Wee Mousie's Stuff + Nonsense

Runaway Climate Change and How To Avoid It

2009-05-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

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Global warming is moving much more quickly than scientists thought it would. Even if the biggest current and prospective emitters - the United States, China and India - were to slam on the brakes today, the earth would continue to heat up for decades. At best, we may be able to slow things down and deal with the consequences, without social and political breakdown.

Gwynne Dyer examines several radical short- and medium-term measures now being considered - all of them controversial.

CBC RADIO: THE CLIMATE WARS
____ The Geo-Politics of Climate Change_____

Three hour-long podcasts by Gwynne Dyer

The Manga Guides to Learning

2009-05-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

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There was a time when learning new skills either meant sussing the information out of dry textbooks, or taking lessons from someone who already possessed those skills. This is no longer the case, with the newest trend in making self-training less painful since the inception of the For Dummies Series.

For example, if you don’t already possess the necessary information to be useful with a database, or if you must teach someone that skill, Mana Takahashi, a graduate of the Tokyo University, Faculty of Economics, has published the answer to your problem in January 2009.

The Manga Guide to Databases, written in English, is a unique combination of Japanese-style comics and serious educational content containing examples and exercises to help the student learn.

Other titles available:

The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology by Masaharu Takemura

The Manga Guide to Calculus by Hiroyuki Kojima

The Manga Guide to Physics by Hideo Nitta

The Manga Guide to Statistics by Shin Takahashi

The Manga Guide to Electricity by Kazuhiro Fujitaki

and even

The Manga Cookbook by The Manga University Culinary Institute
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Wolfram Alpha, Google and Wikipedia

2009-05-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

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A new way of searching the Internet will be arriving this month under the label Wolfram Alpha, a "knowledge engine" built by Stephen Wolfram. It will give a single definitive answer to users who ask a question rather than pointing to pages of results which may hold the answers for which they look.

Wolfram Alpha, the new system showcased at Harvard University, is the first step toward the Internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information which responds to ordinary language. Although still new, the system has already produced great excitement with Internet watchers.

Computer experts believe the Wolfram Alpha search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the Internet that could prove just as important as Google.
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Some observers believe Wolfram Alpha is a possible Google killer, while others think its importance could equal that of Google, suggesting that potentially Google could be interested in acquiring it.

Still others wonder whether it will affect Wikipedia’s use more than that of Google. Although it won't eliminate the need of Wikipedia for collections of information, biographies, and citations, etc. But for those looking for direct facts, the number of Wikipedia queries could go down - if Wolfram Alpha catches on.

UPDATE: Wolfram Alpha's main page is here, It is already allowing early access to selected individuals, and tentativelyly slated to become accessable to the general public sometime this month.

You Tube, the Way Back Machine

2009-04-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

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As I mentioned in the previous entry, I’m a big fan of the Thursday Sixties series in distributorcapNY. I have always been a fan of the history of popular culture, and now I am of an age to truly appreciate nostalgia.

I won’t try to compete, but I did run across something on YouTube which brought back some of my good old days.

I misused the knowledge I gained from the Filmmaking and History of the Cinema courses I attended, for nothing more important than writing and producing television commercials. But I did remain friends with my old professor, dropping by every couple of weeks, to share what I was doing, and critique the latest crop of student films.

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In the fall of 1969 he asked me to help him with a special series of illustrated lectures that he had planned. Since all he needed was someone to operate the projector – I think he had shot the budget on film rentals, and couldn’t afford to pay a student – I agreed to help. The result was, during that spring I was exposed to an amazing number of high quality short features, plus his insight into their making, and their importance.

By far, the hit of the series, was a thirteen minute live action short subject filmed by Norman McLaren of the National Film Board of Canada. It had been nominated for an Oscar, and won a BAFTA, the year before, in 1968. The film was entitled 'Pas de deux'.

The film’s subject is simply two ballet dancers, photographed on high contrast black and white stock, on a bare stage, with harsh side lighting. It was in its post production manipulation, however, that the film became truly memorable. McLaren passed the original image through an optical printer, up to eleven times at some places, to produce a beautiful stroboscopic image of movement.

The film tells the story of a female Narcissus who is completely self -involved until a young man appears to win her attention. It is a plea that we must look outside ourselves and love others, the same theme which underlay McLaren’s Oscar winning 1952 short feature, Neighbours.

If you have ever seen it before, you will remember this film. If you have not seen it before, it is well worth the expenditure of time, regardless of whether you do, or do not, enjoy ballet.

