Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 80

A Nightmare Even Orwell Couldn't Conjure

Thanks a million for your forbearance this week. All deadlines shall be met by sundown, and we'll hopefully be back to full-on Microkhaning come Monday. Let us kiss off this dismal week, however, with a very special Bad Movie Friday entry: The Apple, a baffling stab at trying to combine a dystopian nightmare with a musical comedy. The results? Not pretty.

Oddly, the music is credited to one "George Clinton." Unfortunately, it's , not this guy.

Gladiators on Four Legs

Though this seems obvious when you really think about it, there's nothing like an objective report to drive the harsh reality home: modern horse racing makes NASCAR seem like knitting:

Based upon a year's worth of data beginning November 1, 2008, from 378,864 total starts in Thoroughbred flat races at 73 racetracks participating in the Equine Injury Database, 2.04 fatal injuries were recorded per 1,000 starts.

Um, wow. Let's put that in perspective, shall we? If we assume that the average...

The Liver Knows Best

Of all the various methods that mankind has devised to foretell the future, none is quite as bizarre as the reading of entrails. We have no idea who first came up with the idea that a deceased animal's innards could cast light on upcoming events, but the practice certainly dates back to the heyday of ancient Babylon. And though the Romans were the most celebrated users of haruspicy, this gruesome form of divination appears to have developed independently in several other corners of the...

"The Mortician Bangin' Your Pistons…"

Once again, thanks for your patience this week as we work through a host of deadlines. Makin' good progress, so all should be clear starting Monday. This afternoon, though, as we grapple with a way of expressing our skepticism about fMRIs, please check out the ultra-rare Godfather Don cut above. The DJ Premier remix came blasting over our headphones this morning as we climbed the steps in Morningside Park, and it made for quite the enjoyable moment.

Where Sugar and Spice Shall Soon Be Rare

The financial crunch caused by Microkhan Jr.'s increasing appetite for food and Cookie Monster paraphernalia forced us to drop our Economist subscription this year, so we're late to the mag's report on the drop in female births throughout much of the world. But it's essential reading—a disturbing look at a trend that could lead to serious economic and security woes down the line. Having experienced what it's like to be a twentysomething male, we know firsthand that no good can come of...

As We Write

Once again, thanks for bearing with us this week, as we slog through three distinct deadlines that could well determine our clan's ability to maintain its current existence. Promise this'll all be behind us very soon, and we'll celebrate by reviving our dormant First Contact series.

Even Nilgais Get the Blues

Nature just hasn't seen fit to color many terrestrial animals blue, which is why the mere mention of the concept usually makes us think exclusively of fictional beasts. But as it turns out, blue bulls are rather common in India, and they have recently been causing serious problems:

Led by Una district committee of Himachal Kisan Sabha, more than 1,000 farmers from Beet area participated in a massive demonstration against the alleged inept functioning of the state government and the district...

The Noble Effort

We need to invoke khan's prerogative today and step away from the blog, on account of yet another brutal Wired deadline. In our absence, enjoy this archive of photos from the defunct League of Nations. The one above is of the Iranian delegation, circa 1920—we reckon that was the Golden Age of women's fashion in Tehran, at least for the elites. We wonder what the lovely lady in the killer coat would think of the nation's current attitude toward the female form.

Also worth checking out: the

"You'll Talk About Him Forever"

In reading about Universal's decision to nix P.T. Anderson's The Master, a movie obviously inspired by the founding of Scientology, we found ourselves heartily agreeing with several of The A.V. Club's commenters: Perhaps what the world needs isn't a flick about L. Ron Hubbard's quasi-religious scam, but a Hollywood-style biopic about the even more fascinating (and still alive) Werner Erhard, the man behind EST.

You probably already know the rough outlines of Erhard's remarkable tale: Used...

The Seeds of Blowback

The Chittagong Hill Tracts rarely make the Western news, unless they're being invaded by wave after wave of hungry rodents. But there is a great deal of conflict in that remote corner of southeastern Bangladesh, an area traditionally inhabited by tribes that are ethnically distinct from the nation's Bengali majority. As settlers have moved into the Tracts, violent clashes have ensued.

So why should Joe Sixpack care? Because the Muslim settlers who've been frustrated in their efforts to incur o...