Have At You, You Pansies!

We managed to get in another D&D session last night, and a new player finally managed to attend (he’s been trying for weeks). Introducing new characters to a campaign in progress is always a challenge, but the circumstances affect just how much of a challenge. Earlier in the campaign, for instance, while the party was still in a major city, I could have introduced the new character, Bowman, quite easily. Alas, the party has now journeyed far from civilization, eliminating the option of having Bowman forced onto the party by an intimidating crime boss.

When we left off, the party had split, with Nerogon, Sylvia, and Lucretia going back to camp to get the wagon (and Machaon and Reya) while Lainis stayed in the kobold keep to watch over the loot. This seemed as good a time as any to throw Bowman into the mix. A few hours had passed, and Bowman came by the keep, noticing that the door (which had always been closed on prior sightings) was standing open. Taking the hint, he went in to investigate.

Naturally, this began a series of sneak checks and listen checks as Bowman carefully prowled through the keep and Lainis tried to figure out who was sneaking around in there (aided by her faithful wolf companion, Cazhmere). It is inevitable in such situations that the players will turn the paranoia of their characters up to eleven, pushing the encounter to the brink of open combat. I’m surprised that Darths & Droids hasn’t dedicated a strip to such situations yet.

I arranged for the rest of the party to conveniently return to the castle at that point, and after a bit more suspicious bickering (and a few hints of “find a way to get along so the adventure can proceed”), they agreed to work together and continue the quest. It’s convenient that Brother Machaon, in his perpetually inebriated state, has no qualms about telling anyone and everyone they meet about the quest. Machaon even showed Bowman his map and asked for directions.

Bowman didn’t provide any directions, but Lainis was able to find the path with her kick-ass Survival skill, which led the party toward the old shrine of Dionysus where the Goblet was last reported to be. Getting close to the place marked on the map, they heard sounds of clacking wood from ahead.

Nerogon volunteered to go ahead and try talking to whatever was making the sound. Lainis and Bowman sneaked up behind him to provide cover if he got into trouble. Lucy and Sylvia were only a little farther back.

I suppose I might mention at this point that Reya’s player was not able to attend. In such situations, the character of the non-present player tends to find something to do that keeps them out of the combat area, like staying with the wagon while the rest of the group goes ahead to see what danger lurks. This is a convenient solution for the DM, especially when there isn’t a copy of the missing player’s character sheet handy.

Back on topic, Nerogon walked ahead and came within sight of the shrine, which was pretty obviously abandoned and overgrown with vines. The field before it was somewhat trampled down, however, and there was a wooden post standing in the field. The clacking had stopped as Nerogon approached, and now there was a small, green-skinned person watching Nerogon approach and leaning on a wooden sword that was covered in wicked-looking thorns (this little critter is a Thorn from the Monster Manual III, if you’re interested).

Some verbal sparring ensued. The Thorn asked Nerogon’s business; Nerogon explained a need to get into the shrine; the Thorn said “no way”; Nerogon said it was the object of his quest; the Thorn said “too bad”. Basically “none shall pass”. Lucy and Sylvia approached during the conversation, and Lucy finally interrupted by saying they should just kill him. Cue the fight scene.

A Thorn may not look like much, but they actually have 6 hit dice, a high attack bonus, and an impressive armor class of 19. Coupled with his tendency to say “the green knights always triumph” and “only a flesh wound” on the rare occasions that he was hit, he was pretty darned annoying. Despite his bravado, however, he was not invulnerable, and he was soon surrounded by Nerogon, Lucy, Lainis, and Cazhmere in a configuration that allowed all of them to get a flanking bonus. With the additional bonus from Sylvia’s bard song, the Thorn’s supply of 31 hit points dwindled with surprising speed. When he finally succumbed to the persistent pummeling, Lucy finished him off with extreme prejudice.

With the guardian dispatched, the looting could commence. The Thorn himself only had his armor and weapons, so the group started searching the shrine. The main room had an algae-fied pool and a statue of Dionysus himself. A room off to the left proved to be a library, but they found nothing left of value. A room on the other side, however, turned out to be a winery that had been well maintained and was obviously in use, as there were two large tubs of fermenting berries. A knowledge check from Sylvia determined that the berries came from an assassin vine, indicating that the wine being made would be wildly expensive. A glance through an outside door of this room revealed a trellised assassin vine growing next to the shrine, and the group decided that messing with it would probably be unwise. A trapdoor in the room lead down to a wine cellar, where Lucy found a couple of interesting trinkets.

Behind the statue in the main room of the shrine were doors leading to bed chambers. All of the furniture was in poor condition, and most of it ended up in fragments as the party broke things up looking for hidden treasure. Nerogon found a scroll hidden in a bed post that provided a clue to where the Goblet had been sent from the shrine.

Take That Frenchy!

Time for an overdue post about last week’s D&D game.

In the aftermath of the kobold raid, Sylvia, Lainis, Lucy, and Nerogon decided to return to the keep where they had originally been taunted to confront the kobolds there, figuring it was the source of the attack. Reya stayed behind to guard the group's wagon and pack animals and to guard Machaon, who had used up his spell casting with an extra round of healings to get the others into fighting shape.

