Enter the Matrix
Trailer for the videogame based on Matrix Reloaded has been released. It contains quite a bit of new footage from Matrix Reloaded, but no spoilers, so catch it if you're curious.
If one flaw of the Matrix movies jumps to mind, it's perhaps the near robotic, or zen-like if you're generous, line readings and acting, some of which are on display in this trailer. Everyone's decked out in leather and too cool to emote. Except Keanu, who's method acting. Whoa.
It's worth listening to some of the two hours of footage just to hear the judges comments. They're quite colorful, and the personalities of each of the judges comes through in a way that pure transcripts can't convey. It's fairly clear how most of them feel about this case. Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Souter will rule in favor of Michigan, and they seem to have been heavily influenced by a brief filed by former heads of U.S. military academies and Joint Chiefs of Staff who note that affirmative action has been a huge success in the military and that without such programs the military would return to being almost all white. Kennedy, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas fall on the other side, with their primary argument being that the Michigan program is a thinly disguised quota which would be unconstitutional. That leaves Sandra Day O'Connor as the swing vote, as she has often been on this court. As usual, she is difficult to read.
Listening to the justices pressing the lawyers on their arguments is fascinating. The complexity and nuances of the issue gain shape in the give and take between everyone present, and the arguments and debate are eloquent and all of the highest order. No screaming or shouting or Hollywood legal grandstanding. I had the audio stream of the oral arguments on in the background while writing this morning and couldn't turn it off. No matter what side or the argument you're on, keep an open mind and listen to some of the points made on either side.
If all court cases were of this nature, I'd pay money to attend sessions, just as I would to watch a Cubs game. Certainly the debate was more educational and entertaining than most of the plays I've seen this past year.
The SARS outbreak is another intriguing story. Terrifying, of course, but fascinating in that viruses are amazing killers, brutally efficient, unpredictable, and able to evolve rapidly to ensure their own survival.
One controversial decision made by Hong Kong officials was to continue to host last weekend's World Cup of rugby, which brought teams from 24 countries around the world and packed 25,000 screaming, drinking fans into close quarters. Originally officials planned to distribute surgical masks, but they were in short supply so bandannas were substituted. Predictably, few were put to use. The obvious question is whether or not Hong Kong's government felt pressure to continue with the event to boost tourism in a country that is already suffering a cataclysmic collapse in the face of the war and of course what is effectively a global quarantine by tourists. The incubation period of SARS is estimated at one week, so the impact of their decision should become apparent shortly.
The SARS virus reminds me of some of the ideas presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (which, by the way, is one of the most influential books I've ever read, with amazing explanatory power and scope). Many of the diseases which Europeans brought abroad to the New World were ones which humans caught from domestic animals with whom they had close physical contact. The New World failed to transmit many diseases back in the reverse direction because of the relative shortage of large herds of domestic animals there. This may explain why SARS seems to have broken from Southern China, where many people still live in close quarters with domesticated animals. New strains of viruses often develop in animals and jump to humans.
The second idea I recall is that the threat of the disease to humans the world over may be inversely related to its lethality. Viruses which kill off its hosts quickly often die off because they don't have time to spread to other hosts. The first symptoms of syphilis when it was first discovered in 1495 included pustules covering the entire body, the peeling away of skin from people's faces, and death within months. But by the mid 1500's it had evolved into the milder form we're familiar with today. By keeping its victims alive longer, syphilis ensured it could spread to more victims to ensure its own survival. Assuming SARS can be successfully quarantined, if it was indeed as lethal as some surmise, it could quickly fade away. A good example was the Ebola virus, too deadly to ever get out of Africa.
Early speculation, though, is that SARS is a very contagious coronavirus, capable of surviving long periods of time on surfaces, and that some victims appear to be superinfectors who distribute aereosolized viral balloons which can survive for hours while floating in the air. This is all speculation, of course. Scientists aren't even one hundred percent sure how colds are transmitted.
The Mariners best chance to make the playoffs with the old team they have was last year, and ownership made a pretty strong statement about how important that was to them by going out to grab Jose Offerman and Doug Creek when they could have had Cliff Floyd or Scott Rolen for the stretch run. I completely understand why Piniella left. Ostensibly it was about family, but he had to be frustrated with the cards he was dealt. Now they're left with an even older team which they're paying a lot of money for. Freddy Garcia is overrated and flaky. Jamie Moyer is an old, soft-tossing lefty of 40 years of age. Pitchers of that profile don't age well. As soon as they lose command, they get shelled because their stuff is just not that good. Joel Pineiro had a great year but isn't quite as dominant as a starter as he was as a reliever. At least he's young and healthy. I can't even name the other two starters, though I think one of them is Gil Meche, who's due for a lot of "first full year back from arm injury" shellackings.
