Mira

Astronomers using the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA space telescope, have spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space.

The large star is in its death throes and is leaving a huge, turbulent tail of oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in its wake that makes it look like an immense comet hurtling through space.

The tail, spanning a stunning distance of 13 light-years (about 20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun) was detected behind the star Mira, located 350 light-years from Earth in the "whale" constellation Cetus.

Rocketing through our Milky Way galaxy at 80 miles per second -- literally faster than a speeding bullet -- the star is spewing material that scientists believe may be recycled into new stars, planets and maybe even life.

This material has been blown off Mira gradually over time -- the oldest was released roughly 30,000 years ago as part of a long stellar death process -- and is enough to form at least 3,000 future Earth-sized planets.

Astronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems. Mira is an older star called a red giant that is losing massive amounts of surface material.

Mira will eventually eject all of its remaining gas into space, forming a colorful shell called a planetary nebula. The nebula will fade with time, leaving only the burnt-out core of the original star, which will then be called a white dwarf.

Links here and here.

On the Lot

The show ended this week and the winner was Will Bigham, one of my favorites from early on.

The other two finalists were Jason and Adam, both very talented and I'm sure their future includes directing many movies.

Will, like Garry Marshall pointed out, will be able to make them sooner, but it's pretty much guaranteed that all of the top 18 contestants whose movies we saw, we'll hear from again some day.

I always liked Will's work and nothing he made ever disappointed me. I cannot say the same for any of the other contestants, including Zach, the early favorite, so I'm actually very happy he won.

His movies were always very original and felt like little gems. I can't wait to see what he can create with a big studio behind and a real budget. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll ever see his first product; if the budget stays at $1 million, it will likely only be distributed in New York and Los Angeles.

The remaining question is, Will there be a second edition of On the Lot, given its abysmal ratings?

Steven Spielberg's enormous clout insured the show stayed on the air in spite of its few viewers, but will Fox agree to a second season?

The Dream Neighbor

Just read this and my eyes bulged:

Neighbors of Fantastic Four star Chris Evans are in for a visual treat - he often takes out his garbage naked.

Evans, who recently came third in a poll of most eligible Hollywood bachelors, admits he is fond of streaking in his yard.

He says, "I have a nice backyard. It's very secluded, so every now and then I might just run out quickly and take the trash out."

And this is why I'd like to move in his neighborhood this afternoon...

Karl is out

Too bad he leaves without a pair of handcuffs on his wrists and heading to jail. I'd love to lock him up in the general population of a maximum security prison for a couple months...

Anyway, whatever the real reasons behind his departure, Bush sure will miss him and his guidance. He was, after all his brains, and look where he is now. I can't even imagine what's gonna happen to our Dear Leader now that he's on his own.

Here's a couple comics that clearly show the Bush-Rove relationship dynamics.

Tom Toles:


and Ben Sargent:

Daddy Dearest

Ricky Martin wants to adopt children:

Ricky Martin wants kids — perhaps adopting "one from each continent" if possible.

"It's something we want to begin to create this year, a family of many colors," the Grammy-winning pop star told reporters Wednesday in Puerto Rico, where he is scheduled to perform this weekend.

Wait, Ricky isn't married, so... who's "we"?

Does the "we" include the stud on the right...

The Bourne Ultimatum

I finally went to the movies this year... and it's only August!! I must admit that I've missed a few titles I wanted to see, but I just can't drag my ass to a theater anymore, it seems. I like our new life in the country, but it sure puts a strain on any outing whatsoever (and any store is 5 to 25 minutes away; I don't know how they do it in places where you have to drive an hour to get anywhere).

Anyway, at least the first (last?) movie I saw this year was really, really good, two thumbs way up indeed. Seems like for the Jason Bourne franchise, the third time is indeed a charm.

The movie is alive and vibrant from beginning to end, never dull, never absurd, never patronizing, never preposterous. Just the way an action thriller should be.

Our hero (Matt Damon) is still suffering from amnesia, but his memories pop up in bursts and sprouts more and more, helping him in his quest to understand what happened to him and why.

He crosses paths again with Nicki (Julia Stiles), and it's actually refreshing to see a Hollywood production in which no romantic or sexual relationship is forced into the script in order to respect the established canons.

I hate it when you're watching a movie, especially a thriller or an action movie, and you know right from the get-go that at some point he'll bed her, just because you have to have the token sex scene that feels totally unreal.

The supporting cast is excellent, just as it was in the previous Bourne outings, particularly Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Albert Finney. The camera work is great, the script good, and John Powell's score pumps you up so much, it will stay with you long after you left the theater.

This is most definitely the year of the sequel (SpiderMan, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean...) but, judging from critics reviews, it seems like Bourne's third outing is the only one to actually improve on the franchise instead of sagging it down.

