Blogroll

DVD quick takes

I’m back on a foreign film binge. In case you’ve wondered, the years listed are when the film was released, not when the particular DVD came out.

Brothers (2004) 4.5/5

Just when you think this Danish film is all too predictable and you know just where it’s going, director Susanne Bier turns things upside down. […]

Book Review: Galileo’s Children (2005)

One of the things that attracted me to science fiction is its ability to create a different reality and use it as a prism through which to examine ourselves and society. That is part of what motivates Galileo’s Children: Tales of Science vs. Superstition, an anthology of previously published short stories

The 13-story collection, issued […]

Political notes

There are a few political goings on that I can’t keep from commenting on.

First, I see John Thune voted for and Tim Johnson voted against an amendment to the defense authorization act that would “strip captured ‘enemy combatants’ at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of the principal legal tool given to them last year by the […]

Marginalia

Not suprisingly, after winning this year’s Hugo Award for best novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell won in the same category for this year’s World Fantasy Awards. (Via SF Signal). The book is still sitting on the bedside bookshelf with a bookmark about one quarter of the way in. Slate chimes in with an […]

State and local political notes

It appears the JAILers have presented enough signatures to get their measure on the 2006 ballot. South Dakota War College guesstimates the paid signature collection effort cost about $75,000. Even if it’s half or one-quater of that, it still begs the question of from where or whom the money is coming. No earthquake or other […]