Dark Warning

I quite liked the second book in Judy Watson's Last of the Jedi YA series, Dark Warning. It's very much a hand-off between Obi-Wan (who anchored the first two books) and a character named Ferus Olin, a Jedi who left the Order before the Clone Wars but is now being hunted like all the others by the new Empire. Obi-Wan has left Tatooine to investigate a lead that an Imperial Inquisitor is looking into records at Polis Massa (the place where Padme had Luke & Leia), and along the way he finds Ferus and the two stumble upon a plan to create a safe refuge for any remaining Jedi. Obi-Wan returns to Tatooine, leaving Ferus to continue the mission. Along the way, there's several scenes set at the Caves of Ilum (the snow-covered planet scene in the original Clone Wars t.v. series), where Jedi go to be tested and gather crystals for their lightsabers. A nice benefit of reading the novels is that I get good ideas for the role-playing game I direct, and now (should I ever have a young Jedi PC) I have a better idea of how to handle lightsaber construction.

Football: The Darker Side

I love watching football, but I found Malcolm Gladwell's article comparing football to dog fighting made quite an impression on me. Researchers are increasingly finding that football players at all levels of the sport can suffer severe brain injuries from the constant repetition of contact to the head caused by normal activities like blocking and tackling. Helmets help, but the force of normal football contact is equivalent to being in several severe car accidents in a single day. Often this damage isn't apparent at the time (except in the case of concussions), but appears a decade or two later in the form of personality changes, memory loss, and dementia. In this respect, football is increasingly starting to look like boxing, where researchers think about 20% of pro boxers are suffering lasting damage. Gladwell's point is that, if this is true, and every Sunday we're witnessing dozens of guys virtually lobotomizing themselves for our entertainment, how does that make us better than people who watch dogs tear each other apart? One answer is that the players can know the risks and give informed consent, unlike the dogs; but that logic would also mean voluntary Roman-style to-the-death gladiatorial matches would be moral to watch. This New York Times column discussing recent Congressional hearings over dementia offers some additional info.

I haven't given up watching football, but this issue is percolating in the back of my mind now whenever I watch a game. Every sport holds the risk of accidental injury--a pedestrian can get hit by a foul ball in baseball or a point guard can wrench a knee in basketball--but knowing that severe brain damage is a potentially widespread and inevitable result for players of a sport is an entirely different thing.

Fantasy Football Week 7: Best Game EVER

I kicked ass in Week 7--by far my team's best performance of the season, coming up with 141 points. It was especially sweet because, like a bit of a doofus, I forgot to look my players over until late Sunday night and realized that my starting WR and TE were on byes--so I had to hurriedly pick up free agents from either Washington or Philadelphia (the Monday night game) to slot in their spots. Fred Davis, Washington's back-up tight end who was averaging one catch a game when I picked him, ended up starting after the Redskins' normal TE went out with an injury early in the first quarter--Davis stepped in to have the game of his career. The Steelers D/ST also came up big on Sunday, with the two touchdowns on defense. My opponent also forgot to look his players over, as his WR and K were out on byes and not subbed for.

Next game is going to be much tougher, however, as Ochocinco and the Steelers D/ST are out on a bye and my opponent has quite the team--I'll likely get massacred.

SUN RUNNERS: 141 Points

Peyton Manning, Ind QB 21
Steve Slaton, Hou RB 18
Ricky Williams, Mia RB 27
Pierre Garcon, Ind WR 2
Chad Ochocinco, Cin WR 23
Jeremy Maclin, Phi WR 5
Fred Davis, Was TE 13
Steelers D/ST, Pit D/ST 21
David Akers, Phi K 11

OLIVET KILLA: 75 Points

Matt Ryan, Atl QB 9
Matt Forte, Chi RB 4
Frank Gore, SF RB 4
Thomas Jones, NYJ RB 18
Reggie Wayne, Ind WR 14
Brandon Marshall, Den WR ** BYE **
Antonio Gates, SD TE 5
Eagles D/ST, Phi D/ST 21
Rob Bironas, Ten K ** BYE **

Canadian Blasphemy Law in Context: Press, Legislative, and Public Reactions

My new article on how journalists, social crusaders, and legislators reacted to Canada's blasphemy law is now up at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1496596. I'm really happy with how this one turned out & I think it'll be a nice contribution to the dissertation.

Marie Quatdoigts

The interesting thing about Roger Des Roches' Marie Quatdoigts is its rather unusual point of of view--it's not exactly first person, but rather like reading a transcript of a conversation where only one of the two speakers is recorded. In other words, we see everything Marie "Quatdoigts" Gladouas (the young protagonist, who has, as you can surmise from her nickname, four fingers on each hand) says but nothing else in terms of narration or how other people respond to her words. It actually works pretty well as a story-telling device, though with a rather artificial use of rhetorical questions (e.g., "What's that? You want to know why I'm here? Well, I'm here because . . ."). The middle portion of the book is told from another character's point of view (her best friend, Roger, who has red hair and thus joins with Marie in their homemade Bizarro Club) in the form of diary entries. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as social outcasts Marie and Roger find their friendship threatened when Marie finds a boyfriend--someone with six fingers on each hand! It looks like there's three more in the series, and I would probably read them if I saw them at the library like this one.

The World's Most Famous Jeremy Patrick (For Now)

According to Google, a search for "Jeremy Patrick" turns up a reference to me in the top spot. What will happen in a couple of days when my website at Geocities goes defunct? Damn you Jeremy Patrick McGrath of Wisconsin and your MySpace page!

Torchwood E-mails: March

Here's a few interesting things found on the final set of in-character e-mails on the Torchwood website:

* Owen (after getting show and ending up undead), asks Jack to take a look at his proposed obituary: "The passing of Owen Harper (1980-2008) will be deeply mourned. Mostly by his friends and colleagues, but hopefully also by his parents, despite them never having been that close to him. They didn't know what they were missing. His passing will also be mourned by the many bar-owners of Cardiff, where he lived, worked and drank. His loss will also be keenly felt by the womenfolk of the city, to whom he gave so much, so often. He didn't do too badly with his life, all things considered: he was a bloody good doctor and saved a fair few lives on the operating table, and for an encore he saved the world, more than once. He died in the line of duty, shot by some evil bloke with some evil plan, helping keep the people of Wales, and the world, safe." Owen also wants Jack to calculate exactly how many times he saved the world, so that he can have it engraved on his tombstone.

* Owen grumbling about a trip to the cinema that Ianto has organized for everyone (leading into From Out of the Rain).

* Gwen asking Tosh for information on the Barrage, a reference to Adrift.