Not Falling For It

Conditions: Gloomy

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Hoax.

Buzz around the net this week has been the youtube sensation of man flying a glider-type contraption by flapping his arms. Of course, I knew it was a hoax as soon as I saw it, but only now has he finally confessed to the fake out. And why?

The video was a huge hit on YouTube, and quickly went viral, being picked up by media organisations around the world.

But viewers started to become suspicious when the engineering institutions he claimed to belong to revealed they had never heard of him.

Mr Kaayk then confessed to fabricating the footage, which he says is an exercise in "online storytelling".

- bbc.co.uk/

An exercise in online storytelling. You know, we've seen this with publicity stunts for upcoming movies, where various conspiracies are hinted at thorough a series of fake websites, and I wonder if this may become a new form of entertainment. Allowing oneself to be led down the garden path via a web browser may become as legit as doing so via a book or a movie. The key as always is in keeping the viewer interested, and having them have to actively hunt to get to the next "chapter" seems to be an effective way of doing so. What concerns me is the gradual undermining of legitimate news or analysis websites due to more and more hoax ones. Still, if it makes us all a little more skeptical of what we're seeing, then that's a good thing.



Film Review: Underworld - Awakening

I really don't know why they keep dragging Michael Corvin along through these sequels since he never actually does anything in them. Either it's an attempt to keep reminding the audience of why we're supposed to care, or it's some kind of bet. Either way, I'm finding it annoying that we can't just simply have an Underworld sequel without the dead weight of Micheal dragging us down. It's the vampire apocalypse, again, but this time now that the Humans have found out about the Underworld, it's the humans killing off the vampires and the werewolves. Vampire Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale with all the focused savagery we've come to enjoy, is on her way to the docks to join Hybrid Michael as they attempt to run off in a boat to ...somewhere. But that doesn't matter as a human hit team attacks them all and puts paid to any escape. Selene wakes up 12 years later in a frozen block of ice, inside a research facility. Several grisly yet stylish deaths later she's driving away in a van with her new found daughter in the back. Like Michael, the daughter is a hybrid as well, and it seems the research facility is very keen to get her back as her blood is the key to the werewolves developing an immunity to silver.

They manage to find a coven they can hide out in, but before they can rest and get a bite to eat they're under attack from the werewolves, who steal the daughter away again. Now it's up to Selene to get her back, find out what's actually going on, and perhaps even check in with Mike to see what he's been up to as well. Directed with a lot of flair and fury, helped no doubt by having to shoot in 3D - which at least has proven to be a marvelous technique for forcing directors to shoot action sequences properly and abandon the hated ways of the shaky cam - the latest Underworld film is a good monster action movie. Unfortunately considering it's heritage, good isn't good enough, and it comes across as shallow. There really isn't any of the back-story or history or grand style of the previous films. Swept away in order to have more bloodletting I suppose. But without any history, and without any romance, where's the bloody heart of the story supposed to be?

Yes they have a high-level conspiracy to uncover, but since said conspiracy is threatening to vivisect Selene's daughter, her methods of dealing with the conspiracy consist of simply slaughtering anyone who gets in her way. And I simply couldn't help but notice that she kills an awful lot of humans who were really just doing their jobs. And it made me think for a bit, just exactly who are we supposed to cheer for in a movie about humans fighting vampires fighting werewolves? Selene's cute, but there's the whole killing-humans thing. The werewolves are just in it for power, with not really a character among them, and the humans, well. The ones not charging around killing anything with bigger teeth than them are cowering out of sight. Except for one guy, who I guess is the hero of the film. So well done, that guy. I think he was a cop or something. Two bats out of five.


- Peace out

Back To The Well

Conditions: Not too bad, I guess.

Meanwhile... In Space

Recently some footage was captured of the sun, where something quite odd seemed to be happening that had a lot of people screaming UFO refueling! Of course the scientists said it was just a filament, but...

NASA says a filament is a "large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface. [Filaments] are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona."

But NASA can't explain why the object is cooler than the energy around it, and therefore remains dark when viewed from NASA’s telescope.

A NASA astrophysicist says the image is completely normal.

"Filaments appear to be dark because they're cooler in relation to what's in the background. When you look at it from the edge of the sun, what you see is this spherical object and you're actually looking down the tunnel."

NASA says it is rare for a prominence to form as such a distinct shape however.
Generally, a prominence comes in the form of a violent outburst, rather than the sphere seen in the video above.

