YouTube adds Video Annotations feature

Yesterday YouTube rolled out a new feature called Video Annotations. It's a way to add interactive content to YouTube videos and after playing around with it some, I think this might be one of the best things that YouTube has done yet for its users. You can include commentary, add dialogue balloons, even link to other YouTube videos. Lots of possibilities here. During a break this morning I gave The Baritones the "Pop-Up Video" treatment...

I'm thinking, whenever I get the time, to include annotations for Forcery and Schrodinger's Bedroom as well. By the way, right now Video Annotations is a beta feature and doesn't support embedded videos (so you'll have to click on The Baritones link above to check it out). It's also automatically on by default, but you can toggle the feature with a new button that's to the right of the "full screen" one (it's the button that's pointing upward in the lower-right of the above pic).

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LOST: Deleted fence scene from "The Economist"

Hey gang: still reeling from the events of "There's No Place Like Home", the season finale of Lost that aired last week? Not looking forward to eight months of withdrawal from one of the greatest television shows ever? Well, here's something that maybe will help ease the suffering. Notorious Lost blogger DocArzt and his bunch have scored the video of a deleted scene from the episode "The Economist". It depicts Kate, Sayid and Miles arriving at the security fence surrounding the Barracks. A bit of revelation here about Miles, who of all the new characters this season was among the most intriguing and we still don't know much about him. Anyhoo, he has a great scene here. Enjoy!

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WARGAMES and the Great Hacking Scare of 1983

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the release of WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. AMC was running it last night and I wound up watching a good part of it.

In case you've never seen it before, WarGames is about David Lightman, a high school student who's an unmotivated slacker in class but a first-rate computer hacker at home. David's real talent is running automated searches for systems that can be dialed into via phone modem, and then cracking their security. While trying to locate a new video game company's system so he can do his own brand of beta-testing, David unknowingly winds up accessing a computer at NORAD and nearly starts World War III from his bedroom.

A quarter-century later, WarGames still holds up extremely well. Practically all of the technology depicted is now horribly dated (look at the size of those floppies that David is using!) but in spite of that, and perhaps even because of it, WarGames has become a curiously good snapshot of both Cold War bunker mentality and the introduction of computers into civilian life. It is also, I believe, one of the more successful morality tales about the fear of nuclear war: WarGames is not a "political" film as many of the time were. And neither does it make anyone out to be "the good guys" and "the bad guys". The genius of WarGames's longevity is that it wisely adheres to its own lesson: that to win the game, sometimes you have to choose not to play the game at all.

I thought that WarGames also merited mentioning (in addition to it being a terrific film) because of the reaction that it engendered upon its release. With its depiction of teens hacking into school systems to change their own grades, and then breaking into military-grade mainframes and coming a hair's-breadth from nuking the whole planet, WarGames initiated unusual paranoia in the mainstream press about the power of computers. I remember one CBS Evening News report at the time that seriously questioned whether parents should allow their children to access the outside world via their personal computers at home. A magazine article suggested that computer modems be "locked up" just like firearms, to keep them out of the reach of teenagers. I even heard one pundit proclaim that there was no need for regular people to be able to log in to a remote system: that if you need to access your bank account, a friendly teller was just a short drive away.

And Bill Gates once declared that the average person would never have a need for more than 640 kilobytes of memory in a personal computer, too.

Such news stories were very fashionable in 1983, and looking back I think the corporate media unwittingly demonstrated the moral of WarGames. It was an unfounded fear but the press played on it, and it wound up embedding itself into the popular conscience. I know of one friend whose parents were so horrified at the prospect of "accidentally" breaking into an unauthorized computer system, that they didn't buy a computer at all until 1998! After their fears were allayed, they eventually got on the Internet and found that it was a fine thing.

Now to be fair, WarGames was not the first movie about computers going awry and driving mankind toward nuclear apocalypse. 1970's Colossus: The Forbin Project might have been the first to explore the theme, and of course there as also The Terminator. Many will convincingly argue that Dr. Strangelove had them all beat.

But WarGames was different: it wasn't only a computer glitch in a far-removed system or a demented military officer which we had to fear could doom all mankind. After WarGames, we were told that Jack D. Ripper could be anybody.