Seeing no signs of kobold activity from a distance, the group moved up the keep gate, which was still barred from the inside. After some difficulty getting started, Lucy climbed the wall, where she came under fire from kobolds inside the keep’s tower. Lucy quickly tied a rope to the battlements for the rest of the party then ran along the battlements to the tower, where she was too close for the kobolds inside to shoot at her through the arrow slits. Nerogon climbed the rope to the battlements and started getting shot at as well. He jumped down to the courtyard and unbarred the gate for Lainis and Cazhmere. Sylvia began a bard song from safely outside the keep’s walls

Lainis went to the courtyard door of the tower, which she found also to be barred from the inside. Nerogon got back up on the battlements, while Lucy started taking fire from a kobold on top of the tower. She put an arrow through his head when he leaned over to shoot at her again. Nerogon sprinted to her side, and the two found a door into the tower that was merely locked, not barred. Lucy made short work of that, and they were soon in combat with two kobolds, who didn’t stand up to them for very long.

Lucy started down the stairs to open the door to the courtyard and tripped over a chain that had been rigged there. Lying on the landing, she was attacked by a dire weasel. Nerogon grabbed it and she wriggled free, heading down to let Lainis into the tower. Lainis, Cazhmere, and Lucy managed to kill it before it mauled Nerogon too badly.

A rock tossed down the remaining stairs to down from the tower floor revealed that there was still a kobold down there when it fired a crossbow bolt at the noise. Cazhmere charged down the stairs to deal with the kobold, triggering a nasty swinging blade. Fortunately, the kobolds had set it to swing a bit higher than a kobold’s head, so it missed Cazhmere completely. The wolf caught a crossbow bolt on the way in, but he made short work of the kobold. The party set about looting the stash of ill-gotten booty that the kobolds kept in the cellar.

For good measure, the Lainis decided to check the stable in the courtyard to see if it had any threats lurking within. Opening the door and walking inside, she kicked a tripwire that dropped a swinging block of stone into her. Fortunately there were no other threats to take advantage of her.

Lainis and Cazhmere stayed in the keep to guard the loot until Lucy, Sylvia, and Nerogon could return with the wagon to collect it.

Marriage Making News Again

This time, the state of New York is trying to pass a bill to legalize same-sex marriages.

I may have mentioned this before, but I think they’re approaching this issue in the wrong way.

For starters, the definition of marriage isn’t as universal as social conservatives would like you to think, which raises problems beyond just same-sex marriage. For instance, if we make the one-man/one-woman marriage the legal standard, what happens to immigrants from countries where plural marriage is legal? A man with two wives and six children (all done very legally in his country of origin) immigrates to the United States (also legally): is he still married to both of his wives? There are even religious sub-cultures in the US that aren’t opposed to plural marriage: at least in private; they may publicly disavow it because of the majority opinion.

There are also issues of free speech and freedom of religion to consider. If a same-sex couple goes to a church, synagogue, temple, or other religious institution and takes the appropriate vows, there’s nothing that the government can do to stop them from calling their relationship a “marriage,” no matter how many common legal privileges it chooses to deny them. The Constitution won’t allow the government to keep the church from performing the ceremony, and it also protects their right to describe the relationship as they choose.

So I think the government should get out of the “marriage” business entirely: they really have no interest in anything but “civil unions,” and I think there are valid reasons to limit those to simple contracts between just two people: the tax code, for instance, would get even messier if a union could consist of any number of husbands and wives.

So the solution is simple. The government should stop trying to define “marriage” and just define what rights and responsibilities are attached to a “civil union” contract, without restricting who can enter such a contract beyond “two consenting adults.”

Another D&D Session: Night Raid

This session marks the introduction of new party member Reya (sp?), a rather wild huntress who spotted the party making camp and decided that approaching them and seeking to join them might be safer than sleeping alone in a kobold-infested part of the forest. Although she hoped to approach the camp quietly and get a sense of the sort of people there before introducing herself, she prematurely announced her presence by stepping on a dry branch, creating a loud snap that no one missed. However, as she presented no threat and the party druid’s animal companion, Cazhmere, liked her, she was accepted with little difficulty.

Her concerns about kobolds were soon proven valid when a band of kobolds attacked the camp in the middle of the night. The attack came during Lainis the druid’s watch. She heard the initial rustling and woke Cazhmere, sending the wolf to see what was out there. This resulted in a loud yelp from Cazhmere as the approaching kobolds started shooting crossbow bolts into the camp.

The twanging and yelping woke Lucy, Nerogon, and Machaon. Lainis sent Cazhmere to attack one of the kobolds, but a giant weasel accompanying them intercepted the wolf, bit, and refused to let go. Nerogon cast light on a tree near the attackers, illuminating them. Lucy rushed forward to attack the weasel, but missed it. Lainis whacked it with her staff, and Cazhmere bit back in retaliation. Machaon woke Sylvia. One of the kobolds cast a spell (which Nerogon recognized as shield), and the others continued to shower the party with crossbow bolts, injuring Lainis and Lucy.

Sylvia started an inspirational song, while Machaon woke Reya. Nerogon healed some of the wounds Cazhmere had sustained. Lainis whacked the weasel again, while Lucy inflicted grievous harm on a kobold, and Reya rushed to join in the fighting. Sylvia’s song was interrupted by a magic missile from the kobold sorcerer. Cazhmere’s life or death struggle with the weasel continued. The rain of crossbow bolts slowed as more kobolds became involved in close combats.

Cazhmere took ability damage from blood loss as the weasel maintained its death grip, but the wolf finally ended the struggle by ripping out the weasel's throat. Lainis cast shillelagh on her staff to improve its smiting mojo. Nerogon, Lucy, and Reya engaged kobolds with varying degrees of success. Lainis was jabbed by a kobold as she rushed to engage the sorcerer, and Machaon healed Sylvia’s wounds.

