Saturn's rings

New images have uncovered evidence that the rings of the showiest of the planets in the Solar System don't look the way we thought they did:

Saturn's rings may look smooth and even when viewed through a telescope but they are in fact made up of clumps of particles and may be much denser than realized, scientists said on Tuesday.

Measurements taken from the joint NASA, Italian and European Space Agency Cassini spacecraft show that the particles in Saturn's B ring are constantly colliding, which surprised scientists.
[...]
"We originally thought we would see a uniform cloud of particles. Instead we find that the particles are clumped together with empty spaces in between."

And this left me pondering:

If the clumps were farther from Saturn, they might aggregate even more to make a moon but because they are so close to the massive planet, they get stretched apart.

... imagine Saturn without rings ...

A life interrupted

Leaving a bar last week, Sean Kennedy was felled by a punch in Greenville, South Carolina, in a homophobic attack carried out by an 18-year-old who jumped from a car and then fled but is, fortunately, now in custody and charged with murder.

This is a poem he wrote that showcases the kind of guy he was and the great loss we suffered:

Grin
I stand tall with all of my pride.
You hate.
You discriminate all who are not like you.
Yes, your words do hurt.
But I stand in the end.
I'm a strong person, bigger than you...
I'll be standing there with a grin.

More on Sean Kennedy here.

Lost's finale

Unlike 24's, this season finale was very good. I really enjoy Lost and I totally disagree with what some fans are saying that it has lost its mojo. I think it's as good and cool as ever, and since an end date for the show has now been set, things are really looking up from here on.

*** SPOILERS ALERT!! ***

The finale gave us new mysteries:

• Who's the man in the coffin?
• Walt is back. Is he really there? Is Locke imagining him? What's the deal with him?
• If that's NOT PEGGY'S BOAT, then whose is it? Who is out there?
• Since scraggy-bearded Jack was clearly set in the future, what's with his reference to going to get his father to see who's drunker?? Was he so high he didn't remember his father is dead or is he still alive? But Jack was in Sydney to take his coffin home, so he's got to be dead.
  
• Juliette kisses Jack (to Kate's dismay and disappointment -- hey girl, you had your chance and blew it, you've got only yourself to blame...) Has she really betrayed Ben and the Others or is she just looking out for herself, sucking up to the leader to use him as a shield?
• Kate refers to a guy who won't be happy if he finds out where she is. Is she referring to Sawyer? Do they hook up after they leave the island?
• What happens to the Others when the castaways are rescued off the island?
  

... and some revelations:

• Jack and Kate do make it off the island, eventually, and at least Kate seems happy.
• The castaways aren't dreaming, aren't in limbo, or anything like that. They are really marooned on an island nobody seems to be able to find.

There were also a couple things that made my critical eye look up to the sky:

• Why does Charlie stupidly lock himself inside the chamber when he realizes that the Russian guy is about to blow it up? Why not step outside and then lock it? Unless the door couldn't be locked from the outside...
• ... or, more importantly, how could the Russian dude still be alive?! Man, the guy's indestructible! (My guess is that, since Desmond told Charlie that he saw Claire and Aaron get on a helicopter only if he dies, he feels like he needs to die for them to be rescued. And so he makes the ultimate sacrifice. Let's see if Desmond tells Claire the truth... Man is she gonna hate him!!)
  
• How did Penelope contact the Looking Glass station the very second its jamming apparatus is turned off? Is she spending her days next to the video phone?
• Jack's antics in the hospital were a little over the top. I think that even the woman he rescued from sure death in the car would have said "Thank you, but no thank you" to his insistence to operate on her while clearly totally drugged up.
• Bernard sure didn't think too much before giving his friends' position away as soon as a problem arose. I mean, his wife is there too, and if the Others find them, after what you just did to them, they're surely going to kill them, unless they are needed for something creepier...
• How on earth is Locke still alive? How has he not bled to death? Ok, I get it, he's special and the island has exceptional healing powers, but still, c'mon.
• And what's the deal with Walt? He seems to show up every time there's a dead end in the storyline to re-jump start it. He's like a get out of jail free card. Whatever.
• Damn, Hurley's van is quiet! His entrance goes totally unnoticed until it's way too late for the bad guys to react.
• As soon as Ben asks Jack for his radio back I thought, "Don't do it, he's gonna tell his men to do something unless you do what he asks, and you'll be screwed," and sure enough... How come Jack didn't see that coming?
  

