For English to evolve, grammarians must die

Posted July 1st, 2009 at 7:28pm by Stephen

Consider these three word pairs:

  • Choose vs. chose
  • Loose vs. lose
  • Noose vs. nose

Loose and noose rhyme, but they don’t rhyme with choose. Chose and nose rhyme, but they don’t rhyme with lose.

There are lists of frequent grammatical errors; mistaken use of choose/chose and loose/lose are commonly found on such lists.

I could pick on hundreds of other English irregularities, but these ones happened to set me off today.

My son Sammy is nearly four and we’re teaching him to read. The irregularities of English are sufficiently common that I spend more time teaching the exceptions rather than the rules.

Simultaneously, as use of cell phones for texting proliferates (along with other communication typed in real-time, such as game chat or status updates, where character limits apply), there’s an emphasis on brevity that favors abbreviations, slang, acronyms and intentional misspelling.

In the early grades, as English is taught, correct spelling is the least important skill, taught last. The lesson plans emphasize vocabulary and the more common sounds for letters, even if it means young kids create sentences that don’t have a single correctly spelled word. The exceptions are cleaned up in the later grades.

English is a difficult language for non-native speakers to learn, because of the pervasive exceptions. But that flies in the face of English’s growth as a worldwide universal langauge.

English does evolve over time — just look at how many new words are added each year to various dictionaries. Novel forms of speech are created constantly, and are adopted based on an evolutionary model: If it’s simple, readily understood, and fills a gap in our forms of expression (or more efficiently gets an idea across in one or two syllables compared to a lengthier, traditional construction), then it will be spread from group to group, and eventually be considered “standard.” In general, this evolution makes English simpler, since complex or non-standard constructions are not spread as readily. So, evolution of English is “good” in the sense that it makes English easier for non-native speakers or young learners.

However, standing in the way of English’s evolution is prescriptionism. Linguists (those that study language) are generally either descriptivists (who observe and describe how language is actually used) or prescriptionists, who dictate how language should and shouldn’t be used.

No one has enjoyed a quick spelling or grammar flame more than me, but today I’ve come to the conclusion that English needs to evolve faster, and armchair grammarians (even ones with linguistics degrees, like me) must stop what they’re doing in discouraging novel forms of expression.

For everyday communication online, from now on, my only consideration is if I understood the other person. Instead of, “Is every word spelled and used correctly?”, my standard will now be, “Is the intent clear?”

Starting today, I resolve to never make another spelling or grammar flame. For informal forums, I may gently encourage others to stop making such corrections as well.

I’ll still apply higher standards for business communications, especially for my own e-mails and from prospective employees . Bad spelling as a signifier for low intelligence is a deeply-ingrained bias in our culture, and misspelling a few words in a widespread corporate e-mail is still a career-limiting maneuver.

The next barrier will be lowering my standards for my own informal writing, such as here on this blog. It’ll take a while before I’m ready for that leap.

Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz, CA

Posted June 28th, 2009 at 1:50pm by Stephen

Saturday was the beginning of the heat wave, so we head to Santa Cruz for some beach time.

When heading down Highway 17, usually I expect the least traffic at the crack of dawn or after noon. But even waiting until noon didn’t help, and it took over two hours to get there (when normally it’s about 45 minutes). The slowest traffic was on the surface streets in Santa Cruz, and even trying some offbeat routes didn’t help. We stopped downtown to eat the Walnut Street Cafe to give the tangle some time to disperse before heading to Natural Bridges. (It costs $8 to park now! How on earth can it save the state money to close these parks when they charge what should be enough to break even? I was happy to pay if it meant helping out the state during the budget crisis.)

As it turned out, we got there right after the morning fog burned off, and there was a bit of a wind, so it was a great way to cool down.

I experimented a bit with the new video feature of my new iPhone 3GS.

Now that’s after upload to YouTube, and that process seems to introduce a lot of artifacts. On the plus side, iPhone video is convenient — I will amost always be carrying my phone — and it’s not nearly as sensitive as the Flip to shake. But the brightness changes are jarring, and the overall image quality is not as good. (You can view my other video tests on my YouTube channel.)

sammy

^^^^^ Sammy typed that. Pardon the intrusion.

