24 March 2006 

"Russia Spies Operated in Iraq Through 2003"

Yahoo! News: "Russia had a military intelligence unit operating in Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad, a Russian analyst said Friday as the Pentagon reported Moscow fed Saddam Hussein's government with intelligence on the American military."

This story is well worth a read. One of my best friends is fond of pointing out that he has absolutely no trust in Russia. He hasn't said specifically if this is because of the supposed association the great bear has with Gog and Magog, but I see where the connection can be made.

According to a tradition of dispensationalist Biblical hermeneutics, Gog and Magog are supposed to represent Russia. The Scofield Reference Bible's notes to Ezekiel claim that "Meshech" is a Hebrew form of Moscow, and that "Tubal" represents the Siberian capital Tobolsk. This identification of Gog with Russia, and Cold War tensions with the West and with Israel, led Hal Lindsey to claim that the former Soviet Union would play a major role in end times prophecies. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the retreat of Russia from the role of a military superpower, a few modern end times prophets have attempted to recast Iraq or some other country in the role of Gog (Wikipedia).
Regardless if it is prophecy or not, I don't trust Russia, either. The people are fine, I'm sure, but any culture formed in large part by a history of invasion shouldn't be considered one that looks out for anyone but itself in the grand scheme.

3/24/2006 07:20:00 PM | |

23 March 2006 

More Really Good Opening Credits

The movie Sahara (2005) still has the greatest opening credits sequence of any film to date, but the ones heading The Visitation (2006) are awfully good. Exceptionally artistic and cleverly constructed, they serve double duty by relating necessary back story that the seminal novel doesn't as clearly relate.

The design in the opening credits is replicated in a general fashion throughout the film, particularly in the "flash of insight" sequences. Of the many Christian-oriented films I've seen this one stands out as more of a Hollywood big-budget film. Without hiring big name actors it looks like the producers could put the money into great lighting, photography, and other production aspects.

The balance of the film is fairly good, perhaps even more than that. If I hadn't known it was a Frank Peretti story I probably would have guessed it anyway. The author is something of a Stephen King from the rural Northwest but with a Christian bent. The supernatural in his stories is a direct result of the conflict between Heaven and Hell. Demons are real in this story, though the angels that populate most of Peretti's other works don't appear in the same fashion -- frequently and with personalities. Once again, the author focuses on a minister dealing a crisis of faith and he needs to rally back to fighting form to battle evil influences invading the town. In this instance, the evil comes in the form of a Messiah who gathers adherents with miracles and mystery. The fine character studies found in the novel are reproduced well here though few films have ever recreated the qualities of print. The story isn't as suspenseful as the trailer pretends, but all-in-all the viewer's attention is kept while events unfold.

3/23/2006 09:02:00 PM | |

22 March 2006 

An Appreciation of Arlen Specter (again)

Senator Arlen Specter is a good man. I've said so before and I'm proud to say so again. Consider this Yahoo! News story, "Specter to Shepherd Bills Through Senate" -

"A vocal Republican critic of the Bush administration's eavesdropping program will preside over Senate efforts to write the program into law, but he was pessimistic Wednesday that the White House wanted to listen.

'They want to do just as they please, for as long as they can get away with it,' Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'I think what is going on now without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong.'

Specter was one of the first Republicans to publicly question the National Security Agency's authority to monitor international calls Â? when one party is inside the United States Â? without first getting court approval. Under the program first disclosed last year, the NSA has been conducting the surveillance when calls and e-mails are thought to involve al-Qaida."
The senator's record is filled with many such challenges to convention, firmly rooted in sound moral principles. He's a good man. We need more people like him in government.

3/22/2006 08:12:00 PM | |

18 March 2006 

'Splain this ...

"U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said she plans to stay in Florida's Senate race and will pour $10 million of her personal fortune into the campaign" (CNN.com ).

Why would anyone spend ten million dollars to get a job that pays only $165,200 per year?

3/18/2006 11:13:00 PM | |

 

This is what technology should do!

Technology should be a seamless enhancement to daily life. One of the reasons I buy only laptop computers is that I don't want to have a lot of space dedicated to supporting a computer. In fact, as soon as I get ahead of the game I'm going to work on getting my house wired to stream media and data anywhere I need it. With any luck Microsoft's Ultra-Mobile PC concept will herald the eventual death of the PC as we've come to know it.

