Category Archives: General

General

Stars who were once homeless

Recently Jennifer Lopez noted that she was homeless at one time before achieving stardom.  Here, from Time magazine, is a fascinating list of ten celebrities who were also homeless for a time before hitting it big:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/07/11/stars-who-were-once-homeless/

I’m fascinated by the list because it proves, to some extent, that even when you’re at your most down and out, there is a chance you can pull yourself up and make something of your life.

Sadly, I suspect these are the only few examples of the extreme exceptions to the rules, people who were down and out and turned it around completely.  There are others, of course, who may try and never can get out of extreme poverty.

Books/Literature, General

Orson Scott Card…again

A while back (you can read it here) I noted the controversy regarding sci-fi author Orson Scott Card and his views on homosexuality.  I’m not a big fan of Mr. Card’s works, though I have read what is arguably his most famous novel, Ender’s Game, which will soon be released to theaters as a major motion picture.

I noted in the previous column that the controversy surrounding Mr. Card may wind up hurting the film’s box office prospects, and it would appear that Mr. Card is himself worried about the very same thing and has tried to address the main controversy regarding his previous comments:

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/orson_scott_card_gay_marriage_issue_has_become_moot/

In many ways, I feel for Mr. Card even as I can’t find sufficient sympathy to excuse his previous comments.  I feel for Mr. Card because he’s a victim of his own verbal venom in an age when such comments are easily accessible via the internet and difficult, if not impossible, to expunge.  It is possible, for example, that over the years Mr. Card’s opinions have changed and he’s softened his stance toward homosexuality and homosexual marriage.  I’m not saying this has happened, mind you, only that it’s possible.  Unfortunately for Mr. Card, those previous comments he made will remain available for anyone to see and read and will always follow him, even after his passing.

More recently, Hugh Howley, the author of the hit “self-published” sci-fi novel Wool got himself into some similar trouble when he posted a blog entry verbally lashing a woman he met at World Con (http://www.dailydot.com/culture/hugh-howey-the-bitch-from-worldcon-rant/).  Unlike Mr. Card, whose anti-homosexual comments can be found over the years, Mr. Howley appeared to realize rather quickly that his rant was inappropriate and offered an apology (http://www.hughhowey.com/to-those-whom-ive-offended/) and opened himself up to interviews where he further elaborated on the blog post and offered explanations as well as apologies (http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/CultureShock/archives/2013/04/19/hugh-howey-explains-why-he-removed-controversial-blog-post)

I suppose the point is this: Think about what you’re saying, whether it be to someone else or something you yourself post online.  It’s common sense.  On the other hand, perhaps it is also a good thing to look inside yourself and evaluate your own feelings and philosophies.  After all, if you’re a public figure (or even a casual facebook user) and are “smart enough” to not make any controversial public rants, yet have such strong feelings, perhaps you should consider, and re-consider, them.

In the long run it might make you a better person.

General

I could watch stuff like this all day…

As you watch these video clips, after a while you figure you’ve seen enough.  I mean, after a while, things have to get a little repetitious, right?  After all, how many times and ways can you see amateur parkour “talent” running into a wall…or the ground…or water.  How many times can you see cars/motorcycles/people on skateboards/etc. wipe out?  How many would-be “extreme” athletes can you still find amusing once they land crushingly on their backs or heads?  And what of the adventures of the very drunk, as they stumble around and inevitably fall?

There can’t be much else, can there?

And then, suddenly, you’re at minute 13:55 of the video and you see a bunch of Mensa candidates find out what happens when you stick a knife into a toaster.

As I said before, I could watch stuff like this all day…

General

World War II in color…and more!

Fascinating article and, especially, photographs from the Italian campaign in WWII…in color!  These pictures were made for Life magazine but never appeared in it:

http://life.time.com/history/world-war-ii-in-color-the-italian-campaign-1944/#1

While there, be sure to check out some of the other links to other fascinating photographs from the past.

General

Perhaps a little too much free time on their hands…

Interesting article from Huffington Post regarding Pastor Keith Cressman and his lawsuit over…an image on the Oklahoma license plate?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/pastor-suit-against-oklahoma-license-plate-ok_n_3455129.html

So, basically, we have an image based on a famous sculpture which in turn was based on an Native American Indian Rain God and this, to the Pastor, infringes upon his sensibilities as it depicts a “Pagan” God.

