Author Archives: Hue White

Wow.  NewScientist (12 March 2016, paywall) first caught my attention on this one:

Images released publicly by the New Horizons team have already shown off Pluto’s surprisingly complex atmosphere, featuring many layers of haze rising above icy mountains. But in emails and images seen by New Scientist, researchers on the mission discuss the possibility that they have spotted individual clouds, pointing to an even richer atmospheric diversity.

The first sign of clouds came on 13 September last year, a few days before the public release of the haze pictures. Will Grundy of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, sent an email to a discussion list dedicated to analysing New Horizons results about Pluto’s atmosphere. “There’s a few fairly localized low-altitude features just above the limb that I’ve drawn lame arrows pointing to, but also a few bright cloud-like things that seem to be above and cutting across the topography in the circled area,” he wrote. Grundy had spotted features in the haze on the edge – or “limb” – of Pluto that seemed to stand out from the distinct layers. But intriguingly, he had also seen a bright feature crossing different parts of the landscape, suggesting it was hovering above.

But this isn’t actually new.  Back in 2009 ScienceNews published speculation (must pay to see the entire article) that clouds on Pluto could exist:

Clouds in Pluto’s atmosphere may be composed of tiny frozen spherules of nitrogen or carbon monoxide, rather than snowflake-like clumps of tiny particles as previous research had suggested, new analyses suggest.

Information about Pluto’s atmosphere is, like that atmosphere itself, exceedingly thin because no space probes have yet visited there. So most speculations about the dwarf planet’s atmosphere stem from analyses of light passing through that tenuous shroud on the rare occasions when Pluto passes in front of a distant star, says Pascal Rannou, a planetary scientist at the University of Reims in France.

Discovery.com covers the more recent news:

The picture above shows sections of an image attached to an email sent by Southwest Research Institute scientist John Spencer, in which he noted particularly bright areas in Pluto’s atmosphere within a New Horizons image.

“In the first image an extremely bright low altitude limb haze above south-east Sputnik on the left, and a discrete fuzzy cloud seen against the sunlit surface above Krun Macula (I think) on the right,” Spencer wrote.

While it was quickly determined after New Horizons’ July 2015 flyby that Pluto is enveloped in a complex atmosphere comprising layers of blue-tinted haze, individual clouds couldn’t be resolved. That may have changed as high-resolution data continues to arrive on Earth from the still-moving spacecraft, now 1.9 AU — or approximately 180 million miles — past Pluto.

Fabulous!

A reader comments on placebos:

A sample size of one — so it appears — seems like a weak case. How can the placebo affect be an affect since by definition it results from you believing you are being treated when you are not?

I see being the soul of brevity can lead one down the path to hell. One more quote from that NewScientist article:

Even when the results go your way, it’s hard to understand why. In the small trial Buonanno participated in, 59 per cent of the honest-placebo group felt better. It wasn’t much better than… placebo?

And I agree that they shouldn’t have used the word placebo. However, talking about the sugar-pill effect isn’t nearly as sexy. Although the Authority Figure in Treating Patients study might make for a better title.

A reader comments on Oregon and China regarding coal:

Pretty radical move by a state government, although the 20 year phase in gives opponents plenty of time to lobby for its reversal. Meanwhile, big bad coal user China is rapidly embarking on a program to eliminate coal as well. Won’t it be embarrassing in 20 years to have China be the clean energy leader, and the USA to be some second class nation unable to clean up its act.

Yes, quite embarrassing, unless we pull off some miraculous technology that lets us leapfrog them. Not a good bet in my opinion. I also think Oregon is being a trifle timid with its 20 year phase in and 25 years to achieve the renewables goal. But it’s a start, and as even hardened opinion is forced to change, perhaps the timetable will move up.

NewScientist’s (12 March 2016, paywall) Shannon Fischer reports on using placebos on the placebo-aware:

LINDA BUONANNO had been sick with irritable bowel syndrome for 15 years when she saw a TV advertisement recruiting participants for a new study. Desperate for help, she signed on, even after learning that the potential treatments she would be offered consisted of either nothing – or pills filled with nothing.

When the experiment ended, she begged the researchers to let her keep the pills. “I felt fantastic,” Buonanno says. “I felt almost like I was before I got sick with IBS. It was the best three weeks of my life.”

She has been trying to get her hands on more ever since. A replication study will start later this spring, and Buonanno is desperately hoping she gets in.

This is the placebo effect in action, and it may come as a surprise to learn that it works even when people know they are being given a sham treatment. That finding has brought with it the possibility of using placebos as therapy. The vision is of a future in which clinicians cajole the mind into healing itself and the body – without the drugs that can be nearly as much of a problem as those they purport to solve.

