I've seen some pretty depressing films in my time (Melancholia being the winner of that particular award) but I have to admit that I wasn't quite prepared for the stark realism of Michael Heneke's Amour.
The film tells the story of an elderly Parisian couple named Georges and Anne. One day, Anne has a stroke and becomes mentally and physically disabled. Georges now must take care of her. In a deeply sad way, the film depicts her slow descent into infirmity and, ultimately, death.
With its typical European existentialism, Amour moves slowly in both theme and style. The camera lingers without a cut on many shots much longer than it seems it should but that is Heneke's point. He successfully illustrates the physical, mental and emotional strain of end of life care. It's a tough film to watch for a number of reasons but well worth it as I walked out of there realizing that my wife and I are woefully behind in our later life planning.
I'd recommend Amour only if you are prepared to watch a slow and maudlin film.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Science!
I've always thought that conservatives are simply wired differently than liberals. Now we have the proof, courtesy of...
(drum roll please)
Science!
Conservatives Big on Fear, Brain Study Finds
I suppose we could simply file this one under NO SHIT but the details of this study are quite fascinating.
Peering inside the brain with MRI scans, researchers at University College London found that self-described conservative students had a larger amygdala than liberals. The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that is active during states of fear and anxiety. Liberals had more gray matter at least in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that helps people cope with complexity.
Yep.
This would be why conservatives are so hard to understand by other people. Their fight or flight reflexes are at DEFCON 1 more often than not. It must really suck to be in such a state all the time. It's no wonder they are such assholes about everything! This study also shows why they have such a difficult time understanding more complex issues and have trouble with qualitative analysis. They simply don't have the brain matter to handle it.
In many ways, this study is a relief. Now we truly do know that conservative will never change their minds. They physically can't!
(drum roll please)
Science!
Conservatives Big on Fear, Brain Study Finds
I suppose we could simply file this one under NO SHIT but the details of this study are quite fascinating.
Peering inside the brain with MRI scans, researchers at University College London found that self-described conservative students had a larger amygdala than liberals. The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that is active during states of fear and anxiety. Liberals had more gray matter at least in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that helps people cope with complexity.
Yep.
This would be why conservatives are so hard to understand by other people. Their fight or flight reflexes are at DEFCON 1 more often than not. It must really suck to be in such a state all the time. It's no wonder they are such assholes about everything! This study also shows why they have such a difficult time understanding more complex issues and have trouble with qualitative analysis. They simply don't have the brain matter to handle it.
In many ways, this study is a relief. Now we truly do know that conservative will never change their minds. They physically can't!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Why Did Mindy McCready Still Have a Gun?
Yesterday former country star Mindy McCready committed suicide by shooting herself in the head. She had attempted suicide at least three times since 2005. Just last month David Wilson, her boyfriend and the father of their nine-month-old child, shot himself in the head. McCready apparently killed Wilson's dog before shooting herself.
McCready had a long history of drug abuse and alcoholism, arrest for fraudulently obtaining prescription medications, probation violation, and misdemeanor assault. She had been in "Celebrity Rehab 3," and is the fifth participant in the show to die and the third from season three alone.
McCready had a long-running custody dispute with her mother, who undoubtedly feared for the lives of her grandchildren — it is not uncommon for suicidal people to kill their children, spouses, girlfriends and boyfriends before taking their own lives. McCready had just regained custody of her son Zander in December. Thankfully, McCready just killed a dog.
You're twice as likely to die of gun suicide than you are to be shot by someone else. In 2010 20,000 of the approximately 30,000 gun deaths in the United States were suicides:
Guns are particularly lethal. Suicidal acts with guns are fatal in 85 percent of cases, while those with pills are fatal in just 2 percent of cases, according to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.Gun suicides accounted for half of the 38,000 successful suicides in 2010. Poisoning and suffocation each accounted for about a quarter, but those methods are much less effective. There are an estimated 11 suicide attempts for every successful one, though this statistic is tricky to compute because not all attempts are reported. The risk of suicide is three times higher in homes with guns than it is in homes without.
The question is, why did McCready still have a gun? And would the NRA and the Republican Party defend her right to have one? Why doesn't the "pro-life" Republican Party's demand that people in such a tenuous mental state have their weapons confiscated not just for their own safety, but especially for the safety of their loved ones?
Sunday, February 17, 2013
299
One of my great joys on Sunday is to crack open the paper and have a nice, long and leisurely read. Today, though, there was nothing pleasant about this headline.
Appeals of denied permits get guns into questionable hands
Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Toni Beitz said the reason for some reversals is that the carry-permit law puts a high burden on a sheriff to prove that someone shouldn't be issued a permit. Under the carry-permit statute, for example, criminal allegations that are not investigated and documented aren't grounds for denial. "The statute is very limited as to what evidence the sheriff can look at. He's got a very short period of time, and there's only a very narrow room for him to use discretion," Beitz said. "That was the big shift when it used to be in the hands of chiefs of police. They had a lot of discretion to look at maybe whatever they wanted to look at."
