How strange, the BOSKKE Sky Planter.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
At U.S. Airports, TSA Officers Covertly Monitor Travelers' Behavior
I'm not sure how I feel about this, At U.S. airports, TSA officers covertly monitor travelers' behavior
"To identify potentially dangerous individuals, the Transportation Security Administration has stationed specially trained behavior-detection officers at 161 U.S. airports. The officers may be positioned anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, trying to spot passengers who show an unusual level of nervousness or stress."
That sounds kinda ok, until you get to: "These jobs do not require a background in behavior analysis, but are chosen based on their intelligence, maturity and ability to work with people, the TSA said. Officers undergo four days of behavior training, which includes training to spot suicide terrorists, and then receive 24 hours of on-the-job preparation."
A week of training to have the power to look at you and figure out if you should be searched without a warrant. The issue is, that these people are not looking for terrorists...
"In one case, in March 2008, detection officers noticed a passenger about to board a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte, N.C. During a secondary screening, officers found 209 grams of the drug ecstasy, with a street value of $2.5 million, in a carry-on bag. The traveler was arrested. In other instances, passengers have been arrested on charges of drug trafficking, possessing fraudulent documents and having outstanding warrants, Koshetz said."
TSA mission creep.
"To identify potentially dangerous individuals, the Transportation Security Administration has stationed specially trained behavior-detection officers at 161 U.S. airports. The officers may be positioned anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, trying to spot passengers who show an unusual level of nervousness or stress."
That sounds kinda ok, until you get to: "These jobs do not require a background in behavior analysis, but are chosen based on their intelligence, maturity and ability to work with people, the TSA said. Officers undergo four days of behavior training, which includes training to spot suicide terrorists, and then receive 24 hours of on-the-job preparation."
A week of training to have the power to look at you and figure out if you should be searched without a warrant. The issue is, that these people are not looking for terrorists...
"In one case, in March 2008, detection officers noticed a passenger about to board a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte, N.C. During a secondary screening, officers found 209 grams of the drug ecstasy, with a street value of $2.5 million, in a carry-on bag. The traveler was arrested. In other instances, passengers have been arrested on charges of drug trafficking, possessing fraudulent documents and having outstanding warrants, Koshetz said."
TSA mission creep.
Monday, November 09, 2009
The Six Senators Who Will Decide the Fate of Health Care Reform
TPM writes about The Six Senators Who Will Decide the Fate of Health Care Reform. "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faces a number of obstacles to passing health care reform but his main task is to keep his caucus united for not one, but two, supermajority votes, just to get the reform bill an up or down on the Senate floor. Failure to get 60 votes to push past either of those two procedural chokepoints could derail the reform bill. Here are the six key holdouts Reid must wrangle to reach the magic threshold."
House Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill
Nice Interactive Graphic in the New York Times House Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill
"Lawmakers in the House voted 220 to 215 on Saturday night to approve a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Only one Republican voted for the bill, and 39 Democrats opposed it, including 24 members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. An overwhelming majority of the Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill — 31 of the 39 — represent districts that were won by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in the 2008 presidential election, and a third of them were freshmen. Nearly all of the fourteen freshmen Democrats who voted ‘no’ represent districts that were previously Republican and are considered vulnerable in 2010. Geographically, 22 lawmakers from southern states formed the largest opposition bloc. Below are details on the Democrats that opposed the health care legislation in the House"
I didn't realize Dennis Kucinich is still in the House and he voted against it.
"Lawmakers in the House voted 220 to 215 on Saturday night to approve a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Only one Republican voted for the bill, and 39 Democrats opposed it, including 24 members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. An overwhelming majority of the Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill — 31 of the 39 — represent districts that were won by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in the 2008 presidential election, and a third of them were freshmen. Nearly all of the fourteen freshmen Democrats who voted ‘no’ represent districts that were previously Republican and are considered vulnerable in 2010. Geographically, 22 lawmakers from southern states formed the largest opposition bloc. Below are details on the Democrats that opposed the health care legislation in the House"
I didn't realize Dennis Kucinich is still in the House and he voted against it.
New David Simon in April
HBO's 'Treme' starts production on regular-season episodes. "Co-created by “The Wire” veterans David Simon and Eric Overmyer, “Treme” begins production this week on the remaining episodes of its first 10-episode season, to air starting in April."