The tide of battle had clearly shifted, and kobolds began to fall beneath the blows of the party. Lucy flanked a kobold and impaled it, Cazhmere tore up another, Nerogon smashed one down, and Lainis broke through the sorcerer’s shield spell to crack his skull. A moment later, it was all over but the looting.

I expect this to mark something of a turning point for the campaign, as Reya’s player brings a great deal of gaming experience to the group.

Creationist Absurdity

I can't decide if this is serious or a joke.



Surely even creationists notice that they have to pee a few times a day.

X-Men: First Class

I'm not going to try to spoil this for anyone, but I'm not going to make much effort to avoid spoilers, either, so read at your own risk.

Overall Impression: Worth seeing. It definitely beats X-Men III: The Last Stand, but I don't think it beats X-Men or X2: X-Men United.

It's hard to have an opinion on how this ended, but to go into that now would be jumping the gun a bit. For starters, let me say that this is another origin story. It goes back as far as the 1940's, where we see some formative events in the lives of Professor X, Mystique, and Magneto. The scenes around Magneto mirror and then expand upon what we learned about him in the first X-Men movie.

Let me take a moment here to note that whoever wrote the screenplay for X-Men: First Class has a serious crush on Magneto.

I'm a little disappointed with the character choices for the villains in this movie. The Hellfire Club is a pretty well established villain group in X-Men comics (from my 80's and 90's based recollections), and I don't think that this movie has done it justice. Yes, Shaw is a decent Big Bad, but I don't think he resembles his comics incarnation very much in either powers or motivation. Emma Frost is practically a Big Bad in her own right, so she shouldn't be playing second fiddle so much, and what's with the "turning to diamond" thing? (Update: Apparently that's an additional power she picked up in the comics sometime after I stopped reading regularly.) The henchmen seem to be clones of Nightcrawler and Storm, and I have no idea where the idea for the dragonfly lady originated.

Unsurprisingly, the "first class" X-Men line-up doesn't much resemble the original Marvel comics line-up. They seem to be trying to have a movie continuity that's separate from comics continuity, so the absence of Ice Man is understandable, but about the only X-Man recognizable from early comics is Banshee, and I'm not sure how they plan to resolve the little issue of Havoc and Cyclops being twin brothers (in the comics) when they've apparently made Havoc a generation older in the movies (Correction: They're apparently not twins; Cyclops is older.).

So, not much attempt at direct continuity with the comics. Fair enough.

Was it necessary to make Professor X a naive ignoramous? To the point of being an arrogant ass? By the end, it's kind of hard to sympathize with him or his ideology. He wants mutants to be able to integrate peacefully with the rest of humanity, but his own research (for his PhD dissertation) claims that such a peace is impossible. And the human governments of the movie bear out his research by being paranoid ass-hats who try to kill the people who just saved their butts.

So we're left pretty completely sympathizing with Magneto's position: kill the humans before they kill the mutants. Would it have been that hard to have at least a few human voices on the mutant side at the end?

Kind of a broken message, if you ask me.

Mermaid Hoax

This video seems to be going a little bit viral on YouTube.



The narrator says he doesn't care whether you believe his claim that it's a mermaid or not. Good, because I don't. I think it's a hoax.

I'm convinced it's not a mermaid, because a mermaid is not something that fits into the evolutionary tree anywhere. Branches of that tree don't merge back together with branches from another limb, so a species that's half fish (or even half porpoise) and half primate just doesn't happen. My guess is that we've got footage of someone swimming in a costume tail composited with generic underwater footage, but I'll leave the details of how it was done to people with more expertise in video effects.

I invite all the creationists out there to go to the Great Barrier Reef to try to collect more evidence, though, as the discovery of a mermaid would be a big win for them, since evolution couldn't explain it.

Update: Does anything from the following movie clip look familiar?

The Concept of Managed Care

I was listening to talk radio on my way home this evening, as I occasionally do to keep awake, and I heard Phil Valentine discussing the ever-present issue of healthcare. He was dissing the very concept of managed care.

The gist of his argument went something like this: "Joe Blow needs procedure X. Either Joe or the insurance company he pays (or the government entity that subsidizes his health care, although that's un-American) needs to pay for procedure X that Joe needs. The Guvmint shouldn't give Joe's healthcare providers a fixed amount of money to cover his healthcare needs and certainly shouldn't have the ability to say, 'Joe, the cost of your procedure exceeds the limit the Guvmint set, so we're cutting you off.'" All this was in response to a statement from some Democrat who thought it a reasonable idea that the "Guvmint" should offer a provider a fixed amount to cover a patient's health expenses for a period of time (like a year).

Phil apparently isn't even trying to understand the concept of managed care. I happen to work (indirectly) for a "Payer" that makes contracts with managed care organizations (MCOs), so I have an idea what he's missing.

The principle of managed care is to keep the "enrollees" or "patients" of the managed care system healthy. The MCO enters into a binding contract to pay for a patient's medical needs for the duration of the contract. That's an important point: the MCO must pay for all medical procedures that the patient needs.

The Payer in this system gives the MCO a certain amount of money for the patient for a specific period of time, usually a year. The amount can vary, depending on the patient's age and any pre-existing conditions of the patient (such as diabetes or just age), but the MCO gets this amount regardless of the actual cost of procedures that the patient needs during that period of time. Note that, due to the contract, the MCO must pay for the patient's medical needs, even if the cost exceeds the amount paid by the Payer.

