I saw this quote floating around on a few sites today including Andrew Sullivan's post The Wiki Core.
"Wales decided to run a simple study to find out: he counted who made the most edits to the site. 'I expected to find something like an 80-20 rule: 80% of the work being done by 20% of the users, just because that seems to come up a lot. But it's actually much, much tighter than that: it turns out over 50% of all the edits are done by just .7% of the users ... 524 people. ... And in fact the most active 2%, which is 1400 people, have done 73.4% of all the edits.' The remaining 25% of edits, he said, were from 'people who [are] contributing ... a minor change of a fact or a minor spelling fix ... or something like that.'"
Well if you follow the links to the original article, as I usually try to do, you get to Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought, Who Writes Wikipedia?. Yep the above quote is from there, but it's just the start of the article. Yes Wales claimed the above, but if read the rest of the article, Swartz didn't believe it and did his own investigation, which he describes, and concluded:
"When you put it all together, the story become clear: an outsider makes one edit to add a chunk of information, then insiders make several edits tweaking and reformatting it. In addition, insiders rack up thousands of edits doing things like changing the name of a category across the entire site -- the kind of thing only insiders deeply care about. As a result, insiders account for the vast majority of the edits. But it's the outsiders who provide nearly all of the content."
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Time Machine Lessons: Deborking your Mac
Ars Technica recently had an artlcle Time Machine Lessons: Deborking your Mac. It's pretty good. I've yet to restore more than a file or two from Time Machine. I wish it was easy to practice this before it's a critical task, but with only one mac around, that's just not the case.
The more I think about Time Machine, the more impressed I am with how apple approached the problem. The fact that old versions are preserved has a big advantage over merely keeping one mirror copy of your data. If the data is corrupted and not caught before the mirror is updated, you're backup would be corrupted as well. Not so with Time Machine. Just go back further in time.
The more I think about Time Machine, the more impressed I am with how apple approached the problem. The fact that old versions are preserved has a big advantage over merely keeping one mirror copy of your data. If the data is corrupted and not caught before the mirror is updated, you're backup would be corrupted as well. Not so with Time Machine. Just go back further in time.
MacWorld Keynote
iLife
iPhoto updates look nice. Faces copies the killer feature from Facebook's photos and does it automatically (wonder how well that works). I've been manually adding tags or notes for people names. Great for searching, annoying for entering, this could be nice. Adding the Places info based on geotagging info is nice and good, they linked with Google Maps. That iPhone relationship is growing. Looks like they're killing MemoryMiner!. And it's integrated with Facebook and Flickr and it's easy to get a slideshow to your iPhone. Very attentive to how people actually use photos today. Very Apple-like. I have a lot of space photos in my iPhoto Library (good for a Wallpaper album and screen savers). I wonder if the geo-location stuff will work? I suspect the geo- prefix is significant.
iMovie looks like another nice update. Added more interesting features with a very interesting UI. iPhoto copied face detection in cameras and iMovie copies image stabilization. And the Google Maps integration continues.
GarageBand has never really interested me. I have looked into using it to create podcasts and ringtones but that's it. Still it's an impressive app and I love that they borrowed the interface ideas for X-ray, their software performance development tool build on dtrace. But only Apple could get Sting to give you guitar lessons. I suspect these would be more popular if they taught how to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
We're expecting snow overnight. I was already thinking if I should go to the Apple Store today to pick this up. But iLife '09 doesn't ship till the end of the month.
iWork
Keynote got some new transitions, themes and some prettiness. I like the new Keynote Remote app for the iPhone. It's probably why they stopped bundling the Apple Remote, they want you to buy an iPhone instead. But showing the slides, using swipes and having a real wifi connection instead of using IR is nice.
Pages gets a full screen view, if you're incapable of turning off other distracting programs. MathType and EndNote support will be big for academics. If they can understand that there are programs other than MS Office. More templates, etc. Update: They didn't mention it but Pages also adds Outlining and Mail Merge from spreadsheet data.
Numbers got new formulas and templates. It can auto create tables from selected cells. There are lots of new chart features and the ability to link charts from Numbers into Pages documents. That's nice. Wonder what other features they added as they try to get closer to excel. I think conditional formatting needs to be better and I need array functions to do my oscar pool (not that anyone else could use it if I did it in Numbers).
So iLife is $79 and iWork is $79, I'll go buy those. I really like the new Mac Box Set product which is $169 for iLife, iWork and Leopard. I might get that for my sister.
Ok, it's probably good that they thinking of an iwork.com. I think it's great that they are just dipping their toe in and doing a beta and that it's not full featured. I'm happy that it works with the desktop app and allows commenting but I'm dubious about the editing features. Though I have no idea who will use this. Not businesses. I doubt students. Not sure if there's any security on the site. Maybe soccer team coaches? It's going after Google Docs but it won't be free.
17" MacBook Pro
Seriously, that's the hardware they're announcing? I was wrong about no laptop updates. I guess this was to be expected, but I wanted other stuff first. It's the world's thinnest 17" notebook at 0.02" less than an inch thick. Um, wow, kinda. Otherwise they bumped up all the features (disk:320GB, memory:up to 8GB, casing, screen:1900x1200, graphics: both 9400M and 9600M GT, etc.). Glossy only with a $50 anti-glare option. Firewire 800 but it looks like Firewire 400 is dead.
And the battery isn't removable. That is bad. Remember those battery recalls? If it happens with this, I have to send in the computer and not just get a new battery delivered to me that I swap out. I don't like that at all. Fortunately I'm not interested in a 17" laptop, but I suspect this will come to the 15" ones next. They claim "8 hours on a charge, and can be charged 1000 times" from the space savings. The magazines will have fun testing that claim. Also it does seem much greener with a EPEAT Gold certification.