"Set immediately post-Katrina, the drama intends to tell the city’s recovery story through fictional characters drawn from some of the real characters who were here then -- men and women who live and work in and around the peculiar vernacular culture known mostly to locals: second-line musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, cooks and chefs, music fiends, Kermit Ruffins."
"Set immediately post-Katrina, the drama intends to tell the city’s recovery story through fictional characters drawn from some of the real characters who were here then -- men and women who live and work in and around the peculiar vernacular culture known mostly to locals: second-line musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, cooks and chefs, music fiends, Kermit Ruffins."
Sunday, November 08, 2009
One in 8 Million
The New York Times has apparently had a series One in 8 Million - New York Characters in Sound and Images running for a while.
"New York is a city of characters. On the subway and in its streets, from the intensity of Midtown to the intimacy of neighborhood blocks, is a 305-square-mile parade of people with something to say. THis is a collection of a few of their passions and problems, relations and routines, vocations and obsessions. Anew story will be added weekly."
"New York is a city of characters. On the subway and in its streets, from the intensity of Midtown to the intimacy of neighborhood blocks, is a 305-square-mile parade of people with something to say. THis is a collection of a few of their passions and problems, relations and routines, vocations and obsessions. Anew story will be added weekly."
Saturday, November 07, 2009
20% Off Lots of Mac Apps
MacHeist is giving away six free (uninteresting) apps this week! If all that software makes you hungry for even more, take advantage of the "OneFingerDiscount" coupon code, and get 20% off (that's 1/5 free!). One Finger Discount! has a list of 75 participating mac software companies.
Seeing Al Gore
Al Gore has a new book out, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. I went to a book signing in Harvard Square.
I saw him this week on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and thought he was a little stiff.
More candidate Gore than Oscar-winner Gore. He didn't do a book reading but rather gave a talk that was over an hour long. It was a little dry at times but then he'd add a joke and it was closer to Oscar-winner Gore (without the visual aids) than he was on The Daily Show. He said unlike An Inconvenient Truth, the new book is 99% solution rather than description of the problem, though 50 pages into it I'm not seeing that (it's about 400 pages long). The talk was similar but by the end of it, yeah you want to do something. That can only be a good thing.
As I left I saw a Ford Hybrid (non-stretch) Limo waiting which had to be his.
I saw him this week on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and thought he was a little stiff.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Al Gore | ||||
| ||||
More candidate Gore than Oscar-winner Gore. He didn't do a book reading but rather gave a talk that was over an hour long. It was a little dry at times but then he'd add a joke and it was closer to Oscar-winner Gore (without the visual aids) than he was on The Daily Show. He said unlike An Inconvenient Truth, the new book is 99% solution rather than description of the problem, though 50 pages into it I'm not seeing that (it's about 400 pages long). The talk was similar but by the end of it, yeah you want to do something. That can only be a good thing.
As I left I saw a Ford Hybrid (non-stretch) Limo waiting which had to be his.
Friday, November 06, 2009
The Future of Shaving is Here
ShaveMate. Their pitch is: "The ONLY Razors with 6 Premium Precision Blades and REAL Shaving Cream in the Handle!".
Kind of a clever of idea, particularly for travel. It claims each has a weeks worth of shaving cream though I wonder if that's doll-sized portions. And I wonder about what other razors on the market come with FAKE Shaving Cream in the Handle!?
Kind of a clever of idea, particularly for travel. It claims each has a weeks worth of shaving cream though I wonder if that's doll-sized portions. And I wonder about what other razors on the market come with FAKE Shaving Cream in the Handle!?
Drugs and the BNP
The Guardian has an article, Drugs and the BNP which introduces a new Guardian blog by the creator of Information is Beautiful. Here's a chart:
There's another more interesting one in the article.
There's another more interesting one in the article.
Cassini Flys by Enceladus
NASA reports on Cassini's Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume
"The Cassini spacecraft has weathered the Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in good health and has been sending images and data of the encounter back to Earth. Cassini had approached Enceladus more closely before, but this passage took the spacecraft on its deepest plunge yet through the heart of the plume shooting out from the south polar region. Scientists are eagerly sifting through the results. In this unprocessed image, sunlight brightens a crescent curve along the edge of Saturn's moon Enceladus and highlights its misty plume."