Obviously the MCO will lose money if the cost of a given patient's care exceeds the amount it receives from the Payer. This means that the MCO has an economic incentive to keep the patient healthy. This is how a managed care system uses the free-market forces that Phil adores so much to control costs. The MCO wants to enter the contract to get that "money per patient payout" from the Payer (the "Guvmint" in this case), but the MCO doesn't want to pay for expensive medical procedures for a patient, like a hospitalization. If the MCO can keep the cost of a given patient's care below the annual payment from the Payer, it makes a profit. If it can keep the overall cost of patient medical expenses below the overall payment for all patients, it makes an overall profit on its contracts.

Consequently, it's in the financial interest of the MCO to monitor patients and address any potential health problems as early as possible, before they develop into serious problems that require an expensive hospital stay. That is how managed care systems that provide fixed amounts of money for patients save money for the Payer.

Compare this to a Fee For Service (FFS) system, such as Phil proposes, in which the Payer picks up the bill for every procedure a patient needs. In an FFS system, the incentive for the provider is to maximize the number of billable services for the patient. If the patient has a developing condition that could be treated cheaply if treated early, the provider actually has a financial incentive to wait until the condition becomes more serious, so they can charge the Payer for more procedures and more expensive procedures to treat it.

I hope it’s clear now why an MCO system is at least potentially more economical for the Payer than an FFS system. Certainly there are potential abuse issues in an MCO system (such as disputes over whether a particular procedure is “needed” for a particular patient and arguments over what the annual payment for a given patient should be), but the underlying principle of an MCO system is to encourage providers to keep patients as healthy as possible, so they don’t need expensive procedures. Whatever it is, it ain't "evil socialism."

D&D Resumes

Long time, no post. I've been sadly inactive in SCA things, but at least I have a new D&D game going to provide some blog fodder.

I’ve had six sessions with my new D&D group, now. They’re on a quest inspired by Monty Python and the Holy Grail to recover a goblet sacred to Dionysus. So far, they’ve dealt with snarky guards, a body collector, and taunting kobolds.

My players are not an extremely experienced group, as shown by little things they don’t do. For instance, they defeated an evil priest and his undead minions (a big fight that earned them a lot of experience points) and looted the bodies, but they didn’t look around for where the priest was sleeping. Note to players: your adversaries don’t necessarily carry all of their valuables on them at all times. Too late to go back for them now, though; that’s another important lesson. If you don’t find the loot, someone else soon will.

They also don’t map. I’m surprised that it hasn’t occurred to at least one member of the group (the one who has the most gaming experience) that they really ought to keep some kind of map of where they’ve been. So far, they’ve relied on the druid’s animal companion to lead them out of mazes by following their scent trail.

But I’m sure at least one member of the group will read this and consider it.

Remember: Being genre savvy typically works in your favor in my campaign.

Medieval Weapons Technique

This is just cool stuff. Around 1:19, you see why the period masters considered quarterstaff technique to be the core of all polearm technique.

The Resistance

Julia's band at the YEAH Rock Block show case in Murfreesboro, TN, on February 27, 2011.



And again on March 4, 2011.

Another “Evolution Requires Faith” Claim

Observed in a wall post and responses on Facebook. We’ll call the creationist CW.

CW: “I was thinking about DNA and genes and how every feature of every creature has its own genetic code. I wonder what evolutionist would say whether or not there is a DNA code a genetic code for the in between species, such as. the code for a wing and a leg are different: what does the "in-between" leg look like? Is the code muddied? How is THAT a step in the direction of evolving perfection?! Silly evolutionists: your version takes more faith to believe in than MINE does!”

Some friends of mine made an effort to explain, but the author wasn’t really listening. The answer to the question is not so simple, since there are many steps between a leg and a wing. Bird wings developed from the forelimbs of dinosaurs (specifically dromaeosaurs), and there are many known species of dinosaur that were essentially bipedal, leaving their forelimbs free to evolve toward other tasks. The “in-betweens” either look like a leg (or arm) with some wing-like characteristics, or like a wing with some lingering arm-like characteristics.

Berkley has a nice website on the subject, if you care to read it. The short of it, though, is that we don’t need faith to see that bird wings evolved. We don’t know everything about how it occurred, but we do have the intermediate forms (despite the denials of creationists), and we continue to learn more as we discover more fossils.

CW: “Humans are composed of the same material as is found in the soil. Man was made from soil. All creatures were created by the same artist so the same ingredients and style are present in all created things (C, G, T, A) and resemble each other According to non-creationist microbiologists, DNA itself dies not support the theory of evolution because each creature is made if a unique set of DNA. If u change the code, it's a new creature not an altered old one. Still a theory as of yet. There is more faith than evidence present in the belief of evolution. Didn't care fir those authors really. I like da Bible. :0"

Is it really any surprise that life on Earth is composed of elements that are common on the surface of the Earth? From an evolutionary standpoint, it's exactly what you should expect.

I’d love to know where she got this notion that “non-creationist microbiologists” are refuting evolution based on DNA. DNA is one of the great pieces of supporting evidence in favor of evolution, and unique variations in every living being are expected and in fact necessary for evolution to work. Sure it’s a “new creature”, but it’s not so different that it’s no longer the same species. It takes many generations for populations of creatures to diverge that much.

And of course Evolution is a theory. Learn what “theory” means to a scientist! It’s an explanation for a set of observations that is consistent with the evidence. A theory makes predictions that can be tested, and its predictions are consistent with reality.