Interesting. So, the gun lobby, who was spent the last couple of years screaming at the top of their lungs about gun walking, is now essentially doing the same thing. In their fervent zeal over their warped interpretation of the second amendment, 299 people who have a criminal history get to have guns in my home state.
Perhaps they should heed their own warnings about laws and unintended consequences.
Appeals of denied permits get guns into questionable hands
Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Toni Beitz said the reason for some reversals is that the carry-permit law puts a high burden on a sheriff to prove that someone shouldn't be issued a permit. Under the carry-permit statute, for example, criminal allegations that are not investigated and documented aren't grounds for denial. "The statute is very limited as to what evidence the sheriff can look at. He's got a very short period of time, and there's only a very narrow room for him to use discretion," Beitz said. "That was the big shift when it used to be in the hands of chiefs of police. They had a lot of discretion to look at maybe whatever they wanted to look at."
Interesting. So, the gun lobby, who was spent the last couple of years screaming at the top of their lungs about gun walking, is now essentially doing the same thing. In their fervent zeal over their warped interpretation of the second amendment, 299 people who have a criminal history get to have guns in my home state.
Perhaps they should heed their own warnings about laws and unintended consequences.
Praying For His Death
Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal made me think about Voltaire again. In an email to supporters, O'Neal wrote
At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!
and then recommended Psalm 109:8 which reads
Let his days be few; and let another take his office
This verse is followed by this, in Psalm 109:9
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
As Volatire astutely noted, religious intolerance always leads to fanaticism and savage, inhuman action.
At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!
and then recommended Psalm 109:8 which reads
Let his days be few; and let another take his office
This verse is followed by this, in Psalm 109:9
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
As Volatire astutely noted, religious intolerance always leads to fanaticism and savage, inhuman action.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Best Picture: Silver Linings Playbook
Just got back from a matinee with the missus and we saw the absolutely wonderful Silver Linings Playbook. Bradley Cooper plays Pat, a man released from a mental institution for beating the crap out of his wife's lover after discovering them in the shower together. Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman who lost her husband in an automobile accident. The two end up finding each other in their mental and emotional challenges and, of course, love.
In addition to capturing Philadelphia's culture perfectly, the focus on mental health and how it affects people's lives is most welcome. There are several points in the film that drive home how complex this problem is and how each family struggles with it in their own unique way. There need to be more films like this so our culture can see that there is no stigma to mental health issues. Everyone has them and seeking to be more mentally healthy is something that should be vigorously pursued throughout one's lifespan.
In addition to capturing Philadelphia's culture perfectly, the focus on mental health and how it affects people's lives is most welcome. There are several points in the film that drive home how complex this problem is and how each family struggles with it in their own unique way. There need to be more films like this so our culture can see that there is no stigma to mental health issues. Everyone has them and seeking to be more mentally healthy is something that should be vigorously pursued throughout one's lifespan.
Everything is the Holocaust
So, in addition to any changes in gun laws being like the Holocaust, I guess we can add Obamacare to the whole "Jews being taken away on trains" meme.
The insurance companies are creating their own tombs. Much like the Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps, private insurers are used by the feds to put the system in place because the federal government has no way to set up the exchange. Several years from now, the federal government will want nothing to do with private insurance companies. The feds will have a national system of health insurance and they will pull the trigger on the insurance companies.
Yes, and then the anal probes will begin with the express purpose of building a warrior race to enslave us all.
And take away our guns.
The insurance companies are creating their own tombs. Much like the Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps, private insurers are used by the feds to put the system in place because the federal government has no way to set up the exchange. Several years from now, the federal government will want nothing to do with private insurance companies. The feds will have a national system of health insurance and they will pull the trigger on the insurance companies.
Yes, and then the anal probes will begin with the express purpose of building a warrior race to enslave us all.
And take away our guns.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Why Do Meteors Like Siberia So Much?
Earlier today a meteorite exploded over Siberia, near the city of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite, called a bolide, was captured on cell phones and video cameras by numerous observers, many of whom immediately uploaded their videos to YouTube.
The explosion caused an intense flash of light, a loud boom and a shock wave that broke windows over a large area. More than a thousand people were injured, mostly by broken glass caused by the explosion's shockwave, as they rushed to see what caused the flash.
The Chelyabinsk event calls to mind the Tunguska explosion of 1908. That meteorite flattened all the trees in 770 square-mile area. People have theorized all sorts of causes for the Tunguska incident, from mini black holes to alien spacecraft. But as the Chelyabinsk event shows, the most likely explanation is just a larger bolide, estimated to be 100 meters across.
So why do meteorites like Siberia? It's big. Siberia covers almost 10% of the earth's land surface. It's 77% of Russia's territory, and also includes parts of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China.
It's estimated that the Chelyabinsk bolide was the size of an SUV, just a few tons. A bolide is a meteorite that explodes in the atmosphere with an apparent magnitude of -14 or brighter. Apparent magnitude is an astronomical term that describes the relative brightness of celestial objects. Magnitude is a logarithmic scale, and negative numbers are brighter. The sun as seen from Earth is about magnitude -27, or 400,000 times brighter than the full moon, which is almost magnitude -13. Planets like Venus and Jupiter are magnitude -4.89 and -2.94 at their brightest. The brightest star, Sirius, is magnitude -1.47, and the dimmest star visible to the human eye is about +6.50 under the best expected conditions.
