Baron Dave Romm
Heartland Perverts 5
By Baron Dave Romm
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Marscon next week
Marscon 2010 is coming up March 5-7. The day before, I'll be leading a the Marscon Expeditionary Force to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting and anyone is welcome to join us. Just let me know.
I'll probably not have a column next week, since I'll be busy taking pictures and audio and... movies. The good news is that there will be pictures and audio and maybe even some movies. I'll announce on Facebook when they're up, and talk a little more the seek after.
So for the interregnum, I'll leave you with some good news about various political aspects having to do with sex.
Some good news for lefties
Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ CNN Health 2/26/10:
Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.
The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say. But they show how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people's behaviors come to be.
The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.
"The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward," said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. "It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people -- people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower -- are likely to be the ones to do that."
Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart," he said.
I would caution against making too much hay out of these studies, but it does explain why Sarah Palin and her ilk are so afraid of "elites": Liberal men are going to steal all the conservative women!
The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage
The Republican Party is an odd conglomeration of business-oriented economists (somewhat different than the "free-market" they claim to espouse), small-l-libertarian types who want a minimal amount of government intrusion on their life (yet admire politicians who drastically increased Big Governmentlike Reagan or GW Bush), capital-L-Libertarians (tax-dodging gun nuts who don't have the guts to acknowledge their obligation to paying off the obscene national debt), sphincter conservatives (who don't give a damn about you as long as their hatemongering translates into government intrusion on your life) and the various secessionists and global warming deniers and Elvis-Is-Alive nutjobs.
Every now and then, one of these groups lives in the real world. Ted Olson is a Federalist Society member, former American Spectator board member, lawyer for Paula Jones and Solicitor General under Bush Lite. His GOP credentials may have taken a hit when he starts to make sense.
The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage Why same-sex marriage is an American value. 1/9/10:
Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies [who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore while Olson represented GW Bush], I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.
My involvement in this case has generated a certain degree of consternation among conservatives. How could a politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, challenge the "traditional" definition of marriage and press for an "activist" interpretation of the Constitution to create another "new" constitutional right? My answer to this seeming conundrum rests on a lifetime of exposure to persons of different backgrounds, histories, viewpoints, and intrinsic characteristics, and on my rejection of what I see as superficially appealing but ultimately false perceptions about our Constitution and its protection of equality and fundamental rights.
Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social and economic partnership. We encourage couples to marry because the commitments they make to one another provide benefits not only to themselves but also to their families and communities. Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it.
Legalizing same-sex marriage would also be a recognition of basic American principles, and would represent the culmination of our nation's commitment to equal rights. It is, some have said, the last major civil-rights milestone yet to be surpassed in our two-century struggle to attain the goals we set for this nation at its formation.
This bedrock American principle of equality is central to the political and legal convictions of Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives alike. The dream that became America began with the revolutionary concept expressed in the Declaration of Independence in words that are among the most noble and elegant ever written: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Sadly, our nation has taken a long time to live up to the promise of equality. In 1857, the Supreme Court held that an African-American could not be a citizen. During the ensuing Civil War, Abraham Lincoln eloquently reminded the nation of its found-ing principle: "our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
At the end of the Civil War, to make the elusive promise of equality a reality, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution added the command that "no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person the equal protection of the laws."
Subsequent laws and court decisions have made clear that equality under the law extends to persons of all races, religions, and places of origin. What better way to make this national aspiration complete than to apply the same protection to men and women who differ from others only on the basis of their sexual orientation? I cannot think of a single reason and have not heard one since I undertook this venture for continued discrimination against decent, hardworking members of our society on that basis.
Various federal and state laws have accorded certain rights and privileges to gay and lesbian couples, but these protections vary dramatically at the state level, and nearly universally deny true equality to gays and lesbians who wish to marry. The very idea of marriage is basic to recognition as equals in our society; any status short of that is inferior, unjust, and unconstitutional.
