The kitty and chicken friendship video. Too cute.

Via one of the Beths.

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A recently concluded study on the power of prayer supposedly found no evidence that prayer had any effect on the recovery of 1800 heart patients.

In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.

The patients in the study at six U.S. hospitals included 604 who were actually prayed for after being told they might or might not be; another 597 patients who were not prayed for after being told they might or might not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told they would be the subject of such prayer.

. . .

Among the first group -- who were prayed for but only told they might be -- 52 percent had post-surgical complications compared to 51 percent in the second group, the ones who were not prayed for though told they might be. In the third group, who knew they were being prayed for, 59 percent had complications.

. . .

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred (and) patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer," the study said.

That is, simply put, God can say "no."

Just because someone does not get what they prayed for, does not mean that the prayer was not answered. It's an obvious point, but one that escapes a surprising number of people ― even many religious people.

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Whenever a public figure insists he is not going to resign, take the over.

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Memo to Katherine McPhee: don't attempt Christina ever again.

Memo to Bucky: You're next. As the MySpace bloggers say: "he can't sing good."

the hips have spoken.

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Ultrablognetic, the book. By fellow Cal Bear, longtime blogroll denizen, comic lover, and one of the coolest practitioners of the art of free association: Alfred Pennyworth (or whatever name he's going by these days). Congratulations dude.

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My plate's too full for this, but some of you youngsters out there might think about joining Bluto's Pirate Fleet. It sounds like a fun way to win friends and influence people. Aaarr!

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Brittany related news:

A controversial sculpture of Britney Spears – naked, life-sized and crouching as she is giving birth on a bearskin rug – is due to go on display April 7 at Brooklyn's Capla Kesting Fine Art gallery as part of a pro-life exhibition.

"I admire her. This is an idealized figure," the Connecticut-based artist, Daniel Edwards, tells the Associated Press – also admitting that he's never met or even spoken to his 24-year-old subject.

"Everyone is coming at me with anger and venom, but I depicted her as she has depicted herself – seductively," says Edwards. "Suddenly, she's a mom."

"This is a new take on pro-life," said Edwards, whose life-size sculpture will appear at the gallery next to a display case filled with pro-life materials. "Pro-lifers normally promote bloody images of abortion. This is the image of birth." (Actually it seems more like an image of conception.)

The sculpture shows Brit naked and pregnant, crouching face-down on a bear rug as the baby's head appears at her opposite end.When some bloggers heard about the exhibit, the gallery received about 3,000 e-mails from around the world, split between pro-choice and pro-life opinions.

Posted by: annika at 04:08 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 Anni, Being in WIlliamsburg I guess I'll have to go and take a look. I haven't seen a baby come out of the opposite end in quite some time. I'll let you know if Brit's baby changes my attitude from pro-choice to no choice (as pro-life should be called). I am pro-choice but still very much in favor of all things living, but I draw the line at telling anybody what to do with things growing inside of their bodies be they cysts, tumors, abcesses, fetuses, or polyps.

Posted by: strawman at March 29, 2006 04:29 PM (0ZdtC)

2 That Britney sculpture is enough to make a person lose sleep though, isn't it?

Posted by: Axinar at March 29, 2006 04:57 PM (NTgqN)

3 ROFLMAO - I can't believe this guy [the "artist"] are for real -- who the F!CK wants to look at a sculpture of THAT?! And something in me believes he chose Britney as a subject to cash in on her celebrity status. Disturbing indeed.

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at March 29, 2006 05:01 PM (Wz2Gp)

4 is. IS! So much for previewing...

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at March 29, 2006 05:02 PM (Wz2Gp)

5 If you go, take pictures and send them to me, Strawman. You can be annika's journal's exclusive reporter on the ground! Especially if you have to get on the ground for the best camera angle.

Posted by: annika at March 29, 2006 05:56 PM (fxTDF)

6 You see, its stuff like this that brings out the totalitarian dictator in me. Why do I feel the overwhelming compulsion to stick this Artist in a gaint cuisinart?

Posted by: Kyle N at March 30, 2006 03:44 AM (2+PQi)

7 this has gotta be a publicity stunt cooked up by britney's PR people btw, i read somewhere she didn't even conceive vaginally, but was afraid of the pain and chose to have a non-necessary c-section i too would love to see a "money shot" of this thing, if strawman can get a pic...

