Scott's Penguins

This 1913 photo is from the NOAA photo library and can be viewed online here. The caption reads

"Penguins on ice-foot." In: "Scott's Last Expedition ....", 1913. Dodd, Mead, and Company. New York. Volume II. Page 87. Library Call No. G850 1910 .S35 1913 .

Scott's Last Expedition can be read online here. An overview of his life is at wikipedia here. EyewitnessHistory has a page on Scott's doomed expedition. There is more information at south-pole.com and coolantarctica.com.

R.I.P. Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman died today at the age of 89. I saw the news first at GreenCine. I watched his The Seventh Seal a couple of months ago.

Obits:
New York Times
BBC
TimesOnline
NPR
The Guardian
CNN (AP)
MSNBC (AP)

update:
Self-Styled Siren has a report
as does Coffee coffee and more coffee
and scanners
and Cinematical
and LeftWingCracker, who also tells me of the death of talk show host Tom Snyder.

update 7/31/2007: VideosWithBibi has the classic Madeline Kahn parody.

Flickhead has a story.

FaithCentral has a link to the Telegraph article which

goes in particularly fascinating detail into his religious influences and his lifelong themes of sin and eternity.

SFScope has a notice and a couple of links.

update 8/1/2007: Scanners has new coverage, including links to and snips from other sites.

GetReligion has an article touching on the religious language being used in the obits and retrospectives being published on Bergman. GetReligion asks

Over the past day or so, I have read other mainstream tributes to Bergman and I cannot find the answer to a logical question, after all of these references to God, doubt and death. Here is the question: What did Bergman believe, if anything, about the ultimate issues? Did he ever make a clear statement about his religious beliefs?

Fraktastic has a video clip.

RightwingFilmGeek has an article about his films.

from The House Next Door

update 8/4/2007: Now I'm beginning to see less flattering commentary. Scanners, for example, expands on this line.

update 8/7/2007: Greencine has posted a final update with lots of material.

update 8/8/07: Scanners continues linking to new articles, focusing this time on folks who take a less favorable view of Bergman's work.

8/19: more from GreenCine

Get to Know the Night Sky

The night sky is an old friend for me from when I was a child and could clearly see the Milky Way in my own suburban backyard. A growing urban environment and light pollution have changed all that, but the night sky is still faithfully up there. This site is an amateur astronomy primer for recognizing key, easily visible features.

SFF/Horror at Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, that wonderful home for books no longer under copyright, has a shelf dedicated to science fiction. There are a fair number of real treasures there all in one place.

Precursors of the genre, separated by age, have a different place here. There's a separate bookshelf for the fantasy here. Horror, which sometimes is hard to tell from fantasy depending on who is doing the categorizing, is here. There's a bookshelf for Children's Fairy Tales here, but I don't see the Brothers Grimm on that page, which seems odd to me. Maybe I just missed them.

π

π or Pi is a 1998 psychological thriller, directed by Darren Aronofsky, centering around a number theorist and the mathematical concept of pi. I was fascinated by the film, first by the character of Max, the number theorist, and then by wondering exactly how much of what happens takes place in his mind and how much takes place in some form in an objective reality. It begs for a second viewing.

The game of Go features prominently in the movie.

trailer:


Strangely enough, it's currently available online through googlevideo:


9/10/2009: Weird Movies has a review.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 138

1 I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.

2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

6 Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

KJV

Simplicity and Social Justice

Frugal for Life pointed me to the Simple Living Network News, a free online newsletter. There's an article in the current newsletter #59 called Simplicity & Social Justice: Thoughts On The Competitive Society which begins

Simplicity has often been attacked as a yuppie movement with no relevance to the poor. Certainly I would never give a talk to poor people about how to simplify their lives! The poor are trying to survive, and that's not what living simply is about. Simplicity is about making conscious choices for the well being of people and the planet, and poor people don't have the luxury of choices. (Ironically, of course, the planet is less harmed by poor people than by richer people who use up so many more resources.)

However, the concept of Simplicity is vital to helping poor people because Simplicity's underlying goal is to "put money in its place." People are impoverished because of the greediness of the rich.

It seems to be basically a promotional article for the book Slow is Beautiful, but it does look like the main thrust of this author is voluntary simplicity in the service of benefiting the poor rather than for the benefit of the environment, which is what I see most often these days.

I'm going to subscribe to the newsletter for a while to see how the purpose manifests itself in their articles.

Enjoy the Fireflies

because their populations are in decline. NoImpactMan has a report, linking to a story that says

Of the nearly 200 species of fireflies on this continent, only a few are urbanites.

“There’s two or three species in North America that seem to put up with what people do,” Lloyd says.

I remember as a child in the city putting a little grass in the bottom of a jar kept from year to year for that purpose, running after them in the dusk to catch them, watching them flash until I fell asleep and setting them free the next morning. I remember the joy of sharing that fun with my kids. It's deeply saddening to think my grandkids might not be able to find lightning bugs.

The photo above of fireflies/lightning bugs in a jar is from Flickr.

