March 31, 2009
We flatter ourselves that our idols are clever because they are not made out of wood, but silicon
Spengler offers a meandering review of a new English translation of a "20th-century classic" of Hebrew literature, And from There You Shall Seek
All possible worlds
Ron Moore describes the idea as "a little too cute" but I rather like this alternate ending to Battlestar Galactica.
March 30, 2009
Methinks they dost protest too much
Janet Daley makes a point that should be obvious to Marxists. A technical term for the mistake is reification - Verdinglichung, actually - i.e. treating a social relationship as if it were a thing.
It is, if anything, an anti-system: the aggregation of human behaviour as it goes about fulfilling particular wants and needs. It can be described in anthropomorphic terms, such as "ruthless" or "benign" but of itself has no motives and no objectives. (Gordon Brown is more than usually fatuous when he insists that markets need to have "values": only people have values, methods of exchange do not.)
We could also usefully deploy the word "irony" except such would be to lend credit the protesters have not earned. Not one in a hundred Marxists has bothered to read Marx let alone attempted to make sense of the gaping pot holes in his logic.
A nightmare scenario
Ebola hemorrhagic fever can kill up to 90 percent of victims (via Warren Ellis).
Less than 24 hours later, an experimental vaccine — never before tried on humans — was on its way to Germany from a lab in Canada.
Amanda Palmer: Ampersand
"What's so great about Amanda Palmer?" asks Agent Bedhead. Flea-readers may judge for themselves.
March 29, 2009
The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft
Ron Howard is set to bring The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft to the silver screen.
March 28, 2009
If you can make a flea cooperate with you, you're probably good at politics
The lost art form of Victorian Flea Circuses.
When I say "union" you say "power"
While CUPE holds on to pole position, I have a special loathing for SEIU. Watching them picket themselves makes for a promising start to my weekend.
Like ozone, or gunpowder
Astronauts attempt to describe the smell of space.
"When you repressurize the airlock and get out of your suit, there is a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acrid smell," Jones told SPACE.com, adding that the smell is also similar to burnt gunpowder or the ozone smell of electrical equipment. "It's not noticeable inside the suit. The suit smells like plastic inside."
The smell, he adds, only occurs on a shuttle or the space station after a spacewalk and is unmistakable to astronauts working with the spacesuits and equipment that was used in the vacuum of space.
Now for an explanation of that awesome Tie Fighter sound.
March 27, 2009
I’ve just had the strangest dream…
Top 15 totally unexpected endings for Battlestar Galactica. My choice is too obvious to bother pointing out.
March 26, 2009
Also an effective barrier against the Worm? Legalizing marijuana
Scenes from the Mexican war on drugs.
Pro-tip: The Spice must flow. Best take care not to prevent on Worm migration. Also, those suckers are like a vacuum cleaner on lint when it comes to sucking up illegal immigrants so fair dues.
Sexist poll announced
Vote for your favourite hot politician. Orly Levy almost had my vote but it's Julia Anastasia Bonk all the way, baby.
More here.
March 25, 2009
The first rule of censorship is that you cannot talk about censorship
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is now threatening $11,000 dollar a day fines for linking to sites on its internet blacklist. So much for my escape-to-Australia plan.
The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA - an anti-abortion website.
March 24, 2009
Arcattack: Faraday Fun- Imperial March
Quite possibly the best thing in the history of ever.
Also this. Which makes my live show look like an insignificant bag of crap. Have to. Step up. Game. Somehow.
Damn, just checked and Rusty already has this.
Made you look
The cynical among you may think posting a suggestive image of Grace Park is a shameless bid for traffic. And you would be right. I can only imagine the raised eyebrows as I link to yet more cheesecake photos of scifi babes; take this generous collection of Battlestar Galactica actresses, for example.
My counter-argument is pictured above.
Second look at: Nicki Clyne.
Oh hell, while I'm at it: Agent Provocateur lingerie sales are soaring.
