Apostate Scientist

The man who said too much -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Who was Fred Hoyle? He was a noted English Astronomer (member of Royal Astronomy Society), known primarily for his theories of stellar nucleosynthesis. He passed away in 2001, at age 86, and his presence is still felt. His presence is felt not so much for his ideas on stellar processes as for the firestorm created by his "alternative" cosmology. Hoyle stirred the pot by suggesting that there was a fallible intelligence responsible for Evolution, thereby putting himself front and center as an "apostate" scientist. Before further elaborating about Hoyle’s ideas, let's mention the two religious philosophies that basically have dominated western society in the 20th and early 21st centuries:

1) “Abrahamic” religions -- Judaism, Islam and Christianity. These religions postulate an all-powerful, perfect God; they feature messianic figures (speculative or realized) and each claims to be a "one true" religion based on an embrace of faith. All three believe that God has some type of implied power-sharing arrangement with Satan.

2) Darwinism -- Darwin's theory basically asserts that random molecular mutations can recombine enough to yield an intelligent, fit animal. The combinatoric requirements for this to happen (even across 15 billion years) are staggering. It's a leap of faith to think even an amoeba could happen this way much less a cat or a bat. Thusly in my book, Darwinism gets cast as a great world quasi-religion. It's based on an article of faith as flimsy as any religious mythology.

In this breakdown, I'm omitting quite a few other things -- Hare Krishna, Scientology etc. In the Western scientific community, most university professors holding any sway fall into one of the two "majors" I've listed above. Fred Hoyle is noteworthy because he stepped very pointedly aside from either group -- he proposed that there is a God, in fact a tangible one. He suggested a fumble-bum, engineering God who can make mistakes. Rather than a Devil, per se, he speculated that this fallible intelligence might be periodically divided or at cross-purposes to itself.

He famously likened Darwin's theory to a wind blowing thru a scrap yard and accidentally assembling a Boeing 747, thereby incurring the wrath of devout Darwinians everywhere. By the same turn, Christian creationists loved that a Royal Astronomer was debunking Darwin's idea. They did (and still do) haul out Hoyle to explain their own fanciful idea of humans cavorting with dinosaurs. They promptly will place Hoyle back in the closet when it looks like they might be embarrassed by his "fallible God" stuff -- no need to go overboard on it. Where Christians see Hoyle as a boon to their debate, mainstream Darwinists have been very incensed -- science author Robert Shapiro even suggested that Hoyle was insane. It's interesting that people from opposite camps are so excited (one way or the other) by Mr. Hoyle.

I like Hoyle's approach -- it's fairly consistent with what we see around us. Am I in total agreement? Of course not. Hoyle basically advocates panspermia, where biotic material falls to the Earth's surface by some kind of intelligent direction. Would this be from solar wind, comets or something else? The panspermia theory doesn't answer the origin of intelligence, it just changes the setting from Earth to space. So where did space intelligence come from? I don't care for his panspermia "mechanism" but what I like about Hoyle is the idea that theism doesn't require belief in supernatural phenomena, miracles or any suspension of scientific method. Do I foresee anytime down the road that Hoyle will be embraced as a great sage? No, I don’t. Hoyle is an apostate to both the major religious movements mentioned above. He presents the idea of a God who might be traceable, knowable and even subject to study. It's blasphemy I tell you. And blasphemy that provokes dangerously tenable ideas.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Spinning Vertigo

Stewart and Novak close to the edge ... -- Picture courtesy of Universal

by blogSpotter
Last week, I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo on my Apple TV. Vertigo was made in 1958, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. It is oddly the most beloved or least liked of any Hitchcock movie, depending on the viewer -- certainly a movie with a lot of buzz around it.

WORD FROM A FAN

Before any further dissection of this movie, I'd like to pay homage to Hicthcock's style. His movies were termed 'thrillers' but they were much more than that. His stars were dream teams like Cary Grant and Grace Kelly or Eva Marie Saint. His stunning leads wore stunningly beautiful clothes and drove dazzling cars. The backdrops were vistaVision seascapes of Southern France or San Francisco. The dialog was scrappy, clever and frequently devious. These movies were charged with visual appeal, humor, sex and other ingredients you don't typically find in the thriller genre. In a couple of Vertigo's indoor scenes, the extravagant furniture, meticulously oiled woodwork and freshly painted walls bespeak a movie maker who wanted his movie to glisten in every possible respect. I'm a Hitchcock fan who appreciates all these trappings; it makes his movies watchable over and over -- as eye candy and atmosphere if nothing else. With Hitchcock of course, there's always something else.