In Florida, my home state, one can get a wide variety of vanity plates with images ranging from nature scenes, aquatic scenes, John Lennon (!), to, yes, religious statements (here’s a bunch of images).  It wouldn’t surprise me if one day people in this state are allowed to create their own license plate images, provided they aren’t deemed offensive, and slap them on their car…for a fee, of course.  Apparently, in Oklahoma like Florida there are other plates available, but like Florida these require an additional payment.

Still, the Pastor’s discomfort with the standard Oklahoma license plate smacks of frivolous and silly and one can’t help but feel the Pastor is a little too tightly wound up.  In the Oklahoma license plate I don’t see a promotion of “Pagan” religion (especially “Pagan” rain Gods) so much as a tribute to Native American Heritage.

The Pastor may want to take a few deep breaths.

General

Ah the verbal gymnastics…

Though I loath to get too political in this blog, the following news item is just a little too much.

So a bunch of -for the most part- Republican Senators managed to kill a bill that allowed for background checks for gun purchases, a relatively minor and common sense (both in my opinion) proposed law that should have been enacted (again in my opinion) ages ago on the grounds that it was an invasion of personal privacy.

Yet these same people are now defending the NSA spying.  When asked about the inherent contradiction of voting against gun buyers’ background checks -because they supposedly invade personal privacy- and defending the NSA spying -which essentially does the same on a much, much larger scale even though it is in the fight against terrorism- they reply that the two issues are very different and comparing them is like comparing “apples and oranges”.

Really.

Read for yourself…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/nsa-senators_n_3428074.html

I’ve noted it before and I’ll note it again:  The internet and the digital revolution has created a vast new world, one where we’re only now beginning to see the potentially massive changes in how we and future generations will live our lives.  Already some of the changes are obvious, from the extinction (for all intents and purposes) of both the video and music store -and coming soon, the extinction of the book store- thanks to online shopping to the fact that companies -not just the government!- now have a wealth of personal information on just about everyone out there which, in turn, leads to programs such as the NSA.

Am I against the NSA program?

It’s tough to form an opinion when I know so little about it.  All I do know is that, again thanks to our new information age, it is suddenly much easier for an individual -any individual with access- to spill government secrets with the ease of clicking a button.  The scary thing is this:  In their zeal to expose what they believe is government overreach or possible corruption, could they be putting other people in danger?  If the NSA program has been successful in stopping potential terrorist activity, will the exposure of same -and the potential of terrorists to circumvent what they now know the U.S. government is doing- endanger us?  If, heaven forbid, a major terrorist strike occurs in the U.S. or in any friendly nation and scores of people are killed, and we find that the terrorists used the NSA leak to work their way around our security…then what?

But let’s look at the opposite side of the coin as well:  What if the massive information the NSA collects is used by individuals to enrich/enpower themselves?  If someone could look into the emails of big corporations and gain insight into their next moves, could they not use that information for themselves?  And we’re not even talking about potential blackmail material, such the possibility of discovering that a certain CEO likes to hop onto certain pornographic websites or has made incriminating statements in an email…

I’ll repeat it one last time:  The internet has changed things on a massive scale.  The information age is upon us and privacy isn’t what it used to be, for better or worse.

General

This Is The Last Time I Will Ever See You…

Fascinating -and sad- article by David Plotz for Slate Magazine concerning a phenomena I know only too well:  What happens to all those close friends you had at your side when you got married?  How many of them have subsequently faded from your life?

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/weddings/2013/06/wedding_guest_goodbyes_friendships_that_end_after_your_wedding.html

I’m most certainly in Mr. Plotz’s camp.  Should I take a look at my old wedding pictures, there most certainly will be a number of people there I see very, very infrequently.  Some are due to moving out of our area (indeed, the majority of those are due to this) while I’ve simply drifted apart from others.

Perhaps because marriage (and what follows, from your work to having children, etc.) represents such a big change in one’s previous, non-married life it should not be too surprising that people move away from each other.

Yet there is an undeniable sadness to that realization, to seeing as Mr. Plotz put it, “ghosts” of your past, people you once were great friends with but now are not.

