Wordsmith’s Muse

Twenty years ago I was a University student at Oklahoma Christian in Edmond, OK, just north of the sprawling mess of OKC. One of my favorite hobbies has always been reading and collecting comic books. Over the years, my tastes have grown more refined, but back in the day I would read just about anything that had decent art. So I surprised myself when I picked up and purchased a Marvel graphic novel reprint of the original Captain America books.

These books dated back to 1941 and had corny but interesting period dialogue as well as sub-par art, by the standards of the early ’90s. But the story was captivating. I loved it. I dove right in and read the thing cover-to-cover in one sitting. Very few of the hundreds of comic stories I’ve read over the years have been as gripping, and it left me wanting more. They tried a TV show, I think in the late ’80s, and it didn’t do anything for me. Cap’s shield was plexiglass, the acting was terrible, and the stories were regurgitated Hollywood pap. Nobody has ever done a visual production of this franchise that has been appealing, save for Marvel’s own animated movies, which have always fallen short of the quality levels of Japanese anime, sadly.

Flash forward to summer, 2011. One of the greatest all-time comic book origins is made into a movie. Captain America: The First Avenger. At this point I’m a little scared: I have extremely high expectations for this film. It’s something I’ve been waiting on for two decades. The previews look amazing, the cast is solid, and the director has a great track record, but can they capture the magic of the original? Can this new film grab me and hold on, leaving me wanting more? I truly hope so.

Earlier this summer Kenneth Branagh did such a wonderful job with Thor, a story I feared would fall flat. He took his expertise and experience in Shakespearean works and wove an original and entertaining story without sacrificing the Norse heritage of the legend. That was a pleasant surprise. I went and saw it three times. Veteran Joe Johnston (director of Captain America) has a similar challenge, and if his work on The Wolfman is any indication we can expect him to rise to the occasion and do this story justice.

While I’ve heard that Chris Evans is overused in the hero sub-genre of films, I disagree. Yes he’s been in several: he got his start with the original Fantastic 4, and since has done the sequel (Silver Surfer was a disappointment, but Evans nailed his role in both films), Push is an excellent story that I can’t wait to see more of, with Evans as a newbie telekinetic who gets caught up in a hidden world of intrigue and danger from superpowered ‘agents.’ But he has by no means been pigeonholed as a hero-type: Chris Evans has acted with consistent excellence in such films as Cellular, Sunshine, and The Losers, to name a few.

To pull off the role of a true Steve Rogers, Evans will have to step up his professionalism, project leadership excellence, integrity, and absolute conviction of purpose; cornerstones of an iconic comic book character that has inspired generations of readers. The bits and pieces I’ve seen in the previews have been promising, but Friday night will tell it true. If this team can make such a milestone achievement, that will bode well for next summer’s blockbuster, The Avengers.

My buddy Milo LeBaron pointed this out to me, and I was blown away by all the different ways that coffee has been screwing me up. If you’re a coffee drinker, there’s a whole heck of a lot more going on in there than just the caffeine. The following content is quoted from www.drnicholassheffer.com/unhealthycoffee.htm

HOW BAD IS COFFEE FOR YOU?

The World Health Organization, (WHO), states that coffee is a “true drug” due to its caffeine content. It meets the criteria set by WHO for drug addiction. Coffee raises cholesterol levels. There are very few nutrients found in any significant amount in a cup of coffee. There are only trace amounts of niacin (0.22mg/100mg), magnesium (5 mg/100g) and potassium (54 mg/100g). Coffee contains chlorogenic acids. Caffeine and chlorogenic acids act as diuretics and irritate the digestive tract. Regarding Arterial Hypertension, (high blood pressure), when an individual abstains from drinking coffee their blood pressure will decrease back into normal range.

There are reports proving there are changes in intellectual performance. An experiment conducted in the psychological department of Nene College in North Hampton , United Kingdom , shows that more errors are produced in identifying pairs of equal letters. Equal letters for example, A/a or different letters, P/a. Even though other studies demonstrate that coffee stimulates mental activity, more errors are produced after drinking it. This is due the fact that caffeine reduces the brains glucose or sugar supply, which leads to a lack of mental concentration.

Coffee increases the production of acid juices in the stomach. It also promotes acid reflux causing heartburn and esophagitis. This has been well demonstrated at the Bogenhausen Hospital in Munich ( Germany ). There is a significantly increased risk of Urinary bladder cancer with coffee consumption, particularly if combined with alcohol use. Coffee fosters calcium loss through the urine, which contributes to Osteoporosis. A study at the University of South Carolina demonstrates that increasing unfiltered coffee consumption by ONE CUP A DAY on a regular basis raises blood cholesterol by 20mg/100 ml. Myocardial Infarction is increased by consuming coffee according to a Meta analysis (a compendium of a large body of previous statistics) carried out a Harvard University (USA). Coffee may also lead to changes in cardiac rhythm, or arrhythmia.

