I’d heard that there were still modern-day pirates operating in the Indian Ocean and near the coasts of certain, shall we say, restless nations, but this weekend’s report of a cruise ship falling under attack seems more like something out of a movie than anything that could really happen. Did you hear about this? Briefly, the luxury passenger ship Seabourn Spirit was off the coast of Somalia bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when it was beset by pirates in a pair of 25-foot inflatables. The pirates fired on the cruise ship with machine guns and an RPG, but the Spirit managed to outrun the shorter-range inflatables. How wild is that?

Even more wild is the science-fictiony claim made in one article I ran across this morning:

The liner used a sonic blaster to foil the pirates. Developed by American forces to deter small boats from attacking warships, the non-lethal weapon sends out high-powered air vibrations that blow assailants off their feet. The equipment, about the size of a satellite dish, is rigged to the side of the ship.

So far, the article I linked to above is the only mention I’ve found of this sonic weapon, so I’m inclined to think it’s nonsense, one of those paranoid fantasies that occasionally slips into the public consciousness, like black helicopters and “chem-trails.” That’s not to say sonic blasters are out of the realm of possibility — I have seen plausible-sounding stories about the development of such weapons. But you’d think that it would be bigger news if a radically new type of weapon actually had been deployed somewhere, and was used during such a spectacular incident. Unless of course you’re one of these Muldery types who is inclined to note that the mainstream US media has completely ignored the development of sonic blaster technology while the one article that mentions its use in the Seabourn Spirit case is from a British source. Hmmm… suddenly I feel the need to find my tinfoil hat…

In any event, I’m sure this incident was a pretty harrowing experience for the Spirit‘s passengers and crew, but, on the positive side, if you successfully survived a pirate attack, you’d have a helluva traveler’s tale to relate during your post-vacation slideshow…

So if my list of movies wasn’t enough Halloween-themed amusement for you, how about a whole gallery full of famous artworks retouched via Photoshop to include famous monsters? Predators and Aliens seem to be especially popular subjects for this little project. I was especially amused by Michaelangelo’s David after encountering a facehugger and Godzilla taking care of Pompeii. The page has a few ads and such across the top, so scroll down to see the art, and enjoy!

Passed a silver BMW Z4 on the way into work this morning. The rear deck featured one of those custom license-plate frames you can have made at the mall to say anything you wish. This one said, “Martinis, girls and guns.” It enclosed a vanity plate that read “BONDCAR.”

It’s nice that some people have active imaginations and the income to flaunt them. Bastards.

I went for a walk this afternoon, and on this walk I passed through Gallivan Plaza in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. There I saw a city workman hanging Christmas lights before the snow flies. Nothing particularly unusual about that… except for the fact that it was at least 75 degrees out there on the plaza, I was sweating in the bright sunshine, and this workman I spotted was wearing shorts and a thin t-shirt. And it’s the end of October. I’m thinking the weather gods haven’t checked their calendars recently, or else there’s something to this global warming hysteria. Something. Whatever the reason, though, it was very tough to force myself back to my proofreading desk…

My father has been trying to sell the car pictured above for an acquaintance of his, a widow whose late husband doted on this fine automobile. Dad hasn’t had much luck finding a buyer around here, so about a week ago he asked if I’d help him put it up on eBay in the hopes of reaching a larger audience. The auction went live tonight and will run through Halloween.
I have no idea if anyone reading this blog would be in the market for a car like this, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to use my bully pulpit as best I can. FYI, this is a 1929 Ford Model A with an all-metal body and fiberglass fenders, a modern frame and drivetrain, a custom-built fiberglass trailer, and lots of chrome under the hood. Additional details can be found in the auction description. Dad’s been driving it to car shows all summer, and it’s a sweet little ride. If you’re interested, please check out the auction. And, if you’re not interested, do me a favor and pass this news along to any friends of yours who might be. Let’s do a little viral marketing here, folks, and sell a car for a kindly old widow lady.

You can click on the photo up there to get a larger view of the vehicle, or just go straight to the auction for some different views. Thanks for looking, and good luck if you decide to bid.

If you’ve spent much time exploring the rest of blogosphere, you may have gotten the erroneous impression that all bloggers are cat owners. That’s because of a common phenomenon called catblogging, the posting of adorable photos of cats doing, well, cat stuff. Cat owners love to catblog, it seems, while dog owners remain oddly introverted about displaying their pets to the world. I say it’s time for canine-lovers to balance the scales. In the name of equal pet exposure, I present the following image, which I’ve just added to my photo gallery

That’s my dog, Shadow. He’s a border collie, a breed rumored to be among the most intelligent of all dog varieties. I don’t know about that, but I can say that he often gives me the willies with the way he seems to understand ordinary, conversational English. The drawback to such an intelligent pet, of course, is that he suffers from a whole raft of neuroses, including a tendency to sulk for the rest of the day whenever he doesn’t get to go along in the car. And then there’s that whole obsessive-compulsive ball-chasing thing. If you don’t know what I mean by that, you’ve obviously never encountered a border collie.

