grow and grow.
Standing here atop this hillock of history we can see a vast plain of devastation that has occurred over a long period of time. We wonder what juggernaut could have caused such destruction? Such devastation? We look for a giant, or some massive misdirected force of nature. And in the end, what do we find? A tired, filthy, disheveled, old man; hiding in a hole not much bigger than a large bathtub under a rug, behind a Styrofoam cover. We capture this man and there is no blaze of glory, no last stand against impossible odds. We find a thug, a bully, a coward, and a criminal, hiding out like any criminal. A man who runs and hides like a diseased rat that spreads its filth freely during the night, but now flees at the first sign of light or of a human who approaches without fear. I wonder, what does this say about us as a species? I wonder how it is that we could allow such a being to cause us so much harm?

December 10, 2003

This is not your father's Battlestar!

Now before we saunter down this road together let me tell you where I am in relation to this. I watched and enjoyed the original series when it first ran. I mean it wasn't 'Star Trek' but it was okay at the time. This opinion, it turns out, was due to what I call the Dopeler effect. Which states that the younger you are when you first see something, the more of a dope you probably are, and thus the more likely you are to enjoy it. Critical thinking and good taste in such things takes time, maturity and a lot of caffeine.
Anyway, years later, when I went back and tried to watch it again I found it almost totally insipid. As an example I site the episode where Richard Hatch (who then played Apollo) crash-lands on the old west world and has to have a quick-draw, gunfight, showdown in the street, with the slightly damaged but still deadly Cylon gunslinger everyone calls "Redeye", I kid you not! The reason I put the word "almost" up there was the episodes with the Pegasus. Those were pretty entertaining and featured Commander Cain played in imperious fashion by Lloyd Bridges.
(By the way did you know Mr. Bridges was once considered for the role of Captain Kirk? Try to picture that! "I don't have a clue what you're talking about Mister Spock! Not a fucking clue, but that's alright. You just keep doing whatever you're doing! Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking Saurian Brandy.")

So there you go. That's where I was starting from when I sat down to watch the new Battlestar Galactica. I wasn't really expecting much but I knew the universe pretty well even though it had been many yarns since I had been able to enjoy it.

Warning Spoilers Ahead!!!

So there I am, Peach Snapple in hand, ready to set sail once more into the uncharted depths of the Battlestar Galactica universe. The first thing that seemed different was the origin story of the Cylons themselves. As I recall the Cylons were an ancient, alien, reptile race that originally made the Cylon robots. The robots killed their biological, would be masters off, and then just kept right on killing. It seemed they hated disorder in general, and humans in particular, and were just really good at replicating, expanding, and killing. In this retelling it is the humans that created the Cylons and while they mostly look like a late model versions of their old polished chrome selves, there are a few who look just like humans. (The only strange exception to this rule is the glowing spine scene? What the hell was that about? They only ever make love in one position? No mirrors in the house? 'Uh, honey you're spine is blushing?' Whatever.) Anyway in this version they're still really evil, only there is a strange creepiness to their evil, with talk of god, and love, and infanticide to boot. Also Baltar isn't the misanthropic, psychopath he was in the old series. He's just a brilliant cybernetic scientist, with no character, who gets taken in. Other characters get some more realistic updates as well. Now I understand that there are many fans who won't even consider watching the new show because "Starbuck is a girl?!" To which I must reply, "Hey, get over yourself!" The woman playing the new Starbuck, Katee Sackhoff, does a fine job with it, and the new character has nuances that the original couldn't even dream of, plus the character still chomps a cigar.
While I'm talking about the acting here just let me say that most of the principals are really good and Edward James Olmos is great. Then there's the new President, Laura Roslin, who was until recently the Secretary of Education and is dying. This is a really intense and interesting character expertly played by Mary McDonnell.
Also there is the look of the technology. It looks pretty damn cool. There is a dirty "Outland" feel to everything on the human side. The technology is there but it is deliberately toned down. The one thing I really liked though was the new Cylon ships. They are dedicated robots themselves. No cockpits, just a huge Cylon looking head on a flat crescent shaped ship hull.
So I watched the whole thing over two nights, and you know what? It's pretty damned good. I liked it. No kidding. There where lots of little nods to the original sewn in to it, but they aren't overbearing. This retelling is a much more mature, darker, adult version of the series and it plays pretty well. So if you get the chance, relax, put your prejudices aside, and just watch it for fraks-sake.