After the sun started to sink, we headed to the wharf for bread-bowl clam chowder and to watch the seals and sea lions and pelicans. Sheets of mist draped the pier, giving the whole scene a surreal and wonderful edge.

Armed with salt water taffy from Marini’s, we headed home at 9, and once again ran into crushing traffic. While everyone else slept in the car, I tried every trick I knew to take the non-beaten path, but wasn’t able to get home until 10:30pm.

Worth it.

Swine flu graph update #3: A(H1N1) modest rate increase

Posted June 26th, 2009 at 11:07pm by Stephen

I last updated this graph 15 days ago. In that time, the number of worldwide confirmed cases doubled from nearly 29,000 to nearly 60,000, according to the World Health Organization.

These are not the number of fatal cases. The official count of worldwide fatalities has risen from 144 to 263. That’s a fatality rate of 0.4%, or 1 in 250.

Various news reports this week stated that there were 1 million cases in the U.S. (for example, this article on the Discovery Channel’s site). Those reports are based on projections, not confirmed cases, and honestly to me the figure simply does not seem credible. The 1 million number is not backed by the CDC data, which matches the WHO’s report for U.S. cases. I do believe reporters have confused the concept of “number of vaccines needed in the worst case” with “number of people who have been infected.”

However, it does seem apparent that the rate of new cases has increased. Previously we had seen about 4,500 new cases each week, for a period of three weeks in May. That increased to around 6,500 cases a week in early June. We’re now seeing about 15,500 cases per week for the last two weeks.

It’s hard to say if we’ve seen the point where the number of cases is doubling consistently. It took two weeks to get from 15,000 cases to 30,000, then two weeks more to get from 30,000 cases to 60,000. It will be very interesting to see if the number of cases double again to 120,000 in the next two weeks. At that point, I predict news cycles would start to take things very seriously again.

flu-2009-06-26
(Click to see full-size chart.)

Celebrity deaths do not come in threes

Posted June 25th, 2009 at 4:32pm by Stephen

domA year ago, I wrote this post attempting to debunk the superstition that deaths come in threes.

With the passing of Ed MacMahon on Tuesday, along with Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson today, I’ve seen this superstition resurface. Yet my arguments from a year ago still stand.

I’d also like to add this refutation: Dom DeLuise died alone.

Take this list from Wikipedia of celebrities who died in May. I’d argue that Dom was the “most famous” of all the names listed there, but please feel free to assert differently if you disagree. So, where are the other two, if deaths do indeed come in threes?

We can repeat the exercise for other months.

RIP, Ed, Farrah, Michael and Dom. Please don’t cheapen their memory repeating a baseless superstition that tries to find a pattern where none exists.

UPDATE June 28th: Billy Mays has also passed away today, breaking the pattern for even the current three.

Seventeen imminent replacements for Twitter

Posted June 16th, 2009 at 10:40pm by Stephen

You may have read about the recent Twitpocalypse, which has killed off Twitter entirely. Sure, for some users, things may seem fine at twitter.com, but really that’s just fumes. The whole thing has imploded and should be considered an ex-service.

[_itter logo]

Micro-blogging is here to stay, however, so I present to you a smattering of Twitter-replacement sites, each limiting you to 140 characters, that will shortly overtake Twitter in popularity.

  1. Bitter: Angsty updates from divorcees and teenagers.
  2. Litter: Just trash talk, from litterbugs and teenagers.
  3. Fitter: Automatically sends updates every few minutes when you’re working out at Gold’s Gym, from gym rats and teenagers.
  4. Knitter: It’s your grandma’s micro-blogging service. And her related teenagers.
  5. Sitter: Yup, they’re in your house, eating your pizza, watching your TV, talking to their significant others, and sending “seats.” Statistically, most babysitters are in fact teenagers.
  6. Flitter: Changes topics automatically mid-tweet, for those suffering from ADD as well as teenagers.
  7. Quitter: Trying to stop smoking or sniffing glue? This is the micro-blogging service for you; updates from 12-steppers and teenagers.
  8. Spitter: Great expectorations, from watermelon-seed-lovers and teenagers.
  9. Fritter: Some fried apple donut content, but this is mostly a service where the freeps hold a contest to see who can come up with the biggest time-wasting activities. Each minute brings hundreds of hour-squandering suggestions from the idle rich and teenagers.
  10. Glitter: It’s not gold, but it’s got a lot of Mariah Carey discussion, from her fans and other teenagers.
  11. Slitter: An exclusive status-updating site for Jason Vorhees and those he stalks: teenagers.
  12. Ritter: When you roll a seven in Settlers of Catan or eat imported chocolate bars, tweet about it here; from grognards and teenagers.
  13. Titter: Every update brings the LOL, teehee, from nitrous-oxide abusers and teenagers.
  14. Jitter: Red Bull-branded site emphasizing extreme caffeine consumption status updates from Starbucks baristas and teenagers.
  15. Hitter: Very heavy updates, from boxers, Tae Kwon Do masters, and teenagers.
  16. Snitter: This one’s not very different from Twitter, actually.

