Social Commentary

Eh

So I decided to go see Star Wars, Episode 3, before it left the theatres. I’d seen every one up till now on its first run in the theatres, and it’s apparently part of the zeitgeist of my generation that the ticket get punched for each one. I saw the first one at a less impressionable age than some, and so wasn’t as impressed with it as that generation–my lodestone for SF movies remains 2001, having grown up on a steady diet of Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov, and that was the first SF movie that really tried to get it right (unlike Star Wars, which simply tried to get the effects spectacular, physics notwithstanding).

I know I’m a little late to the party, in terms of reviewing this film, but it’s tough, given today’s technology, for a movie to ride on special effects any more, just as it was easy to do so in 1977, because so much of the field laid unplowed. So the effects were simply what was expected, and had lost their capability to amaze.

How did I like the movie?

As I’ve already said, not being a Star Wars fanatic, I had no expectations. Or rather, given the previous two pathetic Lucas efforts, my expectations were that it would be bad. It lived down to them, but managed to barely maintain my interest for a couple hours, if only to see if it could manage to not be as bad as its predecessors. In that, it succeeded. Barely. I do think that, that had I been Lucas, and wanted to goose the box office draw, I would have at least put out a rumor that Jar-Jar Binks would be killed in some drawn-out and gruesome manner, if not actually doing it in the movie. I’d have paid double the price to see that.

I’m putting together case studies for system failures as part of my day job, and I think I may do this as one for a failure of management. The Jedi screwed the puppy big time, though the Anakin character seemed too weak and pussilanimous to begin with to be the appropriate subject of a proper Greek tragedy.

But mainly, it increased my admiration for Natalie Portman as an actress. She was given a role so pedestrian and devoid of character (unlike her putative daughter, Leia, in the pre-sequels) that it seemed a travesty of her talent. I’d always thought her a good actress, but the first two movies of this series were disappointing. But in this one, George Lucas’ wooden dialogue skills brought her talents fully to the fore. Any intelligent woman who can mouth the words “Hold me, Anakin, hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo,” and keep a straight face deserves the Oscar.

Administrative

Under The Wire

I barely got back from DC to Boca last night. I was flying out of BWI, so I took the Metro with what I thought was plenty of time up to Greenbelt station from Crystal City, with the expectation of getting a bus for the last leg to the airport. Unfortunately, when I got there, I discovered that there was a huge traffic jam on the Balt-Wash parkway, and the buses weren’t running. I shared a cab with someone else, and he took a lot of back roads to get past the mess, having to drive through a lot of (lovely, under other circumstances) Maryland countryside, through Laurel, and up to Fort Meade, before we could finally get back on the highway to the airport. I got there about a half hour before flight time, barely made it through security and on to the plane.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, there was a major hurricane approaching. Though Dennis was still over western Cuba, the outer bands were affecting the lower east coast. We flew down over the ocean, and I could see a lot of thunderheads and lightning off to the west. It was an onshore wind, so we had to head into the weather over the swamp, and do a turn to land to the east. There was lightning all around the plane, but the ride was surprisingly unbumpy, and we landed in Fort Lauderdale without incident. Looking at the doppler this morning, if I’d missed my flight (which I very nearly did), it’s not obvious that I’d have been able to get in this morning either, with heavy rains and winds here. I’m sure it’s much worse over on the west coast of the state, though.

Media Criticism

48 Killed in Lightning Strikes This Year

An average of 90 people die every year in the US in lightning strikes. Of 103 leading causes of death of 2.4 million people in the US, assault without firearms killed 5500. 1% would be 24000. If we want more people to live, we should research heart attack, cancer, stroke and so on and buy automatic electronic defibrillators. The media frenzy about terrorism induces bad public policy. We might be able to cut heart attack (acute myocardial infarction) deaths in half from 170,000 to 85,000 a year by spending a one-time $82 billion on defibrillators. That’s a one time $1 million for one life saved per year. If we completely stop all homicides not from firearms for that amount of money per year, that would be more than $16 million per life saved. Focusing just on the deaths from terrorism, it’s probably closer to $160 million per life saved.

Space

Virgin Galactic OK

I got this message from Ned Abel Smith of Virgin Galactic this morning.

Hope all is well. Only 2 of us made it into the office this morning due to the Suicide attacks on London, but have heard that everyone is accounted for. Very scary.

He also answered my question about where deposit money goes:

All moneys are not kept in escrow and therefore any deposit received is backed by Virgin Holdings Ltd.

This project is so exciting because its so real and anyone that has the opportunity to become a Founder or Pioneer with us is incredibly fortunate. I have attached your Terms and Conditions to be printed and signed.

Here are the terms and conditions Ned mentioned:

Download file

War Commentary

Deja Vu

There was another summer of shark attacks, and young women missing. It abruptly ended as much of America awoke one morning to television images of airplanes flying into buildings, and people jumping from them as they first burned, then fell.