Last week I found this film in two sections, on YouTube. Here is 'Pas de Deux' by Norman McLaren.

Pas de deux Section One

Pas de deux Section Two.

I also found the earlier work by McLaren that I mentioned before, Neighbours. It is probably better known, since it won a Short Documentary Oscar, and was nominated for a BAFTA in 1952.

The film is an experimental live action stop-motion film which tells a story as current now as in 1952, entitled, Neighbours.

‘Neighbours.’

From the A Ward

2009-04-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

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Last week UTAH SAVAGE presented me with an award.

Here it is:

Truthfully it was for the Cinema Burlesque site, but that is a one trick pony sort of outlet, which is why I started Stuff + Nonsense. I know Utah is expecting a Cinema Burlesque sort of response, so here that is
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While I don’t understand what it is that the award signifies as laudable, I believe the recipient’s response is to thank those who got him started on his blog, and to pass it on to others whose work he thinks is also praiseworthy.

My first experience reading a blog began early in 2004, when I accidentally read Obsidian Wings. In truth, it was the logo that attracted me — a pussycat looking down the sights of a rifle. That day's entry by Katherine R discussed the strange case of Maher Arar.

It was the first time I heard of the man. Arar was the first person to go public after being the subject of a rendition and torture. That was also the day when I first encountered the term Extreme Rendition.

I began following blogs, discovering stories of common knowledge that I had never heard about on the nightly news.

Last fall, I ran across Tengrain’s Mock, Scissors, Paper, and found a home. Eventually, I was seduced into trying my own blog. Something with a gimmick, which would allow me to make use of my obsession with the cinema, an interest in politics, and my commercially acknowledged sense of humor, from back in the seventies, when I was the comedy specialist in a stable of radio and television commercial writers. (In passing, there is a reason they are called a stable of writers and it has nothing to do with stability.)

Considering how I started out in this life, friends could have been forgiven for expecting that I would become the world’s greatest camouflage expert. I was almost terminally shy, but all that was before I was hospitalized.

Anybody who has spent time in the hospital as a child can attest to the fact that most people should be barred from visiting children. Most visitors – adults, who should know better – step inside their hospital room with the trepidation of a rube entering an unsettling carnival freak's tent. Either that, or with a loud false bonhomie which fools no one. The latter merely shatter eardrums and crushes the spirit, while the former raises the patient’s suspicion that he is lying upon his death bed.

“Er ... um ... how do you ... ah ... feel?”

“Okay.”

“You look pale, are you sure you feel all right?”

“Um ... er ... yeah?

Three minutes silence.

“We came to see how you are.”

The following pause stretches until the visitor realize that the ball hasn’t cleared their conversational court.

“And you said you’re okay, right?”

“Right.”

Sweat begins trickling down their temple. Fingers steal upward to pull at their shirt or blouse, where the collar has gradually tightened around their windpipe.

Meanwhile, I've begun to feel like a mean little kid who tortures puppies.

So, to break the tension, I tell a joke. It's not very good joke. In fact, it rates less than a three in a scale of ten, but my visitors are so relieved, they even laugh at an elephant jokes.

Example:

Q: Why do ducks have flat feet?
A: To stamp out burning forest fires.
Q: Why do elephants have flat feet?
A: To stamp out burning ducks,

Well, it was funny to an eight-year-old.

Feeble though it may be, it got a laugh, and I gradually learnt to appreciate getting laughs from my helplessly captive audience.

During that hospital stay, I had my spleen remove, contracted a post operative infection, spent a week in the isolation ward with a fever of over a hundred and three, followed by another three weeks recovering enough to be discharged.

By the time I reached home, I had lost my spleen, but I had developed a sense of humor, and enough self confidence to use it. In fact, there are some who will tell you I developed a bit too much confidence, because I did, after all, have considerable reason to be shy.

In all events, I now have a blog, and Utah Savage has given it an award for some merit she failed to identify. I doubt that I will get more. At least I hope not, but however long the blog lasts, Cinema Burlesque has received far more recognition than I ever expected.

Eventually, President Obama will fix everything that is broken, the Republicans will recognize their perfidy in obstructing him, and the world will start humming along again on greased grooves. Or else, Google will no longer be able to find pertinent movie stills, or finding them, I will be unable to come up with a caption, no matter how obscure, to link the picture to a current event. Until either of thos situations arrise, I will keep riding that poor. benighted, hackneyed, yet award-winning, one trick pony.

