Dancing for science and other matters
Sep. 17th, 2010 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tardis_stowawayI've been doing too much mindless internet and too little in the way of productive activities lately. However, I do have a few things to share with you, o flist. Well, four things. Well....four things and a manta ray. Some of the things are vids, and some are my thoughts on various matters.
(1) Dance can express many things: emotion, identity, sheer physical talent...and science. Yes, science! , Behold, the winner of chemistry category of the Dance Your PhD Competition, "selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX." Both the idea of the competition and this specific video are AWESOME.
(2) While we're watching vids, here is an absolutely gorgeous Sherlock/John vid I recently came across. It's quietly beautiful and so full of yearning. You can comment to the author at the LJ entry.
(3) Further Sherlock-related thoughts, with vague spoilers for The Great Game: I am possibly a horrible person for thinking this, and this post is either coming too soon (because people died in the real world) or too late (because it happened on the 9th, and I just haven't gotten around to posting this thought until now). However, I must ask: did anyone else hear about the recent terrible gas explosion near San Francisco and think oh shit, it's Moriarty? Because I did.
(4) On the topic of things that are bad, this is SUCH a bad idea: there are plans for making a movie based on Paradise Lost. With "aerial warfare." IN 3D. God help us all.
I love Paradise Lost. (Well, much of it. Some parts are frankly rather dull, but the parts that are good are extraordinary.) There are some passages that are indeed marvelously cinematic. However, I think the likelihood of an adaptation failing are way too high.
The story is huge, and I distrust what they'd have to do to get it to fit into a movie. Part of what makes Paradise Lost fascinating is the way that Satan is such a compelling and in some ways heroic character while still being, well, the Devil. It's a complex characterization that scholars have been arguing about for centuries, and I it would take a truly outstanding film to do it justice. A film would also lose the power of Milton's language. The mention of 3D is a bad sign, suggesting that they're focusing on epic war in heaven, potentially at the cost of characterization and moral conflict. I don't want to damn this movie before it's even cast, and I might be eating my words later, but this just seems like something that shouldn't be made.
(Mantra Ray) Here's a video of a manta ray stealing a $5,000 underwater camera. Hee!
(1) Dance can express many things: emotion, identity, sheer physical talent...and science. Yes, science! , Behold, the winner of chemistry category of the Dance Your PhD Competition, "selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX." Both the idea of the competition and this specific video are AWESOME.
Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.
(2) While we're watching vids, here is an absolutely gorgeous Sherlock/John vid I recently came across. It's quietly beautiful and so full of yearning. You can comment to the author at the LJ entry.
(3) Further Sherlock-related thoughts, with vague spoilers for The Great Game: I am possibly a horrible person for thinking this, and this post is either coming too soon (because people died in the real world) or too late (because it happened on the 9th, and I just haven't gotten around to posting this thought until now). However, I must ask: did anyone else hear about the recent terrible gas explosion near San Francisco and think oh shit, it's Moriarty? Because I did.
(4) On the topic of things that are bad, this is SUCH a bad idea: there are plans for making a movie based on Paradise Lost. With "aerial warfare." IN 3D. God help us all.
I love Paradise Lost. (Well, much of it. Some parts are frankly rather dull, but the parts that are good are extraordinary.) There are some passages that are indeed marvelously cinematic. However, I think the likelihood of an adaptation failing are way too high.
The story is huge, and I distrust what they'd have to do to get it to fit into a movie. Part of what makes Paradise Lost fascinating is the way that Satan is such a compelling and in some ways heroic character while still being, well, the Devil. It's a complex characterization that scholars have been arguing about for centuries, and I it would take a truly outstanding film to do it justice. A film would also lose the power of Milton's language. The mention of 3D is a bad sign, suggesting that they're focusing on epic war in heaven, potentially at the cost of characterization and moral conflict. I don't want to damn this movie before it's even cast, and I might be eating my words later, but this just seems like something that shouldn't be made.
(Mantra Ray) Here's a video of a manta ray stealing a $5,000 underwater camera. Hee!
