My Faith in Science has been Restored

And, keep in mind what I just said: Faith in Science.

I’m now reading James P. Hogan’s Kicking the Sacred Cow. It’s an interesting book, a rebuttal of various “popular science” themes, including Evolution, the Big Bang, and (my favorite) Global Warming.  Hogan applies a clear-eyed scientific method to these issues, reporting what experts in the field are saying, instead of what “experts” in other fields are saying.  Apparently, this is an ongoing problematic theme in popular science today: Scientists commenting outside their fields of expertise are just as likely as lay persons (in fact they are lay persons) to go along with public opinion as lay people are.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subjects based upon what I read:

• Evolution: (surprisingly) There is no scientific evidence that Natural Selection (as currently defined) works. None. Note: this one really rattled me. I knew there were “issues” with current evolutionary thought, but wow!
• Astronomy: Most red shifts are not caused by motion (Doppler shift).  The distance of objects in the universe (and therefore the apparent size / age of the universe) cannot be measured by red shift.
• Global Warming: CO2 emissions actually follow changes in temperature rather than precede them (as would be expected if CO2 emissions were causing warming).  Global warming is (apparently) more correlated with sunspots than increases in greenhouse gases.

Fair warning, this book takes you to the scientific roots of these issues, so its a very dry read. Lots of statistics and such.  And (as the title implies), it completely flies in the face of popular thought regarding these issues.

I highly recommend reading this book! I wonder what Al Gore thinks of it…

7/31/2006 11:18:10 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  general

Pink Panther

I watched Steve Martin’s Pink Panther over the weekend, and I was surprised at how good it was. It was downright hilarious at spots.  When I first heard about the movie, I wasn’t impressed.  After all, how could Steve Martin doing a fake French accent be funny? Especially as funny as Peter Sellers was.  When watching the movie (I was desperate), I remembered the following:

• Peter Sellers was using a fake French accent too.
• There were only to honestly good “Inspector Clouseau” movies: “The Pink Panther” and “A Shot in the Dark” (the best of the series). The other movies were made much later (The Pink Panther was in 1963, The Return of the Pink Panther was in 1975, 12 years later), and were just done to “cash in” on the Pink Panther popularity.

Steve Martin’s take on the character was at least as good as Peter Sellers’ take, and I think the movie was just about as good as the original Pink Panther. Still not as good as A Shot in the Dark, but that was a classic.

Now, I’m disappointed that the movie didn’t do better at the box office, because I’d like to see more from this acting team, especially Steve Martin, Jean Reno, and Emily Mortimer (Nicole).

Come on, Steve! Give us a another one!

7/31/2006 10:07:46 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

CodeCamp 2.0 was suprisingly good

Frankly, I didn’t have very high hopes.  They cut the camp from 2 to 1 day, the organization showed extreme last-minute-itis, and it was way out in the boonies of north Vancouver (WA, not Canada).

In actuality, it turned out to be at least as good as last year, maybe even better. I especially liked the sessions on Iron Ruby and WMI. Boy, could I have used that WMI knowledge last year!

Now, I’m looking forward to next year’s camp, even if it is back at the WSU campus in Vancouver (a very nice, if remote, campus).

I want to give special kudos to Stuart Celarier and Jason Mauer for putting on such a good show.

That’s not to say that there weren’t some “opportunities for improvement”:

• The agenda came out way late. That needs to be better.
• I never was able to get wi-fi to work there. I know other people were, but they need to be better about helping out there. A few people were helpful, especially Stuart, but other folks just threw their hands up.
• They ran out of sugar for the coffee, and had no creamer at the start. They eventually fixed the creamer issue, but for those of us that can taste the difference, Sweet-n-Low tastes vile.  Yes, I know that this is “extra” stuff, but you don’t want to mess with a techie’s coffee!

But, these were ultimately small issues, and (as I said), it was a good code camp overall.

7/24/2006 5:36:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | development

I'm going Runway crazy, it seems

I don’t know if this is because of my own fascination with the show, or their great perception of the value of blogging, but I just noticed that I’m subscribed to 4 blogs related to Project Runway. I have Tim Gunn’s blog (he’s one of the two “hosts” of the show), Andy Cohen’s blog (Bravo’s VP of Production), Tim Gunn’s podcast (interestingly, not the same as his blog, though they both are covering episodes of the show), and now Rucker’s blog (written by the producer of Project Runway).

