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Sunday, February 28, 2010

 
Bambi vs. Godzilla



(Hat tip to Tammy)

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Tea Parties Go Trans-Atlantic

The first one has surfaced in Great Britain.

Daniel Hannan raises this concern:

He noted that the cry at the original 1773 Boston Tea Party was "No taxation without representation" and that today in the US tax may be too high, but that it is not levied by people who are immune to public opinion. In Europe now, he said, there is the danger that we are going down the road towards a pan-European tax system, which was taxation without representation.

Update: Jumping in Pools has more.

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Friday, February 26, 2010

 
Another Lie!

Was Sasha Obama diagnosed with meningitis, or was she not? Her parents have different stories.

Out of curiosity...what kind of waiting list do the British National Health Service or Canada's single-payer health care system (the kind favored by Obama) impose for treatment for meningitis?

Update: Oops, that was a 2009 story. Obama's citation of the meningitis story at the summit is documented here.

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Health Care Summit Roundup

The Dems evade Paul Ryan's questions about budget estimates.

Nancy Pelosi lies.

Harry Reid lies.

Obama lies and flip-flops:

OBAMA: I've looked very carefully at John Boehner's plan that he put forward. Uh, I've looked at Tom Coburn and -- and, uh, Senator Burr's plan, uh, that's been put out there. Paul Ryan, uh, has discussed some of the issues surrounding Medicare. I've looked at those very carefully.

RUSH: Yeah? Well, now, just what, three weeks ago, two weeks ago Obama said this...

OBAMA: What I've done is I've said to the Republicans, "Show me what ya got! You've been sitting on the sidelines criticizing what we're proposing."

RUSH: That was February 2nd. Republicans had no plan, "sitting on the sidelines." Today, what happened to party of "no"? I thought they had no plan. He's looked at Boehner's plan, Coburn's plan, Senator Burr's plan, Paul Ryan's. He doesn't agree with any of it, but he's admitted looking at it.

...

RUSH (continued): Lamar Alexander uses Obama's words on filibustering against him. He used the same bite that we played yesterday where Obama was talking about how the Constitution was threatened if the Senate got rid of the filibuster rule. This is Lamar Alexander from just this morning...

ALEXANDER: My request is this. Before we go further today that the Democratic congressional leaders and you, Mr. President, renounce this idea of going back to the Congress and jamming through on a partisan vote through a little-used process we call reconciliation, your version of the bill. When Republicans were trying to change the rules a few years ago, then-Senator Obama is the following: "What we worry about is essentially having two chambers, the House and the Senate, who are simply majoritarian. That's just not what the Founders intended." We'll have to renounce jamming it through in a partisan way -- and if we don't, then the rest of what we do today will not be relevant.

RUSH: So there's Lamar Alexander just hammering Obama with his own words. This is what Obama said April 25th, 2005, in the National Press Club.

THEN-SENATOR OBAMA APRIL 25, 2005: A change in the Senate rules that really, uh, I think would change the character of the Senate, uh, forever. [snip] Uhhh, and what I worry about would be th-th-that you essentially still have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply majoritarian, uhhh, absolute power on either side, and that's just not what the Founders intended

The Dems did twice as much talking as the Republicans, but said less.

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

 
Bacom Jumps The Shark

Teh Daily Beast says bacon concoctions have gone too far. They may have a point with the bacon ice cream, and bacon coffee is just wrooooooong (how about infusing the java with mint instead?), but the baconnaise looks downright yummy.

Hmmm...shark broiled with bacon strips...

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Lost - Mirror, Mirror

(Episode: Lighthouse. Spoilers ahead.)

This is episode 108 - the sum of the six Hurley numbers.

In the fractured timeline, Jack has a teenage son, David - and an abdominal scar that puzzles him for some reason. Jack picks him up for visitation (remember, Jack is divorced). Jack leaves the boy alone for a while to help his mom find his Dad's will (which happens to mention Claire Littleton, a name unknown to both), and returns to find David gone.