Go see it.

Grade: 8.5

The Cardinal of the Kremlin, by Tom Clancy

Another good thriller and my first book by Clancy. I really liked it, even though it was an abridged version of the original, which always leaves me wondering what I'm missing out.

I swear, I'll never purchase an abridgment ever again. I'll never understand why they even bother putting out shit like that. I've never seen and abridged song or an abridged movie. Why is it ok to chop up a book?!

Anyway, the Cold War between the East and West is over now, but it's not too hard to remember how tense it was for a few decades. This book's timeline falls toward the end of the Soviet Union's dominion over the East, when Mikhail Gorbachev was pushing to transform his country into a more modern and vibrant nation.

The story is a game of cat-and-mouse between the CIA and the KGB, and several other agencies and individuals, all trying to outwit and outlast their opponents. Treaties are being discussed while new weapons are being built. Which side will prevail?

The book is rich with action and Mr. Stiers, the reader, does an excellent job of voicing all the different characters and their accents, including Russian and Afghan.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Grade: 8

Why marriage matters

This article is heart wrenching. It is incredible that in the 21^st century two adults who love each other and don't harm anybody have to see their lives torn to shreds by idiotic parents who value their religious bigotry more than their son's happiness and well-being:

Brett Conrad spent more than half his life as Patrick Atkins' partner. For 25 years, the men shared bank accounts, apartments and eventually a home in Fishers.

But when Atkins, 47, fell seriously ill in 2005, Conrad faced what many gay Hoosiers consider a travesty: no law guaranteeing them the same rights as married couples to participate in care decisions for their ill partners.

Conrad, 47, spent much of the past two years trying to win guardianship of Atkins from Atkins' parents, Thomas and Jeanne of Carmel. Jeanne Atkins is quoted in court documents as saying she believes homosexuality is a sin and that she disapproves of the men's relationship. The parents have barred Conrad from visiting their now-disabled son in their home where he lives.

In June, Conrad won visitation rights from the Indiana Court of Appeals, but the court upheld an earlier Hamilton County ruling that left control of Atkins' care to his parents.

It seems incredible that after 25 years together two people who clearly loved and cared for each other can be torn apart by one's parents, just because they don't agree with the gender of their son's soul mate.

The courts, obviously, must follow the dictates of the law, which puts the parents in charge when no legal papers have been signed by couples giving each other power of attorney, but even so, this is what a judge in the case had to say:

"We are confronted here with the heartbreaking fracture of a family," the judges wrote in their ruling. "Brett and Patrick have spent 25 years together as life partners -- longer than Patrick lived at home with his parents -- and their future life together has been destroyed by Patrick's tragic medical condition and by the Atkinses' unwillingness to accept their son's lifestyle."

At least somebody gets it.

How awful. All my sympathies go to Brett in his efforts to be rejoined one day with his love Patrick, since, Patrick's parents don't seem to be looking after his best interests according to what his mother told Brett:

Regardless of how the courts rule in the Conrad-Atkins case, the Atkinses aren't likely to change their minds about their son's relationship.

Jeanne Atkins testified at trial that it was "probably true" she would not let the men see each other unless required by law.

The record also shows that she told Conrad that if her son was going to return to life with his partner after recovering from his stroke, she would prefer he not recover at all.

I almost wish that she's right about the existence of her God, since she would definitely not be welcomed in his kingdom after saying something like that.

Hell, even Satan would despise a person like that!!

The Tudors

I decided to check this show out because I like period shows and I'll watch anything with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I'm also deeply fascinated by the English monarchy, don't ask me why, I just am.

Anyway, the show is quite good, with excellent casting and good acting (Meyers, Jeremy Northam and mostly Sam Neill are all above par). The writing is good as well, although the writers did take some liberties in their dramatizations, and sometimes for no apparent reason (spoiler tag: like when they kill off King Henry VIII's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, as a child when in real life he died in his late teens, while his father was trying to make him his official male heir, thereby insuring the Tudor's dynasty would continue).

So far, my only real disappointment comes from the panoramic visual effects, which are not computer generated (and therefore, possibly, cheaper), but whose unnaturalness if shamefully apparent. And I do mean shamefully.

The vast majority of the scenes are shot either indoors or quite up close to the surrounding buildings, so as not to show too many details that could reveal any flaws.

However, every time there is a panoramic shot of Whitehall, the King's residence, or any other large scale reproduction, you can see little black toy people mechanically moving around and buildings whose walls don't have any depth, but are clearly painted or drawn. And if you pay any attention, these shots never last more than a couple seconds, so as not to allow the viewer enough time to notice the sceneries' flaws (or appreciate the magnificence of what they represent).

