jeneralist

I'm actively trying to stall the end-of-year, end-of-decade review for a day when the news is less enraging -- so I'll post an end-of-forty-two-year note.

Yep, Star Wars. I remember 12-year-old me thinking that there's no way I'd wait 27 years for sequels to finish. A nine-story arc, with new installments every three years.... Instead, I would up waiting longer than that. And, fan-girl that I am (because of course part of me is still the 12-year-old fangirl), I went to see the last installment.

I had no idea I'd be waiting over 40 years.
I had no idea I'd be reading reviews on a hand-held, wireless computer thing with a color screen.
I did, however, expect popcorn.

Spoiler space...





...more space...






...still more space....





...good enough?


The last installment was a consistent echo of _Return of the Jedi_, down to the appearance of the Ewoks. FTL travel, as is so often the case in space opera, takes exactly as long to traverse systems as needed by the plot. This time, travel between systems was instantaneous, letting Our Heroes get to several different places they needed to be within 12 hours.

But -- middle aged me wants to see what Rian Johnson, who directed _The Last_Jedi, would have done to end the series. Sure, the kiddies need to see the young heroes vanquish evil. But I can't be the only one, pre-teen then and rather not anymore, who got into the storyline of the previous movie: Luke despondent, isolated, and questioning the choices his younger self made; Han and Leia split; Leia, now a general, facing the consequences of idealistic youngsters (ie, the new Young Heroes) who think that purity of heart and clarity of purpose will defeat any foe -- and set up the Rebellion to endure one of its greatest losses; and oh, yeah, Han getting killed by his own son!

I wanted a story that used *that* set-up, and still found victory. Not one that shrugged all of the plot development from the last movie with Luke saying "I made a mistake" as he encouraged shiny new youngster to go back to The Death Star and re-enact his battle against Palpatine.

I've seen the coming-of-age Star Wars, back when I needed it. Now I need the coming-of-aging, coming-of-aged version, and I'll get my tickets with an AARP discount. Sure, the kids can win, but don't deny their elders' losses.

In the worlds imagined by Marvel and DC, those with special gifts (derived from accidents of birth or lifelong dedicated work) often choose to dress up in special outfits and Fight Evil. Sometimes, they band together in organizations to Fight Evil more effectively.

In this world, wouldn't it be nice if people with special skills got together to Fight Stupidity?

For example, as near as I can tell, the folks who built the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig decided to put multiple redundant valves on the well, so that if one failed, another could still be used to shut the well down. That's good. Then they bought multiple identical valves, each with the same failure modes, from the same manufacturer. That's not so smart.

Wouldn't it be great if there were some organization of super-engineers, folks of Tony Stark's caliber, who were paid to notice problems like this in advance and draw up plans for how to stop a hypothesized oil leak using technology and tools that currently exist? "Hey, Buckaroo, did you see this oil rig design?" "Yeah, Tony, I did -- someday, if that runs into problems with methyl hydrates, it could leak millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico." "Do you think they could stop a leak, if one happened, by plugging the hole with mud?" "No, you'd need a containment vessel, too -- who do we know who has a reinforced dome 200 feet across that can handle the pressure at that depth?"

It's nice to imagine Buckaroo Banzai, Tony Stark, a few of the materials scientists who support Batman, and Reed Richards drawing a salary to deal with problems in our world.

Failing that, though -- could we have skilled engineers and scientists draw a salary funded by philanthropists to work out answers to "what if" problems?

Or could there be some way to identify and brainstorm problems a little bit at a time, similar to the way the "SETI at Home" divided up data analysis tasks? If volunteers with appropriate background knowledge each worked on problems in their "spare" time in ad-hoc teams, linked by wikis....

OK, with less than a month to go before the last book in the series is released, I've got some questions. No, not "Who is Snape really working for?" -- that's something that everyone wonders. My questions are more idiosyncratic.

• When Harry's parents were killed, he was taken to live with his aunt and uncle. We're told this was because Harry got some protection from living with his relatives; plus, if he had grown up among Wizards, he would have had a swelled head early on. My question: what about his grandparents? Do any of the books come out and say that all four of Harry's grandparents were dead or incapacitated? Lily's parents were Muggles, so he would have grown up without contact with the Wizarding world -- but at least they weren't virulently anti-magic, the way his aunt and uncle are.


• One early summer, Harry let the Dursleys think that he could do magic at any time; they were surprised (and quite pleased) to eventually find out that under-age wizards aren't allowed to do magic unless at school. Petunia, having grown up with her witchy sister, should have remembered that important fact from her own childhood.


