SPOILER ALERT: if you haven't yet watched Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 5, titled "The Door," and you don't want to know any plot spoilers (yet), don't read any further. In the opinion of a majority of the show's audience, Happy Days became unwatchable when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis, taking the tough-guy persona from being somewhat difficult-to-believe well into the theater of the absurd. The idiom "jumping the shark" became famous soon thereafter, and was used to describe the point in any television series when far-fetched plot twists began being included merely for the sake of novelty, which tended to mark the beginning of a sharp decline in the show's quality of writing. To be brutally honest, I'm afraid that Game of Thrones jumped the shark in last night's episode. For whatever reason, I was reminded of that approximate point when Twin Peaks stopped being interesting, and started getting stupid. Now I suppose I'll eventually watch "Blood of my Blood" (the next installment in Game of Thrones) out of morbid curiosity, and the hope Ramsey Bolton might be killed off, but the plot twists in last night's episode pretty much ruined the plot line for the entire series, in my opinion. I don't know how the writers can fix it. In essence, Bran Stark learned that the Children had created the either the first White Walker or the Night's King by shoving what looked like a wooden blade deep into a captive human's chest. But then asked to explain why they had created the first White Walker, the spokesperson for the Children claimed that their reason … [Read more...]
The illusion of purpose
Would a watchmaker create a watch that can't tell time? What would be the point? After all, another name for a watch is timepiece. Does a watch have a purpose for existing, if it can't measure time, in some form or fashion? Can something be claimed to have a purpose, if that certain person, place, or thing was created by a blind force that has no true purpose in mind? And why am I (once again) asking myself such ridiculous questions? Naturally, I've been reading the work of Richard Dawkins. (I know, I know -- I'm a glutton for punishment. But what else can I say? The ability of clearly intelligent people to say or write remarkably foolish comments never ceases to amaze me.) While skimming through his book The Blind Watchmaker, I stumbled across this masterpiece of muddled thought, on page 9: A true watchmaker has foresight: he designs his cogs and springs, and plans their interconnections, with a future person in his mind's eye. Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker. Now with that silly little speech fresh in your mind, please watch this brief, fascinating video of a caterpillar allegedly mimicking a snake that a good friend of mine shared on Facebook only this morning. The word … [Read more...]
Generosity of the Bulldog Nation
I'm proud to call myself a member of the Bulldog Nation. There have been a couple of down days for me as a UGA fan since the glory days of Herschel Walker but not many, and especially few since Todd Grantham left Athens for Louisville. The day Mark Richt was fired was something of a downer. But we look for ways to move forward... When Devon Gales of Southern University was paralyzed in a game against UGA in Sanford Stadium, Dawg fans donated generously to a fund to help pay his rehabilitation-related expenses. Although Devon has been released from the Shepherd Spinal Center, his rehabilitation efforts are far from over. Now the Triumph Over Tragedy foundation is raising funds to convert the Gales family home to become handicap-accessible. I'm proud to be one of many who rallied to support this tenacious young man with such a positive attitude in spite of the unfortunate injury that made him a household-name for Bulldog fans. I fully intend to support Triumph Over Tragedy both now and in the future, now that I've learned a little about their organization and know about their work. Another worthy cause that I'm proud to say Bulldog fans support is the Mission Dawgs outreach to Georgia's homeless. UGA fans have teamed up with the Hope Springs Church in Athens to assemble and distribute what are being called "Goodness Bags" for the homeless. The Goodness bags contain toothbrushes, tooth paste, deodorant, combs, baggies, chap stick, soap, socks, gloves, blankets a McDonald's gift card for five dollars plus five dollars cash, some crackers, hand sanitizer, … [Read more...]