"The Cassini spacecraft has weathered the Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in good health and has been sending images and data of the encounter back to Earth. Cassini had approached Enceladus more closely before, but this passage took the spacecraft on its deepest plunge yet through the heart of the plume shooting out from the south polar region. Scientists are eagerly sifting through the results. In this unprocessed image, sunlight brightens a crescent curve along the edge of Saturn's moon Enceladus and highlights its misty plume."
Jon Stewart's 11/3 Project
Last night Jon Stewart on the Daily Show did a phenomenal spoof of Glenn Beck. Well maybe it's more of an imitation, but I've never watched Glenn Beck so I won't say that. Watch it...
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
| ||||
Cell Size and Scale
The Genetic Science Learning Center of the University of Utah has a very nice Learn Genetics web site. Lots of interesting stuff, particularly this Powers of Ten like page, Cell Size and Scale.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Theater Review: Sleep No More
Last night I went to see Sleep No More a joint production between A.R.T. and Punchdrunk. For this theatrical performance they transformed an old high school in Brookline (the Old Lincoln School on Boylston St) into a setting, the actors perform throughout space and the audience wanders through the rooms, sometimes stumbling upon scenes. And I do mean rooms, I've read that 44 rooms have been turned into sets. I don't know if I saw them all and I don't know if it matters.
I'm not sure what to call this. A play isn't right, immersive theater doesn't seem right to me either. There's some similarity to old hypertext adventures like Zork. It's more like Myst crossed with LARPing. But you're not really playing a roll, you're really an observer (though I've seen some comments to the contrary, I don't believe them). I've heard the new term hyperdrama used for it. Everyone's experience will be different and you will be separated from your group.
But there's still something missing from this description, the scenes are silent. Even silent films had title cards. I heard no dialog aside from some indistinct mutterings. The actors are certainly in character and have to improv a bit to deal with the audience in the room but still this misses the point that most things in this performance were vigorous and dynamic dance. Those expecting the narrative of theater will be disappointed, instead I think it's better to expect modern dance which is unfortunately something I'm not that familiar with interpreting.
And I wasn't expecting that because the show is described as a combination of Macbeth and Hitchcock! "Shakespeare’s fallen hero. Hitchcock’s shadow of suspense." The Hitchcock part is most clearly because of the music which is mostly taken from Bernard Hermann film scores. This threw me as I kept remembering the scenes from Vertigo and North by Northwest and other films that the music came from. There's a functioning bar and jazz club where you begin and end the evening; it's called the Manderley which is a reference to Hitchcock's Rebecca, though I don't see significance in that. Oh and it's kinda spooky, maybe that's a Hitchcock reference, but since it's a make your own choices experience, the manipulation of Hitchcock's camera is no where to be seen.
The plot, if your wanderings show you any of it, is Macbeth. The characters are there and the actions and the sets but not the dialog, which really is the first thing I think of when I think of Shakespeare. Well and the sets are odd too, yes there's a bedroom and forest (in the old auditorium) and there's a witches lair in the basement. There's also a room with hospital beds and bathtubs and taxidermy and a hotel lobby which I don't think were at all mentioned in the play. I'm fine with Macbeth being re-imagined into the 1930s, but I didn't get a lot of the recurring motifs such as birds.
The first room I entered had several desks and filling cabinets and a man typing. I leaned over his shoulder and saw something about falcons. The filling cabinets were filled with shredded paper and half of them had a single egg (some ostrich sized). Ummm, yeah. Other rooms had lots of taxidermy and feathers and skeletons from odd animals. Even many of the dance moves reminded me of birds. One actress had a (fake) very pregnant belly, I kept expecting her to give birth to an egg but it didn't happen (at least I didn't see it if it did).
Then I wandered through many more rooms but only a few times saw more than one actor at a time. I've come to the conclusion this is not the way to see this. Several postings on forums described people who were thrilled to interact with the extensive sets, but I don't think it really had any point. I flipped through some diaries expecting to find some clue-like thing instead I saw unintelligible scrawlings or "it was a dull day" repeated over and over like Jack Torrance in The Shining.