Fascinating stuff. The researchers are trying to understand this using a psychosociological model as the trigger for the body’s self-healing efforts, such as ordering the pills be taken on a tight schedule. I’ve never experienced a placebo effect myself, not having been seriously ill – unless they’re handing out sugar pills for Lyme’s Disease. The implications for our mental stability are not really explored, but are equally fascinating.

Georgia’s governor capitulates (or, perhaps, agrees with) to corporate pressure, according to CNN:

While I claim no influence from my expired petition, news has come that Oregon is banning the use of coal in power generation in the State. From The Guardian:

Oregon has become the first US state to pass laws to rid itself of coal, committing to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035 and to double the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2040.

Legislation passed by the state’s assembly, which will need to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, will transition Oregon away from coal, which currently provides around a third of the state’s electricity supply.

At the same time, the state will also require its two largest utilities to increase their share of clean energy, such as solar and wind, to 50% by 2040. Combined with Oregon’s current hydroelectric output, the state will be overwhelmingly powered by low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels.

Monetary impact on the consumer?

State Republicans claimed the bill would drive up energy bills for households while resulting in a negligible impact upon the environment. “You don’t have to be a climate denier to dislike this bill,” said state senator Ted Ferrioli.

Pacific Power, one of the largest utilities in Oregon, said the shift would raise costs by less than 1% a year until 2030 and would reduce carbon pollution by 30m metric tons.

Pacific Power is not the only energy supplier.  OregonLive reports on PacifiCorp’s reaction:

“Its going to be in the billions and billions of dollars and how that breaks out for Oregon, it’s inestimable,” said PacifiCorp spokesman Paul Vogel. “It’s not the right way to go about this transition that we all agree that we need to be on.”

The sponsors of the bills are Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, and Rep Tobias Read, D-Beaverton. But the source of the legislation is the Sierra Club, the Oregon Conservation Network and and Renewable Northwest, which have been pushing a “Beyond Coal” campaign in Oregon for some time. Oregon’s residential ratepayer advocate, the Citizen’s Utility Board of Oregon, is also endorsing the bill despite the fact that no cost estimates have been produced.

“Ultimately we’re going to have to reduce our emissions and close the coal plants,” said Bob Jenks, CUB’s executive director. “The theory here is let’s phase these out in a reasonable timetable of ten years and do this in a way that’s least cost to ratepayers.”

To which I have the reaction of “so what?” The harder you hit the ratepayers, the more it’s brought to their attention that their use of energy may be unconscionably high. The real trick, though, is to hit those energy users who can do something about it, while not impacting those who have no alternatives (I’m thinking primarily of those in the lower income brackets).

EcoWatch reports on more utility reactions:

… the utilities impacted by the law support the measure.

“Our company has been reducing reliance on coal generation and expanding our renewable energy portfolio for the past 10 years as market forces, regulation and evolving customer preference continue to drive change in the way electricity is generated and delivered,” stated Stefan Bird, president and CEO of Pacific Power. “This landmark legislation allows us to effectively manage Oregon’s transition to a clean energy future in a manner that protects customers from cost impacts, ensures grid reliability and allows us to meet all of our responsibilities to the communities we serve.”

This sentiment was echoed by Jim Piro, president and CEO of Portland General Electric, the state’s largest electric utility.

“The path forward was forged through a collaborative process where we all tried to balance stakeholder needs,” said Piro in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Public Utility Commission and all of our stakeholders to implement this policy in a way that benefits the environment, manages price impacts for our customers and ensures that the reliability of the electric grid is not compromised.”

OregonLive goes on to ask this:

The cost is a big, unanswered question, as is whether the legislation would have any practical effect in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Oregon can’t legislate the closure of out-of-state coal plants, which could simply dispatch their output elsewhere. And in reality, it’s not possible to reject coal-based electrons at the state border or always discriminate between resources when making purchases in the wholesale power market.

Which is technically true – but short-sighted. By passing this legislation, Oregon now has the potential to provide leadership on this issue to the rest of the Nation, or, if you prefer, put pressure on the balance of the Nation to follow their lead. By doing so, they’re doing their best to improve the future of their State – and the rest of the nation.

Wondering about Oregon’s current mix of power generation? Courtesy Oregon.gov:

Obviously, they have much more hydro capacity than many other states. More work for engineers, I suppose.

(h/t NewScientist, 12 March 2016)

A reader reacts to my suggestion that we move ecological concerns to a higher position in society:

But that’s long-term thinking, of which we are woefully short. If Big Corp can make a zillion dollars by plundering the environment over the next 20 years, every executive and investor will cheer them — even if it means societal collapse after that. “Aw, that’ll never really happen. Prove it!”