- au.news.yahoo.com/

So, generally the filaments that come off the sun do not end in a disc-like shape, so that's a little weird. But seriously, if aliens were using our sun to refuel - wouldn't they at least operate on the other side of the sun to us? That way, we wouldn't see them? Or are we so inept as a species that aliens wouldn't even bother taking simple precautions like that?



Film Review: Contraband

Mark Whalberg stars in yet another bad/good guy film where a guy with a shady past is dragged back into the game for one last score. He plays Chris, a former legendary smuggler along with his old partner Sebastian. Both have gone legit now with their own businesses, but wouldn't you know it - Chris's brother in law tried to follow in his footsteps, and is now in debt to bad guy Giovanni Ribisi. And Ribisi wants his money, and doesn't care who is going to get it for him. So Chris hatches a plan for one last run, joining the crew of a cargo ship to Panama, where he will buy millions of dollars of fake currency and smuggle back to America. I guess hurting the already-bleeding economy of the U S of A is seen as a "cool" and victimless crime. However, setbacks crop up and Chris has to scramble to pull off the job without getting killed, caught, or just buying some cocaine instead.

You know, I am getting sick and tired of these movies where we're supposed to cheer for the least-bad guy on the screen. Yes, Ribisi forces Chris back into one last job, but really at no point in the movie do we see Chris really having second thoughts, doubts or regrets about what he's doing. In fact apart from the whole missing-the-wife thing, he seems to be enjoying himself throughout, although it can be hard to tell with Whalberg's general all-purpose grimness. Are we simply not caring that he's committing a fairly hefty crime, and taking part in a few others? His wife, played by Kate Beckinsale, fares much worse. Menaced by thugs, beaten up, and threatened by pretty much everyone, Chris makes it home just in time to have to go save her life as well. At no point does she seem to be having fun. Kate Beckinsale deserves a lot better than this.

So in the end the bad guys are taken care of, the wife is saved, and Chris actually has become a millionaire thanks to a totally different robbery he just happened to fall into while in Panama. Of course there's no hint of an idea that they'll give back the stolen property, or even get the cops involved in the whole affair. No, no. Because this is how these kinds of films work now, you take everything you can get and give nothing back. No wonder we're up to our asses in piracy. One anchor out of five.


- Peace out

Open Eyes

Conditions: Lousy

End of the End of the World

Harold Camping, the preacher who made a name for himself last year predicting when the world will end, has now announced that he was a) wrong, and b) sorry for a). He did try to put a positive outlook on things.

Camping, 90, had hyped May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day through billboards and constant chatter on his Oakland-based Family Radio International. On that day, he prophesied, the Rapture would redeem believers, while heathens would walk the Earth in misery until a fiery finish five months later.
[...]

In the letter posted Thursday on Family Radio’s website, the preacher called the May 21 campaign “an astounding event” for the awareness it raised about the Bible and Jesus Christ.

Despite that positive spin, Camping called his prediction a “sinful statement” and asked God’s forgiveness.

- latimesblogs.latimes.com/

Well, while awareness of the bible probably did raise a notch due to various articles about the forthcoming rapture, I'd predict that turning it into a laughing stock wasn't actually a result Harold was aiming for.



Film Review: The Ides of March

George Clooney has a very subtle and stylish way of directing his movies. He is very keen to not treat the audiences as stupid, so obvious plot points and unnecessary fat are completely absent. This makes for a refreshing experience where you feel like you are being treated like an adult, and you had better be paying attention. Ides of March is a political thriller with Clooney playing Governor Morris, locked in a race with another democratic contender for the party nomination that will then lead to the presidential race. His campaign brains trust is headed by Paul (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who has Steve (Ryan Gosling) as his second in command. And while Paul is jaded by his decades of experience running political campaigns, Steve is young and still a true believer. He believes totally in the power of the political process, and believes the Governor is the right man to become the next president.

Needless to say, a fall is coming. When the campaign manager of the other candidate wants to secretly meet with Steve about something important, all sorts of possibilities exist. And Steve, perhaps flattered by the attention, perhaps curious about what the guy wants, meets with him. That leads to him getting kicked off the campaign, just at the same time a full-blown scandal drops right into his lap concerning one of the interns that works for the campaign. So now Steve, who considers politics to be his life, who believes so fully in this process, is faced with the gritty underside of it all. Stabbed in the back by his boss, having his career ruined because of one mistake, and the realisation that the governor is fallible after all. And as he finds a way to play himself back into the game, the price paid is the revelation that it is just a game, an illusion.