December 10, 2003

Nozomi mission changed.

Some sources are reporting that the probe is lost, but this not accurate. We know exactly where it is, and we know where it's going, and we're still in contact with it. The problem is that it isn't going where we intended it to go and will probably never be in a position to complete the primary mission it was designed for. As a result JAXA is trying to salvage what they can out of the mission and use the Nozomi probe for things like solar observation.

Here is a link to the story on Space.com: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/nozomi_done_031209.html

Not Dead.

December 10, 2003

I am not DEAD!

Despite my inability to post here over the past few days, I am alive and well. I've just been playing catch-up at home (and at work) thanks to the most recent snowstorm here in the Northeast. Everything is settling back down into what passes for normal in my life. More to come later today.

December 3, 2003

Legally Enforced Superstition . . . in Israel?
Oh wait. . .

Cut to that scene from Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" where the two guys are speculating about what happened to another fellow's leg and one guys suddenly says incredulously "A Tiger? . . . In Africa?!"

Reaching for new heights in dumb some folks in Israel are looking to discriminate against certain cats based on their color.
( No I'm not kidding! Thanks to the G-MAN for bringing this to us. )

You know when I see really stupid-ass stuff like this I think everyone should be encouraged to watch a few classic Star Trek episodes. No don't leave, I'm serious about this.
There was an episode called "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Now keep in mind that, as a child, I was exposed to rampant prejudice and bigotry. I still have a lot of resentment about it. Even though I believe, for the most part, I've managed to overcome those early and thus very powerful influences. A good part of the reason I was able to see through the lie that is racism was this old corny episode of classic trek. There is a scene where Spock and Kirk are talking to Bele about his problems with another character named Lokai. Now for this to make sense (and it will, I promise) you need to know that Bele and Lokai are from the same alien race, and they look very striking because they're grease makeup white on one side and black on the other side. So anyway they're all sitting around and Bele asserts that anyone with half a brain can clearly see, at a glance, that Lokai, and all of his people, are an inferior race.
Kirk and Spock look at each other and then Spock asserts that the most obvious, immediate, visual evidence is that they are the same race. (I'm not going to bother with exact quotes here, it's not important.) So then Bele, slightly outraged, says "What are you blind, Commander Spock? Look at me. Well, look at me."
Kirk observes reasonably, "You're white on one side and black on the other."
To which Bele replies; "I am black on the right side. Lokai is white on the right side, all of his people are white on the right side."

That's it.

It's stupid right?
It's obvious. It hits you over the head and beats you half to death with the blunt object that the plain old simple truth can sometimes be. Let me tell you something though, back in 1966, for a kid of less than ten tender years of age, coming to understand this was nothing short of epiphany.
In the moment that I comprehended how stupid Bele's position was, the foundations of any racial prejudice that had been planted in my tiny little brain (by people who I must insist should have known better) crumbled utterly like the pathetic house of cards it is, was, and always will be. From that moment on the issue was resolved for me. From that moment on, whenever I have encountered it in other people I have lost a measure of respect for them directly proportional to the extent that their bigotry and ignorance has shown itself. If this seems overly judgmental of me, then let that be your judgment; I will stand by mine.

Anyway that's just the color issue played out again for the umpteenth time.
Every time I think 'Well, of course, everyone knows that!' something like this happens and I remember when and where I really am.
Dammit.
Then there's the whole superstition thing.
You see some people feel that it's okay to discriminate against black cats because "they're, like, you know, bad luck."

You gotta be kidding here, right?

RIGHT??

So, burn any witches over there lately?
No?
Well, it's only Wednesday. I'm sure you'll get around to it.

Goddamn Ridiculous!

Here's the link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3286743.stm

December 1, 2003

Shields Up!

Excite has a story from AP news about a new material that is strong and flexible enough to be used to in the construction of a spaceship or a space station module and may also provide a level of radiation protection.

All we need to do now is line it with some Trillium-D and we're ready to go.

Here's the story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031201/D7V5K6U00.html

This page by:
©2003 All rights reserved.