In fact there were more Kubrick references. As you enter you're told to remain silent and given a mask that you have to wear. It's white and oddly shaped and reminded me of Eyes Wide Shut. I think the point is really so the audience knows who else is in the audience as opposed to an actor and to hide other people's confused looks and prevent audience members from communicating non-verbally. The result is there are a bunch of masked people wandering around a huge building or standing around watching a performance in the room. Given that a few scenes had nudity, that cinched the Eyes Wide Shut orgy reference. And when they're not running around wildly, the actors are often moving in dreadfully slow Kubrickian paces, giving you plenty of time to take note of every detail.
But the director this most made me think of was David Lynch. I felt like I was in Twin Peaks wandering around and being confused. I'm not a Twin Peaks fan as I felt the writers had no idea what they were doing. I wandered through sets and tried to figure out what was going on and what I was to experience but I'm not sure the producers had a clear goal in mind.
Unlike traditional theater this experience does use all of your senses. The forrest smelled overwhelmingly like pine. Actors push you out of the way and often you have to run to keep up with them as they travel to a different room or floor. Twice I was given drinks so I even experienced taste. But I'm still wondering to what effect.
In a room with a small bar in a corner and round table with three chairs around it and one lamp hanging down from the ceiling a woman dressed as a male bartender gestured for me to sit down and slowly dealt me three cards from a partial deck. We each slowly revealed the cards, I'm guessing I lost as she had three nines, but um yeah.... Then she picked up a bottle and gestured to ask if I wanted some. I nodded and she poured me a small shot of some licorice liqueur maybe Anisette or Sambuca. Then she firmly shook my hand and I got up and left. A half a dozen audience members watched this. I at least got a shot.
In another room a woman grabbed me and led me into a room with a desk in the corner behind a standing screen. I had seen this room before and didn't make much sense of it. The desk had various taxidermy references and tools and a bowl of eyes on it. She brought me behind the screen, now the other audience members who had followed us couldn't see this. The desk had three glasses of milk on it. She took one, poured some spice into it, mixed it up with a knife which she then licked, indicating it was safe to drink. She then took off my mask and poured it down my throat. I swallowed a few mouthfuls but that wasn't enough, she repeated so I finished the glass. Then she put my mask on and literally threw me out of the room, standing in the doorway as I looked at her and wondered what had just happened. Was I just poisoned? Embalmed? Then I went on into another room.
Experience? Yes. Theater? I wouldn't say so. Point? No idea. See what I mean about Twin Peaks?
Most of the scenes played to me as crazy people possessed. Macbeth and wife violently dancing all around the room. And I mean violently and all around the room, up the walls, on the bed, over stacks of dressers. It was alternating attraction and repulsion, two people making each other crazy. Then he left and half the audience ran after him, I stayed and watch her. She got a long gown and continued the dance around the room. He returned bloodied, apparently having killed King Duncan, and she removed his clothes and bathed him in the bathtub in the middle of the room, rubbing to get the blood of his hands.
A pregnant woman (Lady Macduff?) at home couldn't sit still and literally climbed the walls to sit on the top of a bookshelf next to a statue of the Virgin Mary. Well sit isn't right, she was dancing up there, and then got down and was back and forth to a desk to pick up what looked like a pill box only to put it back down several times. Again, all very quick birdlike motions. Then a man joined her and they repeated this. Then they stopped, went to separate rooms, got dressed up and went up to a dance.
I saw King Duncan's body wrapped and carried to another room and unwrapped. A woman, I assume his wife, caressed him and he got up! Was he not dead? A ghost now? Or just resetting a scene?
These I think expose another problem. As I read reviews now, the story is repeated three times during the three hours, so the actors have to get back to positions. But since the audience can see everything, the costume changes have to be worked into the performance. But while they do it silently and deliberately it doesn't really have any meaning. You have to recognize the scene cut as part of the language of this medium.
Macbeth does have action that happens offstage but still, I get the sense that I accidentally choose many filler scenes that didn't add to any narrative. The sets and things I saw did have some interesting Twin Peaks weirdness, but only enough to sustain about a half hour's of my interest, not three hours.
It seems an odd form of theater that you have to know the story ahead of time to know what you're seeing. I went with a friend who had been once before and enjoyed it both times and is going back for a third. He said he saw 8 new rooms and several things he hadn't seen before. He also watched Polanski's film since seeing it the first time. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go again. It might not be clear from reading this but I think I probably do want to see it one more time. I do have some advice for those going.
