Monday, November 27, 2006
Buying a President
Think Progress reports about Bush trying to raise $500,000,000 for his library. First off this is a huge amount of money for a Presidential library, apparently "the more you have, the more influence [on history] you can exert." They are trying to get "megadonations of $10 million to $20 million a pop" and these donations can be anonymous. Arianna Huffington describes why we should care about this, "captains of industry, Arab nations, wealthy heiresses, and anyone else with very deep pockets will be able to curry $10 million or $20 million worth of goodwill with the president of the United States -- and no one need know." This is just crazy.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Movie Review: Babel
Babel is the third film made by the team of director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga. Their previous collaborations were Amores Perros and 21 Grams and if you've seen either of those films, you know what to expect from Babel.
The film shows four interconnected stories. First, two Moroccon boys, out herding goats, recklessly shoot a new rifle at an oncoming bus. In another, Richard and Susan Jones (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) are a married couple on vacation to get over a tramatic event in their lives and save their marriage. They are on a tourist bus in Morocco when Susan is mysteriously shot. They try to get her to a hospital but they are in the middle of nowhere, in a small villiage getting care in a hut while waiting for a way to a hospital. In the third story, Amelia is a mexican nanny taking care of the Jones' children in southern California. Her son is getting married in Mexico and she decides to take them with her over the border. The fouth story is less directly related but is about Chieko, a deaf mute Japanese teenage girl.
As in his previous films, I found all the stories interesting and assume that the stories are connected thematically and not merely as a plot device. However I have a hard time finding a theme that really connects all four. There's the don't do stupid things theme, which works great for don't shoot at buses or take someone else's children across a border but doesn't do as well for don't get hit by a random bullet while taking a bus ride. There's the communicate better theme hinted by the title and that's ok for a troubled teen and a troubled marriage but not so good for others. Maybe it's just the fact that each of the 4 stories are in different languages.
I thought my inability to find this theme was my own shortcoming, but the group I saw it with had a similar problem as did A. O. Scott in the New York Times so I'm in good company.I think others tried too hard finding a theme when they tried "Kafkaesque tragedies about individuals swallowed up by the bureaucratic machinery of nationhood." and "he burrows deep into the existential loneliness of each character to create a kaleidoscope of cumulative human sadness and grief over the state of the world."
I liked Babel. I found it engaging and pretty easy to follow, for such an involved story, that's good filmmaking. The acting is universally strong and there are a lot of emotionally charged scenes. A few stories left me guessing as to the outcome all the way to the ending, and usually guessing wrong. I liked all the pieces, I even got all the pieces, I'm just not sure I got the whole, or that there was a whole to get.
The film shows four interconnected stories. First, two Moroccon boys, out herding goats, recklessly shoot a new rifle at an oncoming bus. In another, Richard and Susan Jones (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) are a married couple on vacation to get over a tramatic event in their lives and save their marriage. They are on a tourist bus in Morocco when Susan is mysteriously shot. They try to get her to a hospital but they are in the middle of nowhere, in a small villiage getting care in a hut while waiting for a way to a hospital. In the third story, Amelia is a mexican nanny taking care of the Jones' children in southern California. Her son is getting married in Mexico and she decides to take them with her over the border. The fouth story is less directly related but is about Chieko, a deaf mute Japanese teenage girl.
As in his previous films, I found all the stories interesting and assume that the stories are connected thematically and not merely as a plot device. However I have a hard time finding a theme that really connects all four. There's the don't do stupid things theme, which works great for don't shoot at buses or take someone else's children across a border but doesn't do as well for don't get hit by a random bullet while taking a bus ride. There's the communicate better theme hinted by the title and that's ok for a troubled teen and a troubled marriage but not so good for others. Maybe it's just the fact that each of the 4 stories are in different languages.
I thought my inability to find this theme was my own shortcoming, but the group I saw it with had a similar problem as did A. O. Scott in the New York Times so I'm in good company.I think others tried too hard finding a theme when they tried "Kafkaesque tragedies about individuals swallowed up by the bureaucratic machinery of nationhood." and "he burrows deep into the existential loneliness of each character to create a kaleidoscope of cumulative human sadness and grief over the state of the world."
I liked Babel. I found it engaging and pretty easy to follow, for such an involved story, that's good filmmaking. The acting is universally strong and there are a lot of emotionally charged scenes. A few stories left me guessing as to the outcome all the way to the ending, and usually guessing wrong. I liked all the pieces, I even got all the pieces, I'm just not sure I got the whole, or that there was a whole to get.