Of course, there’s another site, and everyone uses it every single day, but modesty demands that the only thing I say about it is that each update from this site consists of just the letters TMI. It’s kind of a crappy service.

FriendFeed comment plugin installed

Posted June 16th, 2009 at 12:36am by Stephen

I’ve added Gürkan OLUÇ’s FriendFeed Comment plug-in, which should allow for any new posts I make here to have their FriendFeed comments and likes displayed as well.

Coffee circle

Posted June 15th, 2009 at 10:35pm by Stephen

Vicious circle for coffee

This is NOT “doing the laundry”

Posted June 13th, 2009 at 10:28am by Stephen

Fellow men,

“Laundry” means sorting, folding, and putting away the clothes. Dumping the dirty stuff into the washer, moving it to the dryer — that’s all the easy part.

I have learned this the hard way and hope you profit from my downfall.

How about dem Bears?

Now, please excuse me because I need to go use some power tools.

Your bro,
Stephen

P.S. In other news, “doing the dishes” apparently means doing more than just piling the dirty dishes in the sink. I’m still investigating this one.

Pop quiz on racism

Posted June 13th, 2009 at 1:49am by Stephen

Which of the following is racist?

  1. A latina who says, “I’m proud to be a latina.”
  2. A white man who says, “I’m proud to be a white man.”
  3. All of the above.
  4. None of the above.

Swine flu graph update — A(H1N1) hits phase 6 and “moderate” severity

Posted June 11th, 2009 at 6:24pm by Stephen

I wrote about A(H1N1) (alias “swine flu”) last week.

A reader requested an updated graph, so I’ve provided that below. Significantly, today WHO declared that A(H1N1) entered phase 6 and was “moderately” severe. Since the new phase system WHO has developed really doesn’t consider severity and only looks at how far widespread an influenza outbreak is, phase 6 (and all of the phases) are, in my uneducated and biased opinion, relatively meaningless.

The graph shows that the merely-linear increase in cases is still in place. No signs (yet) of exponential growth.

[graph showing A(H1N1) swine flu cases through 2009-Jun-11

McTerminated

Posted June 10th, 2009 at 12:38am by Stephen

McTerminated

A graph by Sammy

Posted June 10th, 2009 at 12:21am by Stephen

A graph by Sammy Mack

Living is easy with eyes closed

Posted June 9th, 2009 at 6:34pm by Stephen

[photo of Sophie Mack, 20 months, eyes closed, Mountain View, CA, June 9, 2009; photo by Kimi Mack]

Star Wars, Middle Earth, Star Trek, Batman: Fan Films come of age

Posted June 4th, 2009 at 5:05pm by Stephen

Twenty-five years ago, when I was in high school, there was no desktop publishing. Before the age of laser printers, the best home printers were dot matrix, and the best home computers running the best word-processing software could only barely handle “What You See Is What You Get.” If you wanted something printed professionally, you took it to a typesetter working with equipment large enough to fill a small room. Fast forward a mere five years, and laser printers combined with better software produced the desktop publishing revolution, which meant that any mom’n'pop store owner could create professional signage in minutes, and even the “Lost Cat” sign on a nearby lamppost uses professionally-kerned fonts surrounding a high-resolution image of the wayward kitty.