'Bonk' Writer Offers Hubby for Sex Research
I'm not sure if this qualifies as "good news", and if so, good news for whom, but I present it anyway as a Heartland Pervert who is just trying to be helpful.
'Bonk' Writer Offers Hubby for Sex Research Silly Side of Sex: Penile Costumes, Pig Vibrators and Postage Stamp Test. ABC News, June 10, 2008:
Mary Roach goes all the way for scientific research.
Author Mary Roach explores the bizarre world of sex research from pig inseminations to chimp orgasms in her new book, "Bonk."
In 2007, she had sex with her husband while a British doctor waved an ultrasound wand over their private parts testing their genital responses to the soundtrack of "Les Miserables."
Her compliant husband innocently lured to London with the promise of "an all-expense paid trip" and a day at Stonehenge rose to the occasion with a dose of Viagra, she says.
"It was a weird mix of medical procedure and sex," Roach, who took copious notes throughout, told ABCNEWS.com. "Ed said afterward, 'I was really creeped out that I did this.'"
It was all for the sake of Roach's new book "Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex" which reached #10 on the New York Times bestseller list this spring.
"He's such a good person," Roach said of her husband, a graphic artist. "Mary needs this for her book, I will ejaculate."
Not since Masters and Johnson wrote "Human Sexual Response" in 1966 has the physiology of sex been explored in such detail. Until their groundbreaking study with married couples, researchers would "simply, quietly do it themselves." In the case of London's Dr. Jing Deng, who studied Roach's sexual response, he wanted to capture "real-time, two-party human coitus," but he couldn't find takers. She volunteered.
"It's one of those things you agree to, and you're not really thinking it all the way through," said Roach. "If my husband had been thinking it through, he would have said, 'No!' The burden of performance was on him." She even participated in an arousal study at the University of Texas at Austin. "It was not particularly demanding," Roach said. "I had to sit in a chair in a room with no pants on with a seismograph and was a control subject watching porn."
The 49-year-old is no stranger to strange topics. She has written about Eskimo food, flatulence, vaginal weight-lifting, carrot addiction and amputee bowling leagues. Her two previous books also explore oddities with humor: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003) and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005).
Happy Birthday to those of you born on February 29
Since this is a non-leap year, by the time you read this February 29 has gone pfft.
The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies has a song for you, and notes how special you are: "Your chance of being born on Leap Year Day is about 1 in 1461. Put another way, only 0.0684% of the world's population are Leapers. The table to the right shows how few of us there are."
February 29th is St. Oswald's Day, celebrated on the day of his death, at least partly because ho one's entirely sure of his birth day.
Some Christian church related events on Feb. 29.The Gregorian Calendar is not the only dating system devised, or used today. See Calendar Converter. For example, today, 3/1/10CE is also 15 Adar 5770 in the Hebrew Calendar.
US vs. Canada Olympic Hockey Gold Medal game: Canada wins 3-2 in OT
One of the odd twists to playing Trivia in a sports bar is that I occasionally get caught up in sports I don't care about. Hockey is less interesting than curling to me. Still, it's the Olympics and the gold medal game. I watched the previous game between the two of them last week. I rooted for the US, in a generic medal-grabbing way. The sports people all around me were fun to watch, moreso than the game.
The result: Almost perfect for everyone. Canada won, so Canada is happy. The US is happy, since the scrappy US team, the underdog at the beginning of the Olympics, fought into a sudden death overtime in the gold medal game. Finland is happy, since they are taking home their fourth hockey medal in five Olympics. NBC is happy, since they are undoubtedly going to have huge ratings. DirectTV is happy, since they "sponsored" a third quarter without commercials but got lots of air time before the OT. The US Olympic squad is happy, since they added to their already record-breaking number of medals at a Winter Olympics.
I've now seem more hockey in a week than in years. Now, I can go back to being amused at Brett Favre's game.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bill Maher: "New Rule: Stop Saying "Sex Addict" Like It's a Bad Thing" (huffingtonpost.com)
In the wake of Tiger Woods' heartfelt apology, the media has been interviewing sex addicts. But sex addiction is just something Dr. Drew made up because he had no other way to explain Andy Dick.