On offense, the Mariners have three decent offensive weapons in Ichiro, Olerud, and Edgar. None are spring chickens, and all are in what are typically decline years in production, though Ichiro should improve on last year if he can sustain his stamina better than last year. For some reason the Mariners decided in the offseason that the best move was to resign all their old players to multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. Dan Wilson? 2 years, $7 million, one of the most absurd signings all winter. Jamie Moyer? 3 year deal. Hasegawa? $1.5 million. Edgar and Olerud also were locked up, meaning the Mariners have committed to being adequately competitive this year, and decliningly competitive in the next two years.
But ownership doesn't seem to care. They're sitting on a beautiful stadium that they pay only $700K per year to lease, thanks to ample funding from Seattle citizens, and a revenue stream second to only the Yankees in baseball. The question is, how long will Seattle fans tolerate paying exorbitant ticket prices and $6.50 for a tiny cup of microbrewed beer? It makes me long for the $3.25 Budweisers I used to quaff in the Wrigley Field bleachers.
In a different division the demise might not be as apparent so quickly, but when you have Billy Beane in your class, twice as poor but about eight times as smart, it doesn't matter if you have a box of 64 crayons and Beane can only afford 32. Billy will still win the class coloring contest every time.
I'm a Cubs fan, so the fate of the Mariners concerns me little. Still, as a citizen who contributed some of my hard-earned dollars to funding the stadium that's enriching the M's ownership, I feel compelled to speak out. If you're going to take our money to build your cash machine, at least bring a legitimate World Series contender to the city. Otherwise, give me my money back.
If one flaw of the Matrix movies jumps to mind, it's perhaps the near robotic, or zen-like if you're generous, line readings and acting, some of which are on display in this trailer. Everyone's decked out in leather and too cool to emote. Except Keanu, who's method acting. Whoa.
***
NPR has excellent coverage of Grutter vs. Bollinger, the lawsuit against the University of Michigan's affirmative action program. NPR's coverage includes audio clips from the actual hearings. For the first time I can remember, the Supreme Court allowed news organizations to record the oral arguments because of the importance of this case, arguably the most important civil rights case to come before the Supreme Court in decades. It will have implications on affirmative action in employment practices, scholarship programs, mentoring programs, not to mention admissions programs at universities throughout the land.It's worth listening to some of the two hours of footage just to hear the judges comments. They're quite colorful, and the personalities of each of the judges comes through in a way that pure transcripts can't convey. It's fairly clear how most of them feel about this case. Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Souter will rule in favor of Michigan, and they seem to have been heavily influenced by a brief filed by former heads of U.S. military academies and Joint Chiefs of Staff who note that affirmative action has been a huge success in the military and that without such programs the military would return to being almost all white. Kennedy, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas fall on the other side, with their primary argument being that the Michigan program is a thinly disguised quota which would be unconstitutional. That leaves Sandra Day O'Connor as the swing vote, as she has often been on this court. As usual, she is difficult to read.
Listening to the justices pressing the lawyers on their arguments is fascinating. The complexity and nuances of the issue gain shape in the give and take between everyone present, and the arguments and debate are eloquent and all of the highest order. No screaming or shouting or Hollywood legal grandstanding. I had the audio stream of the oral arguments on in the background while writing this morning and couldn't turn it off. No matter what side or the argument you're on, keep an open mind and listen to some of the points made on either side.
If all court cases were of this nature, I'd pay money to attend sessions, just as I would to watch a Cubs game. Certainly the debate was more educational and entertaining than most of the plays I've seen this past year.
***
The SARS outbreak is another intriguing story. Terrifying, of course, but fascinating in that viruses are amazing killers, brutally efficient, unpredictable, and able to evolve rapidly to ensure their own survival.
One controversial decision made by Hong Kong officials was to continue to host last weekend's World Cup of rugby, which brought teams from 24 countries around the world and packed 25,000 screaming, drinking fans into close quarters. Originally officials planned to distribute surgical masks, but they were in short supply so bandannas were substituted. Predictably, few were put to use. The obvious question is whether or not Hong Kong's government felt pressure to continue with the event to boost tourism in a country that is already suffering a cataclysmic collapse in the face of the war and of course what is effectively a global quarantine by tourists. The incubation period of SARS is estimated at one week, so the impact of their decision should become apparent shortly.
