First of all, these will be posted by Kate, even though I (Pete) wrote it. Damn all WordPress upgrades, anyway.
West Helena, Arkansas is under martial law. Well, not really. But they do have a 24-hour curfew in effect to curb rampant violence in their town. Police officers are reportedly carrying all types of great murder machine hardware, including M-16s, shotguns, and night vision scopes. Is this one of those cases when I should haul out the old “those who trade security…” quote? Based on what I’ve heard of the situation here, I think not. The police are doing what they can to restore order, and I applaud the steps they’re taking to do so. Contrariwise, if this is a power play by the city council and the reports of violence are exaggerated, they should be removed from office for gross misuse of power. I suppose history (and the media) will be the judge here.
Is China cheating in the olympics? The right-leaning American Thinker blog thinks that they are. My wife, a massive fan of women’s gymnastics, pointed out that despite the age of the competitors, they did at least possess the skill set to win a gold medal. Whether the smaller size/weight of the Chinese gymnasts is a factor (particularly on the beam competition) is a fairly moot point now. Other allegations by other countries are starting to hit the mainstream media. Who can say how this end up for China?
Ain’t It Cool News recently pulled a negative review of the upcoming Clone Wars animated Star Wars movie at the demands of Lucasfilm. Say what you will about journalistic integrity (something I’ve said before in regards to reviews from AICN), the review sounds extremely passionate. I was not alone among my friends and cohorts in having high expectations for the movie. Seeing that a true fan thinks so little of it makes feel like Jar Jar Binks just punted me in the nut bag.
Last is our token space advocacy story. It appears that solar systems analogous to ours are somewhat rare, with a high incidence of gas giants in close orbit around their suns.This calls into question our current theories on planetary formation and provides interesting speculation on whether or not worlds depicted in science fiction (Yavin 4 in Star Wars or Allen Steel’s Coyote) could readily exist. I’d be interested to know if Kepler’s law still holds up in the wake of all these discoveries.
![Let’s Kill Hitler [HD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hESmStH-L._SL160_.jpg)
I like the position of a coach for the US women’s gymnastics team (Karolyi) which is: remove all minimum age requirements. If an athlete has, by merit of skill, earned a spot at the Olympics, that athlete should be allowed to complete regardless of age.
I hated, no loathed, the last three SW movies… wooden acting, cutsie-poo creatures to draw the adolescent crowd, non-existent dialogue, plot-less action sequences, and a cheesy, ham-handed, fumbling, weak, and meaningless origin for Darth Vader… the biggest badass in the galaxy, the nexus of the Force, the hope of the Jedi is a whiny little pussy controlled by Force exuding bacteria and a Sith Lord with a massive need for Clorets? From Mannequin Skywalker to an homage to Frankenstein’s monster… someone explain to me how and why his fall (as portrayed) was significant. My hopes were so high then, but quickly dashed by Lucas’ abandonment of what made Star Wars great to begin with. I couldn’t care less if the new version of the Clone Wars is a masterpiece or a vile steaming heap of poo. But I’ll lay odds that it’s the latter and no where near the former.
I have believed in a possibility of life elsewhere, though also believing in an infinitesimally small probability. I speak of and abundance and variety of life as we enjoy here on the big blue marble. There are so many narrow factors that have to be in place so that we can exist… an abundance of water, a protective atmosphere, the Van Allen belts, distance from the sun, angle of axis, a stabilizing moon, large mass planets within the system to deflect incoming missiles, etc. Even the orbits of our planets around the sun seem unique in the universe. Life could not survive the wild temperature and environmental extremes of even a slightly more elliptical orbit. It seems strange to me that scientists are just now discovering (or admitting) how unique our situation is.
I understand Dez’s point about just how narrow the criteria for life as we know it is, but what about life as we don’t expect. Whoa. Deja vu.
Heh, the main interest i found in this post: You got Kate to write that she got kicked in the ball sack by Jar Jar Binks. Mwahaha.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
Don’t read if you want no info on Clone Wars
Saw Clone Wars tonight… wasn’t as bad as the reviewer made it out to be. But it wasn’t noteworthy either. I left the film with a solid case of the blahs. I liked the interaction between Skywalker and a Togruta Padawan. The writers had so much to develop there but missed a lot of obvious points. The animation takes some getting used to… over-stylized, rather stiff and jerky, and with the quality of a late 90′s video game. Hand-to-hand combat no longer has a fluid feel to it. No opening scroll… there was a cheesy opening narration as though they were trying to recapture the feel of the old movie serials. Yes, the Nawlins drag-queen Hutt was a bit much, as was the Laurel and Hardy routine with every battle droid. The “and a child shall lead them” motif (that Lucas and Spielberg soil themselves over) was in full effect. It wasn’t a bad movie, but I felt is was more for kids under the age of ten. Don’t see this for full price, unless you are a SW ubergeek.
Animation: C
Plot: C
Dialogue: C
Character interaction: B to A
Character development: C
Action: A