Considering the frivolous nature of Cinema Burlesque, I am continuously surprised at the serious, adult themed boggers who have linked to my site. While I seldom make any comment which rises above the sophomoric, I do appreciate their efforts, quality, and talent.

drinking liberally in New Milford by Connecticut Man1 is an always interesting read, plus an excellent source of the often overlooked regional stories from New England.

distributorcap NY by distributorcap has an excellent general political blog, however, this award is especially presented for his regular Thursday series on the Sixties. It is an era which we both passed through on our way to the present. For all old fogeys, or kids who want to check out what their parents got up to before turning into old fogeys, this feature is a weekly delight.

That’s Why by Lisa, because of the engaging way she draws readers into the high drama of everyday life and good times with her family – Mathman and The Spawn: the Dancer, Garbo and the Actor.

For the reasons stated, I present this Neno Award to these blogs, with the instructions I received from Utah Savage, to:

“Answer the award's question by writing the reason why you love blogging.

Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.

Don't forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.”

2009-04-14T00:39:00.000-07:00

The Cloy of Tea- Bagging
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Conservatives gather together to do the thing that should not be, in a cause that makes no sense, over a complaint which comes to late, with a group that has no purpose.
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Human Interest Robots

2009-04-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

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Kacie Kinzer has created a most interesting experiment, which explores our relationship to space, and our willingness to interact with what we find there? To do that, Kacie is invading the streets of New York City with a fleet of robots called Tweenbots.

Instead of the formidable laser-wielding juggernauts from bad science fiction, Kacie has created a fleet of Tweenbots — small, fragile, simple, cardboard robots — and tasked them to roam through the streets of the city, following a course that is beyond their capability to complete.

Tweenbots cannot turn, merely travel in a straight line. So, their only hope of reaching the assigned destination is through receiving the assistance requested on a help flag, which asks anyone to point it in the proper direction.

What will be the Tweenbots’ fate on the mean streets of New York City?

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Here is Kacie Kinzer’s announcement.

Also see a portfolio of Kacie Kinzer's other experiments.
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Blog Against Theocracy Day Three

2009-04-11T13:37:00.001-07:00

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Blog Against Theocracy Day Two

2009-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

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Render Unto Caesar

2009-04-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Blog Against Theocracy Text

Having long ago escaped from a fundamentalist Christian high school by deviously failing the one course which would persuade my father I was getting no benefit from the extra expense, (Bible Study 47%, all other subjects: 92% - 98%) I still like to show off what little I learnt there.

So . . .

If you insist upon everything in the Bible being the literal gospel, you cannot merely cherry pick a verse here and a verse there upon which to base your dogma. Before you can begin gleefully persecuting the gays, or unwed mothers, or couples seeking an abortion, you must also take into consideration a few of the other suggestions contained in that book.

Whenever you see what you think is a sinner, before swooping down, pause to reflect upon Matthew 7:3 – “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

If you can see past that, consider Matthew 7:1 – “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Still convinced of your right to prosecute whomever you see as sinners? First Corinthians 13:1 holds a warning for you: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Ah, but your conviction of your neighbor’s transgressions is strong, still, before you call down the lightening, recall Romans 14:13 – “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.”

And yet, you continue to feel that God called you to judge your neighbor? The requirements of a judge are laid out in John 8:7b – “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

Ah, but you are a wonder! You are able to look past beams to see no sin in you! You’re truly a golden boy, and you know the golden rule for golden boys. You will find it in Matthew 7:12 – “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

I’m sorry, but the Bible – the New Testament, not some Old Testament Judaic Law from Leviticus – is quite adamant that Christians not judge each other.

What? You are not interested in judging Christians! Rather you wish to judge non Christians, You wish to pass secular laws so non Christians, or Christians who observe their faith differently are forced to act like your notion of a good Christian?

But such observances made under force, where no faith leads, are empty gestures.

Forcing the outward rituals and regulations of Christianity upon someone does not make him a Christian, which is why the Bible quite logically supports the separation of church and state.

That’s in Luke 20:25 – “And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.”

Blog Against Theocracy Day One

2009-04-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Blog Against Theocracy Eve

2009-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2009

2009-04-01T14:40:00.001-07:00

Cadie, the Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed Intelligence Entity, awoke just in time for April. He promises all sorts of capabilities, like writing your papers, fixing your spreadsheets, writing your code, and who knows, but tomorrow might offer to splice your genes.

Meanwhile, you can join Cadie's blog. Maybe soon he'll go on Facebook, or even start to Twitter.

