The Long Lost Ally

After 40 years, France has rejoined NATO military command. This closes one of the more interesting chapters of French history and opens a new one. I'm not going to go into much of a discussion of this because I think this BBC article does a fantastic job of outlining the background of France-NATO split.

After reading that article, I had a few quick thoughts.

First, I think President Sarkozy is doing a great job. He has taken steps towards making France more involved and productive, domestically and internationally. Since I'm not a French citizen, I can't pass judgement on Sarkozy either way, but I definitely think he is a step up from previous French heads of state/government.

Reading the news and looking at history, I understand the relationship between France and the U.S., but I can't help but feel baffled by the whole thing. France and the U.S. are so closely linked by history, culture and conviction that any kind of ideological divergence seems impossible. However, I believe America would react similarly if it were in France's position post World War Two. On a more abstract level, I think the same case could be made for the Iraq-U.S. relationship. Few ties exist between the U.S. and Iraq, but, if you will excuse the cheesy colloquialism, Americans and Iraqis are kindred spirits. Americans, the French and Iraqis are more similar than they want to admit.

The Economist had an interesting infographic on their website today which is somewhat related to the NATO-France relationship.


Economist.com

If that graph does not illustrate the point well enough, the U.S. Navy currently has 11 aircraft carriers in service, the rest of the world's navies have 10 (average U.S. carrier tonnage > 100,000 tons, everyone else average carrier tonnage <<< 100,000 tons); plus, the only active 5th generation fighter aircraft and long-range stealth bombers are flown by the U.S. Air Force. Supremacy seems like an understatement. On a less serious, and completely unrelated, note, I found this cool demographic map on wikipedia.


Words fail me...

Update:

On the military spending graph, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report today on China's military. You can see a summary and link to the report on BBC.com. The DoD presents different spending estimates than the Economist (see page 44 of the report), who appear to be using official estimates from the Chinese government. If you are trying to decide who's numbers are correct, good luck. Both governments clearly have some agendas at work, but whether China spends $120 billion or $60 billion, that U.S. column in the graph from the Economist still towers above the others. Still, the DoD report is a good read for those of you interested in these sorts of things; I imagine a Chinese government report on the U.S. military would be equally fascinating.

A Gratuitous Epic

So, I went to go see the film Watchmen the other night and I can't decide if I like it. I faced a similar predicament after seeing 300 which was another graphic novel film directed by Zach Snyder. However, my reasons for disliking 300 were far different than my reasons for disliking Watchmen.

As the title of this post would have you believe, this film is gratuitous. The blood, broken bones, severed limbs and disintegrations are unapologetically served in graphic heaps. Most of the time, I don't mind some excessive violence, nudity and tasteful scenes of intimacy. Unfortunately, I feel like the violence, nudity and sex are the only thin supports of this 2+ hour behemoth.

The plot and acting in the film are by no means terrible, but the characters and story are presented haphazardly. Flashbacks and exposition dominate a huge portion of the movie leaving little time left for a story. Watchmen is thoroughly bogged down with detailing the setting and characters well before the one hour mark and never really gets around to extricating itself from... well, itself.

Comic book and superhero movies are rarely philosophical or intellectual exercises nor do they typically try to be. Watchmen desperately tries to change the status quo. Some might like the message delivered, but the degree of cynicism demonstrated is thoroughly unpleasant and unfulfilling. Frankly, there is plenty of cynicism and bitterness in the news today and the last thing I want when I go see a movie is more cynicism and bitterness.


If 4th term President Nixon is your Lawful Good character, you have either a bad D&D game or a very dark story.

Before I scare everyone away from the theatres, I should say that Watchmen did a lot of great/cool/enjoyable things. Visually, the movie is very impressive. Watchmen manages to pull off the graphic novel look without relying on the film noir look of Sin City or the highly stylized visuals of 300. Mr. Manhattan looks like a blue Michelangelo's David (minus the hair), but never sticks out like a sore thumb among human actors as full CG characters often do. As I mentioned before, there is a lot of gratuitous violence, but the action scenes are all exciting and fun. The camera work is also good and it has a distinct lack of "shaky-cam" which ruined the action scenes of Quantum of Solace.

Watchmen is a great sounding movie, too. The effects are all superb, but the soundtrack is a different story. The music is really hit-or-miss. Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries is dialed up for a thoroughly enjoyable re-imagining of a classic scene from Apocalypse Now. Then Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is used for a love scene and the result is one of the cheesiest and overall worst movie scenes in recent memory.

The superheroes are diverse as are their numerous human flaws (sociopath - check, infidelity - check, ambition - check, pride - check, erectile dysfunction - check). Oddly enough, the only character I liked was the sociopathic Rorschach, but they were all great characters and I enjoyed disliking them.