“Coffee makes you fat.” According to Dr. Nicholas Pericone. “Coffee raises your insulin levels and that keeps a lock on your fat. Stop drinking coffee in one month and lose 10 pounds I guarantee it.” Stated on Oprah Winfrey show in 1998, and also in Dr.Pericone’s book, The Perricone Promise.

Coffee is the only product that raises your insulin and glucagon levels at the same time destroying your hormonal production and overworking your pancreas. In addition coffee raises your cortisol levels, whereby causing you to loose muscle mass.” “Coffee is a vasoconstrictor. It compresses all your blood vessels and inhibits proper circulation throughout your entire body. There is no faster way to age than to reduce your circulation.” Dr. Nicholas Sheffer

You know how some people just flail their ways through life, trying and failing and very obviously doing it wrong, and the only way they ever seem to learn how to do it right is when they fall on their faces? I know some people like that, one in particular is a friend—we’ll call him Todd—who has an absolute heart of gold; he’s smart, he’s cool, he’s interesting, but it remains impossible for anyone to constructively criticize him. He just won’t allow it, won’t listen. He has to fall on his face in order to learn, so his life is a series of painful lessons, and he just can’t see the bigger picture; that if he had listened to family and friends about these things years ago, he would have saved himself (and us) a great deal of pain and frustration.

Our entire culture does this on a broader scale. I’m talking about Western culture in general here: but the fall-on-your-face lessons that we get from time to time often don’t stick with us, and are never appreciated by everyone, they typically only apply to a select few. Our deficit looks to be doubling—again—for the second time in as many decades, some groups point fingers, others gloat and say ‘I told you so,’ and a few people pay attention and look for the why underneath it all, and then try to take steps to fix it.

This is nothing new, of course, and while it might be fun to discuss broad issues like economics and politics, that is not where I’m going here. I want you to think about the falling-on-your-face way of learning. I want you to think about the fact that despite all the times we’ve fallen on our faces as a race, there are still a great many mistakes we continue to repeat. Sometimes our mistakes can take the form of an attitude, and for this little commentary that’s what I’m going to be focusing on.

“The world, she is flat,” said the wise courtier, and Magellan sailed the globe. There very well might have been some foolish members of the Spanish court of the late 1400’s who thought the earth was flat, but this is actually a misconception. European science was largely based on the solid foundation of Greek and Roman science and philosophy, and as early as 3rd century BC it was commonly held in Greek society that the earth was spherical.

I said all that to tell you this: the thoughts of just a few influential people, even in an enlightened time, can create an avalanche of misinformation. Shortly after Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world, an original thinker named Nicolaus Copernicus started touting the theory that the earth was not actually the center of the universe. To people who were open to scientific ideas that were revolutionary, this was an intriguing thought, but to the Establishment, it was met with derision (although it should be known that Copernicus was not executed by the Catholic Church or by an irate Spanish queen; he died of a stroke, but did live to see the work of his life published).

The Establishment had latched onto the traditional belief that the world was, of course, the center of God’s creation. All of the smartest and most accomplished people of Europe knew it to be true, had believed it since birth, so of course the foolish upstart Nicolaus had to be off his rocker. It took decades for the rest of the scientific community to convince the entrenched Establishment that the earth was just one of many heavenly bodies, none of which—in our galaxy at least—could be described as the center of the universe.

Flash forward three hundred years or so. Charles Darwin visits the Galapagos Islands on the Beagle and is so overwhelmed by the rich depth of unique wildlife that he has a revolutionary thought. The theory of evolution is empowered by his idea about natural selection, and Chuck goes down in history as the Savior of the Agnostics. For the first time in history, all of the secular scientists had a viable theory they could rally around that was capable of challenging creationism.

In the decades since, this has become their religion; a system of beliefs based on faith that they vigorously, even fanatically defend. Wait, evolution science is a religion? What? That can’t be; scientists do everything by a process, right? They prove everything; they take great pains to repeat those proofs until there is absolutely no doubt that their laws are true, right?

That’s true, in most cases. Evolution is an area they work hard to make blurry. How can you apply the rigid scientific process to something that has been categorically unproven for over 150 years? There are no experiments to run, there is nothing to observe, there are no missing links that can show us that a given species up and decided it needs to be able to fly now so let’s all start evolving!