• Dumbledore apparently collected the invisibility cloak from James Potter's effects after his death, and held it aside for Harry. We are given to believe that it is a rare object, even among wizards; no others have been encountered (even Draco Malfoy, whose family is quite wealthy, doesn't seem to have one -- if he did, he would have used it at some point in Year 6!), and people rarely take precautions against being spied upon by invisible watchers. So where did James Potter get it? He used it during his time at Hogwarts, so it could not have been the result of any money he earned after graduation. Together, James and Lily left behind a tidy sum for Harry to inherit -- did they have that money during their lives, or are the contents of Harry's vault at Gringott's the result of a good life insurance policy? (Related question: who was dumb enough to write insurance policies for members of the Order of the Phoenix?)


• Another question about artifacts: wouldn't Hermione's teachers have been aware of the oddities in her schedule the year she had the time-turner? Wouldn't they have compared notes about the smartest girl in her year? Which means that when Snape suggested that Harry had something to do with Sirius Black's escape, and Dumbledore suggested that would be impossible unless Harry had a way to be in two places at once, Snape stopped arguing because he understood Dumbledore's subtext: yes, Harry did do it; it was an action I authorized, now be quiet.


• And am I the only one that thinks that Hogwarts is, at its heart, a puffed-up Vo-tech school? All of their classes are about how to use their main "technology": magic. Even the history class is history of magic. Where are the classes on general history (given that Dumbledore defeated a noted dark magician in 1945, there's a chance the wizarding world was involved in WWII), literature, or art? I feel sorry for the teachers -- reading homework essays by 16-year-olds who haven't been taught anything about grammar and composition since they were 10. [Of course, the Muggles have their own glorified vo-tech: medical school comes to mind!]

Feel free to suggest your own answers, or to jump in with more questions of your own.

Yes, my cats are happier now that over 40 brands of cat food have been recalled.

Canned cat food is part of their daily diet, ever since Umbra was weaned. At first, he couldn't eat kibble -- so we had to give him canned -- and then Sandalwood realized that she could get some too.

Since it has historically been the case that a recall that starts for one product eventually finds problems with others, P and I have decided that it would be best not to give Umbra or Sandalwood any canned cat food until the situation is better understood.

Why does this make our cats happy?

Because now they get food intended for humans -- tuna! sardines! more cheese! mackerel!

(Yes, I'm completely pwned.)

P has often said that the guy who owned our current home before we did should have a radio ankle-bracelet. If he gets to the front door of Home Despot, Lowe's, or other hardware store, some uniformed aides would appear and politely escort him to the edge of the parking lot. "I'm sorry, sir," they'd say, "you can't come in here. With the contents of our store, you'd be a danger to yourself and to others. We can't allow that to happen."

Today's example: shelf standards. You know, the metal railing with little slots in it? You attach two parallel vertical strips to your wall, slide the brackets into the slots, then drop a piece of planking across the brackets. Quick, easy, functional -- until this guy did it.

Seems he wanted to be sure that the standards wouldn't come away from the wall. Did he use wall anchors? Noooo. He curved the metal and buried it under the plaster!


Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a Dremel tool. And tea. Tea, dammit, tea!

I know there's a lot going on right now; many of my friends are anxious and exhausted. Some photos have already been shared today to help cheer us up. I offer photos of one of the cutest kittens ever, spending time with Santa Claus... Santa Claws... you know, the guy who brings tuna to good little toms.

Today, the NJ Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that:

• same-sex couples must be afforded the same rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples;


• the current Domestic Partnership Act does not bridge the inequality between committed same-sex and heterosexual couples


• "the Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes or enact an appropriate statutory structure within 180 days..."

In other words, the Legislature needs to enact either gay mariage, calling it "marriage," or enact civil unions that are equal to marriage. (The full decision is on-line at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/a-68-05.pdf)

Oh, and the 4-3 vote? The dissenters said that NJ needs gay marriage under that name -- trying to develop an equivalent structure and calling it "civil unions" isn't good enough.

I'm proud of New Jersey!

When do we want to lose something?

There are many times we might want to get rid of something. We can talk about getting rid of junk, cleaning out our closets, getting past old ways of thought. "Losing" is not used for these examples. We lose football games, we lose $10 that fell out a hole in our pockets, we can even lose hope. "Losing" is bad.

Why, then, do we speak of losing weight?

I'm looking for a word or phrase that refers to intentionally lessening one's mass, that makes it sound like a good thing to do. "Shedding" a few pounds is close, but I know you can come up with something better.

Donating extra carbon to the global Goodwill?