Connie Schultz: Maybe if Teens Talk About Sex, Adults Will Listen (creators.com)
On Monday night, two teenagers in the Midwest stood before their city's school board and essentially pleaded that the grown-ups in charge change how sex education is taught in their district.
Susan Estrich: For the Love of Hersh (creators.com)
When I was growing up, we never had a dog. My mother told us we would be too sad when it died. She was not one for that "better to have loved and lost" business. Loss, to be spared at all cost, could at least be avoided on the pet front by not having one.
David Bruce: "New Book: 'The Coolest People in Comedy'" ($8.50 paperback; Lulu.com)
This book contains 250 anecdotes about comedians, including this one: Morris "Moe" Feinberg was the brother of Larry Fine, one of the Three Stooges. Mr. Feinberg went to a nightclub in Atlantic City, where an entertainer recognized him and introduced him to the audience, talking about the Three Stooges and saying, "I see Larry's brother, Moe Fine, a good friend and a fellow performer. Moe, would you stand up and take a bow?" Afterward, a woman came up and asked for Mr. Feinberg's autograph. He explained that he was only a small-time performer and not famous, but the woman smiled and said, "You can't fool me with that 'brother' stuff. You're Larry, all right." Mr. Feinberg signed the autograph, "With warm regards, Larry 'Stooge' Fine."
The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot (paper-dragon.com)
This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000-word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words. No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.
"Just Kids"by Patti Smith: A review by Jeff Baker
Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids is full of inspiring exchanges about art between her and Robert Mapplethorpe, but the conversation with the most kick happened in 1971, when she asked a record-store clerk named Lenny Kaye to perform with her at a poetry reading.
PAUL CONSTANT: "They're Aware We're All Doomed" (thestranger.com)
Talking with Gahan Wilson About the New Renaissance, Cartooning for the 'New Yorker,' and How Many Dead People Are in His Basement
Chris Barton: Broadway musical and album reissues spark a Fela Kuti resurgence (Los Angeles Times)
His sound is unmistakable: insistent, trance-like rhythms spiraling out of songs that sometimes run longer than 20 minutes; a biting and fluid horn section that could put James Brown's backing band to shame; and a confrontational, uncompromising political message that went beyond the experiences of Western protest singers and culminated with a government siege on his home, imprisonment and even an attempted presidential campaign in his native Nigeria.
Hot Chip: 'Maybe we do look nerdy' (guardian.co.uk)
Kylie wants to work with them. Kraftwerk already have. Hot Chip are becoming superstars - and, finds Alexis Petridis, they're horrified.
Luis Arroyave: Billy Corgan wrestles with the music industry (Chicago Tribune)
Less than an hour before his first Chicago show since December 2008, Billy Corgan sat in LaSalle Power Co.'s U-shaped green room last week discussing - what else? - professional wrestling.
20 QUESTIONS: "'Superjail!': Christy Karacas and Steve Warbrick" (popmatters.com)
'Superjail!' creators Christy Karacas ('Cartoon Sushi'), and Stephen Warbrick ('Beavis and Butthead,' 'Celebrity Deathmatch') were turned loose, briefly, to answer our 20 Questions.
Will Harris: A Chat with Ricky Schroder, Director of "Helllhounds" and co-star of "Silver Spoons" and "NYPD Blue" (bullz-eye.com)
Remember the old movies like 'Sinbad' or whatever, back in the '70s? ('Hellhounds') is kind of an ode to that. It's a fantasy flick with probably an even smaller budget than 'Sinbad'" had, but we found creative ways around that.
An Alice in Wonderland nightmare as Disney battles the cinemas (guardian.co.uk)
It's the last thing Tim Burton wanted, but the premiere of Alice in Wonderland is being overshadowed by a battle for the future of cinema itself, writes Adam Dawtrey.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Rainbow Death
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The '1st Ever BadtotheboneBob Oscar Award Contest' Edition...
