Have You Seen Religulous?
We saw it this afternoon at the Magnolia, here in Dallas. The theater was full, and it was being shown on two screens. It’s a splendid film, and what a lift it gave us to be among those who are willing to look at absurdity and see it for what it is. I imagine many will say: “I thought it was great–except for the parts about Christianity.” This speaks to a central point of the film, which is that believers of all sorts are ready to laugh at and ridicule the beliefs of others, even as they show themselves to be blind to the incredible aspects of their own. I hope this film encourages more people to reject the thought that “all doubt (and questioning) is of the devil.” But failing that–I hope it brings a renewed sense of purpose to those who already see the dangers represented by beliefs that undermine the power of reason while reveling in the prospect of a looming apocalypse.
It’s true. Sarah Palin is in a corn maze.
Sarah Palin is in a corn maze. This does not mean that Sarah Palin is actually in a corn maze, but that there is a corn maze made to look like Sarah Palin. You have to be looking down on the maze and not in it in order to see the likeness.
Courtesy of Jamie Rhein at Gadling.
Live from New York it’s Saturday Night
Am I once again
the last person in the country to know about something?
Statistics
Do you ever find yourself wondering about bizarre statistics that would be impossible to compile? I mean, sometimes I’ll find myself wondering about things like: How many people have died while sitting on the toilet, relative to how many people have died while engaged in sexual intercourse. Then of course pesky complications arise: How many people have died having intercourse while seated (or standing) on a toilet?
Pet Shark
For the past few months, though, passersby near the intersection of Bedford and Morton Streets, in the Village, have been spotted with their heads tilted back. The object of their gaze: a large aquarium, visible through a second-story apartment window. The tank glows neon blue, like a sign outside a jazz club. Its tenant is not a goldfish or a guppy but, rather, what Jacques Cousteau called “the splendid savage of the sea.” Even from the street corner it is clear: swimming in circles, interminably on the prowl, is a shark. The view, neighbors agree, is mesmerizing: Damien Hirst before the formaldehyde.
Human Speech Traced to Talking Fish
During midsipman mating season, houseboat owners in San Francisco Bay have complained that their homes vibrate from the humming, which sound like a high-speed motor running underwater.
Hear all about it here. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that fish fucking and human speech have a common origin. “I couldn’t see in that cave so who needs eyes? I’m over here, baby.” Sounds like a damn Italo Calvino story.
Dear Jesus
Discovering Life on Mars: Bad News?
Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University thinks so:
Discovering traces of life on Mars would be of tremendous scientific significance: the first sign of extraterrestrial life ever detected. Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we’re not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.
They shouldn’t. To the contrary, if we discovered traces of some simple extinct life form – a bacterium, some algae – it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something even more advanced, like the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be horrible news. The more complex the life we found, the more depressing. Scientifically interesting, yes, but dire news for the future of the human race.
Here’s the basic argument: There is a conspicuous silence “out there,” and this suggests that there is a “Great Filter” (Robin Hanson’s term and idea). This means that the filter may lie in our past (as a highly improbable step in the early development of life) or in our future (as a highly improbable leap needed for a civilization to populate the galaxy and survive extinction. Bostrom’s argument holds that finding evidence of even simple life on Mars would tend to place the GF in out future. And, as he also points out, there may be filters in our past and future.
I have to say that I would still be excited and pleased to hear that life–simple or complex–is or was present on Mars. If we decide to see everything in terms of our potential survival as a species, who needs the threat of a Filter to see our prospects as slim? In many ways I think we have the most to fear from our own egos–our sense of dominion over a galaxy we can’t even reach. News of other life elsewhere may itself be a step that leads to just the sort of curiosity we need to get through the next Great Filter.
Fire Jumpers
You’ll find this image at enigma janitor, one of the sites belonging to Balkan ‘flocker Alek Lindus. I just had to post it here, not only because it is mesmerizing but because it sets one to thinking about the ’safety culture’ that so many people in the US have adopted over the past decades.
some time at the end of June, they collect all the bunches of flowers that have decorated the doors since May Day and make a bonfire in the street of them, the children then jump over the fire. Intentional double exposure.
FujiPro160S
YashicaD
Great moments in archaeological deduction
“We know they were there because they were remarkably messy.”
–Thomas Gilbert, University of Copenhagen
One German is just as good as another?