It comes in one config -- $2799." 2.66GHz Core 2 Due, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive and a super-drive. I wonder how long till I hear the complaints of still no blu-ray drive. Ships at the end of this month.
One More Thing...iTunes
Apple and the music companies have negotiated. Apple gets DRM free music (80% now 100% by April). The music companies get variable pricing. Three tiers at $0.99, $0.69, and $1.29. More songs are going to be offered at $0.69 than $1.29. Last is the that iPhone will have access to the full iTunes Music Store over the 3G network, I didn't know it was a limited version before.
So it wasn't a desktop event. It's their last MacWorld appearance, so they now have the flexibility to do events whenever they want. They get the press coverage regardless. With so many product lines now, they can't possibly fit too much in a single 1.5 hour keynote. So I expect a desktop even in the next few months (WWDC at the latest), probably combined with the Snow Leopard ship (making WWDC more likely). Would you really want to buy a new desktop and have a new OS to buy ship in a couple of months? New desktops probably mean new processors with more cores which needs Snow Leopard to make full use of.
iPhone and iPod updates will get their own event. iPhone events have been in early July, so there's a trend. I don't expect a tablet this year. A media server or Apple TV update? I have no idea.
iPhoto updates look nice. Faces copies the killer feature from Facebook's photos and does it automatically (wonder how well that works). I've been manually adding tags or notes for people names. Great for searching, annoying for entering, this could be nice. Adding the Places info based on geotagging info is nice and good, they linked with Google Maps. That iPhone relationship is growing. Looks like they're killing MemoryMiner!. And it's integrated with Facebook and Flickr and it's easy to get a slideshow to your iPhone. Very attentive to how people actually use photos today. Very Apple-like. I have a lot of space photos in my iPhoto Library (good for a Wallpaper album and screen savers). I wonder if the geo-location stuff will work? I suspect the geo- prefix is significant.
iMovie looks like another nice update. Added more interesting features with a very interesting UI. iPhoto copied face detection in cameras and iMovie copies image stabilization. And the Google Maps integration continues.
GarageBand has never really interested me. I have looked into using it to create podcasts and ringtones but that's it. Still it's an impressive app and I love that they borrowed the interface ideas for X-ray, their software performance development tool build on dtrace. But only Apple could get Sting to give you guitar lessons. I suspect these would be more popular if they taught how to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
We're expecting snow overnight. I was already thinking if I should go to the Apple Store today to pick this up. But iLife '09 doesn't ship till the end of the month.
iWork
Keynote got some new transitions, themes and some prettiness. I like the new Keynote Remote app for the iPhone. It's probably why they stopped bundling the Apple Remote, they want you to buy an iPhone instead. But showing the slides, using swipes and having a real wifi connection instead of using IR is nice.
Pages gets a full screen view, if you're incapable of turning off other distracting programs. MathType and EndNote support will be big for academics. If they can understand that there are programs other than MS Office. More templates, etc. Update: They didn't mention it but Pages also adds Outlining and Mail Merge from spreadsheet data.
Numbers got new formulas and templates. It can auto create tables from selected cells. There are lots of new chart features and the ability to link charts from Numbers into Pages documents. That's nice. Wonder what other features they added as they try to get closer to excel. I think conditional formatting needs to be better and I need array functions to do my oscar pool (not that anyone else could use it if I did it in Numbers).
So iLife is $79 and iWork is $79, I'll go buy those. I really like the new Mac Box Set product which is $169 for iLife, iWork and Leopard. I might get that for my sister.
Ok, it's probably good that they thinking of an iwork.com. I think it's great that they are just dipping their toe in and doing a beta and that it's not full featured. I'm happy that it works with the desktop app and allows commenting but I'm dubious about the editing features. Though I have no idea who will use this. Not businesses. I doubt students. Not sure if there's any security on the site. Maybe soccer team coaches? It's going after Google Docs but it won't be free.
17" MacBook Pro
Seriously, that's the hardware they're announcing? I was wrong about no laptop updates. I guess this was to be expected, but I wanted other stuff first. It's the world's thinnest 17" notebook at 0.02" less than an inch thick. Um, wow, kinda. Otherwise they bumped up all the features (disk:320GB, memory:up to 8GB, casing, screen:1900x1200, graphics: both 9400M and 9600M GT, etc.). Glossy only with a $50 anti-glare option. Firewire 800 but it looks like Firewire 400 is dead.
And the battery isn't removable. That is bad. Remember those battery recalls? If it happens with this, I have to send in the computer and not just get a new battery delivered to me that I swap out. I don't like that at all. Fortunately I'm not interested in a 17" laptop, but I suspect this will come to the 15" ones next. They claim "8 hours on a charge, and can be charged 1000 times" from the space savings. The magazines will have fun testing that claim. Also it does seem much greener with a EPEAT Gold certification.
It comes in one config -- $2799." 2.66GHz Core 2 Due, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive and a super-drive. I wonder how long till I hear the complaints of still no blu-ray drive. Ships at the end of this month.
One More Thing...iTunes
Apple and the music companies have negotiated. Apple gets DRM free music (80% now 100% by April). The music companies get variable pricing. Three tiers at $0.99, $0.69, and $1.29. More songs are going to be offered at $0.69 than $1.29. Last is the that iPhone will have access to the full iTunes Music Store over the 3G network, I didn't know it was a limited version before.