I don't know if the paranoia was completely without merit, though, but only because of one funny incident that happened to me. In the fall of 1994 I was using my first real computer to dial into various bulletin board systems, and there was one that had just started up in Eden. I tried to dial into it but instead of a computer I heard a voice telling me that "This number is not in service". I changed one digit in the prefix, thinking that maybe it was just the wrong number that I had been given. This time the modem did connect to another one, but the terminal window filled with gibberish. I changed the modem protocol, tried it again... and found that I had dialed into the computer system for the Eden branch of NationsBank (now Bank of America)! What was the first thing that popped into mind? Yup: WarGames. I hit the disconnect button so fast that I can still remember my heart pounding against my rib cage.

A few months after WarGames came out CBS began airing Whiz Kids, about a group of teenagers who built their own supercomputers and used it to solve crimes, and by that time the Great Hacking Scare of 1983 was in full swing. CBS execs were quick to emphasize that what the Whiz Kids characters did could not easily be pulled off in real life (which might have backfired: Whiz Kids had great potential but it was canceled after one season). The fear had pretty much diminished by 1987 when ABC's Max Headroom (a groundbreaking show that I've long thought has never been fully appreciated) came out, but it would still rear its head in the years to come, particularly with movies like 1992's Sneakers and Hackers in 1995. And then the success of Independence Day in 1996 finally turned the tables on the mistrust of computers as a tool. Suddenly hacking was not something that we worried would destroy the world: it could even save the world if it had to.

But for a long time, beginning in those strange days of 1983, there was a hesitancy to reach out and harness the computer: just as early man no doubt originally feared the flame. WarGames clearly announced that the digital fire, originally the province of the technology gods, was now a boon to mere mortals. And with it came a choice: we could use it to build, or to burn.

I like to believe that we have generally chosen the former.

EDIT 4:42 p.m. EST: This post has been Slashdotted! That's three times since this past August that this blog has been featured on Slashdot...

We're also getting lots of visitors today via the post about the DHARMA Initiative snacks, presumably from countries that are either about to start watching Lost Season 4 or are already at the season finale. Welcome to everyone who's found their way to this blog, however it is ya got here :-)

And it has been brought to my attention that Bill Gates apparently did NOT make the statement famously attributed to him about 640K of memory. Which is news to me 'cuz I was hearing that ever since taking C++ programming in college years ago. So I happily stand corrected.

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Review of INDIANA JONES: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

Yesterday I bought a copy of Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide. I've long been a fan of DK Publishing's Star Wars books, which have been in the format of visual dictionaries and beautifully illustrated cutaways of locations and vehicles in the Star Wars saga.

Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide continues DK's tradition in providing lush eye candy and detailed information, this time about a certain globe-trotting archaeologist. Written by James Luceno (who has been praised on this blog numerous times for his Star Wars work), the book covers most of the span of what we know about the life and times of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr, beginning with the birth of his father in Scotland in 1872. Indy himself is born in 1899 and considerable space is devoted to his early exploits (which were documented in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series). The book pics up the pace with the events of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1935, on through Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, while also covering material that was introduced in various novels, comics and video games. And being that this is the season of (finally!) a new Indiana Jones movie, it's only fitting that there is sumptuous information regarding Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, including more about Mac, Mutt, and Spalko. The book concludes with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Indiana Jones movies, and some of the merchandise and marketing that has been done for the franchise over the years.

This book is going to be one that I will certainly appreciate having on my shelf for many years to come. However, it's not absolutely complete in my opinion. There is nothing at all about "Older Indy", the 93-year old version played by George Hall in the bookends for ABC's original run of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In addition to how those aren't in the DVD sets and haven't been shown in the occasional reruns on television for some time, it's enough to make me wonder if George Lucas now considers those not "canon". Which would be a darn tragedy 'cuz the bookends with George Hall as Indy were awesome! And strangely, the events of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, considered by many to be the finest Indiana Jones video game ever and one of the best of the entire graphic adventure genre, are not mentioned at all (although Sophia Hapgood is referenced, as is the Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine game).

But in light of what else is in this book, Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide is still a must-have for fans of Indy. I particularly enjoy the cut-away illustrations for the buried city of Tanis, Pankot Palace and the Thuggee mines, and the Grail Temple (along with the catacombs beneath Venice: it turns out that St. Mark is buried down there too).

I was expecting nothing but goodness to come from Luceno and DK with their treatment of the Indiana Jones saga, and they have certainly delivered fortune and glory with Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide. Heartily recommended!

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Ballard: Titanic search was cover-up for U.S. Government mission

Robert Ballard has come forward with something very interesting: his successful 1985 search for the Titanic was only a cover story for a mission from the United States Government.

