Even science is racist

I just read a news article about a man who claims that his drunk driving charges should be thrown out because the breathalyzer test discriminates against black men. His lawyer went so far as to call it the "KKK in a box."

Seriously, folks? The KKK in a box? The man was driving with 0.188 BAC, and the legal limit was 0.08. The fact that black men have slightly smaller lungs does not mean that his BAC would show as more than double what it actually was.

I guess that racism, like science, is whatever we want it to be.

Bored

So, here I am, sitting in the MARB, wishing that more MMBIO 151 students had questions. There was supposed to be a take home test handed out today, so I expected some company during my office hours, but Dr. Breakwell didn't get the test done on time, so it's just me.

If only there were something interesting to blog about.

I've read some interesting news articles lately, but nothing worth going into great depth on. There's the Gay School in Chicago, and I guess that's kind of weird. There's all the backlash about Prop 8 that the Church is getting, but if I go into that, I'll just get worked up and frustrated. Plus, it's not like anybody but my immediate family reads this blog, so my opinions are already known. Even science is boring this week. I mean seriously, studies about corn?

In the way of other blogs, I read Sam's yesterday and already saw all the new pictures of his kids (they're some good looking kids, Sam). John hasn't blogged since the election, so no entertainment there.

I'll just have to find something fun to do. Or maybe I'll have to buck it up and finish grading the last set of tests for Dr. Breakwell.

Global cooling

Well, yet again the score seems to be coming out Science 1, Al Gore 0.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Dr. James Hansen and the GISS reported that this October was the hottest ever. People called them on their data, and it turns out that for a large part of Russia they were comparing September of this year to October of last year. Of course it was warmer.

The numbers were revised and re-released, this time showing the record highs in Antarctica instead of Russia, but still coming to the same conclusion that this was the hottest October ever. But this was again challenged, as satellite images show that there is actually 30% more polar ice right now than at this same time last year.

Conclusion? Some scientists keep stretching to make it seem like we are all heading into a horrible Kevin Costner movie. But the evidence is relatively unconvincing. If you want to lower pollution, there are better reasons to do it than to stop global warming. Me personally? I want to reduce pollution because clean air smells better than dirty air. I think that resorting to scare tactics is a bit silly.

Pool time

Well, I just got out of Infection and Immunity for the day, and I thought I should share a factoid with everybody. We were talking about cryptosporidium (a mean little disease that likes to live in pools). Since diseases like this are transmitted by people who don't feel they can make the long trek from the pool all the way to the bathroom, studies have been done to see just how much urine is in pool water. Are you ready for it? 50 mL (cc) per person per hour. Seriously. That means that if you have a pool party with 20 people, in four hours one gallon of urine has entered your pool. Science!

Movie Review: Hellboy II

Last night I finally saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I give it an A- because it was very enjoyable, but somewhat predictable.

The basic plot of the Hellboy series interests me a lot. Hellboy was brought to earth as a cute little baby demon by the Nazis in 1944. He was taken from the Nazis by American forces and raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, a researcher of paranormal events. As he grows up, Hellboy fights the forces of evil and weird, despite sort of belonging to both categories. I think that is what I like most about Hellboy. He is interestingly conflicted between his evil nature (we find out a few times in the movies and probably more often in the comics that it is his destiny to destroy the Earth) and his good desires.

Anyway, The Golden Army was really good. It had what I found lacking in the first film (a wider variety of monsters for Hellboy to fight), and still managed to keep the B-movie tone despite a much bigger budget.

Probably the best gag for me was set up at the very beginning and the punch line was close to the end (I tend to like this kind of joke for some reason). When Professor/Dad Bruttenholm is telling a 10-year old Hellboy the legend of the indestructable Golden Army, Hellboy asks him what "industrable" means. The Professor corrects him and explains what indestructible means. At the end, when Hellboy is beating up the giant mechanical army, you hear him say "Industrible my ass!"

There is also a great scene where Hellboy and Abe get drunk, listen to love songs, and both talk about their girl problems. That gives us this bit of dialogue:

Hellboy: She's my... she's my whole, wide w... I would... I would give my life for her. But she also expects me to do the dishes!
Abe: I would die and do the dishes!

And this little gem:

Hellboy: She's still mad at me, you know. And it's not about the mess, either, it's about something else.
Abe: Well, why don't you just ask her?
Hellboy: No! Because when a woman's mad at you, but she's really mad about something else, and you have to ask, she gets mad because you had to ask in the first place! You know?

Ah, yes, it was a great movie.

Media review part 2

Well, folks, back by popular demand (and by "popular demand" I mean "I felt like it"), it's the media review!

Movies:
Bubba Hotep- B+
This was a great little movie where Elvis (Bruce Campbel) and a black John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) have to stop a mummy from sucking the souls out of the residents of an old-folks-home in East Texas. You may want to read that sentence again, just to be sure you got all the awesomeness. Bruce Campbel is amazing (no surprise) as a dirty old man version of Elvis (I guess that is just a slightly dirtier, older Elvis than the real Elvis).
Despite the greatness, I had to take a few points off the top because some of the dirty-old-Elvis jokes were a bit excessive.

The Office- B-
The Office has started to lose it. It's still funny, but it feels more forced. It feels like they're straining to make Michael Scott awkward in unbelievable ways, unlike David Brent, from whom the awkwardness flowed so naturally. I hate to be one of those guys who always says "the original was better," but there are several things about the remake that aren't as good as the original (like Keith). That said, I give it a B- because it still makes me laugh. Dwight giving birth to a watermelon...now that's just comedy gold.

Run, Fat Boy, Run- A-
I completely forgive this movie for being directed by David Schwimmer. Run, Fat Boy, Run manages to combine Sports Movie Plot #1 (underdog competes against unstoppable, evil juggernaut, eventually winning due to perseverance and spirit) and Romantic Comedy Plot #3 (guy loses girl, girl moves on, guy makes huge romantic gesture and wins girl back) into a really funny movie. It's about a man who enters a marathon to one-up his ex's new boyfriend who runs marathons for charity. In addition to being really funny, this movie had a great soundtrack, as exemplified by the song picked for the trailer.

It's Halloween!

OK, so Halloween was actually two days ago. But it's still in the general Halloween season, right? On Friday there was a Stake Halloween activity at the fieldhouse. I wasn't really planning on going, or if I was going, I wasn't planning on staying long. So, I didn't do anything in the costume area. But Jason seemed pretty excited about his costume idea and really wanted to go, so I decided to go with him.

I didn't have anything for a costume, so I had to think fast. I present to you the easiest costume ever: the Balloon Pirate. Thank goodness for useless Mission talents like making balloon animals. I just made myself a sword and a shoulder-parrot, and that was that. It wasn't the best costume I've ever seen, but you have to admit it's original.