Paul Simon, "Old"

Thursday 07 August 2008 at 08:48 am The first time I heard “Peggy Sue”
I was 12 years old
Russians up in rocket ships
And the war was cold
Now many wars have come and gone
Genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on
But his catalog was sold

First time I smoked
Guess what - paranoid
First time I heard “Satisfaction”
I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year
Summer leaves and my birthday’s here
And all my friends stand up and cheer
And say Man you’re old
Getting old
Old
Getting old

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas day
And Buddha found nirvana along the lotus way
About 1,500 years ago the messenger Mohammed spoke
And his wisdom like a river flowed
Through hills of gold
Wisdom is old
The Koran is old
The Bible’s old
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work ’em out

The human race has walked the earth for 2.7 million
And we estimate the universe at 13-14 billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the Lord was there before creation
God is old
We’re not old
God is old
He made the mold

Didn't Planet This Way

Tuesday 05 August 2008 at 11:16 am Dear astronomical community,

Can we please just move on? Pluto's not been a planet for two years now, can we just leave it at that?

And, if not, if we can't just all get along on that, how about if we agree never to speak of it again? We'll just agree not to talk about Pluto. Some of us can think it's a planet. Some of us can know it's not. But none of us will ever mention it, so it'll just be a non-issue.

I mean, think of the children.

I Want To Believe In Crystal Skulls

Monday 04 August 2008 at 12:58 pm This post contains minor spoilers for X Files: I Want To Believe and major spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

As we were discussing the new X Files movie, my viewing companion commented that it should have had aliens in it. (And others agree.)

It wasn't until a bit later that I was struck my the irony of the fact that one of the leading complaints about the new Indiana Jones movie was that it shouldn't have had aliens in it. The irony is even compounded by the fact that religion, which was the focus of the first three Indy movies, played a major role in I Want To Believe. And, of course, both shared their need to function as big 'shipper payoffs. But, so, basically, the problem with both movies is that they should have switched themes?

It really might have been possible to take a good bit of the plot of Crystal Skull and fashion a decent X Files story from it. Ditch some of the Indy swashbuckling and replace it with more thinking, and it could work. Certainly I think I would have liked seeing a variation of the climactic scene better in X Files than in Indy. I was about to say that for the contemporarily set X Files, you would have to update the villain from an evil Russian using crazy Soviet-era science, but then remembered that was also exactly the villain in I Want To Believe.

Obviously, the plot-switcheroo wouldn't work both ways -- Indiana Jones looking for a kidnapped FBI agent with a psychic priest just really wouldn't fit the series. But it got me to thinking about what might have made the movie better.

I was not as down on Crystal Skull as some people. And I wasn't really hugely opposed to the sci-fi theme, but it did leave me uneasy. In thinking about the two movies together, and about the aliens versus religion dichotomy, I realized something -- the sci-fi elements of Crystal Skull took away the magic and mystery of the first films. It was, basically, machina ex deus.

Imagine if the ending of Last Crusade had been explained away with some sort of (pseudo-)scientific concept -- ley lines, anyone -- that would have accounted for immortality without the need for the divine. Or if Indy had realized that the "Ark of the Covenant" had been a hibernation chamber for extraterrestrials.

Take away the wonder, and you're left ... well, without the wonder. And I think that was part of what hurt Crystal Skull.

The question then is this -- would the movie have been any better without the aliens? Same movie, but about South American gods without the accompanying extraterrestrial explanation? The crystal skulls are instead like the sankara stones -- mysterious relics that cause weird, and ultimately unexplained, things to happen. The climax becomes much like Raiders. The bad guys get what they want, but are destroyed by it. No UFO, no gestalt being, no transdimensional portals. No explanation at all. Just mystery and wonder.

Tune in next week, when I explain why Wall•E should have fought the Joker, while Batman brings humanity back to Earth with one plant and adorable robot love.

Fallen Falcon

Monday 04 August 2008 at 11:24 am Sigh.

I really couldn't explain why SpaceX strikes me as such an important harbinger of the future of altspace. Unlike, say, Bigelow Aerospace or Virgin Galactic, SpaceX really isn't doing anything that conventional space companies aren't doing. Granted, the planned Dragon spacecraft would make that a possibility, but that's a ways off.

And after Saturday, it seems like it may be a good ways off. SpaceX's Falcon I rocket went 0-3 this weekend when the second stage failed to separate from the first during launch.

I'm glad to know that Elon Musk is dedicated to continuing the company's efforts, and I'm glad to know that have secured a financial situation that will make that possible.

I just wish they'd reach orbit already, you know?

(And it does kind of stink for the families of James Doohan and Gordo Cooper.)

War, Inc.

Saturday 02 August 2008 at 08:37 am So I was excited Thursday to discover that War, Inc. was going to be playing in Huntsville, I'd given up on it a while back. Yesterday was my every-other-Friday off, so I caught a mid-day show.

First, my review, as posted on Facebook:

If this movie really understood how bad it was, it would be the greatest movie of all time. As it is, the whole is less than the sum of its parts, many of which are extremely awesome, others not so much.

The other thought I had after the movie -- I've never seen Must Love Dogs. And, to be honest, I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen Say Anything when Must Love Dogs came out.

I'm saying that in explanation that what I'm about to say came from a position of pure ignorance, but, when I first saw the trailer for Must Love Dogs, it was depressing to me to realize that Lloyd Dobler was now old enough to be meeting divorcees via personals.

Cusack is a good nine years older than I am; though it seems like less since Martin Blank's high school reunion in Grosse Pointe Blank was in 1997, just five years before mine. Even so, it's totally unfair to use Cusack as a harbinger for my own aging, except to realize that we're both getting older at the same rate.

That said, you know, this line in the plot summary for Must Love Dogs -- "a recently divorced thirty-something year old" -- doesn't sound as old as it once did.

Point being, War, Inc. brings Cusack a few years further out. And his Brand Hauser in this movie really is likely a very-slightly-alternate-universe Martin Blank, but aged another decade since then. A bit more world-weary, a bit more seasoned.

And, really, I can live with that.

"We Have Water"

Thursday 31 July 2008 at 5:20 pm Per NASA:
Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

I'll Be Bat

Thursday 31 July 2008 at 11:50 am Thursday. Hatbag. Read.

For those ATW readers who don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, a brief explanation -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?

A Vitruvian Man Like Dad's

Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 10:47 am collectSPACE has a great article about the patch Richard Garriott will wear during his spaceflight in October:
Like any soon-to-be astronaut, Richard Garriott needed a patch to sew onto his spacesuit and to represent his mission. Unlike those who have launched before him however, Garriott had a unique source for his insignia's inspiration: his astronaut father.