The Horror, The Horror

Conditions: Frantically Calm

Because Google Told Me To.

Fun story popped up in the news this week regarding two warring nations, the disputed border between them, and a plucky little computer company both sides decided to put too much trust in. And what happens when we rely too much on our technology? It starts taking over.

A Google Maps line in the wrong place has inflamed a 160-year-old border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and sent the head of the Organization of American States into a flurry of shuttle diplomacy.

Over the last several days:

• President Laura Chinchilla has appeared on national television urging Costa Ricans to remain calm.

• Google has apologized for its map and blamed the U.S. State Department, then released a statement saying: “By no means should they be used as a reference to decide military actions between two countries.”

• An adviser to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Miguel D’Escoto, has warned via the English-language Nica Times: “I have no doubt the U.S.’s hand is in this.”


- thestar.com/news/

Wherever Skynet is right now, I bet it’s grinning into its pint of bitter.



Film Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife

I must say, all those many years ago as I sat and watched the credits roll up at the end of the first Resident Evil film, I never could of imagined that we'd be here, at number four in the R.E franchise. A franchise built out of nothing but the building blocks of Zombies and the delectable Milla Jovovich. Even the Zombie apocalypse wasn't enough to knock the fight out of this monster, and so here we are, with yet another bunch of desperate survivors surrounded by yet another army of undead, who are yet again joined by Alice, this time flying in on an ancient airplane.

You may care, or likely not care, that the previous film had established an army of Alices, and the Queen Alice herself had become some kind of Neo of the Zombie-trix. Well anyway, those details are cleared away in the opening ten minutes, allowing us to revert to a simpler time, when a Resident Evil movie was about people cowering behind walls, surrounded by zombies. And really, that's that. Alice and, for some reason, Sarah from the last film, team up to try and help the rag tag group escape their fortress to a ship spotted in the harbour. Will they all get to safety, or will they be horribly killed off one by one? Are you kidding me?

The film, directed by the original's Paul W.S Anderson, has benefited mightily from two things: The Matrix movies, from which much has been borrowed, if not outright stolen, and 3D technology. Now I did not see this in the third dimension, because 3D is for suckers, but I must say this is one of the most stylish films I've seen in a long time. If nothing else, 3D technology has forced directors to properly shoot movies again, and this one looks gorgeous. It is such a triumph of style over substance that the many, many plot holes, logic gaps, and sheer stupidity on display kind of merges into the background, and you just find yourself marveling at a scene where water cascades down over our heroes like rain in gorgeous slow motion while they fight some giant monster-zombie who wields an axe the approximate size of a telephone pole. It's beautiful. Stupid, but beautiful. Three coins out of Five.


- Peace out