(A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.)

I don’t always agree with Nicholas Kristof, but he really nails it in this op-ed (via Scarecrow at FireDogLake). I’m having a hard time finding a small portion to snip to give you a taste, because it’s all so good.

Rev. Wright was ridiculed in the press for his (well, ridiculous) belief that AIDS was the US government engaging in biological warfare against blacks. Kristof points out that this sort of thing is not a Rev. Wright problem, nor an African-American problem; it’s an American problem.

… there’s this embarrassing fact about the United States in the 21st century: Americans are as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution. Depending on how the questions are asked, roughly 30 to 40 percent of Americans believe in each.

A 34-nation study found Americans less likely to believe in evolution than citizens of any of the countries polled except Turkey.

President Bush is also the only Western leader I know of who doesn’t believe in evolution, saying “the jury is still out.” No word on whether he believes in little green men.

Only one American in 10 understands radiation, and only one in three has an idea of what DNA does. One in five does know that the Sun orbits the Earth …oh, oops.

“America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism,” Susan Jacoby argues in a new book, “The Age of American Unreason.” She blames a culture of “infotainment,” sound bites, fundamentalist religion and ideological rigidity for impairing thoughtful debate about national policies….

He points out that we are so enamored of our own ignorance that we choose leaders who reflect that ignorance back to us:

From Singapore to Japan, politicians pretend to be smarter and better- educated than they actually are, because intellect is an asset at the polls. In the United States, almost alone among developed countries, politicians pretend to be less worldly and erudite than they are (Bill Clinton was masterful at hiding a brilliant mind behind folksy Arkansas sayings about pigs).

Alas, when a politician has the double disadvantage of obvious intelligence and an elite education and then on top of that tries to educate the public on a complex issue — as Al Gore did about climate change — then that candidate is derided as arrogant and out of touch.

It’s not the ignorance per se that bothers me. No one can be an expert in everything. It’s the willfulness of our ignorance that gets us into trouble. If we feel threatened by knowledge we don’t have–if we resist acknowledging our own ignorance–we can never learn and grow. If we just make shit up, instead of doing the hard work of understanding the roots of complicated and difficult problems, and figuring out workable solutions, then the problems are never solved. This strain of anti-intellectual snobbery threatens to cripple us as a nation. It has to stop. And quite frankly, we need to spend some resources on how to fix this problem.

In the interests of helping my fellow Americans, I’ve begun that process, and I have had an important epiphany. Brace yourselves for a shock. This is not a problem mired in complex socioeconomic rigamarole. No. It’s really quite simple, once you examine the evidence. Susan Jacoby herself tips her hand, when she mentions a “powerful mutant strain” of ignorance.

Clearly, sometime in the past century, psychic alien zombies ate America’s brains. And she’s in on it!

Either that, or malevolent intelligent bacterial super-colonies have hacked their own DNA and infested our water supply, in a struggle for Darwinian supremacy!

Or perhaps it’s giant horned pig lizards… hmm… I know I can figure this out. Give me time.

*shuffles off, mumbling*

Today’s post is going to be complex and lengthy and geeky. Feel free to bail out, but you’ll be missing some amazing weirdness if you do. I’d prefer that you read all the way through before you click on any of the links.

Here’s why – Unlike our usual practice, none of the links are live streams. I’m going to encourage you to choose whether to download some large video files or to execute some small programs. You should know what you’re getting into, and whether your computer can handle it. You need a monster machine to run some of the programs that I’m about to link to. I have a rig with an Athlon64 3200 CPU, 1.5 GB of RAM, and an NVidia FX5200 video card. My WinXP installation is extremely stripped down, so that I have maximum use of resources for recording. It’s hot enough to run only a few of them.

Okay, let’s go.

As I’ve mentioned I hang out a lot at KVR, which is one of the major sites for computer music geeks. Last week, a group named Farbrausch released a newly-updated version of their synth, which is named V2. It includes a speech synthesizer, so you can even make it talk. Here’s the KVR thread on the subject.

Who cares?, you say. Except that Farbrausch also does one of the coolest things I’ve seen in years. They make computer programs that unfold into music and video. They are a dominant player in what’s called ‘the Demo Scene‘.

The V2 synth is their sound-generation code. I’ve tried it and it’s effing awesome, with virtually no CPU hit.

Here’s one from last year, and it’s already a classic.

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It’s called ‘Debris’. Here’s the link to download the program and the separate non-program video, which is slightly under 200 MB in size.

Here’s the mind-blowing part:

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Here’s a little something to tide you over while you’re waiting for my longer post this evening.

