Entertainment/culture
oracknows | July 7, 2007Time to take a break from science and medicine again.
The Rambo movies happen to be a guilty pleasure of mine. Little did I know that there was a Turkish knockoff of the character:
I particularly love the rocket launchers in this one. Their "action" has to be seen to be believed.
oracknows | July 4, 2007It should come as no surprise that I'm a bit of a rock critic wannabe and have been for a long time. Indeed, very early on in my blogging, I did a "top ten" list for the best music of 2004. As far back as high school, I wrote a couple of music reviews that, in retrospect, weren't very good. Fast forward over 25 years later, and what makes me think I could do better now?
Nothing, really, but it's my blog and I feel like indulging my rock critic fantasies today. Besides, if I totally suck at it, you know that tomorrow I'll just go back to doing what I do best--until the next time the critic…
oracknows | June 30, 2007In keeping my (temporary), retreat from medical blogging for the weekend, I thought you might enjoy as much as I did this list of the 100 Worst Cover Songs.
I do have a few objections, though. For one thing, I kind of like Marilyn Manson's cover of Personal Jesus, which clocks in at #90. I don't know why; I just do. It's also just a travesty that the Lemonheads' cover of Mrs. Robinson and Ugly Kid Joe's cover of Cat's in the Cradle are on the list. And how on earth could they put William Shatner's cover or Rocket Man on the list? It was sheer genius! Just look:
I know I've posted this…
oracknows | June 29, 2007I love these old ads. Remember, keep fresh batteries in your house or you might poison your baby!
The tag line sounds almost like the reaction of an antivaccination loon to the polio vaccine.
oracknows | June 24, 2007I can't argue with this:
An embodiment of the mystery, danger and freedom of the music itself, the crotch has occupied a central role in a stirring rock performance.
Of course, the crotch today remains a valuable weapon in the rock arsenal, as exemplified by the current wave of tight pants bands rehashing the Kinks/The Who sound of the 60s and 70s. More and more women are also mobilizing their crotches as well for the good of the rock. Take Peaches, for example. In recent years, the famed Electroclash chanteuse has turned her crotch into something of a cottage industry for photos, song lyrics…
oracknows | June 17, 2007If Irn-Bru can do this, maybe I should try some the next time I manage to make it to the U.K.:
(Via Attuworld.)
oracknows | June 16, 2007I must confess that I never really grokked the whole "LOL Cat" thing. I must admit to being a bit puzzled by the phenomenon when it metastasized to ScienceBlogs and some of my fellow SBers applied it to creationists, spurred on by Mark H at denialism.com (althogh I must admit that I nonetheless found the first entry in this post to be particularly amusing).
I should have known that it wouldn't be long before the phenomenon attacked one of my favorite SF/fantasy shows of all time, Doctor Who. So, here they are, LOL Doctor Who Cat Macros. A few that I found amusing are below the fold…
oracknows | June 13, 2007Via Boing-Boing, I learn that Don Herbert, a.k.a. "Mr. Wizard," has died.
He lived to a ripe old age of 89. Perhaps the best tribute to him is this:
"Over the years, Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country," George Tressel, a National Science Foundation official, said in 1989.
"I fully realize the number is virtually endless when I talk to scientists," he said. "They all say that Mr. Wizard taught them to think."
A greater accomplishment in science is hard to imagine.
R.I.P., Mr. Wizard.
oracknows | June 11, 2007After having been pointed yesterday to a video of an old Betty Boop short that strongly suggests that Boop may have been a homeopath, I couldn't resist clicking on the links to a couple of other old Betty Boop cartoons. One of them reminded me of just how different our culture was 72 years ago when this cartoon was released. What's astonishing to me, from the vantage of 2007, is the casual racism, done without a care in the world that it would offend anyone and done with the grossest racial stereotypes played for cheap laughs:
We can be grateful that such stereotypes are no longer…
oracknows | June 10, 2007While reading through a mailing list I belong to, I came across a link that demonstrates that alternative medicine has been ingrained in popular culture since at least the 1920's and 1930's. Indeed, I never realized that that icon of flappers, Betty Boop, practiced homeopathy. Don't believe me? Well, here's incontrovertible evidence in the form of a short called Betty Boop, M.D. released in 1932 and perhaps the most bizarre Boop short I've ever seen (particularly the last shot, which makes me wonder if acid had actually been invented six years before it was supposedly discovered). Basically,…
oracknows | June 9, 2007This article in Salon.com sums up my feelings about the whole Paris Hilton fiasco almost perfectly:
Even after years of watching Hilton direct the media like her own obedient little phalanx of winged monkeys, it would take a coldhearted cynic to doubt that Hilton was experiencing real pain and anguish upon returning to prison. At the very least, we were witnessing a coddled child having a severe allergic reaction to the real world. Hilton could certainly be losing her doughnuts in a medically authentic way, since by all appearances, she's never been punished, never been forced to eat anything…
oracknows | May 26, 2007I think I've finally found the religion for me...