Yahoo! News reports another college is using information technology to enhance the way classes are constructed:

"Administrators at Pennsylvania's Mansfield University want to use podcasts broadcast messages that can be downloaded to iPods and other players to recruit high schoolers to the 3,000-student campus. The school also used a podcast to address student and faculty concerns after a New York man who had contracted anthrax visited campus with a dance troupe."
Sure, students have recorded classes before now. Think back to the scene in Real Genius (1985) when the character Mitch Taylor noticed that the number of tape recorders increased over time in proportion to the decrease in students in attendance. Mansfield's use is more pervasive and signals the paradigm is being redefined.

Mobile phones gradually becoming portable data devices is where we will likely see greater development. Third generation (3G) networks now in place and expanding allow high speed movement of data further heralding the slow demise of traditional PCs and laptops. I'm looking forward to it.

3/18/2006 04:35:00 PM | |

 

States I've Visited or Lived In



I suppose that I should point out that means the red states, in this case.
Create your own visited states map.

3/18/2006 02:42:00 PM | |

17 March 2006 

The Moussaoui Compromise

With the way my head works, the headline Judge Accepts Compromise Deal on Moussaoui made rearranged itself as "The Moussaoui Compromise" - bearing no resemblance beyond bad homonymity with The Missouri Compromise and that both are rather complicated.

From what I understand, though, the Moussaoui case revolves around that fact that he lied when in custody prior to 9-11 and that the tragedy might have been reduced or stopped if he hadn't.

Now who expected a terrorist to tell the truth?

Then there's the idiot government attorney Carla J. Martin -- idiot because she should have known better -- who coached potential witnesses for the prosecution. Anyone who has watched even a few episodes of Perry Mason or Matlock on the tele should know that what she did is witness tampering. So who's side is she on? I'd like to see charges of treason brought against her, but it will never happen. She'll probably never see the inside of a prison, either. At most disbarment will be the worst penalty.

3/17/2006 08:07:00 PM | |

16 March 2006 

New Standard for Time Compression

Last night I TiVo'd a showing of Spygame on the Bravo network. I had missed ten or so minutes of the first showing and was lucky enough to record a second showing that immediately followed.

Immediately redefined, that is.

When I started playback tonight I saw just how pressed for time. Bravo started the second showing while the previous was still running through the credits. The screen was split horizontally and the credits were zipping by at probably ten times normal speed. Of course, they found plenty of time to play the annoying pop-up advert game like other networks.

3/16/2006 07:10:00 PM | |

15 March 2006 

Car Parks and Parking Lots

England and America are two countries separated by a common language. George Bernard Shaw - Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

Listening to Mythbusters tonight I noted the frequent use of the term car park. It struck me that this is an example of language evolving. In the United States a car park is commonly called a parking lot where elsewhere in the English-speaking world the former term is preferred.

Then a teeny, subconscious, crass, commercial thought struck: The Discovery Channel has a financial relationship with the BBC and the producers have probably tweaked the scripts to make the show more marketable world-wide. I'll have to look for this in other shows from this network.

I'd rather think this isn't done for commercial reasons but linguistic revolution has to happen somehow, I suppose. And it's probably happened before, now that I think about it. The recent series of Volkswagen commercials feature an actor with a heavy German accent using American urban-speak (what my black friends call ebonics -- there's another story!).

Here are some of my favorite language links. Parents, I suggest you monitor your children when they use these sites for two reasons. So-called adult language appears frequently and you might learn something, too.

3/15/2006 09:44:00 PM | |

14 March 2006 

Another Mac with Intel Inside

Not sure if this is a prototype or not. 0 :^)

3/14/2006 07:45:00 PM | |

13 March 2006 

A Girl I've Been Seeing


Not that I'm big on socializing on the "interweb," but I've met a girl that is just ... sorry, I can't think of a word ephemeral enough. You'll just have to judge for yourself.

Dominique. She's very interactive. Learn more about her here.

3/13/2006 09:41:00 PM | |

 

W&G Forever!!