A valid point. For all that we have lifetimes now in the eighties, we are not built for long term, deep prediction: our evolution did not call for it.  For millions of years, our individual capacity for destruction, or evolutionary suicide, was quite meager, and even ambiguous.  For example, a forest fire could conceivably be started by a single prehistoric human, and yet this might be a positive for the forest, given recent advances in understanding the role of fire in forests.

But then our historical progress in working together in larger and larger groups has led to the development of technologies by the aggregate which may be directed by single, foolish human beings. By “foolish”, I mean people whose personal experience, and family experience, doesn’t have evidence of the enormous destructive potential we, in the corporate sense, now control; we have shoveled our garbage into Nature for centuries with, generally, few consequences, and this is the primary example from which we’ve learned. While there are certainly isolated instances of ecological disaster, perhaps dating back into prehistory, I’d like to suggest that the detonation of the first nuclear bomb makes for a convenient marker for world-wide potential disaster, with which we have little personal connection, and therefore requires the ability to intellectually assess the situation – rather than our standard intuitive approach.

And most corporations are not run by science-oriented folks, but rather by people who do things by gut and by golly; the pressures of fiduciary responsibility subsume any other motivations, and so we often see, among other negative consequences, an abdication of the responsibility for caring for Nature.

Of course, we’re not blind to this, and that’s the motivation for the EPA, which has been under increasing attack of late, under cover of denying climate change. And some corporations do practice conscious capitalism. Current examples include Starbucks (assisting employees in furthering their education) and Chipotle (sourcing ethical materials). These can be viewed as just good public relations, but what of it? It indicates that customers and employees are becoming more conscious of the companies’ place in the entire system, both eco and socio.

But the fact remains: our evolution has not prepared us for the energies and materials with which we now work. What works in our favor? Our great wildcard: our brains. With these we may yet be able to overcome our short-term foolishness.

This evening we finished up Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear (1945), based, rather loosely, off the Doyle short story “The Five Orange Pips“. Starring the traditional Rathbone and Bruce, we follow the deaths of members of the club The Good Companions at Drearcliff, a mansion by the sea.

The plot is actually rather nice, as the members are notified of their imminent demise through the delivery of envelopes full of orange pips. The deaths continue even after the arrival and efforts of Holmes and Watson, and later Lestrade. Eventually, one Good Companion is left, with all the murders pinned on this unfortunate and inoffensive man. Until Watson notices an empty tobacco container…

Speaking of Watson, he is ill-used in this picture, a posturing buffoon who cannot execute a duty competently, nor follow a chain of logic from beginning to end. In an otherwise competent, even interesting movie, his appearance (as well as Lestrade) causes more and more wincing as the movie goes on. I can only recommend this movie if Watson can be removed bodily from the movie.

Ever wonder what Congress did in response to the San Bernardino terrorist massacre? Lawfare‘s Jack Goldsmith and Amira Mikhail happen to mention one of the items in a larger context:

Last November, in response to the San Bernadino attacks, Congress enacted the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015.  Among other things, the 2015 Act excludes from the VWP [U.S. Visa Waiver Program] [old link invalid, here’s the new link – U.S. Visa Waiver Program – thanks to an observant reader] those travelers from VWP countries who are also Iranian citizens or who have traveled to Iran since March 1, 2011.

Iran. So the terrorists, must have been from Iran, right? No. Rizwan Farook was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, emigrated from Pakistan, after spending time in Saudi Arabia.

It’s interesting how Congress remains fixated on Iran in relation to events that have no apparent relation to Iran. Goldsmith and Mikhail mention the Iranian reaction to the VWP in passing; AL Monitor covers it in more detail:

“Now it is clear that this new legislation is simply absurd because no Iranian nor anybody who visited Iran had anything to do with the tragedies that have taken place in Paris or in San Bernardino or anywhere else,” Zarif said. “But they’re being the targets. I think it discredits those who pass these legislations, those who adopt them and those who implement them more than anything else. And it sends a very bad signal to the Iranians that the US is bent on hostile policy toward Iran, no matter what.”

Another article from AL Monitor clarifies the Congressional intent:

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote Jan. 7 on legislation to create a plan to combat international travel by terrorists and other foreign fighters. The bill, from panel member Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., notably requires the State Department to single out at-risk countries that fail to meet “minimum standards” for combating travel by foreign fighters.

“The vulnerabilities that currently exist with international security abroad pose a concerning threat to our homeland,” Zeldin said in a statement. “The development of international border security standards is critical. With the rise of terrorism at home and around the world, it’s essential that we work together as a global community to monitor and stop the movement of terrorists.”

