Perverse Pleasures

Reviewing two George Clooney movies at once.

Up until Good Night, and Good Luck, there was a fairly common theme to [witch|communist]-hunt or whistle-blower stories: you can keep your integrity and lose your job/liberty/life, or you can keep your job/liberty/life at the expense of your integrity. This dichotomy, while making for some wonderful drama and inner struggles, was pretty damn depressing. The message that it sent was, if you're going to do this, you're going to lose everything. If you stand up to the tyranny, expect to be buried. Your only real hope was to become a martyr.

Good Night, and Good Luck is a lefty feel-good film, and if you read my blog at all, you already know I'm a lefty (and I feel good). What I mean is this: when you see this movie, the vibe you carry out is this: speak Truth to Power; be empowered by the Truth. If you're feeling a little down because of the current regime's bizarro-world take on world affairs, this is the movie you need to see.

If you want to exit a movie theater feeling good, however, don't go and see Syriana. If you're looking for something with teeth, something that may just wake the sleeping populace to the here-to-for behind-the-scenes machinations that drive the oil industry (and, by extension, the Bush administration), Syriana's your movie. It pulls few punches as it explores just how far the current bunch of Petrolcrats will go to preserve their stranglehold on the world's most precious resource.

Mind you, for those of us who have been paying attention, who remember what the Marines did for the American fruit companies in Central America, nothing in this film comes as much of a surprise. For us, it's just a well-told story with good acting and good writing. I still recommend it.

On trivial notes, Grant Heslov, one of my favorite character actors, co-wrote the screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, and Syriana features Alexander Siddig, the fine Dr. Bashir in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I hope that their involvement in their respective films leads to much greater success for them both, as I think they're both sadly overlooked talents.

Cancer and dubious correlation

Mobiles 'don't raise cancer risk' (BBC News)

I'm a bit confused:

'Research author Professor Patricia McKinney, Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology at the Leeds University, said: "For regular mobile phone users, there was no increased risk of developing a glioma associated with mobile phone use."

'She acknowledged that there appeared to be an increased risk among brain cancer sufferers on the side of the head where they held the phone.

'The team, however, did not put this down to a causal link, because almost exactly the same decreased risk was seen on the other side of the head, leaving no overall increase risk of tumours for mobile phone users.

'Instead, they blamed biased reporting from brain tumour sufferers who knew what side of the head their tumours were on.

'Another research team member, Professor Anthony Swerdlow of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: "It would be very misleading to the public to say that because there was a positive that this (mobile phones) causes brain tumours."

'He explained: "If we had found a raised risk overall and it was all coming from one side, I would believe there was a real case.

'"But as there is a drop on the opposing side - the overall risk is not raised.

'"That makes it rather unlikely that there is a raised risk."'

So, if I'm reading this correctly, using a cell phone on one side of your head increases your likeliness of getting cancer on that side of your head but decreases your likeliness of getting cancer on the other side of your head, so, because it's a zero-sum result, using a cell phone doesn't increase your odds of getting cancer?

I'm not trying to be difficult, but this sounds similar to research that shows that if you use your right hand to poke a lion, you have a higher chance of losing your right hand and an overall lower chance of losing your left hand, so poking a lion with your right hand makes you no more likely to lose a hand than not poking a lion.

Or am I missing something here?

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Philip (1342), the Bold, duke of Burgundy; Frederick III (1463), the Wise, elector of Saxony, 1486-25, protector of Luther; Leonhard Fuchs (1501), German botanist, author of History of Plants; Pius V (1504), saint, pope, 1566-72; Thomas Fairfax (1612), Lord Fairfax; Benjamin Franklin (1706); Stanislaw II August Poniatowski (1732), last king of Poland, 1764-95; Charles Brockden Brown (1771), first professional American writer, author of Wieland; Anne Bronte (1820); Konstantin S Stanislavski (1863); David Lloyd George (1863), British PM; Al Capone (1899); Eartha Kitt (1927); James Earl Jones (1931); Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) (1942); Andy Kaufman (1949); Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952); David Caruso (1956); Jim Carrey (1962); and me (1970).