Name: T. Keith Edmunds
Date registered: 30 December 2008
URL: http://www.pennywise-books.com/
What? You haven’t heard of Absurd Intellectual’s 2010 Politician of the Year, Jon Gnarr? What’s the matter with you? Don’t you follow international politics?
Jon Gnarr is the mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland, elected to that position in June of this year. What qualifies him as this year’s politician of the year is not the fact that he has been a punk rocker, writer, actor, comedian and a creative at an advertising agency. The best part about Mr. Gnarr is that he ran for mayor as a prank. And won.
In Reykjavik, municipal politics has political parties. Gnarr founded the Best Party to lampoon the political process. His political campaign included: Free towels in all swimming pools, getting a polar bear for the Reykjavík Zoo, “all kinds of things for weaklings”, a drug-free parliament by 2020, and (my new favorite buzz-word combination) Sustainable Transparency. On election day, the Best Party won 6 of the 15 available seats and took almost 35% of the vote.
As mayor, he continues with the central premise of his party: making fun of politics. In one of his first mayoral addresses to the city, he spoke like a true politician (ie. complete nonsense):
The odds of you being in Reykjavik are not great. The greatest part of mankind is elsewhere. It is scientifically proven. When I was little, I would often ask myself why I had been born in Reykjavik. Is it a coincidence where one is born? Is it subject to some universal law? Did I exist in any form before I was born? Did I have anything to do with where I was born? Why did Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler not bear any children? Did they not try to? Can it be that no child wanted them as parents? I don’t know, but I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe that God plays dice, especially not when human lives are concerned. These thoughts inevitably lead one to consider Schrodinger’s cat. He is probably one of the most famous cats in the world (maybe after Ninja Cat). Still no one knows what it was called? What was Schrodinger’s cat called? Abracadabra? I don’t remember. Let’s call it Phoenix. That is a common name for cats. Phoenix was of the nature that it both existed and not. Therefore, it always existed, and even if Schrodinger killed his cat in a rather tasteless manner, it is still alive at Schrodinger’s house, while Schrodinger himself has been dead for a long time.
Does this mean that I always existed, or that I never existed and do therefore not exist now? That can’t be! It would mean that all our existence was unreal and only existed in our own imagination. If I do not exist, then neither do you. I have a hard time believing that. The facts speak for themselves. If I am not real, then how could I fly to Finland, send myself a post card with a picture of Tarja Halonen, the President of Finland, fly back home and welcome the mailman that brought me the card? I don’t know. I am one of many Icelanders that believe in elves and trolls. I mainly believe in Moomin elves. It is more of a certainty than a belief. I have seen them and touched them. I know they exist. I have been to Moominworld in Naantali, Finland. I have evidence; photographs, video recordings and witnesses. I had a good talk with Moomin Papa. He told me that life in Moominvalley was much better after Finland joined the EU. He encouraged us Icelanders to join the EU. He also said that the Moomins had always existed, long before Tove Jansson “invented” them. The Moomins are eternal, at least in books.
I hope these thoughts shed some light on the history of Reykjavik and its culture. I hope you enjoy your time in Reykjavik, that you go swimming a lot and tell all your friends how fun Reykjavik is, and how everyone is always happy there and that you will never forget your hotel, and the eternally young cat Phoenix.
Iceland is in a bad way, financially. It seems to me that any city in a country which found itself for sale on Ebay not so long ago that can elect a comedian for mayor is a city worth visiting.
And perhaps inspiration for the next generation of politicians.
Worried about the Zombie Apocalypse ruining your Christmas? Don’t be! Here is an instructional video to make sure things go smoothly.
(courtesy a zombie-entranced Facebooking friend)
The Antikythera mechanism is one of those historical marvels (perhaps “mysteries” is a better word) that never fails to grab my attention and imagination whenever I come across an article about it.
Discovered in an ancient shipwreck in 1901, the Antikythera mechanism is an ancient clockwork computer from about 100 BCE. It was of a complexity that was not seen again for almost 2000 years. For whatever reason, the skill used to make the device was lost. In fact, it wasn’t until a high-resolution X-ray study was done in 2006 that the real purpose of the device became clear: it was a calculator used, among other things, to predict the movements of heavenly bodies and the timing of eclipses.
The level of knowledge about the movement of celestial bodies required for such a mechanism is boggling, but the degree of engineering needed to make the device is doubly so. How this knowledge was gained and lost is the fodder for a great debate, and the main source of my interest in the topic.
Recently, an engineer recreated the Antikythera mechanism. Out of Lego!
Seeing exactly how the thing works makes me marvel at those ancient nerds all that much more.
(via PCWorld)
Puns may be the lowest form of humor, but they still make me laugh. (Sometimes.)
This was one of those times.
As (loosely) promised, a bonus Christmas-themed Short Film Friday post!
I thought about posting any one of a billion schmaltzy, feel-good, crappy, cookie-cutter Christmas short films. Seriously. Go to YouTube and search. They’re everywhere, if that’s the kind of thing that blows up your holiday-themed skirt. But that’s not how I roll…
Instead, I offer to you the first episode of Infinite Santa 8000 — a sci-fi horror animated series starring Santa Claus. If mutants and murder and cybernetic implants and cannibalism don’t scream “Christmas,” I don’t know what does.
If you dig it, check out the Infinite Santa website, where you can see the rest of the episodes (currently at 11 and counting…)
In what appears to be an ongoing theme, here’s another Short Film Friday entry involving an old woman and death.
Maybe I should find something with a holiday flavour. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get two Short Film Friday posts today!
What happens when you edit together 270 movies from 2010? I would’ve guessed “an incredibly unwatchable mess.”
Not so. It’s fascinating, enthralling and remarkably cohesive.
Now I have to track down every last one of those films I haven’t seen and watch them.
(via BoingBoing)
With less than two weeks before Christmas, I guess I can begin to uncouple myself from the deeply ingrained grinchiness and provide you with some Holiday cheer.
North Point Community Church has an iBand — that is, a band that plays music using “i” tools. And it’s pretty cool, too.
Check it out:
Could someone explain this to me?
It’s like a poem in a language I don’t quite understand. It seems like it must be beautiful and meaningful, but I just can’t entirely grasp what it’s all about.
And I can’t stop watching it…
Yes, I am a bit of a Scrooge. Christmas is fine and dandy, but I don’t need a month and a half of it — two weeks is even pushing it.
Yet, it’s that time of year when Christmas specials start to take over and there is nothing we can do about it. Or is there?
Yes. I can take that kind of Charlie Brown Christmas.
Until maybe December 23rd, then give me the real deal. As long as you have it cleaned up and put away by the New Year.
Is this the press conference of movies and science fiction novels everywhere?
WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.
The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website at http://www.nasa.gov.
Participants are:
- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, TempeMedia representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at [email protected] or call 202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2.
For NASA TV streaming video and downlink information, visit:
For more information about NASA astrobiology activities, visit:
- end -
I want to know NOW!
(press release from NASA)
What if it had been Disney that had scooped up the Harry Potter property in its infancy? What would have become of these dark “kids” movies (the latest of which I have not yet seen)?
Perhaps something like this?
Perhaps not.
(Found posted by a friend on Facebook. It’s like I don’t even try anymore…)
It is with great sadness that I report Leslie Nielsen has passed away.
One of the greats. Truly.
Ok, this is a cheat. It isn’t really a short film, but part of a longer work.
On the other hand, I’m tired and this makes all sorts of sense to me. Plus, it stands on its own and it is hilarious.
There’s something to be said for humor that is smart and funny and doesn’t instantly go for the easy fart joke. (Not that I don’t like the occasional fart joke…)
