Back from the brink and around the world, part II

Some pleasures in life are best because they are guilty pleasures. Yesterday, for instance, Maggie and I went to see The Bourne Identity and then immediately snuck in to see Minority Report. It was really fun and both were good movies. Minority is especially good, partially because the whole movie has a really interesting look about it; almost as close to black and white as you can get without being actual B/W, it appears devoid of color; greys and shadows seem to rule. Spielberg himself acknowledged that the film is as much film noir as it is science fiction (and one of the pre-cogs is named Dashiell. Hmmm....), and as a whole, the thing works tremendously well.

As for the state of the world...

Asia, South: India and Pakistan have backed themselves into a corner with this ridiculous near-war over Kashmir. Pakistan is in the wrong because they have allowed their territory to be used as a staging ground for terror. India, however, has ignored UN resolutions and their own promise (dating from 1947) to allow a plebiscite for self-determination in their areas of Jammu and Kashmir, which they reneged on. Both countries are being illogical, and the logic of war begins to take over in that case. "If the terror doesn't stop, that means that we are justified in snuffing out many lives."

Europe: Thank god for a boring continent. (Ducks piles of rotting bananas and newly tarriffed steel.)

Antarctica: I would like to go here before I croak. These scientists would like to leave Antarctica before they croak.

Australia: I tried so hard to find something interesting about Australia to comment on for today. To no avail. Bugger.

Blood? Bowl?

The latest silly game I've been playing is the bizarre fantasy football game called Blood Bowl. I can't really recommend this to you unless you like football a lot or like playing board games with models, or generally like weird board games with many rules and a lot of strategy. And death. If that applies to you, please go find this game now. That is all.