Posted by: keith el otro at March 30, 2006 01:02 PM (/MDEc)

8 Then I guess its a good thing that there are no gallerys or modern art museums down in the holler by Kyles trailer. And soon, when he's old enough to have sex outside the family he could take an art appreciation course over the Grange where he will lean about others like himself in history who wanted to take take a hammer to Michelangelo's David. Notice how it is almost always Rebublicans that have trouble with sexually provocative art? They don't get it, want to ban it, find it offensive, don't want children to see it, want to kill the maker. I saw a Discovery Channel documentary about the LAs Fallas festival which is a variety of a pre lent kinda thing. Without going into an in depth description of the whole event which is very beautiful and goes on for two weeks, I was struck by a mother and her 8-9 year old son walking through a museum of sculptures kept from previous festivals and explaining to him the symbolism contained in a scene of a streetwalker with her breast out suckling a sailor. It seemed perfectly natural but of course it was not America, where Kyle's mom would have shielded his eyes as they went past and been tounge tied, embarrassed and unable to explain in an age appropriate manner to her son the what was going on. So, now, go figure, Kyle as a semi-adult has fantasies of putting creators of provocative art in blenders. And people wonder why America is so violent, in love with guns and militarism.

Posted by: strawman at March 30, 2006 02:04 PM (0ZdtC)

9 How did I know that a leftist asshole like you would like this kind of stupid worthless shit?

Posted by: Kyle N at March 30, 2006 06:45 PM (CC59i)

10 Straw, You must practice in the mirror to be so condescending. Let me guess, you're about twenty and know everything. We're so lucky you choose to share with us poor, humble rednecks. It must really suck, not to be you, right? Because it's so easy, insulting people about whom you know nothing. Piss Christ, bring it on. Those Christians won't do jack. Mohammed cartoons, well we are respectful of minorities. Real reason: we don't want to insult anybody who might do something about it. I suspect a lot of what you consider art, I consider trash. The subject of this post doesn't move me a bit - you might consider it art, I call it a waste of time. It might be different for you. I'm not going to tell you what to think, or feel. And I'm not going to generalize about democrats or liberals based on you. I am going to say that forcing people to pay taxes, like they did in NY, to subsidize the exhibition of the "piss Christ" is wrong. If the Britney statue is private, have at it. They won't be getting my money - I'd rather spend it on the theater.

Posted by: MarkD at March 31, 2006 06:12 AM (X9njN)

11 Heh, i may not know art... but who can naysay a comely woman's upturned ass?

Posted by: Casca at March 31, 2006 06:19 AM (y9m6I)

12 Pro-life, except for the bear...

Posted by: Ethne at March 31, 2006 09:05 AM (miAG4)

13 Kyle, Never said I liked it just that on first glance i didn't have homicidal fantasies. Could be good art could be bad art. I'll see. What an artist does is make art. MARK, All of our taxes go to support all kinds of stupid shit. The problems start when people like you or me think we should decide what it should or should not be spent on unless of course it is being spent on the destruction of churches, or Iraq. I think paying W a salary is contrary to the best interests of our society, an offense to my religion and a crime against humanity of an order that makes christ's piss wet feet about as offending as a rainy day in Phoenix.

Posted by: strawman at March 31, 2006 10:33 AM (0ZdtC)

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My first Easter themed post of the season.

The thing about eating from a bag of assorted jelly bellies is that there's no way to identify the various flavors, except by trusting your mouth.

Sometimes I'll just grab a bunch and then say I'm making my own flavor out of the combinations. But that usually results in something that consistently resembles sugary mud. Assuming I know what mud tastes like, which I don't.

Eating them one by one is like a flavor quiz.

Here's one that tastes like peanuts. Another that tastes like balsamic vinegar. Another that tastes like maple syrup.

This is fun.

Here's a yellow one. I expect lemon but it turns out to be banana. Cool.

Black should always be licorice. It is.

Here's a deep red one. It looks like a kidney bean. Ouch. It is a kidney bean. Who put that in there?

Posted by: annika at 11:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Have you ever tried those Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans (from the Harry Potter series)? I'm still afraid to try them.

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at March 29, 2006 05:04 PM (Wz2Gp)

2 Never heard of them Amy, but they sound magical!

Posted by: annika at March 29, 2006 05:57 PM (fxTDF)

3 Are you still in Law School? Or, have you completely flipped out?

Posted by: shelly at April 01, 2006 02:44 AM (BJYNn)

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Any poem that contains the following bit of wisdom is probably worth a look:

. . . you, Hangover,
are the opposite of Orgasm. Certainly
you go on too long and in your grip
one thinks, How to have you never again?

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Anyone who tries this, let me know if it works.

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In yet another striking display of tone-deafness, President Bush ignored critics of his administration by *gasp* failing to name a liberal as his new chief of staff.

Developing . . .

Update: A despondent David Gergen was seen crying in his beer at a Georgetown pub, muttering something about "number six."

Developing . . .

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Yet another ill-advised Oceans sequel.

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Please find out about Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas and why he's on a hunger strike for what you and I take for granted. Start at The Cotillion and Fausta's Blog.