General

Living on Mars…

Absolutely fascinating article by Michael Chorost for Slate magazine regarding the problems astronauts face if/when humans head to Mars for a long term -even a multi-generational- stay:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/06/mars_colonization_may_require_earth_soil.single.html

Clearly, there are considerable problems to overcome in simply leaving Earth’s atmosphere, much less deciding to inhabit a foreign object such as Mars, and this article goes reasonably deep into the crucial issue of the difficulties involved in feeding astronauts.  There are other difficulties to overcome, for sure, such as establishing a reliable source of breathable ai and countering the effects of weightlessness (or lower gravity).  Then there is the issue of your habitation and the elevated levels of radiation your target, in this case Mars, may have.

It would seem that whatever journey is taken to Mars at this stage -and for the near foreseeable future- would have to be something relatively brief, with the crew of a theoretical Earth spacecraft journeying to Mars, staying a short time (during which they use up their supplies) and then heading right back.

But a journey of 4-10 months one way is an awful long time and requires a great deal of nutrients/water and supplies.  The crew of this theoretical flight would have few options if any sort of difficulty/emergency, medical or otherwise, should arise.  They would effectively be on their own and would have to deal with whatever comes up on their own.

I’m convinced space travel will become, over time, a more routine and safe process, not unlike the journeys from the “old world” to the “new” one eventually became.  Perhaps the solution is not to aim for Mars but to train for that eventual journey by going to -and establishing a colony on- the Moon.  It is far closer to us and thus presents a potentially safer training ground, a place where we can carefully practice, refine, and hopefully perfect long term space journeys and the equipment necessary to make it so.

Still, fascinating, fascinating stuff.

General

You won’t finish this article…

…though you probably should.

A fascinating piece by Farhad Manjoo for Slate magazine regarding the reading patterns of people with regard to articles on the web.  His findings?  Not all that many people bother to read an article from the beginning all the way to the end…

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.single.html

I’m not at all surprised by his findings.  More and more I’m convinced we live in a world of hyper-stimulation.

Nowadays, you want to see an older TV show?  Download complete seasons or order the same via DVDs/BluRays.  Want to read something, from books to comics?  Almost everything is available via Amazon nowadays, just download it in seconds and you’re there.  Want to hear certain music?  Again, download it via Amazon or iTunes in seconds and you’ve got it.  Want news?  There are hundreds of websites available for any manner of news you may be looking for.

In the past, we didn’t have this near instantaneous (and, arguably, overwhelming) source of information that is the internet.  Back then, we had to hunt out older works to enjoy them, be they TV shows (I distinctly recall spending some Saturday and Sunday mornings searching through the few channels available on TV hoping to find re-runs of the original Star Trek or The Wild Wild West and being delighted when such episodes actually aired…never mind which particular episodes the stations deemed to show), movies (like TV shows, in the days before video tape, DVD, and now Blu-Ray, your only hope to catch older favorites was to, again, stumble upon them while channel surfing), books (you picked up whatever was available at the local bookstore, used bookstore, or library), and music (again limited to whatever your local record/music store carried).

Is it any wonder, as Mr. Manjoo points out…

Maybe this is just our cultural lot: We live in the age of skimming. I want to finish the whole thing, I really do. I wish you would, too. Really—stop quitting! But who am I kidding. I’m busy. You’re busy. There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.

There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.  Indeed there is.

General

History’s Most Overlooked Mysteries…

Fascinating stuff from Live Science:

http://www.livescience.com/11361-history-overlooked-mysteries.html

My two favorite listed pieces are rather grim as they both involve ancient corpses: The Tarim Mummies and the Bog Bodies.

The Tarim Mummies were new to me upon reading the article.  The idea that a group of European people made it as far as Western China, lived their lives there, and were subsequently buried and mummified…is incredible.  Who were those people?  Why did they move so far from their home?  Why settle there?

As for the bog bodies, I had heard of them before.  Some of the more hair-raising stories involved people who were apparently tortured/killed in a cruel manner before their body (whether still alive or not) was thrown into the bogs.  Depending on the chemical composition of the bog they were thrown into, some of the bodies were remarkably well preserved and detailed the grim way some of them died.

If you’re intrigued with the bog bodies, you can find more information on it here:

http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/

This link, found in the one above, offers some of bodies found that were clearly victims of violence:

http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/violence1.html