So perhaps Congress is prudent after all. Or would be, if they could write a decent bill, as documented by Goldsmith and Mikhail. But that’s a different topic.

[EDIT updated an out of date link 2/7/2018]

I found some time to watch the Steiger version (teleplay) of Marty while sitting with my terminally ill cat. I was a little distracted by the technical problems, the worst of which was the audio track, fading in and out and distorting the dialogue into illegibility; I was more able to negotiate the video quality, which occasionally overexposed.

The content differences: the teleplay does not contain the subplot in which Marty contemplates buying the butcher shop; Angie’s role is much smaller in the teleplay.

The jarring problems with the teleplay: Marty complains of being short, fat, and ugly. Steiger may not be a model, but he’s none of those, especially the fat part. Borgnine comes closer, although he’s just somewhat plump.

Secondly, Marty’s paramour (okay, that’s a jest) is oddly non-reactive. I’m not sure if the actress is simply trying to play a woman who has no idea of how to react when a man starts to fall for her, or if she just finds the entire character baffling. Granted, the movie’s version of the paramour was also somewhat of an enigma, but not to this magnitude.

And the shared baffling subplot: Aunt Catherine and Marty’s mother, Mrs. Piletti, discussing the woes of widowhood, and the dangers of sons marrying. In the teleplay, it’s like a wart on the side of an otherwise svelte cougar: what’s that doing there? In both productions it has an engaging quality of an authentic, and little-discussed, problem for women who no longer have children to raise, but in the teleplay it serves as little more than a reason for Mrs. Piletti to desperately disparage the focus of her son’s attention – and that, in turn, goes nowhere.

But the movie version permits us to see her regret at her impulsive action and how it may negatively impact her son’s future; her moment of selfishness could lead to a lifetime of aloneness for him. The same actress plays the role in both productions, and she does a fine job in the movie, her wordless acting beautifully conveying her realization of the potential consequences of her momentary indulgence of her future fears. However, exactly why this is necessary – unless it’s just part of the slice of life to which we are a witness – is somewhat unclear to me.

I know my reader prefers the teleplay, but I find it hard to see Borgnine’s Marty as more charismatic than Steiger’s; if anything, he’s less so, as I can see Borgnine himself as being so unsure of himself, while Steiger just doesn’t strike me as someone so underconfident as to think he’s an ugly toad. In the end, while buying the butcher shop might be extraneous, I much preferred the movie paramour to the teleplay’s version, and Ernest, ever so slightly, over Rod. While I appreciate both productions, I like the movie somewhat more.

No doubt more about persistence than anything more useful, but I see from the archive I began this exercise in mental hygiene a little more than  a year ago. For those of you who read, thank you, and don’t hesitate to send me comments via mail (link to the right) or Facebook.

In a suburb of Newcastle, Australia, in February, workers using a crane extracted a 1-ton snake-like mass of sewage (mostly “wet wipes” unwisely flushed down toilets) from an underground pipe — with the gummed-together sludge reaching a height of more than 20 feet when the crane finally yanked the whole thing up. Said a representative of the water company, “(Y)ou’ll flush the toilet, and the wet wipe will disappear,” and you think (wrongly) it’s therefore “flushable.” [Australian Broadcasting Corp. News, 2-25-2016]

A warning to all you wet wipe people.

(News of the Weird)

Accompanied by the text “Very touching and oh so true”, but honestly, I think this is a despicable piece of claptrap humbug hiding behind patriotism. The efforts of most politicians (exempting the current House & Senate leadership, who seem to deserve a lot of loathing) are honest attempts to improve the lot of the nation. To use the honorable duty of the soldier to rain loathing and disgust down upon all public servants is to dishonor both the public servant and the soldier. Don’t let the slick production values, professional narrator, and soft, beautiful music fool you. This is political propaganda at its absolute worst.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eEs4ke7cdNQ%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_detailpage%2525

I’ll also point out the ranks of ex-soldiers are more likely growing than thinning, given our war-like ways of late.

A Facebook correspondent writes about The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance:

I love your belated movie reviews! Thanks for the warning about this Lone Wolf movie – my train-mad husband wants to see all movies with a train theme or plot element, but I’ll try to steer him away from this one. Tonight we watched a WWII movie (his secondary film passion): The Spy In Black. Have you seen it? If not, I highly recommend it. Conrad Veidt is wonderful, as always.

No, I have not seen The Spy in Black, but it sounds interesting. (I should add that a very young Lloyd Bridges plays the small part of the inventor in The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance.) Another reader responds on the train theme:

Classic movies? WWII? Trains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_z_9w-Ffmo

Well, Burt Lancaster. How can it help being good?

