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Life Meets TV

Colin Miller, of EvidenceProfBlog, has this interesting blogpost about Kathy Reichs as an expert witness, in the notorious Ohio nun killer case, State v. Robinson. Dr. Reichs is the author of the Temperance Brennan mystery stories and the inspiration for the Bones television series.

Reminds me of another recent life meets tv case: the one in which the prosecution's expert witness mentioned a Law & Order episode that Andrea Yates watched. The problem: no such episode. Eventually, Mrs. Yates's conviction was overturned. Along with the now-documented "CSI" effect, can we doubt that tv's dramatic riffs affect jurors?

Cross-posted to Law & Humanities Blog

Before the Hays Code

John Powers notes the release of some pre-Hayes Code films on DVD: The Divorcee, A Free Soul, Night Nurse, Three on a Match, and Female. For more about pre-Hayes Code movies, see

Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood (Columbia University Press, 1999).

Mick LaSalle, Complicated Women (St. Martin's Press, 2001).

Mick LaSalle, Dangerous Men (Thomas Dunne Books, 2002).

Leonard J. Leff and Jerold L. Simmons, The Dame in the Kimono (University Press of Kentucky, 2001)

Senator Leahy and Batman

Senator Patrick Leahy has a cameo in the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Who knew that he could give former Senator Fred Thompson a run for his money?

Different Takes on Superheroes

NPR critics discuss riffs on superheroes, villains, and law, justice and the American way here.

The Physics of Cartooning

NPR has a fun little story on the physics of cartoons. Why can Wiley Coyote keep running past the edge of the cliff? Dr. Alejandro Garcia explains the laws of science to aspiring animators at San Jose State University. Suspending disbelief is, after all, both art and science.

George Carlin, Science Commentator

Here's a blogpost that celebrates the late George Carlin as a scientific commentator.

There Oughta Be a Law....

against bad science in disaster movies. Unfortunately scientists can't (usually) sue for misrepresentation of themselves or their work, or of scientific principles. So we get Really Bad Science in Hollywood flicks. MSNBC.com has examples of some of them in this slideshow. For more bad science in Hollywood films, and for when Tinseltown gets it right, check out some of these books.

Athena Andreadis, To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek (Random House, 1998).

Robert DeSalle and David Lindley, The Science of Jurassic Park, or How to Build a Dinosaur (Basic Books, 1997).

Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg, The Computers of Star Trek (Wiley, 1999).

Lois H. Gresh, The Science of James Bond (Wiley, 2006).

Lois H. Gresh, The Science of Stephen King (Wiley, 2007).

Lois H. Gresh, The Science of Superheroes (Wiley, 2003).

Lois H. Gresh, The Science of Supervillains (Wiley, 2004). Gresh has written a number of other pop culture and science guides.

Susan Jenkins, The Biology of Star Trek (HarperCollins, 1999). Updated 2000.

Lawrence M. Krauss, Beyond Star Trek (Diane Publishing Company, 2000).

Lawrence M. Krauss, The Physics of Star Trek (Perseus Publishing, 2007).

See also a previous post on vampirism in academia, a bibliography on Buffy, and a post on the science of vampires in vampire movies.

Also of interest:

Judith Barad and Ed Robertson, The Ethics of Star Trek (HarperCollins, 2001).

Richard Hanley, The Metaphysics of Star Trek (HarperCollins, 1997).

Nino's Not Sarah's "Mr. Big"

That item that appeared in New York magazine, suggesting that Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and Sarah Jessica Parker had an interesting encounter on a NY street during which he "gushed" about her new movie was apparently somewhat over-written, according to the Legal Times's blog. They did meet, but he didn't gush. Oh, well. Fun while it lasted.

An "Economist" Rap

See the piece here at NPR's website.

Mel Ferrer Dies

Mel Ferrer, director and actor (he played a lawyer on the long running prime time drama Falcon Crest), has died. He was also a star of films such as War and Peace, which also featured his fourth wife Audrey Hepburn. Read more here.