Are the Na'vi Nazis?

Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you have not seen Avatar yet, go see it now. Twice. Or, if all this nonsense I noticed isn't coincidence, maybe don't see it at all, but it has to be a coincidence.

A lot of people have compared Avatar to Dances With Wolves and FernGully, due to the superficial resemblance of the plots of those movies. However, neither of those movies quite matches the plot of Avatar. Costner's character wasn't sent out to infiltrate the Native Americans; he was basically abandoned at an outpost and met the Native Americans out of boredom. And I never saw it (note to people my age and older who keep bringing this up: why did you see a cheesy not-even-Disney cartoon that came out in 1992??), but I don't think the logger guy in FernGully was sent to infiltrate the fairies, since IMDB says they live in a secret world (thus, presumably, nobody knows they're there). There is a much closer real-life analog to Jake Sully (the hero of Avatar): Hitler. Bear with me.

In Avatar, Jake Sully, a war vet who was wounded in combat, was sent by the RDA Corporation to infiltrate the Na'vi. In 1919, Hitler, a war vet who was wounded in combat, was sent by the Reichswehr to infiltrate the German Workers' Party. The Na'vi are an indigenous population that doesn't let anyone near them who doesn't look like them (thus the avatars). The German Workers' Party was later renamed the National Socialist (German: Nationalsozialismus, abbreviated Na'zi or Nazi) Party. We all know what the Nazis thought about people who didn't look like them.

It doesn't stop there, though. Despite not quite fitting the Na'vi ideal (he has too many fingers, he wasn't born there, his face is shaped wrong, and, of course, he's part human), Sully rises through the ranks of the Na'vi to lead them. Likewise, despite not fitting the Nazi ideal (born in Austria, not tall enough, black hair, rumors that he may have been part Jewish), Hitler rose through the ranks of the Nazis to become their leader.

Jake has a mentor, Dr. Grace Augustine. She runs the avatar program, and teaches Jake how to act and how to speak. SPOILER NOT IN THE COMMERCIALS: She is imprisoned with Sully, but dies shortly after that imprisonment (during an escape). Hitler also had a mentor, Dietrich Eckart. Eckart was one of the early founders of the German Workers' Party, and, according to Wikipedia, "Eckart became Hitler's mentor ... teaching him how to dress and speak, and introducing him to a wide range of people." Eckart participated in the Beer Hall Putsch with Hitler, and was arrested and jailed with him. Eckart was released due to illness, and died shortly thereafter. OK THE SPOILING IS OVER.

The code name for Avatar while filming was Project 880. Among Neo-Nazis, 88 is used as a code to identify one another (H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, so 88 means "Heil Hitler").

I have to be wrong about this, right? James Cameron didn't just make a 230-million-dollar Neo-Nazi movie, did he?

Today in Geek, 20091221

Today we reaffirm that we are living in the future. Hurray!

Politics

Mexico City Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage. Mexico City just legalized abortion two and a half years ago, but now they've jumped ahead 30 years to leapfrog over most of the United States. At least DC managed to pass it a few days before. Supporters of the Mexico City bill were chanting "Yes, we could!" That makes me smile a lot.

Entertainment

Focus on the Action to Avoid Headaches During 3D Movies. When you go see Avatar (if you haven't already), keep this in mind. Your brain really doesn't like stuff being 3D but out-of-focus, and trying to get around that gives bad headaches. Trust me on this one; I spent too much time on my second viewing looking at stuff in the background, and it played havoc on my head and stomach. I may have to go see it in non-3D so I can look for those extra little details (for example, that it takes place over several months leading up to August 24, 2154; Wikipedia says that's the anniversary of the patenting of the motion picture camera, I'm guessing that isn't a coincidence).

Astronomy

Video: The Asteroid That Will Almost Hit Earth. NASA produced a video of Apophis passing Earth on April 13, 2029. It'll pass just 18,300 miles above the planet's surface. Assuming we pass peak oil and civilization has fallen by then, I plan to remember that date to use it to secure a following in my post-apocalyptic cult; an asteroid passing that close should be interesting in the sky.

Medicine

Color-Shifting Contact Lenses Alert Diabetics to Glucose Levels. Soon diabetics will have a heads-up display of sorts, allowing them to see when they need a shot of insulin or a candy bar. Today diabetics, tomorrow killing machines sent back from the future!

Science

Groovy Teeth Suggest Dinosaur was Venomous. The story itself is cool, but it's also sort of an example of a (probably intentional) "crash blossom," a word I just learned this morning meaning "a headline that can be misconstrued." The New York Times claims that's a buzzword of 2009, but I think it's possible only the New York Times staff have heard that term.