Over the last few years, something similar happened to film-making. Digital imaging, lower prices for HD cameras, and readily-available high-quality editing software means that dedicated fans can produce a product that passes for much more than a home movie, rivaling productions that cost professionals a million dollars or more to produce.

The secondary market then also expands, and you get things like Indy Mogul, a video blog dedicated to uncovering the secrets of independent film-making (with a particular emphasis on practical effects).

Film-making of any ambition is never simple. Locations, sets and set decoration, props, script, music, sound effects, actors — and acting!, costumes, make-up, hair, special effects, practical effects, and editing are required — and that’s a lot to coordinate, plus a lot to pay for. (Online productions also have to contend with file formats, web hosting, a web site, and even piracy.) But what was previously only available to a Hollywood studio is much more attainable for ordinary people — in particular, fans. Time and enthusiasm must substitute for big budgets.

Fans will make films about things that interest them, and for a lot of us who work with computers, we’re interested in Star Wars, Star Trek, Batman, and Middle Earth.

Placing a fan film in a known universe is a double-edged sword. On the positive, it means there’s a ready-made audience, and you don’t have to spend as much time in your film on back-story or setting the scene. On the negative, the chance of making any money on these productions is extremely limited, since the intellectual property is not owned by the fan film-makers. And some productions risk possible cease and desist orders while invoking the wrath of the original writers and directors and actors and producers — the very people the film-makers probably admire and want to impress.

Here, then, are four ambitious productions that I hope will exceed your expectations if you’re not already familiar with what’s possible from fan film-making.

Star Wars: Ryan vs. Dorkman

[image of light saber on ground from Ryan vs. Dorkman 2]It was 1997 when Troops first appeared, a short film that mashed up A New Hope’s desert planet of Tatooine with the TV show “Cops.” The success of Troops ultimately ended up in Lucasfilm themselves partnering with Atom films to create an annual award for the best Star Wars fan films. Into that environment, Ryan Wieber and Michael “Dorkman” Scott created two Ryan vs. Dorkman films focusing on light saber battles.

Skimping on plot (or any kind of backstory which might explain why a Jedi or Sith would go by the name “Dorkman”) to focus instead on the battle choreography, the ten-minute RvD2 from 2007 is an amazing product.

The music alone sets apart this film from cheap home movies. Adding in the creative fighting and the sterling special effects, it’s easy to see why this film has garnered nearly five million views on YouTube.

Batman: Ashes to Ashes

[Ashes to Ashes banner]Ashes to Ashes is an 18-minute French film (with English subtitles) made from 2006 to 2008 and released this year. Crossing the look, grit, violence and sexuality of Frank Miller’s Sin City with the staple characters from DC’s Batman, the film takes a bold approach by changing the viewpoint perspective away from what the viewer of a Batman movie might expect.

The filmmakers manage to mix in Batman, The Penguin, Harley Quinn and The Joker despite the short running time. The overall trick of recreating the look of Sin City succeeds amazingly well.

One warning: Several of the scenes are disturbing.

Star Trek: Starship Farragut

[Starship Farragut banner]Starship Farragut is clearly a labor of love, with superb production values for props, music, and special effects. Two episodes, each split into an introduction and five acts, and each totaling about 40 minutes, were produced in 2007, earning the crew several awards for best fan film. The attention to detail in recreating the look and feel of the original series of Star Trek is evident in every scene.

As a culture, we’re extremely critical of acting, and the actors in the Farragut episodes are clearly not professionals. Some of the delivery underscores the barriers that amateurs have to face when competing against professional productions. (Interestingly, the RvD films avoid this problem simply by giving the actors no lines whatsoever, while Ashes to Ashes makes an end-run around the issue by keeping each scene brief and the lines short and loud.) The stars of Farragut are clearly earnest and engaged, however. Bolstered by the costumes and sets, they carry themselves well to make an overall presentation that’s enormously fun. The space battle scenes in particular rival what was done by the Paramount productions.

(One slight barrier is that it’s not as simple to watch the episodes as it could be, because you have to navigate from the main site to the download section to a mirror site to a download page on the mirror, and then choose each act one at a time. That’s likely because as a free download they have to gather what they can for hosting arrangements.)