So it wasn't a desktop event. It's their last MacWorld appearance, so they now have the flexibility to do events whenever they want. They get the press coverage regardless. With so many product lines now, they can't possibly fit too much in a single 1.5 hour keynote. So I expect a desktop even in the next few months (WWDC at the latest), probably combined with the Snow Leopard ship (making WWDC more likely). Would you really want to buy a new desktop and have a new OS to buy ship in a couple of months? New desktops probably mean new processors with more cores which needs Snow Leopard to make full use of.
iPhone and iPod updates will get their own event. iPhone events have been in early July, so there's a trend. I don't expect a tablet this year. A media server or Apple TV update? I have no idea.
Persons of the Year Quiz
Here's a quiz on Time Magazine's Very Important Persons (of the Year). I got 8/12.
Old Habits Die Hard - Geek Humor
For geek humor, I really liked this Old Habits Die Hard from Just A Bit Off a webcomic by Jeff Zugale.
Monday, January 05, 2009
My MacWorld Predictions
I'll keep it short because, really who knows?
There will not be a new tablet device. They still have to sell lots of iPhones and don't want to encroach that market. I doubt an iPhone nano. Some time in 2009 they'll announce an update to the 3G and perhaps a cheaper alternative (they want to sell 40 million this year). I don't think it will be at MacWorld, but at a different event.
No changes to the laptops, we just had them.
The MacPro will get a bump. The iMac might as well but I doubt it.
The MacMini will get a significant update. Perhaps getting larger to say mini tower size (or not). But I think there will finally be an alternative to an all-in-one iMac that uses an external monitor. Of course the video port will be the new one introduced on the laptops, so only the apple monitors will work with it (without an adaptor).
There will be an iWork '09. Small changes to Keynote, a few more to Pages, Lots of additions to Numbers. Still no macros, but more functions, capabilities, etc. iWork will not move to the cloud (MobileMe) but it will be easy to export documents to MobileMe accounts, websites, etc. I suspect iLife might get an update as well.
I like the idea of an apple media server built on the Time Capsule platform (a drive with an airport in it). Keep all your media on device at home and get to it from your desktops, laptops and iPhones from your home network. Like the Apple TV it will connect to your TV. I also like the idea that via MobileMe it will make your media available to devices you own over the internet. I doubt you'll just be able to login to your media from any device, like iPods now, you'll need to authorize specific devices you use.
When a tablet does come around, expect to access your MobileMe data and media server data from it. At that point expect better integration with iWork and MobileMe.
Update: This is pretty funny.
There will not be a new tablet device. They still have to sell lots of iPhones and don't want to encroach that market. I doubt an iPhone nano. Some time in 2009 they'll announce an update to the 3G and perhaps a cheaper alternative (they want to sell 40 million this year). I don't think it will be at MacWorld, but at a different event.
No changes to the laptops, we just had them.
The MacPro will get a bump. The iMac might as well but I doubt it.
The MacMini will get a significant update. Perhaps getting larger to say mini tower size (or not). But I think there will finally be an alternative to an all-in-one iMac that uses an external monitor. Of course the video port will be the new one introduced on the laptops, so only the apple monitors will work with it (without an adaptor).
There will be an iWork '09. Small changes to Keynote, a few more to Pages, Lots of additions to Numbers. Still no macros, but more functions, capabilities, etc. iWork will not move to the cloud (MobileMe) but it will be easy to export documents to MobileMe accounts, websites, etc. I suspect iLife might get an update as well.
I like the idea of an apple media server built on the Time Capsule platform (a drive with an airport in it). Keep all your media on device at home and get to it from your desktops, laptops and iPhones from your home network. Like the Apple TV it will connect to your TV. I also like the idea that via MobileMe it will make your media available to devices you own over the internet. I doubt you'll just be able to login to your media from any device, like iPods now, you'll need to authorize specific devices you use.
When a tablet does come around, expect to access your MobileMe data and media server data from it. At that point expect better integration with iWork and MobileMe.
Update: This is pretty funny.
Photograph Amtrak Trains For Amtrak Contest: Go To Jail
Remember this from June? Stopping Photography in the Name of Security "Washington DC news crew goes down to Union Station to interview someone from Amtrak about people who have been stopped from taking pictures even though there's no policy against it. As the Amtrak spokesperson is explaining that there is no policy against photography, a guard comes up and tries to stop them from filming, saying it is against the rules."
Looks like it happened again, this time in NYC's Penn Station. Amtrak photo contestant arrested by Amtrak police in NYC’s Penn Station. Yep. Amtrak is sponsoring a contest saying "Enter your photo of an Amtrak train (sporting the current logo) to have your image featured on the Amtrak 2009 wall calendar." And a man, on the public platform "ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a holding cell inside New York City’s Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass."
"Hey what are you in for?"
"I took a picture of a train."
Looks like it happened again, this time in NYC's Penn Station. Amtrak photo contestant arrested by Amtrak police in NYC’s Penn Station. Yep. Amtrak is sponsoring a contest saying "Enter your photo of an Amtrak train (sporting the current logo) to have your image featured on the Amtrak 2009 wall calendar." And a man, on the public platform "ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a holding cell inside New York City’s Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass."
"Hey what are you in for?"
"I took a picture of a train."
Assistance Animals Now Come in All Shapes and Sizes
I heard a piece about this on NPR on Friday. In yesterday's New York Times Sunday Magazine section was a piece,
Creature Comforts - Assistance Animals Now Come in All Shapes and Sizes.
"Edie isn’t the only blind person who uses a guide horse instead of a dog — there’s actually a Guide Horse Foundation that’s been around nearly a decade. The obvious question is, Why? In fact, Edie says, there are many reasons: miniature horses are mild-mannered, trainable and less threatening than large dogs. They’re naturally cautious and have exceptional vision, with eyes set far apart for nearly 360-degree range. Plus, they’re herd animals, so they instinctively synchronize their movements with others. But the biggest reason is age: miniature horses can live and work for more than 30 years. In that time, a blind person typically goes through five to seven guide dogs. That can be draining both emotionally and economically, because each one can cost up to $60,000 to breed, train and place in a home."