ScienceNews provides a picture of a fossil of unearthly beauty:

The fossilized remains of an about 520-million-year-old creepy-crawly provides a portrait of an ancient arthropod’s nervous system.

Researchers first described Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis — an ancient relative of spiders, insects and crustaceans unearthed from a fossil bed in southern China — in 2013. Further imaging and investigation of five new fossilized specimens reveal exceptionally well-preserved soft tissue and a ropelike structure running down the animal’s belly. That structure is the remains of a ventral nerve cord, Xi-guang Zhang of Yunnan University in Kunming, China, and colleagues explain February 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Just so cool.

(h/t NewScientist 5 Mar 2016)

China’s latest coal consumption numbers come in via NewScientist (5 March 2016):

CHINA is surging ahead in its switch to renewables and away from coal – a move it claims will allow the nation to surpass its carbon emissions targets.

The country’s solar and wind energy capacity soared last year by 74 and 34 per cent respectively compared with 2014, according to figures issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics this week.

Meanwhile, its consumption of coal dropped by 3.7 per cent, with imports down by a substantial 30 per cent.

Digging into that link at Climate Home is this disturbing, confusing tidbit:

The government had investments of $628 billion in the green economy planned up to 20301, Xie said, but admitted more support needed to be directed towards emissions data reporting, which experts say is unreliable.

“It is a question of ability … At every level of statistics there are exaggerations added to the data. Everyone knows that, and everyone is anxious [to fix it],” he said.

“We have set up a system to calculate and monitor energy saving and emission reduction, and are gradually improving it.”

Nevertheless, it appears it’s good news coming out of the second most populous country in the world – and one of the biggest polluters.

Meanwhile, the United States is also making progress, according to the Energy Information Agency Administration (EIA):

EIA estimates that U.S. coal production for February 2016 was 54 million short tons (MMst), a 4 MMst (7%) decrease from the previous month and 18 MMst less than in February 2015. Forecast coal production is expected to decrease by 111 MMst (12%) in 2016, which would be the largest annual percentage decline since 1958. In 2016, forecast Appalachian and Western region production declines by 9% and 17%, respectively, and Interior region production falls by 4%. Total coal production is expected to stabilize in 2017, increasing by 16 MMst (2%).

However, I am wary of taking production as an accurate proxy for consumption, i.e., take care when reading government reports. Further down the page is the information of interest:

EIA estimates that coal consumption decreased by 13% in 2015, mainly as a result of a 13% drop in electric power sector consumption. Coal consumption in the electric power sector is forecast to decline by 29 MMst (4%) in 2016 as a result of mild winter weather and continuing competition with natural gas generation. Electric power sector coal consumption is forecast to increase by 10 MMst (1%) in 2017 primarily because of rising natural gas prices. Retirements of coal-fired power plants, because of increased competition with natural gas generation and the industry response to the implementation of MATS, reduce coal-fired generation capacity in the forecast period.

While the estimated fall in consumption in 2015 is encouraging, that it’s due to milder weather is a little discouraging; it’d be better to know it came from retirement of coal-fired plants. This EIA page covers power plant retirements:

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory

Nearly 18 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating capacity was retired in 2015, a relatively high amount compared with recent years. More than 80% of the retired capacity was conventional steam coal. The coal-fired generating units retired in 2015 tended to be older and smaller in capacity than the coal generation fleet that continues to operate.

In The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941) we see a plot with potential ruined by some ill-considered choices when it comes to character. The basics are good: the inventor of a railcar which emits poison gas when broken into is kidnapped by those seeking the combination, yet the kidnapping is clever enough that no one but retired diamond thief Lone Wolf (Warren Williams) realizes a kidnapping has taken place. The plot has enough twists to make it interesting, and the antagonists are not without smarts, as the the mastermind also masquerades as a doctor unconnected to the kidnappers, stationed to conveniently diagnose the victim as being quite ill. In the plot we can see the back and forth of resourceful people competing to reach a goal.

But the movie falls apart in character selection. The police are mostly buffoons or egotists to a degree unbelievable and very, very annoying. This is not unusual for the Lone Wolf series. However, the Lone Wolf’s butler (odd, that, eh?), played by Eric Blore, who in previous outings has shown a degree of wit and ingenuity, in this entry merely competes with the police for foolishness and fearfulness. He becomes a major disappointment, compounded by his better appearances in other parts of the series.

As my Arts Editor points out, add in the element of knowing all will be in well in the end, and the movie fails to compel one’s attention honestly; indeed, I’m tempted to condemn the “happy ending” tradition out of hand. Only the interest in the complexities of the plot kept my attention; I actively squirmed whenever the police occupied the screen, and nearly wept when the butler displayed his incompetence and lack of charm.

Hard to recommend this go.