I wouldn't suggest rushing to see Watchmen immediately. Instead, if you want to see it in the theatres, then wait until the crowds diminish (fewer people giggling at penises) and get a good seat (the new Star Trek and Terminator trailers are awesome). Otherwise, wait for a DVD/Blu-ray rental.

A few weeks after seeing 300, I decided that I liked it. The presentation of historical events, people and societies was atrocious and slanderous. I could spill pages of complaints about the true nature of hoplite warfare, Persian society and ancient Greek mysticism. However, Herodotus was hardly a first-hand, unbiased source. 300 preserved the heart of the events at Thermopylae and injected myth, exaggeration and color into the story. 300 was a bloody movie, but it was heavily stylized and lacked the excessive gore showcased in Watchmen. More importantly, 300 lacked the bitter cynicism that really dulled my experience with Watchmen.


King Leonidas leaves his armor and pants in the phalanx. As the internet memes say, "fail hoplite is fail."

I will probably come around and learn to appreciate Watchmen. When I first saw Fight Club, I hated the gratuitous violence and cynical message, but now I enjoy it. The problem is: I don't know why I like Fight Club.

Through the Looking Glass

Since my attempt at delivering a semi-accurate prediction of the NHL trade deadline turned out not-so-good, I'm going to move onto something else. Though, the moves made by Pittsburgh and Calgary are hardly unprecedented and are fairly typical for teams in their position. Calgary added some good talent at center and defense where they needed help. Calgary is now in a much stronger position to compete for the Western Conference title. Pittsburgh added the classic NHL rental player, Bill Guerin. Don't get me wrong, he is a great player with good playoff experience, but don't waste $150 on a Guerin sweater if you are a Pittsburgh fan, he'll be gone in 3 years or less.

Now, on to business.

On Friday (tomorrow!), NASA will be launching the Kepler Space Telescope! Its mission is to spend the next three or so years surveying a portion of the cosmos for exoplanets. Kepler will do so by detecting the minute changes in the brightness of stars as planets travel between the star and the observatory. This is some really cool stuff, but I wonder about the effectiveness of this detection method. If I interpret Kepler's functionality correctly, it will only be able to detect exoplanets when they cross directly between the star and the telescope. I can only assume (there are billions of stars out there - statistically, I doubt they are all oriented the same way) that a majority of other solar systems do not have orbital planes that make this kind of observation possible. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing what Kepler is capable of.

Another cool factoid about Kepler: it will be one of the few spacecraft that do not orbit the Earth. Kepler will be placed in a heliocentric orbit (it orbits the Sun). This orbit allows it to make better observation for some technical reasons that I lack the training and education to fully explain, let alone understand. There's a good explanation of Kepler's orbit here.

Supposedly, NASA will be broadcasting the launch live on the NASA TV network and probably somewhere on their website, too. Keep your fingers crossed!

Trade Deadline Primer

I can't say that the NHL trade deadline is the most exciting moment of the season. However, there is always a glimmer of intrigue to be found between the hedge-betting and last-ditch reinforcing.

The two top teams in the West, San Jose and Detroit, are not expected to make any major moves tomorrow. Both clubs are loaded and ready for long playoff runs. Many hockey analysts have suggested that Detroit is in desperate need of a "star" goaltender. I tend to think that the goalie situation in Detroit has been blown out of proportion. Even if Detroit needed some shoring up between the pipes, they lack the cap space to deal without sacrificing at least a decent 2nd or 3rd line forward.

Looking down the Western Conference standings, I expect that Anaheim will be active tomorrow. As I write this, they are barely out of the playoffs in the massive logjam for the 4-8 seeds. However, they were recently involved in a big deal with Pittsburgh. Anaheim gained a solid defenseman for a winger, which Pittsburgh needed to complement Crosby's line. Now Anaheim has Niedermayer, Pronger and Whitney on their blue-line. Anaheim will probably ship out Pronger to either St. Louis or Boston.

Speaking of Boston, they will have a scary defensive pair if they acquire Pronger. Pronger at 6'6" 213lbs and Zdeno Chara at 6'9" 250lbs, and they both know how to throw around those massive frames.





In the East, things will probably be a bit quieter. Toronto will, once again, probably be a seller. It's sad to see a great franchise like Toronto wallow in mediocrity for so long. Hopefully, they can turn it around next season.

My favorite story in hockey last week was the return of Martin Brodeur. In his first three games back from an extended injury absence, Marty has three wins and two shutouts. I had my doubts, but I think he stands a good chance at breaking some of those amazing Patrick Roy records. Crazy French-Canadian goalies...