Entertainment
pharyngula | November 23, 2007Here's a fun little toy from the Science Museum — use a little physics and logic to bounce a ball into a target. Don't show it to the kids or they'll take the computer away from you!
(via Unhindered by Talent)
grrlscientist | November 22, 2007tags: dinosaurs, movie magic, streaming video
This interesting time-lapse streaming video shows how the movie industry built some amazingly realistic life-sized dinosaurs [shockwave: 3:50]
pharyngula | November 19, 2007A few little videos by way of the marvelous Kevin Hayden:
Ladies, did you know that you are just like a cardboard box? We're supposed to treat you delicately and with respect, just in case you've got something in your uterus. If you've had a hysterectomy or you're menstruating, though, and we know the box is empty, well, we don't have to worry about you so much.
Guys, did you know that you are followed everywhere by a mob of enthusiastic, hyperactive sperm? I love how both sexes can be objectified by the functions of our gonads.
I've shown the video for this one before, but I'm going to…
pharyngula | November 17, 2007Listen to Roy Zimmerman's characterization of "Jerry Falwell's God" — I think I read something very similar in Dawkins' The God Delusion. Only milder, and not as musical.
(via God is for suckers!)
pharyngula | November 13, 2007The new PBS documentary on the Dover trial, Judgment Day (optimistically reviewed by NCSE! The Discovery Institute in frantic denial!) starts here in the midwest in about a half hour. I've got my diet coke, I think I'll pop some popcorn, and maybe I'll take a stab at liveblogging the show. Let's hope it's lively!
Feel free to chime in with comments as we go.
7:10: The premise is clear: the creationists are trying to claim it's about science, while the scientists like Scott and Miller and Padian are pointing out that it's about religion. This is the "civil war" that's going to tear up the…
pharyngula | November 4, 2007It must come with the name that Revere has to sound the warning — we've got anti-god/anti-religion movies available now, and more on the way. I'm a little surprised that movies that preach moral responsibility (don't torture people, don't imprison them without trial, don't ship them off to countries that will torture them), sympathy and tolerance (gay people feel love and suffering, too) are considered anti-Christian, but if that's the way they want it, that's fine with me.
I'm also a little puzzled why they would find a documentary like Jesus Camp anti-Christian. It simply describes the…
pharyngula | October 29, 2007The other night, I made the mistake of going to the local theater to see the horrible new version of Halloween by Rob Zombie. It sucked. Unimaginative, tedious, unrelievedly grim, plodding, with no insight or interesting ideas, and it wasn't even scary. There was no story except 'serial killer marches through movie murdering people.'
I'd hoped for something frightening for Halloween, and was disappointed.
I should have just stayed home and read the Little Professor, since she has provided a nice assortment of century-old horror stories. The real thing. Stories with some imagination and style…
pharyngula | October 26, 2007I've been tagged with a HalloMeme, and am expected to describe an ocan-themed scary movie. At least this one is easy. I immediately thought of one movie that traumatized me deeply as a child. It was…
It Came From Beneath the Sea.
There's a wonderful photo essay on the movie if you haven't already seen it, but I'll summarize it briefly. It's a tragedy, and the tagline on the poster lies.
An innocent giant octopus (a curious species with only 6 arms) living deep in the ocean is attacked by humans throwing hydrogen bombs around. Not only is it disturbed, but it is irradiated so severely that…
pharyngula | October 25, 2007How strange that I haven't heard anything about this new movie coming out this Spring — I guess I need to watch more TV.
It's a heretical documentary/comedy by Bill Maher called Religulous, combining "religious" and "ridiculous". I'm not seeing much of a buzz for it on the web just yet — a brief mention by Chris Hallquist, placeholders at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, a quick blurb on RD.net, and this short interview with the ever-annoying Larry King.
I'm so disappointed, though. They didn't contact me through a proxy and interview me for a movie with a different name. Don't they understand…
pharyngula | October 18, 2007Prehistoric Pulp, my source for all pop culture with dinosaurs, reveals that there will be a new direct-to-video (not promising) animated (could be bad) movie of Turok, Son of Stone (awesome!) And it's not the stupid bastardized version that was corrupted for video games to include cyborg dinosaurs!
Yeah, yeah, it looks a bit cheesy and cheap and it's got cultural stereotypes run amuck, but it's personal. Back when I was a tiny young fella and my father was a blue-collar wage slave working long hours, when he got home he'd sometimes ask me to read to him, and there were two things we both…
pharyngula | October 10, 2007I think we're going to have to name Cuttlefish the Pharyngula Poet Laureate. Since so many people liked the sweet little poem about Gary Aldridge left in the comments, here it is for more to admire. (If you have no idea who Gary Aldridge is, here's a reminder).
We gather here to eulogize
The Pastor and the Man
Old Gary Aldridge, often wise,
Though not his latest plan.
A member of the Christian nation,
Friend of Jerry Falwell,
His last attempt at masturbation
Didn't go at all well.
For fifteen years, he'd preached the word
A Southern Baptist minister
His death--now, is it just absurd
Or…
pharyngula | October 8, 2007Thank you, Dr House. "Rational arguments don't usually work for religious people otherwise there would be no religious people." Also good: "It's not about fun, it's about the truth."
pharyngula | September 29, 2007I forgot to tell you all the most important gossip I heard at the Bell last night. I had a scant few minutes to talk to Jim Kakalios, who has gone all Hollywood on us, doing consulting work for the next big superhero blockbuster … Watchmen. Ooooh, all you geeks are saying, tell us more! I can't. All I know is that Jim promises that it is excellent and true to the graphic novel. And as a fellow follower of the Code of the Thin Tweed Line, he cannot lie to a fellow academic. This will be something to look forward to.
I tried to pump him for more information, but Hollywood has locked him in with…
pharyngula | September 13, 2007
It's not happy Roy, but cynical Roy … but then, these are cynical times.
Now, can we give the troops some real support? Like, by bringing them back home?
pharyngula | September 10, 2007So you haven't seen Flock of Dodos yet? It hasn't been shown at a theater near you, and you don't get Showtime? Well, finally, you can just get it on DVD and watch it at home.
pharyngula | September 3, 2007Here you go, a few links with promises of interesting reading. Much more so than you'll find here, where I'm buried beneath efforts to finish up my Seed column, prepare for a lecture tomorrow, get a lab organized for Wednesday, write an entry for an encyclopedia, and shovel through piles of administrative paperwork of various sorts…
Some good news for the upcoming Darwin Year of 2009 — Steve Jones will be publishing a new book, Darwin's Garden, on time for the celebration. I have to say, though, that PR from publishers is a little disturbing: "Jones, who moved to Little, Brown from…
pharyngula | August 29, 2007With subjects from simians to coelacanths and titles like "Heaven must be boring" and "Think for yourself", I may just have to pick up this George Hrab CD. Listen for yourself!
pharyngula | August 27, 2007Hollywood is officially bankrupt. Free of all new ideas. Worthless recyclers without an imagination. Why?
They're remaking The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the best science fiction movies of all time.
And just to make it that much worse, who is the star? Keanu F. Reeves.
Fortunately, I still have my precious DVD of the original.