At the wife's house Jack discovers through David's answering machine that he's enrolled at a music conservatory. He goes, listens in on David's piano recital. Later the two talk; David didn't want his dad to know he'd taken up piano again because he was afraid of his father seeing him fail. Jack's dad had always been overly critical with his son, telling him he didn't have what it takes; Jack assured David he would not carry on that tradition.

In this timeline, the Japanese leader of the Others has a son at the conservatory.

In the island timeline, Jack admits to Sayid that the pill he was instructed to administer was poison. Meanwhile, Hurley has a mission, to bring Jack on a journey. He goes off by himself and is almost thwarted by Dogen. Jacob (unseen to Dogen) tells Hurley to say he's a candidate. Dogen walks away cranky, muttering something in Japanese.

Hurley had taken off by himself, believing that Jack would never agree to the trek. But Jacob insists. Hurley approaches Jack, who initially resists, but Hurley says Jacob told him to say that he has what it takes. Jack knows what that means, and agrees.

On their way they see Kate. Jack invites her, but she declines, and Hurley is relieved because he wants to follow Jacob's instructions to the letter - which mention nobody other than him and Jack.

They find a lighthouse. At the top is a set of four mirrors and a wheel to position the array. Hurley's notes from Jacob says to swing it to 108 degrees. Jack sees that every degree setting is marked with a name; most are crossed out, a few are not. They are the same names that Sawyer saw last week - but there are notable differences, listed here. One such different is the inclusion of the name Austen, which is number 51. It's not a Hurley number, but since Kate's birth dad is military and that number has rather famous military significance...

Number 108 is the name Wallace; in this image you'll see that the name is crossed out.

As the mirrors turn, Jack sees reflections of inland locations. I recall seeing a Japanese pagoda. Jack then notices the names - and sees his at 23 degrees. He tells Hurley to turn it there - and Jack sees the house of his boyhood in the mirror. Jack surmises that they've been being watched from the island. In a fit of age, Jack smashes the mirrors.

As Jack broods alone, Jacob shows up. He's not disturbed by the destruction of the mirror. He says the true mission was to give Jack a hint about his importance to the island. He also needed to get the two as far away from the temple as possible, because a villain is about to arrive...

Meanwhile, Claire has shot Jin's assailants, and takes her old pal to her camp. She's been living in the jungle for three years, with a "friend." She later captures the black Other, named Justin; he had either survived the gunshot, or faked getting show when she fired on him

She interrogates Justin about Aaron's whereabouts, wielding a long-handled hatchet. Jin interrupts, says Kate had been raising the baby, who is three by now. She's got her answer, so she kills Justin with a single axe blow to the stomach. (That kind of wound would be a slow death by bleeding.)

Jin later says he lied, that he didn't want Justin to die, that Jin had seen Aaron at the temple. Claire is pleased, because she would "have to kill" Kate if she'd been raising him.

Shortly, Jin sees a familiar face arrive in the little camp. Locke? Claire says, "This is not John, this is my friend."

Jacob and the Man in Black have both been keeping track of "candidates." Here's a theory: the lighthouse ain't Jacob's. One thing we know about MIB is that he's trapped on the island. Jacob (before death) could travel to the outside world. He doesn't need the magical mirror to see off-island - but MIB does.

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Monday, February 22, 2010

 
Who Is He REALLY Insulting?

About Keith Olbermann's accusations that the Tea Parties are racist...does he not realize that it is attendees and not organizers that determine who shows up at protests? If his allegation of Tea Party racial nondiversity were true - which it's not - whose fault would that be?

It's all about the overtaxation and overspending.

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Saturday, February 20, 2010

 
Random Thought

For those lefties who think Austin kamikaze Joseph Andrew Stack was a right-winger because of his antagonism toward paying taxes...

Ever heard of Tim Geithner?

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

 
Evil Diagnosed

The appropriately-named Shannon Love provides a template for this task.

This passage explains the politics of evil: it's all about self.

