http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geALM3WhimJYvj6Dmji9zAfpxL2QD9CDCLQ01

Namibia's election commission says President Hifikepunye Pohamba has won re-election, with more than six times as many votes as his nearest rival.According to results posted Saturday on the Election Commission of Namibia's Web site, Pohamba won 611,241 votes, or about 75 percent.
His long-governing South West African People's Organization, a former guerrilla movement known as SWAPO, won about 75 percent of the vote in the National Assembly elections held alongside the presidential voting Nov. 27-28.
Hidipo Hamutenya, a former foreign minister, was second in the presidential race with 88,640 votes. Hamutenya's two-year-old Rally for Democracy and Progress will be the main opposition in parliament, winning just over 11 percent of that vote.

considerable anger over the White House's decision to cancel a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner - According to a poll published by the daily tabloid VG, 44% of Norwegians believe it was rude of Obama to cancel his scheduled lunch with King Harald, with only 34% saying they believe it was acceptable. - "Of all the things he is cancelling, I think the worst is cancelling the lunch with the king," said Siv Jensen, the leader of the largest party in opposition, the populist Progress party. "This is a central part of our government system. He should respect the monarchy," she told VG. - Peace activists opposed to the Afghanistan war are planning a 5,000-strong protest in Oslo.

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/10/obama-norwegians-nobel-snub-harald

So, some weeks ago, I posted a Top Twenty list of some of my favorite fight scenes. I asked for some recommendations, and got them (thanks, those of you who remember this and did it!) and in light of that, a few other films I've become curious about, and the hateful waste of time that was Ninja Assassin, I've decided it's time for me to fill the hole of classic--and modern--martial arts films I haven't yet seen. Starting tonight, with Kung Fu Hustle, because I always meant to catch that one and never got around to it.

My must watch list stands thusly:

Kung Fu Hustle
Drunken Master 1 & 2
Fist of Legend
Fists of Fury
Enter the Dragon
Tai Chi Master
Ong Bak
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Hero
Magificent Warriors
Twin Warriors
Forbidden Kingdom
First Strike
Police Story 1 & 2
Who Am I?


....if y'all notice any glaring omissions, please tell me! I'm on a mission here.

You know you live in Hawaii when the local newscaster says the job market is "gnarly."

Biggest waves in a generation in past days. D. and I hiked to a cliff overlooking Jaws and watched a couple pros tearing it up.



I've been accepted to a distance graduate program through the University of Hawaii. I have heaps of paperwork - financial aid, blahblah - and then everything goes full-force starting January 8th. It starts with an orientation on Oahu, so I need to book tickets and make arrangements. And after that most of the work will be done online. I'm sure my lifestyle will have to change a bit. I hope I can still manage to juggle work.

Life has gotten a bit out of balance recently. Lots of movie-watching and tons and tons of work. Plenty of time spent with my dude, too, which is nice. But I need to fit in more exercise, more sunshine, and more Christmas shopping. More updates would be good too.

• 07:31 has a headache. Getting Dakota ready for school. Hoping for a good day. #
• 10:30 is leaving for work. Glad it's not as cold today. Have a great day everyone! #
• 19:26 is cleaning and about to cook dinner. Dakota is watching Rudolph on abc Family. He got another green today!!! YAY!!! #
• 22:30 is watching Barbara Walters most interesting people of 2009... Lady Gaga was her first interview. :) #
• 23:43 is heading to bed. Have a good night everyone! #

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Two hundred years ago this year (February 12, 1809), the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was born on Sinking Spring Farm, in southeast Hardin County, Kentucky (now part of LaRue County); making him the first president born outside the original thirteen colonies. I could write an essay about his life and achievements. Instead, I have made a small list of historical books and novels centered around his four years as President: ( Read more... )

Научно-политический анализ израильского поэта Шмуэля Ерушалми

Начну, наверное с того, что политическое устройство Израиля, начиная первыми днями существования государства - является одним из наиболее сложных и запутанных в мире. Ведь ни в одной стране мира с населением в два-три миллиона человек, в парламенте одновременно, не заседают более десяти партий. А в Израиле, уже в первые два-три года после образования государства, (когда население страны было около полутора миллиона жителей) в Кнэссэте заседали как минимум десять фракций. Кроме того, стоит подчеркнуть и такой чисто израильский факт, что абсолютно все партии участвующие в выборах в Кнэессэт (будь-то правые или левые, светские или религиозные) - в той или иной форме согласны с сионистским характером государства Израиль.

( Read more... )

A nifty link on how Obama and the Demons, er, democratic congresscritters are aiming to make everyone's life that much more shoddy, via a personal mandate for health insurance. That's right, you can go to jail for tax evasion for refusing to purchase health insurance.

