Category Archives: Popular Culture

Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Science And Society

Nobel-Prize Winning Novels

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Will they change public attitudes on global warming?

I predict no. I suspect that most people who read that kind of thing are have already drunk the koolaid. This is lunacy, really:

“A Visit from the Goon Squad,” which tells the story of people connected by the music business, bounces back and forth over time. When it flashes forward two decades, it shows a world that has been altered by climate change. Trees bloom in January. A February day hits 89 degrees.

No one is predicting those kinds of changes that fast. All this does is destroy their credibility.

Though it would be nice to get people reading this book again. Or even for the first time.

Popular Culture, Social Commentary

I Am Extremely Deviant

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That is, I am so deviant, that I share virtually none of these deviancies:

Straight men enjoy a wider variety of erotica than imagined, including sites devoted to elderly women and transsexuals. Foot fetishes aren’t a deviance; men are evolutionarily wired to look for small feet, which are a sign of high estrogen production, which itself is a sign of fertility. Gay men and straight men have nearly identical brains, and their favorite body parts, in order of preference, line up exactly: chests, buttocks, feet. Straight men prefer heavy women to thin ones. Straight women enjoy reading about and watching romances between two men — it’s not about the sex, which is downplayed, but the emotion, which is the focus. (The largest audience for “Brokeback Mountain,” says the book, was straight women.) Straight men have a fascination with other men’s penises, which may be conscious or unconscious.

For the record, I am a very straight man, who has zero interest in elderly women, transs3xuals, feet, chests, and a negative degree of interest in other mens’ junk. I don’t even like to see it in porn, particularly in a woman’s mouth. Few things make me go for the fast forward faster than fell@tio. But apparently, I’m weird in that regard, judging by its prevalence. I would also note that I’ve never done a single one of the top ten searches sited in the article.

Just in case my readers had been wondering.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

The Politics Of Star Trek

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Thoughts from Ilya Somin:

Instead, it is the Federation that turns out to be a sort of kinder, gentler Soviet Union. Both are multicultural, federal, socialist states with an official ideology of egalitarianism. But the Federation lacks the Gulags, secret police, and mass murder (or at least we never see them on-screen!). Meanwhile, the Romulans represent several of the negative qualities that many leftists associate with the present-day West: elitism, arrogance, and intolerance for other cultures. The same can be said of many other Star Trek villains, such as the Ferengi, who represent the supposed evils of capitalism. At some level, of course, Star Trek is a projection of Western values. After all, egalitarian socialism is a Western ideology. However, Trek is far more hostile to the present-day West than Nussbaum and some other left of center critics recognize.

Some say Roddenberry was a dreamer. But (sadly) he’s not the only one. Imagine.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Space, Technology and Society

Just A Right-Wing Fantasy

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No, of course Atlas Shrugged has nothing to do with life in modern America:

Ah, that must be the Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Law, or one of the Fairness Laws, or something, right? The WSJ isn’t sure what law the NLRB is talking about, either. Not only do businesses routinely relocate to find the most advantageous environment possible, states and cities compete for that business by calculating their business climate. If this has escaped the notice of the NLRB, perhaps they should get out more.

This will be an important court case, assuming it’s fought. Then again, it’s hard to feel too bad for Boeing — as Mickey says, live by crony capitalism, die by crony capitalism. Sadly, we’ve also seen this sort of corporatism/fascism wasting our space dollars as well, in addition to inhibiting innovation.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

To The Consternation Of The Suits In Hollywood

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Atlas Shrugged seems to be doing pretty well:

business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders.

“Things have turned for us,” Kaslow said. “When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It’s just a matter of logistics.”

Unexpectedly!

Though he’s still cautious, this would bode well for Parts 2 and 3.