Submerged mountain

Undersea mountain in the ocean off Alaska. The mountain is 10,000 feet tall.

Judge takes a stand

Judge finds a typo-prone lawyer guilty of bad writing. I'm glad to see a judge do this. Legalese is bad enough, lawyers should be able to use correctly what little English they do use.

Why is Hollywood so screwed up?

Neil Gaiman sets the record straight as to what's going on with "Constantine" as it pertains to Alan Moore. It's interesting to find out that Moore was really upset over Larry Cohen's ridiculous suit, which basically said that Moore created the comic book "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" so Fox could rip Cohen off. But Moore's response to this is rather odd, but typical of him. Rather than coming back against Cohen, he just gives up all credit and money for movies based on his work.
As for "Constantine," a movie based on the comic book "Hellblazer," it's going to be royally screwed up. Well, there's a chance it might be good, but the weather still looks pretty hot in Hades to me. "Hellblazer" is a comic book about a Brit sorceror of sorts. Being British is not just a small detail, a little character background, it's essential to his character. He's also blond. So what does Hollywood do in its infinite wisdom? Cast Keanu Reeves. If that's the starting point of this movie, where can it go from there? Unless it gets screamingly good reviews, I'm going to stay far away from the movie.

Killer bagels

Health care aide charged with killing a woman with a bagel.

Attack of the giant fireballs!

Fireballs seen over Anchorage Alaska.

CNN reports on giant monster invasion!

Why is it Godzilla has to go away to get mainstream coverage? It's probably a silly question, but just wait and see what coverage another James Bond film would get (the only other film series that has a history as long as Godzilla's.) Still, I can't wait to see the new film. Any day now Godzilla X Mechagodzilla should be out on DVD, with the sequel following soon after. There's a wealth of Godzilla stuff coming out for the 50th anniversary of Godzilla. It's like 1998 all over again (except without a bad American movie to top it off.) I find this comment funny:
"'Unlike the early Godzilla films, most of the remakes only draw either fanatics or children,' said Risaku Kiridoshi, an essayist on Japanese pop culture."
More proof that I'm some kind of freak. Thanks to Charles for the link.

New things

Well, I've made a few template changes around here. Tell me what you think and if there's anything missing, different or just plain wrong.

Alan Moore interview

Alan David Doane interviews Alan Moore:
"So, I launched on a career as a writer and, from the very beginning, I had a couple of simple precepts, if you like...I decided that I was never going to write a story that I, personally, wasn't interested in. I figured that this would be a helpful dividing line to prevent me from sliding into hack-work, which is always a danger in an industry where the deadlines come fast and furious. So, I kind of developed a method by which I would take...even on promising material, and then make it into something that was fun for me, that was either amusing or intellectually stimulating or, you know, that my use of language or storytelling or something like that...there some element in the story that would provide me with sufficient motivation to do a good job on it. "

They talk about Moore's novel Voice of the Fire, which I didn't know was released. Something else to spend my money on.

Dominique Pinon

Thanks to pullquote I now know that today is Dominique Pinon's birthday. Pinon is the star of Caro-Jeunet films. My favorite: City of Lost Children. I think it's one of the best fantasy movies ever.

Why it pays to buy art

Man buys painting for $5 at a garage sale then sells it to a gallery for $1 million.

A broken plane for your safety

Patent approved for a breakable airplane.
"The proposal, which received a patent last month, calls for aircraft to be built in separate parts, then sealed together. In an emergency -- anything from mechanical failure to a missile attack -- the pilot could push a button to sever the parts with controlled explosions or by using a 'laser cutting' device.
"Each section would be equipped with parachutes, shock absorbers, inflatable rafts, and propulsion jets that would guide it to the ground, the patent said."
Of course, there's always a skeptic (or a few hundred):
"James DeLaurier, who teaches aircraft design at the University of Toronto, said his initial reaction to reading the patent was 'holy cow.'
"'This would be a maintenance nightmare,' he said. 'How could you make sure that all these systems are ready to go? The consequences of them not working, or working prematurely, would be dreadful.'"