Mad Science

Our of the Blue, DARPA Seeks Means to Manipulate Lightning. They all laughed when DARPA put giant red balloons all over the US, but DARPA's going to show them! It's going to show them all!! Muahahahaha!

Did I miss any geekery? Let me know in the comments.

Today in Geek, 20091218

This is the entirety of what geeks can think about today, rightfully so:

It was just so very, very beautiful. I loved everything about it. I could not possibly recommend it more. I've been trying to take it easy to avoid setting expectations too high, but I don't think expectations can be too high. I've often wondered what it would have been like to be an adult geek in 1977 when Star Wars came out. Now I know. Thank you, James Cameron.

Today in Geek, 12/15/2009

I have been terrible about blogging. Wow. Let's just put this shameful period behind us, shall we?

To do so, I'm going to start a new tradition by revising an old tradition. The title pretty much explains it. Here are the geekly stories that piqued my interest today:

Politics

D.C. Council Approves Gay Marriage. There's a good chance D.C.'s overlords in the US Congress will overturn this law, but the Washington, D.C., City Council passed a measure today to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. Strong work, D.C.

Medicine

Locked-in man controls speech synthesizer with thought. Locked-in syndrome is the condition where a person is completely paralyzed (unable to move any muscle and thus unable to communicate), but completely aware of their surroundings. I know I'd heard of it before they featured it on House, so I think at least two medical dramas showed how terrifying it would be. That might change soon, now that a locked-in man has controlled a speech synthesizer with thought. That's just unbelievably awesome. Such technology will also come in handy in the construction of my mecha, so that's good news, too.

Mad Science

Swiss Geologist On Trial For Causing Earthquakes. An experimental geothermal energy project triggered earthquakes in Switzerland, so now the guy in charge is being tried. Sure, they're spinning it more as an industrial responsibility kind of thing, but it sounds to me like they may have caught a real mad scientist (it was an experiment to see if this process would work for energy production, so he wasn't just a mad engineer).

Tech Tips

Create Instant Navigation Shortcuts from Android's Home Screen. Someone at Lifehacker noticed that we can create one-touch shortcuts for turn-by-turn navigation on our Android phones now. For example, I have a button on my home screen to navigate from wherever I am to my house. Neat.

Entertainment

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Hits Blu-Ray April 6. Dammmmmit. I don't think I'll be able to hold out until they put out the extended editions months later (my guess: just before The Hobbit comes out in December 2011). How many times are they going to convince me to buy these movies???

That's it for today. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.

Awkward Praise [Updated 8/22]

If you asked me at any time in the last 25 years (including within the last week) what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer would be uncertain. If, in any of that time, you asked me what my friend Jeffrey Dinsmore would be when he grew up, the answer would be easy and obvious: a writer.

I met Jeffrey in the back of Mr. Doolittle's band class in fifth grade. We were both drummers (aka the part of the band the conductor mostly ignores), so we got to know one another by yapping about various things while everyone else learned scales and such. No matter the topic, Jeffrey was always hilarious.

Over the years, I read many of Jeffrey's short stories, and they were always great. To this day, whenever I have writer's block, all I have to do is imagine how Jeffrey would say what I'm trying to say, and I can pseudoplagiarize my way out of the block.

So, of course, when he started a new independent publishing house (Awkward Press), and told me he'd have a story in their first anthology (appropriately entitled Awkward One), I knew I would have to buy it.

I just finished devouring his short story from the collection, "Little Deaths." This is where I need your help. I loved it, but I'm not certain if that's because it's as quirkyfunny as I think it is, or if it's just because I know Jeffrey. So, if at all possible, I need you guys to buy copies of Awkward One, and let me know what you think. Am I right?

Jeffrey has also always had a talent for recommending things I will love. He introduced me to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He owned the Rocky Horror Picture Show on VHS before it was officially available in the US, and is to Blane for me being able to surprise friends with my knowledge of the appropriate lines for viewings. He got me hooked on They Might Be Giants. And, of course, apropos to the site of our first meeting, he introduced me to the album Doolittle by the Pixies, cementing a love of alternative music before we knew what to call the stuff.

My point in all of that is that Jeffrey wrote one story for Awkward One, but he also recommends the other authors, so they must also be awesome. I'm just saying.

PS: Have I mentioned that you should buy a copy of Awkward One?

Update: The rest of the stories are also great. Well, I didn't much care for one of them, but the others make up for it. And I'm too nice to say which one that was. Well, ok, maybe not "nice," per se, 'cuz now they'll all assume it was them. Muahahahaha!

The Month In Geek: July 2009

July was an interesting month for all things geeky. Here are some of my favorite stories from the last month.

