Thursday, March 31, 2011

Antimatter spring

Tammy in motion
This spring is beginning to resemble last year’s cool, wet season. The damp is ok because I’m sure the drought will probably return and we will need as much ground water as possible without causing flooding.
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Have any of you seen the movie Angels and Demons based on a book by Dan Brown? I have not seen it but I just a few days ago finished reading the book. Much like Brown’s The Lost Symbol, he goes into great detail to explain the background of just about every sect, society, and cult which he uses in the book. Most of it is medieval and Renaissance stuff which, I suppose, may be boring if you are not much interested in such, and truthfully, the story would work just as well without so much detail.
The story is about Robert Langdon’s (hero of The da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol) search in the Vatican for an antimatter bomb which was created in the famous physics lab C.E.R.N which is located in Switzerland. A cult—long thought to be extinct—within the church’s fringes known as the Illuminati, has purportedly re-arisen and its hatred for religion in general and the Vatican in particular has spurred it to murder the Pope and plant the antimatter bomb to destroy everything within the walls of the Vatican, including the museums which hold some of the most valuable art and manuscripts in the world. Langdon and a beautiful young scientist from CERN are sent to try and save four Bishops, one of which will be elected as the next Pope. The pair must use centuries-old clues to find the hidden temple of the Illuminatus to recover clues as to where the bomb is hidden.
It is a well researched book, and I for the most part enjoyed it until the near the end when author Brown pushes credibility a bit too far when Langdon has to jump out of the Papal helicopter which has the “found” bomb aboard. He is high above the Vatican and has no parachute and Langdon’s well known good luck is pushed into the realms of Superman. He cannot fail because he, to quote Elwood Blues, “is on a mission from God”. I will give this one three stars because it has a great plot and story line, but the climax really needs work. At least the heroes get to make love at the very end.
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Photo courtesy of Tammy as she and her dance troupe learning hair moves. Thanks, Tammy.

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