Roman Polanski: SLURP SLURP SLURP SLURP!

I take it that most people by  now have been informed that directo Roman Polanski has been arrested for his decades old crime of drugging and rapeing a 13 year old girl.

Polanski has made some of the most well regarded movies in his generation and definitly has achieved some great things artistically. 



Because of this many are calling for lienancy or clemancy with this case.  Some are saying the whole thing should have been dropped because the victim has forgiven him.  


Since the whole media and film and text things are as close as a religion as I get I feel the need to weigh in.

fry em

No, not literally, but yeah...he should totally go down.

Special privileges to "special" people is the first step to fascism.

Sorry to invoke Godwin's but it needs to be said.

Should we give say, Mike Viedt a break since he's a good football player?  Or OJ?

What about Preacher Edgar Ray Killen?  He lynched a civil rights activists.  He got away with the crime for some 40 years (specifically because the jury could "never convict a preacher") , everyone was over it, no evidence he killed anyone else after that, he was even 80 an old man so he could never fulfill his prison sentence.  he was also a preacher so he was a 'special' person. 

To quote the judge in that case, " each life lost was valuable and he strongly asserted that the law made no distinction of age for the crime"

Considering our law system won't give even the most law abiding, struggling, poor citizen a break even on something minor like a traffic ticket, giving a break to the prosperous and affluent for a serious crime is a double standard that is inexcusable.

To put it in in-context perspective, the idea that people are judged based on their contributions to the arts and society is roughtly the moral system Hannibal Lecter uses.  True, Hannibal is typcially tough on child related offenses

Above: Understatement

But he might go easy on Polanski for his great contributions to the arts.  Now while I'd probably agree with Hannibal in some cases (mainly the necessity to execute Paulie Shore for Crimes Against Humanity) it's clear he's not the best freaking moral role model.

Let's keep that in mind, respect Polanski's work on their own merits, and respect the work many others gave to those projects, and still hope that justice is served....

...with fava beans and chiante!

BBC Naturalist Raped by Rare Parrot.

Real life Steampunk

Hey who doesn't love some steampunk?

This is EATR

Say hi, EATR!

EATR is a a harvesting military robot.  In dangerous settings like toxic waste contamination or battle fields he has the ability and programing to power himself by scavanging biomas (twigs, moss etc) and 'eating' it.  Inside a combustion engine uses high tech steam engineering to power him.  Awesome or what!?

Hilariously Fox News originally reported him as a "Corpse eating robot" which kind of shows how horribly they mangle news.

Again on 9

To answer my Gal Pal's address, I think one problem I had with 9 (and this is problem only in i'm intentionally being critical) is the lack of motivation and back story given to the villian, Machine. 

 Rage Against him!

Are we to imply that Machine is evil because he is pure intellect?  That seems...odd.  If it's not anti-intellectual (literally) than that would mean the Machine simply is full filling it's goal.  This is a common reason for AI revolts in sci-fi...

some side stories imply Skynet is villianous due to a vague objective it was given.
HAL in 2001 had conflicting objectives
Sentinals in X-men eventually went on a "destroy all life spree" because they were programed to kill mutants and their AI eventually discovered that all life diversity is due to mutation.

...or they could just be drunks.

Furthermore, Machine seems to show some emotion, given his spark fits when a creation is destroyed.  Is it a slave rebellion?  I really want to know more about the origin damn it!

I also don't get WHY Machine sucked up poppit souls.  Does that mean he himself DOES have a soul (part of the Professors?) which would make him...what?  #0?...#10?  He had a slot for the soul storage...thingy.  Why would that be there if he wasn't intended to use it?

 Not THAT kind of soul!

Really the sci-fi now is raising more questions that it answered about it's setting...and a cardnal sin about any sci-fi/fantasy setting is to violate your own rules.  I liked the movie, I just kind of hoped the big secret they were carrying was something more unique than just 'soul'.  That's kind of an easy guess...why not something else that would be a way to preserve man kind.  There's no unique or innovative gear punk way to have something like that? 

Metapost Format Laoyout

As you can tell I've tinkered around with the layout.  If anyone who has done some net writing knows any HTML and can see where the flip the "undefined" artifacts would be comming from, please give a shout as I've scoured over the template codeing and can't find it.

Invasion of the girlfriend!!

Hey you!  I was wondering if you'd come accross any media dealing with the intersections of fantasy and science....like, maybe a scientist talking about the arts, or an artist inspired by science...

One of the blogs I semi-follow is The Flying Trilobite, "art in awe of science".  While Glendon doesn't seem to deal with the fantastic in the literary or lore sense, his idea of "increas[ing] our metaphorical vocabulary using the discoveries of science" seems to echo a bit of our 9 discussions.

What do various lores and metaphorical, mystical things do for us?  Reality is awesome enough - why do we decorate it?  Case in point - my desk.  I have a framed tarot card and a retablo of San Pablo, as well as my Mother's irish hex sign and her saint medals.  None of these objects have a damn thing to do with my life, yet I feel enriched having them around, especially where I do my work.  Is this just me playing games with myself or am I fillign a psychological need?


To take this sort of back to 9 if i can - and I can't recall all the character names, so I'll improvise. The elder-poppet had a distrust of experimentation and innovation.  Understandably, given the things he witnessed in the past.  But that was precisely what saved the (notably hetero nuclear) family  clat the end.  Elder (#1) clung to religious-looking accessories: he lived in the cathedral, wore a miter-lookign hat, and carried a staff.  He clung to the accessories that for a viewer would represent a "benighted" religious view - but he *did* save quite a few of the other poppets whilst clinging....more than 9 did, actually.


Another complication/tangent is the female poppet  (7)- She.  She's fighting prowess and cool skull mask may overshadow the fact that She's the one that dragged all their dolly butts to the library (4 and 5) to find out what to do.  Thinking of this now, I may have to alter my original opinion of the slight bias in the movie - She does use rational thought to advance the poppets' cause.

"What's your JStor login?"

"Science" as an institution comes out poorly, a victim in the face of "Government", which comes out very badly (go with that where you will), yet historical study and alchemical gadgets save the day?  As a humanities person, I'm rather jolly about this!  ;)

All in all I think it's a gorgeous visual, and a good way to start certain dialogues with the kiddies - or just leave them to enjoy it, as we sometimes have to.  I'm counting it as a win, and an interesting node in my meditations on science and mysticism.  (See also medieval art, architecture, relic culture, and so forth!)

Gonna go shop now ^_^

edit: added in tags and names of characters. 

ENZYME MAN!!!

Holy crap....I can die happy.

 

That is the most awesome crack induced thing I have ever seen.....Hey girlfriend woman?  If you want a hint on what I might like for x-mas >->

Really that right there sums up everything I want my blog to be about.