GETRUNTAH

Nic November Wild at Heart and The Wicker Man

Well, here we are at the end of an interesting month of devouring a whole bunch of Nicolas Cage movies. I cant really say Im thinking that he is now a great actor, but this experience has definitely opened my eyes to his...wide array of talents. Especially this week, as I left Wild at Heart and The Wicker Man until last.


The Hairstyle: The Carefree 90s Punk-Rock/Boy Band Cross-Over

One of the main reasons why I added Wild at Heart to the list - and why I left it until last - was because it is a David Lynch film. And I thought that Lynch + Nicolas = more craziness than you could imagine. And I was right. Wild at Heart is one of the strangest movies Ive ever seen, even though I suppose it is more sane and easy to follow than some of Lynchs other stuff. To be honest, theres just a whole lot of sex. Like...a lot. Honestly, it was just the basis for the entire film. There was a story of Sailor (Cage) and his 20 year old girlfriend Lula (Laura Dern) getting chased down by a gang that Lulas mother (Diane Ladd) assembled because she doesnt approve of Sailor. The gang itself is pretty crazy, mainly because it involves Willem Dafoe being crazy. But at any rate, this is just an interesting take on a road trip movie melded with a love story.

In fact, the love story was probably the best thing this movie had going for it. It was like, a partially insane coming-of-age story intertwined with tones of The Wizard of Oz. And it has Nicolas Cage singing Love Me Tender at the end, which was interesting. Nicolas himself was actually very good, but that comes with the insanity of the material - Ive found that the more insane the material is, the more tolerable he is. Sailor is just a cool dude in a snakeskin jacket, and the role isnt all that demanding to be honest. If Nicolas had taken Willem Dafoes role, then things would have gone absolutely crazy. However, Dafoe did a terrifying job all by himself (hes no Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet but theres shades of that character in his character). I cant say I loved the film, but I definitely enjoyed it, I guess. An interesting entry to the David Lynch cannon, thats for sure.


Cage Rage:


The Hairstyle: IDGAF

So anyway, the one Ive eagerly been awaiting: The Wicker Man. Yes, it is as bad as I previously thought I was going to be. Seriously, I dont even know where it was going. It was just so poorly made and scripted, and definitely wasnt at all scary because it tried to hard. It really did try too hard to be everything that it couldnt be. And you know why?

Because it had Nicolas Cage in a bear suit.

I dont care if this was the best film ever made, Nicolas Cage in a bear suit brings down a whole movie. Luckily it occurred towards the end of the film, because I had trouble taking anything seriously at that point. Mind you, I couldnt take this film seriously because it took itself too seriously. It was kind of sad to watch.

One person that wasnt taking themselves terribly seriously, though, was good old Cage. He wasnt even trying. It is like how you feel when youre really tired so you just weakly beg and plead with people to listen to you. When he was saying "howd it get burned? Howd it get burned?", he really had the life sucked out of him. And then there was that bear suit, which is something Ill never forget, thats for sure.

It was just a really bad movie. Im not even sure it was "so bad its good". I do have to wonder why James Franco turned up at the end. That was strange...


Cage Rage:



The quality of the Nic November movies, ranked:
8. The Wicker Man (2006) Dir. Neil LaBute
7. Ghost Rider (2007) Dir. Mark Steven Johnson
6. Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) Dir. Dominic Sena
5. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) Dir. Werner Herzog
4. Wild at Heart (1990) Dir. David Lynch
3. Lord of War (2005) Dir. Andrew Niccol
2. Face/Off (1997) Dir. John Woo
1. Adaptation. (2002) Dir. Spike Jonze

What did I think of my experience as a whole?
To be honest, I dont know how it has gone so fast. I thought this would be a torturous month, but there were some real surprises in the mix here. Still, Nicolas Cage isnt a great actor to me. He is capable of greatness, though. In small doses.

And that is the end of me dipping my toes in anything for the year! Sometime during the weekend/after I do my Magic Mike review there will be a huge post up looking back at all four of the different realms Ive explored this year. For now, though: what do you think of these films? And how do you feel about Nicolas Cage?

Available link for download

NASA Not Man Behind Arctic Sea Ice decline

A submarine in open ice-free water in 1960. I caption this picture The implications are obvious


Arctic Sea Ice summer minimas since 1979 (according to the NSIDC). Note they leave off the Submarine Warming Period (SWP)

Why do they start in 1979? Well putting my blog science skills to good use, I navigated a browser client through their website and found a secret folder link named disclaimer1 - hmm a suspicious name. Nicely hidden but I uncovered it anyway (if you are a journalist for The Australian or another leading media publication, please give me due credit for uncovering this on my own)

The folder contains very interesting information. I have added some bold highlighting at random points:

"Image derivation is from the Sea Ice data product, which relies on NASA-developed methods using passive-microwave data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). The basis for the Sea Ice Index is the data set, "Near Real-Time DMSP SSM/I Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations", and the NASA-produced "Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I Passive Microwave Data". The Sea Ice Index was developed with financial support from NOAA NESDIS and in cooperation with NOAA NGDC. Please note that our daily sea ice images, derived from microwave measurements, may show spurious pixels in areas where sea ice may not be present. These artifacts are generally caused by coastline effects, or less commonly by severe weather. Scientists use masks to minimize the number of "noise" pixels, based on long-term extent patterns. Noise is largely eliminated in the process of generating monthly averages, our standard measurement for analyzing interannual trends."*

So NASA are behind this afterall. And worse we find out that satellites are being used to measure ice. Denial Depot has reported numerous problems with the satellite record before. NASA and the NOAA have yet to respond to these problems or even acknowledge my importance.

But worse we find out these satellites are using microwaves to measure ice! As an experiment I took a glass of ice and put it in a microwave oven. This of course proves nothing, but it does raise some questions. I figured that 30 seconds in the microwave oven would be at least equivalent to 30 years of satellite microwaving. Well my microwave didnt tell me how thick the ice was (of course immune from Team Science I never thought it would), but I did observe the microwaves melting ice.

So is in fact arctic ice decline being caused by sustained subjection of arctic ice by microwave radiation emitted from NASA satellites? Is NASA literally cooking the books (ie ice)? Is it a coincidence that satellite "measurements" of sea ice and temperature both began in 1979, the year in which Jimmy Carter resumed diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China?

Proposal

I am only concerned that the reputation of science will be harmed for decades. That and taxes.

I propose to salvage science we must abandon the lunacy of the satellites. Measuring from so far in space is prone to manipulation. A blog scientist cannot go check on the satellites themselves can they? We have no idea what codes and adjustments they have loaded aboard those bloated machines. We should go back to the tried and tested method of deploying fleets of surfacing submarines to measure arctic ice thickness.

Clarification: Despite what the NSIDC claim, real scientists would never use masks.

Update: In the comments Lars Karlsson points out that
"There is already extensive research proving beyond any doubt that microwaves from satellites cause global warming!"
I havent read that site enough to bank my reputation on its concusions, but it does show that the debate over the use of satellites and their role in "warming" certainly isnt over.

Available link for download