3-D

Recently, noted film critic Roger Ebert declared his disdain for 3D and I am completely on the same page with him there. We disagree strongly on the point of video games as art--he declared, in an absolutist, Sith, blog post that video games will never be art. (If you want to here the sound of man exploding, ask The Engineer what he thinks about that Ebert essay. I caution you with the knowledge that The Engineer works in the video game industry.) However, I think you O Constant Listenerz/Readerz, will appreciate these 3D adaptations of classic art.

P Zed Myers' "Sunday Sacrilege: Imagine no Heaven"

P Zed Myers is coming to Montréal and we heretics are most excited. I will most definitely be there. Athée Sans Frontières, brilliant!

He has also started a series on his blog called "Sunday Sacrilege" which I have been enjoying. The latest installment is my favourite. Here's why:

Heaven. The funny thing is, for all my inability to imagine a viable vision of Hell, what probably comes closest is most people's version of Heaven. Who would want to even visit Puritan Heaven, with all its smug and judgmental inhabitants praising God non-stop with pursed lips suspicious eyes? What woman would want to live in Mormon heaven, and what man could dwell there for long without developing a smidgen of guilt?

Similarly, what woman would want a Muslim heaven? And what use is a bunch of virgins... you deflower them, yay, no sexual agency, but if that's your fetish doesn't it get old? Please don't tell me that the hymens grow back so you hurt them anew. That shit's high misogyny. What woman could possibly look forward to that?

The pointlessness and meaningless of eternity is nicely touched upon. Boredom and abject destruction of the self must really be appealing to some people, but a rational mind would either cease to be itself, or even the most servile would have doubt after AEONS. Bliss after bliss is nothing remotely appealing; it would indeed become torment of the damned.

So who's in with me? Let's take some tea with PZ.

"The Eleventh Hour" and the return of Doctor Who

As the Good Ones among you O Constant Listenerz no doubt know, DOCTOR WHO has most recently returned with it's new series (numbered 5th, 1st or 31st depending on who is doing the reckoning). Although the first appearance by Matt Smith (the Doctor; specifically the Eleventh Doctor of the title, witty eh?) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) was better than we Heretics had hoped, the episode itself was not altogether wonderful. Something was missing. I found what that something was when I read the following review. We thought best to share it, from IMDB poster pstancer in Hong Kong, "In the first episode, the only black face belongs to a Rottweiler!":

The first thing I noticed with the new Doctor Who is that the only black face in the first episode belongs to a Rottweiler. And that the only sexual reference is a heterosexual one.

Is Steven Moffat, the new Producer, trying to make a point here?

While I sometimes tired of the histrionics of Russell T Davies's plots, I could always chuckle at the thought of middle-class parents cowering behind their sofas while their children were entertained with stories of black/white/gay/lesbian/alien love-triangles, and heroes drawn from the Daily Mail's hate list: single mothers on benefit; gay ex-servicemen; chavs and hoodies a.k.a the working class. Even his first timelord came from that little know northern suburb of Gallifrey: Salford, near Manchester.

Contrarily, Mr Moffat's first solo-offering seems to hark back to days of old. All the episode was missing was some understated misogamy [I think pstancer meant misogyny here, but I am not certain], the Brigadier, and morris dancers dancing around a maypole on the village green, and you have a rehash of the 70's classic: The Dæmons.

Hopefully I am prejudging, Steven Moffat did create Captain Jack in "The Empty Child" back in Series 1. Already there is the hint of child abandonment for young Amy Pond, and maybe she has a whole Belle-De-Jour back-story from her "kiss-a-gram" days? Doctor Who meets Pretty Women anyone?

So despite what I have just said, sheepishly, I would say the omens are good. Karen Gillan and Matt Smith can certainly act and have a curious chemistry - hopefully more Mulder and Scully than Romeo and Juliet - and with Moffat's fine pedigree of past episodes (Blink/ Silence in the Library) it would appear that we have an exciting journey ahead of us.

*

The immediate next episode-- "The Beast Below" --is both better and less stark white-on-white. We are ever hopeful. Also, linguistically interesting is how very Canadian Ms. Gillan/Ms. Pond's accent is most of the time.

"Transparency: The Rise of Atheism in America"

Okay there are a heap of issues with the interpretation of the very raw unqualified data, but I like the info graphic and the the atheist as the buxom bartender is actually kinda witty. At least the image is pretty?

(Brought to my attention by the amazing Pharyngula master himself, P Zed Myers. But from here originally.)

DO NOT READ Dan Brown

From the Telegraph comes a list of 20 very compelling reasons not to read the work of Dan Brown. He will not be reviewed on Heresy Québec. Ever.

Jumping to the good stuff. Well not really. The #1 and my personal favourite:

1. The Da Vinci Code: Title. The Da Vinci Code.

Leonardo’s surname was not Da Vinci. He was from Vinci, or of Vinci. As many critics have pointed out, calling it The Da Vinci Code is like saying Mr Of Arabia or asking What Would Of Nazareth Do?

Go here and read the rest of the list.

Distrubilicious: Amazing how much they look like fat cells.

Strangely Compelling: Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

An essay on Bisexuality, as presented by the Best of Craigslist

Lesbians like sushi and bisexuals like hot dogs and sushi. Lesbians would never be interested in eating hot dogs. A lesbian can eat sushi all day every day and never consider hot dogs. In fact, lesbians can never eat too much sushi. A bisexual can go without sushi, then really miss the feel and taste of sushi, because there is nothing like sushi. Then they go out and get some sushi. They swear they can go without hot dogs, because sushi is so much better. They start to eat sushi all day every day. The lesbian continues to do the same.

Then one day the sushi is a little stale and the bisexual remembers how hot dogs are different. She didn't have that problem with hot dogs, at least not that she can remember. Eating hot dogs was easier and less complicated. The lesbian does not start to crave a hot dog when this happens. The lesbian knows she only likes sushi, so even though it got stale, she is still focused only on the sushi. She wants the sushi to get better, because she knows really great sushi is hard to find. The bisexual won't try as hard to figure out why the sushi got stale. Sooner or later she will do what is easier. She will go out for a hot dog. There are hot dogs on every corner and she knows she'll have a few to choose from soon enough. Perhaps she will just have hot dogs for a long time or will try some hot dog rolls or sushi dogs. This is why I prefer lesbians. The only problem is that they may go out for some completely different sushi, thinking that the new sushi will be different. But at least they are aren't out eating hot dogs.

I love how it ends with:

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

(Source.)