I can understand that a period show like this must require a huge technical budget, and the costumes, art direction and set decoration are all very good, but couldn't they have splurged a little on computer generated visual effects (or better painted backgrounds)?

I swear, every time there's a long shot, I now pause the show and try to find all the obvious fake stuff: lights flickering unnaturally, flags that look like they're an inch wide, stiff black birds zooming past, people's arms moving like they're wearing heavy armor while they are all clothed in black, long coats and they walk like the characters of a cuckoo clock.

I believe HBO's Rome cost something like $100 million dollars to make (and that's only for the first season), the most expensive TV series ever made (but, it shows). That price tag is what most certainly spelled its doom, given its relatively small audience, however, the shortcomings in Showtime's The Tudors' technical aspect proves HBO's claim that It's not TV, it's HBO.

Anyway, the show in itself, like I said, is quite good. There's a lot of intrigue, betrayals, political machinations and sexual innuendos and it's interesting to see how quickly a person's fortunes or a nation's alliances could change back then. Literally, in the blink of an eye.

Henry's legendary libertine ways and very active sexual life are always on display, and it's very interesting to see how the birth of the Protestant church as we know it today was brought about by nothing more than a man's boundless lust and his desire for a male successor.

I do have to point out, however, that, this being being Showtime, the network that brought us Queer as Folk, and The L Word, I would have expected a better treatment of the only gay story line so far. Let's forget for a second that Henry has three close friends his age (Charles Brandon, Anthony Knivert and William Compton) and the one who just so happens to be a closeted gay man conveniently succumbs to the mysterious epidemic of the 15^th and 16^th century called the Sweating Sickness.

What bothered me even more was that while we were constantly bombarded with heterosexual sexual acts in all their animalistic glory, all we got to see of Compton's and his lover's only physical contact were a couple of innocent kisses (while still fully clad) and an after-intercourse scene in which Compton is sleeping next to his partner who's intent on composing a new piece of music. End scene.

Excuse me, but who polices Showtime's fairness and balance? Bill O'Reilly?

So while I'm looking forward to next year's season two of this show, I'm hopeful that Showtime will treat its loyal gay audience a little more fairly. Thank you.

Grade: 8

The extinction of a species

I came across this picture on Yahoo! and it made me very sad, because of its accompanying description:

The giant Galapagos tortoise known as George lifts his head up during a walk in his protected home in the island chain in this February 5, 2001 file photo.

While scientists search for a mate for 'Lonesome George' -- the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise -- some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said.

I can't imagine that we're looking at the last survivor of an entire species, and there's nothing much we can do to bring it back from the brink of extinction.

Don't pollute my airspace!!

This article is a little old, but its message is still, unfortunately, very current.

It's about how soon inhaling a cigarette smoker's emissions becomes dangerous for a non-smoker's health. Apparently very soon:

Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants can result in measurable levels of a toxin in workers’ bodies that is known to cause lung cancer, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They found nonsmoking workers in Oregon who worked a single shift in a bar or restaurant that allowed smoking were more likely to have a detectable level of NNK — a carcinogen linked with lung cancer — in their bodies than those who worked in nonsmoking establishments.

“NNK is only found in the body as a result of either smoking or breathing other people’s smoke,” said Michael Stark of the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland, Ore., whose study appears in the American Journal of Public Health.
[...]
“As a group, four out of five of the nonsmokers who worked in a smoking environment had some detectable level of this deadly chemical in their body, and as a group, for every hour that they worked, that level increased by 6 percent,” Stark said in a telephone interview.

Other studies have shown that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke have about a 20 percent higher risk of lung cancer. They are also at a higher risk of asthma and perinatal complications such as sudden infant death syndrome.

“This adds to the very strong and growing body of evidence that second-hand smoke exposure is dangerous and people need to be protected,” Stark said.

A smoker friend of mine from Italy used to argue with me about this topic a lot.

As a non-smoker, I was obviously for making smoking in public places illegal (I was also a waiter at the time, which forced me to breathe other people's smoke for long hours daily). He, on the other hand, would argue that he had the right to smoke and that he didn't like other people trying to take away that right from him. It was, after all, his health, and if he chose to endanger it by smoking, it was his decision, as a free person, to do so.

Naturally, I disagreed with him strongly, and always felt like if he had the right to smoke, I had the right to breathe clear air, free of carcinogens (and that disgusting smell).

We never seemed to agree or change our minds or each other's, but these new scientific discoveries seem to give my argument the upper hand...

This is one of the most incredible videos I've ever seen:


Mostly, I wonder how the bridge's road was able to last that long. Was it made of asphalt like regular roads and bridges or a rubber like material, because that is certainly how it looked.

Incredible. Even seeing it with my own eyes, it's just too hard to believe.