1. Wear comfortable clothing and shoes, you will be running. The building is warm so check your coat and bags, you don't want to be carrying them.
2. Parts of it are very dark. When we first entered I literally couldn't see my hand in front of my face. After walking a little bit we made our way to the bar. Look for the candles on the floor and be comforted that nothing else is (quite) so dark.
3. You will be separated from your party, this is something to be experienced on your own and then you can discuss it afterwards. Spend some time listening to the Annie Darcy Jazz Band in the bar afterwards. The $11 cocktails were reasonably tasty.
4. Don't waste time wandering through empty rooms unless you really want to. Find actors and watch scenes and follow them around. I also suspect it's better to follow the men as more of the plot happens with them, though the witches have a scene reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby.
5. Move all the way into a room so others can fit in. It's already frustrating enough that actors run through narrow doors and swarms of people follow them, when they get there let them in.
6. Be well versed in Macbeth. I don't think reading a short summary is enough, watch a film or read the play.
I don't think the above is giving anything away and I don't know why the web page doesn't explain some of it. And when they hand out the masks and explain some rules like be quiet and people in black masks are crew, they could have given some hints like try following actors.
While writing this I've read several reviews (this is my favorite one) and looked through the comments on the web site. I really found them unsatisfactory. Someone complains about their experience and others chime back "if you need theater to be linear or spelled out you won't like it, try reading the play beforehand and expanding your experience". But I've yet to see anyone actually explain any part of it other than "it was amazing and I can't wait to go back". To those people I say try to use your words and if the point is to give everyone a unique experience, then be respectful of people's negative experiences, they're unique too.
I'm not sure what to call this. A play isn't right, immersive theater doesn't seem right to me either. There's some similarity to old hypertext adventures like Zork. It's more like Myst crossed with LARPing. But you're not really playing a roll, you're really an observer (though I've seen some comments to the contrary, I don't believe them). I've heard the new term hyperdrama used for it. Everyone's experience will be different and you will be separated from your group.
But there's still something missing from this description, the scenes are silent. Even silent films had title cards. I heard no dialog aside from some indistinct mutterings. The actors are certainly in character and have to improv a bit to deal with the audience in the room but still this misses the point that most things in this performance were vigorous and dynamic dance. Those expecting the narrative of theater will be disappointed, instead I think it's better to expect modern dance which is unfortunately something I'm not that familiar with interpreting.
And I wasn't expecting that because the show is described as a combination of Macbeth and Hitchcock! "Shakespeare’s fallen hero. Hitchcock’s shadow of suspense." The Hitchcock part is most clearly because of the music which is mostly taken from Bernard Hermann film scores. This threw me as I kept remembering the scenes from Vertigo and North by Northwest and other films that the music came from. There's a functioning bar and jazz club where you begin and end the evening; it's called the Manderley which is a reference to Hitchcock's Rebecca, though I don't see significance in that. Oh and it's kinda spooky, maybe that's a Hitchcock reference, but since it's a make your own choices experience, the manipulation of Hitchcock's camera is no where to be seen.
The plot, if your wanderings show you any of it, is Macbeth. The characters are there and the actions and the sets but not the dialog, which really is the first thing I think of when I think of Shakespeare. Well and the sets are odd too, yes there's a bedroom and forest (in the old auditorium) and there's a witches lair in the basement. There's also a room with hospital beds and bathtubs and taxidermy and a hotel lobby which I don't think were at all mentioned in the play. I'm fine with Macbeth being re-imagined into the 1930s, but I didn't get a lot of the recurring motifs such as birds.
The first room I entered had several desks and filling cabinets and a man typing. I leaned over his shoulder and saw something about falcons. The filling cabinets were filled with shredded paper and half of them had a single egg (some ostrich sized). Ummm, yeah. Other rooms had lots of taxidermy and feathers and skeletons from odd animals. Even many of the dance moves reminded me of birds. One actress had a (fake) very pregnant belly, I kept expecting her to give birth to an egg but it didn't happen (at least I didn't see it if it did).
Then I wandered through many more rooms but only a few times saw more than one actor at a time. I've come to the conclusion this is not the way to see this. Several postings on forums described people who were thrilled to interact with the extensive sets, but I don't think it really had any point. I flipped through some diaries expecting to find some clue-like thing instead I saw unintelligible scrawlings or "it was a dull day" repeated over and over like Jack Torrance in The Shining.