Come to think of it, you might count yourself lucky for that…

[For the record, I’ve nothing against cats. I’ve owned many cats over the years and frankly think the whole “cat person-dog person” thing is silly. They both have their pluses and minuses as companions. It’s just that, at the moment, I have a dog. And even with the neuroses, he’s a pretty cool dog.]

Feeling a little down about the state of the world today? Need some evidence at the end of the work week that not every member of the human race is a slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, self-absorbed bastard who couldn’t care less about his or her neighbors so long as They Got Theirs? Then I’ve got just the thing for you: a story about the random kindness of some comic-book fans trying to help out one of their own who lost it all in Katrina.

Here’s the Cliff-Notes version: Leo McGovern is the 26-year-old publisher of a local alternative culture magazine based in New Orleans. He’s also a long-time comic fan who had a collection numbering in the thousands of issues before the hurricane. Needless to say, all that paper did not survive the flooding after the levees broke. Leo blogged about his loss a few weeks ago, word got around the ‘net, and now, as Leo tries to rebuild his life and his magazine, random strangers are helping him rebuild his lost comic collection as well. People are just sending him issues and asking for nothing in return. Someone even sent him an autographed poster from the creator of his favorite series, Transmetropolitan. To Leo’s credit, he never asked anyone to do this and he seems genuinely humbled by the gesture. I would be, too. Hell, I’m humbled to hear people are doing it for someone else. I find it genuinely touching that folks care so much about someone they’ve never met simply because he shares the same hobby, and I think it’s fascinating that the Internet — which I’ve often derided as the greatest time-waster ever invented, even as I click my way through another day — has made it so convenient, so possible, to empathize with another human being and do things like this that are just plain nice.

My interest in Leo’s experience probably comes from having a basement full of the same kinds of stuff that he lost: comics, posters, toys, videos, movie programs, books, ephemera of every description, and nearly all of it is painfully vulnerable to moisture. I’ve often imagined what it would be like if the house burned down or flooded or if the Big Earthquake finally comes and buries it all. I know that collectibles are pretty worthless, comparatively speaking, and that losing even my favorite items couldn’t possibly compare to losing my entire home. For that matter, nothing that a person can own is equivalent to the life of another human being or even to the life of a beloved pet, and Katrina brutally proved that point to far too many people. But things like collectibles do have some value, nevertheless, at least to those of us who keep collections. It doesn’t matter what we actually choose to hold on to — my father, for example, has a yard full of junk cars and associated parts, but it’s really no different than my basement full of paper — we use these objects to define ourselves and express ourselves, to give tangibility to our daydreams. They remind us of better times and provide a pleasant escape at the end of a rough day, something to think about beyond the mundane requirements of life. To have them forcibly taken away must be wrenching, even if we have bigger things to worry about, and to have someone you don’t know but who nevertheless understands offer to replace even one of those treasures, just out of kindness… well, as Yoda might say, it brings good feelings to my heart. Giving someone a comic book may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but the small gestures sometimes carry the most weight.

It’s a gray and drizzly day here in the SLC, and just about everyone I passed during my lunchtime constitutional looked as if they needed a good laugh. If you do, too, might I suggest John Scalzi’s General Notes on the Care and Feeding of Clones? It seems that having a clone of yourself is not the panacea you might think, since the clone won’t be any more good for anything than you yourself.

Note #10 pretty much sums it all up:

10. Eventually your clone will get the idea of cloning itself. You might think it’s a bad idea at first — everyone knows that a clone of clone is like a second generation photocopy, and it becomes slightly more smudged, and then next thing you know you’ve got a drooling idjit that looks like a mashup between you and the late Marty Feldman — but on the other hand, by the time your clone gets this idea, you’ll have realized that all your clone is good for is sitting on the couch and mocking you while it eats your food and tries to trick your wife into having sex with it. Doesn’t your clone deserve to be similarly afflicted? Sure it does. Be warned, however: Your clone’s clone will still want to sleep with your wife. They’re just that way.

One of the coolest things I ever saw on TV when I was a kid — “coolest” in the sense of “scared the hell out of me but in a good way” — was the famous scene of the giant squid attacking the Nautilus in Disney’s 1954 masterpiece 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Now here’s something even cooler: Japanese scientists have taken the first-ever photos of a real-live giant squid in the wild. Previously, the only evidence we had that these things even existed was an occasional corpse washing ashore, so seeing a living one is truly remarkable.
From the linked article:

The animal — which measures roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long — was photographed 2,950 feet (900 meters) beneath the North Pacific Ocean. [The] scientists attracted the squid toward cameras attached to a baited fishing line.

The most striking of these images are here and here. Simply fascinating…