The deal was: Ballard would assist the U.S. Navy in examining the wreckage of two American nuclear submarines - the Thresher and the Scorpion - that were lost at sea in the Atlantic during the 1960s. At the time, there was concern that the Soviet Union might somehow find and exploit the sunken subs. The expedition was funded by the government and upon completion, Ballard would be free to continue his quest for the Titanic. All fine and dandy... except few people expected him to find the thing! Some in the Navy were alarmed that Ballard's discovery might arouse suspicion, but because of all the publicity about the Titanic itself nobody dared question the purpose of Ballard's mission.

Head over to the National Geographic website for more on the story.

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THE KNIGHT SHIFT: In Color! Live on WGSR this Sunday night

Yesterday afternoon WGSR Star 39 General Manager Charles Roark devoted the 4:30 "warm-up show" to what happened on Sunday night on the street in front of the station, when I gave Johnny Robertson of the "Church Of Christ In Name Only" the opportunity to debate me on live television. Since Robertson had already declared he was going to talk about me and this blog on his show anyway, and had strongly stated that I wouldn't debate him, I took him at his word and showed up at the station with my Bible and video camera and gave him the chance to take me on during a live broadcast. He refused, and he couldn't answer the questions I was asking him either.

Long story short: Charles Roark has offered me 25 minutes of free airtime this coming Sunday night at 8 p.m.

I'm taking him up on it.

All I'm prepared to say right now is that it won't be a live debate between myself and Johnny Robertson. He had that chance on Sunday night. Charles Roark is graciously letting me have this valuable time to present another perspective, and I'm going to use it as best that I can. Neither will it be an interview. I've something in mind and I'm sticking to it.

Besides, Robertson will have an hour and a half after I'm on the air all to himself, to do whatever he likes. I'm going to respect the time alloted to him as he will no doubt respect the time alloted to me.

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Man threatened with arrest for wearing TRANSFORMERS t-shirt

Brad Jayokody, pictured below, was threatened by security personnel at London's Heathrow Airport because his t-shirt depicting Optimus Prime from the movie Transformers was considered offensive.

So much for "Freedom is the right of ALL sentient beings!" ...

Read the rest of the story here.

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CONFRONTING JOHNNY ROBERTSON: YouTube videos of encounter with "Church of Christ" preacher

As I reported earlier, last night I gave Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ (which I call the "Church Of Christ In Name Only" because it has NOTHING to do with the traditional Churches of Christ) the opportunity to debate me on live television, since he's apparently been wanting me to mix it up with him over a matter of theology. You can read what I wrote about what happened at the above link.

Here at last is the video of what happened.

Part 1 is up already. I'm working on Part 2 now and it might even go to a Part 3. But in the meantime, have at it...

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Tonight I confronted Johnny Robertson with questions and a video camera

Yup, I sure did.

Went down to the WGSR studio at 7 p.m. last night (now 7 hours ago) and waited until Johnny Robertson - of the "Church of Christ in Name Only", the hyper-legalist cult in these parts that is demonstrating so much hatred toward others, all in the name of Jesus Christ - showed up for his weekly live television broadcast.

Robertson got there just before 8:30 on his way to do his show. And I didn't hesitate to ask Robertson three big questions:

(1) How is what he is doing showing devotion to Jesus Christ, and showing Christ's love to the lost of this world?

(2) Where in the Bible does it say that if you are not baptized that you are going to Hell?

(3) "I'm here Johnny... so will you debate me live on the air tonight?"

Robertson never answered the first question, could not answer the second (apart from some saying that baptism is "a command" but he still could not demonstrate how the unbaptized person will go to Hell) and he adamantly REFUSED to debate me, saying that he already had "an agenda" and later on in the evening he seemed to imply that I'm "small potatoes" (my words) and that he much more prefers to debate well-known Baptist, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, etc. He kept citing that I don't have enough "knowledge of scripture". Although he denied it, I have to wonder if that means I have to have a doctorate of divinity degree in order for him to be interested. He also said that debating me would be "boring".

I videotaped it, folks. He videotaped me videotaping him too. I'll have it up later in the morning.

Oh yah, and Johnny Robertson also said that I'm not saved at all, because I was baptized in a Baptist church (even though I am not denominational at all, I was baptized while in college because I became a believer in Christ there and I wanted to do this before I graduated) and something to the effect that my baptism did not come because of repentance. Uhhhh...