VERTIGO...

This movie starts with a far-fetched premise. A middle aged detective, Ferguson (played by Stewart), is hired to follow a rich, beautiful woman -- Madeleine. Madeleine's husband says that she goes into "ambulatory trances" where she takes on the spirit of a long-dead Spanish woman who died by suicide. The husband wants Ferguson to insure that she doesn't harm herself. Ferguson follows Madeleine about town, and becomes slowly infatuated with her. In an apparent suicide attempt, she throws herself into San Francisco Bay; Ferguson rescues her and takes her back to his apartment to dry out and recover. (Raise eyebrows here). Why doesn't he take her back to her own home? (Raise eyebrows further). Her clothes are shown drying on a line in his kitchen. She's in his bed wearing only his bathrobe. He's by the fire reading a paper. One might infer that he removed all her clothes, including undergarments while she was still in a state of suicidal, somnambulant derangement. For 1958, this is pretty hot stuff. Even for 2008 it begs all manner of questions.

The movie has a fantastic twist about midway thru, which almost breaks it into two movies. Without giving away too many details, Ferguson meets a less classy red-headed woman, Judy, who strongly resembles Madeleine. Because he is besotted and obsessed he makes the woman his girlfriend and endeavors to make her into another Madeleine. It's something like Pretty Woman or My Fair Lady with a strange Hitchcock twist. I'll leave the synopsis at that.

PSYCHOANALYSIS

People have had a field day with this movie. Biographers have said that Stewart's character was Hitchcock in a semi-autobiographical role. Hitchcock is said to have loved leggy, sophisticated blondes; he would go to great lengths to make them over as stars in his movies. Feminists have expressed outrage; they feel that Ferguson was acting as a peeping tom and a stalker. How dare he presume that he can "own" a woman or make her over willy nilly? I myself think that the "biographer" school is right, although Hitchcock's intentions were entirely benevolent. I think the feminist take is too extreme. Stewart's character, John Ferguson is at the outset a private detective -- they're paid to snoop. It crosses to gray area when Ferguson falls for Madeleine, but even so there's nothing ever coercive going on. Later in the movie, Judy reciprocates Ferguson's love and feminists will just have to cope with the consensuality of it all.

LAST DETAILS

The musical score is fantastic. Barbara Bel Geddes (later of Dallas fame) plays Stewart's girl Friday and is excellent in the role. Some of the best light moments come from her character. Hillbilly fans will recognize Raymond Bailey in one of his serious minor roles, as a psychiatrist. The title of the movie, Vertigo, refers to Ferguson's fear of heights. This phobia comes into play a couple of places in the movie -- feminists and dime store psychiatrists alike could probably make something out of that particular phobia.

In sum, Vertigo is an excellent movie. There is all the style and suspense that you normally get with Hitchcock, plus enough underlying social issues to fill up a college syllabus for a full semester.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Quoth Adam Smith, "Oops, my bad"

Doing the hand jive ... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In 1776, English economist Adam Smith penned The Wealth of Nations in which he described capitalism as an "invisible hand" that magically tunes and calibrates the market place. Nothing more than the simple rules of supply and demand played a role in the economic mechanism he described. In the centuries since he wrote his book, we've seen the excesses that happen with "Robber Barons"; we've also seen the bad consequences of lax government oversight for banking, investing and tax collection. It turns out that power does corrupt and people are only human. We can't have it solely Adam's way without dire economic consequences, even in freedom loving countries like the USA. Thus -- the invisible hand needs to wear a glove and operate within a set of rules.

Now recently we have an example where Adam Smith's invisible hand jerked mightily upward and doubled oil prices in the space of a year. There is debate whether speculation, manipulation or simple supply-demand dynamics are responsible for this amazing swing of prices. In recent weeks, oil went from $126/barrel to $145/barrel and all the way back down. This all happened in the space of 3 months. Apparently there is price-wise both a financial and psychological "breaking point" where wild things transpire. We appear to have reached that @ $140/barrel. This "Freaky Friday" yielded these results that can't be revoked anywhere as fast as the oil price deflated:

o GM and Ford are shuttering several plants; switching from trucks and SUVs to light cars
o Airlines are laying off pilots, trimming flight schedules, charging for one bag and oh yes -- some are going bankrupt
o Oil's influence on the supply chain as caused food prices to soar
o Local municipalities have given grants and tax allocations to light rail and mass transit
o AMTRAK is getting new grants

Now, it's as if Adam Smith's hand had a spastic movement, stirred the air and now he says, "Oops. My bad. Oil should only be $120/barrel". The problem is that the mechanisms of "das kapital" and government already responded with heavy redirection of resources. Adam would've played a very bad practical joke if it turned out that oil's long term price should settle at $120 or less. It would be senselessly destructive to the national economy.