A creationist friend of CW chimed into the thread to help defend it. We’ll call the friend HP.

HP: “There have never been any transitional fossils discovered. There is also overwhelming proof that an ‘inbetween’ species could not survive as it evolved into another species.”

HP is another creationist who apparently only reads creationist publications for information about biology. There are plenty of transitional fossils, showing that “in-between” species survive just fine. There are millions of “in-between” species alive right now; thousands of years in the future, their descendants will be different species.

HP: “Charles Darwin was just a man with a theory. He was not all knowing and was like Job in the Bible and spoke of things that he knew not of. And God would ask these men the same things he asked Job..."where were you when I put the stars in the sky? Where were you when I..." (Paraphrase:)”

Charles Darwin never claimed to know everything, and he was far from alone in his observations about life on Earth. His distinction was being the first to publish his findings.

CW: “That is my FAVORITE PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE!!! "Brace yourself boy ... who do you think you ARE?" My paraphrase of course; God is much more kind than I am there. :) An in-between feather or eye or flipper just wouldn't be practical ... there isn't any way a half formed hand/wing would be superior to what was already there. And, again, it would become a new creature due to that whole pairing thing going on with the GCTA pairs ..."

If only CW and HP could see the irony of their comments. They’re the ones making claims about subjects they don’t understand, because it’s clear that they don’t understand the theory they’re attacking.

Of course, if they actually learned the Theory of Evolution instead of listening to creationist sound-bites, they might realize that it’s accurate, and they wouldn’t want that! I expect that's why creationists routinely ignore attempts to actually teach them something about evolutionary biology.

"Intelligent" Design

Apparently it requires making a nerve ten feet longer than it needs to be.


Richard Dawkins Demonstrates Laryngeal Nerve of the Giraffe
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Simple Caribbean Chicken Curry

I made a batch of this over the weekend, and I got a request to post the recipe, so here we go.

• Open a can of pineapple chunks and drain the juice into a measuring cup.
• Combine the juice with water to make two cups and put it in a small pot.
• Add curry spice (adjust as you see fit).
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• Add a cup of brown rice, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, cover, and leave to simmer 20 minutes.
• Put one or two chicken breasts in a 375-degree oven for the same time.
• Take the chicken from the oven and cut it into bite-sized pieces, add it to the rice pot.
• Add about a cup of black beans (roughly half a can) to the pot.
• Stir, cover, and let simmer another 10-15 minutes.

Like most things, it goes great in a tortilla.

Bill O' Reilly Reasoning

This was just too good to pass up.


Besides being just plain silly, O'Reilly's argument is also a classic example of "moving the goalposts".

Gabby's Burgers and Fries

I actually had my lunch with me yesterday when I went to work, but my colleague Andrea was in a special mood. She was craving Gabby's Burgers and Fries, and she asked if I wanted to join the group. I am so glad I did.

Gabby's is a little hole-in-the-wall burger joint on a corner across the street from the Nashville Sounds baseball field.


The absolute worst thing I can say about them is that they're a little free with the salt on the fries. The grass-fed beef they use, however, more than makes up for such a minor excess. Those are the most awesome burgers ever.

Black Bean Minestrone

From the “easy to throw it together” series...

In a medium pot, combine…

• One can of diced tomatoes
• One can of beef broth
• A cup or so of black beans
• A diced onion (sauteed)
• About a cup of whole wheat pasta (shells)
• Dried oregano (however much suits you)
• Dried basil (the same)
• About a tablespoon of prepared garlic (maybe less if it’s fresh-minced)
• Black pepper
• A splash of fish sauce
• A splash of balsamic vinegar

Stir, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer for twenty minutes.

A New Firefly Criticism

Back-to-back posts! I'm on a roll!

In an article I recently found on the internet, the author complains that in the cult TV series Firefly, the relationship between Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his second-in-command, Zoe Washburn, is “yucky” because of an unfortunate connotation of some of the show's Civil War references.

The problem with using the Civil War as a subtext is that Joss Whedon’s ancestors weren’t slaves. So he seriously thinks that in Zoe, Mal’s second-in-command and only surviving member of his unit, he’s done a subversive little trick. She’s black! She’s a she! She can fight so good! She’s a soldier just like Mal, etc, etc.

Mr. Whedon must have fallen asleep during the part in class where they discussed how some slaves stayed with their masters even after emancipation.

The problem with this whole line of reasoning is that it assumes that the Independent faction in Firefly’s civil war corresponds to the Confederacy in the American Civil War, while the Firefly Alliance corresponds to the Union.

At a glance, that’s not much of a stretch. Both the Union and the Alliance consist of older “states” with greater wealth and more firmly established industrial bases, while both the Confederacy and the Independents are relatively new “states” with more agricultural economies. Furthermore, the Independents' primary complaint seems to be onerous control by a central authority, which was at least the public reason for the defection of the Confederate states.

The author uses this reasoning to conclude that Zoe is a former slave of Mal’s, now free, but still following him out of some sense of misguided loyalty.

The problem with this reasoning is what we know about the actual institution of slavery in Firefly, which is still legal and practiced on the core worlds of the Alliance, but not so much on the marginally pacified border worlds that used to be Independents. In Firefly, the victorious “Union” is the defender of slavery, not the defeated “Confederacy”.

It’s impossible to cast Zoe in the role of freed slave still following “massa” (as the author puts it) when there’s really no indication that Zoe was ever anyone’s slave. It’s not even clear that there’s racial selection involved in the Alliance’s designation of slaves: we hear slaves discussed a few times, but we never actually saw any to see if they have any physical characteristics in common.