Astronomy:
Jupiter got smacked by something big, probably an asteroid (because we probably would have seen it if it were a nice, bright comet). That thing left a black spot on Jupiter roughly the size of the Earth. Wow. The Bad Astronomer has been keeping me up-to-date on exactly what happened.

Entertainment:
Information came out last month about three big geek movies. First, Disney released details and clips from Tron Legacy, the sequel to Tron. I'm sure it's going to be cheesy and terrible, but it may also be awesome.

Second, the announcement came out that Sam Raimi is set to direct a World of Warcraft movie. I will cringe when they make the obligatory Leeroy Jenkins joke (those non-funny bastards were on my server, and I hated them before they made the lame movie and somehow got famous for it), but the possibility of Raimi making a videogame movie is... intriguing.

As if that wasn't enough, at the end of July it came out that Ridley Scott has signed on to direct a prequel to Alien. Ridely Scott, not just some random schmoe. Wow.

Technology/Geek Culture:

A firm in Abu Dhabi has ponied up money to Virgin Galactic. Part of the deal is to build a spaceport in Abu Dhabi (in the UAE), making it the second commercial spaceport (after the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California). I'm guessing that one will get quite a bit of use. Note to science fiction authors: Arabic will likely be spoken in space roughly as much as English, at least in the early days of space tourism.

Politics/Morality:

The UK Quakers are going to extend marriage services to same-sex couples. If that bleeds to the US Quakers, that would mean, when a state accepts one religious marriage ceremony as valid but not another, they are denying the religious freedom of that same-sex couple. I've often wondered what would happen if that tack were taken on the gay marriage issue. We might get to find out. Of course, the consequences could be dire.

I'm sure there were a number of geek stories that I didn't cover here. Let me know in the comments if I skipped any big ones.

Have a Horrible Day!

Today is the one-year anniversary of the release of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. If you have not yet seen it, watch it now. If you have seen it and love it like I do, show them some love in return.

Remember: It's not about making money, it's about taking money.

Shared Google Reader Items, 4/14/2009

Darnit, it took me a week to get back to my shared items from Google Reader again. Here goes...

Science:

• Bacon cures hangovers. Thank you once again, science! Is there anything you can't do?
• Scientists in Australia have apparently found a way to stop the body from attacking (and rejecting) organ transplants. This might be even cooler than the bacon thing.
• I found it utterly unsurprising that chimps have to take their lady friends out to dinner to get laid.
• If you ever find yourself back in time, it would be useful to have this sheet. He promises to fix the H-2-zero typo in the next printing, too.

Technology:

• Slashdot points us to a tutorial on putting together a multitouch "Surface PC" for far less than the $10k Microsoft wants for theirs. I have to find some money to try this...
• My iFriend David comes up with cool ideas on his blog, and then people actually make them. That is cool.
• This almost makes me want a cat.
• It's getting close. Soon something will happen with 3d printers to revolutionize the world. This is a step in that direction.

Entertainment:

• My former coworker Amanda has a new collection of short stories out. Her previous books have been awesome, so I highly recommend this one. Whoot, I just noticed she has Kindle editions now. Very nice.
• Woody Harrelson defended himself after attacking a photographer by claiming that he thought the photographer was a zombie. I blame McCarron.
• Disney reuses dances. I'm not terribly surprised, but at least a little.

The Internets:

• Google has fully integrated search-by-color into image search. Neat!
• InfoChimps is a cool website. Go vote for them.
• Microsoft did something cool. Their live search can now solve algebra equations. So far it looks like it can only handle single-variable equalities, but it's still cool.
• Amazon has almost 800 free mp3s available from their library. It's a clever trick. I'm probably going to buy at least one album based on a very good sample I downloaded.

Politics:

• This has been all over the place in the almost-week since I originally shared it, but, in case you haven't seen it, the ad by the National Organization for Marriage about big bad scary gay marriage is unintentionally hilarious.
• Gov. Paterson of New York is going to introduce a same-sex marriage bill. It's about time, New York. Iowa beat you? Seriously??

Awesome:

• PG&E is going to get power beamed down from solar panels in space. I don't know how efficient or real it is, but the idea is awesome. And, if it works, it could even be useful.

As always, leave your comments on these or anything else below.

Shared Google Reader Items, 3/8/2009

Here are my shared items from Google Reader. Enjoy!