It's a very strong film, but with a subtleness and assurance that is welcome. Clooney's Governor is all smiles and integrity, but worn as a well-tailored suit - only skin-deep. Gosling's Steve is a combination of a wide-eyed kid and a shark. He would make a good poker player, and is well suited for these kinds of roles where he has to conceal his reactions to what's happening. Giamati and Hoffman play their parts of worn-down campaigners with assured ease. Don't expect fireworks, it's not that kind of film, but the twists and turns are very well put together. Three and a half speeches out of five.


- Peace out

Reign Down

Conditions: Rainy, bitter

Whither Privacy?

So, a guy is suing Google because one of it's street-view camera cars took it's photo of his property as he was standing in the yard, relieving himself. Even though Google blurred his face, he lives in a small town and everyone figured out who he is. This seems a fairly straight forward invasion of privacy to me, but perhaps that's being old fashioned?

He could have gone into the backyard if he has to pee in his yard, seems to me.

Most people that I know try to pose in some oddball way if they see the Google truck roll by. These things are very identifiable. At least 30 countries including the U.S., Canada, most of Western Europe, Australia and Russia have cars driving around taking pictures.

While there are privacy concerns, the benefit to the public far outweighs any concerns. Google plans on using the cameras to shoot the entire Amazon River as well as the Great Barrier Reef--underwater. Some street view mapping of Antarctica has been done as well. This is the sort of thing that only a very profitable company can afford. Nobody has reported on the total number of cars being used to record these images but it has to be in the thousands. And they do keep busy. Over the past few years I've seen three different pictures of my own house and I may have missed a couple. Google is currently going to 4th generation digital cameras and re-shooting everything with better resolution.

If you are going to travel anywhere, this is an amazing resource that should be embraced, not rejected.
[...]

As for personal privacy, who cares? This is the age of sharing. I know I'm always trying to get into one of these pictures. In fact the company should schedule the drive-bys so home owners can be standing in front of their houses or employees can gather in front of office buildings, waving as the car goes by. Most people would love that.

- pcmag.com/

So, just so we're clear, basically Google have the right to take embarrassing photos of you and your house, put them on the web, because they are a big company and are photographing the Amazon river? When the hell did good intentions become an excuse to potentially break laws? While google may well be doing good things, it still matters in how they go about it, and respect needs to be maintained. I don't want to have unflattering pictures of me sent across the interweb, and I'm sure most people feel the same, no matter how connected we are. The control over what we are is rapidly slipping out of our hands.




Film Review: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 3D

Well, here we go again. George Lucas, sensing another trend stirring in the wind, is now busy re-revising his movies into 3D format and re-re-releasing them to the theaters again. So we start at the new beginning, with the Phantom Menace 3D. Now traditionally I've hated 3D with a passion. It's annoying, it's clunky, and it's distracting. I've always felt it actually detracts from the film-going experience, rather than enhances. But I've seen The Phantom Menace before, several times in fact. So since I know what's going to happen, could the 3D actually make it better?

Well, somewhat. The movie is of course as bad as we all remember. Blah blah, trade federation. Blah blah, ambassadors. Blah blah, senate. Then we have Jar-Jar, the most annoying character of all time, and Jake Lloyd, playing Darth Vader as a young excitable boy. Then the Pod race happens, which stops the movie dead, but at least is a lot of fun. Then the movie starts up once more, stumbling along through awkward dialogue and various political intrigues before picking up speed again for the big finale. It's a mess of good intentions and clutter. Of course Lucas was always going to do the 3D conversion properly, and subsequently it is suitably impressive. I still get distracted by various bits, however. A background that seems a little flat, or a part of the screen that's a little blurry, it's a technology that I feel will always distract. But given this particular film, the distractions are almost welcome, especially when they are well done.

What more can be really said about this film, one that has had so much heated debate for the last decade or so? I do think it would serve well for children getting their first taste of Star Wars. I do think there are some interesting ideas, under the wallpaper. I do think the action sequences are top notch. But the plots are terribly muddled, and not really explained out. And the Jedi are, in the end, boring characters who wind up in exciting situations. That's fine when you also have a Han Solo type character who's eminently watchable and fun, but when all there are to be seen are Jedi, robots, and politicians, you eventually realise you are watching a lifeless thing, a computerized thing, a thing without a real beating heart or furrowed brow. And that's what is at the center of the fall of the Star Wars empire: not because of a kid who felt too much, but because of a man who felt too little. Two robots out of five.


- Peace out