Here is something to consider. Communist China is building more highways and airports than any nation on earth. India is quickly coming from behind, even producing some of its own preeminent auto companies (Tata Motors makes the world's least expensive car). It may be that Adam Smith was sending us a warning signal from beyond -- not so spastic after all. One might liken it to a "last call for alcohol" at 1:45AM, aimed at drunkards who need one more cocktail. What we might take away from it is that our reactions were warranted. If you drive a gas guzzler, you'll have a momentary reprieve but ultimately you need to heed the warning -- this is giving Mr. Smith the benefit of the doubt. If the movement was just a "one off" then we are in fact victims of a very perverse capitalism.

© 2008 blogSpotter

ABBA-solutely Fabulous

Donna and Sam share a moment -- Picture courtesy of Universal

by blogSpotter
This weekend I gave my self an audiovisual treat in the form of Universal Picture's Mamma Mia. The movie is based on the long-running play which itself is a pretext for putting a fun (if not profound) plot around some campy ABBA 70's hits. Where the play was claustrophobic, the movie has the backdrop of beautiful Greek Isles. Several friends beat me to the movie and told me all about it -- across the board, they all loved it.

The plot centers on a bride-to-be, Sophie, who sends wedding invitations to all three of the men her mother Donna (played by Streep) slept with the summer she was conceived. Sophie is hoping to discover which of the men is her father. Drama ensues when all 3 men, as well as various other wedding "party animals" show up for the nuptials. Donna's friends Tanya and Rosie balance out the cast; Tanya is played by the hilarious Christine Baranski -- I've missed her brand of humor since Cybil and Bird Cage.

I won't deconstruct this movie the way I might with something more complex -- this movie is eye and ear candy most of all. But I'll share some observations. The songs are "backed in" to the situations sometimes justified only by a main lyric. "Lay All Your Love on Me" is actually a sad song, sung by a love-obsessed woman. Here, it's a beach party anthem. "Winner Takes it All" is another sad song by a woman whose lost out in a love triangle -- in this movie it's a romantic ballad leading up to a proposal. Sometimes the fit of the lyrics to the situation is so jarring it makes the audience laugh. The audience also laughs at Pierce Brosnan's version of "SOS", but I actually think he carries the notes OK. He's also excellent as Sam, the principal ex-suitor. Meryl Streep is a surprisingly agile dancer and also a good singer -- she's basically the focal point of the show.

Mamma Mia brings back the color and vitality of a 50's musical; probably the last time the audience had this much fun was when Grease came out in 1978. Hairspray from 2007 comes close, but not as much audience involvement. The late-middle aged grandma sitting next to me was singing along to many of the songs. Mamma Mia has strong potential to become a sing-along movie like Sound of Music. I also forgot about the gay angle -- Colin Firth plays Harry, a handsome stockbroker; it turns out that Donna was the last woman he ever loved, that certain summer. At the end of the movie, the cast breaks into a dance that easily could feature the Village People, shirtless.

In sum, Mamma Mia has romantic plotlines for us oldies-but-goodies and music that anyone born in the last 40 years should be able to hum if not sing. The group ABBA has ascended to pop culture icon status through all of this and deservedly so. If you want to spend two hours in a totally escapist, musical Playland, you can do no better than seeing this ABBA-solutely fabulous movie.

© 2008 blogSpotter

DC Vacation

The enormous Lincoln Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
Following is a short diary of my 4-day vacation to Washington D.C. over the July 4th weekend. I went with my friend Eric and my brother Bryan who flew in from Seattle and met us there. The city is incredible and we had a good time. Following are all the details. Enjoy!

THURSDAY JULY 3RD

Eric and I caught an early 8:20 flight (had to get up at 4:45, egad) to DC. We checked into the Hotel Rouge near Dupont Circle at @ 2PM. Hotel Rouge is a gray brick 1950's building that's been completely gutted and remodeled in a contemporary style (all furniture in shades of orange, pink and red). It's a great location, close to Union metro, fashionable clubs and restaurants. We visited Kramer Books on Dupont Circle. Kramer’s is college-oriented and very trendy -- it also has a historical footnote as the bookstore subpoenaed by Ken Starr for Monica Lewinsky's purchase history. Eric and I had a late lunch at Kramer's sidewalk cafe called Afterwords. We were served by a flaky aging hippy but the quesadillas were excellent.