Entertainment:

• Who watched the Watchmen? I did, and loved it. PZ Myers at Pharyngula also did, and wrote a better review than I could. Warning: some things in there might be spoilers if you don't know the story, I'm not sure.
• Judd Apatow is directing Ghostbusters 3. Will it be hilariously awesome, like Ghostbusters, or hilariously terrible, like Ghostbusters 2?
• Time Warner is offering subscriptions to its channels (such as CNN and TNT) on the interwebs. Very interesting.
• The entire Seinfeld cast will reunite on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Excellent.
• A company plans to sell an electric guitar that also works for Guitar Hero (and, I would hope, Rock Band). Sweet.

Geek Culture:

• My friend Jon sent me an interesting site, listing "What's Special About This Number" for most numbers from 0 to 9999 (well, at least many of them, I didn't check whether it's more than 50%).

Technology:

• A team at Arizona State University, working with E-Ink (the company that makes the digital ink for the Kindle and Sony Reader), have developed bendable, touch-screen e-paper. This is very, very, very interesting to me. Imagine having a reader you can roll up and put in a backpack or briefcase, but then fold out to read that day's newspaper or a new book. Neat.
• A bionic eye has given a blind man weak sight. It's a big step in an awesome direction.
• The Kepler space telescope, which will search for Earth-like extra-solar planets, launched successfully Friday night. I thought that was awesome enough, but then I found out (by crossposting my Google Reader links on Facebook) that a childhood friend-of-the-family worked on the launch as a NASA engineer. I'm so jealous.

Programming:

• I found a neat online favicon generator. If you don't know what that is, you probably don't need to know.

Science:

• Gravitational waves may have been detected in 1987. This would be very cool. I don't entirely understand gravitational waves, but they may travel faster than the speed of light, and that's very interesting. Perhaps we're listening in the wrong spectrum for ET communications, for one thing.
• Obama is reversing Bush's stem-cell research (effective) ban. Very cool, but what took him so long? That was rumored as a day 1 fix.

The Interwebs:

• PDFVue lets you edit PDF documents online. Convenient.
• Dropbox is a cool way to synchronize files between computers (for example, I use it to transfer docs from my office computer to home, and vice versa). If you sign up through that link, I get extra storage. It's win-win!
• Stephen Wolfram claims that he has a site that can answer questions (ie, when you search for "How many bones are in the human body?", it will return an answer, rather than a list of pages that might have the answer). That will be very interesting if it actually works (come May, when the site says it will be available).

Politics:

• Goddammit, John Conyers (D-MI). You have it absolutely backwards. He wants to force researchers to only publish in journals, not to any of the free sources. Stop it!

As always, leave your comments on these or anything else below.

Shared Google Reader Items, 3/2/2009

Here are my shared items from Google Reader. Enjoy!

Science:

• Synthetic life is neat. It will help us understand how biology works, and also offers an alternative version of biotechnology that has a much lower chance of, for example, crossbreeding with bugs in the wild. Neat stuff if we can get it to work.
• A webcomic called cowbirds in love realized something I'd never thought about: Mad scientists aren't really scientists, are they?
• A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that weight loss and relapse rates on any of several diets were identical, regardless of what the particular diet targetted. In other words, it comes down to the First Law diet: eat fewer calories than you use, and you lose weight.
• Doctors are not scientists, and often don't really understand the process. That's why it's awesome that the stim bill includes $1 billion to investigate comparative effectiveness of different treatments for the same conditions, in a bid to increase both efficiency and effectiveness of medical treatments.
• Speaking of efficiency and effectiveness of medical treatments, Merck has launched an open-source pharmaceutical initiative. Awesome.

Technology:

• Penn State and Virginia Commonwealth U researchers have found a new trick for producing hydrogen gas that sounds very, very interesting. This could potentially be a world-changer. From what I gather, it sounds a whole lot like seems-free-but-isn't-technically-I-guess energy, which makes me skeptical, but goddam does it sound interesting.
• To go along with that potential alternative energy neatness, solar panels have reached $1 a Watt.

Digital Rights:

• Amazon agreed to pull text-to-speech from the Kindle 2 on a per-book basis. I want to find a way to easily check whether a given book has pulled those rights, so I can choose to not buy from such an idiot.

Entertainment:

• Apparently Netflix's new "watch now" player sucks, and they kinda sorta trick you into using it. Watch out for a tricksy beta opt-in.

Random:

• RIP, Paul Harvey.

As always, leave your comments on these or anything else below.

Shared Google Reader Items, 2/26/2009

It's been almost a week since I last did this! Doh! Here they finally are, my shared items from Google Reader. Enjoy!

Art:

• I love Photoshop, but I'm not as good at it as I should be after using it for... holy jeebus, about 15 years now! I want to get better, so I need to start using VunkySearch's tutorial finder thingy.

