Thursday, October 31, 2019

The Lighthouse (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes
The Lighthouse (2019): Two men confined in a lighthouse descend into madness. Dark. Unsettling. Intense. Like a punch to the gut. Who's mad and who's sane? What's real and what's hallucination? Is it all damn metaphor? Did you like it is the wrong question for this movie. A-

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

POTD: Luau

From 2019 01 17 Kauai

You go to Hawaii, you go to a luau, right? We went to Hawaii, so today's photo-of-the-day is from a luau in Kauai.

Bonus photos after the jump.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

POTD: Kauai Coffee

From 2019 01 17 Kauai

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Kauai Coffee plantation.
"Grown in rich volcanic soil, touched by abundant mountain rain, warmed by the Pacific sun and cooled by the gentle Hawaiian trade winds. Taste Paradise. One Cup at a Time.™"
Too bad Ellen doesn't drink coffee. I do.

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Laundromat (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes
The Laundromat (2019): Satire with no bite based on "Panama Papers" leak showing how billionaires and corporations use shell companies to avoid taxes and hide corrupt money. Too many disconnected stories. Not even Meryl Streep can save this. Why is she even in it? C+

Sunday, October 27, 2019

POTD: Polynesian Red Junglefowl

From 2019 01 17 Kauai

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Kauai. It shows one of the countless free-range chickens all over the island. These feral birds are believed to be descendents of chickens that escaped from coops during hurricanes in 1982 and 1992. DNA analysis shows that they are a mix between the chickens brought by the original Polynesian settlers of Kauai and chickens introduced much later by Europeans. The most interesting fact (to me) is that chickens in South America lack the DNA of Polynesian chickens, suggesting that Polynesians themselves never settled South America. So the next time you hear a rooster crow, know that the story it tells contains much more history than I ever imagined.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Tell Me Who I Am (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes
Tell Me Who I Am (2019): Documentary. Alex wakes from a coma with amnesia, remembering only his identical twin, Marcus, who fills him in on his life story, starting with childhood. Except for a dark family secret. Alex turns obsessive detective. Marcus clams up. All well done. B-




Friday, October 25, 2019

Review: Something Deeply Hidden

Something Deeply Hidden
Amazon
From Something Deeply Hidden, by Sean Carroll:

Open quote 
Quantum mechanics, in the form in which it is currently presented in physics textbooks, represents an oracle, not a true understanding. We can set up specific problems and answer them, but we can't honestly explain what's happening behind the scenes. What we do have are a number of good ideas about what that could be, and it's past time that the physics community started taking these ideas seriously."

The title comes from a quote by Albert Einstein. All his life he sought to understand the foundations of physical phenomena. "Something deeply hidden had to be behind things," and he was determined to figure out what it was. So is Sean Carroll.