your moment of geek
('Cause Brent's a geek. That's why he's here with us in icon form. Not to be confused with a dork; that would be Orlando.)
I decided to take a rare constitutional in a movie theater today and see "2012"** (I pretty much only go to the theater otherwise when I'm with my sister), after I went by the library to drop off books and pick up some more. Because I have an interest in continental drift science that goes back to when I first learned about Pangaea in junior high, I found a couple of books I hadn't yet read about plate tectonics.
Partway through the movie, at the bit where characters finally start explaining WTF is going on in their mix of Real Science and Hollywood Science, I think it's John Cusack's character who mentions Charles Hapgood, who wrote a book in 1958 - Earth's Shifting Crust - about his conclusions regarding continental drift. He references Hapgood once or twice more later on, and I kept sitting there wondering Why does that sound familiar?
After the movie, I went out to my car and pawed through my library bag - and there in the four books I had checked out only a few hours earlier was Earth's Shifting Crust. I guess I know which of the four I'm reading first!
**I'm probably one of the very few people, if not the only one, to see this movie who had sympathy with Oliver Platt's character's responsibilities, in a You think anyone else would do any better? way. You don't have to fear my spoilers (unless someone brings it up in the comments); you can see it for yourself someday and know what I'm referring to.
I decided to take a rare constitutional in a movie theater today and see "2012"** (I pretty much only go to the theater otherwise when I'm with my sister), after I went by the library to drop off books and pick up some more. Because I have an interest in continental drift science that goes back to when I first learned about Pangaea in junior high, I found a couple of books I hadn't yet read about plate tectonics.
Partway through the movie, at the bit where characters finally start explaining WTF is going on in their mix of Real Science and Hollywood Science, I think it's John Cusack's character who mentions Charles Hapgood, who wrote a book in 1958 - Earth's Shifting Crust - about his conclusions regarding continental drift. He references Hapgood once or twice more later on, and I kept sitting there wondering Why does that sound familiar?
After the movie, I went out to my car and pawed through my library bag - and there in the four books I had checked out only a few hours earlier was Earth's Shifting Crust. I guess I know which of the four I'm reading first!
**I'm probably one of the very few people, if not the only one, to see this movie who had sympathy with Oliver Platt's character's responsibilities, in a You think anyone else would do any better? way. You don't have to fear my spoilers (unless someone brings it up in the comments); you can see it for yourself someday and know what I'm referring to.