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Creation deemed too controversial

Hey gang, it's GAP's our much anticipated return from our summer hiatus*. Be sure to keep checking for new and improved features, usability and content. For now though, just a quickie.

The Guardian has an article today on "Creation" the Charles Darwin biopic. Apparently it is having trouble finding a distribution company on this side of the pond because the subject matter is too controversial for American audiences. From the article:

On the heels of a February 2009 Gallup poll showing that only 39% of Americans believe the theory of evolution, a new British film about Darwin has had difficulty finding US distributors, apparently because the topic was deemed too controversial for American audiences.

It's a remarkably low degree of support, even in a nation that flirted with the idea of vice-president Sarah Palin. After all, America has often been seen as an innovator, at the forefront of technological and scientific change.

Perhaps America's distrust of a major scientific theory could be dismissed as part of the country's quirky charm, with no real consequences because the story of creation has little to do with our practical, day-to-day lives. As long as that 39% of disbelievers are making our microchips and producing swine flu vaccine, who cares?

Ouch. It's always enlightening to see a critique of our culture from an outsiders POV. Is it strange that we (as a culture) don't see anything controversial about the Saw movies, but a movie about Darwin is too risque/offensive/dangerous for widespread distribution.


*Maybe it's not though, stay tuned gentle reader.

Calidad de Vida

Spin the globe. Once! Twice! Now... stop!

It´s a big-city Metro station, rush hour. The mosaic Virgen La Senora del Silencio demurely watches arriving passengers. Riders in suits and tight jeans pass Metro custodians in maid uniforms of white dresses with aprons and white tights (salaries unknown). Metro floors are as spotless as their dresses -- so clean they gleam. Shining! Like the smiles Metro´s construction brought to some locals´faces 15 years ago when it first enabled expanded employment options. Now a gondola-like system extends from Metro´s two ends, gliding over stairs and winding, steep dirt roads that formerly served as the only avenues for displaced persons in high-elevated, low-class neighborhoods.

Passengers queu behind Metro employees with stop signs. A PA politely reminds riders to stay behind the yellow line. (A local joke says, if you want to limit movement, draw a yellow line.) The train that arrives within 10 minutes bears the name of local artist Fernando Botero, as well as a Metro ad: a teenage boy and teenage girl face each other, eyes closed, lips puckered, accompanied by the caption, ¨Metro is a place to be met.¨Inside the train car are commercial ads, small posters of local artists and authors, and a bio of a bootstraps-type beloved former president. He might have liked the Metro as much and supported its developing partnership with local bus lines that riders use to supplement its three lines. He might have also suggested that the Metro be open past 11pm.

A few minutes more -- the train stops -- Les deseamos un buen viaje -- and riders bustle out, past the welcoming Metro library outpost and student photo exhibit that explores the violence of deprivation and the passion that endures.

It´s the end. Let´s go! Thanks to two nice Colombians for the Metro tour! Spin the globe a final time to leave the cultura Metro in Medellin, Colombia, and return to the first world where the Ford and Chrysler freeways dominate Detroit and old cars are involved in fatal crashes in DC.

Search Engine Wars

A few weeks back, the internet was abuzz discussing the potential of Wolfram|Alpha. Other than a great opportunity for those of us who are not Unix programmers to locate the | (pipe) key, Wolfram|Alpha, being a "computational knowledge engine", was supposed to present information in a unique and more useful format that Google. Fascinating. So fascinating that they even discussed Wolfram|Alpha's potential on Talk of the Nation Science Friday.

Last night, I was treated to a commercial for Microsoft's new search engine Bing. Like Wolfram|Alpha, Bing is not really a search engine at all, but rather a "decision engine", whatever the hell that means. Apparently it means the term "search engine" is out of vogue with Google's competitors.

Gentle readers, I know you are all wondering how these new search contraptions stack up against Google's search. Based on my very scientific testing this morning I can tell you that Wolfram|Alpha and Bing are both crap. By that I mean that neither will link you to Grown Ass People. Wolfram|Alpha, in its defense wasn't designed to handle such queries and suggests looking in the "people" or "earth sciences" section. Bing, links to a MySpace page and to some other web pages that have linked to us. Mostly, though Bing just produces links to crap that is even less relevant than GAP, and that's really saying something.