Technology:

• Researchers found a way to make solar power cheaper. Any time now solar should make sense (sadly, it usually doesn't right now; it hurts the environment enough to make solar cells that their benefit probably doesn't offset it). How long after that do you think it'll take for it to actually be used?
• I'm so in love with this key finder idea that I want to elope with it and bear its children.

Psychology:

• A couple weeks ago, I mentioned an interesting-sounding survey over at Cognitive Daily. Soon after that (but not soon enough to make it into my last update), they posted results. Turns out we're more random than at least one of their readers thought.

The Internets:

• The stimulus bill requires that each government agency report money it gives out via RSS. Neat.
• I'm using Gmail's new multiple inboxes feature, and I think I like it.
• Speaking of Gmail, attaching multiple files in Gmail is now easier. Can gDrive be far away?
• This xkcd comic notes something I noticed with my Kindle the first time I laid eyes on it; that's why I re-read the Hitchhiker's series on it, and set up this store. Took him long enough!
  

Politics:

• Legalization of marijuana is more popular than key conservative leaders.
• 538.com examines the same question I had: Was volcano monitoring really the worst thing Kenneth Jindal could find in the stimulus bill? Really? The Governor of Louisiana can't see the economic benefit in paying people to make sure people aren't killed by volcanos? Really??
• News organizations can now show photos of returning war dead, after an 18-year ban. The reason reversing this was important was so Americans could get a clear picture of what these wars are costing. I think we're already starting to get that, but better late than never on the reversal.
• The economy tanking may have a good result: states are scrapping barbarism because it's too expense. Woot.
• Obama has picked former Washington Governor Gary Locke for Commerce. Let's hope third time's a charm...
• Because I like to be fair, here's FactCheck.org's run-down on Obama's speech. I think most of those "exaggerations and factual misstatements" are what I'd call "rhetorically true," meaning that the truth fits at least one interpretation of what he said, whether that's the interpretation most people would jump to first or not... but anyway, it's good to check this sorta thing.
• The Senate has passed the DC Voting Rights Bill 61-37. The idea sounds great, but, dammit, it's illegal. You can't just change the Constitution because it sounds like a good idea. You need to ammend it. It's not that complicated: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed." That's quoted from the 14th Amendment, because we already realized once that the original was broken. Fixing it again wouldn't be a big thing, but you can't change the Constitution through a bill, no matter how good of an idea you think the bill is.

Science:

• Researchers are getting close to a universal flu vaccine. Neat. Someone was talking about something similar at a party recently (because that's the sort of party I attend), but they had the process all wrong.
• Learn all about nanotechnology and why it's cool through the Nano Song. Strong work.

Entertainment:

• The Oscars didn't show Don LaFontaine in their dead people montage. That's terribly lame.
• Jim Kakalios, author of the awesome The Physics of Superheroes (great read, I highly recommend it), was a consultant on The Watchmen movie, and made a video about it. Neat.
• U2's Bono and the Edge are writing music and lyrics for a Spider-Man musical, set to premier in 2010. Awesome.

Atheism:

• Teehee. (BTW, for those who think I filed the comic under the wrong heading, "atheist" and "agnostic" pretty much mean the same thing, I just prefer the taken-as-more-shocking term. If you aren't sure that you believe in something, particularly something that damns you to eternal torment for not swearing fealty to it, you don't believe in it.)
• The UN has passed a resolution trying to ban making fun of religion. The response to that is obvious: Fuck you, religion! In case that's not specific enough, I'm talking about you, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. Are you such a bunch of pussies that you need special protection? Aw, what's wrong, religion? Is free speech telling you you're unnecessary? Suck it up and take it like a man.

As always, leave your comments on these or anything else below.

Shared Google Reader Items, 2/20/2009

It's time again to discuss some shared items from Google Reader. Enjoy!

Astronomy:

• This is at least the second article I've seen about liquid water at or near the site of one of our landers on Mars. Given the helpful diagram at the right (edited from a NASA image), can anyone tell me what I'm missing?
• It looks like part of the fireball seen over Austin last weekend has been found. Neat! Bad joke/question: It's a meteor in the sky, and a meteorite on the ground. If you throw it or take it on a plane, is it a meteor again?
• The good news: Europa was selected as the target for a big NASA mission. The bad news: we won't get there until 2025 or 2026. The worse news: ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
• Given that the Hubble repair mission was one of the first things I blogged about on here, news that Hubble might not get repaired due to the debris from the colliding satellites has made me sad.
• Luckily, I have this Flickr tagger thingy to make me happy again. You post an image of the sky to Flickr, a server analyzes it and tells you what's in it, and the people running the server get another shot to analyze to see if it has any info they missed. Awesome.

