Oh, dear lord

Right. The Earth's climate has changed before, so we should just go on as we have and not worry about it. And this guy's heading up NASA?

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, whose agency's observations of the Earth have helped to confirm a global rise in temperature, said he doubts that global warming is an issue mankind should address.

...

"To assume that is a problem is to assume that the state of the Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure it doesn't change," he said. "First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown.

"Second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we might have right here today, right now, is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

I'm simply stunned by this, although it fits the neo-con pattern of at first denying there such thing as Global Warming/Climate Change then admitting to it, but insisting that A) it's natural or 2) too far along to arrest. Either way, the end result is they advocate doing nothing. Pretty sad that Griffin's position contradicts that of NASA's own researchers and findings.

What's next? Griffin advocating the Ptolmic model of the universe because he believes its arrogant for humans to deny God fixed the heavens in concentric spheres about the Earth?

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Don't weep for Utah

Wow. That was a walloping if ever I saw one. Granted, I thought the Spurs would close out the Jazz in San Antonio. And being without a justifiably distracted Derek Fisher for the first half certainly didn't help Utah's chances. Nor did Deron Williams' sprained ankle. All the stars were aligned against the Jazz, and the Spurs pounced.

But I don't feel sorry for Utah. By all rights, they should've lost to Houston in the first round--would've too, if the Rockets had a coach with any clue as how to use Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Utah has a talented young team, and odds are they'll only get better in years to come. The Spurs, meanwhile, are long in tooth and getting longer. The window of opportunity for San Antonio is closing rapidly--next year they'll have a chance to repeat as Western Conference champs... maybe. After that, major rebuilding, while Dallas and Phoenix slug it out another couple of years, with Houston, Utah and Portland nipping at their heels.

As for now, I'm basking in the Spurs' glow. I'd love to see them play against Cleveland and the dynamic play LeBron James brings to the game. Detroit is a less-sexy matchup, and the Pistons match up better, so I'm not too keen on playing them. Either way, the Spurs are playing their best basketball of the year, and I don't expect a week's layoff to make them too rusty. Not with the franchise's fourth title in eight years so tantalizingly close.

Go Spurs Go!

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Coming up for air

I haven't forgotten the blog--I just haven't had any time to post. Things are hoppin' at home with the girls being on summer vacation, so there's the whole "entertain me!" factor at work. And speaking of work, my boss is off to Hawaii for two weeks, so I'm running the shop in his absence (saints preserve us!). So if I'm silent, more or less, don't think I'm ignoring you.

Oh yeah: Go Spurs Go!

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Star Wars XXX

That's Star Wars at 30 years, not Star Wars porn for those of you with dirty minds. Since everyone else in the known universe is posting about the deep cultural significance Star Wars had on western society, I'll keep my reminisce short and personal.

I didn't see Star Wars on opening day. Or on opening weekend. Or opening week. Or opening month. One glimpse of a TV commercial, and my parents declared the film a "Weird-O," unfit for human eyes. At that time I for some reason believed my parents knew what they were talking about, so I loudly announced to anyone within hearing distance that I wouldn't be seeing that film. But then my friends started to come back from trips to Houston cinemas bearing tales of intergalactic derring-do. The television was awash in Star Wars reports and commercials. Magazine racks and book racks and comic spinner racks were filled with wall-to-wall Star Wars. And the toys were cool, displacing the previously-hip Micronauts without breaking a sweat. I began to suspect that maybe my parents had made the wrong call on this one. So I got the Marvel comic adaptations--the huge tabloids, as well as the individual issues--and read them religiously. I was sold. I begged and pleaded my parents to take me. No dice. I felt, literally, that I was the last person in the world to see this movie. Then, one wondrous Saturday, a family friend was taking her kids to Houston to see it, and asked if I wanted to go along.

I remember sitting in the darkened theater wiggling in my seat I was so uncontrollably excited. When the famed music started and the opening crawl crept up the screen, I felt my life complete. For the next six years, Star Wars dominated my life, until the relative let-down of Return of the Jedi. But those were a magical six years, and if nothing else, Star Wars turned me into a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy. So yeah, Lucas gets a lion's share of the blame for what I have become.

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Friday Night Videos

It's interesting how perspective changes as you age. In the 80s, I didn't like the Eurythmics. I was neutral on some of their songs, and downright disdainful of others. But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate their body of work more and more, to the point where I actually like most of the songs I hated way back when. Why is that, do you suppose? Nostalgia for the 80s may play some part, but it can't be the whole story because I still hate some of the stuff I couldn't stand back then, and have grown to dislike some music I used to think was great. I'm just weird, I suppose.