Update: In "Jaynestown", we see a colony where a population of "mudders" are described as indentured servants (a tiny step above outright slavery) working for the Alliance governor, and they were mostly (if not entirely, I wasn't paying that much attention) white.

This doesn’t mean race and racism aren’t factors in Firefly. Most of the wealthy aristocrats we see on the core worlds of the Alliance are lily white, with the major exceptions being government agents hired to do the Alliance’s dirty work. The lower class “Independents”, on the other hand, have more of a racial mix. A major flaw in the show, as I’ve noted before, is the conspicuous shortage of characters of Asian descent, particularly in a setting where Chinese phrases are frequently bandied about.

So, once again, we have a social criticism of Firefly that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Platinum Fuel Saver and its Spokesperson

Real content for a change... imagine that.

As I may have mentioned before, I spend some time listening to talk radio. In particular, I listen to the Michael Savage show when driving home in the evening because it’s more effective at keeping me alert than classical music, and I don’t particularly like the other music stations around here.

If you’re not familiar with Michael Savage, he’s a conservative shock-jock who broadcasts from San Francisco, CA. I like to think I can judge the integrity of a talk show host by the kind of products he advertises, particularly if he’s the spokesperson in the ads.

Michael has been advertising something called a Platinum Fuel Saver recently. The makers claim that a car with this device installed will use 22% less fuel. According to them, it increases the amount of fuel actually burned in the engine from 68% to 90%. Michael basically repeats these claims in the ads that he has recorded for them.

Alas, Consumer Reports tested this device, and they found that it has no effect at all on a car’s fuel efficiency: you basically spend $250 for nothing (more if you do some of the unscheduled maintenance on your car that the device maker recommends).

If a host repeats claims about a product on his show that don’t stand up to independent testing, should we trust him on any other claims that he makes?

March of Cambreadth (Babylon 5)

It's been way too long since I posted anything, but another gratuitous video can help fill the void.

What is the NCSE?

Fechtunek

Gratuitous German longsword video.

Mystique

Ultimate Halloween costume.



And because Halloween itself should have more than one video...

Geek Girls

A curious mix of awesome and fail.


Geek and Gamer Girls Song - Watch more Funny Videos

Haunted Nashville

I went on a date to Haunted Nashville last night. There are some spoilers in here as you move along, so if you don’t want to know anything more than “it’s a fun house that won’t do anything really annoying”, you can stop reading now.

Nena was actually kind of worried that some of the activities would trigger her phobias, but at no point in Haunted Nashville does anyone deliberately touch, grab, or chase you. In fact, many of the monsters are quite polite, as they indicate which direction you should go when you’re having trouble finding the next doorway in the dark.

Turbidite Manor was probably the most fun of the three tours. It has the best special effects, including both animatronics and holograms. They also put characters in this one with real lines. Nena had her finest moment here, as one of the “apparitions” follows you out of one of the scenes, saying spooky things. Unfortunately for her, she moved a little too soon, and she didn’t realize that Nena and I were behind her as she followed the rest of the group down the hall. As a result, when she broke character and turned to go back to her hideout, Nena was able to startle her.

Epidemic is less interesting, in that it doesn’t really have any impressive special effects. The theme here is people jumping out of dark corners and making loud noises right next to you. The character who introduced us at the entrance to this one played his part marvelously, though.

House of Distortion is somewhere between. There are a lot of long, dark hallways where people jump out at you, but there are also some pretty impressive animatronics, and the “electrified windows” are a pretty neat effect, too.

I don’t think I’ll want to do this every year, as I suspect it will tend to be repetitive, but I’ll probably look for some other “haunted” attractions around Nashville for the future.

Trial by Stone

Evil muppets.

The Cave

Also in the "you might want to rent it for Halloween" series...

The Mask

The best Jim Carrey movie ever.



Might be the only one really worth seeing, actually.

Manliest Movie Ever

Or so someone thinks of Fist of the North Star (the original anime version).



Lots of gratuitous bleeding.

Rhinehart's Oyster Bar

Visiting someone in the hospital isn't the best reason to go on a trip, but Nena and I did get to try a new restaurant in Augusta, GA while visiting Decca. Rhinehart's came up on Urban Spoon, and it's completely awesome.


It has a gravel parking lot, and there's graffiti all over the walls inside. It reminds me of the Crazy Cajun in Gray, TN (which, as far as I know, hasn't re-opened since the kitchen fire). The oysters and jambalaya are excellent (although the jambalaya will light you up a bit), and the Hurricanes are killer. Important safety tip: stop at one Hurricane! I had a second and, enjoyable though it was, I was feeling it the next day.

None Shall Pass!

Nope... not Lord of the Rings.

There's Nothing Out There

Sometimes, in a horror movie, there's one guy who knows what to do.

Darkseid

Superman gets into a toussle with Darkseid in one of the animated movies. Villains don't come much more badass.

Scream of Ktchooloo

If you're unfamiliar with Call of Cthulu (the game, the story, and the horror fiction genre), you won't fully grok this video, but I think it's still funny enough.

Killer Willy

Have to have some spoof trailers...

Evil Explains

Evil monologuing in Time Bandits.

Eclipse Trailer

It deserves no better.



Come to think of it, it deserves worse.

Vampires do not sparkle.

Science in the Media: Ridiculous Hype

Physorg.com is reporting the discovery of "transparent aluminum". Here's the tag line from the article:

"Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion."