With a Prize! That's right, Poll-fans! A Prize! You like prizes, dontcha? I know I do!
I emptied my little change jar and I came up with $27.54 that I will gladly, gladly I say, donate to yer favorite charity. If that's you, OK, that's cool. If it's Marty and the page, so much the better, eh? All ya gotta do is correctly pick the winners of these Oscar categories... The closest one wins The Prize!... Ready? Set... Go !!!
Best Picture
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Directing
...
Oscar night is Sunday, March 7th. Cut off for entries will be 8PM EST Saturday March 6th and will be posted Sunday morning. The winner will posted Tuesday, March 9th with a new question.
Oh, ties will be resolved in a scientific manner involving my toddler grand-daughter, 'Maddie Muffin' and will be explained with the posted predictions... Good Luck!
BadtotheboneBob
Send your response to
Here's BadtotheboneBob's list of nominees
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Hi there
Probably not one to look at if you are very squeamish! This is quite something!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny but cool.
Gets 'Voice'
Roger Ebert
Film critic Roger Ebert says computer programmers have captured his voice from movie commentary tracks so he can type what he wants to say and listeners hear a voice that sounds like him.
Ebert lost his ability to speak after surgery for cancer. He writes in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times that a Scottish company has helped him regain a voice his grandchildren can recognize.
Ebert recorded commentaries for DVD movies before he lost his voice. A Scottish company called CereProc (SAYR'-uh-prok) blended digital recordings of Ebert speaking to make his text-to-audio voice.
Ebert writes that the voice will be heard predicting Oscar winners on a segment of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" airing Tuesday.
Roger Ebert
Music Museum Expands
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has fascinating relics like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" mask. Soon it'll have space to showcase its interesting but less flashy artifacts.
The museum will open its library and archives later this year in a $12 million high-tech building it shares with Cuyahoga Community College's creative arts programs.
Jim Morrison's first poem will be there as well as and letters from the Grateful Dead, Whitney Houston, Patti Smith and others. There will also be old audio and video recordings, contracts, album covers, posters and scrap books.
Student and professional singer Tracy Marie hopes the museum-college collaboration will encourage young artists to aspire to have their campus studio work enshrined in the archive.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Wins Cesar's Top Prize
'A Prophet'
The French film industry has showered honors on director Jacques Audiard's Oscar-nominated "Un Prophete" ("A Prophet"), giving the movie France's coveted Cesar award for best movie.
Audiard was named best director and star Tahar Rahim best actor at Saturday's awards ceremony.
Isabelle Adjani received the best actress award for her role in "La journee de la jupe" ("The Day of the Skirt").
"A Prophet," which was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign-language film category, collected nine awards in the annual French film industry competition. The movie won the second-place prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival.
Clint Eastwood's film "Grand Torino" won the Cesar for best foreign film.
'A Prophet'
Protects Newly Rediscovered Rare Bird
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's fledging conservation agency moved Sunday to protect one of the world's rarest birds after the species was rediscovered in the war-ravaged country's northeast.
The remote Pamir Mountains are the only known breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler, a species so elusive that it had been documented only twice before in more than a century.
A researcher with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society stumbled upon the tiny, olive-brown bird during a wildlife survey in 2008 and taped its distinctive song. Later, a research team caught and released 20 of the birds - the largest number ever recorded.
On Sunday, Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency added the large-billed reed warbler to its list of protected species, which was established only last year.
Afghanistan
Wants Apology
Randy Quaid
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife are crying foul over their arrests last year on a charge they failed to pay a California hotel bill, which they claim was the result of a series of mishaps and unfortunate events.
Quaid's wife, Evi, who oversees the family accounting, said on Sunday the arrest on a charge of defrauding an innkeeper led to them being mistreated by police and wrongly called criminals in the media after, in fact, the bill had already been paid.
Until now, the Quaids have remained publicly silent about the incident expecting the case to be dismissed, but they will be back in a California courtroom on Monday for a hearing at which they hope to set the record straight.