Technology:

• I was in love with this G1 Android-controlled robotic blimp the first time I saw it, but I think I've accepted that it isn't worth the $600 or so it'd take to put it together.
• I. Want. So. Bad.
• A new company is working on commercial, space-based solar power within a decade. Sweet. There's a cool Asimov story about that in I think it was I, Robot (the collection of short stories that has zero relation to the movie, if for no other reason than that the short stories are entertaining).
• Ok, bear with me. DARPA's remote-controlled insects are absolutely awesome, and not at all creepy. But I understand that it probably sounds like they're creepy. Here's the thing: Imagine a spy camera, tiny speaker, microphone, and transmitter on these things. Now imagine a rescue crew at the other end of the remote control, searching through rubble for earthquaker survivors or whatnot. Now imagine a cockroach crawling up to someone's ear and whispering, "Stay calm, we're coming for you." Ok, you're right. That's creepy. But it's still freaking awesome.

Politics:

• Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas is likely to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. I had heard her name when I wrote my picks, but I thought Daschle was a lock. Oops.
• This comparison of diagramming an Obama sentence to diagramming a Palin sentence is high geekery, and thus awesome.
• Teehee. The Obama Administration is setting the right-wing loonies up as foils. I love this strategy. "Look how crazy our opponents are." Giggle. Getting the right wing to either say, "These people don't speak for us!" or "Yes, we're crazy!" (leaving pretty much no other choice) is just beautiful.

Entertainment:

• Nate Silver has figured out who's going to win Oscars this weekend. Why bother having the ceremony? Ah, I see; we need to find out who wins Best Supporting Actress (apparently Kate Winslet won it in all the other awards, but she got nominated for Best Actress for the same role at the Oscars, and that threw his model off).

Atheism:

• Something is rotten in the state of Washington.

Art:

• Layer Tennis sounds absolutely awesome. I may have to try something similar (but on a non-competitive level) with McCarron.
• Every frame in this movie is a painting. Over 6000 paintings for a five-minute film. Beautiful, but I really wish the artist had chosen different music to set it to.

Science:

• Very briefly: One of Einstein's problems with quantum mechanics was that it allowed for entanglement of particles, leading to "spooky action at a distance," where things done to one particle happen to the other one, too. It turns out the human eye may be sensitive enough to detect it. If so, the people detecting it would briefly become entangled with one another. This is leading me to visions of the precogs in Minority Report or perhaps the pilots in Dune. Very strange, very potentially cool.
• Damn you, YouTube! How can you not have a clip of "Your Komodo Dragon" from The Freshman? Is it because only about six of us actually saw that movie, and nobody bought the DVD to rip it? My comments about this story of a thought-to-be-extinct bird being photographed and then promptly sold as food would now only make sense to the six of us. But seriously, isn't that tragically hilarious, fellow Freshman-viewers?
• I am absolutely going to have to buy one of these posters to frame and hang.

The Internets:

• Shaquille O'Neal Tweets, and is a bit of a tech junky. Neat.

Jeebus, this post has 26 links in it. As always, leave your comments on these or anything else (but seriously, you could probably keep it to these this time) below.

Best New-to-Me Music of 2008

Yesterday my friend Jeffrey blogged his favorite music of 2008. He inspired me to finally blog something. Here goes.

These are things I liked in 2008. I'm sure some of them will end up being from before 2008, since I'm about as far from hip as is possible. Also, some of this is probably supposed to be lame, or only appeal to one particular group to which I don't necessarily belong, or whatever. Again, I'm not hip; I just buy what I like. Feel free to let me know how much this bothers you in the comments.

I was going to make this a list of everything I bought in 2008, since certainly that wouldn't be much of a list... but it turns out Amazon's MP3 Download system was very effective on me. I bought quite a bit this year, probably coming pretty close to the most I've ever spent on music. Kudos, Amazon.

Anyhoo, without further ado:

10. The Reminder by Feist

As you might notice going through this list, if it's in a commercial, there's a good chance I like it. It isn't that I like it because it's in a commercial; I'm a DVR addict, and usually don't realize the stuff I buy is in commercials until after I've bought it. It's just that, apparently, the kind of music people think is good for selling stuff seems to be the music I like. I know that makes me lame, but I don't care.

Feist definitely falls into that category. Her video for "1234" was a piece of single-shot coolness that bought her a long-running iPod commercial. I think I managed to see that video before finally buying the album... on Amazon, so suck it Apple!

9. Oracular Spectacular by MGMT

Something about MGMT music just makes me happy. I think it's that it sounds like they're having fun playing their songs. Or maybe it's the association with the Rock-afire Explosion YouTube videos, like the one I linked above.