Because there are nuclear weapons facilities nearby, there was initially some concern that the Chelyabinsk event was some kind of nuclear weapon. Russian news reports have repeatedly stated that "background radiation is normal."
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet in general get a lot of heat for spreading rumors, misconceptions and lies across the world at the speed of light. But in this case cellphone technology and the Internet served to provide direct and immediate evidence of a natural cause for an event that in different times, say November, 1962 during the height of the Cuban missile crisis, could have sparked nuclear war.
The Chelyabinsk event comes on the same day that an asteroid, 2012 DA14, will pass within 17,000 miles of the earth (the two incidents are apparently unrelated). That's closer than geosynchronous communications satellites orbit the earth.
DA14 is estimated to be 45 meters across, or half the size of the Tunguska bolide. If it were to hit the earth, it would have the potential to kill thousands. But since most of the earth is covered by water, and a lot of the earth's land surface is empty like Siberia, the chances of a major death toll are low.
But the explosion over Chelyabinsk is a concrete reminder that the threat of asteroids and comets hitting the earth is not just science fiction. A relatively small asteroid could kick up enough dust and smoke into the atmosphere to start an ice age, as some scientists believe happened 2 million years ago. Sixty-six million years ago a bigger one hit the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. At some point we will know that an asteroid or comet is going to hit the earth and we'll actually have enough time to do something about it.
And we should make sure we're ready. NASA has the Near Earth Observation program to track such objects and predict their paths. President Obama's plan for an asteroid mission is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing. And it's exactly the kind of thing you need a big government and international cooperation to do, because no business or single country should be held responsible for protecting the planet.
With all the arguments about the deficits and tax cuts everyone should take a step back. Some things are bigger than our petty squabbles about who really won a mandate in the last election. Instead of wasting all our energy on bickering we should start building things, going new places and making the world a better, safer place.
The explosion caused an intense flash of light, a loud boom and a shock wave that broke windows over a large area. More than a thousand people were injured, mostly by broken glass caused by the explosion's shockwave, as they rushed to see what caused the flash.
The Chelyabinsk event calls to mind the Tunguska explosion of 1908. That meteorite flattened all the trees in 770 square-mile area. People have theorized all sorts of causes for the Tunguska incident, from mini black holes to alien spacecraft. But as the Chelyabinsk event shows, the most likely explanation is just a larger bolide, estimated to be 100 meters across.
So why do meteorites like Siberia? It's big. Siberia covers almost 10% of the earth's land surface. It's 77% of Russia's territory, and also includes parts of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China.
It's estimated that the Chelyabinsk bolide was the size of an SUV, just a few tons. A bolide is a meteorite that explodes in the atmosphere with an apparent magnitude of -14 or brighter. Apparent magnitude is an astronomical term that describes the relative brightness of celestial objects. Magnitude is a logarithmic scale, and negative numbers are brighter. The sun as seen from Earth is about magnitude -27, or 400,000 times brighter than the full moon, which is almost magnitude -13. Planets like Venus and Jupiter are magnitude -4.89 and -2.94 at their brightest. The brightest star, Sirius, is magnitude -1.47, and the dimmest star visible to the human eye is about +6.50 under the best expected conditions.
Because there are nuclear weapons facilities nearby, there was initially some concern that the Chelyabinsk event was some kind of nuclear weapon. Russian news reports have repeatedly stated that "background radiation is normal."
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet in general get a lot of heat for spreading rumors, misconceptions and lies across the world at the speed of light. But in this case cellphone technology and the Internet served to provide direct and immediate evidence of a natural cause for an event that in different times, say November, 1962 during the height of the Cuban missile crisis, could have sparked nuclear war.
The Chelyabinsk event comes on the same day that an asteroid, 2012 DA14, will pass within 17,000 miles of the earth (the two incidents are apparently unrelated). That's closer than geosynchronous communications satellites orbit the earth.
DA14 is estimated to be 45 meters across, or half the size of the Tunguska bolide. If it were to hit the earth, it would have the potential to kill thousands. But since most of the earth is covered by water, and a lot of the earth's land surface is empty like Siberia, the chances of a major death toll are low.
But the explosion over Chelyabinsk is a concrete reminder that the threat of asteroids and comets hitting the earth is not just science fiction. A relatively small asteroid could kick up enough dust and smoke into the atmosphere to start an ice age, as some scientists believe happened 2 million years ago. Sixty-six million years ago a bigger one hit the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. At some point we will know that an asteroid or comet is going to hit the earth and we'll actually have enough time to do something about it.
And we should make sure we're ready. NASA has the Near Earth Observation program to track such objects and predict their paths. President Obama's plan for an asteroid mission is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing. And it's exactly the kind of thing you need a big government and international cooperation to do, because no business or single country should be held responsible for protecting the planet.
With all the arguments about the deficits and tax cuts everyone should take a step back. Some things are bigger than our petty squabbles about who really won a mandate in the last election. Instead of wasting all our energy on bickering we should start building things, going new places and making the world a better, safer place.
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