Category: Mediaphilism

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed It took me all of 2006 to read Jared Diamond’s novel, setting it down several times. So informationally dense, such a delluge of data, an avalanche of not just facts, but where the facts came from, how layers of archeological discoveries translated into Diamond’s conclusions was too…

The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins On first read, Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene seems repetitive. Dawkins continually takes asides to remind the audience that his verbage, words like “compete,” “betray,” “steal,” etc, in describing animal behaviors are not meant to imply altruism or malevolence, but describe a behavior’s effect on a gene’s ability to propigate.…

Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions Square is a lawyer living in Flatland, a two-dimensional world that has height and width, but not length. In Edwin Abbott’s book Flatland, Square serves as our tour guide, describing both the physical and social characteristics of living in a world without depth. Flatland works on two levels: as…

“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”      – Neil Armstrong Planetes The space age began in the 1950s with the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, which was followed by a Space Race that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Without milateristic competition between our countries, all we…

“I have always regarded Thomas Paine as one of the greatest of all Americans. Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic.”         – Thomas Edison The burial location ofThomas Paine inNew Rochelle, New York In Catholicism, when a child reaches seven years of age, they become responsible for their moral actions, capable of…

Historical Inaccuracies “See, look, I . . . I know I’m homophobic, but not about gay guys. They don’t bother me at all. It’s straight guys who don’t know they’re gay. They %&*# my $#!@ right up.”        – King Missile, Gay or Not Gay The Battle at Thermopylae, when 300 Spartans led 5,000 Greeks against…

Imagine No Religion “Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible mand–living in the sky–who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a…

Children of Men The year’s best film won a scant three Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay. It did not win any of these, and that is a shame. Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, the film was completely ignored at the box office, only bringing in a scant $34…

There are two kinds of inquisitive minds, Hedgehogs and Foxes. In nature, Foxes rely on a wide range of crafty strategies to avoid prey. Hedgehogs rely on one tried and true defense, rolling up into a ball and baring their quills. Intellectually, Foxes dart from topic to topic, surveying a wide range of ideas across…

Storytellers continue adapting Wells’ many novels into movies, television and radio shows, and yet none of these interpretations eliminate the joy of reading his original works: “The Invisible Man” has spawned countless spin-offs, comedies and horror films alike. In it, Welles addresses the common fantasy many of us share of turning invisible and turns it…

The special effects in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” may have wowed audiences of the time, but the film continues to inspire today because of the concepts it involves. A brilliant being from a distant world, Klaatu, similar to humans, but vastly more advanced must deliver a crucial message to the world, but Cold…

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” – John Lennon Not all movies are about making us think, some are about senseless fun. This Sam Raimi / Bruce Cambell pair-up is rife with comedic action and is my favorite way to blow an hour and a half of laughing my ass off. Army of Darkness…