(Click the picture to read about the religion! Hat tip to Robster, FCD.)
Moreover, in a direct comparison between Christianity and this new religion, Christianity doesn't come off so good. (The sad thing is, I get each and every reference in this comic.)
Indeed, in the U.K., the sacrament of this new faith is occurring as we speak. We poor U.S. faithful have to wait a few hours to worship, though, at least long enough for the object of our devotion to show up as a Torrent file. (Worse, those who don't know how to use BitTorrent or don't…
oracknows | May 23, 2007Ask yourself this: What do the convicted do, either in prison or when facing prison?
They find Jesus, of course:
It's inevitable any time anyone's going to jail, it seems. My prediction for Paris' next stop: Kabbalah! It would, however, be even more amusing if she were to convert to Islam while in prison.
oracknows | May 16, 2007As a fan of Iggy Pop, I was appalled to read this:
Former "The Lord of the Rings" star Elijah Wood will play Iggy Pop in The Passenger, a biopic of the legendary rocker, reports Variety. Ted Hope's This Is That Productions and Traction Media are executive producing.
The movie, which follows Pop's early years with his band the Stooges, will be directed by Nick Gomez (Drowning Mona) from a script by Eric Schmid.
The $6 million-$8 million "Passenger" is set to film in next six months and is scheduled for delivery by midsummer 2008.
Pop has "given his blessing" to the project but will not take…
oracknows | May 13, 2007From a variety of sources, I've learned that the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica is probably going to be the last and that the beleaguered humans will find Earth. Here it is, right from Admiral Adama himself:
iF MAGAZINE: What's coming up for season four?
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: It's fantastic. I think they're going to discover some very important issues about what the fan base really, really wants to see and what's to understand about this show. We're heading into the final season. This is the final season as we speak. All of us are very saddened by that, but we always knew there was going…
oracknows | May 9, 2007Since today seems to be World War II history day on the old blog, I just can't resist posting this little gem for geeks:
A full resolution version can be found here.
Of course, the nitpicker geek in me can't help but point out that, not only is the Swastika on the left arm of the robot reversed, but I'm really quite sure that the Nazis didn't have giant robots to use to attack U.S. Naval bases in the Pacific.
OK, OK, back to medicine tomorrow.
oracknows | May 5, 2007
This one will probably not mean much to those who don't have a Detroit connection (such as, like me, having been born there and spent the first 26 years of my life in southeast Michigan), and it will probably mean nothing at all to my cadre of international readers, but it saddens me nonetheless to have discovered this bit of news via my sister.
Lawson Deming, the man who played Sir Graves Ghastly for so many years, died on April 24, just one day after his 94th birthday.
For Detroiters of a certain age, who grew up from the 1960's to the early 1980's, Saturday at 1 PM was the time that the…
oracknows | April 28, 2007Students cheat on exams. There's just no getting around it. No matter how secure teachers think they've made their examination processes, there will always be a subset of students who try to find a way around any security procedures and give themselves an advantage, either by hook or by crook. These days, technology is making it even harder to prevent such cheating:
Devices including iPods and Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, school officials say.
"It doesn't take long to get out of the loop…
oracknows | April 25, 2007Ever wonder what happened to Roger Ebert, who has been absent from the balcony in his Ebert & Roeper Show for quite some time battling cancer?
So did I. I always liked his style and mostly agreed with his movie reviews, but since moving away from Chicago I haven't heard much or watched the show as much, given that it never seems to be on when I'm around to watch TV. Well, wonder no more:
My Ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival opens Wednesday night at the University of Illinois at Urbana, and Chaz and I will be in attendance.
This year I won't be speaking, however, as I await another…
oracknows | April 14, 2007It's been a long time since I saw something like this. I remember back in the 1980's, I saw an utterly hysterically funny series on a religious cable outlet about the evils of rock 'n' roll, complete with dire warnings about how rock 'n' roll was a one-way ticket straight to hell. Well, it turns out that they're still making such amusingly over-the-top videos. Some of the targets haven't changed, many have. These are parts 1 and 2 of a four part series. Part I reveals Satan's true conspiracy that is rock 'n' roll, particularly the evil of George Harrison's My Sweet Lord. So, check out Part 1…