Could I possibly get more Runway related material? Maybe

In all honesty, I consider Project Runway the closest thing on TV to what I do every day (actually, my tasks are more like Tim Gunn’s, who I enjoy the most on the show).  I’ve written about this before: it amazes me how much in common software development has with fashion design.  If you’re sceptical about this claim, and haven’t seen the show, watch it! I think you’ll see what I mean.

7/21/2006 9:21:22 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

AM Cinema! Yay!

John Campea on the Movie Blog is reporting that AMC is going to try showing movies on Friday-Sunday pre-noon for $4–$6.

I’m all for this as a trend (hear that, Regal?). I prefer going to movies in the morning. I’m an early riser, and I think of noon the way most people think of 3:00. In fact, I’d even pay full price to see a movie at 10:00 AM: Get up, have breakfast, go to the movies, and have the whole afternoon ahead of you!

7/14/2006 11:03:15 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Scoble on Soccer

Robert Scoble has an interesting comment regarding making soccer more popular in the United States. He says HDTV will do that.

I agree strongly. One of the reasons I bought an HDTV set 3 years ago was my experience watching a basketball game on an HDTV at the store. All of a sudden, the game wasn’t boring: I could see the whole court, and where the players were positioning themselves. It added a whole new dimension to the game, one I had only previously experienced at a live basketball game.  As I think I’ve said before, soccer is a lot like basketball: the real action isn’t around the ball, its the positioning of the other players. Being able to see them in HD-widescreen made the World Cup games much more enjoyable.

7/10/2006 9:43:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV | general

An interesting article
Donald Sensing has an interesting article concerning alternative energy. He brings up a very good point: the real issue regarding global warming isn’t whether its real or not (or even whether people cause it or not), it’s what to do about it. Short of extreme hand waving, its a hard problem to fix.
7/7/2006 2:03:07 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics | world affairs

Emmy nominations are out

The Emmy nominations are out. Diane Holloway, in her TV Blog, has a list of the “major cateogory nominees”. Here’s my unsolicited comments

Outstanding Comedy Series:

• Arrested Development: I don’t know who (other than the critics) who watches/likes this. I tried it, it was boring, even though most of the actors are excellent. So, what’s Portia DeRossi doing next??
• Curb your Enthusiam: Another like above, but without the talent.
• The Office: An acquired taste, but it (at least) deserves to be here.
• Scrubs: It’s about time! One of the best comedies on the air.
• Two and a Half Men: An Emmy nomination? Really?? It’s a good show, but come on!

I guess this means my “pick” for Comedy Series would be The Office then…

 

Outstanding Drama Series:

• Grey’s Anatomy: A fantastic show. It went a little over the top toward the end of the last season, but still good.
• House: Not my cup of tea, and kind of a “formula” show, but okay, its good.
• The Sopranos: Another of those “critic favorites”. I don’t see the appeal.
• 24: Yuck! Ptui!
• The West Wing: It was once good, and the last season wasn’t its worst, but no longer an award winner.

My pick would be Grey’s Anatomy, but if House were to get it, I wouldn’t be too upset.

 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy:

• Larry David: Sheesh. Nobody should be getting an Emmy for playing themselves.
• Kevin James: I like Kevin, and King of Queens was underrated; it was at least as good as Everybody Loves Raymond.
• Tony Shalhoub: I’ve lost interest in Monk, but Tony is still great.
• Steve Carell: A good actor, in a good part. Deserves the nomination.
• Charlie Sheen: He’s good, but I think that Angus T. Jones (Jake) deserves the nomination more; he’s terrific.

I’d give the Emmy to Tony Shalhoub.

 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama:

• Christopher Meloni: Who? (He’s in Law & Order SVU, I don’t watch that)
• Denis Leary: This is on my list to watch, haven’t gotten there yet. I like Dennis, though.
• Peter Krause: 6 Feet Under was a great show. This is a good nomination.
• Kiefer Sutherland: No. No. No.
• Martin Sheen: Was he still on the air? Okay, he didn’t have much air time in this last season. Still good, though.