Too many blogs simply re-post other blog posts or news articles. So here I go (original):

Wallace and Gromit Fans Want Statue

By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Mar 7, 11:07 AM ET

Fired by news that Wallace and Gromit have won a fourth Oscar for their creator, fans in the pair's hometown called Tuesday for a statue to be erected of the balding cheese lover and his long-suffering canine companion.

Matthew Symonds, a local councilor in Bristol where Nick Park and Aardman Animations created the now-famous pair, said it was time to recognize the contribution that Wallace and Gromit have made to the city in southwest England.

"Everyone loves Wallace and Gromit and everyone I've spoken to on this matter agrees that we should thank Aardman in some way for what they have done for the city," said Symonds.

"They really have placed Bristol on the map worldwide," he said, adding that the Aardman motion picture company had made a big impact on the city.

Park and Aardman won their fourth Academy Award on Sunday in the category of best animated feature film for "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

"With Hollywood and Oscar success they could easily have left to seek their fortune elsewhere," said Symonds.

"It really is about time that the Lord Mayor offered Wallace the best cheese the city can lay hands on; Gromit and his makers are more than welcome to it as well," said Symonds.

A spokeswoman for Bristol City Council said councilors would be happy to consider any request for a statue.

Aardman had previously won three Oscars for the animated films "Creature Comforts" in 1991, "The Wrong Trousers" in 1994 and "A Close Shave" in 1996.

The company was founded by David Sproxton and Peter Lord 30 years ago. Park joined in the 1980s.

A fire at the company's Bristol warehouse last year destroyed hundreds of props used in the Wallace and Gromit films.

___

On the Net:

http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/fla/wg.html

Okay, I apologize now, but it was worth it. You may have noticed that I love Wallace and Gromit so I have to be whole heartedly behind this venture.

3/13/2006 09:05:00 PM | |

 

Whoda Thunk?

After Microsoft unveiled their new Live Search I gave it a whirl. It has some cool features, but for the most part I'm used to Google. What was impressive, though, is I found actual proof that people have read this blog ... or at least seen it. There are actual links for my site on these sites:

  • Here's one: Lets Begin Again - Ordinary Faith (click here) The author has this site linked under the heading "To Inspire or Confound ...." Now I'm curious.
  • There's a bunch like this: Peter Stormare (click here) Apparently someone catalogs blogs or other pages that link to sites like the IMDb. I wonder why.
I'm all a twitter, really!

3/13/2006 08:55:00 PM | |

11 March 2006 

Stymied about carbs

The other night I was buying a salad at a sub shop (go figure) and it was one of those "Zero Net Carbs" items that are popular these days. Since there was a wait time I started to muse on the idea of why the word net is in the phrase.

Did the salad start off with a number of carbs to which they had to add an equal number of "negative" carbs to balance the equation? Maybe there is a carb line that is the dietary equivalent of the mathematician's number line.
In cooking schools around the world, are there young chef-wannabes learning to balance cooking equations? "Hmmm ... le'see ... 12 carbs plus (-7) carbs equals 5 net carbs."

Or maybe they figure that the consumer is going to burn off a certain number of carbs by stirring the salad around to mix in the dressing so it is okay to have that many carbs initially and thus your "net carbs" are zero.

This is why I should never be given free time.

3/11/2006 08:38:00 AM | |

10 March 2006 

More Body Art

Look what I found the next day after writing about body painting.

"Artists paint on the bodies of two models using a USB-stick and a Compact Flash card during the 2006 CeBIT information and telecommunication technology fair in Hanover. (AFP/DDP/Jochen Luebke)"

I heard somewhere that it is legal to walk around painted like this, but otherwise "nekkid." In New York state women may be topless in public where men are granted the same permission so long as they don't disturb the public peace.

(Photo credit from story)

3/10/2006 08:15:00 PM | |

09 March 2006 

Of prurient interest

I've been working very hard at behaving myself. The opposite sex is a huge distraction but with the help of a an antidepressants side-effects and the grace of the Lord I spend more time thinking about important things.

Then I helped a friend look for zodiac artwork to inspire some tattoo designs.

The wonderful Gemini picture at left showed up and I thought, "That's really cool!" Using bodies as canvases has always fascinated me. From those nuts who paint their torsos with team colors for the big game to nifty stuff like this picture, just thinking about the social aspects is fun.