"What’s most striking about Edie and Panda is that after the initial shock of seeing a horse walk into a cafe, or ride in a car, watching them work together makes the idea of guide miniature horses seem utterly logical. Even normal. So normal, in fact, that people often find it hard to believe that the United States government is considering a proposal that would force Edie and many others like her to stop using their service animals. But that’s precisely what’s happening, because a growing number of people believe the world of service animals has gotten out of control: first it was guide dogs for the blind; now it’s monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go."
Creature Comforts - Assistance Animals Now Come in All Shapes and Sizes.
"Edie isn’t the only blind person who uses a guide horse instead of a dog — there’s actually a Guide Horse Foundation that’s been around nearly a decade. The obvious question is, Why? In fact, Edie says, there are many reasons: miniature horses are mild-mannered, trainable and less threatening than large dogs. They’re naturally cautious and have exceptional vision, with eyes set far apart for nearly 360-degree range. Plus, they’re herd animals, so they instinctively synchronize their movements with others. But the biggest reason is age: miniature horses can live and work for more than 30 years. In that time, a blind person typically goes through five to seven guide dogs. That can be draining both emotionally and economically, because each one can cost up to $60,000 to breed, train and place in a home."
"What’s most striking about Edie and Panda is that after the initial shock of seeing a horse walk into a cafe, or ride in a car, watching them work together makes the idea of guide miniature horses seem utterly logical. Even normal. So normal, in fact, that people often find it hard to believe that the United States government is considering a proposal that would force Edie and many others like her to stop using their service animals. But that’s precisely what’s happening, because a growing number of people believe the world of service animals has gotten out of control: first it was guide dogs for the blind; now it’s monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go."
M*A*S*H Laugh Track
I loved the TV series M*A*S*H as a kid and had seen every episode many times. It's been a while, but I think I could still tell you Captain Tuttle's biography (ok I tried and got all but his weight right).
Saturday night a friend mentioned in conversation that M*A*S*H didn't have a laugh track during the OR scenes. I wasn't sure if that was true or not.
So I found this entry on M*A*S*H at the Museum of Braodcast Communications. "The series also made innovative uses of the laugh track. In early seasons, the laugh track was employed during the entire episode. As the series developed, the laugh track was removed from scenes that occurred in the operating room. In a few episodes, the laugh track was removed entirely, another departure from sitcom conventions."
I knew about episodes that didn't have any laugh track (like the realtime one) and those that turned it off for serious things (when Henry died), but didn't realize the shift in the series seasons.
Interestingly, while I use Wikipedia all the time, I didn't bother looking at wikipedia because in this case I didn't think it would be authoritative. Hmmm....
Saturday night a friend mentioned in conversation that M*A*S*H didn't have a laugh track during the OR scenes. I wasn't sure if that was true or not.
So I found this entry on M*A*S*H at the Museum of Braodcast Communications. "The series also made innovative uses of the laugh track. In early seasons, the laugh track was employed during the entire episode. As the series developed, the laugh track was removed from scenes that occurred in the operating room. In a few episodes, the laugh track was removed entirely, another departure from sitcom conventions."
I knew about episodes that didn't have any laugh track (like the realtime one) and those that turned it off for serious things (when Henry died), but didn't realize the shift in the series seasons.
Interestingly, while I use Wikipedia all the time, I didn't bother looking at wikipedia because in this case I didn't think it would be authoritative. Hmmm....
Karen Armstrong Makes Her TED Prize Wish
Yes I'm an atheist but I did like this TED Talk by Karen Armstrong where she makes her TED Prize wish for the Charter for Compassion. "People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious do."
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Some Old Movies
I'm way behind on movie reviews, so I'll catch up a bit with some short ones of older films I've watched recently on cable.
Arabesque (1968) - Gregory Peck is a professor of ancient egyptian history and is recruited by spies to help the bad guys decode a message in hieroglyphics. Sophia Loren is the bad guy's mistress. It's not a comedy but it's kind of light hearted. It's definitely 60s mod. Directed by Stanley Donen it's a fairly fun romp.
Two For the Road (1967) - Also directed by Stanley Donen, this tells the story of a couple (Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney) over 10 years, from their meeting through their marriage. But it sticks mostly to their various car trips through Europe. The interesting thing is it tells the story out of order, constantly switching between different times. When you see them falling in love you know they cheat on each other later. When they talk about never having children you know they ultimately do. The oscar nominated script is well written and many lines are repeated in different contexts with different meanings. You can keep track of the different story lines by their cars and Audrey Hepburns outfits and hairstyles. This film had far more to say about relationships than Benjamin Button did. A few things about Audrey Hepburn struck me: she didn't look good in jeans, she made many animals sounds in this film, and Albert Finney called her a bitch which I found shocking. Nice soundtrack by Henry Mancini. I also loved the line "I can't hear myself drink".
Seconds (1966) - I do love John Frankenheimer but hadn't heard of this film. It's a sci-fi story taking off on what I suspect was the new popularity of plastic surgery. An older miserable banker played by John Randolph is transformed into a bohemian painter played by Rock Hudson. This is more than just surgery, this is a mysterious organization the provides a whole new life for its clients. It's very impressive black and white filmmaking, with closeups creating a bleak and claustrophobic world. The beginning was completely engaging as you and the main character don't know what's going on, the end is also very good in a twilight zone way. The middle is a little rougher and a bit bizarre. If you liked the Manchurian Candidate, give this a try. The A.V. Clubs review is quite good.