I'm going to post the video on YouTube and then stick it on this blog, but after that I'm pretty much through with Johnny Robertson. My offer to debate on live television still stands though: he won't take it. In my sincere opinion, he's too genuinely afraid to take me up on it. Much of the time during two videotaped meetings (before and after the show) he kept trying to badger out of me which "denomination" I was. And it must have flustered him that I just consider myself a "follower of Christ" who worships with other believers. Robertson accused me of being a "renegade", something that he reiterated during his live show tonight also (and there's gonna be some really hilarious footage of that, friends and neighbors!).

Like I said, I'll have the video up later this morning. Trust me: it's a hoot!

EDIT 1:44 p.m. EST: Here's the link to the video.

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Johnny Robertson threatens to mention this blog on his TV show tonight!!!

A bit of an update on Dianne Odell, who passed away this past week after living 60 of her 61 years in an iron lung and was reported to have been a devout Christian woman. In considering her situation a question arose in my mind that I felt led to ask aloud to Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields of the local "Church of Christ" (which has nothing at all to do with the Church of Christ that most people know of): the three cultists who appear on WGSR several times a week and among other things teach that there is no salvation without baptism.

It turns out that Dianne Odell HAD been baptized, in her family's bathtub, when she was 13 years old. She was taken out of her iron lung just long enough to accomplish it, against her doctor's recommendation. It's something that she very much wanted to do and thankfully, she got to do it.

My contention remains unchanged, as well as my question to Robertson, Oldfield and Fields: If someone is incapable of being baptized, does that mean that they are not saved?

How can a physical act possibly be connected to the salvation of one's soul? Is this not adding a "work" to the already finished work that Jesus did when He went to die for us?

Well, now Robertson is threatening to bring up how "wrong" I was on baptism on his show What Does the Bible Say? (which if truth in advertising laws prevailed should be renamed "What Does Johnny Robertson Say?") airing on WGSR Star 39 tonight. Robertson is apparently determined to make hay of this, and will no doubt gleefully point out that the lady in question was baptized. And Robertson spent almost three hours on my blog yesterday (I've got the records to prove it), looking for "dirt" no doubt.

Here are some of the remarks that Johnny Robertson has made in the past 24 hours...

Happy hunting obe one
you will have to try harder than this
are you still going to call in?
If not Corey will get you (he lied Corey)

are you all still searching for some instance where a person cannot be baptized?
it must be really tough on you all to be proved WRONG all the time.
I tell you this is fast becoming my favorite site.
Chris you are the best
our youtube going out to praise Diane (since you brought her up) is a great shout out to how the Devil really is stupid.
Diane was the # one google name yesterday. How well do you think you question being read on my show will do?
It may get you in the New York times again as the most unkind person alive.

God’s word will be upheld.
Did yu think we would take a hit from the likes of Chris Knight when we teach the glorious gospel of the King.
You are hurting the cause

chris are you still calling in and debating on Sunday nite?
or did your little plan back fire

you reject the counsel of God when you refuse to be baptized and if you die
having done this all your days
then dont expect mercy as “rejecter”
I do say this with malice.
but it is the truth

Chris
you may won’t to go back and reread your comments
it was much stronger than this
and when I show it on TV it will be in quotes

Oh what has changed?
You don’t have a an emotional story to try and use to subvert people into taking your position?
Ok I am moving on. There is no truth here today.
Nice try Chris
I am still posting you tomorrow night.
Your comments are good to show how desperate folks are to defeat us.

Chris
not so fast New Yorker (Chris),
I m not going to publish your blog boyee
just your latest blunder

And you don't think people know already where to find this blog, Johnny?

Your attitude points all the way back to my original question from March: How is what you are doing giving glory to Christ?

Here is when I called into his show to ask him that, folks...

This is why what Robertson, Oldfield and Fields are doing is so terribly wrong, folks: they are using Jesus Christ as an excuse for how they like to swagger and bully people.

Johnny Robertson, I said that if you didn't respond with an answer to my question, that I was going to call in and ask. Lo and behold, you did respond. You have made it very clear that you believe that a person who is not baptized, is going to Hell.

So there was going to be no need for me to call in tonight anyway. You responded, and I'm content with that. Are you going to use that on your show tonight as well? Because that is all that I said that I wanted: an answer from you about this. And you provided one, whether you realize it or not.