At every juncture, [Austin kamikaze Joseph Andrew Stack] chooses the political view that is the most individually selfish. When he must contribute to the collective via taxes he creates a rationale for why he personally doesn’t have to pay taxes. When he wants help from the collective, he whines that the collective does not take tax money from others and give it to him. He wants the government to leave him alone in business but then he wants the government to protect him from competition. On every issue, it’s always about what he needs right then and there.

Read the whole thing.

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Education Quote Of The Week

In this California Teachers Association press release, CTA president David Sanchez says:

"Now is not the time to be handing out tax breaks to a small number of large corporations - everybody must be paying their fair share."

The CTA is a tax-exempt organization, which represents a taxpayer-funded workforce.

Link via EIA.

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Lost - Locke And Sawyer's Excellent Adventure

(Episode: The Substitute. Spoilers ahead.)

In 2004, Locke gets fired from his job - his immediate supervisor had discovered that he skipped the Sydney, Australia conference the company paid for him to attend. On his way out he meets Hurley, who owns the box company.

Hurley writes a note for one of his other companies to find Locke a new job. The supervisor of that firm happens to be Rose Nadler. Locke requests a construction foreman's job, but Rose convinces him to seek something more realistic - hinting loud and clear that a wheelchair is too great an impediment on a construction site. He agrees to work as a substitute teacher; on his first day at the job he meets another teacher in the teacher's lounge - Ben Linus.

On the island, the real Locke is buried in the Lostaways' cemetery - where Ben confesses to murdering him. Earlier he denied killing Jacob - he lied and said the fake Locke did it. (Maybe he sees his answer as half true.) After the burial, Ben, Ilana, Sun and Lapidus head for the temple.

Two interesting details: Ilana has gathered some of Jacob's ashes into a pouch, and she says that the Man in Black (how he is known in Lost lore - he wore black in the Season 5 finale) is "stuck" in Locke's visage when in human form.

After a chat with Richard Alpert, the fake Locke heads to the Barracks and talks Sawyer into going out for a walk. Sawyer can tell he's not really Locke, because he could always sense the original's fear.

They both see a boy in the jungle; "Locke" had seen him earlier, when talking with Richard. He chases after him, and finds the boy alone, who warns him that the "rules" prevent him from killing Sawyer. Meanwhile, Richard finds Sawyer alone. Before "Locke" can return, he warns that "Locke" wants all the Lostaways dead.

Later on, Sawyer threatens the imposter with a gun, alluding to the finale to Of Mice And Men. "Locke" says Steinbeck is after his time. He also says that he was once a normal man; Sawyer doesn't believe it.

They descend bamboo and rope ladders - Sawyer having a close brush with death as his ladder breaks - and find a cave, where names prefixed by numbers are scribbled on a ceiling. All but the following have been crossed out:

4 Locke
8 Reyes
15 Ford
16 Jarrah
23 Shephard
42 Kwon

The Man in Black crosses out Locke's name. He claims that Jacob is responsible for the writings and for killing off the Lostaways.

He tells Sawyer he has three choices: do nothing, replace Jacob as the island's guardian, or leave the island with the Man in Black. Sawyer picks Door Number Three.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

 
Wikipedia And Climategate

My foray into Wikipedia has turned up something interesting: the site seems to be going out of its way to downplay Climategate.

Currently there is no mention whatsoever of the CRU scandal in the articles on Global Warming, Scientific opinion on climate change, Climate change consensus, or Climate change denial.

In Global warming controversy, the Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident is among the "See also" links at the bottom of the article - a mere footnote.

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Heh

Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995.

AccuWeather says Lake Erie frozen over for the first time since 1995.

Jones' remark hasn't spurred any updates of the Wikipedia article on global warming, which continues to state:

Estimates by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Climatic Data Center show that 2005 was the warmest year since reliable, widespread instrumental measurements became available in the late 1800s, exceeding the previous record set in 1998 by a few hundredths of a degree.

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Sunday, February 14, 2010

 
Happy Valentine's Day

This also works for Halloween.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

 
Questionable Inspirations From Greek Mythology

Why do people name vehicles after Phaeton, the reckless driver of Greek mythology?

