August 24, 2006
FUCK YOU, CLYDE TOMBAUGH
(What, too soon?)
Pluto is no longer a planet. Please adjust your mnemonic accordingly: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies.
"Your dongs are tiny and useless, Earth astronomers."
How in the hell does something get de-planeted? The eccentricity of the Plutonian orbit doesn't really change the fact that it's a planet-sized rock under the primary gravitational influence of our sun. So its orbit overlaps Neptune's. Big fuckin' deal. Forgive an object that's 17 terameters from the sun for being a little wobbly.
As you can tell, I have strong feelings about this subject.
August 23, 2006
BOY PANTS DOWN
Anyone who's ever seen and/or enjoyed the motion picture Black Hawk Down are probably aware that it depicts real events from the nonfiction book of the same name with a surprising (at least for Hollywood) level of accuracy.
One part of the film is fictionalized, I've learned. Apparently the nervous coffee-loving Grimes (Ewan McGregor) is comic relief, but he isn't a real person. "Grimes" is a character based heavily on real-life Spc. John Stebbins, a coffee-obsessed nebbish of a clerk. Apparently the US Army powers-that-be demanded that Stebbins' name be altered (unlike any of the other characters in the film) before agreeing to assist with the film.
For some reason, they didn't think the story of heroism, valor, and unpreparedness would resonate with audiences when they realized that one of the heroes, Mr. Stebbins, is doing 30 years for raping a 6-year old girl.
Oh, and it was his daughter. Good night.