But if you want a debate, Johnny... then yeah, I'm up for one. It's not going to be stilted in your favor though. We're not going to have your finger hovering over the "mute" button as it is all the time whenever someone calls into your show. You're going to have to face the fire as much as I would be facing it also.

So yeah: I'm challenging you to a real debate, live on WGSR Star 39, with a moderator. If you want to use the footage from it however you like afterward, it won't bother me at all if you do.

Let's have a real discussion on your demand for legalism, weighed against the simple sufficiency of the grace of God.

As we are told in Romans 3:22-28...

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

"Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

You would impose a law on us, Johnny Robertson. A law that is not mandated at all in scripture.

And nothing you are doing, is giving glory to God. Which is what is supposed to be the primary motivation for us as followers of Christ.

I'm as yet undecided as to what I'm going to do this evening, folks. I might watch this show, and I might not. If I just watch it, I'll probably be in a giggle-fit of laughter the entire time. If I'm feeling pokey, I might do some live blogging about it. There are some possibilities that enter my mind. We'll just have to wait and see.

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Johnny Robertson ("Church of Christ in Name Only") attacks me... because I'm a Star Wars fan?!?

Okay, now it's getting into the territory of the downright nutty...

About two months ago I called into Johnny Robertson's show What Does the Bible Say? on WGSR Star 39. Johnny Robertson (shown at right) is considered the chief ringleader of what I've come to call the "Church of Christ in Name Only" (COCINO for short), a very vindictive, mean-spirited cult working around Reidsville, North Carolina and Martinsville and Danville in Virginia. These guys have about three hours of programming on WGSR each week and they do nothing but attack anyone who isn't "their" brand of Christianity. Namely, they believe that if you are not part of what they call the "Church of Christ" (which is nothing like the Church of Christ that most people know) that you are damned and going to Hell. They also believe that a person must be baptized in order to be saved.

And they have an extremely ugly attitude toward anyone who disagrees with them.

So I called up Robertson's show one night to ask a simple question: "How is what you guys are doing giving glory to Christ?" And more to the point, I wanted to know how is what they are doing showing Christ's love and grace to a world that is lost without Him. How is what Robertson (along with James Oldfield and Norm Fields) doing, in any way, able to persuade those who don't know Christ about Christ at all? Because I can't see how their hatred toward others can do anything but drive people away from wanting to consider Christ at all.

Robertson and his cohorts are ultra-legalists of the highest order. It's all about following rules and regulations so far as they are concerned: which is exactly what Christ's sacrifice did away with for all time. I think it could even be argued that Johnny Robertson is trying to crucify Christ all over again. But I digress...

Robertson had no answer for me. Instead he told me to "go listen to Benny Hinn!" Here's the video again if you want to see what happened for yourself.

Then a few days ago I heard about a very sad story out of Tennessee, involving a woman who was by all accounts a devout follower of Christ, who passed away after a lifetime of unusual circumstance that did not allow for her to be water baptized as Robertson and the Church of Christ in Name Only demands. So I asked a question on this blog directed to Robertson, Oldfield, and Fields: "Is this woman now lost because she was not baptized?"

It got picked up by the Answering the Church of Christ blog and it's led to a rather heated discussion. There are currently 134 comments, including a few that I've made.

Well, none other than Johnny Robertson himself has chimed in. And according to my meter's records he spent about a half-hour on The Knight Shift earlier this morning, looking at a lot of stuff (including my post about how The New York Times had reported on the crazy TV commercials that some of us school board candidates did in 2006). Apparently he was looking for dirt on me.

This is what Johnny Robertson fired back with on Answering the Church of Christ...

On May 31, 2008 at 10:22 am johnny Said:

Knight said

In the end, that faith in Him is something that must transcend earthly terminology. To say that we are saved because we are "Christian" or "Church of Christ" is to deny the new creation that we are called to be in Him.

transcends earthly terminology"

talking about a gnostic!
Col 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

you kinda got beyond yourself there chris star Wars New York posted ....I've a part in Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of "Children of Eden"(look at me everyone I am an actor toooooo!)

Let me try to understand this: Johnny Robertson cannot confidently tell us that what he and the others in the Church of Christ in Name Only are doing is showing the love of Christ to others. So instead he chooses to attack me because I dared asked him that question... by mocking my being a Star Wars fan and because I'm involved in a production of Children of Eden?!?!?

Star Wars, Johnny? Star Wars?! And Children of Eden?!?

I responded to Johnny Robertson thusly...