I'm sure I'm forgetting something important here (I can't wait to see what happens to Ben and his pals when the rescue team arrives) but that's the gist, and it was a really good season finale.

Now we'll have to wait till February 2008 for the next set of mysteries, questions, and answers...

I can't wait.

24 goes out with a whimper

The season is finally over and all I can say is "Good riddance!!" What a waste of my time it was. Man, am I glad it's over.

As I feared, they weren't able to salvage what was left of the season after solving the main storyline two thirds of the way through. What a moronic decision that was. They probably wanted to make this the best season ever, so rich and entertaining. They probably figured, if we have two "situations" happening in one season instead of one, people will like it twice as much, won't they?

Wrong.

They grossly overplayed their hand, and the show suffered terribly from it. This was a show that would get my adrenaline going, so much so that I opted not to watch it just before bedtime. But the last few episodes all but put me to sleep right there on the couch. And the season finale was a snoozefest.

*** SPOILER ALERT!! ***

Naturally, Jack knows exactly what his father's plans are. Naturally, no one else even remotely imagines the guy will try to screw them over. Or listens to Jack when he tells them not to trust his father. Except for none other than the national security adviser. She believes him, because, listen to this, he's been right more than anyone else all day, and so jeopardizes her career and whatever shred was left of her husband's to help Jack.

Buchanan is then able to single handedly and very easily free Jack from 2 CTU agents (and my faith in the ability of CTU agents to protect us from the bad guys is undermined forever). Maybe Buchanan should have his own show.

These two jolly fellas are then able to collect a bunch of weapons (enough to take out a small town) and, without breaking a sweat, steal a helicopter. No biggie. Who's looking anyway?

Then Jack proceeds, by himself again, to wipe out the entire group of bad guys on the off shore platform. Too bad his cute nephew beat him to gun down his father, but hey, who's keeping count, right? Maybe he's the heir apparent...

I mean, I'm talking about a helicopter approaching and landing, and the bad guys, quite a few of them I might add, do hear it approach but don't have enough time to position themselves to shoot it down? Or at least try?!?

Pllleeeeease!

Nadia is another one who can't make up her mind. Should she follow her orders or do what she thinks is right? Thankfully, Buchanan is there to clear things up for her. Or Mike, who might have lost one or both eyes, therefore ruling him out for a 24 spin off of his own (or to take over for Jack just in case someone is eventually able to take him down). Whatever happened to the guy(s) from division who came in after CTU had been infiltrated and were supposed to check everyone's every move? Quite conveniently, they were gone too.

And why, oh why, did they have to kill off Milo? Why do the cute guys always have to die on this show? It's like the primary directive or something: If you're an attractive male, you will die sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

In the end Jack's father is, supposedly, killed in the platform's explosion (it would have stung him more if he had been arrested and imprisoned; who knows, it might have even raised the series final grade a little), Cheng is arrested (and threatens Buchanan that his ninja friends will come for him), and Chloe is pregnant. This last, the writers' latest attempt at injecting something more personal into a shoot-em-up type of show, just so it doesn't look too cold I guess.

Whatever.

Open war between Russia and the US is avoided (duh!!) just in time for the show's end (more yawns here). By the way, how is President Palmer?

To the dismay of the cute nephew, Jack then goes dark once again to go get his belle, Audrey, but when he finally sees her, at the risk of being caught and arrested, he changes his mind because it's better this way for her. Huh? Then why did you bother in the first place?!

Heller, her father, apparently trusts Jack will do just that, that is leave her alone, because when he has a chance, he doesn't even call his security team to restrain the intruder. Oh well, one of the benefits of foresight I suppose. I wonder if that had any weight during his interview for the post of Secretary of Defense.

The show ends with Jack looking at the ocean (luckily his father's platform was very close to Heller's residence; imagine if he had lived in Seattle...), thinking about what to do next, I venture. Who knows. Who cares.

He even looks down the precipice, as if thinking of jumping, all the while not raising my interest one iota. Maybe if he had jumped? I guess we'll never know.

Because I certainly won't be back for another season of this overblown, ridiculous, preachy, condescending, patronizing, unrealistic load of crap.

