Avatar spoilers
This is a comment I left on a review of Avatar on Dark Worlds blog that raises issues with the lousy science in Avatar:
Then there is the subject of evolution on Pandora. All the animals have six limbs. Four up front and two in the back. All of them, including the Pterodactyl like creatures. Four wings and pair of legs. Four eyes as well. One pair above sightly farther out than the inner pair.
Everything except the Terminator Smurfs. Two eyes, and four limbs.
Radically different biology, yet they could mesh their nervous system with the local animals.
Did the Terminator Smurfs braid their hair to protect the nerve bundle or did it grow like that naturally.Oh, why did the Pterodactyl like creatures naturally develop stirrups for the Terminator Smurfs?
With all the “scientists” they had on that planet, why didn’t any notice that the Terminator Smurfs obviously didn’t evolve there?
Originally posted at e-Ramblings
Update: One of the comments points out that the story line is remarkably similar to a Poul Anderson short story, “Call Me Joe.” There are also comments about the movie drawing from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The World for World is Forest.” I would add Alan Dean Foster’s Midworld as well.
Monday Book Pick: Melody of Vengeance
Melody of Vengeance by Michael A. Black.
A rousing good pulp adventure that pays tribute to the two greatest pulp heros, Doc Savage and the Shadow!
Quote of the Day
“I made it to 2010 and all I got from the SciFi books of my youth was the lousy dystopian government.”
Quote of the Day
“The communist countries had the worst environmental record in the world; the only saving grace was that they were so inefficient they couldn’t do more damage.” — NY Times best selling author John Ringo
Friday B-Movie Pick: Star Wars
The 1977 original! The one where Han shot first! B-Movie? You betcha! Check out sets, the plot, and delicious evilness oozing out of the bad guys. George Lucas is a big film buff and this is a tip of the hat to multiple genres, including some Japanese classics and WWII flying Ace movies.
Alert Citizens work better than government bureaucracy
Filed under: Global War on Islamofascism, Our Dear Leader, Politics
An al-Qaida operative tried to ignite an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian native and a Muslim, attempted to ignite the device, it was the passengers who noticed that something was wrong, and did something about it.
On September 11th 2001, the government’s (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.
On December 25th 2009, the government’s (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals.
While our Dear Leader and the democrats may have forgotten 9/11, the American people have not.
Update: Our Dear Leader‘s DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was out quickly to provide the Obama administration spin on this foiled terrorist attack. Ms. Napolitano’s response shows that she is either a bold faced liar or dangerously incompetent. Neither one of those options are good for America.
DHS Secretary Napolitano kept repeating the the administration’s spin, “the system worked.” As I pointed out, that obviously is not the case. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
Ms Malkin points out:
If the “system” had “worked,” the U.S. consular officials who granted Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab a short-term visa last June would have revoked it immediately upon being informed by his father that he was a Muslim radical with al Qaeda ties.
If the “system” had “worked,” U.S. consular officials would have never granted Abdulmutallab — a rootless, young, single male — a visa in the first place in compliance with State Department visa regulation 214(b):
…
If the “system” had “worked,” Abdulmutallab would have been barred from the U.S. like he had been barred from Britain.
Epic Fail for Napolitano.
Quote of the Day
“You can’t even dignify this squalid racket as bribery: If I try to buy a cop, I have to use my own money. But, when Harry Reid buys a senator, he uses my money, too. It doesn’t ‘border on immoral’: it drives straight through the frontier post and heads for the dark heartland of immoral.” — Mark Steyn
Pelosi losing her iron grip on House democrats?
It appears so, Politico reports that freshman democrat congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama is leaving the democrat party and join the Republicans.
Griffith, a medical doctor, is no fan of ObamaCare it seems.
A radiation oncologist who founded a cancer treatment center, Griffith plans to blast the Democratic health care bill as a prime reason for his decision to switch parties—and is expected to cite his medical background as his authority on the subject.
For that last mintue Christmas gift idea
Email an amazon gift card, or print it out and stick it in a card.
If you are not in a hurry, my book of Yosemite photographs will grace any coffee table in style.
A Nebraska doctor’s message for Ben Nelson
Michelle Malkin publishes an open letter from a Nebraska doctor to her Senator:
Dear Senator Nelson:
I send this message under “Tort Reform” because the current monstrosity you have pledged your support to says nothing whatsoever about Tort Reform. You have sold the physicians of Nebraska for zilch (zilch for us, but beaucoup federal bucks for you and the liberal partisans in this state). As a family practice physician in Small Town, Nebraska, I was counting on you to be the lone voice of Democratic sanity on this issue, but you sold me out. I will dedicate
every spare minute of my time and every spare dollar I have to defeating you, should you run for re-election.
…
Thank you, Ben, for forcing doctors like me to earn less than the repairmen who fix our appliances. Case in point: We recently had our dishwasher fixed. The repairman who came to our house charged $65 just to come and ‘diagnose’ the problem, then charged another $180 to ‘fix’ the problem. You and your fellow lawmakers have fixed MY going rate (Medicare) at $35 per-visit. Thank you for securing such a ‘lucrative’ rate for me! Thank you so much for making me–someone with 8 years of education!–make less than a mechanic or appliance repair technichian. And thanks especially for falling in line with Obama and the rest of the Democrats to make such a socialist system permanent.
You have my disgust and disdain forever, you socialist-coddling coward.
The 2010 elections should be interesting.