March 23, 2009
George Galloway: A Security Threat
"... being a Member of Parliament in the UK doesn't give him any special privileges when it comes to entering this country."
March 22, 2009
Mr & Ms Costa Del Sol
The BBC's Euro Test calls me a sceptic. But then the BBC does not think "liberty" or "democracy" are possible answers to question No. 19 (via AoSHQ).
This group are the Euro sceptics. They feel we've gone too far already. They want Europe for trading purposes and holidays but nothing more.
Bear McCreary: All Along the Watchtower
I thought the finale was extraordinary.
Related: The 12 Pies of Kobol.
March 21, 2009
Pat Condell: Free Speech is Sacred
"I claim free speech as my religion." He gets his steam up about half way through minute 4.
Via Quotulatiousness. See the above post on a related note..
Fox news belittles and mocks the Canadian military
Chris Taylor via email.
1) Canada wouldn't be able to routinely underfund its military if it weren't so very close to the heart of the American security umbrella; and
2) It's ridiculous that the CF can barely keep its critical trades recruiting and logistics act together long enough to wage war for a decade.
This is, after all,. the second time we have taken an "operational pause" in the past six years. Meanwhile USN and USAF have been flying and fighting in the Gulf since 1991, no operational pause. Of course they are also suffering from a lot of airframe aging, so maybe they should have.
March 20, 2009
Cassandra should take her own advice
Given my build up to Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Watchmen, Flea-readers might be forgiven for wondering why I have taken this long to comment on success or failure of the project. I think he did a brilliant job, actually, and Snyder's ending - while not canonical and therefore abomination - is actually a more elegant solution to the plot than Moore's own. There is a limit to what any adaptation can accomplish and I believe it is a mistake to nitpick oneself out of enjoying the thing. Not a gripping critique, I realize, and one reason I have taken so long to offer it. But there is a bigger problem.
I am a great admirer of Alan Moore, obviously. Not only for his work as a transformational comics writer but also as an interpreter and popularizer of the work of Aleister Crowley. That said, Moore falls into the same trap as many - perhaps most - intellectuals: simple-minded anti-imperialism coupled with cultural condescension toward the United States.
These views can be as simplistic and ugly as Moore's wrong-headed, crude assessment of American values by way of comment on the American comics industry or they can take a subtler form. Take Moore's appearance on Flea-fav Prisoners of Gravity. Ruminating on Watchmen, Moore poses an hypothetical about how the public would really react to the presence of heroes among them. Would they be grateful for their saviours or would they fear and resent them?
Ask yourself how the free people of the West think about the American military that shields them - particularly since the barbarism of 9/11 - and the question answers itself. It is a shame Moore's attitude reflects the fear and resentment he warned against decades ago. Given the fate of comic book writers in the Dark Ages barbarism on offer as an alternative to what we have got, Moore's anti-Americanism creates an unfortunate subtext to all his work.
Not so for Zack Snyder's Watchmen (small spoiler here). The twin towers of the WTC still dominate New York's skyline in Moore's alternative 1980s. They are not an accident. They are a visual counter-argument to lazy criticism of American civilization; a visual rebuke of the idea it is the best of all possible worlds or nothing.
March 19, 2009
The persistence of adamantium
Marking the 35th anniversary of Canada's only real superhero, April is Wolverine Art Appreciation Month.
Vincent van Gogh, C.M. Coolidge, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Rene Magritte and Edward Gorey takes may be found here. I quite like Salvador Dali's effort pictured above.
The Salamander and the Butterfly
In an attempt to work out how many editions of The King in Yellow are to be found between the 1895 first edition and my copy published in 1902, I stumbled across a controversy as to quite which edition is the first (I gather there were three 1895 printings). There is a strong case to be made for the Salamander edition, apparently.