Zeffie Gaines publishes a good piece on how the rural areas have changed somewhat since Trump began pursuing the GOP Presidential Nomination:

The air is charged with danger.

I’m at the pump filling up my tank. The gas, with my big supermarket discount, is $1.22 a gallon. I fill up my car for under $20. THANKS OBAMA! (No, really, thanks Obama.) 

A guy, a white guy, across from me at the other pump glares at me, staring uncomfortably. I smile at him and nod, a universal gesture of neighborly friendliness. He keeps staring at me as if I just stole his last $20 bill.

I’m a black woman.

Another white man, at another pump, sees this and nervously starts making small talk with me. I’m nervous too. The other white guy finally relents in his gaze and gets back into his Dodge Ram or Tundra or whatever big ass truck he is driving (he really is driving a big ass truck).  He drives off and I exhale, realizing I’d been holding my breath for a long time. I live in Ohio, Southwestern Ohio, in a rural county. I’ve lived out here in the boonies for 5 years and never had a problem, never felt much discomfort. But since Trump came on to the scene, dominating the Republican primary, the whole energy has shifted.

There’s more, all well-written and providing interesting insights. It appears the bigots haven’t been disappearing, but just keeping their heads down. It really provokes … disappointment in your fellow Americans.

The reader continues the Marty discussion:

The movie suffers from being too long, and too “Hollywood.” Borgnine is too charismatic if not too good looking for the role. Also I like the feel of the teleplays from that era, which were broadcast live, warts and all. Feels more “real.”

I look forward to finding time to see it. Although I wonder that Rod Steiger doesn’t come across as charismatic. I actually found Ernest’s performance, when his mouth takes off and drags him along, as being almost repulsive in some ways.

Variety reports Georgia has run into a roadblock when it comes to passing “religious freedom” laws: a behemoth named DISNEY.

The Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios indicated opposition to a Georgia religious liberty bill pending before Gov. Nathan Deal, saying that they will take their business elsewhere “should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law.”

With generous tax incentives, Georgia has become a production hub, with Marvel currently shooting “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” at Pinewood Studios outside Atlanta. “Captain America: Civil War” shot there last summer.

“Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” a Disney spokesman said on Wednesday.

The MPAA is in the same corner. From the March 17 edition of myAJC (paywall) comes a summary of the bill, as well as reaction:

The Georgia Legislature’s sudden passage of a bill intended to shield opponents of same-sex marriage from last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling ignited a fierce and growing pushback from corporate leaders and gay rights activists urging Gov. Nathan Deal to block the bill.

Some of Georgia’s most influential companies warned of devastating consequences if Deal were to sign the “religious liberty” legislation that swept through the statehouse Wednesday in mere hours, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed warned it would cause “terrible harm” to the state’s business reputation.

At the same time, supporters rallied behind the measure. Religious conservatives showered the Legislature with praise, and the state GOP, noting that its activists overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting the bill, applauded lawmakers “for listening to grassroots Republicans and for working together to pass this vitally important piece of legislation.” …

On Thursday, the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition launched robo-calls urging people to call Deal’s office and tell the governor to support the bill. Virginia Galloway, the group’s Southern regional director, rejected as “hyperbole” statements by the business community and others that the bill allows discrimination.

“It is very reasonable and it respects the rights of all people,” she said.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber, the state’s most influential business voice, said the measure is “in conflict with the values of diversity and inclusion that Georgians hold dear” and could erode the state’s business reputation. The Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association called for the “best legal minds” to examine the potential unintended consequences.

“At the end of the day, it hurts Georgians because it impacts jobs,” said Larry Gellerstedt, the CEO of Cousins Properties and a recent past chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s board. “I don’t know how anyone can disagree with that.”

Governor Deal, term-limited, has not yet disclosed whether or not he’ll sign the legislation.

It’s been dismaying of late to witness the lack of GOP adherence to any principle, their party principles or to American principles. Now, granted, some principles grind on the nerves of some Americans simply because we are not a homogeneous, coherent whole, but rather a collection of disparate groups, defined in many different ways and inevitably finding some of our founding – and, providentially, legal – principles to be incompatible with the modes of thought employed by these groups. It is up to these groups to discover ways to adjust their ideologies to the overarching framework provided by our legal and cultural systems.

But, as Steve Benen @ MaddowBlog points out, the GOP is having troubles with their own principles:

About a month ago, Birmingham, Alabama, decided it was time to give the city’s low-wage workers a raise. Local officials approved a minimum-wage increase, that would apply solely to Birmingham employers, to $10.10 an hour.