In fact there were more Kubrick references. As you enter you're told to remain silent and given a mask that you have to wear. It's white and oddly shaped and reminded me of Eyes Wide Shut. I think the point is really so the audience knows who else is in the audience as opposed to an actor and to hide other people's confused looks and prevent audience members from communicating non-verbally. The result is there are a bunch of masked people wandering around a huge building or standing around watching a performance in the room. Given that a few scenes had nudity, that cinched the Eyes Wide Shut orgy reference. And when they're not running around wildly, the actors are often moving in dreadfully slow Kubrickian paces, giving you plenty of time to take note of every detail.
But the director this most made me think of was David Lynch. I felt like I was in Twin Peaks wandering around and being confused. I'm not a Twin Peaks fan as I felt the writers had no idea what they were doing. I wandered through sets and tried to figure out what was going on and what I was to experience but I'm not sure the producers had a clear goal in mind.
Unlike traditional theater this experience does use all of your senses. The forrest smelled overwhelmingly like pine. Actors push you out of the way and often you have to run to keep up with them as they travel to a different room or floor. Twice I was given drinks so I even experienced taste. But I'm still wondering to what effect.
In a room with a small bar in a corner and round table with three chairs around it and one lamp hanging down from the ceiling a woman dressed as a male bartender gestured for me to sit down and slowly dealt me three cards from a partial deck. We each slowly revealed the cards, I'm guessing I lost as she had three nines, but um yeah.... Then she picked up a bottle and gestured to ask if I wanted some. I nodded and she poured me a small shot of some licorice liqueur maybe Anisette or Sambuca. Then she firmly shook my hand and I got up and left. A half a dozen audience members watched this. I at least got a shot.
In another room a woman grabbed me and led me into a room with a desk in the corner behind a standing screen. I had seen this room before and didn't make much sense of it. The desk had various taxidermy references and tools and a bowl of eyes on it. She brought me behind the screen, now the other audience members who had followed us couldn't see this. The desk had three glasses of milk on it. She took one, poured some spice into it, mixed it up with a knife which she then licked, indicating it was safe to drink. She then took off my mask and poured it down my throat. I swallowed a few mouthfuls but that wasn't enough, she repeated so I finished the glass. Then she put my mask on and literally threw me out of the room, standing in the doorway as I looked at her and wondered what had just happened. Was I just poisoned? Embalmed? Then I went on into another room.
Experience? Yes. Theater? I wouldn't say so. Point? No idea. See what I mean about Twin Peaks?
Most of the scenes played to me as crazy people possessed. Macbeth and wife violently dancing all around the room. And I mean violently and all around the room, up the walls, on the bed, over stacks of dressers. It was alternating attraction and repulsion, two people making each other crazy. Then he left and half the audience ran after him, I stayed and watch her. She got a long gown and continued the dance around the room. He returned bloodied, apparently having killed King Duncan, and she removed his clothes and bathed him in the bathtub in the middle of the room, rubbing to get the blood of his hands.
A pregnant woman (Lady Macduff?) at home couldn't sit still and literally climbed the walls to sit on the top of a bookshelf next to a statue of the Virgin Mary. Well sit isn't right, she was dancing up there, and then got down and was back and forth to a desk to pick up what looked like a pill box only to put it back down several times. Again, all very quick birdlike motions. Then a man joined her and they repeated this. Then they stopped, went to separate rooms, got dressed up and went up to a dance.
I saw King Duncan's body wrapped and carried to another room and unwrapped. A woman, I assume his wife, caressed him and he got up! Was he not dead? A ghost now? Or just resetting a scene?
These I think expose another problem. As I read reviews now, the story is repeated three times during the three hours, so the actors have to get back to positions. But since the audience can see everything, the costume changes have to be worked into the performance. But while they do it silently and deliberately it doesn't really have any meaning. You have to recognize the scene cut as part of the language of this medium.
Macbeth does have action that happens offstage but still, I get the sense that I accidentally choose many filler scenes that didn't add to any narrative. The sets and things I saw did have some interesting Twin Peaks weirdness, but only enough to sustain about a half hour's of my interest, not three hours.