Barnabas Collins

I try to keep up with the goings-on of Jonathan Frid, who played vampire Barnabas Collins in the 60's soap Dark Shadows, and today's news is full of reports that Johnny Depp will be playing the character in a new movie. That ought to be interesting. If he wants it, I certainly hope a place will be found for Mr. Frid in the new production.

Dark Shadows had a recent anniversary.

Non-abductees Anonymous

I really did think I had put this video on my blog, but can I find it now, when I need it? No, of course not. So here it is:

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

#1 Son was concerned that we might not be watching enough mindless action movies, so he picked Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Based on a video game -who'd have ever guessed- Lara Croft spends the movie jumping and running and beating the bad guys. I liked the butler best.

trailer:

Spin

HT: Amsterdamn.org

#2 Son's Favorite Movies

I asked for a list, and here it is:

1) The Last Valley
2) Kelly's Heroes
3) Lawrence of Arabia
4) Independence Day
5) The Man Who Never Was
6) House of Flying Daggers
7) The Hunt for Red October
8) Bullitt
9) Star Wars (the first film)
10) Goldfinger
11) LOTR: FOTR (Theatrical Release)
12) MirrorMask
13) The Dark Crystal
14) Secondhand Lions
15) Princess Mononoke
16) The Halloween Tree
17) My Favorite Brunette
18) The Getaway
19) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
20) A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott)
21) Nero Wolfe: Over My Dead Body, part 1 and part 2
22) Catherine the Great
23) Ivanhoe
24) Battlestar Galactica miniseries
25) Hercule Poirot's Evil Under the Sun

I've seen all but 2 of them and like most of them. My favorite 2 from this list are The Halloween Tree and The Dark Crystal.

Heli-Boarding

Another game in the snow.

I doubt they're playing this game as part of their research during the International Polar Year, although they are playing some games.

Wondering what polar conditions are really like? Check this out:


Brrr!

I didn't do so great at Heli Boarding, but then I generally stink at these games.

Draw a House

Here's mine:

Based on your drawing and the 10 answers you gave this is a summary of your personality:

You are sensitive and indecisive at times. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You are very tidy person. There's nothing wrong with that because you're pretty popular among friends. Your life is always full of changes.

You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You have a strong personality and you like to command, influence and control people.

You added a flower into your drawing. The flower signifies that you long for love. It also safe to say that others don't see you as a flirt. You don't think much about yourself.

Aren't I artistic and creative? Now that you know you certainly won't be drawing the worst house at the site, go draw a house of your own here.

HT: About.com

Yet More Post-HP Reads

From SFSignal comes a link to the list at The Guardian and a LiveJournal thread of reader recommendations.

I found the Guardian list less than helpful since some of the folks making suggestions seem not to have read the HP books. They seem to me to be more general suggestions of books kids should read rather than more specialized recommendations of books Harry Potter fans would like.

I didn't find much at the LiveJournal thread.

*sigh*

The SFSignal's own list is much more helpful. I mentioned it here. Their list is available as a 1-page PDF download. How helpful is that! Nice.

The BBC on the Creation Museum

I found it interesting to see a foreign take on the subject. My previous posts on the subject are here and here.

HT: jamonation

Recommended SF Stories

Free Speculative Fiction Online has a list (with links) of short stories they recommend that are available online. Among them are Alfred Bester's Star Light, Star Bight and Norman Spinrad's Carcinoma Angels. There are lots more. Well worth checking out.

Skinwalkers

Book #5 for the Book Awards Challenge

Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman is one in a series of mysteries featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and police officer Jim Chee. These Navajo tribal policemen are involved in a case that seems to have elements of tribal witchcraft. It's a sad story in many ways. I enjoyed the characters. The main characters have personal sub-plots that I found interesting. There's Lieutenant Leaphorn who is concerned about the health of his wife as he tries to convince her to add "white men's" medicine to the traditional Native healing ceremonies she's always used. Officer Chee is in training to become a healer and has led one Blessing Way ceremony successfully. And then Chee has a cat he's concerned about. The other characters are not fleshed out as well, but I didn't really need them to be. The relationships between the characters are well-drawn, too, and I could hear the conversations as natural.

We watched the PBS Mystery that's based on this book, but it bears little resemblance to the book. We liked the show and thought the characters well-cast, but except for being called Skinwalkers and having characters named Leaphorn and Chee there was very little to connect them.

from the back of the book:

United for the first time, Navajo Tribal Police officer Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn together embark on a murder investigation that leads them into the dark and mystical world of Indian witchcraft. Tony Hillerman's very special feel for the Navajo Way and the American Southwest has never before been conveyed so powerfully as in this haunting, suspenseful, beautifully written mystery novel.

update:

Oops! I forgot to say that this book won an Anthony Award in 1988.

Mondrian

I said, "I want a rug that looks like something Mondrian would've done."

He said, "Who's that?"

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was a Dutch abstract painter who founded the Neo-Plasticism movement. He is most known for his paintings of straight lines and rectangular shapes with color blocks in strictly limited colors.

The photo above is from Flickr.