Just two days later, Alabama’s Republican governor and GOP-led legislature decided to undo what Birmingham had done. The state passed a law, which applied retroactively, prohibiting cities from raising their own minimum wages, even if they want to. In all, 17 Republican-led states have approved measures to block local control in this area. …

Responses like these to local control continue to amaze. As we talked about a month ago, contemporary conservatism is generally committed to the idea that the government that’s closest to the people – literally, geographically – is best able to respond to the public’s needs. As much as possible, officials should try to shift power and resources away to local authorities.

Except, that is, when communities consider progressive measures Republicans don’t like, at which point those principles are quickly thrown out the window.

This is not an isolated incident: Michigan and Oklahoma have also seen such breach-of-principle. It’s a little appalling: just as the States serve as laboratories of democracy, the cities within those States should have a similar role in exploring policies as experiments which can be easily retracted after appropriate appraisal of their results. As Steve points out, local control should really mean decentralization; the use of the State power to control city policies should be verboten according to this principle.

But failure to adhere even to American principles does suggest something of a lack of understanding of those principles. A very recent example, supplied by NPR, from a Ted Cruz press release:

In a statement released Tuesday morning, Ted Cruz said America must secure its southern border to prevent “terrorist infiltration.” He also suggested heightened monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods, saying, “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”

Along with his repulsive remarks about carpet bombing ISIS held territory, which would result in the deaths of millions of civilians, these remarks betray a remarkable lack of understanding of American principles of, well, from the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Insofar as the remarks about “Muslim neighborhoods”, he later clarified them as follows:

He instead compared it to ridding neighborhoods of gang activity and law enforcement’s efforts “to take them off the street.”

A gang is a group of people who have come together with a primary purpose to commit crimes for personal aggrandizement. Suggesting the same tactics used to repress them be used in Muslim areas is a clear implication that Muslims are illegal.

Wrong answer in a secular nation such as ours’. Back to the after-school chalkboard for Cruz.

These are all particulars of a more general problem, fear of the outsider, especially when fringe elements espouse our destruction. This does appear to be a problem characteristic of a lot of conservatives, as we saw some sixty years ago when Senator Joe McCarthy began the persecution of home-grown Communists, or anyone who could be so construed. I’m reminded of this due to the recent viewing of the Jim Carrey movie The Majestic. He plays a new screenwriter by the name of Peter Appleton (one movie to his credit), whose new screenplay happens to mention the travails of coal miners and views a coal mining union in a positive light: thus he comes into the cross-hairs of a Congressional anti-Red committee. As those machinations occur, he has an accident, loses his memory, and is mistaken by a town for a lost World War II hero by the name of Luke Trimble, finally returned. Eventually recovering his memory and found by committee investigators, the committee orders his appearance, where Carrey delivers a speech on the subject of fear and its impact on freedom. All YouTube videos of the speech have been withdrawn by Warner Brothers, so I’ve assembled the speech from fragments found on the site Script-O-Rama:

Committee Chairman: Just read the damn statement.

Peter Appleton: “I, Peter Appleton. . . . ”

Committee Chairman: Mr. Appleton, the Committee’s patience is wearing thin.

Peter Appleton: I understand that, Mr. Chairman. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It occurs to me there’s a bigger issue than whether or not I’m a Communist.

Committee Chairman: Bigger issue? There is no bigger issue.

Peter Appleton: Actually, not to be contrary, I think there is. Gosh, I don’t quite know what to say. Fact is, l. . . . I’ve never been a man of great conviction. I never saw the percentage in it. And quite frankly. . . I suppose. . . I lacked the courage. See, I’m not like Luke Trimble [WW II Hero]. He had the market cornered on those things. I never met the guy, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know him. The thing is, I can’t help wondering what he’d say. . .if he were standing here right now. I think he’d probably tell you…the America represented in this room. . .is not the America he died defending. I think he’d say your America is bitter. . .and cruel and small.

Committee Chairman: Come to order!

Peter Appleton:I know his America was big. Bigger than you can imagine! With a wide-open heart! Where every person has a voice! Even if you don’t like what they say–

Committee Chairman: Enough! You are out of order!

Peter Appleton: If he were here, I wonder how you’d respond. . .if you could explain to him what happened to his America.

Committee Chairman: You are skating on the edge of contempt!

Peter Appleton: That’s the first thing I’ve heard today that I agree with!

And then it moves off the point. But what Peter says is important and focuses our attention: since when did we become small and afraid?

Since we abandoned principles.

See, a principle is not an object for mere lip service, nor is it a bit of dead air which everyone edges around nervously. Principles certainly guide our actions, but more importantly, they are our moral and intellectual tools. They are tools for properly handling all situations which we may encounter. Properly put, they should guide us while answering questions of why they are principles, and why they should never be abridged; through this combined how & why, they should illuminate how to use them to resolve situations to our advantage.

