Too High on the Food Chain

This opinion piece exhorting U.S. energy policy not to divert corn for use in manufacturing of fuel has got me harping on a topic I've long though about. To me, the very idea of using corn (my people call it maize) as fuel is an asinine plot by the multinational agribusiness interests to push product while providing a red herring to lead away from viable biofuels production. Maize plants are too high on the food chain to make sense as a fuel stock, they are large vascular plants that require too much energy and water to produce. For viable biofuel production, we should turn to algae or small vascular plants such as duckweeds. With their fleetingly short generations, these organisms can be selectively bred in order to result in higher oil content more quickly than corn could be. Additionally, they can be grown using sewage and waste water. Our need for fuel should not compete with our more pressing need for food.

Of course, the root cause of our predicament is overconsumption, but I decided to focus on the insane fact that even our proposed solutions to our problems tend to be dead ends. If I were a more cynical person, I'd suspect that this was a feature, not a bug. HA!

Finally, Something to be Proud Of

We're weird... as a species, and as a nation- yesterday saw the absolute worse that Homo sapiens sapiens and U.S. residents in particular are capable of, a bloody rampage of rage and tribalism. Today, we have a triumph, for both Homo sapiens sapiens and for the people of the United States. In what could be described as one of the pinnacles of human achievement, NASA safely landed an automobile-sized rover on Mars in a nail-biting procedure:





It's amazing the contrast between the horrors to which humans can perpetrate, and the glories we can achieve... hopefully, we can move beyond our capacity for harm, and choose to be seekers for knowledge rather than wallowing in ignorance and hate, to inhale Einstein and exhale Hitler, so to speak.

It's a little something to assuage the grief and horror of yesterday's events... a little reminder that we aren't merely brutes. The Curiousity rover's mission is an important one, the search for evidence that life could be or could have been possible on another planet. If such evidence comes to light, it will simultaneously be humbling and edifying- we will no longer be able to consider ourselves a special case in the universe, but we will be able to see ourselves as part of a much grander "community" of living beings. If there is evidence of life on another planet, will we have a better chance of seeing the intrinsic kinship we have with not only our fellow humans, but with the other species we share this planet with? I sure hope so, I'd rather be a simple resident of a typical rocky planet that to be the "Apex of Creation".

That being said, I hope Curiosity stays away from the bad neighborhoods on Mars...

Depressing and Distressing

Another mass shooting, this time in a Sikh gurdwara near Milwaukee. Another round of hand-wringing and dancing around the blued-steel elephant in the room. At least this shooting is being treated as an incident of domestic terrorism. One possibility is that the shooter opened fire in the gurdwara in the belief that he was killing Moslems- it would not be the first such attack here in the States.

A few days back, Johnny Pez put up a dire post about the possibility of a coming civil war. Living in my safe Northeastern home, I posted a comment "talking him down", but I'm not so optimistic today. The gun violence statistics are appalling, there's a low-grade civil war being waged on U.S. soil as we speak, it's just that there are no battle lines drawn, and no "sides". Deranged loners, racist wingnuts, gangbangers of all types, rage-filled family members... the common denominator is that they have access to guns, and there are powerful forces which seek to ensure that they never lose access to guns. How many more mass killings do there have to be before the violent gun culture in our society is addressed? It's getting so insane that the authorities in Houston released a video on dealing with a mass shooting event- it's almost like these occurrences are being treated like natural disasters. Floods... Wildfires... Mass shootings... one of these things is not like the others.

A Chilling Effect on Hotheads is a Good Thing

Here's a bit of good news, the New York City Law Department has decided not to defend the infamous Anthony Bologna in an upcoming civil suit. I think it's a great decision, the city should not be wasting any money defending the indefensible actions of this hothead, authoritarian asshole. Of course, not everybody agrees with this stance- for instance, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly had this to say:

"I think it could have a chilling effect on police officers taking action. It's a discretionary decision by the Corporation Counsel and I'm concerned about an adverse effect on officer's willingness to engage."


He thinks it would have a chilling effect? I sure hope it would, hotheads need to be chilled. Also, a willingness to engage should not include a willingness to assault peaceful demonstrators... this is an engagement that should not be kept. We need there to be an adverse effect on bullshit like that.

