PZ Myers goes into wonderful detail on how cephlapods can bite with no internal skeleton; and Danny points to a photo of a baby octopus. Which most likely won’t be biting very hard.
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Month: September 2005
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The new Catholic Inquisition
The first of the new Catholic Inquisitions is happening in St. Louis today. Many people in this community, and that includes many Catholics, have been saddened and disillusioned by this, the Church’s new witch hunt. Personally, I think this will hasten the end of the Catholic Church in modern times–all thanks to the appointment of a homophobic piece of…work like the new Pope.
Unlike John Paul, Benedict has no charm, no charisma, and absolutely no flexibility, understanding, or true “Christian” compassion. With all due deference to the Catholics who read this site–and you know that I would not want to hurt you– I can loathe him quite easily. I don’t see that he has any redeeming qualities whatsoever.
I’m just sorry the caring and faithful gay Catholics have to be hurt and spurned yet once again from the so-called ‘loving, open-armed’ Christians among us. And yes, I do know there are many variants of Christian Churches that do open their arms to all people, regardless of sexual orientation, race, whatever. It’s the only reason I can still say “Christianity” without spitting. But every year it gets harder. I think now the only reason I don’t, is I don’t want to hurt those Christians–gay and straight– whose respect I cherish. As it is, I have to draw a line at the new Pope.
I’ve thought of many of the issues facing us in the next three years as a desperate Bush seeks more and more to put his ’stamp’ on society. I am aware of the risk to women’s reproductive rights, and normally that would be my first line of defense. But ultimately, I can’t stand up for women’s rights while I know that an entire segment of this population stand to loose so much. I have never seen or received anything from gay people other than friendliness, acceptance, warmth, kindness, and love; to abandom them for my own cause would be something my honor just cannot condone.
If I had to choose between so many freedoms at risk–women’s rights, true freedom of religion in school and government, and rights for gays (not to mention the continuing fight for equal rights for minorities)–I’d have to choose to fight for a baseline of rights for all of us. Which means equal rights, under God or not, for gays. Luckily, the fight for one is ultimately the fight for all and so my energy does not have to be divided.
It was so heartening to see the gradual acceptance of gay marriage in Massachusetts; to know the state legislature in California has brought true equality to gays that much closer to reality. Now, this.
To those who read this who are gay, I want to join with the many saddened Catholics in St. Louis (whom I am quite proud) to say: I am sorry you have to yet again be the brunt of such unreasoned fear. Do not give up hope; it will not last forever.
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Remix RSS Podcast
Roland Tanglao has posted a link to his “Remixing RSS” presentation, including podcast that he gave at the Vancouver Web 2.0 conference. He’ll also be presenting this at XML 2005 this November in my neck of the woods.
He’ll be presenting Tuesday. Looking over the schedule that’s a pretty impressive lineup of speakers and discussions.
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Sleepless in St. Lou
I’m not sure why but every change of the season I usually have one restless night where I don’t get any sleep and last night was it for Fall. I did have a couple of very good books to read, and that doesn’t help — you don’t want to put them down, and next thing you know it’s 4 in morning, and why go to sleep when you need to get up in a couple of hours?
The big news this morning is the rumor that dolphins armed with darts used by the military may have been washed into the Gulf of Mexico of Katrina and are lurking out there, waiting to attack hapless surfers. I have to ask those who read this weblog from the UK–exactly how reliable is the Guardian? According to the Register, not very.
The New Yorker did a wonderfully funny take on intelligent design.
And this. Perfect for a Monday morning — 21 international variations of “They’re Coming to Take Me Away”. The one titled “I’m normal” is killer. You know, without weblogging, I never would have found this.
Spoiler alert: This post discusses the last episode of Battlestar Galactica, aired Friday night, in detail.
Battlestar Galactica features several characters that are Cylons, though they look human. Most of the Cylon characters in re-occurring roles are women, specifically Boomer and Number Six. There are many duplications of each character, which can lead to some interesting story lines.
Boomer, in different incarnations, has fallen in love with two human males. She is now known to be Cylon and imprisoned. The crew refers to her as ‘toaster’ and ‘it’, but they also have become more sympathetic toward her, as she has joined forces with the humans because of her love for one of the men.
Number Six appears mainly as some form of mental image in the mind of the scientific genius, Dr. Baltar–though whether this is madness or mechanics, we’re never quite sure. It was his relationship with Number Six eventually led to the destruction of the human planets. In the show, dialogs occur between the two, though only he can see the woman. This can lead to some humourous scenes (sex plays a big role between the couple); but some tedius ones as well.
I was ambivalent about the casting of humans as Cylons in this new show, but the last four or five episodes have been absolutely riveting because of this decision. None more so than the show last Friday night when another battle ship, the Pegasus, found the Battlestar Galatica, and the actions of the military in the two ships can be compared side by side.
The Battlestar Galactica is led by Adama, a man who for all of his strict reliance on all things military, is able to adapt to situations. He’s a stubborn man, but an honorable one. He’s appealing because he makes mistakes, and even more so because he doesn’t always see them as mistakes. This has kept the show from being cheap and overly heroic.
The Battlestar Pegasus is led by a woman, Admiral Cain, following on a strong female presence in the show. Unlike Adama, though, Admiral Cain is a by the book military commander, with little interest in much other than a need to win, to triumph, to take the fight to the Cylons.
The meeting between the two started out smoothly, but it’s not long before problems started arising. Admiral Cain has little regard for Adama’s personal interactions with his crew, considering them a weakness. She demands a break up and mixing of crew members. More, we find out that she had killed her first XO in cold blood because he wouldn’t follow her orders. We also find out that the Pegasus also has a Cylon prisoner of its own–none other than one of the Number Six characters who haunt Baltar’s mind.
Number Six is beautiful, blonde, and devious. She is the ‘evil’ member of the Cylons, the one who helped bring about destruction of the planets. In the opening shows, she kills a baby in his crib and then walks away without once looking back. She is tough, strong, and not particularly likable–using sex to manipulate men such as Balthar. I’ve seen her referred to in sci-fi circles as ‘the Cylon Slut’.
When we see her on the Pegasus though, she is collapsed on the ground and chained about her neck, arms, and legs. She has been badly beaten and starved, and lays there staring vacantly ahead of her. From joking that male Pegasus crewmembers do with those on the Galactica, we find that the crew used that oldest expedient to break women: rape.
Cut away and the Pegasus officer that has beaten and raped Number Six is now on his way to do the same to Boomer.
From there we have a constant cut away between scenes where a selfish, self-centered Baltar is trying to help Number Six, crying, as she lies broken on the deck; while the Pegasus officer has his men straddle Boomer over a bed and prepares to rape her.
The two scenes, juxtaposed, are powerful, and made more so because Number Six is clearly ‘evil’, while Boomer is just as clearly ‘good’. And it is this that made all the difference.
I was curious and searched in Technorati for mention of Battlestar Galactica and rape. It was interesting to read the reactions; especially to see young men deal with something they’ve never faced in all their Lara Croft games; to hear science fiction fans talking about war and rape and genocide, and explore whether rape would be allowed on a ship commanded by a woman. One person wrote that he knew rape existed, but it wasn’t something he wanted to necessarily see on television, in such graphic detail. Disturbing, he called it.
Yes, it is.
An excellent review of this episode of Battlestar Galactica.