Dueling Vlogging
On November 6th, MIke McIntee posted this video on YouTube entitled White House Caught Doctoring "Mission Accomplished" Video. It's short and walks you through clicking on a white house video that shows Bush giving the speech though it's cropped so that the banner isn't visible and there's a black bar at the bottom. McIntee claims this is nefarious. To me it was probably just a camera angle that didn't show the banner and the bar was for news shows to show their crawling banners.
Then I found that just one day later, pudgenet posted Mike McIntee Is Lying where he has similar thoughts as I did but takes it further and clicks on other links on the White House page showing they all have the black bar the bottom. He also claims that McIntee has removed comments pointing this out.
What intrigues me about this story is that it's dueling video blogging done on YouTube. This is informal point/counter-point done by anyone. It's also a waste of bandwidth. I'm not sure how many MBs these clips are but I just described them both in 145 words, less than 1KB, but the videos are more fun to watch.
Then I found that just one day later, pudgenet posted Mike McIntee Is Lying where he has similar thoughts as I did but takes it further and clicks on other links on the White House page showing they all have the black bar the bottom. He also claims that McIntee has removed comments pointing this out.
What intrigues me about this story is that it's dueling video blogging done on YouTube. This is informal point/counter-point done by anyone. It's also a waste of bandwidth. I'm not sure how many MBs these clips are but I just described them both in 145 words, less than 1KB, but the videos are more fun to watch.
Mac Ads in Japan, Translated
This is a fascinating translation and analysis of the Japaense versions of the Mac vs PC ads. The two cultures are different and the ads have to be as well. And if you're not familiar with the differences they don't make sense unless they are explained to you. I also like the idea of just showing the rendering of Kanji characters in the two systems.
Scott Turow on Scalia and the War on Terror
Scott Turow has an article in the New York Times Magazine entitled Scalia the Civil Libertarian?. He gives a good overview of Scalia and how they generally support the Republican views and then talks about how Scalia's originalism in the Hamdi case led him to disagree with the administration's position.
MA v. EPA
"The Supreme Court hears arguments this week in a case that could determine whether the Bush administration must change course in how it deals with the threat of global warming. A dozen states as well as environmental groups and large cities are trying to convince the court that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate, as a matter of public health, the amount of carbon dioxide that comes from vehicles."
Worshipping a Hubble Image
I think this is a bit overstated but The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken is a 6 and half minute video about a very cool picture. The first half rambles a bit but does have a Pink Floyd soundtrack, so it can't be all bad.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Movie Review: Casino Royale
I was 11 when I saw my first Bond film, The Spy Who Love Me, and I saw it in a theater. After that I watched whenever they were on TV (this was long before TNT's Bond marathons every 6 months) and read all of Ian Fleming's books. Of course the books were better than the films and of course the early Connery films were the best of the films. I think Connery was the best Bond, but he had the advantage of having the best scripts. Films that had stories and not just stunts. Stories that were fun and not crazy and only pushed the bounds of reality, but did not completely defy all forms of physics. I have seen the all the films, but I found invisible cars pretty stupid.
Sunday night I saw the newest Bond film, Casino Royale, and it's the best Bond film in a long long time. Casino Royale was the first Bond book Fleming wrote and the producers used it as an opportunity to reinvent the character. The opening segment shows his first 00 mission. Next we get an inspired foot chase scene in Madagascar mostly through a construction site. We don't know much about that villain but he's played by Sebastien Foucan a real life master of the sport of Parkour and free running which involves running through urban obstacles in artistic ways. It makes for a good action scene but we also see a Bond who sometimes literally runs through walls but at other times out thinks his opponent and takes short cuts to catch up. The whole movie offers such contrasts. M describes him as a blunt instrument and everyone constantly describes how he has to overcome his ego. For the first time in a Bond film, James Bond has a character arc...and it works.
He tracks a few people and then we get to the main plot. Le Chiffre is a terrorist financeer who has lost money and plans to get it back in a high stakes poker game. Bond is the best poker player in MI6. He's supposed to make sure Le Chiffre loses so that he'll need to turn to MI6 for protection so they can get him to tell secrets. It's a plan that makes some sense vs just killing him. In the book they played Baccaratt, now it's Texas Hold 'Em, that's a fine modernization.
Bond's bankroll comes from Her Majesty's Treasury and because it's a Bond story, the agent sent to look out for the money is the beautiful Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Unlike many other films, she's actually intelligent and she and Bond verbally spar. He doesn't just sleep with her, he falls for her.
Casino Royale was directed by Martin Campbell who also directed Goldeneye, one of the better Bond films of the last 15 years. The two main writers also wrote Die Another Day and The World Is Not Enough, two of the dumber films. But this time they were helped out by Paul Haggis of Crash and Million Dollar Baby fame and that clearly helped. The end was a little drawn out and it seemed like every lead came from a cell phone but otherwise I was pretty impressed.