In any event, waves of thunderstorms are blowing in from the southwest, making it look more and more like this Memorial Day Weekend is going to be a complete washout. Fortunately, the Eurythmics have a ready-made song just for this occasion.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Sheryl Crow.

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Lost

Okay, I'm not a big follower of Lost since I firmly believe the showrunners have no clue as to where they're going with it, but I do keep up enough for random conversations. And I watched last night's two-hour season finale. I'm happy to report that it was one of the better Lost installments because A) stuff actually happened and 2) the survivors finally got a clue, got hard-assed and realized that everything Ben says is a lie. And flash-forwarding three years is an interesting bit of misdirection, especially if they plan on reintroducing Walt and his kid to the storyline.

But one thing really bugged me, and took away from an otherwise enjoyable episode: Charlie's stupid, senseless death. If he really is dead, of course. With this show, you can never tell. But assuming he is dead, without rewatching the episode frame-by-frame for hidden clues, I have to ask 1) why didn't he close the hatch from the outside where he'd be safe, B) why he just didn't hold his breath and swim out the ruptured porthole to safety (or at least try--it certainly looked wide enough to accommodate his skinny hobbit ass, and 3) where was the huge air pocket that should've formed in the room once the seawater reached the top of the broken porthole? A major plot point rested on that room being sealed, so if that's the case, Charlie should've had plenty of air to wait out a rescue attempt by Desmond. If the room wasn't actually sealed off, water should've rushed into the docking area after finding its way through the vents or whatever. Stupid, stupid, stupid violation of the laws of physics here, especially since the docking area set itself relies on the same principal. Sad to see a supposedly smart show like this one pull such a boneheaded move.

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HEROES: How to Stop an Exploding Man

I speak of spoilers below. You have been warned.

Well, season 1 of Heroes has ended, and thankfully viewers got some closure to the main story arc. The build-up to the, ahem, explosive climax was note-perfect. There were so many nifty, unexpected twists (such as the old guy from the past in the flashback/dream sequence telling future Peter "I can see you, you know" and Linderman's abrupt and unexpected death) that I was downright giddy by the time the moment of truth arrived.

Except the actual final 10 minutes stumbled a bit. Despite all the deft touches the writers have when dealing with the individual heroes, when it comes to conflict involving powers, or group interactions, the just don't have a handle on things. Instead, everyone stands around watching as one mini-drama unfolds, then when that concludes, the next mini-drama steps up. When Sylar is pulling a Darth Vader on Peter, the cop from ALIAS steps in to shoot at Sylar. Fine. But when Sylar stops the bullets, everyone gawks rather than take advantage of the distraction. Nikki/Jessica comes up to wallop Sylar with a parking meter, but rather than finish the most dangerous man alive off, she wanders back to her family when Peter says, "Don't worry, I can finish this." I mean come on! Did everyone take stupid pills off-screen? Dogpile, man, dogpile! And I'm really befuddled by Peter Petrelli, who doesn't seem to have an ounce of fight in him. While Sylar is choking him, Peter does nothing to fight back as far as I can tell. He's right there with Sylar, which means he has access to all of Sylar's stolen powers. What I wanted to see happen was Peter start slicing off the top of Sylar's own skull--that's have been turnabout in a big way. And I also expected Sylar to try to go boom and have Peter absorb the energy, which is what triggers his own meltdown. But the writers had other ideas. And said writers still can't write lines for little girl Molly that sound better than the worst dialogue from George Lucas' movies.

As for Nathan's last-minute heroics... why couldn't Peter fly himself away? I assume he's like Ultra Boy, in that he can only use one power at a time. In any event, that was the one dramatic reveal that was completely expected.

There were some other great things as well, but these mostly fall into the category of hints for next season. Micah's "job" for Linderman is never followed up on, which leaves a fascinating plot thread dangling. And Molly's refusal to find a big bad guy who's "worse than Sylar" and can see her when she locates him is intriguing foreshadowning (next up: The Heroes venture into Mordor to confront Sauron!). But my favorite bit is Hiro's cliffhanger, where he finds himself stranded in feudal Japan between two hostile armies just as an eclipse begins. Sure, everyone got excited about that, but how many of them are fans of the 1990 Japanese samurai epic "Heaven and Earth" (Ten to Chi to) by Haruki Kadokawa? Gorgeous film, and one I love to death. It's probably got the most beautiful medieval battles ever filmed. I'd love to see them riff on that early on next season, but logic says Hiro will teleport out around the 5 minute mark, thus saving the budget for another day.

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