On May 31, 2008 at 11:24 am Chris Knight Said:

Dear Johnny Robertson,
So now that I have your attention, might I ask you again...

How IS what you are doing possibly showing others the love of Christ?

You still haven't answered that.

And now you are attacking me because I’m a Star Wars fan, of all things?!

You're acting pretty infantile, dude.

I know it's you, by the way. I saw where you visited my blog earlier this morning, and spent quite a bit of time looking around on it.

So Johnny, once again: HOW is what you, and Oldfield, and Fields, doing, illustrating the love and grace of Jesus Christ to those who don't know Him? WHY should the lost of this world look at you guys and be persuaded at all?

You have nothing to show for your work, because it is not motivated in love. You are too enamored with your sense of power and leadership... but if you have not love, then these things are utterly worthless.

Why do you make yourself so big and God so very small, Johnny?

A few minutes later I added...

On May 31, 2008 at 11:28 am Chris Knight Said:

By the way Johnny, you're invited to come see the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of "Children of Eden". Performances are June 20-22 and June 27-29 at Rockingham Community College. Tickets are $10 for adults. More information is on the Guild's website at tgrc-nc.com

Among the themes of "Children of Eden" are love and forgiveness. Maybe you could learn something from it.

Yes Johnny, I am a Star Wars fan. And it's something that I've never been ashamed of, or have ever felt it encroached upon my faith in God. You would no doubt be surprised at how many followers of Christ are also fans of this story. And it would probably blow your mind at how quite a few have found opportunities of ministry with it. As Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 9:22,

"To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

Johnny, has it ever occurred to you and your bunch that maybe instead of puffing yourselves up and lording over other people, that if you humbled yourselves and brought yourselves lower, that God might actually bless your ministry?

I mean, is this really about you or is it about Him?

As it is now, Johnny Robertson - along with James Oldfield and Norm Fields - is a false preacher. He comes preaching another Christ: a Christ that would bind us in legalism all over again, instead of being free by His mercy and grace and love. The Jesus Christ of the Bible is not the Jesus Christ that Robertson and Oldfield and Fields preach on WGSR.

(Or as Mama Reyes said on Lost: "Jesus Christ is not a weapon!")

Johnny Robertson, again I am compelled to ask you publicly: How is what you are doing showing love of Christ and demonstrating Christ's love toward others?

I would very much like to know this.

EDIT 4:51 p.m. EST: Johnny Robertson spent two and a half hours visiting my blog today, on at least two separate visits. He was quite the busy bee, taking screenshots etc.

Wonder what he's up to...

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A cool (and free) technical idea for the Nintendo Wii

This morning I was having a workout on Wii Fit (here's my initial review). My personal regimen right now is some strength training, some yoga and a lot of hard aerobic activity, followed by the "fun" stuff like the Ski Jump. That and the Ski Slalom might be the most addictive activities of the entire package... but Lisa swears that Bubble River will have you just as hooked.

Part of the aerobics that I'm doing right now is Jogging the long distance. It's really clever how this works: you don't use the Wii Balance Board at all. You just put the Wii Remote in your pocket (or if your pants lack pockets you can just hold the Remote in your hand) and then you start jogging in place. If you keep a brisk pace while swinging your arms in good wide circles you can work up a serious sweat. And all the while, the Wii is picking up your relative speed by how much the Remote in your pocket or hand jiggles about.

It's this use of the Wii's sensing technology that got me thinking...

Imagine a first-person shooter game like Doom or Halo for the Wii. Imagine having one Wii Remote that you use to aim like a gun at whatever it is on screen that you intend to shoot at. Now imagine two other Wii Remotes, one in each side pocket of a pair of pants that you are wearing. And to play the game you have to literally run through the map shooting at whatever bad guys there are while running and possibly even ducking for cover. The Wii will be picking up all of this movement as you play, including changes in body position and change of direction/speed (your velocity) as you run through the map. It would be like putting yourself directly in a game such as Gears of War... but instead of using a standard hand-held controller, your entire body - from your toes to your trigger finger - would control your in-game persona.

Can you imagine how much fun that would be? To say nothing of the workout that a person would be getting while probably not even realizing it.