They have what Darwin had; an idea that appeals to them because it seems to make sense. If you look up the theory of evolution in a textbook, encyclopedia, or online, you’ll learn that evolution just is because it is now accepted as fact in all of our schools and research organizations. You’ll learn that the only people stupid enough to argue the fact are those silly Theists with their theories of creationism and intelligent design.

What you won’t learn is that there are a good many within the scientific community itself—and certainly within the educational world—who aren’t really buying the doctrine any more. They ask questions like, “If evolution is valid, why has it been a theory since Origin of Species in 1859 and why hasn’t it been proven as a law of science?” or “If it took billyuns and billyuns of years for an ape to become a man, why don’t we have billyuns of fossils of humapes?” Obviously, real scientists would be able to frame these questions much more intelligently than I have, but I’m sure you see what I mean.

So this is the issue: evolution is a flawed theory that is, nevertheless, the accepted norm with today’s Establishment. So much the accepted norm that it is taught to our children as fact and any departure from that norm is met with aggressive derision. It’s been said by wiser individuals than I that a mistake only remains a mistake if you persist in it. And here is where we get to the part about falling on our faces.

Let’s just take a look at how ridiculous the theory of evolution really is, shall we? Imagine you’re a frog, a member of a huge species of frogs that live in an ancient primordial swamp. You’re tired of seeing your buddies get eaten by predators, but you don’t know what to do about it. But you see; evolution has something truly cool in store for you! You get to grow wings! No, wait, you don’t, but several billyuns of generations of your species later, your descendants will have wings, and they’ll be able to fly away from most predators, so they won’t have to suffer like you do, watching all your little frog buddies get eaten up all the time.

So how, you may ask, is this magnificent process going to take place? Well it just so happens you have a little mutant nub of bone in your upper spine, a nub that pokes out of your back, and a couple of your buddies also have this nub of bone, and it seems like fate and good fortune are going to allow you to survive long enough to breed! Isn’t that great? And it turns out that this little nub of mutant bone is going to show up in your kids. And then, a few thousand generations down the road, after your bone nub has proven to be a trait of a true survivor, some of those nubbed-kids who also end up luckily surviving to reproduce are going to have another amazing survival mutation; a knob on the nub.

Obviously this will help them survive to breed again, and their kids a few millyun generations down the line, with these amazing knobby nubs, will get an even bigger survival bonus; they’ll get a long nib on the knobby-nub. I’m sure it’s apparent to see that such gifted offspring will be iron-clad, indomitable, and poised for tremendous breeding potential due to higher survivability than the non-mutant frogs. The non-nibbed-knobby-nubbers might as well march into the mouths of the bad guys.

A few hundred such beneficial mutation-generations later, the long-nibbed-knobby-nubs will mutate even further and start growing musculature, nerves, joints, a control-center in the brain to direct movement, and of course—through inevitable species-envy—the long-nibbed-knobby-nubs will grow feathers. So that generation, through trial and error, will learn how to fly, and thus will be born a new species; the knobby-frog fliers.

While my theatrical and moving recreation of events might have been slightly over-dramatized, the underlying mechanics of how natural selection is supposed to work are consistent with the faith of religious practitioners of the theory of evolution.

Faith? There’s that word again. And religion! Am I deliberately trying to be insulting to evolutionists and agnostics everywhere? Well, maybe a little. But let’s take a look at faith and religion and why those words fit this group of fanatics so well.

Faith is the belief in something that cannot be quantified, the persistent following of an idea that has no proof to support it. It’s a word creationists have been proud of for several thousand years now, but it’s a word that science, in general, doesn’t have much use for. That’s okay for science: the whole point of science is proving stuff enough times that we know how things work. But the practitioners of science are almost universally hateful of the concept of faith, despite the fact that the lot of them live and breathe it on a daily basis.

So what faith do they practice? There are several. The topic at hand is a biggie; there is no proof for the theory of evolution, if there was it would have turned up again and again over the 150 years since Darwin. We would be able to go down to any museum and see those clever survival mutations such as the long-nibbed-knobby-nubs of those plucky knobby-frog fliers. But we can’t because those mutations never happened, all of the frogs in the thousands and millions of generations it would have taken the frogs to grow wings never had the blessed nubs to begin with. The nubs themselves wouldn’t have helped the frogs survive. Natural selection is simply another way of referring to the whims of fate.

