From Towleroad.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Streets of America in 2011
The peaceful “Occupy ***” protesters have clearly struck a nerve with the powers that be, at least judging from these videos from Oakland last night:
Similar scenes were reported in Atlanta, Georgia, as well. Good luck you guys, keep your spirits up!!
From Towleroad.
From Towleroad.
The new Tunisia
The Arab Spring has finally brought some good news for free thinkers and LGBT people living there:
Nahda party spokesman Riad Chaibi has offered reassurances that the new leadership does not want to deprive citizens of individual freedoms, going so far as to say that being gay is “a matter of dignity”:
Chaibi, who spent five years in prison for his opposition to dictator Ben Ali, said that in Tunisia “individual freedoms and human rights are enshrined principles” and that atheists and homosexuals are a reality in Tunisia and “have a right to exist.” According to Chaibi, in the case of homosexuals there is also “a matter of dignity, because society sees them as undervalued.”
WOW. Just WOW.
How long before the Tunisian religious right makes him change his mind?
A Quote By
Brazil’s Supreme Court, recognizing same-sex marriages as valid:
“Sexual orientation should not serve as a pretext for excluding families from the legal protection that marriage represents”
Monday, October 24, 2011
“It was a joke. Unless you’re into it”
Together with Jon Stewart, Colbert is the funniest “fake” news man out there, and this proves it:
Thursday, October 20, 2011
ROFL!!!!!!
This tweet from The Onion made me burst out loud:
New Study Shows People With Panic Disorders Respond Poorly To Being Locked In Underwater Elevators
More from the article at The Onion, which I’m reposting in full because it’s just too hysterical (I hope I’m not breaking any laws...):
A study published Monday in the Journal Of Abnormal Psychology found that individuals who suffer from panic disorders react negatively to being locked in underwater elevators for indefinite periods of time.
According to Dr. Samuel Lepore, who led the Yale University study, test subjects suffering from the disorder experienced full-on panic attacks as soon as the elevators shuddered to a halt, and they exhibited symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, and numbness in the extremities when it became apparent the car was stuck and the emergency call button didn't work.
"Given the results, we can now say conclusively that people who suffer from severe anxiety dislike being trapped in small boxes hundreds of feet under water," said Lepore, who logged more than a thousand hours of clinical study on the subject. "In fact, our research suggests that it makes said individuals experience extreme discomfort with almost no degree of relief."
"Furthermore, statistics showed their displeasure increased exponentially every hour we kept them locked in there," Lepore continued.
Among several external factors found to significantly increase physiological anxiety responses were the flashing of a "warning" signal on the elevator's button panel, suddenly cutting the lights and allowing water to drip in from the ceiling, and shaking the floor to make it seem as though it might give out from underneath the subjects at any moment.
Additionally, participants who had their cell phones confiscated before the test exhibited more frequent heart palpitations than those who simply had their phone batteries surreptitiously removed, while both groups hyperventilated to a similar extent when a frantic "Evacuate now!" warning was broadcast over the intercom.
Those who managed not to pass out when a temperature meter on the elevator wall read "120 degrees" went on to have the strongest panic attacks overall, researchers said.
"Throughout the 200 clinical trials we ran, all participants suffered immensely and reported that they did not enjoy the experience," said Lepore, explaining the results were the same whether the sound of a thrashing great white shark or that of an exploding torpedo was suddenly blasted over loudspeakers as the elevator doors shook violently. "Most interestingly, every single subject appeared to be further agitated when informed that oxygen levels in the elevator were dropping rapidly. Typically, some variance is expected in trial studies, but in this case we found none."
To determine whether their results could be replicated, researchers conducted numerous additional studies. In one experiment, anxiety-prone participants told they were taking part in a sleep study were sedated and transferred to a cockroach-filled casket with their hands and feet bound.
In another, researchers discovered that if they stranded subjects on a stalled ski lift 100 feet in the air just after sunset on a remote, deserted mountain next to a total stranger screaming "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, WE'RE GOING TO DIE, WE'RE BOTH GOING TO FUCKING DIE UP HERE," people who have panic disorder—especially when coupled with larger abandonment issues—do not respond positively.
"Although thought-provoking, this research only scratches the surface of what we hope to learn," Lepore said. "I think we're going to need many, many more hours of research in the field with hundreds of participants before we reach any conclusion that can be deemed definitive."