Land of the free, right?


http://volokh.com/2009/12/09/conspirators-at-heritage-today/

I want to post an excerpt from the TimesOnline review of the book Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? by Frank Furedi dated back to the 2004. Past the thoughts on the book the reviewer discusses "intellectual" vs "educated" man. I think it's a very interesting reading.

The review itself is here

As an Englishman, I am bothered by the term “intellectual”, which came late to our language. Humane education was shaped in our country by Coleridge, Ruskin, Arnold and — in the political sphere — Macaulay, Gladstone and Disraeli, people who would have described themselves as educated men, but not as intellectuals. The intellectual is a synthesis of French bohemianism and Russian nihilism. Intellectuals have an inveterate tendency to be on the Left and to turn on dissenters with a venom that no educated person could comfortably endorse. Much of the decline that Furedi is describing in this book could be described in another way, as the gradual vanishing of the educated person as the goal of education, and its replacement by the intellectual instead. Intellectuals are critics of the established order; they are on the side of the victim, and against the bourgeois normality; they repudiate discipline, authority, family, tradition, and nothing gets up their nose so much as the calm forgiving acceptance of human imperfection. And, as we know from the cases of Marx, Lenin, Mao, Sartre, Pol Pot and a thousand more, they are dangerous.

Moreover, intellectuals value their oppositional and transgressive stance far more than they value truth, and have a vested interested in undermining the practices — such as rational argument, genuine scholarship and open-minded discussion — which have truth as their goal. They will seize on the relativist arguments — even if they are as shoddy as Foucault’s or as empty as Rorty’s — as they will seize on any kind of mumbo-jumbo that silences the critic and furthers their subversive aims. And when they take hold of institutions they form a “confederacy of dunces” whose first aim is to exclude anyone who thinks out of line.

That is why university departments in the humanities and social sciences are now such grim, bigoted places, and why Furedi, who must have one hell of a time in the University of Kent, still tries to claim the status of a left-wing intellectual, and to conceal as best he can the truth, that he is a genuinely educated (and transparently conservative) man.

I wrote a review here for the website I work for, The Playlist. I am fishing for hits a little, hope that's ok. Click to read.

Anyway, anyone else seen it and can chime in? All my contemporaries and a few legit critics have said exactly what I have. I think the word will be bad enough to knock it out of contention for an awards spot. Not that worse films haven't been nominated, because they have, but because of the film's unique badness (even the films detractors will admit what its defenders will no doubt say - that it's like no film they've ever seen before). I've seen every Peter Jackson film, and I've memorized "Meet the Feebles" front to back, so this was a huge disappointment.

Oh, and discussion of the book would be interesting too, because I've heard from people who read the book that they didn't change much, which kinda vexes me.

5:34 PM 12/8/09 · Not that I entirely fault FabFunk's line of thought that one's interests should challenge one and enable them to grow...but when I go looking for entertainment that's not at the forefront of my thoughts. Ideally I'm seeking stuff that will, well, entertain me...

...and every so often that stuff is moronic, immature, and lacking a good plot line.

This may go hand in hand with why my choices in porn go more straight to the action and are less story driven.

Then again, I don't always see this (not the porn...necessarily) when I'm picking stuff up at Blockbuster. Yeah, not so much a Netflix guy. Going thru the new selections, and occasionally the old stuff, is more enjoyable to me then getting stuff thru the mail. Not just because I can take the time to peruse titles and read the back of each movie but also cuz I actually enjoy interacting with the other people there and the employees...

...about 3 of the titles I picked up a little bit ago were due to this really hot girl, I was talking with earlier, combing the aisles for stuff she thought I'd love. In the earlier, she was helping try to track down a copy of Bottle Shock cuz I think that'd make a great gift for Dad come XMAS!

• Got 'til Sunday to watch all of these:


• Terminator Salvation / The Machima Series: apparently an ongoing series for the 'Terminator' franchise, CGI, focused on resistance fighter Blair Williams.


• The Goods / Live Hard, Sell Hard:


• Thirst: winner at the Cannes Film Festival, directed by Park Chan·Wook. Plot involves a priest that survives a blood transfusion that turns him into a vampire. Believe it or not, it's a love story.


• GI Joe / Resolute: a new animated series, or one·shot, that contains elements of the recent movie and the original series.


• The Brothers Bloom:


• Franklyn: an interesting conflict betwen parallel worlds, focused on London and the futuristic Meanwhile City.


• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou:


• Blood / The Last Vampire:based on the anime/manga brought to stunning real life.


• Angels & Demons:


• Ice Age / Dawn of the Dinosaurs:

Only felt the need to give descriptions of the ones I was pretty sure were more eclectic.