Another point of faith with this religious group is the origin. The origin of what? Well, everything. We all know that the theory of creationism has this one covered. What do the evo-fanatics have? The Big Bang. This is another one that’s taught as fact in our schools even though there isn’t a lick of evidence to support it. You see, there was this truly monstrous mass of primordial matter; the proto-stuff of the universe. It was just hanging out in the middle of the great nothingness, and then WHAM!! It reaches critical mass, falls in on itself, and explodes into all the twinkly little galaxies, superclusters, nebulae, dark-matter masses, and other assorted heavenly bodies we like to refer to as the universe.

That doesn’t require any faith, does it? That’s a plausible explanation, right? Well, maybe, but where did the initial mass of proto-stuff come from? Where did the void come from? It’s not really even an origin: the evo-fanatics and the bb-fanatics (big-bang; try to keep up) have started their origin story from scene two. Now I would say that requires not only a healthy measure of faith, but the baldest kind of audacity to boot. They sold half of an origin story to the Establishment and made it stick. Salty bunch, these evo-bb-fanatics.

So they have faith, but how does any of this make the evo-bb’s a religion? Well, what is a religion? Here are a couple of dictionary definitions:

Religion
1) a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
2) a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

Evolution and the Big Bang are the evo-bb-fanatics beliefs concerning the cause and nature of the universe. Every textbook that teaches those beliefs is a written work of that faith; every speech they give, every lesson that teaches or supports those beliefs is an oration of that faith, a devotional, if you will. To them it is absolutely immoral to entertain a differing belief system; their moral code dictates that they spread their message on an all-or-nothing basis. They actively evangelize. Their high priests are the biologists, anthropologists, geologists, astronomers, and a whole gaggle of other gifted scientists who publish and speak in the various areas of their expertise. When they hold forth, preaching their evo-bb Truth to the unenlightened masses in their classrooms and lecture halls, their word is absolute, and anyone offering a contrary position is rabidly assaulted with an impeccable and aggressive stream of incontrovertible logic. They rock, and most of their students just go with the flow because it’s easier.

I could continue along this line of thought and speak of holy wars (the Theists are losing) and other huge ideas, but I’d really like to just get back to the whole falling-on-the-face thing. Proof is a funny thing, so is fate. You see, I believe in the scientific process, I really like it. It’s an awesome way to explore the world and how stuff works. And the really cool thing about science is that it works so well. We don’t really know a whole lot just yet; we’re more or less just getting started down the road of scientific enlightenment, picking up the basics of this amazing universe we live in. But the parts that we know, we really know them, because they’ve been proven.

There’s a law of science, a law of physics to be precise, called the law of conservation of motion. It’s the second law of thermodynamics, and it’s pretty straightforward: stuff breaks down. That’s it. As time goes by, water and wind wear down rocks; the gears of a machine will eventually wear out no matter how well they’re engineered; stars burn out and die; and the genome of every living thing becomes more and more flawed. Disorders and diseases, genetic abnormalities and conditions, all of these are becoming more prevalent and evident as we get older as a race. Half of the men you know will have cancer at some point in their lives, and a third of the women. Special education departments for our schools have unprecedented numbers of students, with no end in sight. An evo-bb-fanatic would most likely claim that nature may very well be selecting us for elimination as a species, and these might just be signs of that, but the truth is that every species is slowly breaking down genetically. They certainly aren’t growing feathery-long-nibbed-knobby-nubs one bit at a time so they can elevate themselves as a species.

Here is where we fall on our faces. Every time you hear the devotions of the evo-bb fanatics and take it in stride, you’re persisting in a mistake. You’re allowing them to make our race look stupid by going with the flow. You’re empowering the movement of our race toward self-delusion for the status quo.

So how do we get out of this rut? How do we limit the power of the evo-bb-fanatics, how do we stop ourselves from falling on our faces as a race?

Ask questions.

More importantly, ask questions that you know the evo-bb’s will not be able to answer. I’ve given you a few above, but a little research and original thinking can result in an infinite number of questions that will have one of two results: 1) your particular evo-bb-fanatic will be stumped and temporarily unable to answer the question, or (much more likely), 2) your particular evo-bb-fanatic will be stumped, may bluster, and will throw a challenging question right back in your face to divert shame toward you. I encourage you to not let such behavior succeed; it is a cop-out, and your question deserves an answer.

So my question for you is this: Do you like falling on your face? If not, will you learn from it and do something about it? Or perhaps, you’d rather actually be a pulpit-pounding evo-bb-fanatic?

I can’t wait to see what you choose.

~ finis ~

I’d like to know 30 things about you! You can either answer these questions in a reply to this post, or you can e-mail them to me if they’re personal. At the bottom of the list is a link to my answers for all of these questions.

Do you believe in Love at first sight?

Ever make love on the first date?

Would you marry for money?

Do you have a tattoo?

Are you pierced?