A Quote By:

Mike Gravel, 2008 Democratic presidential candidate and former US Senator, answering a question about gay marriage:

"If a couple of lesbians or gay men want to get married, and they love each other, they should have the right to do that and enjoy all the legalities in our society that go along with that. I have no problem with that at all. I think that people who create these problems of homophobia and the likes of that do us a disservice. We are all human beings and one of the things that should motivate us, most of all, is love."

Yes!!

Just back from lunch and I got very good news:

Rev. Jerry Falwell dead at 73

And if you ask why I'm actually glad someone died, here's one of the many reasons:

Falwell has found himself at the center of several controversies, such as the one sparked by his comments two days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which he seemed to blame "abortionists," gays, lesbians, the ACLU and People for American Way for causing the attacks, saying they "helped this happen."

Fuck him. The world is a happier place without an asshole like that.

He won't be missed. Thank you very much.

UPDATE: More from Towleroad:

The televangelist had a long history of spewing hate toward the gay community. During the AIDS crisis he declared, "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals." And following 9/11 he appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club and said "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

As I said, today's a brighter day.

Will this ever pass?

This legislation has been introduced in Congress session after session and has never passed, in spite of garnering more and more co-sponsors. Will it succeed this time around?

And if it does, will Bush sign the bill into law, or veto it?

Legislation was introduced in Congress Tuesday that would allow Americans in a same-sex relationship to sponsor their "permanent partners" for legal residency in the United States, a right currently afforded only to opposite-sex couples under immigration law.
[...]
"Our laws should work to keep loving families together and not tear them apart. This is a matter of basic fairness and compassion. I am proud to work with Senator Leahy on this issue. We simply ask that gay and lesbian Americans in loving, committed relationships receive the same treatment as everyone else," he said.

Leahy said that the legislation simply promotes that principle by providing all Americans the opportunity to be with their loved ones.

"Our immigration laws treat gays and lesbians in committed relationships as second-class citizens; this injustice needs to change," Leahy said.
[...]
Because the U.S. does not legally recognize same-sex couples and their children as families, many same-sex bi-national couples are torn apart when one partner lives in the United States.

The Uniting American Families Act would add the term "or permanent partner" to those sections of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that apply to legally married couples.

Seems quite fair to me, but there is strong opposition to the measure, as witnessed by the fact that in all these years it has never been able to become law.

The last paragraph of the article offered a bit of good news:

At least 16 countries currently allow residents to sponsor same-sex permanent partners for legal immigration, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

That's quite the list there. I wonder where we would like to move to if I ever had to leave the US.

The suffering ahead

This CNN article about global warming is very interesting and these two paragraphs caught my eye:

The report follows two studies by the IPCC earlier this year warning that unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 6 degrees C (11 degrees F) by 2100, triggering a surge in ocean levels, destruction of vast numbers of species, economic devastation in tropical zones and mass human migrations.

Even the most stringent efforts outlined in the report, however, would not save the globe from suffering. An increase in temperatures to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) could still subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species, the IPCC said.

Destruction of vast numbers of species.
Economic devastation in tropical zones.
Mass human migrations.
Extinction of 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species.

This is what we're currently looking at for our future on this planet.

Sickening, worrisome, and just plain sad.

Lousy parents

Some kids are just not lucky when it comes to the parents they get. This "father" would lock his 10 year old in a 2 x 2 cage when he did drugs or to punish him, and I can't even imagine how he could fit in there:

A boy was locked up in a small dog cage when he was being punished and while his father used drugs, and he sometimes had to wear a shock collar, authorities said.

His parents appeared briefly in court Thursday on charges of child endangerment and making or selling drugs in front of the boy, 10, and his 5-year-old brother.
[...]
The older boy told officers that he left because he was tired of being locked up, Carroll said.

The cage was less than 2 feet high and 2 feet wide, and had a chain across the top with two locks on each end, he said.
[...]
Court documents say the 10-year-old boy was repeatedly shocked at the family's home through a remote-controlled collar meant as a training device for animals.

Incredible. I'd subject the parents to the same treatment as punishment. I'd make them wear one of those collars and give the remote to the other inmates, on rotation. Just for fun.

The Amazing Race - All Stars

Eric & Danielle won, beating out the two teams vying to be the first all-female team to win the million dollar prize.

This was a good season, except for the fact that one of the teams was the reviled Rob & Amber, who fortunately got eliminated, suddenly, halfway through. The show got exponentially better after they left. The hate they generated was sucking out all the fun from the show. They're just so sneaky, rude, obnoxious, vile and arrogant, you can't but wish them to get the boot.

