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POPSFilms today, books tomorrow? by Mariam Mokhtar "But the scariest thing is how the Puteri Umno motion was passed without debate. An important call such as this should have warranted a little more scrutiny. If the Government were to accede to their request, then it is all Malaysians, who will suffer. Not just Muslims. Movies like the Harry Potter films will not be screened. Lord of the Rings, and even The Wizard of Oz will have to be banned. And what about science fiction films? Alien, Predator and others, may be full of horror, or lack unexplained traditional elements, and thus, will not fit in any religious teaching." In short - ban fucking everything. Would that make 'em happy?
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POPS The $cience of Harry Potter The museum defends the intellectual value of what is sure to be a cash cow of an exhibit by noting that the 200 movie props it features offer a window into innovation. “You see these props and think, ‘How did they do that?’ It is an inspiration for people to explore what it took to create these movie worlds,” said Paul Fontaine, vice president of education at the museum. And that inspiration is essential to scientific innovation, he says. “When you think of the foundations of science, it is creativity; what it takes to transform fantasy to the screen. We hope people take away those foundation skills,” Fontaine said. The museum is home to displays about DNA, electricity, astronomy and anatomy. But some area academics agree a re-creation of Hogwarts is not out of place. Andrew Cohen, physics professor at Boston University, references popular movies in his lectures to make complex theories tangible. So, could Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures
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POPSListen to over 1800 free AUDIO BOOKS Check out the free audio download books collection at: http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html also download to your iPhone with this APP.. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=311507490&mt=8
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POPSCheney and Co. "Dithered" For Years Not only did they screw up on two wars, they ignored the warnings for months prior to 9-11, listen to Richard Clark, read his books, and watch what even Clinton said in regard to his administrations advice to Bush administration regarding Laden and the possibility of America being attacked! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT7yKfXN4p0&feature=fvw
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POPSBooker Short List Announced Super excited about the new books from Byatt and Coetzee. Will read them even if they do not win. Will definitely read the winner. I'm still reading last year's winner - "Midnight's Children" by Rushdie. It is fantastic, but I hit a lull. Not enough time to read when you're having fun raising a toddler.
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POPSMedia Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market
In September of that year, the Boston Globe proclaimed liberals "triumphant" against "conservatives' decade long hold on popular culture." Yes, it seemed such wonderful liberal values were finally en vogue. Barnes and Noble, reacting to the outpouring of Bush-bashing literature in August of 2003 announced that it would set up ‘political science/cultural affairs' tables at its stores to feature the newest partisan works. But conservatives have reclaimed their hold on the Times's bestseller page. The closest any of the top 15 hard-cover non-fiction books gets to a defense of liberalism or the Obama Administration is In Fed We Trust by David Wessel "The books from the left strike me as an obvious reaction to Bush," conservative commentator Tucker Carlson told the Associated Press in 2003. "And for people who buy them, it's a way of voting against him in an off-election year." With Bush gone, liberals no longer have a blatant target at whom to direct a coordinated
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POPSBaptist Church to Burn Bibles This one certainly belongs in the LOONY BIN because of the bazaar reasoning of this apparently misguided congregation. I wish I could say that this is an isolated case but I know far too many "KING JAMES ONLY" adherents who would probably applaud this behavior. In my post To King James or Not to King James I wrote at great length on this issue. There has been an ongoing controversy surrounding this issue, but the way this old bird sees things, the crazy antics of this Baptist church makes me wonder if reading the KING JAMES bible causes otherwise rational people to loose all reason. This pastor and his 14 followers have certainly flown over the cuckoos nest. And that is how I see it! Eagle Out!
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POPSThe Real Columbus Story. I learned awhile back what a ruthless cruel man Christopher Columbus was. He was no hero but the history books continue to paint him that way. Why? Is it because the Christopher Columbus myth has taken a life of its own and cannot be dispelled? Human beings love fantasy. We love to be lifted, if only for a short period, out of our humdrum lives. We also love answers, even if most of the answers we are given by historians don't hold water, we will still cling to them. It makes me wonder that maybe in the not so far off future when we are all trying to survive the Global Warming Effects, history books will claim that the George W Bush era helped save our planet by getting rid of billions of poor people so that the wealthiest will have a better chance at survival. All the rich kids will read about their savior "W" while they bask in the sun at the seashores of South Dakota and Kansas on their George W Bush day off. No different from today. :eek:
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POPSEveryone is a book of blood
...until he realizes that there are greater forces at work than he had ever thought. And there, I think, is a story with a perfect happy ending - he goes through hell and he comes through on the other side, utterly changed, utterly transformed.... At the end of 'In The Hills, The Cities', both protagonists die, but they gain meaning, extraordinary meaning. Perhaps not a meaning that one would want to celebrate... It's ambiguous. But when they see the beasts in the hills, some new vision is presented to them which hitherto they wouldn't even have been capable of imagining.... I very much like the ambiguity or the ambivalence of a moment which can be terrible and significant simultaneously, the way that many of the pivotal moments in our lives are very often rites of passage moments in which things are lost which can never be claimed again. Yet the territory ahead is, by virtue of the fact that it is new, also exciting and extraordinary." Clive Barker on the books of blood
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POPSStephen Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution" The best part of the article: ""By contrast," Hawking says, "there are about 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing of the order of a hundred billion bits of information. Of course, the great majority of this information is garbage, and no use to any form of life. But, even so, the rate at which useful information can be added is millions, if not billions, higher than with DNA." :)
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POPSCooking for one - new cookbooks published I made the "steamed egg in a bed of greens" last night using chard from the farmers' market. Quite tasty, although it would have been better with a piece of toast on the side for textural contrast.
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POPSFree Cooking, Food & Wine Books Online A comprehensive alphabetical listing of free books for reading or listening can be found on these pages: * 100+ Places For Free Books Online * Free Audio Books Online LibriVox has ten free audio books available for download in MP3 (64kb/128kb) or ogg vorbis. All are human read. There are 12 other book pages here at Gizmo's covering other various popular book genres and offering links to free online books listed here: Book Genre Pages More at the site.
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