it's...

I am/was too busy/lazy to write up a thanksgiving post, but thought I could at least do a better job than Tim. In the spirit of thanksgiving (eating too much and having nothing but leftovers for the rest of the week) here's some blogging I found in the fridge...

Watching football in Indiana I was thinking about how I missed John Madden broadcasting on Thanksgiving. Then Friday night out for drinks with Kat and some of her friends, I was introduced the the concept of "Tofurkey" (amongst other musings, almost all of which were entirely about Zombies). As bizarre as this is, just think of how bizarre of Tofurducken would be!? Which gives me the perfect excuse to link back to my effusive posting on Turducken.

Digging through the blog posts unwritten I came across one I started about the great science films... The idea was to use them as public outreach events for talking about science. Here's the half-baked post reheated:

By "science film" I mean to group together films where the conceit is based in large part around science. I don't mean "science fiction film" as there's really no science to speak of in a film, say, like "Logan's Run", and it doesn't necessarily have to be an educational documentary. Just something good, and about science. Obviously film is more about "people" than "science" (if they're narative anyways) so a lot of discussion will no doubt concern science as it relates to us, but that's not always a bad thing... just hopefully not the only thing discussed. It'd be nice to keep the focus more on what we definitively know. So I'm gonna try and throw out a few, but whomever bothers to read this, can you think of any suggestions?

"2001: A Space Odessey"
well, the question is which science is this about? Perhaps behavioral/computer science? Obviously artificial intelligence as well.

"Contact"
There's radio astronomy in it... no really! You could talk about the science and psuedoscience of SETI and why radio astronomers don't actually listen to their telescopes. And I'm not saying this belongs in the pantheon of great films by any account.

"Gattaca"
Genetics. Everyday this movie seems more relevant.

So three... that's not very good. A few more I haven't seen but probably should (I've no idea if they qualify):

• "HG Wells' Things to Come"
  
• "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (Geology?... no really, is there any geology worth discussing in this film? I've heard it's a good film)
  
• "Primer"
  
• Godard's "Alphaville"

If anyone has any suggestions for "Science films" I'd love to hear of them.

Oh, and I did get through my candidacy. So I'm now a doctoral student with a thesis project (just like I was before last monday, but somehow formally different). I'll give thanks I don't have to do that again.

A belated happy thanksgiving to everyone!

Finland Finland Finland...
Bet you didn't know I like my eurovision song contests. Well, normally I'm not much for something so american idolish, but, well, it's european. Or maybe call it a Daler Mehndi effect. So for your enjoyment here is the winner: Lordi's "Hard Rock Halleluja" which is absolutely horrible and wonderful at the same time...

If you couldn't tell from the hat, they're Finnish. The extending wings reminded me of the Sufjan Stevens' concert I saw with Tim not to long ago... but I believe Sufjan was a bird amongst butterflies, not, um, well I'm not entirely sure what those guys are?

Other compeitors:
Turkey - Sibel Tüzün - Süper Star
   Extra points for the umlats and giant star belts.
Lithuania - LT United - We Are The Winners
   Wow. Lithuania has a healthy sense of humor. But I don't think you can top the basketball version
Latvia - Cosmos - I Hear Your Heart
   Latvia celebrates the castrati! Could only afford a puppet for effects?... oh, and a balloon.
Croatia - Severina - Moja Stikla
   See, now this is what I want from my ESC. And so... gestureful.
Russia - Dima Bilan - Never Let You Go
   The mullet is back? The mullet is back!
Spain - Las Ketchup - Bloody Mary
   Wow. So bad. And yet karaoking the Ketchup Song is so fun!
Switzerland - six4one - If we all give a little
   Was this in an Abba musical? I could swear...
Denmark - Sidsel Ben Semmane - Twist of Love
   OK, this song was definitely stolen from a karoake bar.
Ireland - Brian Kennedy - Every song is a cry for love
   Sound more bloody Irish you mick.
Moldova - Arsenium - Loca
   Worth watching for the razor rapper(?) entrance
Armenia - Andre - Without Your Love
   features table dances and a guy who looks like Orlando Bloom.
Germany - Texas Lightning - No No Never
   What? Germans have gone country? Tell Ross. I need your help processing this.
UK - Daz Sampson - Teenage Life
   This does not bode well for the Isles.

And a few more provided without comment (there's are the ones that are mostly good, but I still think the right song won):
Israel - Eddie Butler - Together We Are One
Romania - Mihai Traistariu - Tornero
Ukraine - Tina Karol - Show Me Your Love
Sweden - Carola - Invincible
Macedonia - Elena Risteska - Ninanajna
France - Virginie Pouchain - Il était temps
Malta - Fabrizio Faniello - I Do
Greece - Anna Vissi - Everything
Norway - Christine Guldbransen - Alvedansen
Bosnia-Herzegovina - Hari Mata Hari - Lejla

I just wish that less songs were in English. It takes the fun out of things. There need to be more Urban Trad's singing in made-up languages (see "Sonomi" 2003... or maybe it was Sonomi singing Urban Trad *shrug*).

And yes, I would put Daler up against any of these, and he would blow them away.

Tim and I had a discussion over what the meaning of oblique actually is, so perhaps this is being used out of context... but I've never let that stop me.

Mars' changing obliquity
In last week's physics dept. colloquium the speaker Sarah Stewart was addressing how she uses impact craters (and physical tests and simulations done at Harvard) to uncover Martian climate cycles. It was a neat talk, but what really struck me was the drastic changes in the obliquity of Mars' orbit that cause drastic climate changes. Here obliquity is the title of the planet's spin axis with respect to its orbital plane. For earth it changes by only 4 degrees or so thanks to the stabilizing presence of the Moon. Mars isn't nearly so lucky, undergoing huge changes, possibly from 0 to 60 degrees over a cycle that lasts hundreds of thousands of years. Currently Mars has an obliquity of 25 degrees, but potentially it could spend a significant amount of time lying on its side like Uranus does. Such large changes in the obliquity leads to drastic changes in the amount of yearly solar exposure each region receives (ie drastic climate changes). The simulated images bellow give you a sense of just how drastic.



So there are periods in which the polar regions are no longer polar and much of the water ice currently collected there will sublimate into water vapor in the atmosphere. This might explain the evidence of recent water flows on Mars.

Borat. morally oblique.
It's great when you go into a movie knowing your expectations have been built up far too high, but it still meets them. Borat is such a movie. It was however somewhat unfortunate that in my pre-release excitement I went and read a few reviews which managed to spoil a half dozen fantastic jokes in the movie. Granted the jokes are still wonderful, but the reviews took a bit of their edge off. Speaking of reviews, Tim has his up which I generally agreement, but I think the tone is a bit too biting. I mean, Borat is not to its audience what Hostel is to it's American characters. Not to split hairs, but to split hairs, the audience doesn't have much time to go through and morally process the satire. Perhaps it can happen instantaneously, in the cringe before the burst of laughs, but I'd wager if the audience as victim gets realized by viewers that happens post-viewing.

At any rate, Borat is eerily similar to the guy who is suing him (note: I believe the website predates the Borat character). It bothers me much more that such a person exists than that Cohen could have co-opted some of his cartoonish traits.