Intelligent design?

Now this kind of thing always frightens me:
Kansas looks at redefining science

Now I don’t want to get too deeply into theology here, since my own beliefs are ambivalent at best. But like the old separation of Church & State (itself eroding as of late) I think there needs to be a separation of Church & Science.

Why not offer theology classes where children can learn about “Intelligent Design”, and let the science classes keep teaching “Evolution”?

Kids get old fast these days; let them explore topics that they’re drawn to.

In the meantime, I’m going to thank Articulus (y’know, the being from Tau Ceti that created Earth) that I don’t live in Kansas.

Rashomon

I just finished watching Rashomon and had a bit of a relevation. I don’t enjoy anime because it’s anime. I enjoy anime because it’s Japanese. Or at least, that’s the theory I’m going on for now.

Rashomon is a 1950 film from director Akira Kurosawa, probably best known in the US for Seven Samurai. Like Samurai, Rashomon is sub-titled, though its fairly light on dialog.

Its the story, basically, of a murder, as seen by four individuals (included the dead man, via a very creepy medium). Each of the four is giving testimony to an unseen judge, but none of their accounts agree, and as a typical American film viewer I was waiting to see everything tied up at the end and for The Truth to be revealed. Only it wasn’t. Just like a lot of my favorite anime titles, the viewer is left to create his own interpretation of what really happened, and what it all means.

Cinematography is by Kazuo Miyagawa, which I fear meant nothing to me until I watched some of the bonus material. But it’s really interesting. The film is in black and white (of course, like I said…1950) so Miyagawa uses light and shadow to get it texture. Lots of ‘sun through the leaves’ shots abound and… well hell, I’m just parroting the bonus features now, so I’ll shut up.

If you’re up for a bit of a challenge, try this movie. I’ve linked to it at Amazon, but Netflix carries it too. Enjoy!

Cleaning up

Ok, so sometimes I obsess on the strangest things. But I’m telling you, the Mr. Clean Magic Reach bathroom cleaning gizmo is a miracle product! You simply have to get one, especially if you’re a guy. Because, as I was told my a female co-worker, “Guys don’t clean their bathrooms.”

It was hard to debate her because I do tend to let mine go too long between scrubbings, but no more! The Magic Reach is to your bathroom what Swiffer products are to the rest of your house. You have this base gizmo that looks vaguely like an iron with two pointy ends. You rip open a cleaning pad packet, and pull out this wet pad that wraps around the gizmo. And then you mop your floor (or walls, to sink or toilet) with it. It sneaks in behind the toilet bowl and the points get into corners. When you’re done (ie, in like 4 minutes) you pull the pad off, drop it in the trash and open a second pad. This one is more sudsy, and its for cleaning the tub and stuff. Scrub out the tub with it, and drop that pad in the trash too.

And you’re done.

Seriously, I’m a huge fan of convenience, and this thing really works and is super convenient. Guys, get one of these things and lets put an end to girls saying “Guys don’t clean their bathrooms” once and for all!!!

Feeling horny? Read the Times

So I never got around to reading the Sunday New York Times last week. So today I was catching up, and I found it rather bizarre that in two consecutive Sundays, the times provided me with links to XXX sites.
[Note: Dragonchasers is normally a reasonable family-friendly site, but this post is intended for adult readers only. If you’re under 18, please refrain from clicking the following link.]
Continue reading “Feeling horny? Read the Times”

Skellig

Skellig I finished David Almond’s Skellig today. Another fine YA novel. I’d say it skews to the older end of the YA range since there’s some fairly abstract stuff going on. Maybe I’m projecting but the kids I spend most of my time with expect firm answers to mysteries, and Skellig doesn’t deliver on that count. Instead its a tapestry woven from two threads, but in spite of that simplicity it still leaves you thinking. Oh, and I should note that the author is British so there’s some slang that you might need to explain to American kids.

Michael and his family have just moved to a ‘new’ house. Well, actually to a very old house in very bad repair. Michael has a newborn baby sister who is very, very sick. He’s worried about her, and his parents are on the edge of losing control of the fear that they feel for the baby. Michael ends up getting pushed aside a little bit (though not in any villainous way…you really feel for the parents and how hard they’re trying) and that’s where his experiences begins.

Because next to the house is a garage. A garage so packed with crud that its almost impossible to squeeze inside. And a garage so ramshackled that its about to collapse on itself. And inside that garage, Michael finds Skellig. Who, or what, is Skellig? Well you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Michael also meets Mina, a home-schooled girl wise beyond her years. Michael ends up spending a lot of time with Mina and her mother, studying nature, drawing, sculpting and so on. Oh, and reading Blake…

But while he’s exploring the neighborhood, his baby sister inches closer and closer to death. How or if these two threads connect, again, I’ll leave to you to discover. Don’t be put off by this book because its categorized YA. Its a magical experience. Almond writes in a really tight style. Most chapters are two or three pages long which gives it a staccato pacing… there’s all this stuff going on between chapters that you feel rather than read. Good stuff. Two thumbs up.