The Blaisdell Blog

Let me establish that I am a romantic.   I can recite entire scenes from Now, Voyager which is proof of concept.   That being said, I have long thought that modern love is long on social maneuvering and short—painfully short—on science.   Since the answer to the question “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is the egg, we will start there. An egg is a biologically expensive piece of equipment.   It is large.   Not only is the egg energy rich but the factory and delivery systems are equally resource heavy.    Eggs are costly to maintain and in relatively short supply.   That makes them valuable.   There have been technical studies (very technical—you may read them if you wish, but you will enjoy this synopsis much better) comparing the gonad biomass and energy that it takes to produce eggs and sperm.   The difference is incredible.   To produce sperm (that includes the entire delivery system—hook, line and sinker so to speak) it takes the body about 0.1% of energy avail

In 2014 the United Nations Commission of Inquiry reported on human rights in North Korea.   Amnesty International echoed the U.N. findings in its declarations about North Korea.   The abstract of these in-depth studies shows systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations committed by the government including murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, other sexual violence, and constituted crimes against humanity.   According to CNN: “ Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics” and CNN is an honorable news outlet. On March 23, 2015 the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses in North Korea.   It’s findings stated that the government curtails all basic human rights, including freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and freedom to practice religion. It prohibits any organized political opposition, independent media, free trade unions, and independent civil society organizat

It has been 50 years since Planet of the Apes was distributed.   Fifty years since a hoarse, half-naked, unshaven Charlton Heston growled “Keep your stinking paws off me you damned dirty apes!”   This movie, designed as an income producing sci-fi, turned into a cultural touchstone.   It has produced seven sequels.   But, most of all, it starred a naked Charlton Heston.               I rarely get ga-ga over actors, but Heston rumples my underwear.   [He joins a very select group that includes only three other Hollywood types: Kirk Douglas, Claude Akins and Raymond Burr.   I guess I like faces with character. But I digress.]     In Planet of the Apes , Heston is an astronaut who crash lands on a futuristic planet where talking, thinking, philosophizing apes are the ruling order and humans are slaves.   At the end of the movie, in a truly “Twilight Zone” moment of irony, he discovers that the planet of the apes is really future Earth.                 Of course, the sequels and t