Of course, if you read the article, you'll quickly realize that this opening statement is composed primarily of cattle droppings. Let's look at the details:

1. Changing the state of the aluminum requires bombarding it with an x-ray laser that draws enough electricity to power a city.
2. It isn't really transparent. Only extreme ultra-violet light gets through, not visible light.
3. The aluminum only remains in the altered state for about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one millionth of one billionth of a second, if you're not a technogeek). To paraphrase Doctor Manhattan, it's an event that occurs so quickly that it can barely be said to have occurred at all.

The experiment is interesting because it allows scientists to see how matter behaves in extremely high energy states, such as might be found inside a star. This experiment has no relevance for construction materials, yet the reporter is acting as if it does.

X-Men

Cause how much more Halloweenie can you get?

Fun with the Microwave

Do not try this at home.

The Thing from Another World

Another science fiction classic.

Retro Avengers!

In other news, some of my friends won Best in Show at the Dragon*Con masquerade for their "Steampunk X-Men".

A Trip to the Cemetery

I'm not sure whether the silly label applies to this or not.



Geeky, obviously, but silly?

Stormtroopers Gone Wild!

Some of them have to be silly.

Cybermen vs Daleks

Daleks kick Cyberman ass.



Of course, the Doctor scares all of them.

Tasty, Tasty Brains!

I think sequels seldom live up to the original, but this particular scene is pretty darn creepy. Not for the faint of heart.

Bedfellows

Something Patricia Tallman shared with her FaceBook fans back in July.

The Cask of Amontillado

As told by the master...

Fright Night

An oldie, but a goodie.

Predator Fridge Logic

I wonder what it would be like if horror movie characters thought of these things.

"Dexter" Fridge Logic

So I've been roped into watching Dexter recently (not that I'm suffering or anything), and I noticed something that triggered my geek reflex. This kind of thing might involve spoilers, so anyone who hasn't watched Dexter yet and wants to might do well to skip this post and watch some more Halloween videos.

I'm still on season one (yeah, yeah... lots of catching up to do), and I think it was episode 8 that I was watching (maybe 9) tonight, when we had one of the flashbacks.

As a child, Dexter was injured while playing. He needed a blood transfusion, but he has the rarest of blood types: AB-. The hospital was stymied by the lack of a suitable donor, and only Dexter's foster father was able to identify a blood relative who would have the right blood type.

Two problems:

1. It's not that hard to find a donor for a recipient with type AB-. Any Rh-negative donor will do, because AB types can also receive A, B, or O types without any problems.
2. The episode implies that the donor is Dexter's biological father, but if Dexter is type AB-, then his father must be either A- or B-, not AB-, so even if Dexter needs an exact match for some reason, his biological father couldn't be an exact match.

Whew! I've got that bit of geekery off my chest. Back to Halloween videos.

Edit: I suppose Dexter's biological father could be AB-, since he could donate either the A or the B if his wife donated the other one. My bad. Point #1 still stands.

Further Edit: A little research indicates that less than 10% of the population of Florida has Rh-negative blood, so finding a relative might still be fairly important.

Narwhals

This is its own special kind of scary.



Muah ha ha hah! Now it's running through your head, too!

Top Ten Twilight Zone Episodes

Classics...

Mr. Staypuffed

What did you do, Ray?

Don't let him inside your head...

The doctor is in.

Do you want to know about Rorschach?

Please remember that, while Rorschack is all badass and interesting, he's also insane.

ASL Brain Eating

October has arrived! Let the gratuitous video links begin!

No... No Way!

Apparently some countries want to negotiate a "cyber peace treaty" that would effectively prevent people from posting internet content that criticizes their government.

Using the term "mass psychologic [sic] brainwashing," the agreement said that the dissemination of information "harmful to the spiritual, moral and cultural spheres of other states" should be considered a "security threat."

Sounds like tyrants want to make it illegal for anyone in another country to point out their tyrannical policies. Technically such a treaty would only bind the government itself, but I suspect the countries pushing this "treaty" (including Russia, China, India, and Brazil) are just trying to get a foot in the door for suppressing all internet criticism.

I do hope our representatives have sense enough to know that our Constitution forbids signing or ratifying such a treaty.

Something that isn't Coq au Vin

I'm in the process of cooking a dish that isn't Coq au Vin, but should vaguely resemble it. I've got chicken breasts cooking in the oven, and I'll be slicing them up. In a small pot I have two cups of red wine (box-o-cabernet), a medium sauteed onion (very coarse chop), some honey, black pepper, and some prepared portbello mushrooms and roasted peppers (Delallo brand from the European Market & Deli, to be specific).

We shall see if this is good to eat...

(time passes)

Not bad at all. Definitely not Coq au Vin, but still pretty good in its own right.

Trust the Corps

I just find this amusing.

In 2012...

...nothing happens.

I love this one.

Crop Circle

See also the significance of the symbol.

Anomalies

And this is why I think "Ghost Hunters" is bad comedy.

A Comment on The New Communism

Sunsara Taylor was scheduled to give a talk to a Humanist association, and her photographer got arrested for taking pictures during a police arrest. That’s a particularly idiotic thing to happen, and I do think the charges should be dropped (although he has apparently been convicted at this point, appeal pending), but that’s not what I’m on about today. In a comment on the arrest, she had the following to say:

“The themes of my talk, which drew on the theoretical framework developed by Bob Avakian in his book, AWAY WITH ALL GODS! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World, examined the basis for a morality that is rooted neither in the brutality and ignorance of Biblical times nor the narrow-minded individualism and relativism of modern U.S. capitalism. I posed the need for a morality that both reflects and serves the struggle to bring into being a world free of all forms of exploitation and oppression, a communist world, a world where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings.”