Why do they name anything flight-related after Icarus?

Why is NASA's new launch vehicle program named after the god of war? Are we looking for precious commodities guarded by blue jungle aliens or something?

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

 
Lost - Take The Brown Pill, Sayid

(Episode: What Kate Does. Spoilers ahead.)

In the fractured timeline, Kate's hijacked a cab, which the cabbie eventually flees, leaving her and Claire. Kate takes Claire's bag and tells her to get out, and drives to a metal shop where she gets the proprietor to cut off her handcuffs. She discovers in the stolen bag that Claire is an expectant mother. She goes back to where she left her, and takes Claire to the couple who had planned to adopt her baby.

But when they get to the couple's home, they find the missus, who says that her husband left her, and that she can't adopt the baby. Claire goes into labor. Kate takes her to the hospital, where she is attended by Dr. Goodspeed - who we know from the true timeline as Ethan Rom.

During an ultrasound exam, Claire blurts out the name Aaron, triggering a sense of deja vu in Kate. Later, cops come by Claire's room and ask about Kate. Claire makes up a story that she left for parts unknown, while Kate is actually in an adjacent room. Kate comes out of hiding, says her goodbyes, and takes off for real.

In the true timeline, the Others administer a test on Sayid that involves blowing a powder over him, and administering painful electric shock and a hot poker. Jack is privately given a pill meant for Sayid. He meets privately with Sayid, who agrees to take the pill, but Jack goes back to the leader Dogen - he won't hand over the pill until he knows what's in it.

Jack puts the pill in his own mouth. Dogen quickly does a Heimlich maneuver and forces out the pill. He says it's poison. Sayid has been infected with a "darkness" that will eventually consume his identity.

I think it's the illness that drove Rousseau's team to madness.

Dogen tells Jack that Claire was infected too.

Earlier, Sawyer managed to grab a gun to escape the temple. Two of the Others leave with Kate and Jin to track him; the Others want to protect him from Smokey. The team discovers one of Roussseau's old traps, a tripwire that triggers a bag of rocks like a wrecking ball. Kate uses the trap to overpower the Others.

She and Jin go their separate ways. Kate finds Sawyer at the Barracks. He's grieving over Juliet, blaming himself for her death; Sawyer had convinced her to stay on the island. Kate eventually leaves him at the Barracks and reenters the jungle.

Meanwhile, those two Others grab Jin. The white guy is about to kill Jin over the black guy's objections, but the two are shot - by Claire.

Her demeanor reminds me of Rousseau's. Did Rousseau have the illness too?

Over at Jen's I offered a bit of plot analysis, some of which has already been stated here.

Remember when Mrs. Hawking rounded up the Oceanic Six to prevent some unstated calamity from happening? And when her son theorized that it really is possible to change history?

I think the calamity she was trying to prevent was the changing of history. Jack and his friends had to go back to the island to prevent that. They were part of the real history of the island. They had to go back and join the DHARMA Initiative and create the Incident that caused the magnetic anomaly’s instability, which forced DHARMA to add a feature to the Swan hatch that would contain the anomaly, which would eventually be neglected, thus bringing down Oceanic 815.

What happens if history is changed? The fracture in time we’re seeing now. So what went wrong?

Speculation: what went wrong is that Aaron didn’t go back to the island.

Whether this or something else is the culprit, I predict that Mrs. Hawking will round up the Lostaways, starting with Jack, and prod them into fixing the time rift.

This week I think we’re learning what happened to Rousseau’s team. They got infected with whatever infects Sayid and Claire. Claire’s demeanor seems a lot like Rousseau’s - and makes me wonder if the French chick was infected too.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

 
Heroess - Season Finale

(Episode: Brave New World. Spoilers ahead.)