I haven't mentioned Daniel Craig yet, the newest Bond. A lot was made of the fact that he's blond, that's of course superficial and irrelevant. In fact I think he's perhaps the best Bond, but we'll have to wait a movie or two to find out. He's clearly the most athletic and comes across as very powerful and masculine. He runs a lot in this film and I found him very remincient of Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Connery was more sophisticated but since this was an origin story, that's specifically not in Bond's character yet. In the next film we'll see if he picks up some of that. In the various fights, this Bond gets hurt and while the scraps and cuts do take a scene or two to heal, they do have an emotional effect on him and you see bond's character forming from these early events in his career. A lot of this happens because of Craig.
I of course like Dame Judi Dench as M but I was bothered by the setting of every one of her scenes. We never used to see M's home or (I assume) M's spouse and Bernard Lee never travelled to the Caribbean.
Much of the formula is followed. Bond travels to Prague, Madagascar, London, the Bahamas, Miami, Montenegro, Lake Como (Italy), and Venice. There are fights, stunts, beautiful women, and (only a few) quips. The opening didn't follow the formula, but since this is an origin story, perhaps that's ok. The song sucked and I still can't decide if I liked the credits. They seemed like a cross between an iPod commercial and 60s animation. Again, quite different from the forumla.
I can't think of too many other films where I critique the credits, a Bond film has a lot to live up to. As I said, I haven't been too happy with the franchise for a long time, but I enjoyed Casino Royale a lot. I hope it does well and I hope the producers listen to the critics and continue this trend for the next one.
Sunday night I saw the newest Bond film, Casino Royale, and it's the best Bond film in a long long time. Casino Royale was the first Bond book Fleming wrote and the producers used it as an opportunity to reinvent the character. The opening segment shows his first 00 mission. Next we get an inspired foot chase scene in Madagascar mostly through a construction site. We don't know much about that villain but he's played by Sebastien Foucan a real life master of the sport of Parkour and free running which involves running through urban obstacles in artistic ways. It makes for a good action scene but we also see a Bond who sometimes literally runs through walls but at other times out thinks his opponent and takes short cuts to catch up. The whole movie offers such contrasts. M describes him as a blunt instrument and everyone constantly describes how he has to overcome his ego. For the first time in a Bond film, James Bond has a character arc...and it works.
He tracks a few people and then we get to the main plot. Le Chiffre is a terrorist financeer who has lost money and plans to get it back in a high stakes poker game. Bond is the best poker player in MI6. He's supposed to make sure Le Chiffre loses so that he'll need to turn to MI6 for protection so they can get him to tell secrets. It's a plan that makes some sense vs just killing him. In the book they played Baccaratt, now it's Texas Hold 'Em, that's a fine modernization.
Bond's bankroll comes from Her Majesty's Treasury and because it's a Bond story, the agent sent to look out for the money is the beautiful Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Unlike many other films, she's actually intelligent and she and Bond verbally spar. He doesn't just sleep with her, he falls for her.
Casino Royale was directed by Martin Campbell who also directed Goldeneye, one of the better Bond films of the last 15 years. The two main writers also wrote Die Another Day and The World Is Not Enough, two of the dumber films. But this time they were helped out by Paul Haggis of Crash and Million Dollar Baby fame and that clearly helped. The end was a little drawn out and it seemed like every lead came from a cell phone but otherwise I was pretty impressed.
I haven't mentioned Daniel Craig yet, the newest Bond. A lot was made of the fact that he's blond, that's of course superficial and irrelevant. In fact I think he's perhaps the best Bond, but we'll have to wait a movie or two to find out. He's clearly the most athletic and comes across as very powerful and masculine. He runs a lot in this film and I found him very remincient of Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Connery was more sophisticated but since this was an origin story, that's specifically not in Bond's character yet. In the next film we'll see if he picks up some of that. In the various fights, this Bond gets hurt and while the scraps and cuts do take a scene or two to heal, they do have an emotional effect on him and you see bond's character forming from these early events in his career. A lot of this happens because of Craig.
I of course like Dame Judi Dench as M but I was bothered by the setting of every one of her scenes. We never used to see M's home or (I assume) M's spouse and Bernard Lee never travelled to the Caribbean.
Much of the formula is followed. Bond travels to Prague, Madagascar, London, the Bahamas, Miami, Montenegro, Lake Como (Italy), and Venice. There are fights, stunts, beautiful women, and (only a few) quips. The opening didn't follow the formula, but since this is an origin story, perhaps that's ok. The song sucked and I still can't decide if I liked the credits. They seemed like a cross between an iPod commercial and 60s animation. Again, quite different from the forumla.
