Humans have made significant progress in applying basic concepts of human rights to all people (though there is still much that needs to be done in guaranteeing rights for women in much of the world). The ethical treatment of animals still has a long way to go, but there are many groups that have managed to improve the living conditions of farm animals. Now a landmark decision may be near in Spain that grants our closest animal relatives the right to life, liberty, and, if not the pursuit of happiness, at least the right not to be tortured. That puts them ahead of humans deemed by our administration to be enemy combatants.
Archive for June, 2008
Ethical Treatment of Animals
Thursday, June 26th, 2008Get Smart
Monday, June 23rd, 2008Maybe it’s because I’m predisposed to laugh when I see Steve Carrell, but I found Get Smart to be the funniest movie I’ve seen in quite some time. While there were a few sequences that fell flat for me, the pace of the movie was fast enough that there were more than enough laugh-out-loud scenes to keep me engaged. The movie does a nice job of updating Maxwell Smart from incompetent ninkompoop (spelling?) to mostly competent ninkompoop. He’s a clutzy, nerdy James Bond instead of an Inspector Clouseau. We can laugh at him without mocking him. Anne Hathaway adds just the right blend of sex appeal to the mix as Agent 99. The supporting cast, in particular Alan Arkin as The Chief, add their share of funny moments to an admittedly goofy and formulaic spy caper. But Carrell’s deadpan and deadly serious demeanor in the midst of Hollywood explosions and chases and his own comical miscues (the one that had me laughing hardest was his attempts to shoot off his handcuffs with a high powered miniature crossbow while inside an airplane lavatory) carry the movie. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry were consultants on this update to the TV series they created in the 60’s, and their comic touch is evident. I’m surprised that this has gotten fairly negative reviews: while I can see that it might miss the mark for some (at times it looks like a movie that is stubbornly refusing to be the farce we’re expecting), I found it genuinely funny.
Cassini Equinox Mission Set to Begin
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008The Cassini Project Science Group (PSG) meeting #45 is taking place this week in Rome. Because of the large European participation in the international Cassini-Huygens mission, every third PSG meeting is hosted by a European participant in Cassini. The 4-year Cassini prime mission officially ends at at the end of the month, and a two-year extension to the mission begins the next day. Because a highlight of this extended mission is to take Cassini through equinox at Saturn, when the Sun is in the plane of Saturn’s rings, this is officially known as the Cassini Equinox Mission (CEM). The CEM was recently officially approved by NASA headquarters through September 30, 2010. The CEM does not end with the demise of Cassini. It will still be orbiting Saturn on October 1, 2010. Because there are planetary protection issues at Saturn (a requirement to avoid any possible biological contamination of potential abodes of life in the Saturn system), the spacecraft will ultimately be disposed of, probably by crashing it into Saturn. So there will be some sort of extension beyond the end of the CEM. Hopefully this will include further scientific study of the Saturn system, as there will be much more to learn after the end of the CEM. In large part this is due to the long seasons at Saturn, but there are also dynamical phenomena in the rings that operate on timescales of many years. An extension of Cassini beyond the CEM will enable us to study these phenomena as well as perhaps studying the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan until the northern summer solstice. This would show us the lakes region at the north pole of Titan and show if they change over the course of the seasons.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI.
This image of the F ring shows two narrow components, a structure also seen in recent stellar occultations and significantly different than the appearance of the F ring in earlier Cassini images as well as from Voyager, highlighting changes in the rings over the course of decadal timescales.
This image of the F ring shows two narrow components, a structure also seen in recent stellar occultations and significantly different than the appearance of the F ring in earlier Cassini images as well as from Voyager, highlighting changes in the rings over the course of decadal timescales.
Shuttle Launch from the Back Yard
Sunday, June 1st, 2008Today’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery was our first attempt to view the ascent literally from our back yard. The shuttle was clearly visible for more than a minute, rising high above the horizon on a column of flame and smoke before disappearing behind a cloud shortly before solid rocket motor separation.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Sunday, June 1st, 2008I have a perhaps unfairly allergic reaction to movies that deal with the paranormal or pseudoscience, but for the most part I managed to put the aside for Indiana Jones’ return to the screen. From the movie’s opening action sequence (and it could almost be said that the movie is really one continuous action sequence), aliens establish their presence as this movie’s Ark of the Covenant. But Indiana Jones is about fun and a certain retro-style of adventure story-telling that Spielberg masters, so I was ready to go along for the ride. And it is one hell of a ride. So much so, in fact, that the outlandish over-the-top finale may not even be the most non-physical thing in the movie. Some of the sequences border on comical and are reminiscent of the movie within the movie of “Last Action Hero”. When our heroes plunge over Niagara-like waterfalls not once, but three times, and get nothing more than a little wet, the movie severs contact with reality and left me feeling less connected with the action. It is far more gripping to see people struggling in a plausible way. Nevertheless, it is fun, gimmicky, corny, and entertaining to the end, though by the time it got to the end it was so far removed from reality that my interest was fading.