Middle Earth: The Hunt for Gollum

[The Hunt for Gollum banner]

The Hunt for Gollum is a 34-minute production (40 minutes with credits), released in May of this year, set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth — a prequel meant to bridge the gap between what happens in the forthcoming The Hobbit movie and the first of the Lord of the Rings films.

The Tolkien estate is notoriously protective, so there have not been nearly as many Middle Earth fan films as you’d see for Star Wars or Star Trek. (EDIT 6/5: Here’s a list of six other Lord of the Rings fan films, from Clive Young, per his comment.)

The FAQ from The Hunt for Gollum claims, “We have reached an understanding with Tolkein [sic] Enterprises to allow the film to be released non-commercially online, but the project is completely unofficial and unaffiliated.”

NPR’s All Things Considered ran a story on this production back on April 30, focusing on the legal issues. But that story misses what sets this film apart: Its surpassing quality. The acting here, especially Adrian Webster as Aragorn, is top-notch. Even better are the costumes, effects, fightcraft, music, and atmosphere.

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more coverage about this film (especially on social media). If you enjoyed the Peter Jackson films at all, I’d say you’re absolutely guaranteed to enjoy this production as well. You’ll immediately recognize what they’re doing, and stills from the real thing fit comfortably side by side with the stills from The Hunt for Gollum.

If there’s a criticism, it’s that the whole affair is perhaps too slavish an imitation of Peter Jackson’s vision. That, and some brief outtakes in the final credits seem a bit jarring when presented with the gravity and beauty of the end credits score. But these are tiny quibbles. I cannot recommend this film more highly.

Fan films have made tremendous strides in just the last few years. Imagine, then, what a few more years of advances in computers and effects will bring.

Influenza A(H1N1) cases: graph of WHO data, discussion of media coverage

Posted June 4th, 2009 at 2:15am by Stephen

In the next 30 years, seismologists have determined that the chance for a magnitude 6.7 or later earthquake in California is over 99%. One can easily see based on the historical record that this is a safe prediction. In the last several hundred years, Californians have not had a period of 30 years go by without such an earthquake.

Similarly, influenza outbreaks follow a regular pattern. Roughly every 50 years one can expect a influenza pandemic that kills a million or more people worldwide. (What’s less frequently cited is that every year, the regular flu kills up to 350,000 people worldwide, mostly the elderly.) In recent history, the Hong Kong flu of 1968 killed up to 1 million people. The Asian flu of 1957 killed up to 1.5 million people. And the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak killed up to 40 million people worldwide.

It’s understandable, then, why people were concerned with swine flu and why there was so much media coverage. What if it turned out to be one of those catastrophic pandemics that kills millions of people? What if we couldn’t (or can’t) create an effective inoculation? It’s rational to be cautious, and to pay attention to the news.

On the other hand, in recent years we’ve seen coverage of previous threats from SARS, avian flu, and others, and they turned out to be relatively minor events. In some cases we overreact. It certainly seems to me that mainstream media overhyped the threat from swine flu and created a sense of panic that was unwarranted from the facts. Now that coverage has faded, I’m sure most people aren’t really thinking about swine flu any further.

The thing is, it’s not really over. Worldwide cases have climbed to nearly 20,000, and the number of deaths is over 100. In the U.S., there are currently 17 fatalities. (The media really only covered the first two victims.)

From here, swine flu could fade away into nothing, or it could suddenly explode. The latter outcome seems increasingly outcome, however. And here’s some data to support why I believe that.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been releasing data for 41 days; over that time, they’ve provided 43 updates as I write this. Earlier they released two updates a day. Currently the updates come every few days.

WHO update swine flu case data, including number of cases, deaths, and cases per day

WHO swine flu case data, including number of cases, deaths, and cases per day (click to enlarge)

The graph above shows the number of new cases reported per day, as a line. In addition, as an area, the number of confirmed cases (yellow) and confirmed deaths (red) are also included.

By profession, I’m a numbers guy. Quantifiable analysis is my preferred approach for investigation. So starting from the beginning, I monitored the numbers of confirmed cases, countries, and deaths from the WHO updates and analyzed how many cases per hour, day and week.

