Following The Pattern

Conditions: Distinctly Meh

Study Reveals Humans Still Human

A few weeks ago a study by the World Health Organisation was released that seemed to show a link between cell phone usage and cancer. Now in the light of that, somewhat obvious, news, you may wonder if people might be thinking of cutting down on cellphone exposure.

NEW YORK, June 18 (UPI) -- Most U.S. consumers say they are not changing cellphone use after a study said extensive use may increase cancer risk, a survey indicates.

The survey, conducted by TNS, indicates that more than 80 percent of U.S. consumers report being aware of the recent news released by the World Health Organization that said extensive long-term use of cellphones may have a possible cancer risk.
[...]

"The high degree of awareness about the recent news and relatively low rates of change in behavior really demonstrate the ubiquity of mobile usage and its importance in daily life," Charles White, senior vice president at TNS, says in a statement.

"Given the direct correlation between radiation emitted by cell phones and cancer rates remains unclear, I think the risks would need to be much more pronounced to see significant impact on usage."

- upi.com/Health_News/

And given how we're still smoking cigarettes and guzzling alcohol despite the studies demonstrating how bad they are, I'd imagine that any actual reaction to this study is going to take a lot more time and effort to re-educate the masses. In the meantime I look forward to adverts where cellphone companies talk about how much more safer their phones are than their competitions. A low-tar cellphone that lets you celebrate life!!



Film Review: Source Code

For a movie that is about continually going back in time, there's a fitting amount of Deja Vu about this film. First of all is of course the previous Tony Scott movie Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington using a secret government-run time machine to go back in time to stop a terrorist. Then there's director Duncan Jones' last movie, Moon, where a guy is trapped out all alone, away from the world, and has to figure out what's going on for himself. Then there's Michele Monaghan, who yet again pops up in a role that is essentially the damsel in distress. She seems like a pretty good actress, why does she keep getting stuck in the same role over and over?

Anyway, Source Code sees Jake Gyllenhaal stuck inside a capsule, with a fuzzy memory and some military people talking to him over a monitor. Then bam, he wakes up on a train, in another person's body. Then 8 minutes later the train blows up. Then back to the capsule. Then back to the train. Eventually someone tells him that they're doing some tricky quantum shit to insert him into a past event to try and find the bomber. Quantum, again. Always with the quantum, Hollywood. But we're not really meant to worry too much about the science, hence there not really being a lot of science to worry about. Instead this is about Jake reliving the explosion again and again and gradually figuring out who the bomber is. Inbetween all that he's trying to figure out where he is, and what's happened to himself.

Everyone loves a happy ending, and the great thing about time travel stories is that there's huge scope to allow the director to pull one from out of nowhere. And so I don't begrudge the movie for wrapping everything up in a nice bow, and allowing the happily ever after to happen. The mystery gets solved, but it's almost like an afterthought, becoming background to Jake coming to terms with himself and finding a way out of his predicament. And much like Moon, we don't really know if the way out is going to work or not, but it's really about hope staying alive. I don't know, it's well done and satisfying, but it for some reason Source Code doesn't quite have the punch that Tony Scott and Denzel put into Deja Vu. Three cellphones out of five.


- Peace out