Inheritance of Wind

Having watched Jon Stewart debate David Burton on The Daily Show, I decided that it was time to take in that movie based on the ol' Scopes Monkey Trial.

And a damn fine movie it is! Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly, Dick York, Harry Morgan, lots of big name stars here. And extremely fantastic acting! Some scenes were just so brilliant, you had to applaud them. This was an excellently made movie.

Although, of course, I'm biased about the subject matter. There are some liberties, as you would assume for a movie, taken with the story. Scopes knew what he was getting into, indeed went ahead with teaching evolution because it would lead to a trial that would bring the 'no teaching evolution' law into the court. And, yes, he was found guilty, because he was. No getting around that he did indeed break the law. And the judge fined him $100. And the intention was to take the case to a higher level... however, the judge wasn't allowed to fine that high ($25 was the limit he could assign), so the case was thrown out, and instead of being any kind of test for evolution, all that happened was that schools shied away completely from the topic for many years... no win there...

Not that the movie is presenting a huge intended win for evolution either. The outcome is more grim than that. There is a brilliant speech about man as a thinking animal, however they are up against a very fundamentalist version of Christianity, and that can easily be made to look foolish (although there are still many staunch believers of that version causing just as much trouble today). Theistic evolution wouldn't see this as a problem... *sigh* if only theistic evolutionists weren't promoting creationism in school boards...

So while what this movie presents isn't over by any means, this is still a great picture, that should be seen as a worthy production aside from the content. Definitely check it out.

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Osama Who?

You might have heard some news from America in the past few days about something they did. Let's see if anyone is still interested...

Stuff: let's see... one story... oh, wait, there's another. So two stories are about Osama. Huh. Well, we're just a small country. Let's check...

BBC: ...one story. And, to be fair, nothing about the royals either. If it isn't in the past two minutes, they aren't interested. So I guess no-one is. If I go to...

CNN: holy frak! half the page is about Osama! Which simply makes the point that America cares a lot more about this that anyone else. On the other hand, the whole Osama affair is largely a political game in America anyway, no-one else is trying to score points with it. America has been partying in the streets in a manner entirely unlike other places dancing the streets after certain other events. Well, at least there's no irony there...

CCN has a page on "World reacts". From this, I'm guessing the world reacts with "...and?"

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Gotter-GAMMA-rung - 6

We woke up to find ourselves in the care of a blind badder called Fazer. Or Fader. Fanner? Anyway, he was taking care of us, and wasn't best pleased when he found out that we'd killed his fellow badder guards (whom were acting under the command of the terrible porkers). We talked him into accepting that we weren't as terrible as we were, and convinced him his warren would still exist, once we killed all the porkers and the robots.

So then we headed further into the caves. Ahead, we found a large cavern with a grid, some robots and some porkers. To be honest, that fight was a bit of a push over, only Zebrox really getting scratched at all [the dice were really on our side tonight! Actually hitting them and not being hit ourselves so much! Huzzah!] We found some more amazing items on their bodies, but otherwise, were left with a large door and some control thingy.

When the others opened the door, I looked inside to see a large techy room with robots. Which came for us, me in particular as I was right beside the door. Again, we managed to thrash them more than they did us in (I actually got hurt that fight), and while it lasted longer, we still had a fairly easy victory over them. More huzzah!

Now, we have more robot den ahead of us. Let's hope this winning streak continues!

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Giles and Sue Faff About

After Supersize-ing themselves, Giles Coren and Sue Perkins have gone on to lark about in other ways.

Giles and Sue Live the Good Life: In honour of 35 years since The Good Life, Giles and Sue attempted to live their own Good life and see if self-sufficiency is possible in 2010 like it was in 1975. As with the Supersizers, this involves them dabbling a bit, getting other people in to help out, and only partially taking it serious. Which meant a lot of not taking it seriously. Now, that does lead to some hilarious moments, although that did undercut the moments when they were trying to express a deeper point. Worth watching if you have a spare four hours (three episodes, plus Christmas special).

Giles and Sue's Royal Wedding: In honour of a certain event that has now just past, Giles and Sue look at royal weddings past, as well as more recent affairs (recent being, say, the 80s). Although broadcast before last Friday, it would have been interesting to see how the latest event ranked up against those historic ones. And, as usual for them, ending with a Royal Breakfast feast. This is about as interested in the royal wedding as I got, and could easily have been longer than the one-shot it was.

It's good to see their goofiness continue, although the point of them does seem to be more the goofiness, than what they are goofing about...

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DW: 6.2

That was an... episode. Yep, it was an episode all right. Huh... need to sit and have a think about that for a while...

The bulk of the story isn't that interesting. The Doctor finds a way to defeat the Silence, ho hum, just as clever as flicking a switch, use them against themselves, yadda yadda. The whole post-hypnotic suggestion is neat and tidy... but, as I feared, does undercut the threat of the Silence in one fell swoop. Big build up last series, they have this amazing ability to delete themselves out of memories, and then... oh look, they're defeated and shot and even the Doctor is happy with their mass slaughter. Um... okay... why bother?

However, it's the rest of it that's really interesting. That little girl... okay, who here leapt to the obvious conclusion of "Amy's daughter"? Although... regeneration? Um... the Doctor's proper daughter then? Or did the TARDIS change the baby? It does look like the Amy/Rory connection is more established, however...

And just what is the deal with River Song? Can we get on with that, please, and stop with the teasing? Just reveal the big surprise... although the kiss does cut out some options (unless they have a very unusual relationship...).

More questions than answers. And what of the 'she's just dreaming' moment? Anyone no longer trust anything they are seeing? Steven, you've created a fascinating arc, just pay it off properly...


Next time: Oh, she's a swordfighter now, is she? Convenient Companion strikes again.

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

This time, we finally get to the Election! Who will win? Who's a dark horse? When will the attack come? Have we prepared enough for it?

Rather exposition heavy, but this is all about the voting.

Note: I recently got a wireless headset which is quieter in the recording, which is why last time was bad. I tried using a different recording software today, and boosted my audio, so we'll see if that works.

Listen, if you dare, to Game 34. On RapidShare and Hotfile.

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Doctor Who: 2 in 1 . 2

Another twin book, this one being System Wide/The Good, the Bad and the Alien by Oli Smith/Colin Brake. Maybe it's just me having already gotten used to it, however this read, as a book, a lot better than the previous one.

System Wipe by Oli Smith features a virtual reality computer game, in the future! I'm not saying he rips on World of Warcraft, it is more generic than that, but it is definitely a fantasy fighter reality game. In that world, and in the real world with Rory and Amy, the world is being destroyed, so this needs to be stopped. The plot is very direct, the peoples go to point A, get information, then go to point B and stop what's going on. There are some character revelations, but basically Oli Smith relies on switching from one 'surprise' to another to keep things going. It is quite readable, although not spectacular.

The Good, the Bad and the Alien by Colin Brake features the Wild West, with aliens! The aliens aren't at all surprising, at least for the few humans that see them. Colin Brake does a few tricks to avoid humans seeing aliens, but mostly he keeps the action outside of town. The aliens are here hunting for a 'device', and... there's lot of riding around trying to track it down. That's the book, really. If it wasn't for the fact that people, including the aliens, had different names, not sure I would have been able to tell them apart. The pace keeps up enough to be enjoyable, although it's pretty light all the way through.

Both books, moderately good, so 1.5/2.

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