The Social Network

Posted on by georgefattell

I watched the trailer for The Social Network again this morning. A commercial with it ran at the end of Meet The Press this morning. Then I watched it again on YT a few times. The film is about the founding of Facebook and is directed by David Fincher. I think the film looks interesting and could be quite good. Fincher is one of the best director’s working today imho. His body of work includes the following films: Alien3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club and Zodiac.

Fincher also makes great commercials, such as the one below for Nike. I consider Fate one of the best sports commercials of all time.

Visit to the Griffith Observatory

Posted on by georgefattell


The view of downtown LA from the Griffith Observatory

I visited the historic Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles for the first time last Saturday. I was quite impressed with the 75 year old building. It is filled with interesting exhibits and offers spectacular views of Los Angeles.

More pictures at the Griffith Observatory

Included in my gallery of pictures is a picture of the James Dean monument on the Observatory grounds. Scenes of the iconic 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause were filmed there and that film helped launch the young Dean to stardom.

When Rights Make Wrongs

Posted on by georgefattell

When Rights Make Wrongs.

Ralph  Peters addresses the subject of the Ground Zero mosque.

Key quote:


The glaring failure of our media has been their unwillingness to question the Cordoba Initiative with the same rigor they apply to the mosque’s opponents: Who will fund the mosque complex? Why should so grandiose a project be built so far from the center of mass of New York’s Muslim communities? Why scorn out of hand Governor Patterson’s remarkably generous offer of free state land elsewhere in New York City?

God vs No God argument

Posted on by georgefattell

On Dawkins Atheism: A Response

Key quote:

Dawkins ignores the possibility that God is a very different sort of being than brains and computers. His argument for God’s complexity either assumes that God is material or, at least, that God is complex in the same general way that material things are (having many parts related in complicated ways to one another). The traditional religious view, however, is that God is neither material nor composed of immaterial parts (whatever that might mean). Rather, he is said to be simple, a unity of attributes that we may have to think of as separate but that in God are united in a single reality of pure perfection.

Superyacht A visits San Diego

Posted on by georgefattell

These are pictures that I took of the spectacular and futuristic Superyacht A in San Diego Bay yesterday (08-11-2010). I found out that it is owned by 39 year old Russian billionaire Andrey Meinchenko and that it cost $300,000,000.00. The German built ship has a crew of 42, can cruise at 23 knots and has a range of 6,000 miles. It also has a helipad forward of the superstructure and is equipped with small speed boats that can be deployed from the aft section of the vessel. It looks like it belongs in a James Bond movie. Very cool.

UFC 117 Post Fight thoughts

Posted on by georgefattell

I went 3 and 0 on my predictions and I’m pleased with that, although I wasn’t going out on a limb with any of my picks (SIlva, Fitch, Dos Santos). Still, wins are wins, and I’ll take them.

Fitch and Dos Santos won tough fights, but did so decisively. Anderson Silva, on the other hand, barely survived his battle against Chael Sonnen. As I noted in my 117 prediction post I was rooting for Sonnen and thought he was capable of pulling the upset. Sonnen dominated the fight for 4 1/2 rounds, until Silva found a away of putting Sonnen in a triangle choke and submitted him before the final round ended. Submissions have always been Sonnen’s Achilles Heal and, unfortunately for him, Silva was able to take advantage of what might be Sonnen’s only real weakness. Hopefully, we will see a rematch between these two. Ironically, Sonnen’s reputation in the MMA world has been elevated in defeat because he showed the world that the seemingly invincible Anderson Silva can be beaten.

The victory by Junior Dos Santos puts him in line to fight the winner of the Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez fight. Good luck with that Junior.