A spokesman for the hotel, the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara County, said their view is that the roughly $10,000 bill was paid and the matter resolved -- end of story.
Randy Quaid
Man Must Pay
Suicide
A court ruled that a Russian man must pay more than 100,000 rubles ($3,330) for medical bills and damages to the parents of a girl he hit when he jumped from a window in a suicide attempt.
The 7-year-old girl was in hospital for months after the man fell on her when he jumped from a ninth-storey apartment during an argument with his ex-wife, a court in the Siberian city of Omsk heard, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
Suicide
King Tut's Grandfather
Amenhotep III
A colossal 3000-year-old red granite head of Amenhotep III, the grandfather of Tutankhamun, has been discovered in Luxor, Egypt's Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said Sunday.
Smoothly polished, and showing "youthful sculpted features," the 2.5 meter high head belonged to a statue of Amenhotep III in a standing position wearing the Upper Egyptian white crown and clutching the royal insignia.
Scientists conducting DNA tests and CT scans on a number of mummies have identified Amenhotep III as the grandfather of Tutakhamun, the teenage-king who was born of an incestuous marriage between Akhenaten and his sister, both the offspring of Amenhotep III.
Hourig Sourouzian, who headed the conservation mission, said the Amenhotep's head was one of 84 artifacts unearthed at his funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.
Amenhotep III
Returns To Disneyland
'Captain EO'
"Captain EO" and Michael Jackson are returning to Disneyland.
The park says it will show the 1986 Jackson musical film beginning Tuesday and running indefinitely.
On the Disney Parks blog, Disney executive Heather Hust Rivera says the park will show a 70mm print of the 17-minute movie in the Tomorrowland theater, with enhanced sound.
The original ran at Disneyland from 1986-1997. The new showing replaces the 3-D show "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience."
'Captain EO'
Tallest Dog Ever
Great Dane
A 250-pound blue Great Dane from Arizona gives new meaning to the term "big dog." Guinness World Records says Giant George from Tucson is the tallest dog ever on record. Guinness said Monday that he stands 3 feet, 7 inches tall from paw to shoulder, which is three-quarters of an inch taller than his closest rival - Titan, a white Great Dane from San Diego.
The 4-year-old Titan took the title of world's tallest dog in 2009 after Gibson, a Great Dane from Grass Valley, Calif., died of bone cancer.
Guinness officials say there were conflicting reports about Giant George's height, so they sent a judge to verify it.
The 4-year-old is owned by David Nasser.
Great Dane
New Way To See Prague
Toy Traveling Agency
A newly formed Czech travel agency is offering escorted trips for pampered toys.
Send them your favorite animal and they will whisk it around the sights of Prague, taking photographs of it against backgrounds like Prague Castle or the Charles Bridge.
The Toy Traveling agency was pitched to a panel of local businessmen for a TV reality show "Den D" by 22-year old decorator Marek Hlavka last week.
In the past week, the venture's website sendyourdarling.com has logged over 15,000 visitors.
Toy Traveling Agency
Weekend Box Office
`Shutter Island'
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese continue to lure movie-goers to "Shutter Island," while James Cameron's "Avatar" has surpassed $700 million domestically.
James Cameron's science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" became the first movie ever to top the $700 million mark domestically. With a $14 million weekend, the 20th Century Fox release now is at $706.9 million domestically and $2.5 billion worldwide.
Debuting in second-place with $18.6 million was the Warner Bros. police romp "Cop Out," starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Opening in third was Overture Films' horror tale "The Crazies" with $16.5 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Shutter Island," $22.2 million.
2. "Cop Out," $18.6 million.
3. "The Crazies," $16.5 million.
4. "Avatar," $14 million.
5. "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," $9.8 million.
6. "Valentine's Day," $9.5 million.
7. "Dear John," $5 million.
8. "The Wolfman," $4.1 million.
9. "The Tooth Fairy," $3.5 million.
10. "Crazy Heart," $2.5 million.
`Shutter Island'
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