There would be a few minor drawbacks for such a system though, but I think those might be fairly negligible. The most obvious is that to work like this the player must own three Wii Remotes. And there could be no multiplayer per this system. But with some minor tweaking, Nintendo programmers or whatever other company that makes this game could add the option of playing with only one Wii Remote along with a gun accessory and the Nunchuk add-on, and then possibly four players could do this at the same time. Or one Wii Remote could be placed in a pocket and pick up running while the Nunchuk controls movement and the Wii Remote operates aiming and firing, in which case two friends really could be running around shooting at each other.

That might even rival Boxing on Wii Sports for two-player fun on the Nintendo Wii!

If anyone at Nintendo or some other video game studio reads this and wants to play with it, feel free to do so. I'm not looking for any compensation for the idea. It just seemed like too neat a concept to not put out there and see if somebody could work with it. If this ever does become a Wii game, I would absolutely be the first in line to buy a copy (provided that everything else in the game was well-designed too, like the engine and graphics and sound and the story, etc. :-).

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Here it is: Ben moving the Island from the LOST Season 4 finale!

You know what haunts me most about this scene? It's that Ben is crying. This is the last thing that he's about to do for the Island, the final gesture of his duties as the previous chosen one. And for the first time, we are seeing fear in the face of this master manipulator.

Just before the white light cascades over everything, I can't help thinking that what's going through Ben's mind is, "I'm going to die. Please forgive me." He knows he's going to be banished from the Island... and he doesn't know where he'll be sent to. He could wind up anywhere in the world, or anywhere above it or inside it. The next moment could find him on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, for all the good that it would do him. I like to believe that this was a "leap of faith" moment for Ben, and that when we see him materialize in the Tunisian desert that it was Jacob's doing.

Everything is orchestrated flawlessly in this scene, from Michael Emerson's performance, to the sets, to how we see the affect that Ben's action has throughout the area of the Island. And Michael Giacchino's music here: I will buy the Lost Season 4 soundtrack just for this, if/when it comes out.

In the two and a half seasons that he's been a character on Lost, this was the definitive moment for Benjamin Linus. And it's being widely agreed that this was the most amazing single scene of this television season.

So here it is courtesy of YouTube: Benjamin Linus working the frozen donkey wheel, and using it to move the Island...

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Brazilian tribe with no outside contact is photographed by airplane

Eric Wilson sent this story over to me late last night. Look at these photos: they're of a tribe of people near the border of Brazil and Peru, that so far as we know has had no contact at all with the outside world. They are reported to have fired arrows at the airplane that flew over them as these photographs were taken...

Read more here at the BBC's website.

Kinda humbling to know that in 2008, in spite of all our technology and how we've thought that the entire Earth has been mapped, that there are still corners of it that "civilized" humanity has not been able to reach... and that there are people there.

I say, leave these folks alone. Let them be. If they ever decide for themselves that they want to go beyond their present borders, that's their choice to make.

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Courage, Earle, and Korman: Three of entertaiment's greats have left us

Three classic figures from the world of music, television and film have passed away in the past few days. I don't think there is one of us who at some time or another was not entertained by the work of these gentlemen, their influence was so prolific...

Alexander Courage died at the age of 88 on May 15th, it was announced yesterday. He composed music for many movies and television series. But the one he will be most remembered for is the legendary theme from the original Star Trek.

Earlier this week, also passing away at age 88, was Earle H. Hagen. His composing career stretched back into the 1940s and he eventually moved to work in television. Among his credits are the themes for The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Spy and Mike Hammer. But it was a whistling little ditty that he did for The Andy Griffith Show that will forever be perhaps his greatest legacy.

And then yesterday came word that Harvey Korman has died at 81. Korman earned four Emmys and a Golden Globe for his work on The Carol Burnett Show. Korman was also a terrific voice actor and performed The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. But personally, I think that Korman will be foremost remembered for his over-the-top performance as Hedley Lamarr in the already over-the-top Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles...

"You will be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost-certain Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor."

Think I'll watch some classic episodes of The Andy Griffith Show,Star Trek and then Blazing Saddles this weekend, to honor their memory.

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LOST: The morning after "There's No Place Like Home"

Like Lisa said last year when waking up the morning after "Through the Looking Glass": "It's hard to sleep with something like that on your mind..."

In the 8+ hours since the two-hour conclusion of "There's No Place Like Home" (read my initial thoughts here) this blog has registered about 3,000 hits. And almost all of those are coming here after looking for "Jeremy Bentham" on Google. When I run the search myself, The Knight Shift shows up in the top ten results because of what was posted about the historical Jeremy Bentham last year. So to all the newcomers: welcome! :-)

A few days ago the producers of Lost submitted the episodes "The Constant" and "The Shape of Things to Come" for consideration for this year's Emmy Awards. The deadline to submit is today. I hope there's some way to submit "There's No Place Like Home" also. Both "The Constant" and "The Shape of Things to Come" were the finest regular episodes of Season 4 but even as brilliant as "The Constant" was, it was just build-up to the magnificence of this season finale.