8. Carnavas by Silversun Pickups

I don't get the 10 seconds of interference at the end of "Well Thought Out Twinkles," but I love absolutely everything else about this album.

7. The It Girl by Sleeper

I think this is the oldest album on my list, but I had to include it. I don't remember how I randomly stumbled on Sleeper years ago, but I fell in love with them. Last week, I found out they had an album in-between the two I owned already. I don't know how I missed it, but I had to buy it.

6. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

They have a song about the Oxford comma (aka the serial comma), of which I am a huge advocate. Sure, they imply that I'm somehow strange for advocating Oxford commas, but their music is awesome enough that I got over their dismissiveness.

5. "Yes We Can" by will.i.am, etc

This one made the list even though, as far as I know, it isn't on any album (if you know of an album that has it, let me know; will.i.am deserves to get some cash from me for putting this together, since I've listened to it about a billion times). This video/song/speech explains in four and a half minutes why I was willing to devote so much time to getting that guy elected. The speech is beautiful, moving, and informative. Listen to it; he isn't just saying we want some glittering generality of "change" like his critics always claimed. He lays out, of course in broad brushstrokes in this few minutes, but still with a fair amount of specifics what it is we're working for. Together, we can continue to strive toward a more perfect union. Beautiful.

4. XO by Elliott Smith

I've listened to "Miss Misery" from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack many, many, many times while feeling down, and something about its sad beauty always cheered me back up. For some reason, I had never though to buy anything else buy Elliott Smith until this year. Sadly, I can't buy anything new; Elliott killed himself (probably; there's still some speculation that foul play was involved) in 2003.

3. Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow by Jonathan Coulton

The best thing about Rock Band is the new music it introduces me to. I really should have heard of Jonathan Coulton before "Still Alive" and "Skullcrusher Mountain" made it into Rock Band, but somehow I'd missed him. I've begun to rectify that with this album and the two versions of "Still Alive" from the Orange Box Soundtrack. He has a friggin' song about the Mandelbrot Set. How could I possibly not love that?

2. Costello Music by The Fratellis

Apparently the Fratellis had a song or three in commercials. Somehow I missed that until after a bartender friend played them at his bar. I went home that night and downloaded their album on iTunes; it wasn't on Amazon, so I installed iTunes and set up my iTunes Store account, because I had to own that album. Their music is just so fun.

1. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Soundtrack) by Various Artists

If you have not yet watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, go do so right now. I love everything about this thing. I'd heard some buzz about it before it came out, but I never expected the music to be as complex and interesting as it turned out to be. And it stars Barney Stinson, Mal, and that Guild geek chick. Could it possibly be more awesome? I don't think so.

Honorable Mention 1: "MyHope" by sweetafton23

For some reason she doesn't have an mp3 of this available yet, so I can't listen to this easily enough on repeat to figure out if I'd still love it... but I really don't have enough ukelele in my playlist. Mostly I love that people can just do this now, putting out music without a studio, let alone a label. Good stuff. Now let me give you money for your mp3!

Honorable Mention 2: "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Münchener Freiheit

I still can't find an mp3 of this (in English, at least), but I actually bought two somewhat crappy covers of it earlier this year when somehow it randomly came to mind. God I love this song. I have listened to this one on repeat (back in the early 90s), but it's not at all new to me; it's just something I dug up when I realized YouTube would let me do so. Thank you, YouTube!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/9

Holy crap, I haven't done this since last Thursday. These are my favorite Google Reader shared items in that timespan.

Zombies:

• My friend Jon found two cool zombie movies. And I created a "zombies" tag, because I realized it was missing from my blog.

Politics:

• The new New Deal is starting. Woot.
• I don't have anything against David Gregory for Meet the Press, per se, but I was pulling for Chuck Todd. Then again, I've never seen Chuck Todd interview anyone, and that's what's required. It's big shoes to fill in any case, and I'm not sure anyone can pull it off.
• The first challenge of Obama's citizenship has been rejected by the Supreme Court. There's another one coming, but it's a good start. He was born in Hawaii, you idiots. That's all it takes, as long as he hasn't rejected his citizenship... and if it's possible for a little kid to reject their US citizenship, the system is insane.
• Holy crap, the Governor of Illinois is super corrupt, and was trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. It may take a while now to get that seat filled. Chances are good the Senate will reject anyone Blagojevich picks, and it takes time to spin up an impeachment and/or special election.
• Bill O'Reilly, in describing how terrible Seattle is from a war-on-Christmas perspective, makes me want to move there.

Science:

• This article was entitled "Scientists Achive Mental Body-Swapping," but it's about getting people to essentially think as if they're in another body. It's not nearly as sci-fi cool as I thought it must not possibly be.