Eli's plan to take on Parkman, Sylar and Peter goes down in the books as the bad-guy dumb act of the entire series. His replicants can resist Matt's brain mojo since they're illusions with no mind - albeit with substance solid enough to handle knives. But the real Eli faces Sylar and Peter alone, and is summarily thrown across the room with telekinesis. The copies vanish as Eli is knocked out.

Matt initially refuses to allow Sylar to participate in the carnival rescue, but cooperates after the two share a mind meld. After they leave, he prepares Eli with a mission...

Claire and Bennett are rescued by Tracy; she tunnels to the trailer with her water power. Lauren awaits them on the surface, where a chopper arrives to bring them to New York.

In the hospital, Hiro receives a note from Charlie. She's in the same hospital, and in her seventies or eighties - Samuel had transported her to the WWII era. Hiro wants to change history, but she's got children and grandchildren, one of the latter Hiro meets (any of them with powers?). Hiro understands that he must leave her history alone. Ando gets a call from Bennett - they teleport to the carnival.

Sylar finds Emma, who is being coerced by Doyle into playing. Her job is to attract a crowd. Doyle manages to snag Sylar with his power for a few minutes, but Emma manages to unleash the ofensive capability of hers, channeling negative emotion into a force projection. Doyle loses his concentration, and Sylar uses his telekinesis to get the upper hand. At the end of the show, Sylar has immobilized Doyle (he must use physical gestures to use his unique form of telekinesis) by tying him up with strings of lights to two posts.

Samuel plans on buryig the attendes the way he buried that town - that's his big coming-out event. Claire tries to convince the carnies of this, and of his murder of Joseph. They don't believe her. But then Edgar speaks up - and Eli (thanks to Matt's autosuggestion) confesses to his role in the plot, to frame Bennett for killing Lydia. The carnies abandon Samuel.

Samuel goes on stage and starts the earth tremors. The audience flees. He is tackled by Peter, who immediately grabs his earth-moving powers. Outside, Hiro teleports all the carnies away from Central Park (a power boost from Ando necessary for that many people), robbing Samel of his power. He is arrested by police connected with the Company somehow (Lauren arranged it).

The press has been led to believe that a gas main rupture caused the tremors. But Claire impulsively decides to reveal her powers to the world. She climbs to a springboard dozens of feet into the air and plummets to the ground - and regenerates before live cameras.

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

 
Headline Of The Day

At The Corner.

Looks like concealed-carry laws aren't going anywhere in France any time soon.

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We're In The Best Of Hands

Obama said this today: "If [small businesses] can get the bank loans to boost their payroll... they will do so."

No, they will fire Gordon in accounting if they can't make payroll. They will reduce employee perks. They will charge the customer more. They will not incur debt to cover expenses. Commercial debt is for business expansion, creating more sources of income, not for maintaining variable costs that the firm is capable of cutting.

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Sunday, February 07, 2010

 
Saints 31, Colts 17

Story here.

This Super Bowl commercial is outstanding.



Is Audi the official sponsor of the Tea Parties or something?

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Saturday, February 06, 2010

 
Lost - Season 6 Premiere

(Episdoes: LA X, Parts 1 and 2. Spoilers ahead. Refer to my review of the Season Five finale)

Jack's plan to change history has unexpected results. Two contradictory timelines have emerged - the "real" timeline, in which nothing has changed, and one in which Oceanic 815 never crashed in 2004, landing at LAX on schedule.

The 2004 timeline has some historic anomalies, as the Wikipedia article (first link) explains:

Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) is returning to Los Angeles without his step-sister; Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) claims to be the luckiest man alive; Locke claims to have participated in his walkabout; Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) is a passenger and Rose Henderson (L. Scott Caldwell) reassures Jack while experiencing turbulence.

One more difference: after the plane passes through the turbulence with little incident, we see that the entire island has completely submerged.

Afterward, a stewardess calls Jack to the restroom where Charlie Pace has been for an unusually long time. Sayid comes by and kicks the door open. They find Charlie on the floor, choking on something, which happens to be a bag of cocaine in his windpipe. Charlie tells Jack he was supposed to die. Was this something Charlie would have attempted in the original 2004 timeline, or is this connected to Jacob's plans?

