Andy Serwer has written a fascinating and disturbing article on Time.com detailing America’s turmoil in the 2000’s, or what he terms the “Decade from Hell.”

As I was reading account after account of “What could be worse?!” scenarios, I couldn’t help but recall both Jared Diamond’s Collapse and the last line spoken by Fox Mulder in the series finale of The X-Files in 2002.

Sure, maybe there’s hope, but should we maybe start adjusting to life in this new world order? Suddenly all those post-apocalyptic scenarios envisioned by Children of Men and even Zombieland don’t seem so far-fetched anymore.

Read Serwer’s article here.

Todd Marshall / National Geographic

Prehistoric Super-Crocodiles May Have Dined on Dinosaurs

Sooooooooooo cool.

James Van Der Beek is getting divorced.

Hmm. Or rather, oh yes!

I don’t understand the intense estrogenic devotion that the “Twilight” books and movies have garnered from the public. (And to be fair, I have not read the books, nor have I seen the first movie.)

But half of the reward for enduring 24/7 press coverage of a movie like The Twilight Saga: New Moon is the reviews.

So far, my favorite comes courtesy of AP’s David Germain, who writes:

“Months of pining and bad dreams eventually are eased for Bella as she starts hanging out with Jacob, who misses no opportunity to show off his Olympian pecs and abs. Bella’s timing stinks, though, because Jacob’s just entering wolfman puberty.” (The full review is available here.)

One part of me wonders what’s involved in wolfman puberty. The other is trying hard not to picture Jason Bateman in Teen Wolf Too.

Shudder.

A.O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times wrote a fascinating essay about why and how the movies of the past decade mattered to us.

Boy, if only I could write as eloquently about this stuff as he does…

Screen Memories

Headline on Inside Higher Ed’s quick takes this morning:

“Scientist Reveals She Was Prostitute.”

Apparently a slow news day in higher ed today.

P.S. And so what if she was a prostitute? I bet she doesn’t have student loans to pay off.

Here’s Brian watching 30 Rock. Yep, he’s my dog, all right.

I was going through some of my old files on my external hard drive and found this oldie but goodie:

At least the Hampton Inn here is a little more updated than the Holiday Inn in Salisbury, NC.

Still, the nearest Starbucks is 21.19 miles away.

Sigh.