What is probably the most compelling evidence for which is which is the change in text between the two versions. This text change makes the Salamander version stand alone from the Butterfly version despite the fact that the Butterfly version has thicker, better paper and the feel of a cut paper edition.
Follow the link for details. More about my 1902 edition once I have sorted out the identity of its original owner to my satisfaction...
March 18, 2009
March 17, 2009
Mayan carvings of cosmic monsters, hidden in the jungle for 2,000 years
Mud People. Wood People. Then the gods made Flesh People and you know the rest. Or at least so much as can be contained in a gelatinous colloidal suspension, garnered by a limited meat-based sensory apparatus and synthesized by an ideology of children's fairy tales laughingly dressed up as science.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
-H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
Wizard People, Dear Reader
I have rarely wished I was responsible for the work of another artist as I am when I listen to Brad Neely's Wizard People, Dear Reader.
March 16, 2009
Miss Atom
Eager to recognize Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, Russia’s nuclear power industry has found "Miss Atom" (that's the link, trust me) in the form of Ekaterina Bulgakova.
Lest curious Flea-readers tire themselves googling for Alyona Kirsanova.
March 15, 2009
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism.
Clay Shirky addresses all too thinkable technological change as newspapers meet the internet and go splat. The underlying logic of the problem - or rather, the underlying logic of denying the problem - is applicable to so much more than paper and ink.
When reality is labeled unthinkable, it creates a kind of sickness in an industry.
Substitute "country" for "industry" and you have Canada's body politic. And much of the West, for that matter.
March 14, 2009
Everybody has won, and all must have prizes
The UK is set to abandon school league tables measuring exam results and replace them with measurements of wellbeing.
Parents will also be surveyed on their views of the school under the Government proposals - which some critics have dismissed as 'happiness league tables'.
Bring Your Own Squid
Spoiler warning for Watchmen.
I should have something to say about the film soon.
March 13, 2009
Schulz City
Frank Miller's Charlie Brown (via William Gibson).
Me timbers shiver at the thought
Japan joins a growing international fleet of the clueless off the coast of Somalia. The mission: anti-piracy. Which I gather has something to do with providing pirates with directions back to their home ports.
I will trade you one flotilla from any navy of the 1920s - armed with 1920s technology - for the entire United Nations task force. This is not an engineering problem. Our grandfathers knew how to deal with pirates.
Dinga dinga dee
Wired calls it "the most atrocious defense video of all time."
March 12, 2009
England expects, regardless
Hardy: “Aye, aye sir.”
Nelson: “Hold on, that’s not what I dictated to Flags. What’s the meaning of this?”
Hardy: “Sorry sir?”
Nelson (reading aloud): “‘England expects every person to do his or her duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability.’ - What gobbledegook is this?”
Hardy: “Admiralty policy, I’m afraid, sir. We’re an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil’s own job getting ‘England’ past the censors, lest it be considered racist.”
This hardly counts as parody these days. RTWT.
March 11, 2009
The best single issue of a comic ever created
SF Gospel argues there are at least four Alan Moore stories slightly more deserving of praise than Watchmen. The best argument is for "Watchmaker", i.e. Watchmen issue #4.
Correct. And don't miss "The Anatomy Lesson" either; arguably the mother of all reboots.
tl;dr
Charlie Booker considers literary lies; I will jump straight to the conclusion (via Walter Benjamin).
March 10, 2009
We are staring into the abyss
This could get out of hand.
...
In its statement of responsibility the Real IRA said it deliberately shot the Domino's workers because they were British "collaborators" providing food to the enemy.
March 09, 2009
Firehoses and underwear
This stuff just writes itself. In an alarming Doomsday Clock kind of way.
Eau de nerd
Step 1 - Acquire Star Trek cologne.
Step 2 - Vaseline on the camera lens.
Step 3 - ???
Step 4 - Profit!
There are three fragrances planned for 2009 with the monikers "Tiberius" "Red Shirt" and "Ponn Farr."