What’s your favorite color?

Eat with your hands or utensils?

What do you dream at night?

What’s your favorite fairy tale?

Do you believe in magic?

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Do you have a secret crush?

If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?

What do you wear to sleep?

If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?

Which do you prefer – short or long hair?

Do you sing in the shower?

Ever personally known someone who’s been murdered?

Aerosmith or Rolling Stones?

Have you ever done drugs?

Do you smoke?

What’s your favorite drink?

What’s your favorite pizza toppings?

Pepsi or Coke?

Sports car or Pick up Truck?

Favorite sports team?

If you could have a conversation with anyone in history who would it be?

Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?

If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?

Have you ever betrayed someone? If so, how did it change your life?

What would be a dream date for you?

What do you want your life to be like 5 years from now?

Would you rather have a hot, wealthy spouse who MIGHT be faithful, an average spouse who SEEMS faithful (call it a 95% chance, humor me), or a below-average spouse who would CERTAINLY be faithful? Assume in all cases that you ‘click’ as friends.

Describe a perfect vacation.

Imagine that you have married the person of your dreams; what would an average day together be like? (I’m not looking for sex stories here, ; )

If you could be a character in any story you know, what story would you choose and what character would you be?

If you had a wish, just one, and that wish had to be for someone you know, who would you make the wish for, and what would you wish for that person?

Mild, medium, spicy, or volcano-hot?

What are your top three dislikes/pet peeves?

What are some things that you dislike about the opposite sex (think generic, cliché bad traits, such as men falling asleep after sex, or women going crazy shopping, etc.) but could accept anyway with the right person?

If medical technology advanced to the point that we could live for 1000 years or more, would you still marry for life?

If you want to send your answers to me and not have them viewable to other responders, please copy them into an e-mail to andrewewheeler@live.com

Click HERE to see my answers.

Fans of the Gundam anime series, perk up your ears: Remember that 60-foot tall, 25-ton, 1-to-1 scale Gundam those wacky Japanese built in the Odaiba area of Tokyo? Apparently, they’ve hooked up the plasma coils, fired up the quantum-tap, and engaged the flux-capacitor. Okay, that was a little off: What I’m driving at is, the thing not only lights up, it freakin’ moves.

Kudos to kslash on flickr, who linked this killer video clip. I can’t wait to get back to the land of the rising sun, hop on a train to Odaiba Koen, and get a first-hand look at this beast. Any takers?

According to the blurb on Engadget, the next new version of one of the coolest gadgets ever made most likely won’t look like this. If not, Sony needs to perk up its ears, put in some eyedrops and pay attention because this is an excellent rendition of what the PSP could be.

The image was created by a fan with some mad skills, and it focuses on excellence in form factor, something that Sony has always demonstrated with poise and elegance. Since the logical direction for the product line is to move away from the dated UMD disks (as evidenced by the recent PSP Go) a form factor like the one created here would certainly be a great move for the electronics giant.

Of course, all of this depends upon Sony’s legendary ability to shrink power and function into small and pleasing packages. The latest rumor on Engadget cites that the graphics chipset slated for the PSP 2 will have as much punch as the original XBox, and might not even need a primary CPU because of the processing capability of the chipset. The current version of that chipset is what’s rocking the graphics on the iPhone 3Gs.

No matter what happens, this fan of the PSP is looking forward to the upcoming PSP 2. Will it look this sexy? Will it be an effective movie/music/game machine, or a clumsy but cool game machine with benefits, like the original PSP?

At this point we can only hope for the best. And drool.

Why does the establishment despise Michael Bay? This is the guy who brought us Armageddon, The Rock, Bad Boys and The Island. He is also a master of horror, with groundbreaking remakes of Friday the 13th, The Hitcher, The Amityville Horror, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His focus is admirable: instead of trying for artistry and pedigrees he makes slam-bang action blockbusters with mass appeal, excellent cinematography, and cool settings.

The latest installation in the Transformers movie franchise is no different. Bay delivers hammering action, adequate acting, and powerful visuals and audio. This is one of the most underrated movies in recent memory and is a must-see for anyone looking for solid cinematic thrills this summer.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best of class in a variety of areas. Explore what’s making the grade in hardware and gear.

Alienware’s M17X Notebook Facemelter – The Best Gaming Laptop on the Planet, for Now

Isaburo Shell Pack – A Sweet Way to Carry Your Stuff

Tired of the establishment? So am I. Read movie reviews without the baggage of industry metrics and unrealistic expectations. Here are the latest.

Year One Find out why you shouldn’t waste your time.

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 Solid acting and a good story; why Pelham is a good bet for the big-screen.