When the GOP pronounces a guiding principle of decentralization of political control, they believe that local can govern more effectively (by which I mean humanely and efficiently) than can the bureaucrats in some place far away. This is a reasonable principle to at least try out. And when they abridge their principle, they lose that advantage; now we shout at the legislators at the State capitol rather than the national capitol. Thus they lose the advantage conferred, if any is indeed conferred, by application of the principle because they turn around and obviate it. The damage to their intellectual reputations are cumulative and difficult to repair.

When we abandon principles of international bearing and renown, we lose advantage: our principle of accepting desperate refugees, our principle of not committing torture, a dozen others. Each of these are neither dead words nor burdens we bear, but rather principles that confer advantages on us. When Trump demands we torture prisoners, be they criminals or opposition soldiers, he throws away the advantages that principle gave us: to not be barbarians and do the same things to our brothers, sister, aunts and uncles; to not delude ourselves into thinking we have actionable intelligence, as the CIA confirmed in their seminal report; to signal to the world of intelligent people considering emigrating here that we are safe, that you need not fear torture and persecution.

This is what we lose when we abandon our principles to the pressure of the disaster of the moment. The Democrats, I notice, have not renounced important American principles, but the GOP seems to have trouble keeping the course. And a significant portion of the electorate just doesn’t seem to understand the importance of keeping principles.

This time a movie not quite so old: The Old Dark House (1963), a horror-comedy (parts cleverness, parts farce) with a clutch of character actors of the time: Tom Poston, Robert Morley, etc. This is a fairly mundane, sometimes excruciating story of an American in Britain who, at the call of an odd friend, goes to the man’s home, a small mansion in a marsh. There he finds the man dead, and all of his relatives as dotty as they come, from the mother who is not particularly upset at the passing of her son, to his twin, and various cousins and uncles; we find an ark in the backyard, a fierce collection of firearms, including one jury-rigged to assassinate the prime suspect in the first murder, and a lass with an execrable obsession with explosives. The humor is fairly standard for the era, thus my itching teeth.

But what twigged my interest was the theme. The plot mechanism is that there is a fortune associated with the mansion, with everyone in the family an heir to it, but with the stipulation that each must be present in the mansion at midnight; the family gathers in a given room at the as the clocks strike twelve, and if one is missing, why, they’re out of their inheritance.

And, often, their life.

But the theme, yes, the theme is how wealth, with its tempting fragrance of lifelong leisure, can twist people into madness. The first member of the family we meet may have been the sanest, escaping to London most days to gamble, and engaging a small airplane to fly him home before midnight; his mother is engaged in knitting, measuring her useless accomplishments by the mile, and behind her facade of English gentility may be the maddest of them all. The gun aficionado is relatively sane; another uncle is busy constructing an ark in the surrounding marsh, which is, perhaps, a trifle artificial. The femme cousins (I apologize for the harsh pun on the family name, the Femms) appear distressed but otherwise mildly harmless.

I suppose obsession with wealth has been around for almost as long as humanity has conceived of possessions, but this movie does an interesting job of pointing out how much humanity wastes on the chase after wealth, as the walls of the mansion become obstructions to seeing anything but that wealth. Where are the visitors, the socializing, the enterprise essential to human nature? Gone, stolen by the mansion’s wealth.

This is moving as it addresses one of the more important questions of the age.  It’s by Nadia Drake on the National Geographic blog No Place Like Home. It starts out,

Paris was horrific.

And later…

I stewed and stewed, and stewed some more, and emerged briefly and wrote to Kareem Shaheen, a friend who’s based in Beirut and covers the Middle East for the Guardian.

“I wish there were something I could do to help, or something that would at least make a difference. Want to swap jobs for a bit?” I suggested, half joking.

His response was, in a nutshell, that science has the power to redeem and inspire, and that casting our eyes to the stars can unite every human on Earth. Then he echoed a sentiment I’d heard a day earlier: Keep writing about science. It’s important, and it’s inspiring.

“There’s a unifying beauty to it–you can appreciate the stars and planets whether you’re Sunni, Shia, Hindu, Christian, Jew, atheist or Wiccan,” Kareem said. “Finding new things to discover, wondering at what could be up there, us being the universe contemplating itself, setting our sights at conquering a new frontier, that’s what we should be doing.”

If you’ve wondered how to focus everyone on any particular human disaster, then read it. It reminds us that the disaster of the moment, as horrible as it may be, will pass, but our communal building of the knowledge base, well, that brings us together, it unites our spirits, and moves us forward to a better future.

And may explain why ISIS engages in destruction.

(h/t The Planetary Report, print edition)