It seems an odd form of theater that you have to know the story ahead of time to know what you're seeing. I went with a friend who had been once before and enjoyed it both times and is going back for a third. He said he saw 8 new rooms and several things he hadn't seen before. He also watched Polanski's film since seeing it the first time. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go again. It might not be clear from reading this but I think I probably do want to see it one more time. I do have some advice for those going.
1. Wear comfortable clothing and shoes, you will be running. The building is warm so check your coat and bags, you don't want to be carrying them.
2. Parts of it are very dark. When we first entered I literally couldn't see my hand in front of my face. After walking a little bit we made our way to the bar. Look for the candles on the floor and be comforted that nothing else is (quite) so dark.
3. You will be separated from your party, this is something to be experienced on your own and then you can discuss it afterwards. Spend some time listening to the Annie Darcy Jazz Band in the bar afterwards. The $11 cocktails were reasonably tasty.
4. Don't waste time wandering through empty rooms unless you really want to. Find actors and watch scenes and follow them around. I also suspect it's better to follow the men as more of the plot happens with them, though the witches have a scene reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby.
5. Move all the way into a room so others can fit in. It's already frustrating enough that actors run through narrow doors and swarms of people follow them, when they get there let them in.
6. Be well versed in Macbeth. I don't think reading a short summary is enough, watch a film or read the play.
I don't think the above is giving anything away and I don't know why the web page doesn't explain some of it. And when they hand out the masks and explain some rules like be quiet and people in black masks are crew, they could have given some hints like try following actors.
While writing this I've read several reviews (this is my favorite one) and looked through the comments on the web site. I really found them unsatisfactory. Someone complains about their experience and others chime back "if you need theater to be linear or spelled out you won't like it, try reading the play beforehand and expanding your experience". But I've yet to see anyone actually explain any part of it other than "it was amazing and I can't wait to go back". To those people I say try to use your words and if the point is to give everyone a unique experience, then be respectful of people's negative experiences, they're unique too.
Why American Health Care Costs So Much
Ezra Klein reports in the Washington Post An insurance industry CEO explains why American health care costs so much
"The packet's 36 pages are mostly graphs showing the average prices paid in different countries for different procedures, diagnostics and drugs. There is a thudding consistency to the pages: a series of crude bars, with the block representing the prices paid by American health-insurance plans looming over the others like a New York skyscraper that got lost in downtown Des Moines."
"There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care in any other country: because we pay so much more for each unit of care. As Halvorson explained, and academics and consultancies have repeatedly confirmed, if you leave everything else the same -- the volume of procedures, the days we spend in the hospital, the number of surgeries we need -- but plug in the prices Canadians pay, our health-care spending falls by about 50 percent."
"The packet's 36 pages are mostly graphs showing the average prices paid in different countries for different procedures, diagnostics and drugs. There is a thudding consistency to the pages: a series of crude bars, with the block representing the prices paid by American health-insurance plans looming over the others like a New York skyscraper that got lost in downtown Des Moines."
"There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care in any other country: because we pay so much more for each unit of care. As Halvorson explained, and academics and consultancies have repeatedly confirmed, if you leave everything else the same -- the volume of procedures, the days we spend in the hospital, the number of surgeries we need -- but plug in the prices Canadians pay, our health-care spending falls by about 50 percent."
Mercury Gives Up More Secrets to MESSENGER
Universe Today reports in Mercury Gives Up More Secrets to MESSENGER about some of the things we've learned about Mercury from the three recent flybys.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
What Happened and Why?
As usual 538 has the best election coverage. Nate explains What Happened and Why?.
Boston T Problems
The Boston Globe reports Report finds T’s riders at risk
"A decade of systemic neglect and mounting financial problems has left the MBTA with public safety issues that are far more serious than previously revealed and swiftly growing worse, according to a devastating independent report ordered by Governor Deval Patrick."
"The author of the MBTA report, David F. D’Alessandro, told several media outlets this morning that he found so many problems during his research that he would not ride the stretch of the Red Line between Harvard Square and Alewife."
"A decade of systemic neglect and mounting financial problems has left the MBTA with public safety issues that are far more serious than previously revealed and swiftly growing worse, according to a devastating independent report ordered by Governor Deval Patrick."