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I was going to review Seems Like Old Times next, but I have to skip back to the beginning after finally seeing Goldie's first movie ever.

The One And Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, 1968

This was a pleasant surprise. I really liked this movie, though I didn't think I would. The concept couldn't sound more boring, even to a history buff like myself. It's set during the contentious presidential election of 1888, between Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland and Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison. Not exactly a formula for box office bonanzae, even back in 1968. I'd hate to have been the one pitching this one to Disney:

Mr. Disney: Hmm. I don't know. Who did you have in mind to play the lead?

Pitcher: Well, John Davidson's available, and Walt Brennan's signed on.

Mr. Disney: Uhhh. Who else?

Pitcher: And Buddy Ebsen.

Mr. Disney: Errr. The Beverly Hillbillies guy? Is that all? I don't know.

Pitcher: Oh... and uh, I think we can get Kurt Russell.

Mr. Disney: Russell? Why the hell didn't you say so?! That kid's gold! When can you start production?

The Bowers became quite popular in the area because they had they own family band. . . . At the time, there was only one brass band west of the Missouri River, the military band attached to the Seventh Regiment, then stationed in Fort Meade. The military band was scheduled to perform at [a] celebration. Calvin [Bower] went to extreme measures and was successful to persuade the committee to also book his Family Band to play for the occasion.

. . . When the chairman called for music, the leader of the Fort Meade Band responded. After the speaker spoke, the chairman hardly rose when the Bower Band began to play without permission. The Bowers took the crowd by surprise and there was much clapping and shouting. It took the breath right out of the Fort Meade band and they folded up their music racks and left the platform. This was the introduction of the Family Band to the Black Hills.

Davidson and the local Republicans are working to get Dakota admitted to the Union as two separate states, in order to shift the balance of power in congress with the addition of four Republican senators.* Davidson gets a shock when he finds Walt Brennan in the schoolhouse, doing a sort of 19th Century Jay Bennish act for the kids.

The eerie topicality of TOAOGOFB is one of the delights of this movie. The musical numbers are horribly bad** (with the notable exception of the finale, which is Goldie's only scene), but I laughed out loud at the unexpected parallels between 1888 politics and today.

Besides the issue of overtly political schoolteachers, the movie touches on political demagoguery, freedom of speech and dissent, and even stolen elections. As you all should know (I'm not ruining anything for you) Benjamin Harrison won the 1888 election despite losing the popular vote by over 90,000. During the movie's election night party scene, the Democrats' elation turns to violence when they find out that their man lost after the electoral votes were tallied. A riot starts and the meeting hall gets trashed. It only stops when the One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band plays "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" to calm the crowd down.

After the brawl, Buddy Ebsen gets up to address the partisans with words that are appropriate whether the date be 1888, 1968 or even 2006:

All of us here together can build the greatest united country in the whole bloomin' world if we'll just remember one thing. There's a time to stand up and fight for what you believe in, and there is a time to join hands and work together, or all the fighting doesn't mean a thing.

There are no scenes between Goldie and Kurt; and their off screen romance developed many years later. Goldie's memoir, A Lotus Grows In The Mud, includes the story of how she met Kurt the second time, during the casting of 1984's Swing Shift. Goldie apparently didn't even recognize Kurt, and although he remembered Goldie, Kurt had a big crush on Lesley Ann Warren at the time. Funny how the two of them were in the same movie without realizing that they were soulmates until sixteen years later!

I totally recommend TOAOGOFB, but only if you are prepared for the odd combination of Gilded Age politics and good old fashioned Disney schmaltz. I give it 3½ stars.
_______________

* As you all know, in 1888, Senators were elected by the state legislatures.

** I can't emphasize enough how bad the songs are. The libretto includes a rousing tribute to Grover Cleveland, "Let's Put It Over With Grover," (don't rock the boat/ give him your vote...) and a similarly pukeworthy paean to Benjamin Harrison, titled simply "Oh Benjamin Harrison," (he's far beyond comparison...). However, the final dance number, "West O' The Wide Missouri," is well choreographed and the song is pretty catchy. Also, 60 year old Buddy Ebsen showed he could still do a nice soft shoe routine.

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1 I saw this movie when I was 7 years old. My mother loved Walt Disney movies, and she loved John Davidson. She schlubbed me and my two brothers to a theater on a 100 degree summer afternoon - and that was before we had auto air conditioning. The autos just had vent windows in front. My 4 year old brother played in the front seat, sans seatbelt or child safety seat. We lived on the edge back then. I remember this movie - and I remember John Davidson, Buddy Ebsen, and Kirk Russell in it. I gave it: two tiny thumbs up.