With a pandemic, what we worry about is exponential growth (100 cases becoming 200 cases becoming 400 cases becoming 800 cases). Even linear growth can be scary for a pandemic if the numbers are large enough (50,000 cases becoming 100,000 cases becoming 150,000 cases). But that’s not what we have here, judging by the WHO’s numbers.

In fact, the number of new cases per week has been steady for the last three weeks at about 4,400 new cases a week.

There are many disclaimers that should be associated with the WHO’s numbers. Who knows what politics play into the process, and who knows if the count of confirmed cases is constrained by laboratories crushed with tons of undiagnosed cases that are even now uncounted. And the number of as-of-yet unreported cases (especially from third world countries) is a total unknown. You can tell from the extreme variability in the number of cases per day that human factors influence the reports.

However, after looking at nearly five weeks of data, it’s easy to assert what the media has already decided — there’s no exponential growth, and not even significantly increasing linear growth. Note instead how the cumulative number of cases appears to be very smoothly linear.

Given the relatively small number of cases compared to other threats, it’s clear the news cycle for swine flu is dead and not returning unless something completely unexpected happens, despite scattered reports of ongoing school and business closings.

So before this story fades into the sunset, the question to ask is if the media and health workers reacted appropriately. Was the coverage sufficient or insufficient, was it overblown or underblown or exactly right?

The June issue of Lancet contains a story (reprinted here) arguing that the amount of coverage was proper, and that due to quick action from health workers and cooperation from a fearful public, a crisis was averted.

I’m not qualified enough to disagree, but it seems to me the most important factor was the nature of the swine flu itself, and just how contagious it was. The evidence shows that it just didn’t spread that quickly — it wasn’t that virulent.

But it’s quite possible that because of the coverage, we put in place behaviors that saved ourselves. By analogy, consider Y2K (where we worried that computer code that used 2-digit years instead of 4-digit years would lead to buggy behavior when the software assumed the year 1900 instead of 2000, and that these issues would affect critical facilities and cause widespread technological disasters). There was enormous media coverage. Speculation was rampant, including fears of widespread power failures and nuclear facility mishaps, and some predicted wholesale societal breakdown. Yet of course when January 1, 2000, rolled around, very little happened (other than some big hangovers). So, overblown, right? Maybe not. I know first-hand how much effort engineers and developers put in ahead of time to certify certain systems, reprogram others, and generally make sure that everything would continue to work. To an outsider, Y2K certainly seemed overhyped. And much of the speculation (including the concept that embedded chips in cars and toasters would malfunction and shut down) was in fact ridiculous. But most computer professionals know that, while the coverage was certainly hysterical at times, there were instances of genuine bugs (that could have affected paychecks and so on), and that most of these genuine issues were averted due to foresight, prudence, and hard work.

I’m no medical professional. While I immediately dismissed swine flu fears and coverage as overblown, maybe that’s because I’m an outsider, not seeing all the hard work that took place to make sure the disaster was averted before it became a deadly pandemic.

Aside from those very unfortunate people who died due to swine flu, in the end, the economic impact may be swine flu’s longest-lasting legacy. Several reports show that Mexico tourism dropped by huge percentages, even in regions where there were zero swine flu cases. Recovery to previous levels will take time. (I’m told there are some amazing travel bargains to Mexico now.)

EDIT: Based on feedback from Kevin Fox, I updated the graph to simplify it a bit, and to use just regular calendar dates instead of dates and WHO update number. That corrected the problem whereby the variable number of days between updates made the cumulative number of cases look to be accelerating.

Listen?

Posted June 1st, 2009 at 4:19pm by Stephen

Music is an emotion stimulator, a direct hit to the central cortex, an upper, a downer, a smash to the thumb, a squeeze of the heart, a rage against the system of the dawn of the power to the LISTEN FEEL LIVE.

So often we share what we’re listening to with others, hoping that our unique combination of tastes — that special mix that only we could come up with — might possibly form a connection, that somewhere out there among the six billions souls there’s someone, someone who shares our thoughts, knows what we mean, knows how we feel, has the same emotional reaction to the guitars and words that are hitting us so hard right this second. “Oh my God,” that person says, “that’s exactly right, that’s exactly what I’m feeling, this is the greatest song in the world,” which it is, at that moment, at that place, for the way you both feel.

NOW PLAYING: “Paper Bag,” Fiona Apple.