Attack of the Giant Ice Balls!

Huge hailstones fell from the cloudless sky all over Spain in January 2000. Upon further study, scientists find occurences of what they call megacryometeors in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Colombia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States.
"There have been detractors. Some meteorologists and hail experts have denounced the theories posed by Martinez-Frias, stating that formation of hail without thick highly-visible clouds is an impossibility."
There's always some scientist looking to help.

Anastasia screams in vain

A team of scientists is criticizing a DNA report that claimed it had confirmed the deaths of Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family.
"In a newly released report, the scientists declare that the testing of remains found in the Ural Mountains was shoddy and flawed. They add that their own tests on the preserved finger of the sister of the czar's wife raise even more questions about the original findings."

Because there's nothing funny about a 6ft man tied to a tree wearing a thong and high heeled shoes

Police report further sightings of the "bunny girl." Police say the situation is 'not funny.'

Dead alive

Scientist claims proof of afterlife. He's testing spiritual medium's hits and misses about people she just meets. They claim her accuracy is 80 to 90 percent of the time, way too high for guessing.
"'When you look at the totality of the data from our laboratory, the simplest explanation is actually that survival of consciousness is real,' said Schwartz."

Jack Finney, "The Third Level"

In the 1950s, people were scared. The possibility of the atom bomb was fresh in everyone's mind. Kids had to do duck and cover drills at school. The Sputnik had been launched into the skies by the Russians. The Cold War was heating up. Demagogues were saying communists may be hiding in our own government.
In this atmosphere, Jack Finney wrote a book about escape. In "The Third Level," a collection of short stories, Finney writes about people who are upset with the world they live in, they seek some idyllic place in the country's recent past. In the story "The Third Level," it's a mysterious level of Grand Central Station that leads to a town in Ohio in 1894; in "Second Chance" a restored car brings a man back to the 1920s; and in "Of Missing Persons" offers an escape into 'romantic Verna' a planet of paradise.
In most of the stories, Finney indulges in the pleasures of escape. Everyone wants out and many people find it. In a couple of stories, he views escape in a different way. In "I'm Scared" the collective wish to escape has fractured Time and strange things begin to happen. In the final story of the book, "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket," Finney turns the concept of escape around. A man loses a piece of paper on a ledge high above a New York City street. Dedicated to his work, he goes out there, only to succumb to fear after the window of his apartment closes. From then on, he's desperately trying to escape into his own life.
The stories do suffer a bit in that all the themes have been used time and again since then. The "The Twilight Zone" used some of these same ideas in a couple of episodes. Stephen King upped the tension a bit and rewrote "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" as "The Ledge." (By the way, in "Danse Macabre," King talks a lot about Finney, including a comparison with "Twilight Zone" in which Finney comes out on top.) And time travel has become a cliche in so many stories.
Nevertheless, it's a charming book and well worth your time. I don't think "The Third Level" is in print anymore, but the collection "About Time" includes most of his time travel stories. It's a shame "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" isn't in print, however.

In this Washington Post article, (requires free registration) we get not only fun squid facts, but recipes too! Here's an interesting factoid: "Then there is the "vampire" squid whose tentacles are covered with sharp fangs, but it is rarely seen, since it can live at depths up to 3,000 feet."

Speaking of Mars, Robert Rodriguez has signed on to direct "Princess of Mars," the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This, I think, is a better match for Rodriguez than "Sin City" (though I'm looking forward to that too). The story is all action and filled with all kinds of cool stuff. Rampaging white gorillas, four armed insect like people and beautiful red-skinned Dejah Thoris. Something for everybody.

With evidence of water found on Mars, bookies have stopped taking bets on whether life will be found.

More proof that cigarette smoking is bad for you. 73-year-old takes more jail time so he can be in a prison that allows smoking.