Potter, West Java, May 29.

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Mission Bay, San Diego

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Fiesta Island, May 24

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Relief workers resting, Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, China May 23.

Kami Crossing, Gaza Strip, May 23.

Object of the Week

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Urns containing remains of earthquake victims, Sichuan Province, May 21.

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California Supreme Court Rules that Gay Marriage Cannot Be Outlawed

Video: Object of the Week

Play Ball!

Quote of the day:
“Otis elevator estimates that it transports the equivalent of the world’s population every five days.”
--The New Yorker, April 21

Sherman, our German Shepherd puppy, is more than five months old now. Objectively, I must say he is adorable and very smart.

The house is a mess, but he is adorable and very smart.

Years ago I read somewhere that living with an animal keeps you in constant contact with nature. Once in a while it does dawn on us that there are creatures quite unlike us sharing our home with us. It’s a regular ecosystem. More correctly, it’s an irregular ecosystem.

Most mornings Sherman and I spend time

(I was interrupted here by a trip to the backyard to throw the tennis ball to Sherman.)

As I was saying, most mornings Sherman and I spend time with a tennis ball in the backyard. Lots of dogs love to chase tennis balls. Sophie, our 5-year-old German Shepherd mix, loves it.

Some dogs even bring the ball back, and a few will even give it to you. Sophie brings it back about half the time and then drops it when and where she gets distracted. For Sophie, the fun is in the chase.

Sherman brings the ball back every time, in a very curious way. He takes a meandering route, and will usually pause along the way to drop the ball and pick it up. He seems to be trying to hide it from himself, so he can go about finding it again. He’s been known to dig a hole, drop it in, and paw the ball in the hole for a while.

He sometimes will stand on the edge of our canyon, drop it, and watch it roll down the side. Our canyon now contains approximately 83 tennis balls. By the way, the best source for cheap tennis balls is Sears Essentials. They’re about 30 cents apiece there. That’s right. $24 worth of tennis balls in the canyon. Geez, having a dog is expensive.

I’ve noticed recently that Sherman is not chasing the ball. Rather, he carefully watches where I throw it, and then he goes and finds it. When he can’t find it, he goes into search mode and will not stop until he finds it. He also loves to engage with Merrie or me in finding the ball.

It’s an incredible feeling to have a dog work with me to do something. I’m not used to it.

Iron Man

Quote of the day:
“White criminals commit the biggest crimes. A brother might rob a bank. A white man will rob a pension fund. The brother is going to get ten to fifteen years because he had a gun. The white guy will get a Congressional hearing because he had a job and a nice suit.”
--Wanda Sykes

“Iron Man” is not what you’d expect. Yes, it’s a movie based on a comic book. But the movie is much more than that.

Watching the first ten minutes makes you think this is a story about the war in Afghanistan. Really. There’s not a tinge of goofy setup in it.

Robert Downey Jr. is terrific. He takes the tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of George Clooney’s Batman about ten steps further. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud (LOL) moments that are not just for kids. Unlike Trix.

Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast, and clearly relishes what he’s doing.

The director is Jon Favreau, who made and starred in the now-classic “Swingers.” He does something that’s hard to find in the movies. He integrates future technology in a way that is both fascinating and realistic.

I had a lot of fun watching such things as Downey manipulating an interactive holographic image. I don’t know how that technology will work for us in the future, but it’s reasonable to think we’ll see it someday. Indeed, it may already be happening somewhere.

Technology is a full-fledged character in this film, and it’s a very entertaining one. How many movies can you say that about? Usually technology is used as a platform to demonstrate the talents of the filmmaker and thus it winds up being over-the-top-whiz-bang-wowee-give-me-a-headache.

Not here. Favreau has shown a knowing and deft touch with all the dozens of advanced devices.

It all makes “Iron Man” a good time at the movies.

Note: when you go see it, be sure to stay until after the credits. There’s another scene there.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to read all 300 names in the credits. Whew, an awful lot of people worked on this!

Video: Object of the week

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McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists

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