"The author of the MBTA report, David F. D’Alessandro, told several media outlets this morning that he found so many problems during his research that he would not ride the stretch of the Red Line between Harvard Square and Alewife."
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
How Goldman Secretly Bet on the U.S. Housing Crash
McClatchy has a good article How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash
"In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting."
"Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws. 'The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion,' said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul of the nation's banks. 'This is fraud and should be prosecuted.'"
"In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting."
"Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws. 'The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion,' said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul of the nation's banks. 'This is fraud and should be prosecuted.'"
Obama as Bad as Bush on Domestic Spying?
Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon Obama's latest use of "secrecy" to shield presidential lawbreaking. "What was once depicted as a grave act of lawlessness -- Bush's NSA program -- is now deemed a vital state secret."
"In the case of Shubert v. Bush, the Electronic Frontier Foundation represents numerous American citizens suing individual Bush officials, alleging that the Bush administration instituted a massive 'dragnet' surveillance program whereby 'the NSA intercepted (and continues to intercept) millions of phone calls and emails of ordinary Americans, with no connection to Al Qaeda, terrorism, or any foreign government' and that 'the program monitors millions of calls and emails . . . entirely in the United States . . . without a warrant' (page 4). The lawsuit's central allegation is that the officials responsible for this program violated the Fourth Amendment and FISA and can be held accountable under the law for those illegal actions.
Rather than respond to the substance of the allegations, the Obama DOJ is instead insisting that courts are barred from considering the claims at all. Why? Because -- it asserted in a Motion to Dismiss it filed on Friday -- to allow the lawsuit to proceed under any circumstances -- no matter the safeguards imposed or specific documents excluded -- 'would require the disclosure of highly classified NSA sources and methods about the TSP [Terrorist Surveillance Program] and other NSA activities' (page 8). According to the Obama administration, what were once leading examples of Bush's lawlessness and contempt for the Constitution -- namely, his illegal, warrantless domestic spying programs -- are now vital 'state secrets' in America's War on Terror, such that courts are prohibited even from considering whether the Government was engaging in crimes when spying on Americans. "
"In the case of Shubert v. Bush, the Electronic Frontier Foundation represents numerous American citizens suing individual Bush officials, alleging that the Bush administration instituted a massive 'dragnet' surveillance program whereby 'the NSA intercepted (and continues to intercept) millions of phone calls and emails of ordinary Americans, with no connection to Al Qaeda, terrorism, or any foreign government' and that 'the program monitors millions of calls and emails . . . entirely in the United States . . . without a warrant' (page 4). The lawsuit's central allegation is that the officials responsible for this program violated the Fourth Amendment and FISA and can be held accountable under the law for those illegal actions.
Rather than respond to the substance of the allegations, the Obama DOJ is instead insisting that courts are barred from considering the claims at all. Why? Because -- it asserted in a Motion to Dismiss it filed on Friday -- to allow the lawsuit to proceed under any circumstances -- no matter the safeguards imposed or specific documents excluded -- 'would require the disclosure of highly classified NSA sources and methods about the TSP [Terrorist Surveillance Program] and other NSA activities' (page 8). According to the Obama administration, what were once leading examples of Bush's lawlessness and contempt for the Constitution -- namely, his illegal, warrantless domestic spying programs -- are now vital 'state secrets' in America's War on Terror, such that courts are prohibited even from considering whether the Government was engaging in crimes when spying on Americans. "
Kuler
Saw this on Presentation Zen...
"Kuler is a web-based color tool from Adobe that has thousands of community-generated color themes from which you can search, but the best thing about Kuler is that you can easily make your own themes. Once you register with Kuler (it's very quick), you can begin to create your own color themes or palettes and store, view, and retrieve all your saved themes in your personal Mykuler space. There are two ways to create unique color themes: either by selecting a single color on the color wheel as your base color and building off of that, or by importing an image from Flickr or your hard disk and extracting"
"Kuler is a web-based color tool from Adobe that has thousands of community-generated color themes from which you can search, but the best thing about Kuler is that you can easily make your own themes. Once you register with Kuler (it's very quick), you can begin to create your own color themes or palettes and store, view, and retrieve all your saved themes in your personal Mykuler space. There are two ways to create unique color themes: either by selecting a single color on the color wheel as your base color and building off of that, or by importing an image from Flickr or your hard disk and extracting"
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