Hud (1963) - I had never seen this Paul Newman classic and didn't know much about it. Hud's a drunk and a womanizer and works on his father's cattle farm in a small town. His father is a good man and they clash while his younger nephew idolizes him. A very good film about a very bad man.
Fanny & Alexander (1982) - When Ingmar Bergman died I realized I had seen very few of his films. This is considered one of his masterpieces. It won 4 oscars and was nominated for 2 others. The theatrical release is 3 hours long though the original was shown on Swedish TV and was twice that length. For a detailed plot summary see this Ebert review. Fanny and Alexander are two children in a wealthy and a bit eccentric theater family in early 1900s Sweden. It opens Christmas eve and while all seems happy in the lushly filmed mansion, as we get to know the family members we see various human frailties. In the middle of the film they go and live with their stepfather who is an authoritarian bishop. This is at least partial autobiographical to Bergman's own childhood. There's a bit of the mystical involved and then more conversations on the meaning of life and family. I found it very absorbing and interesting. Well worth seeing.
Infamous (2006) - This is the other Truman Capote film and I enjoyed it a lot. It's while since I've seen Capote, but this offered a slightly different take on him that helped round out my impression of him. I also enjoyed Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee and Daniel Craig as Perry Smith. Both stretched beyond their usual roles for these parts and did well.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Richard Roeper called this one of the funniest comedies ever and I had missed it this spring in the theater. I thought it was good, but liked The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up better. It might have been that I saw those in the theater. The film is written by and stars Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mother. He breaks up with his TV star girlfriend (Kristen Bell) and is devastated. To help get over her he takes a vacation to Hawaii, where he ends up in the room next to Bell and her current rock star boyfriend. Lots of quirky hotel guests and staff add to the awkward scenes. Worth a rental, but it won't end up on my year's best film list.
Arabesque (1968) - Gregory Peck is a professor of ancient egyptian history and is recruited by spies to help the bad guys decode a message in hieroglyphics. Sophia Loren is the bad guy's mistress. It's not a comedy but it's kind of light hearted. It's definitely 60s mod. Directed by Stanley Donen it's a fairly fun romp.
Two For the Road (1967) - Also directed by Stanley Donen, this tells the story of a couple (Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney) over 10 years, from their meeting through their marriage. But it sticks mostly to their various car trips through Europe. The interesting thing is it tells the story out of order, constantly switching between different times. When you see them falling in love you know they cheat on each other later. When they talk about never having children you know they ultimately do. The oscar nominated script is well written and many lines are repeated in different contexts with different meanings. You can keep track of the different story lines by their cars and Audrey Hepburns outfits and hairstyles. This film had far more to say about relationships than Benjamin Button did. A few things about Audrey Hepburn struck me: she didn't look good in jeans, she made many animals sounds in this film, and Albert Finney called her a bitch which I found shocking. Nice soundtrack by Henry Mancini. I also loved the line "I can't hear myself drink".
Seconds (1966) - I do love John Frankenheimer but hadn't heard of this film. It's a sci-fi story taking off on what I suspect was the new popularity of plastic surgery. An older miserable banker played by John Randolph is transformed into a bohemian painter played by Rock Hudson. This is more than just surgery, this is a mysterious organization the provides a whole new life for its clients. It's very impressive black and white filmmaking, with closeups creating a bleak and claustrophobic world. The beginning was completely engaging as you and the main character don't know what's going on, the end is also very good in a twilight zone way. The middle is a little rougher and a bit bizarre. If you liked the Manchurian Candidate, give this a try. The A.V. Clubs review is quite good.
Hud (1963) - I had never seen this Paul Newman classic and didn't know much about it. Hud's a drunk and a womanizer and works on his father's cattle farm in a small town. His father is a good man and they clash while his younger nephew idolizes him. A very good film about a very bad man.
Fanny & Alexander (1982) - When Ingmar Bergman died I realized I had seen very few of his films. This is considered one of his masterpieces. It won 4 oscars and was nominated for 2 others. The theatrical release is 3 hours long though the original was shown on Swedish TV and was twice that length. For a detailed plot summary see this Ebert review. Fanny and Alexander are two children in a wealthy and a bit eccentric theater family in early 1900s Sweden. It opens Christmas eve and while all seems happy in the lushly filmed mansion, as we get to know the family members we see various human frailties. In the middle of the film they go and live with their stepfather who is an authoritarian bishop. This is at least partial autobiographical to Bergman's own childhood. There's a bit of the mystical involved and then more conversations on the meaning of life and family. I found it very absorbing and interesting. Well worth seeing.
Infamous (2006) - This is the other Truman Capote film and I enjoyed it a lot. It's while since I've seen Capote, but this offered a slightly different take on him that helped round out my impression of him. I also enjoyed Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee and Daniel Craig as Perry Smith. Both stretched beyond their usual roles for these parts and did well.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Richard Roeper called this one of the funniest comedies ever and I had missed it this spring in the theater. I thought it was good, but liked The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up better. It might have been that I saw those in the theater. The film is written by and stars Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mother. He breaks up with his TV star girlfriend (Kristen Bell) and is devastated. To help get over her he takes a vacation to Hawaii, where he ends up in the room next to Bell and her current rock star boyfriend. Lots of quirky hotel guests and staff add to the awkward scenes. Worth a rental, but it won't end up on my year's best film list.
Astronomers 'Time Travel' to 16th Century Supernova
I've been meaning to write this up for a few weeks now because I think the idea is so amazing. A few weeks ago Universe Today wrote Astronomers 'Time Travel' to 16th Century Supernova.