I suspect Americans would have similar results:
Offering a unique insight into what makes Germans tick, the study by Der Spiegel magazine has revealed that, despite Germans’ oft-expressed desire to be different, the behavior of most is in fact highly predictable. Gathering its data from statistics, opinion polls, home interviews and sales information, it concludes that the nation is more homogeneous than it has ever been.
Actual storefront (I won’t say where)
Psalm 34
Cutz & Stylez
More Writers Than Readers?
During lunch I read an article which reminded me of Clay Shirky’s observations applied to literature:
“As publishing has become less expensive, the urge to write my own self has become the opportunity to publish my own self,” said Gabriel Zaid, a Mexican critic and the author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance,” a meditation on literary life in an over-booked world. Today, he added, “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.”
Abstinence Club
From the Daily Announcements at my daughter’s high school. I don’t know why this strikes me as funny. Maybe my daughter speaks the truth; maybe I am just creepy.
The Abstinence Club will meet today immediately after school in room 222. Please be prompt! All girls going to the fashion show on Saturday must attend.
Dave says
I gotta say, I’m totally blown away. You and everyone who pitched in just made my month. I can’t thank you enough. It probably doesn’t seem like so much, but it really touches me that you’d go out of your way to help me out with this creature comfort.
Best,
Dave Vogt
Dave Vogt
clusterflock pitched in and bought you a bottle of Stoli. I’ll be sending you an email with the details. Thanks to India, Cindy, Sheila, Mary, and Rick for ‘pushing us over the top‘. If we end up with more cash, perhaps we’ll buy someone else a bottle of something. Who knows?
Stoli for Dave
India asked what people were denying themselves. Dave said Stoli. Michael felt bad. I thought we should do something about it.
Let’s buy Dave a bottle of Stoli.
If there’s money left over, we can buy stuff for other people too.
Update: I can’t get the paypal code to resolve properly in WordPress. For now, I’ve created a page on deronbauman.com with the paypal button.
the art of abortion
Aliza Shvarts, a senior in the Yale art department, documented a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself and took abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriage. Needless to say, it’s been controversial.
coprolites
DNA evidence from fossilized poop puts humans in North America a thousand years earlier than previously thought.
The petrified poop — coprolites to scientists — is yielding a look at the diet of these ancient Americans, Jenkins said.
two articles on transgender
Thailand has banned castration as a means to an inexpensive alternative to gender reassignment surgery.
However, senior health official Tara Chinakarn admitted that policing the temporary ban might be difficult as cosmetic removal of the testicles was such a quick operation and easy to conduct in secret.
And Jason pointed to this article and photographs of the incredible skill and artfulness involved in one person’s transformation from a man to a woman.
I don’t know which methods were used in the creation of this particular neovagina, but surely this is art of the highest caliber. Sculpture in flesh tissue and nerve bundles.
Where does Blue end and Red begin?
They showed thousands of random colors to people and asked what they would call them. Here’s what they said:
(via seed)
From Herodotus (4.46)
“The Scythians were more clever than any other people in making the most important discovery we know of concerning human affairs, though I do not admire them in other respects. They have discovered how to prevent any attacker from escaping them and how to make it impossible for anyone to overtake them against their will. For instead of establishing towns or walls, they are all mounted archers who carry their homes along with them and derive their sustenance not from cultivated fields but from their herds. Since they make their homes on carts, how could they not be invincible or impossible even to engage in battle?” In other words, they lived in RVs, yes? (trans. Andrea L. Purvis: in The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, ed. by Robert B. Strassler, Pantheon, 2007)
suicide fact of the day
I went back to the original data source (imagine that!) and found that the stereotype is dead wrong: suicide rates are notably lower for teenagers than adults…Suicide rates do rise throughout the teen years, but they plateau at about age 20 and remain flat throughout the years 20 to 65. Then they jump again for the 65+ demographic. In case you’re wondering, teen suicide rates have not been rising, either. They’ve been in decline since the late 1980s.
Self-deprecation?
“(Clooney’s) strategy for being a movie star is pretty simple, if counterintuitive: he makes fun of himself. It’s the by-product of every successful person’s strategy, which is to figure out what the other person is thinking. ‘Before they could kill me on Batman & Robin, I said, “It’s a bad film, and I’m the worst thing in it.” ‘ ”
(”Guess Who Came to Dinner?” by Joel Stein, Time, March 3, 2008)