It’s Ronnie Hawkins and the Band doing ‘Who Do You Love’, as filmed in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Waltz’. The Hawk rocks pretty hard, IMHO. But Brad does it better, and I have a tape to prove it. I may work on that sometime soon….

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I wasn’t here on Tuesday.  I apologize.  But here I am now.

Okay: I cannot compete with Maureen’s rhapsodic posts on food (though maybe, once our kitchen is finished, I will make an effort). But this week Avocado and I took a Spring break road trip to LA and Disneyland. I will not bore you with the details. Immense fun was had, crankiness and sore feet likewise; plus, we got to see my Cool Aunt Julie, and we stayed for a night in the UCLA Guest House (both my aunt and her husband are UCLA luminaries or luminaries-emeritus) among, as Avocado put it, “the Smart People.”

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

This is what I’m here to talk about. I’ve seen the thing (Green Eggs and Ham, with Who Cakes) in person, and it’s truly fearsome. The Who Cakes are particularly terrifying, even without the star-treatment lighting and food styling. A ziggurat of pancakes, topped with rather plasticky-looking blueberry and raspberry sauces, and a pink lollipop.

Avocado was horrified. “Who eats this stuff?”

And yet, there were children tucking in to this nutritionally null foodstuff with such gusto! And I started imagining the following dialogue:

Boss: Okay! So we finally landed a major tie-in! Horton Hears a Who! Big Hollywood, guys. I mean, we’re going to have kids clamoring for our hotcakes. All you gotta do is design it.

Chef: Design it? I don’t tie in food. The very idea is repugnant! (Okay, this is iHop; maybe the Chef doesn’t say repugnant. But that’s what he means.)

Boss: Did I mention you get a bonus if you come up with something sufficiently…Who-ish?

Chef: (sighs) What does Who-ish mean, exactly.

And within a week, the Chef returns with “Beezlenut Splash”, which is basically 7-Up with cubes of Berry-blue and Cherry Jello; with The Mayor’s Green Eggs and Ham (okay, this one sounds all right: scrambled eggs with spinach, and a slab of ham, plus those scary Who-Cakes), and Who-Cakes themselves, about which I have already written. There’s also “Jo Jo’s Breakfast, which is just a smaller version of the Mayor’s food.

The Chef, one presumes, gets a bonus. All parties are happy. And children everwhere dig into that plasticky blue-and-pink syrup. Eew.

Avocado and I split a dish of scrambled eggs, sausage, and your basic unaugmented pancakes and left sated. On the way out I saw another dish of Who-Cakes. They were still scary.

Previously on Veronica Mars Eat Our Brains I talked about Elected Bigot Sally Kern and her perception that the greatest threat facing our country is the Homosexual Agenda. God, I love saying that. Ho-Mo-Sex-You-Ellllllllll Agenda. Makes me think of the spiral schedulers my kids have me sign every week or so except when they forget which is USUALLY. Or maybe something in a nice moleskin. Wait a minute–does that sound dirty?

But Sally Kern is wrong. I have seen the true threat to our precious bodily fluids National Integrity and it is:

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The guy who thought this brain lamp up was inspired. I want one.

The designer used an MRI scan of his own brain to produce it. Via Direct Neural Interface.

Okay, maybe I should have resisted the urge to do this.

But I didn’t, because I’m too damn self-indulgent

Here’s my podcast of the piece formerly titled ‘Vengeance is Mine’.

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 The Last Gospel: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I’m still not sure this is the right name for it, and am very much open to suggestions for a better one.

I’m also open to critique, if any of you have ideas for improving it. I thought about adding some music at the beginning and end, maybe a heavy organ rendition of a few lines of ‘Easter Bonnet’.

But then people might think I wasn’t taking it all entirely seriously.

I hope it’s an easy listen.

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Btw, while I’m plugging really cool stuff, check out this workshop for SF writers in Laramie, Wyoming on July 30 through August 5, 2008. Their aim is to help improve the science in science fiction, and to that end, they bring in guest lecturers in astronomy and physics, as well as published SF writers.

The deadline to apply is March 31. So if you are interested, don’t delay!

I’d said I wasn’t going to blog this week, but I came across a true delight last night, and I must share it.

As a reader, I lean more toward science fiction, but a well-written fantasy novel is a delight, and Emma Bull’s Territory kept me up half the night. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in years.

Territory is the legend of the OK Corral, with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton, naturally, and it holds all the dust and fire and bullets, all the frontier law-making and -breaking, the cattle rustling and gun slingers, of a good western. Only it mixes in a heady brew of sorcery, with a daub of American and Chinese mysticism, like spices that bring out the flavor of the brew and transform it into something new.