I don't think Michael is still alive. I do believe Jin has survived though. Hey he's escaped one exploding boat before, right? The thing is, so did Michael. This being Lost it's fair to assume we haven't seen the last of them, in one form or another.

One of the most surprising things about this show is that before I even realized it, I have come to be a fan of Sawyer. More than any other character, he has shown the most positive growth away from what he used to be. The slick, opportunistic con artist that we met at the beginning of Season 1 is gone and in his place, there is a man who sincerely cares for others and is now showing a willingness to die for them if he has to. Thankfully he wound up safe back on the beach. I now wonder if he and Juliet are going to be hitting it off (and did that scene with Juliet and the DHARMA rum with Sawyer on the beach remind anyone else of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie?).

I've watched this episode twice all the way through now but the scene where Ben is trying to work the frozen wheel: that scene has been played about a dozen times already. Glad that I documented my immediate reaction to that! And if you thought the "Atmosphere Jump" on Battlestar Galactica was crazy cool, "Moving the Island" beat that by a mile. Everything about that scene was perfect: the determination and intensity on Ben's face, the reaction across the Island and from those still away from it, the sound effects, the CGI work... and through it all, Michael Giacchino's haunting score. I don't know why but in that scene I felt a sympathy for Ben that I'd never had before. And then when the Island disappears and Frank is frantic about trying to land the helicopter, and how they even search desperately for the Hydra Island but there's only water all around: that scene alone makes "There's No Place Like Home" Emmy-worthy.

And about who we finally get to see is in the casket: ya know, I don't believe for a moment that this is the end of that particular character's story. The good times may have only just begun for our friend "Jeremy Bentham".

Just darned amazing television. Far better than our culture deserves. Lost is one of the few things on the medium that has never insulted the viewer's intelligence, has treated its fans respectfully by expecting more from them. In an art form that has grown vapid and stagnant, no wonder Lost stands tall in a class all its own.

I might post more thoughts here later as they come to me :-)

Update 7:29 a.m. EST: Did anyone else think that Ben and his crowbar looked a lot like the image of Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life video game series? Freeman is the main character in those games, and he's a scientist involved with teleportation experiments. Couldn't help but wonder last night if that was an intentional homage on the part of the Lost showrunners.

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Six minutes after the LOST Season 4 finale...

From the moment that Kate mentioned "Jeremy Bentham" I was screaming during this episode.

(Did that one get called last year, or what? :-)

"There's No Place Like Home" did something that I never thought possible: it was an even more intense season finale than "Through the Looking Glass" was last year.

Just... wow. Think I'm gonna need a drink after that one.

Most jaw-dropping scene of the entire television season has got to be the Island moving. Anyone else see that and think they were watching a Halo movie for a second there?

Was great to see Walt again. The producers planned that out very well and I'm hoping we'll see more of Malcolm David Kelley now that puberty has run its course. The reunion between Desmond and Penny: now that was something that I didn't see coming, not this soon anyway. I was darn certain they would save that for the series finale two years from now. And folks, we were crying when they finally got back together. On one level I'm glad they've found each other again but on another level, I can't help but dread what else might be coming down the pike toward them.

I don't think we've seen the last of Jin and Michael. Not with Christian's very odd appearance just before the freighter exploded.

And I don't think that Locke is necessarily dead, either. Why? Go back and watch the stuff in the Orchid, and especially the "preview" of the Orchid's orientation film that the Lost producers released last summer.

Okay, my mind is officially blown for the next several days. I gotta watch that quite a few more times before it can sink in.

And if you thought the wait after last year's finale was painful, the next eight months will be sheer agony...

Have said it before: Lost is the best show on television right now. After "There's No Place Like Home", it might have secured itself as the greatest show ever.

Going off to replay it from the DVR now :-)

EDIT 11:30 p.m. EST: They need to release the soundtrack for Season 4 as quickly as possible! This was some of Michael Giacchino's best work to date. I would buy this CD just for the music from the scene where Ben is turning the wheel: what a beautiful reprise of "Dharmacide"/Ben's theme!

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