This monkey’s gone to heaven | Blog | Futurismic

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Can't go wrong with stories that combine monkeys and robots.

Posted via web from "Here's to plain speaking and clear understanding."

Lots of UCONN in This List

ESPN's Top College Hoops games of the decade: The 2004 win over Duke on the way to the National Title, and the 6OT loss to 'Cuse in the 2009 Big East Tourney were the first to leap to mind and they're in there.

Inception

I've been blogging at Triptych Cryptic for ten years.  It's been a long, fun run.  However, since the other cryptonauts have all but dropped off ... only bonedaddy still pokes in now and again ... I've finally come to the conclusion it's time to let TC fade away and do my thing.  I'm not tech-savvy or, frankly, committed enough to go the whole domain/server/wordpress route so I'm sticking with blogger/google for better or worse.  I'm still on friendfeed, google reader sharing, twitter, posterous, and, in a less public way, facebook.  All of those other things fill a niche but I like having a proper blog for certain types of posts: the longer, more image-laden, possibly controversial (outspoken atheism, for instance) type stuff that the other formats aren't as conducive to sharing for one reason or another.

For the next little while, I'm going to try some cross-posting with an aim to, hopefully, luring whoever might still be reading TC over here.  And I'll still post to TC some, I'm still not ready to let it go completely.

C-Dog's Favorite Movies of the 2000s (Triptych Cryptic Import)

First caveat:  there are a lot of movies that I wanted to see this decade and didn't.  I suspect, of those well-reviewed unseen movies, too numerous to list, many would be on this list.

Second caveat: I only saw Sherlock Holmes once, yesterday, and loved it.  I may be riding high off the buzz.
Third caveat:  I'm a fanboy buffoon.  Barely, if even, more credible than the AICN commenter.

1. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
2. "Serenity"
3. "Memento"
4. "Fellowship of the Ring"/"The Two Towers"/"Return of the King"
5. "Brick"
6. "Michael Clayton"
7. "Traffic"
8. "Legend of the Drunken Master"
9. "Erin Brokovich"
10. "Snatch"
11. "Star Trek"
12. "Sherlock Holmes"
13. "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"
14. "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle"
15. "Iron Man"
16. "The Bourne Identity"/"The Bourne Ultimatum"/"The Bourne Supremacy"
17. "The 40-Year-Old-Virgin"
18. "Casino Royale"
19. "Spider-Man"
20. "Batman Begins"/"The Dark Knight"
21. "Ocean's Eleven"/"Ocean's Twelve"
22. "Inside Man"
23. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"
24. "City of God"
25. "Fahrenheit 9/11"
26. "Hotel Rwanda"
27. "Shaun of the Dead"
28. "Juno"
29. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"
30. "Gosford Park"
31. "The Departed"
32. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
33. "The Royal Tenenbaums"
34. "Kill Bill Vol. 1"/"Kill Bill Vol. 2"
35. "Hot Fuzz"
36. "An Inconvenient Truth"
37. "The Prestige"
38. "War"
39. "The Transporter"
40. "The Illusionist"
41. "Ghost World"
42. "Love Actually"
43. "Ali"
44. "District 9"
45. "Sexy Beast"
46. "In the Loop"
47. "United 93"
48. "The Constant Gardener"
49. "I Heart Huckabees"
50. "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior"

Facial Recognition ... (Triptych Cryptic Import)

... If This Is Any Indicator, Is Not Reliable Technology
I mean, c'mon.  This celebrity matcher thing didn't notice my resemblance to Tom Baker or Mark Knopfler?

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Why is Sports Talk Radio Never This Interesting? (Triptych Cryptic Import)

Mal-feasance (Triptych Cryptic Import)

A Little Fun on the Firefly Set

It's the Holiday Season (Triptych Cryptic Import)

Don't forget to get your aluminum pole up for December 23rd!

Sauce for the Goose

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com - My Friend the President:

"In other words, the Leave-Obama-Alone protestations posted by Sullivan are fairly representative of the genre. How far we've fallen from the declaration of Thomas Jefferson: 'In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.'

With regard to many of the above-referenced criticisms -- as well as ones I haven't included -- there are reasonable disputes over the validity of the critiques, and many Obama defenders voice those on substantive grounds. Obama admirers like the ones featured above are a minority, albeit a vocal one. But far too many have an emotional attachment to him and investment in him that is deeply unhealthy, particularly when it translates into intolerance for the very act of objecting to his decisions and policies, as one sees on vivid display in the responses Sullivan posted."