Bull sneaks up on you. I am a long-time reader and there aren’t a lot of books that sink their hooks in and grab hold without my being aware of what’s happening. But she pulled me in. There’s not a single false note in this book. The magic is handled deftly, the characters achingly real and believable. The magic sneaks up on you, too. It’s not merely tacked-on pyrotechnics. Rather, it manifests itself gradually, as a raw and elemental force woven so naturally through the story that ultimately it seems unthinkable to view the original legend without the magic mixed in.

Territory is told primarily from the viewpoints of three characters. Jesse Fox is a drifter summoned to Tombstone by an old friend, Chow Lung, a Chinese sorcerer and physician who seeks to protect the town against the powerful evil forces gathering there. Throughout much of the book, Jesse struggles to keep at bay his own supernatural abilities. He had a ringside seat at the inexorable destruction of his beloved sister, due to her own power and sensitivity to the supernatural.

Mildred Benjamin, a widow whose husband has recently died, is a copyeditor-cum-reporter at a local newspaper and secretly, a fiction writer for a deliciously trashy fiction tabloid. One of the delights of this book is that the “ordinary” people are no less extraordinary than the conjurers and magicians. Mildred is levelheaded and practical. She is no sorceress, to be swallowed by earth, flame, and water, as Jesse is. But in Bull’s hands, her arc is equally gripping. Bull portrays her with a clear and unyielding vision of the difficulties women faced in the American west. Mildred comes into her own for the first time in a difficult, lawless time. She is no fainting damsel. Mildred is thrown into town life at large by her husband’s death, and later flung into dangerous and eldritch happenings by hidden sorcerers’ machinations. And she finds herself equal to the task.

The other viewpoint character is Doc Holliday. Earp and Holliday, as the two antagonists, are also compelling characters. Doc Holliday is a consumptive, slowly dying, and kept alive only by Wyatt’s own version of magic — or is Wyatt only using him, and slowly killing him? Yet they are close friends whose ties reach back over the years, and you sense that Earp’s hold on Holliday is in one sense also Holliday’s hold on Earp. Holliday is acerbic, amoral, and self-destructive, but you can’t help but like him anyway, and even Earp a little, when you see him through Doc’s eyes.

Then there are the secondary characters, all delightful and skillfully drawn. My favorite is Lung. He is powerful, irascible, and very funny, a Chinese immigrant to the barbaric west, who is baffled by Jesse’s struggle over science versus magic. To him, medicine and magic are part of the same system. And the women of Mildred’s acquaintance: Kate Holliday, who is herself a force of nature, and the Earp wives, downtrodden, kept isolated by their husbands and shunned by Tombstone’s social circle. They are powerless and victimized and it would be easy for Bull to treat them as ciphers. But they come to life in Bull’s hands as Mildred befriends them, and thus we not only experience a more thoughtful view of power in domestic and family relations; we also learn much more about the Earps and the evil they are capable of — and why.

As a writer, I am in awe of Bull’s craft. She reaches deep and grabs hold of something raw, real, and fabulous. As a reader, I am besotted with the world and the characters. She is a master of her craft. I’m so ready for the sequel I can’t stand it! Why isn’t it finished right now?? Auuuggh!

Grade: A+. With Territory, Bull crafts a dangerous, rich portrait of the old west, transformed by elemental magic, exotic and familiar at once. Highly recommended.

Update: I belatedly note from some of the Amazon reader reviews that one or two readers are mildly let down when they discover that the the famous shootout doesn’t happen in this book. Be forewarned–Territory is clearly the first of two, and the shootout will undoubtedly occur in the second.

I’m in some sort of hole now, I think. The walls are stone and dirt, and there’s a huge damn boulder blocking the only way out.

The light in here is messed up. It’s over my head somewhere, but I can’t see it; it moves out of sight, no matter which way I turn. It’s barely bright enough for me to write in this journal until I feel strong enough to do the next thing.

I don’t know how I got here. The last thing I remember is endless, exhausted agony. Then nothingness.

I was just about dead for awhile. But I got better.

The Old Man told me it was going to be tough, but I had the moxie to take over this territory. The Italians are getting lazy and soft, he said. With his help behind the scenes, I recruited the dozen smartest peeps around. Then we started organizing from the ground up. It was working. Everybody loved me, thought I was the greatest thing since sliced challah. The Old Man said we were all going to go totally legit. No more of the killing that he’d done constantly to claw his way up to the top. Said I was like a son to him, that one day I’d run it all.

Then one of my most trusted peeps turned me over to the Italians.

Yeah, Ponty and his soldiers got me. I remember now. Ponty thinks he’s gonna wash his hands for doing me in. Oh, it wasn’t my idea, he said to me. Your people made me do it. Wrong. They’re all just a bunch of sheep, and I am the shepherd. I know who nailed me. I ain’t done with any of them.