"On November 11, 1572 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and other skywatchers observed what they thought was a new star. A bright object appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia, outshining even Venus, and it stayed there for several months until it faded from view. What Brahe actually saw was a supernova, a rare event where the violent death of a star sends out an extremely bright outburst of light and energy. The remains of this event can still be seen today as Tycho’s supernova remnant. Recently, a group of astronomers used the Subaru Telescope to attempt a type of time travel by observing the same light that Brahe saw back in the 16th century. They looked at 'light echoes' from the event in an effort to learn more about the ancient supernova."
See the article for more info, but I'm still baffled how they did it. Simplistically sure, some of the light from the supernova came straight to earth, that's what people saw in 1572. Light moving in a different direction could have reflected off a dust cloud back at earth and since it took a longer path, would take longer to get here. How astronomers figured out where it would reflect off, and when it would arrive here I have no idea. That's pretty astounding work.
The Nature paper is here, though I don't have access to more than the abstract.
"On November 11, 1572 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and other skywatchers observed what they thought was a new star. A bright object appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia, outshining even Venus, and it stayed there for several months until it faded from view. What Brahe actually saw was a supernova, a rare event where the violent death of a star sends out an extremely bright outburst of light and energy. The remains of this event can still be seen today as Tycho’s supernova remnant. Recently, a group of astronomers used the Subaru Telescope to attempt a type of time travel by observing the same light that Brahe saw back in the 16th century. They looked at 'light echoes' from the event in an effort to learn more about the ancient supernova."
See the article for more info, but I'm still baffled how they did it. Simplistically sure, some of the light from the supernova came straight to earth, that's what people saw in 1572. Light moving in a different direction could have reflected off a dust cloud back at earth and since it took a longer path, would take longer to get here. How astronomers figured out where it would reflect off, and when it would arrive here I have no idea. That's pretty astounding work.
The Nature paper is here, though I don't have access to more than the abstract.
Life Without Plastic
Life without plastic is a really interesting article.
"Amid a recent flurry of worrisome reports about plastic, a simple question came up: Could we live without it? Could my typical family - a mom, a dad, a 3-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy - put aside the very material of American lives, the products that greet us after birth in the diapers we wear and usher us out at death in the body bags we are zipped into?"
"Amid a recent flurry of worrisome reports about plastic, a simple question came up: Could we live without it? Could my typical family - a mom, a dad, a 3-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy - put aside the very material of American lives, the products that greet us after birth in the diapers we wear and usher us out at death in the body bags we are zipped into?"
Library Usage Soars
The Boston Globe writes Check it out "'When the economy is bad, library use goes up. That's pretty clear. It has happened before, and it certainly seems like it's happening again.'"
Friday, January 02, 2009
Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the latest film from David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac). It stars Brad Pitt and is based on an idea from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who was born physically old and gets physically younger as he ages. It has a framing device where Benjamin's love Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is dying in a New Orleans hospital as an old woman, while her daughter comforts her by reading Benjamin's dairy.
He's abandoned as an infant in 1918 at a New Orleans nursing home where he is raised. His physical appearance matches those of the residents. He doesn't go to school but he does meet Daisy the young granddaughter of one of the residents and they begin a lifelong romance. Every love story needs something keeping the characters apart; in this case it's their (apparent) ages. They each go off on their own lives and meet up occasionally. We wait until they can be played by their actors without much makeup and they can be together, albeit briefly.
Button is lusciously filmed. Started with sepia tones and scratches but that quickly stopped. After that, I didn't notice many Fincher flourishes as with Fight Club or Zodiac. The effects used to age the characters are wonderfully done, particularly for Benjamin. For Daisy I liked the stuff that made her young, and very old in the hospital; but I wasn't as impressed with how they had her in what I suspect was her sixties.
In the first half hour I was worried that it was going to be a very long film. It is over two and a half hours long, but the beginning felt very long to me. I have to say that it picked up for me and I enjoyed the last hour and half very much. The group I saw it with all thought it was better than we expected and found it hard not to shed a tear at the end.
The reviews are fairly mixed, I think mostly because of the screenplay by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich, The Good Shepherd). Ebert was confused because "There is no lesson to be learned." I read his review shortly after seeing the film and thought he missed the whole point about appreciating what we have. Of growing old with someone and experiencing life with them. But the more I think about it, the more I agree with him.
Yes you can find that theme, but it isn't really explored. Benjamin is under developed. His entire character is based on one fact, that he ages backwards. He isn't educated, but he does have a job as a sailor and is in World War II but then he stops maturing. It seems like things happen to him and he is merely an observer of his own life (the narration doesn't help to disprove this). He acts completely naive well into his (real) forties. I thought of him as a perpetual 12 year-old, but a lot of his dialog sounds like it could have been spoken by Forest Gump.
George Bernard Shaw said "Love like youth is wasted on the young." This shouldn't be the case for Benjamin. We don't see much of him in his (apparent) twenties, but he spends it as a drifter, wandering the world in an unremarkable way. This seems to me to be a complete waste of his unique condition. You'd expect him to have fascinating stories (this is fiction after all), but I suspect if you met him in a bar, when he was in his apparent twenties, he'd still be really boring. His time in the nursing home draws some interesting parallels between our lives as children and geriatrics, but it was rather superficial.
I enjoyed it better in the theater than thinking about it afterwards. Overall, I think it was an interesting concept, filming very well, but ultimately underdeveloped. For those that have seen it, here are some thoughts with spoilers...
