I went to my first 3D over the weekend, The Hobbit. Here's my take. First the technical aspects are challenging, e.g. holding your head properly aligned, objects near the screen edge get funky, fast moving objects can show color fringes, etc. that gave he headaches at times. More importantly though, I don't think the film industry has learned the art of 3D. There were too many gratuitous 3D effects (like objects flying toward you) that are more appropriate at Disney - they do nothing to enhance the presentation of the story. There were times though when the effect was quite nice and made the characters more real. I'll try 3D again but the film industry needs to figure out how to use the technology to enhance the presentation of the story, and not to be the story itself.

Actually I think I'm wrong about the FBI stats. Sorry. Ignore that part.

According to the FBI the leading weapon of choice for homicide is the baseball bat. A society that continues to permit any behavior and never hold individuals responsible is the problem. Those that argue guns are the problem perpetuate the problem.

I've always wondered why, if natural selection was such a powerful force in evolution, we still have road kill. Seems to me that genes causing an animal to stay away from roads would be selected for and dominant within a relatively small number of generations.

Duhhh, human pilot don't fly through dense forests so all the UAV needs to do is nothing.

I think we should do more to honor the creatures we eat. There is no greater sacrifice than for a creature to give its life to sustain the life of another. Instead of the nihilism vegetarians would desire for our fellow creatures, I say we give these creatures life, a good life, then celebrate that life as we dine on their flesh. So yes, give us a picture and bio of our creatures.

The science has been overcome by the politics. Let's take anthropogenic global warming as fact. What next? Obviously the offending anthropogenic behavior must be controlled. This leads to an increase in wealth and power for a select few; the natural evolution of institutions.

At this point I don't care about the science. The politics must be stopped.

When big government and big science collude, we all get screwed.

Well, stock answer "A" is that empathy can impart benefits to individuals of a species thus giving them an edge in natural selection.

Stock answer "B" says we're anthropomorphizing (a sort of imperialism I suspect) and that birds have no such emotions.

The fun answer is that life is special - a gift from God and that echos of the creator can be found throughout life.

Guys, please. Its Friday evening here in the states. Reading the intro my eyes glazed over half way through it. This is time for friends, food, drink, and some more drink. Way too intense a story to follow right now. Have a great evening!

The whole lot of it is fraud and waste perpetrated by politicians on the tax paying public. My bill is in the mail.

In the interest of equal opportunity corruption, you can find another example in one of the current health reform proposals - tax "Cadillac" health insurance plans but exempting government and union employees.

Government cannot do ANYTHING of any significance without this kind of corruption. That is the single best reason to keep government out of it.

Trees are only effective removing co2 from the atmosphere during their growth phase. Once they mature it's pretty much a wash - the co2 they remove vs the methane they emit due to organic decomposition. To use trees for geo-engineering we first need to cut down the old growth forests (including as much of their root system as possible) and use the lumber in a way that will sequester the co2 (like build housing). This will free up land on a huge scale so we can then plant new trees.

The problem isn't unions good/bad, business good/bad or government good/bad. Its simpler than that. I know it sounds trite but the old adage is true, "power corrupts." Whatever the power, union, big business or government, it will become corrupt and ultimately only interested in its own growth and expansion. I think we know that and try to balance power with power. So you have big business that we balance with unions and government. But what eventually happens is these centers of power start working together to advance common agendas. The net result in any case is, we get screwed.

If you read Robert Bellah's "The Good Society", he argues that we need a strong "civil society" to offset the powers in economic realm and the political realm.

Unfortunately we just argue back and forth in the political realm as if there lies the solution to our problems.

Here's my take on it. Government's goal is to grow; grow in power and control over all. The means to do this involves making people afraid. When people are afraid they are willing, in fact may demand, that government step in and "do something." This is not a left or right issue. The right might use the "terror threat" to make people afraid, the left "global warming." Both have used "economic meltdown." So we argue the merits of this or that all the while the government rolls along on its real agenda.

People generally don't change or adapt. Progress happens when old farts (like me) die off and are replaced by younger people with different ideas.