We then took the metro to the National Mall where I was overwhelmed by the huge proportions of it all. The mall must be a minimum of 2 miles in length and you can easily wear down walking the whole perimeter. We just took in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and returned to our hotel for 'disco' naps. Bryan arrived shortly after that and we met up at Jack's Cafe on 17th Street. Bryan was served a beer he didn't like; it was comped. Then, the waiter spilled a glass of tea on Eric. As we left, we remarked that the beer was on the waiter and the tea was on Eric.

We went to some nearby clubs on 17th street right after this; I must say I like the ambience of DC. The clean cut J Crew look is still popular -- we saw very few people with the extreme tattoo look we see in Dallas. Pleasant change in the scenery to say the least. We went to one club later in the evening that was horribly overcrowded with a very young crowd. The Fire Marshall should be after that place; I left and went back to my room after @ 10 minutes of that. Stopped by the all-nite CVS for mandatory junk food and called it a day.


The Korean War Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter

FRIDAY JULY 4TH

We had waffles and eggs at a great "greasy spoon" place, Luna Grille, recommended by the hotel desk clerk. We then walked down to the National Mall and toured the WWII, Korean and Viet Nam memorials. We saw the Lincoln Memorial which is huger than huge -- easily 200 feet high. We stopped and noshed on greasy, over-priced hot dogs and then looked at the beautiful American Indian Museum (completed in 2004). This one is worth seeing for the building as well as the artifacts. Rain started falling, so we caught a cab back to Hotel Rouge.

Timely interjection: Washington is very temperate; it has pleasant weather and frequent rainfall -- very green and verdurant. There were towering trees the whole way from Dulles to DC. I remarked to Eric that they have more trees on a random square acre than we have in a square mile of Dallas. We were rained on 3 times but they were quick summer showers that came and went.

That afternoon we attended the Hotel happy hour. Bryan had red wine; Eric and I had Izze pomegranate soda which tastes kind of like champagne -- very good. That night we had a sampler plate dinner at Meze Turkish Cafe in Adams-Morgan, also good. It was pricey, but DC is pricey as a rule -- have to be ready for that. After eating, we went back to the 17th street clubs. The clubs were crowded and fun again. We did stop by one sleazy joint that I tolerated for only a few minutes before calling it a night and returning to the hotel.

SATURDAY JULY 5TH

I had coffee and newspaper at Caribou Coffee, before Bryan and Eric even awakened. Caribou is a trendy coffee place a la Starbucks but less expensive. Very nice crowd and the coffee was good. After joining up with Eric and Bryan we got on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour at Union Station. For much of the ride we rode on the open upper deck and enjoyed the cool air rushing over us. We stopped at National Cathedral and then in Georgetown. Georgetown is an upscale district where we went to Martin's Tavern -- place where JFK proposed to Jackie. We got back on the bus and debarked at Arlington National Cemetery. This cemetery was Robert E Lee's plantation prior to the Civil War -- amazing in its size and grandeur. The Lee mansion still sits impressively on a high hilltop. Here we saw, JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown soldier among other things. The cemetery was the last part of our tour, and we returned to the hotel for a much needed rest. A bit later we met up again for dinner. We had light meals (walnut salad for me) at the 17th Street cafe and went back to the nightspots. The crowd was less good, or maybe I was tired. We took a cab over to a club across town but I couldn't get in wearing flip-flops. I took a cab back to the hotel and took the nightclub's rejection as a sign that I should call it a night and relax in the hotel room.


Bryan sympathizing with the cheetahs -- Picture by blogSpotter

SUNDAY JULY 6TH

We had a repeat breakfast at Luna Grille; this might be a habit if I lived there. Luna Grille is near Dupont Circle, gets a fun crowd and has good food at reasonable prices. From here, we took the metro to the Holocaust Museum where we spent a good 2.5 hours. I've seen much of the subject matter before on PBS specials and such, but this was pretty overwhelming. One exhibit showed a huge pile of victims' shoes recovered from the ovens (they were sooty but still recognizable as shoes). After this thought provoking albeit disturbing museum, we took the metro all the way up to Woodley-Park where we saw the National Zoo -- one of the best in the nation. By the way, did I mention that all these exhibits are FREE? In DC, most of the museums have permanent endowment funds that allow tourists free access.

