Go here, scroll down to “Bob & Doug McKenzie – Great White North” and click.

Nada (0)

Nine year old boy to my nine year old brother: “Man, Anakin is such a dork.”

I think that about says it all. When I was that age, I wouldn’t have dreamt of saying that Han or Luke was a dork.

Howls of outrage (10)

I turned on Letterman the other night to find the camera showing the back of his guest’s head with Dave in the background. My heart leapt to my throat as I wondered if what I was seeing really was…really was…No, it couldn’t be! Is that Chris?!

Turns out the closely shorn pate was not Chris’s, but Daniel Tammet, pukka savant. Tammet is autistic, and apparently memorized Pi, in only a few weeks, to an INCREDIBLE twenty-two thousand, five-hundred decimal places. He said it took him something like five hours to recite, which means in those few weeks he couldn’t have gone over the number that many times in order to memorize it.

While I know Chris doesn’t have those skills to that degree, I think his friends and family ought to cut him some slack. What with blogging and memorizing Pi in his spare time, it’s a wonder he’s as far as he is with his dissertation. And thus we hope he’s relaxing and dancing with wolves up north.

Howls of outrage (5)

Lot of people seem to be giggling about a high-profile intersection of biomedical ethics and Star Trek. Matthew Yglesias, who should know better, is representative here (omitting the hyperlinks in the original):

. . . highlighting in particular this post which reveals (really) that at least one member of the President’s Bioethics Council (really) came to the view that “that cloning and embryonic stem cell research are evil . . . in part, by watching Star Trek.” Really. Personally, I’m more of a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, but I’d really prefer not to launch a dispute on the topic. My hope would be that we can all agree this is perhaps not the soundest method of formulating bioethics policy. Although, considering the low knowledge level of the White House’s in-house Social Security expert I suppose we’ll take what we can get. Ironically, while the Trekkie bioethicist is not a scientist, the Social Security expert is not an economist but . . . a chemist. I suppose it’s very pointy-headed elite of me to think that people should be basing their views on actual knowledge, but that’s just what you get.

Well, I’ve never had much time for Star Trek, any generation, to be honest. But I don’t see what is wrong with coming to a view in part by watching Star Trek. We’re talking about a Bush appointee, I think, so you never know. The original story makes her sound like a real flake. But it isn’t as though she’s defending her view by an appeal to the authority of Star Trek or that the view is even wholly the result of reflecting on Star Trek. Instead, as far as I can tell, all we have is a slightly embarrassing revelation that someone prominent was moved by a bit of pop culture to think more deeply about a subject, or to see it in a way that she hadn’t previously. I can’t see anything wrong with that.

In the last decade or so, I’ve spent an awful lot of time reading high-falutin’ philosophical material on ethics. I’ve learned a lot from it, but I’ve also noticed that some embarrassingly non-philosophical sources can yield insights into philosophical topics. The first thing that comes to mind is the Lord of the Rings, and in particular the view that both Gandalf, and eventually Frodo, take of Gollum. For some reason that stuff made a deeper impression on me than a lot of straight-up philosophical wonkery. And – sorry! – my official view is that Lord of the Rings is fun stuff, but basically silly and cheesy.

. . . On the other hand, every word of this post by Yglesias is gold.

Howls of outrage (7)

Thanks to Netflix, I finally managed to watch the first nine episodes of the old (90s) Canadian T.V. series, The Newsroom. I’m happy to report that it was every bit as hilarious as I remembered it. If you like dark comedy centred around the ugly side of human nature, The Newsroom is probably your thing. Some of the jokes probably require Canadian citizenship to get, but human ugliness seems to be universal, so most of the humour translates just fine.

I’ve had only one Netflix disappointment so far: They didn’t have Le Confessionale, which is a pity, since it’s a great movie. But neither did my video store, so what can you do? My damn video store didn’t have the seriously awesome Johnny Dangerously, and now it’s sitting on our DVD player just waiting to be enjoyed.

Howls of outrage (3)

Crooked Timber tells you why.

A single voice crying in the wilderness (1)

Get your Ali G on here.

Nada (0)

Before there was the Daily Show, there was Phil Hartman. Today I was reminiscing with a friend about a scketch that you can find in “Best of Phil Hartman Saturday Night Live.” It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. As luck would have it, it can be found on the internet here. I have also tucked it under the fold. I suggest you read it aloud and in your best robotic monotone.
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A single voice crying in the wilderness (1)

Last week I finally got around to watching the entire first season of the BBC’s comedy show The Office. I thought it was very funny. My enjoyment was marred only by the fact that I had to turn up the volume really high since the sound quality is poor and I can’t understand British people when they talk quickly.
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Howls of outrage (6)