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I feel stronger now. My hands don’t hurt so much, and my feet have stopped bleeding. I’ve been pushing against the boulder and I can feel it moving a few inches. I worked construction most of my life. I may look like a pansy, but I’m tough enough to last three days nailed to a piece of wood. And still kick some ass afterwards.

I’m going to get out of this hole. I’m going to hike into town and find that weasel Judas, and show everybody what happens to snitches.

After that – I gotta take out the Old Man. Yeah, I know who set me up. I realized he’d double-crossed me while I was nailed up. I can’t figure out what his plan was, seems like nobody ever can. But I know he was behind it all. He’s always behind everything that goes on. I think he just can’t let go, make room for the new generation.

And he always liked the killing.

He’s been hiding out, thinks nobody knows where he is. But I do. I’m gonna make him vanish permanent-like. Never be seen again, never heard from again.

First, though, I get with my peeps and get my organization set to roll even while I’m gone. Big Pete’s ready to take it to the next level. Been organizing to spread the word, go intercontinental. Man’s like a rock.

Those greasy wops think they can hang onto their turf. I have soldiers, too — more every day. And we’ve already started infiltrating to take over from the inside. It’s just a matter of time until my organization owns it all, no matter how ruthless we have to be. No more nice guys.

Judas. Ponty. The Old Man. They all thought I was soft like a bunny. They’re gonna find out just how hard-boiled I am.

After I take out the Old Man, I’ll need to stay on the down-low till things cool out.

But I’ll be back.

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The last time I posted here with a song that I’d gotten stuck in my head, we experienced some mixed results.

Sure, my support caused Amy Winehouse and ‘Rehab‘ to win all sorts of awards, including a brace of them Grammies that musicians like to collect whenever they can.

However, I also made the song sell so many copies that she got too much money and became an Olympic-class collector of rock cocaine, so that she actually did end up in rehab.

I don’t think that will happen with this song from Gnarls Barkley, though Danger Mouse is already pretty damn paranoid. Remix magazine recently had to cancel an interview article with him because he literally wouldn’t tell them anything at all about his gear or working methods. Knowing that I’m paying attention to him might push him over the edge.

And Cee-Lo already has a weight problem spiraling up. I’d hate to make that worse, maybe cause him to have a stroke or something.

I guess we’ll just have to hope for the best…..

Here they are doing a live performance in a galaxy far, far away.

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That’s not the version that’s stuck in my head, though.

It’s this clip from a live performance on Letterman, which resonates more than the album cut for me. It feels like the band on Letterman found the groove better.

Hopefully, Gnarls Barkley’s component guys will somehow survive and prosper despite my blogging about them, because they seem to have some interesting music in them. and they already won a couple of Grammies for the song and album last year without my help.

By the way, their next album, ‘The Odd Couple‘, is hitting the deck next week. Here’s ‘Run‘, the lead cut from it. It’s already a hit, but it doesn’t suck my brain like ‘Crazy’ does.

Knock, knock.

 Who’s there?

Terrorist.

COME ON IN.  I’m just so relieved you’re not the homosexual agenda!

Apparently the most serious threat to America is not terrorism, it’s not radical Islam, per Republican Representative from Oklahoma and Bigot, Sally Kern.  No, it’s the homosexual agenda which, among other things, she claims “It will destroy our young people and destroy our nation.”  Lest I be accused of picking things out of context, feel free to read her entire unedited screed here.  Wear a hazmat suit, though.  This stuff is toxic.

If you’ve been paying any attention to this, you know that I’m not the only one who thinks so but my favorite response to date is from a young man whose mother died in the Oklahoma City Homosexual Agenda Terrorist Bombing:

On April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. 19 children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would’ve likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.

That terrorist was neither a homosexual or was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn’t live up to them pay with their lives.

Read the rest here.

Am I alone in believing that our country has a great deal more to fear from intolerance, than this so called agenda?

The idea of a geosynchronous satellite for communication purposes was first published in 1928 by Herman Potočnik. The geostationary orbit was first popularised in a paper entitled “Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?” by Arthur C. Clarke, published in Wireless World in 1945. In the paper, Clarke described it as a useful orbit for communications satellites. As a result this is sometimes referred to as the Clarke orbit. Similarly, the Clarke Belt is the part of space approximately 35,786 km above mean sea level in the plane of the equator where near-geostationary orbits may be achieved.
–Wikipedia

Sir Arthur, aged 90, has died.

BoingBoing apparently covered this back in 2005 but like all things internet stuff comes and goes in waves.  Anyway, apropos of Mad’s Knit Me the Head of John the Baptist.

A slide show  of knitted scenes is here.