Posted by: gcotharn at March 27, 2006 12:56 PM (D6yxY)

2 Hmmm. Being a Disney movie, and with that cast, I'm surprised that I've never even heard of this movie. Very interesting parallels 'tween then and now. I expect there'll be a Hollywood remake by this time next week.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at March 27, 2006 02:22 PM (LVz3N)

3 Annika - I know this post is WAY old but I assume you will get the comment anyway, eventually - Just wanted you to know that I just picked up Goldie Hawn's autobiography (it just came out last year, I think??) - and it's kind of lovely. It's not well-written or anything, but her persona is sweet, sincere, and intelligent - I'm really enjoying reading it. Just in case you were interested.

Posted by: red at April 03, 2006 12:39 PM (rNgdr)

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My percentage of picks in Six Meat Buffet's Tournament Challenge is 17%. Abysmal, but I did worse in my own fantasy baseball league last year.

Here's how my Oakland regional picks turned out:

What gets me is how someone like Preston can hit 96.8% of his picks. He oughta change his name to Prestondigitator. Or the current leader, Duane, with an astonishing 98.5% score. How do you do that without a crystal ball?

I guess it helps if you know something about college hoops.

But I bet I can accessorize better than both of 'em. I know a little something about hoop earrings, you see.

Anyways, the last two spots in the Final Four will be filled tonight. I say it will be Villanova (whom i've picked to win it all) and UConn. I saw yesterday's games and LSU looked damn strong. LSU and 'Nova in the final? What do you think?

Update: George Mason? I thought he died in season two?

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Congratulations to Captain Elizabeth A. Okoreeh-Baah, USMC. She's the first woman to take on the very tricky V-22 Osprey aircraft. Good luck to her. She sounds like she has the right stuff.

Captain Elizabeth A. Okoreeh-Baah spent the first five and a half years of her career in the Marine Corps as a CH-46E “Sea Knight” pilot, but when Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron-263 began transitioning to the Osprey Program while she was stationed there, she became one of the first female pilots to begin training on the controls of the tiltrotor aircraft.

. . .

“She’s going to go a long way because she never quits. She can succeed at anything she puts her mind to,” said Okoreeh-Baah’s father, Isaac K. Okoreeh-Baah Sr., a native of Ghana, North Africa. “She gets that from me, I think.”

The controversial Osprey is supposed to take off like a helicopter and then fly like an airplane by tilting its huge propellers forward.

Here's some cool video of the Osprey in action.

Before the Osprey, there was always a trade off between fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. The spinning blades of a helicopter make it inherently slower than a regular airplane, with a shorter range and a lower top altitude. But fixed wings need a runway. The Osprey gives you get the best of both worlds: the speed, range and ceiling of an airplane, plus the vertical take-off and hovering capability of a helicopter. The V-22 is designed to replace the big dual rotor CH-46 Sea Knight, which has been around since 1960.

The Osprey is controversial because the military spent a lot of money on it and then it started crashing. A lot. There was a time when the DoD wanted to cancel the program. All I know is when I tried flying my dad's computer game Osprey, I kept crashing it. So I've not always been a fan of the plane (or helicopter, or whatever).

The 1986 estimated cost of a single V-22 was about $24 million with a projected 923 to be built. The first Bush administration cancelled the project in April 1989, by which time the cost of a single craft was estimated at $35 million. However, Congress continued to allocate funding for the program in a November 1989 authorization. Throughout Secretary of Defense Richard B. CheneyÂ’s tenure, he and Congress wrestled over the question of the V-22 as he felt the project would cost more than the amount appropriated. Eventually he relented, proposing that $1.5 billion be spent in fiscal years 1992 and 1993 to develop the project. The arrival of the Clinton administration into the White House in 1992 provided new support for the program.

Osprey crashes have resulted in 30 deaths. No one died in a June 11, 1991, Osprey crash, but a crash July 20, 1992, in Virginia killed three Marines and four civilians. The Osprey was grounded for 11 months after this crash. A crash in Arizona April 8, 2000, killed 19 Marines, grounding the aircraft for two months. Another crash in North Carolina Dec. 11 of the same year killed four Marines. After the December crash, the Osprey was grounded until May 29, 2002.

Supposedly all the bugs have been worked out. So I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope that the Osprey lives up to its promise.

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Okay Victor, have you seen this yet?

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Two words: viking kitties.

Via Beth.

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That list of items that Vice President Dick Cheney requires when he visits a hotel is kind of interesting. But not nearly as interesting as what was on page two of the list, which was not given to The Smoking Gun.

However, the crack team of investigators here at annika's journal has obtained the top secret second page of Dick Cheney's list, which can now be revealed exclusively for you.

more...

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I saw no reason to want a video Ipod, until I discovered that there is a "Strong Bad Email" video podcast. Now I must have one.

Dammit!

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