*SPOILERS*
Benjamin states the theme in the voice over. There are no rules to life and we all choose to go through it as we wish. Some play piano, some dance, some read Shakespear, etc. My problem is what did Benjamin do? I've seen comments that all these people enriched his life, but I think they were merely present and it doesn't seem like it had much impact on him. Certainly not on any of the actions he took with his life.
He wasn't a very good son. He didn't keep up with his mother, didn't know when she died, and didn't know about his step sister. When he became wealthy it's not at all clear that he supported her. She was still working in the same place (though that might have been her choice). We don't know what happened to Queenie's daughter. Was she the one at the home telling him that Queenie died?
HIs real father shows up again seemingly to just give him money to be wealthy. He doesn't need a profession and he doesn't seem to have any interests. He rides his motorcycle looking like Brando and sails a boat and moves into a home like a young Redford. But these are just images. When we saw the old Tilda Swinton having swam the English Channel, I thought we'd see more of the other characters he met, but that was it.
I think Daisy is the most interesting character in the film. As a child she was kind and as a teenager a bit wild. In her twenties she was at the top of her profession and a world traveller and perhaps a bit self-indulgent. A tragic accident ended that. She had to recover, and build a new life. She did this with Benjamin, raised a daughter and used her experiences to teach others. While not stated, it was probably very rewarding. But the film didn't do much with her after Benjamin leaves her. She found a good man, raised a child, cared for Benjamin and died years later in a hospital. I think it would have been much more interesting if she gave the diary to her daughter when she was a little younger and they could discuss it.
Given Pitt's philanthropism for post-Katrina New Orleans I suspect he had the setting and storm added to film, but it's not done in any significant way. I spent some time in New Orleans in the 1990s and this film didn't do much to remind me of it's charms. The fact that the framing device was set at the onset of Katrina seemed completely tacked on.
The story about the clockmaker was obviously more thematically connected, but I think the film would have been better without it. In fact, the clockmaker's thought that running time backwards would make the world better, or even to remind us to make the world better, is to some extent disproved by Benjamin's life.
I didn't understand the significance of the two appearances of the hummingbird. Someone want to explain that to me?
He's abandoned as an infant in 1918 at a New Orleans nursing home where he is raised. His physical appearance matches those of the residents. He doesn't go to school but he does meet Daisy the young granddaughter of one of the residents and they begin a lifelong romance. Every love story needs something keeping the characters apart; in this case it's their (apparent) ages. They each go off on their own lives and meet up occasionally. We wait until they can be played by their actors without much makeup and they can be together, albeit briefly.
Button is lusciously filmed. Started with sepia tones and scratches but that quickly stopped. After that, I didn't notice many Fincher flourishes as with Fight Club or Zodiac. The effects used to age the characters are wonderfully done, particularly for Benjamin. For Daisy I liked the stuff that made her young, and very old in the hospital; but I wasn't as impressed with how they had her in what I suspect was her sixties.
In the first half hour I was worried that it was going to be a very long film. It is over two and a half hours long, but the beginning felt very long to me. I have to say that it picked up for me and I enjoyed the last hour and half very much. The group I saw it with all thought it was better than we expected and found it hard not to shed a tear at the end.
The reviews are fairly mixed, I think mostly because of the screenplay by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich, The Good Shepherd). Ebert was confused because "There is no lesson to be learned." I read his review shortly after seeing the film and thought he missed the whole point about appreciating what we have. Of growing old with someone and experiencing life with them. But the more I think about it, the more I agree with him.
Yes you can find that theme, but it isn't really explored. Benjamin is under developed. His entire character is based on one fact, that he ages backwards. He isn't educated, but he does have a job as a sailor and is in World War II but then he stops maturing. It seems like things happen to him and he is merely an observer of his own life (the narration doesn't help to disprove this). He acts completely naive well into his (real) forties. I thought of him as a perpetual 12 year-old, but a lot of his dialog sounds like it could have been spoken by Forest Gump.
George Bernard Shaw said "Love like youth is wasted on the young." This shouldn't be the case for Benjamin. We don't see much of him in his (apparent) twenties, but he spends it as a drifter, wandering the world in an unremarkable way. This seems to me to be a complete waste of his unique condition. You'd expect him to have fascinating stories (this is fiction after all), but I suspect if you met him in a bar, when he was in his apparent twenties, he'd still be really boring. His time in the nursing home draws some interesting parallels between our lives as children and geriatrics, but it was rather superficial.
I enjoyed it better in the theater than thinking about it afterwards. Overall, I think it was an interesting concept, filming very well, but ultimately underdeveloped. For those that have seen it, here are some thoughts with spoilers...
*SPOILERS*
Benjamin states the theme in the voice over. There are no rules to life and we all choose to go through it as we wish. Some play piano, some dance, some read Shakespear, etc. My problem is what did Benjamin do? I've seen comments that all these people enriched his life, but I think they were merely present and it doesn't seem like it had much impact on him. Certainly not on any of the actions he took with his life.
He wasn't a very good son. He didn't keep up with his mother, didn't know when she died, and didn't know about his step sister. When he became wealthy it's not at all clear that he supported her. She was still working in the same place (though that might have been her choice). We don't know what happened to Queenie's daughter. Was she the one at the home telling him that Queenie died?
HIs real father shows up again seemingly to just give him money to be wealthy. He doesn't need a profession and he doesn't seem to have any interests. He rides his motorcycle looking like Brando and sails a boat and moves into a home like a young Redford. But these are just images. When we saw the old Tilda Swinton having swam the English Channel, I thought we'd see more of the other characters he met, but that was it.