Once again, during a summit in which the hot topics are not the religious extremists who wish us to convert or die (and are indifferent as to which, or would in fact prefer the latter), but global warming and African poverty (the latter a condition that has generally been worsened, not ameliorated by such international gabfests), the early morning news is filled with images of sundered buses and subway cars and broken British bodies. This time it’s in London, the capital of one of our most steadfast allies in the war.

Once again, we’re reminded that this is a war of a kind unfamiliar to any American for the past hundred and forty years, and to almost any American from the northern tier of the country for almost two centuries, in that we at home are at risk of our property and lives. We’ve fought many wars, but the bombs and the injuries and the dying have been endured by those in our military, and largely occurred in the foreign lands in which we waged them. But as on that sunny September day almost four years ago (a time now greater than the span between Pearl Harbor and victory over Germany and then Japan) we are reminded that we’re all in the army now, and we’re all, at least metaphorically, in the sniper’s scope.

It’s not clear what the goal of this latest atrocity was. The timing with the G8 Summit seems too close to be coincidental, but it’s hard to imagine what these people thought the effect on that event would be, other than to strengthen the resolve of the G8 against them. Certainly the British people are no stranger to such things, and have shown their mettle, as they did in the eighties against the IRA, and against the original Nazis during the Blitz. In the words of Winston Churchill, I’m confident that, once again, they will not falter, or fail. And even if they were the type to be cowed, there’s no upcoming election here to sway, as there was in Madrid. If they were trying to hurry the British troops out of Iraq, I suspect that it would be more likely to have the opposite effect now. If nothing else, I hope that it encourages a real crackdown on the Islamist hatemongers, so many (indeed far too many) of whom have taken up residence in Britain, and preached and proselytized their neonazism unmolested for too long amidst a misplaced multicultural overtolerance.

Is it part of a larger plot, still to play out?

I’m in Washington. I walked to work from my hotel this morning, because it was quite close. But I have a lunch scheduled with an editor in the district near the White House, and I was planning to take the Metro to get there. Should I, will I now take a cab instead?

No.

That’s what they want. There are many who cannot afford cabs, or cars. For them the subway is their lifeline. At least one of the goals of these creatures is to scare them away from it, to once again damage our economy (as I watched the coverage of the London carnage, all of the st0ck index futures were down steeply this morning). To once again strike fear into our hearts. To once again prevent us from doing the things that we want, and often must do.

No, when I go downtown today, I’ll ride the train under the river, with those who must, just as I would had I woken up this morning to normal–the latest shark attack and insipid interviews with friends of neighbors of one of the Aruba accused. Though I love life, it must be a life worth living, and that is not one cowering in fear from impotent madmen who rejoice in death, and would force our participation in a misogynistic and deranged medieval fantasy. I will carry on.

They will not win.

[Update at 10:15 AM EDT]

Not all Brits are maintaining a stiff upper lip. The odious Islamic stooge, George Galloway, has already issued a call to surrender:

We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.

[Another update a few minutes later]

“Red” Ken Livingstone, the leftist mayor of London, has a stouter spirit:

I want to say one thing, specifically to the world today

General

Never Give Out Your Creditability

Have you ever gotten a call from a credit card company purporting to be from their security department asking to verify a charge? Asking to call a special number for the fraud/verification department? With the person who answers asking for personal identifying information such as mother’s maiden name?

I have multiple times. I ask the credit cards to authenticate. Do the credit card companies authenticate? No.

They tell customers never to give out such secret personal identifying information to strangers. Now a stranger calls and asks for it. Oops.

A credit card fraud department, should ask the card customers to call the main customer service number on the back of their cards and press a button for the fraud department.

Otherwise, the bank may find its fraud department outsourced. Without permission.

Space

If You Don’t Like Nukes on the Moon

Mike Griffin has been calling for using nuclear power for Earth’s rocky Moon exploration rather than Jupiter’s Icy Moon exploration. Anti-nuclear activists should propose a cost-effective non-nuclear alternative.

Here’s an old idea for lunar nighttime power worthy of rediscovery: laser illumination of solar cells from Earth.

Space

If You Don’t Like Nukes on the Moon

Mike Griffin has been calling for using nuclear power for Earth’s rocky Moon exploration rather than Jupiter’s Icy Moon exploration. Anti-nuclear activists should propose a cost-effective non-nuclear alternative.

Here’s an old idea for lunar nighttime power worthy of rediscovery: laser illumination of solar cells from Earth.

Space

If You Don’t Like Nukes on the Moon

Mike Griffin has been calling for using nuclear power for Earth’s rocky Moon exploration rather than Jupiter’s Icy Moon exploration. Anti-nuclear activists should propose a cost-effective non-nuclear alternative.

Here’s an old idea for lunar nighttime power worthy of rediscovery: laser illumination of solar cells from Earth.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!