Truth be told, some of these may stink but I won't know for sure until I watch them. It was enough for a viewing that they caught my attention. Usually only grab 8 movies at a time but a certain someone got me to get a couple extra, almost grabbed Aliens In the Attic...

...probably will next time.

Title: Ultima Ratio Regum
Fandom: Merlin BBS
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,249
Characters/Pairings: Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Morgana, Morgana/Nimue, Lancelot/Gwen
Author's note: snarkydame betaed this. She's shiny! Assumes familiarity with season one.
Previous Part: Chapter 5
Summary: Marten wants some answers from Arthur. He’s not fond of them.

( Magic is a living thing, Marten. Dangerous, but alive. It’s wrong to keep it in a cage, muzzle it, control it. I acknowledge the risks are great, but the rewards, Marten, the rewards! )

Nebraska in Nebraska. The mysterious Nebraska Field does not seem to have achieved even local fame. The town of Minden only boasts a Pioneer Museum, and each December hyper-decorates itself to defend its reputation as Christmas City.



Leo Belcigus. Lions are not native to the Low Countries, but here is one particular specimen that is nevertheless very local. The Leo Belgicus is a lion transposed on a map of the area, its ferocity symbolizing the belligerence of a nation fighting for its life.

1) Mulholland Drive
2) There Will Be Blood
3) Inglourious Basterds
4) Wall-E
5) No Country for Old Men
6) Gangs of New York
7) Pan's Labyrinth
8) Match Point
9) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10) Kill Bill
11) Where the Wild Things Are
12) Elephant
13) About Schmidt
14) Traffic
15) Requiem for a Dream
16) Up
17) The Departed
18) City of God
19) Grindhouse
20) Saraband
21) A History of Violence
22) The Wrestler
23) A Scanner Darkly
24) The Happiness of the Katakuris
25) Mystic River
26) Oldboy
27) Chop Shop
28) Zodiac
29) United 93
30) Punch-Drunk Love
31) Waking Life
32) Borat
33) American Psycho
34) Eastern Promises
35) Visitor Q
34) The Incredibles
35) American Splendor
36) Fantastic Mr. Fox
37) The Hurt Locker
38) Minority Report
39) The Royal Tenenbaums
40) In the Mood for Love
41) Munich
42) I'm Not There
43) The Aviator
44) Wonder Boys
45) The Fog of War
46) The Fall
47) The Pianist
48) In the Bedroom
49) 28 Days Later
50) Revenge of the Sith

A Climate Scientists blog article on one of the best, most user friendly, and most well respected meteorological and climate science websites in the business (second only the NWS/NOAA website and far more user friendly) discusses the multi billion dollar PR industry that spans a number of high dollar firms who specialize in manufacturing doubt by churning out junk (and sometimes outright fake) science and packages it to the public who lacks the knowledge to properly recognize it for what it is as "legitimate skepticism", which it is most assuredly not. High profile clients have included the Tobacco industry, various pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers and users of every toxic substance known to man from Asbestos to Lead to Dioxin to Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), and how now these same firms have turned their efforts towards global climate change.

I will also add that I agree with the author's take that a lot of environmental groups do the arguments of climate scientists a disservice by exaggerating some claims and making up others (such as most of the hurricane related claims which do NOT appear to be linked to global warming). But I think he also represents the general consensus of the scientific community that whether or not there is a "smoking gun" the evidence for it is compelling and continues to mount, meaning that whether or not you have your doubts about the human induced nature of global climate change it is unreasonable not to act as though it is the case and make policy changes accordingly. That is the cold hard reality of all of the LEGITIMATE science. It costs us little to do it, it arguably has major long term economic benefits, and we simply cannot afford to be wrong on it. The article is not terribly wrong and it is a highly highly reccomended read. It also refers you to sources of further information if you are interested in some aspect of it. I'm particularly looking at some of those books on the "manufactured doubt" industry.

To prepare for his turn to hit, a Major League baseball player slips a
doughnut-shaped piece of metal over the top of his bat, making it a
few pounds heavier than it normally is. He then takes a number of
practice swings. The theory is that when he removes the doughnut
and strides up to home plate to actually hit against a pitcher who's
throwing the ball at 90 miles per hour, the bat will feel lighter and
he'll be able to swing faster. As you prepare for your own equivalent
of going up to bat.


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I have been on this weird kick of documentary after documentary (usually not my style) and I love it. I'm in preparation for the 82nd Academy Awards and so I am attempting to see a lot of the films on the shortlist before the nominations come out (shortlist after the jump.) I decided I'd do short reviews on the documentaries I've seen that came out this year, thus far.


FOOD, INC. ( more reviews and the shortlist..... )