Periodic Table of the Elements

I never really liked the traditional periodic table used in science classes, so one day a couple of years ago I set out to draw my own. I was really pleased with it then, but as time went by I became more dissatisfied with it. Recently I have returned to this subject and talking to my friend Jack I got the idea that I should put it on the net as is, so here it is, warts and all. Clicking on the image will get you a full size version that you can read. I stored this one in JPEG format. I wonder if another format would be better for plain black and white.

Update December 2016 replaced missing image.

Movie: "In The Name Of The King"

A "Dungeon Siege Tale" with Jason Statham, a couple of other semi-famous actors and a good supporting cast. My son came in to watch during the climatic battle sequence and pronounced it a bad copy of the "Lord of the Rings", and to a certain extent he was right.

As I understand it, the story is based on a video game, which means the plot is fairly simplistic and there are a lot of fight sequences. Jason does a good job with the fight sequences.

The dialog was short and sweet. By keeping it short, they managed to avoid sounding stupid, which is something many low budget movies suffer from. This probably was not a real low budget movie, but it could have easily been ruined with additional foolish dialog.

I don't quite know what to make of Burt Reynolds (?!?!) death scene. On one hand he spares us the long drawn out melodramatic death scenes you see in so many movies. On the other hand we look at him once and he is saying something. We look away for a second, and when we look back he is dead.

Long drawn out death scenes are really annoying. You can go through a whole movie with people being slaughtered left, right and center, and none of them go through long agonizing death scenes. It is not until a main character dies that we get that, and they get drawn out and out and out until you begin to wonder if they are every going to die. Geez, man, go on and croak and get it over with, we have important plot details to tie up. We don't need you hogging all the screen time with these vital death bed remarks. Did not have that in this movie.

Movies: "Vantage Point"

A grim look at terrorism, over and over and over again. They replay the same twenty minutes of "real time" for the first half of the movie, watching the situation as it unfolds but looking at it from slightly different viewpoints. Each replay adds another bit to the story, which is good because when you get to the crux of the plot, you are completely familiar with all the characters and what roles they are playing. A lot of movies like to use very complex plots which can leave you confused if you are not paying close attention, and sometimes they are confusing even when you are paying close attention.

The one thing that did not make much sense was the high speed car chase through the crowded, narrow streets of Salamanca. In a situation like we had in the movie, and especially in Spain, I would have expected complete gridlock. But we have these guys screaming down the streets banging into things, chasing people off their chairs, knocking over the fruit peddlers cart, all the standard car chase elements. But hey, what's a thriller without a car chase?

They covered many of the essential elements of terrorism, and one that I am a little doubtful about: having a mole inside the secret service. This is something we used to worry about with the Soviets. Theory was that the Soviets were training people to act like Americans and then come and live in America and pretend to be Americans, until they were called upon to do something for mother Russia. Seems a little hard to believe that terrorists would have the patience to develop a deep cover sleeper. They seem to be more of the instant gratification persuasion. But hey, everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, don't they?

Although the setting is Salamanca, Spain, it was actually filmed in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

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Movie: "In Bruges"

I had overheard someone reading a review that recommended this movie, and it looked like some kind of screwed up crime caper, so I picked up a copy at the rental shop a couple of days ago. Finally sat down to watch it last night. Can't say as I was impressed. The first 30 minutes dragged so bad I was ready to pack it in, but my wife said lets give it a few more. We ended up watching it to the end, so I guess it did pick up a bit. But it wasn't very entertaining. There were some action bits, some very violent & gruesome bits, some funny bits, and there were some sexy bits, but the overall tone was pretty miserable. Most of the characters were unpleasant in one way or another, rude, mostly. The only good character was the fat man (Brendan Gleeson). He manages a bit of heroics. Well, no, not the only one. The pregnant hotel owner managed to put a couple of gunmen in their place.

Movie: "Flawless"

with Michael Caine and Demi Moore. A very good heist movie. It was set in the 1960's, which lends it an air of authenticity, but the story is pure fiction, at least as near as I can tell. Michael Caine plays an aging janitor who has been working on a plan for revenge for 15 years, and it comes off flawlessly. Now we all know that the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry, but Mr. Caine's character is absolutely confident that it will all go according to his plan. There are several psychological angles to this plan, and I could see that if you were watching your intended victim(s) for fifteen years, you could acquire some insight into their behavior and you might be able to predict what they would do in a certain situation. I say victim(s) because while there was only one actual target, a scheme this audacious is bound to have a wide impact that could easily result in collateral damage, and it does, though it couldn't have happened to a more deserving character.

Water Bomber 00

That is Water Bomber number zero zero. Who are these guys who design these fonts where the number zero looks like the letter o? They deserve to be splattered with ink.

There was a picture of a water bomber dropping a load of fire retardant in the paper today. The aircraft appears to be similar to a C-130 Hercules. It has four turboprop engines and is land based, but the wing is a low wing, not a high wing like the Hercules. It is not a flying boat.

This photo accompanied an article about the wildfires in California. The picture was striking for several reasons. The plane is flying at very low altitude, very close to a house, and you can see the individual propeller blades. I don't think I have ever seen a picture of an airplane with the engine running where you could see the individual propellar blades like this. Usually the prop is turning so fast that the blades are just a blur. Could this be an artifact of digital photography? It is so striking that I thought perhaps it was photo-shopped. I looked on the newspapers site, but I could not find the photo. I did find some similar photos on the web.

This one is similar in many respects including the markings on the airplane. The difference here is that this plane only has two engines, is steeply banked and appears to be flying into the ground.

This plane has four engines and you can see the blades, but it is a flying boat.

Update November 2019 replaced missing picture.

Zimbabwe & Mugabe

Zimbabwe & Mugabe have been in the news lately and it hasn't been good. There has been lots of speculation about what could be done, but I don't think there is much consensus. Some people are proposing economic boycotts, but it seems that Mugabe is doing a fine job of destroying their economy without any outside help. I read one suggestion that said someone should go in, take out Mugabe, install a new leader, and then get out. Ummm, isn't that what we tried in Iraq? Maybe somebody other than the US could do a better job of it. I doubt it.

An armed insurrection might be able to topple Mugabe, but something like that is liable to result in civil war. That might be what it will take to put things right, but it might just as easily end up with things as wrong as ever.

This is the sort of thing the communists used to try and do. Find a country where the mass of the people were unhappy with current government and start supplying them with weapons and ideology. There are still communist inspired guerilla wars going on all over the planet.

I suspect that the Zimbabwe culture cannot support a democracy. Democracy requires an educated population with some sophistication, or is that cunning and experience with duplicity?

Before we got involved in Iraq, I would have said go for it, go ahead and send in American troops and take out Mugabe. Now I am thinking we need to support the opposition with weapons, training and ideology. Put the opposition on an even playing field with the evil Mugabe, but if we do that much we dasn't dare back down. We have a history of leaving people in the lurch and that really stinks. Bay of Pigs, encouraging the Shites in Iraq to revolt after the first Gulf War. I am sure there are others.