I expect the Olbermanns, Maddows, Stewarts, and Colberts of the world to hold the Obama administration to the same standard they held the previous administration of crooks and con-men. We should all expect and demand a return to the rule of law.

Dishonoring the House of Mortak

'Family Ties' Actor Bonsall Facing Assault Charge - Denver News Story - KMGH Denver: Alexander Rozhenko, son of Worf of the House of Mortak, is either letting his Klingon instincts get the better of him or is a meth addict. The real-world money, if you click through to see the mug shot, is on "meth-head".

Defying Gravity (Triptych Cryptic Import)

Never Saw Or Even Heard Of It But Liking:


Not breaking into the Top Ten or anything.  Still, irritating me that there was a sci-fi show I never even heard of, with Ron Livingston, that was totally off my radar.

Haverin' (Triptych Cryptic Import)

How Dollhouse Got in the Top Ten (Triptych Cryptic Import)

It's on hulu.com.

Best of the Aughts: TV (Triptych Cryptic Import)

A top ten for the first nine years of this decade and the last year of the last decade/century/millennium.

1. Firefly - It goes without saying.  This is one where we'll have to agree to disagree, if you disagree. But, can you, really?  I mean, we saw the same show, right?  
2. Deadwood - OMCFG this show rocked my world.  
3. The West Wing - I hoped Obama would be Bartlett.  He's not.  But he's probably the closest we'll see in our lifetime.
4. Veronica Mars - Really, for season one only.  I really grooved on season one.
5. Arrested Development - I'm teaching my kids the chicken dance, that's how much I love this show.
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm - The man in the cape makes me laugh out very loud.  
7. 30 Rock - I want to go to there. 
8. The Office - I like Jim.  The Office would be higher on this list if he didn't keep pulling that same face every time he looks at the camera.  It's funny nearly every time ... but there's a one-trick-pony effect holding the show back, in my mind.  Sometimes it feels a little like Frasier, I don't know if I can put the feeling into words, but sometimes you're just so embarrassed for a character it's not fun any more.
9. The Daily Show/The Colbert Report/Countdown/Rachel Maddow - It was either a four way tie or exclude comedy/news shows all together.  Couldn't have one without the others but didn't want to fill the list up with progressive news over scripted dramas and comedies.
10. Dollhouse - Yes, Dollhouse. Despite it's flaws, it's ahead of Gilmore Girls, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, & Chuck. So why does Dollhouse make it?  Alpha, mainly.  And Olivia Williams is pitch perfect as Adele.  Dushku as Echo didn't work for me until very near the end.  I can't say the series was particularly well structured but when it was brilliant, it was Whedonesquely brilliant.  I mentioned BSG even though I thought it was wildly overrated, not half the sci-fi epic Babylon 5 was. 

There are a bunch of highly acclaimed shows I haven't seen: Mad Men, The Wire*, The Sopranos*, Freaks and Geeks,  and Undeclared.   I keep hearing Freaks and Geeks and The Wire are not just best of the decade but best evah material; if I ever have time, I promise to do a dvd weekend marathon and see if I agree.

You may have noticed a glaring ommission: Doctor Who.  I was going strictly for US TV, here without really thinking about it.  If I include non-US shows, then DW comes in right after Firefly.  I'd also have to think about where the original The Office fits in, too. 

* Well, I saw one episode and didn't get hooked so I didn't give them much of a shake.

Jaw Dropped

ARTICLE VI:
"Sec. 8. Disqualifications for office.

The following persons shall be disqualified for office:

First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."

Not that I was planning on it or anything but still ... it would've been nice to think I could run for public office in NC if I wanted to.  I guess I'm lucky they let me vote.

Above The Law

Boom-boom-krak-oo (Triptych Cryptic Import)

Boom-boom-krak-oo - Campbell's monkeys combine just six 'words' into rich vocabulary : Not Exactly Rocket Science:

"Many human languages achieve great diversity by combining basic words into compound ones - German is a classic example of this. We're not the only species that does this. Campbell's monkeys have just six basic types of calls but they have combined them into one of the richest and most sophisticated of animal vocabularies."