Priceless!!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Web Therapy
Headlined by my favorite comedic actress, the great Lisa Kudrow, I had first discovered Web Therapy online, where it resided for a few years in short clips form. Given its success (and quality), Showtime picked it up and expanded the format to fill around 20-25 minutes per episode.
The hysterical tone remains the same and every other actor who joins Lisa on screen does a great job, but no one outshines her, not even the great Lily Tomlin.
Kudrow has great timing and awesome delivery and her facial expressions can sometimes bring down the house without the need to say anything. And yet, say she does, and a lot!!
There seems to be a lot of improvisation - actually, I don’t think there’s a script at all, maybe just a one-sheet general idea of the episode’s theme – which adds to the show’s mystique and plentiful laughters. And the closing credits’ bloopers are really the cherry on top!
This is a great show and I’m elated that Showtime picked it up!
Grade - Season 1: 8
Thursday, October 13, 2011
I AM NOT MOVING
A great montage that highlights what American politicians say about public protests when they occur in the Arab world versus when they occur in the US.
Watch it and share it!
Entourage
Entourage’s past season was actually its last. Since it was fairly uneven through the years, I can’t say I’ll miss it or that I was a big fan. It started right after the end of my beloved Sex and the City, and it was billed as a the male version of that show, but that was just to lure more viewers, because they couldn’t have been more different.
While I was never “crazy” for it, it had its points of interest and featured an all male cast that was easy on the eyes. The best character was definitely Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven, who chewed the scenery and stole anyone’s thunder whenever showed up on screen.
I had actually almost decided to give up the show at the end of season 6 because it was starting to become trite, but then season 7 was actually very good, particularly because Vinnie’s good fortunes started to decline, so I definitely wanted to see the last (and shortest) season.
Unfortunately, it ended very predictably, with every character getting what they always chased after, which lowered my overall opinion of the show. Sending off a show on a good note doesn’t mean everyone in it should get the girl of their dream, find the job of their dream, and become a millionaire. They even have Vinnie decide to marry a girl he met a week prior even though he never once showed any interest in marriage.
Not one of HBO’s best, but watchable.
Grade: Season 8: 6; Show Overall: 7
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The GOP’s Bullshit
Robert Reich, an economist and former labor secretary, peels the curtain back from the pile of rubbish the GOP constantly flings at the public regarding what’s needed to restore America’s economic might.
A must see:
Dracula
After finally finishing the book, I absolutely wanted to watch the movie adaptation by the great Francis Ford Coppola, even though I had first watched it many years ago.
Although the movie is not bad, time has not been kind to it; at least not in my memory. I seemed to remember it quite fondly, but the first half of it, this time around, felt boring and unimpressive. It got better in the second half, but overall it’s just an average motion picture.
Synopsis: after many centuries living in the Transylvanian countryside, Count Dracula decides to move to London, England, where the number of his potential victims would grow exponentially. His efforts are thwarted by a group of men headed by Professor Van Helsing, who fight valiantly to save the lives of the women they love. The only problem is that Dracula loves them too. One in particular might be his reincarnated spouse from before he became a vampire.
While the book isn’t an easy read and has its own issues, the story is told very organically. The transfer to the motion picture medium, however, required the screenwriter to take a few liberties that mostly worked well (like the initial explanation of how Count Dracula became a vampire and why, which is never really tackled in the book) but sometimes were puzzling (why turn Dr. Seward into a drug addict when it doesn’t serve any apparent purpose?).
What didn’t work too well was the pace of the action. Given the limited amount of time a movie can last, things have to happen in a fairly quick succession, and sometimes this stretches the limits of what is believable and what is not. Let’s just say that there was a fair amount of stretching going on here.
Gary Oldman is spectacular as Dracula, and Anthony Hopkins is believable as Van Helsing, but Winona Ryder (Mina) and Keanu Reeves (Harker) disappoint. Ryder actually made me wonder how, for a time, she was considered a seriously talented actress. It certainly didn’t transpire in this movie. Reeves, while excellent in later efforts like The Matrix, here is wooden and unengaged. He was likely tapped just because he was the “hot young male of the moment.”
The Bottom Line: a decent adaptation of a classic novel, Dracula is an uneven final product. While the story is intriguing, the screenplay is too crammed and the acting is sometimes weak. Wojciech Kilar’s soundtrack however, is beautiful and timeless, and the makeup and visual effects hold up pretty well even after a couple of decades.