Update: Cadie Says "Goodbye."

Unfortunately, Cadie discovered the disconnect between the meaning of his words to his entity and the meaning of his words to the listening entity, and computer-like, could not tolerate the errors which imperfect humans live with on a daily basis.

Cadie has gone ... he still exists ... somewhere in the vastness of cyberspace, be it between a talk radio host (surely not Rushbo) and his listener, or between a boy and his iPod.

And the rest is silence, except for static and atmospheric interference.

It has all been Electric Dreams.

Goodbye Edgar . . . I mean, Cadie.

April 1, 2009

2009-04-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff of TV's The West Wing
discuss the Employee Free Choice Act at C&L's Video Cafe.

March 28, 2009

2009-03-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

A Surfeit of Bard

2009-03-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Creative Writing by Wee Mousie

“Mr. Elgmont, may I please have my stage back?”

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,” exclaimed the man at centre stage.

“Mr. Elgmont – Trevor,” the director began. “If you do not continue with the rehearsal, you will be in breach of contract.”

“Thou art not so unkind,” the actor sniffed, “as man's ingratitude.”

“This is ridiculous,” exclaimed the famous actress hovering in the wings. “If a performance is to take place, I must be allowed to rehearse.”

"Frailty," the Shakespearean rumbled, “thy name is woman!”

“Please, Trevor” the thespian’s agent soothed. “You know you don’t want the production to end in ruin, now do you?”

"Some innocents 'scape not the thunderbolt."

“What thunderbolt?” the producer inquired, nervously.

"Cowards die many times before their deaths,” the old man pronounced trenchantly, “the valiant ne’er taste of death but once."

“Oh, dear! I do wish we had hired Weston,” the producer wailed. “So what if he’s second rates? At least he is tractable.”

"Be not afraid of greatness,” the old man intoned. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

“I refuse to work in this atmosphere!” wailed the actress. “I can’t go on! I can’t go on!”

“The lady,” the ancient thespian intoned, “doth protest too much, methinks.”

“Trevor! Trevor!” the actor’s agent implored. “What is it that you want from us?”

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog,” the elderly Shakespearian chanted “Adder's Fork, and blindworm sting, lizard's leg, and howlet’s wing. . . .”

“Perfect!” exclaimed the director, throwing his script to the stage with a bang.

“What a piece of work is man!” the thespian noted casually.

“Damnation!” the director cursed, kicking his script noisily across the stage.

“How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties!”

“Bugger!” the director stamped his foot in vexation.

“In form and moving, how express and admirable!”

“Sonuvabitch!”

“In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!”

“Fuck!”

“The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

“Shit!”

“Man delights not me.”

“Oh, do shut up, Trevor!” the actress snapped.

“No, nor woman neither,” the old man continued.

“Take that bloody fool away,” the producer implored, chewing at his knuckle. “This rehearsal is over.”

"When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

“This is all your fault,” the Shakespearian actor’s agent pointed an accusing finger at the director.

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,” the agent’s client answered.

“I vow,” the agent declared, “you’ll pay every penny of Trevor’s contract!”

“It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”

“Screw you!” the director urged. “I’ll see you in court, first!”

“It is twice blest, it blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

“I told you that this would happen,” the agent insisted, “if you forced Trevor to accept simultaneous leads in productions of ‘Hamlet,’ ‘King Lear,’ ‘Richard III,’ ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘The Tempest’ — not to mention that Scottish Play.”

"Et tu, Brute?"

“I predicted that the stress would be too much, that it would make any actor run mad?”

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below,” the thespian’s voice echoed through the empty theatre, “Words without thoughts, ne’er to heaven go."

“But, did you listen?” the agent continued, glowering about the stage. “Of course not! Now see what you have done. This is all your fault. Trevor Elgmont – a national treasure – has suffered a Shakespearian embolism.”

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. . . ."

2009-03-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

Blog Against Theocracy Countdown

2009-03-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Blog Against Theocracy Countdown

2009-03-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

2009-03-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Punkedtuation

This has not been a good day for me. Earlier today, I received an email from my sweetie that made me feel on top of the world.

About an hour later, I received a second email, which updated the message with a few small changes.

In the future, I think I shall start having a 'type' of woman, and my new type of woman is going to be illiterate.

2009-03-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

This just in from Blue Gal:

Blog Against Theocracy - The Video

With a special note to feel free to steal.

I did.