Shouldn’t Newt Gingrich have some proof before he calls Sonia Sotomayor a racist?

Posted May 30th, 2009 at 12:18am by Stephen

Newt Gingrich’s blog this week had a post that consisted of these five sentences:

Imagine a judicial nominee said “my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman” Wouldn’t they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism.

A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.

First of all, what horrible grammar — missing word, missing comma, missing period, missing capitalization. Newt can’t afford an editor? But that bad grammar calls into some ambiguity (perhaps intentionally) whether or not he’s really making the accusation I think he’s making. Is that last sentence supposed to be hypothetical, and better cast as, “A Latina woman racist should also be forced to withdraw”?

As is, that last sentence uses “woman” (singular) and is missing the indefinite article present in the fourth sentence, so in my view it’s clearly supposed to be concrete rather than hypothetical. Combined with the title of the blog post (”On Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor”) and it’s very clear what he’s saying. Newt believes Sonia is a racist.

Why does he believe so? A lot of publicity has been generated from this excerpt from a 2001 speech Sotomayor gave at Berkeley’s Boalt School published in La Raza Law Journal:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

In opposition to the clumsy language employed by Mr. Gingrich, look at how carefully crafted Ms. Sotomayor’s statement is. I’ve diagrammed a sentence or three in my time, and it’s quite clear she’s NOT saying something nearly as bald as Newt’s construction. I interpret Sotomayor’s statement as: I hope that it is true that f you are wise, and if you have had the richness of your experiences, and if you are a Latina woman, you have a chance of making a better conclusion than a white male who is not wise and has not had rich experiences.

Put that way, who could object to that statement? And who could argue it’s racist?

It’s disappointing that today Obama chose not to defend Sotomayor’s speech as is, and instead suggested that, “I’m sure she would have restated it.”

I’m not sure. Why should she change a word other than to bow to political expedience? She’s simply not saying anything controversial. The only controversy comes from willful misinterpretation of her words.

Obama suggests, accurately, that the thrust of her speech is “simply saying that her life experiences will give her information about the struggles and hardships that people are going through — that will make her a good judge.”

Judge for yourself. You can read the entire speech over at the New York Times. (Go ahead, it’ll only take you a few minutes.)

She concludes with this:

I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.

Well said! Be vigilant, re-evaluate, aspire to be more than your experiences. That’s exactly what I want to see in a Supreme Court Justice.

What stuns me at the conservative backlash against Sotomayor typified by Newt’s blog post is that ANY kind of pride in one’s heritage is now racism. If someone says, “I’m proud to be Jewish” or “I’m proud to be Native American” or “I’m proud to be a Latina,” is that now objectionable and racist?

If so, then do conservatives believe that publications such as La Raza shouldn’t exist? Should there be no more Columbus day parades or Chinese New Years or St. Patrick’s Days or Kwaanzas or anything else that celebrates racial backgrounds and origins? What a monotonous world that would be.

So, Newt, do you have more to base this accusation on then a few words from a speech that you took out of context? It doesn’t appear so. Nothing in Sotomayor’s work, actions or history supports any kind of view that she is a racist. What a despicable and reprehensible accusation to make without proof.

We can’t pretend that all races and all backgrounds and all sexes and orientations and religions and cultures are identical. The differences are valuable. We should all have equal rights and opportunities, because of and despite the fact that we are all individuals and we are not all the same. Diversity is protection from homogeneous, isolationist, sheltered thinking.

My prediction is that this will blow over and that Sotomayor will be confirmed. I’m not qualified to judge her fitness for the Supreme Court based on her voting record and the quality of her work as a judge. But my limited assessment, based on her words in this speech and a few others, is that she will be an excellent addition to the Court.

Hayao Miyazaki: The price of being the world’s greatest animator

Posted May 26th, 2009 at 2:27am by Stephen

I have no problem in saying that Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest creator of animated movies. My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke are his best-known works, but there are many more. Currently my son is obsessed with all things Totoro, and that’s not far different from his father.

Miyazaki’s son, Goro, is the same age as me, 42.