Technology:

• The summary of this article about Hawaii's plan for a state-wide electric car network on Slashdot annoyed me. An electric car grid encourages/allows more efficient power generation; it takes the power generation step out of the car, so you can do whatever it takes to make the power generation clean on a statewide basis. It doesn't rule out wind and solar, it just puts that step in a centralized place.
• I'm very annoyed that I didn't hear about/see the 3D NFL broadcast.

Biology:

• There's some evidence that the herpes simplex virus (the virus that causes cold sores, among other things) causes Alzheimer's. It would be awesome if this pans out and leads to treatment and/or a cure.

Atheism:

• Techskeptic (via Pharyngula) has a list of Atheist/secular charities. I've often wanted something like this myself, so it's nice that someone else compiled it for me.

The Internets and other Computeriness:

• A nearly full-featured, browser-based, image-editing program is available. It's very cool, and I love the pic they made in their demo video.

Programming (but the first one is awesome, Libby):

• This evolutionary algorithm to create the Mona Lisa is stunningly amazingly awesome. It dovetails with something I've wanted to do, and might inspire me to finally get that project moving.
• Google has announced Google native client, which promises to put code written for x86 processors onto the web. That's very, very cool, and opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Finally, uncategorized, I shared this old video of "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Munchener Freiheit (huh, I always thought the band was just "Freiheit"), because I missed it and randomly searched to see if it was on YouTube... and it was. Enjoy. Or, ya know, don't, if you don't like cheesy music. In any case, comment below.

Shared Items through morning of 11/29

I haven't had much to share lately. Here are a few:

• A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in New York. I've never understood why people would want to go out shopping on a day that's so crazy that it's generally known as Black Friday, just to save a few bucks. It just isn't worth it. This has me even more dumbfounded than usual.
• Scientists have found the mechanism for how resveratrol slows aging, and have demonstrated that it also works in mice. This could be huge. In the meantime, drink some wine and/or grape juice. Wow, we really loved run-on sentences when we wrote that thing (I can't remember whether I wrote it or edited it, but it was one of the first things I worked on at my current job).
• Foundation movies are coming! It'll be interesting to see if they pull them off. If I'm remembering the right book in the series, Foundation spans hundreds of years (the series certainly does). That's a tricky series to make.

Hopefully that's enough to let everyone know that I'm still alive.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/21

I liked yesterday's experiment with tagging the blocks, so here are my nicely categorized shared Google Reader items:

Entertainment:

• Being down-in-the-dumps in the demo, the demise of Daisies was destined. Dammit, dimwits! Don't Dr. Seussian stories scripted semi-seriously stand-up to your "standards?"

Politics:

• One of Obama's FCC transition team co-chairs is an avid World of Warcraft player. I just love that. Obama's FCC will be firmly in the 21st century, it seems.
• Presumably reassured by my endorsement last night, Hillary has reportedly decided to accept Secretary of State.
• Speaking of awaiting my endorsement, Geithner is going to be Secretary of the Treasury. Good move, Obama.
• I hadn't endorsed Richardson for Commerce, per se, but it works for me. I mostly like it because Richardson seems to be a smart guy, but he always sounds like a boob whenever I hear him speak. When's the last time you heard a Secretary of Commerce speak? On a more serious note, Richardson has always been a foreign policy wonk (from studying it in college through serving (briefly) as US Ambassador to the UN, plus bits beyond), and I think focusing on the foreign part of commerce is smart. It's a global world, we need to be focused on how we can make that work, rather than resisting it.

Technology:

• It's the future. We are now using frikkin' laser beams in Iraq.
• Speaking of technology, I found myself thinking, "Man, this is so amazingly awesome that we can do this" every time one of my planes took off on my recent trip to/from New York for a wedding, so this bit from Louis CK really cracked me up.
• DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, aka the Department of Figuring Out Cool Things) is sponsoring an initiative to build a brain-based, brain-like computer. This could lead to really, really cool things. Or, you know, not so much.

Atheism:

• Apparently the decline of the American economy is due to atheism. Or at least an idiot thinks so. PZ says it all better than I can, with a great icon for the quote.

Science:

• Energy-matter equivalence has been verified (computationally) at the quantum level. This is very cool; Einstein and quantum have had trouble getting along in the past.

Internet:

• Google is now allowing users to customize searches. It doesn't work with "I'm Feeling Lucky" yet, which is annoying, but it's still potentially very cool.

That's it today. Chances are good I'll miss tomorrow, and possibly Sunday as well, but the feeds are slow on weekends anyway so hopefully there won't be too much to catch up on Monday. Comment away to convince me to finish making my layout awesome.