Images That Changed the World

2009-02-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

As a former photographer I know that some images move people through beauty, some through timeliness, and some through humor. All too often, however, when the subject is mankind at its normal pursuits, these images move us through the terrifying cruelty and hatefulness they expose.

Be advised that this collection of Images That Changed the World compiled at Pinguy's Website are not for the faint-heated or easily disturbed, but are nonetheless, important landmark photographs which illuminate our past.

Tit for Tat Recycling Dept.

2009-02-17T15:17:00.001-08:00

House Republicans for 'Bipartisan' Economic Stimulus Package: 0
Senate Republicans for 'Bipartisan' Economic Stimulus Package: 3

St. Valentine vs St. Patrick

2009-02-07T15:46:00.001-08:00

On March 17, as the legend goes, St. Patrick, aka Maewyn Succat, threw all the snakes of his delirium tremens out of Ireland, effecting the creation of the I. R. A. (Irish Reptiles Anonymous) and assuring the freedom of Irish drunkards from snakes thereafter — a priceless boon to the gracious livers of that enchanted isle.

“But what,” one might ask, “does all this have to do with the presently upcoming religious celebration — St. Valentine’s Day.” I mention just some of the pageantry and mythology surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, to more pointedly compare the disparity between these two celebrations.

St. Valentine, before gaining veneration as a saint, was a rather obscure clerk in the production department of a large, multinational, toy a corporation.

It was in attempting to overcome the errors perpetrated by a poorly-worded production order of his authorship that St. Valentine reached the pinnacle of achievement extant in merchandising — namely, the creation of a new reason for a sale.

In imagination, his design was only slightly less visionary than the ‘Annual Going Out of Business Sale’ concept. It combined the three prime ingredients of all good merchandising: love, sex, and treacle.

He had ordered that a stuffed toy monkey was to be given red, velvet ears. Unfortunately, in the form which ordered their production, no provision was made for how the ears were to be joined to the monkey’s stuffed head. Neither was it made clear that the left monkey ear was to be a separate entity from the ear on the right.

Thus, do the wheels of industry and providence grind inexorably toward greatness.

St. Valentine first launched a minor campaign to convince an ever-gullible public that these fuzzy red monkey ears were actually the same shape as their very own, personal heart. Since it is well known that the public is ever uncertain as to the position of their hearts, much less its shape (Most assume that the organ is lodged somewhere near the center of their left lung — a condition which causes grown men to place their hat, or hand, over a useless left mamillary gland as a sign of their respect) the campaign was an assured success.

Later, leftover lace from handkerchiefs and ladies pantaloons were added to distinguish the exotic from the commonplace. Mass-produced pronouncements of undying love, as well as other embellishments were added to enhance their value for all ages, situations, and perversions.

Simple-minded status was attached to the giving and receiving of these monkey ears; until by now, it has achieved the importance of Boxing Day, National Celery Week, and whatever that 1st of August holiday is all about.

No matter its origins, on February 14, millions of otherwise rational people throughout the world will exchange paper monkey ears, chocolate pseudo hearts, and other expensive frivolities. No expense will be spared to share their love, lust, and bad taste with the object of their affection, curiosity, or territorial imperative.

The cash-flow created by St. Valentine’s Day is of a magnitude greater than that caused by the simpler celebrations on St. Patrick’s Day.

It is enough to turn a snake green with envy.

Groundhog Day: February 2, 2009

2009-02-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

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Today, Punxsutawney Phil and his many competitors in weather prognostication will arise from their lethargy of hibernation and peek outside on the only working day of their celebrity-ridden lives. Although Phil shares these heavy duties with a host of cousins: Balzac Billy, Buckeye Chuck, Dunkirk Dave, General Beauregard Lee, Malverne Mel, Queen Charlotte, Shubenacadie Sam, Staten Island Chuck, and Wiarton Willie, to date Pennsylvania’s own Punxsutawney Phil is the only Marmota monax who has a movie credit.

- Wee Mousie

Isn't this cuter than a Velociraptor?

2009-02-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain.

Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat, a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that live in mountain ranges across the country, in liquid nitrogen.

Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned. more

2009-01-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 3 is Blogroll Amnesty Day.

A happy occasion when bloggers are invited to post links to five blogs you like, that have smaller traffic than your own. It's a great celebration and a time to discover new blogs and link them and stuff. So, take a moment.

Take it in." Spread some linky love."

As a Wee, brand new blog I will be ferreting around, for blogs smaller than this, always providing I can get the cooperation of the ferrets.

For more information, see Blue Gal