The National Zoo was gorgeous -- we spent lots of time at the panda exhibit since that's one of the main attractions. It started to pour rain so we grabbed a cab and went back to Hotel Rouge. We regrouped and later went out to dinner at La Tomate. La Tomate is a pricey, fashionable Italian bistro on Dupont Circle where Chelsea Clinton went on her first date. These tidbits of history made everything more interesting. The food (seafood fettuccine for me) was good but you get small portions for the grand price. We went back to our same clubs this night and we figure it was just an off night -- everything was kind of dead. Called it an evening pretty early since the next day was a travel day.

MONDAY JULY 7TH

Bryan wanted to experience Kramer's Cafe so we went back there. The service was slow again, but the food and crowd made it worth the wait. Alas, Bryan checked out and departed the Hotel at 10:30 to return to Seattle. Eric and I still had a whole day to kill prior to our 8:30PM flight. We went to see the White House -- turns out you can't just buy a ticket anymore. Since 9/11, you must get a letter from your Congressman, six months in advance. In place of that, you can go to the White House Visitors' center (cattycorner to the real deal) and see exhibits of everything. From here, we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Flight and Aerospace. This museum oddly had the biggest crowd of all. Apparently a lot of people are excited by planes, missiles and rockets. They also had rides and simulators that appeal a lot to kids.

From here we went back to Hotel Rouge and the Hotel provided us a Lincoln Town Car limousine as our return vehicle. (No extra charge for the limo). Eric and I enjoyed the luxury. Our plane was delayed an hour due to weather, but we finally got back to Dallas @ 1AM central time.

OVERALL

DC is a beautiful city; it is fitting that the most powerful nation on earth should have at least one city with such grandeur and such impressive architecture. In places it reminds me of the grand boulevards you might see in Prague, Paris or Berlin. It turns out that much of the original city was designed by a French-born architect (and urban planning pioneer) Pierre L'Enfant. Everything is larger, grander in scope than I ever imagined just from postcards and history books. I figure that a city like this would be very livable. We all enjoyed our trip and would easily go back to catch the hundred things we missed on this one.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Liar, Liar

Was this a liar loan? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Back in January, our economy was already getting hit with the subprime crisis in the housing industry. My stocks and mutual funds took a big hit -- I reluctantly did a rebalance of my investment accounts as a result. I moved quite a bit into money market and "safe" funds, figuring I was OK. Then this summer, gasoline prices doubled in the space of a month. (Pundits now say that oil might even be $200 a barrel by year's end). My so-called safe apportioning was no longer safe -- I had to do another serious rebalance in June.

A note to those who say, "Don't run, the market will return". I didn't rebalance in 1999 during the dotcom meltdown, and lost $58K in one quarter; I'm not waiting for the market to come out of intensive care this time around. I'd rather earn 1.4% reliably than lose 25% erratically. My aim has never been to "get rich" but rather have stable and yes, predictable investment income. I have extreme ire towards greedy market manipulators who've brought the house down on all of us. If someone were trying to wreck the economy, they could do no better than destroying the housing industry and doubling fuel prices. These particular industry melt-downs have the potential to bring everything down quickly. Airlines are having big cut-backs; GM and Chrysler are said to be flirting with bankruptcy.

Yesterday, NBC's Today Show had a whistle-blower -- a mortgage analyst formerly employed by Countrywide. He says they engaged in issuing "liar loans". These are loans where the applicant is coached on how to inflate his income -- also these loans are not documented; income statements don't have to be verified. There's an uncomfortable tie back to 2001 (pre 9/11) when W. Bush exhorted all Americans to become home owners. Bush has already received so many beatings in this blog; we'll leave it alone for now. It may be that Bush's exhortations have nothing to do with liar loans that banks issued later in his tenure. Giving a little benefit to a lot of doubt ...

Will we recover from all this? We were starting to heal from the housing crisis when we received the gasoline belly punch. The gasoline price can severely impact households that don't have an extra $200 in their monthly budget -- it may even exacerbate the credit crunch problem as more people pile gas purchases onto credit cards. This being an election year, several politicians are advancing ideas -- mealy mouthed though they are. Senator John Cornyn of Texas wants us to drill every reserve (off shore, Alaska, national parks) available and then, oh yeah, do some research on alternative energy. To me, this is a little like continuing a heroin habit while you think about ways of getting off of it. America needs to be rehabilitated now, not later. The outlandish fuel prices will force many Americans to choose the common sense frugality they should've always embraced. And depending on how much further American business buckles under $142/barrel oil, greedy capitalists may have to reconsider exactly what kind of gratification their fat bellies really need. If America doesn't temper its own habits, there's no hope at all; the uptick in small car purchases actually gives us some reason to hope.

© 2008 blogSpotter