Month: July 2006

From A Muggle’s Guide to the World of Harry Potter (Written by a guy who never read the books or watched the films, but is pretty good at figuring things out)

What is clear — as far as we’re concerned — from all sources is that there is no official, announced plan. No real advice, or information, or public exit strategy or timetable. The news clip of President Bush, chawing open-mouthed on a buttered roll, then grabbing at another while Tony Blair tries to get him to focus on Lebanon — plays over and over on the TV, crushing our spirits and dampening all hope with every glassy-eyed mouthful. He seems intent on enjoying his food; Lebanon a tiny, annoying blip on an otherwise blank screen. I can’t tell you how depressing that innocuous bit of footage is to watch. That one, innocent, momentary preoccupation with a roll has a devastating effect on us that is out of all proportion. We’re looking for signs. And this, sadly, is all we have.

Ron Moore on why we haven’t seen any gay characters in Battlestar Galactica:

I think homosexuality definitely exists in the world of Galactica, but I frankly haven’t found a way to portray it yet. It’s a texture that I’d like to introduce into the series without doing “the gay episode.” It’s something that gets talked about internally periodically, but so far there hasn’t been a good story or character arc or scene that’s seemed like a good way to establish the fact without really hanging a big neon sign out that says, “See, we’re doing a gay theme now!” Ultimately, it’s probably a failure of imagination on my part and a reflection of the fact that I’ve never made this a priority for us, so pin the blame on me for not moving this bit of reality into our universe.

John Hodgman on Asian horror films:

…they are all spooked by similiar preoccupations: the supernatural reasserting itself within the rational world, often via the very technology that had banished it.

….Asian movies, he [Oxide Pang] said, are allowed to be “unreasonable,” and to his mind, scarier. “With a scary movie,” he said, “when the audience comes out of a theater, all that matters is whether it’s scary. No one says, this scary movie is so cool. It’s so reasonable.”

….But in Asian horror, there is no puzzle to solve that will chase of the illogical ghosts. The characters in “The Grudge” are haunted not because of a past sin that they can atone for, [Mark] Wheaton said. They are haunted because they walked past the house. “This movie put the fangs back in and said: ‘Actually, you aren’t strong enough to beat this. Hollywood was wrong. You cannot win.”

NASA has reportedly eliminated the promise “to understand and protect our home planet” from its mission statement.

Nah, we’re doin’ fine! Nothin’ left to understand, nothin’ we need to protect. Al Gore’s just tryin’ to scare ya!

A NASA spokesman said the change brings the agency into line with U.S. President George W. Bush’s goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the moon and Mars.

Right…and how’s that going again…?