The SARS virus reminds me of some of the ideas presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (which, by the way, is one of the most influential books I've ever read, with amazing explanatory power and scope). Many of the diseases which Europeans brought abroad to the New World were ones which humans caught from domestic animals with whom they had close physical contact. The New World failed to transmit many diseases back in the reverse direction because of the relative shortage of large herds of domestic animals there. This may explain why SARS seems to have broken from Southern China, where many people still live in close quarters with domesticated animals. New strains of viruses often develop in animals and jump to humans.
The second idea I recall is that the threat of the disease to humans the world over may be inversely related to its lethality. Viruses which kill off its hosts quickly often die off because they don't have time to spread to other hosts. The first symptoms of syphilis when it was first discovered in 1495 included pustules covering the entire body, the peeling away of skin from people's faces, and death within months. But by the mid 1500's it had evolved into the milder form we're familiar with today. By keeping its victims alive longer, syphilis ensured it could spread to more victims to ensure its own survival. Assuming SARS can be successfully quarantined, if it was indeed as lethal as some surmise, it could quickly fade away. A good example was the Ebola virus, too deadly to ever get out of Africa.
Early speculation, though, is that SARS is a very contagious coronavirus, capable of surviving long periods of time on surfaces, and that some victims appear to be superinfectors who distribute aereosolized viral balloons which can survive for hours while floating in the air. This is all speculation, of course. Scientists aren't even one hundred percent sure how colds are transmitted.
***
I know, it's too early to extrapolate a season based on two baseball games. What I'm about to write about the Mariners has nothing to do with their first two losses to division rival Oakland, though they fit a pattern. Derek Zumsteg of Baseball Prospectus has written extensively on the Mariners philosophy and economic situation in the past.The Mariners best chance to make the playoffs with the old team they have was last year, and ownership made a pretty strong statement about how important that was to them by going out to grab Jose Offerman and Doug Creek when they could have had Cliff Floyd or Scott Rolen for the stretch run. I completely understand why Piniella left. Ostensibly it was about family, but he had to be frustrated with the cards he was dealt. Now they're left with an even older team which they're paying a lot of money for. Freddy Garcia is overrated and flaky. Jamie Moyer is an old, soft-tossing lefty of 40 years of age. Pitchers of that profile don't age well. As soon as they lose command, they get shelled because their stuff is just not that good. Joel Pineiro had a great year but isn't quite as dominant as a starter as he was as a reliever. At least he's young and healthy. I can't even name the other two starters, though I think one of them is Gil Meche, who's due for a lot of "first full year back from arm injury" shellackings.
On offense, the Mariners have three decent offensive weapons in Ichiro, Olerud, and Edgar. None are spring chickens, and all are in what are typically decline years in production, though Ichiro should improve on last year if he can sustain his stamina better than last year. For some reason the Mariners decided in the offseason that the best move was to resign all their old players to multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. Dan Wilson? 2 years, $7 million, one of the most absurd signings all winter. Jamie Moyer? 3 year deal. Hasegawa? $1.5 million. Edgar and Olerud also were locked up, meaning the Mariners have committed to being adequately competitive this year, and decliningly competitive in the next two years.
But ownership doesn't seem to care. They're sitting on a beautiful stadium that they pay only $700K per year to lease, thanks to ample funding from Seattle citizens, and a revenue stream second to only the Yankees in baseball. The question is, how long will Seattle fans tolerate paying exorbitant ticket prices and $6.50 for a tiny cup of microbrewed beer? It makes me long for the $3.25 Budweisers I used to quaff in the Wrigley Field bleachers.
In a different division the demise might not be as apparent so quickly, but when you have Billy Beane in your class, twice as poor but about eight times as smart, it doesn't matter if you have a box of 64 crayons and Beane can only afford 32. Billy will still win the class coloring contest every time.
I'm a Cubs fan, so the fate of the Mariners concerns me little. Still, as a citizen who contributed some of my hard-earned dollars to funding the stadium that's enriching the M's ownership, I feel compelled to speak out. If you're going to take our money to build your cash machine, at least bring a legitimate World Series contender to the city. Otherwise, give me my money back.