Eric & Danielle weren't my favorite team, that honor goes to Joyce & Uchenna and Oswald & Danny. The former, however, already won the race once, and the latter were gay, so I would have loved for them to win. Unfortunately, they got eliminated at the end of the second to last leg of the race, which, incidentally, was the blandest and dumbest of them all, relegating the teams to a small island, with tasks that wouldn't let them get spaced out in time or space, and forced to be driven around by the military personnel from the island. Ridiculous and totally lacking any drama.

Of the final three teams, Eric & Danielle were my second choice for winning, after Charla & Mirna, who, given their physical limitations, overcame many odds to get where they got. You go Charla!! Too bad they didn't win.

As for Dustin & Candice, I was really hoping they wouldn't win. They weren't as obnoxious as the first time they raced, but their cockiness, arrogance, and willingness to play dirty just rubbed me the wrong way. It's always nicer to see a team win who didn't screw anyone over and just carried itself with dignity.

The season as a whole was good, and I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm posting a picture of the winning team because any excuse is valid to post a picture of Eric, possibly the sexiest contestant ever!!

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

A very interesting take on the myth of Dracula. The book, unfortunately, was abridged, but I didn't realize this until I was done reading it, and thinking back I couldn't think of any specific points in the book where I felt like I was missing information.

This might be because I thought it was unabridged, and therefore wasn't paying attention or even thinking about missing sections in the story line, or because there are sort of two parallel stories going on and one was barely touched upon in the book, but I just assumed that that's the way the author envisioned the book. Maybe, she just decided to cut one of the two stories out almost completely in order to leave the other one in as much as possible. Or maybe it was just good editing. Whatever the case may be, it still bothers me quite a bit knowing I didn't hear the entire book.

I am still at a loss when it comes to justifying or even understanding authors' decisions to allow the release of an abridged audio version of their works, since I never see abridged books in bookstores. I guess I never will understand why they do it.

Anyway, the story is intriguing, interesting, and at times gripping. The characters are mostly well fleshed out and this is the first audio book I read with multiple readers. They were all very good, especially the guy doing the British accent, which was very pleasant to hear.

It's also the first book I read that uses sound effects and motifs here and there, mostly to underscore a particular character or event.

It's the story of a young woman looking for her father, who might be on a quest that could spell his doom. The reader is taken through time and space by memories, letters, books, stories, all in a whirlwind of occurrences that eventually fit together quite nicely. But I don't want to give away any details of the story and therefore I'll just end this post here. A good book. I'd recommend it.

Grade: 8

Oh. My. God.

According to Islamic regulations in Iran, men are not allowed to even shake hands with women in public, although these regulations are ignored in private circles by most Iranians.

In the 21^st century.

Bette Midler to replace Celine Dion

Bette's show will debut next February at Caesars' Colosseum, where Celine will wrap up her five-year old show this December:

Veteran entertainer Bette Midler is known for her larger-than-life persona as the "Divine Miss M," but she admits to being a bit intimidated by the huge space she will occupy at her new home stage in Las Vegas.
[...]
With a stage proscenium 120 feet across and 60 feet high, it ranks among world's biggest, according to Caesars.

And it's got the biggest (video wall) in the world, and you say, "What the heck am I going to put on that? My baby pictures?" Midler joked with Reuters in a recent interview.

But Midler, a one-time go-go dancer who launched her career in a Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" and built a devoted gay following while performing at Manhattan's Continental Baths, quickly added she would think of something.

"We always try to be really ingenious about the way we stretch our people and the way we fill a stage. And I'm sure it's going to be fine," said the entertainer, famed for her brassy style and outrageously grand entrances.

She joins a growing list of big-name performers taking up semi-permanent residence in the desert gambling and entertainment resort, among them Prince, Elton John and her former Continental Baths pianist, Barry Manilow.

Bette has signed a two-year, five-nights per week, 20-weeks per year contract with Caesars' management:

Her shows will run 90 minutes, with ticket prices ranging from $95 to $250 a seat, organizers said.

Totally worth the price after having seen her live in her last act "Kiss My Brass." I'd love to see her again. Who knows, two years are a long time... maybe a trip to Vegas would be nice...

Bette has also recently finished shooting her first film in three years, the indie production "Then She Found Me," directed by and starring Helen Hunt.

Again, I can't wait. I love her.