The Eternal Gaijin

Ah yes. All the Sturm and Drang of the foiled terror plot. The more you read the more you think that there's no there there. When my folks arrived over here they barely brought any carryon luggage because they know they can't carry it back. You are free, however, to abandon your carryons in the UK. Look for a big pile of abandoned video cameras in Hyde Park stacked up like empties after a student's lease-breaking party. The first person to really underscore the fact that this has to come to an end was Wonkette (http://www.wonkette.com/politics/dancing-with-the-stars/can-we-please-bring-our-damned-coffee-on-the-plane-again-idiots-201784.php) So why does Wonkette have a mad-on for these new security procedures. Well, because they are the bullshit response to a bullshit threat: There's a pretty good rundown of why there's no there there. http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Sources_August_Terror_Plot_Fiction_Underscoring_0918.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/f...

Sam and Adam Long time listener, etc, etc. I've been listening since the early days and this is one of my favourite podcasts. I enjoy the reviews, the arguments, the hits, the misses... The problem is that I'm usually a couple of weeks behind on listening to the podcasts. So I may be a bit dated but since I only listened this afternoon, here goes: You're way off the mark on your Top Five Truly Moving Pictures list. Forrest Gump? It still astounds me so many years on that a shallow one-note performance - the cinematic equivalent of chopsticks - could still be hailed as being so rich and layered. "It's not chopsticks! It's a symphony," I keep hearing. How does this happen? Ultimately, you missed some of the most powerful and tear provoking movies in cinema... 5) Truly, Madly, Deeply. Juliet Stevenson loses her husband, Alan Rickman, and is still seeking counselling to deal with the grief. Her palpable anguish in the opening scene is real beyond any Hollywoo...

So, Ive been away for the last week or so. I've started the new job and have been running around with that. And then the big news happened. No not my folks coming over to visit. That's actually up in the air because my neice was admitted to the hospital. With a 4cm brain tumour. Between the brainstem and cerebellum. The story was long and convuluted. This is just the Readers' Digest version. To prepare for my grandfather's internment and to begin cleaning and preparing the house for sale (which doesn't make my grandmother happy at all), my parents travelled down to Amherst again. During the stay there, my neice complained of double vision, nausea and other problems. She was lethargic and harder to get up in the mornings than most teenagers. When they got back up to Bourget, my sister booked an appointment for the opthamologist. Who took one look in Bailie's eyes and called the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (make note of the acronym CHEO. You'll ...

I got back to work today from the weekend. Someone asked me a rather typical question. "Did you have a good weekend?" I thought about it and answered, "Do you like wallpapering?" "No," my interlocuter had no reason to even ponder the answer. "Ah, I didn't have much of a weekend then." The few minutes I wasn't covered in wallpaper paste were productive in a sense. I noticed a large number of religion and education related posts and news articles out there. The American Family Association (or NAMBLA) noticed that higher levels of education can de-fundamentalize the kids. (http://www.afajournal.org/2006/august/0806colleges.html) Not sure what the conclusion they drew was. Maybe the kids just need Real Science. Atheist Revolution commented on the recent stories showing that fundamentalist Christian schools do a much worse job at education the kids. (http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/08/study-finds-worst-performance-in.html) And I tho...

Being employed is much better than being unemployed. Work is off to a good start. Additional note: I made contact with CB, an old colleague from Tokyo who is another Canadian in Britain (CiB). From what he's said, he didn't land on his feet, but has pulled himself back up to them and is now doing pretty well. Glad to hear it. And the Register has an interesting article about the possibility of actually mixing up a liquid explosive on an airplane, which is extremely informative. Totally debunks the need for all the crap that's been going down at Heathrow all week. (http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/) -- Posted by The Eternal Gaijin (email) London, UK Words are incapable of describing what I am about to tell you.

Evolution and Medicine Over at Respectful Insolence , Orac has run a lot of posts about the intersection of evolution and medicine, and covered the need in depth. Along the same lines, this article outlines the need for evolutionary biology to be more prominently featured in medical school.

The Cincinnati Post - Kevin Eigelbach: Lighten up on the scare letters Ken Ham is freaking out and starting more of his (and the Religious Right's) War on Christianity crap based on a sticker found in a Bible somewhere that said it should be approached critically. Nice take on the evolution warning sticker. Sorry this backfired on you Ken, but do you know where I can order some of those stickers?