After landing, Kate manages to escape from her federal marshal escort and hijacks a cab, which Claire Littleton happens to be in. Meanwhile, Sun and Jin have to go through some red tape as the customs agent finds an undeclared wad of cash in one suitcase.

Segue to 2007, the "present" timeline. All the Losties that had been sent back to the old DHARMA days are now back in the present. They find the familiar Swan hatch wreckage - and Juliet is in the middle of it. Sawyer digs her out while Jack forgets to tell Sawyer about the part of his medical training that says not to move someone who fell from a considerable height without a stretcher. Juliet dies from her injuries.

Hurley is met by Jacob's ghost; Jacob tells him to bring Sayid to the temple so his bullet wound can be healed. Sawyer and Miles stay behind while the others proceed. From the grave Miles learns from Juliet that Jack's plan actually worked - how and why it was successful is not disclosed.

Both groups eventually get captured. Hurley has a guitar case given him by Jacob. He gives it to the Japanese leader Dogen, who finda a giant ankh in the case and a note in the ankh. The note warns of dire consequences if Sayid is not healed. Sayid is taken to a pool; the attempt to heal him fails - but at the end of the episode Sayid comes to. Miles appears to sense some disturbance in the force - maybe that Sayid's spirit isn't around when it should be.

Prior to that, Hurley blurts out that Jacob is dead. They surround the grounds with a powder identical to that surrounding Jacob's cabin - a defense against The Monster. The Others launch fireworks - perhaps a call for all Others to return to the temple for safety?

A third plot thread takes place at the statue. Jacob has been killed, and "Locke" tells Ben to bring in Richard Alpert. Ben obeys, but the armed gang from the Ajira flight object. Bram leads a few men and Ben into the base of the statue. We discover that Jacob's nemesis, the man posing as Locke, is really the Smoke Monster! Smokey kills Bram and his men.

In Locke form he later tells Ben that he wants to go home. He emerges with Ben, and pummels Richard into unconsciousness and begins to take him into the statue base - but not before seeing the fireworks...

Predictions: In the 2004 timeline Jack will be recruited by Mrs. Hawking to fix a timeline that's not supposed to exist, and Locke will somehow become an obstacle to this plan.

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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

 
The Latest Endorsement For Canadian Health Care

Newfoundland premier Danny Williams is getting heart bypass surgery in the United States.

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Heroes - Demolition Man

(Episode: The Wall. Spoilers ahead.)

Peter enters Sylar's nightmare - the two are in an abandoned New York City. Peter explains the dreams about Emma. As the two walk down one street, they turn around and find a wall identical to the one Matt built, blocking off the entire street. Peter surmises that busting the wall is the way out. The wall doesn't give to their sledgehammer blows until Peter reaches a degree of forgiveness for Nathan's murder. But as they leave Matt's basement they find Eli, who's been sent by Samuel to eliminate them.

Lauren sneaks into the carnival for medical supplies for her gunshot wound and is discovered by Emma, and later by Samuel. He expresses to Lauren his desires for revenge. Before his mission to Matt's, Eli was supposed to take care of Lauren, but she somehow got away.

In the hall of mirrors, Damien uses his power to reveal Bennett's memories to Claire. He was married once before, but a telekinetic Special robbed them one day and killed his expectant wife. While seeking the killer he discovered another mutant. Bennett drew a gun on the guy and demanded information about people with abilities. The guy didn't know about others like him. He panicked and used his force projection power on Bennett, who also panicked and shot the guy.

Company operative Thompson soon recruited Bennett, and pressured him into getting a wife (pointing out the waitress who just served them) to give him stability. Bennett soon started working with "Claude Rains," whose invisibility power stokes in Bennett a chronic sense of paranoia.

Another memory shows Bennett visiting Gretchen, using the implied threat of Hatianized memory erasure to coerce her into urging Claire to stay away from the carnival.

