Here's a review of a couple of books on the occult and their connections with literature.

2blowhards.com gives his take on book lovers' view of the world vs. movie lovers' view, and it's fascinating. I'm off to work now, but I wanted to note this for later consumption and argument. (Link found via About Last Night.)

Gene Wolfe, a really great writer, discusses the Lord of the Rings and their influence on him and the influence he believes they should have on society at large. It's a conservative viewpoint, but not a bad one. I particularly liked this:
"Philology led him [Tolkien] to the study of the largely illiterate societies of Northern Europe between the fall of Rome and the beginning of the true Middle Ages (roughly AD 400 to 1000). There he found a quality -- let us call it Folk Law -- that has almost disappeared from his world and ours. It is the neighbour-love and settled customary goodness of the Shire. Frodo is "rich" in comparison to Sam, though no dragon would call Frodo rich; Sam is poor in comparison to Frodo, though Sam is far richer than Gollum, who has been devoured by the tyranny and corruption of the One Ring. Frodo does not despise Sam for his poverty, he employs him; and Sam does not detest Frodo for his wealth, but is grateful for the job. Most central of all, the difference in their positions does not prevent their friendship. And in the end, poor Sam rises in the estimation of the Shire because of his association with Frodo, and rich Frodo sacrifices himself for the good of all the Sams."

Slightly less thrilling than a moon base and Mars exploration is deep-sea exploration. A next-generation robot will soon visit the deepest part of the Marinas trench (and therefore, the deepest part of the ocean.) I found this interesting:
"While the oceans cover two-thirds of the planet, the vast majority - 90% - are unexplored.
"We have better maps of Mars than we do of our own seabed, oceanographers say.
"But according to Professor Chris German, from the Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC), UK, new underwater technologies will extend scientists' reach - soon - to all areas of the ocean floor.
"You could say that deep-sea exploration is the new space exploration," he said."

Wow. Bush is expected to send a manned mission to Mars and back to the moon. It's about time. I can't believe it's Bush proposing this though.

I think everybody knows a little bit about Charles Berlitz. Who doesn't have a copy of "The Bermuda Triangle," "The Philadelphia Experiment" or "The Mystery of Atlantis" hanging around their house (and most likely unread.) Here's a good article about "The Flim Flam Artist." It's also interesting to note that he was one of the world's top linguists. (I wonder if he knew Noam Chomsky, another world famous linguist who is better known for his side work.)

Squid season must be coming in again. Here's a Bright Squid Found In Hawaii, with picture.

The terror alert has been downgraded to yellow. There's nothing to see here, move along.

The Revealer is a new blog/web site about religion and the press. It's got some very thoughtful entries in it so far. I already like it more than the B-Log, BeliefNet's Web log on religion. The B-Log mostly did weird religion stories in the news, where The Revealer actually explores religious issues. Check them out, see what you think.

"In today's hurly burly and mixy dixy it is very important to know if you are a space alien!" No kidding. Well fortunately, this Web site offers a handy dandy test to determine whether you are of the extraterrestrial kind. I've tried it, now I feel much more secure in my human-ness. Try it out for yourself. Ask questions like step 2: "If you frequently think about kidnapping farmers and subjecting them to rectal interference, look at yourself in the mirror. If you are wearing a plaid hat with earflaps, you are simply a serial sex murderer. If you are not, proceed to step 3!"
Go ahead. You'll thank me later.

What Valerie [a "domestic android"] CAN and CANNOT do. Valerie can call police in an emergency. Valerie cannot have sex. Damn, what good is she. (Was that sexist? Or droidist? 100 years from now, everyone will know the word droidist.)

Minor giant squid news from Santa Cruz: "Strange catch of the week reported by Bayside Marine was two giant squid caught by an angler using diamond bars in 220 feet of water off Davenport. Rarely seen in this area, the squid were 3-4 feet long." I think "giant" is more of a physical description here. I don't think they actually caught Architeuthis, unless they were baby versions.

Here's a photo essay on bookbinding. For some reason, this looks really attractive to me. Something in the back of my mind wants me to waste my time building my own books. I can't cut in a straight line, yet I think it would be a really good idea to put together my own hardback book. It's a recipe for disaster.

Science fiction writer Lucius Shepard gives his review of "The Return of the King." I don't agree with everything he said, but he seems to feel the same way I do: the movie (and the trilogy) are great spectacles with a lot of entertainment value, yet filled with many faults. His summation seems pretty on point:
"The trilogy has now gone into the popular culture, standing as an incomparable feat of technical magic, and criticism of the project will seem no more than dust raised by its vast passage. Still and all, a quibble or two are not completely out of order, and I submit, for whatever value it may supply, that LotR’s hallucinatory content—giant spider, F-16 pterodactyls, super-mega-mastodons, et al—might have been better served with a lighter touch of magic, a few less epic sorrows, and a smattering of sufferings more mundane."
***
On a separate point, for what it's worth, Shepard brings up the Sam and Frodo dynamic and how they represent a 19th century British view of the relationship between servant and aristocrat. And that is certainly there in both the movie and the book. But when I was a kid reading the books, I saw their story as one of loyalty between friends. Sam was a good friend who supported Frodo right to the end. In fact, I saw LOTR as Sam's story (and he is the last person to write in The Red Book, the book you see finished at the end of the movie.) And while Tolkien certainly had the class dynamic in mind, I think he also saw it as a story of friendship and loyalty.

Man sees brilliant white light at Mud Lake. Several days later, he checks the lake and finds a mysterious ice circle.

Finally, giant squid news! A second giant squid predator has been found. Up until now, scientists believed only certain whales lived off of giant squids, but apparently Antartica's sleeper sharks also regularly eat the big calimari. There's also a neat graphic showing the size of a giant squid and a colossal squid in relation to a London bus.

I'm not sure I trust this source, but this article says scientists have found the best proof "yeti." A furry limb has been tested and found to be part of no known mammal.
Also in mysterious identifications, scientists confirm that the Chile sea blob was just a decayed sperm whale.

This article on something called "mindsight" is interesting. However, I think the "Star Wars" metaphor (the article is called "Proof that the 'force' is really with us") wasn't what they were looking for. I don't think I'll be making my light saber jump into my hand anytime soon. The article is more about a "sixth sense" or auras or something. Still very interesting.

In Norway, they are going to hold a memorial service to honor Keiko (aka 'Free Willy"). One person is quoted as the memorial being "to honor Keiko as a symbol of freedom."
OK, I can understand people that feel strongly about an animal, strong enough to attend a memorial. But symbol of freedom? This was an animal that was in captivity the majority of its life and tame enough to appear in a movie. It also had a tough time surviving on its own because it wanted to come back. Yes, what a proud symbol of freedom. Bah!

I've seen stories about this before, but I don't think I've ever blogged it. The body of a tiny humanoid creature was found in Chile. It's rather gross looking, but it sure does look like some kind of little alien.