Web Design 101 Section 666

Argh. I'm just about ready to throw my hands up in defeat! My limited knowledge of CSS and HTML is bumping up against the few blogspot templates available to me. Last night, I accidentally clicked SAVE TEMPLATE while I was previewing new looks, so now the old Depth Deception is effectively gone. I must say, I like the lightness of this new design, but formating the gifs that make the rounded edges for the header and footer is just not coming together. On top of that, it seems I'm using the exact same template as my cousin. I'd rather appear somewhat original, at least to my more frequent readers.

More and more, I think I'd like to scrap everything, pay the money for a domain name and hosting, and have someone design me a fresh, simple website that can act both as an online portfolio as well as a blog. Unfortunately, I'm also very cheap and not keen on paying the money to get me that eye-popping website. So I guess I'll just continue to stare enviously at those with more talent.

Joe Davis (hat tip to my cousin)

Justin Harter

Matt Agnello

My Ode to the Planet of the Apes

I've been meaning to do this entry for a long time now. In case anyone has yet to see the original Planet of the Apes, I must recommend it as required viewing. The film is one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time and an engaging, albeit occasionally cornball, exploration of the conflict between science and religion, race and class, reason and faith, and young and old. I suppose I should also compliment Jerry Goldsmith's rousing, visceral score.

Here's a snippet of the film's take on the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Fortunately, someone was kind enough to break the film down into 10 minute segments and post it on youtube. Here are the links for your and my future viewing.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12


I'll also include this write-up from the youtube poster:

The first and best version of the story. Forget that overly dark silly ridiculous remake in 2003 by Tim Burton... Many early science fiction films are now, quite inadvertently (and in most cases undeservedly), objects of camp attention: we laugh at the silly makeup, tin-can special effects, and the naive "high-tech" dialogue. Planet of the Apes is no such film. Its intelligent script(by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame), frightening costuming, and savagely effective conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its impact) remain both potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash lands his spacecraft on what seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner by a dominant race of hyperrational, articulate apes. However, the ape community is riven with internal dissention, centered in no small part on its policy toward humans, who, on this planet, are treated as mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the more liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying obstacle confronting his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare, the inflexibility of dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic fingerprints of Rod Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin Schaffner has a dark, pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all his own, and time has not dulled the monumental emotional impact of the film's climactic payoff shot.

What's a Diorama?

Hey you smart people, help me out. I've come across this word "ontology" a few times now, and I've looked it up and studied it a little, but I simply can't make it stick. I can't make it work for me. It feels useless and confusing.

I'm counting on you Justin, Mr. Philosophy major, to sell me on this word. When and why should I use it?

"The study of the nature of existence." Don't we have clearer, more common words for this? Isn't this science?

My Aha! Moment

Recently, I read a nytimes article about the modern-day struggles and strategies for teaching basic biology in high school and it got me thinking about my early education. I realized there was one piece of evidence that started me on evolution and common descent, one example that made the diversity and similarity of all life make so much sense that I was inspired to explore the theory further.

Whales. Prior to any understanding of the theory of evolution, whales made no sense to me whatsoever. Why would there be a creature of the sea that needed to breathe air to live? Why would such an animal exist while plenty of other sea creatures managed to "breathe" the water just fine? And why did whales flex their tail fins vertically rather than horizontally like fish?

Finally, in late elementary school, the answer was revealed. Whales evolved from air-breathing land animals, separate from the older phylogeny of fish, and their blow-holes and vertical tail flex are remnants of that more recent ancestry.

"AHA! So simple and elegant! It all makes sense!" I thought. And from there, my interest in biology bloomed, and I applied the theory to other examples, and I had new and ever more exciting "aha!" moments, and I'm happy to say that journey of discovery continues to this day.

So, did any of my readers have a similar "aha!" moment? Is there a particular example or set of evidences that sparked an interest in biology and personally sealed the deal in regards to the explanatory power of the theory of evolution?

lol wtf

Looks like Orangina is trying to corner the lucrative Furry market.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mom!