In all seriousness though, when looking at the queries that Wolfram|Alpha was actually designed to handle, the results it produces look a lot like boring Wikipedia entries but without the typos. And Bing? Well, sometimes I just get the feeling like Microsoft is just trying to hard. I mean who spends $ 100 million to advertise the launch of their new search engine?

NFS/FS

Detroit is indeed a city of potential renewal. On its East side especially urban meadows grow in decrepit lots. On the East and West side, Woodward Avenue runs through the city to surrounding suburbs. A downtown drive on Woodward affords a view of the baseball stadium, the art museum, and the main library -- and the Local Detroit Grocery window featured here. I was initially very excited by the display. So cleverly generic! So welcome in a grocery shop desert and overabundance of liquor/lotto/pizza stores! And I, so gullibly optimistic. Local Detroit Grocery is an example of the Detroit Storefront Competition organized by associations of interior designers, architects, Downtown Detroit Partnership, and financially supported by Downtown Development Authority. The displays vibrantly fill vacant avenue storefronts. Created for the Final Four, they remain today. Still, exciting, no?

What's your Drinking Personality?

The BBC is running a fluffy piece on peoples drinking personalities. It seems a psychologist, Dr. Glenn Willson, has observed the behavior of 500 Brits while at bars and pubs and found that their body language belies their personality. The good doctor has determined that their are eight distinct "drinking personalities". No more, no less.

From the article:

THE JACK-THE-LAD

This "peacock" is conscious of his image and will drink a bottled beer, or cider.

He is inclined to be confident and arrogant, and can be territorial in his gestures, spreading himself over as much space as possible, for example, pushing the glass well away from himself and leaning back in his chair.

If he is drinking with friends, he would be unlikely to welcome approaches from outside the group, unless sycophantic and ego-enhancing.

So, what's your drinking personality? I think I am clearly the "Ice Queen."

Image via the BBC.

Classnotes

As more graduates process down aisles of their fair arcadian quads, auditoriums or the halls of a grander building, it can be nice to peruse the Classnotes section. The diversity of reported experiences can be fascinating. From our alma mater's class of 1985: SP wrote, "I'm presently an artist's model in Scotland and 'mother' to three gerbils." What a good balance to the enlarged extraterrestrial-like infant photos! SP's highlight is directly above a note from Tip D., the Commanding Officer of the VFA-103 Jolly Rogers that was deployed onboard the USS Eisenhower and flying in support of the NATO Coalition in Afghanistan. "Before reaching the Middle East, his squadron enjoyed trips to Rome and Cyprus. ..." And on the next page, from JA: "I'm surviving in the Michigan recession. To keep things interesting our first baby is on the way, due about the time this issue of the magazine comes out." That was spring 2007. Let's hope the family's doing well.

Of course, beyond serving as a source of potential networking and curiosity-satisfying, the Classnotes section lets us compare blogs. Here's a link to a blog written by an informational management specialist working for State.

Gentle readers, we'd be delighted if you shared one of your favorite Classnotes, fiction or nonfiction.

Open Acess Journals

Dan and Bridget have decried the costs associated with accessing primary research in many journals. Despite the fact that publishers charge authors to publish, advertisers, and subscribers for their services, they balk at the idea of having to provide the public with free access to the research that we have supported with our tax dollars. (some) Publishers have also demonstrated that they are not above publishing "advertorial" journals for pharmaceutical companies if the price is right. Specifically I am referring to Elsevier's publishing of the bogus "Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine" for Merck. But alas, I digress...

Open access journals like those published by the Public Library of Science offer an alternative to the collection racket that is the traditional publishing industry. Unfortunately publishing in these journals lacks the prestige associated with many of the more famous traditional journals. This may be changing though. The discovery and description of ancestral primate Darwinius masillae appears not in Science or Nature but rather PLoS ONE, the flagship journal from the Public Library of Science. The fact that the article's authors elected to publish findings of this magnitude in an open access journal may mark the beginning of a change in publishing industry.


Darwinius masillae via: Franzen JL, Gingerich PD, Habersetzer J, Hurum JH, von Koenigswald W, et al. 2009 Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology. PLoS ONE 4(5): e5723. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005723