Astronomers have reason to believe that a vast hole in the universe is evidence of the presence of another universe adjacent to this one. This could mean that there really is such a thing as a multiverse and some of these universes could contain slightly different versions of me, some of whom are sitting in front of their computers on a Sunday evening and composing blog entries. The question is: are the blog entries of these other mes any more interesting than the one I’m currently drafting? Another question: should I be concerned that the thought of the potential existence of alternate mes provokes a weirdly competitive response in this version of me?

Thanks to Warren Ellis for the tip.

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, has a shocking revelation to share with us: George Bush is neither terribly bright nor insightful. Here’s how the senator described his discussions with the president regarding Iraq.
I just felt a little bit underwhelmed by our discussions, the complexity of them, the depth of them.
Bush is probably a nice man. He’s probably a well-meaning man. But one lesson we should take away from the Bush presidency is that choosing a president is not akin to selecting a homecoming king (or queen). Qualities like amiability and aw-shucks humility are great attributes, but they shouldn’t take primacy over things like intelligence, curiosity, and self-awareness. We apply the same criteria to presidents that we apply to all the other celebrities paraded across our media: they should have nice smiles, they should smell good, and they should be kind to children or small animals. I will gladly elect the smug know-it-all with the rank body odor as long as I’m convinced that this person shares my priorities for this country and possesses the skill to make the bargains that will get things done. I don’t necessarily need to like my president as a person.
The president represents the common people, but that doesn’t mean the president should be common. We elected a common man for president and have paid the price.

I’ve been neglecting my BBC blogging duties, so I just posted an entry in which I poke fun at a representative of the mainstream media. Regular blogging will resume here tomorrow.

Today’s edition of All Things Considered features an interview with Dan Habib, the creator of a documentary about his son Samuel, who has cerebral palsy. I blogged about Samuel a few weeks ago. The host followed up that story with another piece discussing the inclusion of kids with disabilities in our public schools. To summarize the facts from the story, only half of all kids with disabilities are fully included in “regular” classrooms and only eleven percent of kids with intellectual disabilities are included in regular classrooms. As with so many aspects of a kid’s life with a disability, geography plays a critical role. Some states and school districts do a substantially better job of promoting inclusion than others. And yes, I was a beneficiary of the inclusion philosophy during most of my years in school.

The sight of Angelina Jolie’s curvaceous and digitized naked form emerging from a murky pool will probably never rival other touchstones of geek iconography like, say, Princess Leia in her golden bikini. But you can bet your entire collection of action figures that that particular scene from Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis’ retelling of the the old-school epic poem, will be replayed frame-by-frame on the DVD players of adolescent boys (and probably a substantial number of girls) for years to come.

As a story, the film works just fine. Screenwriter Neil Gaiman has taken a few liberties with the original, but it’s still a satisfying tale of a flawed hero batting demons both literal and metaphorical. As an example of motion-capture technology’s ability to mimic real-life actors, the film is less successful. The uncanny valley effect here is perhaps less noticeable than in previous films of this type, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was watching a very long cutscene from a video game. I have no doubt that digitally-rendered human actors (a different breed than the Gollums and anthropomorphized bees of the cinematic world) will eventually achieve the realism filmmakers are seeking, but Beowulf reminds us that we’re not quite there yet.

However, the technology is quite capable of giving realism to Angelina Jolie’s ass. My goodness.