I’d say Dennis Leary or Peter Krause. But I have a sick feeling it’ll be Kiefer Sutherland…

 

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy:

• Lisa Kudrow: I didn’t see her series but I heard that it was bad, bad, bad. It certainly didn’t last long enough for an Emmy
• Jane Kaczmarek: Yeah, okay.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Good choice.
• Stockard Channing: What a lousy show. She was wasted on it.
• Debra Messing: Definitely not.

Julia should get it.

 

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama:

• Kyra Sedgewick: Definitely. This is a great show
• Geena Davis: The only thing worse than the show was Geena’s acting.
• Mariska Hargitay: I’m a big fan of the actress, but definitely not the character.
• Frances Conroy: Good show, I don’t know about the nomination. Maybe.
• Allison Janney: This was not her best season.

I’d give it to Kyra Sedgewick, but I doubt she’ll get it.

 

I’m going to leave the rest of the nominations without comment…

7/6/2006 12:03:45 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

The weirdness of racism

So, Sony’s in trouble for “racist” advertising. Now, I find this to be a very offensive picture. Whomever thought this up should have their head examined.

Then, I thought, if the figures were reversed, would it have affected me the same way. I’m sorry to say, probably not. What do you think?

And, to Sony: This is a great way to sell X-Boxes. Get your collective act together.

7/6/2006 10:11:56 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

I saw Superman Returns

This weekend, I saw Superman Returns. The movie pretty much lives up to all the critical hype that’s been thrown about. It’s at least as good as the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies, and possibly better than them. In fact, the movie is a sequel of sorts to them, using bits of history from those movies. At first, I was pretty leery of this concept. There’s been a lot of story development around Superman in the years since those movies came out, and I was hoping to see some of that included in this movie. Returning to the storyline of those old movies seemed a step backward.  In actuality, it worked out well. Instead of spending a lot of time developing the Superman “backstory”, the movie could just refer to its built-in history and move on.

All in all, this is a definite must-see. If you enjoyed the first two Superman movies (we’ll all ignore the other two), you should love this as well.

By the way, there was one interesting casting crossover: Superman’s father, Jor-El, was once again “played” by Marlon Brando! Pretty good for a dead man!

7/5/2006 3:28:18 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Project Runway

This weekend, I finished watching Season 2 of Project Runway (on DVD). I became a big fan of the show after watching the Season 1 DVD’s out of curiosity (and mid-season rerun boredom  ).  Some background: I originally passed on the show because I thought that it was another of those “Top Model” shows, and wasn’t interested. Then, I’d watched NBC’s The Cut last summer (another designer show, this one with Tommy Hilfinger); it was horrible: obviously an Apprentice knock-off with absolutely no creativity to it at all. So, I was pretty prejudiced against this genre of program. But, Project Runway had some serious buzz behind it, and I needed some new DVD’s to watch (since I’d finished with the last of the Stargate DVD’s), so I picked it up.

And, as I said, I was hooked. Now, anyone that’s seen my wardrobe will know that I’m no clothes horse. But, I think the show appeals to the software developer in me. In a lot of ways, fashion design is a lot like software design; both being “intellectual property” type professions.

So, after I finished the first season (congratulations, Jay McCarroll), I quickly ordered the second season. I whipped through the second season in just a few weeks; it was even better than the first (congratulations, Chloe Dao).

Next week, season 3 starts, and I’m ready for it. I’ve even signed up for Tim Gunn’s blog, where he discusses his outlook of the show.  This is going to be a new experience for me. This will be the first time I’ll be watching “live”, and won’t know who’ll win before the show starts.

As an aside, I have to talk about Tim Gunn.Tim is the Chair of Dept. of Fashion Design at Parsons New School for Design, in New York City.  In Project Runway, he acts as an advisor to the contestants. This is one of the ways that Project Runway differs from any other contest-style reality show that I’ve seen: they don’t just leave the contestants to sink or swim. They provide some guidance so that when people go astray there’s someone who can at least try to reel them in before the “big judgement moment”.  I’m looking forward to reading Tim’s blog as Season 3 progresses.

7/5/2006 3:22:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV