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The Tragedy of Fritz Haber …

Great piece on NPR this morning. German Fritz Haber invented a way to create fertilizer using nitrogen, which makes for much more productive farming. This was huge. Bigger, some argue, than the invention of electricity. But he had a strange, darker side. He was a Jew who converted to Christianity, and he was instrumental in the first use of poison gas during World War I. He was actually there to observe the first time the Germans deployed it. In one of those bizarre, ironic twists that only history can hand out, Haber ended up being run out of his job as World War II approached. Although he could have stuck around on the strength of his WWI service, he refused to fire Jews who worked for him, and resigned instead. Apparently, some of the gas technology he developed for Germany later was used to murder Jews in the concentration camps. He didn’t live to see it, but it is a hell of a story, and NPR did its usual outstanding job reporting it.

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Books Zombie Bob

Zombies and cool comics …

Anyone who knows me knows I love zombie movies. I’m particularly fond of Romero’s work, especially because of the Pittsburgh ties. I’ve found a great, Pittsburgh-based zombie site that’s worth checking out — ZombieGirls.net. It has a lot of reviews. Still needs work in places, but overall it’s an impressive effort.

Another good, recent find in the living dead realm is ZombieKeeper. I particularly liked their “Best in Horror” section. There were several films there I’d never heard of. “Shatter Dead” sounded so interesting I went out and ordered a copy on their recommendations. They also have a positive review of Romero’s “Martin,” one of my favorites, even if it’s not about zombies. They might not be able to spell Pittsburgh, but they know their horror flicks.

And finally, my favorite comic strip these days is Boondocks. It’s definitely worth checking out. Aaron McGruder is one of the best artists doing comics, and the characters in the strip — Huey Freeman and his little brother Riley — are hilarious. Great social commentary. One of my recent favorites is the strip on Ann Kournikova.

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Go West …

I went to the Knoxville Museum of Art today to check out their (relatively) new exhibit, “Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian’s Museum of American Art.” I was expecting the worst, propagandistic images of manifest destiny and odes to westward expansion. There was some of that. But there were also numerous paintings from the Taos School. Since I lived in New Mexico for several years, this was pretty cool and I liked it a lot. Some of the other parts of the exhibit also were very good, especially portraits of Indians.

I guess my one disappointment was the complete lack of Native American voices in the exhibit. I guess I understand why, but it felt somehow incomplete to see the west strictly through European eyes … But I guess that’s how we’ve been doing it for centuries.

The rest of the museum really is very good. Checked out an exhibit of abstract expressionist prints, and the permanent collection is interesting. They’ve chosen to focus on 20th century art, especially contemporary. It’s relatively small, but definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in KnoxVegas …