In 2006, Goro directed Tales from Earthsea (and I’ll write more about that film later this week). While making that movie (which is not yet available in the U.S.), Goro wrote a series of blog articles that have been translated at a fan site called nausicaa.net. Goro is very plainspoken about his father in his 39th blog post:

Hayao Miyazaki, to me, is “Zero Marks as a Father, Full Marks as a Director”.

My father was almost never at home.
That’s why for me, when I was a child, my mother had to fill the place of my father.

My father came home every day in the middle of the night, after I had already gone to sleep. He was always very conscientious in this regard – apparently, no matter how late it was, he always made sure that he came home.
But almost every Saturday and Sunday he was still at work regardless. That’s why, from my earliest awareness to the present day, I hardly ever had the chance to talk to him.

More details appear in Goro’s next two blog posts. In post #41, Goro states that he studied the work of his father closely because that was the only way he could know and understand him.

When Goro was chosen to direct Tales From Earthsea based on the storyboards he created, there was a public argument between Hayao and Goro over whether or not Goro was ready to direct. Goro later states in the blogs that he and his father then avoided each other completely.

[photo of Goro and Hayao Miyazaki together at the debut of Tales From Earthsea; photo from ghibliworld, not credited]

Apparently that rift was mended after the film was released, and the picture above shows sitting Hayao and Goro together. Hayao wrote Goro a note to say that the film was made honestly, and that that was good.

It’s easy to fill in the blanks and imagine Hayao as an obsessed workaholic, often absent from home. Many of Hayao’s works deal with children and their relationship with their parents. My Neighbor Totoro, for instance, was completed in 1988, when Goro would have been in college. I don’t know Hayao at all, but it seems to me that the price he paid for releasing such wonderful films was a very steep price indeed.

Contest: Predict the summer box office champ

Posted April 22nd, 2009 at 1:22pm by Stephen

This summer features a surprisingly large number of well-known franchise films competing for your entertainment dollar, despite the great recession. If I were a major studio, I might hold off on some of these, but I suppose they’re gambling that summer movie escapism is recession-proof.

The upcoming potential blockbuster releases are listed below. For each week of summer, I picked the most buzz-worthy film.

  1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine — May 1
  2. Star Trek (dir J.J. Abrams) — May 8
  3. Angels & Demons (The Da Vinci Code 2) — May 15
  4. Terminator: Salvation — May 22
  5. Up (Pixar) — May 29
  6. Land of the Lost (Will Ferrell) — June 5
  7. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Denzel Washington) — June 12
  8. Year One (Jack Black, dir Harold Ramis) — June 19
  9. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — June 26
  10. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs — July 3
  11. Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen) — July 10
  12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — July 17
  13. G-Force (Disney guinea pig flick) — July 24
  14. Funny People (Seth Rogen, dir Judd Apatow) — July 31
  15. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra — August 7
  16. Final Destination 4: Death Trip 3D — August 14
  17. Inglorious Basterds (dir Quentin Tarantino) — August 21
  18. H2: Halloween 2 (dir Rob Zombie) — August 28

(Certainly I’m leaving off a lot of films that are coming out this summer. And some, such as the new Woody Allen film Whatever Works, June 19, will probably do better than some of the 18 I’ve listed. But to keep things simple, let’s just consider these 18.)

Now, your tasks:

  1. Predict which of the above 18 films will have the biggest box office opening weekend in the U.S. as determined by The Numbers.
  2. Predict which of the above 18 films will have the biggest worldwide box office take as of Labor Day, as determined by The Numbers.
  3. Predict which of the above 18 films will have the highest Rotten Tomatoes score.

Bonus question: In a fight between the protagonists of the above 18 films, who would win?

To enter, just leave a comment here or in FriendFeed.

Update 4/25: Prize is two movie ticket passes to the AMC chain. Deadline to enter is April 30th.

With-apologies-to-South-Park comic

Posted April 13th, 2009 at 1:40pm by Stephen

[Comic comic 4, words by E. Stephen Mack, art by Jim Woodring via Microsoft Comic Chat 2.5. Text: 'Hey, do you like fish sticks? Do you like to put them in your mouth?' 'Nah.' 'They're breaded and kind of gross.' '...' 'I guess you're not a gay fish then.' 'I like fish balls though.' -- comic related to South Park's fishsticks/gay fish joke]