Rattling Around

We just watched a great movie: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. It is a wonderful documentary about Mark Bittner and his interaction with the wild conures in San Francisco. I was at the video store looking for a film that was not gloomy, gory, or gross. This selection turned out to be perfect! (I also checked out the latest Wallace and Gromit movie, Curse of the Were-Rabbit.) You will love those wonderful parrots (though not as much as Mark does) and enjoy learning their individual personalities. The cinematography and editing are excellent. I give it five stars * * * * *. Lots of nice bonus stuff on the DVD as well.

Dr. Pianka is a lizard researcher at the University of Texas. (Go Horns!) Recently he has gotten a lot of attention due to his views on human population growth. Some people seem to think that because he is predicting lots of deaths from germs, that he is an advocate for the destruction of mankind. Or even that he is secretly plotting to release deadly viruses to carry out his evil plans. What some folks seem to miss is that human overpopulation will also result in more deaths from starvation, earthquakes, landslides, fires, wars, terrorism, spousal and child abuse, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, accidents, food contamination, drug overdoses, lightning, and perhaps meteor strikes. There will also be more poverty, and the general quality of life will go down. Not all causes of death will go up... there will be fewer deaths from maneating tigers, snake bite, sharks, or being gored by buffaloes; because as we destroy the world's forests, wetlands, rivers, oceans, and other habitats, there will be fewer and fewer animals to bite, crush, trample, sting, and swallow us. But if we don't take steps to control the size of our population, we will continually have to adjust our notions of what constitutes a "disaster". 100 deaths? 1000? No indeed, mass deaths won't even hit the news unless 10,000 or 100,000 die; or maybe someday not unless a million die. Do you appreciate the fact that even with the colossal number of deaths in the tsunami of 2004, that the population was replaced by births in those countries within three days at the most? (I think that maybe Sweden took a couple of days longer than that to replace their losses...) So rather than depicting Eric as a closet terrorist, perhaps you should think about what he is saying.

How's this for an idea? Stop calling them "drug dealers"... they are simply undocumented pharmacists! And if they can prove they've been selling drugs for five years, why then just give them a pharmacy license! After all, they are willing to do a job that most of us would find distasteful.

No spoilers!
I thought the last episode (#51) of Full Metal Alchemist was excellent, and appropriate. Really a great way to end a wonderful series. So much happened that it seemed like it lasted longer than normal (or did it? Maybe I wasn't watching the clock...). I hope someday I get to see the follow-on movie.

I enjoyed the session at Ushicon with Vic Mignogna, though unfortunately I didn't get to see all of his Full Metal Fantasy film. He was a very entertaining speaker, and well received by the overflow crowd.