I think Daisy is the most interesting character in the film. As a child she was kind and as a teenager a bit wild. In her twenties she was at the top of her profession and a world traveller and perhaps a bit self-indulgent. A tragic accident ended that. She had to recover, and build a new life. She did this with Benjamin, raised a daughter and used her experiences to teach others. While not stated, it was probably very rewarding. But the film didn't do much with her after Benjamin leaves her. She found a good man, raised a child, cared for Benjamin and died years later in a hospital. I think it would have been much more interesting if she gave the diary to her daughter when she was a little younger and they could discuss it.
Given Pitt's philanthropism for post-Katrina New Orleans I suspect he had the setting and storm added to film, but it's not done in any significant way. I spent some time in New Orleans in the 1990s and this film didn't do much to remind me of it's charms. The fact that the framing device was set at the onset of Katrina seemed completely tacked on.
The story about the clockmaker was obviously more thematically connected, but I think the film would have been better without it. In fact, the clockmaker's thought that running time backwards would make the world better, or even to remind us to make the world better, is to some extent disproved by Benjamin's life.
I didn't understand the significance of the two appearances of the hummingbird. Someone want to explain that to me?
The Comics Are Feeling the Pain of Print
The New York Times reports The Comics Are Feeling the Pain of Print "‘Newspapers are declining,’ he says. ‘For a syndicated cartoonist, that’s like finally making it to the major leagues and being told the stadiums are all closing, so there’s no place to play.’"
How Wars End
Public Radio International's The World looks at How wars end "In her five-part series The World's Jeb Sharp is looking at how wars end. They don't end quite the way we imagine they do. And sometimes they don't end at all. She looks to the past for some clues."
You can listen to the five parts individually or download a combined one hour podcast.
You can listen to the five parts individually or download a combined one hour podcast.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Photo Gallery: 2008
Spiegel Online has a 2008 Photo Gallery which is amazing. All 42 images are among the most stunning I've seen. Here's just one:
The Best Lego Stories of 2008
Gizmodo has a collection of The Best Lego Stories of 2008. Pretty amazing stuff.
Can The Senate Refuse to Seat Roland Burris?
This seems to be the constitutional question of the day. Governor Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to Obama's Senate seat. He had that power and Burris meets the constitutional requirements age, residency, and citizenship. So can the Senate still refuse to seat him?
There is one relevant Supreme Court decision from 1969, Powell v. McCormack. Powell was embroiled in scandal but reelected to the House in 1966. "After the select committee conducted its investigation and hearings, in March 1967, the House passed H.Res. 278 by a vote of 307 to 116, which again excluded Powell from Congress and also censured him, fined him $40,000, took away his seniority, and declared his seat vacant." The court found in Powell's favor. The House can expel him with a two-thirds vote, but not exclude him. They can't invent new requirements not found in the constitution without an amendment.
But several experts have written that it's possible the Senate could exclude Burris. The arguments are mostly that they can judge the validity of elections and the word used in the constitution is "return" which includes election returns and appointments. Also, the Senate is the judge and it doesn't have to meet criminal standards of beyond reasonable doubt, merely a majority vote. Here are three articles...
Akhil Reed Amar and Josh Chafetz write in Salon How the Senate Can Stop Blagojevich
Lyle Denniston writes in SCOTUSblog Analysis: Must Senate seat Burris?
Jack M. Balkin writes in Balkinization Can The Senate Refuse to Seat Roland Burris? Quite Possibly
In reading these I came across Kilbourn v. Thompson from 1880. The decision includes this quote: "Especially is it competent and proper for this court to consider whether its proceedings are in conformity with the Constitution and laws, because, living under a written constitution, no branch or department of the government is supreme; and it is the province and duty of the judicial department to determine in cases regularly brought before them, whether the powers of any branch of the government, and even those of the legislature in the enactment of laws, have been exercised in conformity to the Constitution; and if they have not, to treat their acts as null and void."
Seems like a perfectly succinct argument against Cheney's unitary executive theory and the idea of court stripping (including in the law that the supreme court has no jurisdiction over the law).
There is one relevant Supreme Court decision from 1969, Powell v. McCormack. Powell was embroiled in scandal but reelected to the House in 1966. "After the select committee conducted its investigation and hearings, in March 1967, the House passed H.Res. 278 by a vote of 307 to 116, which again excluded Powell from Congress and also censured him, fined him $40,000, took away his seniority, and declared his seat vacant." The court found in Powell's favor. The House can expel him with a two-thirds vote, but not exclude him. They can't invent new requirements not found in the constitution without an amendment.
But several experts have written that it's possible the Senate could exclude Burris. The arguments are mostly that they can judge the validity of elections and the word used in the constitution is "return" which includes election returns and appointments. Also, the Senate is the judge and it doesn't have to meet criminal standards of beyond reasonable doubt, merely a majority vote. Here are three articles...
Akhil Reed Amar and Josh Chafetz write in Salon How the Senate Can Stop Blagojevich
Lyle Denniston writes in SCOTUSblog Analysis: Must Senate seat Burris?
Jack M. Balkin writes in Balkinization Can The Senate Refuse to Seat Roland Burris? Quite Possibly
In reading these I came across Kilbourn v. Thompson from 1880. The decision includes this quote: "Especially is it competent and proper for this court to consider whether its proceedings are in conformity with the Constitution and laws, because, living under a written constitution, no branch or department of the government is supreme; and it is the province and duty of the judicial department to determine in cases regularly brought before them, whether the powers of any branch of the government, and even those of the legislature in the enactment of laws, have been exercised in conformity to the Constitution; and if they have not, to treat their acts as null and void."
Seems like a perfectly succinct argument against Cheney's unitary executive theory and the idea of court stripping (including in the law that the supreme court has no jurisdiction over the law).
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