Redone (Semi)Correctly

Obama's re-do of the of the oath of office included no Bible. Now if they just get rid of, "so help me god" and replace it with, "so say we all" our journey to the light side of reason will be complete.

Hitchens Being Hitchens

Interesting tidbit; I would have loved to have been at that party.

But Does It Make Up For The Odious Rick Warren?

Barack Obama is the first US president to acknowledge that we "nonbelievers" exist. It's a start...

Movie Review: Phantom Of The Paradise

This 1974 unhinged, queer-ass horror/comedy/musical by Brian de Palma tackles an age-old enigma that has plagued all of mankind: what the fuck is up with Paul Williams?


Truly ahead of its time, its flaws are--in retrospect--endearing. And you'll have to decide which is creepier: Paul Williams as Swan or the music (which he wrote) actually being good.

Movie Review: My Bloody Valentine 3-D

Schlocky, over-the-top, slasher horror fun. The 3-D was AMAZING, the plot semi-intriguing yet still comfortably formulaic, the actors (some throw-back) stilted, and the obligatory horror elements (teeners drinking where they shouldn't, boobies and crotch [in 3-D no less], red herrings, unbelievable 80's-style blood and guts) all were aggressively covered in what seemed to be a "FUCK YOU!" to the tired 90's self-reflective, minimalist gore horror genre of popular TV actors overstepping old stereotypes for overstepping's sake.

Thus, I loved it: the 3-D effects and the fantastic gore alone are worth every penny. Especially impressive was the miner's hat light shining through the screen (how did they do that?). But the movie could have easily failed as an effects piece and didn't, something rare both to the horror genre and 3-D genre.

I'd even watch it again in 2-D.

It had a preview of Coraline 3-D; we all have to go see that next month.

When I knew for sure I loved Firefly

Short Story Weirdness

ERRATA
by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer is a well known sci-fi editor/writer and Argosy Quarterly was a well-respected mag that went under recently.
I find a lot of sci-fi subculture stuff searching for mp3's lately.

"You gotta keep 'em separated...."

Milky Way — the galaxy — not snack-sized anymore

WASHINGTON – Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore.

The Milky Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than astronomers once thought, Andromeda's equal.

Reflections On The (Evolved) Eye

Scientists discovered that the brownsnout spookfish, a deep-ocean denizen, uses mirrors to focus its eyes.

"In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes - how to make an image - using a mirror," said Professor Julian Partridge, of Bristol University, who conducted the tests.

This unique system was adapted to enhance the fish's ability to detect bioluminescence in the abyss. Remarkable...

Birmingham's Mayoral Scandal Just Got Gay

From the Daily Voice:

McCullom says the mayor wore a sackcloth and Rolex watch in April as he led a prayer rally against crime. "Oh and a children's charity founded by Langford is also being investigated by the feds for lavishly spending money and writing checks to a gay porn star Ryan Idol," according to McCullom. "None of this sounds very Christian," he writes.

This guy needs to watch TBN more: it sounds VERY Christian to me. It sounds like the corrupt buffoonery of a very loathsome, superstitious man-child. Birmingham sure knows how to pick 'em!

Wherein Lies The Blame

A new study finds that race was not the deciding factor of California's Prop 8 passage (emphasis mine).

Although support for Prop. 8 in the African-American community had been pegged as high as 70 percent by one previous postelection survey, this study — which not only reviewed pre- and postelection polls, but also crunched precinct-level election results and census data from Alameda, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, in which two-thirds of the state's African-Americans reside — found the number was between 57 percent and 59 percent.

And that number is more about religiosity than race, study co-author and New York University assistant professor of politics Patrick Egan said. While higher than the level of support among white and Asian-American voters, it's due to the higher rates of African-American church attendance: Fifty-seven percent of African-Americans attend church at least once a week, compared with 42 percent of whites and 40 percent of Asian-Americans, he said.

Unfortunately, superstition and misplaced allegiance to the corrupt sages of a compromised ideology trumped personal relations with the gays.

Even personal relationships with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people paled in comparison to these factors, said study co-author Kenneth Sherrill, a political-science professor at Hunter College in New York City. Although two-thirds of California conservatives said they know or are related to LGBT people, four of five conservatives supported Prop. 8.

But hey--we've all known for years that our conservatives aren't really conservative (much less libertarian) anymore. Let's give it up for Bob Barr, the--still thinking--conservative come libertarian author of DOMA, who now supports its repeal:

In effect, DOMA’s language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don’t want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws - including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran’s benefits - has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

Let's be clear: we have a federal government dictating what states should do, and states dictating the rights of a minority through the votes of the majority. All over religious-based sexual hang-ups concerning tax-paying citizens who want the same privileges afforded their civic equals.

No one reads history anymore...

At least one of us is.

Another great one form full frontal nerdity:

Did the Dead Snow guys have this stuff?

Courtesy of Instapundit:

Zombie Survival List

The Apocalypse is Coming: What You Need to Pack

Zombies & Nazis: Too good to be true?

This can only end in tears (of unbridled joy): Dead Snow's Nazi Zombie Clips Will Rip Out Your Pigtails on io9.com

That Darwin guy....

12 Elegant Examples of Evolution at Wired Science from Wired.com.