But I was looking for Pisces and Leo. So I went to the next page and whoooooaaa! And I thought that Google's "Moderate Safe Search" would have filtered out that stuff. Still, this is a great picture. I don't believe in astrology but I appreciate good art.

3/09/2006 09:07:00 PM | |

08 March 2006 

Totten a Deux

Right now I'm watching a wonderful movie -- one of my all-time favorites, actually -- and is my wont I looked up a few details at the IMDb. A Song is Born (1948) is a musical remake of 1941's Ball of Fire and has some interesting trivia:

  • Howard Hawks directed both films
  • Mary Field plays Miss Totten in both films
  • Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell, Buck and Bubbles, Louie Bellson, Page Cavanaugh, and the Samba Kings all play themselves. Getting all these legendary men together to play at the same time would be the equivalent of all the top Rap/Hip-Hop stars singing together in a modern movie.
  • When asked to play without music, Prof. Magenbruch (Benny Goodman) says, "You can't play without music." Lionel Hampton replies, "Well, Benny Goodman used to." Magenbruch then says he's never heard of Benny Goodman.
  • Virginia Mayo's appearance is extra special when you consider that she was just a Goldwyn Girl in her first movie with the lead in this film, Danny Kaye. They eventually teamed up for five movies. Sadly, her singing voice in this film was dubbed by Jeri Sullavan.
Back when I was teaching, my description of this film and the fabulous music in it was effusive enough to convince the music teacher to buy a copy and use it in her class. There's a stunning segment where all the famous musicians listed above create a well-scripted "jam session" outlining the "history" of Jazz and related genres.

Of course, all the music if incredible. I would bet that even an atheist would say "Now there's a gift from God!" when Buck (of Buck and Bubbles) first plays the piano early in the movie. One could almost dispense with the dialogue and have just as much enjoyment with only the music.

3/08/2006 08:32:00 PM | |

06 March 2006 

Sponsoring the Anti-Christ

It's official, the Anti-Christ is brought to us by Lexus!

The voice-over guy announced it just before the first commercial break during an airing of The Antichrist, a recent documentary on The History Channel.

Now isn't that taking commercialism a bit too far? And with sponsorship like that, why do we have to pay thirty-bucks for the DVD? That's just evil. Plain, simple evil.

3/06/2006 09:22:00 PM | |

05 March 2006 

I watched 20 minutes

Oscars® away! I told many a folk that I had little interest in the Academy Awards this year. Wonderful films and actors had not been nominated because, once again, Hollywood has an agenda that often differs with the public's tastes. Several news stories preceding the event made this clear (Google 'em yourself).

But I did tune in for about 20 minutes because the opening bits are usually worth watching. Host Jon Stewart's film clip introduction honoring past hosts was funny but not exceptional and it was clear that his acerbic and cerebral wit was lost on the crowd. Then again, they seemed to be rather humorless and stuck up whenever I tuned in for a peek. Thusly I can't see him coming back unless they can't talk Billy Crystal into returning. He was good and I'd like to see him host again but Hollywood may have other ideas.

A part I wish I had seen (but I was watching the destruction of science as we know it in The Core) was the win by Nick Park and Aardman Studios for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Here's one time Hollywood did recognize excellence rather than just hand the award to Tim Burton. The Aardman team has won the Oscar® in the shorts category with W&G before, but this is a first for feature-length animated film with the world-famous duo.

Parting kudos to IMDb again for having the fastest Web coverage of the event. Hollywood may want to shut down this site because it was almost better than watching the broadcast.

Parting anger to the Academy for failure to include Don Knotts in the memorial footage. I'm not surprised, but I am upset. The wholesome is often shunned in Hollywood, but this was downright rude.

3/05/2006 10:04:00 PM | |

 

It pays to wander the Web

A number of years ago I found some neckties with beautiful patterns that turned out to be stained and enhanced samples of various chemicals or other substances as seen from a microscope. The image at left is also science art, but this time the pattern is from bacteria in a Petri dish of nutrient solution.

If you like what you see, click here to see more. I learned about it from another blog that I found courtesy news.com blogs.

3/05/2006 05:35:00 PM | |

About me

  • I'm CC Hunt
  • From Between UNH & USM of late., United States
  • Romans 7:15 in some fashion or other defines it all, be it my career, loves, family, or whatever.
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