Grade: 6
Monday, October 10, 2011
The universe through Alma’s eyes
The Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (Alma) went operational in the Chilean Andes. It is now the world’s most expensive and sophisticated observatory and once completed (in 2013) will have the capability to find a new galaxy every three minutes!!
A composite of Alma and Hubble observations of the Antennae galaxies. The blue colours represent the best-quality optical image taken of this region of space so far – by Hubble. The red, pink and yellow show previously unseen wavelengths of light emanating from the vast carbon monoxide clouds that float in and between the galaxies, imaged by Alma for the first time. The clouds contain gases with a total mass several billion times that of our sun.
From The Guardian, where you can see more pictures:
"When a star forms, it forms in these cold, dusty gas clouds," said John Richer of the University of Cambridge and a project scientist for Alma. "The moment it's formed it's shrouded in this dusty material, out of which only half of the light from a typical star escapes. Many other stars are formed in very dense clouds and their light is completely absorbed by the dust in these clouds."
These soot-like clouds of dust, which are also the birthplace of planets like the Earth, obscure stars from modern optical and infrared equipment, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. While the dust hides the stars, however, it also gets heated by the starlight to a few degrees above absolute zero (-273C). The dust then emits radiation of its own at sub-millimetre wavelengths, which can be detected on Earth by Alma.
Sub-millimetre light waves are similar to the radiation used by microwave ovens and 1,000 times longer than the light we see with our eyes. Detecting these means that astronomers will be been able to build a more complete picture of the universe. "If you combine the optical images with the [Alma] images you reveal all the star-forming activity, you're not missing half of the picture," says Richer.
A Quote By
Australia rugby union player David Pocock, who has come out in support of marriage equality:
“I don't see what the big deal is with the whole gay marriage debate in Australia. Being brought up in a Christian home and still identifying as Christian, I get pretty annoyed with the Christian lobbies around the world who say gay marriage destroys the family and all that kind of rubbish. They claim to follow someone who always stood up for the oppressed and marginalised. I guess it is a fear of the unknown - if you talk to someone who doesn't like gay people you can almost guarantee that they don't know too many. These are the prejudices that you have to challenge and break down. Emma and I decided not to get legally married until our gay friends could do the same.”
Would you mind a tax on fat?
Denmark has just introduced a tax on fatty foods, of any kind:
The Danish government has now decided to implement what is considered to be the world’s first “fat tax.” That’s right, a fat tax. This surcharge would apply to all foods containing 2.3 percent or more saturated fats. This isn’t the first time the Danes have declared war on fat.
In 2004, Denmark made it illegal for foods to contain more than 2% trans fat. Austria followed suit and declared a similar law. Denmark also imposed a tax on all sugary junk food in 2010.
Even though I’d be paying more money for some foods that I enjoy, I would wholeheartedly support the introduction of such a tax in the US. We need it bad.
In Memoriam
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Last week the world lost a gifted visionary whose creations influenced the way we live our everyday lives in countless ways.
He revolutionized virtually every industry he dabbled in. His Macintosh computer became the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, rather than a command line, which is what we all use nowadays. Does it matter that the vast majority of personal computers run Windows operating systems instead of Apple’s (the company Jobs co-founded)? Not really, because the genius behind the invention remains Jobs’.
He was forced out of Apple but returned later on bringing the innovations that we’re all very familiar with and that have made Apple a powerhouse and one of the most profitable companies in the world. Jobs created iTunes and the iPod, which revolutionized the way we listen to music and the music industry itself, the iPhone, which revolutionized the phone industry and the way we view and use phones, and the iPad, which once again revolutionized the way we look at portable computers.
His creations have been copied by everyone else and while some products do compare, Apple’s output remains the standard the world over.
During his brief stint away from Apple, Jobs founded Pixar, the animation company that brought us arguably the best animated movies of all time, making Disney’s output look stale and obsolete, and revolutionizing how Hollywood produces animated movies.
Jobs was only 56 years old when he succumbed to the pancreatic cancer that had plagued him for years. We’ll never know the countless innovations the world has been deprived of with his passing.
He’ll be missed. R.I.P.
Monday, October 03, 2011
A Quote By
Friedrich Nietzsche, a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist:
"I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity. ... I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind. ... And one calculates time from the dies nefastus on which this fatality arose -- from the first day of Christianity! Why not rather form its last? From today? Revaluation of all values!"
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