I can't think of too many other films where I critique the credits, a Bond film has a lot to live up to. As I said, I haven't been too happy with the franchise for a long time, but I enjoyed Casino Royale a lot. I hope it does well and I hope the producers listen to the critics and continue this trend for the next one.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Path to Saner Copyrights?
U.S. Copyright Office Issues New Rights. "All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. Previously, Billington took an all-or-nothing approach, making exemptions difficult to justify."
Software now often comes with locks to prevent piracy but it also prevent other (legitimate) uses. Recent laws have made it illegal to circumvent these locks, even for legitimate uses. The ruling clarified some of these cases and makes it legal to circumvent the locks in these cases:
Software now often comes with locks to prevent piracy but it also prevent other (legitimate) uses. Recent laws have made it illegal to circumvent these locks, even for legitimate uses. The ruling clarified some of these cases and makes it legal to circumvent the locks in these cases:
- Film professors can copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations
- Blind people can use software to read aloud copy-protected electronic books
- Software for obsolete machines can be archived (not sure I follow this, unless it's about emulators)
- Working around a lost or broken hardware dongle
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Comcast CableCARDs Suck
So the new HDTiVo is wonderful. I've taken the CD changer and VCR off the TV Rack. The HD TiVo replaces the old TiVo and two cable boxes (one connected to the TiVo and one HD cable box that I switched with the receiver). So what was 7 boxes is now 3.
I bought the TiVo on Monday, called the cable company and was amazed that they made the appointment only 2 days later between 9 and 11am. The cable guy came at 10:30 and he knew what he was doing, he'd previously setup about 8 HDTiVos. Most of the time was spent with him on the phone to the office as they "activated" things and reading numbers back and forth. Unfortunately he got some errors so then he was on hold for 15 minutes waiting to get to tech support. Tech support wasn't that helpful, but we quickly determined that the cards were bad (thankfully it wasn't the card readers, I don't need to replace the TiVo). He had one spare and that worked.
Now I have to wait for them to come back to install the second. I had the installer call to make the appointment thinking he might have an easier time, but they said the appointment would be December 4th. I can't make that day and wanted it sooner. So I called Comcast Customer Service myself, it was about 12:15, and was told Dec 4th was the earliest. I asked politely saying it was their mistake they needed to fix and now I have less service (only one tuner instead of two) than before they got here. He said could connect me to someone in leadership and after being on hold for 15 minutes I now have an appointment on Nov 29th between 12-4. Not great, but I can live with that.
In the mean time the TiVo is great. I think because it's connected to my home network instead of a phone line I get much more interesting Internet stuff (Yahoo Traffic, Weather, Movie Times/Tickets, etc.) More info when I have more time to play.
I bought the TiVo on Monday, called the cable company and was amazed that they made the appointment only 2 days later between 9 and 11am. The cable guy came at 10:30 and he knew what he was doing, he'd previously setup about 8 HDTiVos. Most of the time was spent with him on the phone to the office as they "activated" things and reading numbers back and forth. Unfortunately he got some errors so then he was on hold for 15 minutes waiting to get to tech support. Tech support wasn't that helpful, but we quickly determined that the cards were bad (thankfully it wasn't the card readers, I don't need to replace the TiVo). He had one spare and that worked.
Now I have to wait for them to come back to install the second. I had the installer call to make the appointment thinking he might have an easier time, but they said the appointment would be December 4th. I can't make that day and wanted it sooner. So I called Comcast Customer Service myself, it was about 12:15, and was told Dec 4th was the earliest. I asked politely saying it was their mistake they needed to fix and now I have less service (only one tuner instead of two) than before they got here. He said could connect me to someone in leadership and after being on hold for 15 minutes I now have an appointment on Nov 29th between 12-4. Not great, but I can live with that.
In the mean time the TiVo is great. I think because it's connected to my home network instead of a phone line I get much more interesting Internet stuff (Yahoo Traffic, Weather, Movie Times/Tickets, etc.) More info when I have more time to play.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Challenging Unlawful Detentions
former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and others challenge wartime detention policy. Maybe someone will do something.
Freeport Pilgrimage
So today I made a pilgrimage that I hadn't done in 18 years of living in New England. My sister and I went to Freeport, Maine and went to the outlets and the LL Bean store. For an outlet villiage it was pretty good. It's not my favorite cup of tea but I can hold my own. We did LL Bean towards the end of the day when we were both pretty tired, and we did the Factory Outlet first. I didn't like that as it's everything mixed together and a bit disorganized. Too much effort for me to shop. But then we did the retail store and wow, that was pretty impressive.