How very Star Trek of her. Communism seems to be undergoing some kind of resurgence in popularity among the sort of people who don’t remember what life was like for people in the Soviet Union and its satellite states during the late 20th Century. Somehow, these people missed, forgot, or never learned about the dismal failure of Communism.

You can find the kind of altruism needed to operate a successful commune in a fairly small group of hand-picked people, but when you try to implement Communism on a national scale, it falls apart, and you end up with bread lines, rampant corruption, and people who are willing to risk death to escape from their own country. Communist nations have historically used walls, barbed-wire fences, minefields, and military force to keep their citizens from leaving.

In theory, you could have a government run by altruistic officials and supported by an altruistic population, but there simply aren’t enough altruistic people in reality for that to work. There are some, but not nearly enough. So, maybe you could give power to altruistic officials and have them enforce altruistic behavior from the rest of the population. That kind of power is dangerous, though, if it ever ends up in the hands of the corrupt. Again, see the Soviet Union for an example of what happens in reality when you concentrate power in the hands of a few idealists, no matter how pure their intentions were in the beginning.

Capitalism may not be the kindest and gentlest economic system in the world, but it has proven to be effective, and it allows people with talent to excel and become successful. Around the world, as societies have changed from managed communist economies to free markets, standards of living have improved. I’m not some crazy anarcho-capitalist who thinks the magical market will do everything right, but Capitalism is easily a better system than Communism.

King Defender

This looks like too much fun.

Read more »

Yet another spam letter

Here's hoping that all my friends who are actually at Dragon*Con are having a great time.

Terrible Movies

see more Lol Celebs

But, strangely enough, I watch a lot of bad movies, and I love them anyway.

Not sober, of course.

Food Porn: Assorted Dinners

First up, a little oyster boil that I shared with Nena last week. Witness the aftermath!



The salad is fresh tomatos, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella with some olive oil, spices, and balsamic vinegar. The oysters are steamed in butter, sauteed onions, and Pinot Grigio.

(Yes, I use a screwdriver to open oysters. It's a multi-tasker.)



In another meal, we have a beef kielbasa from the European Market and Deli (in Mt. Juliet, TN) that is very tasty with some onions and peppers.






And finally, just for myself, Brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon, because bacon can make just about anything delicious.

Blogiversary

I passed 100,000 visits this week!

(That is all.)

The Bleak World of Ray Comfort

Ray came up with a particularly depressing post a little while back.

There are some people who mistakenly think that it is wrong for anyone to respond to the gospel, simply for the reward of Heaven. Their belief is that we should do what's right just because it's right, not because of fear of punishment or promise of reward.

Ray’s opening statement is false. The people he’s talking about say that it’s morally superior to do right just because it’s right instead of doing right just to receive a reward or to avoid a punishment. Of course, restating what his critics said into what he thinks they said is pretty typical for Ray.

However, such idealism is unrealistic. We are sinners with desperately wicked hearts, and we are incapable of such noble motives. [emphasis mine]

However, God has "wired" us to respond to rewards and punishments. From the moment we are born, we have the ability to respond positively to a smile and negatively to a frown. We respond positively to incentives. We work towards a wage, run to win the medal, and climb to reach the highest peak. Again, it's our nature to be motivated by these things.

In one of the places I’ve worked, the chief of security cited a statistic that one person out of three will steal if he thinks he can get away with it. Ray apparently thinks that statistic is too low, and it should be three out of three.

In Ray’s world, no one ever does anything for anyone else without some sort of carrot or stick to motivate them. I’m wondering what I get when I let a car make a turn into my lane on the highway, knowing that I will probably never see that person again, won’t get a reward for letting them in, and won’t receive any sort of punishment if I drive by and leave them to wait. What benefit did I get when I picked up a twenty dollar bill blowing by at a gas station on a windy day, saw who had dropped it, and gave it back when I could have just driven away with no one the wiser?

That's why we have court systems that threaten punishment to lawbreakers. If we violate traffic rules we are punished by a ticket or even imprisonment.

The selfish and antisocial will always be with us, but that doesn’t mean that everyone acts solely out of self-interest all the time.

It is therefore evident that it is legitimate for any sane person to respond negatively to the threat of Hell and positively to God's free gift of eternal life.

As noted, Ray completely missed the point. While it is legitimate for a sane person to modify his or her behavior to avoid punishment or to gain a reward, it is also legitimate -- and more moral -- for someone to behave in a moral manner just because it’s the right thing to do, without expecting some kind of reward for doing it or punishment for not doing it.

Trenchmore

There was, of course, a ball at the Royal University of Meridies. I didn't take video, but Fiona's husband did.



Some of the dancers said I was understating things when I said that Trenchmore is a moderately aerobic dance. The music is a live band, by the way; it's nice to see that becoming a more regular feature.

Preventing the Fall of Man

This was too funny not to share.

Food Porn: Tuscan Salad

I discovered this little jewel at a fund raiser lunch at the Second Harvest Food Bank.

My version has:

• Fresh cucumber
• Fresh tomatos
• Multi-grain "baton" bread
• Vegetable oil (would have used olive oil, but discovered to late that I was out)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Salt, pepper, basil, and oregano