For Unspeakable Horrors, They Sure Are Cute!

No, this is not a post about children, so watch it, smartasses! Also, HERE BE SPOILERS, so bust out your "Best of H.P. Lovecraft" volume and get reading before you continue here, okay?

The redoubtable M. Bouffant linked to a post at the Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog which featured a whole bunch of illustrations from the Astounding Stories pulp magazine. I was especially taken with some of the illustrations of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction. Lovecraft is generally pigeonholed as a horror writer, though a good portion of his work boils down to gonzo pulp science fiction (I can't remember where I read it, but one wag noted that Lovecraft doesn't really write scary stories, but stories about people who are scared). Of course, there are exceptions- The Colour Out of Space is genuinely unsettling, it's almost as scary as Ethan Frome- also a tale of a New England family slowly having the life sucked out of it.

I'd also note that The Shadow Over Innsmouth is really a Bildungsroman, with a happy ending that may be hard to catch upon first read.

Enough of the preliminaries, how about some illustrations of some of the cutest Lovecraftian menaces you've ever seen?

Here we have some whimsical "Old Ones" from At the Mountains of Madness:




I like this one... spread your wings and fly, oh weird, tentacled alien:





This may be my favorite AtMoM illustration- helpful shoggoth is helpful:





Even cuter are the illustrations from The Shadow Out of Time, which was a cover story inspiring one of the best pulp covers of all time.

Look at these immense, rugose cones with their funny round heads, and their googly eyes. The chap standing akimbo (it seems the illustrator didn't read the story) looks like he's going to lovingly punish them for some hilarious hijinx:





"You crazy cones, I just can't stay mad at you!"


Oh, noes, little man, run before they accidentally drop a giant book on you!





Perhaps my favorite illustration depicts the fellow "guest workers" who labor in the Great Library with the narrator, compiling the records of all of the ages for their immense, rugose, hyperintelligent hosts:





I've long thought that The Shadow out of Time would make a great basis for a workplace comedy, but looking at that picture, I can see it as a children's fantasy adventure- the heartwarming story of a plucky orphan who gets a job in a monsters' library, and goes on all sorts of field trips and adventures with his monster employers (this is not all that different from the original, actually). That googly eyed dude (second from the right) looks like the type who'd try to swipe our protagonist's dessert in the cafeteria...

The funniest thing about these illustrations is that they appeared in the publications that first published these stories (how's that for "Lovecraftian italics", huh?). The seeds for "Where the Old Ones Are", "Pokéthulhu", and "Hello Cthulhu" were there all along, right from the start. LOLcraft, indeed!

Bring on the Dancing Horses

Today, Mitt' Romney's wife's horse danced in the London Olympics. Not having a T.V., I am unsure of whether or not the "dressage" competition was televised. Commenter nanute at Rumproast asks:


What are the odds of seeing any of this event on NBC? The only chance, is if the horse medals. Otherwise, it’s a safe bet someone, if not Romney himself, asked that the horse not be shown on the telecast.


Personally, I think that a decision by NBC not to broadcast the dressage event because they figured that the bronies would be clopping throughout the event, and broadcast networks are not allowed to show porn.

If Mitt Romney becomes President, perhaps he can nominate Rafalca to a cabinet post... horses in political positions are certainly not unprecedented. As much as I'd hate to see Romney win, if he does, bring on the dancing horses!

It's Okay to be Gay, Go Away, Chik-Fil-A or Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against the Muppets

Today marks the day that Mike Huckabee urged his followers and fellow travelers to eat sodium packed chicken sandwiches to spite gay people. While many news outlets have characterized Chik-Fil-A's (damn, I hate typing that asinine name out) position on LGBT issues as "political", the company's actions go far beyond politics and hit ordinary people "where they live". To compound matters, the goddamn restaurant chain has violated the Ninth Commandment and bore false witness against the Muppets. This one is dedicated to the bigots at that godawful restaurant chain, though you should make a point to mentally insert "Fuck that Chik-Fil-A" into the chorus (need I even post a NSFW warning?):





Now, how about we get a new chain of fast-food chicken joints serving up a spicy tempura-battered chicken sandwich and call it Chick Takei? I think George would be a damn fine CEO and company spokesman.

Oh, and is there anything funnier than foulmouthed muppets?