Claire is upset with these revelations, but she knows Samuel is the real villain. Samuel directs her to one of the trailers, where Bennett is located. She goes in, and he sends the trailer tens of feet underground, burying them alive.

How will Claire and Bennett get out of their prison? Will Angela have a dream about them (Claire's her granddaughter, after all) and warn somebody? What makes Eli think he can take on Peter and Sylar? Where's Matt? Where's Hiro and Ando? Where's Tracy? How did Lauren get away? Stay tuned.

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Monday, February 01, 2010

 
Heroes - Samuel Declares War

(Episode: The Art of Deception. Spoilers ahead. The episode aired last week.)

After a visit to her stepdad's apartment, finding only his investigation papers and Lauren there, Claire c=goes to the carnival with a radical proposal: Samuel will give himself up if Bennett promises to leave the rest of the carnies alone. Samuel consents to giving it a try.

At the time Claire makes the proposal, Bennett and Lauren are already outside the carnival. Bennett has a sniper rifle, planning to assassinate Samuel. Claire calls his cell phone. He sends Lauren down to meet with Samuel and stays at his position. Suddenly, shots fire on the carnival - but it's Eli shooting, not Bennett.

Eli is apparently an expert marksman; the very first shot hits Samuel his boss in the shoulder, Lydia is shot fatally, and intentionally shoots wildly hitting scarcely anyone after that. Eli finds Bennett in the woods, knocks him out, and brings him to the carnival. Claire is with Bennett long enough to hear him say that he didn't do the shooting.

Samuel has ridden himself of a disloyal empath, and has chosen to build carnival unity around a manufactured enemy. He announces to the carnival that the outside world will never accept them, and he will lead them to "show the world who we really are."

Lauren was wounded by a shot from Eli's rifle. She saw him take Bennett to the carnival. She calls Tracy near the end of the show.

Meanwhile, Sylar brings his own scheme to Matt Parkman: he wants Parkman to bury his memory of his own powers so they won't control him anymore. Parkman tries a few times and runs into some sort mysterious roadblock. Sylar tries threatening Mrs. Parkman to get Matt's cooperation. Parkman gives it one more try - but double-crosses Sylar.

Recall that Parkman is not only a telepath, but can also trap people in their worst nightmares. Sylar is trapped in a nightmare in which he is totally cut off from human contact. Victims of this ability are comatose during the nightmare. Taking a cue from The Cask of Amontillado, Parkman starts laying bricks in a corner of his basements where he plans to entomb Sylar "for eternity."

But there's a hitch in the plan - Peter shows up. He's been dreaming of Sylar's role in rescuing Emma from playing a role in Samuel's murderous plans. He got Angela to tell him where Sylar is; evidently she dreamed he was at Parkman's. He sees the situation in the basement, takes Matt's power and tries to break up the nightmare on his own. As he enters Sylar's mind, we see Peter standing on a deserted street.

Will Peter break Parkman's curse? Will he have the smarts to tell Parkman to psychically access the memories of his dreams so he'll know what they're dealing with? What will Lauren and Tracy do? What's Claire's next move? What will Samuel do to Bennett? Edgar showed up at Lydia's deathbed - how did he find the carnival without a compass? Did he follow Bennett? Will he buy Samuel's story? Stay tuned.

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Lost Recap

The Antonucci family reenacts pivotal scenes from the last 5 seasons. Great special effects.

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Just In Time For Valentine's Day

Underwater plane.

Yeah, it's really a sub shaped like a plane, but I still want one.

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What I Did On My Winter Vacation

I spent the last week in and about Pensacola, Florida. My dad's ashes were interred at Barrancas National Cemetery, which is on the grounds of Pensacola Naval Air Station. Dad qualifies for Barrancas because was in the Navy for two years prior to college.

Virtual Globetrotting has a nice aerial view of the pavilion where Barrancas holds its services and the surrounding columbaria.

A columbarium is a mausoleum where ashes are interred. At national cemeteries, it's a wall with nooks where the urns are stored, and marble faceplates covering the nooks. Here's one at Arlington National Cemetery.




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