First off, the store is actually several stores, we just did the main one which is about one full block and three stories tall. There are two other stores next to it, one for Hunting and Fishing and the other for Bike, Boat & Skiing. The main one is huge. Imagine every item in the catalog, each style has a complete rack in each color. So if a jacket comes in 4 colors, there are 4 racks of that jacket. Sometimes for something like that they'll do two colors per rack, but still it's impressive. And every size is available. The store is huge and spacious. I don't buy much from the catalog, but it was very nice to actually try stuff on and feel the textures. In the camping section they had every backpack (one color per rack), every pocket knife, every water bottle, etc.
I'm surprised I was so impressed with a store but, if you in the area, and inclined to such stuff, it's worth it. Still you won't get me near a store this Friday. I'm not that crazy.
First off, the store is actually several stores, we just did the main one which is about one full block and three stories tall. There are two other stores next to it, one for Hunting and Fishing and the other for Bike, Boat & Skiing. The main one is huge. Imagine every item in the catalog, each style has a complete rack in each color. So if a jacket comes in 4 colors, there are 4 racks of that jacket. Sometimes for something like that they'll do two colors per rack, but still it's impressive. And every size is available. The store is huge and spacious. I don't buy much from the catalog, but it was very nice to actually try stuff on and feel the textures. In the camping section they had every backpack (one color per rack), every pocket knife, every water bottle, etc.
I'm surprised I was so impressed with a store but, if you in the area, and inclined to such stuff, it's worth it. Still you won't get me near a store this Friday. I'm not that crazy.
Dick Cheney: Most Dangerous Man In The World
Cenk Uygur writes about how Dick Cheney wants to invade Iran. Idiot.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Peter Jackson Out on the Hobbit
It looks like Peter Jackson will not be making The Hobbit. Stupid movie studio.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Why We Don't Stop the Genocide in Darfur
John Prendergast in the Washington Post writes So How Come We Haven't Stopped It? referring to genocide in Darfur. It turns out Salah Abdallah Gosh's is the head of security for the government which "gives him a lead role in the regime's counterinsurgency strategy, which relies on the Janjaweed militias to destroy non-Arab villages in Darfur." In a post-9/11 world, Gosh has also been helping the US in counterterrorism, so we turn a blind eye. Pretty disgusting. "Walking loudly and carrying a toothpick only emboldens the regime to escalate its attacks in Darfur.
SERE Instructors, Students Against Torture
Josh Marshall posts letters from people who've been through the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training (how to survive torture) including an instructor of the program:
"The horror of the recent revelations of the use of our school’s techniques in Iraq and Gitmo is disgusting. We are all horrified that we have destroyed the only tool we have to keep our soldiers safe … the disgust of world opinion. Waterboarding is a torture. Period."
"Torture, we revealed, was a useless and single pointed device which was wholly unreliable – torture was for sadism and the pleasure of the torturer. It had no intelligence value and the information would always be suspect."
"The horror of the recent revelations of the use of our school’s techniques in Iraq and Gitmo is disgusting. We are all horrified that we have destroyed the only tool we have to keep our soldiers safe … the disgust of world opinion. Waterboarding is a torture. Period."
"Torture, we revealed, was a useless and single pointed device which was wholly unreliable – torture was for sadism and the pleasure of the torturer. It had no intelligence value and the information would always be suspect."
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Dick Cheney Spies On You
Glenn Greenwald breaks down Dick Cheney's lies about warrantless domestic spying in a speech at the Federalist Society last night.
Bus Plunge Stories
Slate has a bizarre story lamenting the demise of the Bus Plunge Story from the New York Times. I expected it to be something Stephen Glass wrote, but I think it might be real.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Breatfeeding Mother Kicked Off Plane
I first saw this in Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner's article in the Huffington Post Delta Kicks Breastfeeding Moms Off Plane. The story seemed bizarre to me and I realized that we really had no facts of what happened. Rowe-Finkbeiner thought she was being discrete but its not clear she knows she was. Then reading the comments is even more amusing as people with no knowledge of the facts make assumptions. Here's an article with a little more information, including the airlines (maybe not good enough) apology.
This strikes me as one flight attendant being overly sensitive in a society that's way too permissive of violence and so shunning of sex (except in advertising) that it stifles normal bodily functions. Then again, I'm a single male, I'm probably not allowed to even talk about the topic.
This strikes me as one flight attendant being overly sensitive in a society that's way too permissive of violence and so shunning of sex (except in advertising) that it stifles normal bodily functions. Then again, I'm a single male, I'm probably not allowed to even talk about the topic.
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