Via Agent Bedhead.
In some cultures, four is an unlucky number
The March rankings for Canada’s Top 25 Political Blogs. Thanks again to Robert Jago for the time and the effort to run - and post - the numbers.
Týr: Stýrisvølurin
Performing March 23 at the Opera House in Toronto, unless I am mistaken.
March 08, 2009
I. Wants. It.
The USN is selling Sea Shadow and its floating dock. One caveat: A marine museum is "a bloodthirsty, paperwork ridden, permit-infested, money-sucking hole..."
The barge, by the way, is the only fully submersible dry dock ever built, making it very handy -- as it was 35 years ago -- for trying to raise a sunken nuclear-armed Soviet submarine.
Quite a bit more there about the barge than the Batmobile which is probably as it should be.
Plan view: The Google Earth Community considers Sea Shadow and the Hughes Mining Barge.
Help NASA name Node 3
I am voting "Xenu", obviously.
March 07, 2009
The Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration
Re-reading of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, I found myself considering that classic fan question: If wizards can use magic, how is it the Weasley's are poor? Megan McArdle hits most of the obvious economic highlights/plotholes of the J.K. Rowlings' oeuvre, dismisses the "I am expecting too much from a children's book" defence (quite right, too) and throws in some class war smears for good measure.
McArdle is not alone. Ilias Yocaris has considered the anarcho-capitalism of the wizarding world; worth the read a self-parodying Le Monde editorial. Daniel Levy and Avichai Snir, by contrast, have put together a less than edifying sounding round up of the political economy of Harry Potter (perhaps the full text of "Popular Perceptions and Political Economy in the Contrived World of Harry Potter " is a better read).
An intractable problem? Far from it. Rowling, perhaps conscious of fan concerns, provides an answer. Stephen Morris explains in reply to a discussion of Harry Potter and monetary policy**.
Beyond Hogwarts provides a handy summary of and conjectures concerning the Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. A more general discussion of magic in Harry Potter may be found at Wikipedia.
* In connection with a project I am working on.
** Good to see The Economist doing a good job again, if only in the comments.
Related economics: It is not so easy to make money from the Potter franchise as one might expect.
Another country
Dark Roasted Blend reports on Dickens World; surely this is the amusement park of the Flea. From the same source, and better yet, is news of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, set to open at Universal Orlando.
March 06, 2009
The other side of the mirror
Yes, yes, Watchmen and all that. I have nothing to say until I have seen the film. In the meantime, news Dark City
I would be just as happy if he makes The Tripods.
Ok, a link: Ozymandias feels contempt for your genitals.
Also: This cannot be good for Alan Moore's digestion.
Dalek of the deep
I never find anything this cool when I am dredging swamps.
March 05, 2009
Audi Shark
This Audi hovercar concept would make a fine addition to the Fleet of the Flea. Got some crime fighting to get to. In the near future. Possibly involving robots.
March 04, 2009
The accursed share
The ancient Egyptians dealt with excess productive capacity by whiling away the summer months building pyramids. Faced with the same problem, we send our non-contributing zeros to grad school.
How to talk to women
This exclusive full interview with real life Lara Croft - 23-year-old gymnast Alison Carroll - is strangely mesmerizing. I notice the channel is advertising "How To Talk To Women" alongside Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Now composing my own note: "Dear Alison, The name is 'Lara' not 'Laura'. Best, The Flea".
Remember these words if asked: Alison Carroll makes a great Lara Croft because of her "gutsy attitude". Both of them. And she has "SAS training", apparently.
The following is presented for the edification of Flea readers - and stray Jawas - concerned by potential costume and equipment inaccuracies.
March 03, 2009
Wireless
A massive outage in wireless and internet service prevented yesterday's publication of the Flea. No word yet on what the problem might have been; Rogers' incompetence is strangely un-newsworthy.
Disappointment
Snoop Dogg has revealed he is not as bright as I thought he was.